WSBK-TV

Infobox_Broadcast
call_letters = WSBK-TV
city =
station_
station_slogan = Entertaining Boston
station_branding = TV 38
analog = 38 (UHF)
digital = 39 (UHF)
other_chs =
affiliations = Independent
network =
founded =
airdate = October 12, 1964
location = Boston, Massachusetts
callsign_meaning = SBK (stock ticker symbol of former owner Storer Broadcasting)
former_callsigns = WIHS-TV (1964-1966)
former_channel_numbers =
owner = CBS Corporation
licensee = WSBK TV38, Inc.
sister_stations = WBCN, WBZ, WBZ-TV, WBMX, WODS, WZLX
former_affiliations = UPN (1995-2006)
effective_radiated_power = 2340 kW (analog)
135 kW (digital)
HAAT = 354 m (analog)
390 m (digital)
class =
facility_id = 73982
coordinates = coord|42|18|10.7|N|71|13|4.9|W|type:landmark_scale:2000
homepage = http://www.tv38.com/

WSBK-TV, channel 38, is an independent television station licensed to Boston, Massachusetts, owned by the CBS Corporation. The station shares studio facilities in the Allston/Brighton neighborhood of Boston with sister station WBZ-TV (channel 4), and its transmitter is located in Needham, Massachusetts. WSBK is also seen in Canada to subscribers of the Bell TV and Star Choice satellite services as well as subscribers of Cogeco Cable, Shaw Cable, Rogers Cable, Vidéotron, and Persona.

History

The station began broadcasting on October 12, 1964. It was first licensed to Boston Catholic Television Center and had the call letters WIHS-TV. The station employed a general entertainment format along with the daily and Sunday Mass. The station was bought by Storer Broadcasting two years later. A few months after the purchase, the station's call letters became the present WSBK-TV, named after the company's ticker symbol on the New York Stock Exchange, SBK. Storer kept the general entertainment format and added stronger programming--including cartoons, off-network sitcoms and feature films. WSBK offered Japanese cartoons dubbed into English including "Marine Boy" and "Prince Planet".

However, Storer scored its biggest coup almost the following year, when it secured broadcast rights to the Boston Bruins from WKBG-TV. During the next few years, as the Bruins became a contender for the National Hockey League's Stanley Cup championship, the popularity of these games led to a spike in UHF antenna purchases, and helped make channel 38 one of the leading independent stations in the country. For much of the time between 1970 and 1984, WSBK would televise between 70 and 72 of the Bruins' 80 regular-season games, as well as all playoff games not on network television.

In 1975, WSBK acquired television rights to the Boston Red Sox, and got even luckier; the Red Sox won the American League pennant during the team's first year on WSBK. The team stayed on WSBK through 1995, and returned for three years from 2003 through 2005. WSBK broadcast between 90 and 110 Red Sox games a year between 1975 and 1983; about 75 games a year from 1984 until 1995; and a limited number of games (usually 28 to 30 a year) between 2003 and 2005.

At the beginning of the 1990s, WSBK began to broadcast road games of the Boston Celtics; it continued to do so through 1997-98.

Until 1983, WSBK also ran some network programs that were preempted by the local NBC (WBZ-TV), ABC (first WNAC-TV, then WCVB-TV), and CBS (first WHDH-TV, then WNAC-TV/WNEV-TV) affiliates.

WSBK's popularity was such that by the mid-1970s, it was available on nearly every cable system in New England. In the late 1980s, WSBK became a national superstation when it entered into agreement with a company called Eastern Microwave to distribute its signal outside New England. Eastern Microwave also distributed the signal of superstation WOR-TV in New York City. It had already been available on nearly every cable system in New England since the mid-1970s. WSBK's main selling point was its coverage of the Red Sox, similar to how WOR-TV, WGN-TV in Chicago, and WTBS in Atlanta used their coverage of the New York Mets, Chicago Cubs, and Atlanta Braves, respectively. The carriage did not reach those other stations' levels, but covered large portions of New York, New Jersey and a handful of cable systems in Florida (which produced the unusual circumstance of Red Sox games being regularly broadcast into part of the New York Yankees' main market).

