WNNE
kW | |
HAAT | 845 m (2,772 ft) |
---|---|
Transmitter coordinates | 44°31′32.1″N 72°48′56.4″W / 44.525583°N 72.815667°W |
Links | |
Public license information | |
Website | www |
WNNE (channel 31), branded The Valley CW, is a
Overview
Originally licensed to Hartford, Vermont, and established as a separate station in its own right, WNNE previously served as a semi-satellite of WPTZ, serving the Upper Connecticut River Valley of east-central Vermont and west-central New Hampshire. WNNE broadcast the same program schedule as its parent station, but aired some limited advertising specific to the Upper Valley that was added to WPTZ's programming. Master control and most internal operations were based at the WPTZ studios in Plattsburgh.
WNNE primarily served the southern and eastern portions of the Plattsburgh–Burlington market including Sullivan and Grafton counties in west-central New Hampshire. Additional viewership came from surrounding counties in the southern New Hampshire sub-market which is actually part of the Greater Boston designated market area. As a result, WNNE was within reach of the home territories of sister stations WMUR-TV in Manchester, New Hampshire, and WMTW in Portland, Maine, as well as Hearst's New England flagship, WCVB-TV in Boston.
History
The analog channel 31 allocation in the Upper Valley was first occupied by WRLH in West Lebanon, New Hampshire, an NBC affiliate which operated from 1966 to 1968 and from 1971 to 1974. (The WRLH call letters are currently used by a Fox affiliate in Richmond, Virginia, owned by the Sinclair Broadcast Group.)
The Taft Broadcasting Corporation, the same company who founded KGUL-TV in
For its first twelve years, WNNE was a full-fledged station running its own syndicated lineup as well as network programming from NBC. On December 17, 1990,
), both WPTZ and WNNE were carried even though the two stations' schedules were identical.On July 20, 2005, WNNE began broadcasting a
During the analog era and some of the digital-only broadcasting period, WNNE operated a
On August 2, 2016, WNNE quietly dropped its "Channel 31" branding and logo; the station then used WPTZ's "NBC 5" branding and logo with no separate branding, and was only mentioned during WPTZ's legal IDs. However, it still aired separate commercials.
Spectrum sale and channel sharing agreement
In the FCC's
In August 2019, Hearst Television upgraded WNNE to the 1080i full HD picture format;[20] prior to this upgrade, programming on this station was being presented in 720p.
2019 antenna fire
On November 19, 2019, WNNE, WPTZ and CBS affiliate WCAX-TV (channel 3) were knocked off the air by a fire of their combined antenna at their transmitter facility. The cause of the fire was unknown. The outage affected over-the-air and satellite viewers; cable subscribers continued to receive the three stations via direct fiber feeds.[21][22]
News operation
Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, WNNE operated a fairly large news department for a station of its size. The original anchor team consisted of Mike Harding with news, John Yacavone providing weather, and sports from Rick Karle. On-air personnel routinely performed multiple tasks often shooting, editing, and producing their entire stories for air. During the week, the station offered local news and weather updates from 7 to 9 a.m. at 25 and 55 minutes past the hour during Today on weekday mornings in lieu of a traditional broadcast.
Full newscasts aired weekdays at noon (for thirty minutes) as well as weeknights at 6 and 11 p.m. In addition, there were also prime time weather forecast cut-ins provided during network programming. However, it did not produce any weekend news shows. All newscasts aired out of WNNE's studios in the basement of the Pines Motel that later became a Regency Inn & Suites property.[23]
In the mid-1980s, NBC wanted satellite truck coverage in the Northeastern United States, particularly New England. Due to WNNE's central location, it was considered a perfect fit and a new satellite vehicle partially funded by the network was stationed at the outlet's White River Junction studios. The station also maintained its own satellite truck that assisted in local news gathering efforts in the Upper Valley and the surrounding areas. In the mid-1990s, both satellite trucks including the network-owned vehicle were acquired by WPTZ. The latter actually remained in service with a WPTZ logo until 2003.[24]
After being acquired by Heritage Media in 1990, WNNE's local operations were significantly cut back. This eventually culminated in the cancellation of the station's newscasts in June 2001. By then, it had eliminated the weekday morning and weekday noon newscasts with the station simulcasting only the 6 a.m. hour of WPTZ's morning show and Today cut-ins. WNNE's noon show would be replaced with an
In 2007, the weeknight news updates were dropped as well. Since then, WNNE has functioned as WPTZ's "Upper Valley Newsroom" and is referred to as such during all newscasts. After this change, there was only a separate title opening that remained indicating WNNE was ever a separate station. Eventually, the news opening was dropped as well. Previously during all local news programming, the station superimposed its channel 31 logo over the channel 5 logo in the right hand corner of the screen. On occasion when WNNE has technical problems, WPTZ's logo peeked through. Contributions by WNNE to WPTZ's newscasts included video footage and a live headline (weeknights at 5:30) from its White River Junction studios (which was staffed with a full-time multimedia journalist). In addition to the Upper Valley and another Vermont bureau in Colchester covering Burlington, WPTZ also airs national news from a Washington, D.C., bureau that is operated by Hearst. It employs several reporters who give live reports to the various company-owned affiliates.
