| Wilkes-Barre / Scranton, Pennsylvania | |
|---|---|
| Branding | WBRE (general) WBRE Eyewitness News (newscasts) |
| Slogan | WBRE, More Colorful. (general) Everywhere You Are (newscasts) |
| Channels | Digital: 11 (VHF) Virtual: 28 (PSIP) |
| Subchannels | 28.1 NBC |
| Translators | 28 (UHF) Waymart |
| Owner | Nexstar Broadcasting Group |
| First air date | January 1, 1953 |
| Call letters' meaning | Baltimore Radio Exchange (for original owners but call sign was kept when radio sisters were sold) or Wilkes-BaRrE |
| Sister station(s) | WYOU |
| Former channel number(s) | 28 (UHF analog, 1953-2009) |
| Transmitter power | 30 kW |
| Height | 471 m |
| Facility ID | 71225 |
| Website | www.pahomepage.com |
WBRE-TV is the NBC-affiliated television station for Northeastern Pennsylvania that is licensed to Wilkes-Barre. It broadcasts a high definition digital signal on VHF channel 11 from a transmitter at the Penobscot Knob antenna farm near Mountain Top. It can also be seen on Comcast and Service Electric channel 3. On digital cable, there is a high definition signal on Comcast channel 232 and Service Electric channel 503. Owned by the Nexstar Broadcasting Group, the station operates CBS affiliate WYOU (that is owned by Mission Broadcasting) through a joint sales agreement (JSA) and the two share studios on South Franklin Street in downtown Wilkes-Barre. Syndicated programming on WBRE includes: Wheel of Fortune, Jeopardy!, Dr. Oz, and Oprah.
Contents |
| Channel | Programming |
|---|---|
| 28.1 | Main WBRE-TV programming / NBC |
Like other stations in the area, WBRE must rely on repeaters to serve its coverage area. The market is one of the largest (in square miles) east of the Mississippi River and is very mountainous. In addition, Scranton/Wilkes-Barre was a "UHF island" before the digital transition because it is too close to Philadelphia and New York City for VHF analog service. During March 2010, in a cost-cutting move, all owned and operated translators were shut down after Nexstar determined that its VHF signal for WBRE is adequate enough to reach the Wilkes-Barre viewing market. According to nepahdtv.com, this move was met with some dismay from viewers in areas where reception of signals from Penobscot Knob is difficult if not impossible, leaving many people in rural areas without their signal. Despite this, no effort from Nexstar has been made to bring back any of the repeaters.
A digital channel 28 translator in Waymart remains operating, as the facility is owned and operated by NextEra Energy Resources. Windmills run by the company in the area surrounding Waymart interfere with the transmission of full-power television signals.
It signed-on New Year's Day 1953 becoming the first television station in the market. It was owned by the Baltimore family along with WBRE radio (1340 AM now WYCK and 98.5 FM now WKRZ). Although it appears that the call letters stand for Wilkes-BaRrE, they actually refer to Baltimore Radio Exchange, the Baltimore family's company. The radio stations were sold off in 1980. In 1972, disaster struck at WBRE when its offices were flooded by Hurricane Agnes. Most of the station's equipment was moved above ground and survived but a film archive in the basement was destroyed. After numerous changes of ownership, the Nexstar Broadcasting Group acquired the station in January 1998. Nexstar already owned WYOU but opted to keep WBRE and sold WYOU to Mission Broadcasting. However, Nexstar continues to control WYOU's operations through a joint sales agreement. On January 3, 2007, Nexstar named Louis J. Abitabilo as Vice President and General Manager for the two stations. On February 17, 2009 as part of the optional transition to digital-only broadcasting, WBRE left UHF channel 28 and continued to operate its digital signal on VHF channel 11.
Due to an ongoing retransmission dispute involving WKTV, this station was seen on Time Warner Cable in Utica, NY from December 16, 2010 until January 8, 2011.
