Independent TV station in Allentown, Pennsylvania
For the radio station in Hertford, North Carolina, see
WFMZ (FM)
.
WFMZ-TV
(channel 69) is an
independent television station
in
Allentown, Pennsylvania
, United States. Locally-based Maranatha Broadcasting Company owns both WFMZ-TV and
Wilmington, Delaware
?licensed
MeTV
affiliate
WDPN-TV
. The two stations share studios on East Rock Road on
South Mountain
in Allentown, where WFMZ-TV's transmitter is located. WFMZ-TV also maintains a secondary studio in the
PPL Center
sports arena in
Center City Allentown
and a newsroom on Court Street in
Reading
.
Broadcast area
[
edit
]
WFMZ mainly serves the
Lehigh Valley
region (including
Warren County, New Jersey
in the
New York City
market
) and
Berks County
. Because the Lehigh Valley is part of the
Philadelphia
television market, it also has significant cable reach into much of the Philadelphia area, including
Trenton
. The station's over-the-air signal reaches some counties in northwestern New Jersey that are part of the New York City market and is carried on some New York City-area
cable
networks.
History
[
edit
]
Channel 67
[
edit
]
Prior to the debut of channel 69, an earlier television station that held the WFMZ-TV call sign and was based in
Allentown
operated on
UHF
channel 67 from December 1954 until April 1955. Like the current WFMZ-TV, it was co-owned with
WFMZ radio
(100.7 MHz). The radio station was sold twice in the 21-year gap between the two television stations.
Channel 69
[
edit
]
In February 1975, WFMZ reapplied for a television station license with channel 69 having been substituted for channel 67 in Allentown.
[3]
The application was approved on December 9, 1975.
[4]
Studios and a transmitter were co-sited with WFMZ radio.
[5]
The channel 69 transmitter and much of the equipment came from the short-lived
WHFV
in
Fredericksburg, Virginia
, which had ended operations in May 1975.
[6]
: 8:28
WFMZ-TV made its debut on November 25, 1976. Its programming consisted primarily of family-oriented entertainment shows, operating 13 hours a day.
[7]
The FM radio station remained co-owned until it was sold in 1997.
[8]
In the 1990s, WFMZ began running fewer religious shows and more sitcoms,
talk shows
and
reality shows
. The station's news division, 69 News, also gradually expanded. By 2000, the station was running three hours of local Lehigh Valley news a day and a mix of comedy shows and talk, reality television, and
court show
programming. The station presently airs about six hours a day of news in addition to talk and reality shows.
Local programming
[
edit
]
News
[
edit
]
In 1976, the station's news department debuted with two daily newscasts at 7 and 10 p.m. daily.
[9]
The news programs were later branded as Channel 69 News in the late 1980s and the station's news division was expanded. In 1989, WFMZ added a 5 p.m. newscast and the 7 p.m. news show was moved up to 6 p.m.
[10]
In 1995, WFMZ expanded its news service geographically with the debut of its
Berks Edition
newscast at 5:30 p.m. In 1998, this program was expanded to include a 10:30 p.m. news broadcast. Both
Berks Edition
newscasts were established in response to a perception that the Allentown area was being covered more extensively than the Reading area by Philadelphia news stations. WFMZ originally used a small newsroom at the
Reading Eagle
newspaper for these broadcasts.
[6]
: 27:05
Beginning in 1997,
[11]
WFMZ began experiencing significantly enhanced ratings for its news coverage of the
Lehigh Valley
.
[12]
In the late 1990s, the station also launched its first Lehigh Valley-focused morning and noon news programs.
[13]
In 2003, the region's first
Spanish language
newscast,
69 News en Espanol
, debuted to serve the growing Hispanic community in the Lehigh Valley and Berks County areas.
[14]
In 2005, WFMZ formed a broadcast partnership with
WPVI-TV
(channel 6), Philadelphia's
ABC
owned-and-operated station
. The partnership permitted the two stations to cooperate in news gathering for local stories. In November 2017, WFMZ launched newly formatted and expanded newscasts. In May 2008, WFMZ became the fourth television station in the Philadelphia media market to begin broadcasting its local newscasts in
high definition
.
In October 2014, WFMZ added an hour-long newscast at 4 p.m., making it the third station in the Philadelphia market (after
WCAU
and WPVI-TV) to broadcast local news in the 4 p.m. timeslot. In February 2015, WFMZ debuted its new street-level studio inside the
PPL Center
sports arena in
Center City Allentown
. The station broadcasts its noon news program from its PPL Center studio.
On September 25, 2023, WFMZ debuted a new 30-minute long 8pm newscast. Previously, there was a gap in news coverage from 6:30 p.m. until the 10 p.m. newscast.
