WRDM-CD

WRDM-CD, virtual channel 19 (UHF digital channel 31), is a Class A Telemundo owned-and-operated television station licensed to Hartford, Connecticut, United States. Owned by the Telemundo Station Group subsidiary of NBCUniversal (itself a subsidiary of Comcast), it is sister to New Britain-licensed NBC owned-and-operated station WVIT (channel 30).[2] The two stations share studios on New Britain Avenue in West Hartford and transmitter facilities on Rattlesnake Mountain in Farmington, Connecticut. Despite WRDM-CD legally holding a low-power Class A license, it transmits using WVIT's full-power spectrum. This ensures complete reception across the Hartford–New Haven television market.

WRDM-CD
Hartford–New Haven, Connecticut
United States
CityHartford, Connecticut
ChannelsDigital: 31 (UHF)
(shared with WVIT)
Virtual: 19 (PSIP)
BrandingTelemundo Connecticut
Noticiero Telemundo Nueva Inglaterra
(newscasts)
Programming
Affiliations19.1: Telemundo (O&O)
19.2: TeleXitos
Ownership
OwnerTelemundo Station Group
(a subsidiary of NBCUniversal)
(NBC Telemundo License LLC)
Sister stationsWVIT (Hartford–New Haven)
WNEU & WBTS-CD
(Merrimack, NH/Boston/Nashua, NH)
WYCN-LD & WRIW-CD
(Providence, RI)
History
Founded1985
First air dateJune 14, 1986 (1986-06-14)
Former call signsW13BF (1985–1995)
WRDM-LP (1995–2008)
WRDM-CA (2008–2013)
Former channel number(s)Analog:
13 (VHF, 1986–2006)
50 (UHF, 2006–2013)
Digital:
19 (UHF, 2013–2018)
50 (PSIP, 2013–2018)
35 (UHF, 2018–2019)
Former affiliationsAll secondary:
Rai Internazionale Americas (1986–2001)
TVP Polonia (per program, 1993–2001)
Call sign meaningRuzzier, D'Agostino, Minniti[1] (former owners)
Technical information
Licensing authorityFCC
Facility ID10153
ERP374 kW
HAAT450 m (1,476 ft)
Transmitter coordinates41°42′2″N 72°49′55″W
Links
Public license informationProfile
LMS
WebsiteConnecticut section on WNEU's website
WDMR-LD
(translator of WRDM-CD)
Springfield, Massachusetts
United States
ChannelsDigital: 23 (UHF)
Virtual: 14 (PSIP)
Brandingsee WRDM-CD infobox
Programming
Affiliations14.1: Telemundo (O&O)
14.2: TeleXitos
14.3: LXTV (soon)
Ownership
OwnerTelemundo Station Group
(a subsidiary of NBCUniversal)
(NBC Telemundo License LLC)
Sister stationssee WRDM-CD infobox
History
Founded1988
First air dateJune 13, 1991 (1991-06-13)
Former call signsW65BX (1988–1995)
WDMR-LP (1995–2012)
Former channel number(s)Analog:
65 (UHF, 1991–2006)
51 (UHF, 2006–2012)
Digital:
51 (UHF, 2012–2019)
Former affiliationsAll secondary:
Rai Internazionale Americas (1991–2001)
TVP Polonia (per program, 1993–2001)
Call sign meaninganagram of WRDM-CD
Technical information
Licensing authorityFCC
Facility ID10154
ERP15 kW
HAAT146 m (479 ft)
Transmitter coordinates42°5′7.3″N 72°42′10.3″W
Links
Public license information
(translator of WRDM-CD) Profile
LMS

WRDM is available on Comcast Xfinity channel 13, Cox channel 20 and MetroCast Cablevision channel 18, but currently not on any satellite providers (though this will likely change in the near future, as carriage of WRDM will likely be compulsory to carry WVIT under retransmission consent rules).

WDMR-LD (virtual channel 14, UHF digital channel 23) in Springfield, Massachusetts, operates as a translator of WRDM, serving the Pioneer Valley. This station's transmitter is located on Provin Mountain in the Feeding Hills section of Agawam, Massachusetts.

History
WRDM logo when the station broadcast on channel 13
Previous logo; used until nationwide Telemundo rebrand on December 8, 2012.

WRDM-CD signed on June 14, 1986; it claims to be the first Spanish-language television station in New England.[3] The station initially operated on channel 13 under the call letters W13BF.[1] On June 13, 1991,[4] the station added a simulcast in Springfield, W65BX (channel 65).[1] Initially, in addition to Telemundo programming, W13BF and W65BX aired programming in Italian from public broadcaster Radiotelevisione Italiana (RAI)'s international service,[1] with additional programming in Greek and Polish.[5] The television stations were joined by radio station WRDM (1550 AM, now WSDK) in 1993;[1] on September 1, 1995, W13BF changed its call letters to WRDM-LP,[6] and W65BX became WDMR-LP.[7] WRDM radio was sold off in 1998.[8] During the late 1990s, WDMR-LP's schedule also included English-language Boston Red Sox telecasts produced by Boston's WABU (now Ion Television owned-and-operated station WBPX-TV).[9] By 1997, WRDM-LP's programming was simulcast in New Haven on W10BQ (channel 10, now defunct) and in Hartford on W11BJ (channel 11, now WFXQ-CD channel 28 in Springfield).[10]

