WPHL-TV
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| WPHL-TV | |
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| Philadelphia, Pennsylvania | |
| Branding | myphl17 |
| Channels | 17 (UHF) analog, 54 (UHF) digital |
| Affiliations | MyNetworkTV |
| Owner | Tribune Company |
| Founded | September 17, 1965 |
| Call letters meaning | PHiLadelphia (PHL is also IATA airport code for Philadelphia International Airport) |
| Former callsigns | WPCA-TV (1960-62) |
| Former affiliations | United Network (1967) Independent (1960-62; 1965-95) WB (1995-2006) NBC (secondary 1965-83) |
| Website | myphl17.com |
WPHL-TV, channel 17, is a television station in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, owned by the Tribune Company and currently affiliated with News Corporation-owned MyNetworkTV. The station's studios are located in the Wynnefield section of West Philadelphia, and its transmitter is located in the Roxborough neighborhood.
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[edit] History
The history of channel 17 dates back to June 17, 1960, when the station signed on the air as WPCA-TV, a religious station owned by Percy Crawford. The call letters stood for "People's Christian Association." The station was Philadelphia's first commercial UHF channel, but at a time when UHF converters weren't required on most TV sets, WPCA only lasted two years and went off the air in 1962.
However, on September 17, 1965 channel 17 signed back on the air as independent station WPHL-TV. It was the third UHF independent to sign-on in Philadelphia that year, two and-a-half weeks behind WKBS-TV (channel 48) and four months later than WIBF-TV (channel 29, later WTAF and now WTXF-TV). During its early years WPHL went through a string of owners, most notably as an owned-and-operated station of the short-lived United Network.
In the summer of 1975 WPHL-TV moved from its studios in the Main Line suburb of Wyndmoor to its current studio in Wynnefield. The building had once been an A&P supermarket. The station offered a schedule of off network drama shows, sitcoms, old movies, sports and religious shows. During most of the 1970s, channel 17 also offered Japanese live action shows and cartoons dubbed in English, including Ultraman, Marine Boy, Space Giants, Speed Racer, King Kong and Johnny Sokko. It also ran NBC programs that were pre-empted by KYW-TV until the fall of 1976 and again from the fall of 1977 to the summer of 1983. The Providence Journal Company bought channel 17 in 1979.
Throughout the late 1970s and 1980s, WPHL was known on-air as "The Great Entertainer", with voiceovers from Sid Doherty. The station positioned itself as an alternative to both WTAF and WKBS, as it programmed more towards adults with movies and other syndicated programs, while its competitors were heavy on sitcoms and children's cartoons. WPHL-TV was also a station heavy on sports, as it aired contests featuring Major League Baseball's Philadelphia Phillies, the NBA's Philadelphia 76ers and the NHL's Philadelphia Flyers.
In 1983, WKBS went on the market after its owner, Field Communications, decided to exit broadcasting. The Providence Journal Company was among those who were bidding for channel 48's license. Had it emerged victorious, Providence Journal would have moved most of WPHL-TV's stronger shows to WKBS and sell the channel 17 license to a religious broadcaster. However, their bid was well below Field's asking price. WKBS-TV ceased operations ("went dark" in television terminology) that August, and channel 17 picked up various syndicated programs, movies, and production equipment from channel 48.
In 1987, the Providence Journal Co. sold WPHL-TV to a consortium headed by Dudley S. Taft Jr., the former president of the Cincinnati-based Taft Broadcasting Company, the longtime owners of rival WTAF-TV. Dudley Taft had left his family's namesake company following a corporate restructuring which resulted in the firm changing its name to Great American Broadcasting. He also brought along key personnel from WTAF (which Taft had sold to TVX Broadcast Group in early 1987), including general manager Randy Smith. The new ownership scrapped the "Great Entertainer" slogan and related logo for a new identity as PHL 17, in an apparent attempt to counter WGBS-TV's (now WPSG) Philly 57 branding. In 1991, the Taft group sold channel 17 to the Tribune Company. The station affiliated with the WB in January 1995, and in September of that year changed its on-air identity to WB 17.
Throughout the station's first three decades of service, WPHL had a tremendous professional sports presence -- at various points holding the broadcast rights to the Phillies, the Flyers, the 76ers, and pre-season games of the NFL's Philadelphia Eagles -- as well as covering local college basketball and football, with games featuring teams from the University of Pennsylvania, Villanova University and Temple University. After the station took on WB programming, it let go of many of its sports contracts in order to concentrate on its network obligations. Currently, the station does air syndicated college football and basketball games from the syndication arm of ESPN involving schools from the Big Ten Conference (football) and Big East Conference (basketball).
On January 24, 2006, the WB and UPN networks announced that they would merge into a new network called the CW. CBS-owned WPSG, the former UPN station, was chosen as the CW's Philadelphia affiliate. It would not have been an upset had WPHL-TV been chosen, however. Philadelphia was one of the few markets where the WB and UPN affiliates were both relatively strong, and CW executives were on record as preferring the "strongest" WB and UPN stations.
