WTYN-TV

WTYN-TV, virtual channel 29 (UHF digital channel 50), is a Rainbow Dash Network owned-and-operated television station licensed to Fort Lucenne, Pennsylvania. The station is owned by RainbowDash72. On cable, WTYN is carried on Comcast Xfinity channels 11 (channel 12 in Fort Lucenne) (standard definition) and 803 (high definition), and on Verizon FiOS channels 11 (SD) and 511 (HD).
== History ==
=== As an independent station ===
The station first signed on the air on April 15, 1969. The station was founded by RKO General, which had wanted to tap into the Possum Springs market since the early 1960s. The station was initially on the air for 15 hours a day, and within a year expanded to a 24-hour schedule. Programming consisted of such shows as The Beverly Hillbillies, The Dick Van Dyke Show, Gilligan's Island and The Avengers. WTYN-TV was able to surpass WFSV-TV (channel 57, now WPSI-TV), but was still behind WPOS-TV (channel 23) in local ratings. From the start, the station's programming strategy was more adult-oriented with a heavy emphasis on films, reruns of hour-long network dramas, game shows and minor, niche sports.
In July 1977, WTYN-TV aired a week-long primetime programming stunt that featured programs from Thames Television, then a member of the British ITV television network. Shows that aired during that week included Man About the House (on which the American sitcom Three's Company was based) and The Benny Hill Show.
However, almost from the beginning, WTYN-TV had been facing a behind-the-scenes battle was underway with serious implications on the station's future – and that of its owner, even though WTYN-TV was never accused of any wrongdoing. At one point in 1980, RKO General was nearly forced out of broadcasting after misleading the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) about corporate misconduct at parent General Tire.
Indirectly due to the hearings, the station was forced to air an unusually large amount of public-affairs programming; a combination of this and the station's cash reserves being drained by RKO's legal battling led to decreased ratings (and the stations' perception as an "also-ran"). WTYN-TV also faced additional competition after WFEP (channel 48) signed on in 1978.
In 1985, due to the continuing FCC pressures, WTYN-TV's community of license was changed to the Possum Springs suburb of Fort Lucenne. The regulatory pressure on RKO General continued unabated until 1987, when an FCC administrative law judge ruled the company unfit to be a broadcast licensee due to its rampant dishonesty. After the FCC advised RKO that appealing the decision was not worth the effort, RKO began unwinding its broadcast operations. WTYN-TV was sold to Adams Communications in 1990. In addition to WTYN-TV's battle for survival, Possum Springs' then-three additional UHF stations were simultaneously also each in depths of their own problems – WPOS-TV had gone through four different owners during the period between 1986 and 1991 due to failures to turn profits, WFEP was having funding issues of it's own and was forced to cut down on it's programming hours, and WFSV-TV had lost cable carriage outside of Pennsylvania (it was at the time a regional superstation) after Syndex laws were made effective and ratings had begun a steep decline.
Adams was in severe financial straits by 1994, and sold the station to the Communications Corporation of America; the sale was finalized on August 17 of that year. Only a short time later, ComCorp sold WTYN-TV to Silver King Broadcasting, the broadcasting arm of the Home Shopping Network (HSN). Despite the sale, WTYN-TV kept it's independent format full-time.
On November 27, 1995, veteran television executive Barry Diller announced that he would acquire Silver King Communications and the Home Shopping Network. The purchase was finalized on December 19, 1996, ten months after the transaction received approval by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) on March 11. Two years later in 1997, HSN purchased the USA Network, and renamed its broadcast television subsidiary as USA Broadcasting, as part of a corporate rebranding borrowing from the identity of its new cable channel property. That year, WTYN-TV began carrying a one-hour block of programming from business news channel Bloomberg Information Television (now simply Bloomberg Television) at 6:00 a.m. daily and added a block of classic children's programs on Sunday mornings.
=== Transition to WASM-TV ===
In June 1998, USA Broadcasting launched a customized independent station format, "CityVision", which infused syndicated programming—including a few produced by sister production unit Studios USA that also aired nationally on USA Network—with a limited amount of local entertainment and magazine programs. It became WASM-TV in October 1999 (for Awesome Springs, one of the city's nicknames) and changes its on-air name to "Awesome 29". WASM's lineup featured syndicated cartoons, off-network sitcoms (including reruns of The Red Green Show), dramas, old movies and syndicated talk/reality shows. That same year, WASM became an official sponsor of the 1999 edition of Possum Springs' Harfest Halloween festival, it's sponsorship of the event ended after the station was sold in 2000. The station didn't receive spectacular ratings, but was still performing decently.
In 2000, USA then planned to sell its stations to Disney/ABC, which would have created a partnership with Hearst-owned ABC affiliate WPST, but Univision outbid its competition in a close race. Univision, however, showed no interest in WASM, so it was re-sold to Harvey Harrington, who also ran the Book Rook bookstore in the Fort Lucenne Mall. WASM's programming lineup was immediately drastically changed. A large portion of it's lineup was dedicated to infomercials, with the remaining syndicated programming being replaced with public-domain programs. WASM, however, did pick up syndicated programs previously seen on WFSV-TV after that station switched to an all-shopping format in 2004. Those acquisitions were expensive enough that WASM began losing money.
=== Reverting to WTYN-TV, switch to RDN ===
One month after the digital television transition, on July 12, 2009, the station quietly reverted to it's previous WTYN-TV calls. WTYN-TV then declared Chapter 11 bankruptcy in June 2011, and in the proceedings, Harrington sold the station to RainbowDash72, who then affiliated the station with the new Rainbow Dash Network. In 2016, WTYN-TV launched a news department, which presently broadcasts a 10 PM newscast, competing with a WNPS-produced newscast on WPOS-TV, a KAKD-TV-produced newscast on WPSW and WFEP.
Category:Possum Springs
Category:Pennsylvania
Category:Channel 29
Category:RDN Affiliated stations
Category:Rainbow Dash Network
Category:Rainbow Dash Network affiliates
Category:Former independent stations