WSTM-TV

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

WSTM-TV
Syracuse, New York
Branding	NBC 3 / Action News 3 CW 6 (on DT2)
Slogan	Live, Local, Latebreaking
Channels	3 (VHF) analog, 54 (UHF) digital
Affiliations	NBC The CW via WSTQ-LP (on DT2) NBC Weather Plus (on DT3) The Tube (on DT4)
Owner	Barrington Broadcasting
Founded	February 15, 1950
Call letters meaning	We're Syracuse Times Mirror (named when it owned the station)
Former callsigns	WSYR-TV (1950-80)
Former affiliations	None
Transmitter Power	41.9 kW Analog 42 kW Digital STA 185 kW Digital CP
Website	www.wstm.com/

WSTM-TV, "NBC 3", is the NBC affiliate for Syracuse, New York. Through cable coverage, it also serves as the NBC affiliate for Watertown and the Ithaca - Eastern Finger Lakes region of New York State. WSTM provides some news coverage of these areas. Interestingly, it also carries substantial news stories from Utica and Herkimer County, even though Utica's WKTV is also an NBC affiliate. The station's satellite signal reaches parts of Southeast Ontario, and is carried on the cable system in Kingston, Ontario. It is also carried on cable for Northern NY cable systems in Ogdensburg and Gouverneur. WSTM's transmitter is located in La Fayette, New York.

The station is owned by Barrington Broadcasting as part of a duopoly with CW affiliate WSTQ-LP channel 14.

In addition to NBC and CW programming, WSTM and WSTQ split coverage of New York Yankees MLB games produced for WWOR-TV, mostly on Friday nights. WSTM's digital signal, in addition to its own local and NBC programming on DT1, operates three other channels. On WSTM DT2 is WSTQ-LP, the area's CW affiliate. WSTQ does not have a digital signal of its own. On WSTM DT3 is NBC Weather Plus and on WSTM DT4 is The Tube, a 24-hour music channel.

Contents 1 Digial Programming 2 History 3 Newscasts 4 News Team 5 Trivia 6 External Links

[edit] Digial Programming

The station's digital channel is multiplexed:

Channel	Programming
3.1 / 54.1	main WSTM programming (NBC)
3.2 / 54.2	WSTQ-LP (The CW)
3.3 / 54.3	The Tube
3.4 / 54.4	NBC Weather Plus

[edit] History

The station began operations on February 15, 1950, as WSYR-TV, owned by Advance Publications, the Newhouse family's company, along with the Syracuse Post-Standard, Syracuse Herald-Journal, WSYR-AM 570 and WSYR-FM 94.5 (now WYYY). It was Syracuse's second television station, signing on three months after WHEN-TV (now WTVH). Originally on channel 5, it moved to its current location a few years later. It originally broadcasted from the Kemper Building in downtown Syracuse. In 1958, WSYR-AM-FM-TV moved to a new studio on James Street. Unlike a handful of NBC affiliates in 2 station markets, channel 3 did not go for a secondary ABC affiliation. [1] This was because WABC from New York City had decently encroched WSTM's viewing area.

WSYR-TV doubled as the NBC affiliate for Binghamton until WINR-TV, now WICZ, signed on in 1957. It also operated a satellite station in Elmira for several years. That station was first known as WSYE-TV and now WETM. It is now a stand-alone station, though still affiliated with NBC.

The Newhouse family largely exited broadcasting in 1980 and sold WSYR-TV to Times Mirror. Since Times Mirror was not interested in the radio stations, it changed the TV station's calls to the current WSTM-TV (for Syracuse Times Mirror) and kept the James Street studio. In later years, Park Communications and Raycom bought the station, as Times Mirror also decided to exit broadcasting (the remainder of the company has since merged with Tribune). Under Times Mirror ownership, WSTM was sister to fellow NBC affiliate WVTM-TV in Birmingham, Alabama (which later became an NBC O&O, and is now an NBC affiliate owned by Media General), and current FOX O&O's KTVI in St. Louis, Missouri, KDFW in Dallas-Fort Worth and KTBC in Austin, Texas.

The WSYR-TV calls returned to Syracuse after Clear Channel Communications purchased WIXT (formerly WNYS-TV), the aforementioned ABC affiliate, as part of the Ackerley Group acquisition in 2000. The company changed WIXT's calls to match WSYR-AM, which it had owned for several years.

