WDPN-TV (channel 2) is a
television station licensed to
Wilmington, Delaware, United States, serving the
Philadelphia area as an affiliate of the classic television network
MeTV.
It is owned by Maranatha Broadcasting Company alongside
Allentown, Pennsylvania
Allentown (Pennsylvania Dutch language, Pennsylvania Dutch: ''Allenschteddel'', ''Allenschtadt'', or ''Ellsdaun'') is a city in Lehigh County, Pennsylvania, Lehigh County, Pennsylvania. The city has a population of 125,845 as of the 2020 United ...
–licensed
independent station
An independent station is an independent radio or terrestrial television station which is independent in some way from broadcast networks. The definition of "independence" varies from country to country, reflecting governmental regulations, market ...
WFMZ-TV (channel 69). Both stations share studios on East Rock Road on
South Mountain South Mountain or South Mountains may refer to:
Canada
* South Mountain, a village in North Dundas, Ontario
* South Mountain (Nova Scotia), a mountain range
* South Mountain (band), a Canadian country music group
United States
Landforms
* Sou ...
in Allentown, while WDPN's transmitter is located at the antenna farm in the
Roxborough section of Philadelphia.
History
Origins in Wyoming
WDPN-TV's origins lie in a
construction permit
Planning permission or developmental approval refers to the approval needed for construction or expansion (including significant renovation), and sometimes for demolition, in some jurisdictions. It is usually given in the form of a building perm ...
granted to Ambassador Media in 1988 for a
Jackson, Wyoming satellite station of its
ABC affiliate in
Pocatello, Idaho
Pocatello () is the county seat of and largest city in Bannock County, with a small portion on the Fort Hall Indian Reservation in neighboring Power County, in the southeastern part of the U.S. state of Idaho. It is the principal city of the ...
,
KPVI
KPVI-DT (channel 6) is a television station licensed to Pocatello, Idaho, United States, serving as the NBC affiliate for the Idaho Falls–Pocatello market. Owned by Imagicomm Communications, the station maintains studios on East Sherman Street ...
. The new station, which signed on January 9, 1991
as KJVI, served as a
semi-satellite
A broadcast relay station, also known as a satellite station, relay transmitter, broadcast translator (U.S.), re-broadcaster (Canada), repeater (two-way radio) or complementary station (Mexico), is a broadcast transmitter which repeats (or tran ...
of KPVI for the Wyoming side of the
Idaho Falls–Pocatello market, airing separate commercials. KPVI and KJVI were sold to
Sunbelt Communications Company
Intermountain West Communications Company was an American telecommunications company, formerly owned by James E. Rogers (1938–2014), that remains as the licensee company for a number of local television stations in the United States, operated ...
in November 1995, who switched the stations to
NBC in January 1996. Channel 2's call letters were changed to KJWY that June.
While KJWY was technically a satellite of KPVI, it later began to carry Wyoming news from another Sunbelt-owned NBC affiliate,
KCWY
KCWY-DT (channel 13) is a television station in Casper, Wyoming, United States, affiliated with NBC and The CW Plus. Owned by Gray Television, the station has studios on Progress Circle in Mills, Wyoming, and its transmitter is located atop C ...
in
Casper, after that station began a news operation.
KJWY had the distinction of being the lowest-powered full-service
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 analo ...
television station in the United States, at only 178
watts. It also tied
CJBN-TV channel 13 of
Kenora, Ontario, Canada, also at 178 watts, for the lowest-powered full-service analog station in North America. The analog channel 2 signal traveled a very long distance under normal conditions, and KJWY had to operate at very low power since it was short-spaced to KBCI-TV in
Boise, Idaho (now
KBOI-TV) and
KUTV in
Salt Lake City. After the digital transition was complete, KJWY's power was increased to 270 watts, equivalent to 1,350 watts in analog—still fairly modest for a full-power station.
On March 2, 2009, Sunbelt Communications Company filed an application with the FCC to sell KJWY to PMCM TV (whose principals own six
Jersey Shore
The Jersey Shore (known by locals simply as the Shore) is the coastal region of the U.S. state of New Jersey. Geographically, the term encompasses about of oceanfront bordering the Atlantic Ocean, from Perth Amboy in the north to Cape May Po ...
radio stations in
Monmouth
Monmouth ( , ; cy, Trefynwy meaning "town on the Monnow") is a town and community in Wales. It is situated where the River Monnow joins the River Wye, from the Wales–England border. Monmouth is northeast of Cardiff, and west of London. I ...
and
Ocean counties as
Press Communications, LLC); however, Sunbelt initially planned to retain control of KJWY under a
local marketing agreement
In North American broadcasting, a local marketing agreement (LMA), or local management agreement, is a contract in which one company agrees to operate a radio or television station owned by another party. In essence, it is a sort of lease or tim ...
.
The transaction was approved by the FCC on June 10, 2009 after both parties agreed to drop the proposed local marketing agreement. After closing the sale on June 12, 2009, KJWY dropped all NBC programming, as well as the KPVI simulcast. After two months
off-the-air, KJWY returned on August 12 as a
This TV affiliate.
