WPHL-TV
 
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Philadelphia, Pennsylvania United States |
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| Branding | PHL17 (general) Action News (during WPVI-produced newscast) |
| Channels |
Digital: 17 (UHF) Virtual: 17 () |
| Affiliations |
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| Owner |
Tribune Broadcasting (WPHL, LLC) |
| First air date | June 17, 1960 |
| Call letters' meaning | PHiLadelphia (PHL is also IATA code for Philadelphia International Airport) |
| Sister station(s) | WPVI-TV (news only) |
| Former callsigns | WPCA-TV (1960–1962) |
| Former channel number(s) |
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| Former affiliations |
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| Transmitter power | 645 kW |
| Height | 324 m |
| Facility ID | 73879 |
| Transmitter coordinates | 40°2′30″N 75°14′23″W / 40.04167°N 75.23972°WCoordinates: 40°2′30″N 75°14′23″W / 40.04167°N 75.23972°W |
| Licensing authority | FCC |
| Public license information: |
Profile CDBS |
| Website | PHL17.com |
WPHL-TV, channel 17, is a MyNetworkTV-affiliated television station located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. The station is owned by the Tribune Broadcasting subsidiary of the Tribune Media Company, and maintains studios in the Wynnefield section of West Philadelphia; its transmitter is located on the Roxborough tower farm.
Channel 17 first signed on the air on June 17, 1960, as WPCA-TV, the call letters standing for "People's Church of the Air." Founded by Percy Crawford, it originally maintained a religious programming format. WPCA was Philadelphia's first commercial UHF station; however the station suffered due to the fact that UHF tuners were not required to be incorporated onto most television sets at the time (the Federal Communications Commission would not make UHF tuning capability a requirement until 1964 with the passage of the All-Channel Act), WPCA shut down in 1962 after only being on the air for two years.
Subsequently, a group of local investors bought the dormant channel 17 license and returned it to the air on September 17, 1965 as independent station WPHL-TV. It was the third UHF independent to sign-on in Philadelphia that year, two and a half weeks after WKBS-TV (channel 48) and four months after WIBF-TV (channel 29, later WTAF and now WTXF-TV). During its early years, WPHL went through a string of owners, most notably as an owned-and-operated station of the short-lived United Network.
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Wikipedia