| Utica/Rome, New York | |
|---|---|
| Branding | NewsChannel 2 The CW 11 (on DT2) |
| Slogan | Where the News Comes First TV to Talk About (on DT2) |
| Channels | Digital: 29 (UHF) Virtual: 2 (PSIP) |
| Subchannels | 2.1 NBC 2.2 The CW |
| Owner | Smith Media, LLC (Smith Media License Holdings, LLC) |
| First air date | December 1, 1949 |
| Call letters' meaning | We're Kallet TeleVision (former owner) |
| Sister station(s) | WFFF-TV/DT2, WVNY, KEYT-TV |
| Former channel number(s) | Analog: 13 (VHF, 1949-1958) 2 (VHF, 1959-2009) |
| Former affiliations | DuMont (1949-1956) CBS (1949-1956) ABC (1949-1970) all secondary |
| Transmitter power | 708 kW |
| Height | 402 m |
| Facility ID | 60654 |
| Website | wktv.com |
WKTV is the NBC-affiliated television station for Central Upstate New York's Mohawk Valley licensed to Utica. It broadcasts a high definition digital signal on UHF channel 29 (or virtual channel 2.1 via PSIP) from a transmitter in the Eatonville section of Fairfield and Herkimer. The station can also be seen on Time Warner Cable channel 4 and in high definition on digital channel 863. Owned by Smith Media, it has studios on Smith Hill Road in Deerfield (station address says Utica). Syndicated programming on WKTV includes Jeopardy!, Wheel of Fortune, Dr. Phil and Judge Judy among others.
Contents |
It operates the area's CW affiliate on a second digital subchannel. Known on-air as The CW 11, this can also be seen on Time Warner Cable channel 11 (hence the branding). WKTV-DT2 gets all of its programming from The CW Plus. Its logo is similar to fellow CW affiliate (and CW Plus outlet) WBNG-DT2 in Binghamton.
| Channels (virtual/physical) | Name | Video | Aspect | Programming |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2.1/29.1 | WKTV-HD | 1080i | 16:9 | main WKTV programming/NBC (HD) |
| 2.2/29.2 | WKTV-DT2 | 480i | 4:3 | "The CW 11" (SD) |
The station launched on December 1, 1949 as the market's first television outlet and aired an analog signal on VHF channel 13. It was the 93rd television station in the United States to sign-on. This made Utica one of the smallest cities in the nation with its own television property. [1] Initially affiliated with NBC and maintaining secondary relations with DuMont, WKTV eventually picked up secondary affiliations with CBS and ABC. This distinction resulted in the interesting situation of being a local network affiliate for all major television networks for a period of time. The DuMont affiliation ended in the mid-1950s with that network's closure and, due to a dispute with CBS, that affiliation ended soon after. WHEN-TV (now WTVH) in Syracuse would become the default affiliate for the Utica area and remains so to this day.
On New Year's Day 1959, WKTV moved to VHF channel 2 in a dial realignment. The change involved a station located on channel 13 in Hamilton, Ontario switching channel positions to add a channel 13 allotment in Rochester. This, in turn, allowed a relocation of a channel 13 in Albany. With the switch, WKTV upgraded its signal and began to cover a fairly wide area stretching from as far south as the Catskill Mountains, as far east as The Berkshires in Western Massachusetts and into Southern Ontario, Canada.
In the mid-1950s, a young local radio announcer named Dick Clark joined the staff at WKTV. He was a talented and good-looking announcer that quickly gathered a loyal following. Clark's father was the manager of Utica radio station WRUN-FM (now WAMC-FM in Albany) and his son wanted to avoid the name recognition factor. To avoid confusion, the younger Clark became known on-air as "Dick Clay". Eventually, Clark would anchor the weeknight newscasts on WKTV (replacing Robert Earle) who would later host the GE College Bowl. [2] WKTV enjoyed a monopoly in the Utica/Rome television market until February 28, 1970 when WUTR signed-on as an ABC affiliate. WKTV then became an exclusive NBC station resulting in the outlet being one of the oldest affiliates of the network today.
