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WNEP-TV (channel 16) is a
television station A television station is a set of equipment managed by a business, organisation or other entity such as an amateur television (ATV) operator, that transmits video content and audio content via radio waves directly from a transmitter on the earth's s ...
licensed to
Scranton, Pennsylvania Scranton is a city in and the county seat of Lackawanna County, Pennsylvania, United States. With a population of 76,328 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, Scranton is the most populous city in Northeastern Pennsylvania and the ...
, United States, serving as the
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 ...
affiliate for
Northeastern Pennsylvania Northeastern Pennsylvania (NEPA or Nepa) is a region of the U.S. state of Pennsylvania that includes the Pocono Mountains, the Endless Mountains, and the industrial cities of Scranton (the area's largest city), Wilkes-Barre, Pittston, Ha ...
. Owned by
Tegna Inc. Tegna Inc. (stylized in all caps as TEGNA) is an American publicly traded broadcast, digital media and marketing services company headquartered in Tysons, Virginia. It was created on June 29, 2015, when the Gannett Company split into two publ ...
, the station maintains studios on Montage Mountain Road in
Moosic Moosic ( ) is a borough in Lackawanna County, Pennsylvania, United States, south of downtown Scranton and northeast of downtown Wilkes-Barre, on the Lackawanna River. Moosic is in a former coal-mining region. A few older industries existed at ...
. Through a
channel sharing In telecommunications, frequency sharing or channel sharing is the assignment to or use of the same radio frequency by two or more stations that are separated geographically or that use the frequency at different times. It reduces the potential fo ...
agreement with
PBS The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcaster and non-commercial, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly funded nonprofit organization and the most prominent provider of educat ...
member WVIA-TV (channel 44), the two stations transmit using WNEP-TV's spectrum from an antenna at
Penobscot Knob Penobscot Knob, also Penobscot Mountain, is a summit that is located in the western fringe of the Poconos nearest to Mountain Top, Pennsylvania. The Solomon Gap pass below it contains an important multi-modal transportation corridor. History ...
near Mountain Top. WNEP-TV operates a digital replacement
translator Translation is the communication of the meaning of a source-language text by means of an equivalent target-language text. The English language draws a terminological distinction (which does not exist in every language) between ''trans ...
on UHF channel 22 that is licensed to Waymart with a transmitter in Forest City. It exists because
wind turbine A wind turbine is a device that wind power, converts the kinetic energy of wind into electrical energy. , hundreds of thousands of list of most powerful wind turbines, large turbines, in installations known as wind farms, were generating over ...
s run by
NextEra Energy Resources NextEra Energy Resources, LLC (NEER) is a wholesale electricity supplier based in Juno Beach, Florida. NEER is a subsidiary of NextEra Energy (), a Fortune 200 company. Prior to 2009, NextEra Energy Resources was known as FPL Energy. NextEra ...
at the Waymart Wind Farm interfere with the transmission of full-power television signals.


History


WILK-TV and WARM-TV

There were originally two ABC network affiliates in northeastern Pennsylvania. WILK-TV, operating on channel 34 and owned by WILK radio took to the air from
Wilkes-Barre Wilkes-Barre ( , alternatively or ) is a city in Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, United States, and its county seat. Located at the center of the Wyoming Valley in Northeastern Pennsylvania, it had a population of 44,328 in the 2020 census. ...
on September 15, 1953. It was followed by Scranton-licensed WARM-TV, broadcasting on channel 16 and owned by future
Governor A governor is an politician, administrative leader and head of a polity or Region#Political regions, political region, in some cases, such as governor-general, governors-general, as the head of a state's official representative. Depending on the ...
William Scranton William Warren Scranton (July 19, 1917 – July 28, 2013) was an American Republican Party (United States), Republican Party politician and diplomat. Scranton served as the 38th governor of Pennsylvania from 1963 to 1967, and as United States Am ...
along with WARM radio, in February 9, 1954. During the late 1950s, WILK-TV was also briefly affiliated with the
NTA Film Network The NTA Film Network was an early American television network founded by Ely Landau in 1956 that operated on a part-time basis, broadcasting films and several first-run television programs from major Hollywood studios. Despite attracting more ...
. WILK wanted to get a head start on the other local stations when it signed on in 1953, going on the air at 2 p.m. rather than the 3 p.m. sign on that the other stations did. The engineers got the signal ready by noon and decided to take a break. However, at lunch, they turned on the station to inspect their handiwork, only to find the signal was dead. They rushed back and were able to establish the link by 1:50 p.m., 10 minutes before sign-on. Getting a signal from ABC headquarters in
New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...
was a challenge in the early days with no access to
satellite A satellite or an artificial satellite is an object, typically a spacecraft, placed into orbit around a celestial body. They have a variety of uses, including communication relay, weather forecasting, navigation ( GPS), broadcasting, scient ...
s. As a result, WILK set up a microwave tower in Effort, about east of Wilkes-Barre. From there, the network signal was bounced to the Penobscot Knob transmitter site. Often, station engineers had to adjust the Effort transmitter to accept a signal from WFIL-TV (now ABC O&O
WPVI-TV WPVI-TV (channel 6) is a television station in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. Owned and operated by the ABC television network through its ABC Owned Television Stations division, the station maintains studios on City Avenue in t ...
) in
Philadelphia Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...
if they were unable to receive the New York feed. WILK-TV and WARM-TV were both losing money, in large part because their network, ABC, was not on an equal footing with
NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast. It is one of NBCUniversal's ...
and
CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS (an abbreviation of its original name, Columbia Broadcasting System), is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainme ...
(and would not be until the 1970s). However, they stayed on the air because they were owned by well-respected local radio stations.


