WHPM-LD (channel 23) is a low-power television station in

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

, United States, affiliated with the

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

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

unincorporated Unincorporated may refer to: * Unincorporated area, land not governed by a local municipality * Unincorporated entity, a type of organization * Unincorporated territories of the United States, territories under U.S. jurisdiction, to which Congress ...

Lamar County south of

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

History

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

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

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

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

2009 File:2009 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The vertical stabilizer of Air France Flight 447 is pulled out from the Atlantic Ocean; Barack Obama becomes the first African American to become President of the United States; 2009 Iran ...

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

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

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

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

through

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

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

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

to enable the station to cover the

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

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

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

of WHPM in order to offer over-the-air viewers access to The CW. Except for local commercials, all programming is provided through the national

CW Plus CW may stand for: Science and technology * centiwatt (cW), one hundredth of a watt * Cω, a programming language * CW complex, a type of topological space * Carrier wave, in radio communications * CodeWarrior, an integrated development environm ...

service. Initially, the station (now using the WHPM-LD2

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

) remained on Comcast channel 59. Eventually, it began airing in 720p high definition over-the-air and on Comcast digital channel 438. It is no longer offered on the system's basic tier. As part of a long-term affiliation renewal with Media General, The CW moved to

WHLT WHLT (channel 22) is a television station in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, United States, affiliated with CBS and The CW Plus. The station is owned by Nexstar Media Group, and has studios on US 49 in Hattiesburg; its transmitter is located in uninco ...

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

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

and

MyNetworkTV MyNetworkTV (unofficially abbreviated MyTV, MyNet, MNT or MNTV, and sometimes referred to as My Network) is an American commercial broadcast television syndication service and former television network owned by Fox Corporation, operated by its ...

were added to a third subchannel.

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

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

ABC ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script known as the alphabet. ABC or abc may also refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Broadcasting * American Broadcasting Company, a commercial U.S. TV broadcaster ** Disney–ABC Television ...

three years prior. WHPM-LD2 later switched to

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

as of 2021.

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 ...

Programming

Syndicated programming featured on the station includes ''

Family Guy ''Family Guy'' is an American animated sitcom originally conceived and created by Seth MacFarlane for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The show centers around the Griffin family, Griffins, a dysfunctional family consisting of parents Peter Griff ...

'', ''

The Ellen DeGeneres Show ''The Ellen DeGeneres Show'' (often shortened to ''Ellen'' or ''The Ellen Show'') is an American daytime television variety comedy talk show that was created and hosted by its namesake Ellen DeGeneres. Debuting on September 8, 2003, it was prod ...

'', ''

The Big Bang Theory ''The Big Bang Theory'' is an American television sitcom created by Chuck Lorre and Bill Prady, both of whom served as executive producers on the series, along with Steven Molaro, all of whom also served as head writers. It premiered on CBS ...

'' and ''

Two and a Half Men ''Two and a Half Men'' is an American television sitcom that originally aired on CBS for twelve seasons from September 22, 2003, to February 19, 2015. Originally starring Charlie Sheen in the lead role alongside Jon Cryer and Angus T. Jones, the ...

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

Newscasts

On September 25, 2015, Waypoint Media announced that it would launch a half-hour prime time newscast at 9:00 p.m. for WHPM-LD – the first such program in the Meridian market – on October 5. Although WHPM's operations are largely based out of the studios of sister stations

WMDN WMDN (channel 24) is a television station in Meridian, Mississippi, United States, affiliated with CBS. It is owned by Big Horn Television, which maintains a local marketing agreement (LMA) with Coastal Television Broadcasting Company LLC, ...

and

WGBC WGBC (channel 30) is a television station in Meridian, Mississippi, United States, affiliated with Fox and NBC. It is owned by Coastal Television Broadcasting Company LLC, which provides certain services to CBS affiliate WMDN (channel 24) u ...

Meridian Meridian or a meridian line (from Latin ''meridies'' via Old French ''meridiane'', meaning “midday”) may refer to Science * Meridian (astronomy), imaginary circle in a plane perpendicular to the planes of the celestial equator and horizon * ...

(the latter of which will debut a prime time newscast on that same date), it is not clear if the program will be produced out of Hattiesburg or through WGBC/WMDN's Meridian facilities. In October 2016, WHPM announced on their

Facebook Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin M ...

page that veteran broadcaster Randy Swan (formerly of nearby WDAM-TV) will join Waypoint Media as regional news director.

References

External links

* * {{Waypoint Media Television channels and stations established in 2005 HPM-LD Fox network affiliates Low-power television stations in the United States Waypoint Media 2005 establishments in Mississippi