The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) granted a construction permit to original station owner Kennebec Valley Television in 1987.
After ten years of delays related to difficulties in obtaining financing to construct the station and commence broadcasting, Kennebec Valley Television's corporate successor New England Broadcasting was granted an unbuilt station waiver and WPME signed on August 13, 1997, under a time brokerage agreement with WPXT owner Pegasus Communications Corporation.
This station's only attempt at local news was a 7 p.m. broadcast (produced by WPXT) in 2001 which was quickly canceled due to low ratings and inconsistent viewership.
Pegasus declared bankruptcy in June 2004 over a dispute with DirecTV over marketing of the direct broadcast satellite service in rural areas.
The Pegasus station group was sold in August 2006 to private investment firm CP Media, LLC of Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, for $55.5 million.
It ceased transmission in analog on September 18, 2008, ten months prior to the revised FCC digital switchover deadline of June 12, 2009.
From 2009 to 2013 this has included a simulcast of conservative weekday morning program The Ray Richardson Show produced by WLOB, which was seen for an hour from 6:30 until 7:30 featuring short features and news stories from Fox News Radio, local weather forecasts on WPME during commercial breaks, as well as live call-ins from viewers and listeners along with in-studio guests.
Fellow MyNetworkTV affiliate WZMY-TV, based in Derry, New Hampshire, with service to southern areas of the state and Greater Boston, laid off several employees as part of an overall strategy change in December 2009.
Although that station continued to be licensed to Shooting Star Broadcasting, an outsourcing agreement was established with New Age Media resulting in WZMY becoming a sister outlet to WPME.