WAGM-TV (channel 8) is a
television station
A television station is a set of equipment managed by a business, organisation or other entity, such as an amateur television (ATV) operator, that transmits video content and audio content via radio waves directly from a transmitter on the earth ...
in
Presque Isle, Maine, United States, affiliated with
CBS,
Fox
Foxes are small to medium-sized, omnivorous mammals belonging to several genera of the family Canidae. They have a flattened skull, upright, triangular ears, a pointed, slightly upturned snout, and a long bushy tail (or ''brush'').
Twelve sp ...
and
The CW Plus
The CW Plus is a secondary national programming service feed of The CW that is fully controlled and 75% owned by Nexstar Media Group, with Paramount Global and Warner Bros. Discovery each owning a 12.5% stake in the network. It is intended primar ...
. It is owned by
Gray Television
Gray Television, Inc. is an American publicly traded television broadcasting company based in Atlanta, Georgia. Founded in 1946 by James Harrison Gray as Gray Communications Systems, the company owns or operates 180 stations across the United St ...
alongside
Fort Kent–licensed
low-power NBC affiliate
WWPI-LD
WWPI-LD (channel 16) is a low-power television station licensed to Fort Kent, Maine, United States, serving the Presque Isle, Maine area as an affiliate of NBC. It is owned by Gray Television alongside CBS/ Fox/ CW+ affiliate WAGM-TV (channel ...
(channel 16). The two stations share studios on Brewer Road in Presque Isle; WAGM-TV's transmitter is located on the northern section of
Mars Hill Mountain among the
wind turbines.
WAGM-TV has been the only
full-power commercial television station transmitting in
Northeast Maine since the station was founded in 1956.
History
Early years
WAGM-TV signed on October 13, 1956, on VHF channel 8. It was a CBS affiliate owned by Harold Glidden and the
Aroostook Broadcasting Corporation along with WAGM radio (then at 1450 AM; later at 950 AM).
The transmitter was behind the station's Brewer Road studios, providing a coverage area limited to the immediate area including Presque Isle and
Caribou
Reindeer (in North American English, known as caribou if wild and ''reindeer'' if domesticated) are deer in the genus ''Rangifer''. For the last few decades, reindeer were assigned to one species, ''Rangifer tarandus'', with about 10 subspe ...
. In 1957, Glidden sold Aroostook Broadcasting to Community Broadcasting System, a company controlled by former Governor
Horace Hildreth
Horace Augustus Hildreth (December 2, 1902 – June 2, 1988) was born in Gardiner, Maine, the son of an attorney. Hildreth attended local schools before graduating from Bowdoin College in the class of 1925 and receiving his LL.B. from Harvard Un ...
, who also owned
WABI-AM-
TV in
Bangor.
Soon afterward, the station changed its primary affiliation to
NBC, matching WABI-TV; however, WAGM-TV maintained secondary affiliations with CBS and
ABC
ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script known as the alphabet.
ABC or abc may also refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Broadcasting
* American Broadcasting Company, a commercial U.S. TV broadcaster
** Disney–ABC Television ...
.
It returned to being a primary CBS affiliate, again following WABI's lead, in 1959.
However, in practice, as an affiliate of all the
big three networks, WAGM cherry-picked the most popular programs for its prime time lineup.
Community Broadcasting Service merged with Journal Publications in 1971 to form
Diversified Communications
Diversified Communications is a multimedia company, headquartered in Portland, Maine. The company provides market access, education and information through global, national and regional face-to-face events, digital products and publications.
Hi ...
.
WAGM radio was sold in 1981
and renamed
WKZX;
it went
silent by 1991. The radio station's building still exists today but appears abandoned, while the three transmitter towers nearby were dismantled sometime in the early 1990s. In 1984, Diversified Communications sold WAGM-TV to
NEP Communications, then-owner of
WNEP-TV in
Scranton, Pennsylvania.
