WINP-TV#Controversy

{{short description|Television station in Pittsburgh}}

{{Use mdy dates|date=January 2025}}

{{Infobox television station

| callsign = WINP-TV

| branding =

| digital = 16 (UHF)

| virtual = 16

| affiliations = {{ubl|16.1: Ion Television|for others, see {{section link||Subchannels}}}}

| airdate = {{start date and age|1959|3|23|p=y|br=y}}

| location = Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

| country = United States

| callsign_meaning = "Win Pittsburgh Over"[http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10314/1101977-67.stm "WQEX will change to WINP"], from post-gazette.com, October 11, 2010.

| former_callsigns = WQEX (1959–2011)

| former_channel_numbers = {{ubl|Analog: 16 (UHF, 1959–2009)|Digital: 26 (UHF, until 2009), 38 (UHF, 2009–2020)}}

| owner = Ion Media

| licensee = Ion Media License Company, LLC

| former_affiliations = {{ubl|NET (1959–1961,|1963–1970)|Dark (1961–1963,|1985–1986)|PBS (1970–1985,|1986–2004)|America's Store (2004–2007)|ShopNBC (2007–2011)}}

| erp = 775 kW

| haat = {{convert|208|m|ft|0|abbr=on}}

| facility_id = 41314

| coordinates = {{coord|40|26|46.2|N|79|57|50.2|W|type:landmark_scale:2000}}

| licensing_authority = FCC

| website = {{url|https://iontelevision.com/}}

}}

WINP-TV (channel 16) is a television station in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States, airing programming from the Ion Television network. Owned and operated by the Ion Media subsidiary of the E. W. Scripps Company, the station maintains transmitter facilities in Pittsburgh's Oakland neighborhood.

History

=Prior use of channel 16 in Pittsburgh=

{{main|WENS (TV)}}

Channel 16 was initially activated August 29, 1953, as WENS, Pittsburgh's second UHF television station in the span of a month, with a primary ABC affiliation and secondary clearance of CBS network programs. In a market that was dominated by DuMont O&O WDTV (now KDKA-TV)—indeed, two former WDTV sales managers started the station—it initially broke ground and provided Pittsburgh shows that had previously not been seen in the market. In 1955, a tower collapse led to an emergency 46-day channel-sharing operation with WQED channel 13, Pittsburgh's educational television station, in a first-of-its-kind arrangement.

However, as with other UHF television stations, WENS struggled for acceptance by viewers and sponsors, even in a market that had just one local commercial VHF television station. After having fought the award of a second commercial VHF outlet to Pittsburgh, the station reached a settlement with WIIC-TV (now WPXI) in early 1957 and ceased operations on August 31 of that year, one day before WIIC began broadcasting. The construction permit remained active through 1970 (being shifted to channel 22), but no station ever materialized.

=WQEX=

Immediately after the directors of WENS met on August 27, 1957, and decided to shutter the station, a delegation contacted WQED and offered the facilities to channel 13.{{cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/70860765/|page=24|work=Pittsburgh Press|title=WENS Goes Off Air as Channel 11 Opens|first=Fred|last=Remington|date=August 28, 1955|accessdate=February 15, 2021}}

WQED purchased the WENS physical plant in 1958.{{cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/70522024/|accessdate=February 13, 2021|date=June 18, 1958|title=UHF Outlet Is Sought in WQED Buy|page=8|work=Pittsburgh Sun-Telegraph}} Channel 22 was assigned to Pittsburgh from Clarksburg, West Virginia, in 1958, allowing for the re-designation of channel 16 as noncommercial.{{cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/70516610/|accessdate=February 13, 2021|title=A helpmate for WQED|page=8|work=Pittsburgh Post-Gazette|date=July 19, 1958}}

