WTHI DT2

Prior history of the Fox affiliation in Terre Haute

For the first nine years of the network's existence, Fox did not have an affiliate in Terre Haute as the market consists of only three full-power commercial television stations – besides WTHI, the other commercial stations on the air at the time of Fox's October 1986 debut were ABC affiliate WBAK-TV (channel 38, now WAWV-TV) and NBC affiliate WTWO (channel 2). Area residents were only able to view the network's programming through either Indianapolis affiliate WXIN, which was carried certain cable providers in the market, or the now-defunct cable-only service Foxnet. The market would not receive its own Fox station until January 31, 1995, when WBAK-TV ended its 22-year tenure with ABC – which it had been affiliated with since it signed on as WIIL-TV in April 1973 – to join the network. This had the side effect of leaving the Terre Haute area without an over-the-air ABC affiliate, resulting in area cable providers having to pipe in the network's programming through out-of-market stations from Indianapolis (WRTV), Springfield, Illinois (WAND until 2005, WICS thereafter) and Evansville (WEHT).

WTHI-DT2 history

The history of digital subchannel 10.2 began when WTHI-TV created the subchannel to air a 24-hour simulcast of the station's Doppler radar system, "Storm Team 10 Fury Doppler," which was accompanied by an audio simulcast from NOAA Weather Radio station WXK72. On October 25, 2010, the station replaced the radar feed/NOAA audio simulcast with TheCoolTV, a digital multicast network featuring music videos, as part of an affiliation agreement between the network and LIN TV to carry the network on the digital signals of many of the company's television stations. However within days of the change, viewer feedback suggested the radar channel was appreciated, so WTHI chose to relaunch the Storm Team 10 Fury Doppler channel on digital subchannel 10.3 on November 5, 2010, while continuing to air programming from TheCoolTV on digital channel 10.2.

On June 28, 2011, Nexstar announced that channel 38 would end its affiliation with Fox after 16 years and rejoin ABC, as part of a deal which called for long-term affiliation renewals between Nexstar and ABC in nine other markets, and would change its call letters from WFXW to WAWV-TV (standing for ABC for the Wabash Valley) on September 1 of that year. The move came after Fox stripped the affiliations from Nexstar's stations in Evansville (WTVW, now a CW affiliate), Fort Wayne (WFFT-TV, which would later rejoin Fox in March 2013) and Springfield, Missouri (KSFX-TV, now independent station KOZL-TV) following a dispute between Nexstar and Fox during affiliation renewal negotiations over the amount of retransmission consent fees that Fox demanded its local stations share with the network. On August 25, 2011, one week before the affiliation switch, WTHI signed affiliation agreements with Fox and MyNetworkTV (both owned at the time by News Corporation) to carry both networks on digital subchannel 10.2. Branded as "MyFox10", Fox and MyNetworkTV were added to WTHI-DT2 on September 1, 2011 at 5:00 a.m. Eastern Time (4:00 a.m. Central Time on the Illinois side of the market); WTHI-TV became the third LIN Media station to carry a major network affiliation on both the main channel and a digital subchannel (LIN-owned NBC affiliate WOOD-TV in Grand Rapids, Michigan and Fox affiliate WNAC-TV in Providence, Rhode Island, the latter of which is owned by Super Towers, Inc. and operated by LIN, both carry MyNetworkTV on a second digital subchannel).

It also made Terre Haute one of the only markets in the United States where all three historical commercial broadcast networks (ABC, CBS and NBC) have primary affiliations, the Fox and MyNetworkTV affiliations are carried on a digital subchannel, and The CW is absent an over-the-air affiliate (that network is currently available via CW Plus affiliate "WBI" and Indianapolis affiliate WTTV on area cable providers). WTHI-DT2's secondary affiliation with MyNetworkTV gave the Terre Haute market its first television outlet for the programming service, as it had been one of the few markets without a MyNetworkTV affiliate since it launched in September 2006. The switch also saw WXIN and South Bend station WSJV becoming the only Fox affiliates left in the state of Indiana that carry a primary Fox affiliation on their main channels; in addition to WTHI, the Fox (and shared MyNetworkTV) affiliations in Evansville and Fort Wayne were all relegated to digital subchannels of stations whose main channel carries an affiliation with a Big Three network.

As a result of the new dual affiliations, WTHI dropped TheCoolTV, which was the only digital multicast network available in the Terre Haute market, from its digital signal. WTHI-DT2 runs Fox primetime programming from 8:00 to 10:00 p.m. Eastern Time (7:00 to 9:00 p.m. Central on the Illinois side of the market), and MyNetworkTV programming from 11:00 p.m. to 1:00 a.m. Eastern (10:00 p.m. to 12:00 a.m. Central). Along with Fox and MyNetworkTV programming, the subchannel converted to a general entertainment schedule. To preserve bandwidth for the MyFox10 channel on 10.2, on August 31, 2011, the live feed of Storm Team 10 Fury Radar was dropped once again as digital subchannel 10.3 was removed from WTHI's digital signal.

On March 21, 2014, Media General announced that it would merge with LIN Media in a $1.6 billion deal. The merger was completed on December 19.

Programming

Syndicated programs broadcast by WTHI-DT2 include Maury, Jerry Springer, TMZ on TV, Access Hollywood, and Family Feud .

Newscasts

WTHI-TV presently produces 3½ hours of locally produced newscasts each week for WTHI-DT2 (with a half-hour each on weekdays, Saturdays and Sundays). In addition to its main studios, WTHI operates a Southern Bureau located at the studios of PBS member station WVUT (channel 22) on North 2nd Street and Rosedale Avenue in Vincennes.

Concurrent with the move of Fox and MyNetworkTV programming to WTHI-DT2 on September 1, 2011, WTHI-TV began producing a half-hour primetime newscast for the subchannel, titled News 10 on Fox, airing Monday through Friday evenings at 10:00 p.m. (9:00 p.m. Central on the Illinois side of the market). The newscast later expanded to include Saturday and Sunday evening editions on August 11, 2012.