WPHL-TV was slated to return to its previous independent status, but on May 15, 2006, Tribune announced that it would affiliate channel 17 (and two other WB stations not included in the CW affiliation deal) with My Network TV. In July, WPHL rebranded itself as myphl17, which partially revived the station's former PHL17 moniker. WPHL-TV begain airing My Network TV programming on September 5, 2006, the day the new service was launched. WPHL did not air the final two weeks of WB programming.
[edit] News Operations
In 1994, WPHL entered into an unusual agreement with The Philadelphia Inquirer to broadcast an Inquirer-branded news program. "Inquirer News Tonight" was a hybrid newscast that integrated normal television news conventions with contributions from the newspaper's personnel. "Inquirer News Tonight" did not last, and in late 1996 the program was rebranded "WB17 News At Ten". On December 10, 2005, all in-house news operations ceased, and WCAU began producing a newscast called "WB 17 News at Ten Powered by NBC 10". On July 25, 2006, the newscast was re-named myphl17 News at Ten Powered by NBC 10. [1].
 WB 17 News ("powered by NBC 10"), a WPHL/WCAU co-production, open from 2005. |
 myphl17 News open from July 2006. |
[edit] Anchor Lineup
- Weekdays
- Anchors: Vince DeMentri and Denise Nakano
- Weather: Doug Kammerer
- Sports: Vai Sikahema
- Weekends
- Anchor: Lauren Cohn
- Weather: Amy Freeze
- Sports: John Clark
[edit] Logos
 A WPHL-TV logo from the 1960s |
 The First WPHL logo during its "Great Entertainer" branding, circa 1980. The 17 logo itself dates back to the late 1970s and was dropped in fall 1988; "Great Entertainer" was dropped shortly before this, presumably in fall 1987. |
 The second "Great Entertainer logo. |
 WPHL's second PHL17 logo, used from 1990 to 1995 (version 1 of this logo contained an unitalicized "PHL" and lacked the "Philadelphia" script). Note the "Taft" logo, identical to the one used by Taft Broadcasting in the 80s. Dudley Taft's group bought the rights to the name and logo. |
 WPHL's first WB17 logo, used from 1995 to fall 2000. The logo was very similar to that of the athletic logo of St. John's University of New York City that was in use from 1994 to 2002. SMG of New York City designed both logos. |
 WPHL logo, used from fall 2000 to late July 2006. |
 Current WPHL logo, used from late July 2006 to the present |
[edit] Trivia
- From September 1981 to August 1987, the WPHL studios hosted a Monday-through-Friday afternoon dance show, Dancin' On Air as well as a spin-off on the USA Network called Dance Party USA with the latter hosted by Dave Raymond, who was better known as the man in the Phillie Phanatic costume. Those shows marked the on-air debut of a young girl from nearby Voorhees, New Jersey named Kelly Ripa.
- WPHL is the largest station (in terms of market size) affiliated with My Network TV that is not owned by News Corporation, My Network TV's parent company.
- WPHL is also seen on cable in the Harrisburg market. WPHL had a translator there before it went dark in 2005.
[edit] External links
- WPHL-TV website
- Query the FCC's TV station database for WPHL-TV
- Broadcast Pioneers of Philadelphia
- Vintage PHL17
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KYW 3 (CBS) - WPVI 6 (ABC) - W07DC 7 (ABC) - WELL-LP 8 (DS) - WCAU 10 (NBC) - WHYY 12 (PBS) - WPHL 17 (MNTV) (The Tube on DT2) - WNJS 23/WNJT 52 (PBS/NJN) - W25AW 25 (A1) - WFPA-CA 28 (TFR) - WTXF 29 (Fox) - WQAV-LP 34 (AV/Ind) - WYBE 35 (Public) - WLVT 39 (PBS) - W40AZ 40 (Smile) - WMGM 40 (NBC) - WGTW 48 (TBN) - WTVE 51 (Religious) - WPSG 57 (The CW) - WBPH 60 (FamNet) - WPPX 61 (ION) - WWSI 62 (TEL) - WUVP 65 (UVN) - WFMZ 69 (Ind) |
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| Past broadcast stations |
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CN8 - Comcast SportsNet Philadelphia - MCTV 26 (Mercer Co., NJ) |
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| See also Broadcast television in the New York City, Scranton/Wilkes Barre and Susquehanna Valley markets | ||
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WPHL 17 (Philadelphia) - WHP-DT 21.2 (Harrisburg) - WPMY 22 (Pittsburgh) - WHVL-LP 29 (State College) - WQMY 53 (Williamsport / Scranton / Wilkes-Barre) |
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| See also: ABC, CBS, CW, Fox, NBC, PBS, and Other Stations in Pennsylvania | |
