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WOLF-TV
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WOLF-TV (channel 56) is a television station licensed to Hazleton, Pennsylvania, United States, serving Northeastern Pennsylvania as an affiliate of the Fox network. It is the flagship property of locally based New Age Media, LLC, and is co-owned with Williamsport-licensed MyNetworkTV affiliate WQMY (channel 53); New Age also provides certain services to Scranton-licensed CW affiliate WSWB (channel 38) under a local marketing agreement (LMA) with MPS Media. All three stations, in turn, are operated under a master service agreement by Sinclair Broadcast Group. The stations share studios on PA 315 in the Fox Hill section of Plains Township; WOLF-TV's transmitter is located at the Penobscot Knob antenna farm near Mountain Top. However, newscasts have originated from the facilities of sister station and CBS affiliate WSBT-TV in South Bend, Indiana, since January 2017.

Key Information

History

[edit]

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) granted an original construction permit for Hazleton's first full-service television station on September 30, 1982.[3] The new station, given the call letters WERF,[4] was owned by James Oyster and was to broadcast from a tower south of the city.[5] At that location, the station could serve its city of license but not the main cities in the market, Scranton and Wilkes-Barre. In April 1983, WERF applied to move its transmitter to the Penobscot Knob antenna farm near Mountain Top where WNEP-TV (channel 16), WDAU-TV (channel 22, now WYOU), WBRE-TV (channel 28), and WVIA-TV (channel 44) also housed their transmitters. The application was denied, however.[6]

Oyster changed the station's call letters to WWLF-TV on July 25, 1984,[4] then sold the construction permit to Hazleton TV Associates on December 13.[7] Two months later on February 20, 1985, the station was sold again, this time to Scranton TV Partners who completed construction of the station and brought it on-air on June 6. WWLF was a satellite of co-owned WOLF-TV in Scranton which was then on UHF channel 38 and was an independent station. That station had just begun broadcasting itself on June 3. WWLF, as a satellite of WOLF-TV, was independent for a little more than a year. On October 9, 1986, it became a charter affiliate of Fox.[8] In 1988, WWLF moved to a new transmitter on Nescopeck Mountain near the junction of I-80 and PA 93[9] but remained a satellite of WOLF-TV.

On April 27, 1993, WWLF was sold to Pegasus Television[10] and the new owners were able to accomplish something that the station's original owner could not: get permission to move the transmitter to the antenna farm at Penobscot Knob.[11] The completion of the new transmitter ushered in a new era for WWLF. On November 1, 1998, Pegasus moved the WOLF-TV call sign to channel 56 and made it the sole outlet for Fox programming in Northeast Pennsylvania.[4] It changed the call letters of channel 38 to WSWB and made that station an affiliate of The WB.[8][12] That station's owners had sought for many years to move either the channel 38 or channel 56 transmitters to Penobscot Knob.

On January 4, 2007, WOLF-TV, along with most of the Pegasus stations, was sold to investment group CP Media, LLC[13] with the sale consummated on March 31.[14] For the first time in its history, the station was no longer co-owned with WSWB. However, the new owners of that station signed a local marketing agreement (LMA) with CP Media meaning that the stations continue to be commonly operated.[15] Eventually, CP Media formed a new broadcasting group, New Age Media. More recently, WOLF-TV launched a new website using the Fox owned-and-operated station platform licensed from Fox Television Stations' interactive division; this lasted until some time in 2010 or 2011 when WorldNow took over the operation of the WOLF-TV web site. On December 4, 2011, the station's transmitter was damaged and for the next month WOLF-TV was carried on WBRE's channel 28.2 subchannel.[16][17]

On September 25, 2013, New Age Media announced that it would sell most of its stations, including WOLF-TV and WQMY, to the Sinclair Broadcast Group. Concurrently, sister station WSWB was to be sold by MPS Media to Cunningham Broadcasting, while continuing to be operated by WOLF-TV.[18][19] On October 31, 2014, New Age Media requested the dismissal of its application to sell WOLF-TV;[20] the next day, Sinclair purchased the non-license assets of the stations it planned to buy from New Age Media and began operating them through a master service agreement.[21][22]

On May 8, 2017, Sinclair entered into an agreement to acquire Tribune Media, which had operated WNEP-TV through a services agreement since 2014.[23] It intended to keep WNEP, selling WOLF/WQMY/WSWB and eight other stations to Standard Media Group.[24] The transaction was designated in July 2018 for hearing by an FCC administrative law judge, and Tribune moved to terminate the deal the next month.[25]

