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| History | |
First air date | February 15, 1986 (1986-02-15) |
Former call signs | WKAF (February–September 1986) |
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| Independent (1986–1987) | |
Call sign meaning | Syracuse Television |
| Technical information[1] | |
Licensing authority | FCC |
| Facility ID | 40758 |
| ERP | 540kW |
| HAAT | 442.6 m (1,452 ft) |
| Transmitter coordinates | 42°52′50.2″N76°11′58.7″W / 42.880611°N 76.199639°W /42.880611; -76.199639 |
| Translator(s) | WNYS-CD 16Ithaca[2] |
| Links | |
Public license information | |
| Website | www |
WSYT (channels 43 and 68) is atelevision station inSyracuse, New York, United States, affiliated with theFox network and owned by Deltavision Media. The station's studios are located on James Street/NY 290 in Syracuse'sNear Northeast section, and its transmitter is located nearMaple Grove, ahamlet ofOtisco.
WSYT operates a thirddigital subchannel affiliated withMyNetworkTV which brands as "My 43". It uses virtual channel 43.1, formerly utilized by separately licensedWNYS-TV until January 2020, when then-ownerCox Media Group turned in WNYS-TV'slicense and merged its subchannels onto WSYT's spectrum as a condition of the 2019 acquisition ofNorthwest Broadcasting byApollo Global Management.[3]
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 the outlet airedreligious programming for three hours a day. The station was sold toThe Flatley Company in late-1986 at which point construction of its facility on James Street in Syracuse began. WSYT began full-time operation on April 5, 1987, with a general entertainment format ofcartoons, classicsitcoms, recent sitcoms,movies,drama shows, andsports. The launch of WSYT coincided with the prime time launch of the Fox network of which the station has been an affiliate ever since. For the first six months of the network's operations, the network's programming (which only consisted of alate-night program at the time) was not available over-the-air in the Syracuse market.
Flatley owned WSYT until 1992 when the station was sold to Encore Communications, later known asMax Media Properties. In 1998, theSinclair Broadcast Group bought the station. That company entered into a local marketing agreement withUPN affiliate WNYS-TV in 1995 and began operating that station out of WSYT's studios. It was carried oncable in theKingston, Ontario, area until 2009.[4] Thatmarket is currently served byWNYF-CD inWatertown (forover-the-airATSC viewers) and on cable byWUTV inBuffalo andWUHF inRochester.
Like other Sinclair-owned stations in the region, WSYT and WNYS-TV have been transmitting digital-only signals since February 17, 2009.[5] Until August 2008, WSYT had the highestanalog channel allocation of any Fox affiliate before being eclipsed byKSWB-TV inSan Diego when that station swapped itsCW affiliation withXETV. WSYT's analog power was limited to 1,000,000watts due to its proximity to Canada. Until June 12, 2009 (the official day of thedigital television transition in the United States), UHF analog stations in the country werelicensed to transmit up to 5,000,000 watts. All of this changed back on February 17, 2009, when WSYT went digital-only and moved to a less power-hungry transmitter on UHF channel 19.[6]
From 1987 through 2003, WSYT owned the local broadcast rights toSyracuse Universitymen's basketball games when rights were acquired byTime Warner Cable (nowCharter Spectrum) and began airing 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 withJim Boeheim. They also acquired the rights toBig Eastfootball in the 1990s and would air a post-game show after aSyracuse Orangemen game was shown. The coverage was expanded to include a football coach's show withPaul Pasqualoni and a football preview show hosted by Steve Hyder and Joe Zone. In the late-1980s, WSYT airedNew York Yankees games that were produced and broadcast byWPIX inNew York City.
