WTVE
Encyclopedia
WTVE, Channel 25 is a Reading, Pennsylvania
television station that has been in operation since May 4, 1980http://www.wtve.com/WTVEhistory.htm Its schedule consists mostly of infomercials and paid religious programs. It also simulcasts Real Politics Live and Richard French Live which are produced by sister station WRNN
in Kingston, New York
. In addition, Temple University
's newscast Temple Update is aired on Mondays at 7:30am. The station also airs Frasier
weekdays at 5:00pm and 7:00pm and Inside Edition
at 5:30pm and 7:30pm.
The original news programs were called TV51 Total News and aired at 5:30 and 10pm weeknights. Total News was targeted primarily at viewers in Berks and Schuylkill Counties in an effort to fill a local news void for those people living on the far western edge of the Philadelphia DMA.
Original TV 51 newscasters included Bob Smith (longtime WEEU
radio newsman), Frank Mooney (longtime Reading radio and TV personality and "voice" of Boscov's
department stores), and Ross MacCallum (sports). Later Suzy Sands (local radio personality and newscaster) joined the news team to anchor the 10pm news. 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.
TV51 also aired Independent Network News
at 10:30pm. The program was produced by WPIX
in New York
and delivered via satellite to independent stations nationwide.
A local newscast was re-established in 2000, entitled Philly TV News. It was an attempt to build up the station as a player in the Philadelphia TV news arena, but the production failed to attract viewers and was cancelled.
They have aired various Pennsylvania Football matches. In 2007, they broadcast 4 Albright College Football games; in 2008 they will be an affiliate for the PA Sports Fever network.
, managed by trustee George Miller until its $13.5M takeover by WRNN-TV
Associates received FCC approval on May 15, 2008. WRNN-TV Associates subsequently sold the station to NRJ TV (a company unrelated to European broadcaster NRJ Radio
) in 2011.
, in the eastern part of the Harrisburg
market. WTVE received FCC authorisation to terminate analogue service "no earlier than September 30, 2008" after expressing severe concerns that the existing analogue klystron
tube
transmitter was expected to fail.
WTVE originally had a repeater in Philadelphia on channel 7; that station now operates independently as WWJT-LP.
As a result, WTVE depends heavily on "must-carry
" rules to reach home-market Philadelphia viewers on cable.
Digitally, WTVE is one of the first stations in the US to transmit using a distributed transmission system
, having received special temporary authority from the FCC to operate WTVE-DT via eight (mostly low-powered) transmitters scattered across its coverage area rather than relying on one large signal.
The station transmits with on-channel boosters from sites in or near:
This pattern effectively creates a tailored coverage area corresponding to one large main signal centered on Philadelphia, plus a series of boosters.
In late 2009 all were upgraded to ATSC-M/H
for mobile DTV. The station's Mobile DTV signal, which will be a simulcast of subchannel 51.1, is expected to sign on sometime in 2011.
Reading, Pennsylvania
Reading is a city in southeastern Pennsylvania, USA, and seat of Berks County. Reading is the principal city of the Greater Reading Area and had a population of 88,082 as of the 2010 census, making it the fifth most populated city in the state after Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Allentown and Erie,...
television station that has been in operation since May 4, 1980http://www.wtve.com/WTVEhistory.htm Its schedule consists mostly of infomercials and paid religious programs. It also simulcasts Real Politics Live and Richard French Live which are produced by sister station WRNN
WRNN-TV
WRNN-TV is an American independent television station licensed to Kingtson, New York.Broadcasting on digital channel 48, WRNN broadcasts a schedule of mainly infomercials and home-shopping programming. The station's studios are located in Rye Brook, New York, and its transmitter is based on Beacon...
in Kingston, New York
Kingston, New York
Kingston is a city in and the county seat of Ulster County, New York, USA. It is north of New York City and south of Albany. It became New York's first capital in 1777, and was burned by the British Oct. 16, 1777, after the Battles of Saratoga...
. In addition, Temple University
Temple University
Temple University is a comprehensive public research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. Originally founded in 1884 by Dr. Russell Conwell, Temple University is among the nation's largest providers of professional education and prepares the largest body of professional...
