 | This articleneeds additional citations forverification. Please helpimprove this article byadding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "WENY-TV" – news ·newspapers ·books ·scholar ·JSTOR(May 2019) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
 | |
 | |
| |
|---|---|
| City | Elmira, New York |
| Channels | |
| Branding |
|
| Programming | |
| Affiliations |
|
| Ownership | |
| Owner | Lilly Broadcasting, L.L.C. |
| History | |
First air date | November 19, 1969 (55 years ago) (1969-11-19) |
Former channel number(s) |
|
Call sign meaning | Elmira, New York |
| Technical information[1] | |
Licensing authority | FCC |
| Facility ID | 71508 |
| ERP | 145 kW |
| HAAT | 311 m (1,020 ft) |
| Transmitter coordinates | 42°8′31.2″N77°4′38.8″W / 42.142000°N 77.077444°W /42.142000; -77.077444 |
| Translator(s) |
|
| Links | |
Public license information | |
| Website | |
WENY-TV (channel 36) is atelevision station inElmira, New York, United States, affiliated withABC,CBS andThe CW Plus. Owned byLilly Broadcasting, the station has studios on Old Ithaca Road inHorseheads, and its transmitter is located on Higman Hill inCorning.
The station signed on November 19, 1969, after Howard Green, owner of WENY radio (1230 AM, nowWMAJ and 92.7 FM, nowWCBF) andWCMC-AM-TV inWildwood, New Jersey, was awarded analog UHF channel 36 by theFederal Communications Commission (FCC). Another area broadcaster, Frank Saia, had surrendered theconstruction permit to build what would have been WEHH-TV on the same channel.
Green purchased the initial equipment from defunct stationWNYP-TV, hiring Larry Taylor (previously the Assistant Chief Engineer of WNYP-TV) to move and install the broadcast equipment. Green and Taylor brought the equipment into a space on the ground floor of theMark Twain Hotel in Downtown Elmira which had been a restaurant. The station'sanalog antenna was side-mounted to the Hawley Hill tower ofNBC affiliate WSYE-TV (now known asWETM-TV). A further addition was constructed to the building that housed WSYE to allow for the installation of the WENY analog transmitter. The station's digital transmitter was relocated to Corning.
WENY began operations out of a mixedcolor/black-and-white facility. Its broadcasts of ABC network programming were actually retransmissions of eitherWABC-TV in New York City or WNYS-TV (nowWSYR-TV) inSyracuse, New York. The former was received via microwave while the latter was received via a deep fringe hotel rooftop antenna. The station aired a small amount of locally produced programming including an Elmira edition ofClaster Television's long-runningchildren's programRomper Room and a late-Saturday nighthorror movie hosted by disc jockey Paul Leigh as the ghoulish "Undertaker".
During the disastrous flooding caused byHurricane Agnes in 1972, WENY was abandoned due to rising waters. Engineers were able to remove a small amount of equipment to the Hawley Hill site where the station managed a limited broadcasting schedule of news and emergency announcements until the studios could be reoccupied. After this, Green obtained a building on Old Ithaca Road in Horseheads that had been used by theArmy Corps of Engineers. In 1973, Taylor, along with engineer Gary Simon, moved the station from the hotel to the garage of the property where it remains to this day. In 2000, longtime owner Howard Green sold WENY to current owner Lilly Broadcasting (owned by Brian Lilly, son of SJL Broadcasting's George Lilly) thus separating the television station from its radio sisters which were sold to Eolin (Olin) Broadcasting.
According to the FCC, it had an application to air a digital signal on UHF channel 55. However, the station opted to perform a flash-cut instead.Qualcomm holds licenses for the channel 55 spectrum. Approval of WENY's request to flash-cut allowed that company's wholly owned subsidiary,MediaFLO United States, to expand its "mediacast" service coverage in New York State without loss of broadcast service to the public.[2] WENY's digital transmitter was relocated to Corning. The station's coverage area includesSteuben andChemung counties in New York which borders theErie, Pennsylvaniamarket and sister stationsWSEE-TV andWICU-TV.
In July 2014, WENY became the subject of criticism when it cut away from the closing minutes of the2014 FIFA World Cup Final to broadcast coverage of atornado warning affecting the area.[3]
WENY-DT2 is theCBS-affiliated seconddigital subchannel of WENY-TV, broadcasting in1080i high definition on channel 36.2.
