WGAL
This article possibly contains original research. (February 2013) |
UHF) Harrisburg | |
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Public license information | |
Website | www |
WGAL (channel 8) is a
.Largely due to WGAL's licensing, it has been the market leader for most of the time since records have been kept. During the analog era, it was the only commercial VHF station in eastern Pennsylvania licensed outside of Philadelphia.
History
The station first signed on the air on March 18, 1949, originally broadcasting on VHF channel 4.[4] It was the fourth television station in Pennsylvania and the first to sign-on outside of Philadelphia, beating WDTV (now KDKA-TV) in Pittsburgh which began operations in November of that year.
It was founded by the Steinman family, owners of WGAL radio (1490 AM, now
WGAL was a major beneficiary of a quirk in the
After the FCC's Sixth Report and Order ended the license freeze and opened the UHF band in 1952, it devised a plan for allocating VHF licenses. Under this plan, almost all of the country would be able to receive two commercial VHF channels plus one noncommercial channel. Most of the rest of the country ("1/2") would be able to receive a third VHF channel. Other areas would be designated as "UHF islands" since they were too close to larger cities for VHF service. The "2" networks became CBS and NBC, "+1" represented
What would become the
In 1952, WGAL increased its power from 1,000 to 7,200 watts. On December 31, 1952, the station moved to channel 8 as a requirement by the FCC in order to prevent interference with WRC-TV in Washington.
On January 1, 1954, WGAL presented its first color television broadcast of the
Over the years, the family purchased three more television stations (
Under Pulitzer's ownership, in 1985, WGAL became the first television station in Pennsylvania to broadcast in stereo, beating much larger stations in Philadelphia and Pittsburgh. Although the radio and television stations had gone their separate ways 15 years earlier, channel 8 dropped the "-TV" suffix from its callsign in 1992. Pulitzer sold its entire television division, including WGAL and KOAT, to what was then
The station is known for being a community service leader in the market and holds the
WGAL has also been known for installing numerous signs on area highways. Most of these signs consist of the WGAL logo used from 1969 to 1990, the phrase "Drive Carefully" and the borough or township where the sign is located. Although the logo is no longer used, the signs are still commonplace around the market, and are occasionally updated so as to be more visible to motorists.
On February 14, 2014, a portion of the roof at WGAL's Columbia Avenue studio facility collapsed due to heavy accumulations of snow and ice
News operation
WGAL presently broadcasts 39 hours of locally produced newscasts each week (with 6+1⁄2 hours each weekday, 3+1⁄2 hours on Saturdays, and three hours on Sundays). In addition to its main studios, WGAL operates bureaus in Harrisburg (on Market Street) and York (on South George Street a.k.a. BL I-83/Susquehanna Trail). The station operates the area's only live weather radar at its transmitter site known as "Super Doppler 8". As the only VHF station in the area, it has been the market leader for many years. This may also have to do with its newspaper roots, as is typical for many long-standing market leaders in the United States.[10]
As of 2013, WGAL's dominance is primarily in Lancaster and York 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[11] That July, WHTM-TV beat WGAL for the first time at 5 p.m. among adults 25–54. WGAL lost ground in other time periods, including at 6 p.m., and fell to a virtual tie with WHTM at noon.
On September 30, 1995, weekend morning editions of News 8 Today premiered. In 2010, a 6 a.m. hour of News 8 Today was added. In February 2010, days before the
On December 13, 2010, starting with its 5 p.m. newscast, WGAL became the first television station in the Harrisburg–Lancaster–Lebanon–York market to begin broadcasting its local newscasts in widescreen standard definition, and also introduced updated on-screen graphics.[12] Before WGAL's switch to widescreen newscasts, the market was the largest Nielsen television market in which all of its stations did not broadcast their local newscasts in either high definition or 16:9 widescreen (as of January 2014, the largest market that does not currently have HD or widescreen newscasts is Chico–Redding, California). On August 29, 2011, WGAL became the second station in South Central Pennsylvania (behind Fox affiliate WPMT) to begin broadcasting its local newscasts in high definition.
