WBOC-TV, channel 16, is a CBS affiliate based in Salisbury, Maryland, United States. 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 primarily serves the four easternmost counties of the Eastern Shore of Maryland, as well as Sussex County, Delaware. However, its signal covers the entire Eastern Shores of Maryland and Virginia, as well as the southern two-thirds of Delaware, a region known as the Delmarva Peninsula.
WBOC also airs Fox on its second digital subchannel. This station is branded as FOX21 Delmarva after its over-the-air digital channel, and is also available on local cable systems.
On December 17, 2013, WBOC began airing Antenna TV programming on its third digital subchannel under the "WBOC Classics" brand name.
Video WBOC-TV
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 in Maryland 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. The station also featured local programming consisting of variety shows, talent contests, and children's programs.
In 1961 Peninsula Broadcasting was acquired by 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' numerous attempts at morning news programming 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 in Sussex County supplemented it with the Philadelphia stations.
Although it primarily serves a relatively small market of roughly 209,000 people, channel 16 has substantial viewership in portions of three neighboring markets. Kent County, Delaware, home to Dover, is part of the Philadelphia market. However, WBOC-TV has long claimed Dover as part of its primary coverage area, and it has been available for decades on cable there, though presently only in digital. Not only does WBOC-TV operate a bureau there, but for many years it identified as "Salisbury/Dover." Accomack County, Virginia is part of the Hampton Roads market, and is primarily served by county-owned translators of the Hampton Roads stations. WBOC-TV has long been available on cable in Accomack County, alongside the Hampton Roads stations. The station also covers the five Eastern Shore counties that are part of the Baltimore market.
In April 1980 WBOC-TV received competition for the first time when WMDT (channel 47) signed on as a dual ABC/NBC affiliate, 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. WBOC-TV regained a sister radio station in 2015, when Draper acquired WOLC (102.5 FM) in Princess Anne and relaunched it as WBOC-FM (the original WBOC radio stations had been sold to separate interests in 1980).
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Digital television
Digital channels
The station's digital signal is multiplexed:
Analog-to-digital conversion
WBOC-TV discontinued regular programming on its analog signal, over UHF channel 16, on June 12, 2009, the official date in which full-power television stations in the United States transitioned from analog to digital broadcasts under federal mandate. The station's digital signal remained on its pre-transition UHF channel 21, using PSIP to display the station's virtual channel as its former UHF analog channel 16.
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 FOX21 Delmarva. It can also be seen on Comcast and Mediacom channel 5, and in high definition on Comcast digital channel 213.
Cable and satellite availability
Since November 2010, WBOC and FOX21 have been available on DirecTV and Dish Network in their primary five-county coverage area. For WBOC viewers outside this area, satellite subscribers may request a waiver to receive New York City stations if they can't pick up the Delmarva stations over the air. Before 2010, Delmarva was one of the few markets where local stations weren't available on satellite.
From the 1970s to the 1980s, WBOC was carried on cable as far north as Cape May County, New Jersey and New Castle County, Delaware and as far south as Northampton County, Virginia.
On July 23, 2014, DirecTV announced it was in a carriage dispute Draper Holdings, owner of WBOC-TV. It was announced that if Draper and DirecTV could not reach a fair deal before July 31, 2014, DirecTV would no longer be permitted to carry Draper Holding's stations. WBOC and Fox 21 said they were asking for far less money than what DirecTV pays for national networks like ESPN - even though they claim their combined ratings are much higher than ESPN's ratings. DirecTV stated Draper wants seven times more in their new contract. On August 1, DirecTV and Draper Holdings reached a settlement, and the channels remain on the air with no blackouts.
On October 1, 2017 Verizon FiOS dropped WBOC from its lineup. Verizon claimed WBOC was demanding a 175% rate increase. WBOC was restored to the Verizon lineup on November 20, 2017.
Local programming
WBOC operates two bureaus in Milton and Dover, and a third "virtual" bureau in Cambridge in addition to its main studios in Salisbury. All news broadcasts can be seen via live streaming video on WBOC's Facebook page.
WBOC produces also produces a daily talk show called "DelmarvaLife".
Notable former on-air staff
- Hallie Jackson, now NBC News Chief White House Correspondent
- Mike Seidel, now at The Weather Channel
- Amber Theoharis, now a reporter for The NFL Network
- Gary Tuchman, now CNN Correspondent for Anderson Cooper 360
- Weija Jiang, national correspondent for CBS News's affiliate news distribution service.
References
External links
- Official website
- Fox 21 website
- WBOC Classics 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
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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