pennsylvania united states city harrisburg pennsylvania branding cbs 21 general cbs 21 news newscasts my tv central pa dt2 the cw central pa dt3 slogan only cbs 21 general your station for breaking news channels digital 21 uhf virtual 21 uhf affiliations .1 cbs .2 mynetworktv .3 the cw owner sinclair broadcast group whp licensee llc first air date july 4 1953 ; 63 years ago 1953 07 04 call letters meaning harrisburg pennsylvania sister station s wxbu former channel number s analog 55 uhf 1953 1961 21 uhf 1961 2009 digital 4 vhf 2003 2009 former affiliations dumont 1953 1956 transmitter power 450 kw height 369 m facility id 72313 transmitter coordinates 40 20 42.8 n 76 52 9.5 w 40.345222 n 76.869306 w 40.345222 ; 76.869306 licensing authority fcc public license information profile cdbs website local21news.com cwcentralpa.com whp tv virtual and uhf digital channel 21 is a cbs affiliated television station serving lancaster york lebanon and its city of license harrisburg pennsylvania united states . 1 2 the station is owned by the sinclair broadcast group . it s a sister station to wxbu under a local marketing agreement . the stations share studio facilities located on north 6th street in the uptown section of harrisburg with the building bisected by the city line for harrisburg and susquehanna township ; the studios of rival station whtm tv are located directly across north 6th street . whp s transmitter is located on a ridge north of linglestown road in susquehanna township it is co located with witf tv and is distinguishable as the unlit red and white tower ; witf s tower is unpainted and flashes strobes at all times . on cable television the station is available on comcast channel 2 and in high definition on digital channel 802 . despite the presence of whp tv cbs owned kyw tv in philadelphia serves as an alternate cbs affiliate for south central pennsylvania as it is carried on comcast systems in the market . contents 1 history 2 programming 3 digital television 3.1 digital channels 3.2 analog to digital conversion 4 news operation 4.1 notable current on air staff 5 out of market cable and satellite coverage 6 references 7 external links history edit the station first signed on the air on july 4 1953 . it was owned by commonwealth communications as was whp radio 580 am and 97.3 fm now wrvv . whp tv operated from studios located on locust street in harrisburg as a member of the dumont television network . the station lost dumont when that network folded in 1956 . whp tv later began to share cbs programming with wlyh tv channel 15 in lebanon and wsba tv channel 43 in york as part of the keystone network . this arrangement was necessary in the days before cable television since the harrisburg lancaster york market is very mountainous and uhf signals do not travel very far in rugged terrain . the three stations had a strong combined signal with 55 to 60 % signal overlap . citation needed station logo branded as 21 cbs until 2009 . whp tv moved from channel 55 to uhf channel 21 in 1961 . also around this time it began airing separate local programming during off network hours while wlyh and wsba tv continued to simulcast for virtually the entire broadcast day . wlyh and wsba tv ran about three quarters of the cbs schedule compared to separately programmed and owned whp . all three stations pre empted moderate amounts of cbs programming but any shows preempted by wlyh and wsba tv ran on whp while shows preempted by whp would run on wlyh and wsba tv . in 1975 the station relocated from its original studio facility on locust street to its current location on north 6th street . the susquehanna radio corporation sold wsba to mohawk broadcasting in 1983 and relaunched it as independent station wpmt now fox affiliate . whp tv and wlyh continued as the market s only cbs affiliates with approximately 75 percent signal overlap . both stations also stopped the arrangement in which one station ran whatever cbs shows the other declined to air though they continued to duplicate most network shows and continued to have separate newscasts and syndicated programs . citation needed the unusual situation of one market having two separately owned and programmed cbs affiliates that air most of the same network programming continued until the fall of 1995 when commonwealth sold channel 21 to clear channel communications which subsequently entered into a local marketing agreement with wlyh s then owner gateway communications . wlyh and whp tv merged their operations under this agreement and on december 16 1995 whp tv became the sole cbs affiliate for south central pennsylvania with wlyh converting into an exclusive upn affiliate it had carried the network as a secondary affiliation for 11 months prior starting at upn s launch . citation needed on february 22 2006 news corporation announced the launch of a new network called mynetworktv . 3 4 on july 12 whp announced that it would launch a new second digital subchannel to serve as the area s mynetworktv affiliate when that network launched on september 5 . the subchannel became available on comcast s digital tier while philadelphia s wphl tv which had been serving as the area s de facto wb affiliate remained on the basic tier after becoming a mynetworktv affiliate . wlyh meanwhile joined another new network the cw when it debuted on september 18 . on april 20 2007 clear channel entered into an agreement to sell its entire television station group to providence equity partners newport television . 