NEP sold WNEP to
The New York Times Company
The New York Times Company is an American mass media company that publishes ''The New York Times''. Its headquarters are in Manhattan, New York City.
History
The company was founded by Henry Jarvis Raymond and George Jones in New York City. T ...
a year later, but retained WAGM
under the licensee name NEPSK, Inc.
At one point co-owned by Tom Shelburne, Peter Kozloski, and Norman Johnston,
Kozloski assumed full ownership of the station in 1991, retaining the NEPSK name.
Changes
Around the same time as the sale to NEP, WAGM began phasing out its secondary affiliations with ABC and NBC. Given increasing availability of cable and
satellite television
Satellite television is a service that delivers television programming to viewers by relaying it from a communications satellite orbiting the Earth directly to the viewer's location. The signals are received via an outdoor parabolic antenna comm ...
in rural Aroostook County, the necessity to carry programming from multiple networks decreased. Many stations over the
Canadian border in
New Brunswick
New Brunswick (french: Nouveau-Brunswick, , locally ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is one of the three Maritime provinces and one of the four Atlantic provinces. It is the only province with both English and ...
also serve Aroostook County. By 1990, WAGM carried the entire CBS prime time lineup, with other network programs airing nightly between 7 and 8. The station dropped ABC completely in 1998, while the last NBC show seen on the station, ''
Days of Our Lives
''Days of Our Lives'' (also stylized as ''Days of our Lives''; simply referred to as ''Days'' or ''DOOL'') is an American television soap opera that streams on the streaming service Peacock. The soap, which aired on the American television net ...
'', disappeared from the schedule in September 2005. The end of the ABC and NBC affiliations left
KXGN-TV in
Glendive, Montana
Glendive is a city in and the county seat of Dawson County, Montana, United States, and home to Dawson Community College. Glendive was established by the Northern Pacific Railway when they built the transcontinental railroad across the northern ...
as the last television station in the United States affiliated with more than one big three network on a single feed (that station, formerly a dual CBS/NBC affiliate, moved NBC to a digital subchannel in September 2009). Today,
WVII-TV
WVII-TV (channel 7) is a television station in Bangor, Maine, United States, affiliated with ABC and Fox. The station is owned by Rockfleet Broadcasting, and has studios on Target Industrial Circle in West Bangor; its transmitter is located on ...
from Bangor serves as the ''de facto'' ABC affiliate on
Charter Spectrum's Presque Isle system; until the launch of WWPI-LD in 2020,
WLBZ
WLBZ (channel 2) is a television station in Bangor, Maine, United States, affiliated with NBC and owned by Tegna Inc. The station's studios are located on Mount Hope Avenue in Bangor, and its transmitter is located on Rider Bluff in Holden.
Alt ...
served the same function for NBC.
When
Fox
Foxes are small to medium-sized, omnivorous mammals belonging to several genera of the family Canidae. They have a flattened skull, upright, triangular ears, a pointed, slightly upturned snout, and a long bushy tail (or ''brush'').
Twelve sp ...
gained broadcasting rights to games from the
NFL
The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the major ...
's
National Football Conference
The National Football Conference (NFC) is one of the two conferences of the National Football League (NFL), the highest professional level of American football in the United States. The NFC and its counterpart, the American Football Conference ...
in 1994, WAGM aired them since Fox didn't have an affiliate in Presque Isle; this made it the only station in the United States to air programs from all
four major networks at the same time.
The arrangement ended when
CBS obtained the
American Football Conference
The American Football Conference (AFC) is one of the two conferences of the National Football League (NFL), the highest professional level of American football in the United States. The AFC and its counterpart, the National Football Conference ...
contract in 1998; as a result, Fox programming was provided to the Presque Isle area via
Foxnet, and it remained that way until September 2006. WAGM also aired some
UPN
The United Paramount Network (UPN) was an American broadcast television network that launched on January 16, 1995. It was originally owned by Chris-Craft Industries' United Television. Viacom (through its Paramount Television unit, which prod ...
programming during late nights and weekends from 1995 until 2006 when that network closed and merged with
The WB
The WB Television Network (for Warner Bros., or the "Frog Network", for its former mascot, Michigan J. Frog) was an American television network launched on broadcast television on January 11, 1995, as a joint venture between the Warner Bros. ...
to form
The CW
''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the m ...
