WPHL-TV
Encyclopedia
WPHL-TV, channel 17, is a television station
in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
, owned by the Tribune Company
and currently affiliated with the News Corporation
-owned MyNetworkTV
television network. This makes it the largest non-O&O station of the network. The station's studios are located in the Wynnefield section of West Philadelphia
and its transmitter is located in the Roxborough
neighborhood.
signed on WPCA-TV, a religious station. The call letters stood for "People's Church of the Air." The station was Philadelphia's first commercial UHF channel, but at a time when UHF converters were not required on most TV sets, WPCA only lasted two years and went off the air in 1962.
However, a group of local investors bought the dormant channel 17 license and returned it to the air on September 17, 1965 as independent station
WPHL-TV. It was the third UHF independent to sign-on in Philadelphia that year, two and a half weeks behind WKBS-TV
(channel 48) and four months later than WIBF-TV (channel 29, later WTAF and now WTXF-TV
). During its early years, WPHL went through a string of owners, most notably as an owned-and-operated station of the short-lived United Network
.
In the summer of 1975 WPHL-TV moved from its studios in the suburb of Wyndmoor
to its current studio in Wynnefield. The building had once been an A&P
supermarket. The station offered a schedule of off-network drama shows, sitcoms, old movies, sports and religious shows. It also ran NBC
programs that KYW-TV
had pre-empted till the fall of 1976, and again from the fall of 1977 to the summer of 1983.
The Providence Journal Company
bought channel 17 in 1979. At that point, WPHL sought a different programming strategy toward adults, gradually dropping children's programming and cartoons. They focused more on movies, off-network drama
shows, recent off-network sitcoms, and sports. The station also had several hours of religious programming per day.
Throughout the late 1970s and 1980s, WPHL was known on-air as "The Great Entertainer," with voiceovers from Sid Doherty. The station positioned itself as an alternative to both WTAF and WKBS, as it programmed more towards adults with movies and other syndicated programs, while its competitors were heavy on sitcoms and children's cartoons. WPHL was also a station heavy on local sports, as it aired contests featuring Major League Baseball
's Philadelphia Phillies
until 1982, the NBA
's Philadelphia 76ers
from 1982 to the 1990s and the NHL
's Philadelphia Flyers
in the 1990s.
From October 1981 to August 1987, the WPHL studios hosted a Monday-through-Friday afternoon dance show, Dancin' On Air,
hosted by Eddie Bruce, as well as a spin-off on the USA Network
called Dance Party USA
, whose host, Dave Raymond, was better known as the man in the Phillie Phanatic
costume. Those shows marked the on-air debut of a young girl from nearby Voorhees, New Jersey named Kelly Ripa
.
In the summer of 1982, WKBS went on the market after its owner, Field Communications
, decided to exit broadcasting. The Providence Journal Company was among those who were bidding for channel 48's license. Had it won, then Providence Journal would have merged WPHL's and WKBS's schedules under the WKBS license and channel allocation, while selling the channel 17 license to either a religious or educational broadcaster. However, the Journal Company's bid was still far below Field's asking price. With no takers willing to give Field what it wanted for the station, WKBS-TV ceased operations ("went dark" in television terminology) a year later on August 29, 1983, and WPHL picked up various syndicated programs, cartoons, movies and production equipment from WKBS.
In 1987, the Providence Journal Company sold WPHL-TV to a consortium headed by Dudley S. Taft Jr., the former president of the Cincinnati-based Taft Television and Radio Company
, the longtime owners of rival WTAF-TV. Dudley Taft had left his family's namesake company following a corporate restructuring which resulted in the firm changing its name to Great American Broadcasting. He also brought along key personnel from WTAF (which Taft had sold to TVX Broadcast Group
in early 1987), including general manager Randy Smith. The new ownership scrapped the "Great Entertainer" slogan and related logo for a new identity as PHL 17, in an apparent attempt to counter WGBS-TV's (channel 57, now WPSG
) Philly 57 branding. In 1991, the Taft group sold channel 17 to the Tribune Company
. The station, along with most of Tribune's independent stations, affiliated with The WB Television Network
, of which Tribune was a partial owner, in January 1995, and in September of that year, it changed its on-air identity to WB 17.
