Coordinates

41°52′55″N87°37′40″N

{{infobox broadcast | call letters

WBFF| city | station_logo 175px175px| station_slogan | station_branding Fox 45 (general)Fox 45 News (newscasts)| digital 46 (UHF)Virtual: 45 (PSIP)|| other_chs | affiliations | subchannels 45.1 Fox45.2 This TV45.3 The Country Network| airdate April 11, 1971| location Baltimore, Maryland| callsign_meaning Baltimore's Forty-Five(former analog and current virtual digital channel number) or Baltimore's Finest Features | former_callsigns | former_channel_numbers Analog:45 (UHF, 1971-2009)| owner Sinclair Broadcast Group| licensee Chesapeake Television Licensee, LLC| sister_stations WNUV | former_affiliations Independent (1971-1986)| "Good TV" (on digital subchannel 45.2)| effective_radiated_power 550 kW | HAAT 372.8 m | class | facility_id 10758| coordinates | homepage www.foxbaltimore.com| }}

WBFF, channel 45, is a Fox-affiliated television station located in Baltimore, Maryland. WBFF is the flagship station of the Sinclair Broadcast Group, which also operates Baltimore's CW affiliate, WNUV-TV (channel 54), through a local marketing agreement. The two stations share studios and transmission facilities in the Woodberry section of Baltimore.

Until September 2008, WBFF also broadcast "Good TV" on its second digital subchannel (45.2) and on local Comcast cable systems on digital cable channel 206. Syndicated programming on WBFF includes: ''Friends'', ''Judge Judy'' and ''The King of Queens''.

History

WBFF signed on on April 11, 1971, founded by what was then called Chesapeake Television Corporation, which was controlled by Julian Sinclair Smith. At once, it was Baltimore's second commercial UHF station and second independent station, signing-on four years after WMET-TV (channel 24) 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 programs during this period. Channel 45 did find an advantage in having a decent library of movies and 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 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, Commercial Radio Institute, 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 Sinclair Broadcast Group, and around this time one of his sons, 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 subsequently 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 strengthening that station, and in June 1991 opened up WBFF's news department with Baltimore's first 10:00 p.m. newscast.

Sinclair purchased Abry Communications, owner of WNUV, in 1994. As duopolies weren't allowed at the time, channel 54 was spun off to Glencairn Ltd., a company owned by former Sinclair executive Edwin Edwards. However, Glencairn's stock was almost entirely owned by the Smith family. In effect, Sinclair now had a duopoly in Baltimore—and had emasculated its major rival in its hometown. Sinclair further circumvented the rules by taking over WNUV under a local marketing agreement, with WBFF as senior partner. Sinclair tried to buy Glencairn outright in 2001, but was unable to buy WNUV because the Baltimore market has only seven full-power stations, too few to legally permit a duopoly. Glencairn changed its name to Cunningham Broadcasting and retained ownership of WNUV. However, nearly all of Cunningham's stock is held in trusts owned by the Smiths. This de facto duopoly continues to this day, while the larger one between Sinclair and Glencairn/Cunningham has led to claims that Cunningham is merely a corporate shell Sinclair uses to evade FCC ownership restrictions.

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 persuaded Fox to sign a long-term 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 Television Network 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 extension for Sinclair's 19 Fox affiliates. As a result, Fox will remain on WBFF at least through the 2011-2012 television season. WBFF remains the only Baltimore television station that has never changed its network affiliation.

Digital television

The station's digital signal is multiplexed:

Digital channels
Channel	! Name	! Programming
45.1	WBFF-DT	main WBFF/Fox programming
45.2	WBFF-DT2
45.3	WBFF-DT3

Analog-to-Digital Conversion

WBFF shut down its analog signal on February 17, 2009, as part of the DTV transition in the United States. The station remained on its pre-transition channel 46 using PSIP to display WBFF's virtual channel as 45.

