| Rochester, New York | |
|---|---|
| Branding | Fox Rochester |
| Slogan | The Team You Can Trust |
| Channels | Digital: 28 (UHF) Virtual: 31 (PSIP) |
| Subchannels | 31.1 Fox 31.2 TheCoolTV |
| Owner | Sinclair Broadcast Group (operated through SSA by Nexstar Broadcasting Group) (WUHF Licensee, LLC) |
| First air date | January 1980 |
| Call letters' meaning | Ultra High Frequency |
| Sister station(s) | WROC-TV, WNYS-TV, WSYT, WNYO-TV, WUTV |
| Former channel number(s) | Analog: 31 (1980-2009) |
| Former affiliations | Independent (1980-1986) NetSpan (1985-1986) |
| Transmitter power | 320 kW |
| Height | 161 m |
| Facility ID | 413 |
| Website | rochesterhomepage.net |
WUHF is the Fox-affiliated television station for Rochester, New York. It broadcasts a high definition digital signal on UHF channel 28 (hence the call letters) from a transmitter on Pinnacle Hill on the border between Rochester and Brighton. The station can also be seen on Time Warner channel 7 and in high definition on digital channel 1007. Owned by the Sinclair Broadcast Group, WUHF is operated through a shared services agreement (SSA) by the Nexstar Broadcasting Group as sister to CBS affiliate WROC-TV. The two share studios on Humboldt Street near the Culver-Winton-Main section of Rochester. Syndicated programming on this station includes: Seinfeld, Two and a Half Men, The People's Court, and Judge Judy.
Contents |
On WUHF-DT2 is TheCoolTV. It is not currently offered on Time Warner Cable but may be added at some point.
| Subchannel | Programming |
|---|---|
| 31.1 | Main WUHF programming / FOX |
| 31.2 | TheCoolTV |
It began operations in January 1980 as a general entertainment Independent running cartoons, sitcoms (classic and recent), movies, drama shows, and religious shows. The station was owned by Malrite and the General Manager was Jerry Carr who was the former "The Weather Outside" personality. In 1983, former underground cartoonist Brian Bram produced and hosted All Night Live, a program aired live from midnight to 7 in the morning Fridays and Saturdays.
Bram's show was a showcase for regional bands including Personal Effects, Cousin Al and the Relatives, and The Degrads. On October 6, 1986, WUHF became a charter affiliate of Fox for Rochester and was known on-air as "Fox 31". Most of the religious shows were gone by then. In 1989, Act III Broadcasting bought the station. In a group deal, Abry would become the owner in 1994.
By 1996, it was controlled by Sinclair and was eventually sold to that company. In the 1990s, classic sitcoms, movies, and drama shows made way for talk, reality, and court shows. Cartoons ended the station's weekday airings at the end of 2001 when Fox closed its weekday kids block nationwide. In 2000, the station became known on-air as "Fox Rochester" although it adopted a "Fox 31" logo in 2003. Its digital signal signed on-the-air in 2004 under a special temporary authority from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). In 2006, WUHF added The Tube digital music video channel on a new second digital subchannel. This continued until the service went out of business in 2007.
In August 2005, the Sinclair Broadcast Group entered into a shared services agreement with Nexstar. Sinclair agreed to be the subordinate entity allowing Nexstar to control programming for WUHF. The station then moved from its studios on East Avenue in Rochester to WROC's facilities. [1] Sinclair and Fox recently finalized a six-year affiliation contract extension for Sinclair's nineteen Fox affiliates including WUHF. This station's affiliation contract now expires in March 2012. On February 17, 2009 like most Sinclair stations, the station's analog programming left channel 31 and was replaced by a "nightlight" loop that ran until March 3. WUHF continues to operate its digital signal on channel 28.
In 1994, several cable systems in Canada started carrying WUHF via the Cancom communications satellite in out-of-market areas where Fox was not otherwise available. However, it had been carried on cable in Belleville, Ontario and other communities on the north shore of Lake Ontario since the 1980s. It is carried by both Eastlink and Aliant TV in the province of Nova Scotia. The station is also carried in the Thousand Islands region of the North Country in the town of Hammond (via Citizens Cable TV) as well as in the provinces of Manitoba and Newfoundland and Labrador. WUHF has been carried on satellite systems since 2001 and it is currently the only Rochester-based television station seen in Canada on the Shaw Direct satellite provider.
CF Cable in Western Montreal suburbs used to carry the station in 1995 but replaced it with sister station WUTV from Buffalo the following year. That station was carried on Vidéotron for cable systems outside the West Island. It was also the first Fox station carried on Montreal cable. However, the northern suburbs of that city (particularly St. Jerome) still carry the station even though in Mont Tremblant, WFFF-TV along with other Burlington, Vermont/Plattsburgh, New York stations are seen there instead. Sinclair was re-negotiating for carriage of WUHF on the local Time Warner system in Rochester. The previous agreement expired on December 31, 2010. [2] An updated retransmission agreement was reached in February 2011. Had this not happened, WUHF could have pulled its signal from Time Warner.
In 1997, WUHF established its own news department and aired a nightly prime time newscast (known as The Ten O'Clock News) along with a Sunday night sports highlight show. In 2003, the operation was converted to Sinclair's controversial News Central format which consisted of national and international news as well as weather and sports segments produced at Sinclair's headquarters on Beaver Dam Road in Hunt Valley, Maryland. The local news operation at WUHF was significantly sized down as a result. It also aired "The Point", a one-minute conservative political commentary, that was also controversial and a requirement of all Sinclair-owned stations with newscasts until the series was discontinued in December 2006.
After becoming operated by Nexstar, the News Central format was abandoned and broadcasts on WUHF ceased. Two anchors, a producer, and a photographer were added to WROC's news staff. The remainder of its personnel was laid off in this move. On September 1, 2005, a nightly half hour prime time show (known as Fox First at 10) produced by WROC began airing on this station. It airs from a secondary set from that station's facilities. Eventually, this expanded to 45 minutes followed by a fifteen minute sports highlight program known as Sports Extra.
Anchors
Reporters
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