verification . please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources . unsourced material may be challenged and removed . january 2013 learn how and when to remove this template message wphl tv philadelphia pennsylvania united states branding phl17 general action news during wpvi produced newscast channels digital 17 uhf virtual 17 psip affiliations .1 mynetworktv .2 antenna tv .3 this tv .4 comet owner tribune broadcasting 1 wphl llc 2 3 first air date june 17 1960 ; 56 years ago 1960 06 17 call letters meaning philadelphia phl is also iata code for philadelphia international airport sister station s wpvi tv news only former callsigns wpca tv 1960 1962 former channel number s analog 17 uhf 1960 2009 digital 54 uhf 1996 2009 former affiliations independent 1960 1962 1965 1995 dark 1962 1965 the wb 1995 2006 transmitter power 645 kw height 324 m facility id 73879 transmitter coordinates 40 2 30 n 75 14 23 w 40.04167 n 75.23972 w 40.04167 ; 75.23972 licensing authority fcc public license information profile cdbs website phl17.com wphl tv channel 17 is a mynetworktv affiliated television station located in philadelphia pennsylvania united states . the station is owned by the tribune broadcasting subsidiary of the tribune media company and maintains studios in the wynnefield section of west philadelphia ; its transmitter is located on the roxborough tower farm . contents 1 history 1.1 switch to mynetworktv 2 digital television 2.1 digital channels 2.2 analog to digital conversion 3 local programming 3.1 sports programming 4 newscasts 4.1 notable current on air staff 4.2 notable former on air staff 5 out of market coverage 6 see also 7 references 8 external links history edit channel 17 first signed on the air on june 17 1960 as wpca tv the call letters standing for people s church of the air . founded by percy crawford it originally maintained a religious programming format . wpca was philadelphia s first commercial uhf station ; however the station suffered due to the fact that uhf tuners were not required to be incorporated onto most television sets at the time the federal communications commission would not make uhf tuning capability a requirement until 1964 with the passage of the all channel act wpca shut down in 1962 after only being on the air for two years . subsequently a group of local investors bought the dormant channel 17 license and returned it to the air on september 17 1965 as independent station wphl tv . it was the third uhf independent to sign on in philadelphia that year two and a half weeks after wkbs tv channel 48 and four months after wibf tv channel 29 later wtaf and now wtxf tv . during its early years wphl went through a string of owners most notably as an owned and operated station of the short lived united network . in the summer of 1975 wphl tv moved from its original studio facility on east mermaid lane in the suburb of wyndmoor to its current studio on wynnefield avenue in the wynnefield suburb of west philadelphia . the building had once been the location of an a & p supermarket . the station offered a schedule of off network drama series sitcoms old movies sports and religious programs . it also ran nbc and abc programs that kyw tv channel 3 now a cbs owned and operated station and wpvi tv channel 6 had respectively pre empted until the fall of 1976 and again from the fall of 1977 to the summer of 1983 . the providence journal company bought channel 17 in 1979 . at that point wphl sought a different programming strategy geared towards adults gradually dropping children s programming and cartoons . it focused more on movies off network drama series recent off network sitcoms and sports . the station also aired several hours of religious programming each day . throughout the late 1970s and 1980s wphl was known on air as the great entertainer with voiceovers provided by announcer sid doherty . the station positioned itself as an alternative to both wtaf and wkbs as it programmed more towards adults with movies and other syndicated programs while its competitors were heavy on sitcoms and children s cartoons . wphl was also a station heavy on local sports as it aired games featuring major league baseball s philadelphia phillies until 1982 the nba s philadelphia 76ers from 1982 to 1995 and the nhl s philadelphia flyers in the 1990s . from october 1981 to august 1987 the wphl studios hosted a weekday afternoon dance show called dancin on air hosted by eddie bruce as well as a spin off on the usa network called dance party usa whose host dave raymond was better known as the phillie phanatic mascot seen during phillies games . those shows marked the on air debut of a young girl from nearby voorhees new jersey named kelly ripa . in the summer of 1982 wkbs went on the market after its owner field communications decided to exit broadcasting . the providence journal company was among those who were bidding for channel 48 s license . had it won then providence journal would have merged wphl s and wkbs s schedules under the wkbs license and channel allocation while selling the channel 17 license to either a religious or educational broadcaster . however the journal company s bid was still far below field s asking price . with no takers willing to give field what it wanted for the station wkbs tv ceased operations one year later on august 29 1983 and wphl picked up various syndicated programs cartoons movies and production equipment from wkbs . in 1987 the providence journal company sold wphl tv to a consortium headed by dudley s. taft jr. the former president of the cincinnati