| East St. Louis, Illinois/St. Louis, Missouri | |
|---|---|
| Branding | My46 |
| Slogan | Total Variety |
| Channels | Digital: 47 (UHF) Virtual: 46 (PSIP) |
| Subchannels | (see article) |
| Affiliations | MyNetworkTV Me-TV (DT2) |
| Owner | Roberts Broadcasting Company |
| First air date | September 11, 1989 |
| Call letters' meaning | Roberts Broadcasting UHF (channel position) or UPN (former affiliation) |
| Former callsigns | WHSL (1989-2003) |
| Former channel number(s) | Analog: 46 (UHF, 1989-2009) |
| Former affiliations | HSN (1989-2003) UPN (2002-2006) |
| Transmitter power | 109.4 kw |
| Height | 318 m |
| Facility ID | 57221 |
| Website | www.my46stl.com |
WRBU (virtual channel 46.1, digital channel 47) is the MyNetworkTV television affiliate for the St. Louis, Missouri area. The station is licensed to East St. Louis, Illinois, and is the flagship station of Roberts Broadcasting. It is the only major St. Louis station that is licensed on the Illinois side of the market, though its studios are located in St. Louis.
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WRBU's digital signal on UHF 47 is multiplexed:
| Channel | Video | Aspect | Programming |
|---|---|---|---|
| 46.1 | 480i | 4:3 | Main WRBU programming / MyNetworkTV |
| 46.2 | 480i | 4:3 | Me-TV (no content as of Dec. 25, 2011) |
WRBU added subchannel 46.2 with programming from the Weigel Broadcasting-owned network Me-TV in 2011.[1]
WRBU shut down its analog signal[2] on January 21, 2009.
The station debuted on September 11, 1989 as WHSL-TV. It showed the Home Shopping Network 24 hours per day.
WHSL added UPN prime time programming in the Fall of 2002. On April 1, 2003 (3 months after the station adopted the WRBU call sign), the station became a full UPN affiliate and added sitcoms, syndicated talk shows and reality shows to fill out the schedule. Until this switch, St. Louis had been the largest television market without a full UPN affiliate. Prior to channel 46 aligning with UPN, the network had been seen on KPLR-TV after primetime and even earlier on ABC station KDNL-TV also after hours. KPLR previously shared UPN with conservative religious station KNLC-TV, but KNLC turned down most UPN shows that it found offensive.
When CBS Corporation and Time Warner announced in January 2006 that the UPN and WB networks would merge to become The CW, the same announcement stated that Tribune-owned KPLR-TV would be St. Louis' affiliate for the new network. Channel 46 announced they would take the affiliation for the new MyNetworkTV network, which launched in September of the same year.
WRBU's transmitter is located in Jefferson County, Missouri (near Antonia, Missouri) at 38 23 18 North, 90 29 16 West. Antenna Height Above Average Terrain (HAAT) is 345 meters/1132 feet; the antenna structure itself is 250 meters/800 feet above ground level. East St. Louis is the official city-of-license. WRBU's digital signal on Channel 47 has an effective radiated power (ERP) of only 109 kilowatts (kW), making reception problematic over much of the metropolitan area. The station serves as a backup NBC affiliate whenever KSDK pre-empts national programming.
Until March 2010, Roberts Broadcasting did not wholly own WRBU. Although Roberts Broadcasting held the license since 2002, it merely leased the station facility from Univision Communications' TeleFutura subsidiary (this arrangement existed because neither Univision nor TeleFutura had any over-the-air presence at all in St. Louis due to the area's very small Hispanic population). Roberts acquired the station's facility outright from Univision that month.
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