WWNY
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WWNY-TV Carthage-Watertown broadcasts on Channel 7, at 316 kw. It is an affiliate of the CBS television network and its studios and offices are located at 120 Arcade Street in downtown Watertown, New York, USA 13601. Its coverage area includes Jefferson, Lewis and St. Lawrence Counties in Northern New York, as well as Southeastern Ontario. It began operation from a small studio at Champion Hill, Carthage, New York in 1954 and was originally owned by the Watertown Daily Times (NY) newspaper.
The primary cities served by WWNY are:
- Kingston, Ontario population 125,000
- Watertown, NY, population 30,000
- Brockville, Ontario, population 25,000
- Belleville, Ontario, population 45,000
(Note that the signal does not reach most of the Ottawa, Ontario region)
It was the only US television station in its designated market area until the launch of [WPBS (http://www.wpbstv.org)] as WNPE TV 16 in 1971; the earliest productions from the St Lawrence Educational Television Authority (which now owns WPBS) first appeared on WWNY 7.
At one point, it carried programming from all 3 major television networks, CBS, NBC and ABC. While always primarily a CBS station, a select few NBC programmes such as the "Today" show and the Johnny Carson "Tonight" show remained on WWNY as late as 1980.
This was largely phased out by the 1990s, with the exception of FOX baseball games in the late 1990s.
- Call sign meaning: W Watertown, New York
- Channels: 7 (WWNY, analogue) 35 (WWNY-DT, digital) and 28 (WNYF, a low-power Fox affiliate)
- DISH Network Channel: (none)
- DirecTV Channel: (none)
- Nielsen designated market area: Kingston-Watertown, 177th out of 210 US markets, 24th Canadian market
- Owner: United Communications Corp, Kenosha, Wisconsin
- Radius: most distant reception in the southern suburbs of Ottawa, Ontario (beyond a hundred miles) where WWNY was distributed by cable TV systems in Ottawa in the early 1980's before being replaced by distant-local microwave or satellite feeds from Rochester, New York and later Detroit, Michigan due to weak signal quality.
- Slogan: 7 NEWS
- Start of Operation: 8 pm, Saturday October 22, 1954 (WWNY 7) and April 11, 2001 (WNYF 28)
ABC programming is now carried by WWTI 50 Watertown, originally (late 70's/early 80's) an underpowered repeater of channel 20 in Utica, New York but now a full-power local station owned by Clear Channel Inc.
Watertown remains without a local NBC affiliate of its own, although Syracuse, New York locals offer all major networks. None of the Watertown, NY locals are currently available via satellite; Syracuse locals are on Dish Network's EchoStar 9 at 121°W.
The pattern of membership in multiple major networks and broadcast of only a portion of the available programming from each, while only a distant memory in Watertown, is still followed in smaller centres such as Glendive, Montana - the smallest US designated market area with a mere 7000 viewers.
Website
- WWNY 7 NEWS main page (http://www.wwnytv.com)
- Inside WWNY (http://www.wwnytv.net/72k/full-story.asp?uid=6232&area=inside+wwny)