WPAC

**WPAC**, virtual channel 22, is an ACME owned-and-operated television station licensed to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. The station is owned by the Dorado Media Group, as part of a duopoly with MyNetworkTV affiliate WHGP-TV (channel 53). The two stations share studios and transmitter facilities on Ivory Avenue in the city's Summer Hill section.

## History

### **Early history of channel 22**

The channel 22 allocation dates back to the 1950s and was initially acquired by public interest groups as a "backup" plan if the groups were not able to acquire the channel 16 allocation for public television. The groups were in a battle with locally-based Westinghouse Electric Corporation (owners of WPIT radio), who wanted the channel 16 allocation for the proposed WPIT-TV. However, as Westinghouse later gave the groups their blessing to use channel 16 for what would become WENS, WENS was now stuck with two TV licenses but found use in possibly using channel 22 for educational programs it didn't have time to air.

WENS planned to use its proposed WEXT on channel 22, but as fate would have it WARD-TV (channel 19) lost its tower in Reserve Township in a storm on March 11, 1955, leading to a channel sharing agreement with WENS until the tower could be fixed. As WARD-TV was already in a battle for survival competing for the channel 11 license that it would ultimately lose, WENS was able to acquire WARD-TV's assets after that station signed off in 1957 and use its construction permit for channel 22 to relaunch WENS-TV as WEXT on channel 16 instead. Its channel 22 license and some intellectual property from WARD-TV would eventually be sold to the Commercial Radio Institute for the current channel 22.

### **WTTP-TV**

Rising out of the ashes of WEXT-TV, channel 22 finally signed on the air on September 26, 1978, as WTTP-TV (which stood for Twenty Two Pittsburgh, in reference the UHF channel on which it broadcast), the market's second commercial independent station and its fourth UHF station (after WHGP-TV). It started out running a number of popular off-network sitcoms from the 1950s and 1960s, off-network dramas and westerns, very old movies and network programming preempted by WCAE-TV (channel 4), WPIT-TV (channel 3) and WIIC (channel 11). For a time, WTTP-TV aired the children's television program Captain Pitt, which featured older cartoon shorts.

WTTP-TV also originated more of its own local programming with Prize Bowling, which originally began as Bowling for Dollars on ABC network competitor WCAE-TV for many years until host Nick Perry was jailed for a lottery broadcast scam. The succeeding host was not received well by viewers, and the show ended up being canceled. WTTP-TV took the opportunity to fill the void in the market with Prize Bowling, first hosted by Pittsburgh radio legend Roger Willoughby-Ray and then by Pittsburgh Steelers announcer Jack Fleming. The show's success was modest at best and was canceled after two years. Other programs of varying degrees of success were The Ghost Host, Eddie's Digest, and Studio Wrestling.

### **The 1980s and early 1990s**

WHGP-TV, which had hitherto been a rather low-budget operation, was purchased by the Meredith Corporation in 1978 and became more aggressive with its programming strategy. Despite having a highly powerful signal that offered double the coverage of WHGP-TV's, WTTP-TV became unable to acquire newer shows and ended up with programming that no other stations wanted. Still, the shows run on WTTP-TV were not exactly low-budget. The station's ratings were very low, and it was considered as an "also-ran" in the market. For many years, WTTP-TV languished as just another local independent station, airing reruns of television shows, many of which were past their prime.

In 1990, WTTP-TV entered into an agreement to produce a 10:00 p.m. newscast to air which was to begin in the summer of 1991 and would feature news anchors from WCAE-TV. After going through three owners, WHGP-TV was put up for sale again; the Dorado Media Group placed a bid for the station in 1991 and won; however, the group struggled to obtain financing. It was already established that some of WTTP-TV's first-run syndicated shows would go to WHGP-TV.

The sales closed on August 29, 1991, with Dorado acquiring WHGP-TV from Renaissance Broadcasting in the fall of that year. Rights to cash programming from WTTP-TV's schedule were moved to WHGP-TV, while barter shows were returned to syndication distributors (it was thought that WTTP-TV might wind up with some low-budget children's shows to run a couple of hours a day).

