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WPMT
WPMT (channel 43) is a television station licensed to York, Pennsylvania, United States, serving as the Fox affiliate for the Susquehanna Valley region. It is owned by Nexstar Media Group alongside ABC affiliate WHTM-TV (channel 27). WPMT's studios are located on South Queen Street in Spring Garden Township (with a York mailing address). Through a channel sharing agreement with PBS member WITF-TV (channel 33), the two stations transmit using WITF-TV's spectrum from an antenna in Susquehanna Township.
WPMT is also rebroadcast on a translator, W20EU-D in Chambersburg, Pennsylvania.
The station first signed on the air on December 21, 1952, as WSBA-TV, originally operating as an ABC affiliate. It was owned by the Susquehanna Radio Corporation, a subsidiary of the Susquehanna Pfaltzgraff conglomerate, along with radio station WSBA (910 AM). It was one of the first commercially licensed UHF television stations in the United States, signing on the air just over three months after KPTV in Portland, Oregon, which originally broadcast on channel 27 when it signed on in 1952, before moving to VHF channel 12 five years later. WSBA-TV was one of four stations vying to be the first UHF television station to transmit a signal, using commercially-manufactured equipment, as KPTV was using experimental equipment provided by RCA. The four prospective television stations received their UHF transmitters at the same time from the RCA Victor facility in Camden, New Jersey. Newspaper records from 1952 show WSBA signed on at 2:06 a.m. on December 21, beating WBRE-TV in Wilkes-Barre, WFPG-TV in Atlantic City, New Jersey, and WSBT-TV in South Bend, Indiana. This makes WPMT the oldest continuously broadcasting UHF station in the country.
In 1963, the station became a CBS affiliate and joined WHP-TV (channel 21) in Harrisburg and WLYH-TV (channel 15) in Lebanon to form the Keystone Network. The three stations provided a strong combined signal with about a 55% overlap. Initially, WHP-TV, WLYH, and WSBA aired the same programming despite separate ownership. By the late 1960s, while all three stations ran most of the CBS programming schedule, WHP-TV ran different local programming during non-network hours, while WLYH and WSBA continued to simulcast for nearly the entire broadcast day. WHP ran CBS shows that WSBA and WLYH preempted, while the latter two stations ran programming that WHP preempted, allowing most of the market to view the entire CBS schedule. All three ran most of the CBS lineup, duplicating over three-quarters of the network's programs. This arrangement was necessary for the days before cable gained significant penetration.
In April 1983, Susquehanna sold WSBA-TV to Idaho-based Mohawk Broadcasting, who changed its call letters to the current WPMT. The station signed off in August and returned to the air the following month as the Susquehanna Valley's first general entertainment independent station. Until then, the only over-the-air source of non-network programming in South Central Pennsylvania was WGCB-TV (channel 49) in Red Lion, a religious station that had been on the air since 1979. WPMT was a typical UHF independent with a schedule heavy on cartoons, sitcoms, movies, dramas, sports and westerns.
On October 9, 1986, WPMT became one of the charter affiliates of the newly launched Fox network. From 1990 to 2004, WPMT featured original children's programming hosted by the station's mascot, a clown named Pete McTee (a play on the station's call letters). Renaissance Communications acquired WPMT in 1990. The station was acquired by Tribune Broadcasting following the company's purchase of Renaissance in 1996. A year earlier, WPMT had added programming from The WB, half-owned by Tribune, in off-hours. However, cable customers could watch the full WB schedule on then-sister station WPHL-TV from Philadelphia.
Sinclair Broadcast Group, owner of WHP-TV, entered into an agreement to acquire Tribune Media in 2017. Sinclair intended to keep WHP-TV and designated WPMT and eight other stations to be sold to Standard Media Group. However, the transaction was designated in July 2018 for hearing by an FCC administrative law judge, and Tribune moved to terminate the deal in August 2018.
In 2019, Nexstar Media Group, owner of ABC affiliate WHTM-TV (channel 27), announced it would acquire Tribune. Nexstar opted to retain WHTM and sold WPMT to Tegna.
