, channel 45, is a
Fox Broadcasting Company -affiliated
Television Station located in
Baltimore, Maryland . WBFF is owned by the
Sinclair Broadcast Group , and is one-half of a duopoly with Baltimore's
CW affiliate
WNUV-TV (channel 54). The two stations share studios and transmission facilities in the
Woodberry section of Baltimore.
WBFF also broadcasts "Good TV" on its second
Digital Subchannel and on local
Comcast cable systems on digital cable channel 206.
WBFF began broadcasting on
April 11 ,
1971 . The station was founded by , which was controlled by Julian Sinclair Smith. At once, it was Baltimore's second commercial
UHF station and second
Independent Station , signing-on three years after WMET-TV (channel 24, now
WUTB ) began operations. Both stations aired general-entertainment programming, but WMET's owners experienced financial problems and were forced to take their station off the air in
1972 .
Even without direct competition, and operating on a small budget, WBFF still struggled for programming during the 1970s as Baltimore's network affiliates (
WBAL-TV ,
WJZ-TV , and
WMAR-TV ) continued to acquire syndicated, off-network sitcoms during this period. Channel 45 did find an advantage in having a decent library of movies and classic sitcoms at its disposal. Like other independent stations of that era, WBFF also ran network programs pre-empted by the local afflilates, local public-affairs programs, and played cartoons in the afternoon in a show hosted by ''
Captain Chesapeake '' (played by George Lewis), who was a fixture on WBFF's air until
1990 .
Despite its financial restraints, WBFF became enough of a profitable operation that Julian Smith decided to expand his broadcast interests. Through a Chesapeake Television subsidiary, , Smith launched a new independent station in
Pittsburgh , WPTT (now
WPMY ), in
1978 . In
1984 , Commercial Radio Institute signed-on Smith's third station, independent
WTTE in
Columbus, Ohio . That same year, WBFF received local competition again when WNUV-TV, then a two-year-old
Subscription Television outlet, began to adopt a general-entertainment schedule.
In
1985 , Julian Smith merged his companies and renamed them as the , and around this time his eldest son,
David D. Smith , took a prominent role in the operations of the three stations. In
1986 Sinclair agreed to affiliate WBFF and WTTE with the fledgling
Fox Broadcasting Company . The growth and rise of Fox coincided with that of Sinclair Broadcast Group, which expanded its reach during the 1990s. But first, Sinclair attempted to exand the reach of its flagship station in a big way.
In early
1991 Sinclair announced plans to purchase WMAR-TV with the intent to move WBFF into WMAR's channel 2 allocation, and subseqently selling the channel 45 license. However, those plans never materialized, and WMAR-TV (then affiliated with
NBC ) was sold to the
E.W. Scripps Company instead. Stuck on channel 45, Sinclair refocused on strengthing that station, and in June 1991 opened up WBFF's news department with Baltimore's first 10:00 p.m. newscast.
As Sinclair Broadcast Group acquired additional stations, the company took advantage of new rules allowing operations to be consolidated under
Local Marketing Agreement s. When Sinclair purchased WNUV's owner Abry Communications in
1994 , channel 54 was spun-off to Glencairn Ltd., a company owned by former Sinclair executive Edwin Edwards. WBFF then began operating WNUV under a local marketing agreement, although Glencairn (now
Cunningham Broadcasting ) retained ownership of WNUV. The relationship between WBFF and WNUV constitues as a
De-facto Duopoly , while the larger one between Sinclair and Glencairn/Cunningham has generated much controversy within the television industry.
While WBFF entered the new century thriving as both locally and as a Fox affiliate, its network partner threatened the station's immediate future. In
2001 Fox's parent company, the
News Corporation , became the new owner of Baltimore's
UPN affiliate WUTB (the former WMET-TV) through its purchase of
Chris-Craft Industries . Rumors abounded that Fox was considering moving its programming from WBFF to WUTB. In a move made clearly to protect its home interests, Sinclair pursuaded Fox to signed a contract to keep WBFF with the network.
The same threat re-emerged in January 2006, when WUTB lost its status as a UPN affiliate when UPN and the WB announced
Their Merger . However, WBFF breathed a sigh of relief when Fox announced that WUTB would become an affiliate of their new
MyNetworkTV service.
On
May 2 , 2006, the same day Sinclair committed its eight remaining WB and independent stations to the CW, Sinclair and Fox agreed to a six-year affiliation contract extension for Sinclair's 19 Fox affiliates. As a result, Fox will remain on WBFF at least through the 2011-2012 television season.
On '', ''
All In The Family '', ''
Sanford And Son '', ''
In The Heat Of The Night '', and ''
Good Times ''. In addition, "Good TV" offers expanded coverage of church services on Sunday mornings, local events,
Syndicated shows, and paid programming. Also, the channel simulcasts WBFF's weekday morning newscast until 7 AM and rebroadcasts its 10 PM newscast.
WBFF launched a 10 PM newscast on
June 3 ,
1991 . The station added a weekday morning newscast in March of
2000 .
In February of .
WBFF was featured in an episode during the third season of ''
The Simple Life ''. On that episode,
Paris Hilton and
Nicole Richie took control of the station's weekday morning newscast. The two read the weather forecast and messed with the teleprompter.
Tony Harris , later a
CNN anchor, was once WBFF's lead anchor.
Every Wednesday morning during the regular school year, a randomly selected child nominated by his or her teacher is selected to help meteorologist Steve Fertig during the 6:30 and 6:40 AM forecast segments. The child usually helps with the weather report, gets a tour of WBFF, and receives a video copy of their performance. The segment is called "Weather Kid Wednesday".
- Jeff Abell - Saturdays (also reporter)
- Jeff Barnd - weeknights 5:30 and 10:00 p.m.
- Jennifer Gilbert - weeknights 5:30 and 10:00 p.m.
- Jennifer Gladstone - weekday mornings
- Patrice Harris - weekday mornings
- Joy Lepola - weeknights at 11 PM
- Karen Parks - weekends (also reporter)
- Steve Fertig - weekday mornings
- Vytas Reid - chief meteorologist/weeknights
- Jessica Star - weekends (also weekday "Hometown Hot Spot" segment reporter)
- Bruce Cunningham - weeknights
- Amy Fadool - weekends (also sports reporter)
- Gabrielle Abiera - weekday morning traffic reporter
- Kathleen Cairns
- Keith Daniels
- Steve Levine - crime and justice investigative reporter
- Brian Morrin - weekday mornings
- Melinda Roeder
- John Rydell
- Christy Wicks - weekends
