Branding WITF | Slogan Live inspired Owner WITF, Inc. | |
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Translators W33CR-D 33 ChambersburgW24CS 24 Reading | ||
WITF-TV virtual channel 33 (UHF digital channel 36) is a PBS member television station serving South Central Pennsylvania, United States. The station is owned by WITF, Inc. and sister station to the area's NPR member station, WITF-FM (89.5). WITF-TV maintains studio facilities located at the WITF Public Media Center in Swatara Township (though with a Harrisburg address) and its transmitter (which is shared with CBS affiliate WHP-TV, channel 21) is located in Susquehanna Township.
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On cable television, the station is available on Comcast channel 6 and in high definition on digital cable channel 803. WITF's programming is relayed on two low-powered translator stations: W33CR-D (channel 33) in Chambersburg and W24CS (channel 24) in Reading.
History
The UHF channel 33 allocation in Central Pennsylvania was previously occupied by WEEU-TV, a commercial television station licensed to Reading that operated in the 1950s. The station shut down in June 1955 after the television stations out of Philadelphia boosted their signals to cover Reading.
The channel 33 allocation was reassigned to Harrisburg for non-commercial educational use. The South Central Educational Broadcasting Council was formed in 1963, and it quickly filed for the channel 33 license. WITF-TV first signed on the air on November 22, 1964 from a "temporary" studio facility located in Hershey, near the Hershey Theatre. In 1982, the station moved its operations to studio facilities in northeast Harrisburg. In 2007, it moved to a purpose-built facility in Swatara Township.
In 1998, WITF-TV made history in Pennsylvania by becoming the Commonwealth's first television station to operate a digital signal. As broadcasters across the country began the gradual federally mandated conversion from analog to digital broadcasts, WITF became one of the first in the nation to meet the technological, financial and educational challenges.
WITF-TV discontinued regular programming on its analog signal over UHF channel 33 on February 17, 2009, to conclude the federally mandated transition from analog to digital television. The station's digital signal remained on its pre-transition UHF channel 36, using PSIP to display WITF-TV's virtual channel as 33 on digital television receivers.
WITF sold its spectrum in the FCC auction for $25 million on February 10, 2017. The station indicated they had reached a channel sharing agreement with an unnamed station. The proceeds were slate for the endowments with interest to be used for Central Pennsylvania media literacy program. A state wide news organization is another possibility.