WSTM-TV
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| WSTM-TV | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Syracuse, New York | |
| Branding | NBC 3 Action News 3 CW 6 (DT2) |
| Slogan | Live, Local, Latebreaking |
| Channels | Analog: 3 (VHF) |
| Affiliations | NBC The CW via WSTQ-LP (DT2) NBC Weather Plus (DT3) |
| Owner | Barrington Broadcasting Company, LLC (Barrington Syracuse License, LLC) |
| First air date | February 15, 1950 |
| Call letters’ meaning | We're Syracuse Times Mirror (named when it owned the station) |
| Former callsigns | WSYR-TV (1950-1980) |
| Transmitter Power | 41.9 kW (analog) 185 kW (digital) |
| Height | 396 m (analog) 405 m (digital) |
| Facility ID | 21252 |
| Transmitter Coordinates | |
| 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 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 by the YES Network 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. Currently WSTM DT4 is vacant after The Tube, a 24-hour music channel, ceased operation.
Contents |
[edit] Digital Programming
The station's digital channel is multiplexed:
| Channel | Programming | DTV Resolution |
|---|---|---|
| 3.1 | main WSTM programming (NBC) | 1080i |
| 3.2 | WSTQ-LP (The CW) | 480i |
| 3.3 | NBC Weather Plus | 480i |
| 3.4 | Vacant | 480i |
[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, and WSYR radio (AM 570 and FM 94.5, now WYYY). It was Syracuse's second television station, signing on a year and 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 most NBC affiliates in 2 station markets, channel 3 did not take a secondary ABC or DuMont affiliation. [1].
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. 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.
In 1986, Times Mirror sold WSTM to SJL Broadcast Management, a broadcast holding company controlled by George Lilly. SJL then sold WSTM to Federal Broadcasting in 1992. Federal Broadcasting was bought out by Raycom Media in 1997.
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, Time Warner had refused to carry it. The same "must-carry" rules that kept WAWA off the cable system eventually got WSTQ on. The must-carry rules give full-powered stations the option of "retransmission consent," or requiring compensation from cable systems as a condition of carrying a station's signal. In this case, full-powered WSTM can require cable systems like Time Warner to offer low-powered WSTQ on their systems as a condition of carrying WSTM.
On March 27, 2006, Raycom Media announced the sale of WSTM and WSTQ to Barrington Broadcasting. The sale was finalized that August.
[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.
[edit] News team
Anchors
- Don Lark - weekday mornings
- "Educator of the Week" and "Money Matters" segments producer
- Megan Coleman - weekday mornings
- health reporter
- Laura Hand - weekdays at Noon
- "3 in Touch", "Uniquely Central New York", and "Central New York in Focus" segments producer
- Community Affairs Director
- Jackie Robinson - weeknights at 5, 5:30, 6, and 11
- Matt Mulcahy - weeknights at 5, 6, 10, and 11
- Andrea Bullard - weekend mornings
- reporter
- Kevin Schenk - weekend evenings
- reporter
NBC 3 Weather Plus Team
- Wayne Mahar (AMS Seal of Approval) - Chief seen on weeknights
- Thursday and Friday at 10
- Peter Hall - weekday mornings and Noon
- Vanessa Richards - weekend mornings
- Mike Brookins (AMS Seal of Approval) - weekend evenings
- Saturdays through Wednesdays at 10
- Matt Stevens - fill-in
Sports
- John Evenson - Director seen on weeknights at 6, 10, and 11
- Niko Tamurian - weekend evenings
- sports reporter
Reporters
- Jim Kenyon - Chief Investigative Reporter
- Jeremy Miller - weekday morning traffic
- Brandon Roth
- Lisa Spitz
- Kristen Drew
[edit] Trivia
- WSTM is Barrington Broadcasting's only NBC affiliate not based in the Midwest.
- Notable station alumni include Joe Castiglione, Bob Costas, Dan Kloeffler, Steve Kroft, and Jeanne Meserve.
- In the mid 1980s, high school juniors were asked to write an essay on Jackie Robinson for their end-of-year Regents exam. The Board of Regents intended on the essay being on the racial barriers broken by baseball player Jackie Robinson. Numerous students in the area wrote their essay on newscaster Jackie Robinson being the first African-American newscaster in the area. The Board of Regents accepted these essays and credited them accordingly.
[edit] Logos
 WSTM Logo used in the Mid 1990's |
 WSTM Logo used from Early 2000's-April 2008 |
WSTM Logo used Late April 2008-Present |
[edit] External links
- WSTM Website
- WSTQ Website
- Query the FCC's TV station database for WSTM-TV
- BIAfn's Media Web Database -- Information on WSTM-TV
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