WPTZ-TV
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WPTZ (channel 5) is a
television station A television station is a set of equipment managed by a business, organisation or other entity, such as an amateur television (ATV) operator, that transmits video content and audio content via radio waves directly from a transmitter on the earth ...
licensed A license (or licence) is an official permission or permit to do, use, or own something (as well as the document of that permission or permit). A license is granted by a party (licensor) to another party (licensee) as an element of an agreeme ...
to
Plattsburgh, New York Plattsburgh ( moh, Tsi ietsénhtha) is a city in, and the seat of, Clinton County, New York, United States, situated on the north-western shore of Lake Champlain. The population was 19,841 at the 2020 census. The population of the surrounding ...
, United States, serving as the
NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an Television in the United States, American English-language Commercial broadcasting, commercial television network, broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Enterta ...
affiliate for the
Burlington, Vermont Burlington is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Vermont and the seat of Chittenden County. It is located south of the Canada–United States border and south of Montreal. As of the 2020 U.S. census, the population was 44,743. It ...
–Plattsburgh, New York
market Market is a term used to describe concepts such as: *Market (economics), system in which parties engage in transactions according to supply and demand *Market economy *Marketplace, a physical marketplace or public market Geography *Märket, an ...
. It is owned by
Hearst Television Hearst Television, Inc. (formerly Hearst-Argyle Television) is a broadcasting company in the United States owned by Hearst Communications. From 1998 to mid-2009, the company traded its common stock on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol ...
alongside
Montpelier, Vermont Montpelier () is the capital city of the U.S. state of Vermont and the seat of Washington County. The site of Vermont's state government, it is the least populous state capital in the United States. As of the 2020 census, the population w ...
–licensed CW affiliate
WNNE WNNE (channel 31), branded on air as The Valley CW, is a television station licensed to Montpelier, Vermont, United States, serving the Burlington, Vermont–Plattsburgh, New York market as an affiliate of The CW Plus. It is owned by Hearst Tel ...
(channel 31). WPTZ and WNNE share studios on Community Drive in
South Burlington, Vermont South Burlington is a city in Chittenden County, Vermont, United States. Along with neighboring Burlington, it is a principal city of the Burlington metropolitan area. As of the 2020 U.S. census, the population was 20,292. It is home to the head ...
, with a secondary studio and
news bureau A news bureau is an office for gathering or distributing news. Similar terms are used for specialized bureaus, often to indicate a geographic location or scope of coverage: a ‘Tokyo bureau’ refers to a given news operation's office in Tokyo; ' ...
on Cornelia Street in Plattsburgh; through a channel sharing agreement, the two stations transmit using WPTZ's spectrum from an antenna on Vermont's highest peak,
Mount Mansfield Mount Mansfield is the highest mountain in Vermont with a summit that peaks at above sea level. The summit is located within the town of Underhill, Vermont, Underhill in Chittenden County, Vermont, Chittenden County; the ridgeline, including som ...
.


History


Early years

The station signed on the air on December 8, 1954, as WIRI, originally licensed to the
hamlet ''The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark'', often shortened to ''Hamlet'' (), is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare sometime between 1599 and 1601. It is Shakespeare's longest play, with 29,551 words. Set in Denmark, the play depicts ...
of
North Pole, New York North Pole is a small hamlet located in the town of Wilmington within Essex County, New York, United States, in the Adirondack Mountains. Geography North Pole is located in Adirondack Park at the northern edge of Essex County near Whitefa ...
. It was owned by the Great Northern Broadcasting Company along with Plattsburgh's WIRY radio (1340 AM). The station's first studio facilities were located on Cornelia Street/ Route 3 in Plattsburgh; the transmitter was located on Terry Mountain in
Peru, New York Peru is a town in Clinton County in the U.S. state of New York. The population was 6,772 at the 2020 census. The town was so named for its views of the Adirondack Mountains to the west and the farmlands throughout the town, resembling scenery fou ...
. The station would have had the call letters WIRY-TV to match its radio sister, but at the time
Federal Communications Commission The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that regulates communications by radio, television, wire, satellite, and cable across the United States. The FCC maintains jurisdiction ...
(FCC) regulations did not allow two stations to share the same base call letters if they were licensed to different cities. The station has been a primary NBC affiliate since its inception; it carried secondary affiliations with
ABC ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script known as the alphabet. ABC or abc may also refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Broadcasting * American Broadcasting Company, a commercial U.S. TV broadcaster ** Disney–ABC Television ...
until 1968 when WVNY (channel 22) signed on, and with DuMont until that network ceased operations in 1956.