WQED filed for a new construction permit, which was awarded in November 1958, and restarted the station, renamed WQEX, on March 23, 1959.{{Cite web|url= https://cdbs.recnet.com/corres/?doc=84293 |title= History Cards for WINP-TV|publisher=Federal Communications Commission}} (Guide to reading History Cards) WQED and WQEX formed the first legal television duopoly—at the time permitted only among noncommercial television stations—in the country.{{cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/70521412/|work=Pittsburgh Press|first=Fred|last=Remington|date=March 22, 1959|title=WQED's Five Award-Winning Years|accessdate=February 13, 2021}} In order to allow schools to receive WQEX programs, WQED sent out a public plea soliciting donations of unused UHF converters owned by the public.{{cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/70518100/|accessdate=February 13, 2021|date=May 19, 1959|page=23|work=Pittsburgh Sun-Telegraph|title=TV Shocker Designed to Tear Women Away From Soap Operas|first=Arnold|last=Zeitlin}}

{{Quote box

| quote = They ran Channel 16 by adding two 3/4-inch video tape machines and hooking them to an ancient transmitter.

| author = Ken Tiven

| source = WQEX station manager, 1986{{cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/33723584/|access-date=July 10, 2019|title=WQEX-TV returns to air with new look, sound, feel|first=Ron|last=Weiskind|work=Pittsburgh Post=Gazette|pages=11, [https://www.newspapers.com/clip/70513629/ 13]|date=October 14, 1986}}

| align = left

| width = 250px

| quoted = yes

| salign = left

}}

WQEX went dark again in November 1961 but returned to the air over a year later, in January 1963,{{r|hc}} after technical repairs were made.{{cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/70968614/|accessdate=February 15, 2021|date=January 18, 1963|work=Pittsburgh Post-Gazette|title=TV Channel 16 Resumes Today|page=5}} For much of its early years, owing to its educational status and the first-generation UHF equipment it inherited from WENS, the station was plagued by a weak signal, operating at 171 kilowatts visual, and 34.2 kilowatts aural by 1971,{{r|hc}} resulting in a Grade B signal over most of Pittsburgh. Viewers in the city's outlying suburbs that were unable to receive the station clearly on cable received a spotty-to-non-existent signal. In effect, the station was perceived by the general public as an afterthought.{{r|newsound}}

WQEX was the last station in Pittsburgh, and probably the last in North America, to convert to color. For decades, the station had broadcast with WENS's black-and-white transmitter. However, on March 10, 1985,{{cite news|work=Pittsburgh Press|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/33723598/wqex_makes_repairs/|date=March 19, 1985|title=WQEX makes repairs|access-date=July 10, 2019}} the transmitter broke down completely, and the parts required to fix it were no longer available. WQED decided to take the station completely silent, and channel 13 launched a pledge drive to raise the $4.5 million necessary to reconstruct the channel 16 facility.{{r|newsound}}

The new WQEX was set up as an almost autonomous station within the WQED organization. A new, more powerful NEC color transmitter was installed for testing over the summer of 1986 at an authorized power increase to 660 kW visual, and 66 kW aural. WQEX took over Studio C in the WQED premises and built its entire studio, offices and technical space within the 28-by-32-foot area.{{r|bme}} It took six months from April 1, 1986, until launch on October 16, 1986, to build the station, train the personnel and organize the programming, all of this under the direction of Kenneth Tiven as general manager. The result was a station unlike any other in the PBS system, technically and in programming.{{r|newsound}}

The new WQEX was then one of the most automated stations in the world. It adopted the Betacart player for airing all of its programs—even programs longer than the 30-minute recording limit of the format; the programs were spread across overlapping tapes. Local programming by its competitors had been delivered on film, reel videotape and U-matic videocassettes. The Betacam professional format produced a high-quality picture with crisp on-air resolution. In addition, the station used a database system for program playout, which controlled the Betacart machine.{{cite news|url=https://worldradiohistory.com/Archive-Broadcast-Engineering/BME/80s/BME-1988-01.pdf|work=BM/E|date=January 1988|title=WQEX: Score One for the Little Guy|pages=48, 50|accessdate=February 13, 2021}}

