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WMFP

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Coordinates: 42°0′38″N 71°2′40″W / 42.01056°N 71.04444°W / 42.01056; -71.04444
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For the WMFP software sizing model, see Weighted Micro Function Points.

WMFP
CityFoxborough, Massachusetts
Channels
BrandingWMFP
Programming
Affiliations
Ownership
Owner
WWDP
History
First air date
October 16, 1987; 37 years ago (1987-10-16) (in Lawrence, Massachusetts; license moved to Foxborough in 2018[3])
Former channel number(s)
  • Analog: 62 (UHF, 1987–2009)
  • Digital: 18 (UHF, 2006–2018)
Call sign meaning
"We're Media for the People"[4]
Technical information[5]
Licensing authority
FCC
Facility ID41436
ERP5 kW
1,000 kW (CP)[1]
HAAT142 m (466 ft)
318.4 m (1,044.6 ft) (CP)[1]
Transmitter coordinates42°0′38″N 71°2′40″W / 42.01056°N 71.04444°W / 42.01056; -71.04444
42°18′37″N 71°14′12″W / 42.31028°N 71.23667°W / 42.31028; -71.23667 (CP)[1]
Links
Public license information

WMFP (channel 62) is a television station licensed to Foxborough, Massachusetts, United States, serving the Boston area and primarily airing paid programming from OnTV4U. It is owned by WRNN-TV Associates alongside Norwell-licensed WWDP (channel 46). Through a channel sharing agreement, the two stations transmit using WWDP's spectrum from a tower off Pleasant Street in West Bridgewater. WMFP's studios are located on Lakeland Park Drive in Peabody.

History

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1987–1995

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The station first signed on the air on October 16, 1987, on UHF channel 62, originally licensed to Lawrence, Massachusetts. Initially, the station broadcast approximately eight hours per day of programming, operating its transmitter from a hill behind the Baldpate Hospital in Georgetown, Massachusetts. The early programming was primarily home shopping.[6] WMFP was originally owned by MFP, Inc.; the company's largest shareholder was Boston-area political commentator Avi Nelson, who owned 35% of the station and also served as its president, treasurer, and secretary.[7]

In September 1992, a new broadcast antenna was mounted, via a Sikorsky sky-crane helicopter, on top of One Beacon Street in Boston. WMFP installed its new transmitter on an upper floor of the building, and started broadcasting from Boston in November 1992. In addition to Avi Nelson, Bill Mockbee, well known in Boston radio and television broadcasting, was the general manager; composer/conductor/actor David Morrow was the operations manager; and Jim Capillo served as production manager, producing several local programs for the station. WMFP also expanded to a 24-hour schedule, with programming including syndicated talk shows, game shows, low budget movies, and drama shows. In early 1993, the station picked up several NBC programs that were not cleared by then-affiliate WBZ-TV (channel 4), including Later.[8]

In May 1994, Nelson agreed to sell WMFP to the Shop at Home Network for $7 million. Shop at Home announced—even before an affiliation swap moved the NBC affiliation to WHDH-TV—that it would not retain the secondary NBC affiliation.[9] The sale closed in 1995.[10][11]

2006–2015

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On May 16, 2006, Shop at Home's parent, the E. W. Scripps Company, announced that the network would suspend operations, effective June 22.[12] However, Shop at Home temporarily ceased operations one day early than said target date on June 21, WMFP then switched to Jewelry Television (and, on June 23, to a mixture of both networks). On September 26, 2006, Scripps announced that it would sell its Shop at Home stations, including WMFP, to New York City-based Multicultural Television for $170 million.[13] The sale of WMFP was finalized on April 24, 2007. Before the sale announcement, the station entered into discussions to affiliate with MyNetworkTV (a broadcast network created by News Corporation as a competitor to The CW, both of which launched in September 2006).[14] MyNetworkTV instead chose to affiliate with WZMY-TV (channel 50, now WWJE-DT).

In May 2007, Multicultural took over WMFP, and switched the station to a mix of infomercials and home shopping network Gems TV; the Gems TV affiliation was dropped a year later. On May 12, 2009, it was announced that WMFP would affiliate with Retro Television Network (RTN).[15] RTN programming was added to the station's second digital subchannel on May 20, though with its station identification showing the channel as 18.1. The next day, WMFP began showing RTN content on the main channel as well (RTN was subsequently rebranded as RTV).

After Multicultural ran into financial problems and defaulted on its loans, WMFP was placed into a trust;[16] in 2011, the station, along with KCNS in San Francisco, was sold to NRJ TV (a company unrelated to European broadcaster NRJ Radio).[17] The sale was consummated on May 13, 2011.[18] NRJ TV affiliated the station with MeTV on December 15, 2011,[19] moving RTV to the second subchannel exclusively.

