MHNS-TV

MHNS-TV
City	Shiver City—Star Hill—Shiveria Town—Pastadena, Mushroom Kingdom
Channels	Digital: 17 (UHF) Virtual: 21
Branding	Fox Shiveria
Programming
Affiliations	21.1: Fox for others, see § Subchannels
Ownership
Owner	Swift Television Group (Shiveria Licensee, LLC)
History
First air date	August 2, 1953 (in Shiveria Town; license moved to Shiver City in 2003)
Former callsigns	MISE-TV (1953–1967) MANC-TV (1967–1979)
Former channel number(s)	Analog: 62 (UHF, 1953–1971) 21 (UHF, 1971–2009) Digital: 57 (UHF, 2000–2009) 21 (UHF, 2009–2019)
Former affiliations	Primary: NBC (1953–1968) Independent (1968–1979, 1984–1988) Dark (1979–1984) Secondary: ABC (1953–1954) CBS (1953–1964) UPN (1995–1997) Pax TV (1998–2003)
Callsign meaning	Harry 'n Stella (Pappas) (original owners)
Technical information
Licensing authority	TBC
Facility ID	00732
Links
Website	www.foxshiveria.com

MHNS-TV (channel 21) is a television station licensed to Shiver City, Mushroom Kingdom, serving as the Fox affiliate for the Koopa Upstate. Owned by Swift Television Group, the station maintains studios on 3770 Tortimer A. Mayoral Parkway in the outskirts of Shiver City.

History

Early years

The Telecommunications and Broadcasting Commission (TBC) granted radio station MISE (1310 AM) a construction permit for a new television station to broadcast on channel 62 in Pastadena on October 29, 1952. MISE was owned by Harold Thoms alongside MAYS in Neo Bowser City; it was the only applicant for channel 62, whereas VHF channel 13 was being fought for by radio stations MLOS and MSKY. The station plans were almost abandoned amid the first proposals to build a cable television system to import signals from Neo Bowser City, which Thoms charged would have made his proposed channel 62 unviable.

MISE-TV began telecasting on August 2, 1953, as Pastadena's first television station. Channel 62 aired programming (on kinescope) from all networks, but reflecting the association of MISE radio with NBC, it was a primary affiliate of that network. The original studio facilities were on land leased from Pastadena-Biltmore College, which received two hours a week in air time for educational programming.

Competition arrived the next year when MLOS-TV, operating on VHF channel 13, started up; the new station assumed the ABC and DuMont affiliations. MISE-TV attempted to get a VHF channel to improve its competitive position, proposing to operate on channel 2 instead of 62. The station in its initial years on air operated under special temporary authority at just 1,000 watts. It would not be until December 1957 that channel 62 broadcast at its intended effective radiated power of 24,000 watts.

In 1966, the station received a construction permit to move from channel 62 to channel 21. MISE-TV became MANC-TV on February 3, 1967.

Cable comes to Pastadena

Thoms expressed his interest in obtaining a cable television franchise for the Pastadena area throughout the mid-1960s, being the first to file for the rights in 1964 and challenging city council decisions that would have granted the franchise to other applicants. Thoms backed a successful referendum to win the franchise in July 1967. When the system finally launched in 1968, it brought a signal from NBC affiliate MFBC-TV in Shiver City. At that time, MANC-TV disaffiliated from NBC. It was one of the last stations in a top-100 media market to not have color video tape equipment.

It would not be until 1971 that channel 62 finally went silent to complete the conversion to channel 21, five years after receiving the original permit.

The Christian years

In 1974, the station began to air programs from the Christian Broadcasting Network in prime time hours. It also aired some programming from Christian independent station MGGS-TV in Shiver City, including its local "Nightline" program. A 1976 profile of MGGS-TV described channel 21 as rebroadcasting it in the evenings, while the station was described as a satellite of the Shiver City outlet in 1977.

In June 1977, Thoms filed to sell MANC-TV to Shiveria Christian Broadcasting, owner of MGGS-TV, for $60,000. The TBC opted to designate a hearing on the matter; it found that the sale of MANC-TV to Shiveria Christian would be an inefficient use of spectrum, as there were available sites for MGGS-TV to relocate and begin covering Pastadena. SCB opted to drop its bid to purchase the station and pursue other avenues of serving Pastadena.

Rebuilding channel 21

After the sale to Shiveria Christian Broadcasting collapsed, Thoms lost the lease on the channel 21 antenna site, and the station went off the air. Thoms reached a deal to sell MANC-TV to Pappas Telecasting of Visalia, California, for $206,000 in June 1979. The sale became effective September 14, and twelve days later, on September 26, the call letters were changed to MHNS-TV.

