WMBF-TV
A white slanted rounded parallelogram overlapping a slanted blue rounded parallelogram. The white parallelogram has the word "WMBF" in red in a bold sans serif. The blue parallelogram has the NBC peacock and the word "NEWS" in white in the same sans serif. There is a slight red underline on the blue parallelogram.
CityMyrtle Beach, South Carolina
Channels
BrandingWMBF News
Programming
Affiliations
Ownership
Owner
History
FoundedOctober 18, 2005
First air date
August 7, 2008 (2008-08-07)
Call sign meaning
Myrtle Beach/Florence[1]
Technical information[2]
Licensing authority
FCC
Facility ID83969
ERP530 kW
HAAT183 m (600 ft)
Transmitter coordinates33°43′50.9″N 79°4′31.4″W / 33.730806°N 79.075389°W / 33.730806; -79.075389
Translator(s)see § Translators
Links
Public license information
Websitewww.wmbfnews.com

WMBF-TV (channel 32) is a television station licensed to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, United States, serving as the NBC affiliate for the Grand Strand and Pee Dee regions of South Carolina. Owned by Gray Television, the station maintains studios on Frontage Road East (along US 17) in Myrtle Beach, with a secondary studio and news bureau on West Cheves Street in Florence; its transmitter is located on Flossie Road in Bucksville, South Carolina.

Among the youngest full-power major network affiliates in the United States, WMBF-TV began broadcasting in 2008 under Raycom Media, which had inherited the construction permit from Liberty Corporation. Its construction gave the region its first in-market NBC affiliate, replacing cable and over-the-air broadcasts of two co-owned stations in adjacent markets, and a third source of local news coverage. Due to technical restrictions, WMBF's over-the-air signal is not viewable in much of the market's inland portion, including Florence, the market's second-largest city; a network of five low-power translators extends WMBF's signal to much of this area for viewers without access to cable or satellite.

History

In 1984, Moore Broadcast Industries petitioned the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to add channel 32 to the table of allotments at Myrtle Beach, specifying the station had to be located 14 miles (23 km) southwest of town to protect two unused allotments in North Carolina, at High Point and Wilmington.[3] Moore filed for the channel alongside seven other groups, but only three were still in the running in November 1986, when the FCC gave the nod to Coastal Carolina Broadcasting Company, a group of residents of Conway.[4] Coastal Carolina's proposed station got a call sign, WCRD, but little else, being unable to secure financing.[5]

The channel assignment lay fallow with no activity until 1996, when the FCC opened a last-chance window for filings to build new TV stations before turning the channels over to possible use for digital television facilities. An application was made by Cosmos Broadcasting, the broadcasting subsidiary of the Liberty Corporation and owner of WIS in Columbia. The president of Cosmos told The Sun News that the odds were "fairly long" for Cosmos to actually be granted the channel.[6]

In October 2005, the FCC granted Liberty the permit. Two months earlier, though, Liberty had announced its sale to Raycom Media in a 15-station, $987 million transaction.[7] Under the radar, the deal included the construction permit for channel 32 in Myrtle Beach. The Liberty purchase by Raycom united WIS with WECT in Wilmington. These stations had, for decades, served as the default NBC affiliates for northeastern South Carolina, one of the few areas of the country without full service from the Big Three television networks. Both stations were on the Myrtle Beach cable system when it debuted in 1962;[8] said cable system was co-owned with WIS.[9] Beginning in 1995, WIS and Time Warner Cable had been engaged in a joint venture to produce a customized feed of the station for the Florence area, "WIS–Florence", complete with its own advertising sales staff.[10]

Facilities were approved in early 2007, and it was announced at that time that the station would replace WIS and WECT on regional cable systems.[1] Raycom selected a building formerly used by cell phone company SunCom on Frontage Road and began construction later that year.[11] For Raycom, the construction of WMBF served several goals. Because the digital television transition was looming—with the Wilmington stations, including WECT, part of a pilot switchover in September 2008—the Myrtle Beach station, built as a digital-only facility from the outset, would fill in gaps in coverage after WECT's analog signal shut down. It also would allow Raycom for the first time to sell advertising in the rapidly growing Grand Strand area and give NBC its first in-market affiliate for Myrtle Beach and Florence.[12]