5 on july 19 2012 newport television sold whp tv and five other stations to the sinclair broadcast group as part of a group deal to sell 22 of its 27 stations to sinclair nexstar broadcasting group and cox media group . the lma clarification needed with wlyh tv was included in the newport sinclair deal despite nexstar owning the license to the latter station . 6 the group deal with sinclair was completed on december 3 2012 . on july 29 2013 allbritton communications announced that it would sell its seven television stations including whtm tv to sinclair . 7 as part of the deal sinclair was planning to sell the license assets of whp tv to deerfield media but would continue to operate the station through shared services and joint sales agreements . 8 this is due to federal communications commission duopoly regulations that not only disallow common ownership of two of the four highest rated stations in a single market but also require a market to be left with eight unique owners after a duopoly is formed . in this case the harrisburg lancaster york market despite being the 43rd largest market at the time the purchase was announced has only six full power stations which are too few to permit a legal duopoly . in addition whtm and whp are respectively the second and third highest rated stations in the market . on december 6 2013 the federal communications commission fcc informed sinclair that applications related to the deal need to be amended or withdrawn as the time brokerage agreement between whp tv and wlyh tv would remain with sinclair ; this would in effect create a new time brokerage agreement between whtm and wlyh even though the fcc had ruled in 1999 that such agreements made after november 5 1996 covering more than 15 % of the broadcast day would count toward the ownership limits for the brokering station s owner . 9 on march 20 2014 as part of a restructuring of the sinclair allbritton deal to address the noted ownership conflicts sinclair announced that it would terminate the sale of whp tv to deerfield media and instead sell the station to another third party buyer with whom sinclair would not to enter into any operational or financial agreements and would assume the rights to the lma with wlyh . sinclair would also seek fcc consent for an asset swap with the buyer of whp in which the station and whtm would trade licenses programming including their respective network affiliations virtual channel numbers and transmitter facilities . 10 11 on may 29 2014 sinclair informed the fcc that it had not yet found a buyer for whp and that it would also consider reselling whtm to the third party buyer while keeping whp and the lma for wlyh ; 12 13 on june 23 the company announced that whtm would be sold to media general for 83.4 million . 14 programming edit syndicated programming on whp includes jeopardy wheel of fortune the ellen degeneres show dr. phil and the 700 club . digital television edit digital channels edit the station s digital channel is multiplexed channel video aspect psip short name programming 15 21.1 1080i 16 9 whp dt main whp tv programming cbs 21.2 480i whpmy mynetworktv 21.3 720p whpcw the cw analog to digital conversion edit whp tv discontinued regular programming on its analog signal over uhf channel 21 on june 12 2009 as part of the federally mandated transition from analog to digital television . 16 the station s digital signal relocated from its pre transition vhf channel 4 to uhf channel 21 for post transition operations . 17 on february 1 2016 the simulcast of the cw central pa moved to whp 21.3 . news operation edit whp presently broadcasts 22 hours of locally produced newscasts each week with four hours on weekdays and one hour each on saturdays and sundays . in addition to its main studios whp operates a bureau in york . unlike most cbs affiliates in the eastern time zone the station does not air a midday newscast on weekdays . the station is also the only station in the market that does not have a 4 30 am newscast . their morning newscast instead starts at 5 00 am . the station also provides weather forecasts for local radio stations wlan fm 96.9 wqlv 98.9 fm and wlan 1390 am . whp has traditionally struggled in the ratings and has remained in third place for many years and sometimes even slid to fourth . the staff has earned numerous awards including an emmy award in 2010 among other recognitions for its news team . wlyh s news department was shut down after being taken over by whp which began producing a primetime newscast at 10 p.m. for wlyh in september 1996 ; it was canceled in september 2003 due to low ratings . 18 whp revived that newscast in january 2009 which competes with wpmt s longer established 10 p.m. newscast . 19 news broadcasts on whp remained mainly in pillarboxed 4 3 standard definition until april 14 2012 when whp tv became the fourth and last television station in the central pennsylvania market to begin broadcasting its local newscasts in high definition and the third to broadcast both in studio segments and field reports in the format . with the conversion the station debuted a brand new state of the art hd news set new digital microwave and editing equipment and a new hd weather graphics system . 20 notable current on air staff edit robb hanrahan anchor also face the state host out of market cable and satellite coverage edit whp was carried on cable television in northern bucks county in the 1970s and 1980s . 21 references edit service area map digital signal . federal communications commission fcc . 2008 02 17 . retrieved 2008 02 17 . service area map analog signal . fcc . 2008 02 17 . retrieved 2008 02 17 . news corp. to launch new mini network for upn stations . usa today . february 22 2006 . retrieved january 21 2013 . news corp. unveils mynetworktv broadcasting & cable february 22 2006