After the deal took effect, WTTP-TV began airing cartoons, sitcoms, movies, and dramas that Dorado had no room to air on WHGP-TV. Dorado's air time on the station expanded in 1993 to begin at noon. In the fall of 1995, WTTP-TV began to run WHGP-TV programming from 6 a.m. to midnight and picked up The Disney Afternoon cartoon block, which had been dropped by WPIT-TV when that station began running CBS' entire lineup.

### **Network affiliation**

#### **UPN**

WTTP-TV affiliated with UPN when the network launched on January 16, 1995, and changed its on-air branding to "UPN 22". Dorado's air time on the station increased later that year to begin at 6 a.m. as well; by 1997, WTTP-TV and WHGP-TV consolidated their operations into one building.

#### **The WB**

WTTP-TV dropped its UPN affiliation on January 15, 1998 (which moved to WARD-TV, channel 19) and affiliated with The WB as part of a wide-ranging affiliation deal that saw the Dorado Broadcast Group's owned and managed UPN affiliates and independent stations switch to the network. The station also changed its call sign to WPWB (for "Pittsburgh's WB 22") on the 13th, two days before the switch, to reflect its new affiliation.

As a WB affiliate, WPWB aired off-network sitcoms, reality shows, court shows, talk shows, and movies, in addition to WB prime time programming and cartoons from Kids' WB. After channel 22 affiliated with MyNetworkTV, WMYP kept the syndicated programs, but Kids' WB programming moved to WARD-TV as the block became part of The CW's lineup. WPAC now airs infomercials and syndicated children's programming in the timeslots formerly occupied by the Kids' WB Saturday morning lineup.

#### **MyNetworkTV**

On January 24, 2006, CBS Corporation and Time Warner announced that The WB and UPN would be shut down and replaced by The CW, a new network featuring programming from both networks. Through an affiliation agreement with 11 UPN affiliates owned by CBS (including the three were passed over for an affiliation deal from Tribune-owned former fellow WB affiliates), UPN owned-and-operated station WARD was named the Pittsburgh affiliate of The CW.

WPWB, meanwhile, later decided to affiliate with MyNetworkTV, another new network owned by News Corporation's Fox Entertainment Group and 20th Television divisions. On April 17, WPWB changed its call letters to WMYP to reflect the new affiliation while keeping the "Pittsburgh's WB" until the WB's end. On August 14, 2006, WMYP rebranded itself as **My22**.  Channel 22 officially joined MyNetworkTV when it launched on September 5, 2006. Unlike many other former WB affiliates switching to MyNetworkTV (and despite WARD being CBS-owned), WMYP continued to air The WB's prime time schedule in the late-night hours until September 18, 2006, when The CW launched.

### **WPAC**

On May 19, 2016, WMYP quietly changed its call letters to WPAC for the launch of the ACME television network.

On September 1, 2016, WPAC changed its on-air branding to **ACME Pittsburgh** (to further the network branding). Until late 2019, WPAC intends to focus more on local programming, particularly sports programming, including a weekly high school football package on Friday nights, while remaining a MyNetworkTV affiliate. Also, no subchannels were planned at the time. As part of the changes, WPAC continued to air games from the Pittsburgh Penguins' minor league affiliate, the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins, while adding the featured Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference Saturday game.

In the Dorado Media Group's annual report for 2016, the company disclosed that it had signed an affiliation agreement to move the MyNetworkTV affiliation to WHGP-TV on September 1, 2017. The affiliation switch was eventually moved up two days to August 30; on that date, the MyNetworkTV affiliation moved to WHGP.

WPAC'S run as a MyNetworkTV affiliate ended on August 28, 2016, with the conclusion of the network's Friday primetime programming (which the station had delayed to Saturday night to accommodate a Major League Baseball game).

## Digital Television

### **Digital channels**

The station's digital signal is multiplexed:

 22.2
 22.3
 22.4

### **Analog-to-digital conversion**

WPAC shut down its analog signal, over UHF channel 22, on June 12, 2009, the target date in which full-power television stations in the United States were to transition from analog to digital broadcasts under federal mandate. The station's digital signal continued to broadcast on its pre-transition UHF channel 42. Through the use of PSIP, digital television receivers display the station's virtual channel as its former UHF analog channel 22. WPAC was one of three stations in the Pittsburgh market to discontinue normal programming on their analog signals on the original signoff date, alongside sister station WHGP-TV and then-WENS-owned WEXT.