Merger and transition

By 1955, however, it was obvious that Scranton and Wilkes-Barre were going to be a single television market. On October 17, 1957, WILK-TV and WARM-TV agreed to merge into a single ABC station for Northeastern Pennsylvania. The merged station, then as now, operated under WILK-TV's license, but used WARM-TV's channel 16 in order to provide wider signal coverage at less cost—no small consideration given the station's vast and mostly mountainous coverage area. Transcontinent Television Corporation, a
Buffalo, New York Buffalo is a Administrative divisions of New York (state), city in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York and county seat of Erie County, New York, Erie County. It lies in Western New York at the eastern end of Lake Erie, at the head of ...
–based media firm, acquired a 60 percent interest in the merged station; the remaining shares were split between the WARM and WILK groups, with William Scranton as chairman. The merged station, WNEP-TV, was licensed to Scranton, and split operations between WILK-TV's former facility in Wilkes-Barre and a new studio in Scranton. In 1962, WNEP-TV consolidated its operations at a new studio near
Wilkes-Barre/Scranton International Airport Wilkes-Barre/Scranton International Airport is mostly in Pittston Township, Pennsylvania, about from Scranton and from Wilkes-Barre. It spans the border between Luzerne County and Lackawanna County, and is owned and operated by the two counti ...
in Avoca. WILK-TV's transmitter site at Penobscot Knob was retained by WNEP-TV, and the WARM-TV transmitter was donated a decade later to the area's
PBS The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcaster and non-commercial, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly funded nonprofit organization and the most prominent provider of educat ...
member station, WVIA-TV (channel 44). Meanwhile, the WILK-TV facility was repurposed as a satellite repeater of WNEP-TV until late summer 1958. The channel 34 assignment was later reallocated to
Binghamton, New York Binghamton ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of New York, and serves as the county seat of Broome County. Surrounded by rolling hills, it lies in the state's Southern Tier region near the Pennsylvania border, in a bowl-shaped valley at the c ...
, to be occupied by ABC affiliate WBJA-TV (now
WIVT WIVT (channel 34) is a television station in Binghamton, New York, United States, affiliated with ABC. It is owned by Nexstar Media Group alongside low-power, Class A NBC affiliate WBGH-CD (channel 20). The two stations share studios on Ing ...
) beginning in 1962. Despite a power boost to 1.5 million
watt The watt (symbol: W) is the unit of Power (physics), power or radiant flux in the International System of Units (SI), equal to 1 joule per second or 1 kg⋅m2⋅s−3. It is used to quantification (science), quantify the rate of Work ...
s, and an increased coverage area—expanded to 15 counties in northeastern Pennsylvania—WNEP-TV bounced back and forth in the ratings for most of the next two decades. It was never able to achieve any consistency because of the bitter rivalry between Scranton and Wilkes-Barre. Viewers in Wilkes-Barre thought it was a Scranton station, while viewers in Scranton thought it was a Wilkes-Barre station. It was also hobbled by being an affiliate of the smallest and weakest network of the time. Indeed, WNEP's launch made Scranton–Wilkes-Barre the smallest market in Pennsylvania with full service from all three networks. Transcontinent exited broadcasting in 1964 and sold several of its stations, including WNEP-TV, to
Taft Broadcasting Taft Broadcasting Company (also known as Taft Television and Radio Company, Incorporated) was an American media conglomerate based in Cincinnati, Ohio. The company was rooted in the Taft family, family of William Howard Taft, the 27th President ...
. When Taft purchased Philadelphia
independent station An independent station is a broadcast station, usually a television station, not affiliated with a larger broadcast television network, network. As such, it only broadcasts broadcast syndication, syndicated programs it has purchased; brokered pr ...
WIBF-TV (channel 29, now
WTXF-TV WTXF-TV (channel 29) is a television station in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. Owned and operated by the Fox network through its Fox Television Stations division, the station maintains studios on Market Street in Center City an ...
) in 1969, it sought a waiver to keep both stations. Channel 16's Grade B signal reaches the
Lehigh Valley The Lehigh Valley () is a geography, geographic and urban area, metropolitan region formed by the Lehigh River in Lehigh County, Pennsylvania, Lehigh and Northampton County, Pennsylvania, Northampton counties in eastern Pennsylvania. It is a co ...
, which is part of the Philadelphia market. WNEP-TV had also operated an outlying
translator Translation is the communication of the meaning of a source-language text by means of an equivalent target-language text. The English language draws a terminological distinction (which does not exist in every language) between ''trans ...
on channel 7 in
Allentown Allentown may refer to: Places * Allentown, California, now called Toadtown, California * Allentown, Georgia, a city in four counties in Georgia * Allentown, Illinois, an unincorporated community in Tazewell County * Allentown, New Jersey, a boroug ...
for many years. The
Federal Communications Commission The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is an independent agency of the United States government that regulates communications by radio, television, wire, internet, wi-fi, satellite, and cable across the United States. The FCC maintains j ...
(FCC) normally did not allow one company to own two stations with overlapping coverage areas. While it initially granted the waiver, it reversed itself four years later and forced Taft to sell channel 16. A group of WNEP-TV station employees and executives formed NEP Communications, which bought the station from Taft in late 1973. Soon after NEP took over the station, news director Elden Hale decided to take a regional approach. He billed the station as serving "Northeastern and Central Pennsylvania", and stepped up coverage of the remote portions of the market. These areas had largely been ignored by the other stations in town. He also added the area's first news helicopter. This approach quickly paid off. In November 1976, WNEP surged to first place for the first time in a decade. After briefly falling back to second it returned to number one in 1978, around the same time ABC became the nation's number one network. Apart from a brief period in the mid-1990s when WBRE-TV passed it, it has been number one ever since. NEP also established a remote production company, which operated as an adjunct to WNEP-TV.
The New York Times Company The New York Times Company is an American mass media corporation that publishes ''The New York Times'' and its associated publications such as ''The New York Times International Edition'' and other media properties. The New York Times Company's ...
bought the station in 1985. WNEP moved to its current studios in Moosic in 1989; the facility is similar to the building the Times Company built for then-sister station
WHNT-TV WHNT-TV (channel 19) is a television station in Huntsville, Alabama, United States, affiliated with CBS. It is owned by Nexstar Media Group alongside Florence-licensed CW owned-and-operated station WHDF (channel 15). The two stations share stu ...
in
Huntsville, Alabama Huntsville is the List of municipalities in Alabama, most populous city in the U.S. state of Alabama. The population of the city is estimated to be 241,114 in 2024, making it the List of United States cities by population, 100th-most populous ...
, but on a larger scale. NEP Communications retained the production unit, which became
NEP Broadcasting NEP Group, Inc. also known as NEP Supershooters LP (formerly NEP Broadcasting LLC) is a Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania based and privately owned international production company that provides outsourced teleproduction services for major events throug ...
; the company provided remote broadcast facilities for the
Olympics The modern Olympic Games (Olympics; ) are the world's preeminent international sporting events. They feature summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a variety of competit ...
,
FIFA World Cup The FIFA World Cup, often called the World Cup, is an international association football competition among the senior List of men's national association football teams, men's national teams of the members of the FIFA, Fédération Internatio ...
and the
Academy Awards The Academy Awards, commonly known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit in film. They are presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) in the United States in recognition of excellence in ...
, as well as a studio production facility in New York City. On January 4, 2007, the station, along with the rest of the Times Company's television division, was sold to
Oak Hill Capital Partners Oak Hill Capital Partners is a private equity firm headquartered in New York City, with more than $19 billion of committed capital from entrepreneurs, endowments, foundations, corporations, pension funds and global financial institutions. Ro ...
in a $575 million transaction. Oak Hill formed Local TV as a holding company for its stations. On July 1, 2013, Local TV announced that its 19 stations would be acquired by the
Tribune Company Tribune Media Company, also known as Tribune Company, was an American multimedia conglomerate headquartered in Chicago, Illinois. Through Tribune Broadcasting, Tribune Media was one of the largest television broadcasting companies, owning 39 ...
for $2.75 billion; Tribune owns ''
The Morning Call ''The Morning Call'' is a daily newspaper in Allentown, Pennsylvania. Founded in 1883, it is the second-longest continuously published newspaper in the Lehigh Valley, after '' The Express-Times''. The newspaper is owned by Alden Global Capital ...
'' in Allentown. Although Allentown is part of the Philadelphia television market, WNEP has long claimed the Lehigh Valley as part of its coverage area. The FCC ruled that Tribune could not keep WNEP due to its ban on newspaper-television cross-ownership within a single market, ''The Morning Call'' serving a city within WNEP's coverage area (although Tribune has maintained cross-ownership waivers for its newspaper-television station combinations in
Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...
,
Chicago Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...
,
Miami Miami is a East Coast of the United States, coastal city in the U.S. state of Florida and the county seat of Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade County in South Florida. It is the core of the Miami metropolitan area, which, with a populat ...
, and
Hartford Hartford is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of Connecticut. The city, located in Hartford County, Connecticut, Hartford County, had a population of 121,054 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 ce ...
). Tribune spun off WNEP-TV to Dreamcatcher Broadcasting, an unrelated company owned by former Tribune Company executive Ed Wilson. However, Tribune will operate the station and provide other services under a
shared services Shared services is the provision of a service by one part of an organization or group where that service had previously been found in more than one part of the organization or group. Thus the funding and resourcing of the service is shared and the ...
agreement, and will hold an option to buy back WNEP outright in the future. The sale was completed on December 27. Tribune later announced on July 10, 2013, that it would spin off its newspapers (including ''The Morning Call'') into a separate company, the
Tribune Publishing Company Tribune Publishing Company (briefly Tronc, Inc.) is an American newspaper print and online media publishing company. The company, which was acquired by Alden Global Capital in May 2021, has a portfolio that includes the ''Chicago Tribune'', th ...
, in 2014, pending shareholder and regulatory approval. The split was completed in August 2014, though as of yet Tribune has not announced plans to acquire Dreamcatcher outright.