On October 1, 2012, WMFP switched its primary channel affiliation to lifestyle network Plum TV; WCVB-TV (channel 5) assumed the MeTV affiliation for the Boston market on that date as part of a group affiliation deal with that station's owner Hearst Television.[20] On or around May 13, 2013, WMFP became affiliated with Cozi TV on its main channel. In June 2013, the station briefly added a secondary feed of Cozi TV on digital subchannel 62.3 (which aired Cozi TV programming without the infomercial preemptions seen on digital channel 62.1, but presented in a horizontally compressed picture format).

By November 2014, WMFP's lineup placed Cozi TV on both 62.1 and 62.2 (with 62.2 airing Cozi TV without interruption), VIETV on 62.3, and MGM-owned The Works on 62.4. In January 2015, VIETV was dropped and The Works was moved to subchannel 62.3.

2016–2019

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On June 1, 2016, 62.1 changed over to programming from the Sonlife Broadcasting Network, the religious network owned by television minister Jimmy Swaggart. On June 8, 2016, subchannel 62.2 (Cozi TV) was dropped when NBCUniversal, Cozi TV's parent company, moved its programming to a new third subchannel of Telemundo O&O WNEU (channel 60).[21][22]

On December 12, 2016, NBC announced an agreement with WMFP to temporarily lease one of their subchannels to provide a full-market signal for the low-power WBTS-LD (channel 8, now WYCN-LD), which became Boston's new NBC station on January 1, 2017, under the branding of "NBC Boston".[23] The subchannel used WNEU's virtual channel 60, mapping to 60.5 in order to avert confusion with any of WMFP's subchannels and help over-the-air viewers determine if WNEU-DT2 or WMFP-DT5 provided a better signal source for their home. The WMFP-DT5 simulcast of "NBC Boston" was scaled to 720p (rather than being presented in its native 1080i) resolution, likely due to WMFP having both bandwidth limitations and its transmission facilities not being upgraded yet to allow a multiplexed signal with two HD subchannels.[24]

WMFP sold its frequency rights as part of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC)'s 2017 spectrum auction[25] for $93,647,708; in the auction, the station indicated that it would continue operations through a channel sharing agreement.[26] In August 2017, WMFP entered into a channel sharing agreement with WWDP, whose signal does not cover the entire market (and is marginal in Boston proper) due to its VHF channel, short transmitter tower height and location 25 miles (40 km) south of Boston.[27] As WWDP's signal does not reach Lawrence, WMFP's city of license has changed to Foxborough.[28] WMFP originally intended to commence channel sharing with WWDP on April 23, 2018; on April 3, the station requested special temporary authority to continue operating its existing transmitter through July 23, as one of the multichannel video programming distributors that carries WMFP did not receive an adequate signal from WWDP; the request was granted on April 6.[29] WMFP began channel sharing with WWDP on September 7, 2018.[30]

Ahead of commencing channel sharing operations, WMFP eliminated its non-primary subchannels in April 2018. WBTS-LD's simulcast on WMFP ended at midnight on April 1, 2018; several months earlier, NBC purchased Nashua, New Hampshire–based WYCN-CD (channel 15, now WBTS-CD) and entered into a channel-sharing agreement with the WGBH Educational Foundation to carry that signal over WGBX-TV (channel 44) to serve as the new full market home of "NBC Boston". The elimination of the subchannels temporarily left the Boston area without an affiliate of either Comet TV or Charge!; however, on July 25, 2018, CBS Television Stations relaunched Comet (formerly seen on 62.4) in this market as a newly-created third digital subchannel of MyNetworkTV affiliate WSBK-TV (channel 38), and on January 15, 2019, CBS added Charge! (formerly seen on 62.3) onto WSBK's newly-created fourth digital subchannel, thereby restoring this market's access to all the services that were lost as a result of the reallocation of WMFP's spectrum.[31]

2019–present

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On December 9, 2019, it was announced that WRNN-TV Associates, owner of New York City-based WRNN-TV, secured a deal to purchase seven full-power TV stations (including WMFP) and one Class A station from NRJ. The sale was completed on February 4, 2020, creating a duopoly with WWDP.[2][32] Following the sale, SonLife programming was moved to a reactivated 62.2 subchannel, with WMFP's main 62.1 channel broadcasting infomercials and a simulcast of WRNN's nightly talk show Richard French Live.

Upon the start of WRNN's agreement to convert nearly all of their main-channel network affiliations to ShopHQ and discontinue all original programming,[33] WMFP began to carry Shop LC full-time on its own main channel at the start of July 2021. It switched to OnTV4U, a full-time paid programming network in January 2024.

