WNUV

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

WNUV-TV
Baltimore, Maryland
Branding	The CW Baltimore
Channels	54 (UHF) analog, 40 (UHF) digital
Affiliations	The CW The Tube Music Network DT2
Owner	Cunningham Broadcasting (local marketing agreement with Sinclair Broadcast Group)
Founded	July 1, 1982
Call letters meaning	W NUVision, Inc. (former owner)
Former affiliations	SuperTV (1982-1986) Independent (1986-1995) UPN (1995-1998) The WB (1998-2006)
Website	www.cwbaltimore.com

WNUV-TV ("The CW Baltimore") is the CW affiliate in Baltimore, Maryland. It broadcasts on channel 54 (analog) and channel 40 (digital).

The station is owned by Cunningham Broadcasting, but is operated by Sinclair Broadcast Group through a local marketing agreement with Sinclair's flagship station, Fox affiliate WBFF-TV. However, due to Cunningham's financial structure, Sinclair effectively owns WNUV as well (see below).

Contents 1 History 2 Local sports 3 Logos 4 External links

[edit] History

WNUV began broadcasting on July 1, 1982 as an affiliate of SuperTV, a subscription television service. The SuperTV programming aired at night, so during the daytime WNUV aired programming from the Financial News Network (now part of CNBC) and televangelists. At that time, the station was owned by NUVision, Inc., thus the call letters WNUV.

In the fall of 1984, WNUV dropped Financial News and added cartoons from 7-9 a.m. and 2:30 to 5 p.m. weekdays, sitcoms Noon-2:30 and 5-7 p.m. weekdays, and a movie mid-mornings. It retained Subscription TV at night. In the spring of 1986, the station began to air a conventional independent general entertainment schedule full time, dropping Super TV. It adopted the on-air name "Baltimore 54." At this time WNUV had morning and afternoon children's programming similar to WBFF's Captain Chesapeake, hosted from a mock space ship by a Star Trek-like crew of characters known as the 54 Space Corps.

In 1989, WNUV was bought by Abry Communications. Under its ownership, the station remained a full-time independent station and picked up the broadcast rights to some Baltimore Orioles games. The station continues to show Orioles games to this day, but splits them with WJZ-TV and MASN.

In 1994, Abry merged with Sinclair Broadcast Group. However, Sinclair already owned WBFF and could not keep both stations. Accordingly, WNUV was purchased by Glencairn Ltd., headed by former Sinclair executive Edwin Edwards. The Smith family, owners and founders of Sinclair (which started when WBFF signed on in 1971) owned 97 percent of Glencairn's stock, so Sinclair effectively owned both stations. Sinclair further circumvented the rules by signing a local marketing agreement with Glencairn, under which WNUV's operations were merged with those of WBFF. In effect, Sinclair had emasculated WBFF's major rival.

WNUV was Glencairn's first station, and similar deals resulted in Glencairn owning 11 stations--all operated by Sinclair under LMAs. The FCC eventually fined Sinclair $40,000 in 2001 for illegally controlling Glencairn.

When UPN started broadcasting in January 1995, WNUV became its Baltimore affiliate. However, in December 1997, Sinclair decided not to renew the UPN affiliation, and the station became Baltimore's WB affiliate (WMJF-LP had been the previous WB affiliate) in January 1998. UPN moved to WHSW (which became WUTB).

WNUV launched a 6:30 p.m. newscast in 1997 called UPN54 News at 6:30 (changed to WB54 News at 6:30 in January 1998). The newscast shared the same set and anchors as WBFF's 10:00 p.m. newscast. In January 2005, Sinclair decided to move WNUV's 6:30 p.m. newscast to 5:30 p.m. on WBFF. The station now airs no newscasts.

Sinclair tried to buy WNUV outright in 2002 as part of a merger with Glencairn, but the FCC turned down the request because Baltimore was one of six markets where Sinclair could not legally have a duopoly. The Baltimore market (despite its relatively large size--it is the 24th-largest market) has only seven full-power stations (or six, if the two Maryland Public Television stations licensed in the market are treated as one)-—too few to legally permit a duopoly. Glencairn was renamed Cunningham Broadcasting, but is still effectively owned by Sinclair since most of its stock is held by trusts owned by the Smith family. There is nearly uncontestable evidence that Glencairn/Cunningham has served as a corporate shell used by Sinclair to circumvent FCC ownership rules.

On January 24, 2006 The WB and UPN announced that they would merge their networks into a new one, The CW. Competitor WUTB's parent company Fox announced in February that its eight UPN-affiliated stations will be part of My Network TV. Sinclair later affiliated most of its WB and UPN stations with My Network TV, leaving some doubt as to WNUV's status after the new networks were scheduled to launch in September. However, on May 2, Sinclair affiliated most of its other UPN and WB affiliates, including WNUV, with The CW. When the new network launches in September, the station's branding will become The CW Baltimore.

[edit] Local sports

In addition to Orioles games, WNUV also airs ACC basketball and football games through its affiliation with Lincoln Financial (formerly Jefferson Pilot) Sports. Coverage of ACC football games, as is the case with Orioles games, is split with WJZ-TV.

[edit] Logos

WNUV logo, from 1990-January 1995.

WNUV logo as a UPN affiliate, from January 1995 to September 1998.

WNUV, as a WB affiliate, from September 1998 until September 2006.

WNUV's present logo.

[edit] External links

• Station Website
• WBFF Website
• Query the FCC's TV station database for WNUV