based taft television and radio company the longtime owners of rival wtaf tv . dudley taft had left his family s namesake company following a corporate restructuring which resulted in the firm changing its name to great american broadcasting . he also brought along key personnel from wtaf which taft had sold to tvx broadcast group in early 1987 including general manager randy smith . the new ownership scrapped the great entertainer slogan and related logo for a new identity as phl 17 in an apparent attempt to counter wgbs tv s channel 57 now wpsg philly 57 branding . the new owners restored some cartoons to the schedule . in 1991 the taft group sold channel 17 to the tribune company . on november 2 1993 tribune and the warner bros. television division of time warner announced the formation of the wb television network . due to the company s minority interest in the network initially 12.5 % before expanding to 22 % tribune chose to affiliate the majority of its independent stations with the upstart network resulting in wphl tv becoming a network affiliate for the first time in its history upon the wb s january 11 1995 debut . 4 5 in september of that year the station changed its on air identity to wb 17 . for most of the wb s run wphl was one of the wb s strongest affiliates . switch to mynetworktv edit on january 24 2006 cbs corporation which split from viacom in december 2005 and time warner s warner bros. entertainment the division that operated the wb announced that they would dissolve upn and the wb and merge both networks stronger programming onto a newly created network the cw . concurrent with the announcement it signed a ten year affiliation agreement with 16 of tribune s 19 wb affiliated stations . 6 7 however in the case of philadelphia the cw s affiliation went to the city s upn station cbs owned wpsg which was part of an affiliation deal with 11 of cbs upn stations . it would not have been an upset had wphl been chosen as the area s cw affiliate however . the network s officials were on record as preferring the wb and upn s strongest stations for their new network and philadelphia was one of the few markets where the affiliates of both networks were both relatively strong . wphl was slated to revert to its previous independent status but on may 15 2006 tribune announced that it would affiliate channel 17 and two other wb affiliates that were not included in the cw affiliation deal with mynetworktv making wphl the largest station in terms of market size affiliated with the network that was not owned by its then parent company news corporation which became 21st century fox in june 2013 after spinning off most of its non entertainment properties . it is also the only major station in philadelphia that is not owned by its respective network . in july wphl rebranded itself as myphl17 reviving the station s former phl 17 moniker . wphl began airing mynetworktv programming on the day that the new service was launched september 5 2006 . as a result it did not air the final two weeks of the wb s programming . on october 4 2010 the station removed the my portion of the branding as many affiliates of the network began dropping references to mynetworktv due to it becoming more of a primetime programming service than a true television network . wphl retains the multi shaded blue tv component of the network s logo as part of the station s own logo . before the move of the broadcast rights of the phillies in 2014 to wcau tv another version of the logo was used where the p in phl was replaced with the hat insignia p from the logo of the philadelphia phillies . in addition the antenna tv subchannel the station carries is branded with a modified version of their 1970s 80s great entertainer logo ; many other antenna tv stations do this as well . digital television edit digital channels edit the station s digital channel is multiplexed channel video aspect psip short name programming 8 17.1 720p 4 3 wphl dt main wphl tv programming mynetworktv 17.2 480i 4 3 antenna antenna tv 17.3 this tv this tv 17.4 wphl 4 comet analog to digital conversion edit phl17 shut down its analog signal over uhf channel 17 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 moved from its pre transition uhf channel 54 which was among the high band uhf channels 52 69 that were removed from broadcasting use as a result of the transition to its analog era uhf channel 17 for post transition operations . 9 local programming edit sports programming edit throughout the station s three of its first four decades on the air wphl had a tremendous professional sports presence at various points holding the broadcast rights to the phillies 1971 82 and 1993 98 and through the production of comcast sportsnet philadelphia from 2009 13 ; as of 2014 update wphl airs overflow phillies games when both csn philadelphia and primary overflow outlet comcast network are carrying other games and present over the air carrier wcau is preoccupied by nbc network commitments the flyers 1991 98 and the 76ers 1982 95 as well as covering local college basketball and football with games featuring teams from the philadelphia big 5 la salle explorers penn quakers saint joseph s hawks villanova wildcats and temple owls . after the station joined the wb it released many of its sports contracts in order to concentrate on its network programming obligations . the station aired syndicated college football and basketball games from the syndication arm of espn involving the mid american conference football owing to temple being a football only member of the league and big east