History
The construction permit for UHF channel 20 that bore WHNO dates to 1988 and was filed by Tucker Broadcasting Company, Limited Partnership. Tucker was not the original winner in comparative hearing. An FCC law judge found in favor of Delta Broadcasting Company, a competing applicant headed by market veteran John G. Curren, in 1990;[3] the FCC review board proposed granting the station to another aspiring owner, Swan Broadcasting. In 1991, LeSEA Broadcasting (now Family Broadcasting Corporation) purchased the construction permit with the intent to sign on a station in the market on channel 20.
The station first signed on the air on October 20, 1994; the station carried a mix of Christian-targeted programs, family-oriented syndicated programs and movies. As in other markets where LeSEA owned stations, WHNO opted against taking an affiliation with the United Paramount Network (UPN) prior to the network's January 16, 1995, launch as the programming planned for the network conflicted with the company's core programming values; the affiliation instead went to upstart station WUPL (channel 54), which launched in June 1995.
In September 1995,[4] channel 20 began carrying the (first incarnation of the) CBS morning program CBS This Morning; the station then carried its successor morning show, The Early Show, from that program's debut in 1999 until 2002, when the program moved to WUPL. Much like with WUPL today, WHNO carried the programs as WWL-TV (channel 4) had long carried a weekday morning newscast that runs into the 7–9 a.m. timeslot occupied by the network's morning programs in most other markets. In 2000, WHNO began to air Christian-targeted paid programming in some off-peak hours.
When Hurricane Katrina struck the New Orleans area on August 29, 2005, the storm's flooding and damaging winds caused extensive damage to WHNO's Behrman Highway studios. The station ceased over-the-air broadcasts due to transmitter problems related to the storm. LeSEA provided a direct feed of its national World Harvest Television service to New Orleans area cable and satellite providers (including the market's largest, Cox Communications). Channel 20 returned to the air that November, carrying WHT programming. This lasted until December 3, 2005, when WHNO resumed its regular locally based program schedule and began providing local advertising once again.
LeSEA president Peter Sumrall (the son of late founder Dr. Lester Sumrall) appointed veteran television and cable manager Dean Powery to become WHNO's general manager in May 2007. Under Powery, the station increased its staff and upgraded its programming from its post-Katrina low to turn it into a more competitive station in the New Orleans market; Powery also reconnected with local ministries, added newer syndicated programming and local college football games to WHNO's schedule and expanded the station's production capabilities. In 2011, LeSEA Broadcasting acquired the locally based independent sports website SportsNOLA.com from NewOrleans.com.
On February 5, 2018, it was announced that LeSEA would sell WHNO and two low-power stations in Las Vegas and Colorado Springs to Clearwater, Florida–based Christian Television Network for $5.7 million.[5] The sale was completed on April 23, 2018.[6]
