WUTB
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| WUTB | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Baltimore, Maryland | |
| Branding | My24 |
| Slogan | Very Local. Very Baltimore. |
| Channels | Analog: 24 (UHF) |
| Affiliations | MyNetworkTV |
| Owner | Fox Television Stations, Inc. |
| First air date | December 24, 1985 |
| Call letters’ meaning | United Television (former owners) Baltimore |
| Former callsigns | WKJL-TV (1985-1987) WHSW (1987-1992) WHSW-TV (1992-1998) |
| Former affiliations | religious independent (1985-1987) HSN (1987-1998) UPN (1998-2006) |
| Transmitter Power | 1170 kW (analog) 200 kW (digital) |
| Height | 326 m (analog) 313 m (digital) |
| Facility ID | 60552 |
| Transmitter Coordinates | |
| Website | www.my24wutb.com |
WUTB is the Fox owned-and-operated MyNetworkTV television station for Baltimore, Maryland. Licensed to the city, the station broadcasts an analog signal on UHF channel 24 and a digital signal on UHF channel 41. WUTB's transmitter is located near Gilson Park in Catonsville. WUTB is the only Fox-owned MyNetworkTV affiliate not part of any Fox / MyNetworkTV duopoly; in other words, it is the only standalone MyNetworkTV station under network ownership. The station has studios located on Seton Drive in Baltimore near the city / Baltimore County line. WUTB is one of two network-owned and operated stations in Baltimore alongside CBS station WJZ-TV. The station is known on-air as "My 24".
Along with MyNetworkTV primetime, WUTB's syndicated lineup features: Two and a Half Men, Everybody Loves Raymond, Seinfeld, TMZ on TV, The Montel Williams Show, The Tyra Banks Show, and a weekday court block from 2 until 6 p.m.
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[edit] History
On March 1, 1967, WMET-TV signed on channel 24 as the first UHF signal in Baltimore and touted as "Baltimore's fourth television station" in the Baltimore Evening Sun on March 3, 1967. It was a low-budget and low-powered station that was a sister station to WFAN in Washington D.C.. Both stations were owned by United Broadcasting (which is unrelated to the United Television that was owned by Chris-Craft Industries, which later owned channel 24). In 1972, both stations ceased broadcasting due to financial difficulties.
A new station, Christian station WKJL-TV, owned by Family Broadcast Group, signed on channel 24 on December 24, 1985. The call letters stood for Where the Kingdom of Jesus Lives. Initially the station was on the air about 8 hours a day with religious shows. In early 1986, the station expanded to an 18-hour broadcast day featuring 6 hours of religious programming and 12 hours of family entertainment. The station began broadcasting 24 hours a day in June of 1986 airing programming from the Home Shopping Network overnight.
Home Shopping Network announced its purchase of the station in September of 1986. By November, the station aired HSN programming about 15 hours a day. The sale to HSN was finalized on January 23, 1987. The station then began running HSN programming 24 hours a day and changed its call letters to WHSW.
In January of 1998, WNUV dropped UPN in favor of The WB, so Chris-Craft Industries (co-owner of UPN) bought channel 24 to make it a UPN owned and operated station. On January 20, 1998, the call letters were changed to the current WUTB. Chris-Craft ran the station out of WWOR's facilities in Secaucus, New Jersey and fed the station to its transmitter site in Baltimore. On September 11, 2001, WUTB aired WWOR's local news coverage of the terrorist attacks.
On July 25, 2001, Fox Television Stations purchased Chris-Craft's television stations, including WUTB. It was rumored in November of 2002 that the station would become a Fox affiliate but WBFF made a deal to keep its Fox affiliation.
On January 24, 2006, the WB and UPN networks announced that they would cease broadcasting and merge to create a new network. The new combined network would be called The CW, the letters representing the first initial of its corporate parents: CBS (the parent company of UPN) and the Warner Bros. unit of Time Warner. WUTB immediately dropped its "UPN 24" branding and became "WUTB 24". Similar changes were made to Fox's other UPN affiliates (including its nearby sister station WDCA in Washington, DC). The CW announcement again touched off speculation that Fox would pull affiliation from WBFF and move it to WUTB.
On February 22, 2006, News Corporation announced that they would start up another new broadcast television network called MyNetworkTV. The new network, which would be sister to Fox, would be operated by Fox Television Stations and its syndication division Twentieth Television. MyNetworkTV was created in order to give UPN and WB stations, not mentioned as becoming CW affiliates, another option besides becoming independent. It was also created to compete against The CW.
It was later announced that WNUV would become Baltimore's CW affiliate. On August 11, 2006, WUTB adopted the standard MyNetworkTV logo and gradually rebranded itself as "My 24". WUTB began broadcasting MyNetworkTV on September 5, 2006. WNUV began broadcasting The CW on September 18, 2006.
[edit] Newscasts
On September 4, 2006, Washington D.C.'s Fox owned-and-operated station WTTG began simulcasting its weekday morning and 10 p.m. newscasts on WUTB. The newscasts on WUTB were rebranded from "Fox 5 News" to "My 24 News". During the simulcasts, WTTG's network bug was replaced with a "My 24 News" bug. The higher-ups at both stations cited the decision to simulcast as a by-product of cross-regional news interests and increasing overlap between the Baltimore and Washington media markets. During the 2006 MLB postseason, WTTG's 10 p.m. newscast aired on Washington D.C.'s MyNetworkTV affiliate WDCA under the name Fox 5 News at 10 Special Edition. The same has occurred in 2007, but the newscast is now known as My 20 News at 10. When Fox Sports or other programming delayed the 10 p.m. newscasts on WTTG, the 10 p.m. news was still produced for WUTB.
WUTB dropped the morning news simulcast after November 30, 2007 edition, and the 10 p.m. news simulcast was discontinued by January 2008. The station cited low ratings as a reason for an end to the simulcasts. Many viewers who commute to the Washington area have expressed a desire to see the simulcasts restored.[1]
[edit] News team
Weeknights
- Anchors:
- Brian Bolter
- Shawn Yancy
- Weather:
- Sue Palka
- Sports:
- Dave Feldman
Weekends
- Anchors:
- Will Thomas
- Maureen Umeh
- Weather:
- Gary McGrady
- Sports:
- Lou Holder
the WUTB simulcasts of WTTG newscasts featured additional news personnel from WTTG, see the WTTG article for a complete listing
[edit] Logos
 WUTB logo from 1998 until 2002. |
 Variation of the previous logo. |
 WUTB logo from 2002 until 2006. |
 WUTB logo used from January until July of 2006 |
 WUTB current logo. |
[edit] External links
- Station Website
- WTTG Website
- MyNetworkTV Website
- Query the FCC's TV station database for WUTB
- BIAfn's Media Web Database -- Information on WUTB-TV
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