WJHG-TV

WJHG-TV(channel 7) is atelevision stationinPanama City, Florida,United States, affiliated withNBC.It is owned byGray Televisionalongsidelow-powerdualCBS/MyNetworkTVaffiliateWECP-LD(channel 21). The two stations share studios on Front Beach Road/SR 30inPanama City Beach;WJHG-TV's transmitter is located onSR 20inunincorporatedYoungstown, Florida.

WJHG-TV

Panama City, Florida United States
Channels	Digital:16 (UHF) Virtual:7
Branding	NewsChannel 7
Programming
Affiliations	7.1:NBC 7.3:CBS for others, see§ Subchannels
Ownership
Owner	Gray Television (Gray Television Licensee,LLC)
Sister stations	WECP-LD
History
First air date	December 1, 1953(1953-12-01)
Former call signs	WJDM-TV (1953–1960)
Former channel number(s)	Analog:7 (VHF,1953–2009) Digital:8 (VHF, 2004–2009), 7 (VHF, 2009–2015), 18 (UHF, 2015–2019)
Former affiliations	Independent(1953) NBC (1953–1972) DuMont(secondary, 1953–1955) CBS (secondary, 1953–1961) ABC(secondary 1953–1972, primary 1972–1982) UPN(secondary, 1998–2006) The CW Plus(DT2, 2006–2023)
Call signmeaning	James Harrison Gray, the founder of Gray Television
Technical information
Licensing authority	FCC
Facility ID	73136
ERP	1,000kW
HAAT	410.9 m (1,348 ft)
Transmitter coordinates	30°21′8″N85°23′28″W
Links
Public license information	Public file LMS
Website	www.wjhg

History

WJHG went on the air December 1, 1953, as WJDM-TV; it was owned by localbusinessmanJ. D. Manley. The station became known by many people as "Wait Just a Darn Minute" (a play on itscall letters) because it would frequently go off the air with technical problems.

At first, WJDM-TV aired local programming such as church services andwrestlingand operated as anIndependent stationbefore securing a primary affiliation with NBC and secondary affiliations with CBS andABC.Mel Wheeler purchased the station in 1957, and in 1960,James Harrison Gray,the founder of Gray Communications (now Gray Television) bought the station and changed the call letters to the current WJHG-TV after his initials. It was the second television station in Gray's portfolio, afterWALB-TVinAlbany, Georgia.

WJHG dropped CBS in the 1960s afterWTVYinDothan, Alabama,became the default CBS affiliate for Panama City as well. That station's transmitter (inBethlehem, Florida) is technically located in the Panama Citymedia market,even though its primary coverage area is theWiregrass Regionof southeastern Alabama. On August 1, 1972, WJHG, along with then-sister stationKTVEinEl Dorado, Arkansas,switched its primary affiliation to ABC, leaving the area without a primary NBC affiliate until WDTB (nowWMBB) began in 1973 as the NBC affiliate.In 1982, WMBB and WJHG switched networks; WJHG returned to NBC.

In 1998, WJHG was almost sold when the Phipps family soldWCTVinTallahasseeto Gray Communications. Gray would have been forced to seek a waiver from theFederal Communications Commission(FCC) to keep both WJHG and WCTV under pre-1996 ownership rules because WJHG's grade B signal covers the extreme western parts of the Tallahassee market. The 1996Telecommunications Actallowed for overlapping fringe signals, so Gray was able to keep both stations. Instead, Gray ended up selling its then-flagship station, WALB-TV in Albany, Georgia, because its city-grade signal overlapped that of WCTV's in the southwestern Georgia portion of the Tallahassee market. Even after the 1996 reforms, the FCC was not willing to even consider a waiver for a city-grade overlap. From 1998 to 2006, despiteWPCTbeing aUPNaffiliate until 2001, WJHG began airing UPN programming on a secondary basis, airing UPN programs in the late hours. This would continue until UPN and The WB merged operations in 2006 to form The CW, despite Panama City once again gaining its own UPN station whenWBIFswitched to UPN fromPaxin 2004.

