WSYT
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| WSYT | |
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| Syracuse, New York | |
| Branding | Fox 68 |
| Channels | Analog: 68 (UHF) |
| Affiliations | FOX (since 1987) |
| Owner | Sinclair Broadcast Group, Inc. (WSYT Licensee, LP) |
| First air date | February 15, 1986 |
| Call letters’ meaning | We'reSYracuse's New Television station |
| Sister station(s) | WNYS-TV |
| Former callsigns | WKAF (1986) |
| Former affiliations | independent (1986-1987) |
| Transmitter Power | 1000 kW (analog) 621 kW (digital) |
| Height | 445 m (both) |
| Facility ID | 40758 |
| Transmitter Coordinates | |
| Website | www.wsyt.com/ |
WSYT is a broadcast television station in Syracuse, New York affiliated with the Fox network. It broadcasts on channel 68. It is owned by The Sinclair Broadcast Group and a sister station to WNYS a MyNetworkTV affliate. It is carried on cable in the Kingston, Ontario area via Cogeco; that market is also served (for over-the-air ATSC viewers) by WWNY-DT2.
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[edit] History
The station was originally assigned the call letters WKAF and was on channel 62 rather than 68. After being reassigned to channel 68, the owners of WKAF (Channel 62, Inc.), got the station on the air on February 15, 1986 and broadcasted religious programming for three hours a day. The station was sold to The Flatley Company in late 1986 and construction of a station facility on James St. in Syracuse began.
WSYT began full-time operation on April 5, 1987 with a general entertainment format of cartoons, classic sitcoms, recent sitcoms, movies, drama shows, and sports. The premiere of WSYT coincided with the prime-time launch of Fox Broadcasting Company.
The Flatley Company owned one other station, WNHT channel 21 in Manchester/Concord, New Hampshire and was an independent station before signing on with CBS for the purpose of developing a local news operation. WNHT could not compete with stations from Boston (WNEV channel 7, now NBC affiliate WHDH-TV) and Portland (WGME-TV channel 13), which were available in most of WNHT's viewing area. In 1989, Flatley decided to shut down WNHT (while keeping the license for a few more years - the station is now WPXG, a satellite of i O&O WBPX).
Flatley owned WSYT until 1992, when the station was sold to Encore Communications, later known as Max Media Properties LLC. In 1998, the Sinclair Broadcast Group bought WSYT.
WSYT entered into a Local Management Agreement with WNYS channel 43, then a UPN affiliate, in 1995 and began operating WNYS out of the WSYT facility. WNYS and WSYT are now co-owned.
WSYT began a 10pm newscast (Fox-68 News at Ten) in 1996, which was produced by NBC affiliate WSTM. Original anchors were Chuck Plumpton and Betsy Sykes, with Wayne Mahar from WSTM providing weather forecasts. A sports anchor, Joe Brown, was added later. Joe Brown was replaced by Joe Zone, and Amy Kellogg replaced Betsy Sykes on the anchor desk. Further shuffling of the staff moved Joe Zone to news anchor, and Jon Herz was hired as sports director. In 2000, WSTM declined to renew their agreement to provide news programming, and WSYT partnered with WTVH to keep news broadcasts on the air (renamed Fox-68 Eyewitness News at Ten, later adding Fox-68 Eyewitness News at 7am). In April 2006, WTVH ceased providing news programming to WSYT in order to focus on its own newscasts.
In 2006, Sinclair and Fox finalized a six-year affiliation contract extension for Sinclair's 19 Fox affiliates, including WSYT. WSYT's affiliation contract now expires in March 2012. [1]
[edit] Sports
WSYT owned the local broadcast rights to Syracuse University Basketball from 1987 through 2003, when rights were acquired by Time Warner in Syracuse, and aired on their local sports channel. During the majority of those years, WSYT produced a live post-game show, as well as a weekly basketball coach's show with Jim Boeheim.
WSYT also acquired the rights to Big East Football in the 1990s, and would air a post-game show after a Syracuse Orangemen game was shown. The coverage was expanded to include a football coach's show with Paul Pasqualoni, and a football preview show, hosted by Steve Hyder and Joe Zone.
In the late 1980s, WSYT aired New York Yankees games that were produced and broadcast by WPIX in New York City.
[edit] Trivia
WSYT has the highest channel allocation of any Fox affiliated television station. WSYT's power is limited to 1,000,000 watts due to its proximity to Canada. UHF stations in the United States can be licensed to transmit up to 5,000,000 watts.
All of this will change with the DTV transition; the WSYT-DT transmitter appears to be operating with a license that allows (as special temporary authority) operation at a mere 3100 watts, although ultimately the station will need to deploy a full-power DTV operation on UHF channel 19.[1]
[edit] External links
- WSYT website
- Query the FCC's TV station database for WSYT
- BIAfn's Media Web Database -- Information on WSYT-TV
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