WHAR

WHAR is a non-commercial educational independent station in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, broadcasting on Channel 89, owned by the City of Harrisburg.

History
The City of Harrisburg, which was one of the United States' first municipalities to enter into broadcasting with the 1924 sign-on of WHAR radio, was granted a construction permit to build a new commercial television station in 1954. Seven years later, on November 5, 1961, WHAR took to the air for the first time. Through the Municipal Broadcasting System, which held the channel 89 license, the City (led by then-mayor Claude R. Robins) and the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) used WHAR as an experiment to determine the viability of ultra-high frequency (UHF) broadcasts within an urban environment. Some of the early programming on WHAR included simulcasts of New York's existing commercial VHF stations; educational films produced by WHAR's Television Film Unit, established in 1949; college-level distance learning telecourses; and, reportedly, a nightly rundown of the Harrisburg Police Department's "wanted" criminals list. The experiment was carried out through the installation of UHF receivers in several hundred test homes, public schools and businesses, with reception monitored by FCC and City engineers.

After a year of test broadcasting was deemed successful, full control of WHAR was then transferred to the City. The station became a full-time operation on November 5, 1962. Though the channel 89 license was classified as commercial, WHAR was operated as a non-commercial station. Some of the programming from the experimental period continued, and now included live broadcasts of the United Nations' General Assembly meetings. As a municipally-owned station, WHAR also devoted airtime to shows focused on civic affairs, along with other public-interest programs. The station also carried (and still does carry) some programming from National Educational Television (NET) and its successor, the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS), but later increasingly ran more independent educational television programs. Since 1962, WHAR runs a 15-minute newscast on weekdays, called News from City Hall (later called News City and expanded to 30 minutes), highlighting the day's events in municipal government.

During the 1990's, Firehouse Broadcasting, the owners of WDOSP, operated the station under contract.

Channel 89 also leases blocks of airtime to foreign-language broadcasters, domestic broadcasters, entertainment companies, and international studios. In the 1990s, among the largest providers of foreign programming were Japan's Fujisankei Communications Group, which aired a morning show on weekdays, Spanish animation studio D'Ocon Films Productions, which aired Sylvan and The Fruitties during children's programming blocks, Canadian studio Nelvana, which licensed some of it's large-amounts of programming to the channel, the Walt Disney Company, which supplied Welcome to Pooh Corner and Dumbo's Circus, along with the Disney Afternoon schedule, for Saturday mornings, and RAI, the Italian public broadcaster which programmed two hours on weeknights, and five hours on Sunday mornings, a period which included airings of Italian soccer games.