WBOC-TV

WBOC-TV, channel 16 (digital channel 21), is a CBS affiliate based in Salisbury, Maryland, USA. WBOC-TV is owned by the Draper Holdings Business Trust, with its main studios in Salisbury, secondary studios/office facilities in Dover and Milton, Delaware, and transmitter in Laurel, Delaware. The station's signal covers the Eastern Shores of Maryland and Virginia, as well as the southern two-thirds of Delaware, which make up the region known as the Delmarva Peninsula.

WBOC also airs Delmarva's Fox on its second digital subchannel. This station is branded as Fox 21 Delmarva after its over-the-air digital channel, and is also available on local cable systems.

Digital programming

The station's signal is multiplexed as follows:

Starting in late 2010, WBOC can be seen on DirecTV channel 16 and WBOC-DT2 can be seen on channel 17.

Post-analog shutdown

WBOC-TV ceased analog operations on June 12, 2009, as part of the DTV transition in the United States.^[1][2] The station remained on its pre-transition channel 21,^[3] using PSIP to display its virtual channel as 16.1.

Unlike most digital subchannels, WBOC-DT2 is one of the few that identifies with its physical digital channel number (21) rather than a virtual channel (16.2) through PSIP. This station is known on-air as Fox 21 Delmarva. It can also be seen on Comcast and Mediacom channel 5, and in high definition on Comcast digital channel 213.

History

WBOC-TV began operations on July 15, 1954, owned originally by Peninsula Broadcasting, which started WBOC radio (960 AM, now WTGM and 104.7 FM, now WQHQ), the first successful radio station on the Eastern Shore, in 1940. It is the fourth-oldest television station in Maryland, the first outside Baltimore, and the oldest on the UHF band.

It was originally an affiliate of the DuMont Television Network. However, around 1955, it picked up a primary affiliation with CBS, relegating DuMont to secondary status until that network shut down in 1956. It also picked up secondary affiliations with NBC and ABC.^[4] The station also featured local programming consisting of variety shows, talent contests, and children's programs.

In 1961, Peninsula Broadcasting merged with the A.S. Abell Company, which published the Baltimore Sun and owned Baltimore's then-CBS affiliate, WMAR-TV. WBOC-TV gradually increased the CBS programming on its schedule, though it continued to "cherry-pick" the highest-rated ABC and NBC shows either in pattern (on schedule with the rest of the network) or on a tape-delayed basis.

For example, channel 16 regularly carried the Today Show and the Tonight Show from NBC, and weekend sports coverage from all three networks. Primetime programming consisted of at least one night of all CBS; other evenings with programs from both CBS and ABC; and others with shows from CBS and NBC. Select CBS programs displaced by the scheduling method would air in times outside of primetime. Despite carrying Today (which pre-empted CBS's morning news and Captain Kangaroo), WBOC-TV aired all of CBS's other newscasts, as well as most of CBS's daytime programming and Saturday morning cartoons. The cherry-picking arrangement also affected primetime network sports coverage. However, Delmarva viewers didn't have to worry about missing their favorite shows once cable came to the area. Local cable systems on the Maryland side of the market supplemented the area with the Baltimore stations, while cable systems on the Delaware side supplemented it with the Philadelphia stations. Accomack County, Virginia is part of the Hampton Roads market, but WBOC has always had significant viewership in this area.

In April 1980, WBOC-TV received competition for the first time when WMDT (channel 47) signed on. The new station also took a dual ABC/NBC affiliation, allowing channel 16 to become a full-time CBS station. In November of that same year, local ownership of channel 16 returned when entrepreneur Thomas H. Draper purchased the station. Since Draper took over, local news coverage increased, as well as local advertising revenue which allowed for technical upgrades, such as a new four-million-watt tower located near Laurel, Delaware.

Example of "cherry-picking"

The following schedule grid is used to describe WBOC's cherry-picking method of prime time programming. This example is from Fall 1977:^[5][6][7][8]

Satellite availability

Since November 2010, WBOC and Fox21 have been available on DirecTV and Dish Network in the Delmarva counties of Wicomico, Somerset, Worcester, and Dorchester in Maryland and Sussex County in Delaware.^[9][10] For WBOC viewers outside the 5 Delmarva counties, satellite subscribers may request a waiver to receive New York City stations if they can't pick up the Delmarva stations over the air.^[11]

News Operations

WBOC operates two bureaus in Milton and Dover,^[12] in addition to its main studios in Salisbury. All news broadcasts, except those seen on WBOC-DT2, can be seen via live streaming video on WBOC's website.

News department staff^[13]

Broadcast Journalists

• Alice Bavis
• Paul Butler
• Lacee Griffith
• Steve Hammond - Managing Editor
• Jimmy Hoppa

Meteorologists

• Brian Keane (AMS Seal of Approval)
• John Trout

Sports

• Scott Abraham - Sports Director
• Ryan H. Marshall - Sports Anchor

Notable former staff

• Don Elkins
• Kelley Rouse^[14]
• Mike Seidel, now at The Weather Channel
• Amber Theoharis, now a reporter for WRC-TV in Washington, D.C.

References

External links

• WBOC-TV website
• WBOC-DT2 website
• Query the FCC's TV station database for WBOC-TV
• Query TV Fool's coverage map for WBOC-DT
• BIAfn's Media Web Database -- Information on WBOC-TV