STATE COLLEGE, Pa. – When most people think of family businesses, everyone thinks of downtown shops, and local farms. No one ever thinks about television.
WHVL-TV, the first station to ever broadcast over the airwaves of Happy Valley, is a local family owned station that sits next to the Mount Nittany Mall.
WHVL produces programing that showcases the community in central Pennsylvania, hence their motto, “The Centre of It All.” Programing such as the feature show “The Centre of It All”, and the “High School Football Game of the Week” shares the local flavors all over the State College, Johnstown, and Altoona viewing areas.
The station also receives programing through the affiliations of MynetworkTV and the game show channel Buzzr. MynetworkTV provides shows such as the X-Files, Access Hollywood, Judge Mathis, and the Steve Wilkos Show.
Unlike other news outlets in the area such as CBS affiliate WTAJ, and NBC affiliate WJAC, WHVL creates most the of the content that is sent out over cable. The production team makes the commercials and the local programing. Some of the promotions for the network programing is also made in house.
“Everything that you see on TV, we touched that and we put it on,” says Allison Luthman. Luthman started working for WHVL back in June working as a sports reporter. Luthman can been on the sidelines with WHVL’s Game of the Week, and the Blue White Tailgate Desk Report.
Adam Wittenrich, the production manager for WHVL, enjoys the freedom when it comes to programing.
“[WTAJ and WJAC] focus on news and the two-three minute packages,” says Wittenrich. Wittenrich has used the programing freedom before with an hour-long segment about the late Joe Paterno’s last senior class of football players on his show, Blue White Tailgate.
WHVL’s home is channel 29, but can be found on other channels based on your cable provider. For more information, visit www.whvl.com.