"Good TV"

On May 1, 2006, WBFF launched a new service on its second digital subchannel (45.2) originally called WBFF-2. It was later renamed Good TV. This digital-only channel featured classic television programms like ''Magnum, P.I.'', ''Mission: Impossible'', ''All in the Family'', ''Sanford and Son'', ''In the Heat of the Night'', and ''Good Times''. In addition, "Good TV" offered expanded coverage of church services on Sunday mornings, local events, syndicated shows, and paid programming. This channel ceased broadcasting on or around September 30, 2008, to make way for a new service.

"This TV"

On January 12, 2009, WBFF TV started broadcasting This TV on its second digital subchannel (45.2).

News operation

WBFF launched a 10 p.m. newscast on June 3, 1991. The station added a weekday morning newscast in March 2000. In February 2003, it added a weeknight 11 o'clock newscast that broadcasted from Sinclair's now-defunct centralized news service, ''News Central'', located in Hunt Valley. Newscasts at 5:30 a.m. and 5:30 p.m. were subsequently added to the schedule in January 2005. On June 2, 2008, WBFF became the first Baltimore television station to broadcast their local newscast in high definition.

Jeff Barnd, a WBFF news anchor, also hosts and provides commentary for the syndicated Sinclair news program ''American Crossroads''. 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 a.m. 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".

On January 24, 2011; WBFF expanded their morning news from 5-9 a.m. to 5-10 a.m. weekdays with the 9 a.m edition called "Fox 45 Good Day Baltimore". That is now a total of over 7 hours of news a day.

News/Station presentation

Newscast titles

''WBFF's Evening News'' (1975–1981)

''Metro News 45'' (1981–1987)

''Channel 45 News'' (1987–1991)

''Fox 45 News'' (1991–present)

''Fox 45 Good Day Baltimore'' (9-10 a.m. portion of morning newscast; 2011–present)

Station slogans

''Don't Let Fox 45 Weekends Pass You By'' (1987–1988; localized version of Fox ad campaign)

''Its 11pm Do You Know Where Your Children Are''{2011-present}

News team

Current on-air staff

Anchors

Jeff Abell - Saturdays at 10 p.m.; also weeknight reporter and fill-in anchor

Jeff Barnd - weeknights at 5:30, 10 and 11 p.m.

Jennifer Gilbert - Monday-Thursdays at 5:30 and 11, and Sunday-Thursdays at 10 p.m.

Patrice Harris - weekday mornings "Fox 45 Morning News" (5-10 a.m.)

Megan Gilliland - weekday mornings "Fox 45 Morning News" (5-10 a.m.)

Karen Parks - Fridays at 5:30 and 11, and Friday-Saturdays at 10 p.m.; also weeknight reporter

''SkyWatch Weather Team''

Vytas Reid (AMS Member) - Chief Meteorologist; weeknights at 5:30, 10 and 11 p.m.

Steve Fertig (AMS Seal of Approval) - Meteorologist; weekday mornings "Fox 45 Morning News" (5-10 a.m.)

Emily Gracey - Meteorologist; fill-in, also "Hometown Hot Spot" feature reporter

Sports team (both co-host "Sports Unlimited" on Sunday nights)

Bruce Cunningham - Sports Director; weeknights at 10 and 11 p.m.

Morgan Adsit- Sports Anchor; weekends at 10 p.m.

Reporters

Kathleen Cairns - general assignment reporter

Lauren Cook - traffic reporter ("Traffic Edge")

Keith Daniels - general assignment reporter

Candace Dold - entertainment and traffic reporter ("Traffic Edge")

Judy Kurtz - general assignment and feature reporter

Joy Lepola - investigative reporter

Melinda Roeder - general assignment reporter

John Rydell - general assignment reporter

Joel D. Smith - weekday morning reporter

Myranda Stephens - general assignment reporter

Notable alumni

George Lewis ("Captain Chesapeake")

Jon Lieberman

Amber Theoharis (now with Mid-Atlantic Sports Network)

References

External links

WBFF website

This TV Baltimore Website

Category:Sinclair Broadcast Group Category:Fox network affiliates Category:Channel 46 digital TV stations in the United States Category:Channel 45 virtual TV stations in the United States Category:Television channels and stations established in 1971 Category:This TV affiliates Category:Television stations in Maryland Category:The NHL Network (1975–79) affiliates