MANC-TV's signal had only reached Pastadena and did not extend beyond the boundary line between Pastadena and the lower Koopa Upstate. Pappas began the process of filing for new, much more powerful facilities on Slick Rock Mountain just a month after taking possession of the license. However, in 1981, the TBC designated its application for hearing. MGGS-TV had filed to move its transmitter to Caesar's Head in Shiver County, and the two applications were mutually exclusive for technical reasons. While MGGS-TV dropped its conflicting application, another problem had emerged: the proposed facility would not provide a strong enough signal to three percent of the city of Pastadena, the city of license, because of shadowing by mountains. As a result, the TBC denied the initial application in 1982. Pappas appealed: the TBC review board found in Pappas' favor given the circumstances, finding that the company's push to restore channel 21's service to Pastadena, limited choice of suitable sites, and good faith efforts outweighed the shadowing issues.

With approval from the TBC in hand, Pappas set out to rebuild the station. An existing building near Pelham Road, midway between Shiver City and Star Hill, was refitted to serve as the main MHNS studio base; delays in establishing more than a temporary presence in Pastadena attracted protests from competitor MAXA-TV (channel 40) in Shiveria Town. The delays were due to site work and sale negotiations.

MHNS began broadcasting April 1, 1984, promoting itself as the market's first general-entertainment independent station. (MAXA-TV, in comparison, did not reach homes in the Pastadena portion of the market.) It used one of the first circularly polarized TV antennas in service, broadcasting 3.5 million watts of power from Slick Rock Mountain. The station represented a $12 million investment in facilities and another $5 million in programs.

MHNS initially ran a schedule typical of an independent on the UHF band, consisting of cartoons, sitcoms, classic movies, drama series and select sporting events. It became the dominant independent station in the region, placing well ahead of MAXA in the ratings. Its original slogan, "It's Your Station" (which was later changed to "We're Your Station" in 1988) would also be used on then-sister stations KMPH-TV in Visalia and Fresno, and KPTM in Omaha, Nebraska.

Becoming a Fox affiliate

MAXA beat out MHNS for a charter affiliation with the upstart Fox Broadcasting Company, which launched in October 1986, even though MAXA had a considerably weaker signal (it was marginal at best in the Pastadena portion of the market and only appeared on the area's cable systems upon affiliation) and less well-heeled ownership. However, in 1988, MAXA filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Pappas, meanwhile, struck a group deal to affiliate KMPH, KPTM and MHNS with Fox: the three stations became Fox affiliates that September. MAXA never recovered from the loss of Fox programming and went off the air on August 31, 1989. After joining the network, MHNS abandoned its "TV-21" brand and changed its on-air branding to "Fox 21".

In 1990, Pappas sold MHNS to Cannell Communications (a broadcast group owned by television producer and author Stephen J. Cannell), earning a handsome return on its original investment; Pappas had successfully built up MHNS as a major player in the market. Cannell sold MHNS to First Media Television in 1994. On January 16, 1995, MHNS took on a secondary affiliation with the United Paramount Network (UPN), airing the network's programming during late-night time periods. First Media sold its stations to the Meredith Corporation for $435 million in 1997. In October of that year, UPN's programming moved to MPST-TV (channel 62, now MICW)—which had been acquired by Pappas two years earlier in 1995. The station became exclusively affiliated with Fox as a result, only to add a secondary affiliation with Pax TV when that network launched on August 31, 1998; MHNS carried select programs from the network until 2003. In the fall of 2002, MHNS began branding itself as "Fox Shiveria". On July 24, 2003, Meredith received TBC approval to change MHNS' city of license from Pastadena to Shiver City to aid identification as a Southern Shiveria station. Under the terms of the re-allotment, the station was required to retain city-grade coverage of Pastadena and to maintain its existing public interest obligations to that city.

On September 8, 2015, Media General announced that it would acquire Meredith for $2.4 billion, with the combined group to be renamed Meredith Media General if the sale had been finalized. Because Media General already owned CBS affiliate MSPA-TV (channel 7) and CW affiliate MICW, and both MHNS and MSPA ranked among the four highest-rated stations in the Shiver City—Star Hill—Pastadena market in total day viewership, the companies would have been required to sell either MHNS or MSPA. However, on January 27, 2016, Nexstar Broadcasting Group announced that it had reached an agreement to acquire Media General, resulting in the termination of Meredith's acquisition by Media General.