In September, 2011, the station was evacuated once again due to potential flooding by heavy rains from Hurricane Lee. For 48 hours, the station operated remotely out of the garage of the local FOX affiliate, WOLF-TV. They provided coverage for the entire duration of the evacuation period, nearly 63 hours. Luckily, the station and the majority of Wilkes-Barre were protected by the levee.
WBRE led the ratings for most of the 1950s until ABC affiliate WNEP-TV jumped ahead in 1959. During the 1950s and 1960s, mirroring the century-long rivalry between Scranton and Wilkes-Barre, WBRE ruled Wilkes-Barre while WDAU-TV (now WYOU) dominated Scranton. Channel 28 jumped back in the lead in the early-1960s and went back and forth for first place with WDAU until 1978 when WNEP took the lead. It fell to third for most of the 1980s. In the mid-1990s, the station briefly surpassed long-dominant WNEP, then fell again to second after the sale to Nexstar.
In 2002, WBRE and WYOU dropped their separate weekday morning and noon newscasts in favor of Pennsylvania Morning and Pennsylvania Midday which were jointly-produced and simulcasted on both stations. Since the two have both trailed WNEP in the news ratings by a wide margin for most of the last thirty years, a major shakeup in format occurred in Fall 2006. While WYOU went with a talk/debate format for its weeknight shows, WBRE News became more of the traditional news program. This set a more clear competition against WNEP. WYOU generally did a traditional newscast whenever WBRE had programming that bumped its broadcasts back by a significant amount of time. At the beginning of 2008, WYOU dropped the weekday shared productions and started airing the first hour of the nationally syndicated morning show The Daily Buzz at 6 while debuting its own noon news.
On June 9, 2008, there were several more changes made on the two stations. WBRE re-launched its news operation as WBRE Eyewitness News. It had previously used the Eyewitness News moniker from the mid-1980s until 2001. This coincided with news set, music package, graphics, and weather system upgrades. There were also some on-air personnel changes. Anchor Andy Mehalshick became a weeknight field anchor. Candice Kelly, who had been anchoring on WYOU, moved to the weeknight newscasts on WBRE back in mid-May and was joined by newcomer Drew Speier. In addition, WBRE and WYOU’s midday shows switched anchors. Mark Hiller moved from WBRE to WYOU while Eva Mastromatteo switched over to this station. Hiller also debuted as anchor of WYOU News First at 4 on weeknights. That station became the first in the area to broadcast local news at that time. This was followed at 4:30 by The Insider which moved from its 7 o'clock slot. WYOU then dropped its 5 p.m. newscast and aired two episodes of Judge Judy. Finally weeknights at 6 o'clock, Lyndall Stout (who anchored on WBRE) joined Eric Scheiner for the half-hour WYOU Inter@ctive. That station also launched a new weeknight newscast, WYOU News at 7. WNEP already aired local news at that time on weeknights. All of the preceding changes were an attempt to better compete against WNEP and get more ratings.
On April 4, 2009, WYOU shut down its news operation resulting in the lay off of fourteen personnel while others were integrated with WBRE. Syndicated programming now airs in place of the newscasts. The station saves nearly $1 million a year as a result of closing down its news department.[1][2] WOLF-TV Fox affiliate was dropped by WNEP (as they moved their efforts to WNEP2.) Fox then went to WBRE to take over starting January 1, 2010.[3] WBRE then took over production of nightly prime time broadcasts on WOLF-TV which expanded to an hour and were re-branded as Fox 56 First News at 10.[4] WBRE also plans to launch a new 4PM show called "PA Live" in the fall of 2011. Along with its main studios, WBRE operates four news bureaus.: Scranton (on Lackawanna Avenue), Stroudsburg (Main Street), Williamsport (on Pine Street), and Hazelton (East 10th Street).
In New York, it is carried in Highland Lake and Monticello in Sullivan County (New York City DMA).
Anchors
WBRE Eyewitness News AccuWeather or Your Weather Authority Meteorologists
Sports
Reporters
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