Newscasts

[edit]

Fox required most of its affiliates to begin offering local news in 1990 to help the fledgling network. However, WOLF's facilities have never been large enough to accommodate an in-house news department. Rather than risk disaffiliation, what is now WSWB entered into a news share agreement with ABC affiliate WNEP-TV (then owned by The New York Times Company) in 1991. The outsourcing arrangement resulted in one of the nation's first prime time newscasts to debut known as Newswatch 16 at 10 on Fox 38. The show originated from WNEP's facility on Montage Mountain Road in Moosic featuring the ABC outlet's on-air personnel. When channel 56 became the sole Fox outlet for the area in 1998, the newscasts stayed here as well under the title of Fox 56 News at 10, with a secondary title of Newswatch 16 at 10 on Fox 56.

In November 2009, it was announced WNEP would move its production of the news at 10 to a second digital subchannel called "WNEP 2" which had recently gained Retro Television Network (RTV) affiliation. That happened December 31 of that year after which WOLF-TV and NBC affiliate WBRE-TV (owned by the Nexstar Broadcasting Group) entered into a new outsourcing agreement. After taking over production of nightly prime time newscasts on WOLF-TV starting New Year's Day 2010, WBRE expanded the show to an hour each night and changed the title to Fox 56 News First at 10.

The program later originated from a secondary set at the NBC affiliate's studios on South Franklin Street in Downtown Wilkes-Barre. The space had previously been used to produce separate newscasts on CBS affiliate WYOU. On April 2, 2012, WBRE became the market's second television station to upgrade local news to high definition level. The WOLF-TV shows were included in the upgrade complete with an updated secondary set at WBRE's studios. As was the case with the WNEP-produced broadcasts, if there were network obligations or overruns of Fox programming that prevent WOLF-TV from showing the WBRE program, it was aired on WSWB instead. Its website posts video of the first segment of Fox 56 News First at 10 and the weather forecast segment. Along with its main studios, WBRE operates news bureaus in Scranton (on Lackawanna Avenue), Stroudsburg (Main Street), Williamsport (on Pine Street), and Hazleton (East 10th Street).

On October 5, 2016, the Hazleton Standard-Speaker reported that WOLF-TV would end its outsourcing agreement with WBRE on December 31, and was beginning to hire staff for a new in-house news department.[26] The newscast began on January 1, 2017, using local reporting staff, with anchors originating from a secondary set at Sinclair's CBS affiliate WSBT-TV in South Bend, Indiana. Until May 2023, the anchors for WOLF's 10 p.m. show also hosted the 6 and 11 p.m. newscasts for NBC affiliate WNWO-TV in Toledo, Ohio.[27]

Technical information

[edit]

Subchannels

[edit]

The station's signal is multiplexed:

Subchannels of WOLF-TV[28]
Channel Res. Aspect Short name Programming
56.1 720p 16:9 FOX Fox
56.2 480i CW The CW (WSWB) in SD
56.3 720p MyTV MyNetworkTV (WQMY) in HD
56.4 480i Charge! Charge!
56.5 ROAR Roar
  Simulcast of subchannels of another station

WQMY cannot be received over-the-air in the Scranton and Wilkes-Barre areas due to its transmitter being in Williamsport, so it can be seen on WOLF-DT3.

Analog-to-digital conversion

[edit]

WOLF-TV shut down its analog signal, over UHF channel 56, on January 19, 2009. The station's digital signal remained on its pre-transition UHF channel 45, using virtual channel 56.[29][30]

Translators

[edit]

WOLF-TV serves one of the largest geographic markets in the country. This area is very mountainous making UHF reception difficult. However, the station is in unique situation since Scranton and Wilkes-Barre is a "UHF Island". As a result, it operates a digital translator to repeat its signal. W24DB-D on UHF channel 24 has a transmitter northwest of Scranton and I-476 in Lackawanna County. WOLF-TV also operates a digital replacement translator on UHF channel 27 in Waymart. This channel exists because wind turbines run by NextEra Energy Resources at the Waymart Wind Farm interfere with the transmission of full-power television signals.