Analog broadcast tower collapse

WNEP-TV's transmission tower broadcasting the
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 ...
signal on channel 16 collapsed on December 16, 2007, due to severe ice, winds, and snow at the transmitter location on Penobscot Knob. The tower collapse also destroyed the transmitter building. No one was injured during the incident.
WCLH WCLH (90.7 FM) is a non-commercial radio station licensed to Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, United States, the station serves the Scranton area. The station is currently owned by Wilkes University. The station has obtained a construction permit fro ...
's FM antenna and transmitter, which was co-located on WNEP's analog TV tower, was also destroyed during the incident. Transmission of the digital signal on channel 49 was restored after a brief interruption of power to the tower supporting the digital transmitter and antenna. WNEP's signal on local cable systems and satellite was restored later that day. WNEP-TV partially restored its analog over the air TV signal by January 1, 2008 by broadcasting from the nearby American Tower on Penobscot Knob supporting the WNEP-DT antenna as well as
WOLF-TV WOLF-TV (channel 56) is a television station licensed to Hazleton, Pennsylvania, United States, serving Northeastern Pennsylvania as an affiliate of the Fox Broadcasting Company, Fox network. It is the flagship (broadcasting), flagship property ...
/DT's antenna. As the WNEP-TV analog broadcast tower collapsed on December 16, 2007, one of the falling guy wires supporting the WNEP-TV tower damaged the neighboring tower broadcasting WVIA-TV (analog and digital) and
WVIA-FM WVIA-FM (89.9 FM) is a non-commercial, public FM radio station in Scranton, Pennsylvania. It is the National Public Radio member station for Northeastern Pennsylvania. The station is owned by the Northeastern Pennsylvania Educational Televisi ...
by shearing off the top section of the WVIA tower supporting the antenna for the analog and digital TV signals. The antenna for WVIA-FM remained intact, as it is located on the lower section of the shared WVIA-FM-TV tower. The WVIA-TV analog signal on channel 44 was temporarily put off the air until service was restored through a back-up tower on Penobscot Knob. The collapse of WNEP-TV's analog tower also severed power to the transmitters for CBS affiliate
WYOU WYOU (channel 22) is a television station licensed to Scranton, Pennsylvania, United States, serving as the CBS affiliate for Northeastern Pennsylvania. It is owned by Mission Broadcasting, which maintains a shared services agreement (SSA) wit ...
(channel 22) and NBC affiliate
WBRE-TV WBRE-TV (channel 28) is a television station licensed to Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, United States, serving Northeastern Pennsylvania as an affiliate of NBC. It is owned by Nexstar Media Group, which provides certain services to Scranton-license ...
(channel 28), putting those stations off the air for a time. On June 12, 2009, WNEP was to operate on a new tower which had been completed, though the antenna had not arrived in a timely fashion. Their goal was to have the new facility operating by August 2009, but it was delayed a few months. On December 5, 2009, WNEP turned off channel 49 and moved to channel 50. Moving to channel 50 was necessary so it could alleviate possible interference from
Telemundo Telemundo (; formerly NetSpan) is an American Spanish-language terrestrial television network owned by NBCUniversal Telemundo Enterprises, a division of NBCUniversal, which in turn is a wholly owned subsidiary of Comcast. It provides content ...
O&O
WWSI WWSI (channel 62) is a television station licensed to Mount Laurel, New Jersey, United States, serving as the Philadelphia-area outlet for the Spanish-language network Telemundo. It is owned and operated by NBCUniversal's Telemundo Station Group ...
in
Atlantic City, New Jersey Atlantic City, sometimes referred to by its initials A.C., is a Jersey Shore seaside resort city (New Jersey), city in Atlantic County, New Jersey, Atlantic County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. Atlantic City comprises the second half of ...
, which at the time broadcast on UHF channel 49. On February 15, 2010, the channel 49 facility was put back into use by WNEP on a temporary basis with FCC approval to accommodate WVIA-TV, which had suffered a partial tower collapse and electrical fire which had destroyed WVIA's transmitter building and the equipment within.


Aborted sale to Sinclair Broadcast Group

On May 8, 2017,
Sinclair Broadcast Group Sinclair, Inc., doing business as Sinclair Broadcast Group, is a publicly traded American telecommunications conglomerate that is controlled by the descendants of company founder Julian Sinclair Smith. Headquartered in the Baltimore suburb o ...
—which has operated
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 ...
affiliate WOLF-TV (channel 56), CW affiliate
WSWB WSWB (channel 38) is a television station licensed to Scranton, Pennsylvania, United States, serving as the CW affiliate for Northeastern Pennsylvania. It is owned by MPS Media, which maintains a local marketing agreement (LMA) with New Age ...
(channel 38) 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 ...
affiliate WQMY (channel 53) since October 2014—entered into an agreement to acquire Tribune Media for $3.9 billion, plus the assumption of $2.7 billion in debt held by Tribune. The complicated SSA relationships that Sinclair has in the Scranton–Wilkes-Barre market with WOLF, WSWB and WQMY – the former two of which are currently the only legal television duopoly in the market – created an ownership entanglement, as WNEP and WOLF rank among the market's four highest-rated stations, and the market has too few independently owned full-power stations to permit a second legal duopoly in any event. (Sinclair CEO Christopher Ripley cited Scranton–Wilkes–Barre as one of three markets, out of fourteen where ownership conflicts exist between the two groups, where the proposed acquisition would likely result in divestitures). To alleviate some of the regulatory issues that the deal incurred by selling certain stations to both independent and affiliated third-party companies, on April 24, 2018, Sinclair announced that it would sell the non-license assets of WOLF-TV, WQMY, and WSWB and the full assets of eight other stations – Sinclair-operated
