NBC Pulls Affiliation From WHDH, Will Launch NBC Boston Next Year

By Kevin Eck 

NBC Owned Television Stations president Valari Staab told staffers today that the division is launching NBC Boston on January 1, 2017, ending any speculation that current NBC affiliate Sunbeam-owned WHDH would lose its affiliation.

In a memo obtained by TVSpy, Staab said the launch would make the 12th NBC station in the owned group. Mike St. Peter, current head of NECN and Telemundo Boston will add NBC Boston to his gm’ing duties.

“To be clear,” said Staab. “The new NBC-owned station will be a broadcast channel available to over-the-air viewers like our other NBC and Telemundo stations, not a cable-only channel as has been publicly speculated. Additionally, we are committed to expanding our over-the-air coverage of the market and are currently looking at a variety of options to accomplish that.”

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The new NBC-owned station will likely use the updated facilities at NECN. Staab did not address the specifics behind making NBC Boston an over-the-air broadcast channel.

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