WTVE

WTVE (channel 51) is a television station licensed to Willow Grove, Pennsylvania, United States, serving the Philadelphia area with home shopping programming from Shop LC. It is owned by WRNN-TV Associates alongside Princeton, New Jersey–licensed ShopHQ affiliate WMCN-TV (channel 44) and Trenton, New Jersey–licensed Class A station WPHY-CD (channel 25). WTVE and WPHY-CD share studios on East State Street in Trenton; through a channel sharing agreement, the two stations transmit using WPHY-CD's spectrum from an antenna in the Roxborough section of Philadelphia.

History

The station first signed on the air on May 4, 1980, as an independent station, originally licensed to Reading, Pennsylvania.[2] When it launched, WTVE initially maintained a general entertainment format with a mix of off-network sitcoms from the 1960s and early 1970s, movies, drama series and talk shows, as well as a local newscast. However, the station did not carry many cartoons. While the station received sizeable viewership, it was not profitable.

Programming

Prior to its switch to SonLife, WTVE's schedule consisted mostly of infomercials and paid religious programs; the station did carry some limited syndicated programming on weekday early evenings. Syndicated programming seen on WTVE included Inside Edition, That '70s Show and Everybody Loves Raymond.

Newscasts

WTVE aired nightly newscasts from its on-air inception in 1980 until late 1983, when the station switched to a full-time schedule of SelecTV programming. The original news programs were called TV51 Total News and aired weeknights at 5:30 and 10 p.m. Total News was targeted primarily at viewers in Berks and Schuylkill counties in an effort to fill a void in local news coverage for viewers living on the far western edge of the Philadelphia television market. Original WTVE anchors included longtime WEEU radio newsman Bob Smith, Frank Mooney (longtime Reading radio and television personality and "voice" of Boscov's department stores) and sports anchor Ross MacCallum. Later local radio personality and newscaster Suzy Sands joined the station as anchor of the 10 p.m. newscast. Weekend newscasts were anchored by Mike Reinert and Karen Kaye.

At this same time, Jeffrey D. Miller (one-time "Night Mayor" on Reading radio) hosted a late night talk show called NightBeat. Miller also anchored and reported for the nightly news programs. WTVE was also one of the first to air Independent Network News, a nationally syndicated nightly news program produced by WPIX in New York City that was distributed to independent stations, each night at 10:30 p.m. during the 1980s.

Local news programming was re-established on the station in 2000, with the debut of Philly TV News. This program was an attempt to build up the station as a player in the Philadelphia television news arena, but the production failed to attract viewers and was eventually cancelled.

Sports programming

In the 1980s, WTVE was known for airing high school football games featuring Berks and Schuylkill County schools via tape delay on Saturday evenings. Albright College basketball was also broadcast in a similar manner. The station aired various football games involving Pennsylvania teams. In 2007, WTVE broadcast four Albright College football games; in 2008, the station became an affiliate of the PA Sports Fever network.

callsign	WTVE
city	Willow Grove, Pennsylvania
branding	TV 51
digital	22 (UHF), shared with WPHY-CD
virtual	51
affiliations	51.1: ShopLC for others, see
owner	WRNN-TV Associates
licensee	RNN National, LLC
location	Willow Grove–Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
country	United States
airdate	May 4, 1980
sister stations	WPHY-CD, WMCN-TV
former channel numbers	Analog: 51 (UHF, 1980–2009) Digital: 25 (UHF, until 2018)
former affiliations	Independent (1980–1998, 2000–2016, 2020–2021) Telemundo (1998–2000) SonLife (2016–2020)
erp	15 kW
haat	351.9 m
facility id	55305
coordinates	40.04169°N, -75.23614°W
licensing authority	FCC

History

Programming

Newscasts

Sports programming

Technical information

Subchannels

Analog-to-digital conversion

See also

References