(LaSalle University, University of Pennsylvania
, Saint Joseph's University
, Villanova University
and Temple University
). After the station took on The WB programming, it released many of its sports contracts in order to concentrate on its network obligations. Currently, the station does air syndicated college football
and basketball
games from the syndication arm of ESPN
involving the Mid-American Conference
(football) and Big East Conference
(basketball) until 2009, when WPVI took over. WPHL also aired Big Ten Conference games until the creation of the Big Ten Network on cable in 2007. It has also aired preseason (and in 2009 and 2010, two regular season) games of the NFL
's Philadelphia Eagles
.
networks announced that they would merge into a new network called The CW
. On the same day the new network was announced, it signed a 10-year affiliation agreement with most of Tribune's WB stations. However, in the case of Philadelphia, the new network's affiliation went to the city's UPN station, WPSG. It would not have been an upset had WPHL been chosen, however. The CW officials were on record as preferring the "strongest" WB and UPN stations for their new network, and Philadelphia was one of the few markets where The WB and UPN stations were both relatively strong.
In July, WPHL rebranded itself as MyPHL17, which partially revived the station's former PHL 17 moniker. WPHL began airing My Network TV programming on September 5, 2006, the day the new service was launched. As a result, it did not air the final two weeks of The WB's programming.
On October 4, 2010, the station removed the "My" portion of the branding as many affiliates of the network began dropping network references due to it becoming more of a primetime programming service than a true network. WPHL retains the 'blue TV' component of the network's logo. Additionally another version of the logo is used where the "P" in "phl" is replaced with the hat insignia "P" from the logo for the Phillies.
, WPHL-TV shut down its analog transmitter on June 12, 2009, and moved its digital broadcasts from channel 54 to channel 17. As of January 1, 2011, the station's signal is multiplexed in the following manner:
In Maryland, WPHL is carried in Cecil County.
In Pennsylvania, WPHL is carried on Comcast cable systems in Harrisburg and Lancaster; however it is not available in a digital format. It is also carried in Milford, Pike County
which is part of the New York City DMA.
There is no satellite coverage outside of the Philadelphia market.
In 1994, WPHL entered into an unusual agreement with The Philadelphia Inquirer
to broadcast an Inquirer-branded news program. Inquirer News Tonight was a hybrid newscast that integrated normal television news conventions with contributions from the newspaper's personnel. This format did not last and it was abandoned in favor of a more traditional newscast. The broadcast was rebranded as WB 17 News at 10 in late-1996. On December 10, 2005, all in-house news operations were canceled and the entire news and production staff was let go.
On the same December 10, 2005 date WPHL started broadcasting a 10PM half hour news program produced by the news department of NBC
-owned WCAU
(channel 10). This newscast was called WB 17 News at 10, Powered by NBC 10. On July 25, 2006, the program was re-named My PHL 17 News, Powered by NBC 10 to correspond with WPHL's upcoming switch to MyNetworkTV. When WCAU debuted their new high definition
studios were opened on December 10, 2008. they began producing the My PHL 17 News in high definition as well. The newscast was renamed once again on October 4, 2010 as phl17 News at 10, Powered by NBC 10, as the on air presentation was also changed this day as well. The sports director is Vai Sikahema
.
On October 31, 2011 WPHL will debut EyeOpener, a morning news concept by Tribune Broadcasting that originally debuted in May 2011 on sister station KIAH in Houston, featuring a mix of news, lifestyle, entertainment and opinion segments. Local news, weather and traffic segments will be featured along with local reports presented by five multimedia journalists; however, much of EyeOpener (which was previously produced at Tribune Company's Chicago headquarters) will pre-produced at the studios of sister station KDAF
in Dallas-Fort Worth and will also be distributed on Tribune-owned stations in three other markets in addition to WPHL and KDAF (Houston, Miami
and Portland, Oregon
), where localized news segments will also be provided by those stations.
Television station
A television station is a business, organisation or other such as an amateur television operator that transmits content over terrestrial television. A television transmission can be by analog television signals or, more recently, by digital television. Broadcast television systems standards are...
in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Philadelphia is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the county seat of Philadelphia County, with which it is coterminous. The city is located in the Northeastern United States along the Delaware and Schuylkill rivers. It is the fifth-most-populous city in the United States,...