In its return to the air, WQEX's schedule resembled that of a commercial independent station, with themed nights, reruns, movies and British situation comedies (often called "Britcoms"), reflecting a move then by some PBS stations to adopt a more "middlebrow" image appealing to a larger audience than those of cultural and educational-minded viewers (and thus potentially generating more donor income). The station even had on-camera hosts.{{cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/70514383/|work=Pittsburgh Press|date=May 22, 1986|page=D13|title=Ken Tiven hopes to pull WQEX-TV out of WQED's shadow|first=Robert|last=Bianco|accessdate=February 13, 2021}}

From 1986 through 1990, the station's idiosyncratic persona stayed intact. It produced a 10 p.m. news program from Monday through Friday, in conjunction with the reporting staff of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette newspaper; reporters were debriefed about their stories, and these video clips were then played back in the Betacart automation system as a complete program. This innovation, called "modular production," later became the keystone of several television news channels, including the now-defunct Orange County Newschannel (OCN), which Tiven departed WQEX to start in 1990.{{cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/70523755/|first=Allan|last=Walton|date=January 13, 1990|title=Tiven quits as WQEX boss, takes cable job in California|accessdate=February 13, 2021|work=Pittsburgh Press}}

When funding became tight in the mid-1990s due to economic and political changes from the early years of public broadcasting, WQED began using WQEX to simulcast its own programming as of November 1, 1997, to cut expenses; some of the programming formerly exclusive to WQEX was consolidated into the WQED lineup at that time.{{cite news|last=Weiskind|first=Ron|title=WQEX to air WQED fare|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=4FQlAAAAIBAJ&pg=5878%2C2212109|access-date=September 30, 2013|newspaper=Pittsburgh Post-Gazette|date=September 20, 1997|pages=A-9, A-13}}

=Financial troubles and transition to commercial license=

Due to a combination of high costs of continuing national programming production, bloated payroll expenses, and what the station's critics identified as a top-heavy management structure and a long history of mismanagement,{{cite web |url=http://www.prospect.org/cs/articles?article=signal_degradation |title=Signal Degradation, Jerold M. Starr, American Prospect, November 30, 2002 |publisher=Prospect.org |date=January 19, 2000 |access-date=November 28, 2011 |archive-date=August 10, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110810204755/http://prospect.org/cs/articles?article=signal_degradation |url-status=dead }} WQED's total liabilities at one point had mounted beyond $10 million. Station debts were being paid four months behind schedule and approximately 100 of the 220 staff jobs at WQED were abruptly eliminated. A station once respected for having originated programming such as Mister Rogers' Neighborhood and National Geographic specials was quickly finding itself relegated to the role of a primarily-local producer of educational programming.

