This article needs additional citations for verification .(August 2012) |
| |
---|---|
City | Harrisburg, Pennsylvania |
Channels | |
Branding | ABC 27 |
Programming | |
Affiliations |
|
Ownership | |
Owner |
|
History | |
First air date | June 19, 1953 |
Former call signs | WTPA (1953–1980) |
Former channel number(s) |
|
NBC (1953–1954) | |
Call sign meaning | Harrisburg Times Mirror (former owner) |
Technical information [2] | |
Licensing authority | FCC |
Facility ID | 72326 |
ERP | 28.1 kW |
HAAT | 311.1 m (1,021 ft) |
Transmitter coordinates | 40°18′58″N76°57′0″W / 40.31611°N 76.95000°W |
Links | |
Public license information | |
Website | www |
WHTM-TV (channel 27) is a television station licensed to Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, United States, serving the Susquehanna Valley region as an affiliate of ABC. Owned by Nexstar Media Group, the station maintains studios on North 6th Street in Harrisburg (although with a Hoffman Street address). Through a channel sharing agreement with Red Lion–licensed religious independent station WLYH (channel 49), the two stations transmit using WHTM-TV's spectrum from an antenna on a ridge north of I-81 along the Cumberland–Perry county line.
The station first signed on the air on June 19, 1953, as WTPA (standing for "Television Pennsylvania"), operating as an NBC affiliate. WTPA was founded by the Newhouse family, whose media holdings eventually became Advance Publications, and was operated alongside Harrisburg's two major newspapers, The Patriot and The Evening News (since merged as The Patriot-News ). The following year, it switched affiliations to ABC. It originally operated on UHF channel 71, but later moved to channel 27 on June 1, 1957, after that channel's original occupant, WCMB-TV, ceased operations. During WTPA's first year on the air, the station broadcast from 9 a.m. to 12:15 a.m. on weekdays and from noon to midnight on weekends. Early local programs included a midday religious program Daily Devotions, music and comedy-focused variety program Mac's Matinee, daytime talk show Harrisburg Hostess, cooking show Look What's Cooking and Susquehanna Trail.
The Times Mirror Company acquired the Newhouse television stations (including WTPA) on March 28, 1980, and changed its call sign to the current WHTM-TV. The station was sold, along with sister station WETM-TV in Elmira, New York, to Smith Broadcasting Company in 1986. WHTM, in turn, was sold to Price Communications in 1994. Allbritton Communications acquired the station in 1996.
An ice storm that hit South Central Pennsylvania on December 15 and 16, 2007, knocked out the power to WHTM's transmitter site, which also affected the reception of the station on some cable and satellite providers. WHTM's signal began operating at full power once again on the morning of December 18. [3] [4]
Feature reporter Chuck Rhodes served as a minor cast member in the 2000 film Lucky Numbers , which was based loosely on the 1980 Pennsylvania Lottery scandal and starred John Travolta as a cash lacking meteorologist, whose biggest competition in Harrisburg was Rhodes; the real-life incident occurred in Pittsburgh and involved fellow ABC affiliate WTAE-TV.
