verification . please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources . unsourced material may be challenged and removed . april 2013 learn how and when to remove this template message wpgh tv pittsburgh pennsylvania united states branding fox 53 general channel 11 news wpxi produced newscasts slogan everyone s a winner channels digital 43 uhf virtual 53 psip subchannels 53.1 fox 53.2 antenna tv 53.3 grit affiliations fox 1986 present owner sinclair broadcast group wpgh licensee llc first air date july 14 1953 original incarnation february 1969 second incarnation january 14 1974 current incarnation call letters meaning pittsburgh sister station s wpnt wpxi through a news share agreement former callsigns wkjf tv 1953 1954 former channel number s analog 53 uhf 1953 2009 former affiliations nbc 1953 1954 independent 1969 1971 1974 1986 silent 1954 1969 1971 1974 secondary cbs 1974 1986 abc 1974 1986 nbc 1974 1986 transmitter power 1 000 kw height 302.8 m facility id 73875 transmitter coordinates 40 29 42.5 n 80 0 16.2 w 40.495139 n 80.004500 w 40.495139 ; 80.004500 licensing authority fcc public license information profile cdbs website wpgh53.com wpgh tv virtual channel 53 uhf digital channel 43 is a fox affiliated television station located in pittsburgh pennsylvania united states . the station is owned by the sinclair broadcast group as part of a duopoly with mynetworktv affiliate wpnt channel 22 . the two stations share studios located on ivory avenue in the city s summer hill section where wpgh tv s transmitter is also located . on cable wpgh is carried on comcast channels 7 channel 8 in bethel park standard definition and 803 high definition and on verizon fios channels 7 standard definition and 507 high definition . contents 1 history 1.1 early history of channel 53 1.2 as an independent station 1.3 fox affiliation 2 digital television 2.1 digital channels 2.2 analog to digital conversion 3 programming 4 news operation 4.1 notable current on air staff 5 references 6 external links history edit early history of channel 53 edit the station originally signed on the air on july 14 1953 as wkjf tv it was pittsburgh s first nbc affiliate before later becoming an independent station more than a decade and a half later . despite being a network affiliate the station was plagued by financial woes from the start . additionally southwestern pennsylvania is a very rugged dissected plateau and uhf stations typically do not get good reception in rugged terrain . at the time uhf stations could only be seen with a converter television sets were not required to have uhf tuners until 1964 following the passage of the all channel receiver act and even then the picture quality was spotty at best . wkjf tv was certainly no exception to this especially with pittsburgh s eastern suburbs receiving better reception from johnstown s nbc affiliate wjac tv a vhf station which had been on the air for about four years by this time . as a result the station never thrived against the more established vhf station wdtv channel 2 now kdka tv . it finally went off the air in august 1954 . wkjf tv and its then sister radio station wkjf fm were located on grandview avenue in pittsburgh s mount washington section at that point in time . the radio station today is called kdka fm . channel 53 remained silent for 15 years as the fcc was not willing to delete uhf licenses at the time . it returned to the air under new owners u.s. communications in february 1969 as wpgh tv . the station signed on as an independent as wiic had signed on three years after wkjf tv had shut down with wiic taking wkjf tv s nbc affiliation . the new wpgh tv signed on from its new studio location at 750 ivory avenue just north of the city of pittsburgh . coincidentally this location had been the home of another pittsburgh station wens tv which went off the air in 1957 . wpgh tv still broadcasts from this location today . despite a well programmed lineup financial problems continued to plague the station again largely arising from u.s. communications president donald overmyer s failed united network and its resulting debt . wpgh tv was finally forced off the air on august 16 1971 . as an independent station edit under technical leadership of chief engineer robert boyd broadcast engineer james g. miller and others the station was repaired and updated in 1973 . wpgh tv was finally back on air for good on january 14 1974 after being sold again in december 1973 to pittsburgh telecasting inc. a company headed by leon crosby who had acquired san francisco based kemo tv now kofy tv just two years before . crosby had been working on the deal for more than a year before the sale was finalized . coincidentally kemo tv like wpgh tv had been a u.s. communications property until the collapse of the united network . initially the station broadcast for 10 hours daily beginning at around 2pm . the station gradually added more hours to its programming lineup broadcasting about 18 hours a day by the end of the decade . the deep bass and melodious voice of announcer william c. trushel ii was often heard during station identification and other audio spots . it was a typical independent station airing cartoons some off network sitcoms such as mchale s navy the munsters and hogan s heroes old movies religious programs such as the 700 club and off network dramas . wpgh tv also became known for some locally produced programming fare . using a similar strategy for producing local programs on kemo tv crosby believed in creative types willing to cross train and work cheap very early in their careers and