WNEV-TV
 
|
|
|
Boston, Massachusetts United States |
|
|---|---|
| Branding |
7 or WHDH 7 (general) 7 News (newscasts) |
| Slogan | The News Station |
| Channels |
Digital: 42 (UHF) Virtual: 7 () |
| Subchannels | See Below |
| Affiliations | Independent |
| Owner |
Sunbeam Television (WHDH-TV) |
| Founded | February 1982 |
| First air date | May 22, 1982 |
| Call letters' meaning | sequentially assigned to former sister station WHDH (AM) |
| Sister station(s) | WLVI |
| Former callsigns | WNEV-TV (1982–1990) |
| Former channel number(s) |
|
| Former affiliations | |
| Transmitter power | 1,000 kW |
| Height | 288 m |
| Facility ID | 72145 |
| Transmitter coordinates | 42°18′41″N 71°13′0″W / 42.31139°N 71.21667°WCoordinates: 42°18′41″N 71°13′0″W / 42.31139°N 71.21667°W |
| Licensing authority | FCC |
| Public license information: |
Profile CDBS |
| Website | whdh.com |
WHDH, channel 7, is an independent television station located in Boston, Massachusetts. WHDH is owned by Sunbeam Television, and operates as part of a duopoly with CW affiliate WLVI (channel 56). The two stations share studio facilities located at Bulfinch Place, near Government Center in downtown Boston; WHDH's transmitter is located in Newton, Massachusetts.
From 1982 to 1995, WHDH was Boston's CBS affiliate, inheriting the affiliation from its predecessor on channel 7, WNAC-TV. On January 2, 1995, WHDH switched to NBC, after CBS moved to WBZ-TV by virtue of a group-wide affiliation deal with its owner, Westinghouse Broadcasting. On January 1, 2017, WHDH lost NBC to a newly-formed owned-and-operated station, WBTS-LD; the station now operates as a news-intensive independent station.
The original occupant of the channel 7 allocation in Boston was WNAC-TV, which commenced operations on June 21, 1948, as Boston's first CBS affiliate. The station switched to ABC in 1961, but rejoined CBS in 1972.
By 1965, WNAC-TV's owner, RKO General, faced numerous investigations into its business and financial practices. Though the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) renewed WNAC-TV's license in 1969, RKO General lost the license in 1981 after its parent company, General Tire, admitted to a litany of corporate misconduct – which among other things, included the admission that General Tire had committed financial fraud over illegal political contributions and bribes – as part of a settlement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. However, in the FCC hearings, RKO General had withheld evidence of General Tire's misconduct, and had also failed to disclose evidence of accounting errors on its own part. In light of RKO's dishonesty, the FCC stripped RKO of the Boston license and the licenses for KHJ-TV (now KCAL-TV) in Los Angeles and WOR-TV (now WWOR-TV) in New York City. The FCC had previously conditioned renewal of the latter two stations' licenses on WNAC-TV's renewal. An appeals court partially reversed the ruling, finding that RKO's dishonesty alone merited having the WNAC-TV license removed. However, it held that the FCC had overreached in tying the other two license renewals to WNAC-TV's renewal, and ordered new hearings.
...
Wikipedia