WROC-TV

WROC-TV

Rochester, New York United States
City of license	Rochester
Branding	News 8
Slogan	The Team You Can Trust
Channels	Digital: 45 (UHF) Virtual: 8 (PSIP)
Subchannels	8.1 CBS 8.2 Bounce TV
Affiliations	CBS (1989-present)
Owner	Nexstar Broadcasting Group (Nexstar Broadcasting, Inc.)
First air date	June 11, 1949 (1949-06-11)
Call letters' meaning	ROChester
Sister station(s)	WSYR-TV, WWTI, WETM-TV, WUTR, WFXV, WPNY-LP, WIVT, WBGH-CA, WFFF-TV, WVNY
Former callsigns	WHAM-TV (1949–1956)
Former channel number(s)	Analog: 6 (1949–1954) 5 (1954–1962) 8 (1962–2009)
Former affiliations	Primary: NBC (1949–1989) Secondary: DuMont (1949–1956) [1]
Transmitter power	1,000 kW
Height	122.3 m
Facility ID	73964
Transmitter coordinates	43°8′7″N 77°35′2″W / 43.13528°N 77.58389°W / 43.13528; -77.58389
Licensing authority	FCC
Public license information:	Profile CDBS
Website	www.rochesterhomepage.net

WROC-TV, virtual channel 8, is a CBS-affiliated television station based in Rochester, New York, USA, owned and operated by Nexstar Broadcasting Group. WROC-TV is the flagship of the company's Upstate New York stations and it has studios on Humboldt Street in Rochester. WROC-TV's transmitter is located on Pinnacle Hill in Brighton, New York.

History

WROC-TV is Rochester's oldest television station, signing on June 11, 1949, as WHAM-TV, an NBC affiliate on channel 6. It was owned originally by Stromberg-Carlson, a telephone equipment manufacturer, along with WHAM radio. The station was also affiliated with the now defunct DuMont Television Network. ()

WHAM-TV moved to channel 5 on July 24, 1954, as part of a revision of upstate New York's VHF allotments resulting from the Federal Communications Commission's Sixth Report and Order of 1952. However, WHAM on channel 5 dealt with interference issues from CBLT, a CBC Television station from Toronto, after that station moved from its original channel 9 allocation to channel 6 in 1956. CBLT was replaced on channel 9 by CFTO-TV in 1960, and that channel relocation would later play an indirect role in the station's second frequency shift, eight years later.

Stromberg-Carlson sold its broadcast holdings in 1956, with WHAM-TV going to Transcontinent Broadcasting, which owned WGR radio and WGR-TV in Buffalo. The new owners changed the call letters to the current WROC-TV. In 1961, Transcontinent sold the station to Veterans Broadcasting Company, which subsequently sold its half of what is today WHEC-TV (channel 10) to the Gannett Company, then based in Rochester.^[2] (The WHAM-TV callsign is now used on Rochester's ABC affiliate, channel 13, previously known as WOKR. Other than the shared callsign, that station is unrelated to the earlier WHAM-TV.)

Under Veterans' ownership, WROC-TV moved to channel 8 on September 8, 1962, as part of another channel allocation change, this one being a switch involving Rochester and Syracuse.^[3] The FCC moved WROC-TV's former channel 5 east to Syracuse, and it was taken by Meredith Corporation-owned WHEN-TV (now WTVH), which was previously on channel 8. The move also allowed a new station on channel 9 to enter the Syracuse market; it signed-on as WNYS-TV (later WIXT and now WSYR-TV) the following day.

Veterans Broadcasting merged with Rust Craft Broadcasting in 1964. Rust Craft became a subsidiary of Ziff Davis in 1979. Rust Craft then sold WROC-TV and sister stations in Saginaw, Michigan, Augusta, Georgia and Steubenville, Ohio to Television Station Partners LP in 1983. Television Station Partners sold WROC-TV, along with the Saginaw and Steubenville outlets, to Smith Broadcasting in 1996. Nexstar purchased WROC in 1999.

Headquarters on Humboldt Street in Rochester, New York

Under the stewardship of Television Station Partners, WROC-TV made another switch: On July 1, 1989, after 40 years with NBC, channel 8 swapped network affiliations with WHEC-TV and became a CBS station.^[4]

Since the 1970s, WROC's newscasts have struggled in the Nielsen ratings, usually placing a distant third behind WOKR/WHAM-TV and WHEC-TV. Even with the strong NBC prime-time line-up in the mid-to-late 1980s (the last few years of WROC's affiliation contract with NBC) and the strong CBS line-up during the 2000s (decade), WROC's newscasts remained in third place for the most part, although it slowly grew in market share over the course of the decade. In the November 2008 ratings period, however, WROC's 11 pm newscast finished ahead of the slumping WHEC for the first time in many years.