WSBK's coverage of the Boston Bruins also made it a favorite superstation on Canadian cable systems, along with WOR (at the time, WOR was televising away games of all three New York-area NHL teams, the New York Islanders, the New York Rangers and the New Jersey Devils).

When the FCC's "Syndication Exclusivity" rules (called "Syndex") were strengthened in the early 1990s, distribution of all "distant signals" were hampered. The rule protected stations in local markets from out-of-market competition by superstations airing identical syndicated programming. Any station could file with cable systems for "protection" and the cable system would have to black out the offending station for periods of time. The management of this "blocking" would prove so cumbersome that many cable systems began dropping distant signals such as WSBK and effectively stopped most superstation distribution. Distributors such as Eastern Microwave attempted to make it easier for cable systems by substituting shows that could not be blocked, but the damage had already been done by then.

Besides its status as a sports powerhouse, WSBK made a name for itself when it created "The Movie Loft", one of the first "hosted movie" franchises on television long before it became a staple on cable. "The Movie Loft" aired syndicated movies with interstitial program elements hosted by Dana Hersey. Part of "The Movie Loft"'s marketing was that it aired only "unedited" movies. "The Movie Loft" tested that on several occasions airing movies such as "The Deer Hunter" and "48 Hours" in unedited fashion.

Kohlberg Kravis Roberts bought WSBK along with most of the other Storer stations in 1985. At this time, ownership was officially under the KKR subsidiary of New Boston Television, although on the air, the parent company of WSBK was still referenced to Storer. KKR later sold most of its stations to Gillett Communications. When Gillett defaulted on some of the financing agreements in the early 1990s, the ownership was restructured and the company was renamed SCI Television.

As a result of SCI filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, WSBK was sold in a group deal to New World Communications in 1993. In 1994, New World made a landmark deal with Fox to switch most of its CBS, ABC, and NBC affiliated stations to Fox affiliation. WSBK remained an independent station and was eventually put up for sale again to protect WFXT, which by this time had been bought by Fox. The station was then sold to Paramount Communications (which would become a subsidiary of Viacom that same year) and became a charter UPN affiliate in 1995. Originally, the station continued to run the same type of programming with UPN's schedule added. As UPN's schedule grew to more nights of the week, key WSBK franchises such as "The Movie Loft" were discontinued. Because Paramount owned the station and UPN, it did not want to pre-empt UPN programming. Red Sox, Bruins and Celtics broadcasts were significantly cut back, and eventually dropped entirely.

In 2001, after Viacom's merger with the previous CBS Corporation, WSBK moved its studios and offices to WBZ-TV's building.

On January 24, 2006, UPN and the WB Television Network announced that they would merge to create a new network, the CW Television Network, named for its corporate parents CBS and the Warner Bros. unit of Time Warner. WLVI-TV, Boston's WB affiliate, was announced as Boston's CW affiliate, leaving WSBK to tenatively become an independent station once again. On February 22, 2006, the News Corporation announced that it would launch another new broadcast television network, MyNetworkTV, operated by its Fox Television Stations division. WSBK was mentioned as a potential affiliate of MyNetworkTV, but on May 1, 2006, CBS announced that channel 38 would revert to independent status again. The Boston market MyNetworkTV affiliation eventually went to independent station WZMY-TV in Derry, New Hampshire.

WSBK-TV officially became an independent once again on September 16, 2006, after UPN shut down. A few days earlier, the station had restored its classic branding, "TV 38".

In 2007, Major League Soccer announced that WSBK would become the exclusive carrier of the New England Revolution. The Revolution are now the only Boston-area professional sports team to have locally-produced over-the-air telecasts of regular-season games. In December that year, WSBK produced the first-ever over-the-air television broadcasts of the Eastern Massachusetts High-School Football Super Bowl games, broadcasting three of the seven divisional championship contests.