On July 29, 2013, Allbritton announced that it would sell its seven television stations, including WHTM, to the Sinclair Broadcast Group. [5] As part of the deal, Sinclair was planning to sell the license assets of its existing Harrisburg station, WHP-TV (channel 21) to Deerfield Media, but would still operate that station through joint sales and shared services agreements. [6] However, the FCC ruled that Sinclair's plans to retain WHTM would have, in effect, created a new LMA between WHTM and WLYH-TV, even though the FCC had ruled in 1999 that such agreements made after November 5, 1996, covering more than 15% of the broadcast day would count toward the ownership limits for the brokering station's owner. [7]
After several revisions to the deal—one which included a proposal to divest WHP and the LMA with WLYH, [8] [9] Sinclair chose to instead retain WHP and the LMA with WLYH, and divest WHTM. [10] [11] On June 23, it was announced that WHTM would be sold to Media General for $83.4 million. [12] After nearly a year of delays, the deal was approved by the FCC on July 24, 2014. [13] Sinclair completed the purchase of the Allbritton stations on August 1, [14] with WHTM being operated under a "Hold Separate Agreement" until its sale to Media General was completed on September 2. [15] Several months later, in a separate transaction, on August 20, 2014, Sinclair also traded three other stations KXRM-TV and KXTU-LD in Colorado Springs, and WTTA in Tampa Bay to Media General for WJAR in Providence, WLUK and WCWF in Green Bay and WTGS in Savannah, which was part of Media General's acquisition of LIN Media, [16] [17] which was completed on December 19. [18]
On January 27, 2016, Nexstar Broadcasting Group—which owned WLYH (now WXBU and owned by Howard Stirk Holdings) from 2006 to 2015—announced that it had reached an agreement to acquire Media General. [19] Upon consummation, WHTM became a sister station to five stations in three other Pennsylvania markets, including WYOU and WBRE-TV in Scranton–Wilkes-Barre, WTAJ-TV in Altoona, and WJET-TV and WFXP in Erie. The sale was completed on January 17, 2017. [20]
On December 3, 2018, Nexstar announced it would acquire the assets of Chicago-based Tribune Media—which has owned Fox affiliate WPMT (channel 43) since 1996—for $6.4 billion in cash and debt. Nexstar was precluded from acquiring WPMT directly or indirectly, as FCC regulations prohibit common ownership of two or more of the four highest-rated stations in the same media market. (Furthermore, any attempt by Nexstar to assume the operations of WPMT through local marketing or shared services agreements would have been subject to regulatory hurdles that could have delayed completion of the FCC and Justice Department's review and approval process for the acquisition.) As such, Nexstar was required to sell either WPMT or WHTM to a separate, unrelated company to address the ownership conflict. [21] [22] [23] [24] [25] [26] [27] [28] [29] [30] [ excessive citations ] On March 20, 2019, it was announced that Nexstar would keep WHTM-TV and sell WPMT to Tegna Inc., as part of the company's sale of nineteen Nexstar- and Tribune-operated stations to Tegna and the E. W. Scripps Company in separate deals worth $1.32 billion; along with Scranton sister station WNEP-TV (which was also acquired by Tegna as part of the spin-offs), this made WPMT among the first television properties in Pennsylvania for Tegna. [31] [32]
WHTM-TV presently broadcasts 33+1⁄2 hours of locally produced newscasts each week (with 5+1⁄2 hours each weekday and three hours each on Saturdays and Sundays). In addition to its main studios, WHTM operates news bureaus at The York Dispatch offices on North George Street (I-83 Business) in Downtown York, on North Main Street (US 11 SB) in Downtown Chambersburg, in Downtown Lebanon and near the square in Carlisle. News programming on the station began with its sign-on as WTPA in 1953, with 15-minute newscasts at 12:15, 6:30 and 11 p.m.
WHTM has long placed second in the ratings among the market's newscasts, though in recent years it has closed the gap with longtime ratings leader WGAL. Generally, WHTM leads the way in the market's northern counties, such as Dauphin (including the state capital of Harrisburg), Cumberland (including Carlisle), and Perry. [33] WGAL has stayed in first mainly due to its dominance of York and Lancaster counties, which contain the majority of the market's population. Starting in 2012, WGAL began experiencing declines in news viewership, the largest occurring in May 2013; WHTM saw consistent growth, including significant gains during that same sweeps period. [34] That July, WHTM-TV beat WGAL for the first time at 5 p.m. among adults 25–54, while also experiencing ratings increases in other time periods, including at 6 p.m. and created a virtual tie with WGAL at noon. For the November 2013 ratings period, WHTM was the only television station in the market to show significant growth in all newscasts. WGAL's news viewership dropped in every single time period that month, as did WHP-TV. WHTM's morning, 5 and 6 p.m. newscasts all saw gains of at least one rating point and in some cases, in excess of five share points.