, owned by the Tribune Company
Tribune Company
The Tribune Company is a large American multimedia corporation based in Chicago, Illinois. It is the nation's second-largest newspaper publisher, with ten daily newspapers and commuter tabloids including Chicago Tribune, Los Angeles Times, Hartford Courant, Orlando Sentinel, South Florida...
and currently affiliated with the News Corporation
News Corporation
News Corporation or News Corp. is an American multinational media conglomerate. It is the world's second-largest media conglomerate as of 2011 in terms of revenue, and the world's third largest in entertainment as of 2009, although the BBC remains the world's largest broadcaster...
-owned MyNetworkTV
MyNetworkTV
MyNetworkTV is a television broadcast syndication service in the United States, owned by the Fox Entertainment Group, a division of News Corporation...
television network. This makes it the largest non-O&O station of the network. The station's studios are located in the Wynnefield section of West Philadelphia
West Philadelphia
West Philadelphia, nicknamed West Philly, is a section of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Though there is no official definition of its boundaries, it is generally considered to reach from the western shore of the Schuylkill River, to City Line Avenue to the northwest, Cobbs Creek to the southwest, and...
and its transmitter is located in the Roxborough
Roxborough, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Roxborough is a neighborhood in the Northwest Philadelphia section of the United States city of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It is bordered to the southwest, along the Schuylkill River, by the neighborhood of Manayunk, along the northeast by the Wissahickon Creek section of Fairmount Park, and to...
neighborhood.
History
On June 17, 1960, Percy CrawfordPercy Crawford
Percy Bartimus Crawford was an evangelist and fundamentalist leader who especially emphasized youth ministry. During the late 1950s, he saw the potential of FM radio and UHF television and built the first successful Christian broadcasting network...
signed on WPCA-TV, a religious station. The call letters stood for "People's Church of the Air." The station was Philadelphia's first commercial UHF channel, but at a time when UHF converters were not required on most TV sets, WPCA only lasted two years and went off the air in 1962.
However, a group of local investors bought the dormant channel 17 license and returned it to the air on September 17, 1965 as independent station
Independent station
An independent station is in the category of television terminology used to describe a television station broadcasting in the United States or Canada that is not affiliated with any television network....
WPHL-TV. It was the third UHF independent to sign-on in Philadelphia that year, two and a half weeks behind WKBS-TV
WKBS-TV (Philadelphia)
WKBS-TV was an independent television station licensed to Burlington, New Jersey, which served the Philadelphia, Pennsylvania area from 1965 to 1983. WKBS-TV had studio facilities located in South Philadelphia, and transmitter at the Roxborough tower farm in Philadelphia.-History:WKBS-TV began...
(channel 48) and four months later than WIBF-TV (channel 29, later WTAF and now WTXF-TV
WTXF-TV
WTXF-TV, virtual channel 29 , is an owned-and-operated station of the News Corporation-owned Fox Broadcasting Company, based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania...
). During its early years, WPHL went through a string of owners, most notably as an owned-and-operated station of the short-lived United Network
Overmyer Network
The Overmyer Network was a short-lived television network. It was intended to be a fourth national network in the United States, competing with the Big Three television networks. The network was founded by self-made millionaire Daniel H. Overmyer, who built five UHF stations from 1965-67...
.
In the summer of 1975 WPHL-TV moved from its studios in the suburb of Wyndmoor
Wyndmoor, Pennsylvania
Wyndmoor is a census-designated place in Springfield Township, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, USA. The population was 5,498 at the 2010 census.-Geography:...
to its current studio in Wynnefield. The building had once been an A&P
The Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Company
The Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Company, better known as A&P, is a supermarket and liquor store chain in the United States. Its supermarkets, which are under six different banners, are found in Connecticut, Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania. A&P's liquor stores, known as...
supermarket. The station offered a schedule of off-network drama shows, sitcoms, old movies, sports and religious shows. It also ran NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
programs that KYW-TV
KYW-TV
KYW-TV, virtual channel 3, is an owned and operated television station of the CBS Television Network, located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. KYW-TV shares a studio facility with its sister station, CW flagship WPSG just north of Center City Philadelphia...
had pre-empted till the fall of 1976, and again from the fall of 1977 to the summer of 1983.
The Providence Journal Company
The Providence Journal
The Providence Journal, nicknamed the ProJo, is a daily newspaper serving the metropolitan area of Providence, Rhode Island and is the largest newspaper in Rhode Island. The newspaper, first published in 1829 and the oldest continuously-published daily newspaper in the United States, was purchased...
bought channel 17 in 1979. At that point, WPHL sought a different programming strategy toward adults, gradually dropping children's programming and cartoons. They focused more on movies, off-network drama
Drama
Drama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance. The term comes from a Greek word meaning "action" , which is derived from "to do","to act" . The enactment of drama in theatre, performed by actors on a stage before an audience, presupposes collaborative modes of production and a...
shows, recent off-network sitcoms, and sports. The station also had several hours of religious programming per day.
