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WSBK-TV
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- This article is about the television station, for the World Superbike championship see World Superbike.
| WSBK-TV | |
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| Boston, Massachusetts | |
| Branding | TV 38 |
| Slogan | Entertaining Boston |
| Channels | Analog: 38 (UHF) Digital: 39 (UHF) |
| Affiliations | Independent CBS (alternate affiliation) |
| Owner | CBS Corporation |
| Founded | October 12, 1964 |
| Call letters meaning | SBK (stock ticker symbol of former owner Storer Broadcasting) |
| Former callsigns | WIHS-TV (1964-1966) |
| Former affiliations | Independent (1964-1995) ABC and NBC (both secondary 1966-1983) UPN (1995-2006) |
| Transmitter Power | 2,340 kW / 354 m (analog) 135 kW / 390 m (digital) |
| Website | tv38.com |
WSBK-TV is an Independent television station for Boston, Massachusetts. Licensed to the city, the station broadcasts an analog signal on UHF channel 38 and a digital signal on UHF channel 39. WSBK's analog transmitter is located east of I-95 / Route 128, while its digital is located west of the highway. Both transmitters are located in Needham. Owned by the CBS Corporation, WSBK is a sister station to the area's CBS affiliate WBZ-TV. The two stations share studios which are located on Soldiers Field Road in the North Brighton section of Boston. WSBK is known on-air as "TV 38".
The station will air CBS programming if WBZ cannot do so for any reason. One common example of this practice is during the Boston Marathon in which WSBK will air WBZ's weekday morning lineup.
WSBK is also seen in Canada to subscribers of the Bell ExpressVu and StarChoice satellite services as well as subscribers of Cogeco Cable, Shaw Cable, Rogers Cable, Videotron, and Persona.
As an independent station, WSBK runs a general entertainment format which includes syndicated programming, movies, and sports.
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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.
However, Storer scored its biggest coup almost as soon as it signed on, when it secured broadcast rights to the Boston Bruins from WJZB-TV in Worcester; WJZB's transmitter could not broadcast in color. It later added the Boston Celtics and Boston Red Sox. The popularity of channel 38's sports programming led to a spike in UHF antenna purchases, and helped make channel 38 one of the leading independent stations in the country.
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. Channel 38 also had a local newscast from the late 1970s to the early 1980s. Despite its status as a leading independent, it turned down Fox affiliation in 1986, which instead went to WXNE-TV (channel 25, now WFXT).
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 WWOR-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 WGN-TV in Chicago and WTBS in Atlanta used their coverage 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 Yankees main market). WSBK was generally passive in the distribution efforts which were handled by Eastern Microwave.
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. Another popular show on WSBK was called Ask the Manager. It featured viewer mail read by station personnel and answered by station's General Manager or a Senior Manager. 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.
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, the WB and UPN networks announced that they would cease broadcasting and merge to create a new network. The new 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. WLVI-TV, the area's WB affiliate, then owned by Tribune Broadcasting, was announced as Boston's CW affiliate. It would not have been an upset had WSBK been chosen instead, however. CW officials were on record as preferring the "strongest" WB and UPN stations, and Boston was one of the few markets where the WB and UPN affiliates were both relatively strong.
On February 22, 2006, News Corporation announced that it 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. The new network was built around several UPN affiliates owned by Fox, all of which were left out of The CW. It 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.
CBS announced on May 1, 2006, that WSBK would revert to independent status again instead of joining MyNetworkTV. The MyNetworkTV affiliation for Boston eventually went to an independent station in Derry, New Hampshire, WZMY-TV. MyNetworkTV began broadcasting on September 5, 2006.
WSBK officially became an independent once again on September 16, 2006, after UPN shut down. The CW began broadcasting on WLVI on September 18, 2006.
In 2007, Major League Soccer announced that WSBK would become the exclusive carrier of the New England Revolution.
WSBK generally broadcasts syndicated programs and movies. However, the station is best known in the Boston area for being the long-time television home of the Boston Red Sox. 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, that then-station owners Storer Broadcasting purchased and owned the Bruins for several years. The announcerd for most of the Bruins games were Fred Cusick (on play-by-play) and Johnny Pierson (on color commentary). 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 FSN 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 nightime 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). The Movie Loft was noted for occasionally broadcasting theatrical movies uncut and without censorship, pioneered by a showing of The Deer Hunter in 1978.
