united states branding wbre general eyewitness news newscasts slogan wbre more colorful general everywhere you are newscasts channels digital 11 vhf virtual 28 psip subchannels 28.1 nbc 28.2 laff 28.3 grit translators 28 uhf waymart affiliations nbc owner nexstar broadcasting group nexstar broadcasting inc. first air date january 1 1953 ; 63 years ago 1953 01 01 call letters meaning baltimore radio exchange for original owners but call sign was kept when radio sisters were sold or wilkes barre sister station s wyou former channel number s analog 28 1953 2009 transmitter power 30 kw height 471 m facility id 71225 transmitter coordinates 41 10 58 n 75 52 26 w 41.18278 n 75.87389 w 41.18278 ; 75.87389 licensing authority fcc public license information profile cdbs website www.pahomepage.com wbre tv is the nbc affiliated television station for northeastern pennsylvania and new york s eastern southern tier that is licensed to wilkes barre . it broadcasts a high definition digital signal on vhf channel 11 from a transmitter at the penobscot knob antenna farm near mountain top . it can also be seen on comcast and service electric channel 3 . on digital cable there is a high definition signal on comcast channel 232 and service electric channel 503 . owned by the nexstar broadcasting group the station operates cbs affiliate wyou that is owned by mission broadcasting through a shared services agreement ssa and the two share studios on south franklin street in downtown wilkes barre . contents 1 history 2 digital television 2.1 digital channels 2.2 analog to digital conversion 3 repeaters 4 programming 5 news operation 6 out of market cable coverage 6.1 as fill in for other nbc affiliates during disputes 7 references 8 external links history edit wbre signed on new year s day 1953 becoming the first television station in the market . it was owned by the baltimore family along with wbre radio 1340 am now wyck and 98.5 fm now wkrz . although it appears that the call letters stand for wilkes barre they actually refer to baltimore radio exchange the baltimore family s company . the radio stations were sold off in 1980 . for much of its early history channel 28 was unable to get a direct feed from nbc because at & t microwave and wireline operations weren t available in northeast pennsylvania . station engineers were thus forced to switch to and from the signals of wnbt in new york city now wnbc and wptz in philadelphia now cbs o & o kyw tv when nbc programming was airing . wptz was used as a backup . in efforts to improve the quality and reliability of the received signals wbre built its own relay site on pimple hill on the west side of route 115 just south of pocono raceway . reception of the new york stations is very clear and reliable from that site ; indeed it served as a microwave retransmission site for many of the area s cable systems well into the 1990s until fiber optics made microwave transmission obsolete . in 1972 disaster struck at wbre when its offices were flooded by hurricane agnes . most of the station s equipment was moved above ground and survived but a film archive in the basement was destroyed . after 31 years of ownership the baltimore family sold wbre to new york based northeastern television investors in 1984 which in turn sold it to adams communications in 1989 . current owner nexstar broadcasting group acquired the station in 1997 . nexstar already owned wyou but opted to keep wbre and sold wyou to mission broadcasting . however nexstar continues to control wyou s operations through a joint sales agreement . on january 3 2007 nexstar named louis j. abitabilo as vice president and general manager for the two stations . the station s news operation made a fictional appearance within the nbc comedy series the office set in scranton in the 6th season episodes the chump and whistleblower interviewing michael scott about reports of malfunctioning printers . in september 2011 the station was evacuated once again due to potential flooding by heavy rains from tropical storm lee . for 48 hours the station operated remotely out of the garage of the local fox affiliate wolf tv . they provided coverage for the entire duration of the evacuation period nearly 63 hours . luckily the station and the majority of the city of wilkes barre were protected by the levee system . on january 19 2012 nexstar named robert g. bee as vice president and general manager of wbre with management responsibilities for wyou . the station went full hd including news and production on april 2 2012 . digital television edit digital channels edit the station s digital signal is multiplexed channel video aspect psip short name programming 1 28.1 1080i 16 9 wbre dt main wbre tv programming nbc 28.2 480i 4 3 laff 28.3 grit on june 15 2016 nexstar announced that it has entered into an affiliation agreement with katz broadcasting for the escape laff grit and bounce tv networks the last one of which is owned by bounce media llc whose coo jonathan katz is president ceo of katz broadcasting bringing the four networks to 81 stations owned and or operated by nexstar including wbre tv and wyou . 2 analog to digital conversion edit wbre tv shut down its analog signal over uhf channel 28 on february 17 2009 the original target date in which full power television stations in the united states were to transition from analog to digital broadcasts under federal mandate which was later pushed back to june 12 2009 . the station s digital signal remained on its pre transition vhf channel 11 . 