Throughout the late 1970s and 1980s, WPHL was known on-air as "The Great Entertainer," with voiceovers from Sid Doherty. The station positioned itself as an alternative to both WTAF and WKBS, as it programmed more towards adults with movies and other syndicated programs, while its competitors were heavy on sitcoms and children's cartoons. WPHL was also a station heavy on local sports, as it aired contests featuring Major League Baseball
Major League Baseball
Major League Baseball is the highest level of professional baseball in the United States and Canada, consisting of teams that play in the National League and the American League...
's Philadelphia Phillies
Philadelphia Phillies
The Philadelphia Phillies are a Major League Baseball team. They are the oldest continuous, one-name, one-city franchise in all of professional American sports, dating to 1883. The Phillies are a member of the Eastern Division of Major League Baseball's National League...
until 1982, the NBA
National Basketball Association
The National Basketball Association is the pre-eminent men's professional basketball league in North America. It consists of thirty franchised member clubs, of which twenty-nine are located in the United States and one in Canada...
's Philadelphia 76ers
Philadelphia 76ers
The Philadelphia 76ers are a professional basketball team based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. They play in the Atlantic Division of the Eastern Conference of the National Basketball Association . Originally known as the Syracuse Nationals, they are one of the oldest franchises in the NBA...
from 1982 to the 1990s and the NHL
National Hockey League
The National Hockey League is an unincorporated not-for-profit association which operates a major professional ice hockey league of 30 franchised member clubs, of which 7 are currently located in Canada and 23 in the United States...
's Philadelphia Flyers
Philadelphia Flyers
The Philadelphia Flyers are a professional ice hockey team based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. They are members of the Atlantic Division of the Eastern Conference of the National Hockey League...
in the 1990s.
From October 1981 to August 1987, the WPHL studios hosted a Monday-through-Friday afternoon dance show, Dancin' On Air,
Dancin' on air
Dancin' On Air was a 1980s television dance music reality show, forerunner of the TV show Dance Party USA. Both shows were produced and created by Michael Nise and his father Frank. The show started with US$100,000 from a small group of investors that included Tonight Show band leader Doc...
hosted by Eddie Bruce, as well as a spin-off on the USA Network
USA Network
USA Network is an American cable television channel launched in 1971. Once a minor player in basic cable, the network has steadily gained popularity because of breakout hits like Monk, Psych, Burn Notice, Royal Pains, Covert Affairs, White Collar, Monday Night RAW, Suits, and reruns of the various...
called Dance Party USA
Dance Party USA
Dance Party USA is an American dance television show that aired on cable's USA Network from April 12, 1986, to June 27, 1992. It was originally a half-hour, but was expanded to an hour in 1987....
, whose host, Dave Raymond, was better known as the man in the Phillie Phanatic
Phillie Phanatic
The Phillie Phanatic, is the official mascot of the Philadelphia Phillies Major League Baseball team. He is a large, furry, green creature that somewhat resembles a bird from the rear view with a cylindrical beak containing a extendable tongue.-Creation:...
costume. Those shows marked the on-air debut of a young girl from nearby Voorhees, New Jersey named Kelly Ripa
Kelly Ripa
Kelly Ripa is an American actress and television host. Since February 2001, she has served as the co-host of talk show Live with Regis and Kelly, along with Regis Philbin and now solo host of Live! With Kelly...
.
In the summer of 1982, WKBS went on the market after its owner, Field Communications
Field Communications
Field Communications was a division of Field Enterprises, which owned the Chicago Sun-Times and the Chicago Daily News. The company owned independent television stations in the United States, with WFLD-TV in Chicago as its largest-market station....
, decided to exit broadcasting. The Providence Journal Company was among those who were bidding for channel 48's license. Had it won, then Providence Journal would have merged WPHL's and WKBS's schedules under the WKBS license and channel allocation, while selling the channel 17 license to either a religious or educational broadcaster. However, the Journal Company's bid was still far below Field's asking price. With no takers willing to give Field what it wanted for the station, WKBS-TV ceased operations ("went dark" in television terminology) a year later on August 29, 1983, and WPHL picked up various syndicated programs, cartoons, movies and production equipment from WKBS.