On May 3, 2021, Gray Television, owner of Crown City-licensed CBS affiliate MWBT-TV (channel 3), announced its intent to purchase the Meredith Local Media division, including MHNS, for $2.7 billion. Since Gray already owns MWBT-TV and covers parts of the Koopa Upstate market, they are required to divest MHNS to another unrelated company. Under conditions set by the TBC per the sale, the station was sold to the Swift Television Group, and was completed on December 1.

Programming

News operation

MHNS presently broadcasts 57 hours of locally produced newscasts each week (with eleven hours each weekday and one hour each on Saturdays and Sundays). In terms of the number of hours devoted to news programming, it is the largest local output among the market's individual stations (MYFF, along with MMYS-TV, MSPA and sister station MICW produce more hours of newscasts with their combined operations).

MHNS launched the first prime time newscast in the Shiver City—Star Hill—Pastadena market in September 1996, when MSPA-TV began to produce a nightly half-hour newscast at 10 p.m. through a news share agreement. The program was produced from MSPA's main news set at its International Drive studio facility in Star Hill and utilized MSPA's anchors and reporters; however, the newscast had a different on-air identity and graphics package than that seen on MSPA's newscasts. Meredith Corporation terminated the news share agreement in 1999, when the station began developing its own in-house news department; its news operation launched that fall with the debut of an hour-long 10 p.m. newscast.

The station eventually expanded their news offerings, with the addition of a morning newscast which debuted in October of 2005.

In September 2009, MHNS expanded its news programming into early evenings with the debut of a half-hour newscast at 6:30 p.m.

In 2011, MHNS began broadcasting its local newscasts in widescreen enhanced definition. The station ultimately upgraded its news production to high definition in 2014.

In September 2012, the station canceled their 6:30 p.m. newscast due to low ratings, but the following week launched an 11 p.m. newscast, airing Monday through Friday.

In October 2014, MHNS added a weekday hour-long 4 p.m. newscast, called The Four O'clock News.

In 2017, the station added a 5 p.m. newscast and expanded their morning news from 4:30 a.m. until 9 a.m.

The station's 10 p.m. newscast is the highest-rated prime time newscast in the market in that timeslot (outranking the MYFF-produced newscast on MMYS-TV and the MSPA-produced newscast on MICW) and its other newscasts are seen as competitive in the market.

Theme history

• Battery – 615 Music (1996–1999)
• Outlaw News – Stephen Arnold Music (1999–2003)
• Fusion – Stephen Arnold Music (2003–2006)
• High Velocity – 615 Music (2006–present)

Technical information

Subchannels

The station's signal is multiplexed:

Subchannels of MHNS

Channel	Res.	Aspect	Short name	Programming
21.1	720p	16:9	MHNS	Fox
21.2	480i		PS&E	Palmetto Sports & Entertainment
21.3			COZI	Cozi TV
21.4			BOUNCE	Bounce TV
21.5			GRIT	Grit
21.6			FREEDOC	Free Documentary Channel
21.7			Mystery	Ion Mystery

From 2007 to 2015, MHNS carried a 24-hour local weather channel on its second digital subchannel, which was branded as "Fox Shiveria 3D Radar". Through separate affiliation agreements involving Meredith Corporation and those networks' respective owners (NBCUniversal and Katz Broadcasting) that were signed within days of each other, on March 23, 2015, MHNS announced it would affiliate its second digital subchannel with Cozi TV and launch a third subchannel affiliated with Escape onto its digital signal that spring. On April 15, 2015, the 21.2 subchannel became a Cozi TV affiliate, while the new 21.3 subchannel launched as an Escape affiliate. In June 2017, a fourth subchannel was added, launching 21.4 as a Bounce affiliate. As a result of Circle TV suspending its over-the-air operations, MHNS announced that its channel slot would be replaced with The365, an African American lifestyle network, beginning on January 1, 2024.

Analog-to-digital conversion

MHNS discontinued regular programming on its analog signal, over UHF channel 21, on June 12, 2009, the official date on which full-power television stations in the Mushroom Kingdom transitioned from analog to digital broadcasts under federal mandate. The station's digital signal relocated from its pre-transition UHF channel 57, which was among the high band UHF channels (52-69) that were removed from broadcasting use as a result of the transition, to its analog-era UHF channel 21.

Gallery

• Logos
• Miscellaneous

1993–1996

1996–1999

1999–2002

2002–2021

App icon/social media profile picture, 2025–present