On May 15, 2012, Sinclair and Fox agreed to a five-year extension to the network's affiliation agreement with Sinclair's nineteen Fox stations (including WSYT) allowing them to continue carrying the network's programming through 2017.[7] In aYouTube video posted byWBFF inBaltimore in July 2012, it was revealed that WSYT would airJeopardy! andWheel of Fortune beginning September 17, 2012. WSYT is one of a handful of Fox affiliates to air the game shows along with WBFF,WXIX-TV inCincinnati,WVUE-DT inNew Orleans,WLUK-TV inGreen Bay,KDVR inDenver,KVHP inLake Charles, Louisiana,WALA-TV inMobile,WLUC-DT2 inMarquette, Michigan, andWDAF-TV inKansas City.[8]
Sinclair announced the sale of WSYT, the LMA for WNYS-TV, andWYZZ-TV inPeoria–Bloomington, Illinois, toCunningham Broadcasting on February 28, 2013, following its acquisition ofBarrington Broadcasting. The sale was necessary due to theFederal Communications Commission (FCC)'s ownership rules as Sinclair chose to keep Barrington'sWSTM-TV in Syracuse.[9] However, in an updated filing with the FCC, it was revealed that WSYT would instead be sold to Bristlecone Broadcasting, a company owned by Brian Brady, owner of Northwest Broadcasting.[10] Those transactions were completed on November 25.[11] Following the consummation of the sale, Sinclair continued to operate WSYT and WNYS-TV through a transitional service agreement for six months until May 2014. Sinclair would continue to own the station's studios on James Street and its transmitter site in Otisco for at least ten years. Bristlecone Broadcasting was incorporated into the Northwest Broadcasting corporate structure in a May 2015 restructuring of Brady's broadcast holdings, making WSYT and WNYS sister stations toWICZ-TV andWBPN-LP inBinghamton.[12][13]
In 2019, Northwest Broadcasting was in turn acquired byApollo Global Management, and was to be merged into a new group known as Terrier Media with another AGM acquisition,Cox Media Group. After expanding its purchase to include CMG's radio and advertising units, it was announced that the combined group would retain the Cox Media Group name.[14][15][16]
On March 29, 2022, Cox Media Group announced it would sell WSYT and 17 other stations toImagicomm Communications, an affiliate of the parent company of theINSP cable channel, for $488 million;[17] the sale was completed on August 1.[18] On April 8, 2025, Imagicomm announced that WSYT would be acquired by Webb Collums' Deltavision Media;[19] the deal was consummated on August 15.[20]
From 1996 until 2000 through a news share agreement,NBC affiliate WSTM-TV produced a 30-minute prime time newscast on WSYT calledFox 68 News at 10. After WSTM-TV declined to renew the arrangement, WSYT then established a new outsourcing agreement withCBS outletWTVH. As a result, a new nightly news program began airing on the station with the nameFox 68Eyewitness News at 10. Eventually, an hour-long weekday morning show (also produced by WTVH) debuted and was calledFox 68 Eyewitness News at 7. Both of the programs featured the same branding as WTVH's newscasts did at the time.
Meanwhile, in 2003, in order to offer competition in the 10 o'clock slot, WSTM-TV brought back its own half-hour newscast for newly acquired sister station WSTQ-LP that was seen only on weeknights. In April 2006, WTVH ceased producing all local news programming for WSYT in order to focus on its own newscasts that were cemented in third place by this point. Ironically, the nightly 10 o'clock broadcasts were WTVH's most successful having soundly beat WSTM-TV's effort on WSTQ-LP in theratings. Since dropping news programming from the CBS outlet, WSYT remains one of a handful ofbig four network-affiliated stations throughout the United States (and the largest Fox station in terms of market size, since former sister station WUTV in Buffalo, the previous largest market with a non-news Fox affiliate, added newscasts in 2013) that does not operate its own news department or air local newscasts through a partnership with abig three station.
The station's signal ismultiplexed:
| Channel | Res. | Aspect | Short name | Programming |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 43.1 | 720p | 16:9 | MY43 | MyNetworkTV |
| 43.2 | 480i | 4:3 | Dabl | Dabl |
| 68.1 | 720p | 16:9 | WSYT-DT | Fox |
| 68.2 | 480i | CoziTV | Cozi TV |
On November 1, 2010, WSYT launchedThe Country Network on its seconddigital subchannel replacing astandard definition simulcast of its primary channel.
WSYT shut down its analog signal, overUHF channel 68, on February 17, 2009, the original date on which full-power television stations in the United States were to transition from analog to digital broadcasts under federal mandate (which was later pushed back to June 12, 2009). The station's digital signal remained on its pre-transition UHF channel 19, usingvirtual channel 68.[22]
Prior to the consummation of the Reorganization, the company will surrender the license of WNYS-TV, Syracuse, NY (facility identification number 58725), which is currently held by Syracuse Broadcasting, Inc. Syracuse Broadcasting, Inc. will not hold any FCC licenses after the license for WNYS-TV is surrendered.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)Broadcast television stations by affiliation in the state ofNew York | ||
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