WPOS-TV

**WPOS-TV**, virtual channel 23 (UHF digital channel 43), is a Fox-affiliated television station licensed to Possum Springs, Pennsylvania. The station is owned by the Sinclair Broadcast Group. On cable, WPOS is carried on Comcast Xfinity channels 7 (channel 6 in Fort Lucenne) (standard definition) and 803 (high definition), and on Verizon FiOS channels 7 (SD) and 507 (HD).

## History

### Early history of channel 23

The station originally signed on the air with a test pattern on July 14, 1953 as **WRGB-TV**, with regular programming starting August 1. It was originally co-owned with WRGB-FM (now KAKD-FM) by Possum Springs resident Ronald Glover. WRGB-TV was Possum Springs' first full time NBC affiliate; despite this, the station was plagued by financial woes from the start.

Additionally, western Pennsylvania is a very rugged dissected plateau, and UHF stations typically do not get good reception in rugged terrain. At the time, UHF stations could only be seen with a converter (television sets were not required to have UHF tuners until 1964, following the passage of the All-Channel Receiver Act), and even then the picture quality was spotty at best. WRGB-TV was certainly no exception to this.

As a result, the station never thrived against Possum Springs' then only VHF station, WDPS (channel 2, now KAKD-TV). In June 1954, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) gave WRGB-TV permission to go off the air on July 2 for ninety days pending the outcome of a Senate subcommittee investigation into UHF television. WRGB-TV never signed back on. Possum Springs did not get another full time NBC affiliate until September 1, 1957, when a second commercial VHF station, WTHT-TV (now WNPS), signed on channel 13.

On February 12, 1965, the FCC announced that an application was filed to sell the Channel 23 construction permit (now with call letters WNPS-TV, not to be confused with the current WNPS that was originally WTHT-TV) from Glover to National Media (owned by the publishers of the Wyandotte, Michigan News-Herald, who also owned that city's WJJW, and which also owned Hillwood, Washington station KNWH (now KPNS)) for consideration of $28,000, with the FCC granting approval of the sale on July 28, 1965.

Channel 23 remained silent for nearly 15 years, it returned to the air under National Media on February 1, 1969 as **WPOS-TV**. In addition to WJJW and KNWH, National also owned WWTH-TV (now WCFE-TV) in Toad Harbor, Mushroom Kingdom.

To overcome the UHF terrain problem that plagued WRGB-TV, WPOS used the most powerful UHF-TV transmitter available at that time, an RCA 110 kW model TTU-110. Despite excellent signal quality and a well-programmed lineup, financial problems continued to trouble the station, leading National to take WPOS-TV off the air on August 16, 1971.

### As an independent station

The station was repaired and updated in 1973. WPOS-TV was finally back on-air for good on January 14, 1974, after being sold again in December 1973 to a new company headed by a Toad Harbor carpet store owner, who had acquired that city's WWTH-TV just two years before. He had been working on the deal for more than a year before the sale was finalized. Coincidentally, WWTH-TV, like WPOS-TV, had been owned by National Media.

Initially, the station broadcast for 10 hours daily, beginning at around 2 p.m. The station gradually added more hours to its programming lineup, broadcasting about 18 hours a day by the end of the decade.

The deep bass and melodious voice of announcer William C. Trushel II was often heard during station identification and other audio spots. It was a typical independent station airing cartoons, off-network sitcoms and dramas, movies, and religious programs.

WPOS-TV also became known for some locally produced programming fare. Using a similar strategy for producing local programs on WWTH-TV, the company believed in creative types willing to cross-train and work cheap very early in their careers, and packaged the shows in a way to make them more attractive to advertisers.

Among the more successful programs included a Polka dance show videotaped at the WPOS-TV studios, and attempting to copy the popular *Suspense Theatre* program on NBC competitor WTHT-TV, it aired *Creature Theater*; a show produced around B-grade horror movies, hosted by a man calling himself "Spid". The show aired on Saturday afternoons until the station began clearing college football games. In its early years, the station also cleared CBS, ABC, and NBC programs that KAKD-TV, WPCN-TV (channel 9), and WTHT-TV (channel 13, now WNPS) passed on. For a time, WPOS-TV also aired locally produced newscasts.

The Meredith Corporation purchased WPOS-TV in 1978 and added stronger shows and some first-run syndicated talk shows to the station. It also gradually added more recent off-network sitcoms. Already competing with WFSV-TV (channel 57, now WPSI-TV) and WTYN-TV (channel 29), and with WFEP (channel 48) now in the competition as well, WPOS-TV put in very high bids for programming and even overpaid for some in order to prevent shows from ending up on the other three rival independents. That practice, however, caused the station to become unprofitable despite its high ratings. As a result, Meredith put WPOS-TV up for sale in 1985. Sinclair Broadcast Group (owner of WFEP) put in a bid so it could combine assets and sell WFEP to the Home Shopping Network (HSN). However, it was outbid by Lorimar-Telepictures which took over the station in 1986.