Original owner Channel 13 Television sold WRDM-LP and WDMR-LP to ZGS Communications on March 27, 2001.[11][12] In January 2006, WRDM-LP moved to channel 50;[13] WDMR-LP moved to channel 51 that November.[14] WRDM became a class A station as WRDM-CA on May 7, 2008.[6] On November 15, 2012, WDMR flash cut from analog to digital as WDMR-LD;[7] on January 7, 2013, WRDM followed suit and became WRDM-CD.[6] WDMR-LD now serves as a complete simulcast of WRDM-CD.[15]

On December 4, 2017, NBCUniversal's Telemundo Station Group announced its purchase of ZGS' 13 television stations, including WRDM-CD and WDMR-LD. The sale was completed on February 1, 2018.[2] The deal made WRDM a sister station to NBC owned-and-operated station WVIT (channel 30), along with WNBC (channel 4) and WNJU (channel 47) to the southwest in New York City, and WBTS-LD (channel 8), WYCN-CD (channel 15) and WNEU (channel 60) to the northeast in Boston. WVIT began operating WRDM under a local marketing agreement on January 1, 2018 from WVIT's studios in West Hartford; WRDM later entered into a channel sharing agreement with WVIT.[16] ZGS had sold WRDM's spectrum in the FCC's incentive auction for $10,574,516 and indicated that the station would enter into a post-auction channel sharing agreement.[17] One immediate effect of the sale was the end of a brokered programming arrangement to carry English language Jewelry TV programming in overnights for Telemundo's regular overnight schedule, along with the addition of a Connecticut-specific part of the website for WNEU in place of the former WRDM website.

Digital television

Digital channels

The stations' digital signals are multiplexed:

Channel Video Aspect PSIP Short Name Programming [18][19]
19.1
14.1		1080i16:9WRDM-CD
WDMR-LD		Main WRDM-CD/WDMR-LD programming / Telemundo
19.2
14.2		480iT-XitosTeleXitos
14.3NBCLXLXTV

Spectrum auction repack

On August 2, 2019, WVIT and WRDM-CD were switched from RF 35 to RF 31.

Newscasts

WRDM-LP began producing a newscast in April 1998; at the outset, Noticiero 13 primarily featured reports from Puerto Rico and Latin America, with local news coverage being added in June 1999.[20] The station's news operation was discontinued in the early 2000s; WRDM then began carrying Telenoticias Puerto Rico from WKAQ-TV in San Juan.

On December 15, 2017, NBCUniversal announced that, following its acquisition of WRDM-CD, the station (along with WDMR-LD) would begin simulcasting the newscasts of Boston sister station WNEU; the newscasts will include news from central Connecticut and western Massachusetts from a reporter based at WRDM's facilities at the WVIT studios in West Hartford.[16]

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References
  1. Lender, Jon (August 13, 1993). "Radio Station Targets Hispanic, Italian, Other Ethnic Markets". Hartford Courant. Retrieved December 18, 2017.
  2. Miller, Mark K. (December 4, 2017). "NBCU Adding ZGS Stations To Telemundo". TVNewsCheck. Retrieved December 4, 2017.
  3. "Telemundo Hartford/Springfield Celebrates its 25th Anniversary". Telemundo Hartford/Springfield Station Spotlight. May 23, 2011. Retrieved December 18, 2017.
  4. Television & Cable Factbook 2006 Edition (PDF). 2006. p. B-78. Retrieved October 5, 2018.
  5. Trecker, Jerry (October 13, 1993). "Getting With The Program". Hartford Courant. Retrieved December 18, 2017.
  6. "Call Sign History (WRDM-CD)". CDBS Public Access. Federal Communications Commission. Retrieved December 18, 2017.
  7. "Call Sign History (WDMR-LD)". CDBS Public Access. Federal Communications Commission. Retrieved December 18, 2017.
  8. Fybush, Scott (February 12, 1998). "The Mouse that Ate Hartford". North East RadioWatch. Retrieved December 18, 2017.
  9. Fybush, Scott (April 3, 1996). "New England RadioWatch". Retrieved December 18, 2017.
  10. Fybush, Scott (June 26, 1997). "The Reaction to Dodge". North East RadioWatch. Retrieved December 18, 2017.
  11. "Application for Transfer of Control of a Corporate Licensee or Permittee, or for Assignment of License or Permit of TV or FM Translator Station or Low Power Television Station". CDBS Public Access. Federal Communications Commission. June 22, 2000. Retrieved December 18, 2017.
  12. "Application Search Details (WDMR-LD, 1)". CDBS Public Access. Federal Communications Commission. Retrieved December 18, 2017.
  13. Fybush, Scott (January 30, 2006). "And now...The CW?". NorthEast Radio Watch. Retrieved December 18, 2017.
  14. "Application Search Details (WDMR-LD, 2)". CDBS Public Access. Federal Communications Commission. Retrieved December 18, 2017.
  15. RabbitEars TV Query for WDMR-LD
  16. Miller, Mark K. (December 15, 2017). "WNEU Boston Rebrands, Adds 2 Newscasts". TVNewsCheck. Retrieved December 15, 2017.
  17. "FCC Broadcast Television Spectrum Incentive Auction Auction 1001 Winning Bids" (PDF). Federal Communications Commission. April 4, 2017. Retrieved December 15, 2017.
  18. Digital TV Market Listing for WRDM-CD RabbitEars.Info. Retrieved February 17, 2015.
  19. Digital TV Market Listing for WDMR-LD RabbitEars.Info. Retrieved March 31, 2017.
  20. Weiss, Tara (August 16, 1999). "Accent On News". Hartford Courant. Retrieved December 15, 2017.
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