WQED began to seek a removal of the non-commercial educational status which restricted the WQEX license as early as 1996, with the intention of selling the secondary UHF station outright in the hope that an infusion of cash would solve some of the financial woes of the main station. WQED's initial application to take WQEX commercial was rejected outright by the Federal Communications Commission,{{cite web |url=http://www.current.org/ptv/ptv614q.html |title=FCC won't allow dereservation of WQEX Pittsburgh, Current, Aug. 5, 1996 |publisher=Current.org |access-date=November 28, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120213005421/http://www.current.org/ptv/ptv614q.html |archive-date=February 13, 2012 |url-status=dead }} leaving it to pursue an alternate plan by which the station was almost sold to religious broadcaster Cornerstone Television in 1999. The original plan was to move WPCB-TV from channel 40 (a commercial license) to channel 16 (non-commercial educational WQEX), with Paxson Communications buying channel 40 and converting it to a Pax TV affiliate with the call letters WKPX-TV.{{cite news|last=Owen|first=Rob|title=Pax TV wants to be on the air in Pittsburgh, not up in the air|url=http://www.post-gazette.com/TV/19990715paxtv1.asp|access-date=February 2, 2012|newspaper=Pittsburgh Post-Gazette|date=July 15, 1999}} This move, which would have led to a $35 million payout being split equally between Cornerstone and WQED, was approved conditionally by the FCC in 2000, allegedly after lobbying by Republican Senator John McCain on behalf of Pax president Lowell Paxson,[https://www.nytimes.com/library/politics/camp/010600wh-gop-mccain-text.html McCain's Letter to F.C.C. and Excerpts From Replies], New York Times, January 6, 2000 an intervention which Senator McCain would later deny having made.[https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/02/22/AR2008022202634_pf.html McCain Disputed On 1999 Meeting: Broadcaster Recalls Urging FCC Contact, James V. Grimaldi and Jeffrey H. Birnbaum], Washington Post, February 23, 2008 However, in response to vociferous concerns from members of the Pittsburgh local community,{{cite web|url=http://www.post-gazette.com/tv/19991230fcc2.asp |title=WQEX deal squeaked through FCC in 3–2 vote, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, December 30, 1999 |publisher=Post-gazette.com |date=December 30, 1999 |access-date=November 28, 2011}}{{cite web|url=http://www.postgazette.com/columnists/20000121tony.asp |title=Future dim for WQEX, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Tony Norman, January 21, 2000 |publisher=Postgazette.com |date=January 21, 2000 |access-date=November 28, 2011}} the FCC did impose one condition on the sale: half of Cornerstone's programming needed to be of educational value, effectively respecting the non-commercial educational condition of WQEX's existing license.[https://www.cs.cmu.edu/~smonti/wqex/schneider2.html FCC Says Cornerstone Must Prove it is "Educational", Michael Schneider] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20010711004147/https://www.cs.cmu.edu/~smonti/wqex/schneider2.html |date=July 11, 2001 }}

Cornerstone flatly refused, abruptly backing out of the proposed deal.{{cite web |url=http://www.current.org/ptv/ptv001q.html |title=WQEX deal wins at FCC, loses in the end, George Miles / Jerry Starr, Current, Jan. 24, 2000 |publisher=Current.org |access-date=November 28, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120213005443/http://www.current.org/ptv/ptv001q.html |archive-date=February 13, 2012 |url-status=dead }} Religious programming does not qualify as educational if it is "primarily devoted to religious exhortation, proselytizing or statements of personally held religious views or beliefs," according to the FCC's ruling conditionally allowing religious broadcaster Cornerstone Television to take over WQEX and add educational content to the station. Cornerstone objected to those restrictions, insisting that its religious doctrine required proselytization on most if not all of its programming.{{cite web|url=http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m3169/is_2_40/ai_58529257 |title=Religion Rules Clarified, Television Digest with Consumer Electronics, January 10, 2000 |publisher=Findarticles.com |date=January 10, 2000 |access-date=November 28, 2011}}{{cite web|url=http://www.post-gazette.com/tv/20000120fcc3.asp |title=Deal looks dead, but debate isn't, January 20, 2000, Barbara Vancheri, Post-Gazette |publisher=Post-gazette.com |date=January 20, 2000 |access-date=November 28, 2011}} Although the FCC abruptly reversed its position less than a month later{{cite web|url=http://www.techlawjournal.com/cong106/rel_bcast/20000128.htm |title=FCC Order on Reconsideration of its December 29, 1999 Order on religious broadcasting. Re: Applications for Transfer of Licenses of WQED Pittsburgh and Cornerstone, January 28, 2000 |publisher=Techlawjournal.com |access-date=November 28, 2011}} removing the condition in response to intense political and legislative pressure (mainly from Republican sympathizers with the Religious Right),{{cite web|url=http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m3169/is_/ai_62238288 |title=Bill Protects Religious Broadcasters, Television Digest with Consumer Electronics, May 22, 2000 |publisher=Findarticles.com |date=May 22, 2000 |access-date=November 28, 2011}} Cornerstone withdrew its application and the sale was cancelled, keeping WQEX as a WQED simulcast.{{cite web|url=http://www.post-gazette.com/tv/20000120wqed1.asp |title=WQEX deal falls apart, January 20, 2000, Sally Kalson and Barbara Vancheri, Post-Gazette |publisher=Post-gazette.com |date=January 20, 2000 |access-date=November 28, 2011}}

