WNYA

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WNYA-TV / WNYA-CA
WNYA: Pittsfield, Massachusetts WNYA-CA: Albany, New York
Branding	My TV 4 Albany
Channels	WNYA: 51 (UHF) WNYA-CA: 15 (UHF) analog, WRGB-DT 6.2 (UHF) digital
Affiliations	MyNetworkTV
Owner	Venture Technologies Group, LLC JSA with Freedom Communications
Founded	WNYA-CA: 1996 WNYA: September 1, 2003
Call letters meaning	New York Albany
Former affiliations	UPN (2003-2006)
Transmitter Power	1.58 MW / 28.0 kW
Website	mytv4albany.com

WNYA-TV and WNYA-CA are two television stations affiliated with MyNetworkTV. WNYA is licensed to Pittsfield, Massachusetts and broadcasts an analog signal on UHF channel 51 from a transmitter located northwest of the city in the Berkshire Mountains near Berry Pond. WNYA-CA, a low-powered Class A station, is licensed to Albany, New York and serves as an in-town relay of the main WNYA signal. WNYA-CA broadcasts on UHF channel 15 from a transmitter located in the Helderberg Mountains in New Scotland, New York, along with WRGB, WTEN, WXXA, and WCWN. WNYA-CA is a full-time simulcast of WNYA.

Together, WNYA & WNYA-CA serve as the MyNetworkTV affiliates for the Albany / Schenectady / Troy / Saratoga Springs area, commonly known as New York State's Capital Region, as well as Western New England. The two stations are owned and operated by Venture Technologies Group, LLC, but have sales that are handled by Freedom Communications-owned CBS affiliate WRGB through a joint sales agreement (JSA). This relationship allows the master controls of WNYA & WNYA-CA to be located at WRGB's Niskayna studios. However, WNYA does have its own administrative offices located on Balltown Road in Schenectady. WRGB and WNYA share various syndicated programming. In addition to WRGB, WNYA is also a sister station with the area's CW affiliate WCWN, which is part of a duopoly with WRGB.

The two stations do not currently broadcast digital signals of their own but an application has been filed with the FCC to broadcast on channel 4 from a transmitter at the New Scotland site. Until channel 4 signs on, WNYA is carried on WRGB's DT2 digital subchannel, which is also a result of the JSA. WNYA & WNYA-CA are known on-air as "My TV 4 Albany".

WNYA can be considered a rim-shot signal into the Springfield, Massachusetts television market, however the Berkshires and a barely passable spacing to another MyNetworkTV affiliate based in Derry, New Hampshire, WZMY channel 50, interfere with the signal.

Contents 1 History 1.1 WNYA 1.2 WNYA-CA 1.3 WNYA and WNYA-CA as "UPN Capital Region" 2 WRGB Involvement 3 MyNetworkTV 4 Logos 5 External Links

[edit] History

[edit] WNYA

What today is WNYA-TV can indirectly trace its history to WUVW, a unbuilt station on channel 51, licensed to Pittsfield which was given a permit in the mid-1950s. The permit was cancelled in the 1970s. The allocation that became WNYA was proposed in October of 1996 by Pappas Telecasting [1] but went without an owner for several years until it was auctioned off in February of 2002. Venture Technologies ended up getting the winning bid for $1.3 million. The FCC granted the construction permit and the WNYA-TV calls to Venture a year later.

[edit] WNYA-CA

What today is WNYA-CA channel 15 signed on in 1996 known as WVBX-LP. The station was a repeater of WVBG-LP licensed to Easton, New York in Washington County that aired on channel 39. In September of 1997, WVBG became the UPN affiliate for the market though the station could never get carriage on Time Warner Cable which maintained carriage of WSBK from Boston. The UPN affiliation ended at the start of 2000 when cable-only WEDG (known later as "UPN 4") signed on. WVBX would then become an independent station before signing off in early 2002. While dark, WVBX upgraded to Class A status, moved down to Albany, and was renamed WNYA-CA. [2].

[edit] WNYA and WNYA-CA as "UPN Capital Region"

In April of 2003, WNYA signed the initial SSA agreement with WRGB and their affiliation with UPN (becoming the first full-power broadcast UPN affiliate in The Capital Region) and announced a sign-on date of September 1, 2003. WNYA signed on the air in mid-July for testing purposes and WNYA-CA did the same in late August. The official launch of WNYA and WNYA-CA came at 6 AM on September 1 with the stations using the "UPN Capital Region" branding. From its sign on, WNYA took the channel position of "UPN 4" on Time Warner, Charter Communications, and independent Mid-Hudson Cablevision in Greene County. Adelphia cable systems would replace WSBK with WNYA at the start of 2004 with DirecTV and Dish Network adding the station later that year.