The news open was modified to include the station's legacy logos, while the set remained unchanged until newscasts returned to Studio B with a new set on February 5, 2012. As of April 14, 2012, with WHP-TV's upgrade to HD newscasts, all four major stations in the Susquehanna Valley (WGAL, WPMT, WHP-TV and WHTM-TV) now air their local newscasts in HD; however, unlike the other three, WGAL airs only in-studio segments in the format (its field video continues to be presented in enhanced definition widescreen). On February 4, 2013, WGAL debuted a nightly half-hour 10 p.m. newscast on its then This TV (now MeTV) affiliated second digital sub channel.
On August 22, 2016, WGAL debuted an hour long newscast at 4 p.m. This coincided with the cancellation of The Meredith Vieira Show.
Former on-air staff
- Bill Kuster – weather anchor[13]
- Marijane Landis – producer, host and children's show creator[14]
- Wendall Woodbury – anchor, host and reporter (1968–1992; deceased)[15]
Technical information
Subchannels
The station's signal is
Channel | Res. | Aspect | Short name | Programming[1] |
---|---|---|---|---|
8.1 | 1080i | 16:9 |
WGAL-TV | NBC |
8.2 | 480i | WGAL-DT | MeTV | |
8.4 | STORY | Story Television | ||
8.5 | Defy | Defy TV | ||
8.6 | QVC | QVC | ||
8.7 | HSN | HSN |
On January 1, 2009, WGAL began carrying
Analog-to-digital conversion
WGAL discontinued regular programming on its analog signal, over
Translator
- WGAL (DRT) 35 Harrisburg
Out-of-market cable coverage
WGAL is carried on cable providers far outside of the Harrisburg–Lancaster–Lebanon–York market including Fulton County (to the west), parts of Chester and Berks counties (to the east), Northumberland County (to the north), and Cecil and Harford counties in Maryland (to the south).[21] In September 2017, Comcast began the practice of blacking out all NBC network programming on WGAL in the Philadelphia market claiming they are complying with a request from WCAU (which is in fact also owned by Comcast through its NBCUniversal subsidiary).
References
- ^ a b "Digital TV Market Listing for WGAL". RabbitEars.Info. Retrieved March 25, 2023.
- ^ "Commercial Television Stations of the U. S., 1952". Archived from the original on March 12, 2007. Retrieved June 25, 2006.
- ^ "Facility Technical Data for WGAL". Licensing and Management System. Federal Communications Commission.
- ^ "WGAL-TV". Billboard. Lancaster, PA. February 24, 1951. p. 7. Retrieved May 23, 2016.
- ^ Snow and ice collapses roof at WGAL, LancasterOnline, February 14, 2014.
- ^ Snow and ice collapses roof at WGAL, knocks local station off the air, LancasterOnline, February 14, 2014.
- ^ Roof collapses at WGAL's Lancaster studio, WGAL, February 14, 2014.
- ^ Arias, Jeremy (February 14, 2014). "Comcast to substitute WGAL Lancaster with Baltimore affiliate following roof collapse". The Patriot-News. Retrieved February 15, 2014.
- ^ After Friday roof collapse, WGAL News 8 to return to the air at 6 p.m., The Lancaster News, February 15, 2014.
- ^ Nielsen Media Research November 2008 Adults 25-54 Audience share
- ^ WGAL still leads local market, but not by as much Archived January 9, 2014, at the Wayback Machine, Lancaster Online, July 7, 2013.
- ^ WGAL Makes Widescreen Switch -- What You Need To Know
- ^ "Bill Kuster". Broadcast Pioneers of Philadelphia. Retrieved March 9, 2013.
- Pennlive.com. Retrieved January 20, 2016.
- WGAL-TV. October 20, 2010. Archived from the originalon July 17, 2011. Retrieved October 27, 2010.
- ^ Stark, Eric (December 28, 2008). "Garden Spot grad moonlights on big screen". Lancaster Online. Retrieved January 2, 2014.
- ^ "WGAL adds classic TV network, MeTV, to channel 8.2". wgal.com/. December 2014. Retrieved December 27, 2014.
- ^ List of Digital Full-Power Stations
- ^ FCC DTV status report for WGAL
- ^ "York, Lancaster and Harrisburg PA News, Weather and Sports - WGAL Channel 8".
- ^ Comcast (Fulton/Chester/Berks), Service Electric (Northumberland), Armstrong (Cecil), Clearview Cable (Harford)