KOKH-TV KOKH-TV (channel 25) is a television station in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, United States, affiliated with the Fox Broadcasting Company, Fox network. It is owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group alongside KOCB (channel 34), an independent station. The ...
in
Oklahoma City Oklahoma City (), officially the City of Oklahoma City, and often shortened to OKC, is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Oklahoma, most populous city of the U.S. state of Oklahoma. The county seat ...
,
WRLH-TV WRLH-TV (channel 35), branded on-air as Fox Richmond, is a television station in Richmond, Virginia, United States, affiliated with the Fox network. Owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group, it has studios on Westmoreland Street in the North Side a ...
in
Richmond Richmond most often refers to: * Richmond, British Columbia, a city in Canada * Richmond, California, a city in the United States * Richmond, London, a town in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames, England * Richmond, North Yorkshire, a town ...
,
KDSM-TV KDSM-TV (channel 17) is a television station in Des Moines, Iowa, United States, affiliated with the Fox network. The station is owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group and has studios on Fleur Drive in Des Moines; its transmitter is located in Alleman ...
in
Des Moines Des Moines is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of cities in Iowa, most populous city in the U.S. state of Iowa. It is the county seat of Polk County, Iowa, Polk County with parts extending into Warren County, Iowa, Wa ...
and
WXLV-TV WXLV-TV (channel 45) is a television station licensed to Winston-Salem, North Carolina, United States, serving as the ABC affiliate for the Piedmont Triad region. It is owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group alongside Greensboro-licensed MyNetworkT ...
in
Greensboro Greensboro (; ) is a city in Guilford County, North Carolina, United States, and its county seat. At the 2020 census, its population was 299,035; it was estimated to be 307,381 in 2024. It is the third-most populous city in North Carolina, af ...
/
Winston-Salem Winston-Salem is a city in Forsyth County, North Carolina, United States, and its county seat. At the 2020 census, the population was 249,545, making it the fifth-most populous city in North Carolina and the 91st-most populous city in the Uni ...
/ High Point, and Tribune-owned
WPMT WPMT (channel 43) is a television station licensed to York, Pennsylvania, United States, serving as the Fox affiliate for the Susquehanna Valley region. Owned by Tegna Inc., the station maintains studios on South Queen Street in Spring Gard ...
in
Harrisburg Harrisburg ( ; ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the Commonwealth (U.S. state), U.S. commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the county seat, seat of Dauphin County, Pennsylvania, Dauphin County. With a population of 50, ...
and
WXMI WXMI (channel 17) is a television station licensed to Grand Rapids, Michigan, United States, serving West Michigan as an affiliate of the Fox network. Owned by the E. W. Scripps Company, the station maintains studios on Plaza Drive (near M-37 ...
in
Grand Rapids Grand Rapids is the largest city and county seat of Kent County, Michigan, United States. With a population of 198,917 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census and estimated at 200,117 in 2024, Grand Rapids is the List of municipalities ...
– to
Standard Media Group Standard Media Group is an American broadcast and digital media company based in Nashville, Tennessee. Standard Media was founded in 2018 by Deborah A. McDermott, who serves as the company's CEO. Previously, McDermott was the chief operating offi ...
(an independent broadcast holding company formed by
private equity firm A private equity firm or private equity company (often described as a financial sponsor) is an investment management company that provides financial backing and makes investments in the private equity of a Startup company, startup or of an existin ...
Standard General to assume ownership of and absolve ownership conflicts involving the aforementioned stations) for $441.1 million. Sinclair concurrently exercised its option to buy WOLF-TV and WQMY to allow Standard Media Group – the latter of which, for regulatory purposes, would have continued to be licensed as a satellite of WOLF-TV – to acquire the stations outright; Standard would concurrently acquire the WOLF-TV license, which is permitted under FCC ownership regulations as WSWB is not ranked as one of the top-four stations in the market. On July 18, 2018, the FCC voted to have the Sinclair–Tribune acquisition reviewed by an
administrative law judge An administrative law judge (ALJ) in the United States is a judge and trier of fact who both presides over trials and adjudicates claims or disputes involving administrative law, thus involving administrative units of the executive branch of go ...
amid "serious concerns" about Sinclair's forthrightness in its applications to sell certain conflict properties. Three weeks later on August 9, Tribune announced it would terminate the Sinclair deal, intending to seek other M&A opportunities. Tribune also filed a
breach of contract Breach of contract is a legal cause of action and a type of civil wrong, in which a binding agreement or bargained-for exchange is not honored by one or more of the parties to the contract by non-performance or interference with the other part ...
lawsuit in the
Delaware Chancery Court The Delaware Court of Chancery is a court of equity in the U.S. state of Delaware. It is one of Delaware's three constitutional courts, along with the Delaware Supreme Court, Supreme Court and Delaware Superior Court, Superior Court. Since 2018, ...
, alleging that Sinclair engaged in protracted negotiations with the FCC and the U.S. Department of Justice's Antitrust Division over regulatory issues, refused to sell stations in markets where it already had properties, and proposed divestitures to parties with ties to Sinclair executive chair David D. Smith that were rejected or highly subject to rejection to maintain control over stations it was required to sell.