Becoming WPTZ

Rollins Telecasting purchased channel 5 in 1956. The new owners changed the station's call letters to the present WPTZ (for Plattsburgh); the WPTZ call had recently been dropped by the channel 3 facility in
Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...
(which is now CBS-owned KYW-TV) following its controversial trade by
Westinghouse Broadcasting The Westinghouse Broadcasting Company, also known as Group W, was the broadcasting division of Westinghouse Electric Corporation. It owned several radio and television stations across the United States and distributed television shows for syndicat ...
to NBC earlier in that year. Until September 1965, WPTZ was the only station in its market to broadcast network color programs. WPTZ's first studio color cameras were acquired in 1971. In 1979, the station relocated its studios to a new building located on Old Moffitt Road in Plattsburgh. Rollins merged with Heritage Broadcasting in 1987 to form
Heritage Media Heritage Media Corporation (NYSE: HTG) was a media company which owned television and radio stations across the United States, as well as in-store and direct marketing companies. It was based in Dallas, Texas, from 1987 to 1997. History Heritage ...
. In 1990, Heritage Media purchased
Hartford, Vermont Hartford is a town in Windsor County, Vermont, United States. It is on the New Hampshire border, at the intersection of Interstates 89 and 91. It is the site of the confluence of the White and Connecticut rivers; the Ottauquechee River also flo ...
-based
WNNE WNNE (channel 31), branded on air as The Valley CW, is a television station licensed to Montpelier, Vermont, United States, serving the Burlington, Vermont–Plattsburgh, New York market as an affiliate of The CW Plus. It is owned by Hearst Tel ...
, which had been a separate station with its own news department. With Heritage's purchase, WNNE was made into a
semi-satellite A broadcast relay station, also known as a satellite station, relay transmitter, broadcast translator (U.S.), re-broadcaster (Canada), repeater (two-way radio) or complementary station (Mexico), is a broadcast transmitter which repeats (or tran ...
of WPTZ, significantly improving WPTZ's coverage in the southeastern part of the market. During the analog era, WPTZ was the only station in the market that did not operate any translators. WNNE's master control was transferred to WPTZ in 2000.


Ownership changes

Heritage sold all of its broadcasting properties to the
Sinclair Broadcast Group Sinclair Broadcast Group, Inc. (SBG) is a publicly traded American telecommunications conglomerate that is controlled by the descendants of company founder Julian Sinclair Smith. Headquartered in the Baltimore suburb of Cockeysville, Maryland, t ...
in 1997 prior to its merger with
News Corporation News Corporation (abbreviated News Corp.), also variously known as News Corporation Limited, was an American multinational mass media corporation controlled by media mogul Rupert Murdoch and headquartered at 1211 Avenue of the Americas in Ne ...
. The sale protected new
Fox Foxes are small to medium-sized, omnivorous mammals belonging to several genera of the family Canidae. They have a flattened skull, upright, triangular ears, a pointed, slightly upturned snout, and a long bushy tail (or ''brush''). Twelve sp ...
affiliate
WFFF-TV WFFF-TV (channel 44) is a television station licensed to Burlington, Vermont, United States, serving as the Fox affiliate for the Burlington, Vermont–Plattsburgh, New York market. It is owned by Nexstar Media Group, which provides certain se ...
, which was initially operated by WPTZ under a
local marketing agreement In North American broadcasting, a local marketing agreement (LMA), or local management agreement, is a contract in which one company agrees to operate a radio or television station owned by another party. In essence, it is a sort of lease or tim ...
(LMA) and shared the analog transmitter on Terry Mountain. Otherwise WPTZ/WNNE, along with then-sister stations in
Pensacola, Florida Pensacola () is the westernmost city in the Florida Panhandle, and the county seat and only incorporated city of Escambia County, Florida, United States. As of the 2020 United States census, the population was 54,312. Pensacola is the principal ...
and
Charleston, West Virginia Charleston is the capital and List of cities in West Virginia, most populous city of West Virginia. Located at the confluence of the Elk River (West Virginia), Elk and Kanawha River, Kanawha rivers, the city had a population of 48,864 at the 20 ...
would have been forced to switch to Fox. Sinclair, in turn, sold WPTZ/WNNE along with the WFFF LMA to Sunrise Television in 1998. Sunrise then decided to swap WPTZ/WNNE, along with Smith Broadcasting-owned
KSBW KSBW (channel 8) is a television station licensed to Salinas, California, United States, serving the Monterey Bay area as an affiliate of NBC and American Broadcasting Company, ABC. Owned by Hearst Television, the station has studios on John ...
in
Salinas, California Salinas (; Spanish for "Salt Marsh or Salt Flats") is a city in California and the county seat of Monterey County. With a population of 163,542 in the 2020 Census, Salinas is the most populous city in Monterey County. Salinas is an urban area lo ...
to what was then known as Hearst-Argyle Television in return for
WNAC-TV WNAC-TV (channel 64), branded on-air as Fox Providence, is a television station in Providence, Rhode Island, United States, affiliated with Fox and The CW. It is owned by Mission Broadcasting, which maintains a local marketing agreement (LMA) ...
in
Providence, Rhode Island Providence is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Rhode Island. One of the oldest cities in New England, it was founded in 1636 by Roger Williams, a Reformed Baptist theologian and religious exile from the Massachusetts Bay ...
and
WDTN WDTN (channel 2) is a television station in Dayton, Ohio, United States, affiliated with NBC. It is owned by Nexstar Media Group, which provides certain services to Springfield, Ohio–licensed WBDT (channel 26), a ''de facto'' owned-and-oper ...
in
Dayton, Ohio Dayton () is the sixth-largest city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Montgomery County. A small part of the city extends into Greene County. The 2020 U.S. census estimate put the city population at 137,644, while Greater Day ...
; both of those stations were forced to be divested by Hearst-Argyle due to significant signal overlap with
WCVB-TV WCVB-TV (channel 5) is a television station in Boston, Massachusetts, United States, affiliated with ABC and owned by Hearst Television. The station's studios are located on TV Place (off Gould Street near the I-95/ MA 128/Highland Avenue int ...
in
Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...
and
WLWT WLWT (channel 5) is a television station in Cincinnati, Ohio, United States, affiliated with NBC and owned by Hearst Television. The station's studios are located on Young Street, and its transmitter is located on Chickasaw Street, both in the ...
in
Cincinnati Cincinnati ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Hamilton County. Settled in 1788, the city is located at the northern side of the confluence of the Licking and Ohio rivers, the latter of which marks the state line wit ...
(the FCC did not allow common ownership of two stations with overlapping coverage areas until 2000). The swap became official on July 2, 1998. WFFF began operating as an independently-owned and controlled station around the same time Hearst took over WPTZ/WNNE when the LMA with WPTZ was terminated.


