WRGB
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WRGB (channel 6) is a
WRGB is notable for being one of the first television stations in the world. It began broadcasting experimentally in early 1928, with the first daily programs being broadcast later that year. It later became one of a handful of television stations licensed for commercial broadcasting operation before the end of World War II.
The station launched the on-camera careers of TV chefs Art "Mr. Food" Ginsburg in the mid-1970s; and of Rachael Ray, who launched her "30 Minute Meals" segment on WRGB's newscasts in the mid-1990s.
History
W2XCW
One of the first experimental television stations in the world, WRGB traces its roots to an experimental station founded on January 13, 1928, and broadcast from the General Electric facility in Schenectady under the call letters W2XCW. It was popularly known as "WGY Television" after its sister radio station (though WMAK, the predecessor of modern station WBEN in Buffalo also had partial control of the station, which was relinquished shortly after the station signed on). W2XCW operated a very limited schedule, with 30 kW on 2.1-2.2 MHz (video) and 92 meters (approx. 3.258 MHz) (audio). It transmitted 24 vertical lines of resolution at a rate of 20 frames per second.
W2XAF
The W2XCW callsign disappeared around 1932. By 1930, GE had begun audio transmission on shortwave; one of these transmitters, W2XAF, was pressed into service during off-hours for further television experiments, which continued through the 1930s. Toward the end of that decade, General Electric teamed up with other experimental broadcasters to adopt an all-electronic TV standard that was created by RCA.
W2XB
In 1938, General Electric announced plans to build and operate a standalone TV station, and applied for an
WRGB
In 1942, General Electric opted to end experimental broadcasts and begin commercial programming. While the call WGY-TV was available, the company applied for and received a call letter change to WRGB, in honor of pioneering electric engineer Walter Ransom Gail Baker. The station moved into a state-of-the-art studio on Washington Avenue in Schenectady. It was the first building in the nation specifically designed for television.
In 1948, WRGB took on secondary affiliations with the three other networks in operation (CBS, ABC, and DuMont). At the time of the announcement, the station only broadcast for 28 hours a week.[3] On January 4, 1954, it moved from channel 4 to channel 6 to alleviate interference from WNBC-TV (then known as WRCA-TV) and Boston's WBZ-TV, and increased its radiated power approximately fourfold to 93,000 watts. WRGB dropped its secondary affiliations when WCDA (channel 41, now WTEN on channel 10) and WTRI (channel 35, now WNYT on channel 13) took the ABC and CBS affiliations respectively. From 1939 till 1957, the station's studio were located on Washington Avenue in downtown Schenectady. In 1957, WRGB moved to its current studio on Balltown Road on the line between Niskayuna and Schenectady; the old studio is currently occupied by Schenectady County Community College.
The longest-running locally produced
In 1979, General Electric almost filed to sell WRGB to Group Six Broadcasting during a proposed General Electric merger with
On September 28, 1981, WRGB swapped affiliations with WAST (which would become what is now WNYT on the day of the switch) and became a CBS affiliate. WAST had only picked up the CBS affiliation four years earlier, but had remained stubbornly in third place behind WRGB and WTEN. Under the circumstances, when its affiliation contract with WAST ran out, CBS jumped at the chance to align with long-dominant WRGB. The switch made WRGB the third station in the Capital District to affiliate with CBS, with the newly rechristened WNYT taking over the NBC affiliation. The network had originally aired on WTRI, forerunner of WNYT, from 1954 to 1955, then moved to WCDA (now WTEN) from 1955 to 1977.
In April 1983, 55 years of General Electric ownership ended when it sold WRGB to Universal Communications Corporation which was owned by
In September 2003, WRGB-DT (UHF channel 39) became the first full-market digital signal to sign on in the Albany region. Around December 2007, WRGB and WCWN became the first television stations in the Capital District that upgraded to high definition time delay and rebroadcast capability, and high definition local broadcasts. This allows broadcasting of syndicated shows in high definition. WRGB changed its on-air name to "CBS 6" in October 2004.
Freedom announced on November 2, 2011, that it would bow out of television and sell its stations, including WRGB, to Sinclair Broadcast Group.[8] The group deal closed on April 2, 2012, after which Sinclair obtained a waiver allowing the company to keep both WRGB and WCWN. In 2016, WRGB adopted a logo similar to that of sister station WSYX in Columbus, Ohio, replacing the ABC logo with that of the CBS eye.
FM audio
WRGB's former
However, this analog FM carrier no longer existed for digital television stations after the June 12, 2009, conversion to digital, but remained in effect for analog low-powered stations on channel 6 until they too transitioned on July 13, 2021.