Sale to Nexstar Media Group and resale to Tegna Inc.

On December 3, 2018,
Irving, Texas Irving is a city in Dallas County, Texas, United States. It is part of the Mid-Cities region of the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex and is an Inner suburb, inner city suburb of Dallas. Irving is noted for its #Demographics, racial and ethnic diver ...
–based
Nexstar Media Group Nexstar Media Group, Inc. is an American publicly traded media company with headquarters in Irving, Texas, Midtown Manhattan, and Chicago. The company is the largest television station owner in the United States, owning 197 television station ...
—which has owned NBC affiliate WBRE-TV since 1997 and operated CBS affiliate WYOU-TV since 1996 (running the latter through a shared services agreement with
Mission Broadcasting Mission Broadcasting, Inc. is a television station group that owns 29 full-power television stations in 26 markets in the United States. The group's chair is Nancie Smith, the widow of David S. Smith, who founded the company in 1996 and died in 2 ...
since 1998 after selling the license to acquire WBRE through a grandfathered LMA)—announced it would acquire the assets of Tribune Media for $6.4 billion in cash and debt. Nexstar was precluded from acquiring WNEP directly or indirectly, as FCC regulations prohibit common ownership of more than two stations in the same media market, or two or more of the four highest-rated stations in the market. (Furthermore, any attempt by Nexstar to assume the operations of WNEP 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 WNEP or both WBRE and WYOU (separately as it would break the grandfathered LMA) to separate, unrelated companies to address the ownership conflict. On January 31, 2019, Nexstar announced that WNEP, along with
WTKR WTKR (channel 3) is a television station licensed to Norfolk, Virginia, United States, serving the Hampton Roads area as an affiliate of CBS. It is owned by the E. W. Scripps Company alongside Portsmouth-licensed WGNT (channel 27), an independen ...
and
WGNT WGNT (channel 27) is an independent television station licensed to Portsmouth, Virginia, United States, serving the Hampton Roads area. It is owned by the E. W. Scripps Company alongside Norfolk, Virginia, Norfolk-licensed CBS affiliate WTKR (ch ...
in
Norfolk, Virginia Norfolk ( ) is an independent city (United States), independent city in the U.S. state of Virginia. It had a population of 238,005 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, making it the List of cities in Virginia, third-most populous city ...
, would be sold to independent third parties in order to address ownership conflicts involving existing Nexstar properties in both markets. On March 20, 2019,
McLean, Virginia McLean ( ) is an Unincorporated area#United States, unincorporated community and census-designated place in Fairfax County, Virginia, United States. The population of the community was 50,773 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. It is ...
-based
Tegna Inc. Tegna Inc. (stylized in all caps as TEGNA) is an American publicly traded broadcast, digital media and marketing services company headquartered in Tysons, Virginia. It was created on June 29, 2015, when the Gannett Company split into two publ ...
announced it would purchase WNEP from Nexstar upon consummation of the merger, as part of the company's sale of nineteen Nexstar- and Tribune-operated stations to Tegna and the
E. W. Scripps Company The E. W. Scripps Company, also known as Scripps, is an American broadcasting company founded in 1878 as a chain of daily newspapers by Edward Willis "E. W." Scripps and his sister, Ellen Browning Scripps. It was also formerly a media conglom ...
(the latter of which would acquire New York City's
WPIX WPIX (channel 11) is a television station in New York City, serving as the ''de facto'' flagship of The CW Television Network. Owned by Mission Broadcasting, the station is operated by CW majority owner Nexstar Media Group under a local market ...
, which would later be re-acquired by Nexstar) in separate deals worth $1.32 billion; along with Harrisburg sister station WPMT (which was also acquired by Tegna as part of the spin-offs). This made WNEP among the first television properties in Pennsylvania for Tegna. The sale was approved by the FCC on September 16, and was completed three days later.