Relocating to Plattsburgh

On June 23, 1999, WPTZ petitioned the FCC to change its community of license (COL) from North Pole to Plattsburgh. The station cited the area's declining population as the reason for the change. The
2000 United States Census The United States census of 2000, conducted by the Census Bureau, determined the resident population of the United States on April 1, 2000, to be 281,421,906, an increase of 13.2 percent over the 248,709,873 people enumerated during the 1990 ce ...
did not even count North Pole as a separate community, instead folding it into Lake Placid. The community-of-license change was approved by the FCC on January 5, 2011. For some time before then, the station had dropped North Pole from its legal
station identification Station identification (ident, network ID or channel ID or bumper) is the practice of radio and television stations and broadcast network, networks identifying themselves on-air, typically by means of a call sign or brand name (sometimes known, ...
s. On July 9, 2012, WPTZ's parent company Hearst Television was involved in a dispute with
Time Warner Cable Time Warner Cable, Inc. (TWC) was an American cable television company. Before it was acquired by Charter Communications on May 18, 2016, it was ranked the second largest cable company in the United States by revenue behind only Comcast, operat ...
, leading to WPTZ being pulled from Time Warner Cable and temporarily replaced with
Nexstar Broadcasting Group Nexstar Media Group, Inc. is an American publicly traded media company with headquarter offices in Irving, Texas; Midtown Manhattan; and Chicago, Illinois. The company is the largest television station owner in the United States, owning 197 te ...
station
WBRE-TV WBRE-TV (channel 28) is a television station licensed to Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, United States, serving Northeastern Pennsylvania as an affiliate of NBC. It is owned by Nexstar Media Group, which provides certain services to Scranton-licens ...
of
Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania Wilkes-Barre ( or ) is a city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the county seat of Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, Luzerne County. Located at the center of the Wyoming Valley in Northeastern Pennsylvania, it had a population of 44,328 in th ...
; Time Warner opted for such a distant signal like WBRE, as they do not have the rights to carry any NBC affiliate closest to them. The substitution of WBRE in place of WPTZ lasted until July 19, 2012, when the deal was reached between Hearst and Time Warner. On August 2, 2016, just before the
Summer Olympics The Summer Olympic Games (french: link=no, Jeux olympiques d'été), also known as the Games of the Olympiad, and often referred to as the Summer Olympics, is a major international multi-sport event normally held once every four years. The inau ...
in
Rio Rio or Río is the Portuguese, Spanish, Italian, and Maltese word for "river". When spoken on its own, the word often means Rio de Janeiro, a major city in Brazil. Rio or Río may also refer to: Geography Brazil * Rio de Janeiro * Rio do Sul, a ...
, WPTZ changed its logo and on-air branding from "NewsChannel 5" to "NBC 5", a rarity for Hearst, which prefers to brand their stations by call letters and channel numbers rather than their network affiliation.