On October 14, 2011, WHTM became the third television station in Central Pennsylvania to begin broadcasting its local newscasts in high definition; news video from the field is presented in HD, as WHTM upgraded its ENG vehicles, satellite truck, studio and field cameras and other equipment in order to broadcast news footage from the field in high definition, in addition to segments broadcast from the main studio. On January 13, 2012, WHTM upgraded its weather graphics to HD.
Over the years, WHTM has earned numerous Emmy nominations and wins. In 2014 the station was nominated for 26 Emmys, leading the Mid-Atlantic chapter of NATAS in total nominations. This was more than all other stations in the local market combined and more than all stations in Pittsburgh and Philadelphia. In 2013, the station received 16 Emmy nominations, including in the "News Excellence" category. The station's coverage of the trial of Jerry Sandusky, and its Saturday morning and 11 p.m. newscasts, and various members of the station's news staff were also nominated for Regional Emmys for various stories and newscasts. [35] WHTM has repeatedly been recognized with the Pennsylvania Associated Press Broadcasters Association's Joe Snyder Award for Outstanding News Service, including in 2013. That year, WHTM also received seven first place awards from the Associated Press, including for its Sandusky trial coverage, as well as a Pennsylvania Association of Broadcasters award for its investigative reporting and in spot news for its coverage of the kidnapping of a local college student. [36] [37] In 2014, the PAB awarded WHTM with Outstanding Website for abc27.com, Outstanding Breaking News Report for coverage of a major tanker truck explosion on I-81 in Dauphin County and Outstanding Feature Report for a series on the legalization of medical marijuana in Pennsylvania.
License | Channel | Res. | Aspect | Short name | Programming |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
WHTM-TV | 27.1 | 720p | 16:9 | WHTM-HD | ABC |
27.2 | 480i | ION | Ion Television | ||
27.3 | Grit | Grit | |||
27.4 | Laff | Laff | |||
WLYH | 49.1 | 720p | WLYH-HD | Religious independent |
On November 30, 2015, WHTM 27.2 replaced Retro TV with Ion Television.
Sometime in 2020,[ when? ] WHTM-DT3 replaced getTV with Dabl.[ citation needed ] In June 2022, Dabl was replaced with Grit. [39]
WHTM-TV signed on its digital signal on VHF channel 10 in 1999. The station discontinued regular programming on its analog signal, over UHF channel 27, on June 12, 2009, as part of the federally mandated transition from analog to digital television. [40] The station's digital signal remained on its pre-transition VHF channel 10, [41] (this forced NBC owned-and-operated station WCAU in Philadelphia to continue broadcasting its digital signal on channel 34), using virtual channel 27.
WHTM-TV completed work on its construction permit on October 24, 2021. The station increased its power to 28.1 kW and rotated its antenna 180 degrees to improve its signal in the main population area of the television market, including Dauphin, Lancaster, York and Lebanon counties. The station previously had its antenna turned to the west to originally protect the analog signal of Philadelphia's WCAU during the digital transition in the 2000s and prior to 2009.
In addition, to improve its market coverage, WHTM's main channel (27.1) is simulcast in high definition as a subchannel on four low-power television stations. These LPTV stations are operated by the owner of WLYH, which shares transmitter facilities with WHTM.
WNEP-TV is a television station licensed to Scranton, Pennsylvania, United States, serving as the ABC affiliate for Northeastern Pennsylvania. Owned by Tegna Inc., the station maintains studios on Montage Mountain Road in Moosic. Through a channel sharing agreement with PBS member WVIA-TV, the two stations transmit using WNEP-TV's spectrum from an antenna at Penobscot Knob near Mountain Top.
