WSWB (channel 38) is a television station licensed to Scranton, Pennsylvania, United States, serving as the CW affiliate for Northeastern Pennsylvania. It is owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group alongside WOLF-TV (channel 56), a Fox affiliate, and WQMY (channel 53), an independent station with MyNetworkTV. The three stations share studios on PA 315 in the Fox Hill section of Plains Township; WSWB's transmitter is located on Bald Mountain, northwest of Scranton and I-476. WSWB's CW programming is broadcast from all three stations' transmitters.

The histories of channel 56 in Hazleton and channel 38 in Scranton are closely linked. A consortium of businessmen from New York state filed for both channels, with channel 38 as the main station and channel 56 as a satellite station to reach areas of southern Luzerne County. Channel 38, as WOLF-TV, and channel 56, as WWLF-TV, began broadcasting on June 3, 1985, simulcasting as the market's first modern independent station. In addition to becoming a Fox affiliate in 1986, WOLF-TV offered locally produced children's programming and was the first television station in the U.S. to air a newscast produced by a competing station: WNEP-TV, which began producing a 10p.m. newscast for WOLF in 1991. A second repeater, WILF (channel 53) in Williamsport, launched in 1992.

In 1993, WOLF-TV's ownership merged into Pegasus Broadcast Television. In 1998, a comprehensive transmitter overhaul plan for the Pegasus stations saw channel 56 move to Penobscot Knob, the primary transmitter site for television in Northeastern Pennsylvania, and become the primary Fox affiliate as WOLF-TV. Channel 38 was split off as an affiliate of The WB under new WSWB call letters and ownership which contracted with Pegasus for programming and added UPN in 2005. It became the CW affiliate when The WB and UPN merged in 2006. New Age Media, which had bought Pegasus's stations out of bankruptcy, sold its assets to Sinclair in 2014, although Sinclair did not acquire the WSWB license until 2026.

History

Another division of Pegasus was involved in reselling DirecTV satellite service in rural areas. In June 2004, DirecTV moved to terminate its contract with Pegasus, prompting subsidiaries of the company to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization. All of the company's stations went up for sale. Pegasus attempted to buy WSWB, a deal the FCC stalled, and the bankruptcy trustee assigned the $2.1million agreement to Mystic Television of Scranton, a firm owned by Daniel J. Duman of Silver Spring, Maryland. In August 2006, the entire Pegasus group was put up for auction, and CP Media of Wilkes-Barre and its subsidiary New Age Media presented the winning bid for the company.

In 2006, The WB and UPN merged to form The CW. Though UPN programming had been unrepresented in Northeastern Pennsylvania, WSWB had become a secondary UPN affiliate by the end of 2005. WSWB was selected as the CW affiliate in March 2006. WILF obtained the MyNetworkTV affiliation and was split off as its own station, WQMY.

Sinclair operation and ownership

On September 25, 2013, New Age Media announced that it would sell most of its stations, including WOLF-TV and WQMY, to Sinclair Broadcast Group for $90million. Concurrently, WSWB was to be sold by MPS Media to Cunningham Broadcasting and continue to be operated by WOLF-TV. On October 31, 2014, New Age Media requested the dismissal of its application to sell WOLF-TV and WQMY; the next day, Sinclair closed on its purchase of the non-license assets of the New Age Media stations. New Age continued to hold the licenses, but Sinclair began operating the stations through a master service agreement.

On July 28, 2021, the FCC issued a Forfeiture Order stemming from a lawsuit against MPS Media. The lawsuit, filed by AT&T, alleged that MPS Media failed to negotiate for retransmission consent in good faith for the stations. Owners of other Sinclair-managed stations, such as Deerfield Media, were also named in the lawsuit. MPS was ordered to pay a fine of $512,288.

Sinclair filed on May 28, 2025, to acquire the WOLF-TV and WQMY licenses from New Age Media, which was completed on August 1. On February 24, 2026, Sinclair filed to acquire WSWB, requesting a waiver of ownership rules to own more than two broadcast licenses in the market. It contended that its ability to provide programming and other services to WSWB would be enhanced by direct ownership, citing declining advertising revenues and economies of scale from full integration. The FCC granted such a waiver on April 21, and the sale was completed on May 1.

Technical information

Subchannels

WSWB's primary transmitter is located on Bald Mountain. The station's signal is multiplexed:

Analog-to-digital conversion

WOLF-TV and WSWB were among the last Scranton–Wilkes-Barre stations to launch digital signals, which were on the air by November 2003. They were also among the first to cease analog broadcasts; WSWB closed its analog signal in December 2008. The station's digital signal remained on its pre-transition UHF channel 31, using virtual channel 38. It relocated its signal to channel 34 in 2019 as a result of the 2016 United States wireless spectrum auction.

Translator

A digital replacement translator provides additional coverage for WSWB.

• 36 Waymart

WSWB and the other major Scranton–Wilkes-Barre stations maintain secondary transmitters at Waymart, where the operation of the Waymart Wind Farm interferes with the reception of television signals from Mountain Top. In 2004, the FCC authorized the construction of a tower on Moosic Mountain. FPL Energy (now NextEra Energy Resources), owner of the wind farm, built the facility to provide the signals of the major networks.

Notes

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