WTVH

WTVH

Syracuse/Utica, New York
Branding	CBS 5 (general) CBS 5 News (weeknights) Action News (during simulcasted WSTM shows)
Slogan	News That Matters Most (weeknights) Live. Local. Latebreaking. (during simulcasted WSTM shows)
Channels	Digital: 47 (UHF) Virtual: 5 (PSIP)
Subchannels	5.1 CBS
Owner	Granite Broadcasting Corporation (operated through LMA and SSA by Barrington Broadcasting) (WTVH License, Inc.)
First air date	December 1, 1948
Call letters' meaning	TeleVision H (from its time as WHEN)
Sister station(s)	WSTM-TV, WSTQ-LP, WBNG-TV, WKBW
Former callsigns	WHEN-TV (1948–1976)
Former channel number(s)	Analog: 8 (VHF, 1948–1961) 5 (VHF, 1961–2009)
Former affiliations	NBC (1948–1950) ABC (1948–1962) DuMont (1948–1955) all secondary
Transmitter power	500 kW
Height	290.1 m
Facility ID	74151
Transmitter coordinates	42°57′19.3″N 76°6′33.3″W
Website	cnycentral.com

WTVH is the CBS-affiliated television station for Central New York State licensed to Syracuse. It broadcasts a high definition digital signal on UHF channel 47 from a transmitter in LaFayette. The station can also be seen on Time Warner and Verizon FiOS channel 5. There is a high definition feed offered on Verizon FiOS digital channel 505 and Time Warner digital channel 855. Owned by the Granite Broadcasting Corporation, it is operated through joint sales and shared services agreements by Barrington Broadcasting. This makes WTVH sister to NBC affiliate WSTM-TV and low-powered CW affiliate WSTQ-LP. All three share studios on James Street/NY 290 in the Near Northeast section of Syracuse. Syndicated programming on WTVH includes: Live with Regis and Kelly, Wheel of Fortune, Jeopardy! and TMZ on TV.

History

The station debuted on December 1, 1948 as WHEN-TV with an analog signal on VHF channel 8. It went on-the-air as Syracuse's first television station. The channel was the first station owned-and-operated by the Meredith Corporation and was the 47th station to launch in the United States. Meredith simultaneously entered the television field in several Midwestern cities including Omaha and Kansas City. In 1954, it purchased WAGE-AM 620 changed the calls to WHEN and switched it to a CBS Radio affiliate to match the company's long ties to CBS in all the markets where Meredith operated stations at the time.

WTVH has always been a primary CBS affiliate, although at first, it also carried secondary affiliations with NBC, ABC, and DuMont. When WSYR-TV (now WSTM-TV) signed-on in 1950, WHEN shared ABC with that channel until WNYS-TV (later WIXT and now WSYR-TV) signed-on in 1962. The affiliation with DuMont ended in 1956 when that network ceased operations.

In July 1961, the station moved to VHF channel 5 swapping channel locations with WROC-TV in Rochester as the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) was re-writing the Upstate New York allocation table to provide more VHF full-service stations in Rochester, Syracuse, and Albany. The original studios were on Court Street. In 1963, the station moved to a new state-of-the-art combination radio/television facility on James Street just a block down the street from WSYR-AM-FM-TV's studios. Popular national radio and television personality Arthur Godfrey originated his late-morning CBS network radio show from the new WHEN studios on the day the facility opened to help Meridith celebrate.

In 1976, the company sold WHEN radio to Park Communications but kept WHEN-TV for almost another two decades. Since the radio station kept the WHEN calls, Meredith had to change the television channel's call sign. It originally wanted the new call letters WTVF (TeleVision Five referring the station's on-air identity) but those had already been claimed by a station in Nashville, Tennessee. At this point, Meredith chose WTVH as the new calls with "H" being a link to its WHEN heritage. In June 1993, Meredith announced the sale of this channel and sister station KSEE-TV in Fresno, California to Granite Broadcasting with the sale closing on December 23 of that year. With that deal, WTVH became Granite's oldest television station based on the date and time the station signed-on.

The company soon increased its Northeastern holdings with the purchase of WKBW-TV in Buffalo in 1995 and WBNG-TV in Binghamton in July 2006. As part of the WBNG purchase, Les Vann (formerly President and General Manager of WTVH) was promoted to Executive Vice President of Central and Southern New York operations with regional responsibilities at both WBNG and WTVH. At the same time, Matthew Rosenfeld was promoted to Vice President and Station Manager of this channel after holding the General Sales Manager position since 2004. WTVH was featured in the film Bruce Almighty in 2003. It is portrayed as the rival station of WKBW in Buffalo mainly because the common ownership of both stations made gaining rights to use them in the movie easier. It is also said that WKBW's real-life rival, WIVB-TV, refused to allow its branding to be used in the film resulting in WTVH being substituted.

