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Retro: WMTW-TV 8 Poland Spring/Portland, ME - Sunday, May 15, 1988

C

cbsfan95

courtesy of @anabate123
Source: Sun-Journal (Lewiston, ME)
Sunday, May 15, 1988

WMTW 8 - ABC Poland Spring
6:00 am - Adventures of the Galaxy Rangers
6:30 am - Community 8
7:00 am - U.S. Farm Report
7:30 am - Jimmy Swaggart
8:30 am - Sunday Mass
9:00 am - The World Tomorrow
9:30 am - It Is Written
10:00 am - Uncle Henry's Swap Shop
10:30 am - Jerry Falwell
11:30 am - This Week with David Brinkley
12:30 pm - Business World
1:00 pm - Home Buyer's Guide
1:30 pm - Auto Racing: Grand Prix of Monaco
3:30 pm - PGA Golf: Byron Nelson Classic, Final Round
6:00 pm - News
6:30 pm - ABC World News Sunday
7:00 pm - Movie "Justin Case" (1988)
8:30 pm - Captain EO: Backstage
9:00 pm - Movie "Beverly Hills Cop" (1984)
11:05 pm - News
11:20 pm - ABC News
11:35 pm - It's Showtime at the Apollo
12:35 am - News (R)
12:50 am - Off the air
 
Originally WMTW had its tower on the top of the tallest peak in the Northeast. The call letters stand for MounT Washington, NH. Winds are so strong on the mountain that the Channel 8 transmitter building was tied to the ground with giant chains! Thanks to that tall transmitter location, overlooking several states and provinces, WMTW could be seen for maybe 100 miles around. For a while, WMTW was the ABC affiliate for four markets:

Portland ME
Burlington VT-Plattsburgh NY
Montreal, Quebec
Sherbrooke, Quebec

And with a good antenna. it could also be picked up in the Manchester NH and Bangor ME markets. Eventually, Burlington-Plattsburgh got a UHF ABC affiliate, sometimes called WVNY-TV and sometimes WEZF-TV, channel 22. Even though it was not a strong signal, it took over ABC affiliation for Burlington-Plattsburgh and Montreal.

Then WMTW had to come down from Mount Washington for two reasons... A digital signal from the mountaintop would be too far away from WMTW's primary market, Portland ME. So it had to relocate to the same area near Portland where the ABC and CBS stations have their towers. The second reason was the growing population in the section of Maine between Portland and Portsmouth NH. This area was also too far from Mount Washington to get a good digital signal.

For several years thereafter, the Montreal TV Guide and two French-language guides continued listing the schedule for WMTW. Maybe they didn't realize the station was off the mountain?
 
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