| Type | Cable and satellite network |
|---|---|
| Country | United States |
| Availability | United States Canada |
| Slogan | Where the Action is the Attraction! |
| Owner | RKO General (1979-1987) MCA (1987-1991) Pinelands, Inc. (1991-1993) Chris-Craft Industries (1993-1997) Eastern Microwave, Incorporated (uplinker, 1979-1996; Superstation programmer, 1990-1996) Advance Entertainment Corporation (uplinker and Superstation programmer, 1996) |
| Launch date | April 1979 |
| Dissolved | January 1, 1997 (Local version re-uplinked nationally less than a month later) |
| Former affiliations | Independent |
WWOR EMI Service was a New York City-based American superstation for Secaucus, NJ-licensed WWOR-TV Channel 9, uplinked from Syracuse, New York to satellite by Eastern Microwave, Inc., who later sold the satellite distribution rights to Advance Entertainment Corporation, which was owned by Advance Publications, a Syracuse-based company that also owned various newspaper, broadcasting and cable properties. In the Metro New York City area, the Superstation was not available on cable but was available to satellite viewers. The exception to this took place on February 26, 1993 after the World Trade Center bombing, when the local WWOR's transmitter was knocked out for the day. Cable companies in the metro New York area used the Superstation feed as a substitute until the transmitter was back on.
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In 1965, Eastern Microwave began to relay the signal for WOR-TV Channel 9 in New York via microwave to cable systems located in markets immediately surrounding the New York City metropolitan area, reaching as far west as Buffalo, NY and as far south as Philadelphia, PA, as well as throughout New England. In April 1979, Eastern began to uplink the signal for satellite and cable subscribers nationwide, joining WGN-TV in Chicago and WTBS (now WPCH-TV) in Atlanta as a Superstation. For 11 years afterwards, the national WOR-TV/WWOR-TV signal was the same exact signal that was seen in the New York area.
In 1989, a new law known as the "Syndication Exclusivity Rights rule," also known as "SyndEx", was passed. This law meant that whenever a local TV station has the exclusive rights to air a syndicated program, it must be blacked out on any out-of-market stations that were carried by the local cable companies. After the law was passed, EMI purchased the rights to programs that no stations claimed exclusive rights to, and on January 1, 1990, a special national feed was launched for cable and satellite subscribers outside of the New York City market. Most of WWOR's syndicated programs that they had the rights to show in New York City were covered up by the alternate programming on the national version, save for sports, newscasts, the overnight Shop at Home program, the annual United Cerebral Palsy Telethon, the annual Jerry Lewis Muscular Dystrophy Association Telethon, and a select few shows that weren't claimed as exclusive to any market. This caused confusion among WWOR's cable viewers outside of the metropolitan New York area, as simulcast hours were left unaltered, leaving in promos for shows that were not airing on the national feed due to the SyndEx law.
When Channel 9 became a UPN affiliate in 1995, the network shows were also covered up. Thus, while New York City viewers got Star Trek: Voyager, cable viewers throughout the rest of the country got Hazel reruns. This was due to Paramount (although Chris-Craft owned the station) using SyndEx to keep the UPN shows off the national WWOR feed, although rival Superstation WGN (now WGN America) showed The WB network programming on their national feed until nationwide terrestrial coverage was deemed sufficient in 1999. In mid-1996, EMI sold satellite distribution rights to WWOR and WSBK Boston to AEC. On January 1, 1997, AEC discontinued the feed,[1] selling WWOR's old spot to The Discovery Channel for the then-six month old Animal Planet,[2] which Advance still presently owns in part.
Due to the outcry of satellite dish owners who missed WWOR, the station was returned to the satellite on a different transponder by National Programming Service, LLC less than a week after AEC's discontinuation. The national feed was once again the same feed that New York viewers saw, complete with all of the syndicated programming and UPN intact, due to the station now only being distributed outside of New York to satellite dish owners. This feed was discontinued in 1999 in favor of Pax, but Dish Network still carries the New York feed of WWOR in both the local package in New York and the Superstation Package across the country, except in markets where the MyNetworkTV affiliate is using the SyndEx law to black out WWOR from coming into the market in any form.
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