References

[edit]
[edit]
Revisions and contributorsEdit on WikipediaRead on Wikipedia

WOLF-TV

View on Grokipedia
from Grokipedia

WOLF-TV is a Fox-affiliated licensed to , , operating on virtual channel 56 (UHF digital channel 22).
The station serves the market, encompassing Wilkes-Barre, Scranton, and surrounding communities, with programming focused on local news, weather, sports, and syndicated content.
Owned by following its acquisition from New Age Media in 2014, WOLF-TV shares operations with sister stations WQMY (MyNetworkTV) and WSWB () under a structure typical of Sinclair's portfolio.
It produces flagship local newscasts including FOX56 News First at Ten, emphasizing regional coverage of high school and alongside general news reporting.
As part of Sinclair's extensive network, WOLF-TV has benefited from shared resources for enhanced production but has also been subject to the group's centralized content mandates, which prioritize factual counter-narratives to mainstream reporting biases.

History

Launch and initial affiliation

WOLF-TV, licensed to , began full-power operations on channel 56 on November 1, 1998, under the ownership of Television. This activation followed the completion of a new transmitter on Penobscot Knob, which allowed the station to serve the entire Scranton–Wilkes-Barre market effectively. Prior to this, channel 56 had functioned solely as a low-power translator (WWLF-LP) rebroadcasting signals from 's existing UHF station on channel 38. On the same date, relocated the -TV call sign from channel 38 to channel 56, establishing it as the primary affiliate for . The move consolidated programming exclusively on channel 56, while channel 38 transitioned to become a affiliate. This reconfiguration ended the dual-channel arrangement that had been in place since the affiliation's in the market in 1986, when the original -TV on channel 38 joined the network as a charter station after operating as an independent since its debut in June 1985. Thus, upon its full-power launch, WOLF-TV inherited and solidified the market's longstanding affiliation without interruption.

Ownership changes and duopoly formation

WOLF-TV was founded by Scranton TV Partners and signed on the air on June 3, 1985, as an serving the Scranton–Wilkes-Barre–Hazleton market. In December 1988, WQMY (channel 53, licensed to Williamsport) launched as a full-time of WOLF-TV, extending its coverage and effectively forming an operational duopoly through programming, which allowed consolidated operations across despite separate licenses initially. The station underwent several ownership transitions in the early 2000s. Acquired by Pegasus Communications, WOLF-TV was sold along with sister Pegasus properties to CP Media, LLC, on January 4, 2007, with the transaction closing on March 31, 2007. CP Media later reorganized or transferred assets to Media, LLC, under which WOLF-TV served as the station, maintaining the duopoly with WQMY through direct ownership of both outlets. On September 25, 2013, Media agreed to sell WOLF-TV and WQMY to for approximately $90 million as part of a broader acquisition of eight stations, strengthening Sinclair's presence in the market. The deal closed later that year, formalizing the duopoly under Sinclair's unified ownership structure while preserving operational synergies. Sinclair further extended control via a (LMA) with MPS Media-owned WSWB (channel 38), creating a triopoly-like arrangement, though FCC rules at the time permitted such deals alongside the core WOLF-WQMY duopoly. In 2018, amid regulatory scrutiny of Sinclair's attempted merger, the company planned divestitures including WOLF-TV and WQMY to Standard Media Group, but the overall merger collapsed, allowing Sinclair to retain ownership without divestiture.

Digital transition and technical upgrades

WOLF-TV ceased analog transmissions over UHF channel 56 prior to the nationwide deadline of June 12, 2009, with the station and fellow market outlet WYOU-TV having already discontinued over-the-air analog service in the preceding months. The station's , operating on UHF channel 45 at low power during the pre-transition period, continued broadcasting after analog shutdown and was selected to retain that physical channel post-transition through the FCC's initial election process. As part of the FCC's 2017 incentive auction and subsequent repacking process, WOLF-TV relocated its digital transmitter to RF channel 22 effective September 2019, displaying 56.1 for its primary programming feed while enabling subchannels for additional networks. This reconfiguration improved efficiency and supported expanded digital offerings, including affiliations with Charge! on 56.2 and TBD on 56.3 under Sinclair Broadcast Group's portfolio strategy. Technical enhancements under Sinclair ownership post-2014 acquisition included integration into centralized master control operations and upgrades to support high-definition transmission across the duopoly with WQMY, though specific equipment overhauls for WOLF-TV remain undocumented in public FCC filings beyond standard compliance with ATSC 1.0 standards.

