WNIT

(Channel 57) is a television station licensed to State College, PA and serving the Johnstown/Altoona/State College, PA market as an affiliate of Binge TV. It is owned by Nittany Media, a family-owned media firm, and operated by BIG Media.
==History==
The station signed on as religious independent WFYG (From Your God) on January 20, 1974. The station was signed on by From Your God Communications owned by a coalition of 6 churches in the Happy Valley (State College/Bellefonte). The stations programming consisted of Christian and faith-based television programs from 2 pm to 10 pm 6 days a week, and on Sunday they would air recordings of church services. 
Early on, WFYG was plagued with problems, as the operators of the station were unaware of the costs of owning a TV station, and the transmitter they were using was second-hand. As a result, they did not go in color until 1979. By 1981, the station had discontinued pre-recorded church services on Sundays, instead going to color bars with a message stating "Christ told you to take a rest on Sundays, and we're doing it too.". The reception to this was universally negative, with some church organizations calling it "lazy".
The station was sold in 1982 to a secular media company based in State College named Walford Media Trust, which was headed by 23-year-old businessman Scott Walford. They made WFYG more secular by cutting religious programming to the morning and acquiring syndicated programming and movies to the afternoon and evenings. They also increased the time the station would air, with the station signing on at 9 AM and signing off at 12 AM. The station changed its callsign to WSIE in 1985. By 1986, however, most of the syndicated programming were replaced by infomercials.
In 1987, The station affiliated with the upstart Fox network, although the market already had one (the upstart WCAP). The idea was that the Johnstown, Altoona, State College, PA market would be able to support 2 Fox affiliates, as the network only aired 2 programs on the weekends by then and was seen more as a syndication service than anything else. Additionally, Walford believed that WCAP's signal was poor in State College, and the high Penn State population would mean the demand of the 18–35 years old oriented FOX would mean the demand of an affiliate in a rather large-area market would make financial sense.
While WCAP's signal was not great in the Happy Valley, it was carried on all cable systems in the city, and most residents and PSU students had cable systems that carried WCAP and only seldom carried WSIE. Also, it was not a good look for the Fox network to affiliate a station in a market that already had an affiliate which didn't have a news department and also barely had any syndicated programming other than infomercials and religious programs.
By 1990 WSIE's schedule consisted of shopping channel programming and E/I programming in the morning, followed by infomercials in the afternoon and Fox programming in the evening. Religious programming was replaced with various shopping channels at that point. In 1991, Fox dropped their affiliation with WSIE, complaining of a "lack of real news department".
WSIE moved HSN to most of the day after Fox dropped their affiliation. The station was bleeding cash as 1992 went by, and by 1993 the station nearly defaulted on it's debt. Later that year, WSIE was sold to a businessman named Phillip "Feet" Dunbar, who had the idea to convert the station to a full-time general entertainment independent called "Nittany Television", which would consist of syndicated programming catering to students of Penn State. He would also partner with the university to allow it's students to work at the station and have it credited towards their broadcasting degree. Dunbar previously attempted to acquire WALL, but failed.
The station, now rebranded as WNIT, relaunched on April 17, 1994 with an episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation. The station immediately had an impact on the Penn State student body, with a poll in 1995 saying most of them were aware of the station and had watched programs on it. They also got star Penn State/Carolina Panthers Quarterback Kerry Collins to do adverts on the station, touting it's "program excellence". WNIT also gained the rights to air Penn State home football games, which started at the 1994 season.
The station also redid its pathetic news department to be more State College/Bellefonte oriented, claiming that the stations in the market cared more about Altoona and Johnstown than the Happy Valley. 
by 2016, WNIT's schedule was mainly syndicated programs and sitcoms, with movies played overnight. During Finals week, the station withdraws all programming during the daytime, and instead plays "chill study beats" with a livestream of an island paradise.
Starting in 2020, WNIT began to replace more and more of its schedule with Infomercials and direct-response commercials. The "chill beats" livestream was dropped in 2022. WRMJ had taken most of the station's syndicated shows by the start of 2024. By April, WNIT had become mostly infomercials, with the exception of religious programs.
On August 1st, 2024, WNIT switched to Shop LC. 30 days later, It switched to Binge TV, and Shop LC was moved to its second subchannel
==Technical Information==
The station's digital signal is multiplexed:
Channel	Video	Aspect	Short Name	Programming
57.2 	1080i	16:9 	WNIT 	Main WNIT programming/Binge TV
57.2 	480i 	16:9 	LC 	Shop LC
57.3 	480i 	16:9 	MALL 	Infomercials
57.4 	480i 	16:9 	NHK 	NHK World
57.5 	480i 	16:9 	CHEDDAR 	Cheddar
===Analog Sign-off===
WNIT stopped transmitting on its analog signal, over UHF channel 57, on June 12, 2009, the official date on which full-power television stations in the United States transitioned from analog to digital broadcasts under federal mandate. The station's digital signal remained on its pre-transition UHF channel 14. Through the use of PSIP, digital television receivers display the station's virtual channel as its former analog channel 57. 
Category:Television channels and stations established in 1974
Category:State College, Pennsylvania
Category:Pennsylvania
Category:BIG Media
Category:Nittany Media
Category:Independent television stations
Category:Channel 57
Category:Former Fox affiliates
Category:Former HSN Affiliates