WPSG (channel 57), branded Philly 57, is an independent television station in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States.

Channel 57 was allocated for commercial use in Philadelphia at the start of the 1970s; it was fought over by two groups who sought to broadcast subscription television (STV) programming to paying customers in the metropolitan area.

Two years later, the station switched to broadcasting PRISM, a premium regional sports and movies service seeking to reach potential subscribers in areas beyond cable coverage, such as the city of Philadelphia.

The new owners spent millions of dollars on programming and the rights to Philadelphia Flyers hockey and Villanova Wildcats basketball; the station filled the third independent void left when WKBS-TV (channel 48) folded in 1983, and its entrance into the market clipped multiple separate efforts to establish such a station.

Combined Broadcasting solicited offers on its stations in 1993; a deal was reached to sell to the Fox network, but an objection caused the sale to be delayed and canceled.

Vue-Metrics, which was now headed by Robert S. Block (whose SelecTV was about to launch), had appealed the examiner's earlier move to dismiss its application as incomplete to the full FCC.

[8] Construction began in 1979, with the company opting to begin the process of erecting facilities in the Manayunk area despite Vue-Metrics continuing its appeals in federal court.

WWSG-TV joined a series of communications-related businesses under the RBC umbrella, including mobile paging, background music, and the distribution of HBO to area multipoint microwave services.

[10][11] Delays in the launch of its daytime commercial program provider, the new Financial News Network, postponed the start of non-STV broadcasts to November 30.

Later that year, Wometco Home Theater (WHT) expanded south from its base in New York City by launching on WRBV-TV (channel 65) in Vineland, New Jersey.

[23] The success of PRISM as a subscription service led Wometco Home Theater to leave the Philadelphia market at the end of November 1984.

Milton Grant, an independent station builder who had just put WBFS-TV on the air in Miami the year prior, was buying the rights to show various syndicated reruns, such as Dallas and Eight Is Enough, in the Philadelphia market, contingent on the purchase of channel 57.

Grant intended not only to convert channel 57 to ad-supported programming but upgrade its underpowered transmitting facility to the UHF maximum of five million watts.

[25] This compared with the $32.5 million RBC had made the year before by selling its successful paging business to communications conglomerate Metromedia.

[28] In the sale, Gross retained lifetime rights to conduct datacasting in the vertical blanking interval of the television station, which he used to start a business transmitting text information to scrolling displays in bars and restaurants.

[29] On October 20, 1985, WWSG-TV became WGBS-TV[30]—call letters representing the Grant Broadcasting System[31]—operating from studios on 20th Street[32] and branding as Philly 57.

[33] Grant promised to "come on full-grown" with his new channel 57, and his company was able to make splashy acquisitions in part because Philadelphia only had two independent stations.

[35] The start of the first season of WGBS-TV was marred by the fact that not all cable systems added it to their lineups in the wake of must-carry regulations being struck down by a federal court earlier that year; this slightly limited the station's reach, particularly compared to its independent competitors.

At the time, channel 48 was in the comparative hearing stage for a new licensee, and one company, BCT Communications, withdrew from the contest in November 1985.

The company's lawyer told The Inquirer, "I think Milt Grant was doing a pretty good number on tying up whatever programming was available.

"[36] In July 1986, WTGI-TV launched from Wilmington, Delaware; channel 57's relaunch eclipsed its original programming plan, and the station switched to a home shopping and later multicultural format.

[38] Grant Broadcasting System launched a third major-market independent, WGBO-TV in Chicago, in January 1986 after purchased the former WFBN late in 1985.

[39][40] However, a flat advertising market and the high prices paid for syndicated programming combined to fuel substantial losses at GBS.

[50] The Flyers left channel 57 for WPHL-TV in 1991; interest in the team had fallen after missing the playoffs in back-to-back seasons, and the station was lukewarm about renewal.

With a switch that would have taken place in April 1994, at the end of channel 29's Fox affiliation agreement, the station was also seen as likely to start a local newsroom, providing the first competition to WTXF's 10 p.m.

[59] As FCC approval did not come before the planned January 30, 1994, completion of the deal, Combined walked away from the $57 million sale a few weeks later after one extension, preserving WTXF's Fox affiliation.

[62] It was not until July 1995, when Fox won approval to buy television stations in Boston, Denver, and Memphis, Tennessee, that the foreign-ownership issue was resolved, removing a roadblock to purchases by the company.

[75] On January 24, 2006, the Warner Bros. unit of Time Warner and CBS Corporation (which had been created as a result of the split of Viacom at the end of 2005) announced that the two companies would shut down The WB and UPN and combine the networks' respective programming to create a new "fifth" network called The CW; the day of the announcement, it was revealed that 11 of CBS Corporation's 15 UPN affiliates, including WPSG, would become CW stations.

[90] Along with reverting to independent status on September 1, WPSG fully revived the "Philly 57" brand on-air as part of a larger rebranding process among the disaffiliated stations.