Comcast says it won’t carry Hagerstown, Md. station WHAG in Franklin County, Pennsylvania anymore, starting March 15.
Franklin County, assigned to the Harrisburg market, is north of Hagerstown and west Harrisburg. Comcast carries the station on channel 12. NBC dropped its affiliation with the Nexstar-owned station last year. Its signal overlaps the Washington, D.C. market.
“We have been informed by Comcast that on or about March 15, 2017 Comcast will discontinue carriage of WHAG-TV on its system in Franklin County, Pennsylvania,” the station wrote on its website. “Please be assured that Comcast is not removing WHAG-TV from its Franklin County system because of any dispute between Comcast and Nexstar regarding Comcast’s carriage of WHAG-TV. Rather, Franklin County is outside of WHAG-TV’s home market of Washington, DC and Comcast has informed us that effective in March it will no longer carry WHAG-TV out of market.”
“WHAG-TV intends to continue to serve our local viewers and communities, including Franklin County,” says the station. “For our viewers in Franklin County, WHAG-TV’s over-the-air signal is available for viewing with a digital antenna. In addition, we will continue to share news reports and other information here on www.your4state.com, on the your4state mobile app and you can follow us on Facebook. We look forward to continuing to serve you.”
“Under terms of its new agreement with us, WHAG-TV requires Comcast to cease providing WHAG-TV programming in the Chambersburg area,” Comcast told Public Opinion reports. “Therefore, effective March 14, Comcast will comply with this requirement and remove WHAG-TV from the Chambersburg Xfinity TV lineup. We understand that some local programming on WHAG-TV may be of interest to our customers, and we apologize for any inconvenience this change may cause.”
A local viewer told Public Opinion “he watches WHAG for local news, weather and highlights of his grandson’s Waynesboro high school football team.”
“You’re not going to get that from stations in the Harrisburg area,” said the viewer. “They are more tuned to the Susquehanna Valley. I doubt Chambersburg would be mentioned unless we had a murder or a bombing.”
Here’s a signal map of former NBC affiliate WHAG, NBC-owned WRC and Baltimore’s NBC affiliate WBAL.