On March 5, 1996, WSTM General Manager Charles Bivins died after collapsing at the Syracuse Track and Racquet Club. He was 48, having suffered a mild heart attack two years earlier. [2] Bivins was also a visiting professor at Syracuse University's S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications, teaching television programming.

In 2003, Raycom Media purchased Syracuse's low-powered UPN affiliate known as WAWA-LP from Venture Technologies, LLC, for an undisclosed amount of money. The station had its call letters changed to the current WSTQ-LP and was given the on-air branding of UPN 6, The Q. The WSTQ call letters were derived from WSTM. Raycom used "6" to reflect its cable slot, as a result of the station becoming offered on the basic lineup of Time Warner cable on July 1, 2003. Before the purchase of WAWA, the station was unable to be picked up by Time Warner. The same "must-carry" laws that kept WAWA off the cable system eventually got WSTQ on. The law gives full-powered stations the option of "retransmission consent", or requesting compensation from cable systems to carry their station. In this case, full-powered WSTM can require cable systems like Time Warner to offer low-powered WSTQ on their systems as part of the compensation for carrying WSTM.

On March 27, 2006, Raycom Media announced the sale of WSTM and WSTQ to Barrington Broadcasting.

[edit] Newscasts

Newscasts on WSTM use the popular Action News branding. When WSTQ-LP became a sister station to WSTM, WSTQ began airing a 10 PM WSTM-produced newscast called Action News at 10 PM on UPN 6, The Q. WSTM expanded WSTQ's 10 PM newscast to seven days a week on January 8, 2005. On January 22, 2005, WSTM expanded its own news operation with the addition of morning newscasts on the weekends. The WSTQ newscast was renamed CW 6 News at 10 on September 18, 2006 to correspond with WSTQ's network switch from UPN to The CW.

Weekdays

• Action News 3 Today in CNY at 5 AM (5-6 AM)
• Action News 3 Today in CNY at 6 AM (6-7 AM)
• Action News 3 Live at Noon (12-12:30 PM)
• Action News 3 Live at 5 (5-5:30 PM)
• Action News 3 Live at 5:30 (5:30-6 PM)
• Action News 3 Live at 6 (6-6:30 PM)
• CW 6 News at 10 (10-10:30 PM on WSTQ-LP)
• Action News 3 Live at 11 (11-11:35 PM)

Weekends

• Action News 3 Weekend Today in CNY at 6 AM (6-7 AM Saturdays only)
• Action News 3 Weekend Today in CNY at 7 AM (7-8 AM Sundays only)
• Action News 3 Weekend Today in CNY at 9 AM (9-10 AM)
• Action News 3 Live at 6 (6-6:30 PM)
• CW 6 News at 10 (10-10:30 PM on WSTQ-LP)
• Action News 3 Live at 11 (11-11:35)

[edit] News Team

Anchors

• Jackie Robinson - weekdays at 5, 5:30, 6, and 11 PM
• Don Lark - weekdays at 6 and 11 PM
• Matt Mulcahy - weekdays at 5 and 5:30 PM (also at 10 PM on WSTQ)
• Anthony Adornato - weekday mornings, general assignment reporter
• Megan Coleman - weekday mornings, general assignment reporter
• Laura Hand - weekdays at Noon
• Kevin Schenk - weekend evenings
• Christina Chatalian (Weekend Today in CNY Anchor and Reporter)

NBC 3 Weather Plus Meteorologists

• Wayne Mahar - Chief seen weekdays at 5, 5:30, 6, and 11 PM (also at 10 PM on WSTQ)
• Chris Brandolino - weekday mornings and Noon
• Peter Hall - weekend evenings on WSTM and WSTQ
• Dave Call
• Mike Brookins - weekend mornings (also Wednesday through Friday at 10 PM on WSTQ)

Sports

• John Evenson - Director seen weekdays at 5, 5:30, 6, and 11 PM (also at 10 PM on WSTQ)
• Jessob Reisbeck - weekend evenings on WSTM and WSTQ

Reporters

• Jim Kenyon - Chief investigative reporter
• Christina Chatalian
• Justin Kraemer
• Brandon Roth
• Lisa Spitz
• Jared Werksma

[edit] Trivia

• WSTM is Barrington Broadcasting's only NBC affiliate not based in the Midwest.
• The station's radar is called "Live Triple Doppler".
• Notable station alumni include Bob Costas, Steve Kroft, and Jeanne Meserve.

[edit] External Links

• WSTM Website
• WSTQ Website
• Query the FCC's TV station database for WSTM-TV