WOLF-TV

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WOLF-TV




Hazelton / Scranton /
Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania
Branding Fox 56
Slogan Northeast Pennsylvania's Fox
Channels Analog: 56 (UHF)

Digital: 45 (UHF)
Translators W24DB Clarks Summit
Affiliations Fox
The CW (on DT2)
MNTV (on DT3)
Owner New Age Media, LLC
(New Age Media of Pennsylvania License, LLC)
First air date June 3, 1985
Call letters’ meaning wolf (the animal)
Sister station(s) WQMY
WSWB
Former callsigns WWLF-TV (1985-1998)
Former affiliations independent (1985-1986)
Transmitter Power 1580 kW (analog)
420 kW (digital)
Height 503 m (analog)
488 m (digital)
Facility ID 73375
Transmitter Coordinates 41°10′58.2″N, 75°52′11.5″W
Website myfoxnepa.com

WOLF-TV, channel 56, is the Fox-affiliated television station for Scranton and Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, licensed to Hazelton. Its transmitter is located near Mountain Top. The station is owned by New Age Media and is sister to CW affiliate WSWB and MyNetworkTV affiliate WQMY. All three stations share studios on S.R. 315 in the Fox Hill section of Plains Township.

Contents

[edit] Overview

WOLF-TV operates a repeater that is licensed to Clarks Summit. It broadcasts on channel 24 and has the call letters, W24DB. Its transmitter is located northwest of Scranton and I-476 in Lackawanna County. The station has a few original programs like The Fox 56 High School Sports Show, The Great Outdoors, and The Pulse. Outside of Fox programing, the schedule is mostly general entertainment with infomercials late at night.

[edit] Digital television

The station's digital signal is multiplexed. WSWB cannot be received in many parts of the Wilkes-Barre area. Due to its transmitter being located in Williamsport, WQMY cannot be received in the Scranton / Wilkes-Barre metro area.

Channel Programming
56.1 / 45.1 main WOLF-TV programming / Fox HD
56.2 / 45.2 WSWB (The CW)
56.3 / 45.3 WQMY (MyNetworkTV)

[edit] History

WOLF-TV's news open.
WOLF-TV's news open.

The FCC granted an original construction permit for Hazleton's first full-service television station on September 30, 1982. [1] The new station, given the call letters WERF, [2] was owned by James Oyster and was to broadcast from a tower located south of Hazleton. [3] At that location, WERF could serve its city of license but was not able to serve the main cities in the market, Scranton and Wilkes-Barre. In April 1983, WERF applied to move its transmitter to the Penobscot Knob antenna farm near Mountaintop where WNEP-TV, WDAU-TV (now WYOU), WBRE-TV, and WVIA-TV also had their transmitters. The application was denied, however. [4] Oyster changed the station's call letters to WWLF-TV on July 25, 1984 [2] then sold the construction permit to Hazleton TV Associates on December 13. [5] Two months later, on February 20, 1985, the station was sold again this time to Scranton TV Partners, Ltd. who completed construction of the station and brought it on-air. WWLF was a satellite of co-owned WOLF-TV in Scranton which was then on UHF channel 38 and was an independent station. WOLF-TV had just began broadcasting on June 3, 1985. WWLF became licensed on June 12, 1987.

WWLF, as a satellite of WOLF-TV, was independent for a little more than a year. On October 9, 1986, it became a charter affiliate of the Fox network. [6] In 1988, WWLF moved to a new transmitter location on Nescopeck Mountain near the junction of I-80 and SR 93 [7] but remained a satellite of WOLF-TV. On April 27, 1993, WWLF was sold to Pegasus Broadcast Television [8] and the new owners were able to accomplish something that the station's original owner could not: get permission to move the transmitter to the antenna farm at Penobscot Knob. [9]

The completion of the new transmitter ushered in a new era for WWLF. No longer in a remote location, the station's transmitter provided it with a signal that was accessible to more of the region than that of WOLF-TV. On November 1, 1998, Pegasus moved the WOLF-TV call letters and the Fox affiliation to channel 56. [2] It changed the call letters of channel 38 to WSWB and made that station an affiliate of The WB. [10][6]

On January 4, 2007, WOLF-TV was sold to investment group CP Media, LLC [11] with the sale consummated on March 31. [12] For the first time in its history, the station was no longer co-owned with WSWB. However, the new owners of WSWB signed a joint sales agreement (JSA) and shared services agreement (SSA) with CP Media meaning that the stations continue to be commonly operated. [13] Eventually, CP Media formed a new broadcasting company, New Age Media. More recently, WOLF-TV launched a new website using the Fox O&O-style platform licensed from Fox Television Stations' interactive division.

