WWLP
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WWLP (channel 22) is a
WWLP operates a full-time
Due to the close proximity of the Springfield–Holyoke and
WWLP's facility additionally serves as Nexstar's Northeast master control hub.[2]
History
WWLP began broadcasting on March 17, 1953, one month before rival WHYN-TV (now
It switched frequencies to UHF channel 22 on July 2, 1955. The previous analog allotment would remain unused until the second
After three decades, Putnam retired from broadcasting in 1984 and sold his company and its three stations (WWLP,
In early 2000, the station's studios and offices moved to their current home in the Sandy Hill area of Chicopee. However, its transmitter remained in Feeding Hills. Shortly after the change, then-pending owner LIN TV constructed an addition at WWLP's new facilities which would serve as a master control hub for company-owned stations in the Northeast. At this location, room for future expansion was made in the event LIN TV expanded their Northeast properties. That eventually became the case with sister stations WTNH, WCTX, WPRI-TV (LIN TV flagship), and WNAC-TV having master control and some internal operations currently located at the Chicopee studios.
WWLP was well known for producing
On May 18, 2007, LIN TV announced that it was exploring strategic alternatives including the sale of the company. On March 21, 2014, Media General announced that it would purchase LIN Media and its stations, including WWLP and WFXQ-CD, in a $1.6 billion merger.[5] The merger was completed on December 19.[6]
On September 8, 2015, Media General announced that it would acquire the
Former satellites
In 1957, WRLP in Greenfield signed on as a full-time satellite of WWLP. WRLP served the northern portion of the Pioneer Valley market, where WWLP's signal was marginal at best due to the area's rugged and mountainous terrain. From a transmitter on Gunn Mountain in Winchester, New Hampshire (one of the highest points in the region), WRLP could also be seen in Springfield as well, creating a strong combined signal with over 50 percent overlap.
In 1958, Putnam purchased a defunct station in Worcester, WWOR-TV (no relation to the current Secaucus, New Jersey/Tri-State station with the same callsign), and returned it to the air as a second full-time satellite of WWLP. However, Worcester is part of the Boston market, and WWLP was forced to limit WWOR's broadcast day to only six hours in order to protect the interests of WBZ-TV, then Boston's NBC affiliate. In 1964, WWOR changed its calls to WJZB-TV and became an independent station while continuing to simulcast some programming from WWLP.
WRLP and WJZB eventually went off the air due to financial difficulties, with WJZB going dark in 1969 followed by WRLP in 1978. Almost immediately after WRLP left the air, its transmitter was shipped to
Subchannels
WWLP-DT2 (The CW)
WWLP-DT2, branded The CW Springfield, is the
History
As cable-only WBQT
What is now WWLP-DT2 began its life in September 1998 as WBQT, a
In 1999, WBQT was taken off of
On January 24, 2006, The WB and
There was an early-2006 sign-on of low-powered W28CT broadcasting from the summit of the old Mount Tom Ski Area in Holyoke. After a short period of time, the station's call letters were changed to WXCW-CA in anticipation of it becoming an affiliate of that network. In August 2006, the call letters changed again to WFXQ-CA after word was confirmed that WBQT would continue operations as Springfield's CW affiliate. The station (now WFXQ-CD) eventually became a full-time repeater of WWLP.
As it joined The CW, WBQT also became part of The CW Plus, a similar operation to The WB 100+. The station began airing promotions of the new network, with WBQT's branding becoming Pioneer Valley CW. The network launched on September 18 with proper on-air changes on WBQT, along with a website on The CW Plus's web presence with schedule information. It branded solely by its listed branding, discounting its varied market channel positions (Comcast 16 and Charter 13). During its cable-exclusive period with The WB and The CW, the station did not have an actual owner and had a signal provided to cable companies through a closed circuit satellite feed.
As WWLP-DT2
WWLP-DT2 originally signed on in 2007, airing a live feed of its weather radar, with no background audio. As a byproduct of an affiliation agreement between LIN TV and TheCoolTV to carry the music video network on LIN's stations, WWLP affiliated with the network on its second digital subchannel in 2010. The network was dropped on July 15, 2013, with the subchannel remaining dark for the next 20 months.
On December 23, 2014, as part of a long-term affiliation renewal with the network, Media General announced that WWLP and WFXQ-CD would affiliate their respective second digital subchannels with The CW, allowing the former cable-exclusive "WBQT" channel serving the market to have an over-the-air presence.[11] On January 1, 2015, WWLP took over promotional and advertising responsibilities of WBQT from the area's cable companies. As a result, the service was added to the second subchannel of WWLP in order to offer over-the-air viewers access to The CW for the first time. The main station launched a prime time newscast at 10 p.m. on the CW subchannel on April 13, 2015. It also started replaying WWLP's weekday morning lifestyle show, Mass Appeal, at 1 p.m., and as of April 1, WBQT Pioneer Valley CW was re-branded as The CW Springfield as well.[12][13][14] The previous WXCW call letters were unavailable, having been taken by a Fort Myers, Florida CW affiliate in 2007.
Xfinity began carrying the subchannel's high definition feed on digital channel 820 on April 1, 2015, with Charter adding the feed on digital channel 788 in mid-April 2015 (for viewers in Hampden, Hampshire, and Franklin counties), making CW programming available in HD in the Pioneer Valley for the first time.[12][13][14]
WWLP-DT3 (Ion Television)
WWLP-DT3 is the
On November 5, 2015, WWLP soft-launched a standard definition feed of Ion Television's main signal over subchannel 22.3 as part of Media General's carriage agreement of the network in markets without a dedicated Ion affiliate. New London, Connecticut-based WHPX-TV has served as the market's nominal affiliate for years with some cable coverage; until its move to a tower in Farmington in 2019, it transmitted from Montville closer to New London in southeastern Connecticut, assuring poor overall Pioneer Valley reception, thus the national feed has mainly been offered by local providers who carry the network.
