WBGT-CD (channel 46) is a low-power, Class A television station in

Rochester, New York Rochester is a city in and the county seat, seat of government of Monroe County, New York, United States. It is the List of municipalities in New York, fourth-most populous city and 10th most-populated municipality in New York, with a populati ...

, United States, affiliated with

MyNetworkTV MyNetworkTV (stylized as mynetworkTV; unofficially abbreviated MNT or MNTV) is an American commercial broadcast television syndication service and former television network owned by Fox Corporation, operated by its Fox Television Stations ...

. Owned by Vision Communications, the station has studios on Buffalo Road (

NY 33 New York State Route 33 (NY 33) is an east–west state highway in western New York in the United States. The route extends for just under from New York State Route 5, NY 5 in Buffalo, New York, Buffalo in the west to New York S ...

) in the town of Gates (with a Rochester postal address), and its

transmitter In electronics and telecommunications, a radio transmitter or just transmitter (often abbreviated as XMTR or TX in technical documents) is an electronic device which produces radio waves with an antenna (radio), antenna with the purpose of sig ...

is located on Pinnacle Hill. It can also be seen on

Charter Spectrum Spectrum is the trade name of Charter Communications. The name is widely used by both market consumers and commercial businesses. Services that Spectrum offers include cable television, internet access, internet security, managed services, mo ...

channel 18 (hence the My 18 branding).

History

WBGT-CD began operations as WBGT-LP on February 2, 1998. For its first ten months on-air, it was an

independent station An independent station is a broadcast station, usually a television station, not affiliated with a larger broadcast television network, network. As such, it only broadcasts broadcast syndication, syndicated programs it has purchased; brokered pr ...

under the Big TV branding, before it became an UPN affiliate in November of that year (UPN programming prior to its affiliation was primarily available only on cable/satellite systems via O&O

WWOR-TV WWOR-TV (channel 9) is a television station licensed to Secaucus, New Jersey, United States, serving the New York metropolitan area as the flagship of the MyNetworkTV programming service. It is owned and operated by Fox Television Stations alon ...

, while WUHF had a secondary affiliation with the network). Despite the affiliation, the station used the branding throughout most of the years of the network, only ditching it after 2003. The Victor translator was added in 1999, and in 2001,

Time Warner Cable Time Warner Cable Enterprises LLC was an American cable television company. Before it was acquired by Charter Communications on May 18, 2016, it was ranked the second largest cable company in the United States by revenue behind only Comcast, o ...

(predecessor of Charter Spectrum) added WBGT-LP to its lineup. During the late 1990s and early 2000s, WBGT also carried a part-time affiliation with

America One America One was an American television network established in 1995 by USFR Media Group through its America One Television subsidiary.

, broadcasting that network's film and children's programming during the

daytime Daytime or day as observed on Earth is the period of the day during which a given location experiences Daylight, natural illumination from direct sunlight. Daytime occurs when the Sun appears above the local horizon, that is, anywhere on the ...

and overnight slot, in addition to a simulcast of

Bloomberg Television Bloomberg Television (on-air as Bloomberg) is an American-based pay television network focusing on business and capital market programming, owned by diversified information and media private company Bloomberg L.P. It is distributed globally, re ...

during the morning hours. Select programming from Urban America Television was also aired by the station. On January 24, 2006,

The WB The WB Television Network (shortened to The WB, stylized as "THE WB", and nicknamed the "Frog Network" and/or "The Frog" for its former mascot Michigan J. Frog) was an American television network that ran from 1995 to 2006. It launched on ter ...

and UPN announced that the networks would end broadcasting and merge to form

The CW The CW Network, LLC (commonly referred to as The CW or simply CW) is an American commercial broadcast television network which is controlled by Nexstar Media Group through a 75% ownership interest. The network's name is derived from the firs ...

, which signed with cable-only WB affiliate WRWB (the forerunner of WHAM-DT2). Several weeks later,

was announced by Fox as an alternative for UPN or WB affiliates not chosen by The CW. WBGT-LP quickly signed an affiliation deal with MyNetworkTV, and joined the network at its launch on September 5, 2006. Around this time, the suffix was changed from "-LP" to "-CA". The station has never been added to

DirecTV DirecTV, LLC is an American Multichannel television in the United States, multichannel video programming distributor based in El Segundo, California. Originally launched on June 17, 1994, its primary service is a digital Satellite television, s ...

Dish Network DISH Network L.L.C., often referred to as DISH, an abbreviation for Digital Sky Highway, is an American provider of satellite television and IPTV services and wholly owned subsidiary of EchoStar Corporation. The company was originally establ ...

; it has no

must-carry In cable television, many governments, including the ones of the United Kingdom, the United States, and Canada, apply a must-carry regulation stating that forces a cable TV provider to carry the public interest programming, like locally licensed te ...

rights as a low-power operation. Eventually, when it signed on its digital facilities, the station's calls were changed to WBGT-CD.

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— ...

Former translator

WBGT-CD was formerly also seen over-the-air on analog

repeater In telecommunications, a repeater is an electronic device that receives a signal and retransmits it. Repeaters are used to extend transmissions so that the signal can cover longer distances or be received on the other side of an obstruction. Some ...

W26BZ (channel 26) in Victor, which is no longer licensed. This broadcast from a transmitter south of Perinton's Egypt hamlet along the

Monroe Monroe or Monroes may refer to: People and fictional characters * Monroe (surname) * Monroe (given name) * James Monroe, 5th President of the United States * Marilyn Monroe, actress and model Places United States * Monroe, Arkansas, an unincorp ...

–

Ontario Ontario is the southernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. Located in Central Canada, Ontario is the Population of Canada by province and territory, country's most populous province. As of the 2021 Canadian census, it ...

county line. This translator was replaced with another, WGCE-CD, some time before 2018; WGCE was spun off to

HC2 Holdings Innovate Corp. (formerly known as HC2 Holdings, Inc. and Primus Telecommunications Group, Inc.) is an American public financial services company founded in 1994. History Beginning (1994–1997) Primus commenced operations in 1994 intent on b ...

in August 2018.

References

{{Coastal TV Broadcasting 1998 establishments in New York (state) Catchy Comedy affiliates Dabl affiliates BGT MeTV Toons affiliates Movies! affiliates Retro TV affiliates MyNetworkTV affiliates Television channels and stations established in 1998 BGT-CD Vision Communications

History

Technical information

Subchannels

Former translator

See also

References