WMHT (TV)

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WMHT
Image:WMHT.jpg
Schenectady / Albany / Troy, New York
Channels 17 (UHF) analog,
34 (HDTV, UHF) digital
Translators 4 W04BJ Glens Falls
4 W04BD Schoharie
42 W42AE Poughkeepsie
Affiliations PBS
Owner WMHT Educational Telecommunications
Founded March 26, 1962
Call letters meaning Mohawk Hudson Television
Former callsigns None
Former affiliations NET (1962-1970)
Transmitter Power 2.63 MW (analog)
325 kW (digital)
Website www.wmht.org

WMHT is the call letters for a television station and radio station in Schenectady, New York owned and operated by WMHT Educational Telecommunications. Its transmitter is located in the Helderberg Mountains in Albany County, New York.

WMHT signed on the air on March 26, 1962 on UHF channel 17 as the Capital District's first public television station and the second in the state of New York. From the outset the network was affiliated with NET and became one of PBS's charter affiliates after the two networks merged in 1970. In 1972, WMHT expanded into FM radio by launching the first noncommercial classical music station in the United States (a format that continues to this day).

In 1987, WMHT purchased the assets of independent station WUSV channel 45 and made it a secondary programming service under the calls WMHX. Due to financial difficulties, WMHT shut WMHX down in 1991 and returned it to the air three years later under the calls WMHQ. In the late 1990's, WMHQ's commercial licence became attractive and WMHT sold it to the Tribune Company for $18.5 million in 1999 with the station becoming WB affiliate WEWB that September (it today is CW affiliate WCWN, owned by Freedom Communications). The money from this sale allowed WMHT to expand into digital television and build a new state-of-the-art studio in Troy to replace their original facilities in Rotterdam.

WMHT-DT signed on in 2003 on channel 34, the second digital television signal to do so in the Capital Region (third if counting WCDC-DT). Currently there are three subchannels on WMHT-DT:

  • WMHT2 on 17.2
  • WMHT HD on 17.3
  • Simulcast of 17.1 on 17.4

[edit] Outlying translators

Also, W42AE[1] in Poughkeepsie, owned by Dutchess Community College, repeats WMHT except for several hours a week when classes are in session.

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

Coordinates: 42° 38' 13" N 74° 00' 06" W