Introduction of local news and recent developments

Prior to 2017, WOLF-TV did not produce its own newscasts, instead airing content produced by Nexstar Media Group's under a news share agreement, a common practice for smaller-market affiliates lacking dedicated news facilities. This arrangement provided WOLF with evening newscasts focused on the Wilkes-Barre-Scranton-Hazleton market, including coverage of regional events, , and sports, though production was handled externally to leverage WBRE's resources. In late 2016, WOLF-TV announced plans to transition to in-house local news production, launching its independent operation on January 1, 2017. The debut featured a weekday 10 p.m. newscast branded as Fox 56 News, produced from upgraded studios in Wilkes-Barre, marking the end of the WBRE partnership after several years. Station management, including news director Dawn Miller, cited the move as a strategic decision to deliver more tailored local coverage directly controlled by WOLF, enhancing community relevance amid Fox's emphasis on affiliate self-sufficiency. Following the launch, WOLF-TV expanded its local programming to include additional weather updates and sports segments, maintaining a focus on hyper-local stories such as Luzerne County events and athletics. As of 2025, the station continues to air its 10 p.m. newscast and select weekend editions, integrated with Sinclair Broadcast Group's operational support, without reported major format overhauls or expansions in recent years. via the fox56.com and streaming platforms has supplemented traditional broadcasts, providing on-demand access to recent local reports on topics like regional elections and weather impacts.

Ownership and affiliations

Current ownership structure

WOLF-TV is licensed to WOLF Licensee, LLC, a wholly owned of , Inc. (NASDAQ: SBGI), which serves as the ultimate parent company and operator of the station. Sinclair completed its acquisition of the station's license assets from New Age Media, LLC in August 2024, transitioning from prior local marketing and agreements to direct ownership. This structure aligns with Sinclair's broader portfolio, encompassing ownership or operational control of approximately 185 television stations nationwide as of mid-2025. The company maintains centralized management from its headquarters in Hunt Valley, , with local operations for WOLF-TV integrated into its Northeast regional cluster.

Historical ownership transitions

WOLF-TV signed on the air on June 3, 1985, under the ownership of Scranton TV Partners, marking it as the first independent television station in the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre market. In 1993, Scranton TV Partners merged with Pegasus Communications, integrating the station into a broader portfolio of UHF independents and affiliates. Pegasus, which specialized in acquiring underperforming UHF stations, managed WOLF-TV through the late 1990s and early 2000s, including its affiliation with Fox since 1986 and the 1998 channel swap that relocated its primary signal to channel 56 while spinning off channel 38 as WSWB. The Pegasus group faced financial pressures leading to a sale of most assets, including WOLF-TV, to Wilkes-Barre-based investment firm CP Media, LLC, announced in late 2006 and consummated on March 31, 2007. CP Media, headed by local media investors such as John Parente, focused on regional operations and duopoly formations, pairing WOLF-TV with emerging sister stations like WQMY. This entity effectively transitioned into or operated alongside New Age Media, LLC, which held the licenses and emphasized local marketing agreements to expand coverage in . On September 25, 2013, New Age Media agreed to sell WOLF-TV, along with WQMY and WSWB, to as part of a $90 million acquisition of eight stations across multiple markets. The transaction, approved by the FCC, closed later that year and established Sinclair's presence in the market through a triopoly structure, with WOLF-TV as the flagship. Sinclair has retained ownership since, utilizing to integrate programming and operations.

Network affiliations and partnerships

WOLF-TV operates as the Fox Broadcasting Company affiliate for the Wilkes-Barre–Scranton–Hazleton designated market area in northeastern Pennsylvania. This affiliation provides the station with access to Fox's national primetime lineup, sports programming including NFL games, and special events. The station joined Fox shortly after its initial sign-on in June 1985, becoming one of the network's early affiliates in 1986. Through its ownership by Sinclair Broadcast Group since 2014, WOLF-TV benefits from multi-year affiliation renewal agreements with Fox, including a 2022 extension covering 20 markets that encompasses this station's service area. WOLF-TV forms a duopoly with co-owned WQMY, which carries programming from , a syndication service owned by . This partnership enables shared operational resources and complementary scheduling, with WQMY focusing on syndicated content and off-network reruns alongside MyNetworkTV's weekly scripted series. Sinclair's broader portfolio facilitates additional synergies, such as national advertising sales and content distribution deals.

