| Lancaster/Lebanon/Harrisburg/ York, Pennsylvania |
|
|---|---|
| City of license | Lancaster |
| Branding | CW 15 (general) CBS 21 News |
| Slogan | TV to Talk About & Your Station For Breaking News |
| Channels | Digital: 23 (UHF) Virtual: 15 (PSIP) |
| Subchannels | 15.1 The CW 15.2 TheCoolTV |
| Owner | Nexstar Broadcasting Group (operated through LMA by Newport Television) (Nexstar Broadcasting, Inc.) |
| First air date | October 25, 1953 |
| Call letters' meaning | We're Lebanon (or Lancaster)/York/ Harrisburg |
| Sister station(s) | WHP-TV |
| Former callsigns | WLBR-TV (1953-1959) WLYH (1959-1979) |
| Former channel number(s) | 15 (UHF analog, 1953-2009) |
| Former affiliations | Independent (1953-1957) ABC (1957-1961) CBS (1961-1995) UPN (1995-2006) |
| Transmitter power | 500 kW |
| Height | 381 m |
| Class | DT |
| Facility ID | 23338 |
| Website | cw15.com |
WLYH-TV is the CW-affiliated television station for South Central Pennsylvania licensed to Lancaster. It broadcasts a high definition digital signal on UHF channel 23 (or virtual channel 15.1 via PSIP) from a transmitter on Butler Road in West Cornwall Township, Lebanon County, Pennsylvania. The station can also be seen on Comcast channel 2 and Verizon FiOS channel 15. There is a high definition feed offered on Verizon FiOS digital channel 515 and Comcast digital channel 805.
Owned by the Nexstar Broadcasting Group, WLYH is operated through a local marketing agreement (LMA) by Newport Television. This makes it sister to CBS/MyNetworkTV affiliate WHP-TV and the two outlets share studios on North 6th Street in Harrisburg's Uptown section. Syndicated programming on the station includes How I Met Your Mother, The Office, My Name Is Earl, and Don't Forget the Lyrics! among others. On early Sunday mornings, it airs paid programming from Jewelry Television. WLYH's logo is identical to fellow CW affiliate WCWN in Albany, New York.
Contents |
On WLYH-DT2 and Verizon FiOS digital channel 480 is TheCoolTV.
| Channels (virtual/physical) | Name | Video | Aspect | Programming |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 15.1/23.1 | WLYH-HD | 1080i | 16:9 | main WLYH programming/The CW (HD) |
| 15.2/23.2 | WLYH-DT2 | 480i | 4:3 | TheCoolTV (SD) |
The station signed-on October 25, 1953 as an Independent with the call sign WLBR-TV. Licensed to Lebanon, it aired an analog signal on UHF channel 15 from a one kW transmitter and 572 foot tower just north of Mount Gretna. The station was originally owned by the Lebanon Television Corporation formed by the Lebanon Broadcasting Company (WLBR radio) and the Lebanon News Publishing Company (Lebanon Daily News). In October 1954 after a power failure caused by Hurricane Hazel, the station went dark.
In 1957, Triangle Publications bought the dormant WLBR license. The station signed-on with increased power in August 1957. Under Triangle ownership, the station became a part-time ABC affiliate and received other programs from then sister station WFIL-TV (now WPVI-TV) in Philadelphia. On January 1, 1959, the call letters were changed to WLYH indicating service to Lebanon, York, and Harrisburg. In 1961, it became a CBS affiliate as part of the Keystone Network comprising of WLYH, WHP in Harrisburg, and WSBA-TV (now WPMT) in York.
This created a strong combined signal with 55 percent overlap. At this point in time, WLYH began simulcasting WSBA for nearly the entire broadcast day while WHP was programmed and operated separately. All three outlets ran prime time CBS programing, most of the daytime shows, and most of the weekend offerings. All three stations preempted CBS programming in moderation. However, any shows WSBA and WLYH preempted aired on WHP and vice versa allowing most of the market to get the entire CBS schedule.