In 1980, its original owner Kallet Television (hence the call sign) sold WKTV to Harron Communications (owner of a chain of cable companies in the Northeast) along with WMTW in Portland, Maine. During this time, it was carried on cable systems in areas as far away as Schenectady and for a time in Syracuse. In the mid-1980s, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) ruled on cross ownership of broadcast, cable and print media in the same communities. Harron Communications owned both WKTV and Harron Cable Television in Utica. It was required that Harron divest itself of one property or the other. In 1992, as a result, an agreement was reached between Harron and Smith Broadcasting. One year later, after Harron purchased the cable system in Utica (later sold to Adelphia and now part of Time Warner), Smith Broadcasting acquired WKTV. Today, the station is owned by Smith Media, LLC which is a successor to Smith Broadcasting as well as a subsidiary of Boston Ventures.
In September 1998, the creation of The WB 100+ led WKTV to partner with the group to launch a cable-only WB affiliate. This new service replaced network flagship WPIX from New York City on Time Warner Cable systems in the Mowhawk Valley and it used the "WBU" (standing for The WB Utica) call sign in a fictional manner. On January 24, 2006, The WB and UPN announced the two networks would end broadcasting and merge. The new combined service would be known as The CW. The letters would represent the first initial of corporate parents "C"BS (the parent company of UPN) and the "W"arner Bros. unit of Time Warner. On September 18, WKTV launched a new second digital subchannel to simulcast WBU and offer off-air access to CW programming. That station then began using the WKTV-DT2 calls in an official manner. Meanwhile, low-powered UPN affiliate WPNY-LP joined News Corporation-owned MyNetworkTV on September 5. Originally, WKTV's subchannel was known on-air as "Central New York CW" but was eventually re-branded to "Central New York CW 11" (and more recently "The CW 11") to reflect its location on Time Warner Cable systems.
WKTV has been broadcasting its digital signal on UHF channel 29 since May 2006 and in high definition starting with the 2008 Summer Olympics. On February 18, 2009, the station turned-off its analog transmitter and began broadcasting exclusively in digital. This left some viewers without a reachable signal and others looking for an outdoor UHF antenna. To continue serving those areas, WKTV began simulcasting its weekday newscasts at noon and 5 on WADR-AM 1480/WUTQ-AM 1550/W238CA-FM 95.5. In May 2011, the radio station began simulcasting the second hour of this outlet's weekday morning show. Due to an ongoing retransmission dispute, Time Warner Cable replaced WKTV with fellow NBC affiliate WBRE-TV from Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania on December 16, 2010. WKTV-DT2 was also dropped and eventually replaced by HBO Family.
On the same date, rival WUTR began to be seen in the Burlington, Vermont/Plattsburgh, New York market on Time Warner Cable after sister station WVNY was dropped for the same reason. [3] The Nexstar Broadcasting Group, owner of WBRE and WUTR, opposed the use of their stations as replacement programming and requested the Time Warner Cable franchise for the affected regions be revoked. Incidentally, Nexstar's sister company Atlantic Broadband, is the only other company with operations in Upstate New York. WKTV and Time Warner reached an agreement, the terms of which both sides refused to reveal, on January 8, 2011 allowing WKTV and the CW subchannel to return to the cable system the next day.
WKTV hosts a telethon for the American Heart Association every March during the same weekend as America's Greatest Heart Run and Walk. The telethon is aired live from Utica College and usually begins the Friday evening before the run/walk. It continues on Saturday during the event with live coverage from various points along the course. Ironically, the telethon usually out-raises the WIBX-AM 950 Heart Radiothon by more than tenfold even though the radiothon was the original event from the entire Heart Weekend.
For many years, WKTV has provided live coverage of the Boilermaker Road Race, a 15-kilometer (9.3 mi) road race that begins near Utica Boilers and ends at the F.X. Matt Brewery. Coverage is anchored primarily from the finish line and supplemented by live trucks positioned at key points along the course, portable transmitters on the race's media truck, motorcycles (driven by volunteers), and formerly a helicopter. The coverage is unique in that it begins by covering the race itself following the leaders throughout the race with interviews after they reach the finish line. Then, the focus shifts to the local angles of the race, with stories of life on the volunteers who make the race happen, local notables running the race (usually including current WKTV on-air staff), and former on-air staff who come back home to run. There is also coverage of post-race events.
WKTV is popular in its coverage area for its Christmas cards where station personnel gather with their families. Each person (or group/family) gets about 7–10 seconds of face time and various shots are spliced together to create a sixty second spot. In order to include every employee, several versions are created and are rotated throughout the holiday season. The song "Christmas is Paintin' The Town" by The Oak Ridge Boys is played in the background every year. WUTR does a similar feature every year with "Winter Wonderland" playing in the background.
