WHTM-TV

WHTM-TV

Harrisburg/York/Lancaster/ Lebanon, Pennsylvania United States
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 Retro TV 27.3 AccuWeather
Affiliations	ABC
Owner	Media General (WHTM Acquisition, LLC)
First air date	July 6, 1953
Call letters' meaning	Harrisburg Times Mirror (former owner)
Former callsigns	WTPA (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
Transmitter coordinates	40°18′58″N 76°57′1″W / 40.31611°N 76.95028°W / 40.31611; -76.95028
Licensing authority	FCC
Public license information:	Profile CDBS
Website	abc27.com

WHTM-TV, virtual channel 27 (VHF digital channel 10), is the ABC-affiliated television station serving the Susquehanna Valley region of south-central Pennsylvania, licensed to Harrisburg. The station is owned by Media General.

WHTM maintains studio facilities located on North 6th Street in Harrisburg (although with a Hoffman Street address), and its transmitter is located on the ridge north of I-81 along the Cumberland and Perry County line. On cable, the station is available on Comcast cable channel 9 and in high definition on digital channel 807, and is also available via Verizon FiOS, DirecTV and Dish Network.

History

The station first signed on the air on July 6, 1953 as WTPA (standing for Television PennsylvaniA), operating as an NBC affiliate. WTPA was founded by the Newhouse family, whose media holdings eventually became Advance Publications, and was operated alongside Harrisburg's two major newspapers, The Patriot and The Evening News (since merged as The Patriot-News). The following year, it switched affiliations to ABC. It originally operated on UHF channel 71, but later moved to channel 27 in 1957, after that channel's original occupant, WCMB-TV, ceased operations. During WTPA's first year on the air, the station broadcast from 9:00 a.m. to 12:15 a.m. on weekdays and from noon to midnight on weekends. Early local programs included a midday religious program Daily Devotions, music and comedy-focused variety program Mac's Matinee, daytime talk show Harrisburg Hostess, cooking show Look What's Cooking and Susquehanna Trail.

The Times Mirror Company acquired the Newhouse television stations (including WTPA) in 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.^[1][2]

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).

On July 29, 2013, Allbritton announced that it would sell its seven television stations, including WHTM, to the Sinclair Broadcast Group.^[3] 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 shared services and joint sales agreements.^[4]

On December 6, 2013, the Federal Communications Commission informed Sinclair that applications related to the deal need to be "amended or withdrawn" in order for it to gain approval. In the case of the Harrisburg market, Sinclair would retain an existing local marketing agreement with WLYH-TV (channel 15). Sinclair's plans to retain WHTM would have, in effect, created a new LMA between WHTM and WLYH, 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.^[5] On March 20, 2014, as part of a restructuring of the Sinclair-Allbritton deal to address the noted ownership conflicts, Sinclair announced that it would terminate the sale of WHP-TV to Deerfield Media and instead sell it to another third-party buyer, with whom Sinclair would not to enter into any operational or financial agreements. That third-party buyer would also inherit the LMA with WLYH. Sinclair would also seek FCC consent for an asset swap with the buyer of WHP-TV in which the station and WHTM would trade licenses, programming (including their respective network affiliations), virtual channel numbers and transmitter facilities.^[6][7] On May 29, 2014, Sinclair informed the FCC that it had not yet found a buyer for WHP and that it would also consider reselling WHTM to the third-party buyer, while keeping WHP and the LMA for WLYH;^[8][9] on June 23, the company announced that it would retain WHP-TV and the LMA for WLYH and sell WHTM to Media General for $83.4 million.^[10]After nearly a year of delays, the deal was approved by the FCC on July 24, 2014.^[11] Sinclair completed the purchase of the Allbritton stations on August 1,^[12] with WHTM being operated under a "Hold Separate Agreement" until its sale to Media General was completed on September 2.^[13]

Digital television

Digital channels

The station's digital channel is multiplexed:

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 federally mandated transition from analog to digital television.^[15] The station's digital signal remained on its pre-transition VHF channel 10,^[16] (this forced NBC owned-and-operated station WCAU in Philadelphia to continue broadcasting its digital signal on channel 34), using PSIP to display WHTM-TV's virtual channel as 27 on digital television receivers.

News operation

ABC 27 News open.

WHTM-TV presently broadcasts 34 hours of locally produced newscasts each week (with six hours on weekdays and two hours each on Saturdays and Sundays). In addition to its main studios, WHTM operates news bureaus at the The York Dispatch offices on North George Street (I-83 Bus in Downtown York), on North Main Street (U.S. 11 SB) in Downtown Chambersburg, in Downtown Lebanon and near the square in Carlisle. News programming on the station began with its sign-on as WTPA in 1953, with 15-minute newscasts at 12:15, 6:30 and 11:00 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, Cumberland and Perry (including the state capital of Harrisburg, and Carlisle).^[17] 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 viewrship, the largest occurring in May 2013; WHTM saw consistent growth, including significant gains during that same sweeps period.^[18] 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 ENG vehicles, satellite truck, studio and field cameras and other equipment in order to broadcast news footage from the field in high definition, in addition to segments broadcast from the main studio. On January 13, 2012, WHTM upgraded its weather graphics to HD.

Awards

Over the years, WHTM has earned numerous Emmy nominations and wins. In 2014 the station was nominated for 26 Emmys, leading the Mid Atlantic chapter of NATAS in total nominations. This was more than all other stations in the local market combined and more than all stations in Pittsburgh and Philadelphia. In 2013, the station received 16 Emmy nominations, including in the "News Excellence" category. The station's coverage of the trial of Jerry Sandusky, and its Saturday morning and 11 p.m. newscasts, and various members of the station's news staff were also nominated for Regional Emmys for various stories and newscasts.^[19] WHTM has repeatedly been recognized with the Pennsylvania Associated Press Broadcasters Association's Joe Snyder Award for Outstanding News Service, including in 2013. That year, WHTM also received seven first place awards from the Associated Press, including for its Sandusky trial coverage, as well as a Pennsylvania Association of Broadcasters award for its investigative reporting and in spot news for its coverage of the kidnapping of a local college student.^[20][21] In 2014 the PAB awarded WHTM with Outstanding Website for abc27.com, Outstanding Breaking News Report for coverage of a major tanker truck explosion on I-81 in Dauphin County and Outstanding Feature Report for a series on the legalization of medical marijuana in Pennsylvania.

References

External links

• Official website
• Query the FCC's TV station database for WHTM-TV