WBRE-TV

WBRE-TV(channel 28) is atelevision stationlicensed toWilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania,United States, servingNortheastern Pennsylvaniaas an affiliate ofNBC.It is owned byNexstar Media Group,which provides certain services toScranton-licensedCBSaffiliateWYOU(channel 22) under ashared servicesagreement (SSA) withMission Broadcasting.The two stations share studios on South Franklin Street in downtown Wilkes-Barre, with anews bureauand sales office next to WYOU's former studios on Lackawanna Avenue in downtown Scranton. WBRE-TV's transmitter is located at thePenobscot Knobantenna farm nearMountain Top.

WBRE-TV

Wilkes-Barre–Scranton, Pennsylvania United States
City	Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania
Channels	Digital:11 (VHF) Virtual:28
Branding	WBRE 28;Eyewitness News;"28/22 News" (alternate/future branding) "
Programming
Affiliations	28.1:NBC for others, see§ Subchannels
Ownership
Owner	Nexstar Media Group (Nexstar Media Inc.)
Sister stations	WYOU
History
First air date	January 1, 1953(1953-01-01)
Former channel number(s)	Analog:28 (UHF,1953–2009)
Call signmeaning	Taken from WBRE radio (nowWYCK)
Technical information
Licensing authority	FCC
Facility ID	71225
ERP	30kW
HAAT	471 m (1,545 ft)
Transmitter coordinates	41°10′58″N75°52′25″W
Translator(s)	28 (UHF)Waymart
Links
Public license information	Public file LMS
Website	www.pahomepage.com

WBRE-TV operates a digital replacementtranslatoronUHFchannel 28 that is licensed toWaymartwith a transmitter inForest City.It exists becausewind turbinesrun byNextEra Energy Resourcesat theWaymart Wind Farminterfere with the transmission of full-power television signals.

History

WBRE signed onNew Year's Day1953 becoming the first television station in the market. It was owned by the Baltimore family along with WBRE radio (1340 AM, nowWYCK,and 98.5 FM, nowWKRZ). 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.

For much of its early history, channel 28 was unable to get a direct feed from NBC becauseAT&Tmicrowave and wireline operations weren't available in northeast Pennsylvania. Station engineers were thus forced to switch to and from the signals of networkflagshipWNBT inNew York City(nowWNBC) and WPTZ inPhiladelphia(nowCBSowned-and-operated stationKYW-TV) when NBC programming was airing. WPTZ was used as a backup. In efforts to improve the quality and reliability of the received signals, WBRE built its own relay site onPimple Hillon the west side ofRoute 115,just south ofPocono Raceway.Reception of the New York stations is very clear and reliable from that site; indeed, it served as a microwave retransmission site for many of the area's cable systems well into the 1990s until fiber optics made microwave transmission obsolete.

In 1972, disaster struck at WBRE when its offices werefloodedbyHurricane Agnes.Most of the station's equipment was moved above ground and survived but a film archive in the basement was destroyed. The Baltimore family sold the radio stations in 1980, but held onto channel 28 until selling it toNew York–based Northeastern Television Investors in 1984, earning a handsome return on their original investment in WBRE radio in 1925. Current owner Nexstar Broadcasting Group acquired the station in 1997. 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.

The station's news operation made a fictional appearance within the NBC comedy seriesThe Office,set in Scranton, in the 6th-season episodes "The Chump"and"Whistleblower",interviewingMichael Scottabout reports of malfunctioning printers.

In September 2011, the station was evacuated once again due to potential flooding by heavy rains fromTropical Storm 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 the city of Wilkes-Barre were protected by the levee system.

On January 19, 2012, Nexstar named Robert G. Bee as vice president and general manager of WBRE, with management responsibilities for WYOU. The station went full HD including news and production on April 2, 2012.

In 2018, Nexstar announced it would acquireTribune Media.Tribune had been the operator ofABCaffiliateWNEP-TVthrough a services agreement since 2014. Nexstar elected to retain WBRE, as well as its agreement to operate WYOU, and sold WNEP-TV toTegna Inc.in 2019.

News operation

WBRE led the ratings for most of the 1950s until 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, even with NBC's powerhouse prime time lineup. 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 ofPennsylvania MorningandPennsylvania Middaywhich were jointly-produced and simulcast 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 Newsbecame more of the traditional news program. This set a more clear competition against WNEP. At the beginning of 2008, WYOU dropped the weekday shared productions and started airing the first hour of the nationally syndicated morning showThe Daily Buzzat 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 asWBREEyewitness News.It had previously used theEyewitness Newsmoniker 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 ofWYOU News First at 4on weeknights. That station became the first in the area to broadcast local news at that time. This was followed at 4:30 byThe Insiderwhich moved from its 7 o'clock slot. WYOU then dropped its 5 p.m. newscast and aired two episodes ofJudge Judy.Finally weeknights at 6 o'clock, Lyndall Stout (who anchored on WBRE) joined Eric Scheiner for the half-hourWYOU 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 thelayoffof fourteen personnel while others were integrated with WBRE. Syndicated programming began airing in place of the newscasts. The station saved nearly $1 million a year as a result of closing down its news department.