In April 2008, Matthew Rosenfeld was appointed to the position of President and General Manager of WTVH and its Binghamton sister stations (WBNG and "WBXI"). On April 6, 2008, Jean Daugherty died at age 84. She was known to many baby boomer children as "The Play Lady" on this station's locally produced children program, The Magic Toy Shop, from 1955 until 1982. Jean wrote more than 6,000 episodes of the program, which after ending its run, was the longest running local kid show in the country.

On March 2, 2009 as a result of low ratings, slow advertising sales, and the loss of the Ithaca area to WENY-DT2, it was announced that WTVH would enter into joint sales and shared services agreements with rivals WSTM and WSTQ. Initially, WTVH continued to operate out of its own facilities on James Street but eventually moved into WSTM's studios a block away. Its website was not updated after the announcement and was eventually integrated with WSTM's web address. The original holders of the WTVH calls from 1953 to 1965, WHOI in Peoria, Illinois, had an equivalent deal announced the very same day between the same two companies. That Barrington-owned station is now managed by WTVH's Granite sister station WEEK-TV. WTVH's studios were put up for lease in Summer 2009, but so far, no takers have come forward.

On June 12, 2009, the station ceased analog television service on VHF channel 5. It remained on UHF channel 47 after the transition. Through the use of PSIP, digital television receivers continue to display its virtual channel as 5. On September 6, 2009, its transmitter was damaged after a power failure. While Granite Broadcasting worked to fix the signal, WSTM's third digital subchannel (normally a 24-hour local weather channel) carried WTVH. WSTM-DT3 broadcasts from a transmitter in the Sentinel Heights section of Onondaga and can also be seen on Verizon FiOS digital channel 460 as well as Time Warner digital channel 864. As of September 12, its signal was restored even though, as late as November 12, over-the-air viewers continued to experience breakup of the signal.

Utica market

Since 1956 when CBS ended a secondary affiliation with WKTV after a dispute, WTVH has been serving as the de-facto affiliate for the majority of the Utica market namely Herkimer County and that area's portion of Oneida County (Otsego County has WBNG as its default). In past years, WTVH was extremely protective of this status having barred current ABC affiliate WUTR from affiliating with CBS on at least one occasion. Under Granite's ownership, this status has not necessarily been taken advantage of in terms of advertising and targeting towards the Utica area. Portions of that area lost access to WTVH's over-the-air broadcasts as a result of the 2009 digital television transition.

NFL controversy

In 1997, CBS gained the rights to the American Football Conference of the National Football League. The league determined that portions of Yates County, a fairly narrow location only a few miles wide at certain points, was within 75 miles (121 km) of Ralph Wilson Stadium home of the Buffalo Bills. That area is on the far western fringe of the Syracuse market and it has bounced between the Syracuse and Rochester markets a couple of times. Therefore, WTVH is forced to blackout Buffalo Bills games if they do not sell out. With this station's control over the Utica market, unless the Bills are hosting a National Football Conference team or the game is on Sunday or Monday nights, it would be blacked out there as well.

This was not the case when NBC held the rights to AFC games. WSTM was allowed to broadcast Bills games even when they did not sell out. However, the NFL and Bills apparently had not checked the regional television market boundaries for a number of years before the switch from NBC to CBS. Bills games at the Rogers Centre in Toronto, Ontario are not subject to blackout restrictions in Syracuse as no part of the area is within 75 miles (121 km) of Toronto.

News operation

Weekend news open at 11 simulcasted from WSTM.

For most of its first forty years on-air, the station was the dominant news channel in Central New York. However, it fell into gradual decline beginning in the 1980s which accelerated under subsequent owners. Ever since the mid-1990s, WTVH's newscasts have struggled in the Nielsen ratings running a distant third behind WSYR and WSTM. This precipitous decline in its local news viewership contributed to Meredith's decision to sell the station in 1993. Ratings plummeted even further after popular longtime anchor Ron Curtis retired in December 2000. Even the strength of CBS's prime time network programming failed to lift it out of the ratings basement.

In 2000, WSTM declined to renew its news share agreement with Fox affiliate WSYT that featured a nightly half-hour prime time newscast at 10 on the latter. As a result, WSYT partnered with WTVH to keep the broadcasts on-air. Now known as Fox 68 Eyewitness News at 10, this was eventually joined by an hour-long weekday morning show called Fox 68 Eyewitness News at 7. Meanwhile in 2003, WSTM brought back a nightly prime time show at 10 for WSTQ. In April 2006, WTVH ceased producing news programming for WSYT in order to focus on its own third place ranked newscasts. However, the 10 pm broadcasts were WTVH's most successful soundly beating WSTQ.

