WTVH

Encyclopedia : W : WT : WTV : WTVH

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WTVH is the CBS network affiliate in Syracuse, New York. It also serves the Utica/Rome area. Its transmitter is located in La Fayette, New York.

This station broadcasts on VHF channel 5 and in high definition on UHF channel 47 as authorized by the Federal Communications Commission, and is owned and operated by Granite Broadcasting Corporation.

History

WTVH began its broadcast operation on December 1, 1948 as WHEN-TV channel 8. It went on the air as Syracuse's first television station and the first station ever owned and operated by Meredith Corporation. Meredith had entered broadcasting only two years before after buying WAGE-AM 620 and changing the calls to WHEN. It has always been a CBS affiliate, though at first it also carried a secondary ABC affiliation. When WSYR-TV (now WSTM-TV) signed on two months later, WHEN only had ABC as a secondary until WNYS-TV (later WIXT and now WSYR-TV) signed on in 1962. In July 1961, it moved to channel 5, swapping channel locations with WROC-TV in Rochester.

In 1976, Meredith sold WHEN AM/FM to Park Communications, but kept WHEN-TV. It had to change the TV station's calls. It originally wanted the new call letters WTVF (for TV Five, the station's on-air identity), but those went to the former WLAC-TV in Nashville, Tennessee At this point, Meredith chose WTVH as the new calls, the H being a link to its WHEN heritage.

In June 1993, Meredith announced the sale of WTVH 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 began its broadcasting operation. Granite would soon increase its northeast holdings with their purchase of WKBW-TV in Buffalo in 1995 and a currently-pending deal to purchase WBNG-TV in Binghamton

Rumors of WTVH being sold to another company have circulated for the last several years, a byproduct of the financial woes faced by current owner Granite. The pending purchase of WBNG may put those rumors in doubt for the near future.

Utica Market

Since its inception, WHEN-TV/WTVH has also served as the CBS affiliate for the majority of the Utica television market (namely Herkimer and that market's portion of Oneida counties, Otsego County has WBNG as its default. In past years, WTVH was extremely protective of this status having barred WUTR from affiliating with CBS on at least one occassion. Under Granite's ownership, this status has not necessairly been taken advantage of in terms of advertising and targeting the station towards the Utica market as well.

Logos

Image:wtvh0587.jpg|WTVH Logo, from a 1987 TV Guide (also used by then-sisters KPHO and WNEM); the "5" in this logo was in use as early as 1971 Image:wtvh_1990s.jpg|WTVH Logo circa mid-1990s to 2002 Image:wtvh_2000s.jpg|WTVH Logo from 2002 to 2005 Image:WTVH_Current.jpg|Current CBS 5 Logo

Notable anchors

• Mike Tirico, ESPN and ABC Sports play-by-play announcer; will be ESPN Monday Night Football play-by-play announcer starting in 2006. Was the sports director at WTVH in the late 1980s.
• David Muir, now of ABC News, anchored at the station in the mid-late 1990s

External links

• [WTVH.com CBS 5 Syracuse]
• [Query the FCC's TV station database for WTVH]

'''CBS Network Affiliates in the state of New York
WCBS 2 () - WIVB 4 () - WTVH 5 () - WRGB 6 () - WWNY 7 () - WROC 8 () - WBNG 12 ()
'''See also: , , , , , and stations in New York

 

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