Move to Vermont

On June 12, 2018, WPTZ announced it was moving to a brand new broadcast facility in
South Burlington, Vermont South Burlington is a city in Chittenden County, Vermont, United States. Along with neighboring Burlington, it is a principal city of the Burlington metropolitan area. As of the 2020 U.S. census, the population was 20,292. It is home to the head ...
, in a building that contains both a data center for
Keurig Green Mountain Keurig Dr Pepper Inc., formerly Green Mountain Coffee Roasters (1981–2014) and Keurig Green Mountain (2014–2018), is a publicly traded American beverage and coffeemaker conglomerate with headquarters in Burlington, Massachusetts. Formed in ...
and the main offices of
Ben & Jerry's Ben & Jerry's Homemade Holdings Inc., trading and commonly known as Ben & Jerry's, is an American company that manufactures ice cream, frozen yogurt, and sorbet. Founded in 1978 in Burlington, Vermont, the company went from a single ice cream p ...
. The move took place in July 2019, when WPTZ began broadcasting newscasts in high definition. WPTZ continued to maintain the Television Drive facility for several months in Plattsburgh as a secondary studio, while closing a now-duplicative and smaller bureau in
Colchester, Vermont Colchester is a town in Chittenden County, Vermont, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population of Colchester was 17,524. It is the fourth-most populous municipality and second-most populous town in the state of Vermont. Colchester bor ...
. WPTZ later relocated the bureau to a new location at 308 Cornelia Street in Plattsburgh, taking over the former Glens Falls National Bank branch and renovating the building to become its new secondary studio in the summer of 2020.


2019 antenna fire

On November 19, 2019, WPTZ, WNNE and
CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainm ...
affiliate
WCAX-TV WCAX-TV (channel 3) is a television station licensed to Burlington, Vermont, United States, serving as the CBS affiliate for the Burlington, Vermont–Plattsburgh, New York market. It is owned by Gray Television alongside Saranac Lake, New Yo ...
(channel 3) were knocked off the air by a fire at their combined antenna at the 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, while Vidéotron in Quebec temporarily replaced WPTZ with
Detroit Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at th ...
NBC affiliate
WDIV-TV WDIV-TV (channel 4) is a television station in Detroit, Michigan, United States, affiliated with NBC. It serves as the flagship broadcast property of the Graham Media Group subsidiary of Graham Holdings Company. WDIV-TV maintains studio faciliti ...
.