Triangle was forced out of broadcasting in 1970 after then-Governor Milton J. Shapp claimed the company had used its three Pennsylvania television stations (WLYH, WFIL, and WFBG-TV in Altoona) in a smear campaign against him. [1] WLYH was among the last to be sold going to Gateway Communications as part of a package with WFBG (now WTAJ-TV) and WNBF-TV (now WBNG-TV) in Binghamton, New York in 1971. WLYH would eventually add the -TV suffix to its calls on April 5, 1979. In the 1980s, Gateway moved the station's city of license to Lancaster. WSBA left the Keystone group in 1983 to become an Independent outlet leaving WLYH and WHP as the area's CBS affiliates. Both stations continued to air separate non-network programming and maintained the arrangement for programs preempted on one station to air on the other. WLYH also added a secondary affiliation with UPN upon the new network's launch on January 16, 1995.
The unusual situation, with two separately owned and programmed CBS affiliates (which by then had about 75 percent signal overlap) in one market and airing most of the same network programming, would continue until Fall 1995 when Clear Channel Communications (which had just bought WHP) entered into a twenty year local marketing agreement with Gateway. Under this operation agreement, WLYH was merged with WHP in Harrisburg. WLYH then became a primary UPN affiliate for the area while WHP became a sole CBS affiliate. This change took effect on December 16, 1995 ending WLYH's 34 year CBS affiliation. In 2000, Gateway sold all of its stations to SJL Broadcasting.
On January 24, 2006, The WB and UPN announced the two networks would end broadcasting and merge. The new combined service would be called The CW. The letters would represent the first initial of corporate parents "C"BS (the parent company of UPN) and the "W"arner Bros. unit of Time Warner. On February 22, News Corporation announced it would start up another new network called MyNetworkTV. This new service, which would be a sister network to Fox, would be operated by Fox Television Stations and its syndication division Twentieth Television. MyNetworkTV was created in order to give UPN and WB stations, not mentioned as becoming CW affiliates, another option besides becoming Independent. It was also created to compete against The CW. Since there was no WB affiliate in Harrisburg, WPHL-TV in Philadelphia served as the market's default outlet on cable television.
It was made public on May 18 that WLYH would become the area's CW affiliate upon its launch on September 18. Meanwhile, WHP created a new second digital subchannel to be part of MyNetworkTV. Nexstar purchased the licenses of WLYH and WTAJ from SJL in late-2006. On April 20, 2007, Clear Channel entered into an agreement to sell its entire television stations group (including WHP and the LMA with WLYH) to the private equity firm Providence Equity Partners. The station's analog signal was shut down on February 17, 2009. Digital broadcasts remained on channel 23 using PSIP to display its virtual channel as 15. In addition to WLYH, Comcast systems offer WPSG from Philadelphia in standard and high definition.
WLYH established a full news operation in the early-1960s that focused on the eastern side (Lebanon and Lancaster) of its large viewing area. Since its aired a UHF signal during the analog era, the station's coverage area was limited due to the nature of such signals. UHF transmissions usually do not enjoy as much of a broadcasting radius in mountainous areas as do stations operating on VHF. During the 1960s, WLYH operated a bureau in the W. W. Griest Building in Downtown Lancaster in addition to its main studios in South Londonderry Township.
In the early-1970s, an entirely new base of operations for color television and updated news film processing were constructed as part of the new Park City Center in that city. WSBA simulcasted WLYH's newscasts until the arrangement ended in 1983 with the former severing ties after becoming WPMT. After WHP took over operations of WLYH in Fall 1995, the former shut down this station's separate news department. The next year in 1996, a news share agreement was established between WLYH and WHP. This resulted in a prime time newscast at 10 to debut on this station.
The effort competed with WPMT which also aired a prime time broadcast in the 10 o'clock slot. Due to low ratings and inconsistent viewership, WHP cancelled WLYH's original show and terminated the news share arrangement. [2] In January 2009, WHP launched a prime time show on this station for a second time. This incarnation of WLYH's newscast initially only aired on weeknights but the production was expanded to a seven night operation at some point in time. Like the previous effort, WHP's broadcast at 10 competes with WPMT. However, WLYH's nightly newscast is thirty minutes long as opposed to an hour show on WPMT. [3] In addition to its main studios in Harrisburg, WHP also operates bureaus in Lancaster and York.
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