WBOY-TV


WBOY-TV, virtual and VHF digital channel 12, is a dual NBC/ABC-affiliated television station licensed to Clarksburg, West Virginia, United States and serving North Central West Virginia. The station is owned by Nexstar Media Group. WBOY-TV's studios are located on West Pike Street in downtown Clarksburg, and its transmitter is located east of downtown and US 50. It identifies on-air as "Clarksburg/Fairmont/Morgantown" even though the third city is considered to be part of the Pittsburgh market. Despite this, WBOY operates a bureau in Morgantown which makes it the only commercial station to have facilities there.

History

The station was launched November 17, 1957. It was the second television station in its small market. WBOY was originally intended to be the ABC affiliate for all of North-Central West Virginia. However, the area's intended NBC affiliate, Parkersburg's WTAP-TV, did not have a signal strong enough to reach Clarksburg and Weston. North-Central West Virginia is a very rugged dissected plateau and WTAP's analog signal on UHF channel 15 was not strong enough to carry across the terrain. After it became clear that Parkersburg and Clarksburg were going to be separate markets, WBOY joined NBC and remains with the network to this day. However, it retained a secondary ABC affiliation for many years. Its original owner was Friendly Broadcasting, who owned several stations including WSTV in Steubenville, Ohio.
In July 1981, WBOY was bought by Imes Communications of Columbus, Mississippi who also owned that city's CBS affiliate WCBI, as well as ABC affiliate WMUR-TV in Manchester, New Hampshire. At that time, WBOY dropped the remainder of its ABC programming, allowing it to become a full NBC affiliate; as a result, cable systems began importing Pittsburgh's WTAE-TV for ABC programming. In early 2001, Hearst Television acquired WBOY and WMUR from Imes; Hearst's acquisition of WBOY was finalized on April 30, 2001. In 2000, the FCC started to allow a company to own multiple stations with overlapping coverage areas. However, Hearst opted to keep WTAE-TV and sold WBOY to West Virginia Media Holdings in September 2001; the sale closed on December 13 of that year.
WBOY launched a new second digital subchannel with ABC programming on August 1, 2008 known on-air as Your ABC. Sister station WTRF-TV in Wheeling also launched an ABC subchannel at the same time. Previously, both the Clarksburg/Weston/Fairmont and Wheeling/Steubenville, Ohio markets were served by WTAE as the de facto affiliate while WDTV aired select ABC Sports programming.
On November 17, 2015, Nexstar Broadcasting Group announced that it would purchase the West Virginia Media Holdings stations, including WBOY-TV, for $130 million. Under the terms of the deal, Nexstar assumed control of the stations through a time brokerage agreement in December 2015, with the sale of the license assets completed on January 31, 2017.

Digital television

Digital channels

The station's digital signal is multiplexed:
ChannelVideoAspectPSIP Short NameProgramming
12.11080iWBOYNBCMain WBOY-TV programming / NBC
12.2720pWBOYABC"Your ABC"
12.3480iEscapeCourt TV Mystery
12.4480iLaffLaff

Analog-to-digital conversion

WBOY-TV shut down its analog signal, over VHF channel 12, on February 17, 2009, the original target date in 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 relocated from its pre-transition UHF channel 52, which was among the high band UHF channels that were removed from broadcasting use as a result of the transition, to its analog-era VHF channel 12.

Programming

WBOY's syndicated programming includes Rachael Ray, Wheel of Fortune, Jeopardy!, and Dr. Phil. All are distributed by CBS Television Distribution.

News operation

After being acquired by West Virginia Media Holdings, the station upgraded its news operation and built secondary studios in Morgantown on Scott Avenue. A major emphasis was placed on news from that town in the hopes of increasing ratings and thus getting the town reassigned to the Clarksburg/Fairmont market. The move made WBOY the highest rated station in Monongalia County according to Nielsen ratings beating even Pittsburgh stations. The channel produces a large amount of sports content relative to West Virginia University, located in that town, for use by the other member stations. Today, it is the only West Virginia Media Holdings station to have the lead in local news ratings in its respective market.
West Virginia Media produces a half-hour evening newscast that airs at 5:30 p.m. The newscast, titled West Virginia Tonight, is broadcast live from WOWK's Charleston studios in high definition on all four stations and is anchored by Dan Thorn. When WBOY-DT2 launched, it resulted in the debut of the market's first weeknight 7 o'clock newscast. Known as 12 News Live on ABC, it broadcasts exclusively on the ABC station. Otherwise, WBOY-DT2 simulcasts the weekday editions of 12 News at 6 a.m., noon, 6, and 11 p.m. It does not simulcast weekend broadcasts from the main channel. In addition, there is a public affairs program called Decision Makers. Hosted by company president and CEO, Bray Cary, it airs Sundays at 8 a.m. on all West Virginia Media Holdings stations. In another arrangement between all of the company channels, weekend weather forecasts originate from WOWK's new facilities in Charleston.
On April 1, 2013, WBOY became the second station in the market and the last station owned by West Virginia Media Holdings to upgrade its local newscasts to high definition. With the upgrade came new graphics and a new music package.

Notable former staff