WTVE (channel 51) 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 ...

licensed to

Willow Grove, Pennsylvania Willow Grove is a census-designated place (CDP) in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, United States. A community in Philadelphia's northern suburbs, the population was 15,726 at the 2010 census. It is located in Upper Dublin Township, Abington To ...

, United States, serving the

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

area and primarily airing

paid programming Paid or PAID may refer to: * ''Paid'' (1930 film), an American film starring Joan Crawford * ''Paid'' (2006 film), a Dutch film *''Personality and Individual Differences'', a journal See also * Paide, the capital of Järva County, Estonia * P ...

. It is owned by WRNN-TV Associates alongside

Princeton, New Jersey Princeton is a municipality with a borough form of government in Mercer County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. It was established on January 1, 2013, through the consolidation of the Borough of Princeton and Princeton Township, both of whi ...

–licensed

ShopHQ ShopHQ (formerly ValueVision, ShopNBC, Evine Live, and Evine) is an American cable, satellite and broadcast home shopping television network and multi-channel video retailer owned by iMedia Brands Inc., in which Comcast holds a 12.5% stake in th ...

affiliate

WMCN-TV WMCN-TV (channel 44) is a television station licensed to Princeton, New Jersey, United States, serving the Philadelphia area with programming from ShopHQ. It is owned by WRNN-TV Associates alongside Willow Grove, Pennsylvania–licensed independe ...

(channel 44) and

Trenton, New Jersey Trenton is the capital city of the U.S. state of New Jersey and the county seat of Mercer County. It was the capital of the United States from November 1 to December 24, 1784.Class A station

WPHY-CD WPHY-CD (channel 25) is a low-power, Class A television station in Trenton, New Jersey, United States, which primarily airs paid programming. It is owned by WRNN-TV Associates alongside Princeton, New Jersey–licensed ShopHQ affiliate WMCN-TV ( ...

(channel 25). WTVE and WPHY-CD share studios on East State Street in Trenton; through a channel sharing agreement, the two stations transmit using WPHY-CD's spectrum from an antenna in the

Roxborough Roxborough may refer to: Places * Roxborough, Manchester, Jamaica * Roxborough, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, US, a neighborhood * Roxborough, Trinidad and Tobago, Tobago Island, Republic of Trinidad and Tobago * Roxborough Castle, Ireland * Roxborou ...

section of Philadelphia.

History

The station first signed on the air on May 4, 1980, as an

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 ...

, originally licensed to

Reading, Pennsylvania Reading ( ; Pennsylvania Dutch: ''Reddin'') is a city in and the county seat of Berks County, Pennsylvania, United States. The city had a population of 95,112 as of the 2020 census and is the fourth-largest city in Pennsylvania after Philade ...

. When it launched, WTVE initially maintained a general entertainment format with a mix of off-network

sitcoms A sitcom, a portmanteau of situation comedy, or situational comedy, is a genre of comedy centered on a fixed set of characters who mostly carry over from episode to episode. Sitcoms can be contrasted with sketch comedy, where a troupe may use new ...

from the 1960s and early 1970s,

movies A film also called a movie, motion picture, moving picture, picture, photoplay or (slang) flick is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, feelings, beauty, or atmosphere ...

drama series In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super-gen ...

and

talk show A talk show (or chat show in British English) is a television programming or radio programming genre structured around the act of spontaneous conversation.Bernard M. Timberg, Robert J. Erler'' (2010Television Talk: A History of the TV Talk Show ...

s, as well as a local newscast. However, the station did not carry many

cartoons A cartoon is a type of visual art that is typically drawn, frequently animated, in an unrealistic or semi-realistic style. The specific meaning has evolved over time, but the modern usage usually refers to either: an image or series of images ...

. While the station received sizeable viewership, it was not profitable. Beginning in September 1981, WTVE began running the

subscription television Pay television, also known as subscription television, premium television or, when referring to an individual service, a premium channel, refers to subscription-based television services, usually provided by multichannel television providers, but ...

service SelecTV, which aired feature films just finished with their theatrical runs, each evening from 8 to 10 p.m. By January 1982, SelecTV programming expanded to 8 p.m. to midnight. That spring, the station began running SelecTV from 7 p.m. to 5 a.m. on weekdays and from 3 p.m. to 5 a.m. on weekends. In the fall of 1982, WTVE added

Financial News Network The Financial News Network (FNN) was an American financial and business news television network that was launched November 30, 1981. The purpose of the network was to broadcast programming nationwide, five days a week for seven hours a day on t ...

programming each weekday from noon to 5 p.m., and began carrying religious programs on Saturday and Sunday mornings. WTVE switched to SelecTV programming after 6 p.m. weekdays and after noon on weekends. By the fall of 1983, WTVE was running SelecTV full-time, with the exception of weekday broadcasts of ''

The 700 Club ''The 700 Club'' is the flagship television program of the Christian Broadcasting Network, airing each weekday in syndication in the United States and available worldwide on CBN.com. The news magazine program features live guests, daily news, con ...

