WMDT (channel 47) is a

television station A television station is a set of equipment managed by a business, organisation or other entity such as an amateur television (ATV) operator, that transmits video content and audio content via radio waves directly from a transmitter on the earth's s ...

Salisbury, Maryland Salisbury ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Wicomico County, Maryland, United States. Salisbury is the largest city in Eastern Shore of Maryland, the state's Eastern Shore region, with a population of 33,050 at the 2020 United States census ...

, United States, affiliated with

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and

The CW Plus The CW Plus is a secondary national broadcast television broadcast syndication, syndication service feed of The CW, whose controlling stake of 75% is owned by Nexstar Media Group, with Paramount Global and Warner Bros. Discovery holding their ow ...

. It is the

flagship A flagship is a vessel used by the commanding officer of a group of navy, naval ships, characteristically a flag officer entitled by custom to fly a distinguishing flag. Used more loosely, it is the lead ship in a fleet of vessels, typically ...

television property of locally based

Marquee Broadcasting Marquee Broadcasting, Inc. is an American broadcasting company that owns several television stations in the United States. History Marquee began in 2013 when its owners, Brian and Patricia Lane, announced its intent to acquire WMDT and its re ...

, and has common ownership with low-power WeatherNation TV affiliate WGDV-LD (channel 32). The two stations share studios on West Main Street (

mailing The mail or post is a system for physically transporting postcards, letters, and parcels. A postal service can be private or public, though many governments place restrictions on private systems. Since the mid-19th century, national postal syst ...

address is Downtown Plaza) in Salisbury; WMDT's transmitter is located in

Wicomico County Wicomico County ( ) is a county located in the southeastern part of the U.S. state of Maryland, on the Delmarva Peninsula. As of the 2020 census, the population was 103,588. The county seat is Salisbury. The county was named for the Wicomico ...

northeast of Mardela Springs. WMDT was the second commercial station to serve the

Delmarva Peninsula The Delmarva Peninsula, or simply Delmarva, is a peninsula on the East Coast of the United States, occupied by the majority of the state of Delaware and parts of the Eastern Shore of Maryland and Eastern Shore of Virginia. The peninsula is l ...

, signing on in April 1980. It struggled financially and was placed in court-appointed receivership less than 18 months after beginning broadcasting. From 1982 to 2013, it was owned by the Brechner family. Marquee Broadcasting acquired WMDT in 2013 as its first TV station property. In local news ratings, WMDT has long been a distant second-place station to

WBOC-TV WBOC-TV (channel 16) is a television station in Salisbury, Maryland, United States, affiliated with CBS and Fox. It is the flagship television property of the Milton, Delaware–based Draper Holdings Business Trust, and is co-owned with low ...

History

Construction and early struggles

In early 1978, the MDV Television Company petitioned the

Federal Communications Commission The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is an independent agency of the United States government that regulates communications by radio, television, wire, internet, wi-fi, satellite, and cable across the United States. The FCC maintains j ...

(FCC) to insert a second commercial television channel at Salisbury, then served only by primary

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 ...

affiliate

(channel 16) and a

Maryland Public Television Maryland Public Television (MPT) is the PBS member state network for the U.S. state of Maryland. It operates under the auspices of the Maryland Public Broadcasting Commission, an agency of the Maryland state government that holds the licens ...

repeater. In its application, MDV claimed that

Delmarva The Delmarva Peninsula, or simply Delmarva, is a peninsula on the East Coast of the United States, occupied by the majority of the state of Delaware and parts of the Eastern Shore of Maryland and Eastern Shore of Virginia. The peninsula is l ...

was inadequately served by the

Philadelphia Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...

and

Baltimore Baltimore is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland. With a population of 585,708 at the 2020 census and estimated at 568,271 in 2024, it is the 30th-most populous U.S. city. The Baltimore metropolitan area is the 20th-large ...

stations and that WBOC-TV's local news coverage was also inadequate. The commission assigned the channel in July 1978, allowing potential owners to apply for a

construction permit Planning permission or building permit refers to the approval needed for construction or expansion (including significant renovation), and sometimes for demolition, in some jurisdictions. House building permits, for example, are subject to bu ...

to build and operate the station. Even though MDV Television received the permit in May, it spent part of the year fighting with local authorities in

over the construction of a transmitting tower; some nearby landowners feared its construction would affect their property values. Wicomico County approved construction of the tower in June. The station announced it had obtained ABC affiliation in July; this was in part because among its stockholders were William Sheehan and Walter Pfister, former president and director of special news events, respectively, at ABC. WMDT set up in studio facilities that once housed a

Rite Aid Rite Aid Corporation is an American drugstore chain based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It was founded in 1962 in Scranton, Pennsylvania, by Alex Grass under the name Thrift D Discount Center. Prior to its first bankruptcy in 2023, it was the th ...

drug store and restaurant on Salisbury's Downtown Plaza. Shortly before launch, it picked up a secondary affiliation with

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast. It is one of NBCUniversal's ...

