WMAR-TV (channel 2) is a television station in Baltimore, Maryland, United States, affiliated with ABC and owned by the E. W. Scripps Company.

The station's studios and offices are located on York Road (Maryland Route 45) in Towson north of the Baltimore City–Baltimore County border.

[5] WMAR was founded by the A. S. Abell Company, publisher of the Sunpapers (The Baltimore Sun and its now-defunct evening counterpart, The Evening Sun) and was the first completed phase of the Sunpapers' expansion into broadcasting; the newspapers also held construction permits for WMAR-FM, which signed-on at 97.9 MHz (frequency now occupied by WIYY) in January 1948[6] and a proposed WMAR (AM), which never made it to air (planned for 850, it eventually went on the air in 1955 as WAYE on 860).

[13] McKay later moved over to CBS briefly before achieving greater fame on ABC as host of Wide World of Sports and Olympic coverage.

[15] During the 1970s, the FCC tightened its cross-ownership rules, eventually barring common ownership between a newspaper and a television or radio station in the same city without a waiver.

Among its reasons for making the switch, CBS cited WMAR-TV's poor newscast ratings and frequent preemptions of network shows for syndicated programs, local specials, and sports coverage.

[21][22] On March 1, 1982, after negotiations between WMAR-TV management and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (AFTRA) failed, all of the station's on-air talent, except one, went on strike.

When color announcer (and long-time popular Baltimore Orioles third baseman) Brooks Robinson refused to cross the picket line at the start of the baseball season, the strike ended.

[25][26] With the loss of the grandfathered protection between the former Abell media properties, Times-Mirror opted to keep The Sunpapers and sold WMAR-TV (and WRLH-TV in Richmond) to Gillett Communications in July 1986.

[35][36] The second switch occurred on January 2, 1995,[37] with the FedEx Orange Bowl between the Miami Hurricanes and the Nebraska Cornhuskers being the final NBC program to air on channel 2.

The switch resulted in a change of fortune between the two stations, with WBAL's 5–6:30 p.m. news block sustaining strong ratings, while WMAR suffered a steady decline in the same timeslot.

On May 13, 2014, after a station security guard denied him entry into WMAR-TV's studio/offices, 28-year-old Vladimir Baptiste crashed into the building in a pickup truck, which had been stolen around noon from a Maryland State Highway Administration subcontractor.

[39] All of the station's approximately 120 employees were evacuated and the building was placed on lockdown as Baltimore County Police officers searched for the suspect.

The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson was not carried by WMAR-TV for several years in the mid-1980s as the station chose to air Thicke of the Night,[47] and later syndicated sitcom reruns following the 11 p.m. newscast.

Both Tonight and preempted daytime programs were aired on then-independent stations WBFF and WNUV, though Baltimore viewers could also watch the entire NBC lineup on network-owned WRC-TV in Washington.

When WMAR-TV joined ABC, the station tape delayed some of the network's daytime shows to late night, and preempted nearly half of its Saturday morning lineup.

WMAR formerly boasted one of the most respected sports departments in the region, going back to the 1950s when it was the Baltimore Colts' flagship station, with popular announcer Chuck Thompson.

[54] WMAR also broadcasts the annual Turkey Bowl between Calvert Hall College High School and Loyola Blakefield on Thanksgiving morning.

WMAR readily agreed and committed to broadcast two more of Hopkins' home games against local teams: Loyola College and Towson University.

Station general manager Bill Hooper stated the broadcasts would lose money without a partner to share production costs, and an attempt to work with Comcast SportsNet instead fell through.

[58] A notable alumnus is Quint Kessenich, four-time lacrosse All-American with Johns Hopkins, who began his commentary career at WMAR and has since moved on to ESPN.

Unlike most news-producing ABC affiliates that are located in the Eastern Time Zone, WMAR does not air a newscast in the weekday midday timeslot; it also holds the distinction of being the largest news-producing "Big Three" station by market size that does not air any local newscasts on Saturdays (although WMAR does produce local weather cut-ins that are shown during the weekend edition of Good Morning America).

In March 2021 sweeps, WMAR was rated last among adults 25-54 in all timeslots, with its audience shares averaging one-third to one-quarter of those of WJZ-TV and WBAL-TV.