On December 22, 2006, one of the area's most popular long-time journalist, Nancy Duffy (general assignment reporter first for WTVH and later for WSTM) died. She had been away from work since August. Throughout her career, Duffy led the way for women in journalism. She became the first woman police reporter in Central New York after joining the Syracuse Herald-Journal in 1966. She was Syracuse’s first female television reporter when she moved to channel 5 1967. She became the first woman to join the Syracuse Press Club and later served as its President. In 1970, Duffy served as press secretary at Syracuse City Hall for then-mayor Lee Alexander. She returned to the station after a year and moved to WSTM as a reporter and weekday morning news anchor in 1977. Shortly afterward, the station fired Curtis' longtime anchor desk partner, Maureen Green, a 22-year veteran of the station.

After becoming operated by WSTM, WTVH shut down its news department and had merged it with that channel. This resulted in the elimination of forty jobs at this station. Michael Benny was retained to solo-anchor the weeknight newscasts on WTVH from its separate studios using other personalities from WSTM for all other content. The system set up by the other station to use all videotaped footage (including interviews) shot by WSTM was filled with problems with staffers from this station walking to WTVH's old studios to deliver raw video to be edited for its newscasts.

In October 2009, Barrington Broadcasting began to produce separate weeknight newscasts on WTVH from a new secondary set at WSTM's facilities. Although this station retains separate branding, music, and graphic aspects of the weeknight shows that air from 5 to 6:30 and 11 to 11:35, coverage is essentially the same. Outside of those broadcasts, all newscasts on WSTM are now simulcasted on WTVH except for its weekend morning show. There may be pre-emptions or delays on one channel due to network obligations especially on weekends. Neither station have attempted to offer news shows outside traditional time slots to compete with WSYR (such as weekdays at 11 am, 12:30 pm, or weeknights at 4 and 7) despite a plan originally announced. However, WSTQ's weeknight newscast was expanded to an hour on August 30, 2010.

Viewership on WTVH has steeply declined since becoming operated by WSTM with the rumor mill turning wildly that it will eventually stop broadcasting local newscasts altogether. Meanwhile, WSYR has seen a noticeable increase in viewership as a result of being the only other over-the-air local news department in the area. There is a cable-only news channel known as YNN Central New York, but it serves a much wider area than the Syracuse broadcast stations. In mid-December 2010, WSTM became the first in the market to offer local newscasts in 16:9 enhanced definition widescreen with the shows on WTVH being included. Although not truly high definition, the broadcasts match the aspect ratio of HD television screens. Rival WSYR upgraded to full high definition on January 29, 2011.

Newscast titles

• NewsCenter 5 (mid 1970s–1993)
• WTVH 5 News (1993–1996)
• News 5 (1996–1998)
• Eyewitness News 5 (1998–2002)
• 5 On Your Side (2002–2005)
• CBS 5 News (2005–present)
• Action News (2009–present, during simulcasted WSTM newscasts)

Station slogans

• "Part of Your Life" (1970s)
• "Stand Up and Tell'em You're from Syracuse" (1986–1989, used during period station used Frank Gari's "Turn To News")
• "Your News for the '90s" (1989–1991)
• "A Friend To Turn To" (1993–1996)
• "On Your Side" (2002–2005)
• "Central New York's First News" (2005–2007)
• "News That Matters Most" (2007–present)
• "Live. Local. Latebreaking." (2009–present, during simulcasted WSTM newscasts)

News team

Anchors

• Brandon Roth – weekday mornings nesw anchor and reporter
• Michael Benny – Managing Editor seen weeknights
• Laura Hand – weekday noon news anchor Monday thru Wedenday and weekend mornings
• Lisa Spitz – weekday noon news anchor Thursady and Friday and weekend evenings

Meteorologists (all have AMS Seal of Approval)

• Wayne Mahar – Chief seen weeknights (sometimes)
• Peter Hall – weekday mornings and noon
• Matt Stevens – weekend mornings and Monday through Tuesday at 5, 5:30, 6, and 11
• Mike Brookins – weekend evenings and Wednesday through Friday at 5, 5:30, 6, and 11

Sports

• John Evenson – Director seen weeknights at 6 and 11
• Niko Tamurian – weekends and sports reporter
  • "CNY Central Athlete" and "My School" segments producer
• Brian Mueller – sports reporter
• Alex Dunbar – sports and news reporter
  • photographer

Multimedia journalists

• Susan Arbetter – WCNY-TV Capitol Correspondent
• Stacy Johnson – "Money Talks" segment producer
• Jim Kenyon – Chief Investigative
• Chris McGrath – producer
• Caitlin Nuclo
• Jessica Cain

Notable past personnel

• Don Morrow – program host and voice over announcer / pioneering newscaster (1948–1949)
• David Muir – news anchor (mid-late 1990s; now at ABC News)
• Al Roker – weekend meteorologist (1974–1976; now weather and feature reporter for Today)
• Mike Tirico – Sports Director (late 1980s-early 1990s; now Monday Night Football play-by-play announcer)

External links

• WTVH "CBS 5"
• Query the FCC's TV station database for WTVH