When WRGB shifted its digital broadcasts to channel 6 with the full-power digital transition, Freedom proposed an unconventional approach to retain the analog audio broadcast, requesting to operate an analog
WRGB would be the only full-power station to propose such a solution, with only WITI in Milwaukee attempting to continue to carry its Channel 6 television audio in some form by contracting with Clear Channel to lease an HD Radio subchannel of radio station WMIL-FM until the mid-2010s. WPVI-TV in Philadelphia, the nearest full-power channel 6, expressed an interest in the technology, but backed off due to overall rights issues for its programming and continuing issues regarding reception of their station throughout the market (which would have been complicated more by side-channel analog audio).[9]
The station received an experimental
On July 7, 2009, WRGB resumed its radio simulcast broadcasts on a frequency of 87.9 FM, without explicit FCC authorization.[11] Less than two months later, on August 24, the FCC ordered WRGB to turn off the 87.9 transmitter.[12] All efforts to carry an analog FM audio signal were abandoned with the sale of WRGB to Sinclair (a company that is a major stakeholder in the ATSC 3.0 standard), and its 2022 shift to UHF transmission made any renewal of the effort impossible as it no longer has access to the VHF channel 6 spectrum.
Power boost and proposed translators
As noted above, on June 12, 2009, WRGB became a digital-only station. The station vacated its digital transition UHF channel 39 and moved its digital operations to their former analog channel assignment on VHF-low channel 6. After the digital transition, some viewers in the Capital District had receptions issues with the WRGB signal. So WRGB boosted their power twice: Once in July 2009 at the power level of 11.5 kW with an interference agreement with WPVI-TV in Philadelphia and WEDY in New Haven, Connecticut,[13] and in late January 2010, the FCC granted an STA for WRGB to boost their power again at their current level of 30.2 kW.[13] An application was filed back in June 2009 to operate at the current level on a permanent basis.[14] That application was granted on March 16, 2011.
WRGB has also filed applications for three digital replacement translators to fill in some of the coverage-loss areas, which have all been granted construction permits. One will be in Schenectady on the station's pre-transition digital allotment on UHF channel 39,
Upon the purchase of WCWN, Sinclair added a simulcast of WRGB's main signal in a reduced 720p form on WCWN-DT3, allowing viewers with no access to the main WRGB VHF signal in the core of the Capital Region to utilize WCWN's UHF signal for reception of WRGB programming.
WNYA and WCWN involvement
In April 2003, WRGB signed a joint sales agreement with the area's fledgling
On June 19, 2006, Freedom Communications announced the purchase of current CW affiliate WCWN from Tribune Broadcasting for $17 million. Since the Capital District does not have enough full-powered stations to legally permit duopolies, Freedom applied for a "failed station" waiver to acquire WCWN. The waiver was granted on November 22,[16] and the purchase was finalized on December 6, giving the Capital Region market its first duopoly. Until the end of the JSA with WNYA, WRGB had control of three stations in the market. (In 2013, WNYA would also be acquired through a "failing station" waiver when Hubbard Broadcasting, owner of rival NBC affiliate WNYT, bought WNYA.[17])
During past airings of the annual
News operation
For most of its first half-century on the air, WRGB was the dominant news station in the Capital District. This was in part because of its status as the area's first station. Indeed, for its first decade-and-a-half on the air as a commercial station, it was the only station that provided a clear picture to most of the market; its competitors were initially on the UHF band before the FCC dropped in additional VHF allocations in the late 1950s. It also benefited from its relationship with WGY radio, which was a sister station from 1942 to 1983; the two stations were able to cover the Capital District like no one else could.
Its newscasts were anchored for over 40 years by the venerable Ernie Tetrault (who was immortalized in the 1992 film Sneakers directed by one-time WRGB intern Phil Alden Robinson).
Liz Bishop is the station's longest tenured personality. She joined WRGB as a weekend sportscaster in 1975, and became Tetrault's last anchor desk partner in 1982. She is still the station's main female anchor. After Tetrault's retirement in 1993, the station was quickly eclipsed by WNYT and for several years in the mid-1990s fell to third place, mirroring a nationwide trend that saw CBS' ratings drop in the wake of losing rights to the
From April 2003 until mid-2004, WNYA aired replays of WRGB's weekday noon show at 1, weeknight 11 o'clock news at 11:35, and WRGB's former public affairs program Sunday Morning with Liz Bishop. On April 17, 2006, it was announced that WNYA would begin airing an hour long extension of WRGB's weekday morning newscast at 7 known (at the time) as CBS 6 First News on UPN Capital Region. This could be seen as a pre-emptive move by WRGB to fend off a challenge by WXXA who had announced their plans to launch weekday morning news two weeks earlier. Rumors of WRGB producing a 10 p.m. broadcast on WNYA had circulated as well. However, the pickup of a second run of Dr. Phil to air at that hour killed the rumors. At the start of 2007, the news on WNYA moved to WCWN (because that station had higher ratings overall) becoming CBS 6 First News on The Capital Region's CW.
