WTNH
kW | |
HAAT | 342 m (1,122 ft) |
---|---|
Transmitter coordinates | 41°25′22.2″N 72°57′4.9″W / 41.422833°N 72.951361°W |
Links | |
Public license information | |
Website | www |
WTNH (channel 8) is a
History
Local pioneer (1948–1970)
WTNH first went on the air on June 15, 1948, as WNHC-TV, originally broadcasting on channel 6. It is the oldest television station in Connecticut. The station was founded by the Elm City Broadcasting Corporation, owners of WNHC radio (1340 AM, now WYBC; and 99.1 FM, now WPLR).[4] Elm City Broadcasting founded WNHC radio in December 1944 and was principally owned by Patrick J. Goode, U.S. postmaster for New Haven; Garo W. Ray, Chief Engineer; and Aldo DeDominicis, a radio salesperson.[5]
WNHC-TV was originally an affiliate of the DuMont Television Network, and claims to have been the first full-time affiliate of that short-lived network.[6] The station originally broadcast from WNHC radio's building on Chapel Street in downtown New Haven.[7] However, with no studio facilities of its own, it could not produce local programming. For a time, WNHC-TV simply rebroadcast the signal of DuMont's New York City flagship, WABD (now Fox flagship WNYW).[8] In October 1948, the station added CBS programming to its schedule,[9] and additional secondary affiliations with NBC and ABC in 1949.[10][11] The station was the first in the country to use videotape for local programming and one of the first to broadcast in color.[citation needed]
When the
In 1956, the WNHC stations were purchased by
Until the original WTIC-TV (channel 3, now WFSB) signed on from Hartford in September 1957, WNHC-TV was the only station on the VHF dial in Connecticut. Many viewers northeast of Hartford used outdoor antennas to get spotty reception of CBS and NBC programs from Boston, while those southwest of Hartford with outdoor TV antennas got great to excellent reception from their respective New York City flagship stations; indeed, much of southwestern Connecticut is part of the New York City market. By contrast, most of Connecticut got a clear picture and pitch-perfect sound from channel 8.
Later years (1970–present)
Triangle was forced out of broadcasting in 1970 after then-
On March 19, 1985, Capital Cities announced its intention to buy ABC in a deal that would stun the broadcast industry.
Cook Inlet sold WTNH to
On September 8, 2015, Media General announced that it would acquire the
On December 3, 2018, Nexstar announced it would acquire the assets of Chicago-based Tribune Media—which has owned Fox affiliate WTIC-TV (channel 61) since 1996 and CW affiliate WCCT-TV (channel 20) since 2001—for $6.4 billion in cash and debt. Nexstar was required to sell two of the stations (including one ranking in the top four in ratings) to a separate, unrelated company to comply with FCC ownership rules.[32][33][34][35][36][37][38][39][40][41] On March 20, 2019, it was announced that Nexstar would keep the WTNH/WCTX duopoly and sell the WTIC/WCCT duopoly to McLean, Virginia-based 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; this would make the WTIC/WCCT duopoly the first television properties in Connecticut and southern New England for Tegna.[42][43]
News operation
WTNH presently broadcasts 48 hours of locally produced newscasts each week (with six hours each weekday and 4+1⁄2 hours each on Saturdays and Sundays) among both WTNH and WCTX. In addition to its main studios, WTNH operates a
For over a quarter century, the station used the Action News format made famous at former Philadelphia sister station WFIL-TV (which became WPVI-TV and is now an ABC O&O), using the same "Move Closer to Your World" music and graphics packages as WPVI. It rebranded as NewsChannel 8 in 1996.
For most of the last half-century, WTNH has been a distant runner-up in the overall Connecticut market to dominant WFSB. However, in recent times, it has had to fend off a spirited challenge from WVIT. Since the turn of the millennium, the two stations have regularly traded the runner-up spot. However, WTNH appears to have higher ratings in southern and coastal Connecticut. Historically, WTNH's ratings for news and local programming are far higher in
Since 2000, WTNH has been producing a nightly prime time newscast at 10 p.m. on WBNE/WCTX. It has competed right from the start with
Its weekday noon newscast was originally an hour long, but was reduced to 30 minutes on February 23, 2009, when a new lifestyle/entertainment magazine show known as Connecticut Style was added at 12:30 p.m. On January 12, 2015, CT Style was added at 9 a.m. and the noon newscast become an hour long. On April 26, 2010, WTNH re-branded from News Channel 8 to News 8. In addition, WTNH began broadcasting its newscasts in
On January 2, 2017, Good Morning Connecticut was expanded to start at 4:30 a.m. while the noon newscast was shortened to 30 minutes. Connecticut Style was also cut to a half hour.
On March 30, 2020, WTNH planned to launch an expansion of WCTX's prime time newscast to the three-hour entirety of prime time on weeknights and 90 minutes on weekends.[44] This quickly shifted to launching on March 16 instead to provide continuing coverage of the local impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Technical information
Subchannels
The station's signal is
Channel | Res. | Aspect | Short name | Programming |
---|---|---|---|---|
8.1 | 720p | 16:9 |
WTNH-DT | ABC |
8.2 | 480i | Rewind | Rewind TV | |
20.4 | 480i | 16:9 | Quest | Quest (WCCT-TV) |
Analog-to-digital conversion
WTNH shut down its analog signal, over
Cable and satellite availability
During the 1970s and 1980s, WTNH once had carriage in portions of northeastern
References
- Broadcasting – Telecasting. July 28, 1947, pg. 34.
- ^ "WDEL, WNHC get television permits." Broadcasting – Telecasting. September 1, 1947, pg. 16.
- ^ "Facility Technical Data for WTNH". Licensing and Management System. Federal Communications Commission.