Programming

Network and syndicated programming

WOLF-TV operates as a Fox network affiliate, broadcasting the network's national primetime lineup, which features scripted dramas, comedies, reality series, and specials. The station airs Fox Sports events, including National Football League (NFL) games, Major League Baseball (MLB) broadcasts, and other live sporting events allocated to Fox by league agreements, typically on Sundays during the regular season and playoffs. Late-night programming includes Fox's Gutfeld! and other talk shows, while morning slots before local news incorporate network-supplied content or affiliates' standard feeds. In daytime and access hours, WOLF-TV schedules syndicated programming to fill non-network slots, emphasizing infomercials, talk formats, and informational content. Examples include paid programming blocks from 6:30 a.m., followed by syndicated news aggregates like The National News Desk at 7:00 a.m. and The National Weather Desk at 9:00 a.m., alongside lifestyle series such as The Perfect Line at 9:30 a.m. The station also carries conservative-leaning syndicated commentary, such as weekly Armstrong Williams Town Hall discussions on current events. Historically, syndicated sitcom reruns like Seinfeld and Everybody Loves Raymond have appeared in evening slots during special preemptions or off-network periods. As part of Sinclair Broadcast Group, WOLF-TV integrates group-distributed content where applicable, prioritizing viewer demographics in Northeastern Pennsylvania.

Local original content and sports coverage

WOLF-TV produces limited local original programming outside of its newscasts, focusing on lifestyle and public affairs content tailored to audiences. The station airs The Great Outdoors, a program highlighting regional outdoor activities and natural sites, such as episodes featuring on June 28, 2025, and Montour Preserve on June 7, 2025. Additionally, it broadcasts the Town Hall, a syndicated public affairs discussion series addressing weekly news developments from a conservative perspective. In sports coverage, WOLF-TV emphasizes production of live high school athletic events, including football games such as District 2 and District 4 playoff matchups, often across Sinclair properties or streamed online. The station has positioned itself as the regional leader in originating such local broadcasts, extending to college-level games in the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton market. Upon launching operations in 2017, WOLF-TV established a dedicated sports team to cover community events, including tie-ins to major national spectacles like the for area-specific reactions and highlights. This focus fills a niche in the market, where network affiliates historically prioritize syndicated fare over extensive grassroots sports production.

Newscasts

Development and launch

Prior to 2017, WOLF-TV's evening newscast had been produced by partner stations, initially and later under a share agreement that expanded the program to a one-hour format airing seven nights a week starting , 2010. That agreement with Nexstar-owned concluded on December 31, 2016, prompting WOLF-TV—operated by —to develop an independent in-house department. The station launched its self-produced newscasts on January 1, 2017, with the debut of FOX 56 News – First at 10:00, retaining the established one-hour length and daily schedule while shifting production to dedicated studios and control rooms in . This transition involved recruiting a new team, including news manager Dawn Miller (formerly an executive producer at ), primary anchor Dayne Marae, multimedia journalists Brian Sheehan, Alex Belser, Katie Berlin, and Jade Jarvis, chief meteorologist Mike Linden, and sports anchors Erin Dugan and Bob Ide, along with photographers and additional support staff. Sinclair's general manager Jon Cadman cited the move as a response to viewer and advertiser demand for an additional voice in the market, aiming to differentiate from competitors like WNEP-TV's shorter 10 p.m. program and leverage synergies with primetime viewership for better retention. The in-house operation was also positioned to cut costs associated with while covering the 17 counties spanning northeastern and central , with an emphasis on hyper-local reporting from Wilkes-Barre and Scranton areas.

Format, style, and ratings performance

The 56 News First at 10 is WOLF-TV's flagship newscast, consisting of an hour-long program broadcast daily at 10:00 p.m. ET. It covers local news from the Wilkes-Barre-Scranton area, national and world events, weather forecasts, and sports, with a strong emphasis on live coverage of high school and games. The format includes standard segments such as lead stories, reporter packages, live updates, and a weather block, produced entirely in-house at WOLF-TV's studios since January 1, 2017, following the termination of a production agreement with affiliate . In style, the newscast employs a conventional local television news approach, featuring on-air anchors, field reporters, and graphics typical of Fox affiliates, while incorporating syndicated elements like the weekly Armstrong Williams Town Hall for commentary on current issues. As a property, WOLF-TV's content reflects right-center editorial leanings, prioritizing factual reporting on community matters, though Sinclair's centralized must-run segments have drawn scrutiny for promoting specific viewpoints in local broadcasts. The station's overall output is rated high for factual accuracy despite its . Specific Nielsen ratings for Fox 56 News First at 10 are not publicly detailed in available sources, reflecting the limited disclosure common for newscasts in smaller designated market areas like Wilkes-Barre-Scranton (DMA rank 55). The program positions itself as the earliest prime-time option, potentially appealing to viewers avoiding later 11:00 p.m. newscasts from competing network affiliates.

