WWMB - History

History

It signed-on July 17, 1989 with the calls WFIL. The call sign, minus the "-TV" suffix, was recycled from previous use on what is now ABC affiliate WPVI-TV in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (it used the call letters from 1947 until 1971). Airing an analog signal on UHF channel 21, the station was originally an Independent. WFIL became known as WGRS in 1990 and adopted the current calls WWMB (standing for We're Wonderful Myrtle Beach) in 1994. It joined UPN as a charter affiliate on January 16, 1995.

During 1999, WWMB was airing "UPN 21 News at 10". Its programs also included Access Hollywood starring Myrtle Beach native Nancy O'Dell.

At some point in time, the station was acquired by SagamoreHill Broadcasting. Thereafter, it began to be operated by Barrington Broadcasting (owner of WPDE) through a local marketing agreement (LMA).

On January 24, 2006, The WB and UPN announced the two networks would end broadcasting and merge. The new combined service would be called The CW. The letters would represent the first initial of corporate parents "C"BS (the parent company of UPN) and the Warner Bros. unit of Time Warner. On February 22, News Corporation announced it would start up another new network called MyNetworkTV. This new service, which would be a sister network to Fox, would be operated by Fox Television Stations and its syndication division Twentieth Television. MyNetworkTV was created in order to give UPN and WB stations, not mentioned as becoming CW affiliates, another option besides becoming Independent. It was also created to compete against The CW.

WGSE (now WFXB) was this market's first WB affiliate but lost the network in late-1998 when affiliates above the top 100 markets were required to be on cable. Through The WB 100+ national cable service, "WFWB" gradually replaced WGSE as the area's WB station which then switched to Fox as a result. Just hours after the announcement of The CW on January 24, WPDE released a notice on its website indicating WWMB would become an affiliate of the new network. This notice was a little premature, as over the next two months, many announcements of network affiliation changes including station deals with The CW and MyNetworkTV were made. The existence of cable-exclusive WB 100+ outlet "WFWB" made a CW affiliation for WWMB seem less of a sure thing. Nevertheless, WWMB made public on April 10 it had joined The CW.

On February 28, 2013, Barrington Broadcasting announced the sale of its entire group, including WWMB's LMA partner WPDE-TV, to Sinclair Broadcast Group. Since the LMA is included in the group deal, SagamoreHill would be selling the license assets of WWMB to Howard Stirk Holdings, with WPDE continuing to operate WWMB.

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