WHPM-LD (channel 23) is a

low-power television station Low-power broadcasting is broadcasting by a Radio broadcasting#Station, broadcast station at a low transmitter power output to a smaller service area than "full power" stations within the same region. It is often distinguished from "micropower ...

Hattiesburg, Mississippi Hattiesburg is a city in the U.S. state of Mississippi, located primarily in Forrest County, Mississippi, Forrest County (where it is the county seat and most populous city) and extending west into Lamar County, Mississippi, Lamar County. The ci ...

, United States, affiliated with the

Fox Foxes are small-to-medium-sized omnivorous mammals belonging to several genera of the family Canidae. They have a flattened skull; upright, triangular ears; a pointed, slightly upturned snout; and a long, bushy tail ("brush"). Twelve species ...

network and owned by Waypoint Media. The station's studios are located on Mayfair Road in Hattiesburg, and its transmitter is located on Old Highway 11/Norton Road in unincorporated Lamar County south of

US 98 U.S. Route 98 (US 98) is an east–west United States Highway in the Southeastern United States that runs from western Mississippi to southern Florida. It was established in 1933 as a route between Pensacola, Florida, Pensacola and Apalachicola, ...

History

The station signed on June 15, 2005, as WHPM-LP carrying

religious programming Religious broadcasting, sometimes referred to as faith-based broadcasts, is the dissemination of television and/or radio content that intentionally has religious ideas, religious experience, or religious practice as its core focus. In some coun ...

analog Analog or analogue may refer to: Computing and electronics * Analog signal, in which information is encoded in a continuous variable ** Analog device, an apparatus that operates on analog signals *** Analog electronics, circuits which use analog ...

UHF channel 30. It shut-down that signal and switched to digital channel 23 in

2009 2009 was designated as the International Year of Astronomy by the United Nations to coincide with the 400th anniversary of Galileo Galilei's first known astronomical studies with a telescope and the publication of Astronomia Nova by Joha ...

. However, the station would not switch its call sign to reflect the change until October 7, 2011, when it adopted WHPM-LD. It became the

market Market is a term used to describe concepts such as: *Market (economics), system in which parties engage in transactions according to supply and demand *Market economy *Marketplace, a physical marketplace or public market *Marketing, the act of sat ...

's first locally based Fox affiliate on October 13, 2011. Until this point, the network was available off-air and on

cable Cable may refer to: Mechanical * Nautical cable, an assembly of three or more ropes woven against the weave of the ropes, rendering it virtually waterproof * Wire rope, a type of rope that consists of several strands of metal wire laid into a hel ...

through

WXXV-TV WXXV-TV (channel 25) is a television station licensed to Gulfport, Mississippi, United States, serving the Mississippi Gulf Coast as an affiliate of Fox, MyNetworkTV, NBC and The CW Plus. The station is owned by Morris Multimedia, and mainta ...

in Gulfport. That outlet strategically located its broadcast tower and designed a directional

antenna pattern In the field of antenna design the term radiation pattern (or antenna pattern or far-field pattern) refers to the ''directional'' (angular) dependence of the strength of the radio waves from the antenna or other source.Constantine A. Balanis: "A ...

to enable the station to cover the

Gulf Coast The Gulf Coast of the United States, also known as the Gulf South or the South Coast, is the coastline along the Southern United States where they meet the Gulf of Mexico. The coastal states that have a shoreline on the Gulf of Mexico are Tex ...

and Pine Belt regions of the state. On September 10, 2012, WHPM took over promotional and advertising responsibilities of the area's cable-only CW affiliate "WBH". As a result, the service was added to a new second

digital subchannel In broadcasting, digital subchannels are a method of transmitting more than one independent program stream simultaneously from the same digital radio or television station on the same radio frequency channel. This is done by using data compress ...

of WHPM in order to offer over-the-air viewers access to The CW. Except for local commercials, all programming was provided through the national CW Plus service. Initially, the station (now using the WHPM-LD2

call sign In broadcasting and radio communications, a call sign (also known as a call name or call letters—and historically as a call signal—or abbreviated as a call) is a unique identifier for a transmitter station. A call sign can be formally as ...

