For information on channel 21 after it became WNBU/WPXG, see WBPX

WBPX

WBPX-TV, digital channel 32, is the Ion Television station owned by ION Media Networks , serving the Boston market. The station primarily broadcasts infomercials before 6 p.m. daily, along with a daily Catholic Mass and other religious programming, with Ion network programming beginning at 6 p.m....

.

WNHT (TV) was a television station

Television station

A television station is a business, organisation or other such as an amateur television operator that transmits content over terrestrial television. A television transmission can be by analog television signals or, more recently, by digital television. Broadcast television systems standards are...

 in southern New Hampshire

New Hampshire

New Hampshire is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. The state was named after the southern English county of Hampshire. It is bordered by Massachusetts to the south, Vermont to the west, Maine and the Atlantic Ocean to the east, and the Canadian...

, licensed to the city of Concord

Concord, New Hampshire

The city of Concord is the capital of the state of New Hampshire in the United States. It is also the county seat of Merrimack County. As of the 2010 census, its population was 42,695....

. The station broadcast programming on channel 21 and briefly served as the area's CBS

CBS

CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...

 affiliate.

History

WNHT began broadcasting on April 16, 1984. At that time, the station was running a business news format during the day and off network sitcoms, drama shows and movies at night. In the fall of 1985 business news was dropped, and WNHT ran an independent

Independent station

An independent station is in the category of television terminology used to describe a television station broadcasting in the United States or Canada that is not affiliated with any television network....

 schedule in competition with WNDS (now WBIN-TV). The station's programming consisted of drama shows, movies, first-run syndicated shows, and sitcoms, but no cartoons. http://lists.bostonradio.org/bri/v02/msg00497.html. After just three months, the owners sold WNHT to The Flatley Company http://lists.bostonradio.org/bri/v02/msg00524.html.

Unfortunately, the ratings

Nielsen Ratings

Nielsen ratings are the audience measurement systems developed by Nielsen Media Research, in an effort to determine the audience size and composition of television programming in the United States...

 were very low, so by 1986 the station moved into a more traditional independent schedule, adding a few cartoons to the lineup. By then ratings were decent and the station was profitable.

Manchester

Manchester, New Hampshire

Manchester is the largest city in the U.S. state of New Hampshire, the tenth largest city in New England, and the largest city in northern New England, an area comprising the states of Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont. It is in Hillsborough County along the banks of the Merrimack River, which...

 is 40 miles (64.4 km) from Boston

Boston

Boston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...

, while Concord is about 55 miles (88.5 km). While southern New Hampshire is considered part of the Boston market, it had and still has its own ABC

American Broadcasting Company

The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...

 station, WMUR Channel 9. Boston VHF stations had grade A signals in Manchester and Grade B signals in Concord, while the UHF stations had grade B signals in Manchester but spotty signals in Concord. It was thought that Manchester/Concord/Portsmouth

Portsmouth, New Hampshire

Portsmouth is a city in Rockingham County, New Hampshire in the United States. It is the largest city but only the fourth-largest community in the county, with a population of 21,233 at the 2010 census...

 could break away from Boston and become its own market. At the start of 1988, this area had its own ABC station, WNDS, WNHT, PBS

Public Broadcasting Service

The Public Broadcasting Service is an American non-profit public broadcasting television network with 354 member TV stations in the United States which hold collective ownership. Its headquarters is in Arlington, Virginia....

 station WENH (channel 11), and WGOT

WNEU

WNEU is the Telemundo affiliate serving the Boston market, licensed to Merrimack, New Hampshire. The station is owned by NBCUniversal, but is controlled by ZGS Communications as a full-power relay of WTMU-LP, primarily serving Boston's northern suburbs and southern New Hampshire.WNEU-DT is one of...

 (channel 60) which just began operation. If this area were to break away from Boston, it would rank in the top 100 of all U.S. television markets. After much research it was thought that the area could use a CBS

CBS

CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...

 affiliate.

With that in mind, WNHT became a CBS affiliate on February 1, 1988. Except for Star Trek

Star Trek

Star Trek is an American science fiction entertainment franchise created by Gene Roddenberry. The core of Star Trek is its six television series: The Original Series, The Animated Series, The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, Voyager, and Enterprise...

, off-network syndicated reruns disappeared, while talk shows like Phil Donahue

Phil Donahue

Phillip John "Phil" Donahue is an American media personality, writer, and film producer best known as the creator and host of The Phil Donahue Show. The television program, also known as Donahue, was the first to use a talk show format. The show had a 26-year run on U.S...

and Oprah Winfrey

Oprah Winfrey

Oprah Winfrey is an American media proprietor, talk show host, actress, producer and philanthropist. Winfrey is best known for her self-titled, multi-award-winning talk show, which has become the highest-rated program of its kind in history and was nationally syndicated from 1986 to 2011...

remained. On May 28, WNHT added local newscasts at 6:30 a.m., 12 p.m., 5 p.m., 6 p.m. and 11 p.m. However, the station failed to lure local CBS viewers away from WNEV (now NBC affiliate WHDH

WHDH

The call letters WHDH may represent:* WHDH : a television station in Boston, Massachusetts that currently exists...