Local programming

Many of the programs aired on WNEP have been in-house productions rather than syndicated shows. The most popular of these was a children's program called ''The Land of Hatchy Milatchy''. One of the hosts during its long run, Miss Judy (who replaced original host Nancy Berg in the 1960s), would tell children where to find their birthday gift live on the air. The show was the inspiration for a scene in the 18th episode of the second season of the TV series ''
The Office ''The Office'' is the title of several mockumentary sitcoms based on a British series originally created by Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant as '' The Office'' in 2001. The original series also starred Gervais as manager and primary charac ...
'', in which Michael Scott shows footage of him appearing as a child on a show called ''Fundle Bundle'', hosted by "Miss Trudy". Another program, ''Uncle Ted's Ghoul School'', once employed
Bill O'Reilly William O'Reilly or Bill O'Reilly may refer to: Government and politics * Bill O'Reilly (political commentator) (born 1949), American commentator, author and television host * William O'Reilly (MP) (1792–1844), UK MP for the Irish constituency o ...
as a writer. He was also a reporter at the station for a brief period during the mid-1970s. WNEP also served as the local affiliate for the ''
Bowling for Dollars ''Bowling for Dollars'' is a television game show on which people could play the sport of bowling to win cash and sometimes prizes based on how well they bowled. Unlike most TV game shows of the time, which were taped in either New York or Hol ...
'' and ''
Dialing for Dollars ''Dialing for Dollars'' was a franchised format local television program in the United States and Canada, popular from the 1950s to the early 1990s. Format At the beginning of a typical ''Dialing for Dollars'' program, the host (a local televi ...
'' formats, producing local versions of each. Today, WNEP produces two in-house programs: ''Pennsylvania Outdoor Life'', a show about hunting and fishing in Pennsylvania, and ''Home & Backyard'', a show about do-it-yourself home improvements, cooking and gardening. ''Pennsylvania Outdoor Life'' airs Sundays at 11 a.m. and ''Home & Backyard'' airs Saturdays at 10 a.m. on WNEP. The station also participates in several local charity events, including the ''
MDA Labor Day Telethon The ''MDA Labor Day Telethon'' was an annual telethon held on (starting the night before and throughout) Labor Day in the United States to raise money for the Muscular Dystrophy Association (MDA). The Muscular Dystrophy Association was founded in ...
'' (which ended in 2014) and Scranton's annual
Santa Santa Claus (also known as Saint Nicholas, Saint Nick, Father Christmas, Kris Kringle or Santa) is a legendary figure originating in Western Christian culture who is said to bring gifts during the late evening and overnight hours on Christma ...
Parade.


