WHTM-TV
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FCC | |
Facility ID | 72326 |
---|---|
ERP | 28.1 kW |
HAAT | 311.1 m (1,021 ft) |
Transmitter coordinates | 40°18′58″N 76°57′0″W / 40.31611°N 76.95000°W |
Links | |
Public license information | |
Website | www |
WHTM-TV (channel 27) is a
History
The station first signed on the air on June 19, 1953, as WTPA (standing for "Television Pennsylvania"), operating as an
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 then-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).
Sale to Media General and then Nexstar
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,
On January 27, 2016,
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] 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]
News operation
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 . 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
Awards
Over the years, WHTM has earned numerous
Technical information
Subchannels
The station's signal is
Channel | Res. | Aspect | Short name | Programming |
---|---|---|---|---|
27.1 | 720p | 16:9 |
WHTM-HD | Main WHTM-TV programming / ABC |
27.2 | 480i | ION | Ion Television | |
27.3 | Grit | Grit | ||
27.4 | Laff | Laff |
On November 30, 2015, WHTM 27.2 replaced Retro TV with Ion Television.
Sometime in 2020,[
Analog-to-digital conversion
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
2021 power increase and antenna change
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.
LPTV simulcasts
In addition, to improve its market coverage, WHTM's main channel (27.1) is simulcast in high definition as a subchannel on four
- WRZH-LD 3 Harrisburg[42]
- WLZH-LD 14 Red Lion[43]
- WHLZ-LD 21 Harrisburg[44]
- WCZS-LD 30 Chambersburg[45]
References
- ^ "Draft Copy « Licensing and Management System « FCC".
- ^ "Facility Technical Data for WHTM-TV". Licensing and Management System. Federal Communications Commission.
- ^ "Statement from abc27 Station Management". December 17, 2007. Retrieved December 18, 2007. [dead link]
- ^ "Statement from abc27 Station Management". December 18, 2007. Archived from the original on December 20, 2007. Retrieved December 18, 2007.
- ^ Heath, Thomas; Wilgoren, Debbi (July 29, 2013). "Allbritton to sell 7 TV stations, including WJLA, to Sinclair for $985 million". The Washington Post. Retrieved July 29, 2013.
- ^ "Sinclair Buying Allbritton Stations For $985M". TVNewsCheck. July 29, 2013. Retrieved July 29, 2013.
- ^ Kreisman, Barbara A. (December 6, 2013). "Letter to Sinclair and Allbritton legal counsel" (PDF). CDBS Public Access. Federal Communications Commission. Retrieved December 8, 2013.
- TVSpy, March 21, 2014.
- PRNewswire), March 20, 2014.
- ^ Eggerton, John (May 29, 2014). "Sinclair Proposes Surrendering Three Licenses to Get Allbritton Deal Done". Broadcasting & Cable. Retrieved May 30, 2014.
- ^ Jessell, Harry A. (May 29, 2014). "Sinclair Giving Up 3 Stations To Appease FCC". TVNewsCheck. Retrieved May 30, 2014.
- ^ "Media General Buying WHTM For $83.4M". TVNewsCheck. June 23, 2014. Retrieved June 23, 2014.
- ^ Eggerton, John (July 24, 2014). "FCC Approves Sinclair/Allbritton Deal". Broadcasting & Cable. Retrieved July 24, 2014.
- ^ Sinclair's Deal For Allbritton Closes, Broadcasting & Cable, August 1, 2014, Retrieved August 4, 2014.
- ^ Consummation Notice, CDBS Public Access, Federal Communications Commission, Retrieved September 3, 2014.
- ^ "Media General, LIN Sell Stations In 5 Markets". TVNewsCheck. August 20, 2014. Retrieved August 20, 2014.
- ^ Malone, Michael (August 20, 2014). "Media General, LIN Divest Stations in Five Markets". Broadcasting & Cable. Retrieved August 20, 2014.