) and WGME, two established CBS stations in the neighboring markets which both reached Concord even without cable coverage. The cable systems in southeastern New Hampshire carried WNHT, while the systems in western and northern New Hampshire did not. Cable systems also carried at least WNEV, while many others also carried WGME. Worse, there were no syndex or must-carry

Must-carry

In cable television, governments apply a must-carry regulation stating that locally-licensed television stations must be carried on a cable provider's system.- Canada :...

 laws compelling cable systems to black out the other CBS affiliates. Even if there were, WNEV still would have had a grade B signal in the Concord area.

With ratings continuing to disappoint, at the end of 1988 the station laid off a few people in hopes of cutting payroll. By March 1989, the morning, midday, and 5 p.m. newscasts ended, leaving only the 6 and 11 p.m. newscasts. Even those moves did not make WNHT more profitable.

On March 31, 1989, the Flatley Corporation informed station staff in a meeting that the station would go off the air at midnight that night due to its continuing poor ratings and financial problems. According to an article in the Manchester Union-Leader

New Hampshire Union Leader

The New Hampshire Union Leader is the daily newspaper of Manchester, the largest city in the state of New Hampshire. As of September 2010 it had a daily circulation of 48,342 and the circulation of its Sunday paper, the New Hampshire Sunday News, was 63,991. It was founded in 1863.It was called...

 newspaper, Thomas Flatley

Thomas Flatley

Thomas J. Flatley was a Boston real estate tycoon and philanthropist. He immigrated from Ireland in 1950 with a net worth of US$32; at the time of his death his fortune was estimated at $1.3 billion...

 compared this decision to the one where he had to put to sleep his terminally ill German shepherd. That afternoon, viewers started seeing this message on the bottom of the screen: "IT IS WITH REGRET THAT WE ANNOUNCE THAT WNHT WILL BE LEAVING THE AIR PERMANENTLY TONIGHT AT MIDNIGHT."

That night, the newscasts were replaced by reruns of Three's Company

Three's Company

Three's Company is an American sitcom that aired from March 15, 1977, to September 18, 1984, on ABC. It is based on the British sitcom, Man About the House....

. As threatened, WNHT went off the air at midnight, even though Pat Sajak

Pat Sajak

Pat Sajak is a television personality, former weatherman, actor and talk show host, best known as the host of the American television game show Wheel of Fortune.-Early life:...

's talk show

The Pat Sajak Show

The Pat Sajak Show is an American late-night television talk show which aired on CBS from January 9, 1989 to April 13, 1990.-Cast:The show was hosted by Pat Sajak, best known as host of the game show Wheel of Fortune...

 was still on the air at that moment.

According to some sources, had WNHT signed a local marketing agreement

Local marketing agreement

In U.S. and Canadian broadcasting, a local marketing agreement is an agreement in which one company agrees to operate a radio or television station owned by another licensee...

 with another one of the more powerful stations, or even with WMUR, channel 21 might still be on the air today. However, the LMA concept was unknown at the time.(http://lists.bostonradio.org/bri/v02/msg00497.html, (http://lists.bostonradio.org/bri/v02/msg00507.html).

After a sale attempt to "Rogue Television Corporation" (a joint venture of Boston Phoenix owner and publisher Steve Mindich and WHRC (now WWDP

WWDP

WWDP is a television station in the United States, serving the Boston, Massachusetts market. The station broadcasts on digital VHF channel 10. It is licensed to Norwell, Massachusetts, airs home shopping programs from ShopNBC, and is owned by ValueVision Media.-19861988: WRYT:WWDP first signed on...

) part-owner Michael C. Mooney) in 1990-91 fell through (http://lists.bostonradio.org/bri/v02/msg00531.html), the WNHT license was sold to Wilson Hickham's New England Television (no relation to the David Mugar company who, ironically, owned former competitor WNEV/WHDH-TV) in 1991, and again to Boston University

Boston University

Boston University is a private research university located in Boston, Massachusetts. With more than 4,000 faculty members and more than 31,000 students, Boston University is one of the largest private universities in the United States and one of Boston's largest employers...

 in 1993, who reactivated the station as WNBU in 1995 (http://lists.bostonradio.org/bri/v02/msg00531.html). The station is now WPXG, a relay of ION Television affiliate WBPX

WBPX

WBPX-TV, digital channel 32, is the Ion Television station owned by ION Media Networks , serving the Boston market. The station primarily broadcasts infomercials before 6 p.m. daily, along with a daily Catholic Mass and other religious programming, with Ion network programming beginning at 6 p.m....

, from Boston, Massachusetts. (That station is the former WABU, of which WNBU served as its southern New Hampshire satellite station.)