WMGM-TV

WMGM-TV, virtual channel 40 (UHF digital channel 36) is a television station licensed to Wildwood, New Jersey. Their offices are located on New Road (Route 9) and its studios behind the station's offices on West Patcong Avenue in Linwood, New Jersey and its transmitter is located along Avalon Boulevard in the Swainton section of Middle Township, east of the Garden State Parkway off Exit 13.

The station is officially considered part of the Philadelphia market, but primarily serves Southeast New Jersey. WMGM-TV was previously an affiliate of NBC, and was the only major network affiliate located directly in the state. As such, the station's coverage area overlapped with the network's owned-and-operated station in Philadelphia, WCAU (channel 10), as well as Philadelphia's previous NBC affiliate, then-Westinghouse owned (now CBS owned-and-operated) KYW-TV.

WMGM-TV was previously owned by the New York City-based Access.1 Communications. In October 2013, the station was sold to LocusPoint Networks for $6 million, but remained operated by Access.1. The company retains ownership of the station's low-power transmitter, WMGM-LP. The sale proved controversial, due to speculation that LocusPoint only bought the station so that it could sell its license and wireless spectrum to the FCC during its upcoming spectrum incentive auction, and was not interested in its further operation.

On December 31, 2014, WMGM-TV ended its 48-year affiliation with NBC, its management agreement with Access.1, and its news operation, and began to carry programming from the Soul of the South network.

History

The station first signed on the air on January 25, 1966 known as WCMC-TV (meaning Cape May County). It was owned by Jersey Cape Broadcasting, along with the WCMC radio stations (1230 AM and 100.7 FM, now WZXL). The station initially could not get a direct network feed from NBC, forcing station engineers to switch to and from the signal of KYW-TV (channel 3) in Philadelphia for network programming. During the station's early years, even when NBC went to full-time color programming, the station still broadcast its local programming in black and white. WCMC-TV was sold to South Jersey Radio in 1981, and changed its call letters first to WAAT on April 27, 1981, and then to the current WMGM-TV on April 12, 1984 to match co-owned WMGM radio (103.7 FM). Under South Jersey Radio, channel 40 was able to obtain its own NBC affiliate feed. Upon the death of owner Howard Green in 2002, the stations were eventually sold to Access.1 Communications.

For many years, the station operated a low-powered repeater, WMGM-LP in Atlantic City on VHF channel 7, to serve Atlantic City itself. On July 3, 2006, WMGM-LP fell silent when a fire struck its transmitter building. The building also housed the transmitters for Atlantic City's WMGM radio as well as Pleasantville's WOND (1400 AM) and WTKU-FM (98.3). While WMGM radio began broadcasting from WPUR (107.3 FM)'s auxiliary facilities atop the Trump Taj Mahal casino, the AM stations and WMGM-LP remained dark, leaving many Atlantic City residents without clear reception of NBC programs over-the-air. However, the on-air signals were eventually brought back.^[1]

For several years, people in much of the New Jersey side of the Philadelphia market could watch the entire NBC schedule on WMGM-TV, as longtime Philadelphia NBC affiliate KYW-TV (now a CBS owned-and-operated station) pre-empted many of NBC's daytime programs as well as other shows. WMGM was one of the few affiliates not to carry the Sunday edition of Today.

Acquisition by LocusPoint Networks

On October 10, 2013, Access.1 Communications agreed to sell WMGM to LocusPoint Networks for $6 million; WMGM will be LocusPoint's second station in the Philadelphia market, as the company is also in the process of acquiring WPHA-CD.^[2] As part of the deal, Access.1 will continue to manage WMGM. However, the deal was met with public controversy, over concerns that LocusPoint was only buying WMGM so it could auction off the station's license and spectrum during the FCC's 2015 spectrum incentive auction. Indeed, the company does not describe itself as a broadcaster, but as an "early stage wireless communications company".^[3] Stations in close proximity to major markets (in WMGM's case, Philadelphia) have been considered potentially valuable at auction, leaving the fate of WMGM in jeopardy.^[4][5] In response to the concerns (which also included viewers establishing a Save NBC 40 website), LocusPoint co-founder Bill deKay stated that they planned to continue operating the station as an NBC affiliate.^[6] The sale was completed on January 28, 2014.^[7]

Loss of NBC affiliation

The former WMGM-TV NBC studio in Linwood, New Jersey

On April 16, 2014, Broadcasting & Cable reported that WMGM-TV would lose its NBC affiliation at the end of 2014, at the conclusion of a two-year extension of the station's most recent affiliation contract (which expired at the end of 2012). The station's former general manager, Ron Smith, claimed that the move was a result of NBCUniversal and its parent company Comcast wanting to protect WCAU. He argued that the loss of the NBC affiliation would make it difficult for WMGM to continue operating.^[8] The loss of NBC affiliation also coincided with the end of Access.1's management agreement with LocusPoint Networks.^[9]