's newscast Temple Update is aired on Mondays at 7:30am. The station also airs Frasier
Frasier
Frasier is an American sitcom that was broadcast on NBC for eleven seasons, from September 16, 1993, to May 13, 2004. The program was created and produced by David Angell, Peter Casey, and David Lee in association with Grammnet and Paramount Network Television.A spin-off of Cheers, Frasier stars...
weekdays at 5:00pm and 7:00pm and Inside Edition
Inside Edition
Inside Edition is a thirty-minute American television syndicated news program, first aired on CBS on October 9, 1988. It was originally similar to the programs Hard Copy and A Current Affair, but now more closely resembles a condensed version of breakfast television, exclusively with pre-recorded...
at 5:30pm and 7:30pm.
Former Programming
Historically, programming formats of various types have been seen on the station, including at one point Telemundo.News
WTVE aired nightly newscasts from its on-air inception in 1980 until late 1983 when programming shifted to an over-the-air pay-per-view movie format called SelecTV.The original news programs were called TV51 Total News and aired at 5:30 and 10pm weeknights. Total News was targeted primarily at viewers in Berks and Schuylkill Counties in an effort to fill a local news void for those people living on the far western edge of the Philadelphia DMA.
Original TV 51 newscasters included Bob Smith (longtime WEEU
WEEU
WEEU is a news/talk station in Reading, Pennsylvania. The station broadcasts at 830 kHz on the AM band with 20,000 watts of power daytime and 6,000 watts of power during nighttime. The station uses five broadcast towers to create different directional signal patterns for daytime and nighttime...
radio newsman), Frank Mooney (longtime Reading radio and TV personality and "voice" of Boscov's
Boscov's
Boscov's is an American department store founded by Solomon Boscov in 1911. The first store was in Reading, Pennsylvania, and today 40 stores are spread throughout the Mid-Atlantic states of Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Maryland, New York, and Delaware....
department stores), and Ross MacCallum (sports). Later Suzy Sands (local radio personality and newscaster) joined the news team to anchor the 10pm news. 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.
TV51 also aired Independent Network News
Independent Network News (US)
The Independent Network News was a nationally-syndicated nightly news program, seen from June 1980 until June 1990. The newscast was designed to serve the same purpose as the nightly network news programs, and was produced by Tribune Company-owned station WPIX in New York...
at 10:30pm. The program was produced by WPIX
WPIX
WPIX, channel 11, is a television station in New York City built, signed on, and owned by the Tribune Company. WPIX also serves as the flagship station of The CW Television Network...
in New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
and delivered via satellite to independent stations nationwide.
A local newscast was re-established in 2000, entitled Philly TV News. It was an attempt to build up the station as a player in the Philadelphia TV news arena, but the production failed to attract viewers and was cancelled.
Sports
In the 1980s, WTVE was known for airing Berks and Schuylkill County high school football games via tape delay on Saturday evenings. Albright College basketball was also broadcast in a similar manner. (Photos in the history section of WTVE's official website feature Frank Mooney, Bob Smith, and Ross MacCallum and were taken circa fall 1980).They have aired various Pennsylvania Football matches. In 2007, they broadcast 4 Albright College Football games; in 2008 they will be an affiliate for the PA Sports Fever network.
Bankruptcy and sale
WTVE had been in Chapter 11 bankruptcyBankruptcy
Bankruptcy is a legal status of an insolvent person or an organisation, that is, one that cannot repay the debts owed to creditors. In most jurisdictions bankruptcy is imposed by a court order, often initiated by the debtor....
, managed by trustee George Miller until its $13.5M takeover by WRNN-TV
WRNN-TV
WRNN-TV is an American independent television station licensed to Kingtson, New York.Broadcasting on digital channel 48, WRNN broadcasts a schedule of mainly infomercials and home-shopping programming. The station's studios are located in Rye Brook, New York, and its transmitter is based on Beacon...
Associates received FCC approval on May 15, 2008. WRNN-TV Associates subsequently sold the station to NRJ TV (a company unrelated to European broadcaster NRJ Radio
NRJ Radio
NRJ French multimedia group based in Paris. Since its foundation in 1981 as a French pop music radio station it has grown and evolved to become the NRJ Group...
) in 2011.
Digital operation
WTVE's studio and primary analogue transmitter are located in Reading; this analogue signal barely reaches Philadelphia's suburbs and LebanonLebanon, Pennsylvania
Lebanon, formerly known as Steitztown, is a city in and the county seat of Lebanon County, Pennsylvania, United States. The population was 25,477 at the 2010 census, a 4.2% increase from the 2000 count of 24,461...
