WGAL is the NBC television affiliate serving the Lancaster/Harrisburg/York (Susquehanna Valley) region of Pennsylvania. It broadcasts its analog signal on channel 8, and its digital signal on channel 58. Its studio facilities are located in Lancaster, its city of license. Its transmitter is located in Hallam, Pennsylvania. WGAL News 8 WeatherPlus is offered on its digital station.

History

WGAL-TV began operations on March 18, 1949 on channel 4, as the fourth television station in Pennsylvania and the first outside Philadelphia (beating WDTV, now KDKA-TV, in Pittsburgh, which began operations in November of that year). It was owned by the Steinman family, owners of WGAL radio (1490 AM) and Lancaster's two major newspapers, the Intelligencer Journal and the Lancaster New Era. At the time, Lancaster was the smallest city in the country with a television station.

Its first formal program, shown on March 22, was to a group of RCA executives, television dealers and radio station personnel at the Stevens House Hotel in downtown Lancaster.

In 1952 WGAL increased its power from 1,000 to 7,200 watts. Under this new grant, the station was required by the FCC to move to channel 8 to prevent interference with WRC-TV in Washington. That change took place on December 31, 1952.

On January 1, 1954 WGAL presented its first color television broadcast, the Tournament of Roses Parade.

WGAL has always been an NBC affiliate, but also carried some programs from CBS, DuMont, and ABC until 1963, when Nielsen made the Lancaster and Harrisburg-York areas a single market. As the only VHF station in the market, it has been the market leader for many years. It may also be the market leader because of its past owners being local major newspapers, as is common for many #1 stations of a particular market in the USA.

The Steinmans also launched WDEL-TV in Wilmington, Delaware around the same time as WGAL's launch, but sold that station off in 1955. Over the years, the Steinmans purchased two more television stations (KOAT in Albuquerque, which they sold off in 1969, and WTEV-TV in Providence), as well as several radio stations and newspapers.

The Steinmans sold both of their television stations to Pulitzer Publishing in 1979. Under Pulitzer's ownership, in 1985 WGAL became the first television station in Pennsylvania to broadcast in stereo, beating much larger stations in Philadelphia and Pittsburgh. Pulitzer sold its entire television division, including WGAL and KOAT, to Hearst-Argyle Television in 1999. The sale closed on March 18, the station's 50th anniversary. In 2005 WGAL adopted a Hearst-styled logo somewhat similar to fellow Hearst stations WBAL-TV in Baltimore, Maryland and WTAE-TV in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, but containing old elements. WGAL also airs the Pennsylvania Lottery televised nighttime drawings live 7 nights a week and the live Powerball on Wednesdays and Saturdays. WGAL-TV is the #1 station in the country (Top 50 markets) in terms of audience share for the 6AM and 6PM News.

Digital TV

The station's digital signal is multiplexed: Digital channels

Channel	Programming
8.1 / 58.1	main WGAL/NBC programming
8.2 / 58.2	NBC Weather Plus

Post-analog shutdown

After the analog television shutdown and digital transition, which is tentatively scheduled to take place on February 17, 2009 , WGAL will move its digital broadcasts back to its present analog channel number, 8.

External links

• WGAL Homepage

References and footnotes