Non-news programming
[
edit
]
WFMZ produces local programs about business, sports and health-related topics, including:
- The American Law Journal
is a call-in show that debuted in 1990, hosted by attorney Christopher Naughton, who is joined by various attorneys to answer questions about legal topics.
- Animal Doctor
is hosted by 6pm weather anchor Kathy Craine and features Lehigh Valley veterinarians discussing pet-related topics.
- The Big Ticket
covers Lehigh Valley high school football highlights and airs every Friday at 11pm in place of the Spanish-language
Edicion en Espanol
newscast, which airs at 6:30pm on WFMZ-DT4 during the high school football season. The show debuted in 1995 and is hosted by Jim Vaughn and Dan Moscaritolo with reports from WFMZ sports reporter Dave Lesko.
- Business Matters
is a discussion program, hosted by Tony Iannelli, that features a panel of experts discussing various business issues.
- The Freddy Awards
, modeled after the
Tony Awards
ceremony, debuted on WFMZ in 2003 and features a panel of evaluators who view and judge Lehigh Valley high school musical productions. The best of these high school productions are recognized in an annual ceremony broadcast live on WFMZ. Ed Hanna and Shelley Brown host the ceremony from the
State Theatre
in
Easton
.
- Lehigh Sports Magazine
is a sports program on
Lehigh University sports
that debuted in 1994 and airs during the fall.
[15]
It is hosted by Jim Vaughn and features interviews with
Lehigh University
coaches and players.
- Talk With Your Doctor
is a call-in show featuring health-related issues. The show is hosted by Doug Eberhart, who is joined by a panel of physicians from
St. Luke's University Health Network
.
- The Peak
[16]
features new medical innovations, nutritious recipes and related events. The show debuted September 30, 2012,
[17]
and is hosted by Ashley Russo and Mike Mittman.
- WFMZ Documentary Unit is a partnership between WFMZ and Julian Farris Films to create documentaries on local Lehigh Valley events and people. The documentary unit has won
Emmy
nominations for several of its documentaries, including
Boscov: An American Story
,
Time Bomb: Allentown Gas Explosion
, and
Aftershocks: Earthquake in Haiti
. The documentary unit is headed up by 69 News reporter Jaccii Farris and includes WFMZ executive producer Amy Unger, both of whom also maintain affiliations with Julian Farris Films.
Technical information
[
edit
]
Subchannels
[
edit
]
Simulcast of subchannels of another station
WFMZ offers three subchannels on a multiplex shared with
WBPH-TV
,
WLVT-TV
, and
WPPT
. One is the 69 News Weather Channel, a continuous loop of regional weather information, traffic cameras, and news headlines. 69 News Weather Channel launched February 5, 2001, and is the first such multicast service in the United States; unlike other AccuWeather affiliates, who generally used
the Local AccuWeather Channel
service that mixed nationally-oriented segments produced by AccuWeather with local content, WFMZ's service has always been entirely local.
[19]
Another subchannel offers a simulcast of WDPN-TV's
MeTV
channel.
Translators
[
edit
]
The WBPH-WFMZ-WLVT-WPPT multiplex is broadcast on two digital replacement translators that improve reception in areas to the south of Allentown, including Philadelphia:
A third digital replacement translator for WFMZ-TV on UHF channel 24 in Allentown, as well as separately licensed translator W24CS-D in
Reading
, offer a different mix of channels with two additional subchannels from WDPN-TV, but none from WBPH, WLVT, or WPPT.
In 2009, WFMZ began carrying
Retro TV
as a WFMZ subchannel. On January 24, 2014, however, MeTV announced that it would move its Philadelphia-market affiliation from WFMZ-TV's 69.3 subchannel to KJWP (channel 2), which has carried MeTV programming in addition to the WFMZ subchannel since November 2013.
[21]
[22]
In April 2014, Atlanta-based
Tuff TV
officially replaced MeTV on the 69.3 subchannel;
[23]
in December 2014, the signal began carrying the
Heroes & Icons
network feed. On October 1, 2019, WFMZ re-added MeTV as a simulcast of WDPN-TV on the 69.3 subchannel;
[24]
H&I is still seen in the market on WDPN's fourth subchannel.
Analog-to-digital conversion
[
edit
]
WFMZ-TV shut down its analog signal over UHF channel 69 on June 12, 2009, the official date on which full-power television stations in the United States
transitioned from analog to digital broadcasts
under federal regulations. WFMZ's digital signal continued broadcasting its pre-transition UHF channel 46,
[25]
using
virtual channel
69.
WFMZ's standalone signal was sold in the 2017 broadcast spectrum auction. It entered into a channel-sharing agreement with WBPH-TV.
[26]
To relieve any congestion related to the channel sharing, some of WFMZ's subchannels moved to KJWP, which WFMZ purchased in a separate transaction with the proceeds from the spectrum sale.
