WBSH

WBSH (channel 56) is a CW-affiliated station licensed to Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, and also serving Scranton and Hazleton. It is owned by Lake Hill Broadcasting. WBSH's studios are located in Scranton, with its transmitter located at the transmitter farm located at the Penobscot Knob antenna farm near Mountain Top.
== History ==
WBSH first started broadcasting in May 1994, owned by WBSH Television Inc, which was comprised of several local investors. It broadcasted mainly brokered programming during that time. Due to the failure of the station, it was sold to Sinclair Broadcast Group in December 1994. Sinclair then decided to affiliate the station with The WB network, which was starting up in January 1995, and put syndicated programming during the off hours.
In January 2006, it was announced that The WB and UPN would shut down to create a new network, The CW. WBSH became an affiliate of The CW, where it continued to see modest programming and ratings.
On May 8, 2020, Sinclair announced that they would buy Tribune Broadcasting. To comply with the FCC rules on ownership, Sinclair announced that it would divest WBSH to Lake Hill Broadcasting. The deal was approved, despite the deal with Tribune falling apart. 
== Programming ==
Syndicated programming includes The Doctors, Mike and Molly, Two and a Half Men, among others.
When The Office, which was based on a fictional paper company in Scranton, went up for syndication, WBSH paid $45 million to grab the exclusive rights to broadcast the show in the area. To promote the syndicated airings, which aired weeknights at ten, WBSH gave away Dunder Mifflin branded reams of paper and a $100 gift card to Staples, a frequent sponsor of the show, to a random viewer who called the station during the program. It also partnered with WERF, who produced WBSH's 10pm news (and later 6:30pm news) to promote both station's airings of the program. WERF would promote WBSH's reruns after a new episode of The Office was aired, and WBSH would promote new episodes of the program on WERF. Both stations saw their airings of the program grow due to the campaign and was praised by the media industry as a result.
== News Programming ==
WBSH in the early years never produced or aired news programming until 2000, when it partnered with WERF to air a nightly 10pm newscast, named NBC 25 News at ten on The WB 56 and later NBC 25 News at Ten on The CW 56. The 10pm newscast was moved to 6:30 and 7:30pm, following the syndicated premiere of The Office on WBSH. 
The newscasts lasted until 2010, when the news share agreement ended with WERF. Sinclair decided to start it's own news department and hired reporters. The new newscast launched on January 1, 2010. The new half hour newscasts, called "CW 56 News First at Ten," was produced by Sinclair in Baltimore, using the former News Central studio with modifications. The anchors, meteorologists, and sports anchors were all based in Baltimore, while a team of 3 reporters reported from NEPA. 
When Lake Hill bought the station in 2018, it was unclear about the future of the newscasts. Lake Hill announced that it would move the production of the newscasts to Scranton and hired the necessary personnel to do so. It also expanded the number of reporters to 13, and expanded the newscasts to air from 5-10, 5pm, 6pm, 10pm, and 11pm. 
Category:Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, PA
Category:Pennsylvania
Category:CW network affiliates
Category:Channel 38
Category:Television channels and stations established in 1994