tv or weta tv . wtae tv pittsburgh pennsylvania united states branding wtae 4 general channel 4 general ; secondary pittsburgh s action news 4 newscasts channels digital 51 uhf virtual 4 psip subchannels 4.1 abc 4.2 this tv translators 22 uhf 4.3 pittsburgh s oakland neighborhood affiliations abc owner hearst television wtae hearst television inc. founded july 1957 first air date september 14 1958 1958 09 14 call letters meaning television sister to the former wcae now wpgp former channel number s analog 4 vhf 1958 2009 transmitter power 1000 kw height 273 m 896 ft facility id 65681 transmitter coordinates 40 16 49 n 79 48 11 w 40.28028 n 79.80306 w 40.28028 ; 79.80306 licensing authority fcc public license information profile cdbs website www.wtae.com wtae tv channel 4 is an abc affiliated television station located in pittsburgh pennsylvania united states . the station is owned by the hearst television division of the hearst corporation and has been owned by hearst since the station s inception . the station s studios are located on ardmore boulevard pa 8 in the suburb of wilkinsburg though with a pittsburgh mailing address and its transmitter is located in buena vista pennsylvania . on cable wtae is carried on comcast channels 8 channel 6 in bethel park channel 5 in monroeville and channel 3 in greensburg standard definition and 804 high definition and verizon fios channels 4 standard definition and 504 high definition . contents 1 history 2 digital television 2.1 digital channels 2.2 analog to digital conversion 2.3 wtae tv newscasts on newson app 3 programming 3.1 local programming 3.2 syndicated first run programming 3.3 lifestyle and entertainment digital channel 3.4 past programming 4 news operation 4.1 new studio set for newscasts 4.2 pittsburgh s action news 4 at 7 on thistv pittsburgh 4.3 chronicle 4.4 ratings 4.5 awards and honors 4.6 new sky 4 4.7 former on air staff 5 references 6 external links history edit this section needs additional citations for verification . please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources . unsourced material may be challenged and removed . march 2014 learn how and when to remove this template message an early wtae tv station identification . wtae tv s distinct present logo has been in use since 1973 . wtae tv began broadcasting on september 14 1958 ; the station has been pittsburgh s abc affiliate since its sign on . from the beginning the hearst corporation has been involved in the station s ownership . how the station came to be was the result of a long and complicated drama surrounding the awarding of the station s construction permit and ultimate broadcast license . although it was the sixth largest market in the country for most of the early television era pittsburgh had only one major commercial television station for close to a decade dumont owned wdtv channel 2 now kdka tv which signed on in 1949 and carried programs from all four television networks dumont abc . nbc and cbs . further development of stations in pittsburgh was halted by the federal communications commission fcc s freeze on license awards which ran from 1948 until 1952 . even after the freeze was lifted by the fcc s sixth report and order the fcc held off on allocating new vhf stations to pittsburgh in order to give the smaller cities in the upper ohio valley a chance to get on the air . the cities in the upper ohio valley are close enough together that they must share the vhf band . several months after the freeze was lifted two uhf stations in pittsburgh wens tv channel 16 now winp tv and wkjf tv channel 53 now wpgh tv went on the air . for reasons that were both technical and financial both stations were short lived . meanwhile revisions to the vhf allocation table had given the pittsburgh area three additional channels 4 11 and 13 the latter reserved for non commercial educational purposes . the channel 4 frequency on which wtae tv began operations during the analog television era was originally allocated to suburban mckeesport in allegheny county ; other official documents have listed the community of license as irwin in westmoreland county . hearings on the channel 4 permit opened in 1955 and it was originally granted by the fcc to the owners of kqv radio in 1956 . hearst which entered pittsburgh broadcasting when it purchased wcae radio 1250 am later wtae am and now wpgp in 1931 and the other three applicants that lost later petitioned the fcc to re open the permit hearings following the death of kqv co owner irwin d. wolf . the subsequent reconsideration awarded channel 4 to hearst . the agency s commissioners were divided on how to break the stalemate to the satisfaction of both winning parties and suggested a merger between hearst and the kqv group who sold their radio station to abc in order to appease fcc cross ownership restrictions . 1 together both firms became equal partners in television city inc. under which ownership wtae tv went on the air . 2 hearst would purchase the remaining 50 percent of the station in 1962 . 3 4 5 as such wtae tv is the only pittsburgh television station affiliated with a major network to have not changed ownership . shortly before the station signed on the fcc moved the channel 4 assignment to pittsburgh proper following several years of petitioning by then pittsburgh mayor and future governor of pennsylvania david l. lawrence . however the fcc had recently changed its rules so that channel 4 could have based its main studio in pittsburgh even if it had been licensed in mckeesport or irwin . 