Technical information

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Subchannels

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Subchannels of WWDP and WMFP[34]
License Channel Res. Aspect Short name Programming
WWDP 46.1 1080i 16:9 WWDP-DT Binge TV
46.2 480i 4:3 THE 365 The365
46.3 16:9 OUTLAW Outlaw
46.4 4:3 ShopLC Shop LC
46.5 RETROtv Retro TV
46.6 16:9 HRTLAND Heartland
WMFP 62.1 720p WMFP-DT OnTV4U
62.2 480i 4:3 SBN Sonlife
62.3 16:9 MeTOONS MeTV Toons

Analog-to-digital conversion

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WMFP shut down its analog signal, over UHF channel 62, on February 17, 2009, the original date on which full-power television stations in the United States were to transition from analog to digital broadcasts under federal mandate. The station's digital signal continued to broadcasts on its pre-transition UHF channel 18,[35] using virtual channel 62.

References

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  1. ^ a b c d "Channel Substitution/Community of License Change". Licensing and Management System. Federal Communications Commission. June 13, 2022. Retrieved June 13, 2022.
  2. ^ a b "RNN Reaches Agreement to Increase Permanent Distribution Platform to 28 Percent of the US With NRJ Purchase". Globe Newswire. December 9, 2019. Retrieved December 10, 2019.
  3. ^ WMFP Form 2100 - Community of License Change
  4. ^ Bickelhaupt, Susan (November 3, 1992). "Changing channels". The Boston Globe. p. 34.
  5. ^ "Facility Technical Data for WMFP". Licensing and Management System. Federal Communications Commission.
  6. ^ McLean, Robert A. (October 21, 1987). "Channel 62 signs on". The Boston Globe. p. 68.
  7. ^ Television & Cable Factbook 1989 Edition (PDF). 1989. p. A-545. Retrieved November 18, 2021.
  8. ^ Craig, Jack (January 24, 1993). "A drop in the buckets: Affiliates deliver watered-down college basketball slate". The Boston Globe. p. 53.
  9. ^ Biddle, Frederic M. (May 21, 1994). "Shop at Home TV buys NBC affiliate". p. 84.
  10. ^ "Application Search Details". CDBS Public Access. Federal Communications Commission. Retrieved May 25, 2009.
  11. ^ "Public Notice Comment". CDBS Public Access. Federal Communications Commission. Retrieved May 25, 2009.
  12. ^ "The E.W. Scripps Company". Archived from the original on November 17, 2007. Retrieved October 28, 2007.
  13. ^ "The E.W. Scripps Company". Archived from the original on September 27, 2007. Retrieved February 17, 2008.
  14. ^ Boston Herald Business News Boston Herald
  15. ^ "WMFP Boston Adding Retro TV Network". TVNewsCheck. May 12, 2009.
  16. ^ Jessell, Harry A. (December 28, 2010). "Multicultural Handing Over WSAH To Trustee". TVNewsCheck. Retrieved December 28, 2010.
  17. ^ "Multicultural clears out a TV on each coast". Television Business Report. January 31, 2011. Archived from the original on February 3, 2011. Retrieved February 1, 2011.
  18. ^ "CDBS Print".
  19. ^ "Me-TV Lands Primary Affiliation On WMFP". TVNewsCheck. November 15, 2011. Retrieved November 16, 2011.
  20. ^ "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on May 8, 2013. Retrieved May 19, 2013.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  21. ^ TV Station Information for WMFP
  22. ^ RabbitEars TV Query for WNEU
  23. ^ Reimer, Alex. "NBC Boston links with Hub station WMFP to boost signal". Boston Herald. Archived from the original on December 13, 2016. Retrieved December 12, 2016.
  24. ^ RabbitEars TV Query for WMFP
  25. ^ "Here are the local TV stations selling their broadcast frequencies". The Boston Globe. Boston, Massachusetts. April 13, 2017.
  26. ^ "FCC Broadcast Television Spectrum Incentive Auction Auction 1001 Winning Bids" (PDF). Federal Communications Commission. April 4, 2017. Retrieved September 7, 2017.
  27. ^ "Rabbit Ears Coverage Map for WWDP". RabbitEars.info. Retrieved June 30, 2019.
  28. ^ "Modification of a Licensed Facility for DTV Application". Licensing and Management System. Federal Communications Commission. September 6, 2017. Retrieved September 7, 2017.
  29. ^ "DTV Legal STA Application". Licensing and Management System. Federal Communications Commission. Retrieved April 30, 2018.
  30. ^ "License To Cover for DTV Application". Licensing and Management System. Federal Communications Commission. Retrieved September 8, 2018.
  31. ^ RabbitEars TV Query for WSBK
  32. ^ Consummation Notice
  33. ^ "iMedia's ShopHQ Set to Launch in 20+ Million High-Definition Homes in Top U.S. Markets". GlobeNewswire News Room. May 20, 2021. Retrieved June 28, 2021.
  34. ^ RabbitEars TV Query for WWDP
  35. ^ "DTV Tentative Channel Designations for the First and Second Rounds" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on August 29, 2013. Retrieved March 24, 2012.
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