In June 1991, Sinclair opened up the station's news department with Baltimore's first 10:00 p.m. newscast co-anchored by Lisa Willis (formerly of WWOR-TV in Secaucus, New Jersey) and Jeff Barnd. Then, in September, Sinclair took the bold step of challenging WMAR-TV (channel 2)'s pending license renewal and filing its own competing application for a new station. As WMAR-TV had been sold the previous June to the E. W. Scripps Company, Sinclair argued that an out-of-town corporation could not effectively serve the city's public interest and the valuable channel allocation—a channel 2 analog signal traveled a very long distance under normal conditions—should be granted to an established local broadcaster instead. The gambit did not work, and WMAR-TV remained on channel 2.