WTTA is a television station licensed to St. Petersburg, Florida, United States, serving as the Tampa Bay area's local outlet for The CW. It is owned and operated by The CW's majority owner, Nexstar Media Group, alongside Tampa-licensed NBC affiliate WFLA-TV and Sarasota-based low-power MyNetworkTV affiliate WSNN-LD. WTTA and WFLA-TV share studios on South Parker Street in downtown Tampa; through a channel sharing agreement, the two stations transmit using WFLA-TV's spectrum from a transmitter in Riverview, Florida.
In North American broadcasting, a local marketing agreement (LMA), or local management agreement, is a contract in which one company agrees to operate a radio or television station owned by another party. In essence, it is a sort of lease or time-buy.
KXRM-TV is a television station in Colorado Springs, Colorado, United States, affiliated with the Fox network. It is owned by Nexstar Media Group alongside low-power CW owned-and-operated station KXTU-LD. The two stations share studios on Wooten Road in Colorado Springs; KXRM-TV's transmitter is located on Cheyenne Mountain.
WBMA-LD is a low-power television station in Birmingham, Alabama, United States, affiliated with ABC. It is owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group alongside MyNetworkTV affiliate WABM and Homewood-licensed CW affiliate WTTO ; Sinclair also operates Bessemer-licensed WDBB, which serves as a full satellite station of WTTO, under a local marketing agreement (LMA) with Sinclair partner company Cunningham Broadcasting. However, Sinclair effectively owns WDBB as the majority of Cunningham's stock is owned by the family of deceased group founder Julian Smith.
WSES is a television station licensed to Tuscaloosa, Alabama, United States, serving the western portion of the Birmingham market as an affiliate of the digital multicast network Heroes & Icons. The station is owned by Howard Stirk Holdings, a partner company of the Sinclair Broadcast Group. WSES' advertising sales office is located on Golden Crest Drive in Birmingham, and its transmitter is located near County Road 38/Blue Creek Road, east of State Route 69 near Windham Springs.
WGWW is a television station licensed to Anniston, Alabama, United States, serving the eastern portion of the Birmingham market as an affiliate of the digital multicast network Heroes & Icons. The station is owned by Howard Stirk Holdings, a partner company of the Sinclair Broadcast Group. WGWW's transmitter is located at Bald Rock Mountain, near Moody in unincorporated southern St. Clair County.
WXMI is a television station licensed to Grand Rapids, Michigan, United States, serving West Michigan as an affiliate of the Fox network. Owned by the E. W. Scripps Company, the station maintains studios on Plaza Drive on the northern side of Grand Rapids, and its transmitter is located southwest of Middleville.
Nexstar Media Group, Inc. is an American publicly traded media company with headquarters in Irving, Texas, Midtown Manhattan, and Chicago. The company is the largest television station owner in the United States, owning 197 television stations across the U.S., most of which are affiliated with the four "major" U.S. television networks and MyNetworkTV in markets as large as New York City and as small as San Angelo, Texas. It also operates all of the stations owned by affiliated companies, such as Mission Broadcasting and Vaughan Media, under local marketing agreements to satisfy existing regulations set in place by the Federal Communications Commission. In addition, Nexstar owns one radio station, WGN in Chicago, and operates major TV network the CW through a 75-percent majority stake where all CW affiliates are directly owned-and-operated stations (O&O), two terrestrial television networks airing classic shows, Antenna TV and Rewind TV, one FAST streaming channel airing sports programming, SportsGrid, and has full or partial ownership stakes in three pay television networks.
KATV is a television station in Little Rock, Arkansas, United States, affiliated with ABC and owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group. The station's studios are located on Riverfront Drive in the Riverdale section northwest of downtown Little Rock, and its transmitter is located at the Shinall Mountain antenna farm in the Chenal Valley area.
WGAL is a television station licensed to Lancaster, Pennsylvania, United States, serving the Susquehanna Valley region as an affiliate of NBC. Owned by Hearst Television, the station maintains studios on Columbia Avenue in Lancaster Township. Its transmitter is located near US 30 north of Hallam.
