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WBGR Bangor no longer an ION affiliate

M

Maine-i-ac

Looking at the tv listings for WBGR which started life as a WB station and then on to ION, it seems they have parted ways. Not living where I can receive the station, I'm trying to figure out with which network they are affiliated with. They've always carried many religious programs during the day (and often into ION shows, which made it seem like a strange alliance to me). Now it's religious during the overnight and morning hours.

Starting in late afternoon, they are showing "Zorro", "I Spy", "The Saint", "Remington Steele", "Daniel Boone" and "Don't Forget The Lyrics". Prime time includes "Mary Tyler Moore", "Mr. Belvedere", "The Bob Newhart Show" AND "Newhart".

Can anyone fill me in on what network this might be??
 
No clue. But I'm shocked that station is still around. I used to watch the Red Sox and Buffy on that station and some of their local stuff. When they switched (to Pax?) and lost the Red Sox full time to NESN, I basically forgot they existed.
 
Sounds to me like it could be FamilyNet which airs most of those shows. I thought it was a cable only channel but maybe it has some broadcast affiliates.
 
The WBGR-LP article at Wikipedia has not been changed. It still lists them as ION, Liberty Channel and World Harvest. It says their sister station is WCKD-LP channel 30. I'm assuming that's analog? Does Bangor/Orono still not have their own FOX affiliate?
 
Thanks for the responses. Yup, it's Familynet. A quick Google of them revealed the same shows.

KML-224, WCKD is indeed analog. It is owned by James MacLeod who also owns WBGR (which is also analog at channel 33). A couple of years ago when I had the unfortunate opportunity to be in the hospital in Bangor, 30 and 33 carried similar shows, even sometimes carrying the same ones at the same time. WCKD has had a long list of networks besides the religious ones. It might have even started as a TBN?? Not sure. Anyways, I think WVII leased it before getting their analog 22. MPBN also had it for awhile (government money well spent ::) ) . A quick look at the tv listings at the Bangor Daily News says it carries MPBN today. That's a new one on me. Anyone up near Bangor can confirm this??

And we've had a Fox affiliate for about 9 or 10 years now. WVII (ABC) 7 started channel 22 in the 00's. (I should really write this stuff down, my memory is getting fuzzy.) I think WVII leased WCKD and ran UPN programming, moved it to 22 and then started running Fox programming when UPN folded. So yeah, we get "Idol" and "The Simpsons" and lots of crappy court programming like the rest of the nation. ;D Today, WVII runs Fox on 7.2.
 
Ha! OK. Just checking! I know FOX in Portland was WPXT-TV from 1986 to 2001, nobody on "free" TV for about 2 years and WPFO-TV from about 2003 to today. FOX in Presque Isle is via WAGM-TV 8-1. That one is odd, since WAGM-TV themselves is a CBS affiliate. You would think that would be on 8-1 and FOX on 8-2. Nope! :p

NOTE: I lived in Old Orchard Beach from September of 1985 until June of 1987. I just missed seeing the initial sign-on of the pre-FOX WPXT-TV by only a few hours. :p
 
WBGR is still around because it's carried on the Time Warner system throughout the entire Eastern/Downeast Maine region. There's no local programming (commercials or otherwise) to speak of, and most of the time they leave up the satellight programming guide.

As for WCKD Ch 30:

Back in the 90's it operated as a secondary feed for MPBN, WVII 7 bought it around 2000 or so and operated it as a UPN affiliate with Fox Sports. When 7 tried converting WCKD to Fox full time, UPN cited breach of contract so Ch. 7 started another low power station (That they still operate today, and as a subchannel of WVII). Channel 7 moved all syndicated programming from WCKD to their new Fox station (WFVX) leaving Channel 30 with shopping and UPN as programming. Eventually WCKD got under WBGR's control and became a TBN affiliate, which I believe it is still today.
 
Mainedude2007 said:
WBGR is still around because it's carried on the Time Warner system throughout the entire Eastern/Downeast Maine region. There's no local programming (commercials or otherwise) to speak of, and most of the time they leave up the satellight programming guide.

As for WCKD Ch 30:

Back in the 90's it operated as a secondary feed for MPBN, WVII 7 bought it around 2000 or so and operated it as a UPN affiliate with Fox Sports. When 7 tried converting WCKD to Fox full time, UPN cited breach of contract so Ch. 7 started another low power station (That they still operate today, and as a subchannel of WVII). Channel 7 moved all syndicated programming from WCKD to their new Fox station (WFVX) leaving Channel 30 with shopping and UPN as programming. Eventually WCKD got under WBGR's control and became a TBN affiliate, which I believe it is still today.



I have often wondered abut this station myself. I have never seen a top-of-the-hour Legal ID on them. But the other day, I happened to flip thru them and saw them relaying an EAS warning for severe thunderstorms in the Hampton Roads (Norfolk VA) area.

The TimeWarner programming grid and their on-air programming rarely match up.

I get Family Net on Digital channel 159,and they don;t match up with WBGR at all. (I always record Bob Newhart at 4:30 on Family Net, and WBGR always has something else)
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Maine-i-ac said:
Thanks Mainedude for the history lesson. I figured I got it wrong.

rjoc, I got the Familynet schedule here: http://www.familynet.com/schedule/tv/. A lot of it matches up with WBGR. They also must be affiliated with a religious network also.
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Thanks Maine-i-ac!! Yesterday I purposely compared the two between 4 :30 and 5:30 PM. FamilyNet on cable 12 (WBGR) was two minutes behind the FamilyNet on digital 159. Mary Tyler Moore ended at 5:02, after 2 minutes of commercials, and went straight into Bob Newhart..No hourly ID. Time Warner Cable Grid didn't show correct lineup on WBGR thru 7PM. I have noticed they add a lot of religious programs that don't appear to be locally Maine-produced.
 
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