Digital television

The station's digital channel is multiplexed:

Analog-to-digital conversion

After the analog television shutdown and digital conversion, which is tentatively scheduled to take place on February 17, 2009 http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DA-06-1082A2.pdf] , WSBK-TV will remain on its current pre-transition channel number, 39. [http://fjallfoss.fcc.gov/cgi-bin/ws.exe/prod/cdbs/forms/prod/cdbsmenu.hts?context=25&appn=101231912&formid=387&fac_num=73238 CDBS Print ] ] However, through the use of PSIP, digital television receivers will display WSBK's virtual channel as 38.

Programming

WSBK generally broadcasts syndicated programs and movies. However, the station is best known in the Boston area for having been the long-time television home of the Boston Red Sox and Boston Bruins. WSBK became the Red Sox's over-air flagship station in 1975 and remained so for 20 years losing the rights in 1996 to WABU (now WBPX). After a seven-season hiatus, WSBK (in partnership with sister station WBZ) resumed its role as the Red Sox flagship station in 2003 although only for Friday night games. Most games were carried by NESN, who aired the Friday night games outside of the Boston DMA, effectively blacking out WSBK in these areas (the Red Sox have 80 percent holdings in NESN). Among the nationally prominent announcers that have called Red Sox games on the station are Dick Stockton and Sean McDonough. WBZ ceased to broadcast the games after the 2004 season and NESN announced that WSBK would itself cease airing games in early 2006. This made the team cable-exclusive.

In addition to the Red Sox, WSBK was also, for over thirty years, the over-air flagship of the Boston Bruins. It was considered important enough to the station's broadcasting, especially in the 1970s when the Bruins were one of the perennially elite teams in the National Hockey League and enormously popular in Boston, that then-station owners Storer Broadcasting purchased and owned the Bruins for several years. The announcers for most of the Bruins games were hall-of-famer Fred Cusick (on play-by-play) and Johnny Peirson (on color commentary), who was later succeeded by Dave Shea and former Bruin Derek Sanderson. In later years Dale Arnold called the play by play. As with the Red Sox, Bruins coverage gradually moved to NESN. All home games were broadcasted on NESN starting in 1984 and coverage left WSBK entirely by 2005.

In addition, WSBK the over-air home of the Boston Celtics before losing the broadcast rights in 1998 to WABU. Currently, all Celtics' games not on national television are now broadcast on CSN New England. Since 2005, the station has been the home of Atlantic Coast Conference college football and basketball games in Boston as Boston College's move to the conference has created regional interest for the ACC.

The station has played host to no fewer than three locally-produced nighttime movie programs: "The Movie Loft" (hosted by Dana Hersey), "The UPN 38 Movie House" (hosted by Brian Frates), and "Movie Night" (co-hosted by Dan and Dave Andelman).

From May 2001 to August 2004, WSBK had rights to "Lottery Live", the weeknight broadcasts of the state lottery games. After the station moved into WBZ's studios, WSBK continued to broadcast the drawings. This was because WBZ had the games to itself for the last 3 years prior to that move. When the contract for WSBK expired, the games moved to WCVB-TV.

WSBK broadcasts "Phantom Gourmet" on weekends depending on the station's programming commitments (such as ACC college football). The station also airs a sports replay program called "Red Sox This Week" on Sundays nights at 10 PM.

After UPN ceased operations in September 2006, WSBK's primetime lineup was converted to a second run of "Dr. Phil" at 8 PM, a second-run of "Jeopardy!" at 9 PM, and a new local newscast at 9:30 PM. It also continues to air CBS programs whenever WBZ preempts for local programming. WSBK, after becoming independent again, returned to the "TV 38" branding and "Entertaining Boston" slogan. The station changed its web address to "tv38.com" in late August and started using the new branding on the air on September 6 more than a week before officially becoming independent.