WPTZ-DT2

In September 2006, WPTZ established a daily web video forecast as part of a major revamping of its website. The feature, called "Weather Plus Update", introduced a logo showing WPTZ/WNNE offering
NBC Weather Plus NBC Weather Plus was an American weather-oriented digital broadcast and cable television network owned as a joint venture between NBC Universal and the local affiliates of the NBC television network. The service, which was broadcast in standard d ...
together as "5&31 Weather Plus". Starting in October, its studios in Plattsburgh underwent extensive renovations. During that time, its broadcasts were from a temporary set while the construction took place. While the studios as a whole were being upgraded, the weather department underwent the most change. In advance of the launch of NBC Weather Plus, the weather center was expanded to make room for new combined WPTZ/WNNE weather graphics and logos. The remodeling was completed by late-November. WPTZ launched Weather Plus on a new second digital subchannel on November 15 after debuting a new digital signal from Mount Mansfield a day earlier. The service was never offered on WNNE's digital signal even though this had been airing since July 20, 2005. On digital cable, WPTZ-DT2 was carried on
Comcast Comcast Corporation (formerly known as American Cable Systems and Comcast Holdings),Before the AT&T merger in 2001, the parent company was Comcast Holdings Corporation. Comcast Holdings Corporation now refers to a subsidiary of Comcast Corpora ...
digital channel 169 (serving the Upper Valley), Telecom digital channel 305, and Time Warner Cable digital channel 854. It was never offered on legacy
Charter A charter is the grant of authority or rights, stating that the granter formally recognizes the prerogative of the recipient to exercise the rights specified. It is implicit that the granter retains superiority (or sovereignty), and that the rec ...
systems in New York State. In December 2008, NBC shut down the national Weather Plus service after its parent company,
NBCUniversal NBCUniversal Media, LLC is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate corporation owned by Comcast and headquartered at 30 Rockefeller Plaza in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, United States. NBCUniversal is primari ...
, purchased
The Weather Channel The Weather Channel (TWC) is an American pay television channel owned by Weather Group, LLC, a subsidiary of Allen Media Group. The channel's headquarters are in Atlanta, Georgia. Launched on May 2, 1982, the channel broadcasts weather forecas ...
. WPTZ continued to air a locally-derived version of Weather Plus until August 31, 2009, when it was replaced with
This TV This TV (also known as This TV Network and alternately stylized as thisTV) is an American free-to-air television network owned by Allen Media Broadcast Networks, LLC, part of the Allen Media Group division of Entertainment Studios. Originally fo ...
. This marked the network's first foray into the Plattsburgh and Burlington area along with St. Lawrence County in New York and eastern portions of the adjacent
Watertown Watertown may refer to: Places in China In China, a water town is a type of ancient scenic town known for its waterways. Places in the United States *Watertown, Connecticut, a New England town **Watertown (CDP), Connecticut, the central village ...
market where WPTZ has long served as the default NBC affiliate on cable. WPTZ-DT2 remained on the three digital cable systems (with a change on Comcast systems to channel 302) while being added to Charter digital channel 296. It was still not carried on a subchannel of WNNE. On January 2, 2013, This TV was replaced on 5.2 by its sister network,
MeTV MeTV, an acronym for Memorable Entertainment Television, is an American broadcast television network owned by Weigel Broadcasting. Marketed as "The Definitive Destination for Classic TV", the network airs a variety of classic television program ...
(Memorable Entertainment Television). Both networks were owned at the time by
Weigel Broadcasting Weigel Broadcasting Co. is an American television broadcasting company based in Chicago, Illinois, alongside its flagship station WCIU-TV (Channel 26), at 26 North Halsted Street in the Greektown neighborhood. It currently owns 25 television sta ...
(
Tribune Broadcasting Tribune Broadcasting Company, LLC was an American media company which operated as a subsidiary of Tribune Media, a media conglomerate based in Chicago, Illinois. The group owned and operated television and radio stations throughout the United Sta ...
has since taken over This TV). On March 4, 2013, WPTZ's second digital subchannel assumed the CW affiliation for the Plattsburgh–Burlington
market Market is a term used to describe concepts such as: *Market (economics), system in which parties engage in transactions according to supply and demand *Market economy *Marketplace, a physical marketplace or public market Geography *Märket, an ...
from WFFF-DT2. It continued to air MeTV programming outside CW network slots until September 2014, when MeTV was separated into its own subchannel. While it airs The CW's schedule in-pattern, ''
The Bill Cunningham Show ''The Bill Cunningham Show'' is an American television talk show hosted by radio host Bill Cunningham which aired for four of its five seasons on The CW as part of that network's daytime hour. ''The Bill Cunningham Show'', produced by ITV Studios ...
'', which aired weekdays at 3 p.m. on many CW affiliates until its cancellation in 2016, was delayed to 12:30 a.m. until the launch of a separate MeTV subchannel. Since the main WPTZ channel also serves as one of the default NBC affiliates for
Massena, New York Massena is a town in St. Lawrence County, New York, United States. Massena is along the county's northern border, just south of the St. Lawrence River and the Three Nations Crossing of the Canada–United States border. The population was 12,8 ...
(along with
WSTM-TV WSTM-TV (channel 3) is a television station in Syracuse, New York, United States, affiliated with NBC and The CW. It is owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group, which provides certain services to CBS affiliate WTVH (channel 5) through a local marketing ...
in
Syracuse Syracuse may refer to: Places Italy *Syracuse, Sicily, or spelled as ''Siracusa'' *Province of Syracuse United States *Syracuse, New York **East Syracuse, New York **North Syracuse, New York *Syracuse, Indiana * Syracuse, Kansas *Syracuse, Miss ...
), that area now has access to two CW affiliates when Watertown's WWTI-DT2 is included. Despite adding The CW, there had been no plans made public about WPTZ's then semi-satellite WNNE adding the network in order to increase the broadcasting radius; however, the network was ultimately transferred over to WNNE, five years later, when it entered into a channel-sharing arrangement with WPTZ. Currently, access in the Upper Valley of Vermont and
New Hampshire New Hampshire is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the northeastern United States. It is bordered by Massachusetts to the south, Vermont to the west, Maine and the Gulf of Maine to the east, and the Canadian province of Quebec t ...
to WNNE and WPTZ-DT3 is solely through
digital cable Digital cable is the distribution of cable television using digital data and video compression. The technology was first developed by General Instrument. By 2000, most cable companies offered digital features, eventually replacing their previou ...
and
satellite A satellite or artificial satellite is an object intentionally placed into orbit in outer space. Except for passive satellites, most satellites have an electricity generation system for equipment on board, such as solar panels or radioisotope ...
services. On September 15, 2014, WPTZ separated The CW and MeTV into their own subchannels, 5.2 and 5.3 respectively, but did not add them to WNNE's signal. In April 2016, the over-the-air digital signal of WPTZ-DT2 was upgraded into 720p high definition; thus offering a high definition feed for The CW for the first time in the Burlington–Plattsburgh area (and the entire Champlain Valley and beyond) and a second high definition feed for The CW in Massena (the other being WWTI-DT2 of Watertown, which has been broadcasting its digital over-the-air signal in 720p high definition since August 17, 2012). In May 2016, Comcast began carrying WPTZ-DT2's high definition feed on digital channel 706 for Burlington (as well as Upper Connecticut River Valley) viewers and Charter began carrying WPTZ-DT2's high definition feed on digital channel 711 for Plattsburgh viewers. On July 22, 2018, WNNE assumed the CW affiliation previously held by the 5.2 subchannel; this was a result of WNNE shutting down operations on its pre-auction channel and commencing channel-sharing operations, effective July 22, 2018. On July 20, Hearst Television announced that WNNE would become a CW affiliate following the move. Concurrent with the move, the 5.2 subchannel was remapped to WNNE's virtual channel 31.1 under channel-sharing operations. This resolves the concerns raised years before regarding a lack of access to the WPTZ sub-channels for WNNE viewers, yet it also limits viewers in the Upper Valley to cable and satellite viewing options for NBC programming.