'' and the '' Independent Network News'', along with other religious and public affairs shows on Saturday and Sunday mornings. SelecTV was dropped in the late 1980s, and was replaced with

home shopping Home shopping is the electronic retailing and home shopping channels industry, which includes such billion dollar television-based and e-commerce companies as Shop LC, HSN, Gemporia, TJC, QVC, eBay, ShopHQ, Buy.com and Amazon.com, as well as tradit ...

programming from

Shop at Home The Shop at Home Network (more commonly known as just Shop at Home, Shop at Home TV, SATH) was a television network in the United States. Before its acquisition by Jewelry Television in 2006, Shop at Home (SATH NASDAQ) was a public company which s ...

and

infomercial An infomercial is a form of television commercial that resembles regular TV programming yet is intended to promote or sell a product, service or idea. It generally includes a toll-free telephone number or website. Most often used as a form of dire ...

s. In 1998, WTVE affiliated with the

Spanish-language Spanish ( or , Castilian) is a Romance languages, Romance language of the Indo-European language family that evolved from colloquial Latin spoken on the Iberian peninsula. Today, it is a world language, global language with more than 500 millio ...

Telemundo Telemundo (; formerly NetSpan) is an American Spanish-language Terrestrial television, terrestrial television network owned by NBCUniversal Television and Streaming#NBCUniversal Telemundo Enterprises, NBCUniversal Telemundo Enterprises, a divi ...

network, before switching back to an

English-language English is a West Germanic language of the Indo-European language family, with its earliest forms spoken by the inhabitants of early medieval England. It is named after the Angles, one of the ancient Germanic peoples that migrated to the is ...

format after a year. WTVE's primary analog transmitter (prior to the digital transition) was located in Reading; the analog signal barely reached the Philadelphia suburbs and

Lebanon Lebanon ( , ar, لُبْنَان, translit=lubnān, ), officially the Republic of Lebanon () or the Lebanese Republic, is a country in Western Asia. It is located between Syria to the north and east and Israel to the south, while Cyprus li ...

, in the eastern part of the

Harrisburg Harrisburg is the capital city of the Pennsylvania, Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Dauphin County, Pennsylvania, Dauphin County. With a population of 50,135 as of the 2021 census, Harrisburg is the List of c ...

market. As a result, WTVE depended heavily on "

must-carry In cable television, governments apply a must-carry regulation stating that locally licensed television stations must be carried on a cable provider's system. North America Canada Under current CRTC regulations, the lowest tier of service on ...

" rules to reach viewers in the Philadelphia market 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 ...

. WTVE at one point had a repeater in Philadelphia on channel 7; that station now operates independently as

WWJT-LP WEFG-LD, virtual channel 7 (UHF digital terrestrial television, digital channel 21), is a low power broadcasting#Television, low-power Soul of the South-network affiliate, affiliated television station city of license, licensed to Philadelphia, ...

. WTVE had been in

Chapter 11 Chapter 11 of the United States Bankruptcy Code (Title 11 of the United States Code) permits reorganization under the bankruptcy laws of the United States. Such reorganization, known as Chapter 11 bankruptcy, is available to every business, wheth ...

bankruptcy Bankruptcy is a legal process through which people or other entities who cannot repay debts to creditors may seek relief from some or all of their debts. In most jurisdictions, bankruptcy is imposed by a court order, often initiated by the debtor ...

, managed by trustee George Miller until its $13.5-million takeover by WRNN-TV Associates received FCC approval on May 15, 2008. WRNN-TV Associates subsequently sold the station to NRJ TV (a company unrelated to

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

an broadcaster

NRJ Radio NRJ (NRJ is an acronym read as Nouvelle Radio Jeune, or ''énergie'' in French, pronounced , literally "energy") is a private French radio station created by Jean-Paul Baudecroux and Max Guazzini in June 1981, and was widely popularized tha ...

) in 2011. On June 1, 2016, the station joined the

SonLife Broadcasting Network Jimmy Lee Swaggart (; born March 15, 1935) is an American Pentecostal televangelist, gospel music recording artist, pianist, and Christian author. His television ministry, which began in 1971, and was originally known as the “Camp Meeting Ho ...