One of WSBK's most remembered past programs was the informative series "Ask the Manager", created by its general manager William J. Flynn in the mid-1970s. Each week Flynn, and later his successors Joseph C. Dimino, Daniel J. Berkery, and Stuart Tauber would answer viewer questions on the air. The letters were read each week for many years by the station's announcer and host Dana Hersey. Other letter-readers included Sean McDonough and Carla Nolan. Meg LaVigne and Leslie Savage occasionally substituted in the manager's chair. The producer of "Ask the Manager" was Clifford D. "Cliff" Allen, who died just weeks after "Ask the Manager" broadcast its final show in January 1999. Though poorly rated by the Nielsen ratings, this show became a cult favorite. There were other attempts at local programming through the years with shows such as "We Don't Knock", "A.M. Boston", and "Hersey's Hollywood".

News operation

Over the years, WSBK has broadcasted a 10 P.M. newscast on several occasions. WBZ-TV produced such programming from 1993 to 1995 (known as "WBZ News 4 on TV 38"). The newscast was then produced by NECN until 1998 (known as "UPN 38 Prime News"). During the NECN period, Lila Orbach was the original sole anchor when the news launched on October 2, 1995. Eventually, Margie Reedy and R.D. Sahl (a former WHDH-TV news duo) took over for the remainder of its run. After Viacom's merger with CBS, WBZ-TV once again began to produce the station's news programming starting in 2001. During this time, WSBK initially airing a 7 P.M. newscast called "THE 7 O'Clock News on UPN 38". It switched back to 10 o'clock in 2002 and was known as "Nightcast at 10 on UPN 38". In 2003, an hour long extension of WBZ-TV's weekday morning news was added at 7 A.M. In January 2005, WSBK canceled "Nightcast" and turned its attention to the morning news which was relaunched as "The Morning Show" on April 4.

On September 12, the program began airing 8 to 9 A.M. to make room for the first two hours of the nationally syndicated morning show, "The Daily Buzz". On June 30, 2006, "The Morning Show" aired its last broadcast. "The Daily Buzz" was eventually dropped as well. When WSBK became an independent station for the second time, WBZ-TV began to produce a weeknight 9:30 o'clock newscast called "TV 38 News at 9:30". Starting on April 23, 2007, the newscast began airing at 9 P.M. The second run of "Jeopardy!" switched time slots with the newscast. After this, the news became known as "TV 38 News at 9". On August 25, 2008, the newscast became known as "WBZ News at 9". As of September 15, 2008, the station is in the process of upgrading its news set for high definition broadcasts. During this time, all newscasts will originate from the on-air area of the newsroom. Renovations could last for at least six weeks, which at that point, WBZ will begin producing local news in high definition. It is anticipated that the WSBK broadcast wiil be included in the upgrade. [http://groups.msn.com/BostonTVNews] [http://pod08.prospero.com/n/blogs/blog.aspx?nav=main&webtag=WBZ_Declare&entry=274]

News team

"WBZ News at 9"
"(Weeknights 9 to 9:30 P.M.)"
*Anchor:
**Kate Merril
*Weather:
**Ken Barlow
*Sports:
**Steve Burton
*Reporters:
**Jon Keller - politics
**Paul Burton
**Eileen Curran
**Dawn Hasbrouck

"WSBK uses additional news personnel from WBZ. See that article for a complete listing."

Logos

Storer_BroadcastingTV Guide listings)
Chrome_version_of_WSBK

References

* [http://www.bostonradio.org/radio/stations/73982.html WSBK-TV (3-27-2005). "The Boston TV Dial"] .
* [http://www.upn38.com/about/ WSBK: About UPN38 (2005). "UPN38.com"] .

External links

* [http://www.tv38.com/ WSBK-TV "TV 38"]
* [http://www.wbztv.com/ WBZ-TV]
*TVQ|WSBK
*BIA|WSBK|TV|TV