[27]
[28]
Out-of-market cable carriage
[
edit
]
In New Jersey, WFMZ is carried on basic cable in
Phillipsburg
and
Milford
, which are both part of the
New York City
media market. WFMZ is carried on cable providers in
Schuylkill County
, including
Tamaqua
,
Pottsville
, and the surrounding areas of
Carbon County
,
Monroe County
, and
Luzerne County
, each of which is located in the Scranton?Wilkes-Barre media market. In northwestern New Jersey, WFMZ is also available on digital cable on
Xfinity
's
Port Murray
system alongside Philadelphia stations
KYW-TV
,
WTXF-TV
, and
WCAU
.
See also
[
edit
]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
"Modification of a Licensed Facility for DTV Application"
.
Licensing and Management System
.
Federal Communications Commission
. Retrieved
December 6,
2017
.
- ^
"Facility Technical Data for WFMZ-TV"
.
Licensing and Management System
.
Federal Communications Commission
.
- ^
"Two L.V. commercial TV licenses are sought"
.
The Morning Call
. Allentown, Pennsylvania. June 14, 1975. p. 5
. Retrieved
February 26,
2022
– via Newspapers.com.
- ^
FCC History Cards for WFMZ-TV
- ^
"Salisbury site: WFMZ plans TV affiliate"
.
The Morning Call
. Allentown, Pennsylvania. April 15, 1976. p. 23
. Retrieved
February 26,
2022
– via Newspapers.com.
- ^
a
b
WFMZ-TV: The First 40 Years
. WFMZ-TV
. Retrieved
February 26,
2022
.
- ^
Lawler, Sylvia (November 21, 1976).
"Channel 69 makes debut on Thursday"
.
The Morning Call
. Allentown, Pennsylvania. p. B-9
. Retrieved
February 26,
2022
– via Newspapers.com.
- ^
Lezin, Sophia (July 16, 1997).
"City radio station WFMZ being sold for $23 million"
.
The Morning Call
. Allentown, Pennsylvania. p. B1,
B6
. Retrieved
February 26,
2022
– via Newspapers.com.
- ^
"TV station in the L.V. goes on air"
.
The Morning Call
. Allentown, Pennsylvania. November 26, 1976. p. 14
. Retrieved
February 26,
2022
– via Newspapers.com.
- ^
Lawler, Sylvia (September 7, 1989).
"Allentown actor's toughest role?own wedding"
.
The Morning Call
. Allentown, Pennsylvania. p. D1,
D2
. Retrieved
February 26,
2022
– via Newspapers.com.
- ^
Lawler, Sylvia (August 19, 1997).
"WFMZ-69 drops 7 p.m. newscast for 6 p.m. version starting Sept. 8"
.
The Morning Call
. Allentown, Pennsylvania. p. D2
. Retrieved
February 26,
2022
– via Newspapers.com.
- ^
Shope, Dan (March 22, 1998).
"No garbage on airwaves at WFMZ-TV"
.
The Morning Call
. Allentown, Pennsylvania. p. D1
. Retrieved
February 26,
2022
– via Newspapers.com.
- ^
"Bulletin: Channel 69 hits record highs with on-air staff, newscasts"
.
The Morning Call
. Allentown, Pennsylvania. November 1, 1998. p. F1,
F2
. Retrieved
February 26,
2022
– via Newspapers.com.
- ^
Fisher, Barry; Rinehart, Brad (March 19, 2003).
"News in Spanish aids transition"
.
The Philadelphia Inquirer
. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. p. B02
. Retrieved
February 26,
2022
– via Newspapers.com.
- ^
"Lehigh Sports Magazine debuted in 1994 and airs during the fall season"
.
- ^
"The PEAK TV"
.
www.thepeaktv.com
.
- ^
"
"The Peak" Premieres on Sunday, September 30 at 6:30 pm on WFMZ-TV"
.
- ^
"RabbitEars TV Query for WBPH"
.
RabbitEars.info
.
- ^
Frassinelli, Mike (February 6, 2001).
"Valley gets its own TV weather channel"
.
The Morning Call
. Archived from
the original
on November 3, 2013.
- ^
"Digital Market Listing for WFMZ-AB"
.
rabbitears.info
.
- ^
Downey, Kevin (January 24, 2014).
"Me-TV Picks Up Big-Market Primary Slots"
.
TVNewsCheck
. Retrieved
January 27,
2014
.
- ^
Malone, Michael (January 27, 2014).
"Me-TV Inks New Deals in New York, Philly"
.
Broadcasting & Cable
. Retrieved
January 27,
2014
.
- ^
"Tuff TV Affiliates"
. Retrieved
April 17,
2014
.