) remained on Comcast channel 59. Eventually, it began airing in 720p high definition over-the-air and on Comcast digital channel 438. As part of a long-term affiliation renewal with Media General, The CW moved to

WHLT WHLT (channel 22) is a television station in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, United States, affiliated with CBS. Its second digital subchannel serves as an owned-and-operated station of The CW (via The CW Plus). The station is owned by Nexstar Media ...

's digital subchannel on December 23, 2014. In July 2015,

MeTV MeTV, an acronym for Memorable Entertainment Television, is an American broadcast television network owned by Weigel Broadcasting. Marketed as "The Definitive Destination for Classic TV", the network airs a variety of classic television progra ...

and

MyNetworkTV MyNetworkTV (stylized as mynetworkTV; unofficially abbreviated MNT or MNTV) is an American commercial broadcast television syndication service and former television network owned by Fox Corporation, operated by its Fox Television Stations ...

were added to a third subchannel.

This TV This TV (also known as This TV Network and alternately stylized as thisTV) was an American free-to-air television network owned by Allen Media Broadcast Networks, LLC, part of the Allen Media Group division of Entertainment Studios. Originally ...

was added to the second subchannel in September, returning the network to the market after WDAM-DT2 switched to

ABC ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script. ABC or abc may also refer to: Arts, entertainment and media Broadcasting * Aliw Broadcasting Corporation, Philippine broadcast company * American Broadcasting Company, a commercial American ...

three years prior. WHPM-LD2 switched to

Antenna TV Antenna TV is an American digital television network owned by Nexstar Media Group. The network's programming consists of classic television series, primarily sitcoms, from the 1950s to the 1990s. Antenna TV's programming and advertising operatio ...

in 2021.

Programming

In addition to Fox programming, WHPM-LD operates the Hattiesburg–Laurel market's MyNetworkTV/MeTV affiliate on its LD3 subchannel, filling in programming for all time slots outside of the MyNetworkTV programming schedule with the MeTV schedule.

Newscasts

On September 25, 2015, Waypoint Media announced that it would launch a half-hour prime time newscast at 9:00 p.m. for WHPM-LD—the first such program in the Meridian market—on October 5. Although WHPM's operations were largely based out of the studios of then-sister stations WMDN and WGBC in Meridian (the latter of which debuted a prime time newscast on that same date), it is not clear if the program would be produced out of Hattiesburg or through WGBC/WMDN's Meridian facilities. In October 2016, WHPM announced on its

Facebook Facebook is a social media and social networking service owned by the American technology conglomerate Meta Platforms, Meta. Created in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with four other Harvard College students and roommates, Eduardo Saverin, Andre ...

page that veteran broadcaster Randy Swan (formerly of nearby WDAM-TV) would join Waypoint Media as regional news director. In June 2019, Waypoint Media purchased Media Gateway's centralized news operation, renaming it as

News Hub News HUB (formerly known as Independent News Network) is a production company based in Little Rock, Arkansas, which syndicates "localized" television news, news programs for terrestrial television, broadcast television stations in the United ...

; WHPM-LD adopted this news format. Waypoint sold the hub to Coastal Television Broadcast Group in July 2021;Coastal Television Broadcast Group Acquires Four Lafayette Radio Stations Part Of Larger Deal
''Inside Radio''. Retrieved October 19, 2024. after the sale, WHPM-LD retained its affiliation with News Hub.

Subchannels

The station's signal is

multiplexed In telecommunications and computer networking, multiplexing (sometimes contracted to muxing) is a method by which multiple analog or digital signals are combined into one signal over a shared medium. The aim is to share a scarce resource— ...

References

External links

* {{Coastal TV Broadcasting 2005 establishments in Mississippi Antenna TV affiliates Fox Broadcasting Company affiliates HPM-LD MeTV affiliates MyNetworkTV affiliates Television channels and stations established in 2005 HPM-LD Waypoint Media