The station first signed on the air on June 19, 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?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) on March 28, 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.
[3]
[4]
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
.
[5]
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
joint sales
and
shared services
agreements.
[6]
However, the FCC ruled that Sinclair's plans to retain WHTM would have, in effect, created a new LMA between WHTM and WLYH-TV, 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.
[7]
After several revisions to the deal?one which included a proposal to divest WHP and the LMA with WLYH,
[8]
[9]
Sinclair chose to instead retain WHP and the LMA with WLYH, and divest WHTM.
[10]
[11]
On June 23, it was announced that WHTM would be sold to
Media General
for $83.4 million.
[12]
After nearly a year of delays, the deal was approved by the FCC on July 24, 2014.
[13]
Sinclair completed the purchase of the Allbritton stations on August 1,
[14]
with WHTM being operated under a "Hold Separate Agreement" until its sale to Media General was completed on September 2.
[15]
Several months later, in a separate transaction, on August 20, 2014, Sinclair also traded three other stations
KXRM-TV
and
KXTU-LD
in
Colorado Springs
, and
WTTA
in
Tampa Bay
to Media General for
WJAR
in
Providence
,
WLUK
and
WCWF
in
Green Bay
and
WTGS
in
Savannah
, which was part of Media General's acquisition of
LIN Media
,
[16]
[17]
which was completed on December 19.
[18]
On January 27, 2016,
Nexstar Broadcasting Group
?which owned WLYH (now
WXBU
and owned by
Howard Stirk Holdings
) from 2006 to 2015?announced that it had reached an agreement to acquire Media General.
[19]
Upon consummation, WHTM became a sister station to five stations in three other Pennsylvania markets, including
WYOU
and
WBRE-TV
in
Scranton
?
Wilkes-Barre
,
WTAJ-TV
in
Altoona
, and
WJET-TV
and
WFXP
in
Erie
. The sale was completed on January 17, 2017.
[20]
On December 3, 2018, Nexstar announced it would acquire the assets of
Chicago
-based
Tribune Media
?which has owned
Fox
affiliate
WPMT
(channel 43) since 1996?for $6.4 billion in cash and debt. Nexstar was precluded from acquiring WPMT directly or indirectly, as FCC regulations prohibit common ownership of two or more of the four highest-rated stations in the same media market. (Furthermore, any attempt by Nexstar to assume the operations of WPMT through local marketing or shared services agreements would have been subject to regulatory hurdles that could have delayed completion of the FCC and
Justice Department
's review and approval process for the acquisition.) As such, Nexstar was required to sell either WPMT or WHTM to a separate, unrelated company to address the ownership conflict.
[21]
[22]
[23]
[24]
[25]
[26]
[27]
[28]
[29]
[30]
On March 20, 2019, it was announced that Nexstar would keep WHTM-TV and sell WPMT to
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; along with Scranton sister station
WNEP-TV
(which was also acquired by Tegna as part of the spin-offs), this made WPMT among the first television properties in Pennsylvania for Tegna.
[31]
[32]
WHTM-TV presently broadcasts
33
+
1
?
2
hours of locally produced newscasts each week (with
5
+
1
?
2
hours each weekday and three hours each on Saturdays and Sundays). In addition to its main studios, WHTM operates news bureaus at
The York Dispatch
offices on North George Street (
I-83 Business
) in Downtown
York
, on North Main Street (
US 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?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
(including the state capital of Harrisburg),
Cumberland
(including Carlisle), and
Perry
.
[33]
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 viewership, the largest occurring in May 2013; WHTM saw consistent growth, including significant gains during that same sweeps period.
[34]
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.
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.
[35]
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.
[36]
[37]
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.
The station's signal is
multiplexed
:
On November 30, 2015, WHTM 27.2 replaced
Retro TV
with
Ion Television
.
Sometime in 2020,
[
when?
]
WHTM-DT3 replaced
getTV
with
Dabl
.
[
citation needed
]
In June 2022, Dabl was replaced with
Grit
.
[39]
Analog-to-digital conversion
edit
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
.
[40]
The station's digital signal remained on its pre-transition
VHF
channel 10,
[41]
(this forced NBC
owned-and-operated station
WCAU
in
Philadelphia
to continue broadcasting its digital signal on channel 34), using
virtual channel
27.
2021 power increase and antenna change
edit
WHTM-TV completed work on its construction permit on October 24, 2021. The station increased its power to 28.1?kW and rotated its antenna 180 degrees to improve its signal in the main population area of the television market, including Dauphin, Lancaster, York and
Lebanon
counties. The station previously had its antenna turned to the west to originally protect the analog signal of Philadelphia's WCAU during the digital transition in the 2000s and prior to 2009.
In addition, to improve its market coverage, WHTM's main channel (27.1) is simulcast in high definition as a subchannel on four
low-power television stations
. These LPTV stations are operated by the owner of
WLYH
, which shares transmitter facilities with WHTM.
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Archived
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, May 12, 2013.
- ^
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Archived
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, WHTM-TV, August 2, 2013.
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