The transmitter was turned on in late July 2008, and the station began programming at 11:59 p.m. on August 7, with NBC welcoming the station on-air the following day on Today, NBC Nightly News, and Late Night with Conan O'Brien. The sign-on of WMBF-TV occurred in time for the opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics. The construction of WMBF cost Raycom an estimated $10 million.[13]

Sale to Gray Television

In June 2018, Atlanta-based Gray Television announced it had reached an agreement to merge with Raycom in a transaction valued at $3.6 billion.[14][15] The sale was approved on December 20 and completed on January 2, 2019.[16][17]

Newscasts

As a new build, WMBF-TV went on the air with high-definition local newscasts from the outset, including live shots from the field.[12] In the station's early years, managers elsewhere in the Raycom group were often instructed to seek advice from WMBF on technical issues related to HD news conversion.[18] WMBF was the first local station to launch weekend morning newscasts, doing so in the early 2010s.[19]

Technical information

Subchannels

The station's digital signal is multiplexed:

Subchannels of WMBF-TV[20]
Channel Res. Aspect Short name Programming
32.1 1080i16:9WMBF DTMain WMBF-TV programming / NBC
32.2 480iBounceBounce TV
32.3 CircleCircle
32.4 LAFFLaff
32.5 GritGrit
32.6 QuestQuest
32.7 DefyDefy TV

Translators

WMBF is relayed on five translators licensed to Florence—W06DK-D, W18FC-D, W19FC-D, W24EX-D, and W35ED-D; all remap to virtual channel 32. These translators, particularly W35ED-D, serve the few viewers in the market without access to cable or satellite who live outside of WMBF-TV's main coverage area. When the station was established, WMBF's transmitter was located 110 miles (180 km) from the digital transmitter of South Carolina Educational Television flagship WRLK-TV in Columbia, which also operated on RF channel 32. This short-spacing forced WMBF to conform its signal to protect WRLK's digital signal, resulting in much of the market's inland portion–including Florence, the market's second-largest city–without even fringe coverage from the main transmitter.[21]

On January 3, 2022, Jeffrey Winemiller's Lowcountry 34 Media reached a deal to sell W19FC-D, W35ED-D, and 21 other low-power TV stations to Gray Television for $3.75 million.[22]

Translators of WMBF-TV
Call sign City of license Channel Facility ID ERP HAAT Transmitter coordinates
W06DK-D Florence, SC61856093 kW110 m (361 ft)34°16′18.0″N 79°43′33.0″W / 34.271667°N 79.725833°W / 34.271667; -79.725833 (W06DK-D)
W18FC-D 1818560615 kW51 m (167 ft)34°5′56.2″N 80°1′5.1″W / 34.098944°N 80.018083°W / 34.098944; -80.018083 (W18FC-D)
W19FC-D 1918560715 kW92 m (302 ft)34°22′5.0″N 79°19′20.0″W / 34.368056°N 79.322222°W / 34.368056; -79.322222 (W19FC-D)
W24EX-D 2418202215 kW102 m (335 ft)34°16′18.0″N 79°43′33.0″W / 34.271667°N 79.725833°W / 34.271667; -79.725833 (W24EX-D)
W25FQ-D 2518202015 kW22.3 m (73 ft)34°10′51.0″N 79°23′51.0″W / 34.180833°N 79.397500°W / 34.180833; -79.397500 (W25FQ-D)
W35ED-D 3518560815 kW231 m (758 ft)34°16′48.1″N 79°44′34.4″W / 34.280028°N 79.742889°W / 34.280028; -79.742889 (W35ED-D)