From May of 2001 to August of 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 of 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 of 1999.
WSBK has broadcasted a 10 PM 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 newscast launched on October 2, 1995. Eventually, Margie Reedy and R.D. Sahl, a former WHDH news duo, took over for the remainder of its run. After Viacom's merger with CBS, WBZ once again began to produce the station's news programming starting in 2001. During this time, WSBK initially airing a 7 PM newscast called THE 7 O'Clock News on UPN 38. It switched back to 10 PM in 2002 and was known as Nightcast at 10 on UPN 38. In 2003, a WSBK extension of WBZ's weekday morning news was added from 7 to 8 AM. In January of 2005, WSBK cancelled Nightcast and turned its attention to the morning newscast which was relaunched as The Morning Show on April 4, 2005. On September 12, 2005 the program was moved and aired 8 to 9 PM to make room for the first two hours of the nationally syndicated newscast The Daily Buzz. On June 30, 2006, The Morning Show aired its last broadcast.
When WSBK became an independent station for the second time, WBZ began to produce a weeknight 9:30 PM newscast called TV 38 news at 9:30. Starting on April 23, 2007, the newscast began airing at 9 PM. The second run of Jeopardy! that did air at 9 PM switched time slots with the newscast which then became known as TV 38 News at 9.
During weather forecasts, WSBK uses WBZ's weather radar known as "WBZ Doppler Live", which is located at the Worcester Regional Airport in Worcester. On WSBK, it is rebranded as "38 Weather Live Doppler".
- Anchors:
- Scott Whale
- Sara Underwood
- Weather:
- Ken Barlow
- Sports:
- Bob Lobel (Mondays through Thursdays)
- Steve Burton (Fridays)
- Reporters:
- Dawn Hasbrouck
- Paul Burton
- Eileen Curran
WSBK uses additional news personnel from WBZ. See that article for a complete listing.
 Storer Broadcasting's first WSBK TV38 logo, in use from 1966 until 1977. |
 WSBK's second generation TV 38 logo used from 1977 to July 1995. |
 Another variation of the logo circa 1988 during a Three Stooges marathon. |
 WSBK's first UPN 38 logo used from July 1995 to September 2000. |
 Chrome version of WSBK's first UPN 38 logo used from September 2000 to September 2002. |
 WSBK's last UPN 38 logo used from September 2002 to September of 2006. |
 WSBK's red "UPN 38" logo |
WSBK's current TV 38 logo used since September of 2006. |
 WSBK Boston's green and black logo from 1998 for non-network programming (and in TV Guide listings) |
WSBK screenshot from September 19, 2006 |
 WSBK news screenshot from 2007 |
- Station Website
- WBZ Website
- WLWC Website
- WSBK screenshots at NorthPine.com
- Query the FCC's TV station database for WSBK-TV
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WLNE 6 (ABC) - WJAR 10 (NBC) (WX+ on DT2) - WPRI 12 (CBS) - WLWC 28 (The CW) - Significantly Viewed Out-of-Market Broadcast Stations Cable television channels |
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Local television stations Local digital television channels Concord / Keene / Manchester / Portsmouth (Southern New Hampshire) television stations Defunct television stations Local cable television channels |
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Boston Spanish Language Stations: WFXZ 24 (Azteca América, Boston) - WUNI 27 (Univision, Worcester) - WTMU 32 (Telemundo, Boston) - WUTF 66 (TeleFutura, Marlborough) |
| See also: ABC, CBS, CW, Fox, MyNetworkTV, NBC and PBS stations in Massachusetts |
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Corporate directors: David R. Andelman · Joseph A. Califano, Jr. · William S. Cohen · Philippe Dauman · Charles K. Gifford · Bruce S. Gordon · Leslie Moonves · Shari Redstone · Sumner Redstone · Ann N. Reese · Judith A. Sprieser Broadcast radio stations owned by CBS Radio |
Annual revenue:  $14.54 billion USD (2005) · Employees: Unknown at this timeStock symbol: NYSE: CBS, NYSE: CBSA · Website: www.cbscorporation.com |
Categories: Television stations in Providence | Television stations in Massachusetts | CBS Corporation television stations | Television stations in Boston, Massachusetts | Independent television stations in the United States | Superstations in the United States | Channel 38 TV stations in the United States | Television channels and stations established in 1964