WMBC-TV
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Newton, New Jersey United States |
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| Branding | WMBC TV 63 (general) WMBC News (newscasts) |
| Channels |
Digital: 18 (UHF) Virtual: 63 () |
| Affiliations |
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| Owner | Mountain Broadcasting Corporation |
| Founded | August 1987 |
| First air date | April 26, 1993 |
| Call letters' meaning | Mountain Broadcasting Corporation |
| Former channel number(s) |
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| Transmitter power | 1000 kW |
| Height | 250 metres (820 feet) |
| Class |
DT (digital television) |
| Facility ID | 43952 |
| Transmitter coordinates | 40°51′53″N 74°12′3″W / 40.86472°N 74.20083°W |
| Licensing authority | FCC |
| Public license information: |
Profile CDBS |
| Website | wmbctv.com |
WMBC-TV, channel 63, is an independent television station licensed to Newton, New Jersey, USA, serving the New York City metropolitan area. Founded and owned by the Mountain Broadcasting Corporation (whose initials serve as the station's call letters), the station's studios are located in West Caldwell, New Jersey, with its transmitter located in Lake Hopatcong, New Jersey.
The station's lineup consists of brokered ethnic programs, a weekday one-hour newscast (composed mainly of repackaged CNN stories), infomercials and children's programs to satisfy the Federal Communications Commission's "educational/informational" requirements.
Mountain Broadcasting was founded in 1985 by a group of Korean Americans, led by the Reverend Sun Young Joo of Wayne, New Jersey. The group secured a construction permit from the FCC to build channel 63 in 1987, and the station began operations on April 26, 1993, with a Christian religious format, running mostly programs from FamilyNet. Later in 1993, the station also began running public domain movies and film shorts from Main Street TV, along with FamilyNet programs.
WMBC had simulcast NBC's flagship station WNBC for XFL games, and in the immediate aftermath of the attacks. In 1996, when New York City-owned WNYC-TV (channel 31, now WPXN-TV) dropped its ethnic, foreign-language television programming following its sale to private interests, many of these programs were picked up by WMBC-TV. WMBC also dropped FamilyNet and Main Street TV programming and began to air more infomercials and religious shows directly from ministries. By 1997, it ran a blend of religion and infomercials during the day and ethnic shows at night and on Saturdays. It was also running several hours a week of educational kids' shows, and began producing a local newscast.
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