WTVE-TV

[elevator_opratr]

Sorry for the TV-related post, but I think it's of interest.

Any thoughts on WTVE-TV 51?

The station has had an interesting history, from being live-and-local TV from its start in 1980, to becoming Home Shopping in the late 80's and 90's (or thereabouts), to becoming all news for awhile in the late 90's or early 2000's, to now being primarily religious and infomercials.

Does the station have any sort of following? Every time I've tried to watch it, it's an infomercial, which is kind of a shame. I'd love to see WTVE become another WFMZ-TV of sorts, but doubt that'd ever happen. Those days look like they were done in the 80s.

Any thoughts on Ch. 51?

 

[crisisbroadcast]

Honestly, in speaking about things doubtful to ever happen, I'd like to see Allentown-Reading become its own DMA. It would make sense for the counties of Lehigh, Northampton, Carbon, Monroe, Schuylkill, Berks, and Warren in NJ to be lumped into their own market (especially for Warren being in the New York DMA at present; it definitely identifies more with the Lehigh Valley than NYC).

The market would easily be top 100 and would bring together communities that don't completely identify with the rest of the DMA they're in (all that's really shared is a love of the same sports teams, and even then large numbers of people in the greater Lehigh Valley and Reading are just as likely to like the New York or Pittsburgh teams).

Allentown-Reading already has enough dial space for the big 3 (I'm sure 51 and 60 would go at a premium to another owner, and 69's already flirted with ABC), plus I'm sure the allocations for 19, 26, and 44 could open up.

But I digress.

The Lehigh Valley needs competition anyway. 69 and 39 are the only ones not trying to cater to Philly. 60 and 51 are more concerned with keeping their must carry status south of Valley Forge and don't cater the public interest at all. I'd love to see one of them start something up and bring competition to the Lehigh Valley/Berks area, but like it was said, it'll probably never happen.

> Sorry for the TV-related post, but I think it's of interest.
>
>
> Any thoughts on WTVE-TV 51?
>
> The station has had an interesting history, from being
> live-and-local TV from its start in 1980, to becoming Home
> Shopping in the late 80's and 90's (or thereabouts), to
> becoming all news for awhile in the late 90's or early
> 2000's, to now being primarily religious and infomercials.
>
> Does the station have any sort of following? Every time I've
> tried to watch it, it's an infomercial, which is kind of a
> shame. I'd love to see WTVE become another WFMZ-TV of sorts,
> but doubt that'd ever happen. Those days look like they were
> done in the 80s.
>
> Any thoughts on Ch. 51?

<P ID="signature">______________
FPXMedia: TV, Radio, and Anything Else
Be Mused...</P>

 

[lehighvalley]

Who is that ???

 

[Betrayed]

> Who is that ???
>
That speaks volumes. What more need be said? Nobody knows they're out there. Yet they've been around, I dunno, 12-15 years. When I lived down near Norristown they were actually on the cable for a while. They had a broadcast day of just a few hours in the evening I think. A few months all infomercials, a few months all news. Some evenings there would be community programming in Spanish. What DO they broadcast nowadays? Can anybody see them without rabbit ears?

 

[mdamico23]

WTVE/51 does have an interesting history. It started up in 1979 and (I think) was subscription TV (WHT) for awhile. WHT was also shown in the New York City area on Channels 68 and 67 and in the Philadelphia area (on channel 65 in Vineland, NJ). By the early 1980s, the subscription service was dropped and the station went to a full-fledged independent. For a while in 1983-84 there was talk that Channel 51 was going to move closer to Philly to take up the slack of the departed WKBS/48, which signed off for good in August 1983. It was also rumored that Channel 51 was going to take much of WKBS' programming, which also (to my knowledge) did not happen.

In the mid-1980s, WTVE was mostly music videos (the syndicated "Hit Video USA" service), plus a few programs such as "AG Day" and paid religion ("the 700 club") Next, they were Home Shopping, then Spanish, then by the end of the 1980s, back to Home Shopping, using the same Home Shopping Club feed that was also shown on the aforementioned Channel 65 in Vineland. Also, during the late 1980s, WTVE was seen in Harrisburg on low-powered W65AV, which I think now is a translator for WPHL. During the late 1980s, the technical quality of their local inserts was awful- overmodulated sound and weak color, compared to the HSN feed which sounded and looked "normal."

Not sure who owns WTVE now, but from 1979 until at least the early 1990s, they were owned by Reading Broadcasters.

One thing about Channel 51, they have (or had) a killer signal. Growing up in Monmouth County, NJ, they were a frequent DX catch- usually every few days in the summertime, even with WNJT/52 Trenton, NJ to the west of us, WNJN/50 Montclair, NJ to the north of us and WWAC/53 to the south. During DX conditions, their signal was better than many of the Philadelphia and NYC stations here. I once heard that their antenna was located on top of Mt. Penn in Reading, which could explain the good signal.

-Mike


> Sorry for the TV-related post, but I think it's of interest.
>
>
> Any thoughts on WTVE-TV 51?
>
> The station has had an interesting history, from being
> live-and-local TV from its start in 1980, to becoming Home
> Shopping in the late 80's and 90's (or thereabouts), to
> becoming all news for awhile in the late 90's or early
> 2000's, to now being primarily religious and infomercials.
>
> Does the station have any sort of following? Every time I've
> tried to watch it, it's an infomercial, which is kind of a
> shame. I'd love to see WTVE become another WFMZ-TV of sorts,
> but doubt that'd ever happen. Those days look like they were
> done in the 80s.
>
> Any thoughts on Ch. 51?
>