In
In addition to their main studios, it operates an Albany Bureau at One Commerce Plaza in downtown Albany.
Weather coverage
As with its heritage of being the first station in the Capital Region, WRGB has also had several firsts in the weather field, given the unpredictable weather of the
In May 1999, the station started "WeatherNet 6" which allows viewers to submit weather observations around the area. The public is allowed to report anything from current conditions to snowfall totals. In 2000, the station became the first in the market to offer a station-owned
. This government data is also used on WRGB known as "WeatherScan Radar".WRGB was the last in the market to bring a degree-holding meteorologist onto its staff with the purchase of the station by Freedom, not doing so until several years after WTEN and WNYT did. On January 6, 2009, veteran meteorologist Neal Estano returned to the area airwaves for his third tour of duty with WRGB. He had worked for the station twice before leaving to pursue new opportunities in
Notable former on-air staff
- Dr. Alan Chartock – director of WAMC, was a political analyst until dropped in 1994 at which point he went to WNYT
- Tony Guida – former news anchor at WNBC and WCBS-TV in New York City
- Dr. Tim Johnson – later with ABC Newsas medical correspondent
- Joe Pagliarulo– main anchor, now a nationally syndicated conservative TV/radio talk show host
- Howard Reig – announcer for WGY radio and WRGB from 1943 to 1952, later a staff announcer for NBC from 1952 to 2005; deceased
- College Football on ESPN
Technical information
Subchannels
The station's signal is
Channel | Res. | Aspect | Short name | Programming |
---|---|---|---|---|
6.1 | 1080i | 16:9 |
WRGB-HD | Main WRGB programming / CBS |
6.2 | 480i | TBD | TBD | |
6.3 | Comet | Comet | ||
45.2 | 480i | 16:9 | Charge! | Charge! (WCWN) |
45.4 | TheNest | The Nest (WCWN) |
Analog-to-digital conversion
WRGB shut down its analog signal, over VHF channel 6, on June 12, 2009, the official date on which full-power television stations in the United States
References
- ^ "Report and Order", Media Bureau, Federal Communications Commission, June 16, 2021, Retrieved June 16, 2021.
- ^ "Facility Technical Data for WRGB". Licensing and Management System. Federal Communications Commission.
- ^ "WRGB to Get ABC, CBS, DuMont Shows, Plus NBC" (PDF). Broadcasting – Telecasting. October 11, 1948. p. 34.
- Schenectady Gazette. November 18, 1964. p. 16 (col 2).
- ^ "$121 million deals in the outs from spin-offs of Cox-GE deal" (PDF). Broadcasting. April 23, 1979. Retrieved December 18, 2021.
- ^ Cuff, Daniel F. (April 27, 1983). "BUSINESS PEOPLE; Ex-CBS President Buys Upstate TV Station". New York Times. Retrieved August 31, 2016.
- ^ "FCC OK's Clear Channel TV Sale". Broadcasting & Cable. Retrieved November 29, 2007.
- Orange County Register. Retrieved November 2, 2011.
- ^ a b The Mystique of Channel 6, James E. O'Neal, TV Technology, February 26, 2009
- ^ [1] Archived December 18, 2008, at the Wayback Machine
- ^ "CBS 6 is back on the radio – this time on 87.9 FM!".
- ^ "Regarding CBS 6 radio simulcast on 87.9 FM". Archived from the original on December 3, 2009. Retrieved August 25, 2009.
- ^ a b "CDBS Print". Licensing.fcc.gov. Retrieved April 22, 2013.
- ^ "CDBS Print". Licensing.fcc.gov. Retrieved April 22, 2013.
- ^ a b c "CDBS Print". Licensing.fcc.gov. Retrieved April 22, 2013.
- ^ "Assignment of License for WCWN(TV), Schenectady, NY" (PDF). Retrieved September 18, 2023.
- ^ "WNYA-TV, Pittsfield, MA, ID No. 136751 File No. BALCDT-20130307AB" (PDF). Retrieved September 18, 2023.
- ^ Churchill, Chris (October 16, 2010). "More news is the latest news". Times Union. Retrieved April 22, 2013.
- ^ "WRGB's Estano latest to switch from media to real estate – The Business Review". Bizjournals.com. April 19, 2012. Retrieved April 22, 2013.
- ^ "RabbitEars TV Query for WRGB". 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.