21st century
On December 16, 2007, the top section of WVIA's tower collapsed due to severe ice, wind, and snow.[1] The felled top section of the tower supported the antennas for the analog TV signal on channel 44 and the digital TV signal on channel 41. WVIA-FM's antenna survived since it was located on the portion of the tower which did not collapse. After the incident, WVIA quickly put the analog TV signal back on the air through the use of a shorter back-up tower and antenna also located on Penobscot Knob. However, due to the shorter height, the service area has been limited.
Earlier that same day, the neighboring tower supporting the antennas for analog WNEP-TV and WCLH (90.7 FM) collapsed completely due to the ice and winds.[2] The tower collapse also destroyed the transmitter building but no one was hurt in either incidents.[2]
In 2009, following the end of the Pennsylvania Public Television Network, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania cut WVIA's funding by $970,000, which forced the station to end production of several local programs.[3]
On February 17, 2009, WVIA-TV shut down its analog signal, over UHF channel 44, meeting the original target date on which full-power television stations in the United States were to transition from analog to digital broadcasts under federal mandate, which was later pushed back to June 12, 2009. The station's digital signal remained on its pre-transition UHF channel 41.[4] Through the use of PSIP, digital television receivers display the station's virtual channel as its former UHF analog channel 44.[5]
WVIA suffered another disruption to its signal on February 12, 2010, when the building housing the transmitters for WVIA-TV and WVIA-FM was destroyed by fire. Though the tower was not impacted, the loss of the transmitters forced the stations off the air. The station quickly worked to restore programming to cable systems.[6] The station returned to the air as of February 15, 2010 with assistance from WNEP-TV, using the ABC affiliate's transitional digital channel 49 transmitter and tower. The station moved to digital channel 50 post-transition in December 2009 to reduce interference with Philadelphia/Atlantic City Telemundo affiliate WWSI, but did not disassemble the former channel 49 facilities to transmit all of their services.[7] Like WVIA's digital channel 41, all channels remapped via PSIP to Channel 44.
In August 2011, thieves stole 400 ft of copper transmission line from WVIA's tower while WVIA was still temporarily using WNEP-TV's old tower, delaying a return to channel 41 and their own tower.[8] WVIA resumed use of their channel 41 transmitter and tower in March 2012.
The station sold its spectrum in FCC's broadcast auction ending February 10, 2017 for $25.9 million. The proceeds were placed in its endowment. In conjunction with the auction result, the station announced a channel sharing agreement with WNEP, which permits it to stay on its virtual channel 44.[3]