It switched to
MeTV in 2012.
Move to Delaware
Soon after taking over, PMCM sought permission to reallocate KJWY from Jackson, Wyoming to Wilmington, Delaware as part of a
legal loophole that allows any VHF station that moves to a state with no FCC-licensed commercial VHF stations to receive automatic permission to move. Delaware had not had any commercial VHF stations licensed within its borders since
WVUE in Wilmington—whose frequency is now occupied by Philadelphia
PBS member WHYY-TV—had gone off the air in 1958. (PMCM also looked to move
KVNV to
New Jersey under the same rule.) The request was denied by the FCC in a December 18, 2009 letter. The full Commission denied PMCM's application for review in a Memorandum Opinion and Order released on September 15, 2011; however, this denial was reversed by the
U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit
The United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit (in case citations, D.C. Cir.) is one of the thirteen United States Courts of Appeals. It has the smallest geographical jurisdiction of any of the U.S. federal appellate cou ...
on December 14, 2012.
On March 8, 2013, the call letters were changed to KJWP, making it one of the few stations east of the
Mississippi River with a "K" call sign.
[ KJWP applied for a ]construction permit
Planning permission or developmental approval refers to the approval needed for construction or expansion (including significant renovation), and sometimes for demolition, in some jurisdictions. It is usually given in the form of a building perm ...
to move to Wilmington (though its transmitter is in Philadelphia's Roxborough neighborhood where the transmitters for most Philadelphia television stations are located) on May 28, 2013. KJWP signed off from Jackson for the last time on August 11, 2013 in anticipation of the move. (Following the move, the station's former studios on West Broadway in Jackson were permanently closed.) On November 18, 2013, KJWP signed on its upconverted 720p high-definition television signal from its new location at Roxborough. The station continued to carry MeTV following the move, and on February 27, 2014, KJWP launched in the Philadelphia and New Jersey area. On March 1, 2014, KJWP fully became the Delaware Valley's exclusive MeTV affiliate, with Allentown, Pennsylvania
Allentown (Pennsylvania Dutch language, Pennsylvania Dutch: ''Allenschteddel'', ''Allenschtadt'', or ''Ellsdaun'') is a city in Lehigh County, Pennsylvania, Lehigh County, Pennsylvania. The city has a population of 125,845 as of the 2020 United ...
-based WFMZ-TV (channel 69) discontinuing their MeTV subchannel the same day. After the move to Wilmington, the station's power drastically increased to 9.36 kW, adjusting itself to the size of the Philadelphia television market.
In late June 2014, the station announced the hiring of longtime Philadelphia television personality Larry Mendte as public affairs director. Mendte hosts two programs for the station; ''The Delaware Way'', a week-in-review rundown of state issues, and ''...And Another Thing'', a more general news and commentary program (the latter also airs on sister station WJLP in the New York City area).
On December 17, 2015, PMCM TV agreed to sell KJWP to Allentown-based Maranatha Broadcasting Company (owner of WFMZ-TV) for an undisclosed price. The deal was finalized nearly two years later, on August 31, 2017, creating a duopoly
A duopoly (from Greek δύο, ''duo'' "two" and πωλεῖν, ''polein'' "to sell") is a type of oligopoly where two firms have dominant or exclusive control over a market. It is the most commonly studied form of oligopoly due to its simplicit ...
in the Philadelphia market with WFMZ, with the two stations serving different parts of the market.
On September 4, 2018, KJWP's call letters were changed to WDPN-TV.[
]
Programming
As of January 2022, WDPN carries the majority of the MeTV lineup, with some exceptions. ''The 302'', a public affairs show focused on the Delaware area, airs on Saturdays at 6a.m. and Sundays at 7a.m. WDPN also preempts several hours of the MeTV schedule each day to air infomercials from 5 to 7 a.m. on weekdays and Saturdays, and 6 to 8 a.m. on Sundays.
Technical information
Subchannels
WDPN-TV's broadcast signal is multiplexed, with its lead channel (2.1) airing programming from MeTV. On August 18, 2014, KJWP added subchannels that carry Escape
Escape or Escaping may refer to:
Computing
* Escape character, in computing and telecommunication, a character which signifies that what follows takes an alternative interpretation
** Escape sequence, a series of characters used to trigger some so ...
(2.2) and Grit (2.3), new networks that respectively cater to female and male audiences. In February 2015, Justice Network (2.4) made its debut as part of the KJWP broadcast featuring true crime and police-centric programming (Justice has since moved to a subchannel of Univision-owned WUVP-DT).
References
External links
*
*
RabbitEars.info for WDPN-TV WILMINGTON, DE by Facility ID 1283
RabbitEars.info for market Philadelphia, PA
TV Fool website (local TV signals, distance, direction and strength)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wdpn-Tv
MeTV affiliates
Grit (TV network) affiliates
Ion Mystery affiliates
Heroes & Icons affiliates
Retro TV affiliates
Decades (TV network) affiliates
Story Television affiliates
Television channels and stations established in 1991
1991 establishments in Wyoming
Television stations in Philadelphia