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WPMT
WPMT (channel 43) is a television station licensed to York, Pennsylvania, United States, serving as the Fox affiliate for the Susquehanna Valley region. It is owned by Nexstar Media Group alongside ABC affiliate WHTM-TV (channel 27). WPMT's studios are located on South Queen Street in Spring Garden Township (with a York mailing address). Through a channel sharing agreement with PBS member WITF-TV (channel 33), the two stations transmit using WITF-TV's spectrum from an antenna in Susquehanna Township.
WPMT is also rebroadcast on a translator, W20EU-D in Chambersburg, Pennsylvania.
The station first signed on the air on December 21, 1952, as WSBA-TV, originally operating as an ABC affiliate. It was owned by the Susquehanna Radio Corporation, a subsidiary of the Susquehanna Pfaltzgraff conglomerate, along with radio station WSBA (910 AM). It was one of the first commercially licensed UHF television stations in the United States, signing on the air just over three months after KPTV in Portland, Oregon, which originally broadcast on channel 27 when it signed on in 1952, before moving to VHF channel 12 five years later. WSBA-TV was one of four stations vying to be the first UHF television station to transmit a signal, using commercially-manufactured equipment, as KPTV was using experimental equipment provided by RCA. The four prospective television stations received their UHF transmitters at the same time from the RCA Victor facility in Camden, New Jersey. Newspaper records from 1952 show WSBA signed on at 2:06 a.m. on December 21, beating WBRE-TV in Wilkes-Barre, WFPG-TV in Atlantic City, New Jersey, and WSBT-TV in South Bend, Indiana. This makes WPMT the oldest continuously broadcasting UHF station in the country.
In 1963, the station became a CBS affiliate and joined WHP-TV (channel 21) in Harrisburg and WLYH-TV (channel 15) in Lebanon to form the Keystone Network. The three stations provided a strong combined signal with about a 55% overlap. Initially, WHP-TV, WLYH, and WSBA aired the same programming despite separate ownership. By the late 1960s, while all three stations ran most of the CBS programming schedule, WHP-TV ran different local programming during non-network hours, while WLYH and WSBA continued to simulcast for nearly the entire broadcast day. WHP ran CBS shows that WSBA and WLYH preempted, while the latter two stations ran programming that WHP preempted, allowing most of the market to view the entire CBS schedule. All three ran most of the CBS lineup, duplicating over three-quarters of the network's programs. This arrangement was necessary for the days before cable gained significant penetration.
In April 1983, Susquehanna sold WSBA-TV to Idaho-based Mohawk Broadcasting, who changed its call letters to the current WPMT. The station signed off in August and returned to the air the following month as the Susquehanna Valley's first general entertainment independent station. Until then, the only over-the-air source of non-network programming in South Central Pennsylvania was WGCB-TV (channel 49) in Red Lion, a religious station that had been on the air since 1979. WPMT was a typical UHF independent with a schedule heavy on cartoons, sitcoms, movies, dramas, sports and westerns.
On October 9, 1986, WPMT became one of the charter affiliates of the newly launched Fox network. From 1990 to 2004, WPMT featured original children's programming hosted by the station's mascot, a clown named Pete McTee (a play on the station's call letters). Renaissance Communications acquired WPMT in 1990. The station was acquired by Tribune Broadcasting following the company's purchase of Renaissance in 1996. A year earlier, WPMT had added programming from The WB, half-owned by Tribune, in off-hours. However, cable customers could watch the full WB schedule on then-sister station WPHL-TV from Philadelphia.
Sinclair Broadcast Group, owner of WHP-TV, entered into an agreement to acquire Tribune Media in 2017. Sinclair intended to keep WHP-TV and designated WPMT and eight other stations to be sold to Standard Media Group. However, the transaction was designated in July 2018 for hearing by an FCC administrative law judge, and Tribune moved to terminate the deal in August 2018.
In 2019, Nexstar Media Group, owner of ABC affiliate WHTM-TV (channel 27), announced it would acquire Tribune. Nexstar opted to retain WHTM and sold WPMT to Tegna.