WBGR-LD (channel 18) is a

low-power television station Low-power broadcasting is broadcasting by a Radio broadcasting#Station, broadcast station at a low transmitter power output to a smaller service area than "full power" stations within the same region. It is often distinguished from "micropower ...

licensed to both Bangor and

Dedham, Maine Dedham is a town in Hancock County, Maine, United States. The population was 1,648 at the 2020 census. The town includes the site of a Cold War airplane crash on Bald Mountain. Geography According to the United States Census Bureau, the town h ...

, United States, affiliated with

MeTV MeTV, an acronym for Memorable Entertainment Television, is an American broadcast television network owned by Weigel Broadcasting. Marketed as "The Definitive Destination for Classic TV", the network airs a variety of classic television progra ...

. The station is owned by James McLeod, and maintains studios and transmitter facilities on Ohio Street in Glenburn, Maine.

History

WBGR first went on the air on August 28, 1995, as Bangor's WB affiliate. It was the first commercial UHF station in the market and the first new commercial station locally built in over 30 years. In 1998, The WB created a cable-only channel for its smaller markets (known as "

WBAN WBAN (1340 AM) is a radio station broadcasting an adult contemporary format. Licensed to Veazie, Maine, United States, the station serves the Bangor area. The station is owned by Port Broadcasting, LLC, and is operated by Mix Maine Media ...

" in Bangor); while WBGR initially retained its WB affiliation, it also added programming from the Pax (now

Ion Television Ion Television (referred to on-air as simply Ion) is an American broadcast television network and FAST television channel owned by the Scripps Networks subsidiary of the E. W. Scripps Company. The network first began broadcasting on August ...

) network, which launched at that time. In 1999, WBGR phased out WB programming and added more Pax programming; by this point, it was one of five over-the-air small-market WB affiliates. The change left Bangor without a WB affiliate, as Adelphia Cable did not launch "WBAN" at the time. WBGR has aired local programming from local churches, civic organizations and high school sports at various times during its history. The station also carried late afternoon

college football College football is gridiron football that is played by teams of amateur Student athlete, student-athletes at universities and colleges. It was through collegiate competition that gridiron football American football in the United States, firs ...

games from

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS (an abbreviation of its original name, Columbia Broadcasting System), is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainme ...

, as

WABI-TV WABI-TV (channel 5) is a television station in Bangor, Maine, United States, affiliated with CBS and The CW Plus. Owned by Gray Media, the station has studios on Hildreth Street in West Bangor, and its transmitter is atop Peaked Mountain in D ...

(channel 5) chose to preempt football in order to air a local 6 p.m. newscast. WBGR also aired

Boston Red Sox The Boston Red Sox are an American professional baseball team based in Boston. The Red Sox compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) American League East, East Division. Founded in as one of the Ameri ...

baseball games in 2002, syndicated from

WFXT WFXT (channel 25) is a television station in Boston, Massachusetts, United States, affiliated with the Fox Broadcasting Company, Fox network and owned by Cox Media Group. Its studios are located on Fox Drive (near the Boston-Providence Turnpi ...

. Daytime programming was filled with family-oriented programming as well as

religious programming Religious broadcasting, sometimes referred to as faith-based broadcasts, is the dissemination of television and/or radio content that intentionally has religious ideas, religious experience, or religious practice as its core focus. In some coun ...

from several leading Bible teachers. In 2010,

Liberty University Liberty University (LU), known simply as Liberty, is a Private university, private Evangelicalism in the United States, evangelical Christian university in Lynchburg, Virginia, United States. It is affiliated with the Southern Baptist Conservativ ...

's Flames Sports NetworkFlames Sports Network
/ref> began airing live sporting events, as well as daily convocation services. In April 2014, WBGR-LP became an affiliate of MeTV.

Technical information

Subchannels

The station's signal is

multiplexed In telecommunications and computer networking, multiplexing (sometimes contracted to muxing) is a method by which multiple analog or digital signals are combined into one signal over a shared medium. The aim is to share a scarce resource— ...

: The station was issued its license for digital operation on March 12, 2015. By early September 2019, WBGR-LD commenced digital operations, adding Heroes & Icons and Antenna TV programming to their second

digital subchannel In broadcasting, digital subchannels are a method of transmitting more than one independent program stream simultaneously from the same digital radio or television station on the same radio frequency channel. This is done by using data compress ...

. By November of that year, RabbitEars.Info listed six new feeds (LD3 through LD8) for WBGR-LD, those new feeds remaining blank at first.

References

{{Other New England Stations MeTV affiliates BGR-LD Television channels and stations established in 1995 1995 establishments in Maine Low-power television stations in Maine Heroes & Icons affiliates