WSTQ-LP

WSTQ-LP

Syracuse, New York
Branding	CW 6 (general) CNY Central
Slogan	TV to Talk About & Live. Local. Latebreaking.
Channels	Analog: 14 (UHF) Digital: WSTM-DT 24.2 (UHF)
Affiliations	The CW
Owner	Barrington Broadcasting (Barrington Syracuse License, LLC)
Founded	June 19, 2000
Call letters' meaning	derived from WSTM
Sister station(s)	WSTM, WTVH
Former callsigns	WAWA-LP (2000-2003)
Former affiliations	Independent (2000-2001) UPN (2001-2006)
Transmitter power	9.8 kW (analog) 210 kW (WSTM-DT2)
Height	203.6 m (analog) 393 m (WSTM-DT2)
Facility ID	10320 (analog) 21252 (WSTM-DT2)
Transmitter coordinates	43°3′30″N 76°10′0″W (analog) 42°56′42″N 76°7′7″W (WSTM-DT2)

WSTQ-LP is the low-powered CW-affiliated television station for Central New York State licensed to Syracuse. It broadcasts an analog signal on UHF channel 14 from a transmitter on West Kirkpatrick Street alongside WOLF-FM's tower in the city's Lakefront section. Due to the low-powered status, the station does not currently operate a digital signal of its own. However, WSTM's second digital subchannel serves as that purpose. This broadcasts in standard definition on UHF channel 14.2 (PSIP virtual channel 3.2) from a transmitter in Onondaga's Sentinel Heights section. WSTQ can also be seen on Time Warner Cable channel 6 (hence the CW 6 branding) and in high definition on digital channel 866.

Owned by Barrington Broadcasting, the station is sister to NBC affiliate WSTM-TV and CBS affiliate WTVH. The latter, however, is owned by Granite Broadcasting and operated by Barrington through joint sales and shared services agreements. All three share studios on James Street (NY 290) in the Lincoln Park section of Syracuse. Syndicated programming on WSTQ includes: Frasier, How I Met Your Mother, America's Funniest Home Videos, and Tyra. This station splits coverage of New York Yankees games with WSTM that are produced for MyNetworkTV affiliate WWOR-TV in New York City by the YES Network.

History

First CW logo.

The station signed-on June 19, 2000 as WAWA-LP owned by Venture Technologies Group, LLC. It was technically an Independent although very few syndicated programming was shown since the majority of the line up consisted of home shopping and other paid shows. On October 20, 2001 ten months after WNYS-TV dropped its UPN affiliation, WAWA picked it up.

For two years, it fought to get carriage on Time Warner Cable. Due to the lack of programming on the station, the cable company refused to carry it. It could be argued Time Warner's partial ownership of the rival WB network played some role. By federal law, it was not obligated to carry WAWA due to its status as a low-powered station which has no "must-carry" protection.

Time Warner had already added WSBK-TV from Boston to its line-up on channel 6 in July 2001. This was done even though there was a cost of nearly $1 million a year in out-of-market licensing fees. At one point, WAWA even offered to pay Time Warner Cable to carry the station. Low-powered outlets buying channel space on cable is commonplace due to the lack of "must-carry" protection. WAWA took the case to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and asked them to adopt a rule that would require Time Warner to black out WSBK's prime time UPN line up whether it carried WAWA or not. In the end, the FCC ruled against the station.

In 2003, Raycom Media (then-owner of WSTM) purchased WAWA from Venture Technologies for an undisclosed amount of money. The station had its call letters changed to WSTQ-LP (derived from WSTM) and was given the on-air branding of "UPN 6, The Q". Raycom used "6" to reflect its pending cable channel slot on Time Warner which was obtained July 1, 2003 following WSTQ's acquisition by the company. Ironically, the same "must-carry" laws that kept WAWA off Time Warner eventually got the station on the system.