, in the eastern part of the Harrisburg
Harrisburg, Pennsylvania
Harrisburg is the capital of Pennsylvania. As of the 2010 census, the city had a population of 49,528, making it the ninth largest city in Pennsylvania...
market. WTVE received FCC authorisation to terminate analogue service "no earlier than September 30, 2008" after expressing severe concerns that the existing analogue klystron
Klystron
A klystron is a specialized linear-beam vacuum tube . Klystrons are used as amplifiers at microwave and radio frequencies to produce both low-power reference signals for superheterodyne radar receivers and to produce high-power carrier waves for communications and the driving force for modern...
tube
Vacuum tube
In electronics, a vacuum tube, electron tube , or thermionic valve , reduced to simply "tube" or "valve" in everyday parlance, is a device that relies on the flow of electric current through a vacuum...
transmitter was expected to fail.
WTVE originally had a repeater in Philadelphia on channel 7; that station now operates independently as WWJT-LP.
As a result, WTVE depends heavily on "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 :...
" rules to reach home-market Philadelphia viewers on cable.
Digitally, WTVE is one of the first stations in the US to transmit using a distributed transmission system
Distributed transmission system
In North American digital terrestrial television broadcasting, a distributed transmission system is a form of single-frequency network in which a single broadcast signal is fed via microwave, landline, or communications satellite to multiple synchronised terrestrial radio transmitter sites...
, having received special temporary authority from the FCC to operate WTVE-DT via eight (mostly low-powered) transmitters scattered across its coverage area rather than relying on one large signal.
The station transmits with on-channel boosters from sites in or near:
- WTVE-DTS1 Reading, PennsylvaniaReading, PennsylvaniaReading is a city in southeastern Pennsylvania, USA, and seat of Berks County. Reading is the principal city of the Greater Reading Area and had a population of 88,082 as of the 2010 census, making it the fifth most populated city in the state after Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Allentown and Erie,...
(225m 0.76 kW DA) - WTVE-DTS2 Bethlehem, PennsylvaniaBethlehem, PennsylvaniaBethlehem is a city in Lehigh and Northampton Counties in the Lehigh Valley region of eastern Pennsylvania, in the United States. As of the 2010 census, the city had a total population of 74,982, making it the seventh largest city in Pennsylvania, after Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Allentown, Erie,...
(155m 2.8 kW DA) - WTVE-DTS3 North East, MarylandNorth East, MarylandNorth East is a town in Cecil County, Maryland, United States. The population was 2,733 at the 2000 census.-History:The Turkey Point Light Station was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2002...
(87m 0.11 kW DA) - WTVE-DTS4 Quarryville, PennsylvaniaQuarryville, PennsylvaniaQuarryville is a borough in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, United States. The population was 1,994 at the 2000 census.-General information:*ZIP code: 17566*Area code: 717*Local phone exchanges: 786, 806*Named for noted quarries in the area...
(193m 1.0 kW DA) - WTVE-DTS5 Myerstown, PennsylvaniaMyerstown, PennsylvaniaMyerstown is a borough located in Lebanon County, Pennsylvania. It is part of the Lebanon, PA Metropolitan Statistical Area. As of the 2000 census, the borough had a total population of 3,171...
(63m 1.15 kW DA) - WTVE-DTS6 Lambertville, New JerseyLambertville, New JerseyLambertville is a city in Hunterdon County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, the city population was 3,906.Lambertville was originally incorporated as a town by an Act of the New Jersey Legislature on March 1, 1849, from portions of West Amwell Township...
(95m 0.6 kW DA) - WTVE-DTS7 Philadelphia (378m 126 kW DA)
- WTVE-DTS8 Brockton, Pennsylvania (138m 4.25 kW DA)
This pattern effectively creates a tailored coverage area corresponding to one large main signal centered on Philadelphia, plus a series of boosters.
In late 2009 all were upgraded to ATSC-M/H
ATSC-M/H
ATSC-M/H is a standard in the USA for mobile digital TV, that allows TV broadcasts to be received by mobile devices.....
for mobile DTV. The station's Mobile DTV signal, which will be a simulcast of subchannel 51.1, is expected to sign on sometime in 2011.