Programming

The entire NBC lineup is currently cleared by WPTZ, supplemented by syndicated programming, such as '' Dr. Phil'', ''
The Ellen DeGeneres Show ''The Ellen DeGeneres Show'' (often shortened to ''Ellen'' or ''The Ellen Show'') is an American daytime television variety comedy talk show that was created and hosted by its namesake Ellen DeGeneres. Debuting on September 8, 2003, it was prod ...
'', ''
Jeopardy! ''Jeopardy!'' is an American game show created by Merv Griffin. The show is a quiz competition that reverses the traditional question-and-answer format of many quiz shows. Rather than being given questions, contestants are instead given genera ...
'' and ''
Wheel of Fortune The Wheel of Fortune or ''Rota Fortunae'' has been a concept and metaphor since ancient times referring to the capricious nature of Fate. Wheel of Fortune may also refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Art * ''The Wheel of Fortune'' (Burne-Jo ...
''.


Past programming preemptions

In the 1980s, WPTZ preempted select NBC shows, including '' NBC News Overnight'' (due to the station signing off overnight), '' GO!'', '' Hot Potato'', '' The Match Game-Hollywood Squares Hour'', '' Santa Barbara'', ''Trialwatch'', the 1990 version of ''
Let's Make a Deal ''Let's Make a Deal'' (also known as ''LMAD'') is an American television musical comedy variety-game show that originated in the United States in 1963 and has since been produced in many countries throughout the world. The program was created an ...
'', and the
Bob Goen Robert Kuehl Goen (born December 1, 1954) is an American game show emcee and television personality, best known for his work on ''Entertainment Tonight'' between 1993 and 2004 and as the fourth and final host of the daytime ''Wheel of Fortune'' fr ...
version of ''Wheel of Fortune''. NBC was far less tolerant of program preemptions during the entire timeframe where WPTZ preempted programming from that network, but was incredibly unlikely to remove the affiliation from a VHF station that otherwise was highly-rated (and for the most part, most of the programs other than ''Santa Barbara'' didn't air for more than a season).