In July 2002, the FCC abandoned its long-held position on instructional content, removing WQEX's non-commercial educational status outright in response to continued claims of economic hardship by WQED[http://www.thenation.com/doc/20030106/odriscoll The 'Public Interest', Bill O'Driscoll, January 6, 2003], The Nation. – hardships which the station has long blamed not on its own past management practices, but on the local economic situation and the long-term decline of Pittsburgh's industrial base, situations that were plausible in the 1980s and 1990s but had largely subsided by the 2000s.{{cite web|url=http://www.bostonradio.org/nerw/nerw-020722.html |title=WQEX Loses the Asterisk, Scott Fybush, North East RadioWatch: July 22, 2002 |publisher=Bostonradio.org |date=July 22, 2002 |access-date=November 28, 2011}}

From 2004 to March 2007, WQEX brokered much of its airtime to America's Store, a discount shopping channel from the Home Shopping Network, along with repeats of WQED's news magazine, OnQ, on Monday mornings. This was an attempt to use the frequency to generate income for WQED instead of being a redundant facility, in effect making WQEX a for-profit operation.[https://web.archive.org/web/20060227164417/http://www.cipbonline.org/secondary_pages/shopping_network.htm Shopping Network to lease WQEX, April 7, 2004, Rob Owen, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette] In January 2007, America's Store announced it would cease operations on April 3 of that year; WQEX switched its programming to ShopNBC on March 26.{{cite web|url=http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/07076/770164-237.stm |title=TV Notes: WQEX to become ShopNBC, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, March 18, 2007 |publisher=Post-gazette.com |date=March 17, 2007 |access-date=November 28, 2011}} Rumors and actual proposals of a sale of WQEX came up from time to time, the most noteworthy of which was a proposed 2002 sale to Shooting Star Broadcasting, a company headed up by Pittsburgh native and former Shamrock Broadcasting president Diane Sutter, that was never consummated.[http://www.post-gazette.com/tv/20021119wqed1119fnp4.asp "WQEX sale falters, as Sutter backs out"], from Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, November 19, 2002

=Sale to Ion Media=

On November 8, 2010, WQED entered into a deal with Ion Media (the former Paxson Communications) to sell WQEX to Ion for $3 million.[http://www.tvnewscheck.com/article/2010/11/08/46835/ion-buying-wqex-pittsburgh-for-3-million TVNewsCheck.com: "Ion Buing WQEX Pittsburgh for $3 million", November 8, 2010.]{{cite web|url=http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/459634-Ion_to_Buy_WQEX.php |title=Broadcasting & Cable: "Ion to Buy WQEX: "Positively entertaining" network grabs Pittsburgh outlet", November 8, 2010 |publisher=Broadcastingcable.com |date=November 8, 2010 |access-date=November 28, 2011}} The sale was finalized (after FCC approval), on May 2, 2011, at which time the station's call sign changed from WQEX to WINP-TV,{{cite web|url=https://licensing.fcc.gov/cgi-bin/ws.exe/prod/cdbs/forms/prod/cdbsmenu.hts?context=25&appn=101425402&formid=905&fac_num=41314 |title=CDBS Print |publisher=Licensing.fcc.gov |access-date=November 28, 2011}}{{cite web|author=FCC Internet Services Staff |url=http://licensing.fcc.gov/cgi-bin/ws.exe/prod/cdbs/pubacc/prod/call_hist.pl?Facility_id=41314&Callsign=WINP |title=Call Sign History |publisher=Licensing.fcc.gov |access-date=November 28, 2011}} making it the first Ion-owned station without the Pax-era "PX" in its call sign (the calls stand for "Ion Pittsburgh" or, to note one news article on the sale, "Win Pittsburgh Over").[http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10314/1101977-67.stm "WQEX will change to WINP"], from post-gazette.com, October 11, 2010. WINP-TV continued to carry ShopNBC programming to fill the WQEX contractual obligations; however, on October 1, 2011, it began carrying Ion Television on its main channel, with Ion Life and Qubo on subchannels. This is the network's first over-the-air presence in Pittsburgh, the largest media market in which Ion and its predecessors had never had an over-the-air signal (Pittsburgh was the 24th largest television market in the U.S. during 2010–2011, according to AC Nielsen).

