WMAR-TV

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WMAR-TV

Baltimore, Maryland
Branding	ABC 2
Slogan	ABC 2 Works For You
Channels	2 (VHF) analog, 52 (UHF) digital
Affiliations	ABC
Owner	E. W. Scripps Company (Scripps Howard Broadcasting Company)
Founded	September 29, 1947
Call letters meaning	W MARyland
Former affiliations	CBS (1947-1981) NBC (1981-1995)
Website	abc2news.com/

WMAR-TV, channel 2, is the ABC affiliate in Baltimore, Maryland. Owned by the broadcasting division of the E.W. Scripps Company, WMAR's studios and offices are located in Baltimore.

1 History
2 Personalities
3 Former Personalities
4 Newscasts
5 Former Newscast Titles
6 Local Programs
7 External links

[edit] History

The station, the oldest in Maryland, was founded on September 29, 1947 by the A.S. Abell Company, which published the Baltimore Sun. WMAR-TV began as an affiliate of the CBS television network. One of channel two's early personalities was Jim McKay, who later moved over to CBS before achieving greater fame on ABC as host of Wide World of Sports and Olympics coverage.

As a CBS affiliate, the station pre-empted an hour of the network's weekday morning daytime schedule, as well as CBS's late night programming. However, those Baltimore viewers able to receive WTOP-TV in Washington, DC (now WUSA-TV) could watch CBS programs on that station. For many years, the station was co-owned with WBOC-TV in Salisbury.

During the 1970s, the Federal Communications Commission tightened its cross-ownership rules, eventually barring common ownership between a newspaper and a television or radio station in the same city without a waiver. However, since the combination of the Baltimore Sun and WMAR-TV was established in the 1940s, it was granted grandfathered protection under the rules.

WMAR swapped affiliation with WBAL-TV on August 30, 1981, becoming an NBC affiliate. For much of its time as an NBC station, WMAR also pre-empted 1-2 hours of the network's daytime programming (which was seen on WBFF instead). As was the case with WMAR's days as a CBS station, Baltimore viewers could also watch the entire NBC lineup on Washington's WRC-TV.

On October 27, 1986, the A. S. Abell Company sold its media properties to Times-Mirror (then owner of the Los Angeles Times). As a result, WMAR lost its grandfathered protection and was sold to Gillett Communications, as Times-Mirror opted to keep the Baltimore Sun. Gillett put WMAR on the market when the company restructured into SCI TV in the early 1990s. In early 1991, Sinclair made an offer to buy the station with plans to move its flagship station, WBFF, to that allocation, making channel 2 a Fox affiliate under the WBFF call sign. However, that deal never materialized and WMAR was sold to Scripps in May 1991. The station continued as an NBC affiliate and by then it didn't pre-empt much programming.

In 1994, ABC cut a deal with Scripps to switch WMAR and two other Scripps stations to ABC affiliates. (Scripps flagship WCPO-TV in Cincinnati, was also part of the deal; however, it had to wait for ABC's affiliation contract with rival station WKRC-TV to expire in June 1996 before switching.) ABC agreed to the deal as a condition of keeping its affiliation on Scripps' two biggest stations, WXYZ-TV in Detroit and WEWS-TV in Cleveland. Both stations had been heavily wooed by CBS, which was about to lose its longtime Detroit and Cleveland affiliates to Fox. The swap displaced Baltimore's longtime ABC affiliate, WJZ-TV--which set in motion a chain of events that eventually led to WJZ's owner, Westinghouse Electric Corporation, buying CBS.

WMAR became an ABC affiliate on January 2, 1995 – a day which saw all three of Baltimore's "Big Three" stations change networks. WJZ became a CBS affiliate, while NBC returned to its original Baltimore affiliate, WBAL. It is one of the few stations in the country to have been an affiliate with all of the "Big Three" networks: CBS, NBC and ABC.

As an ABC affiliate, WMAR now usually runs the network's entire lineup. The station was Baltimore's home to the annual Jerry Lewis/MDA Labor Day Telethon for nearly three decades until it moved to WNUV.

For 1979 to 1992, WMAR was the over-the-air flagship station of the Baltimore Orioles.

Despite its newspaper roots, WMAR's newscasts have usually been in last place among Baltimore's "Big Three" network affiliates. It currently trails both WBAL and WJZ in the ratings by a wide margin, and is currently battling WBFF for third (or fourth) place.

WMAR offers live streaming of all its newscasts on the station website.

[edit] Personalities

Norm Lewis
Mary Beth Marsden
Brian Wood
Scott Garceau (Also a radio announcer for Baltimore Ravens football team since they moved to Baltimore in 1996)
Denise Dory
Jamie Costello
Kelly Swoope
Justin Berk
Scott Broom
Jenny Glick
Jeff Hager
Delia Goncalves
Sherrie Johnson
Roosevelt Leftwich
Terry Owens
Tisha Thompson
Uncle Joe Bilecki

[edit] Former Personalities

Curt Anderson (Currently in the Maryland General Assembly)

former personalities Curt Anderson and Vicki Williams with Scott Garceau (1981)
Andy Barth (Left WMAR to pursue a political career, his 2006 bid for Congress failed)
Jen Gilbert
Stu Kerr (d. 1994)
Tom Marr
Jim McKay
Keith Mills
Hope Hines
Vicki Williams (Left WMAR-TV Weather to join the fledgling cable tv network, The Weather Channel, in 1982)

[edit] Newscasts

All newscasts can be watched live on WMAR's website.

Good Morning Maryland 5am-7am (M-F)
ABC 2 News @ Noon 12n-1pm (M-F)
ABC 2 News @ 5pm (M-F)
ABC 2 News @ 5:30pm (M-F)
ABC 2 News @ 6pm (M-F)
ABC 2 News @ 6:30pm (Sat, Sun)
The Latest at 11pm (Daily)

[edit] Former Newscast Titles

WMAR-TV News (1947-1970)
NewsWatch (1970-1974)
Channel 2 News (1974-81, 1985-1991)
NewsScene 2 (1981-1985)
NewsChannel 2 (1991-1999)
2 News (1999-4/2002)
ABC 2 News (4/2002-present)

[edit] Local Programs

Sat

-Baltimore Tonight-11:35pm

-Grace and Glory Late Night-12:05am

-Teen Perspective 2News-12:30pm (November to May)

Sun

-Grace and Glory-7am

-Sports Extra-11:30pm

-2 the Point-12:20pm

[edit] External links

Broadcast television in the Baltimore market (Nielsen DMA #24)
WMAR 2 (ABC) - WBAL 11 (NBC) - WJZ 13 (CBS) - WMJF 16 (Ind/MTV2) - WMPT 22 / WMPB 67 (PBS/MPT) - WUTB 24 (MNTV) - WBFF 45 (Fox) - WNUV 54 (The CW)