WNHT (TV) - History

History

WNHT began broadcasting on April 16, 1984. At that time, the station was running a business news format during the day and off network sitcoms, drama shows and movies at night. In the fall of 1985 business news was dropped, and WNHT ran an independent schedule in competition with WNDS (now WBIN-TV). The station's programming consisted of drama shows, movies, first-run syndicated shows, and sitcoms, but no cartoons. After just three months, the owners sold WNHT to The Flatley Company, a broadcaster owned by Boston real estate developer Thomas Flatley.

Unfortunately, the ratings were very low, so by 1986 the station moved into a more traditional independent schedule, adding a few cartoons to the lineup. By then ratings were decent and the station was profitable.

Manchester is 40 miles (64 km) from Boston, while Concord is about 55 miles (89 km). While southern New Hampshire is considered part of the Boston market, it had and still has its own ABC station, WMUR Channel 9. Boston VHF stations had grade A signals in Manchester and Grade B signals in Concord, while the UHF stations had grade B signals in Manchester but spotty signals in Concord. It was thought that Manchester/Concord/Portsmouth could break away from Boston and become its own market. At the start of 1988, this area had its own ABC station, WNDS, WNHT, PBS / New Hampshire Public Television outlet WENH (channel 11), and WGOT (channel 60) which just began operation. If this area were to break away from Boston, it would rank in the top 100 of all U.S. television markets. After much research it was thought that the area could use a CBS affiliate.

With that in mind, WNHT became a CBS affiliate on February 1, 1988. Except for Star Trek, off-network syndicated reruns disappeared, while talk shows like Phil Donahue and Oprah Winfrey remained. On May 28, WNHT added local newscasts at 6:30 a.m., 12 p.m., 5 p.m., 6 p.m. and 11 p.m. However, the station failed to lure local CBS viewers away from WNEV (now NBC affiliate WHDH) and WGME-TV, two established CBS stations in the neighboring markets which both reached Concord even without cable coverage. The cable systems in southeastern New Hampshire carried WNHT, while the systems in western and northern New Hampshire did not. Cable systems also carried at least WNEV, while many others also carried WGME. Worse, there were no syndex or must-carry laws compelling cable systems to black out the other CBS affiliates. Even if there were, WNEV still would have had a grade B signal in the Concord area.

With ratings continuing to disappoint, at the end of 1988 the station laid off a few people in hopes of cutting payroll. By March 1989, the morning, midday, and 5 p.m. newscasts ended, leaving only the 6 and 11 p.m. newscasts. Even those moves did not make WNHT more profitable.

On March 31, 1989, Flatley informed station staff in a meeting that the station would go off the air at midnight that night due to its continuing poor ratings and financial problems. According to an article in the Union-Leader newspaper, Flatley compared this decision to the one where he had to put to sleep his terminally ill German shepherd. That afternoon, viewers started seeing this message on the bottom of the screen: "IT IS WITH REGRET THAT WE ANNOUNCE THAT WNHT WILL BE LEAVING THE AIR PERMANENTLY TONIGHT AT MIDNIGHT."

That night, the newscasts were replaced by reruns of Three's Company. As threatened, WNHT went off the air at midnight, even though Pat Sajak's talk show was still on the air at that moment.

After a sale attempt to "Rogue Television Corporation" (a joint venture of Boston Phoenix owner and publisher Steve Mindich and WHRC (now WWDP) part-owner Michael C. Mooney) in 1990-91 fell through, the WNHT license was sold to Wilson Hickham's New England Television (no relation to the David Mugar company who, ironically, owned former competitor WNEV/WHDH-TV) in 1991, and again to Boston University in 1993, who reactivated the station as WNBU in 1995. The station is now WPXG, a relay of ION Television affiliate WBPX, from Boston, Massachusetts. (That station is the former WABU, of which WNBU served as its southern New Hampshire satellite station.)