WMDE
WMDE, virtual channel 36 (VHF digital channel 5), is a ShopHQ-affiliated television station licensed to Dover, Delaware, United States. The station is owned by WRNN-TV Associates. WMDE's transmitter is located in the unincorporated community of Wye Mills in Talbot County, Maryland, southwest of Dover. Despite its physical location well east of the city, the station is assigned by Nielsen to the Washington, D.C. television market. With the repeal of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC)'s Main Studio Rule in 2019, WMDE is fully automated out of WRNN-TV's studios in Rye Brook, New York, with  no local presence whatsoever. Outside of a morning rebroadcast of the Japanese network Fuji TV's "News Catch" program, the station's schedule on its main channel is made up of home shopping programming from ShopHQ, which also airs on the main channel of all of WRNN's stations. History. WMDE signed on May 24, 2013. The station was originally owned by Western Pacific Broadcast LLC. Shortly after sign-on, Nielsen granted WMDE's request to be assigned to the Washington market instead of Philadelphia (where Dover is located) or Baltimore (where Wye Mills is located). WMDE is thus carried  on every cable and satellite provider in the Washington market, with the exception of Cox Communications, which filed a complaint to the FCC seeking to avoid carriage and prevailed in 2015. Although the FCC's ruling called Nielsen's market modification decision "inexplicable", must-carry rules otherwise defer to Nielsen with respect to market assignment. WRNN-TV Associates agreed to acquire the station for $11.5 million on April 25, 2018; the sale was completed on July 11, 2018. Subchannels. The station's digital signal is multiplexed: