WRGB

{{Infobox broadcast}} may refer to:

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• Template:Infobox television station

WRGB is the CBS-affiliated television station for the Capital District of New York State and Western New England that is licensed to Schenectady. It broadcasts a high definition digital signal on VHF channel 6 from a transmitter northwest of New Salem. Owned by Freedom Communications, the station is sister to and shares studios with CW affiliate WCWN on Balltown Road in Niskayuna. Syndicated programming on WRGB includes: Two and a Half Men, Ellen, Dr. Phil, and Live with Regis and Kelly.

They are most notable for being among the first experimental television stations in the world with the station beginning experimental broadcasts in 1928. It would later become one of a handful of television stations licensed for commercial operation before the end of World War II. More recently in the 1990s, the station also launched the television career of Food Network and nationally syndicated daytime talk show personality Rachael Ray who started the "30 Minute Meals" segment on WRGB's newscasts once a week before going national.

Digital programming

The station's signal is multiplexed. On WRGB-DT2 and Time Warner Cable digital channel 1896 is This TV.

Virtual Channel	Video	Aspect	Programming
6.1	1080i	16:9	main WRGB programming / CBS HD
6.2	480i	4:3	WRGB-DT2 This TV

History

1928 to 1942

WRGB claims to be the world's first television station. It traces its roots to an experimental station founded on January 13, 1928 from the General Electric facility under the call letters W2XB on channel 4. It was popularly known as "WGY Television" after its sister radio station (though WMAK, the predecessor of modern station WBEN (AM) in Buffalo, New York also had partial control of the station, which was relinquished shortly after the station signed on). In 1939, it began sharing programs with W2XBS (forerunner of WNBC-TV) in New York City, becoming NBC's first television affiliate. That link would last for 42 years. The station initially broadcast on 790 kHz from a 380-meter antenna. The station also broadcast on the frequency of 379.5 MHz, with 24 vertical lines of resolution and 21 frames per second. Its call-sign was changed to W2XAD rather quickly in 1928 and moved to 31.4 MHz. Towards December of 1928, the station would receive yet another change and upgrade with its call letters becoming W2XAF, keeping its frequency, frame rate, and vertical lines.

Later on, the station received a further upgrade to broadcast 48 lines at 20 frames per second, with the call sign of W2XB on 2.1-2.2 MHz. In 1941, the station moved into a state-of-the-art studio on Washington Avenue in Schenectady. It was the first building in the nation specifically designed for television. On February 26, 1942, W2XB received a commercial license as WRGB, the fourth in the nation and only the second one outside of New York City. By then, it was operating on the VHF band with modern 525-line resolution and FM sound on a frequency of 66 to 72 MHz (then known as Channel 3, but redesignated Channel 4 after the Second World War).

1942 to present

Several years later, WRGB took on secondary affiliations with the three other networks in operation (CBS, ABC, and DuMont). In 1954, it moved from channel 4 to its current position on channel 6 to alleviate interference from WNBC-TV (then known as WRCA-TV) and Boston's WBZ-TV, and increased its radiated power approximately fourfold to 93,000 watts. WRGB dropped its secondary affiliations when WCDA (now WTEN) and WTRI (now WNYT) took the CBS and ABC affiliations respectively. In 1957, channel 6 moved to its current studio on Balltown Road in Niskayuna.

WRGB produced two of the longest-running locally-produced programs in television history: a quiz show called Answers Please and a bowling program entitled TV Tournament Time. After the cancellation of both by the late-1980s, WRGB's local programming has been variable and erratic ranging from a local home shopping show to a weekly video countdown done with Top 40 stations WFLY and (later) WKKF. On September 28, 1981, WRGB swapped affiliations with WAST (now WNYT) and became a CBS affiliate. Two years later, 55 years of General Electric ownership ended when it sold WRGB to Unicom Inc., a unit of Forstmann Little.

Only three years later, Unicom sold WRGB to its current owner, Freedom Communications. The next year, WRGB was awarded the "Broadcast Pioneers Golden Mike Award" and shortly thereafter was awarded a "Presidential Citation" by Ronald Reagan. WRGB changed its on-air name to "CBS 6" in October of 2004 after decades of being known as either "TV 6" or "Channel 6" (most noticibly known as being NewsCenter 6 for the late 20th century). Although the on-air announcement has not included the WRGB name since 2004, the FCC still includes the channel as WRGB. WRGB is carried on cable as far north as Long Lake as well as several other Adirondack cable systems.

In September 2003, WRGB-DT (UHF channel 39) became the first full-market digital signal to sign on in the Albany region. Around December 2007, WRGB and WCWN became the first television stations in the Albany TV market that upgraded to high definition time delay and rebroadcast capability, and high definition local broadcasts. This allows broadcasting of syndicated shows in high definition.

FM audio

On June 12, 2009, WRGB returned to channel 6 as a digital-only station.

WRGB's former analog TV signal used an FM audio carrier which could be heard on 87.75 FM in most areas the video signal could be received (and some that it could not); the same was true of all analog channel 6 television stations in North America. However, this analog FM carrier no longer exists for full-powered stations after the June 12, 2009, conversion to digital, but still exists for low-power television stations (see Pulse 87 for an example).

As WRGB has returned to channel 6, it has proposed an unconventional approach, by which it has requested to operate an analog FM radio transmitter at one edge of its digital TV allocation, using vertical polarization to retain compatibility with standard broadcast radio receivers. According to WRGB's site, "We hope that the FCC will allow us to continue to operate on 87.7. We are building a unique transmitter for 87.7 that can operate simultaneously with our DTV signal on channel 6. TV transmissions always use horizontal antennas. Our new 87.7 transmitter will be vertically polarized. The use of vertical polarization for 87.7 will allow reception of our audio in a car radio or any other FM radio with a whip type antenna. "

WRGB is the only full-power station to propose such a solution; no other full-power TV broadcasters broadcast on channel 6 in New York state, either analog or digital. WPVI in Philadelphia, the nearest full-power channel 6, has expressed an interest in the technology, though it is concerned about rights issues.

The Station was then made up and aired porn all day.

WNYA and WCWN Involvement

In April 2003, WRGB signed a joint sales agreement with the area's fledgling UPN affiliate WNYA several months prior to that station's sign-on in September. Under the agreement, WRGB handled advertising sales for WNYA and shared syndicated programming with the station. The agreement, originally set to expire at the end of August 2006, it was extended to expire at the end of 2008, but was then terminated in February 2007. Since September 5, 2006, WNYA has been the area's MyNetworkTV affiliate.

On June 19 2006, Freedom Communications announced the purchase of current CW affiliate WCWN from Tribune Broadcasting for $17 million. This purchase was finalized on December 6, 2006, giving the Capital Region market its first duopoly. Until the end of the JSA with WNYA, WRGB had control of three stations in the market.

Providence Equity Partners owns a controlling stake in Newport Television (formerly Clear Channel Communications' television division), the owner of local Fox affiliate WXXA. As a result, the Federal Communications Commission granted conditional approval of the deal in late-November 2007, provided that Providence Equity Partners follows through with its planned divestiture of its 16 percent share of Freedom Communications to another company (as required when Providence Equity Partners purchased a minority stake in the Spanish-language broadcaster Univision earlier in 2007) before the group deal can be finalized.

During past airings of the annual Jerry Lewis MDA Telethon, WNYA took on the responsibility of airing WRGB's local and network lineup. This role has since shifted to WCWN, which also airs CBS' coverage of the U.S. Open Tennis Championship.

News operation

File:Wrgb open 2008.png

Their news open.

For many years, WRGB was the dominant news station in the Capital District. Its newscasts were anchored for many years by the venerable Ernie Tetrault (who was immortalized in the 1992 film Sneakers directed by one-time WRGB intern Phil Alden Robinson). After Tetrault's retirement in 1993, the station was quickly eclipsed by WNYT and for several years in the mid-1990s fell to third place. For the most part, the station has stabilized at a steady second place although for a period in the early-2000s it fell back to third.

From April 2003 until mid-2004, WNYA aired replays of WRGB's weekday Noon show at 1, weeknight 11 o'clock news at 11:35, and this station's former public affairs program Sunday Morning with Liz Bishop. On April 17, 2006, it was announced that WNYA would begin airing an hour long extension of WRGB's weekday morning newscast at 7 known as CBS 6 First News on My TV 4 Albany. This could be seen as a pre-emptive move by WRGB to fend off a challenge by WXXA who had announced their plans to launch weekday morning news two weeks earlier. Rumors of WRGB producing a 10 P.M. broadcast on WNYA had circulated as well. However, the pickup of a second run of Dr. Phil to air at that hour killed the rumors. At the start of 2007, the news on WNYA moved to WCWN (because that station had higher ratings overall) becoming CBS 6 First News on The Capital Region's CW.

In 2007 and 2008, WCWN aired WRGB's 11 o'clock news during CBS's coverage of the NCAA March Madness Basketball. On January 13, 2008, they began producing their newscasts in high definition becoming first in the market to do so. This was exactly 80 years to the date after their first experimental broadcasts. The WCWN broadcast was upgraded the next day. After becoming a sister station, it was rumored that WCWN would add a WRGB-produced 10 P.M. broadcast to challenge WXXA's long time dominance at that hour. This became a reality on September 24 when WRGB launched a weeknight 10 minute block in high definition featuring the top stories of the day along with an updated weather forecast. Accordingly, it is known as The CBS 6 News 10 at 10.

