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WTVH, channel 5, is a CBS-affiliated television station located in Syracuse, New York, USA. WTVH is owned by the Granite Broadcasting Corporation, and is operated through joint sales and shared services agreements by Barrington Broadcasting-owned NBC affiliate WSTM-TV (channel 3). The two stations share a studio/office facility on James Street in the Near Northeast section of Syracuse. WTVH's transmitter is based in LaFayette, New York.

History

The station debuted on December 1, 1948 as WHEN-TV on 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 radio (620 AM) and changed that station's call letters to WHEN (AM); it also switched the station's network affiliation to CBS Radio in 1956, matching it with other Meredith-owned outlets.

The station became a primary CBS affiliate on January 1, 1949, and 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 WHEN-TV moved to channel 5, swapping channel locations with WROC-TV in Rochester as the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) revised the upstate New York allocation table to provide more VHF service in the two cities. In 1963, the WHEN stations moved from their original Court Street studios into a new state-of-the-art facility on James Street, near 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 retained WHEN-TV. Since the radio station kept the WHEN call letters, Meredith had to change channel 5'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 WTVH and sister station KSEE-TV in Fresno, California to Granite Broadcasting, with the sale closing on December 23 of that year.

Granite 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

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 and multimedia journalist
• Michael Benny – Managing Editor seen weeknights
• Laura Hand - Community Affairs Director seen Monday through Wednesday at noon (also "Weekend's Best Bets" and "CNY in Focus" segments producer)
• Lisa Spitz – Thursday through Friday at noon and weekend evenings (also political reporter)

CNY Central First Alert Meteorologists (all have AMS Seal of Approval)

• Mike Brookins – Wednesday through Sunday nights
• Matt Stevens – Monday through Tuesday nights
• Peter Hall – weekday mornings and weekdays at noon

Sports

• John Evenson – Director seen weeknights at 6 and 11
• Niko Tamurian – weekend evenings and sports reporter (also "CNY Central Athlete" and "My School" segments producer)
• Alex Dunbar – sports and news multimedia journalist
• Tom Eschen – sports and news multimedia journalist

Multimedia journalists

• Stacy Johnson - "Money Talks News" segment producer
• Susan Arbetter - WCNY-TV Capitol Correspondent
• Jessica Cain - fill-in news anchor
• Jim Kenyon – Chief Investigative
• Chris McGrath – weekends
• Caitlin Nuclo - nightly
• Megan Coleman

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)

References

1. "Syracuse affiliates switch." Broadcasting - Telecasting, March 12, 1956, pg. 84.
2. "New CBS TVs; four affiliates added." Broadcasting - Telecasting, January 10, 1949, pg. 35.
3. "Final orders add vhf to three markets." Broadcasting - Telecasting, August 7, 1961, pg. 55.
4. "Media briefs: New call for pioneer." Broadcasting, August 23, 1976, pg. 64.
5. Fybush, Scott. A Great Voice is Stilled. NorthEast Radio Watch. March 2, 2009.
8. ^ Michelle Breidenbach / The Post-Standard. "Syracuse's Channel 5 shuts down its newsroom". syracuse.com. Retrieved February 9, 2012.
9. Tarter, Steve. "WEEK-TV taking over WHOI operations – Peoria, IL". pjstar.com. Retrieved February 9, 2012.
10. http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/FCC-07-138A2.pdf
11. "Latest local news, weather and sports for Syracuse and Central New York". Cnycentral.com. Retrieved February 9, 2012.
12. "WTVH's broadcast signal has been restored : Entertainment". CNYcentral.com. Retrieved February 9, 2012.
13. FCC coverage maps for Syracuse-market station audiences impacted by DTV transition, Dec 2008
14. "Central New York television stations join forces : News". CNYcentral.com. March 2, 2009. Retrieved February 9, 2012.

External links

• WTVH "CBS 5"
• Template:TVQ

Template:Granite Broadcasting Template:Barrington Broadcasting

• CBS affiliates
• CBS network affiliates
• Granite Broadcasting Corporation stations
• Television channels and stations established in 1948
• Channel 47 digital TV stations in the United States
• Television stations in Syracuse, New York
• Television stations in New York