television station . for the superbike world championship wsbk see superbike world championship . this article needs additional citations for verification . please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources . unsourced material may be challenged and removed . december 2012 learn how and when to remove this template message wsbk tv boston massachusetts united states branding my38 wbz news during wbz tv produced newscast channels digital 39 uhf virtual 38 psip affiliations .1 mynetworktv .2 heroes & icons owner cbs corporation cbs television licenses llc first air date october 12 1964 ; 52 years ago 1964 10 12 call letters meaning sbk stock ticker symbol of former owner storer broadcasting sister station s wbz wbz fm wbz tv wbmx wods wzlx former callsigns wihs tv 1964 1966 former channel number s analog 38 uhf 1964 2009 former affiliations independent 1964 1993 2006 2011 pten 1993 1995 upn 1995 2006 transmitter power 135 kw height 390 m facility id 73982 transmitter coordinates 42 18 37 n 71 14 14 w 42.31028 n 71.23722 w 42.31028 ; 71.23722 licensing authority fcc public license information profile cdbs website boston.cbslocal.com category mytv38 wsbk tv virtual channel 38 uhf digital channel 39 is a mynetworktv affiliated television station located in boston massachusetts united states . the station is owned by the cbs television stations subsidiary of the cbs corporation as part of a duopoly with cbs owned and operated station wbz tv channel 4 . the two stations share studios on soldiers field road in the brighton section of boston wsbk s transmitter is located along the needham and wellesley town line southwest of the ma 9 and i 95 ma 128 interchange . wsbk is also available via direct broadcast satellite throughout the united states on dish network as part of its superstation package which since september 2013 is available only to existing subscribers of the tier . 1 contents 1 history 1.1 origins 1.2 wsbk tv 1.2.1 becoming a superstation 1.2.2 sale to paramount and affiliation with upn 1.2.3 return to independent status 1.2.4 switch to mynetworktv 2 digital television 2.1 digital channels 2.2 analog to digital conversion 3 programming 3.1 sports 3.2 local programming 4 newscasts 4.1 news team 5 references 6 see also 7 external links history edit origins edit the first construction permit for channel 38 in boston was granted in october 1955 to ajax enterprises headed by herbert mayer a former new york city attorney who had founded empire coil a new rochelle new york manufacturer of rf coils for television stations and receivers . mayer went on to own stations in portland oregon kptv the country s first licensed uhf station and cleveland wxel . he sold the cable manufacturer and both television stations to storer broadcasting in 1954 . channel 38 was originally slated to have the whmb call sign ; however after storer changed the call letters of the cleveland property to wjw tv in april 1956 mayer quickly reclaimed the wxel call letters for the boston station . wxel s proposed transmitter in melrose was never built and the federal communications commission fcc revoked the construction permit and deleted the call letters in november 1960 . the current station signed on the air on october 12 1964 . it was first licensed to the boston catholic television center under the call letters wihs tv . the station employed a general entertainment format along with broadcasts of the daily and sunday mass . as wihs the station initially programmed a hybrid schedule educational for the catholic schools in the boston area and religious programs during the morning and syndicated programs and movies and by 1966 some shows that the boston area s network affiliates declined to air in the afternoon and evening . the station also carried two 15 minute local newscasts each weekday at 5 45 and 10 p.m. which consisted of an announcer reading news headlines into a camera . the station also made an initial foray into sports carrying ten regular season away games and all playoff road games from the boston celtics that were not carried on network television during the 1964 65 season . however team management was worried about the lack of penetration of the uhf band leading to playoff away games being simulcast on whdh tv channel 5 in 1965 that station had previously aired select celtics telecasts including playoff away games starting in 1962 ; the following season the team moved back to whdh outright . some college sports mostly hockey and basketball games were carried during the wihs era which were carried over during the early storer broadcasting years . wsbk tv edit the station was purchased by storer broadcasting in 1966 . a few months after the purchase the station s call letters were changed to the present wsbk tv named after the company s ticker symbol on the new york stock exchange sbk . storer scored its biggest coup in 1967 when it secured broadcast rights to the boston bruins from wkbg tv channel 56 now wlvi and eventually owned the team for a three year period from 1972 to 1975 . during the next few years as the bruins became a contender for the national hockey league s stanley cup championship the popularity of these games led to a spike in uhf antenna purchases and helped make channel 38 one of the leading independent stations in the country . for much of the time between 1970 and 1984 wsbk would televise between 70 and 72 of the bruins 80 regular season games as well as all playoff games not shown on network television . in 1975 wsbk acquired television rights to the boston red sox ; during the team s first year on wsbk the red sox won the american