Technical information

Broadcast facilities and signal coverage

WOLF-TV transmits its signal from a facility at the Penobscot Knob antenna farm near Mountain Top in . The station's primary broadcast equipment includes a digital transmitter operating on UHF channel 22 (518–524 MHz), with an of 220 kW horizontally and 82.4 kW vertically. The antenna is mounted at a height of 814 feet above ground level and 1,673 feet above average terrain, enabling across the surrounding . The station's signal covers the Wilkes-Barre–Scranton designated market area (DMA #55), serving with a primary noise-limited contour extending approximately 63.7 miles from the transmitter site. This encompasses key counties including Luzerne, Lackawanna, , Columbia, and Pike, reaching an estimated area of 12,750 square miles and a population of about 2.9 million within the contour. Over-the-air reception is strongest in urban centers like Wilkes-Barre, Scranton, and Hazleton, though terrain features such as the can cause shadowing in fringe areas. The DMA itself supports around 589,000 television households as of the 2024–2025 season.

Subchannels and multicast services

WOLF-TV's primary , 56.1, broadcasts network programming in high definition. Subchannel 56.2 simulcasts the programming of WSWB, the area's affiliate, in standard definition under the branding "CW38," providing broader coverage for the network via WOLF-TV's stronger signal from Knob. Subchannel 56.3 carries a simulcast of WQMY, the market's affiliate, in resolution.
VirtualResolutionAffiliationNotes
56.1Main program service, branded "Fox 56"
56.2Simulcast of WSWB
56.3Simulcast of WQMY
56.4Charge!Sinclair-owned action/crime diginet
56.5ROARSinclair multicast network
Subchannels 56.4 and 56.5 feature Sinclair Broadcast Group's digital networks: Charge!, which airs action movies and series, and ROAR, a specialized service launched as part of Sinclair's expansion of free over-the-air content. These subchannels utilize ATSC 1.0 to deliver additional programming without requiring separate full-power licenses, enabling efficient use for secondary services in the Scranton–Wilkes-Barre market.

Analog-to-digital conversion

WOLF-TV discontinued its analog broadcasts on UHF channel 56 in early 2009, prior to the federally mandated nationwide transition date of June 12, 2009, for full-power stations. This early shutdown allowed the station to complete its conversion without participating in the delayed "" service provided to some viewers still reliant on analog reception. The decision aligned with preparations by other local stations like WYOU-TV, which also transitioned ahead of the deadline and reported no significant viewer disruptions. Post-transition, WOLF-TV's digital signal remained on its pre-conversion UHF channel 45, remapped via PSIP to display as virtual channel 56.1 to maintain continuity for viewers and equipment programmed to the original analog assignment. This configuration preserved the station's service area coverage, serving approximately 684,358 persons in analog prior to the switch, with digital operations enabling high-definition programming and subchannels. No major technical issues were noted in local coverage of the transition for WOLF-TV.

Translators and signal boosters

WOLF-TV employs low-power digital translators to extend its over-the-air coverage across , addressing challenges from mountainous terrain and signal interference. The station's primary fill-in translator, W24DB-D, operates on UHF channel 24 with a transmitter located northwest of Scranton in Clarks Summit, Lackawanna County. Licensed to WOLF Licensee, LLC—the same entity that holds the WOLF-TV license—W24DB-D rebroadcasts WOLF-TV's affiliation on virtual subchannel 24.1 in high definition, alongside additional subchannels carrying (24.2, ), MyNetworkTV (24.3, ), Charge! (24.4, ), and TBD (formerly ROAR, 24.5, ). To counteract interference from wind turbines operated by , which disrupt reception in portions of Wayne County, WOLF-TV utilizes a digital replacement translator (DRT) on UHF channel 27, with facilities in Waymart, . This DRT provides a targeted signal boost within a 6.3-mile contour, reaching an estimated 56,641 viewers who might otherwise experience weak or absent over-the-air service from the main transmitter atop Knob. No on-channel signal boosters are in operation for WOLF-TV, as the station relies on these off-channel low-power facilities for supplemental coverage rather than same-frequency amplification.

References

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  38. https://sbgi.net/sinclairs-multicast-broadcast-networks-charge-comet-roar-and-the-nest-increase-national-coverage-through-new-affiliations/
  39. https://www.fybush.com/NERW/2009/090216/nerw.html
  40. https://docs.fcc.gov/public/attachments/DA-01-216A1.pdf
  41. https://www.fcc.gov/dtv/markets/maps_current/Wilkes_Barre-Scranton_PA.pdf
  42. https://www.rabbitears.info/market.php?request=station_search&callsign=52077
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