dubois bedford pennsylvania united states city johnstown branding wjac tv 6 general 6 nbc secondary 6 news newscasts slogan coverage you can count on channels digital 34 uhf virtual 6 psip subchannels 6.1 nbc 6.2 metv 6.3 comet tv 6.4 grit tv translators see left affiliations nbc owner sinclair broadcast group wjac licensee llc first air date september 15 1949 ; 67 years ago 1949 09 15 call letters meaning johnstown automotive company original owner sister station s wpgh tv wpnt former channel number s analog 13 1949 1952 6 1952 2009 former affiliations all secondary cbs 1949 1953 dumont 1949 1955 abc 1949 1974 1982 1988 transmitter power 1 000 kw height 388 m facility id 73120 transmitter coordinates 40 22 16.9 n 78 58 55.1 w 40.371361 n 78.981972 w 40.371361 ; 78.981972 licensing authority fcc public license information profile cdbs website wjactv.com wjac tv is the nbc affiliated television station in west central pennsylvania with the station licensed to johnstown . it broadcasts a high definition digital signal on uhf channel 34 from a transmitter northwest of the city in laurel ridge state park along the cambria and westmoreland county line . owned by sinclair broadcast group the station has studios on old hickory lane in johnstown . contents 1 history 2 digital television 2.1 digital channels 2.2 analog to digital conversion 3 digital repeaters 4 news operation 4.1 notable current on air staff 4.2 notable former staff 5 references 6 external links history edit wjac tv first began its broadcasting operations on 15 september 1949 1 originally owned by the johnstown automotive company along with wjac radio am 1400 now wkge at am 850 and fm 95.5 now wkye at fm 96.5 . at the time it was the third smallest television station in the country market wise to be granted a commercial license on or before december 31 behind cbs affiliate wbng tv in binghamton new york and fellow nbc affiliate wicu tv in erie . it originally aired an analog signal on vhf channel 13 before moving to vhf channel 6 in 1952 . upon its sign on it aired programming from all four networks of the time nbc cbs abc and dumont . cbs disappeared from wjac tv s schedule when ward tv channel 56 now pittsburgh s cw affiliate wpcw on channel 19 signed on in 1953 followed by dumont when it shut down network operations in 1955 . however the station continued to air a few abc shows until 1988 . 2 main station logo from 2001 until 2011 and crafted to match then sister station wpxi . in the 1960s johnstown automotive sold the wjac stations to the estate of anderson h. walters the owner of the tribune democrat who held them until 1984 when tightened federal communications commission fcc cross ownership regulations forced the newspaper to sell off the radio stations . the walters estate sold off the newspaper to medianews group in 1987 but held on to channel 6 until 1997 when it was sold to sunrise television . wjac and new sister station wtov tv in the steubenville ohio wheeling west virginia market were sold to cox enterprises in 2000 . the two stations and wpxi in pittsburgh are now occasionally marketed together as a result . wjac tv and wtov were updated to wpxi s on air graphics after being acquired by cox despite wpxi changing its own look in 2004 . most of the graphics introduced to wjac tv after the acquisition were used until october 2011 when wjac tv updated to wpxi s current look . wjac tv gained a reputation for its locally produced programs at the station throughout the years . scholastic quiz a game show featuring local high school students and seniors today a public affairs program targeted to those 65 and older would become mainstays of the station s programming and make host ron lorence who would later build wadj am now wbhv at 1330 am and then buy wysn fm 101.7 now wccl in somerset county a local household name . the station was also one of the stations across the country to produce a local version of the children s tv show romper room . in the 1950s and 1960s wjac tv s slogan was serving millions from atop the alleghenies . on september 15 2009 wjac tv celebrated its 60th year of broadcasting . 3 during that month wjac tv aired several commercials advertising the anniversary . one featured a variation of the serving millions from atop the alleghenies slogan creating serving millions across the alleghenies . this old slogan was used in various ways in the station s broadcasts and mixed with the station s then current slogan coverage you can count on to form coverage you can count on across the alleghenies the year before . on july 20 2012 one day after cox purchased four television stations in jacksonville florida and tulsa oklahoma from newport television cox put wjac tv wtov tv and sister stations in el paso texas and reno nevada plus several radio stations in medium to small markets on the selling block . all four of the television stations on the block are located in markets that are smaller than tulsa . 4 on february 25 2013 cox announced that it would sell the four stations to sinclair broadcast group . 5 the fcc granted its approval of the sale on april 29 6 and it was consummated on may 2 . 7 this made wjac tv a sister station to nearby wpgh tv and wpmy in pittsburgh though it is still connected to wpxi tv through a news share agreement . on july 22 2013 horseshoe curve communications agreed to sell fox affiliate wwcp tv channel 8 to cunningham broadcasting for 12 million . the sinclair broadcast group was to operate the station through shared services and joint sales agreements . 