WGHP

WGHP (channel 8) is a television station licensed to High Point, North Carolina, United States, serving the Piedmont Triad region as an affiliate of the Fox network.

The station is owned by Nexstar Media Group, and maintains studios on Francis Street (just outside downtown High Point); its transmitter is located in Sophia, North Carolina.

In 1958, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) assigned a third VHF channel frequency to the Piedmont Triad area.

Applicants for the High Point channel 8 allocation included Jefferson Standard Broadcasting, owner of WBTV in Charlotte and WBTW.

WGHP's original studios were located inside the Sheraton Hotel on North Main Street in downtown High Point.

In December 1993, Great American Broadcasting filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and was restructured again to become Citicasters; it then put its entire television division up for sale.

Since Fox was not able to immediately acquire WGHP and WBRC due to questions over the American citizenship of then-parent company News Corporation's Australian-born CEO Rupert Murdoch, New World decided to acquire WGHP but place it in an outside trust on September 9, 1994; WBRC was also put in this trust the following month on October 12.

On September 10, 2007, WGHP debuted a new logo and graphics package as part of a standardized on-air look that was rolled out all of Fox's owned-and-operated stations.

[26] As an ABC affiliate, the station occasionally delayed or declined some network programs; for example, it carried the paranormal-themed soap opera Dark Shadows during its network run on ABC, but in the mornings on a day-behind basis, choosing to run classic movies in the afternoons.

In its last years as an ABC affiliate, WGHP aired Nightline on a 30-minute delay in favor of running syndicated programs, most notably M*A*S*H. When WGHP became a Fox affiliate in 1995, it carried all of the network's programs, including Fox Kids (whose weekday afternoon block ran from 1 to 4 p.m., replacing ABC's soap operas, as well as on Saturday mornings where a local newscast previously ran).

On September 12, 2010, WGHP became the first station in the Piedmont Triad to begin broadcasting its local newscasts in high definition.

The station's signal is multiplexed: WGHP broadcasts programming from Antenna TV on digital subchannel 8.2,[33][34] the subchannel launched on January 1, 2011, as a charter affiliate of the network through an affiliation agreement related to network owner Tribune Broadcasting's management agreement with Local TV.

WGHP shut down its analog signal at approximately 11:05 p.m. on June 12, 2009, as part of the FCC-mandated transition to digital television for full-power stations.

On October 14, WGHP requested that the FCC change its digital signal's physical channel from VHF 8 to UHF 35.

[37] After the station lost "a sizeable number" of its viewers, the FCC agreed with WGHP's assessment that it would be "best served" by staying on channel 35.

In North Carolina, it was carried in Boone, Fayetteville, Raleigh, Wadesboro, Albemarle, Rockingham, Laurinburg, Raeford, Robbins, Rowland, Southern Pines and Lumberton.

WGHP logo used through the mid-1980s.