WTVH

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WTVH
Syracuse, New York
Branding	CBS 5
Slogan	Central New York's First News, News that matters most.
Channels	5 (VHF) analog, 47 (UHF) digital
Affiliations	CBS
Owner	Granite Broadcasting Corporation
Founded	December 1, 1948 originally on channel 8
Call letters meaning	W Television H from its times as WHEN-TV
Former callsigns	WHEN-TV (1948-76)
Former affiliations	ABC (secondary, 1948-62) DuMont (secondary, 1948-1956)[1]
Transmitter Power	83.2 kW Analog 100 kW Analog CP 1,000 kW Digital CP 300 kW Digital STA 500 kW Digital Application for license
Website	www.wtvh.com

WTVH is the CBS network affiliate in Syracuse, New York. It also serves the Utica/Rome area. Its transmitter is located in La Fayette, New York.

This station broadcasts on VHF channel 5 and in high definition on UHF channel 47 as authorized by the Federal Communications Commission, and is owned and operated by Granite Broadcasting Corporation.

Contents 1 History 2 Utica Market 3 NFL controversy 4 Notable Alumni 5 External links

[edit] History

WTVH began its broadcast operation on December 1, 1948 as WHEN-TV channel 8. It went on the air as Syracuse's first television station and the first station ever owned and operated by Meredith Corporation. Meredith had entered broadcasting only two years before after buying WAGE-AM 620 and changing the calls to WHEN. It has always been a CBS affiliate, though at first it also carried secondary affiliations with ABC and DuMont. When WSYR-TV (now WSTM-TV) signed on two months later, WHEN only had ABC as a secondary until WNYS-TV (later WIXT and now WSYR-TV) signed on in 1962. WHEN's affiliation with DuMont ended in 1956, when that network ceased operations. In July 1961, WHEN moved to channel 5, swapping channel locations with WROC-TV in Rochester.

In 1976, Meredith sold WHEN AM/FM to Park Communications, but kept WHEN-TV. It had to change the TV station's calls. It originally wanted the new call letters WTVF (for TV Five, the station's on-air identity), but those went to the former WLAC-TV in Nashville, Tennessee At this point, Meredith chose WTVH as the new calls, the H being a link to its WHEN heritage.

In June 1993, Meredith announced the sale of WTVH and sister station KSEE-TV in Fresno, California to Granite Broadcasting with the sale closing on December 23 of that year. With that deal, WTVH became Granite's oldest television station, based on the date and time the station began its broadcasting operation. Granite would soon increase its northeast holdings with their purchase of WKBW-TV in Buffalo in 1995 purchased WBNG-TV in Binghamton in July 2006.

As part of the WBNG purchase, Les Vann (formerly President & General Manager) was promoted to Executive Vice President of Central & Southern NY Operations with regional responsibilities over both WBNG and WTVH. At the same time Matthew Rosenfeld (formerly General Sales Manager) was promoted to Vice President/Station Manager of WTVH.

On December 22, 2006, Nancy Duffy, a General Assignment Reporter for WSYR-TV died. The reporter had been away from work since August. Throughout her career, Nancy led the way for women in journalism. She became the first woman police reporter in Central New York after joining the Syracuse Herald-Journal in 1966. She was Syracuse’s first TV female reporter when she moved to WHEN-TV (now WTVH-TV) in 1967. She became the first woman to join the Syracuse Press Club, and later served as its president. In 1970, Nancy served as press secretary at Syracuse City Hall. She returned to Channel 5 after a year, and moved to NewsChannel 9 as a reporter and morning anchor in 1977.

[edit] Utica Market

Since its inception, WHEN-TV/WTVH has also served as the CBS affiliate for the majority of the Utica television market (namely Herkimer and that market's portion of Oneida counties; Otsego County has WBNG as its default). In past years, WTVH was extremely protective of this status having barred WUTR from affiliating with CBS on at least one occasion. Under Granite's ownership, this status has not necessarily been taken advantage of in terms of advertising and targeting the station towards the Utica market as well.

[edit] NFL controversy

Until 1997, the broadcast coverage of Syracuse's WSTM, which as an NBC affiliate was a secondary market for the Buffalo Bills, was deemed outside the blackout range and was allowed to air Bills games even during a blackout.

In 1997, however, when the AFC broadcast rights transferred from NBC to CBS, the league determined that portions of Yates County, New York, a fairly narrow county only a few miles wide at certain points, was both within 75 miles of Ralph Wilson Stadium and in the Syracuse television market (it has bounced between the Syracuse and Rochester markets a couple of times). Therefore, WTVH would be forced to blackout games if they do not sell-out. With WTVH's control over the Utica market, unless the Bills are hosting an NFC team or the game is a Sunday or Monday night game (which the Bills rarely play), the game would be blacked out there as well.

This issue stems from WTVH having a stronger transmitter than WSTM; WTVH easily reaches Yates County over-the-air.

[edit] Notable Alumni

• Al Roker, weather and feature reporter for NBC's The Today Show, was weekend weatherman at the station from 1974-1976, while attending the State University of New York at Oswego.
• Mike Tirico, ESPN and ABC Sports play-by-play announcer; ESPN Monday Night Football play-by-play announcer starting in 2006. Was the sports director at WTVH in the late 1980s.
• David Muir, now of ABC News, anchored at the station in the mid-late 1990s.

[edit] External links

• WTVH.com CBS 5 Syracuse
• Query the FCC's TV station database for WTVH

CBS Network Affiliates in the state of New York
WCBS 2 (New York City) - WIVB 4 (Buffalo) - WTVH 5 (Syracuse) - WRGB 6 (Albany) - WWNY 7 (Watertown) - WROC 8 (Rochester) - WBNG 12 (Binghamton)
See also: ABC, CW, Fox, MyNetworkTV, NBC, PBS and Other stations in New York