- ^
"MeTV Affiliates"
. Retrieved
October 1,
2019
.
- ^
"DTV Tentative Channel Designations for the First and Second Rounds"
(PDF)
. Retrieved
March 24,
2012
.
- ^
"NERW Extra: Big $ for NBC, WGBH in Spectrum Auction"
. April 13, 2017.
- ^
"WFMZ-TV expansion fueled by FCC auction"
.
wfmz.com
. April 14, 2017
. Retrieved
August 12,
2023
.
- ^
"DTV Transition - WFMZ-TV-DTV 69News - WFMZ"
. Archived from
the original
on June 22, 2018.
External links
[
edit
]
Other television stations in the Commonwealth of
Pennsylvania
|
---|
Independent stations
| |
---|
Religious stations
|
- W09DJ-D
(
EWTN
,
Scranton
)
- WNYB 26
(
TCT
,
Jamestown, NY
)
- WCZS-LD 35
(
CTVN
,
Shippensburg
)
- WPCB-TV 40
(
CTVN
,
Greensburg
)
- WELL-LD 45
(
Daystar
,
Philadelphia
)
- WKBS-TV 47
(
CTVN
,
Altoona
)
- WGTW-TV 48
(
TBN
,
Millville, NJ
)
- WLYH 49
(
Rel. Ind.
,
Red Lion
)
- WTBY-TV 54
(
TBN
,
Jersey City, NJ
)
- WBPH-TV 60
(
Rel. Ind.
,
Allentown
)
|
---|
Other stations
| English
|
- WDPN-TV 2
(
MeTV
,
Wilmington, DE
)
- WNYE-TV 25
(
Edu.
,
New York, NY
)
- WIIC-LD 29
(
Rev'n
,
Pittsburgh
)
- WJLP 33
(
MeTV
,
Middletown Twp., NJ
)
- WBYD-CD 35
(
JTV
,
Pittsburgh
)
- WYLN-CD 35
(
YTA
,
Hazleton
)
- WZME 43
(
Story
,
Bridgeport, CT
)
- WWAT-CD 45
(
Family
,
Uniontown
)
- WRNN-TV 48
(
ShopHQ
,
New Rochelle, NY
)
- WTVE 51
(
Ads
,
Willow Grove
)
- WMBC-TV 63
(
Ind.
/Ethnic,
Newton, NJ
)
- WBBZ-TV 67
(
Ind.
/
MeTV
,
Springville, NY
)
- WJAL 68
(
ShopHQ
,
Silver Spring, MD
)
|
---|
Spanish
|
- WFDC-DT 14
(
UNI
,
Arlington, VA
)
- WXBU 15
(
UNI
,
Lancaster
)
- WFPA-CD 28
(
UniMas
,
Philadelphia
)
- WXTV-DT 41
(
UNI
,
Paterson, NJ
)
- WNJU 47
(
TMD
,
Linden, NJ
)
- WWSI 62
(
TMD
,
Mount Laurel, NJ
)
- WUVP-DT 65
(
UNI
,
Vineland, NJ
)
- WFUT-DT 68
(
UNI
,
Newark, NJ
)
|
---|
|
---|
Defunct
| |
---|
|
|
---|
ABC
| |
---|
CBS
| |
---|
Fox
| |
---|
NBC
| |
---|
The CW
| |
---|
MyNetworkTV
| |
---|
Ion Television
| |
---|
PBS
| |
---|
Spanish-language
stations
| |
---|
Other stations
|
- WDPN-TV 2
(
MeTV
,
Wilmington, DE
)
- WACP 4
(
TCT
,
Atlantic City
)
- WDVB-CD 23
(
Inspire
,
Edison
)
- WNYE-TV 25
(
Edu.
Ind.
,
New York, NY
)
- WPHY-CD 25
(
Sonlife
,
Trenton
)
- WJLP 33
(
MeTV
,
Middletown Twp.
)
- WQAV-CD 34
(
Asia Vision
/
Ind.
,
Atlantic City
)
- WMGM 40
(
Crime
,
Wildwood
)
- WZME 43
(
Story
,
Bridgeport, CT
)
- WMCN-TV 44
(
LC
,
Atlantic City
)
- WGTW-TV 48
(
TBN
,
Millville
)
- WRNN-TV 48
(
ShopHQ
,
New Rochelle, NY
)
- WTBY-TV 54
(
TBN
,
Jersey City
)
- WLNY-TV 55
(
Ind.
,
Riverhead, NY
)
- WPSG 57
(
Ind.
,
Philadelphia, PA
)
- WMBC-TV 63
(
Ind.
,
Newton
)
- WFMZ-TV 69
(
Ind.
,
Allentown
)
|
---|
Defunct
| |
---|