. WMDT began broadcasting on April 11, 1980, but it was another two months before the station aired local news programming. The station struggled in its early years from technical issues, low ratings against WBOC-TV (the only station on Delmarva for 26 years), and consistent rumors of financial trouble. In March 1981, MDV announced an infusion of new cash into the business. President J. Paul Audet, who had previously been involved in the startup of TV stations in New Mexico and South Carolina, noted that the station was three months late in getting on air, leaving it undercapitalized. In June, a receiver was appointed on a petition from the First National Bank of Maryland, which it owed $3 million plus interest.

Brechner ownership

In 1982, a court approved the sale of WMDT to Mid-Florida Television, which owned a partial stake in

WFTV WFTV (channel 9) is a television station in Orlando, Florida, United States, affiliated with American Broadcasting Company, ABC. It is owned by Cox Media Group alongside WRDQ (channel 27), an independent station. The two stations share studios ...

Orlando, Florida Orlando ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Orange County, Florida, United States. The city proper had a population of 307,573 at the 2020 census, making it the fourth-most populous city in Florida behind Jacksonville, Florida, Jacksonville ...

. The sale received an objection from the station's law firm, which claimed it was owed money, but it was finalized in July. Joseph Brechner, the president of the company, died in 1990, followed by his wife Marion in 2011. WMDT launched a bureau in

Dover, Delaware Dover ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and the List of municipalities in Delaware, second-most populous city of the U.S. state of Delaware. It is also the county seat of Kent County, Delaware, Kent County and the princ ...

, as well as translator W27AJ there, in 1987. The next year, the station debuted ''Newswatch 27'', a newscast specifically for Dover and Kent County, produced from a studio in the city and only aired on the translator; the long-term goal was to have television ratings agencies assign Kent County into the Salisbury media market, thereby making it larger and increasing revenues. The Dover translator remained with WMDT, later under the call sign WEVD-LP, until later owner

swapped it for three low-power stations owned by Lowcountry 34 Media in 2020. WMDT launched "WBD", a cable-only affiliate of

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 ...

as part of

The WB 100+ Station Group The WB 100+ Station Group (originally called The WeB from its developmental stages until March 1999) was a national programming service of The WB—owned by the Warner Bros. Entertainment division of Time Warner, the Tribune Company, and group f ...

, in May 2000. This service affiliated with

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 ...

in 2006, when The WB and

UPN The United Paramount Network (UPN) was an American broadcast television network that operated from 1995 to 2006. It was originally a joint venture between Chris-Craft Industries (later sold to News Corporation)'s subsidiary, United Television, ...

merged, and was broadcast as a subchannel of WMDT by 2008. Upon the launch of The CW, it began carrying a midday and 10 p.m. newscast.

Marquee Broadcasting ownership

Brechner Management Company announced the sale of WMDT to Marquee Broadcasting on August 8, 2013. It was the first broadcast property for the company, owned by Brookeville residents Patricia and Brian Lane, who had sought to buy a TV station for five years.

Notable former on-air staff

Bonnie Bernstein Bonnie Lynn Bernstein (born August 16, 1970) is an American sports journalist and media executive. She has been named one of the most accomplished female sportscasters in history by the American Sportscasters Association, spending nearly 20 yea ...

, later with

ESPN ESPN (an initialism of their original name, which was the Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by the Walt Disney Company (80% and operational control) and Hearst Commu ...

and

CBS Sports CBS Sports is the American sports programming division of Paramount Global that is responsible for sports broadcasts carried by its broadcast network CBS and streaming service Paramount+, as well as the operator of its cable channel CBS Sports N ...

* Greg Fishel, later with

WRAL-TV WRAL-TV (channel 5) is a television station licensed to Raleigh, North Carolina, United States, serving as the NBC affiliate for the Research Triangle area. It is the flagship station of the locally based Capitol Broadcasting Company, which has ...

* Gregg Jarrett, now with

Fox News Channel The Fox News Channel (FNC), commonly known as Fox News, is an American multinational conservative news and political commentary television channel and website based in New York City, U.S. It is owned by Fox News Media, which itself is ow ...

* Mike Seidel, now with

The Weather Channel The Weather Channel (TWC) is an American pay television television channel, channel owned by Weather Group, LLC, a subsidiary of Allen Media Group. The channel's headquarters are located in Atlanta, Georgia. Launched on May 2, 1982, the channel ...

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— ...

Analog-to-digital conversion

WMDT discontinued regular programming on its analog signal on September 22, 2008. This enabled work to conclude on relocating WMDT's digital signal from its pre-transition channel 53 to channel 47. WMDT relocated its signal from channel 47 to channel 29 on March 13, 2020, as a result of the

2016 United States wireless spectrum auction The 2016 United States wireless spectrum auction, officially known as Auction 1001, allocated approximately 100 MHz of the United States Ultra High Frequency (UHF) spectrum formerly allocated to UHF television in the 600 MHz band. The sp ...

Notes

References

External links

*
WMDT-DT2 "Delmarva CW 3"
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wmdt 1980 establishments in Maryland American Broadcasting Company affiliates Ion Television affiliates Marquee Broadcasting MeTV affiliates Television channels and stations established in 1980 MDT MDT