News operation

For most of its history, WPTZ's newscasts have been a distant second in the ratings behind long-dominant WCAX-TV. Traditionally, it focused more on the North Country and New York State, while WCAX and WVNY/WFFF tend to cover more from Vermont. In order to cover that state, from the mid-1990s to July 2019, WPTZ operated secondary facilities known as the Vermont Bureau on Roosevelt Highway (
US 2 U.S. Route 2 or U.S. Highway 2 (US 2) is an east–west U.S. Highway spanning across the northern continental United States. US 2 consists of two segments connected by various roadways in southern Canada. Unlike some routes, whi ...
/
US 7 U.S. Route 7 (US 7) is a north–south United States highway in western New England that runs for through the states of Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Vermont. The highway's southern terminus is at Interstate 95 (I-95) exit 15 ...
) in Colchester. At one point, there had been more general assignment reporters based at the main studios in Plattsburgh. However in more recent times, additional reporters based at the Vermont Bureau have been hired. Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, WNNE operated its own news department and aired local newscasts. This was progressively cut back after being bought by Heritage, eventually resulting in the elimination of a full news operation in 2007. Later, the only visual difference between the stations were different channel bugs during newscasts. Occasionally when WNNE had technical problems, WPTZ's logo peeked through. In addition to the Upper Valley and Vermont bureaus, WPTZ airs national news from Hearst Television's
Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...
bureau. It employs several reporters who give live reports to the various Hearst affiliates. Although WPTZ and WNNE do not own or operate
weather radar Weather radar, also called weather surveillance radar (WSR) and Doppler weather radar, is a type of radar used to locate precipitation, calculate its motion, and estimate its type (rain, snow, hail etc.). Modern weather radars are mostly puls ...
s of their own, they use live
NOAA The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (abbreviated as NOAA ) is an United States scientific and regulatory agency within the United States Department of Commerce that forecasts weather, monitors oceanic and atmospheric conditio ...
National Weather Service The National Weather Service (NWS) is an Government agency, agency of the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government that is tasked with providing weather forecasts, warnings of hazardous weather, and other weathe ...
radar data from several regional sites. It is presented on-screen in a forecasting system known as "First Alert Storm Tracker" (powered by the Super Doppler Network). With the departure of Thom Hallock (whose contract was not renewed by station) on November 23, 2007, WPTZ was left with an all-woman weeknight anchor team. That changed with the arrival of Gus Rosendale. He left WPTZ in 2005 to report at sister station
WTAE-TV WTAE-TV (channel 4) is a television station in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States, affiliated with ABC. It has been owned by Hearst Television since the station's inception, making this one of two stations that have been built and signed on ...
in
Pittsburgh Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, Allegheny County. It is the most populous city in both Allegheny County and Wester ...
. George Mallet was hired to take his place shortly thereafter. In August 2009, the station introduced a new format and title to its weeknight newscast at 11. The re-formatted show called ''NewsChannel 5 Nightcast'' features more fast-paced and edgier news. Despite its logo which includes "HD", the newscasts were aired in pillar-boxed 4:3
standard definition Standard-definition television (SDTV, SD, often shortened to standard definition) is a television system which uses a resolution that is not considered to be either high or enhanced definition. "Standard" refers to it being the prevailing sp ...
and it was the only station in the market to not have upgraded local news to high definition. WPTZ was one of six remaining stations owned by Hearst that has yet to make the upgrade to 16:9 enhanced definition
widescreen Widescreen images are displayed within a set of aspect ratios (relationship of image width to height) used in film, television and computer screens. In film, a widescreen film is any film image with a width-to-height aspect ratio greater than t ...
or full HD, until on April 26, 2011, when WPTZ started airing newscasts in widescreen. However, unlike the newscasts on WCAX-TV and WFFF-TV/WVNY, the WPTZ newscasts at the time were not in true HD—just SD widescreen. In August 2013, WPTZ started airing the area's very first weekend morning news. ''NewsChannel 5 Today'' airs on Saturdays from 5:00–7:00 and on Sundays from 6:00–8:00 a.m. This beats WCAX-TV, which had previously announced that they would add weekend morning news. In April 2014, the station announced they were going to revamp their set. After a few weeks of broadcasting from a temporary set put together in the newsroom, the new set debuted. The old set was completely removed and a new set was constructed by FX Group. The set was a major departure from their prior set, which debuted in 2006. One major change made was the elimination of the newsroom as the backdrop for the anchor desk. Also on September 29, 2014, WPTZ debuted a nightly 10:00 p.m. newscast which airs on both WNNE and WPTZ-DT3 simultaneously. On June 20, 2016, WPTZ debuted a half-hour midday 12:00 p.m. newscast, became the second television station in the
Champlain Valley The Champlain Valley is a region of the United States around Lake Champlain in Vermont and New York extending north slightly into Quebec, Canada. It is part of the St. Lawrence River drainage basin, drained northward by the Richelieu River into ...
complete with a 10-minute newscast on WCAX-TV, coinciding with the cancellation of ''
FABLife ''FABLife'' (''FAB'' being an acronym for "Fun And Beautiful") was an American syndicated daily lifestyle panel talk show that aired from September 14, 2015 until June 22, 2016. Production The series, which made its debut on September 14, 2015, ...
''. On August 2, 2016, following the station rebrand itself as "NBC 5", the newscast branding was now named as ''NBC 5 News''. In August 2018, WPTZ's Upper Valley bureau moved from White River Junction to a new space on Mechanic Street in
Lebanon, New Hampshire Lebanon is a city in Grafton County, New Hampshire, United States. The population was 14,282 at the 2020 census, up from 13,151 at the 2010 census. Lebanon is in western New Hampshire, south of Hanover, near the Connecticut River. It is the home ...
. On July 27, 2019, WPTZ's Vermont facilities moved from Colchester to South Burlington; the station's newscasts were concurrently relocated to the new facility from the Plattsburgh studio. To coincide with the aforementioned relocation to the new South Burlington facilities, WPTZ became the last station in the market to broadcast newscasts in high definition.