WRGB delays the weeknight broadcast of the CBS Evening News until 7 in favor of an extra half hour of local news. In addition to their main studios, they operates an Albany Bureau at One Commerce Plaza in downtown Albany.

Weather coverage

As with its heritage of being the first station in the Capital Region, WRGB has had several firsts in the weather field given the unpredictable weather of the Northeast. In February 1996, it became the first Capital District station to put forecasts on the World Wide Web with the launch of a website. A severe weather outbreak in late-May 1998 led to further developments in the station's weather coverage. WRGB won an Emmy Award for Chief Meteorologist Steve Lapointe's near-nonstop work over two days which made sure there were no fatalities in the otherwise devastating tornadoes.

In May 1999, the station started "WeatherNet 6" which allows viewers to submit weather observations around the area. The public is allowed to report anything from current conditions to snowfall totals. In 2000, the station became the first in the market to offer a station-owned weather radar known as "Instant Doppler 6" that was installed next to their studios. This exclusive distinction was held until 2004 when WNYT set up its own live radar. In recent times, WTEN and WXXA have also updated their radar outputs to so-called "live" capabilities. They do not own their own radars but decided to re-brand the live NOAA National Weather Service NEXRAD Level II radar data as their own. Data is used from four regional sites in Albany, Binghamton, Montague, and Upton. This government data is also used on WRGB known as "WeatherScan Radar".

This station was the last in the market to bring a degree-holding meteorologist onto its staff not doing so until Freedom's purchase of the station several years after WTEN and WNYT did. On January 6, 2009, veteran meteorologist Neal Estano returned to the area airwaves for his third tour of duty with WRGB. He had worked for the station twice before leaving to pursue new opportunities in Jacksonville, Florida and Baltimore, Maryland

News music packages

• NBC Newspulse
• And You
• Signature News
• Spirit of 1982
• WRGB News
• Making A Difference
• In Sink
• CBS Enforcer Music Collection
• News in Focus
• Impact

News team

Anchors

• Ed O'Brien - weekday mornings
• Carey Proctor - weekday mornings and health reporter
• Liz Bishop - weekdays at Noon, 5, and 5:30
• Jerry Gretzinger - weeknights at 5 and 5:30
  • reporter
• Dori Marlin - weeknights at 6, 6:30, 10, and 11
• Greg Floyd - weeknights at 6, 6:30, and 11
  • reporter
• Craig Smith - weekends and weeknight reporter

CBS 6 Instant Doppler Meteorologists

• Steve LaPointe (Certified Broadcast Meteorologist) - Chief seen weeknights
• Neal Estano - weekday mornings and Noon
• Chris Silveri - weekends

Sports

• Doug Sherman - Director seen weeknights at 6 and 11
• Kelly O'Donnell - weekends and sports reporter

Reporters

• Marci Natale - weeknights and fill-in anchor
• Steve Flamisch - investigative and fill-in anchor
• Ken Screven - Albany Bureau Chief seen weeknights
• Teresa Priolo - weeknight crime and fill-in anchor
• Randy Simons

Past personalities

Anchors

• Marty Aarons (Anchor, 1993-1994) Later held anchor positions at WGRZ in Buffalo and WROC-TV in Rochester
• Jack Aernecke (5 and 5:30 PM anchor, also Money Editor) retired
• Ed Dague (Reporter and later co-anchor, 1969-1983) left for WNYT and was the catalyst for that station's current dominance; now the caretaker of the Times-Union's In Media Res blog
• Bill Duffy (Political analyst from 1969 to his sudden death in 1987) Father of former News Director Beau Duffy, from which he resigned on June 22, 2007 and, in turn, father-in-law of Assistant News Director Michelle Nicoll-Duffy
• Brad Holbrook (Evening co-anchor, 1998 to 2001) Later host of BusinessWeek TV, now host of The Onion's satirical news program, "Today Now")
• Morgan Hook (Saturday morning anchor, 2007-2008) now a press aide to New York Governor David Paterson
• Doug Lezette (Original weekend morning anchor, reporter, and later assistant News Director) Now head anchor and news director at WSHM in Springfield, Massachusetts
• Joe Pagliarulo (Evening co-anchor, 2002-2005) now morning host at WOAI radio in San Antonio
• Joanne Purtan (now at WXYZ-TV in Detroit)
• Michelle Smith (News anchor, June 2007-June 2008) Left due to second pregnancy
• Ernie Tetrault (Main anchor for 42 years, 1951-93) Now known as a commercial pitchman for many businesses in the Albany area; had a small part in the 1992 Robert Redford film, Sneakers)

