| Binghamton, New York | |
|---|---|
| Branding | WBNG 12 (general) Action News Binghamton CW 11 (on DT2) |
| Slogan | Your News Leader TV to Talk About (on DT2) |
| Channels | Digital: 7 (VHF) Virtual: 12 (PSIP) |
| Subchannels | 12.1 CBS 12.2 The CW |
| Owner | Granite Broadcasting Corporation (WBNG License, Inc.) |
| First air date | December 1, 1949 |
| Call letters' meaning | BiNGhamton |
| Former callsigns | WNBF-TV (1949-1973) |
| Former channel number(s) | 12 (VHF analog, 1949-2009) |
| Former affiliations | DuMont (1949-1955) NBC (1949-1957) ABC (1949-1962) all secondary |
| Transmitter power | 20.4 kW |
| Height | 342 m |
| Facility ID | 23337 |
| Website | wbng.com |
WBNG-TV is the CBS-affiliated television station for Upstate New York's Eastern Southern Tier licensed to Binghamton. It broadcasts a high definition digital signal on VHF channel 7 (virtual channel 12.1 via PSIP) from a transmitter on Ingraham Hill Road southwest of downtown. The station can also be seen on Time Warner Cable channel 2 and in high definition on digital channel 701. Owned by the Granite Broadcasting Corporation, WBNG has studios on Columbia Drive in Johnson City. Syndicated programming on the station includes Entertainment Tonight, Inside Edition, Dr. Phil, and Rachael Ray among others. It serves as the default CBS affiliate for most of Otsego County in the Utica market.
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WBNG operates the area's CW affiliate on a second digital subchannel. This can also be seen on Time Warner Cable channel 11 (hence the on-air branding Binghamton CW 11). WBNG-DT2 receives all programming through The CW Plus.
| Channels (physical/virtual) | Video | Aspect | Programming |
|---|---|---|---|
| 7.1/12.1 | 1080i | 16:9 | main WBMG-TV programming/CBS (HD) |
| 7.2/12.2 | 480i | 4:3 | WBNG-DT2 "Binghamton CW 11" (SD) |
The station launched on December 1, 1949 as WNBF-TV and was affiliated with all four American television networks at the time (CBS, DuMont, NBC, and ABC). It aired an analog signal on VHF channel 12 and was originally owned by Clark Associates Inc. along with WNBF radio (AM 1290 and FM 98.1 now WHWK). It subsequently lost its affiliations with DuMont in 1955 after the network's collapse, NBC in 1957 (to WINR-TV, owned by the Binghamton Press and now WICZ-TV, currently a Fox affiliate), and ABC in 1962 (to WBJA-TV later WMGC and now WIVT.) Triangle Publications, owner of various broadcasting and newspaper properties such as WFIL-TV (now WPVI-TV) in Philadelphia, bought WNBF in 1955. The station adopted its current call-sign, WBNG-TV, in 1973 when Triangle sold the station to Gateway Communications.
In 2000, Gateway was purchased by SJL Broadcasting which reduced staff from 100 to 58 over five years to fit the aggressive SJL automation model. In 2002, WBNG's digital signal on VHF channel 7 signed-on. In April 2006, it was announced the Granite Broadcast Corporation made a deal to acquire the station from Television Station Group License Subsidiary, LLC (successor to SJL and a subsidiary of Alta Communications) for $45 million. The required money was funded by a new senior credit facility created after the previously announced sales of Detroit's WMYD and San Francisco's KBWB fell apart. Granite closed on its purchase of WBNG on July 26, 2006.
As part of the transaction, Les Vann (formerly President and General Manager of CBS affiliate WTVH in Syracuse) was promoted to Executive Vice President of the company's Central and Southern New York operations. His duties were regional in nature with responsibilities at both WBNG and WTVH. This station's digital signal began broadcasting network programming in high definition in late-January 2007. Beginning in September 2007, CW affiliate "WBXI" began to be simulcasted on a new second digital subchannel of WBNG and began using the WBNG-DT2 call letters in an official manner.
In December 2008, it was announced a deal was reached between Granite and Time Warner Cable to carry WBNG's high definition feed throughout the Binghamton region. This was the first time HD programming from CBS was available to customers in the Southern Tier of New York State without using an antenna. On January 19, 2009, the station went off-the-air for about thirty minutes around 11 p.m. due to a power failure. Although the digital transition date was switched from February 19 to June 12, the station still ceased analog transmission and became digital-exclusive on the original date. On June 12, it left channel 12 and moved to channel 7 when the actual conversion was completed. Until April 25, 2009, WBNG served as the default CBS affiliate for the Elmira area. On that date, ABC affiliate WENY-TV signed-on a second digital subchannel offer access to CBS for the first time ever in the market.
For its entire existence, WBNG has held the number one spot in Nielsen ratings by a wide margin. More or less, WIVT has been a non-factor in the local news race in Binghamton for almost forty years. It has spent most of its history as the third station in what was at one point essentially a two-station market. WIVT reaped virtually no benefit when the area's long-time NBC affiliate WICZ switched to Fox in 1996. Since then, that station has consistently had lower ratings and is currently a distant second place behind WBNG. On Memorial Day in 2009 in order to increase its presence against this station, WICZ added a thirty minute newscast weeknights at 6 in addition to airing a nightly prime time show at 10.
On June 5, 2009, there was a noticeable increase in viewership on WBNG after WIVT and WBGH-CA consolidated their news operation with sister station WETM-TV in Elmira. This left Binghgamton with two outlets for local news and a locally-focused show would not return to WIVT and WBGH until June 28 with the addition of a taped broadcast weeknights at 6. However, this broadcast is produced from WETM's studios using Binghamton-based photojournalists. Like all CW Plus stations in the Eastern Time Zone, WBNG-DT2 offers the nationally syndicated morning show The Daily Buzz on weekdays from 6 until 9. There is also a nightly half-hour prime time newscast seen on that station known as Action News at 10 on Binghamton CW 11 which competes with WICZ's news.
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