Early history The station first signed-on June 3, 1985, with the calls WOLF-TV, locally owned by Scranton TV Partners. It was the first
independent outlet in Northeastern Pennsylvania, and the market's first new commercial station in 32 years. A few days later, it added WWLF-TV in Hazleton as a full-time
satellite for the southern portion of the market. After a little more than a year as an Independent, WOLF-TV became a charter affiliate of Fox on October 9, 1986. Two years later, WILF-TV in Williamsport was launched as a second full-time satellite to improve coverage in the western and northern parts of the market, including portions of the Pennsylvania side of the adjacent
Binghamton and
Elmira markets (which would not receive local Fox affiliates until
April 1996 and
mid-1997, respectively). In 1993, Scranton TV Partners merged with Pegasus Communications. The latter immediately sought permission to move either the analog UHF channel 38 or channel 56 transmitters to the Northeastern Pennsylvania tower farm on Penobscot Knob. Ultimately, Pegasus was allowed to move the WWLF transmitter. On November 1, 1998, Pegasus activated the new analog channel 56 transmitter and moved the WOLF-TV call letters there. Meanwhile, channel 38 became a
WB affiliate under new calls WSWB, succeeding
WYLN-LP as the network's over the air affiliate in the area. This call sign was chosen because they could have meant "Scranton's WB" for its affiliation, or the area it serves, Scranton–Wilkes-Barre. Originally, channel 38 was given the WSWB calls in 1981, but they were changed to WOLF-TV before the station went on-the-air in 1985. WILF in Williamsport remained as a full-time satellite. At the time of the switch, WSWB also picked up a secondary affiliation with
UPN. It showed select programming from the network on Saturday nights (since there were no shows from The WB) without the branding. From 2003 to 2006, the station aired ''
America's Next Top Model at 8 p.m., followed at 9 p.m. by WWE Friday Night SmackDown. Whenever Top Model
was in repeats, WSWB would air Veronica Mars'' instead. All UPN programming in pattern was also available on cable in the area via
WWOR-TV (which was receivable over-the-air in extreme eastern portions of the market, as well as in
Pike County, which is considered part of the
New York City DMA),
WPSG from
Philadelphia, and
WLYH-TV from
Harrisburg.
As a CW affiliate On January 24, 2006, the respective parent companies of UPN and The WB,
CBS Corporation and the
Warner Bros. Entertainment division of
Time Warner, announced that they would dissolve the two networks to create
The CW Television Network, a joint venture between the two media companies that initially featured programs from its two predecessor networks as well as new series specifically produced for The CW. Subsequently, on February 22, 2006,
News Corporation announced the launch of
MyNetworkTV, a network operated by
Fox Television Stations and its syndication division
Twentieth Television that was created to primarily to provide network programming to UPN and WB stations that The CW decided against affiliating based on their local viewership standing in comparison to the outlet that The CW ultimately chose as its charter outlets, giving these stations another option besides converting to a general entertainment independent format. On May 1, 2006, in an announcement by the network, WSWB was named as The CW's Scranton–
Wilkes-Barre affiliate; it was the obvious choice since it already carried both WB and UPN programming. At the same time, it was announced that WILF would sever the electronic umbilical cord with WSWB and become the area's charter MyNetworkTV affiliate. Since WILF's signal was more or less unviewable in the Scranton–Wilkes-Barre area, it was also announced that it would be added to a new third subchannel of WOLF-TV. WILF changed its call letters to the current WQMY on July 7 to reflect the upcoming affiliation change. WQMY became a charter affiliate of MyNetworkTV when that network launched on September 5, at which time, the station ceased operating as a full-time WSWB satellite and introduced a separate programming lineup and branding. WSWB became a CW charter affiliate when that network launched two weeks later on September 18. On September 25, 2013, New Age Media announced that it would sell most of its stations, including WOLF-TV and WQMY, to the
Sinclair Broadcast Group. Concurrently, MPS Media planned to sell WSWB to
Cunningham Broadcasting; the station would continue to be operated by WOLF-TV. On October 31, 2014, MPS Media requested the dismissal of its application to sell WSWB; the next day, Sinclair purchased the non-license assets of the stations it planned to buy from New Age Media and began operating them through a master service agreement. On May 8, 2017, Sinclair entered into
an agreement to acquire
Tribune Media, which had operated
ABC affiliate
WNEP-TV (channel 16) through a services agreement since 2014. It intended to keep WNEP, selling WOLF/WQMY/WSWB and eight other stations to
Standard Media Group. The transaction was designated in July 2018 for hearing by an FCC
administrative law judge, and Tribune moved to terminate the deal the next month. 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. On February 24, 2026, Sinclair announced that it would acquire WSWB outright, creating a potential triopoly with WOLF and WQMY. It is requesting a waiver of the ownership rules to facilitate this transaction. ==Newscasts==