WMAR-TV facts for kids
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| Baltimore, Maryland United States |
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| Channels | Digital: 27 (UHF) Virtual: 2 |
| Branding | WMAR 2 |
| Programming | |
| Affiliations |
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| Ownership | |
| Owner | E. W. Scripps Company (Scripps Broadcasting Holdings LLC) |
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Sister stations
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WPXW-TV, WWPX-TV |
| History | |
| Founded | May 1946 |
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First air date
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October 27, 1947 |
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Former channel number(s)
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Former affiliations
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Call sign meaning
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Maryland |
| Technical information | |
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Licensing authority
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FCC |
| Facility ID | 59442 |
| ERP | 830 kW |
| HAAT | 307 m (1,007 ft) |
| Transmitter coordinates | 39°20′5″N 76°39′2″W / 39.33472°N 76.65056°W |
| Links | |
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Public license information
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Profile LMS |
WMAR-TV (channel 2) is a television station in Baltimore, Maryland, United States. It is connected with ABC and owned by the E. W. Scripps Company. The station's main offices are in Towson, just north of Baltimore City. Its tall broadcast tower is on Television Hill in the Woodberry neighborhood of Baltimore.
Contents
History of WMAR-TV
Starting Out: The Early Years
WMAR-TV began broadcasting on October 27, 1947. It was the very first TV station in Maryland. It was also the 14th commercial TV station to start in the United States. The station was created by the A. S. Abell Company, which also published the Sunpapers (like The Baltimore Sun). WMAR-TV's first broadcast was a pair of horse races from Pimlico Race Course.
At first, WMAR-TV's studios and tower were in downtown Baltimore. In May 1963, the station moved to its current location, which was called "Television Park."
When it first started, Channel 2 was an independent station. This meant it was not linked to a major TV network. In 1948, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) decided that Baltimore would be its own media market. On March 29, 1948, WMAR-TV became a full-time partner with CBS. It also worked a little bit with ABC and DuMont at first.
One of WMAR's early TV personalities was Jim McKay. He was the first voice heard when the station began testing its broadcasts. He later became famous on ABC as the host of Wide World of Sports. Another early personality was Helen Delich Bentley, who hosted a show about shipping and transportation. She later became a U.S. representative for Maryland.
In 1959, WMAR-TV joined with two other local stations, WBAL-TV and WJZ-TV. They built the world's first three-antenna candelabra tower. This new tower was on "Television Hill" in the Woodberry neighborhood. It helped the station's signal reach much farther across Maryland.
Changing to NBC
On March 3, 1981, CBS announced it would move its partnership to WBAL-TV. CBS said WMAR-TV's news ratings were not very good. They also said WMAR-TV often stopped showing network programs to air its own shows or sports. Channel 2 then made a deal with NBC to become their partner. This change happened on August 30, 1981. WMAR-TV became one of the few stations to have been a main partner with all three major networks (CBS, NBC, and ABC).
A Time of Disagreement
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On March 1, 1982, there was a disagreement between WMAR-TV management and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (AFTRA), a union for TV and radio workers. Many of the station's on-air staff stopped working. Other local unions joined them. The disagreement ended when Brooks Robinson, a popular baseball player who was a color announcer for the station, refused to cross the protest line. The next day, two news anchors were no longer with the station.
New Owners for the Station
On May 28, 1986, the A. S. Abell Company, which owned WMAR-TV, was bought by the Times Mirror Company. This company decided to keep the Sunpapers but sold WMAR-TV to Gillett Communications. After some financial difficulties, Gillett restructured its TV stations. In the early 1990s, WMAR-TV was put up for sale again.
The E. W. Scripps Company bought the station in the spring of 1991. Later that year, another local station owner, Sinclair Broadcast Group, tried to get the license for Channel 2. Sinclair argued that a local owner would serve the city better. However, WMAR-TV remained on Channel 2.
Becoming an ABC Station
In June 1994, Scripps and ABC made a big deal. This deal caused several Scripps-owned stations, including WMAR-TV, to switch to ABC. This meant Channel 2 would become Baltimore's new ABC partner. This change also led to other network changes in Baltimore. CBS moved to WJZ-TV, and NBC returned to WBAL-TV. This second big network switch in Baltimore happened on January 2, 1995. WMAR-TV became one of the few stations in the country to have been a main partner with CBS, NBC, and ABC.
After the switch, ABC's ratings in Baltimore went down. WJZ-TV had been a very popular ABC station. WMAR-TV had not been as popular for a long time.
In 1996, WMAR-TV decided not to continue showing The Oprah Winfrey Show. Instead, they chose to air the new Rosie O'Donnell Show. This decision had a big effect. WBAL-TV picked up Oprah and became very popular in the afternoon news time slot. WMAR-TV's ratings in the same time slot went down.
On April 16, 2018, WMAR changed its name to "WMAR 2." This was to highlight its history as Maryland's first TV station. It also brought back a modern version of its old "2" logo.
