WFMJ-DT2

Infobox_Broadcast
call_letters = WFMJ-DT2,
a.k.a. "WBCB"
station_
station_branding = "WBCB, The Valley's CW"
station_slogan =
analog = no
digital = 20.2 (PSIP 21.2) (UHF)
affiliations = CW,
Kids WB | former_affiliations = The WB| founded = November, 2004
location = Youngstown, Ohio
owner = WFMJ Television, Inc./The Vindicator | (Maag Family)
homepage = [http://www.wbcb.tv www.WBCB.tv]

WFMJ-DT2, known on-air as WBCB, is CW Network affiliate for Youngstown, Ohio. Launched in November 2004 as a WB affiliate, WBCB is the sister station of Youngstown's NBC affiliate, WFMJ. The station operates on WFMJ's digital subchannel on channel 20.2, though through the use of PSIP is shown on virtual channel 21.2. Despite Youngstown's small market size (ranked #106 by Nielsen Media Research as of 2008), WBCB was one of the nation's first digital subchannels launched that wasn't a weather channel such as NBC Weather Plus.

At the time, WFMJ chose to affiliate WBCB with The WB because of the Warner Bros. being originally from Youngstown, as well as the area being grossly underserved by the network since then-WB affiliate WBNX from Cleveland (now with the CW, like WBCB) was only available on the northern fringes of the market on cable (despite being one of that network's strongest affiliates without Youngstown) while Pittsburgh WB affiliate WCWB (itself now with MyNetwork TV) wasn't even available at all. (By contrast, Cleveland's then-UPN affiliate WUAB was and remains widely available on cable in Youngstown while Pittbsurgh's WNPA was available in small parts of the market.) Most of the market received WBWO, the cable-only WB affiliate, from the Wheeling/Steubenville market, with systems owned and operated by Time Warner Cable (the largest cable provider in Youngstown) only receiving it for prime time hours, otherwise sharing channel space with MTV2. Comcast and Armstrong Cable both offered both MTV2 and WBWO 24 hours on their own channel space.

WBCB is carried on all major cable systems in the Youngstown/Warren area, including the two largest - Time Warner and Armstrong. It is also carried by DirecTV.

WBCB's programming begins each day with The Daily Buzz morning news (6-9am) followed by a Cosby hour and a court block with Judge Mathis and Judge Alex. WBCB airs the teen drama Degrassi as well as an hour of Friends (5-6pm) and Frasier (6-7pm). WBCB's 7-8pm programming consists of Seinfeld and Frasier respectively. CW prime-time airs 8-10pm followed by an hour of Will & Grace.

Since the station is one of WFMJ's digital sub-channels, its official callsign is also WFMJ-DT. The "WBCB" calls are strictly for marketing purposes that date back to the station's days as a WB affiliate. For unknown reasons, the artificial call sign "WBCB" was kept after The WB and UPN merged to form the CW in 2006. Since the Youngstown market never had a UPN affiliate of its own, WBCB was chosen by default as the market's CW affiliate. In response (and with digital subchannels more common by this point), WYTV launched MyNetwork TV affiliate MY-YTV that fall.

While the main WFMJ feed still signs off every Sunday and Monday morning from around 2:30-4:30 AM, for unknown reasons WBCB remains on-air, airing syndicated programming while the main WFMJ feed is off-the-air with a color test pattern up on screen, despite the fact that WBCB is airing on a digital subchannel of WFMJ.

Logos

Former Names

*The Valley's WB (2004-2006)
*The Valley's CW (2006-present)

External links

* [http://www.business-journal.com/WFMJLaunchesWB.asp News story on launch of WBCB (Youngstown "Business Journal" article)]