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WPGH-TV (channel 53) is a television station in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States, affiliated with the Fox network. It is owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group alongside dual The CW and MyNetworkTV affiliate WPNT (channel 22). The two stations share studios on Ivory Avenue in the city's Summer Hill neighborhood, where WPGH-TV's transmitter is also located.
Channel 53 was the second TV channel to be activated in Pittsburgh, but the history of this station is discontinuous. It first emerged as WKJF-TV with commercial programming beginning on August 1, 1953. Owned by Agnes Jane Reeves Greer, it had second-choice rights to NBC programming and operated from a site shared with sister FM station KDKA-FM. Like many other ultra high frequency (UHF) TV stations, it struggled economically because not all homes could receive it and its signal was comparatively weak. It left the air on July 2, 1954, but the permit remained alive; the call sign was changed to WAND-TV in 1961, and the antenna was not dismantled until 1962. After federal authorities pushed holders of inactive UHF TV permits to build them, sell them, or forfeit them, Daniel H. Overmyer acquired the station in 1965 as part of a projected independent station group. He was unable to build what he called WECO-TV because of unexpected problems in transmitter site construction and financing difficulties. The independent stations were sold to U.S. Communications, a unit of American Viscose Corporation, which completed construction and put WPGH-TV on the air on February 1, 1969. U.S. Communications struggled with all of Overmyer's permits amid a soft advertising market; WPGH-TV was the third to leave the air on August 16, 1971, and was placed into bankruptcy.
Leon Crosby of San Francisco led an investor consortium named Pittsburgh Telecasting, which bought WPGH-TV out of bankruptcy and returned it to the air, this time for good, on January 14, 1974. Under Crosby and the successive ownerships of the Meredith Corporation, Lorimar-Telepictures, and Renaissance Broadcasting, WPGH-TV endured as Pittsburgh's leading independent outlet. In 1986, it affiliated with Fox at the new network's launch; the Fox affiliation improved the station's ratings and advertising sales.
Sinclair Broadcast Group acquired WPGH-TV in 1991, selling the underperforming channel 22 (then WPTT) to Edwin Edwards in a move that in reality created a local marketing agreement. WPGH-TV started a 10 p.m. newscast, the Fox 53 Ten O'Clock News, in January 1997. It was the first such newscast on a broadcast station in the Pittsburgh market, but it was a ratings underperformer relative to similar newscasts in similarly sized markets. In 2003, Sinclair converted it to its News Central hybrid format, which led to declining ratings. The standalone news department was dissolved in January 2006, and WPGH-TV began airing newscasts produced by Pittsburgh NBC affiliate WPXI (channel 11).
On July 11, 1953, WKJF-TV put out its first test picture; it was on the air for five minutes and still elicited a call from a viewer. A regular schedule of test patterns followed starting on July 14. Days before launching, the station finally secured network programming in the form of a secondary affiliation with NBC. WDTV continued to enjoy right of first refusal to telecast NBC programs in Pittsburgh, so WKJF-TV would only get those programs not aired on channel 2. On July 28, the station initiated its first test programs beyond a pattern. From studios on Grandview Avenue, WKJF-TV began airing regular programming on August 1, 1953. At the end of August, after an AT&T network loop was completed to the Mount Washington facility, the first NBC shows appeared on the station. In at least one instance, the station also carried a DuMont Television Network program; WDTV passed over DuMont's Boxing from Eastern Parkway Arena to carry Studio One, so WKJF-TV picked it up.
WKJF-TV was one of two UHF stations to start in Pittsburgh in 1953, the other being WENS on channel 16, which operated at much higher power. UHF stations' signals performed poorly in rougher terrain. Though Pittsburgh had only one pre-freeze and very high frequency station, WDTV on channel 2, much of the city could receive a second VHF station, WJAC-TV on channel 6 from Johnstown. These stations could be received by any set, unlike WENS and WKJF-TV, which required converters to view on many VHF-only sets. On July 2, 1954, the station left the air indefinitely, expressing hope of returning if Congress did something to alleviate the plight of UHF stations; it lost $1 million in its operational history. WENS remained on air but struggled to get sponsors despite carrying popular network shows.
A Cleveland mail-order distributor expressed interest in buying WKJF-TV in 1955; he would have renamed the station WDAV and run it for the benefit of disabled veterans. The deal never came to fruition as the owners waited for the UHF situation to change. Rumors circulated that the group putting together Pittsburgh's new VHF station on channel 11 was interested in the property. The call sign on the channel 53 permit was changed from WKJF-TV to WAND-TV on March 13, 1961; the WAND letters had belonged to a Reeves-owned station in Canton, Ohio. The antenna was dismantled in 1962 and replaced with a new FM antenna for the co-located radio station; the former television facility was leased to another tenant.