The station has been a ratings stronghold in the Mohawk Valley for its entire history. WKTV did not face any local competition until the sign-on of WUTR and the launch of the area's second news department. Even after that outlet established a second choice for local newscasts in Utica, WKTV remained the most watched since it is on the more powerful and attainable VHF dial. However, WUTR was most competitive with WKTV in the mid-1990s staying at a distant but steady second place. Despite the Granite Broadcasting Corporation acquiring WTVH in June 1993, that station did not take full advantage of its status as the area's default CBS affiliate.
The company did not increase efforts to capture a potentially significant opportunity for local advertising and news coverage. Syracuse's WSTM-TV does carry substantial news stories from Herkimer County and that outlet took over WTVH's news operation in 2009 but there was no noticeable increase in Mohawk Valley coverage. Your News Now, Time Warner's cable-only station in Upstate New York, also covers the area from a Syracuse-based newsroom but with more regional content. In instances of severe weather, Syracuse-based stations do offer coverage of Utica and Rome.
After Clear Channel Communications began cutting back operations at WUTR in 2002, that outlet became more reliant on content originating from its sister stations in Upstate New York (particularly flagship WIXT in Syracuse). Due to continual difficulty in maintaining consistent viewership and ratings against WKTV, WUTR dropped its weekday morning show and weekend newscasts in June 2002. Weeknight broadcasts and the remaining news department was shut down entirely on August 1, 2003. For the rest of Clear Channel's ownership, that station simulcasted some newscasts from WIXT which provided limited coverage of the Mowhawk Valley. [4] [5]
In September 2001, WKTV entered into a news share agreement with Fox affiliate WFXV (then owned by Quorum Broadcasting). This arrangement resulted in a prime time newscast at 10 to debut on the latter station. Known as NewsChannel 2 on Fox, the show aired every night for a half-hour and mirrored programs seen on WKTV. The broadcast was supposed to originate live from WKTV's studios but there were technical problems beaming the show to WFXV's facility on Greenfield Road in Rome through microwave relay. Sometimes, WKTV personnel had to record the newscast in advance and physically deliver the videotape to WFXV which was a thirty minute drive. When the outsourcing contract ended on August 31, 2004, the Fox outlet decided not to renew it. As a result, the prime time broadcast moved to cable-exclusive "WBU" the next day and reduced to weeknights. [6] [7] In January 2006, WKTV added a weekend morning show to its schedule.
After WUTR's sale to Mission Broadcasting in 2004, speculation began circulating that the Nexstar Broadcasting Group (owner of WFXV and WPNY) would establish a combined news department for the three outlets in order to take on longtime dominant WKTV. Progress was not made until March 31, 2011 when the company announced it would launch a news operation for the three stations by mid-September. The actual launch occurred on September 12 and there is a weeknight newscast at 6 on WUTR which is repeated at 7 on WPNY. Although not airing live, the latter program is the only offering of local news in the time slot since there is no broadcast seen on WKTV. WFXV introduced the market's second prime time newscast at 10 that can be seen on weeknights for 35 minutes and competing with a show on WKTV-DT2 (known as NewsChannel 2 at 10 on The CW 11). There is also a live 35 minute broadcast at 11 on WUTR. The shows on that station and WFXV can be seen in full high definition meaning Nexstar operates the first news department in Utica offering the updated format.
Newscasts on WKTV remain in pillarboxed 4:3 standard definition and there are currently no plans to upgrade to 16:9 enhanced definition widescreen or even full HD level. Ironically, its sister outlets in Burlington/Plattsburgh (WFFF and WVNY) have been offering full high definition newscasts since December 3, 2007. WUTR has made no indications of carrying a weekday morning show or midday newscast during the week. There are also no newscasts in the 5 o'clock hour on weeknights and/or weekend broadcasts. In an unusual move for a big three station operating a news department, WUTR does not have a dedicated sports department and personalities. [8] [9] [10] [11] [12] [13] Like all CW Plus affiliates in the Eastern Time Zone, WKTV-DT2 airs the nationally syndicated morning show The Daily Buzz on weekdays from 6 until 9. During weather forecast segments, WKTV features live NOAA's National Weather Service Doppler weather radar data from several regional sites. On-air, this is known as "StormTracker 2 Live Doppler".
Anchors
StormTracker 2 Meteorologists
Sports (both seen on Sports Express)
Reporters
|
|||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||
|
|
|||||