. On December 9, 2019, it was announced that WRNN-TV Associates, would repurchase WTVE, as well as

and six other full-power TV stations in other markets from NRJ. The sale was approved by the FCC on January 23, and was completed on February 4, 2020, making WTVE and WPHY-CD sister stations to

. Upon completion of the sale, all SonLife programming was dropped and the station now broadcasts infomercials most of the day, along with a simulcast of WRNN's nightly talk show ''Richard French Live''.

Programming

Prior to its switch to Sonlife, WTVE's schedule consisted mostly of infomercials and paid religious programs; the station did carry some limited syndicated programming on weekday early evenings. Syndicated programming seen on WTVE included ''

Inside Edition ''Inside Edition'' is an American news broadcasting newsmagazine program that is distributed in first-run syndication by CBS Media Ventures. Having premiered on January 9, 1989, it is the longest-running syndicated-newsmagazine program that is n ...

'', ''

That '70s Show ''That '70s Show'' is an American television Period piece, period teen sitcom that aired on Fox Broadcasting Company, Fox from August 23, 1998, to May 18, 2006. The series focuses on the lives of a group of six teenage friends living in the ficti ...

'' and ''

Everybody Loves Raymond ''Everybody Loves Raymond'' is an American sitcom television series created by Philip Rosenthal that aired on CBS from September 13, 1996, to May 16, 2005, with a total of 210 episodes spanning nine seasons. It was produced by Where's Lunch and ...

''.

Newscasts

WTVE aired nightly newscasts from its on-air inception in 1980 until late 1983, when the station switched to a full-time schedule of SelecTV programming. The original news programs were called ''TV51 Total News'' and aired weeknights at 5:30 and 10 p.m. ''Total News'' was targeted primarily at viewers in Berks and Schuylkill counties in an effort to fill a void in local news coverage for viewers living on the far western edge of the Philadelphia television market. Original WTVE anchors included longtime

WEEU WEEU (830 AM) is a commercial station in Reading, Pennsylvania. It has a news/talk radio format and is owned by Twilight Broadcasting, Inc. WEEU is powered at 20,000 watts by day. Because AM 830 is a clear channel frequency reserved for Cla ...

radio newsman Bob Smith, Frank Mooney (longtime Reading radio and television personality and "voice" of

Boscov's Boscov's Inc. is a family-owned department store with forty-nine locations in Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, Ohio, Connecticut, and Rhode Island. Twenty-six of these stores are located in Pennsylvania. Corporate headqu ...

department stores) and sports anchor Ross MacCallum. Later local radio personality and newscaster Suzy Sands joined the station as anchor of the 10 p.m. newscast. Weekend newscasts were anchored by Mike Reinert and Karen Kaye. At this same time, Jeffrey D. Miller (one-time "Night Mayor" on Reading radio) hosted a late night talk show called ''NightBeat''. Miller also anchored and reported for the nightly news programs. WTVE was also one of the first to air ''Independent Network News'', a nationally syndicated nightly news program produced by

WPIX WPIX (channel 11) is a television station in New York City. Owned by Mission Broadcasting, it is operated under a local marketing agreement (LMA) by Nexstar Media Group, making it a ''de facto'' owned-and-operated station and flagship (broadcas ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

that was distributed to independent stations, each night at 10:30 p.m. during the 1980s. Local news programming was re-established on the station in 2000, with the debut of ''Philly TV News''. This program was an attempt to build up the station as a player in the Philadelphia television news arena, but the production failed to attract viewers and was eventually cancelled.

Sports programming

In the 1980s, WTVE was known for airing

high school football High school football (french: football au lycée) is gridiron football played by high school teams in the United States and Canada. It ranks among the most popular interscholastic sports in both countries, but its popularity is declining, part ...

games featuring Berks and Schuylkill County schools via tape delay on Saturday evenings.

Albright College Albright College is a private liberal arts college in Reading, Pennsylvania. It was founded in 1856. History Albright College traces its founding to 1856 when Union Seminary opened. Present-day Albright was formed by the mergers of several ins ...

basketball was also broadcast in a similar manner. The station aired various

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

games involving Pennsylvania teams. In 2007, WTVE broadcast four Albright College football games; in 2008, the station became an affiliate of the PA Sports Fever network.

Technical information

Subchannels

The station's digital 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 - a ...

: WTVE formerly operated a third digital subchannel, which carried

VIETV VIETV is an American Vietnamese-language broadcast television network based in Houston, Texas. The network began broadcasting over-the-air in Houston in 2011, and has since started affiliates broadcasting in Los Angeles, California, Orange Co ...