On November 30, 1965, WAND-TV became WECO-TV, one of four stations named for Daniel Overmyer's children—in this case, Elizabeth C. Overmyer. Overmyer had opted not to lease any facilities from WKJF. By March 1966, Overmyer was preparing to put the station on the air for the fall television season as Pittsburgh's first independent station, with a mix of syndicated shows and network programs preempted by the local affiliates. Even before signing on, the station acquired mobile video tape recording equipment. Overmyer was still promising this in May, along with a series of 22 new warehouses to be located in the Pittsburgh area.
Soon after, Overmyer's quest to build WECO-TV hit a series of snags. The station was on target to launch in September when crews erecting its tower found that the anchor points for two of its three were over abandoned mine shafts, and a third such tunnel was also found. This forced a change of site for the tower and delayed the prospective launch date to June 1967. The delay prevented WECO-TV from being part of its owner's planned Overmyer Network, which went on the air as the United Network on May 1, 1967. Its lone offering, The Las Vegas Show, aired on WIIC-TV.
Days after the deal was approved, Rep. Harley O. Staggers, chairman of the House Investigations Subcommittee, summoned all FCC members to testify over the decision not to hold hearings. FCC chairman Rosel H. Hyde testified that if a hearing had been ordered, the sale would have been abandoned. Hyde stated, "I believe that the possibility of refinancing the UHF stations would have failed had we designated the matter for hearing" and that any hearing "...might very well have defeated this effort to salvage a sinking enterprise". Hyde concluded Overmyer's application was sufficient for approval and agreed with commissioner Kenneth A. Cox that the true nature of the transaction was to raise funds to save the warehouse business. Cox criticized the submission of out-of-pocket expenses and the loan and option agreement in the transaction, claiming it violated an FCC policy by providing a profit.
When the deal closed on January 15, 1968, Overmyer received the second $1.5 million portion of the total $3 million agreed to in the loan contract. AVC was an investment company with no experience in television broadcasting and thus only provided financing for U.S. Communications, while WPHL was used for leadership: two WPHL executives became part of U.S.'s management team. Overmyer's role was limited to only his 20-percent stock in the Atlanta, Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, and Houston permits, with no managerial oversight; U.S. also included a provision that could compel Overmyer to divest his 20-percent interest and an option to purchase it between January 16, 1971, and January 15, 1972. The contract limited the highest purchase price to $3 million, the same amount AVC had loaned to Overmyer; the loan was secured by second mortgages on twenty-three of Overmyer's warehouse properties and his 20 percent interest in the TV stations. U.S. never executed its option to buy the stock, and Overmyer repaid the $3 million loan.
WPGH-TV made its on-air debut on February 1, 1969—the first broadcast from channel 53 in nearly 15 years. Programs included a local version of Bozo the Clown; Dark Shadows and the CBS Sunday Night News, which the local affiliates did not or were about to cease airing; syndicated sports heretofore unavailable in Pittsburgh; and daily movies. Local programming included Duquesne Dukes men's basketball; Pittsburgh Penguins hockey; and an interview show, Pittsburgh Now.
U.S. Communications struggled with the station permits it had acquired from Overmyer and built out. In July 1970, WPGH-TV cut back its broadcasting day to start at noon on weekdays, 3 p.m. on Saturdays, and 1 p.m. on Sundays. The company's woes became more acutely felt in 1971. On March 31, due to financial problems, the firm shut down its stations in San Francisco (KOFY-TV) and Atlanta (WATL). On August 5, 1971, The Wall Street Journal reported that U.S. Communications had asked the FCC for permission to take WPGH-TV and WXIX-TV in Cincinnati off the air. The two stations, however, got a reprieve because they had instead attracted potential buyers. In the case of WPGH-TV, the reprieve was short-lived. On the afternoon of August 16, 1971, U.S. Communications informed the 48 employees of channel 53 that the station would cease broadcasting at 6 p.m., with the entire staff being laid off.
The Meredith Corporation purchased WPGH-TV for $12.2 million in 1978. It was the company's first UHF independent station and second total after KPHO-TV in Phoenix. That same year, Pittsburgh gained a second independent in the form of WPNT (channel 22), started by the Baltimore-based Commercial Radio Institute (predecessor to Sinclair Broadcast Group). Though the new UHF outlet initially eroded WPGH-TV's ratings, channel 53 easily beat the comparatively neglected WPTT-TV in the ratings, and when David D. Smith became its general manager in 1984, he readily conceded that even a revived WPTT would be "the fifth station in this market". WPGH-TV responded by becoming an aggressive buyer of programming including shows and movies, pushing costs up. In Meredith's final months of ownership, the station agreed to join the new Fox network when it started providing programming in October 1986. By this time, it was well-regarded in the industry.
