WIVT
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| WIVT | |
|---|---|
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| Binghamton, New York | |
| Branding | NewsChannel 34 |
| RF Channel | Analog: 34 (UHF) Digital: 4 (VHF) |
| Subchannels | 34.1 ABC |
| Owner | Newport Television, LLC |
| First air date | November 1962[1] |
| Call letters’ meaning | based on WIXT |
| Former callsigns | WBJA-TV (1962-1978) WMGC-TV (1978-1998) |
| Transmitter Power | 2820 kW (analog) 1500 watts (digital) |
| Height | 283 m (analog) 263 m (digital) |
| Facility ID | 11260 |
| Transmitter Coordinates | |
| Website | www.newschannel34.com |
WIVT is the ABC affiliate for the Binghamton Metropolitan Area of Upstate New York. Its transmitter is located in Binghamton. The station is known as News Channel 34 and has newscasts at 5:30am, 5:30pm, 6:00pm, and a 7-minute update at 11:00pm on weekdays. WIVT is owned by Newport Television, who also operates WBGH-CA, the NBC affiliate in Binghamton.
Even though its callsign was derived from it, WIVT was never a satellite of WIXT. It has always been its own station.
Contents |
[edit] History
On Jan. 1, 1956, WILK-TV 34 in Wilkes-Barre, Pa., and WARM-TV 16 in Scranton merged into WNEP-TV 16. That left channel 34 available for use in the region. A few years later, a channel 56 was allocated to a new station in the Binghamton market[2]. Its owners got the allocation for channel 34 moved to Binghamton and signed on in November 1962, as WBJA. Coincidentally, the Scranton-Wilkes-Barre-area station now known as WOLF-TV signed on in 1982 using channel 56.
The station has been an ABC affiliate for its entire existence.
WBJA was sold in the late 1970s and the call letters were changed to WMGC, with the station adopting the slogan "Magic 34." It dropped the "Magic 34" branding by the mid to late 1980s, but kept the call letters until the Ackerley Group bought the station in 1997. This was where the connection to WIXT came in, as the new calls were based on the group's Syracuse station's calls. Both became Clear Channel stations when that company bought Ackerley in 2001.
Ackerley nearly lost its investment shortly after buying the Binghamton station. On May 31, 1998, a tornado ripped through the station's Ingraham Hill studio and blew down its tower. Cross-town rival WBNG-TV had live reports that night literally from the WIVT studio. WIVT had a feed restored to cable providers within days but was off the air for several months.
On April 20, 2007, Clear Channel entered into an agreement to sell its entire television stations group to Newport Television, a broadcasting group established by Providence Equity Partners.[3]
[edit] Logos
 WBJA logo |
 Post-"Magic 34" WMGC logo |
[edit] Newscasts
[edit] Anchors
- Steve Craig
- Sofia Ojeda
- Peter Quinn
- Colleen McCoy
[edit] Other reporters/Fill-in anchors
- Jan Carabeo
- Peter Quinn
[edit] Newschannel-34 Storm Team
- Samantha Hensell (Daybreak and evening)
- Jordan Gremli (Fill-in)
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- newschannel34.com
- Query the FCC's TV station database for WIVT
- BIAfn's Media Web Database -- Information on WIVT-TV
- Broadcast Localism in Binghamton Market, report filed under FCC's Broadcast Localism NOI.
[edit] References
- ^ The Broadcasting and Cable Yearbook says November 25, while the Television and Cable Factbook says November 24.
- ^ according to http://wbja.com/
- ^ Clear Channel Communications (2007-04-20). "Clear Channel Agrees to Sell Television Station Group to Providence Equity Partners". Press release. Retrieved on 2007-04-20.
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