For many years, WROC was one of three Rochester area stations offered on cable in the Ottawa/Gatineau and Eastern Ontario regions. The Rochester area stations were replaced with Detroit stations when the microwave relay system that provided these signals was discontinued. Until January 2009, WROC was also available in many Central Ontario communities such as Belleville, Cobourg, and Lindsay.

On July 9, 2012, WROC-TV replaced WLKY-TV Louisville on Time Warner Cable systems in that station's region, when WLKY's owners, Hearst Television, pulled its stations off Time Warner Cable's systems in a retransmission dispute.^[5] However, Nexstar complained that Time Warner Cable has used their signals outside their markets without permission, while Time Warner Cable was within its rights to use their signals as replacements until a deal with Hearst is reached.^[6] WROC, for its part, made the best of its predicament, naming the administrator of a Facebook group of tongue-in-cheek Louisvillean WROC fans its fan of the week and making a handful of other shout-outs to its emerging Louisville fanbase.^[7] The substitution of WROC in place of WLKY lasted until July 19, 2012, when a deal was reached between Hearst and Time Warner.^[8]

Digital television

Digital channels

The station's digital signal is multiplexed:

On September 26, 2011, WROC-TV launched Bounce TV on sub-channel 8.2.

Analog-to-digital conversion

WROC-TV discontinued regular programming on its analog signal, over VHF channel 8, at 11:35 p.m. on June 12, 2009 (following the late newscast), the official date in which full-power television stations in the United States transitioned from analog to digital broadcasts under federal mandate. The station's digital signal remained on its pre-transition UHF channel 45.^[10] Through the use of PSIP, digital television receivers display the station's virtual channel as its former VHF analog channel 8.

Programming

Syndicated programming on WROC includes: Wheel of Fortune, Jeopardy!, Inside Edition, and The Dr. Oz Show. All are distributed by CBS Television Distribution.

News operation

Nightly news open at 11.

In August 1957, WROC began airing the area's first 11 o'clock broadcast called Eleventh Hour News. Regular sports segments were added to the show on April 7, 1958. WROC enjoyed ratings dominance with popular anchorman Tom Decker and weatherman Bob Mills. Anne Keefe, another well-known talent who split time between WROC radio and TV, contributed to the station's success in the 1960s and 1970s. However by the mid-1970s, Decker, Mills and Keefe left. The loss of these popular veteran broadcasters and the station's failure to keep up with changing technology lead to a ratings slump that lasted decades.

Since the mid-1970s through the early 2000s, WROC's newscasts struggled in the Nielsen ratings usually placing a distant third behind WHAM and WHEC. Even with the strong NBC prime-time line-up in the mid-to-late 1980s (the last few years of WROC's affiliation contract with NBC) and the CBS line-up during the early 2000s, its newscasts remained in third place. However, after finally establishing some stability with its anchor team, market share has been growing over the course of the past decade. In the November 2008 ratings period, WROC's 11 p.m. newscast finished ahead of slumping WHEC for the first time in many years.

After becoming operated by Nexstar, WUHF's separate news department was shut down. 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 broadcast (produced by WROC) called Fox First at 10 began airing on WUHF. Originating from a secondary set at this station's facilities, the show eventually expanded to 45 minutes followed by a fifteen-minute sports highlight program known as Sports Extra. On September 13, 2010, this station began airing a weeknight 4 p.m. newscast for a half-hour (an area first).^[11] As of 2011, WROC's newscasts remain in third place overall. On September 4, 2012, WROC became the second Rochester area TV station to have upgraded its local newscasts to high definition. The 10 p.m. newscast on WUHF was included in the upgrade. On December 31, 2013, WUHF terminated its SSA with WROC and entered into a new one with WHAM-TV, on January 1, 2014. It also moved to WHAM's studio in Henrietta, where WHAM now produces WUHF's 10 o'clock newscasts, renaming it as 13 WHAM News at 10 on Fox Rochester,^[12] and creating a morning newscast Good Day Rochester.

Notable current on-air staff

• Stacey Pensgen (AMS Seal of Approval) -weekday mornings (5:00-7:00 a.m.) and weekdays at noon (also "Around Town" segment producer)

References

External links

• RochesterHomepage.net - Official Website
• Query the FCC's TV station database for WROC-TV