WNYA's original line-up included several new shows that had gone unclaimed in the market, shows not previously cleared, and various older shows. WNYA also aired replays of WRGB's weekday Noon (at 1 PM) and 11 PM (at 11:30 PM) newscasts as well as WRGB's public affairs program known as Sunday Morning with Liz Bishop. The practice ended in mid-2004.

[edit] WRGB Involvement

The JSA between WNYA and WRGB has led to some common involvement between the two stations, this was first apparent a mere six hours after signing on when WNYA broadcasted CBS's coverage of the U.S. Open tennis tournament on Labor Day because of WRGB airing the Jerry Lewis MDA telethon during that time. This arrangement continued in 2004 but due to a crop of syndication launches on Labor Day, did not happen in 2005. There also has been the swapping of syndicated programs between the two stations. In late-2005, WRGB signed an extension that keeps the JSA agreement in place until the end of 2008 (it had been set to expire on August 31, 2006).

On April 17, 2006, it was announced that WNYA would begin airing an extension of WRGB's weekday morning newscast, CBS 6 First News, from 7 to 8 AM with anchor Ed O'Brien and meteorologist Tom Mailey. The newscast was called CBS 6 First News on My TV 4 Albany. This move could be seen as a pre-emptive move by WRGB to fend off a challenge by the area's FOX affiliate WXXA which had announced their plans for a morning newscast two weeks earlier. Rumors of WRGB producing a 10 PM newscast on WNYA had circulated, however the pickup of a second run of Dr. Phil to air at that hour has shifted those rumors to WRGB's new sister station WCWN, Albany's CW affiliate. As a result of WCWN becoming a sister station to WRGB, the extension of WRGB's weekday morning newscast moved to WCWN at the start of 2007. On WCWN, it is known as CBS 6 First News on The Capital Region's CW. Currently, WNYA does not air any news programs.

[edit] MyNetworkTV

It was announced in January of 2006 that UPN and The WB would cease operations and be replaced by 'The CW in September of 2006. The Albany area's WB affiliate, WCWN (at that time known as WEWB), was one of the initial CW affiliates named when The CW was announced. The CW began broadcasting on WCWN on September 18, 2006.

On March 9, 2006, it was announced that WNYA would become an affiliate of MyNetworkTV. [3] MyNetworkTV was another new television network created by News Corporation as a sister network to FOX. MyNetworkTV was created to give UPN and WB stations, not named as CW affiliates, another option besides becoming independent. WNYA would begin airing ads for the new network and put banner ads on their website in June.

On July 30, 2006, WNYA's website became a promotional website for the up and coming MyNetworkTV. There was no information about the station and its programming. On August 2, 2006, a redesigned website was finished and a new MyNetworkTV logo was shown for the first time. With UPN affiliation, the station's logo did not include a channel number in it. The new logo is based on cable-only WEDG's channel 4 position on Time Warner cable systems. Ironically, nowhere in Berkshire County, Massachusetts is WNYA currently on channel 4. In North Adams, channel 4 is the spot where Boston's CBS affiliate WBZ-TV is located.

Though WNYA aired MyNetworkTV programming in primetime from the network's launch on September 5, 2006, the last two weeks of UPN programming aired in late nights from 1 to 3 AM, Tuesdays to Saturdays.

[edit] Logos

WNYA UPN logo used until August of 2006.

Ad for WRGB morning news from WNYA's old website.

WNYA's current logo.

[edit] External Links

• Station Website
• WRGB Website
• WCWN Website
• Query the FCC's TV station database for WNYA
• Query the FCC's TV station database for WNYA-CA

Coordinates: 42° 38' 12" N 73° 59' 45" W

v • d • e

Broadcast television in the Albany / Schenectady / Troy market (Nielsen DMA #56)

Local television stations WVBK-CA 2 (RSN) - WRGB 6 (CBS, MNTV via WNYA on DT2) - WNCE-CA 8 (A1) - WTEN 10 / WCDC 19 (ABC) - WNYT 13 (NBC, WX+ on DT2) - WNYA-CA 15 / WNYA 51 (MNTV) - WMHT 17 (PBS) - WXXA 23 (FOX) - WVBG-LP 25 (RSN) - WNGN-LP 35 / WNGX-LP 42 (FamilyNet) - WCWN 45 (The CW, The Tube on DT2) - W52DF 52 / WTBY 54 (TBN) - WYPX 55 (ION) - W58CX 58 (3ABN)
Local cable television channels TW3 - TWTV7 - Capital News 9
Defunct television channels WEDG 4 (UPN) - WCDB 29 (CBS)
See also: Template:Albany AM, Template:Albany FM