The Allbritton Communications Company was an American media company. Based in Arlington, Virginia, Allbritton was the leading subsidiary of Perpetual Corporation, a private holding company owned by the family of company founder and former Riggs Bank president Joe L. Allbritton. Joe’s son, Robert L. Allbritton, was the Chairman and CEO of Allbritton Communications from 2001 to 2014. He is currently the owner of Capitol News Company, the parent company of political newspaper and website Politico.
WYZZ-TV is a television station licensed to Bloomington, Illinois, United States, serving as the Fox affiliate for the Peoria area. It is owned by Cunningham Broadcasting, which maintains a local marketing agreement (LMA) with Nexstar Media Group, owner of CBS affiliate WMBD-TV, for the provision of certain services. The two stations share studios on North University Street in Peoria, with a secondary studio and news bureau on East Lincoln Street in Bloomington. WYZZ-TV's transmitter is located near Congerville, a village of Montgomery Township, Woodford County.
WPMT is a television station licensed to York, Pennsylvania, United States, serving as the Fox affiliate for the Susquehanna Valley region. Owned by Tegna Inc., the station maintains studios on South Queen Street in Spring Garden Township. Through a channel sharing agreement with Harrisburg–licensed PBS member WITF-TV, the two stations transmit using WITF-TV's spectrum from an antenna in Susquehanna Township.
WHP-TV is a television station licensed to Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, United States, serving the Susquehanna Valley region as an affiliate of CBS, MyNetworkTV, and The CW. Owned by the Sinclair Broadcast Group, the station has studios on North 6th Street in the Uptown section of Harrisburg, with the building bisected by the city line for Harrisburg and Susquehanna Township. Through a channel sharing agreement with Lancaster-licensed Univision affiliate WXBU, the two stations transmit using WHP-TV's spectrum from an antenna on a ridge north of Linglestown Road in Middle Paxton Township.
WHNT-TV is a television station in Huntsville, Alabama, United States, affiliated with CBS. It is owned by Nexstar Media Group alongside Florence-licensed CW owned-and-operated station WHDF. The two stations share studios on Holmes Avenue Northwest in downtown Huntsville; WHNT-TV's transmitter is located on Monte Sano Mountain. The station also operates three news bureaus: Decatur, Sand Mountain (Albertville), and Shoals (Florence).
WDVM-TV is an independent television station licensed to Hagerstown, Maryland, United States, serving the Washington, D.C., television market. It is owned by Nexstar Media Group alongside CW owned-and-operated station WDCW. The two stations share studios on Wisconsin Avenue in the Glover Park section of Washington; WDVM-TV's transmitter is located on Fairview Mountain, west of Clear Spring, Maryland.
WXBU is a television station licensed to Lancaster, Pennsylvania, United States, serving the Susquehanna Valley region as an affiliate of the Spanish-language network Univision. The station is owned by Howard Stirk Holdings, a partner company of the Sinclair Broadcast Group. WXBU's advertising sales office is located on Butler Road in West Cornwall Township; the station shares transmitter facilities with Sinclair-owned, Harrisburg-licensed CBS affiliate WHP-TV on a ridge north of Linglestown Road in Middle Paxton Township.
KXTU-LD is a low-power television station in Colorado Springs, Colorado, United States, serving as the CW outlet for Southern Colorado. It is owned and operated by network majority owner Nexstar Media Group alongside Fox affiliate KXRM-TV. The two stations share studios on Wooten Road in Colorado Springs; KXTU-LD's transmitter is located on Cheyenne Mountain.
WLYH is a religious independent television station licensed to Red Lion, Pennsylvania, United States, serving the Susquehanna Valley region. Owned by Sonshine Family Television, it is a sister station to Bethlehem-based flagship WBPH-TV. WLYH's studios are located on Windsor Road in Red Lion. Through a channel sharing agreement with Harrisburg-licensed ABC affiliate WHTM-TV, the two stations transmit using WHTM-TV's spectrum from an antenna on a ridge north of I-81 along the Cumberland–Perry county line.