WYBE - History

History

Channel 35 in Philadelphia was previously occupied by WHYY-TV starting in 1957, which later moved its city of license and frequency to channel 12 in nearby Wilmington, Delaware in 1963. For several years afterward, WHYY continued to operate channel 35, under the call letters WUHY-TV, mostly using it to run instructional programming on school days. By 1975 WHYY had stopped operating the UHF station, and eventually returned its license to the FCC. In the 1980s the channel 35 frequency was used by W35AB, a translator relaying Univision programming from WXTV, while the FCC evaluated applications for a new permanent licensee. The translator ultimately moved to channel 28 and evolved into WFPA-CA. WYBE, the new permanent licensee on 35, began broadcasting on June 1, 1990.

From 1998 until 2004, the organization was led by Sherri Hope Culver, formerly of the New Jersey Network (NJN). During this period, WYBE moved into a new facility; shifted from analog to digital television, and focused on original productions, such as Culture Trek (a series of three specials, followed US teenagers as they pursued projects with local teens in Costa Rica, Ireland, and Jamaica), The Neighbors Project, The Tolerance Project (which addressed race, sexual orientation and religion) The station also featured a nightly talk show, Philly Live, which was later restructured into five different talk shows: Gente (Hispanic), Shades of Opinion (African-American), Asian Outlook, Global Lens and Out Loud (LGBT). Most of WYBE's programs are syndicated programs from American Public Television and NETA. Several of these programs won national Telly Awards, Emmy nominations and a special screening at the Philadelphia International Gay & Lesbian Film Festival. The WYBE World Heritage Council Initiative supports Philadelphia's diverse ethnic communities, funded by the William Penn Foundation.

Since 2005, WYBE was led by Howard Blumenthal, who also served simultaneously as Executive Director of NJN from 2009-2010.