Lawrence, Massachusetts / Boston, Massachusetts United States |
|
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City | Lawrence, Massachusetts |
Channels |
Digital: 18 (UHF) Virtual: 62 () |
Subchannels | (see article) |
Affiliations | Sonlife Broadcasting Network |
Owner | NRJ TV LLC (NRJ TV Boston License Co, LLC) |
First air date | October 16, 1987 |
Call letters' meaning |
We're Media For the People |
Former channel number(s) |
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Former affiliations |
Primary: Independent (1987–1995) Shop at Home (1995–2007) Gems TV (2007–2008) Infomercials (2007–2009) MeTV (2011–2012) Plum TV (2012–2013) Cozi TV (2013–2016) Secondary: JTV (2006–2007) |
Transmitter power | 1 megawatt |
Height | 289.2 m |
Facility ID | 41436 |
Transmitter coordinates | 42°18′27″N 71°13′27″W / 42.30750°N 71.22417°WCoordinates: 42°18′27″N 71°13′27″W / 42.30750°N 71.22417°W |
Licensing authority | FCC |
Public license information: |
Profile CDBS |
Website | www |
WMFP, virtual channel 62 (UHF digital channel 18), is a television station serving Boston, Massachusetts, United States that is licensed to Lawrence. The station is owned by NRJ TV, LLC. WMFP maintains studio facilities located on Lakeland Park Drive in Peabody, and its transmitter is located in Needham (at the "FM-128" site, shared with radio stations). The station is available on Metrocast channel 20, Comcast channel 20, Verizon FiOS channel 23, Charter Communications channel 25, and DirecTV and Dish Network channel 62.
WMFP sold its frequency rights as part of the 2017 Federal Communications Commission's spectrum auction and will cease operations in early 2018.
The station first signed on the air on October 16, 1987. Initially, the station broadcast approximately eight hours per day of programming, operating its transmitter from a hill behind the Baldpate Hospital in Georgetown, Massachusetts.
In September 1992, a new broadcast antenna was mounted, via a Sikorsky sky-crane helicopter, on top of One Beacon Street in Boston. WMFP installed its new transmitter on an upper floor of the building, and started broadcasting from Boston in November 1992. The station's president at that time was Boston-area political commentator Avi Nelson. Bill Mockbee, well known in Boston radio and television broadcasting, was the general manager; composer/conductor/actor David Morrow was the operations manager; and Jim Capillo served as production manager, producing several local programs for the station. WMFP also expanded to a 24-hour schedule, with programming including syndicated talk shows, game shows, low budget movies, and drama shows. In early 1993, the station picked up several NBC programs that were not cleared by then-affiliate WBZ-TV (channel 4), including Another World and Leeza; NBC had previously cleared these programs on WHLL (channel 27, now WUNI). NBC programming disappeared from WMFP in 1995, after WBZ-TV swapped affiliations with WHDH-TV (channel 7) and joined CBS, as both stations cleared their new networks' full schedules. During the course of 1995, the station's schedule began to rely more on paid programming.