WBRE-TV
 
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Wilkes-Barre / Scranton, Pennsylvania United States |
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| Branding | WBRE (general) Eyewitness News (newscasts) |
| Slogan |
WBRE, More Colorful (general) Everywhere You Are (newscasts) |
| Channels |
Digital: 11 (VHF) Virtual: 28 (PSIP) |
| Subchannels | 28.1 NBC 28.2 Laff 28.3 Grit |
| Translators | 28 (UHF) Waymart |
| Affiliations | NBC |
| Owner |
Nexstar Media Group (Nexstar Broadcasting, Inc.) |
| First air date | January 1, 1953 |
| Call letters' meaning | Baltimore Radio Exchange (for original owners but call sign was kept when radio sisters were sold) or Wilkes-BaRrE |
| Sister station(s) | WYOU |
| Former channel number(s) | 28 (UHF analog, 1953–2009) |
| Transmitter power | 30 kW |
| Height | 471 m |
| Facility ID | 71225 |
| Transmitter coordinates | 41°10′58″N 75°52′26″W / 41.18278°N 75.87389°W |
| Licensing authority | FCC |
| Public license information: |
Profile CDBS |
| Website | www.pahomepage.com |
WBRE-TV is the NBC-affiliated television station for Northeastern Pennsylvania and New York's Eastern Southern Tier that is licensed to Wilkes-Barre. It broadcasts a high definition digital signal on VHF channel 11 from a transmitter at the Penobscot Knob antenna farm near Mountain Top. It can also be seen on Comcast and Service Electric channel 3. On digital cable, there is a high definition signal on Comcast channel 232 and Service Electric channel 503. Owned by the Nexstar Media Group, the station operates CBS affiliate WYOU (that is owned by Mission Broadcasting) through a shared services agreement (SSA) and the two share studios on South Franklin Street in downtown Wilkes-Barre.
WBRE signed on New Year's Day 1953 becoming the first television station in the market. It was owned by the Baltimore family along with WBRE radio (1340 AM now WYCK and 98.5 FM now WKRZ). Although it appears that the call letters stand for Wilkes-BaRrE, they actually refer to Baltimore Radio Exchange, the Baltimore family's company. The radio stations were sold off in 1980.
For much of its early history, channel 28 was unable to get a direct feed from NBC because AT&T microwave and wireline operations weren't available in northeast Pennsylvania. Station engineers were thus forced to switch to and from the signals of WNBT in New York City (now WNBC) and WPTZ in Philadelphia (now CBS O&O KYW-TV) when NBC programming was airing. WPTZ was used as a backup. In efforts to improve the quality and reliability of the received signals, WBRE built its own relay site on Pimple Hill on the west side of Route 115, just south of Pocono Raceway. Reception of the New York stations is very clear and reliable from that site; indeed, it served as a microwave retransmission site for many of the area's cable systems well into the 1990s until fiber optics made microwave transmission obsolete.
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Wikipedia