References

  1. 1 2 Rich, Emma (March 23, 2007). "MB to get first NBC affiliate station". Sun-News. Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. p. 1C, 6C. Archived from the original on April 7, 2022. Retrieved April 7, 2022 – via Newspapers.com.
  2. ↑ "Facility Technical Data for WMBF-TV". Licensing and Management System. Federal Communications Commission.
  3. ↑ "TV channel considered". The State. Columbia, South Carolina. November 29, 1984. p. 3-C. Archived from the original on April 7, 2022. Retrieved April 7, 2022 – via Newspapers.com.
  4. ↑ Jones, Paige (November 12, 1986). "Strand to get full-powered TV station". Sun-News. Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. p. 6-A. Archived from the original on April 7, 2022. Retrieved April 7, 2022 – via Newspapers.com.
  5. ↑ Shain, Andrew (October 27, 1989). "Horry County might get second TV station". Sun-News. Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. p. 4D. Archived from the original on April 7, 2022. Retrieved April 7, 2022 – via Newspapers.com.
  6. ↑ "Cosmos applies for station in MB". Sun-News. Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. October 12, 1996. p. 1D. Archived from the original on April 7, 2022. Retrieved April 7, 2022 – via Newspapers.com.
  7. ↑ Romano, Allison (August 25, 2005). "Raycom Buys Liberty For $987M". Broadcasting & Cable. Archived from the original on April 7, 2022. Retrieved April 7, 2022.
  8. ↑ "On Monday-September 17th, Television Cable Company Brings to Myrtle Beach A Choice of 5 TV Programs". Sun-News. Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. September 6, 1962. p. 8-A. Archived from the original on August 2, 2022. Retrieved April 7, 2022 – via Newspapers.com.
  9. ↑ "Shafto Elected BCS President". Sun-News. Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. March 26, 1964. p. 5-C. Archived from the original on April 7, 2022. Retrieved April 7, 2022 – via Newspapers.com.
  10. ↑ Nye, Doug (July 7, 1995). "WIS-TV to have 5 p.m. newscast: Weekday program to air in September". The State. Columbia, South Carolina. p. B3. Archived from the original on August 2, 2022. Retrieved August 2, 2022 – via Newspapers.com.
  11. ↑ "New NBC affiliate to renovate building". Sun-News. Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. August 4, 2007. p. 1D. Archived from the original on April 7, 2022. Retrieved April 7, 2022 – via Newspapers.com.
  12. 1 2 Malone, Michael (July 28, 2008). "Birth of a Station". Broadcasting & Cable. Archived from the original on July 23, 2021. Retrieved April 7, 2022.
  13. ↑ Fleisher, Lisa (August 8, 2008). "MB's NBC to get some air". The Sun News. Archived from the original on August 12, 2008.
  14. ↑ Miller, Mark K. (June 25, 2018). "Gray To Buy Raycom For $3.6 Billion". TVNewsCheck. NewsCheckMedia. Retrieved June 25, 2018.
  15. ↑ Hayes, Dade (June 25, 2018). "Gray Acquiring Raycom For $3.65B, Forming No. 3 Local TV Group". Deadline Hollywood. Penske Media Corporation. Archived from the original on August 26, 2018. Retrieved December 21, 2018.
  16. ↑ "FCC OK with Gray/Raycom Merger". Broadcasting & Cable. December 20, 2018. Archived from the original on April 5, 2019. Retrieved December 20, 2018.
  17. ↑ "Gray Completes Acquisition of Raycom Media and Related Transactions" (PDF) (Press release). Gray Television. January 2, 2019. Archived (PDF) from the original on January 3, 2019. Retrieved January 2, 2019.
  18. ↑ Malone, Michael (August 1, 2009). "WMBF's Trial by Fire". Broadcasting & Cable. Archived from the original on April 7, 2022. Retrieved April 7, 2022.
  19. ↑ Malone, Michael (September 1, 2014). "Market Eye: Life is Grand in Myrtle Beach". Broadcasting & Cable. Archived from the original on April 7, 2022. Retrieved April 7, 2022.
  20. ↑ "RabbitEars TV Query for WMBF-TV". rabbitears.info. Archived from the original on September 18, 2016. Retrieved April 7, 2022.
  21. ↑
  22. ↑ "Assignments". Licensing and Management System. Federal Communications Commission. January 3, 2022. Archived from the original on August 2, 2022. Retrieved January 5, 2022.
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