The station was owned by Lou Adelman and closed due to a strike by union workers amid mounting financial and regulatory troubles.
WTHT signed on October 25, 1961, at 5:45 a.m.; the night before, the new station launched fireworks from its transmitter site off Hilltop Road southeast of town.
In August, an election was ordered to determine if the station would be unionized under the National Association of Broadcast Employees and Technicians.
[5] After staff members David DeCosmo and Robert Pavlick were dismissed by management, on October 12, the four employees voted to strike; the station claimed their affiliation to NABET ineffective and charged the union with unfair practices for waiving its initiation fee.
[12] That November, Broadcasters 7 applied for a construction permit to reactivate the facility, this time licensed to nearby West Hazleton.