[edit] Newscasts

The station's weekend anchor.
The station's weekend anchor.
WNEP's chief meteorologist is seen on weeknights.
WNEP's chief meteorologist is seen on weeknights.

Fox requested most of its affiliates to air local news in 1990. To satisfy this, WOLF-TV entered into a news share agreement with ABC affiliate WNEP-TV in 1991. This resulted in a nightly 10 o'clock newscast being produced. WOLF-TV was the first Fox affiliate in the United States to enter into such an agreement. [14] WNEP broadcasts the newscast from a secondary set at its studios on Montage Mountain Road in Moosic. Past WNEP personnel that have anchored on WOLF-TV include Paul Grippi (who is now the weekend sports anchor) and Jill Garret.

Fox 56 News at 10 (10 to 10:30 P.M.)
Weeknights

  • Anchor:
    • Paola Giangiacomo
  • Meteorologist:
    • Tom Clark
  • Sports:
    • Jim Coles

Weekends

  • Anchor:
    • Jon Meyer
  • Meteorologist:
    • Kurt Aaron
  • Sports:
    • Paul Grippi

WOLF-TV uses additional news personnel from WNEP. See that article for a complete listing.

[edit] References

  1. ^ Original construction permit. Federal Communications Commission. Retrieved on 2007-03-15.
  2. ^ a b c Channel 56 call sign changes. Federal Communications Commission. Retrieved on March 15, 2007.
  3. ^ WERF tower location. www.topozone.com. Retrieved on March 15, 2007.
  4. ^ Denied transmitter move application. Federal Communications Commission. Retrieved on March 15, 2007.
  5. ^ 1984 assignment of permit. Retrieved on March 15, 2007.
  6. ^ a b WOLF/WSWB/WQMY Timeline. NEPA Today. Retrieved on 2007-03-16.
  7. ^ 1988 transmitter site. Federal Communications Commission. Retrieved on March 16, 2007.
  8. ^ Sale to Pegasus. Federal Communications Commission. Retrieved on March 16, 2007.
  9. ^ 1997 transmitter site. Federal Communications Commission. Retrieved on March 16, 2007.
  10. ^ Channel 38 call sign changes. Federal Communications Commission. Retrieved on March 16, 2007.
  11. ^ Sale to CP Media. Federal Communications Commission. Retrieved on March 16, 2007.
  12. ^ Sale consummation - CP Media. Federal Communications Commission. Retrieved on 2007-04-03.
  13. ^ Revised Joint Sales and Shared Services Agreement. Federal Communications Commission. Retrieved on March 16, 2007.
  14. ^ http://www.tvnewsday.com/articles/2008/02/12/daily.3/

[edit] External links

v • d • e
Broadcast television in the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre market (Nielsen DMA #54)

W07BV 7 / W19CI 19 (EWTN) - WNEP 16 (ABC) - WYOU 22 (CBS) - WBRE 28 (NBC) - WYLN 35 (A1) - WSWB 38 (The CW) -
WVIA 44 (PBS) - WQMY 53 (MNTV) - WOLF 56 (FOX, The CW via WSWB on DT2, MNTV via WQMY on DT3) - WQPX 64 (ION)
See also Broadcast television in the Binghamton, New York City, Philadelphia and Susquehanna Valley Markets.
v • d • e
Fox Network Affiliates in the state of Pennsylvania
See also: ABC, CBS, CW, MyNetworkTV, NBC, PBS, and Other stations in Pennsylvania
v • d • e
New Age Media, LLC

CBS Network Affiliate: WGFL1
Fox Network Affiliates: WDSI-TV1 · WOLF-TV1 2 · WTLH2
The CW Network Affiliates: WFXU · WPXT · WSWB3  · WFLI-TV3
MyNetworkTV Affiliates: WMYG-LP · WPME · WQMY

1Also a subaffiliate of MyNetworkTV. 2Also a subaffiliate of The CW. 3Owned by MPS Media; operated by New Age Media under a local marketing agreement.