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
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
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'').
Twelv ...
/
CW+ affiliate
WAGM-TV (channel 8). The two stations share studios on Brewer Road in Presque Isle, where WWPI-LD's transmitter is also located.
WWPI-LD is the only NBC affiliate in Maine not tied in with the
Tegna-owned ''News Center Maine'' network (consisting of
WCSH in
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
WLBZ in
Bangor). Prior to WWPI's sign-on as an NBC affiliate, WLBZ served as the default affiliate for
Aroostook County
Aroostook County ( ; french: Comté d'Aroostook) is a county in the U.S. state of Maine along the Canada–U.S. border. As of the 2020 census, the population was 67,105. Its county seat is Houlton, with offices in Caribou and Fort Kent.
Kn ...
.
History
On June 3, 2019, Gray Television changed the
call letters of W16DA-D in Fort Kent, previously a
translator of WAGM-TV, to WWPI-LD, after having 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. On June 24, 2019, Gray announced that WWPI-LD would be converted into an NBC affiliate by the end of 2019; however, this was delayed pending completion of the station's new transmitter.
The station officially signed-on January 7, 2020,
which leaves
ABC as the only network to not have an over-the-air affiliate in Presque Isle; that network's programming is carried on cable via
WVII-TV from the adjacent Bangor
market.
News operation
WWPI-LD mostly simulcasts all of WAGM-TV's weekday newscasts, airing the 6 p.m. newscast an hour later at 7 p.m. WWPI-LD does not air newscasts on weekends, opting for
syndicated
Syndication may refer to:
* Broadcast syndication, where individual stations buy programs outside the network system
* Print syndication, where individual newspapers or magazines license news articles, columns, or comic strips
* Web syndication, ...
programming.
Subchannel
References
External links
*
{{Gray TV
Low-power television stations in the United States
NBC network affiliates
WPI-LD
Gray Television