WPMY

Encyclopedia : W : WP : WPM : WPMY

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WPMY is an affiliate of The WB in the Pittsburgh market. WB22, as it is known on air, broadcasts on analog 22/digital 42. The station is owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group, who also owns WPGH. Its transmitter is located in Monroeville, Pennsylvania. It will affiliate with My Network TV in September 2006. WPMY also features The Tube music video channel on its digital signal.

History

The station signed on the air on September 26, 1978 as WPTT, (which stood for Pittsburgh Twenty Two, the UHF channel on which it broadcasts) the market's second commercial independent station and its fourth UHF station (after WPGH-TV). It was owned by the Commercial Radio Institute (which later became known as Sinclair). It started out running a number of popular off-network sitcoms from the 1950s and 60s, off-network dramas and westerns, very old movies and network programming pre-empted by WTAE-TV, KDKA-TV and WIIC (now WPXI-TV). For a time the station WPTT aired the children's television program Captain Pitt.

The station also aired a newscast in the early 1980s, a rarity at this time for stations not affiliated with the then-major networks (ABC, CBS and NBC). This newscast was known simply as "WPTT news", and in the opening segment, the letters "news" were formed from a compass indicating the four cardinal directions. This opening segment appeared briefly (and was audible) on the movie Flashdance in a scene where Jennifer Beals' character returns home and turns on the television.

However, WPGH, which had hitherto been a rather low-budget operation, was purchased by Meredith Corporation in 1978, and became more aggressive with its programming strategy. As such, WPTT became unable to acquire newer shows, and ended up with programming that no other stations wanted. The station's ratings were very low, and it was considered as an "also-ran". For many years, WPTT languished as just another local independent channel, airing reruns of TV shows that were past their prime.

In 1990, after going through 3 owners, WPGH was put up for sale again. Sinclair put in a bid for the station in 1991 and won. However, the group struggled to obtain financing. As part of a deal, the group sold WPTT to its general manager Eddie Edwards (who had been with WPTT since its launch in 1978).

The sales closed on August 29, 1991 with Sinclair acquiring WPGH from Renaissance Broadcasting in the fall of that year. The best programming from WPTT's schedule was moved to WPGH. Eddie Edwards acquired WPTT without programming and began to run Home Shopping Network programming 24/7 on WPTT in September, which led to the station being dropped from the area's cable systems. Edwards then made a deal with Sinclair to buy time on his station from 3pm to midnight, and get the cable systems to reinstate WPTT on their lineups.

The deal took effect in January 1992 with WPTT airing cartoons, sitcoms, movies and dramas from Sinclair which had no room to air on WPGH. Sinclair's air time on the station expanded in 1993 to begin at noon. WPTT began to run older syndicated cartoons, as well as Disney cartoons which it picked up from KDKA.

WPTT affiliated with UPN in early 1995. Sinclair's air time on the station increased later that year to begin at 6am as well and by 1997, WPTT and WPGH moved together into one building.

WPTT dropped the UPN affiliation in 1998 (which moved to WNPA-TV) and affiliated with the The WB instead. The station also changed its call sign to WCWB to reflect its new affiliation. (The WPTT calls currently reside on 1360 AM.)

Sinclair finally bought back WCWB from Eddie Edwards in 2000 after the FCC relaxed its rule, allowing one company to own two television stations in the same market.

WCWB now offers cartoons from Kids WB, off-network sitcoms, reality shows, court shows, talk shows and movies, as well as WB prime time programming.

On January 24, 2006, it was announced that The WB and UPN will merge into a new network, The CW. As a result of this merger, UPN O&O WPCW (the former WNPA) will be the CW affiliate and Channel 22 will no longer be a WB affiliate starting in September 2006. In its place, Channel 22 will be carrying the Monday-through-Saturday My Network TV block from Fox. On April 17th, WCWB changed its call letters to WPMY to reflect this (except the WB 22 logo on their website, which still displays the old WCWB calls; plugs for My Network TV and The Tube now use the WPMY calls), although the WB22 branding will continue for the remainder of The WB's operation. Some station on air spots have been using the old WCWB call letters as well, which seem to be very slowly replaced as new versions of the commercials are produced. It is not clear if a commercial's Call letters do not get changed, if that show will be dropped at the transition stage. WPMY will adopt the on-air branding as My Pittsburgh TV according to the website when My Network TV Launches.

External links

• [WPMY 22 Homepage]
• [Query the FCC's TV station database for WPMY]
• [PPG Article Annoucing Call Letter Change]

Broadcast television in the Pittsburgh market  [(Nielsen DMA #22)]
KDKA 2 (CBS) - WTAE 4 (ABC) - WPXI 11 (NBC) - WQED 13 (PBS) - WQEX 16 (AS) - WPCW 19 (UPN/The CW) - WPMY 22 (The WB/My Network TV) - WNPB 24 (PBS/WVPB) - WIIC 29 (Ind) - WBYD 35 (Ind) - WGPT 36 (PBS/MPT) - WPCB 40 (CSTV) - WLLS 49 (A1) - WPGH 53 (Fox) - WBGN 59 (Ind) - W63AU 63 (Ind) - WPTG 69 (Ind)
Local cable television channels FSN-Pittsburgh - PCNC

 

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