WUTR

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WUTR
Utica, New York
Branding	WUTR
Channels	20 (UHF) analog, 30 (UHF) digital
Affiliations	ABC
Owner	Mission Broadcasting (operated by Nexstar Broadcasting Group)
Founded	February 28, 1970
Call letters meaning	UTica/Rome
Website	utica.tv

WUTR is the ABC affiliate for Utica, New York. The station is owned by Mission Broadcasting (and thus is operated by Nexstar Broadcasting Group, along with WFXV and WPNY-LP) and broadcasts its signal on UHF channel 20, with a digital signal on channel 30. WUTR's transmitter is located in Utica.

[edit] History

The station first signed on February 28, 1970 as the second television station in the Utica market. Owned by Roy H. Park Communications at the outset, the station originally sought to affiliate with CBS but was stopped by WHEN-TV (today's WTVH) in Syracuse which claimed the Utica area in its market area. Though WHEN-TV cited potential revenue losses as reasoning for their actions, a rivalry between the Syracuse-based Park and then-WHEN owner Meredith also may have played a factor. As a result, WUTR signed on with ABC marking the only affiliate of that network owned by Park. For the next couple decades, WUTR stayed a distant but strong #2 behind dominant NBC affiliate WKTV. Until the 1980s, WUTR also was the default ABC affiliate for much of the Watertown market and operated translators both there and in Massena; the Watertown translator would be upgraded to full-power status and become WWTI which would spend several years as a sister station to WUTR.

After Roy Park died in 1993, the future of the group was put into doubt as Park's estate sold much of the group to corporate investor Gary Knapp, who in turn sold the remenants of the Park group to Media General in 1996. With WUTR being one of the smallest of Park's stations and the sole station the group had in the Northeast, Media General spun WUTR off in mid-1997 to The Ackerley Group (then-owners of Syracuse ABC affiliate WIXT, today's WSYR-TV). With that purchase, Ackerley began to build a regional strategy called the Central New York Station Group (CNYSG) which eventually would cover most of Upstate New York and nearly acquired stations in the markets they did not enter. As a result of expanded resources and money, WUTR became even more competitive and became a threat to not only WKTV, but the Utica Observer-Dispatch newspaper as well.

In October 2001, Clear Channel Communications announced their buyout of Ackerley, closing on their purchase in 2002. Though initially no changes took place, market concentration concerns with Clear Channel's radio cluster in the Utica market put WUTR's future under Clear Channel in doubt. Given the option between potentially selling WUTR or the four-station "Sports Stars" sports radio simulcast, Clear Channel decided to hack away at WUTR by cutting budgets and redistributing resources to other stations in the CNYSG. This resulted in the ultimate cancellation of WUTR's newscasts in August 2003, followed in early 2004 with the sale of WUTR to current owner Mission Broadcasting.

Speculation of starting a news department for WUTR, as well as sister stations WFXV and WPNY-LP, have circulated, but no progress has been made so far.

[edit] Logos

Logo Under Ackerly's Control (1998-2001)

"Clear Channel" Era (2001-2003)

2003 Logo Change (2003-September 2006)

Current WUTR Logo

[edit] External links

• Official website
• Query the FCC's TV station database for WUTR