WWMB

WWMB is CW-affiliated television station for South Carolina's Pee Dee and Grand Strand areas licensed to Florence. It broadcasts a high definition digital signal on UHF channel 21 from a transmitter on Pee Dee Church Road in Dillon (across from CBS affiliate WBTW's tower). The station can also be seen on Time Warner Cable channel 8 and HTC Cablevision channel 16. There is a high definition feed offered on HTC Cablevision digital channel 816.

Owned by SagamoreHill Broadcasting, WWMB is operated through a local marketing agreement (LMA) by Barrington Broadcasting. This makes it sister to ABC affiliate WPDE-TV and the two stations share studios (in the Atlantic Business Park) on Atlantic Avenue in Conway near US 501. Syndicated programming on WWMB includes Two and a Half Men, How I Met Your Mother, Friends, and Everybody Loves Raymond among others. There is currently no website for this station.

Digital programming

Although the main signal airs network programming from The CW, WWMB-DT2 features the network as well. However, outside the prime time programming schedule which is identical, it is a different feed as provided through The CW Plus. The national service is a special CW feed broadcasting on cable and/or over-the-air on a digital signal. In this case, it can only be seen off-air in standard definition on WWMB-DT2.

History

It signed-on July 17, 1989 with the calls WFIL. The call sign, minus the "-TV" suffix, was recycled from previous use on what is now ABC affiliate WPVI-TV in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (it used the call letters from 1947 until 1971). Airing an analog signal on UHF channel 21, the station was originally an Independent. WFIL became known as WGRS in 1990 and adopted the current calls WWMB (standing for We're Wonderful Myrtle Beach) in 1994. It joined UPN as a charter affiliate on January 16, 1995.

During 1999, WWMB was airing "UPN 21 News at 10". Its programs also included Access Hollywood starring Myrtle Beach native Nancy O'Dell.^[1]

At some point in time, the station was acquired by SagamoreHill Broadcasting. Thereafter, it began to be operated by Barrington Broadcasting (owner of WPDE) through a local marketing agreement (LMA).

On January 24, 2006, The WB and UPN announced the two networks would end broadcasting and merge. The new combined service would be called The CW. The letters would represent the first initial of corporate parents "C"BS (the parent company of UPN) and the Warner Bros. unit of Time Warner. On February 22, News Corporation announced it 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.

WGSE (now WFXB) was this market's first WB affiliate but lost the network in late-1998 when affiliates above the top 100 markets were required to be on cable. Through The WB 100+ national cable service, "WFWB" gradually replaced WGSE as the area's WB station which then switched to Fox as a result. Just hours after the announcement of The CW on January 24, WPDE released a notice on its website indicating WWMB would become an affiliate of the new network. ^[2] This notice was a little premature, as over the next two months, many announcements of network affiliation changes including station deals with The CW and MyNetworkTV were made. The existence of cable-exclusive WB 100+ outlet "WFWB" made a CW affiliation for WWMB seem less of a sure thing. Nevertheless, WWMB made public on April 10 it had joined The CW. ^[3]

On September 5, 2006, WBTW signed-on a new second digital subchannel to be the MyNetworkTV and Retro Television Network (RTV) affiliate for Florence/Myrtle Beach. Even though WWMB would begin broadcasting The CW at the network's launch on September 18, it created a news second digital subchannel of its own to air The CW Plus (a similar national operation to The WB 100+). However, the cable channel slots of "WFWB" were dropped from area systems. At some point in 2006, WWMB signed-on its original digital signal on UHF channel 20. Through the use of PSIP, this appeared as virtual channel 21.1 on digital television screens. On June 12, 2009, the station left channel 20 and moved back to channel 21 for operations when the analog to digital conversion was completed.

Newscasts

In 1996, sister station WWMB began airing the market's first prime time news on weeknights. Produced by WPDE, the show aired for thirty minutes and was originally known as NewsChannel 15 at 10 on TV 21. It was initially anchored by Steve Hawley until late-1996 when he left the station. The program was then alternately hosted by Dave Gilbert and Tiffany Cochran. After the latter personality departed WPDE and Gilbert died in 1997, the show was renamed UPN 21 News at 10 and anchored by Leo Stallworth (later Audra Grant) until its cancellation in 2000. In 2003, WPDE introduced another prime time newscast on WWMB under the title WPDE NewsChannel 15 at 10 on UPN. Now airing every night, it was anchored on weeknights by Jim Heath.

The second generation of the show featured interactive segments such as "Say What?" and "Quick Hits" in a more fast-paced format. WWMB began having competition to its broadcast in 2004 when Fox affiliate WFXB entered into a news share agreement with WBTW. This partnership resulted in the area's second prime time broadcast at 10 seen weeknights for a half-hour. On September 18, 2006 with the launch of The CW, WPDE's production on WWMB became known as NewsChannel 15 at 10 on CW 21 and featured an updated graphics theme. There was a further expansion of local newscasts in 2007 when WPDE added a third hour of its weekday Good Morning Carolinas broadcast to WWMB.

This was seen from 7 until 8 and was the first local show to debut in the time slot and partially air against the national weekday morning show seen on the big three networks. For an unknown reason, the production was ultimately dropped. On January 26, 2009 days after anchor Jim Heath left WPDE, WWMB's nightly 10 o'clock show was canceled. A repeat of NewsChannel 15 at 7 was subsequently added in its place on weeknights with live weather updates. Eventually, this program was dropped as well. WWMB currently airs a rebroadcast of WPDE's Carolina & Company Live in the weeknight 10 p.m. time slot. The station does not currently air any newscasts.

References

External links

• WPDE-TV
• The CW
• The CW Plus
• Query the FCC's TV station database for WWMB