News operation

The station is best known for its local newscasts which are among the highest rated in the United States. It runs their newscasts under the branding of ''Newswatch 16''. WNEP has led the ratings in northeastern Pennsylvania for most of the last 40 years and according to Nielsen data attracts more viewers than the other stations in the market combined. In 2000, the weekday morning program earned shares between 50 and 60 meaning that 50 to 60% of televisions in the market were tuned to this station. Their on-air personalities are well known in the area. Chief Meteorologist Tom Clark had been with the station since 1981 and was one of the region's most popular broadcasters. He retired, and his final broadcast was on December 31, 2016. His wife Noreen, who was a meteorologist for the weekend news, had been with the station since 1982. She retired in April 2018. Marisa Burke, a native of nearby Danville, had been with the station since 1984 and solo anchored the noon news and co-anchored the weeknight 6 o'clock newscast with Scott Schaffer. She retired from WNEP on October 28, 2016. WNEP-TV presently broadcasts 41 hours of locally produced newscasts each week (with 6 hours each weekday, 4 hours on Saturdays and four hours on Sundays). Recurring features of news broadcasts include the station's scale model train set in the background of its weather deck and garden and the viewer response segment ''Talkback 16''. Like most stations at the time, WNEP aired local news at 6 and 11 p.m. It added a noon newscast, titled at first ''Midday 16'', beginning January 12, 1981. A half-hour 5 p.m. newscast was added in September 1987, beating WYOU-TV's 5:30 p.m. "First News" as the earliest evening option for news. Fox requested most of its affiliates to air local news in 1990. However, area Fox affiliate WOLF-TV (then channel 38) did not have a studio large enough for an in-house news department. To satisfy this, WNEP began producing a nightly 10 o'clock newscast on WOLF-TV in 1991, known as ''Newswatch 16 at 10 on Fox 38''. When the Fox affiliation moved from channel 38 to channel 56, the 10 o'clock news switched stations as well. It then became known as ''Fox 56 News at 10'' with a secondary title of ''Newswatch 16 at 10 on Fox 56''. WNEP aired this broadcast from a secondary set at its studios. The station runs a secondary service, known as "WNEP 2" (formerly "Newswatch 16 Anytime" and before that "Newswatch 16 on Adelphia 63"), on its second digital subchannel and area cable systems. This channel currently airs Antenna TV programming along with other local programming. WNEP was the only media outlet in the market to utilize a helicopter, known as "Skycam 16", for news gathering purposes. The helicopter was operational from 1984 until being decommissioned in February 2009. The station airs the
Pennsylvania Lottery The Pennsylvania Lottery is a lottery operated by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. It was created by the Pennsylvania General Assembly on August 26, 1971; two months later, Henry Kaplan was appointed as its first executive director. The Pennsy ...
televised nighttime drawings live seven nights a week,
Mega Millions Mega Millions (originally known as The Big Game in 1996 and renamed, temporarily, to The Big Game Mega Millions six years later) is an American multijurisdictional lottery game. The first drawing took place on September 6, 1996, with six partic ...
drawing Tuesdays and Fridays, and the live
Powerball Powerball is an American lottery game offered by 45 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands, and overseen by the Multi-State Lottery Association (MUSL), which also manages other large jackpot games such as t ...
drawing on Wednesdays and Saturdays. In March 2009, its weekday morning news at 6 added another two hours (7–9 a.m.) seen on WNEP 2. Also in March, the station started up-converting its news programs to
720p 720p (720 lines progressive) is a progressive HD signal format with 720 horizontal lines/1280 columns and an aspect ratio (AR) of 16:9, normally known as widescreen HD (1.78:1). All major HD broadcasting standards (such as SMPTE 292M) includ ...
widescreen Widescreen images are displayed within a set of aspect ratio (image), aspect ratios (relationship of image width to height) used in film, television and computer screens. In film, a widescreen film is any film image with a width-to-height aspect ...
format becoming the first one in the area to make such a change. WNEP announced on August 6, 2009, that they would begin broadcasting a 4 p.m. newscast on September 8, known as ''Newswatch 16 at 4''. In November 2009, after being unable to reach an agreement with WNEP on a contract extension, WOLF announced its intention to turn to WBRE to produce an hour-long 10 p.m. newscast beginning January 1, 2010. WNEP then announced that it would begin a 10 p.m. newscast on WNEP 2 on the same date. On February 10, 2011, starting with the 4 p.m. newscast, WNEP premiered a new HD-ready set (newscasts remained in widescreen standard definition). On July 9, 2011, WNEP began broadcasting its local newscasts in high definition starting with the 6 p.m. newscast, becoming the first station in the Scranton–Wilkes-Barre market to begin offering local newscasts in high definition. In early September 2011, WNEP expanded its 4 pm newscast to a full hour with an additional half-hour at 4:30 p.m. Since 1994, the station has used as its new theme song an updated version of
Al Ham Albert W. Ham (February 6, 1925 in Malden, Massachusetts — October 4, 2001 in Spring Hill, Florida) was an American composer and jingle writer. He was notable as the composer of the '' Move Closer to Your World'' music package used since the ...
's "
Move Closer to Your World Move Closer to Your World (MCTYW) is a television news music package composed in 1970 by Walt LissSanders, Nancy (May 22, 2022)Walt Liss Co-Author of Famous News Theme and WKBW Exec Has passed ''Buffalo Broadcasters Association''. Retrieved Septemb ...
", which is composed by Cliff Schwarz. From 1979 to 1994, the station used the original theme, which is currently used by ABC O&O WPVI-TV in Philadelphia. Following its purchase by Tegna, a
Change.org Change.org is a website which allows users to create and sign petitions in an attempt to advance various social causes by raising awareness and influencing decision-makers. The site is a US-based for-profit company and claims to have 551 million ...
petition was started asking viewers to sign the petition to ask Tegna not to drop the song in favor of Tegna's proprietary "
C Clarity Television news music is used by television stations to brand their news operations. Each television station uses an identifiable news theme; some themes are used by multiple stations while others are composed specifically for a certain station ...
" theme. On March 4, 2020, the station began using Tegna's standardized news graphics but retained the Schwarz version of "Move Closer to Your World" as its theme as opposed to using "C Clarity", seen somewhat as a compromise.


Notable former on-air staff

*
Bill O'Reilly William O'Reilly or Bill O'Reilly may refer to: Government and politics * Bill O'Reilly (political commentator) (born 1949), American commentator, author and television host * William O'Reilly (MP) (1792–1844), UK MP for the Irish constituency o ...
– reporter (1970s) * Dan Patrick – reporter (1970s)