In 1987, the Providence Journal Company sold WPHL-TV to a consortium headed by Dudley S. Taft Jr., the former president of the Cincinnati-based Taft Television and Radio Company
Taft Broadcasting
The Taft Broadcasting Company, also known as Taft Television and Radio Company, Incorporated, was an American media conglomerate based in Cincinnati, Ohio....
, the longtime owners of rival WTAF-TV. Dudley Taft had left his family's namesake company following a corporate restructuring which resulted in the firm changing its name to Great American Broadcasting. He also brought along key personnel from WTAF (which Taft had sold to TVX Broadcast Group
TVX Broadcast Group
The TVX Broadcast Group was an American media company that owned a group of UHF television stations during the 1980s. Originally known as the Television Corporation, the company was headquartered in Norfolk, Virginia, and was founded by a group of Norfolk-area businessmen led by Timothy McDonald...
in early 1987), including general manager Randy Smith. The new ownership scrapped the "Great Entertainer" slogan and related logo for a new identity as PHL 17, in an apparent attempt to counter WGBS-TV's (channel 57, now WPSG
WPSG
WPSG, channel 57, is a television station in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. WPSG is owned by the CBS Corporation and is the east coast flagship station for the CW Television Network, which is owned jointly by CBS and Time Warner...
) Philly 57 branding. In 1991, the Taft group sold channel 17 to the Tribune Company
Tribune Company
The Tribune Company is a large American multimedia corporation based in Chicago, Illinois. It is the nation's second-largest newspaper publisher, with ten daily newspapers and commuter tabloids including Chicago Tribune, Los Angeles Times, Hartford Courant, Orlando Sentinel, South Florida...
. The station, along with most of Tribune's independent stations, affiliated with The WB Television Network
The WB Television Network
The WB Television Network is a former television network in the United States that was launched on January 11, 1995 as a joint venture between Warner Bros. and Tribune Broadcasting. On January 24, 2006, CBS Corporation and Warner Bros...
, of which Tribune was a partial owner, in January 1995, and in September of that year, it changed its on-air identity to WB 17.
Sporting events
Throughout the station's first three decades of service, WPHL had a tremendous professional sports presence—at various points holding the broadcast rights to the Phillies (1971–82 and 1993–98, and returning from 2009-11 with the games produced by Comcast SportsNet Philadelphia), the Flyers (1991–98) and the 76ers (1982–95), as well as covering local college basketball and football, with games featuring teams from the Philadelphia Big 5Philadelphia Big 5
The Philadelphia Big 5 is an informal association of college athletic programs in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. It is not a conference; indeed the five schools that are members of the Big 5 are members of three separate conferences: the Atlantic 10, the Big East, and the Ivy League.The five...
(LaSalle University, University of Pennsylvania
University of Pennsylvania
The University of Pennsylvania is a private, Ivy League university located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. Penn is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States,Penn is the fourth-oldest using the founding dates claimed by each institution...
, Saint Joseph's University
Saint Joseph's University
Saint Joseph's University is a private, coeducational Roman Catholic Jesuit university located partially in the Wynnefield section of Philadelphia and partially in Lower Merion Township and located in the Pennsylvania Main Line, Pennsylvania, United States.The school was founded in 1851 as Saint...
, Villanova University
Villanova University
Villanova University is a private university located in Radnor Township, a suburb northwest of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in the United States...
and Temple University
Temple University
Temple University is a comprehensive public research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. Originally founded in 1884 by Dr. Russell Conwell, Temple University is among the nation's largest providers of professional education and prepares the largest body of professional...
). After the station took on The WB programming, it released many of its sports contracts in order to concentrate on its network obligations. Currently, the station does air syndicated college football
American football
American football is a sport played between two teams of eleven with the objective of scoring points by advancing the ball into the opposing team's end zone. Known in the United States simply as football, it may also be referred to informally as gridiron football. The ball can be advanced by...
and basketball
Basketball
Basketball is a team sport in which two teams of five players try to score points by throwing or "shooting" a ball through the top of a basketball hoop while following a set of rules...
games from the syndication arm of ESPN
ESPN
Entertainment and Sports Programming Network, commonly known as ESPN, is an American global cable television network focusing on sports-related programming including live and pre-taped event telecasts, sports talk shows, and other original programming....
involving the Mid-American Conference
Mid-American Conference
The Mid-American Conference is a National Collegiate Athletic Association Division I college athletic conference with a membership base in the Great Lakes region that stretches from Western New York to Illinois. Nine of the twelve full member schools are in Ohio and Michigan, with single members...