.
The station moved its transmitter site in 1999 to the summit of
Big Rock ski resort
A ski resort is a resort developed for skiing, snowboarding, and other winter sports. In Europe, most ski resorts are towns or villages in or adjacent to a ski area – a mountainous area with pistes (ski trails) and a ski lift system. In North ...
on Mars Hill Mountain's southwestern face. The move placed the antenna at a much higher point greatly improving reception of the signal.
This location is where its first digital signal on UHF channel 16 signed on from in July 2003.
This conflicts with an official statement made in 2006 by WAGM, which stated it launched its digital signal in April 2002. For the
U.S. digital transition on June 12, 2009, WAGM applied for a 10
kilowatt
The watt (symbol: W) is the unit of power or radiant flux in the International System of Units (SI), equal to 1 joule per second or 1 kg⋅m2⋅s−3. It is used to quantify the rate of energy transfer. The watt is named after James Wa ...
digital signal and moved its transmitter to the northern section of Mars Hill Mountain. At midnight on June 12, it signed off the analog channel 8 and digital channel 16 signals for the final time. The next day, the station signed on a new more powerful digital signal on channel 8.
WAGM is seen across Western New Brunswick in Canada and can be picked up over-the-air a few miles outside of
Fredericton
Fredericton (; ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of New Brunswick. The city is situated in the west-central portion of the province along the Saint John River, which flows west to east as it bisects the city. The river is the do ...
city limits in communities such as
Keswick Ridge. On cable, it is seen throughout Northwestern New Brunswick towns such as
Woodstock
Woodstock Music and Art Fair, commonly referred to as Woodstock, was a music festival held during August 15–18, 1969, on Max Yasgur's dairy farm in Bethel, New York, United States, southwest of the town of Woodstock, New York, Woodstock. ...
,
Grand Falls, and Edmundston. The station was available to a greater extent in Canada such as in Fredericton until the advent of satellite-delivered American broadcast stations on
Cancom in the early-1990s.
Sale to Gray Television
In April 2015, WAGM was sold to
Gray Television
Gray Television, Inc. is an American publicly traded television broadcasting company based in Atlanta, Georgia. Founded in 1946 by James Harrison Gray as Gray Communications Systems, the company owns or operates 180 stations across the United St ...
for $10.25 million. The transaction closed on July 1, 2015, following FCC approval.
WAGM is Gray's first television station in the
Northeastern United States
The Northeastern United States, also referred to as the Northeast, the East Coast, or the American Northeast, is a geographic region of the United States. It is located on the Atlantic coast of North America, with Canada to its north, the Southe ...
.
In February 2017, Gray announced that it would purchase Bangor's WABI-TV from Diversified Communications with the transaction expected to close in the second quarter of 2017 pending FCC approval. The purchase would reunite WAGM with its former co-owned station, and in the press release from Gray announcing the purchase it was stated that the two stations would share newsgathering and other resources.
Subchannel history
WAGM-DT2
WAGM-DT2 is the
Fox
Foxes are small to medium-sized, omnivorous mammals belonging to several genera of the family Canidae. They have a flattened skull, upright, triangular ears, a pointed, slightly upturned snout, and a long bushy tail (or ''brush'').
Twelve sp ...
-affiliated second digital subchannel of WAGM-TV, broadcasting in
high definition
High definition or HD may refer to:
Visual technologies
*HD DVD, discontinued optical disc format
*HD Photo, former name for the JPEG XR image file format
*HDV, format for recording high-definition video onto magnetic tape
* HiDef, 24 frames-pe ...
on channel 8.2.