Renaissance Broadcasting, a company formed by Michael Finkelstein, agreed to purchase WPGH-TV in August 1988 for $30 million. Finkelstein was a stakeholder in Odyssey Partners and transferred its two independent stations—WSFL-TV in Miami and WCCT-TV in Connecticut—to the new business. WDZL and WTXX had similar programming philosophies. The new owners took control in January 1989. During Renaissance ownership, the station benefited from Fox's surging fortunes as a network and from a far more aggressive approach than that taken under former owners. The station rebranded as "Fox 53" and increased its spending on advertising, rebuilt its afternoon lineup to serve the unserved children's market, and earned notice as an increasing competitor to the traditional network affiliates.
Under the deal, Commercial Radio Institute, the Sinclair subsidiary that had owned WPTT-TV, held $1 million in Edwards's debt as a convertible debenture and received a tax certificate for selling the station to a minority. The deal as originally structured permitted Sinclair to convert that debenture into an 80-percent ownership interest. Mark I. Baseman, a Pittsburgh attorney, filed an objection to the two deals in March, believing the sales gave Sinclair too much influence over WPTT-TV and represented an impermissible duopoly. Baseman also objected to the switch of WPTT-TV to home shopping, which eliminated competition for WPGH-TV. Baseman later disclosed the objection was filed on behalf of a client, which was only revealed in January 1992 as ABRY Communications. ABRY owned WNUV in Baltimore, a competitor to Sinclair's WBFF-TV, and fretted that Sinclair was using its buying power in Pittsburgh to force syndicators to place their shows on WBFF-TV in Baltimore lest they be shut out altogether in Pittsburgh.
The FCC approved the WPGH-TV and WPTT-TV sales in June 1991, and when they closed, on August 30, WPTT switched to HSN on a full-time basis. Threatened by cable systems seeking to drop the all-HSN WPTT, WPGH and Sinclair agreed to purchase and program nine hours a day of airtime. The operating arrangement attracted FCC scrutiny, and litigation resulted from the double transaction. After the 1999 legalization of duopolies, Sinclair acquired channel 22—by this point WCWB and an affiliate of The WB—from Edwin Edwards.
The Fox 53 Ten O'Clock News debuted on January 26, 1997, after Fox's presentation of Super Bowl XXXI. The program had a slow start; though it quickly put behind technical glitches that pockmarked its first showing, the newscast was seen as a ratings underperformer with a share of just 3 percent in the 10 p.m. hour. In the November 1997 sweeps, it attracted fewer viewers than the episodes of Coach the station had been airing prior to launching the newscast.
Sinclair installed a new regional manager, Stu Powell, to oversee WPGH, WPTT, and other stations in November 1997. Powell had been the general manager at WXIX-TV in Cincinnati when it launched 10 p.m. news in 1993, finding ratings success. The next year, Clifford was replaced with Sheila Hyland, previously of WTAE. The quality of the newscast was seen to have improved, and it extended to an hour in November 1998. The expanded newscast brought with it several new reporters. In 2001, the market gained a third 10 p.m. newscast on UPN affiliate WPKD-TV, produced by KDKA-TV. However, Pittsburgh's appetite for news in that time slot continued to trail the national average. Ratings stalled, and while WPGH-TV led the pack at 5 percent, the total market share of WPGH and its competition was 9 percent where the leading early local newscasts in Sacramento, St. Louis, and Portland, Oregon—all similarly-sized TV markets—attracted that many viewers or more. News director John Poister believed an additional newscast would bolster the station's reputation, but Sinclair had no expansion plans.
Where WPGH's 10 p.m. newscast had commanded 7 percent of the viewership at that time in February 2003, the station's share declined to 4 percent a year later, while WNPA posted viewership gains. Station staff were frustrated because the same local reporting and sports staff, producing the same reporting, was being weighed down by the change in news format. The news director was fired and replaced. Ratings began to improve after the time devoted to segments from News Central was cut back in August 2005, with WPGH regaining its lead over WNPA, but by the end of the year, rumors were running hot that Sinclair was about to dismantle the operation altogether and have WPXI produce news for WPGH.
For the first time since WPGH began airing local news in 1997, the news offering expanded beyond 10 p.m. on March 14, 2022, with the debut of Channel 11 News on Fox 53 at 6:30, replacing a second half-hour of You Bet Your Life with Jay Leno. On January 8, 2024, Channel 11 Morning News on Fox 53 debuted at 7 a.m. as an extension of WPXI's existing morning newscast.
On January 18, 2021, WPGH-TV began airing the Sinclair-produced The National Desk from 7 to 9 a.m. With the 2024 morning news launch, the station instead began airing TND at 6 and 8 a.m.
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WPGH-TV began broadcasting a digital signal on channel 43 on April 1, 2002. The analog signal on channel 53 was shut down on February 17, 2009, which had been the original digital television transition date. The station's digital signal continued to broadcast on channel 43. WPGH relocated its signal from channel 43 to channel 20 on December 6, 2019, as a result of the 2016 United States wireless spectrum auction.
In June 2020, WPNT converted to ATSC 3.0 (NextGen TV) operation, with its main channel broadcast in ATSC 1.0 format on WPGH-TV.
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