- ^ Sinclair Broadcast Group Closes on Certain Station Acquisitions and Divestitures with Media General Archived December 19, 2014, at the Wayback Machine, Press Release, Sinclair Broadcast Group, Retrieved December 19, 2014
- ^ Picker, Leslie (January 27, 2016). "Nexstar Clinches Deal to Acquire Media General". The New York Times. Retrieved January 27, 2016.
- ^ Nexstar Broadcasting Group Completes Acquisition of Media General Creating Nexstar Media Group, The Nation’s Second Largest Television Broadcaster Nexstar Media Group, January 17, 2017. Retrieved January 17, 2017.
- ^ "Acquisition of Tribune Media Company" (PDF). Nexstar Media Group. December 3, 2018.
- ^ Miller, Mark K. (December 3, 2018). "Nexstar Buying Tribune Media For $6.4 Billion". TVNewsCheck. NewsCheck Media.
- ^ White, Peter; Hayes, Dade (December 3, 2018). "Nexstar Confirms $4.1B Tribune Media Acquisition To Become Leading Local TV Station Owner". Deadline Hollywood. Penske Media Corporation.
- ^ Smith, Gerry; Ahmed, Nabila; Newcomer, Eric (December 3, 2018). "Nexstar to buy WGN owner Tribune Media for $4.1 billion". Chicago Tribune. Tribune Publishing. Bloomberg News.
- ^ Panchadar, Arjun; Rai, Sonam (December 3, 2018). "Nexstar to buy Tribune Media for $4.1 billion". Reuters.
- ^ Lafayette, Jon (December 3, 2018). "Nexstar Announces Deal to Buy Tribune for $6.4B". Broadcasting & Cable. NewBay Media.
- ^ Jacobson, Adam (December 3, 2018). "It's Official: Nexstar Takes Tribune In Billion-Dollar Stock Deal". Radio-Television Business Report. Streamline-RBR, Inc.
- ^ Jessell, Harry A.; Miller, Mark K. (December 3, 2018). "Nexstar To Spin Off $1B In Stations". TVNewsCheck. NewsCheck Media.
- ^ "Nexstar Media Group Enters into Definitive Agreement to Acquire Tribune Media Company for $6.4 Billion in Accretive Transaction Creating the Nation's Largest Local Television Broadcaster and Local Media Company". Nexstar Media Group. December 3, 2018. Retrieved December 3, 2018.
- ^ "Nexstar Media Group Enters Into Definitive Agreement To Acquire Tribune Media Company". Tribune Media. December 3, 2018. Retrieved December 3, 2018.
- ^ "Nexstar Selling 19 TVs In 15 Markets For $1.32B". TVNewsCheck. NewsCheckMedia. March 20, 2019. Retrieved March 20, 2019.
- Bloomberg, L.P.
- ^ WHTM fights the ratings battle with advertisers Archived January 9, 2014, at the Wayback Machine, Lancaster Online, May 12, 2013.
- ^ WGAL still leads local market, but not by as much Archived January 9, 2014, at the Wayback Machine, Lancaster Online, July 7, 2013.
- ^ abc27 News gets 16 Emmy nominations, WHTM-TV, August 2, 2013.
- ^ Another season of TV shows down the tubes Archived January 14, 2014, at the Wayback Machine, Lancaster Online, June 2, 2013.
- ^ "PAB Announces 2015 Excellence in Broadcasting Winners" (PDF). March 24, 2015. Archived from the original on January 14, 2014.
- ^ "RabbitEars TV Query for WHTM". www.rabbitears.info.
- ^ "TV Schedule". June 12, 2019.
- ^ List of Digital Full-Power Stations
- ^ "CDBS Print".
- ^ "WRZH-LD RED LION-HARRISBURG, PA". www.rabbitears.info. Retrieved September 25, 2021.
- ^ "WLZH-LD RED LION, PA". www.rabbitears.info. Retrieved April 11, 2021.
- ^ "WHLZ-LD Harrisburg, PA". www.rabbitears.info. Retrieved April 11, 2021.
- ^ "WCZS-LD CHAMBERSBURG, PA". www.rabbitears.info. Retrieved September 25, 2021.