- ^ "WNHC-TV programs to start this week." Broadcasting – Telecasting, June 14, 1948, pg. 58.
- ^ "FCC grants FM, standard permits." Broadcasting – Broadcast Advertising, August 21, 1944, pg. 66.
- ^ Ingram, Clarke (1999). "Channel Three: Stations". DuMont Television Network Historical Website.
- ^ "Cultural Heritage Tours–Downtown Tour–WNHC TV". walknewhaven.org. Archived from the original on March 27, 2017. Retrieved March 26, 2017.
- ^ James, Ed (September 20, 1948). "TV Finds A Haven" (PDF). Broadcasting–Telecasting. pp. 42, 47 – via World Radio History.
- ^ "WNHC-TV is new CBS-TV affiliate" (PDF). Broadcasting–Telecasting. October 11, 1948. p. 22 – via World Radio History.
- ^ "WNHC-TV takes NBC" (PDF). Broadcasting–Telecasting. February 14, 1949. p. 32 – via World Radio History.
- ^ "WNHC-TV adds ABC" (PDF). Broadcasting–Telecasting. May 23, 1949. p. 46 – via World Radio History.
- ^ "TV coverage; RTMA predicts expansion." Broadcasting – Telecasting, May 19, 1952, pg. 78.
- ^ "WNHC-TV switches from six to eight." Broadcasting – Telecasting. January 4, 1954, pg. 62.
- ^ "Triangle makes 4th purchase in year, buys WNHC-AM-FM-TV for $5.4 million." Broadcasting – Telecasting, May 28, 1956, pg. 82.
- ^ "Capcities buys 9 Triangle outlets." Broadcasting, February 16, 1970, pg. 9.
- ^ "Last minute clearance for Capcities." Broadcasting, March 1, 1971, pp. 19–20. [1] [2]
- ^ "WNHC-AM-FM sold." Broadcasting, April 6, 1970, pp. 9–10. [3] [4]
- ^ [5] "Capcities + ABC." Broadcasting, March 25, 1985, pp. 31–32
- ^ "The other side of the CCC/ABC deal: $1 billion in spin-offs." Broadcasting, April 1, 1985, pp. 43–44. [6][permanent dead link] [7][permanent dead link]
- ^ "FCC approval of CapCities/ABC deal likely." Broadcasting, March 25, 1985, pp. 33–34. [8] [9]
- ^ "ABC/CCC sells four TV's for $485 million; Detroit, Tampa to Scripps Howard." Broadcasting, July 29, 1985, pg. 30.
- ^ Keveney, Bill (March 28, 1995). "WTVU, channel 59, will go on air in April". Hartford Courant. Retrieved May 15, 2019.
- ^ Flint, Joe (April 17, 1995). "WB's second thoughts". Variety. Retrieved May 15, 2019.
- ^ LIN TV Corp. Exploring Strategic Alternatives, LIN TV, May 18, 2007[permanent dead link]
- ^ Harrison, Crayton (March 21, 2014). "Media General To Buy LIN For $1.6 Billion". Hartford Courant. Bloomberg News. Archived from the original on March 22, 2014. Retrieved March 22, 2014.
- ^ Media General Completes Merger With LIN Media Archived December 19, 2014, at the Wayback Machine, Press Release, Media General. Retrieved December 19, 2014
- ^ "Media General Acquiring Meredith For 2.4 Billion". TVNewsCheck. NewsCheck Media. September 8, 2015.
- ^ Littleton, Cynthia (September 8, 2015). "TV Station Mega Merger: Media General Sets $2.4 Billion Acquisition of Meredith Corp". Variety. Retrieved September 9, 2015.
- ^ "Media Merger Means WFSB Or WTNH Sale Likely". Hartford Courant. Tribune Publishing. Associated Press. September 8, 2015. Retrieved September 9, 2015.
- Journal Register Company. Retrieved September 9, 2015.
- ^ "Press Release of Nexstar Broadcasting Group, Inc". sec.gov. Retrieved October 26, 2021.
- ^ "Acquisition of Tribune Media Company" (PDF). Nexstar Media Group. December 3, 2018.
- ^ Mark K. Miller (December 3, 2018). "Nexstar Buying Tribune Media For $6.4 Billion". TVNewsCheck. NewsCheck Media.
- ^ Peter White; Dade Hayes (December 3, 2018). "Nexstar Confirms $4.1B Tribune Media Acquisition To Become Leading Local TV Station Owner". Deadline Hollywood. Penske Media Corporation.
- ^ Gerry Smith; Nabila Ahmed; Eric Newcomer (December 3, 2018). "Nexstar to buy WGN owner Tribune Media for $4.1 billion". Chicago Tribune. Tribune Publishing. Bloomberg News.
- ^ Arjun Panchadar; Sonam Rai (December 3, 2018). "Nexstar to buy Tribune Media for $4.1 billion". Reuters.
- ^ Jon Lafayette (December 3, 2018). "Nexstar Announces Deal to Buy Tribune for $6.4B". Broadcasting & Cable. NewBay Media.
- ^ Adam Jacobson (December 3, 2018). "It's Official: Nexstar Takes Tribune In Billion-Dollar Stock Deal". Radio-Television Business Report. Streamline-RBR, Inc.
- ^ Harry A. Jessell; Mark K. Miller (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.
- ^ Lafayette, John (March 10, 2020). "WCTX Launching 3-Hour News Block in Primetime; Newscasts produced by Nexstar sister station WTNH in Hartford". Broadcasting & Cable. Retrieved March 11, 2020.
- ^ "RabbitEars.Info". rabbitears.info.
- ^ "DTV Tentative Channel Designations for the First and Second Rounds" (PDF). fcc.gov. Archived from the original (PDF) on August 29, 2013.
- ^ [10][permanent dead link]