WMAR-TV Programming
As a CBS partner, WMAR-TV sometimes chose not to show certain network programs. For example, it would skip an hour of CBS's morning shows. This was not a big problem for viewers because they could often watch those shows on a Washington, D.C. station.
When WMAR-TV was an NBC partner, it also sometimes skipped network shows. For example, The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson was not shown by WMAR-TV for several years in the mid-1980s. Instead, the station aired other shows. Viewers could still watch the full NBC lineup on WRC-TV in Washington.
When WMAR-TV joined ABC, it sometimes delayed ABC's daytime shows to later at night. It also skipped almost half of ABC's Saturday morning cartoon lineup. However, this was changed later. Now, WMAR-TV usually shows almost all of ABC's programs.
Until September 17, 2012, Jeopardy! and Wheel of Fortune were shown on Channel 2. WMAR stopped airing them as part of a plan to show more of its own programs. These two popular game shows then moved to WBFF, another local station.
Sports on WMAR-TV
WMAR-TV used to have a very respected sports department. In the 1950s, it was the main station for the Baltimore Colts football team. Their post-game show, Colt Wrap-Up, was very popular. Later, Scott Garceau was a longtime sports anchor.
The station is known for its strong coverage of local college and high school lacrosse. Lacrosse is a very popular sport for young athletes in the area. WMAR works with ESPNU to produce the ABC 2 Lacrosse Game of the Week. This show features big games with Maryland lacrosse teams like Johns Hopkins University and the University of Maryland, College Park.
From 1979 to 1993, Channel 2 was the main station for the Baltimore Orioles baseball team. WMAR-TV also showed Orioles games that were broadcast by NBC. The station also showed Baltimore Colts games through NBC's football contract from 1981 to 1983. Before that, as a CBS station, WMAR-TV showed Colts games from 1956 to 1969.
WMAR-TV News
WMAR-TV currently broadcasts 26 hours of local news each week. This includes five hours on weekdays and one hour on Sundays. It has the lowest amount of news programming among Baltimore's TV stations. Unlike many ABC stations, WMAR does not have a local newscast during the weekday midday. It also does not have local newscasts on Saturdays.
WMAR is one of several TV stations that airs the "Don't Waste Your Money" consumer reports. These reports help people make smart buying choices. WMAR used to have a 24-hour local weather channel called "ABC 2 WeatherNet Digital."
Even though it is Maryland's oldest TV station, WMAR's newscasts have been in third place among Baltimore's main network stations since the 1960s. It has not been a major leader in news ratings for many decades. It usually trails WJZ-TV and WBAL-TV.
On October 4, 2010, WMAR-TV became the last station in Baltimore to start broadcasting its local newscasts in high definition (HD). On April 18, 2011, WMAR became the first TV station in Baltimore to start its weekday morning newscast earlier, at 4:30 a.m.
Well-Known Former Staff
- Curt Anderson – (WMAR-TV news anchor 1980–1982), later a member of the Maryland House of Delegates.
- Andy Barth – later a reporter for WTTG in Washington, D.C..
- Nelson Benton (1982–1983) – a former reporter for CBS Evening News.
- Stu Kerr (1928–1994) – worked at the station from 1952–1981. He was known for many roles, including "Professor Kool" and "Bozo the Clown".
- Tom Marr – WMAR weekend sports anchor from 1976 to 1979. He was also a radio host and sportscaster.
- Jim McKay – did early broadcasts in the late 1940s. He later hosted ABC's Wide World of Sports.
- Uma Pemmaraju – later an anchor with Fox News Channel.
- John Saunders – later worked for ESPN.
- Sally Thorner – later an anchor at competitor WJZ-TV channel 13.
- Brian Wood – now at KGW in Portland, Oregon.
Technical Information
Subchannels
The station's signal is split into several "subchannels":
| Channel | Res. | Aspect | Short name | Programming |
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| 2.1 | 720p | 16:9 | WMAR-HD | Main WMAR-TV programming / ABC |
| 2.2 | 480i | GRIT | Grit | |
| 2.3 | BOUNCE | Bounce TV | ||
| 2.4 | MYSTERY | Ion Mystery | ||
| 2.5 | ION TV | Ion Television | ||
| 2.6 | CourtTV | Court TV | ||
| 2.7 | Newsy | Scripps News | ||
| 2.8 | HSN | HSN | ||
| 54.2 | 480i | 4:3 | Antenna | Antenna TV (WNUV-DT2) |
Broadcast on behalf of another station
Switching to Digital TV
WMAR-TV stopped broadcasting its old analog signal (on VHF channel 2) on June 12, 2009. This was the date when all full-power TV stations in the United States officially switched from analog to digital broadcasts. The station's digital signal moved from its old UHF channel 52 to UHF channel 38. It still used "virtual channel" 2 for viewers.
Later, Channel 38 was also removed from TV use. So, WMAR-TV moved again to UHF channel 27 on July 2, 2020.
