WBGH-CD

NBC affiliate in Binghamton, New York

WBGH CD (channel 20) is a low power, Class A television station in Binghamton, New York, United States, affiliated with NBC. It is owned by Nexstar Media Group alongside ABC affiliate WIVT (channel 34). The two stations share studios on Ingraham Hill Road in the town of Binghamton, where WBGH CD's transmitter is also located. Even though WBGH CD transmits a digital signal of its own, its broadcast range is limited to the immediate Binghamton area. However, in order to serve the entire market, WBGH CD has been carried in 720p high definition on WIVT's second digital subchannel since February 9, 2010. A direct to cable full 1080i HD feed of WBGH CD/WIVT DT2 is carried on Charter Spectrum channel 5 (hence the NBC 5 branding).

The original construction permit for the station was granted on November 10, 1993, and issued the call sign W08DL, reflecting its facilities on VHF channel 8. In September 1995, WICZ TV (channel 40), the market's longtime NBC station, announced that it would switch to Fox in the wake of similar affiliation switches in other parts of the country. Since the Binghamton market only had three full powered commercial television stations at the time the affiliation switch was announced, it appeared that NBC would not have an affiliate in Binghamton once WICZ's contract with NBC expired. Time Warner Cable signed a local marketing agreement (LMA) with Elmira NBC affiliate WETM TV to carry a cable only Binghamton version of that station until a replacement NBC affiliate could be found. The cable channel (branded as "NBC 5 Binghamton") launched once WICZ switched to Fox in April 1996, displacing superstation WNYW from cable systems in the region; under this arrangement, Time Warner Cable sold Binghamton market advertising and replaced syndicated programs that aired on other Binghamton stations with programming acquired by WETM for the Binghamton market due to syndex laws, while WETM sold regional advertising seen in both markets. As time went on, WBGH largely separated from the WETM partial simulcast but continued to air that station's newscasts. In 2000, Smith Broadcasting sold WBGH LP to the Ackerley Group of Seattle, Washington, which also entered into an LMA to take over operations of WETM. With this sale, WBGH's last ties with WETM were severed as Ackerley already owned WIVT (channel 34). WBGH moved its operations into WIVT's studios on Ingraham Hill south of Binghamton. In 2001, the station upgraded to Class A status, moved to UHF channel 20 (to accommodate WICZ's digital signal on channel 8), and changed call letters to WBGH CA. On April 20, 2007, the company entered into an agreement to sell its entire television stations group to Newport Television, a broadcasting group established by Providence Equity Partners; the deal was completed on March 14, 2008. Newport announced on July 19, 2012, that it would sell twelve of its stations, including WBGH and WIVT, to Nexstar. The sale was finalized on December 3. On September 16, 2013, it was announced that Mission Broadcasting would acquire WICZ and low power MyNetworkTV affiliate WBPN LP from the Stainless Broadcasting Company subsidiary of Northwest Broadcasting. Upon the deal's completion, the stations' operations would have been taken over by Nexstar making them sisters to WBGH and WIVT. In March 2015, Mission's purchase of WICZ and WBPN was canceled; as a result, Stainless withdrew the license assignment applications on March 18.

+Subchannel of WBGH CD Channel Res. Aspect Short name Programming 20.1 720p 16:9 WBGH CD NBC

WBGH shut down its analog signal, over UHF channel 20, in August 2015, and "flash cut" its digital signal into operation UHF channel 20.