packaged the shows in a way to make them more attractive to advertisers . among the more successful programs included a polka dance show videotaped at the wpgh tv studios and attempting to copy the popular chiller theater program on nbc competitor wiic tv it aired thing theater ; a show produced around b grade horror movies hosted by a man calling himself scorpio . the show aired saturday afternoon until the station began clearing college bowl games . in its early years the station also cleared cbs abc and nbc programs that kdka tv wtae tv channel 4 and wiic tv channel 11 now wpxi passed on . for a time wpgh tv also aired locally produced newscasts anchored by tom peterson mavis logan tim sohier and others with varying degrees of success . the meredith corporation purchased wpgh tv in 1978 and added stronger shows and some first run syndicated talk shows to the station . it also gradually added more recent off network sitcoms . with wptt tv channel 22 now wpnt now in the competition wpgh tv put in very high bids for programming and even overpaid for some in order to prevent shows from ending up on wptt tv . that practice however caused the station to become unprofitable despite its high ratings . as a result meredith put wpgh tv up for sale in 1985 . sinclair broadcast group owner of wptt tv put in a bid so it could combine assets and sell wptt tv to the home shopping network hsn . however it was outbid by lorimar telepictures which took over the station in 1986 . fox affiliation edit wpgh tv became pittsburgh s charter fox affiliate upon the network s october 6 1986 launch ; the station was sold to renaissance broadcasting in 1987 after lorimar telepictures reduced the purchase price from 35 million to 21.5 million . 1 as a fox affiliate wpgh tv continued to receive very high ratings . however it also continued to overpay for programming keeping it in the red . it was put up for sale again in 1990 and this time sinclair was the successful buyer . however the group struggled to obtain financing so it worked out a deal to sell wptt tv to its general manager and longtime employee eddie edwards . sinclair took over operations of wpgh tv through a local marketing agreement one of the earliest such lmas to be formed in the fall of 1991 and moved the best programming on wptt tv s schedule to wpgh tv . the former then became a full time home shopping network affiliate at midnight on august 30 1991 with plans of gradually adding entertainment programming . wpgh tv had a huge inventory of programming but with fox stepping up its programming it soon ran out of timeslots to run a large amount of it . so beginning on january 6 1992 wpgh tv began running shows on wptt tv that it lacked the time to run itself . wpgh tv bought the 3 p.m. to midnight time period on wptt tv . that station continued running hsn for fifteen hours a day . in 1993 wpgh tv programmed wptt tv daily from noon to midnight . beginning in 1995 it controlled the entire day s programming on wptt tv except for a few hours in the overnight . wpgh tv then added more first run syndicated talk and reality shows along with recent cartoons and sitcoms while wptt tv ran older classic sitcoms cartoons movies drama shows and some recent sitcoms . wpgh tv and wptt tv the latter having changed its call letters to wcwb after gaining the wb affiliation from wnpa channel 19 moved into the same building in 1997 and eventually became officially co owned by sinclair in 2000 after the federal communications commission fcc relaxed its media ownership rules to allow one company to own two television stations in the same market provided the market has at least eight full power stations and that neither of the two stations involved in the duopoly is among the four highest rated . by 2002 wpgh tv was no longer running cartoons after the fox kids weekday lineup was discontinued around the country . it focused now on court shows talk shows reality shows and off network sitcoms along with fox programming . until 2007 the station served as the de facto affiliate for the wheeling west virginia steubenville ohio market . although it is still carried on area cable systems cbs affiliate wtrf tv added a primary fox and secondary mynetworktv affiliation on a new digital subchannel ; sister station wtov tv later acquired the fox affiliation for their second subchannel in 2014 . it can also be seen in some parts of the clarksburg weston morgantown west virginia market even though that area is served by wvfx . on may 15 2012 sinclair broadcast group and fox agreed to a five year extension to the network s affiliation agreement with sinclair s 19 fox stations including wpgh tv allowing them to continue carrying fox programming through 2017 . 2 since acquiring the rights to the nfl s nfc broadcast rights in 1994 wpgh tv normally broadcasts two pittsburgh steelers games each season when they host an nfc team at heinz field . a change in the nfl broadcasting contracts for the 2014 nfl season allowing cross network flex scheduling would allow wpgh tv to broadcast more steelers games though cbs has shown preference for airing as many steelers games as possible due to their nationwide fanbase and as of 2016 has not yet cross flexed a steelers game to fox and to wpgh in turn . digital television edit digital channels edit channel video aspect psip short name programming 3 53.1 720p 16 9 wpgh dt main wpgh tv programming fox 53.2 480i 4 3 antenna tv antenna tv 53.3 grit tv grit analog to digital conversion edit along with all sinclair owned stations wpgh tv shut down its analog signal over uhf channel 53 on february 17 2009