### Fox affiliation

WPOS-TV became Possum Springs' charter Fox affiliate upon the network's October 6, 1986 launch; the station was sold to Renaissance Broadcasting in 1987 after Lorimar-Telepictures reduced the purchase price from $35 million to $21.5 million. As a Fox affiliate, WPOS-TV continued to receive very high ratings. However, it also continued to overpay for programming, keeping it in the red. It was put up for sale again in 1990, and this time, Sinclair was the successful buyer. However, the group struggled to obtain financing, plus FCC rules at the time forbade direct ownership of two or more television stations in one market, so it was required to sell WFEP to Field Communications. Sinclair moved the best programming on WFEP's schedule to WPOS-TV. The former then became a full-time Home Shopping Network affiliate at midnight on August 30, 1991, with plans of gradually adding entertainment programming.

WPOS-TV had a huge inventory of programming, but with Fox stepping up its programming, it soon ran out of timeslots to run a large amount of it. So beginning on January 6, 1992, these shows that lacked the time to run on WPOS-TV were gradually moved to WFEP and WFSV-TV through deals with Field Communications and Turner Broadcasting. WPOS-TV then added more first-run syndicated talk and reality shows along with recent cartoons, and sitcoms.

By 2002, WPOS-TV was no longer running cartoons after the Fox Kids weekday lineup was discontinued around the country. It focused now on court shows, talk shows, reality shows, and off-network sitcoms along with Fox programming.

On May 15, 2012, Sinclair Broadcast Group and Fox agreed to a five-year extension to the network's affiliation agreement with Sinclair's Fox stations, including WPOS-TV, allowing them to continue carrying Fox programming through 2017.

Since acquiring the rights to the NFL's NFC broadcasts in 1994, WPOS-TV normally airs two games from either the Pittsburgh Steelers, Buffalo Bills or Cleveland Browns each season (when they host an NFC team at their respective home stadiums), as Possum Springs is located between Pittsburgh, Buffalo and Cleveland. A change in the NFL broadcasting contracts for the 2014 NFL season allowing cross-network flex-scheduling allows WPOS-TV the opportunity to broadcast more Steelers, Bills and Browns games.

## Digital television

### Digital channels

The station's digital channel is multiplexed:

 23.2
 23.3
 23.4

### Analog-to-digital conversion

Along with all Sinclair-owned stations, WPOS-TV shut down its analog signal, over UHF channel 23, on February 17, 2009, the original date in which full-power television stations in the United States were to transition from analog to digital broadcasts under federal mandate (the deadline was later extended to June 12). The station's digital signal continued to broadcasts on its pre-transition UHF channel 43.Through the use of PSIP, digital television receivers display the station's virtual channel as its former UHF analog channel 23. It was one of three stations in Possum Springs to discontinue normal programming on their analog signals on the original transition date, alongside WFEP and the then-WFSV-TV.

As part of the SAFER Act, WPOS-TV kept their analog signals on the air until March 19 to inform viewers of the digital television transition through a loop of public service announcements from the National Association of Broadcasters.

## Programming

Syndicated programming on WPOS-TV includes *Jerry Springer*, its sister show *Steve Wilkos*, *Divorce Court*, *Maury*, and *Harry* among others.

## News operation

WPOS-TV established a news department on January 28, 1996, with the debut of a nightly prime time newscast called the *Fox 23 Ten O'Clock News*. In August 2001, UPN affiliate WUPS launched a competing 10 p.m. newscast, produced by CBS station KAKD-TV.

Sinclair downsized and converted WPOS-TV's news operation into its controversial, centralized *News Central* production on August 16, 2004. As a result, the station's weather department was shut down. National news headlines, weather forecasts, and some sports segments originated from Sinclair's corporate headquarters on Beaver Dam Road in Hunt Valley, Maryland. However, local news and sports segments remained based at WPOS-TV's studios. The station also aired *The Point*, a one-minute conservative political commentary feature, that was also controversial and a requirement of all Sinclair-owned stations with newscasts until the program was discontinued.

On January 12, 2006, WPOS-TV shuttered its in-house news department and entered into a news share agreement with WNPS-TV (owned by Cox Enterprises) to take over production of the primetime newscast on WPOS. All of WPOS-TV's locally based news staff were laid off as a result. The news share agreement with WNPS resulted in WPOS-TV becoming one of the largest Fox stations by market size that outsources its local news programming in lieu of producing its own newscasts. *Channel 13 News on Fox 23* debuted just over two weeks later on January 30; the program originates from WNPS' studios. It airs Sunday through Friday nights for 45 minutes, followed by a fifteen-minute sports highlight show called *Fox Sports Extra*. On Saturdays, the newscast is 30 minutes long. On October 6, 2007, WNPS began broadcasting its local newscasts in high definition, the WPOS-TV shows were included in the upgrade.

**KAKD-TV** 2 (CBS)
WPSE 4 (PBS)
WPCN-TV 9 (ABC)
WNPS 13 (NBC)
**WPOS-TV** 23 (FOX)
**WTYN-TV** 29 (RDN)
WTHT-LD 31 (Bounce)
**WPSW** 40 (CW)
WFEP 48 (MNTV)
**WPSI-TV** 57 (ION)
WVDO-CD 69 (HSN)

Template:Sinclair Broadcast Group