On September 12, 2006, WAGM launched a Fox affiliate on its primary digital channel, 8.1, preceding the shutdown of Foxnet. Prior to then, outside of the station's secondary Fox affiliation during the mid-1990s, Foxnet provided the state's only access to Fox on cable outside of the
Portland
Portland most commonly refers to:
* Portland, Oregon, the largest city in the state of Oregon, in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States
* Portland, Maine, the largest city in the state of Maine, in the New England region of the northeas ...
and Bangor areas; the subchannel's launch coincided with the shutdown of Foxnet (which served as the Fox affiliate for the entire state of Maine between late 2001 and April 2003). Foxnet was originally scheduled to cease operations on September 1, but the shutdown was postponed to allow WAGM time to set up the service. The change resulted in the main CBS signal moving to a new second subchannel, 8.2. Such a placement is generally uncommon as most broadcasters number a digital signal equivalent to the analog signal as
minor channel 1 and number other subchannels with higher minor channel numbers. This is a similar situation as NBC affiliate
WGBC
WGBC (channel 30) is a television station in Meridian, Mississippi, United States, affiliated with Fox and NBC. It is owned by Coastal Television Broadcasting Company LLC, which provides certain services to CBS affiliate WMDN (channel 24) under ...
in
Meridian, Mississippi
Meridian is the List of municipalities in Mississippi, seventh largest city in the U.S. state of Mississippi, with a population of 41,148 at the 2010 United States Census, 2010 census and an estimated population in 2018 of 36,347. It is the count ...
which moved its original NBC affiliation to a new second digital subchannel so its main channel could join Fox and the
Retro Television Network
Retro TV (stylized as retrotv), formerly known as Retro Television Network, is an American broadcast television network owned by Get After It Media. The network mainly airs classic television sitcoms and drama series from the 1950s through th ...
(RTV). Despite this, the CBS feed was still the main signal, as it was the only one broadcast in HD, and the one that continued to be available on analog TV until its end in 2009.
Until
Time Warner Cable
Time Warner Cable, Inc. (TWC) was an American cable television company. Before it was acquired by Charter Communications on May 18, 2016, it was ranked the second largest cable company in the United States by revenue behind only Comcast, operat ...
switched to WAGM's relocated CBS feed, it offered Fox in high definition for a short time on digital channel 508. On November 15, 2007, WAGM created a new separate website for its Fox channel featuring the "My Fox" format and layout from
Fox Interactive Media. However, the web addres
"myfoxaroostook.com"was eventually abandoned.
By fall 2017, the over-the-air feed of "WAGM Fox 8" had begun airing in Fox's recommended
720p
720p (1280×720 px; also called HD ready, standard HD or just HD) is a progressive HDTV signal format with 720 horizontal lines/1280 columns and an aspect ratio (AR) of 16:9, normally known as widescreen HDTV (1.78:1). All major HDTV broadcast ...
HD resolution; the Fox subchannel had only been carried in high definition on cable prior to then. In addition to its over-the-air
resolution
Resolution(s) may refer to:
Common meanings
* Resolution (debate), the statement which is debated in policy debate
* Resolution (law), a written motion adopted by a deliberative body
* New Year's resolution, a commitment that an individual mak ...
upgrade, WAGM Fox 8 had also been moved to the station's second
digital subchannel
In broadcasting, digital subchannels are a method of transmitting more than one independent program stream simultaneously from the same digital radio or television station on the same radio frequency channel. This is done by using data compress ...
while CBS programming was returned to its original position on WAGM's main channel.