In 2002, Gray bought most ofBenedek Broadcasting's stations. This included WTVY, whose transmitter provides a signal that covers all the way fromFort Walton Beach, Florida,toTroy, Alabama.By this time, signal contours were no longer an issue and Gray could keep both stations. Since both stations had traditionally been available oncablein both the Dothan and Panama City area, and have the same ownership, WJHG has run WTVY stories that take place in those parts of northwestern Florida that are in northern part of the Panama City market. Meanwhile, WTVY has run WJHG stories focusing on Panama City and the coast. Sometimes, WTVY will run its own stories on Panama City but WJHG did not cover Dothan at all (Southeastern Alabama's default NBC affiliate wasWSFAfromMontgomery). Gray launched low-poweredWRGX-LDas a Dothan-based NBC affiliate on June 1, 2013, ending WJHG's availability in the Dothan market.

Circle 7 logo

Logo used between 2001 and 2018; the "circle 7" dates from 1994.

The station used a "Circle 7"logo as far back as the 1950s without objection from ABC, pre-dating the introduction of the now-common variation to itsowned stationsin 1962. At some point, however, the network trademarked said logo for exclusive use by itsowned-and-operated stationsthat shared the channel 7 dial position in several major television markets across the nation, with some channel 7 ABC affiliates also directly licensing the logo. In 1982, when Gray Communications switched WJHG's network affiliation to NBC, ABC ordered WJHG to cease using the logo.Station managerRay H. Holloway produced archival film and still photographs that showed the local station had been using the "Circle 7" logo longer than the network.

To bring the matter to a satisfactory conclusion, the station elected to modify the logo. The modification was minor (the bottom of the circle was left open) but enough to pacify the network's executives, who were upset over the station's decision to "defect" to NBC. However, there are non-ABC stations still using designs similar to the Circle 7 logo including two ofSunbeam Television's stations, independent stationWHDHin Boston andFoxaffiliateWSVNin Miami.

On June 6, 2018, WJHG-TV underwent its most significant logo change yet, finally dropping the "Circle 7" logo after almost four decades.

News operation

WJHG presently broadcasts32+7⁄8hours of locally produced newscasts each week (with5+1⁄4hours each weekday, one hour on Saturdays and1+7⁄8hours on Sundays); in addition, the station produces five hours of newscasts for sister station WECP-LD (at noon and 5:30 p.m. each weekday). The combined news operation results in over 37 hours of newscasts each week.

On June 28, 2010, WJHG began broadcasting their newscasts in16:9enhanced definitionwidescreen.

Notable former on-air staff

• Jake Bell– sports anchor/reporter, feature reporter (2000–2002)
• Kristen Berset– anchor/producer (now atWUSAinWashington, D.C.)
• Earl Hutto– news/sports anchor (1960s–70s; retired U.S. Congressman; deceased)
• Shepard Smith– anchor/reporter (later atFox News,now atCNBC)
• David Steele– sports anchor (mid 1970s; now withBally Sports Sunand theNBA'sOrlando Magic)

Technical information

Subchannels

The station's signal ismultiplexed:

Subchannels of WJHG-TV

Channel	Res.	Aspect	Short name	Programming
7.1	1080i	16:9	WJHG-HD	NBC
7.2	720p		MeTV	MeTV
7.3	480i		CBS SD	CBS(WECP-LD) inSD
7.4	480i		ION	Ion Television
7.5			DABL	Dabl
7.6			Circle	The365
7.7			COZI	COZI TV

Simulcast of subchannels of another station

Analog-to-digital conversion

WJHG-TV shut down its analog signal, overVHFchannel 7, on February 17, 2009, the original target date on which full-power television stations in the United States were totransition from analog to digital broadcastsunder federal mandate (which was later pushed back to June 12, 2009). The station's digital signal relocated from its pre-transition VHF channel 8 to channel 7.On December 19, 2012, WJHG received aconstruction permitto move from VHF channel 7 toUHFchannel 18 (previously occupied by Panama City sister station WECP).WJHG's move to digital channel 18 (retaining virtual 7) and WECP's to channel 29 (virtual 18) took place on May 21, 2015, with the FCC issuing the station's license on June 5, 2015.

Sometime in 2019, WJHG-TV changed frequencies from RF channel 18 to RF channel 16 as part of the FCC'sspectrum repack.

External links

• Official website