WGMU-CA

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WGMU-CA
Burlington, Vermont - Plattsburgh, New York
Branding	My 39
Slogan	My 39 Burlington: Serving the Green Mountain Area
Channels	39 (UHF) analog, no digital
Translators	17 W17CI Claremont, NH 19 W19BR Monkton 52 W52CD St. Albans 54 W54CV Barre 61 W61CE Rutland
Affiliations	MyNetworkTV
Owner	Equity Broadcasting (Newmont Broadcasting Corporation)
Founded	1994
Call letters meaning	We're Green Mountain UPN (previous affiliation) [1]
Former callsigns	W39IN ("WWIN") (1994-1995), WBVT (1995-2005)
Former affiliations	The WB (1995-1998), UPN (1995-2006), A1 (2003)
Transmitter Power	63 kW
Website	mytv-burlington.com

WGMU-CA "My 39" is a low-powered (Class A) television station licensed to Burlington, Vermont and serves as the MyNetworkTV affiliate for the Burlington - Plattsburgh, New York television market. The station's transmitter is located south of Burlington in Charlotte, Vermont. WGMU is owned by Equity Broadcasting and is operated via satellite from Equity's headquarters in Little Rock, Arkansas. This channel does not air any news or sports programs and does not broadcast a digital signal. Its callsign actually stands for Green Mountain UPN which is an anachronistic holdover from its previous affiliation.

On cable, WGMU can be seen in Burlington on Comcast channel 7 and in Plattsburgh on Charter channel 18. However, the station is not seen on Videotron cable systems in Montreal, Quebec. The nearest WGMU transmitter to Montreal, channel 52 in St. Albans, barely reaches the city.

Two of WGMU's outlying transmitters: W61CE in Rutland and W17CI in Claremont, NH, have coverage areas that overlap with W18AE in Killington which is WZMY's southern Vermont outlying transmitter. WZMY, which was an independent station until September 2006, is currently the MNTV affiliate for Southern New Hampshire and Boston.

Contents 1 History 1.1 The WB and UPN Merge 2 Outlying Translators 3 Transmitter failure hotline 4 Logo Gallery 5 External links

[edit] History

WGMU originally signed on the air in 1994 as W39IN, which identified themselves on-air as "WWIN". In 1995, it joined The WB and changed its call letters to WBVT. In 1998, WB programming moved over to WFFF and WBVT picked up the UPN affiliation from WWBI-LP.

During a period in 2003, WBVT would air America One programing during the day while showing a "UPN 39" logo in the top-right corner of the screen. It would air UPN programing during primetime, but it would not air UPN's kid shows.

In 2004, WBVT's previous owners were experiencing financial problems, which led them to cede control of the station to current owner Equity Broadcasting which would buy it outright in February 2005. During the times of financial trouble and, later, the transition to Equity ownership, there were plenty of technical problems on the station, even to a point where the station would be off the air for days at a time. During this dark period, some area cable systems, including Adelphia in Burlington, temporarily replaced WBVT with Boston's WSBK.

In 2005, once the station was in Equity's hands and back in shape, it changed its call letters again to the current WGMU. This was done in order to distinguish itself as a UPN station and to reflect the fact that it was no longer a WB affiliate.

[edit] The WB and UPN Merge

On January 24, 2006, The WB and UPN networks announced that they would merge. The newly combined network would be called The CW, the letters representing the first initial of its corporate parents CBS (the parent company of UPN) and Warner Bros. Television. The merger will took effect on-air in September 2006. WFFF, a primary Fox affiliate, replaced its secondary affiliation from The WB to The CW.

Less than a month after the announcement of The CW, Fox announced that it would also start up a new sister network, called MyNetworkTV. Soon after that, WGMU was announced as becoming the Burlington-Plattsburgh affiliate for MyNetworkTV and the station's branding became My 39. [2] The network began broadcasting on September 5, 2006, and features English versions of telenovelas.

Before the start of MyNetworkTV affiliation, WGMU did not have a website of its own. The station formerly had a website through previous ownership as WBVT. With the network switch, WGMU's owner, Equity, created a new website and MNTV logo for WGMU. The website, located at "mytv-burlington.com", has been in operation since late August 2006 and is in the standard blue MNTV color. It remains to be seen if WGMU will change its call letters for the MNTV affiliation.

[edit] Outlying Translators

• W17CI Claremont, NH
• W19BR Monkton
• W52CD St. Albans
• W54CV Barre
• W61CE Rutland

[edit] Transmitter failure hotline

With Equity operating the station from Little Rock and no one watching the transmitters back in Vermont, WGMU is very vulnerable to technical difficulties. As a result, Equity has a special hotline to report transmitter failures and other technical difficulties involving its equipment. If someone sees WGMU leave the air prematurely, they should call 1-866-823-8828, toll-free.

[edit] Logo Gallery

WBVT logo from 1998 to 2000.

First UPN logo (still WBVT), from 2000 to 2002.

WGMU UPN logo, from mid-2005 to 2006.

My 39 logo, used since August 2006.

[edit] External links

• Station Website
• MyNetworkTV Website
• TV Hat : trivial facts about Southern QC, Upstate NY and VT stations
• Query the FCC's TV station database for WGMU
• Query the FCC's TV station database for W17CI
• Query the FCC's TV station database for W19BR
• Query the FCC's TV station database for W52CD
• Query the FCC's TV station database for W54CV
• Query the FCC's TV station database for W61CE