WENY-TV

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WENY-TV (channel 36) is a

History

The station signed on November 19, 1969, after Howard Green, owner of WENY radio (

Green purchased the initial equipment from defunct station

During the disastrous flooding caused by Hurricane 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 the Army 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 includes Steuben and Chemung counties in New York which borders the Erie, Pennsylvania market and sister stations WSEE-TV and WICU-TV.

In July 2014, WENY became the subject of criticism when it cut away from the closing minutes of the

WENY-DT2 is the CBS-affiliated second digital subchannel of WENY-TV, broadcasting in 1080i 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.

At first, the station's only local programming were newscasts seen weeknights at 6 and 11 pm. The original anchor team featured news 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 color electronic news gathering using the Sony U-Matic system. In 1977, it became the first in Elmira to use an electronic character generator during newscasts.

Rival WETM has traditionally been a

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.

Technical information

Subchannels

The station's signal is

Analog-to-digital conversion

WENY-TV shut down its analog signal, over

WENY-TV is relayed on repeater W34FR-D in Ithaca (in the Syracuse market).

WENY-TV was previously aired on repeater W06AR on

Out-of-market coverage

In January 2016, Lilly Broadcasting began to offer WENY as an ABC affiliate for the Caribbean island region which was picked up by local cable providers as a replacement for Christiansted, U.S. Virgin Islands–based station WSVI, which lost its ABC affiliation at the end of 2015 due to technical issues and switched to Ion. 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 of WCVI-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 until Nexstar 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 create NY 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 on VUit, a newscast streaming service owned by Syncbak.

See also

• Channel 36 digital TV stations in the United States
• Channel 36 virtual TV stations in the United States

References