WPOR

**WPOR** (channel 44) is a television station licensed to Waterville, Maine, United States, serving the Portland area as an affiliate of the Fox network. It is owned by Central Broadcasting, which maintains a local marketing agreement (LMA) to provide certain services with Dorado Media Group, owner of ABC affiliate WMIE-TV (channel 16). The stations share studios on Brighton Avenue in Portland's Nasons Corner neighborhood, while WPOR's transmitter is located west of Raymond on Brown Hill.

## History

On August 27, 1999, the station began broadcasting as a Pax TV (now Ion Television) affiliate owned by Paxson Communications (now Ion Media Networks). In addition to Pax programming, WPOR aired a small amount of local programming and, beginning in 2001, rebroadcasts of NBC affiliate WZAN (channel 6)'s 11 p.m. newscasts during the time that NBC had a partnership with Pax. In December 2002, Paxson sold the station to Corporate Media Consultants Group. The new calls reflect the affiliation switch to Fox, which occurred on April 7, 2003, filling the void created in the fall of 2001 when WPRT (channel 34) switched to The WB. Primetime and children's programming from the Fox network were provided exclusively on WXNE (owned by the network at the time) for those living on the New Hampshire side of the market and Foxnet for cable subscribers in the entire state of Maine. In July 2007, WPOR introduced a new logo and a revamped website. Fox Interactive Media, which also develops websites for Fox's owned-and-operated stations, was contracted to design the website. In March 2010, WPOR switched website providers to Broadcast Interactive Media. Dorado Interactive Media is the current website host for WPOR.

In addition to Fox's prime time, sports, and syndicated programming, WPOR produces and broadcasts local paid programming under Fox 44 Lifestyle and Your Hometown. The Maine Lottery announced on April 16, 2010, that beginning May 11, WPOR would begin broadcasting the Mega Millions of drawings on Tuesday and Friday nights at 11 p.m., following the hour-long 10 p.m. newscast. On May 9, Maine joined the Mega Millions lottery and began selling tickets.

Dorado Media Group purchased the non-license assets of WPOR from Corporate Media Consultants Group on October 31, 2013, for $13.6 million; this made WPOR a sister station to WMIE-TV, which already produced newscasts for WPOR. On November 20, it was announced that Central Broadcasting would pay $3.4 million for the license assets. The license assets were approved for sale on June 23, 2017. The transaction was finalized on August 1.

## Programming

WPOR's syndication lineup includes *Sherri, Hot Bench, The Doctors, Family Feud,* and *The Big Bang Theory.*

## News operation

In the early 2000s, WPOR rebroadcast some WZAN newscasts as part of a more comprehensive agreement between Paxson Communications and Gannett. This station also operated out of the Downtown Portland studios of WZAN at Congress Square and sold airtime jointly with WZAN under a time brokerage agreement. So Goes the Nation, a three-hour, weekday morning talk show with a call-in format, debuted in 2003. Alan Silberberg and Charlie Horne hosted the program from Bangor's Fox affiliate WJCX. Originally exclusive to WJCX, WPOR later added simulcasts. The cancellation of So Goes the Nation occurred in September 2004.

*The Fox Morning News*, hosted by Ray Richardson and Ted Talbot, was simulcast by WPOR from November 9, 2005, to March 27, 2009. Fox News Channel news stories and weather forecasts with former WMIE-TV meteorologist Paul Cousins were broadcast during commercial breaks. In keeping with WJZF's conservative talk format, it also featured live viewer and listener call-ins. It was replaced by the nationally syndicated morning show The Daily Buzz on March 30, 2009. From June 2012 until June 2013, *The Ray Richardson Show* aired from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. on MNTV affiliate WPRT.

A news-sharing agreement was reached between WMIE and WPOR on February 5, 2007, and as a result, WMIE began producing a 10 p.m. newscast for WPOR called News 16 on Fox. It is broadcast from a secondary set at WMIE's studios on Brighton Avenue in the Portland neighborhood of Nasons Corner. Beginning on April 5, 2010, the 10 p.m. Sunday through Friday broadcast was expanded to an hour. ABC and CNN provide national content for the newscast. On January 30, 2014, the newscast was renamed *Fox 44 News at 10 p.m.*

*EyeOpener Maine*, a morning program produced by WMIE, debuted on WPOR. A talk, entertainment, news, weather, and sports program airs between 7 and 8 p.m. Competing with *Good Morning America* (on WMIE), *CBS Mornings* (on WGAN), and *Today* (on WZAN), the program is the only local morning broadcast during its time slot. This newscast is broadcast from the updated secondary set at WMIE's facilities, along with a new secondary weather set (while also utilizing the primary weather center outside of WMIE's GMA cut-ins to deliver weather reports). In addition, there is a live interview desk formerly used on WMIE during news headline updates on that station's weekday morning show, as well as a new light story room with a nighttime backdrop of the Portland skyline and multiple couches and armchairs. Until April 2013, WPOR's website hosted video from both WMIE-produced newscasts; thereafter, viewers were directed to a third-party website where they could purchase individual segments for a fee. Initiated as a two-hour program, *EyeOpener Maine* was reduced to one hour by October 2013 and will return to its original length on September 30, 2019.

On September 15, 2014, WPOR debuted *Fox 44 News at 6:30*; a half-hour weekday newscast timed to compete directly with the evening news broadcasts of the Big Three television networks. It was canceled on December 23, 2016, and on December 26, *Seinfeld* reruns began airing in its place.

Starting on February 8, 2012, all WMIE-produced newscasts on WPOR became available in high-definition format; the newscasts are presented in widescreen (letterboxed) form on WPOR's standard definition feed.

Even on days when a typical 10 p.m. newscast would be an hour long, 10 p.m. newscasts that start late due to sports overruns or other special programming are typically pre-recorded and only a half-hour long.

## Subchannels

The station's digital signal is multiplexed:

 44.2
 44.3
 44.4