WPHL-TV

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WPHL-TV ("Philadelphia's WB 17") is the television station affiliated with The WB television network in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Its transmitter is located in the Roxborough section of the city.

On May 15, 2006, Tribune Broadcasting announced that WPHL-TV will be part of a new primetime network called My Network TV, which is scheduled to launch on September 5, 2006. My Network TV will be operated by Fox Television Stations and its syndication division, Twentieth Television.

It is also seen on cable in the Harrisburg market, which has no WB affiliate of its own, although WPHL had a translator there before it went dark in 2005.

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 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, now WGTW) and four months later than WIBF-TV (channel 29, later WTAF and now WTXF). WPHL went through a string of owners, most notably as an affiliate station of the short-lived Overmeyer Network.

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. They 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.

In 1980, WPHL positioned itself as an alternative to the cartoons on WTAF and WKBS, as well as an alternative to the ABC, CBS and NBC daytime soap operas and game shows. The station broadcast dramas, movies from the 1940's to the 1970's, sitcoms, sports contests featuring Major League Baseball's Philadelphia Phillies, the NBA's Philadelphia 76ers and the NHL's Philadelphia Flyers and religious shows such as The 700 Club.

Throughout the late 1970s and 1980s, WPHL was known on-air as "The Great Entertainer", with voiceovers from Sid Doherty. In 1983, WPHL picked up the cartoons, sitcoms and movies from WKBS, which ceased broadcasting in late August of that year. The station moved to a more traditional independent schedule with a lot of cartoons, sitcoms, movies, dramas, music shows and religious shows. In 1985, Jim Crockett Promotions (with Dusty Rhodes as booker) expanded Mid Atlantic Wrestling into Maryland, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and New York. World Wide Wrestling was broadcast using WPHL (at 1 p.m. and 2 p.m. on Saturday afternoons) from late 1985 through 1996.

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.

In 1987, a consortium headed by former Taft president Dudley Taft took over the station, bringing many key personnel from WTAF, including general manager Randy Smith. The new Taft Broadcasting - unrelated to the old one (except for Dudley Taft of course), which was selling its independent/Fox stations to TVX, Inc. and network affiliates to Great American - 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-TV) branding as "Philly 57." In 1991, Taft sold the station to Tribune Company, where it remains today. The religious shows were slowly removed from the schedule between 1987 and 1995.

The station affiliated with The WB in January 1995, and in September of that year changed its on-air identity to "WB17".

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).

File:WB17 NBC10 News.jpg

WB 17 News powered by NBC 10, a WPHL/WCAU co-production open from 2005.

Today WPHL carries a variety of first run syndicated talk shows, court shows, reality shows, cartoons from Kids WB, off network sitcoms, and first run WB prime time shows.

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 turned over to WCAU as they produce the rebranded "WB17 News at Ten Powered by NBC 10" [1].

On January 24, 2006, the WB and UPN networks announced that they would merge. The newly combined network would be called The CW, the letters representing the first initial of its corporate parents CBS (the parent company of UPN) and the Warner Bros. unit of Time Warner. The merger will take effect in September 2006 and at that time current UPN station WPSG, owned by CBS, will become the CW's Philadelphia affiliate. At that time, WPHL will affiliate with My Network TV.

Logos

• A WPHL-TV logo from the 1960s
  A WPHL-TV logo from the 1960s
• WPHL's logo during its "Great Entertainer" branding during the 1980s. The 17 logo itself dates back to the late 1970s and was dropped in 1987.
  WPHL's logo during its "Great Entertainer" branding during the 1980s. The 17 logo itself dates back to the late 1970s and was dropped in 1987.
• WPHL's PHL17 logo, used from 1987 to 1995
  WPHL's PHL17 logo, used from 1987 to 1995
• WPHL's first WB17 logo, used from 1995 to 2001
  WPHL's first WB17 logo, used from 1995 to 2001
• Current WPHL logo, used since 2001
  Current WPHL logo, used since 2001

Trivia

As Philadelphia is the fourth largest television market, WPHL is the largest WB affiliate on the UHF dial. Sister stations WPIX in New York, KTLA in Los Angeles and WGN-TV in Chicago operate on the VHF dial. It is also the largest WB affiliate that will not join the CW, since CBS-owned WPSG is joining. And as of September 2006, it will be the largest station carrying My Network TV that is not owned by Fox.

External links

• WB17 website
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• Broadcast Pioneers of Philadelphia