Despite including "HD" in its logo, all newscasts were aired in
On August 2, 2016, following the change to "NBC 5", the newscasts were retitled to NBC 5 News; in addition, the station no longer superimposed the channel 31 logo and it began using the "NBC 5" logo during all of its local news programming. Upon the channel share and transfer of the CW+ affiliation from WPTZ-DT2, WNNE now carries WPTZ's 10 p.m. prime time newscast, a half-hour program simulcast on WPTZ's MeTV subchannel.
In August 2018, WPTZ's Upper Valley bureau moved from White River Junction to a new space on Mechanic Street in Lebanon, New Hampshire.[27] In July 2019, WPTZ's Vermont facilities moved from Colchester to a new facility in South Burlington; production of the station's newscasts were concurrently relocated to the new facility from the Plattsburgh studio, which remains as a secondary facility.[28]
Notable former on-air staff
- Tom Caron – sports anchor (now at NESN)
- Brett Haber – sports anchor (formerly at WUSA)
Technical information
Subchannel
Channel | Res. | Aspect | Short name | Programming |
---|---|---|---|---|
31.1 | 1080i | 16:9 |
WNNE-HD | The CW Plus |
Analog-to-digital conversion
WNNE discontinued regular programming on its analog signal, over
References
- ^ a b "Licensing and Management System". enterpriseefiling.fcc.gov.
- ^ a b "WNNE Community of License Change Exhibit".
- ^ "Facility Technical Data for WNNE". Licensing and Management System. Federal Communications Commission.
- ^ Broadcasting Yearbook 1978 (PDF). 1978. p. B-116. Archived from the original (PDF) on March 9, 2012. Retrieved February 18, 2010.
- ^ Broadcasting Yearbook 1979 (PDF). 1979. p. B-109. Archived from the original (PDF) on October 8, 2010. Retrieved February 18, 2010.
- ^ Broadcasting Yearbook 1981 (PDF). 1981. p. B-117. Retrieved February 18, 2010.[permanent dead link]
- ^ "Application Search Details (1)". CDBS Public Access. Federal Communications Commission. Retrieved February 18, 2010.
- ^ "Application Search Details (2)". CDBS Public Access. Federal Communications Commission. Retrieved February 18, 2010.
- ^ "TheChamplainChannel.com - WNNE". Archived from the original on August 1, 2001. Retrieved August 1, 2001.
- ^ Per Zap2it, zip codes 05819 (St. Johnsbury) and 05038 (Chelsea).
- ^ Per Zap2it, zip codes 05701.
- ^ Me-TV Adds WPTZ Burlington, KVLY Fargo, TVNewsCheck, November 14, 2012.
- ^ "Official WPTZ-TV announcement of plans to launch the CW Network | Vermont - WPTZ Home". www.wptz.com. Archived from the original on November 12, 2013. Retrieved May 22, 2022.
- ^ "The CW Network joins the WPTZ Family | WPTZ News - WPTZ Home". Archived from the original on October 4, 2013. Retrieved March 4, 2013.
- ^ Staff, NBC5 News (June 11, 2015). "How to find the CW and MeTV". WPTZ.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link) - ^ "Station Search Details". licensing.fcc.gov.
- ^ "FCC Broadcast Television Spectrum Incentive Auction Auction 1001 Winning Bids" (PDF). Federal Communications Commission. April 4, 2017. Retrieved November 20, 2017.
- ^ a b "Program alert: Rescan your TV to continue receiving WNNE's signal". WPTZ. August 1, 2018. Retrieved August 1, 2018.
- ^ "WNNE MONTPELIER, VT". www.rabbitears.info.
- Gannett Company. Retrieved November 23, 2019.
- ^ Balderston, Michael (November 22, 2019). "Tower Fire Keeping Vermont's WCAX, WPTZ Off The Air". TV Technology. Retrieved November 23, 2019.
- ^ "WNNE TV 31 - Hanover/Hartford". Archived from the original on February 23, 1999.
- ^ "TV Hat: WNNE (NBC)". October 27, 2009. Archived from the original on October 27, 2009.
- ^ "News 31". WNNE Online. Archived from the original on October 19, 2000. Retrieved November 25, 2009.
- ^ "WNNE Programming Guide". WNNE Online. Archived from the original on October 26, 2000. Retrieved November 25, 2009.
- ^ "NBC5 announces new Vermont & New Hampshire locations". MyNBC5.com. Hearst Television. June 12, 2018. Retrieved November 1, 2018.
- ^ Delise, McKenzie (July 27, 2019). "WPTZ newscasts now out of VT". Press-Republican. Retrieved July 29, 2019.
- ^ "RabbitEars TV Query for WNNE". www.rabbitears.info.
- ^ "DTV Tentative Channel Designations for the First and the Second Rounds" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on August 29, 2013. Retrieved March 24, 2012.