WNPA
Categories: Television stations in Pittsburgh | UPN network affiliates
| WNPA | |
|---|---|
| Image:Upn pittsburgh.jpg | |
| Jeannette / Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania | |
| Branding | UPN Pittsburgh |
| Slogan | TV U LOVE |
| Analog channel | 19 (UHF) |
| Digital channel | 49 (UHF) |
| Affiliations | UPN |
| Owner | CBS Corporation |
| Founded | |
| Call letters meaning | PA = Pennsylvania |
| Former affiliations | None |
| Website | www.upnpittsburgh.com |
WNPA is a UPN affiliate that serves the Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania DMA. Now known only as UPN Pittsburgh, the station is owned by CBS Corporation and is a sister station of KDKA-TV. WNPA offers off-network sitcoms, first-run talk shows, reality shows, court shows, UPN programming, and news.
History
WNPA has its origins in a television station licensed to Johnstown, first as WJNL and later as WFAT. It had been the CBS station in the Johnstown-Altoona-State College market for many years until CBS affiliated with WTAJ. As a result, WFAT became a low-rated independent station in 1982. It was unable to afford programming and failed to grow in the ratings. It was also losing money. The station finally went off the air in 1991.
Over in Pittsburgh, WBPA-LP channel 29 signed on in 1994 as a low power TV station owned by Venture Technologies. It ran some ABC and NBC shows that WTAE and WPXI pre-empted, along with infomercials, religious and shop-at-home programming. It added WB programming in 1995, and a few syndicated shows in the fall of that year.
In early 1996, Venture Technologies bought the Channel 19 license in Johnstown. It ran the station as a full power repeater of WBPA-LP. The station later became WTWB (WB19) in Johnstown. However, cable systems in Johnstown would not carry the station.
VHF channel 8 was dropped in by the FCC as a Pittsburgh license, but the operators of the new license made a case that the channel 8 allocation was needed in Johnstown more than it was in Pittsburgh. The FCC approved channel 8's move to Jownstown, and in turn allowed WTWB to relocate to Jeannette (about 30 miles southeast of Pittsburgh) in 1997. In the wake of the move, WTWB began to acquire more off-network sitcoms and first-run syndicated shows, alongside cartoons from Kids WB and prime time programming from the WB.
When WPTT 22 acquired the WB affiliation and changed its call letters to WCWB in 1998, the UPN affiliation in the market became available. As such, channel 19 took the affiliation and changed call letters to WNPA.
WNPA is currently owned by Viacom, and is sister station to KDKA-TV. In August 2001, WNPA began to carry a 10pm newscast produced by KDKA and anchored by Ken Rice. After seriously lagging WPGH and rumors of it being cut, the newscast is finally catching up to WPGH's 10pm news, actually winning the July 2005 sweeps period.
The station began to identify on air as "UPN Pittsburgh" in late 2003, as different cable systems carry it on different channels.
In 2005, WNPA launched a new morning newscast from 7-9am. Much like its 10pm newscast, it is produced by KDKA. Sonni Abatta and John Cater are the anchors, Rebecca Hower is the meteorologist, and Jim Lokay is the traffic anchor.
External links
| Broadcast television in Pittsburgh market | |||
|---|---|---|---|
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KDKA 2 (CBS) - WTAE 4 (ABC) - WPXI 11 (NBC) - WQED 13 (PBS) - WQEX 16 (Ind) - WNPA 19 (UPN) - WCWB 22 (The WB) - WIIC 27 (Ind) - WBYD 35 (Ind) - WPCB 40 (Ind) - WPGH 53 (Fox) - WBGN 59 (Ind) - W63AU 63 (Ind) - WPTG 69 (Ind) | |||
| Viacom Inc. |
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Corporate Directors: George Abrams | David Andelman | Joseph Califano, Jr. | William Cohen | Philippe Dauman | Alan Greenberg | Charles Phillips | Shari Redstone | Sumner Redstone | Frederic Salerno | William Schwartz | Robert D. Walter |
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Misc. Assets: Infinity Broadcasting | Neopets | Paramount Parks | Paramount Pictures | Simon & Schuster | Viacom Outdoor |
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Annual Revenue: $22.5 billion USD (Image:Red down.png15% FY 2004) | Employees: 38,350 | Stock Symbol: NYSE: VIAB | Website: www.viacom.com |