WPME
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| WPME | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Portland / Lewiston, Maine | |
| Branding | WPME My TV |
| Channels | Analog: 35 (UHF) |
| Affiliations | MyNetworkTV |
| Owner | MPS Media (managed by New Age Media, LLC) (MPS Media of Portland License, LLC) |
| First air date | August 13, 1997 |
| Sister station(s) | WPXT |
| Former callsigns | Portland, MainE |
| Former affiliations | UPN (primary, 1997-2006) WB (secondary, 1997-2001) |
| Transmitter Power | 1,100 kW (analog) 49.5 kW (digital) |
| Height | 278 m (analog) 241 m (digital) |
| Facility ID | 48408 |
| Transmitter Coordinates | |
| Website | www.ourmaine.com |
WPME, channel 35, is the MyNetworkTV-affiliated television station for Portland, Maine, licensed to Lewiston. Its transmitter is located on High Point in South Gray. The station is owned by MPS Media as part of a duopoly with CW affiliate WPXT. The two stations share studios on Ledgeview Drive in Westbrook. Along with MyNetworkTV primetime and overnight paid programming, WPME's syndicated lineup includes: COPS, The Simpsons, and Roseanne.
[edit] History
The station went on the air on August 13, 1997 under a time brokerage agreement. It was owned by New England Television Inc. as a sister station to Fox affiliate WPXT. Pegasus Communications purchased the station outright in February of 2001. WPME maintained a primary affiliation with UPN and a secondary affiliation with The WB. It aired WB primetime programming on a tape delay starting at 10 P.M. When WPXT switched its affiliation from Fox to The WB, this secondary affiliation was dropped.
WPME aired Boston Celtics and Bruins games in the late-1990s and Red Sox baseball until 2002. The Red Sox, owning half of cable sports network NESN, moved their games to that network. The station's only attempt at local news was a 7 P.M. broadcast (produced by WPXT) in 2001 that was quickly canceled due to low ratings. The station did not air local news at 10 P.M. like many other UPN affiliates because it would compete with WPXT's news. However, WPXT's 10 P.M. newscast was simulcasted on WPME for a period of time.
Station owner Pegasus declared bankruptcy in June of 2004 over a dispute with DirecTV which is co-owned with Fox by News Corporation. The dispute was over marketing of the direct broadcast satellite service in rural areas. The Pegasus station group was sold in August of 2006 to private investment firm CP Media, LLC of Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania for $55.5 million. CP Media eventually found a new broadcasting company, New Age Media.
On January 24, 2006, The WB and UPN announced that they would end broadcasting and merge. The combined network would be called The CW, the letters representing the first initial of its corporate parents: CBS (the parent company of UPN) and the Warner Bros. unit of Time Warner. On February 22, News Corporation announced that they would start up another new network called MyNetworkTV. This new service, which would be a sister network to Fox, would be operated by Fox Television Stations and its syndication division, Twentieth Television. MyNetworkTV was created in order to give UPN and WB stations, not mentioned as becoming CW affiliates, another option besides becoming independent. It was also created to compete against The CW.
On March 9, it was announced that WPXT would become Portland's CW affiliate. On May 1, it was announced that WPME would affiliate with MyNetworkTV. Until December 6, 2006, WPME was the only MyNetworkTV affiliate in the state of Maine. Since then, Bangor's Fox affiliate WFVX-LP, has become a secondary MyNetworkTV affiliate. At one point, it was possible, when Presque Isle's CBS affiliate WAGM-TV was in the process of creating a Fox affiliate on its first digital subchannel, that it would also be a secondary MyNetworkTV affiliate. A preliminary schedule released by Time Warner Cable for the new channel indicated that WAGM-DT1 would also carry the two-hour MyNetworkTV programming block. However, the channel's current listings indicate that this is not the case. As a result, MyNetworkTV is only seen via national superstations such as WWOR on DirecTV and Dish Network north of the Bangor market.
[edit] Logos
 WPME's old UPN logo used until September of 2006. |
 Original MyNetworkTV logo for WPME. |
 Online variation of original MyNetworkTV logo. |
 Current logo that is also used as a channel "bug". |
[edit] External links
- WPME channel 35
- MyNetworkTV
- Query the FCC's TV station database for WPME
- BIAfn's Media Web Database -- Information on WPME-TV
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