WMHT (TV)


WMHT, virtual channel 17, is a Public Broadcasting Service member television station licensed to Schenectady, New York, United States and serving New York's Capital District as well as Berkshire County, Massachusetts. Owned by WMHT Educational Telecommunications, it is a sister station to National Public Radio member WMHT-FM. The two stations share studios in the Rensselaer Technology Park in North Greenbush and transmitter facilities in the Helderberg Escarpment in New Scotland.
WMHT operates digital translator W23ER-D in Poughkeepsie. The translator's ownership was transferred from Dutchess Community College to WMHT in the late 2000s.

History

The Mohawk-Hudson Council on Educational Television was formed in 1953, through financial support from commercial station WRGB, its then-parent company General Electric and many supporters and local businesses in the Albany/Capital Region. In the beginning, Mohawk-Hudson produced educational programs on WRGB; however, due to the station's tight scheduling, the council decided to form a non-commercial educational television station of its own. WMHT signed on the air on March 26, 1962 on UHF channel 17 as the second educational TV station in the state of New York. From the outset the station was a member of National Educational Television and became one of PBS' charter members after the two stations merged in 1970. In 1972, WMHT expanded into FM radio by launching the first non-commercial classical music station in the United States.
In 1987, WMHT purchased the assets of independent station WUSV and made it a secondary programming service under the calls WMHX. Due to financial difficulties, WMHT shut WMHX down in 1991 and returned it to the air three years later under the calls WMHQ. In the late 1990s, WMHQ's commercial license became attractive and WMHT sold it to the Tribune Company for $18.5 million in 1999 with the station becoming WB affiliate WEWB that September. The money from this sale allowed WMHT to expand into digital television. It also allowed the station to replace its original facility in Rotterdam with a state-of-the-art facility in the Rensselaer Tech Park.

Digital television

Digital channels

The station's digital signal is multiplexed:
ChannelVideoAspectPSIP Short NameProgramming
17.11080iWMHT-HDMain WMHT programming / PBS
17.2480iWMHT-CrCreate
17.3480iWMHT-WoWorld
17.4480iWMHT-KiPBS Kids

Analog-to-digital conversion

WMHT shut down its analog signal, over UHF channel 17 at noon on April 16, 2009. The station's digital signal remained on its pre-transition UHF channel 34. Through the use of PSIP, digital television receivers display the station's virtual channel as its former UHF analog channel 17. During the 2019 digital television repack, WMHT relocated to UHF channel 25 from UHF channel 34.

Former translators