Foxaffiliate WOLF-TV (channel 56) dropped WNEP as their news supplier at the end of 2009. WOLF then went to WBRE to take over starting January 1, 2010.WBRE then took over production of nightly prime time broadcasts on WOLF-TV which expanded to an hour and were re-branded asFox 56 News First at 10.

WBRE launched a new 4 p.m. show calledPA Live!in the fall of 2011. It focuses on lifestyles news covering the greater Wilkes-Barre and Scranton area. Along with its main studios, WBRE operates four news bureaus: Scranton (on Lackawanna Avenue),Stroudsburg(Main Street),Williamsport(on Pine Street), andHazleton(East 10th Street).

On April 2, 2012, WBRE began broadcasting its local newscasts in high definition, with a new news set, HD cameras and forecasting equipment. With the upgrade, the station began producing half-hour newscasts at noon and 7 p.m. on sister station WYOU, the first such newscasts on that station since WYOU's in-house news department folded in 2009; those newscasts are also broadcast in high definition; in addition, simulcasts of WBRE's weekday morning, and nightly 6 and 11 p.m. newscasts are also carried on WYOU. This is a similar operation to existing joint news operations formed by Nexstar/Mission stations the year prior, betweenWUTRandWFXVinUtica, New York,andWTVWandWEHTinEvansville, Indiana.

Technical information

Subchannels

The station's signal ismultiplexed:

Subchannels of WBRE-TV

Channel	Res.	Aspect	Short name	Programming
28.1	1080i	16:9	WBRE-DT	Main WBRE-TV programming /NBC
28.2	480i		Laff	Laff
28.3			Rewind	Rewind TV
28.4			Defy	Defy

On June 15, 2016, Nexstar announced that it has entered into an affiliation agreement withKatz Broadcastingfor theEscape,Laff,Grit,andBounce TVnetworks (the last one of which is owned by Bounce Media LLC, whoseCOOJonathan Katz is president/CEO of Katz Broadcasting), bringing the four networks to 81 stations owned and/or operated by Nexstar, including WBRE-TV and WYOU.

Analog-to-digital conversion

WBRE-TV shut down its analog signal, overUHFchannel 28, on February 17, 2009, the original target date on which full-power television stations in the United States were totransition from analog to digital broadcastsunder federal mandate (which was later pushed back to June 12, 2009). The station's digital signal remained on its pre-transitionVHFchannel 11,usingvirtual channel28.

Translator

• WBRE-TV (DRT)28Waymart

Like other stations in the area, WBRE was forced to rely on repeaters to serve its coverage area for most of its history. Themarketis one of the largest (in land area) east of theMississippi Riverand is very mountainous. In addition, Scranton–Wilkes-Barre was a "UHFisland "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 most of the market. VHF signals" bend "over rugged terrain more easily than UHF signals. 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 unable to watch the station. Many of these areas are among the few in the country where cable and satellite are not readily available. Despite this, no effort from Nexstar has been made to bring back any of the repeaters.

Out-of-market cable coverage

In New York State, WBRE is carried onCharter SpectruminMonticelloinSullivan County,which is part of the New York City market.

As fill-in for other NBC affiliates during disputes

• During a retransmission dispute involvingSmith MediastationWKTV,WBRE-TV was seen onTime Warner Cablein the Utica area from December 16, 2010, until January 8, 2011.
• At 11:59 a.m. on June 10, 2012, Time Warner Cable began broadcasting WBRE's programming in the Upstate NY region during a re-transmission dispute involvingWPTZ,a station inPlattsburgh, New York,owned byHearst Television.
• On July 9, 2012, the dispute between Time Warner Cable and Hearst extended to other TWC systems; on TWC systems in thePiedmont TriadandBright House Networkssystems inCentral Florida,WXII-TVandWESH,respectively, was replaced with WBRE; TWC and Bright House opted for such a distant signal like WBRE, as they do not have the rights to carry any NBC affiliate closest to them.However, Nexstar complained that Time Warner Cable has used their signals outside their markets without permission, while Time Warner Cable was within its rights to use their signals as replacements until a deal with Hearst is reached.The substitution of WBRE in place of WPTZ, WESH and WXII lasted until July 19, 2012, when the deal was reached between Hearst and TWC.

External links

• PAHomepage.com– Official WBRE/WYOU-TV website