WTAJ-TV
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WTAJ-TV is the CBS affiliate in Altoona, Pennsylvania. It transmits its analog signal on VHF channel 10 and its digital signal on UHF channel 32. It is currently owned by Montecito Broadcast Group.
History
The station signed on March 1, 1953 as WFBG-TV. The call letters came from the initials of the station's founder, William F.B. Gable, owner of Gable's Department Store in Altoona. In those early days, all programs were produced and transmitted "live" from the studios on Wopsononock Mountain in Altoona. At that time, channel 10 was one of the strongest stations in the entire country, utilizing over 300,000 watts to serve the community.In 1955, WFBG affiliated with CBS. Throughout the 1950s and into the early 1960s, it also carried a secondary affiliation with ABC.
In 1956, WFBG was sold to the Annenberg family's Triangle Publications. Triangle, after selling off most of its media properties between 1969 and 1971, sold WFBG to Gateway Communications in 1973. Gateway changed the station's call letters to the present-day WTAJ-TV (which stands for We're Television for Altoona and Johnstown). The station also reached eastern parts of the Pittsburgh market and was on cable systems in that market. This was necessary because Pittsburgh's CBS affiliate, KDKA-TV, preempted a decent amount of CBS shows and most of the preempted shows aired on WTAJ.
Prior to 1982, Johnstown and Altoona-State College were separate markets. Although Johnstown had a CBS affiliate of its own, WJNL-TV (channel 19), Johnstown viewers actually got a stronger signal from WTAJ. After the Altoona-State College and Johnstown DMAs were collapsed into a single market that year, WTAJ became the exclusive CBS affiliate for the enlarged market. WJNL's signal was marginal at best in the eastern part of the market. WJNL (which changed its calls to WFAT) struggled as a low-rated independent station for a decade before going dark in 1991; it eventually returned to the air and is now Pittsburgh UPN station WPCW.
Gateway Communications merged with SJL Broadcasting in December 2000. SJL was renamed Montecito Broadcast Group in January 2006. Montecito put WTAJ and Binghamton, New York's WBNG-TV up for sale shortly after it purchased four television stations (KHON-TV in Honolulu, Hawaii; KOIN in Portland, Oregon; KSNT in Topeka, Kansas and KSNW in Wichita, Kansas) from Emmis Communications. As of June 2006, no buyer yet for WTAJ has been found (though Granite has since purcahsed WBNG).
Trivia
In the 1977 film Slap Shot, a microphone bearing the mike flag of WTAJ (who at the time, had a logo that featured a "10" in a circle) can be seen before the championship game in the film. In this scene, sports anchor Jim Carr (Andrew Duncan) used a WTAJ mike when he interviewed one of the Charlestown Chiefs' players in the lockerroom before the big game. Slap Shot was filmed in Johnstown, which represented the ficticious city of Charlestown.External links
| Terrestrial television>Broadcast television in the Johnstown / Altoona market [(Nielsen DMA #98)] |
|---|
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WPSU 3 (PBS) -
WJAC 6 (NBC) -
WWCP 8 (FOX/UPN) -
WTAJ 10 (CBS) -
WPCW 19 (UPN/The CW)1 -
WATM 23 (ABC) -
W36BE / W39BE (ABC) -
WKBS 47 (CSTV)
1 Technically a Pittsburgh market station. See article. |
| Out-of-market stations available on cable |
|
Pittsburgh:
KDKA 2 (CBS) -
WTAE 4 (ABC) -
WPXI 11 (NBC) -
WPMY 22 (The WB/My Network TV) -
WPGH 53 (Fox) Scranton/Wilkes-Barre: WNEP 16 (ABC) - WSWB 38 (The WB/UPN/The CW) New York City: WPIX 11 (The WB/The CW) Harrisburg: WLYH 15 (UPN/The CW) Note: Not all stations are available in all areas. |
| Local cable television channels |
| WIUP 20 (Ind., The WB on digital subchannel, to become MNTV in September 2006) |
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