In popular culture

A live interview by WNEP reporter Sofia Ojeda (later with Houston NBC affiliate
KPRC-TV KPRC-TV (channel 2) is a television station in Houston, Texas, United States, affiliated with NBC and owned by Graham Media Group. Its studios are located on Southwest Freeway (I-69/ US 59) in the Southwest Management District (formerly Greate ...
) on August 1, 2014, at the Wayne County Fair made a social-media sensation of 5-year-old Noah Ritter. WNEP's video was later "songified" by
The Gregory Brothers The Gregory Brothers are an American musical quartet, specializing in comedy music and auto-tuning recorded speech through their YouTube channel Schmoyoho (). After the success of their songs "Chrissy Wake Up" and " It's Corn" in the summer of ...
into the song "Apparently."
John Oliver John William Oliver (born 23 April 1977) is a British and American comedian who hosts ''Last Week Tonight with John Oliver'' on HBO. He started his career as a stand-up comedian in the United Kingdom and came to wider attention for his work ...
from
HBO Home Box Office (HBO) is an American pay television service, which is the flagship property of namesake parent-subsidiary Home Box Office, Inc., itself a unit owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The overall Home Box Office business unit is based a ...
's ''
Last Week Tonight with John Oliver ''Last Week Tonight with John Oliver'' (often abridged as ''Last Week Tonight'') is an American news satire late-night talk show hosted by comedian John Oliver. The half-hour-long show premiered in the end of April 2014 on HBO and currently has ...
'' mentioned the conflict of viewers over the station's scale model train set in the background of its weather deck and garden (including 'agree/disagree' comments on the station's viewer comment line, which air in the newscasts' ''Talkback 16'' segment). This resulted in the show building a larger-scale train set for the station with the landmarks of Scranton and the surrounding area exaggerated. Though the station accepted it, it proved to be too large for the weather deck/garden, and was donated to Scranton's
Electric City Trolley Museum The Electric City Trolley Museum is a transport museum located in downtown Scranton, Pennsylvania, next to the Steamtown National Historic Site. The museum displays and operates restored trolleys and interurbans on former lines of the Lackawanna ...
for display beginning in late September 2017, with some modifications (including its tunnel now being presented as Oliver's mouth wide open rather than that of area native
P. J. Carlesimo Peter John Carlesimo (born May 30, 1949) is an American former basketball coach who coached in both the National Basketball Association (NBA) and college basketball for nearly 40 years. He is also a television broadcaster and has worked with ESP ...
).


Technical information


Subchannels

The station became a charter affiliate of
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 ...
upon its launch on January 1, 2011. The network is carried on digital subchannel 16.2, replacing RTV on that subchannel.


Analog-to-digital conversion

WNEP-TV shut down its analog signal, over
UHF Ultra high frequency (UHF) is the ITU designation for radio frequencies in the range between 300 megahertz (MHz) and 3 gigahertz (GHz), also known as the decimetre band as the wavelengths range from one meter to one tenth of a meter ...
channel 16, 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 mandate. The station's digital signal remained on its pre-transition UHF channel 49, using
virtual channel In most telecommunications organizations, a virtual channel is a method of remapping the ''program number'' as used in H.222 Program Association Tables and Program Mapping Tables to a channel number that can be entered as digits on a receiver's ...
16.


Translators

WNEP serves one of the largest coverage areas east of the
Mississippi River The Mississippi River is the main stem, primary river of the largest drainage basin in the United States. It is the second-longest river in the United States, behind only the Missouri River, Missouri. From its traditional source of Lake Ita ...
. This area is very mountainous meaning that some areas cannot get a clear signal from the main transmitter on physical channel 21. As a result, it operates one of the largest translator systems of any station in the
Eastern Time Zone The Eastern Time Zone (ET) is a time zone encompassing part or all of 23 U.S. states, states in the eastern part of the United States, parts of eastern Canada, and the state of Quintana Roo in Mexico. * Eastern Standard Time (EST) is five ...
. W20EI-D and W29EU-D are owned by WVIA but broadcast the full WNEP/WVIA multiplex. *
Allentown Allentown may refer to: Places * Allentown, California, now called Toadtown, California * Allentown, Georgia, a city in four counties in Georgia * Allentown, Illinois, an unincorporated community in Tazewell County * Allentown, New Jersey, a boroug ...
Bethlehem Bethlehem is a city in the West Bank, Palestine, located about south of Jerusalem, and the capital of the Bethlehem Governorate. It had a population of people, as of . The city's economy is strongly linked to Tourism in the State of Palesti ...
(
Philadelphia Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...
market) * Clarks Summit * Clarks Summit *
Mansfield Mansfield is a market town and the administrative centre of the Mansfield District in Nottinghamshire, England. It is the largest town in the wider Mansfield Urban Area and the second largest settlement in Nottinghamshire (following the city ...
(
Elmira, NY Elmira () is a city in and the county seat of Chemung County, New York, United States. It is the principal city of the Elmira, New York, metropolitan statistical area, which encompasses Chemung County. The population was 26,523 at the 2020 ce ...
market) *
Mansfield Mansfield is a market town and the administrative centre of the Mansfield District in Nottinghamshire, England. It is the largest town in the wider Mansfield Urban Area and the second largest settlement in Nottinghamshire (following the city ...
(
Elmira, NY Elmira () is a city in and the county seat of Chemung County, New York, United States. It is the principal city of the Elmira, New York, metropolitan statistical area, which encompasses Chemung County. The population was 26,523 at the 2020 ce ...
market) * Pottsville * Towanda * Towanda * Towanda * 26 Waymart * Williamsport


Former translator

*
State College State College is a borough and home rule municipality in Centre County, Pennsylvania, United States. It is a college town, home to the University Park campus of The Pennsylvania State University. State College is the largest designated borou ...
( JohnstownAltoona market)


Out-of-market coverage

WNEP was carried for many years on the two cable providers in the Lehigh Valley until it was declared part of the Philadelphia (WPVI) market in January 2013. From then on both
Service Electric Service Electric is a group of affiliated cable television companies serving eastern Pennsylvania and western New Jersey, United States. The company is headquartered in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania in the Lehigh Valley. Service Electric also offers br ...
and RCN decided to drop WNEP due to the inability to broadcast duplicate programming from two ABC affiliates. Many viewers in the Lehigh Valley now rely on an over-the-air signal from WNEP-TV's Allentown translator. In New York State, WNEP is carried on
Charter Spectrum Spectrum is the trade name of Charter Communications. The name is widely used by both market consumers and commercial businesses. Services that Spectrum offers include cable television, internet access, internet security, managed services, mo ...
in Highland Lake in Sullivan County, which are part of the New York City market.


References


External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Wnep-Tv 1954 establishments in Pennsylvania American Broadcasting Company affiliates Antenna TV affiliates Taft Broadcasting Tegna Inc. Television channels and stations established in 1954 NEP-TV