league pennant . the team remained on wsbk until 1995 and returned for another three year period from 2003 to 2005 . wsbk had broadcast between 90 and 110 red sox games a year between 1975 and 1983 ; about 75 games a year from 1984 to 1995 ; and a limited number of games usually 28 to 30 a year between 2003 and 2005 . although wsbk carried celtics road playoff games in 1969 the team having abandoned wkbg at the end of the regular season after seeing the number of regular season games broadcast by wkbg during the 1968 69 season shrink compared to the previous year the station would not carry the nba team s games on a regular basis until 1993 . during that time wsbk broadcast road games of the celtics ; it continued to do so through 1998 . in addition to an increasingly stronger lineup of syndicated programs which during the late 1960s through to a lesser extent the 1990s included cartoons such as looney tunes merrie melodies shorts and made for tv popeye cartoons and sitcoms such as the andy griffith show the dick van dyke show cheers itself set in boston and now owned by cbs m a s h and frasier wsbk continued to run some network programs that were preempted by the local nbc wbz tv abc first wnac tv then wcvb tv and cbs first whdh tv then wnac tv wnev tv affiliates until 1981 . the station also ran several movies a day one during the day prime time and late night . during the 1970s through the mid 1980s wsbk s cartoon programs were hosted by willie whistle a clown who used a bird whistle in his mouth to create a distinctive voice he was recognized for . becoming a superstation edit wsbk s popularity was such that by the mid 1970s it was available on nearly every cable provider in new england and as far west as buffalo new york . in the late 1980s wsbk became a national superstation when it entered into an agreement with eastern microwave to distribute its signal outside of new england . eastern microwave also distributed the signal of existing superstation wor tv in new york city . wsbk s main selling point was its coverage of the red sox similar to how wor tv wgn tv in chicago and wtbs in atlanta respectively used their coverage of the new york mets chicago cubs and atlanta braves . wsbk s carriage did not reach the same level as the other stations but covered large portions of new york new jersey and a handful of cable providers in florida which produced the unusual circumstance of red sox games being regularly broadcast into part of the new york yankees main market like wpix in the boston area which carried the yankees . wsbk s coverage of the boston bruins also made it a favorite superstation on canadian cable providers along with wor at the time wor was televising away games of all three new york area nhl teams the new york islanders the new york rangers and the new jersey devils . when the fcc s syndication exclusivity rules or syndex were strengthened in the early 1990s distribution of all out of market station signals were hampered . the rule protected stations in local markets from out of market competition by superstations that aired identical syndicated programming . any station could file with cable providers for protection and the provider would have to black out the offending station for periods of time . the management of this blocking would prove so cumbersome that many cable providers began dropping distant signals such as wsbk and effectively stopped most superstation distribution . distributors such as eastern microwave attempted to make it easier for cable providers by substituting shows that could not be blocked but the damage had already been done by then . wsbk began operating on a 24 hour schedule in the late 1970s only to revert to late night signoffs by the early 1980s . besides its status as a sports powerhouse wsbk made a name for itself when it created the movie loft one of the first hosted movie franchises on television long before it became a staple on cable . the program aired syndicated movies with interstitial program elements hosted by dana hersey . part of the program s marketing was that it aired only unedited movies . the movie loft tested that on several occasions airing movies such as the deer hunter the boys in the band and 48 hrs . without editing for inappropriate content or length . in the mid 1980s wsbk dropped the midday movie to make room for more sitcoms . for a few years wsbk signed off at 1 or 2 a.m. but began operating 24 hours a day by the end of the decade . kohlberg kravis roberts bought wsbk and most of storer s other stations in 1985 . at this time ownership was officially under the kkr subsidiary of new boston television although storer was still referenced on air as being the parent company of wsbk . kkr later sold most of its stations to gillett communications . when gillett defaulted on some of the financing agreements in the early 1990s the ownership was restructured and the company was renamed sci television . eventually sci ran into fiscal issues and filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy in 1993 . as a result wsbk was sold in a group deal to new world communications that year . sale to paramount and affiliation with upn edit in 1994 new world made a landmark deal with fox to switch most of its cbs abc and nbc affiliated stations to fox . wsbk remained an independent station and was eventually put up for sale again to protect existing affiliate wfxt channel 25 which fox would acquire soon afterward wsbk would not have been beneficial to fox as it was a uhf station the new world stations that switched to fox had broadcast on vhf channels between 2 and 13 and did not have a news