Branding WMBQ 46 Affiliations Biz TV | Founded February 11, 1993 | |
Owner Prime Time Partners LLC(WMBQ-CA Station, LLC) | ||
WMBQ-CD is a Class A low-power digital television station located in New York City broadcasting on UHF channel 46. Prime Time Partners LLC. purchased the station from Renard Broadcasting in 2011.
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Former owner Renard Communications Corp. operates a low-power digital television station, WBQM-LD (channel 3) in New York City, which continues to broadcast the Cornerstone TeleVision programming which WMBQ had been airing prior to the sale.
History as W22BM, WLBX-LP, and WMBQ-CA
This station was signed on over UHF channel 22 by Renard Communications Corp. with alpha-numeric call-sign W22BM Cranford on February 11, 1993. The call-sign was changed to WLBX-LP on April 24, 1998. WLBX-LP was previously an affiliate of The Box until that network's acquisition by Viacom in 2001; the station then carried MTV2 like many other former Box stations. The call sign was changed to WMBQ-CA in 2004. In 2006, Renard began transitioning to a new studio and transmitter they were constructing in Manhattan in New York City. Due to this change, WMBQ-CA was displaced from channel 22 to channel 46, and the city of license was changed from Cranford (New Jersey) to New York City. On August 17, 2007, Renard Communications Corp., a company controlled by Craig Fox, announced that would sell its three stations to Equity Media Holdings for $8 million. However, the transaction had a closing deadline set for June 1, 2008, and either party could cancel the sale if it were not completed by then. As of this revision, the sale has been consummated and, as of December 8, 2008, Equity Media Holdings is in chapter 11 bankruptcy. On January 3, 2008, WMBQ-CA went dark, reportedly as a result of moving to a new transmitter site. For a period of over two months, the station broadcast an aerial view of New York City and audio from NOAA weather radio. WMBQ resumed broadcasting Cornerstone TeleVision in early March 2008.
As WMBQ-CD
In mid-2011, Renard sold WMBQ for $5,250,000 to Prime Time Partners LLC., whose main principals are Jose Rodriguez and Marisol Messir. The call-sign was changed to WMBQ-CD on April 23, 2012 when the station completed its digital transition. Long-form infomercial programming was added full-time, however later that year Soi TV was added after having been removed from WNJU-DT3. The Soi programming ended in 2013, and infomercial programming was once again added back to the subchannel. The only programming that was air in the morning is al dia. The format continued through late December. Biz TV was then added, and this diginet is the first station to air financial programming in the New York City TV market since WBIS-TV (now WPXN-TV) aired financial programming from 1996-1998.
Digital television
The station's digital channel is multiplexed:
Digital channels
Canal SOI was formerly carried as a Telemundo subchannel. Locally, it had been airing over WNJU Linden, channel 47-3, between November 1, 2011 and December 21, 2012. A third sub channel, EEE, a Spanish religious network, was added in 2014 but in low audio tone. In January 2015, EEE was replaced with long-form Infomercial programming.