The channel 49 allocation in the Susquehanna Valley region was previously occupied by WNOW-TV, which was based in York and was originally affiliated with the DuMont Television Network. It could not compete with WGAL-TV and eventually went off the air. WLYH first signed on the air on April 28, 1979 as WGCB-TV. It was the first completely new station to sign on in South Central Pennsylvania in 26 years. It was founded by John Harden Norris, an engineer for Sinclair Oil and Refining Company, who left his position and joined his father to establish Red Lion Broadcasting in 1950, which also owned WGCB radio. The Norrises signed on WGCB in 1950, followed by WGCB-FM in 1958. In 1962, Norris launched short-wave radio station WINB, now the oldest commercial shortwave station in the United States. At the time, Norris was the only individual in the U.S. to operate AM, FM, short-wave radio and television stations in one location, and under one ownership. On November 27, 1964, the WGCB radio stations carried a 15-minute religious broadcast that would spawn a monumental case that ended with Supreme Court's approval of the Fairness Doctrine. The Court ruled that the Federal Communications Commission could enforce the Fairness Doctrine, which prohibits broadcasters from using their monopoly on a broadcast frequency to monopolize discussion on controversial issues. Norris died on September 28, 2008 at the age of 82. The FCC granted a change in control for WGCB-TV on November 5, 2008 to the estate of John H. Norris. DirecTV ceased carriage of WGCB on January 1, 2009. For much of WGCB-TV's history, it operated as a religious independent station, carrying programs from various televangelists. It was the only over-the-air source of non-network programming in the area until WPMT relaunched as an independent in 1983. On August 17, 2009, WGCB-TV began carrying classic television series daily from 3 to 10 p.m.. In 2012, WGCB-TV began carrying select programs from the classic television network MeTV, which also began to be carried on digital subchannel 49.2. On September 19, 2012, NRJ TV announced its intent to purchase WGCB-TV from Red Lion Television for $9 million; the sale was completed on December 3. On December 29, 2014, WGCB-TV stopped carrying MeTV programming and began carrying select programs from the classic television network Cozi TV, which also began to be carried on digital subchannel 49.2. NRJ TV agreed to sell WGCB-TV to Red Lion 49 Media, LLC for $2.5 million on August 29, 2017. The sale was approved by the FCC on December 8, 2017. In January 2019, Bethlehem, Pennsylvania-based Sonshine Family Television entered into a local marketing agreement to operate channel 49; the station's call sign was changed to WLYH, the former callsign for WXBU. The few secular shows that remain on the station are FCC-mandated educational and informational programs for children on Saturday mornings. On January 17, 2019, it was announced that Sonshine would purchase WLYH from Red Lion 49 Media for $2.7 million. The sale was completed on May 9, 2019.
Digital television
Digital channel
As part of a channel sharing agreement with WHTM, the three subchannels were dropped.
Analog-to-digital conversion
WGCB-TV discontinued regular programming on its analog signal, over UHF channel 49, on June 12, 2009, as part of the federally mandated transition from analog to digital television. The station's digital signal remained on its pre-transition UHF channel 30, using PSIP to display WGCB-TV's virtual channel as 49 on digital television receivers. WGCB sold its spectrum for $84 million in the 2016–2017 FCC incentive auction and the station was to cease broadcasting on its current digital channel 90 days after it received payment from the FCC. The station has a channel-sharing agreement with ABC affiliate WHTM-TV. Ironically, WHTM is currently owned by the former WLYH-TV’s former owner Nexstar Media Group.