; , only 51.1 and 51.2 are broadcast. WTVE formerly operated Estrella TV on DT2, but in February 2020, that changed to Timeless TV (

public domain The public domain (PD) consists of all the creative work A creative work is a manifestation of creative effort including fine artwork (sculpture, paintings, drawing, sketching, performance art), dance, writing (literature), filmmaking, ...

shows and infomercials). This channel is seen on some RNN and HC2 Holdings stations. WTVE formerly operated SonLife on DT3; this was later moved to its sharing host WPHY-CD.

Analog-to-digital conversion

WTVE received authorization by the

Federal Communications Commission The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that regulates communications by radio, television, wire, satellite, and cable across the United States. The FCC maintains jurisdiction ...

to terminate its analog signal "no earlier than September 30, 2008" after expressing severe concerns that the existing analog

klystron A klystron is a specialized linear-beam vacuum tube, invented in 1937 by American electrical engineers Russell and Sigurd Varian,Pond, Norman H. "The Tube Guys". Russ Cochran, 2008 p.31-40 which is used as an amplifier for high radio frequenci ...

tube Tube or tubes may refer to: * ''Tube'' (2003 film), a 2003 Korean film * ''The Tube'' (TV series), a music related TV series by Channel 4 in the United Kingdom * "Tubes" (Peter Dale), performer on the Soccer AM television show * Tube (band), a ...

transmitter was expected to fail. WTVE 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 (on ...

channel 51, on that date. The station's digital signal remained on its pre-transition UHF channel 25. Through the use of

PSIP The Program and System Information Protocol (PSIP) is the MPEG (a video and audio industry group) and privately defined program-specific information originally defined by General Instrument for the DigiCipher 2 system and later extended for the A ...

, digital television receivers display the station's

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 via digits on a receiver's ...

as its former UHF analog channel 51. WTVE was one of the first stations in the U.S. to transmit using a distributed transmission system,http://fjallfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DA-06-2447A1.pdf having received special temporary authority from the FCC to operate WTVE-DT via eight (mostly low-powered) transmitters scattered across its coverage area rather than relying on a singular full-power signal. The station formerly transmitted with on-channel boosters from sites in or near: * WTVE-DTS1

(225m 0.76 kW DA) * WTVE-DTS2

Bethlehem, Pennsylvania Bethlehem is a city in Northampton and Lehigh Counties in the Lehigh Valley region of eastern Pennsylvania, United States. As of the 2020 census, Bethlehem had a total population of 75,781. Of this, 55,639 were in Northampton County and 19, ...

(155m 2.8 kW DA) * WTVE-DTS3

North East, Maryland North East is a town in Cecil County, Maryland, Cecil County, Maryland, United States. It is located between Philadelphia and Baltimore. The population was 3,572 at the 2010 United States Census, 2010 census. The Turkey Point Light, Turkey Point L ...

(87m 0.11 kW DA) * WTVE-DTS4

Quarryville, Pennsylvania Quarryville is a borough in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, United States. The population was 2,852 at the 2020 census, up from 2,576 at the 2010 census. Geography Quarryville is located in southern Lancaster County at (39.895402, -76.162175). ...

(193m 1.0 kW DA) * WTVE-DTS5

Myerstown, Pennsylvania Myerstown ( Pennsylvania Dutch: ''Moyerschteddel'') is a borough located in Lebanon County, Pennsylvania. It is part of the Lebanon, Pennsylvania Metropolitan statistical area. The population was 3,103 at the 2020 census. It is home to over 100 b ...

(63m 1.15 kW DA) * WTVE-DTS6

Lambertville, New Jersey Lambertville is a city in Hunterdon County in the U.S. state of New Jersey. As of the 2020 U.S. census, the city's population was 3,906,Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

(378m 126 kW DA) * WTVE-DTS8

Brockton, Pennsylvania Brockton is an unincorporated community and coal town in Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appala ...

(138m 4.25 kW DA) This pattern effectively created a tailored coverage area corresponding to one large main signal centered on Philadelphia, plus a series of boosters. In late 2009, all eight boosters were upgraded to the

ATSC-M/H ATSC-M/H (''Advanced Television Systems Committee - Mobile/Handheld'') is a U.S. standard for mobile digital TV that allows TV broadcasts to be received by mobile devices. ATSC-M/H is a mobile TV extension to preexisting terrestrial TV broadcasti ...

format to be capable of

mobile DTV Mobile television is television watched on a small handheld or mobile device. It includes service delivered via mobile phone networks, received free-to-air via terrestrial television stations, or via satellite broadcast. Regular broadcast stand ...

broadcast. The station's Mobile DTV signal, which will be a simulcast of subchannel 51.1, was expected to sign on sometime in 2011; however it has not yet begun operations as of November 2013.

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wtve Television stations in Philadelphia Independent television stations in the United States Television channels and stations established in 1980 1980 establishments in Pennsylvania