WSYT
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| Syracuse, New York | |
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| Branding | Fox 68 |
| Channels | Digital: 19 (UHF) Virtual: 68 (PSIP) |
| Subchannels | 68.1 Fox 68.2 TCN |
| Translators | 16 W16AX Ithaca |
| Owner | Sinclair Broadcast Group (WSYT Licensee L.P.) |
| First air date | February 15, 1986 |
| Call letters' meaning | We're SYracuse Television |
| Sister station(s) | WUHF, WNYO-TV, WUTV, WNYS-TV |
| Former callsigns | WKAF (February-September 1986) |
| Former channel number(s) | 68 (UHF analog, 1986-2009) |
| Former affiliations | Independent (1986-1987) |
| Transmitter power | 621 kW |
| Height | 445 m |
| Facility ID | 40758 |
| Transmitter coordinates | 42°52′50″N 76°12′0″W / 42.88056°N 76.2°W |
| Website | foxsyracuse.com |
WSYT is the Fox-affiliated television station for Central New York State that is licensed to Syracuse. It broadcasts a high definition digital signal on UHF channel 19 from a transmitter west of LaFayette. Owned by the Sinclair Broadcast Group, the station operates MyNetworkTV affiliate WNYS-TV (owned by RKM Media, Inc.) through a local marketing agreement (LMA). The two share studios on James Street (NY 290) in Syracuse northeast of downtown and the I-690/I-81 interchange. Syndicated programming on WSYT includes: Seinfeld, Two and a Half Men, The Office, and Judge Judy. It can also be seen on W16AX channel 16 in Ithaca from a transmitter along NY 96B (Danby Road) in South Hill.
In Syracuse, WSYT can be viewed on cable through Time Warner Cable channel 8 in standard definition.
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[edit] History
The station was originally assigned the call letters WKAF and was on UHF channel 62 rather than 68. After being reassigned to channel 68, the owners of WKAF (Channel 62 Inc.) got the station on-the-air February 15, 1986 and aired religious programming for three hours a day. The station was sold to The Flatley Company in late-1986 and construction of facilities on James Street in Syracuse began. WSYT began full-time operation on April 5, 1987 with a general entertainment format of cartoons, classic sitcoms, recent sitcoms, movies, drama shows, and sports. The premiere of WSYT coincided with the prime-time launch of Fox.
The Flatley Company owned one other station, WNHT in Concord, New Hampshire which was an Independent before joining CBS for the purpose of developing a second local news operation for the state of New Hampshire. WNHT could not compete with WMUR-TV as well as stations from Boston, Massachusetts (WNEV now WHDH-TV) and Portland, Maine (WGME-TV) which were available in most of WNHT's viewing area. In 1989, Flatley decided to shut down WNHT while keeping the license for a few more years. Now known as WPXG, it serves as a satellite of Boston's Ion O&O WBPX.
Flatley owned WSYT until 1992 when the station was sold to Encore Communications later known as Max Media Properties, LLC. In 1998, the Sinclair Broadcast Group bought the station. That company entered into a local marketing agreement with UPN affiliate WNYS in 1995 and began operating that station out of WSYT's facilities. In 2006, Sinclair and Fox finalized a six-year affiliation contract extension for Sinclair's nineteen Fox affiliates including WSYT. The affiliation contract now expires in March 2012. [1] It was carried on cable in the Kingston, Ontario area until 2009. [2] That market is currently served by WNYF-CD in Watertown (for over-the-air ATSC viewers) and on cable by sister stations WUTV in Buffalo and WUHF in Rochester.
Like other Sinclair-owned stations in the region, WSYT and WNYS have transmitting digitally-only signals since February 17, 2009. [3] Until August 2008, WSYT had the highest analog channel allocation of any Fox affiliated television station before being eclipsed by KSWB-TV in San Diego, California when that station swapped The CW with XETV. WSYT's analog power was limited to 1,000,000 watts due to its proximity to Canada. Until June 12, 2009 the official day of the DTV transition, UHF analog stations in the United States were licensed to transmit up to 5,000,000 watts. All of this changed on February 17, 2009, when WSYT went digital-only and moved to a less power-hungry transmitter on UHF channel 19. [4]
WSYT owned the local broadcast rights to Syracuse University basketball from 1987 through 2003 when rights were acquired by Time Warner Cable and aired on their local sports channel. During the majority of those years, WSYT produced a live post-game show as well as a weekly basketball coach's show with Jim Boeheim. They also acquired the rights to Big East football in the 1990s and would air a post-game show after a Syracuse Orangemen game was shown. The coverage was expanded to include a football coach's show with Paul Pasqualoni and a football preview show hosted by Steve Hyder and Joe Zone. In the late-1980s, WSYT aired New York Yankees games that were produced and broadcast by WPIX in New York City.
On November 1, 2010, WSYT launched The Country Network on sub-channel 68.2, replacing a standard definition feed of the FOX signal.
[edit] Newscasts
In 1996, WSYT began airing a weeknight prime time newscast called Fox 68 News at 10 which was produced by NBC affiliate WSTM-TV through a news share agreement. The original news anchors were Chuck Plumpton and Betsy Sykes with meteorologist Wayne Mahar. Sports anchor Joe Brown was added later. He was later succeeded by Joe Zone (now at WFSB) and Amy Kellogg replaced Betsy Sykes as co-anchor. Further shuffling of the staff moved Joe Zone to news anchor and Jon Herz was hired as Sports Director. In 2000, WSTM declined to renew the news share agreement with this channel. As a result, WSYT partnered with CBS afifliate WTVH to keep the shows on-air. Now known as Fox 68 Eyewitness News at 10, this was eventually joined by an hour-long weekday morning newscast called Fox 68 Eyewitness News at 7.
WSTM started airing a weeknight broadcast at 10 on WSTQ-LP in 2003 after Raycom acquired it from Venture Technologies, LLC. In April 2006, WTVH ceased producing news programming on WSYT in order to focus on its own third place ranked newscasts. However, the 10 P.M. broadcast was WTVH's most successful show soundly beating WSTQ. WSYT did not participate in the wider implementation of Sinclair's now-defunct, controversial News Central format but did air "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.
As of December 16, 2010, WSYT is one of two Fox affiliates in the state of New York owned by Sinclair and one of a handful of Big Four network affiliated stations throughout the country that do not produce or air local newscasts.
[edit] References
- ^ http://www.sbgi.net/news_releases/2006/release_200652_160.pdf
- ^ Cogeco to replace channels:Syracuse feeds to be lost, MIKE KOREEN, Kingston Whig-Standard, January 2009 (broken link)
- ^ As thousands Upstate wait for TV coupons, 3 area stations may not delay switch to digital, Mark Weiner, Syracuse Post-Standard, February 06, 2009
- ^ TV Query Results - Video Division (FCC) USA
[edit] External links
- WSYT "Fox 68"
- WNYS-DT "My 43"
- Query the FCC's TV station database for WSYT
- Query the FCC's TV station database for W16AX
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