WAGM-DT3
WAGM-DT3 (branded as The County's CW 8.3, in reference to the large Aroostook County containing most of WAGM's coverage area) is the CW-affiliated third digital subchannel of WAGM-TV, broadcasting in
16:9 widescreen
Widescreen images are displayed within a set of aspect ratios (relationship of image width to height) used in film, television and computer screens. In film, a widescreen film is any film image with a width-to-height aspect ratio greater than t ...
standard definition on channel 8.3. All programming on WAGM-DT3 is received through The CW's programming feed for smaller media markets,
The CW Plus
The CW Plus is a secondary national programming service feed of The CW that is fully controlled and 75% owned by Nexstar Media Group, with Paramount Global and Warner Bros. Discovery each owning a 12.5% stake in the network. It is intended primar ...
, which provides a set schedule of syndicated programming acquired by The CW for broadcast during time periods outside of the network's regular programming hours; however, Gray Television handles local advertising and promotional services for the subchannel. WAGM-DT3 was launched on September 10, 2018, and is carried locally on Spectrum channel 13 in SD, and in high definition on channel 1212. Presently, the HD feed is exclusive to cable due to WAGM's current
multiplexer limitations.
Previously, the CW affiliation in the market was available through a cable-only channel operated by Spectrum and the forerunner providers in the market, which carried the station on cable channel 13 since 1998, when it launched as a WB affiliate with the
WB 100+ service (then branded as "Presque Isle's WB") under the unofficial callsign "WBPQ" (which stood for The WB Presque Isle) for the purposes of
identification
Identification or identify may refer to:
*Identity document, any document used to verify a person's identity
Arts, entertainment and media
* ''Identify'' (album) by Got7, 2014
* "Identify" (song), by Natalie Imbruglia, 1999
* Identification ( ...
in
electronic program guides and
Nielsen ratings
Nielsen Media Research (NMR) is an American firm that measures media audiences, including television, radio, theatre, films (via the AMC Theatres MAP program), and newspapers. Headquartered in New York City, it is best known for the Nielsen rat ...
tabulation. Throughout its twenty years as a cable channel, it only ran in standard definition. It seamlessly became associated with the new CW network (branded as "Presque Isle CW", though it used a "CW 13" logo) on September 18, 2006, after the merger of The WB and UPN into that one network. Following this CW affiliate's September 10, 2018, debut over the new WAGM-DT3 subchannel, it updated its branding to "The County's CW 8.3" to reflect its new over-the-air presence.
Programming
WAGM-TV airs the complete CBS schedule; until 2013, the station signed off every night and thus did not show
CBS News
CBS News is the news division of the American television and radio service CBS. CBS News television programs include the ''CBS Evening News'', ''CBS Mornings'', news magazine programs '' CBS News Sunday Morning'', '' 60 Minutes'', and '' 48 H ...
''
Up to the Minute''. During the fall potato harvest (potatoes being the most important industry in the region), the annual ''Potato Picker's Special'' is aired weekdays at 5 a.m. for approximately three weeks beginning in September. The program announces details from area farmers regarding the harvest and has been airing on either radio or television for over 50 years.
Syndicated programming on WAGM includes ''
Jeopardy!
''Jeopardy!'' is an American game show created by Merv Griffin. The show is a quiz competition that reverses the traditional question-and-answer format of many quiz shows. Rather than being given questions, contestants are instead given genera ...
'', ''
Wheel of Fortune The Wheel of Fortune or ''Rota Fortunae'' has been a concept and metaphor since ancient times referring to the capricious nature of Fate. Wheel of Fortune may also refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Art
* ''The Wheel of Fortune'' (Burne-Jo ...
'', and ''
Inside Edition'', among others.