In July 2014, WMGM-TV introduced the "Friends of 40 Summer Membership Club"^[10] in which viewers contribute money in return for benefits such as station merchandise, discounts, and invitations to its outings; this form of fundraising is more commonly associated with public broadcasting. According to general manager J. Roger Powe III, "The membership club allows all the folks who have been loyal and supportive to keep engaged in a more intimate fashion;" while some of the money raised goes to the station's operations, much of it is used to pay for the club's benefits. As WMGM remained a commercial, for-profit station until December 31, 2014, contributions to the club were non-tax-deductible, unlike with public broadcasting stations.^[11]

The former WMGM-TV NBC sign outside the studio in Linwood, New Jersey

In September 2014, it was reported that the WMGM-TV studio facilities had been put up for sale; at the time, a station spokesman stated that despite the action the station would remain in operation into 2015.^[12] The following month, the FCC pushed back the spectrum auction to 2016.^[13] On December 9, 2014, Access.1 made a statement on WMGM's website, indicating that it was planning to "continue and expand our news product on a new broadcast channel" in early to mid-2015, retaining and re-locating the station's staff, news operation, and sales department to a new, unspecified outlet and studio.^[9] Local personality Pinky Kravitz (whose WOND radio show was aired on WMGM) disclosed that the station was seeking $3 million in funding for these planned changes.^[9] Access.1 still owns WMGM-LP, a low-power analog rebroadcaster of WMGM-TV.

WMGM-TV aired its final night of newscasts and NBC programming on December 31, 2014; its final program under Access.1 was an hour-long documentary focusing on the station's history and staff entitled NewsCenter 40: The Stories Behind The Station. Following the end of its affiliation, WMGM began to carry programming from Soul of the South—a network focusing primarily on the African-American community.^[14] The station is also in preliminary talks with the owners of WOND to produce local programming. WMGM-TV's new programming is an interim measure, assuming that LocusPoint does sell the station during the 2016 spectrum incentive auction.^[14][15] On January 1, 2016 due to Soul of the South winding down their operations because of financial struggles, the station switched to programming from the religious Sonlife Broadcasting Network but within a few months WMGM dropped Sonlife and began broadcasting as an independent station. Local news programming returned under a brokered programming arrangement with SNJ Today.

Digital television

Digital channels

Analog-to-digital conversion

WMGM-TV discontinued regular programming on its analog signal, over UHF channel 40, on June 12, 2009, the official date in which full-power television stations in the United States transitioned from analog to digital broadcasts under federal mandate. The station's digital signal remained on its pre-transition UHF channel 36.^[17] Through the use of PSIP, digital television receivers display the station's virtual channel as its former UHF analog channel 40.

Coverage area

The WMGM-TV transmit facility outside Avalon, New Jersey

WMGM's primarily serves Atlantic, Cape May and Cumberland counties. Its digital over-the-air signal also penetrates parts of southern Ocean County, southern Burlington County, eastern Camden and Gloucester counties and coastal Delaware, even though the station has no cable carriage in these areas.

It is also available on cable throughout Salem County. In addition, WMGM is also on cable in Vineland and Turnersville which covers parts of eastern Camden and Gloucester counties such as Winslow Township and the Williamstown/Monroe Township area. This is the only location where WMGM is carried out of its designated area. However, it is only viewable on Comcast digital channel 247. DirecTV and Dish Network had carried the station in the Philadelphia market until 2011, because of signal issues.

CATV

In coastal and some interior portions of Sussex County, Delaware, WMGM was carried on CATV systems during the 1970s and possibly the 1980s.

Newscasts and local programming

At the end of its NBC affiliation, WMGM-TV broadcast 20 hours of locally produced newscasts each week. The station did not produce a midday newscast on weekdays or any morning or early evening newscasts on weekends. WMGM was the only remaining New Jersey-licensed commercial television station that maintained its own news department; MyNetworkTV station WWOR-TV upstate in Secaucus controversially shut down its news department (which was kept in operation long after its 2001 acquisition by Fox Television Stations, which created a duopoly with Fox owned-and-operated station WNYW in nearby New York City) in July 2013, its 10 p.m. newscast was replaced by the outsourced news program Chasing New Jersey that month.

The station produced an entertainment program called Curtain Call with David Spatz (which won a 2007 Emmy Award for outstanding interview/discussion series); the program featured interviews with world-class artists performing in Atlantic City. WMGM also produced two public affairs programs: WMGM Presents Pinky (Saturday nights at 7:30), and Forum 40 (Sunday mornings at 11:30). Prior to 2011, the station did not air local news programming on weekday mornings (instead running religious programming from 5 to 6 a.m. and a simulcast of the Don Williams radio talk show from WOND, from 6 to 7 a.m.). WMGM debuted its first weekday morning newscast on March 28, 2011, the hour-long Today in South Jersey.

Local newscasts returned to Southern New Jersey in the form of SNJ Today, which premiered in the summer of 2015. It currently airs every weeknight at 7pm and 11pm on WACP.^[18] SNJ Today began to also air on WMGM beginning on August 1, airing at the same times as it does on WACP.

References

External links

• Official website for SNJ Today
• WMGM-TV on Facebook (No longer actively maintained, but left online as an archive)
• WMGM-TV on YouTube (No longer actively maintained, but left online as an archive)
• Query the FCC's TV station database for WMGM-TV
• Query the FCC's TV station database for WMGM-LP