8 however the majority of cunningham s stock is held by the smith family owners and founders of sinclair . as a result sinclair would have effectively owned wwcp as well . as wwcp s long standing local marketing agreement to operate abc affiliate watm tv channel 23 was part of the deal it would have resulted in the major commercial television stations in the market being controlled by just two companies . it would have essentially made wjac tv wwcp and watm all sister stations and expanded on their existing news share arrangement see below . however on february 20 2014 horseshoe curve informed the fcc that the sale of wwcp had fallen through . 9 wjac tv is carried on various cable systems in several counties that are located outside of the johnstown altoona market . these counties include armstrong butler clarion indiana and westmoreland . 10 11 during the 1990s wjac was available on cable in portions of warren county despite that county being a part of the erie market . in west virginia it is carried in petersburg 93 miles away dorcas moorefield and keyser . wjac tv is also broadcast over the air on a low powered repeater w29dh d in moorefield west virginia . 12 this repeater is owned by valley tv cooperative . digital television edit digital channels edit the station s digital signal is multiplexed channel video aspect psip short name programming 13 6.1 1080i 16 9 wjac hd main wjac tv programming nbc 6.2 480i 4 3 metv6 metv 6.3 comet comet tv 6.4 grit grit tv recently moved from 6.3 the retro television network began airing on wjac tv s second digital subchannel in the late december 2008 . 14 along with then sister station wpxi wjac tv 6.2 transitioned to metv at midnight on june 13 2011 immediately following an episode of ellery queen at which point the channel was switched to the metv feed for the start of hogan s heroes . sister station wtov continues to air rtv until january 16 2012 . 15 before its closure in december 2008 wjac tv carried nbc weather plus on the second digital subchannel . the regular changes in wjac s subchannel over its first few years reflect the decisions made internally about how to best make use of the new programming options afforded by digital ota broadcast . 16 analog to digital conversion edit wjac tv shut down its analog signal over vhf channel 6 on june 12 2009 the official date in which full power television stations in the united states transitioned from analog to digital broadcasts under federal mandate . the station s digital signal remained on its pre transition uhf channel 34 . 17 18 19 20 through the use of psip digital television receivers display the station s virtual channel as its former vhf analog channel 6 . the nearby mountain ridges had prevented most altoona and all of state college from receiving the analog signal ; conversely many of pittsburgh s outer ring eastern and westmoreland county suburbs actually got a grade b signal from wjac which in some cases was superior to that of pittsburgh nbc affiliate wpxi tv . because the audio portion of vhf channel 6 was transmitted at 87.75 mhz it was possible to listen to the television station on most fm car radios or any standard fm radio for that matter . this was a feature frequently employed by area residents . however this is no longer an option after the digital conversion . digital repeaters edit callsign channel city of license note transmitter location wjac tv 22 altoona licensed wopsononock 26 dubois licensed southeast of luthersburg 29 bedford licensed west of borough w42dg d 42 state college licensed southwest of pine grove mills news operation edit in the late 1960s and 1970s wjac had a fifteen minute news and weather show weekday afternoons at 1 known as the news today . its 6 o clock newscast was known as the news tonight and the 11 p.m. broadcast was entitled 11th hour news . the weather segment aired first and was titled weather in motion with its own sounder and graphics . the sports had a separate theme and was called sports wrap up . their weekday morning newscast began as a half hour broadcast at 6 30 in 1985 . in 1987 tci cable now comcast in centre county began producing a wjac newscast known as the centre county report specifically targeted to that area . on january 14 2008 wjac entered into a news share agreement with wwcp and watm . this station then began to produce wwcp s nightly prime time show and reduced the program to 35 minutes on weeknights while remaining a half hour on weekends . the newscast still known as fox 8 news at 10 now originates from a secondary set at wjac s facility on old hickory lane in upper yoder township with a johnstown postal address . it features a separate news anchor on weeknights who does not appear on wjac in addition to a different music and graphics package from broadcasts seen on the nbc outlet . since wjac has prior commitments with local news and weather cut ins during today watm offers taped news updates that are seen tuesday through saturday mornings at 25 and 55 past the hour during good morning america . from january 2008 until march 2011 wjac simulcasted its nightly newscast at 11 on watm under the abc 23 news branding . it officially changed the station s news branding from wjac tv news to 6 news on october 25 2011 . this change comes only three years after the switch from channel 6 news . in addition to the new branding wjac updated their on air graphics and theme music to those of its former sister station wpxi in pittsburgh . then in july 2012 this outlet became the first station in the market to broadcast local news in full high definition