(football) and Big East Conference
Big East Conference
The Big East Conference is a collegiate athletics conference consisting of sixteen universities in the eastern half of the United States. The conference's 17 members participate in 24 NCAA sports...
(basketball) until 2009, when WPVI took over. WPHL also aired Big Ten Conference games until the creation of the Big Ten Network on cable in 2007. It has also aired preseason (and in 2009 and 2010, two regular season) games of the NFL
National Football League
The National Football League is the highest level of professional American football in the United States, and is considered the top professional American football league in the world. It was formed by eleven teams in 1920 as the American Professional Football Association, with the league changing...
's Philadelphia Eagles
Philadelphia Eagles
The Philadelphia Eagles are a professional American football team based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. They are members of the East Division of the National Football Conference in the National Football League...
.
The CW Television Network
On January 24, 2006, The WB and UPNUPN
United Paramount Network was a television network that was broadcast in over 200 markets in the United States from 1995 to 2006. UPN was originally owned by Viacom/Paramount and Chris-Craft Industries, the former of which, through the Paramount Television Group, produced most of the network's...
networks announced that they would merge into a new network called The CW
The CW Television Network
The CW Television Network is a television network in the United States launched at the beginning of the 2006–2007 television season. It is a joint venture between CBS Corporation, the former owners of United Paramount Network , and Time Warner's Warner Bros., former majority owner of The WB...
. On the same day the new network was announced, it signed a 10-year affiliation agreement with most of Tribune's WB stations. However, in the case of Philadelphia, the new network's affiliation went to the city's UPN station, WPSG. It would not have been an upset had WPHL been chosen, however. The CW officials were on record as preferring the "strongest" WB and UPN stations for their new network, and Philadelphia was one of the few markets where The WB and UPN stations were both relatively strong.
MyNetworkTV
WPHL was slated to return to its previous independent status, but on May 15, 2006, Tribune announced that it would affiliate channel 17 (and two other WB stations not included in The CW affiliation deal) with MyNetworkTV, making it the largest station (in terms of market size) affiliated with MNTV that is not owned by News Corporation, MNTV's parent company. It is also the only major station in Philadelphia that is not owned by its respective network.In July, WPHL rebranded itself as MyPHL17, which partially revived the station's former PHL 17 moniker. WPHL began airing My Network TV programming on September 5, 2006, the day the new service was launched. As a result, it did not air the final two weeks of The WB's programming.
On October 4, 2010, the station removed the "My" portion of the branding as many affiliates of the network began dropping network references due to it becoming more of a primetime programming service than a true network. WPHL retains the 'blue TV' component of the network's logo. Additionally another version of the logo is used where the "P" in "phl" is replaced with the hat insignia "P" from the logo for the Phillies.
Digital Broadcasting
As part of the analog television shutdown and digital conversionDTV transition in the United States
The DTV transition in the United States was the switchover from analog to exclusively digital broadcasting of free over-the-air television programming...
, WPHL-TV shut down its analog transmitter on June 12, 2009, and moved its digital broadcasts from channel 54 to channel 17. As of January 1, 2011, the station's signal is multiplexed in the following manner:
| Channel | Programming |
|---|---|
| 17.1 | Main WPHL programming / MyNetworkTV MyNetworkTV MyNetworkTV is a television broadcast syndication service in the United States, owned by the Fox Entertainment Group, a division of News Corporation... |
| 17.2 | Antenna TV Antenna TV Antenna TV is an American digital broadcast television network, primarily featuring classic television series from the 1950s to the 1990s, along with some feature films. It is owned by Tribune Broadcasting, a division of the Chicago-based Tribune Company... |
| 17.3 | This TV |
| 17.4 | Tango Traffic |
Out of Market coverage
In New Jersey, WPHL is carried in central New Jersey in parts of Hunterdon, Middlesex, Monmouth, Somerset and Warren counties. On Cablevision in Ocean County, it is available on analog however, on Comcast it is only available on digital cable Channel 255. It had been on analog channel 17 until late February 2008 when it was moved by Comcast to digital only to preserve bandwidth.In Maryland, WPHL is carried in Cecil County.