6 the station s original ownership group s connections with powerful u.s. senator from florida george smathers led to televised u.s. house hearings with both lawrence and smathers testifying in 1958 . both were eventually exonerated with governor lawrence claiming that in fact it was the city s solicitors office whose director he appointed which may have been guilty of any improper influence with smathers and lawrence merely fulfilling their duty to their respective constituents . 7 wtae tv was thus short spaced to other channel 4 stations in columbus ohio ; oak hill west virginia ; buffalo new york ; and washington d.c. ; the transmitter was located southeast of the city as a result of the move . shortly after signing on wtae tv was briefly affiliated with the nta film network sharing the affiliation with kdka tv wiic tv now wpxi and wqed . 8 in the early years channel 4 was best known in the market for its locally originated entertainment programming including popular early program late night movie show shock theatre which was hosted by former pittsburgh radio disc jockey bob drews who portrayed sir rodger often misspelled as sir roger . shock theatre featured monster movies such as the invisible man and frankenstein in between live action comedic skits . by the 1970s wtae tv was running a mix of cartoons and sitcoms from 6 30 to 9 a.m. a local talk show some abc shows more cartoons and off network sitcoms in the afternoon news and some first run shows in the evening and abc prime time programming . on april 24 1980 wtae tv personality nick perry who hosted bowling for dollars and also called the lottery drawings for the pennsylvania lottery fixed the lottery s daily numbers drawing so that the it would come up as 6 6 6 . perry served jail time and the drawings were moved to whp tv in harrisburg a year later . this resulted in lotteries now being audited and monitored with witnesses from the government and or accounting firms and also inspired the movie lucky numbers . kdka tv aired the lottery drawings in the pittsburgh market after this incident until 2009 when they moved back to wtae tv . wtae tv and the salvation army collecting funds for project bundle up at the 2011 head of the ohio regatta . in 1986 wtae tv partnered with the salvation army and started project bundle up an operation to make sure that children and seniors receive warm clothing . wtae tv has run the project bundle up auction which is an auction where local businesses donate products to be auctioned off and the project bundle up telethon a traditional telethon where viewers call in to donate money businesses donate money and all of the proceeds from the auction and telethon benefit the salvation army . in 2007 wtae tv moved the auction to the internet . although it was the only abc affiliate in the region when it signed on at the time wtae tv also pre empted and or delayed a handful of abc programs most notably some of its daytime lineup from the 1960s to the late 1990s . wtae tv did not begin running good morning america until december 1978 and only aired an hour of the program until 1980 . one life to live did not run on wtae tv from its 1968 debut up until 1978 when the serial expanded to an hour long format . from 1969 to 1971 and again from 1974 to 1979 abc shows that were not broadcast on channel 4 ended up airing instead on wpgh tv . after 1980 some of these shows ran on wptt channel 22 now wpnt . wtae tv also preempted the sunday morning abc children s programming block the entire time abc offered it as well as a couple of hours of abc s saturday morning cartoons until 1979 . wtae tv ran syndicated cartoons in place of the network supplied children s programs while the pre empted saturday morning network programs including american bandstand aired on wpgh during that time . by the 1980s wtae tv was running many of the top rated off network syndicated sitcoms from 4 to 6 p.m. by 1990 wtae tv was beginning to focus more on news and in 1992 dropped the entire abc saturday morning cartoon lineup for a 4 hour newscast which wpxi was also doing beginning in 1990 . wtae tv also expanded its midday newscast to an hour and dropped the home show during 1991 . loving was dropped from the daytime lineup in january 1991 and moved to overnights then dropped from the schedule altogether in 1992 . later in the decade wtae tv also did not carry mike and maty or the city . wtae tv began carrying port charles in january 1998 but dropped the show entirely in september 2000 three years shy of its cancellation by abc and replaced it with judge hatchett which itself was replaced by access hollywood in 2004 . beginning in 1996 wtae tv began running two hours of the abc saturday cartoon lineup on sunday mornings a half hour on saturday mornings and a half hour at 12 30 p.m. in 1997 the station cut back its saturday morning newscast to three hours at 7 to 10 a.m. and began running three hours of the abc children s lineup from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. today though it still offers a news intensive schedule wtae tv clears the entire abc lineup . at various times wtae tv has also served as the default abc affiliate for the neighboring johnstown altoona wheeling steubenville and clarksburg weston television markets all of which could receive wtae tv as a grade b signal . with wtae tv having long been one of abc s strongest affiliates both parties reportedly resisted efforts by other television stations in those cities to obtain a full time abc affiliation . since then one station was eventually granted affiliation in altoona watm tv while wboy tv in clarksburg and wtrf tv in wheeling began carrying abc programs through digital subchannel affiliations in august