Meteorologists

• Erik Thorgersen - Weekends AM weather
• Garrett Argianas (Weekend meteorologist during early 2000s) now chief meteorologist at WTIC-TV in Hartford, Connecticut
• Mike Augustyniak, (meteorologist, 1998-2008) now at WCCO-TV in Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota
• Kelly (Cass) Boland, (Weekend meteorologist, and later promoted to mornings from 1993-2000) now a key weekend meteorologist at The Weather Channel; she originally started out as a "Weathercaster" at WRGB before becoming a full-fledged meteorologist while at the station.
• Peter Bernard (Weekend weather and weekday Consumer Reporter, 1987-1992) Now at WFLA TV Tampa.
• John Cessarich (Chief meteorologist, 1987-1991) now chief meteorologist at WYFF in Greenville, South Carolina
• Tom Mailey (Weekday morning meteorologist and earlier host of the "Million Dollar Movie", 1988-2008) Now marketing manager for Stewart's Shops
• Mark Margarit (Weekend meteorologist, 2007-2008) now at WHDH-TV in Boston, MA
• Steve Hammes (Weekend weathercaster and automotive editor, 1994-1999) He continues to host and produce his auto-review franchise "Drive Time" for Yahoo! Autos and Autobytel, Inc. as well as hosting TWTV's "Car Show."
• Scott Stevens (Webmaster of the conspiracy website WeatherWars. Was fired by WRGB in 1995, accused of having fabricated his credentials. He was to go to KPVI-TV in Pocatello, Idaho. On September 8, 2005 he revealed to Flashnews.com that the Japanese Yakuza mafia used Russian KGB technology to create Hurricane Katrina in an attempt to manipulate futures markets. He is no longer with KPVI-TV. His website is currently down.)
• Howard Tupper (longtime weatherman and host of the long running Sunday morning bowling show TV Tournament Time; known for his catch phrase "Hi, small fry"); deceased in 1986
• Tim Welch (Weatherman during the 1980s)

Sports

• Jim Brennan (Sports anchor for most of the 1980s) Left to anchor at WTEN, now host of the regional PBS program "New York Week in Review")
• John Discepolo (Weekend sports anchor, 1996-99) Now weekday morning sports anchor at WCBS in New York City
• John Graney (Long time Capital District sports talk radio host, was the main sports anchor for a time during the 1990s) Now hosts a sports talk show on WGDJ radio in Albany from his home in Venice, Florida
• Kyle Kraska (Sports reporter, early to mid-1990s) Now main sports reporter at KFMB-TV in San Diego
• Al "Yaffi" Lombardo (Sports anchor during the 1980s; also hosted a sports talk radio show)
• Tim Mack (weekend sports anchor; left in 2008)
• Bob McNamara (Sports reporter from 1966-81, known as the one-time "Dean" of Capital District sports, and the only person to hold on-air position at all three of Albany's VHF stations) retired
• Ric Renner (Sports director, 1994-96) Now host of "Southwest Sports Report" on Fox Sports Net Southwest
• Joe Tessitore (Sports anchor) now at ESPN after a career at WFSB in Hartford, Connecticut

Reporters

• Dan DiNicola- Feature Reporter/Entertainment Critic/Commentary
• Michelle Marsh - investigative Reporter
• Dick Beach (1931-1997, longtime reporter for WRGB and WGY radio)
• Fred Dicker (Political analyst, better known as the Albany based state editor of the New York Post. Also hosts a daily radio program on WGDJ)
• Tracy Egan (served two separate stints at WRGB, first as a reporter in the mid-1970s, then as lead co-anchor from 1986-91) Most recently seen on the noon news at WTEN
• Shawn Killinger (Morning feature reporter, 2000-2001) later was a contestant on The Apprentice: Martha Stewart
• Sue Nigra (Noon/5:00 p.m. anchor and health reporter, 1998-2006) Her arrival to the station from WTEN was the focus of a key lawsuit on non-compete clauses
• Paul Palmer (News and sports reporter, 1985-1993) Now Producer with ESPN.
• Mary Caroline Powers (Reporter during the 1970s, then co-anchored the Noon news on WTEN) Later worked in public television and as an editor at The Saratogian newspaper
• Judy Sanders (Feature and political reporter, 1981-2006)
• Mary Beth Wenger (reporter, 1981-2008)
• Dr. Alan Chartock (Controversial director of WAMC, was a political analyst until dropped in 1994 at which point he went to WNYT)
• Earle Pudney ( pioneer in Albany area broadcasting, hosted variety programs on WRGB and WGY radio from the 1940s to the 1960s); deceased
• Howard Reig (announcer for WGY radio and WRGB from 1943–1952, later a staff announcer for NBC from 1952 to 2005); deceased

External links

• WRGB "CBS 6 Albany"
• WRGB mobile
• WCWN "The Capital Region's CW"
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