In Pennsylvania, WPHL is carried on Comcast cable systems in Harrisburg and Lancaster; however it is not available in a digital format. It is also carried in Milford, Pike County
Milford, Pennsylvania
Milford is a borough in Pike County, Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat. Its population was 1,021 at the 2010 census. It was founded in 1796 by Judge John Biddis, one of the state's first four circuit judges, who named the settlement after his ancestral home in Wales.Milford has a...
which is part of the New York City DMA.
There is no satellite coverage outside of the Philadelphia market.
Newscasts
The Philadelphia Inquirer
The Philadelphia Inquirer is a morning daily newspaper that serves the Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, metropolitan area of the United States. The newspaper was founded by John R. Walker and John Norvell in June 1829 as The Pennsylvania Inquirer and is the third-oldest surviving daily newspaper in the...
to broadcast an Inquirer-branded news program. Inquirer News Tonight was a hybrid newscast that integrated normal television news conventions with contributions from the newspaper's personnel. This format did not last and it was abandoned in favor of a more traditional newscast. The broadcast was rebranded as WB 17 News at 10 in late-1996. On December 10, 2005, all in-house news operations were canceled and the entire news and production staff was let go.
On the same December 10, 2005 date WPHL started broadcasting a 10PM half hour news program produced by the news department of NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
-owned WCAU
WCAU
WCAU, channel 10, is an owned-and-operated television station of the NBC Television Network, located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. WCAU has its studios on the border between Philadelphia and Bala Cynwyd. It broadcasts a high definition digital signal on UHF channel 34 from a transmitter in the...
(channel 10). This newscast was called WB 17 News at 10, Powered by NBC 10. On July 25, 2006, the program was re-named My PHL 17 News, Powered by NBC 10 to correspond with WPHL's upcoming switch to MyNetworkTV. When WCAU debuted their new high definition
High-definition television
High-definition television is video that has resolution substantially higher than that of traditional television systems . HDTV has one or two million pixels per frame, roughly five times that of SD...
studios were opened on December 10, 2008. they began producing the My PHL 17 News in high definition as well. The newscast was renamed once again on October 4, 2010 as phl17 News at 10, Powered by NBC 10, as the on air presentation was also changed this day as well. The sports director is Vai Sikahema
Vai Sikahema
Vai S. Sikahema is a Tongan former American football player. The first Tongan ever to play in the National Football League , he played running back and kickoff returner in the league for eight seasons, from 1986 to 1993. He played college football for the Brigham Young University Cougars, and was...
.
On October 31, 2011 WPHL will debut EyeOpener, a morning news concept by Tribune Broadcasting that originally debuted in May 2011 on sister station KIAH in Houston, featuring a mix of news, lifestyle, entertainment and opinion segments. Local news, weather and traffic segments will be featured along with local reports presented by five multimedia journalists; however, much of EyeOpener (which was previously produced at Tribune Company's Chicago headquarters) will pre-produced at the studios of sister station KDAF
KDAF
KDAF, virtual channel 33 , is a CW-affiliated television station serving the Dallas-Fort Worth television market area. The station is licensed to Dallas and owned by the Tribune Company with its studios located off the John W. Carpenter Freeway in northwest Dallas. The station's transmitter is...
in Dallas-Fort Worth and will also be distributed on Tribune-owned stations in three other markets in addition to WPHL and KDAF (Houston, Miami
WSFL-TV
WSFL-TV, channel 39, is a The CW Television Network-affiliated television station located in Miami. Owned by the Tribune Company, the station shares studios with co-owned newspaper the Sun-Sentinel in Fort Lauderdale, and has its transmitter based in Miramar, Florida.It is a television station in...
and Portland, Oregon
KRCW-TV
KRCW-TV is the CW-affiliated television station for Portland, Oregon that is licensed to Salem. It broadcasts a high definition digital signal on UHF channel 33 from a transmitter in the Sylvan-Highlands section of Portland. Owned by the Tribune Company, KRCW has studios on Southwest Arctic Drive...
), where localized news segments will also be provided by those stations.
Newscast titles
- Inquirer News Tonight (1994–1996)
- WB 17 News (1996–2005)
- WB 17 News, Powered by NBC 10 (2005–2006)
- My PHL 17 News, Powered by NBC 10 (2006–2010)
- PHL 17 News, Powered by NBC 10 (2010–present)