News operation
WAGM's ''NewsSource 8'' broadcasts have routinely ranked as the highest-rated local newscasts in the United States based on Nielsen
market
Market is a term used to describe concepts such as:
* Market (economics), system in which parties engage in transactions according to supply and demand
* Market economy
*Marketplace, a physical marketplace or public market
Geography
*Märket, a ...
share. The station serves a large area but its primary market is Aroostook County which is about the size of
Connecticut
Connecticut () is the southernmost state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, New York to the west, and Long Island Sound to the south. Its cap ...
and
Rhode Island
Rhode Island (, like ''road'') is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It is the List of U.S. states by area, smallest U.S. state by area and the List of states and territories of the United States ...
combined. Given the station's transmitter location in close proximity to Canada, it also covers news and
weather
Weather is the state of the atmosphere, describing for example the degree to which it is hot or cold, wet or dry, calm or stormy, clear or cloudy. On Earth, most weather phenomena occur in the lowest layer of the planet's atmosphere, the ...
in Western New Brunswick.
The small market nature of WAGM tends to result in a high employee turnover rate with most personalities staying at the station for only a year or two before moving on to a larger market. Nevertheless, a few personnel have been with WAGM for more than a few years such as Assistant News Director and
Sports Director Rene Cloukey. Another long-lasting employee no longer with the station is Station Manager and
News Director Jon Gulliver who recently came back to the station on a part-time basis helpimg with sports as well as former News Director Sue Bernard. Current Chief
Meteorologist Ted Shapiro has been with WAGM since being ousted from Bangor's WVII when that station axed its weather department and outsourced forecasting segments to
AccuWeather
AccuWeather Inc. is an American media company that provides commercial weather forecasting services worldwide.
AccuWeather was founded in 1962 by Joel N. Myers, then a Pennsylvania State University graduate student working on a master's degree i ...
in
State College, Pennsylvania. Ironically, WAGM uses some of that company's CinemaLive weather graphics system in its own forecast segments.
With the September 12, 2006, launch of Fox on its main channel came a new prime time weeknight newscast known as ''NewsSource 8 at 10''. This program closely mirrors local news seen on the CBS channel. On April 11, 2009, due to a decrease in sponsorship, increased preemptions from network sports coverage, and financial reasons, WAGM stopped airing a Saturday night newscast at 6. In late-September 2010, ''NewsSource 8: The Saturday Edition'' was brought back to air on the Fox channel with occasional airings on the CBS channel if preempted. In addition, the prime time newscast at 10 was expanded to Saturday nights at that point in time. With the launch of ''
Fox College Football
''Fox College Football'' (or ''Fox CFB'' for short) is the branding used for broadcasts of NCAA Division I FBS college football games produced by Fox Sports, and broadcast primarily by Fox, FS1, and FS2.
Initial college football broadcasts on th ...
''s prime time games in 2012, the Saturday newscast was discontinued.
On August 23, 2010, WAGM renovated its news and weather set but kept the same music theme and graphics package. Unlike most CBS affiliates, WAGM does not air a noon newscast and/or a newscast weeknights at 5. When the Fox channel first launched, it replayed the morning broadcast originally at 8 a.m. This was eventually moved to 9 a.m. and then dropped altogether at some point.
Technical information
Subchannels
The station's digital signal is
multiplexed:
Translator
In addition to the main signal, WAGM operates an additional translator.
Former translators
A second translator signal, W16DA-D in
Fort Kent, changed its call letters to WWPI-LD on June 3, 2019, after Gray Television filed with the FCC on May 21 for a
construction permit
Planning permission or developmental approval refers to the approval needed for construction or expansion (including significant renovation), and sometimes for demolition, in some jurisdictions. It is usually given in the form of a building perm ...
to move the translator's city of license from Fort Kent to Presque Isle (the FCC granted that CP on August 7). WWPI-LD then fell silent and returned to the air January 7, 2020, as an NBC affiliate.
A third translator, W02AU-D (channel 2) in
St. Francis, used to transmit from the north of Back Settlement and was licensed to the St. Francis Chamber of Commerce; however, on June 4, 2016, the FCC deleted W02AU-D from its database.
RabbitEars - Digital TV Market Listing for DW02AU-D
/ref>
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wagm-Tv
Television channels and stations established in 1956
AGM-TV
CBS network affiliates
1956 establishments in Maine
Gray Television