Berkshire County feed
In April 2017,
Because of this, viewers in Berkshire County had little to no access to Massachusetts-specific news on their cable systems outside of the regional cable news channel,
Nexstar provides the secondary feed to Spectrum for those systems, and it features only WWLP's newscasts and other local programming without any of the station's syndicated and NBC programming, nor WWLP's subchannels; during network and syndicated programming times, repeats of that programming, including WWLP newscasts, are seen instead.
Programming
Local programming
WWLP serves as the western Massachusetts affiliate for the New England Patriots' preseason television network, carrying the team's games not nationally broadcast.
News operation
Ever since its sign-on, WWLP has consistently had the most watched newscasts in the Pioneer Valley. This has been achieved (most of the time) by beating rival
While operating as full-time satellites of WWLP, WRLP and WWOR/WJZB simulcasted local news from this station. However, when WRLP converted to a separate Independent channel in 1974, its own newscasts were established tailored toward the Northern Pioneer Valley as well as Brattleboro and Keene.
After WGGB-TV recently became locally owned (bought by John J. Gormally who publishes the Business West magazine), there was a chance the ratings could change. However, as of the July 2008 sweeps period, WWLP continues its longtime dominance with WGGB-TV stabilizing to a strong second. Although low-powered CBS affiliate WSHM-LP established its own news department in October 2005, it initially did not compete on the same level as WWLP and WGGB-TV. However, its ratings grew substantially across the board during the May 2009 sweeps period to within decimal points of WGGB-TV in several key demographics.
In addition to their main studios, WWLP operates a Hampshire County Bureau on Main Street/
On January 8, 2012, WWLP became the second station in the Springfield/Holyoke market to broadcast local news in high definition. Rival station WGGB-TV was the first to broadcast in HD in September 2011. The April 2015 move of The CW to WWLP-DT2 saw the station launch a half-hour 10 p.m. newscast, competing with WGGB's Fox subchannel in the timeslot.
Notable former on-air staff
- Todd Gross (now at KTVX in Salt Lake City)
- Rob Morrison (last at WCBS-TV, now out of industry)
- Bill Rasmussen (founder of ESPN)
- Anaridis Rodriguez (now at The Weather Channel)
- Donna Savarese (later at KMOV in St. Louis)
Technical information
Subchannels
The station's signal is
Channel | Res. | Aspect | Short name | Programming |
---|---|---|---|---|
22.1 | 1080i | 16:9 |
WWLP-DT | NBC |
22.2 | 720p | WWLP-CW | The CW Plus | |
22.3 | 480i | WWLP-IO | Ion Television | |
22.4 | WWLP-ES | Ion Mystery |
Analog-to-digital conversion
WWLP discontinued regular programming on its analog signal, over
22.References
- ^ "Facility Technical Data for WWLP". Licensing and Management System. Federal Communications Commission.
- ^ https://buffalonews.com/2019/01/22/buffalo-is-top-rated-nfl-market-outside-of-cities-with-teams-trying-to-make-super-bowl/ "Dominic Mancuso, the Channel 4 general manager, explained the provider of the fiber for the master control hub in Springfield, Mass., is trying to fix the problem."
- ^ Staff, FCC Internet Services. "Application Search Details".
- ^ Putnam, Kitty Broman; Putnam, William Lowell (2012). How We Survived in UHF Television: A Broadcasting Memoir, 1953-1984. Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland and Publishers, Inc. p. 45.
- ^ "Media General buys LIN Media, owner of WWLP Channel 22 in Springfield". The Republican. Associated Press. March 21, 2014. Retrieved March 22, 2014.
- ^ Media General Completes Merger With LIN Media Archived December 19, 2014, at the Wayback Machine, Press Release, Media General, Retrieved December 19, 2014
- ^ "Media General Acquiring Meredith For 2.4 Billion". TVNewsCheck. NewsCheck Media. September 8, 2015.
- ^ Littleton, Cynthia (September 8, 2015). "TV Station Mega Merger: Media General Sets $2.4 Billion Acquisition of Meredith Corp". Variety. Penske Media Corporation. Retrieved September 9, 2015.
- Newspapers of New England. Retrieved September 9, 2015.
- ^ Picker, Leslie (January 27, 2016). "Nexstar Clinches Deal to Acquire Media General". The New York Times. Retrieved January 27, 2016.
- ^ "WWLP digital subchannel to become CW affiliate". WWLP. Media General. December 23, 2014.
- ^ a b "The CW moving to a new home in WMass; station will air 22News at 10:00". WWLP. March 13, 2015. Retrieved February 29, 2016.
- ^ a b "The CW Springfield is now live on the air". WWLP. April 1, 2015. Retrieved February 29, 2016.
- ^ a b WWLP-DT2 The CW Springfield "Here's Where To Watch Us…"
- ^ "Charter subscribers regain access to 22News – the area's #1 local news" (Press release). WWLP. March 31, 2020. Retrieved April 5, 2020.
- Berkshire Eagle. March 31, 2020. Retrieved April 5, 2020.
- ^ RabbitEars TV Query for WWLP
- ^ "Western Mass. TV stations join national switch to digital broadcasting, but not without challenges". February 14, 2009.
- ^ "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.
- ^ CDBS Print