3 through the use of psip digital television receivers display the station s virtual channel as its former uhf analog channel 28 . repeaters edit like other stations in the area wbre was forced to rely on repeaters to serve its coverage area for most of its history . the market is one of the largest in square miles east of the mississippi river and is very mountainous . in addition scranton wilkes barre was a uhf island before the digital transition because it is too close to philadelphia and new york city for vhf analog service . during march 2010 in a cost cutting move all owned and operated translators were shut down after nexstar determined that its vhf signal for wbre is adequate enough to reach most of the market . vhf signals bend over rugged terrain more easily than uhf signals . according to nepahdtv.com this move was met with some dismay from viewers in areas where reception of signals from penobscot knob is difficult if not impossible leaving many people in rural areas unable to watch the station . many of these areas are among the few in the country where cable and satellite aren t readily available . despite this no effort from nexstar has been made to bring back any of the repeaters . a digital channel 28 translator in waymart remains operational as the facility is owned and operated by nextera energy resources . windmills run by the company in the area surrounding waymart interfere with the transmission of full power television signals . programming edit syndicated programming on wbre includes wheel of fortune jeopardy steve harvey and dr. oz . news operation edit wbre led the ratings for most of the 1950s until abc affiliate wnep tv jumped ahead in 1959 . during the 1950s and 1960s mirroring the century long rivalry between scranton and wilkes barre wbre ruled wilkes barre while wdau tv now wyou dominated scranton . channel 28 jumped back in the lead in the early 1960s and went back and forth for first place with wdau until 1978 when wnep took the lead . it fell to third for most of the 1980s . in the mid 1990s the station briefly surpassed long dominant wnep then fell again to second after the sale to nexstar . in 2002 wbre and wyou dropped their separate weekday morning and noon newscasts in favor of pennsylvania morning and pennsylvania midday which were jointly produced and simulcasted on both stations . since the two have both trailed wnep in the news ratings by a wide margin for most of the last thirty years a major shakeup in format occurred in fall 2006 . while wyou went with a talk debate format for its weeknight shows wbre news became more of the traditional news program . this set a more clear competition against wnep . at the beginning of 2008 wyou dropped the weekday shared productions and started airing the first hour of the nationally syndicated morning show the daily buzz at 6 while debuting its own noon news . on june 9 2008 there were several more changes made on the two stations . wbre re launched its news operation as wbre eyewitness news . it had previously used the eyewitness news moniker from the mid 1980s until 2001 . this coincided with news set music package graphics and weather system upgrades . there were also some on air personnel changes . anchor andy mehalshick became a weeknight field anchor . candice kelly who had been anchoring on wyou moved to the weeknight newscasts on wbre back in mid may and was joined by newcomer drew speier . in addition wbre and wyou s midday shows switched anchors . mark hiller moved from wbre to wyou while eva mastromatteo switched over to this station . hiller also debuted as anchor of wyou news first at 4 on weeknights . that station became the first in the area to broadcast local news at that time . this was followed at 4 30 by the insider which moved from its 7 o clock slot . wyou then dropped its 5 p.m. newscast and aired two episodes of judge judy . finally weeknights at 6 o clock lyndall stout who anchored on wbre joined eric scheiner for the half hour wyou inter ctive . that station also launched a new weeknight newscast wyou news at 7 . wnep already aired local news at that time on weeknights . all of the preceding changes were an attempt to better compete against wnep and get more ratings . on april 4 2009 wyou shut down its news operation resulting in the lay off of fourteen personnel while others were integrated with wbre . syndicated programming began airing in place of the newscasts . the station saved nearly 1 million a year as a result of closing down its news department . 4 5 wolf tv fox affiliate dropped wnep as their news supplier at the end of 2009 . fox then went to wbre to take over starting january 1 2010 . 6 wbre then took over production of nightly prime time broadcasts on wolf tv which expanded to an hour and were re branded as fox 56 news first at 10 . 7 wbre launched a new 4 p.m. show called pa live in the fall of 2011 . it focuses on lifestyles news covering the greater wilkes barre and scranton area . along with its main studios wbre operates four news bureaus scranton on lackawanna avenue stroudsburg main street williamsport on pine street and hazelton east 10th street . on april 2 2012 wbre began broadcasting its local newscasts in high definition with a new news set hd cameras and forecasting equipment . with the upgrade the station began producing half hour newscasts at noon and 7 p.m. on sister station wyou the first such newscasts on that station since wyou s in house news department folded in 2009 ; those newscasts are also broadcast in high definition ; in addition simulcasts of wbre s weekday morning and nightly 6 and 11 p.m. newscasts are also carried on wyou