WTNH

WTNH, virtual channel 8, is an ABC-affiliated television station located in New Haven, Connecticut. The station is owned by Media General, as part of a duopoly with MyNetworkTV-affiliate WCTX (channel 59). The two stations share studios on Elm Street in downtown New Haven, and WTNH broadcasts from a transmitter located in Hamden, Connecticut.

History

Local pioneer

WTNH first went on the air on June 15, 1948, as WNHC-TV, originally broadcasting on channel 6. The station was founded by the Elm City Broadcasting Corporation, owners of WNHC radio (1340 AM, now WYBC; and 99.1 FM, now WPLR). The station is Connecticut's oldest television outlet and the second-oldest in the New England region (WBZ-TV in Boston signed on less than a week earlier).

WNHC-TV was originally an affiliate of the DuMont Television Network, and claims to have been the first full-time station of that short-lived network. The station broadcast from WNHC radio's building on Chapel Street in downtown New Haven. However, with no studio facilities of its own, it could not produce local programming. For a time, WNHC-TV simply rebroadcast the signal of DuMont's New York City flagship, WABD (now WNYW). In October 1948 the station added CBS programming to its schedule, and additional secondary affiliations with NBC and ABC followed a year later. The station was the first station in the country to use videotape for local programming and one of the first to broadcast in color.