| Harrisburg-York-Lancaster-Lebanon, Pennsylvania | |
|---|---|
| City of license | Harrisburg |
| Branding | ABC 27 (general) ABC 27 News (newscasts) RTV 27 (on DT2) |
| Slogan | Working For You |
| Channels | Digital: 10 (VHF) Virtual: 27 (PSIP) |
| Subchannels | 27.1 ABC 27.2 RTV 27.3 AccuWeather |
| Owner | Allbritton Communications Company (Harrisburg Television, Inc.) |
| First air date | June 19, 1953 |
| Call letters' meaning | Harrisburg Times Mirror (former owner) |
| Former callsigns | WTPA-TV (1953-1980) |
| Former channel number(s) | Analog: 71 (UHF, 1953-1957) 27 (UHF, 1957-2009) |
| Former affiliations | NBC (1953-1954) |
| Transmitter power | 19.7 kW |
| Height | 346 m |
| Facility ID | 72326 |
| Website | whtm.com |
WHTM-TV "ABC 27" is the ABC-affiliated television station for South Central Pennsylvania that's licensed to Harrisburg. It broadcasts a high definition digital signal on VHF channel 10 from a transmitter on the ridge north of I-81 along the Cumberland and Perry County line. Owned by the Allbritton Communications Company, the station has studios on North 6th Street in Harrisburg (although its address is Hoffman Street). Syndicated programming on WHTM includes: Judge Judy, Judge Joe Brown and The Insider. The station can also be seen on cable channel 9 and HD channel 807.
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Its signal is multiplexed. On WHTM-DT2, Comcast digital channel 246 and Verizon FiOS digital channel 461 is the Retro Television Network (RTV). On WHTM-DT3 is The Local AccuWeather Channel, which is available on Comcast digital channel 245.
| Subchannel | Programming |
|---|---|
| 27.1 | Main WHTM programming / ABC |
| 27.2 | WHTM-DT2 "RTV 27" |
| 27.3 | WHTM-DT3 "Weather Now" |
The station first went on-air on June 19, 1953 as a locally-owned NBC affiliate with the call letters WTPA-TV (standing for Television PennsylvaniA) in the next year 1954 the station moved to ABC from rival station WGAL-TV in Lancaster. It originally operated an analog signal on UHF channel 71 but later bought WCMB-TV on channel 27 (which had gone dark) and moved to that channel in 1957. WTPA was founded by the Newhouse family whose media holdings eventually became Advance Publications. The Times Mirror Company acquired all of the Newhouse television stations (including WTPA) in 1980 and changed their calls 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. Current owner Allbritton Communications acquired the station in 1996. The station launched its digital signal on VHF channel 10 in 1999.
As a result of an ice storm that came through the Harrisburg region between December 15 and 16, 2007, the station was unable to transmit its signal over-the-air due to power loss at its transmitter site. This was the case until the morning of December 18. [1] [2] The signal loss also affected the reception of some cable and satellite subscribers. WHTM-TV ended programming on its analog signal, on UHF channel 27, on June 12, 2009, as part of the DTV transition in the United States, and remained on its current digital channel 10 using PSIP to display its virtual channel as 27. This forced NBC owned-and-operated station WCAU in Philadelphia to continue digital broadcasting on channel 34. [3] [4] Feature reporter Chuck Rhodes served as a minor cast member in the film Lucky Numbers starring John Travolta. Travolta was starring as a cash lacking meteorologist and Rhodes was his biggest competition in Harrisburg.
WHTM-TV ABC 27 broadcasts 26 1/2 Hours of Local News and it airs the only weeknight 7 o'clock newscast in the market. Local news is aired from 4:30am to 7am, 12 Noon, 5:00pm to 6:30pm, 7pm and 11pm each weekday. In addition to its main studios, WHTM operates two bureaus. This includes the The York Dispatch offices on North George Street (I-83 Bus in Downtown York) as well as on North Main Street (U.S. 11 SB in Downtown Chambersburg).
On October 14, 2011, WHTM became the third station in Central Pennsylvania to broadcast local news in high definition. Back in mid-December 2010, rival, WGAL became the first station in the market to offer local newscasts in 16:9 enhanced definition widescreen. WPMT switched to HD on January 15, 2011 followed by WGAL on August 29, 2011.
Anchors
ABC 27 StormTrak Meteorologists
Sports
Reporters
Director of Technology
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