After Sinclair Broadcast Group, owner of Fox affiliate WPGH-TV, announced their attempted $3.9 billion purchase of Tribune Media in May 2017,{{cite web|url=https://www.latimes.com/business/hollywood/la-fi-ct-tribune-sinclair-20170508-story.html|title=Sinclair Broadcast Group to buy Tribune Media for $3.9 billion plus debt|last=Battaglio|first=Stephen|work=Los Angeles Times|date=May 8, 2017|access-date=May 8, 2017}}{{cite web|title=Sinclair Reportedly Near Deal to Buy Tribune Media|url=https://variety.com/2017/tv/news/sinclair-tribune-media-acquisition-1202411524/|last=Stedman|first=Alex|work=Variety|date=May 7, 2017|access-date=May 10, 2017}} reports emerged of Fox Television Stations negotiating with Ion Media to create a joint venture that could potentially turn WINP-TV and other Ion-owned stations into replacement Fox affiliates.{{cite web|url=https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-08-02/fox-is-said-in-talks-with-ion-media-to-operate-local-tv-stations|title=Fox in Talks With Ion Media to Operate Local TV Stations, Source Says|last=Sakoui|first=Anousha|work=Bloomberg|date=August 2, 2017|access-date=August 3, 2017}} The negotiations were rendered moot by October 2017 after Ion elected its stations to have must-carry status over cable instead of through retransmission consent.{{Cite web|url=http://www.broadcastingcable.com/news/washington/analyst-ion-could-still-get-retrans-fox-stations/169467|title = Analyst: Ion Could Still Get Retrans for Fox Stations|date = October 18, 2017}}

=Sale to Scripps=

On September 24, 2020, the Cincinnati-based E. W. Scripps Company announced it would purchase Ion Media Networks for $2.65 billion, with financing from Berkshire Hathaway.{{Cite press release|url=https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/scripps-creates-national-television-networks-business-with-acquisition-of-ion-media-301137357.html|title = Scripps creates national television networks business with acquisition of ION Media}}{{Cite web|url=https://www.foxbusiness.com/markets/e-w-scripps-nears-2-65b-takeover-of-ion-media-in-berkshire-backed-deal|title = E.W. Scripps nears $2.65B takeover of ION Media in Berkshire-backed deal|website = Fox Business|date = September 24, 2020}} With this purchase, Scripps divested 23 Ion-owned stations. The divestitures allowed the merged company to fully comply with the FCC local and national ownership regulations. The sale was completed on January 7, 2021.

Ultimately, Scripps decided to keep WINP-TV, marking one of Scripps' first broadcasting properties in Pennsylvania (alongside existing sister stations WPPX-TV in Philadelphia and WQPX-TV in Wilkes-BarreScranton), as well as a return to the Pittsburgh market after a near-30-year absence when Scripps sold the publication rights to The Pittsburgh Press to Block Communications (owners of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette) during a publication strike that ultimately saw the Press shut down completely.