On October 20, 2008, CBS signed an affiliation agreement with WENY to air the network on a new second digital subchannel with a proposed launch date of January 1, 2009.[4][5] This marked the first time that CBS had an affiliate based in Elmira. Before then, most of the area had been served by longtime default affiliateWBNG-TV inBinghamton while theIthaca area was served by Syracuse affiliateWTVH. The western portions of the area, includingCanisteo andHornell, were covered byBuffalo'sWIVB-TV, whileScranton–Wilkes-Barre affiliateWYOU andJohnstown affiliateWTAJ-TV served portions of thePennsylvania market. According to the FCC, WENY had a request toflash-cut from analog to digital broadcasting after the old transition date of February 17, 2009.[6] On that date, WENY-DT2 launched onTime Warner Cable systems in Elmira, Corning, Hornell, and Ithaca.[7][8][9]
The flash-cut was performed at the end of May, and WENY began broadcasting exclusively in digital. The new CBS station began its transmission over-the-air at this point; WBNG, WIVB, and WTVH were dropped from cable systems at that time due to FCC rules, except for WTVH which remains in Ithaca on cable. Until recently, the shows on this CBS subchannel were only transmitted in16:9standard definitionwidescreen; a full HD feed of the CBS station could only be seen on Time Warner Cable (nowCharter Spectrum).
At first, the station's only local programming were newscasts seen weeknights at 6 and 11 pm. The original anchor team featurednews director Bill Miller, long-time WENY disc jockey Steve Christy with weather, and sports by Dick Ireland. Christy, the last of the three to retire, remained with the station until early 2009 at which point he retired due to health problems. Also known as "Mr. WENY" in reference to his long tenure at the station, he died in July 2010.[10] In 1975, WENY became the first television outlet in the market to switch from 16mm black-and-white reversal news footage to colorelectronic news gathering using theSony U-Matic system. In 1977, it became the first in Elmira to use an electronic character generator during newscasts.
Rival WETM has traditionally been aratings stronghold in the Twin Tiers area. This is because the news department at WENY is quite small compared with the NBC outlet and most otherbig three affiliates. Another traditional news time slot currently lacking a program on WENY's channels includes a newscast weeknights at 5 p.m.
There is, however, the market's only show weeknights at 5:30 pm seen exclusively on the CBS subchannel. Weeknights at 6 and 11 pm, the ABC and CBS subchannels simulcast local news although there can sometimes be a delay or preemption on one service due to network obligations. WENY upgraded its newscast to full high definition (studio, and field reports) on April 23, 2012, making it the first to do so in the Elmira–Corning market. WENY shares resources with sister stations WSEE and WICU in Erie to cover the Western Twin Tiers region.
The station's signal ismultiplexed:
| Channel | Res. | Aspect | Short name | Programming |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 36.1 | 720p | 16:9 | WNY ABC | ABC |
| 36.2 | 1080i | WNY CBS | CBS | |
| 36.3 | 480i | WNY CW | The CW Plus | |
| 36.4 | WNY ION | Ion Television |
WENY-TV shut down its analog signal, overUHF channel 36, on February 17, 2009, the original target date by which full-power television stations in the United States were totransition from analog to digital broadcasts under federal mandate (which was later pushed back to June 12, 2009). The station's digital signal relocated from its pre-transition UHF channel 55, which was among the high band UHF channels (52-69) that were removed from broadcasting use as a result of the transition, to its analog era UHF channel 36.[12]
WENY-TV is relayed onrepeater W34FR-D in Ithaca (in the Syracuse market).
WENY-TV was previously aired on repeaterW06AR onVHF channel 6 in Hornell.
In January 2016, Lilly Broadcasting began to offer WENY as an ABC affiliate for theCaribbean island region which was picked up by local cable providers as a replacement forChristiansted, U.S. Virgin Islands–based stationWSVI, which lost its ABC affiliation at the end of 2015 due to technical issues and switched toIon. Lilly already provides sister station WSEE as a CBS affiliate for the region, along with customized weather forecasts carried on a second local feed for the region. Lilly formerly leased the second subchannel ofWCVI-TV (channel 23) locally to provide WENY over-the-air for the region; it purchased the station outright on November 19, 2019, and added the modified WSEE feed to the station's main subchannel on November 20.
WENY was previously viewable on cable in Ithaca untilNexstar Media Group, which owns rival station WETM-TV, ordered Charter Spectrum to drop the channel because the city is supposed to be in the Syracuse market and WENY was thus depriving Nexstar-owned Syracuse ABC affiliate WSYR-TV of clearance. To circumvent this, in November 2018, Charter Spectrum struck an agreement with WENY to createNY Local Ithaca, a custom cable feed that contains WENY newscasts and a weather loop with no network or syndicated programming.[13] This feed is simulcast nationally onVUit, a newscast streaming service owned by Syncbak.