The law gives full-powered stations the option of "retransmission consent" or requesting compensation from cable systems to carry them. In this case, full-powered WSTM can require cable systems like Time Warner to offer low-powered WSTQ on the system as part of the compensation for carrying the full-power station. As a result of the ownership change, this station moved into WSTM's facilities.

Until 2005, WSTQ carried the Bill Keeler Show (a daily and later weekly local comedy series). When the show did not register in the ratings and was losing money, Keeler yanked the show from the Syracuse market in 2005. Keeler also cited FCC requirements that would require his show to be captioned in Syracuse which was an additional infrastructural expense. On March 27, 2006, Raycom Media announced the sale of WSTQ and WSTM to Barrington Broadcasting. As a result of the January 2006 announcement of UPN and The WB networks merging to create The CW, WSTQ revealed in March that it would become Syracuse's affiliate with the new network.

The station became a CW affiliate on September 18 and became known on-air as "CW 6". Also in 2006, Ion Television affiliate WSPX-TV filed an application with the FCC to broadcast its digital signal on channel 14 where WSTQ's analog signal is located now. This was abandoned in favor of channel 15 on December 3, 2008. Originally, this station had a separate section on WSTM's website located at "wstq.com" (it has since been abandoned). WSTQ was not affected by the consolidation of sister station WSTM with rival WTVH.

Newscasts

After being acquired by Raycom, WSTQ began airing a thirty minute prime time newscast. Produced by WSTM, it was seen on weeknights and known as Action News at 10 on UPN 6, The Q. Right from the start, the show competed with Fox 68 Eyewitness News at 10 (produced by WTVH) seen every night on WSYT. WSTQ's broadcast was expanded to a seven night operation on January 8, 2005. In April 2006, WTVH ceased newscast production on WSYT in order to focus on improving its own third place ranked operation. However, the 10 p.m. shows were WTVH's most successful and had been soundly beating WSTQ. When this station became a CW affiliate, the title changed to CW 6 News at 10. Eventually, this was modified to Action News at 10 on CW 6. The weeknight show was expanded to an hour-long format August 30, 2010 and began to feature more coverage and additional segments.

Soon after on September 7, ABC affiliate WSYR-TV added a prime time newscast to its second digital subchannel. Unlike traditional 10 o'clock shows, this only airs live for fifteen minutes and then repeated four times in the hour. In mid-December 2010, WSTM became the first station in Syracuse to upgrade local newscasts to 16:9 enhanced definition widescreen. Although the broadcast on WSTQ was included, it can only be seen in the updated resolution on Time Warner Cable digital channel 866. This is because WSTM-DT2 (serving as WSTQ's digital signal) only transmits in pillarboxed 4:3 standard definition. Corresponding with the upgrade, this station's news received an updated graphic and music package. It was also renamed CNY Central News at 10 on CW 6.

Anchors

• Matt Mulcahy - Managing Editor and weeknight news (also "Talk at 10" segment producer)
• Lisa Spitz - weekend news and reporter (also "Talk at 10" segment producer)
• Wayne Mahar (AMS Seal of Approval) - Chief Meteorologist seen Thursday and Friday nights
• Mike Brookins (AMS Seal of Approval) - Saturday through Wednesday night meteorologist
• John Evenson - Sports Director seen weeknights and Orange VIP Pass host
• Niko Tamurian - weekend sports and sports reporter
• Dave Cumes - Orange VIP Pass host and heard on W256AC-FM 99.1/WTKW 99.5/WTKV-FM 105.5

Multimedia journalists

• Jim Kenyon - Chief Investigative and Environmental
• Michael Benny - "Talk at 10" segment producer
• Chris McGrath - producer
• Brian Mueller - sports
• Megan Coleman
• Brandon Roth
• Jessica Cain
• Caitlin Nuclo
• Alex Dunbar

External links

• WSTQ-LP "CW 6"
• The CW
• Query the FCC's TV station database for WSTQ-LP