In October 2021, Scripps notified the FCC it had closed local facilities for WINP-TV and other Ion Media stations (with those in duopoly markets having their operations consolidated with existing Scripps stations), and consolidated the regulatory 'studios' for all of the stations at Scripps Center in Cincinnati where Scripps and WCPO-TV are headquartered. The network's operations remain based out of West Palm Beach.{{cite news|url=https://www.northpine.com/blog/2021/10/31/fcc-crtc-monitor/|title=FCC/CRTC Monitor: New FM Signal in Brainerd, New LPTV in Fargo|last=Ellis|first=Jon|date=October 31, 2021|publisher=Northpine|access-date=November 2, 2021}}

Technical information

=Subchannels=

The station's signal is multiplexed:

class="wikitable"

|+Subchannels of WINP-TV{{Cite web|url=https://www.rabbitears.info/market.php?request=station_search&callsign=WINP|title=RabbitEars TV Query for WINP|website=RabbitEars.info|access-date=January 8, 2025}}

! scope = "col" | Channel

! scope = "col" | Res.

! scope = "col" | Aspect

! scope = "col" | Short name

! scope = "col" | Programming

scope = "row" | 16.1

| rowspan=2|720p || rowspan="8" |16:9 || ION || Ion Television

scope = "row" | 16.2

| Bounce || Bounce TV

scope = "row" | 16.3

| rowspan="6" |480i || Mystery|| Ion Mystery

scope = "row" | 16.4

| IONPlus || Ion Plus

scope = "row" | 16.5

| BUSTED || Busted

scope = "row" | 16.6

| GameSho || Game Show Central

scope = "row" | 16.7

| QVC || QVC

scope = "row" | 16.8

| HSN || HSN

=Analog-to-digital conversion=

WINP (as WQEX) shut down its analog signal, over UHF channel 16, on February 17, 2009, the original target date on which full-power television stations in the United States were to transition from analog to digital broadcasts under federal mandate; the deadline had later been extended to June 12.{{cite web |last=Togyer |first=Jason |url=http://pbrtv.com/blog/entry_902.php#comm |title=Pittsburgh Radio & TV Online – D-Day, part 1 |publisher=Pbrtv.com |access-date=November 28, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090311041118/http://pbrtv.com/blog/entry_902.php#comm |archive-date=March 11, 2009 |url-status=dead }}

Sometime between April 1 and the new June 12 deadline, the station moved its digital signal from its pre-transition UHF channel 26 to channel 38;{{cite web|url=http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DA-06-1082A2.pdf |title=DTV Tentative Channel Designations for the First and Second Rounds |access-date=March 24, 2012 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130829004251/http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DA-06-1082A2.pdf |archive-date=August 29, 2013 }}{{Cite web |title=Access Denied |url=http://fjallfoss.fcc.gov/prod/cdbs/forms/prod/getattachment_exh.cgi?exhibit_id=619184}}{{cite web|url=http://fjallfoss.fcc.gov/cgi-bin/ws.exe/prod/cdbs/forms/prod/cdbsmenu.hts?context=25&appn=101233579&formid=387&fac_num=59442 |title=CDBS Print |publisher=Fjallfoss.fcc.gov |access-date=November 28, 2011}} channel 38 was used for the digital signal of now-former sister station WQED until April 1 after the end of its annual PBS pledge drive in March.{{cite web |last=Brien |first=Eric O |url=http://pbrtv.com/blog/entry_890.php |title=Pittsburgh Radio & TV Online – WQED joins list of delayed |publisher=Pbrtv.com |date=February 7, 2009 |access-date=November 28, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120220085649/http://pbrtv.com/blog/entry_890.php |archive-date=February 20, 2012 |url-status=dead }} The early signoff for WQED gave the station time to move its own digital signal to channel 13. Digital television receivers display WINP's virtual channel as its former UHF analog channel 16. WQEX was one of three stations in the Pittsburgh market to shut down their analog signals on the original transition date, alongside the Sinclair Broadcast Group duopoly of WPGH-TV and WPMY.

References