The Mohawk-Hudson Council on Educational Television was formed in 1953, through financial support from commercial station WRGB (channel 6), its then-parent company General Electric (which was based in Schenectady) and many supporters and local businesses in the Albany/Capital Region. In the beginning, Mohawk-Hudson produced educational programs on WRGB; however, due to the station's tight scheduling, the council decided to form a non-commercial educational television station of its own. WMHT signed on the air on March 26, 1962, on UHF channel 17 as the second educational TV station in the state of New York (after WNED in Buffalo). From the outset the station was a member of National Educational Television (NET) and became one of PBS' charter members after the two stations merged in 1970. In 1972, WMHT expanded into FM radio by launching the first non-commercial classical music station in the United States[citation needed] (a format that continues to this day).
In 1987, WMHT purchased the assets of independent station WUSV (channel 45) and made it a secondary programming service under the calls WMHX. Due to financial difficulties, WMHT shut WMHX down in 1991 and returned it to the air three years later under the call letters WMHQ. In the late 1990s, WMHQ's commercial license became attractive and WMHT sold it to the Tribune Company for $18.5 million in 1999 with the station becoming WB affiliate WEWB that September (it is now CW affiliate WCWN, owned by the Sinclair Broadcast Group). The money from this sale allowed WMHT to expand into digital television. It also allowed the station to replace its original facility in Rotterdam with a state-of-the-art facility in the Rensselaer Tech Park in town of North Greenbush, New York.
Programming
Programming produced by WMHT includes the state public affairs show New York NOW. The program is also aired on all public Television and radio stations across the state of New York in addition to being aired online and in a podcast format.[3]
WMHT shut down its analog signal, over UHF channel 17 at noon on April 16, 2009. The station's digital signal remained on its pre-transition UHF channel 34,[5] using virtual channel 17. During the 2019 digital television repack, WMHT relocated from UHF channel 34 to channel 25.