Notable former on-air-staff

*
Jeanne Moos Jeanne Moos (born May 21) is an American national news correspondent for CNN. She is based at the network's studios in Manhattan. Biography A native of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Moos originally wanted to pursue a career in print journalism, but ...
— became WPTZ's first female correspondent in 1976 (now reporter for
CNN CNN (Cable News Network) is a multinational cable news channel headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S. Founded in 1980 by American media proprietor Ted Turner and Reese Schonfeld as a 24-hour cable news channel, and presently owned by ...
) * Chris Ortloff (early-1980s; served in the
New York State Assembly The New York State Assembly is the lower house of the New York State Legislature, with the New York State Senate being the upper house. There are 150 seats in the Assembly. Assembly members serve two-year terms without term limits. The Assem ...
from 1986 until 2007; Ortloff pled guilty to
felony A felony is traditionally considered a crime of high seriousness, whereas a misdemeanor is regarded as less serious. The term "felony" originated from English common law (from the French medieval word "félonie") to describe an offense that resu ...
charge of online enticement of minors on December 24, 2008, and was sentenced on April 23, 2009)


In popular culture

The 2008 film ''
Frozen River ''Frozen River'' is a 2008 American crime drama film written and directed by Courtney Hunt. The screenplay focuses on two working-class women who smuggle illegal immigrants from Canada to the United States. The film received two Oscar nomination ...
'' shows the characters Ray Eddy (
Melissa Leo Melissa Chessington Leo (born September 14, 1960) is an American actress. She is the recipient of several accolades, including an Academy Award, a Primetime Emmy Award, a Golden Globe Award, a Screen Actors Guild Award and two Critics' Choice A ...
) and her son T. J. (
Charlie McDermott Charles Joseph McDermott Jr. (born April 6, 1990) is an American television and film actor, and musician, best known for his role as Axl Heck on ABC's '' The Middle''. He was nominated for the Independent Spirit Award for Best Supporting Male ...
) watching a nighttime WPTZ weather report of an incoming Canadian clipper system.


Technical information


Subchannels

The station's digital signal is
multiplexed In telecommunications and computer networking, multiplexing (sometimes contracted to muxing) is a method by which multiple analog or digital signals are combined into one signal over a shared medium. The aim is to share a scarce resource - a ...
:


Analog-to-digital conversion

WPTZ shut down its analog signal, over VHF channel 5, on February 17, 2009, the original date in which full-power television stations in the United States were to transition from analog to digital broadcasts under federal mandate (which was later pushed back to June 12, 2009). The station's digital signal remained on its pre-transition UHF channel 14. Through the use of
PSIP The Program and System Information Protocol (PSIP) is the MPEG (a video and audio industry group) and privately defined program-specific information originally defined by General Instrument for the DigiCipher 2 system and later extended for the AT ...
,
digital television Digital television (DTV) is the transmission of television signals using digital encoding, in contrast to the earlier analog television technology which used analog signals. At the time of its development it was considered an innovative advanc ...
receivers display the station's
virtual channel In most telecommunications organizations, a virtual channel is a method of remapping the ''program number'' as used in H.222 Program Association Tables and Program Mapping Tables to a channel number that can be entered via digits on a receiver's ...
as its former VHF analog channel 5. It was one of the first stations owned by Hearst to cease analog broadcasting (then-Hearst sister station
KITV KITV (channel 4) is a television station in Honolulu, Hawaii, United States, serving the Hawaiian Islands as an affiliate of ABC. It is owned by Allen Media Group alongside multicultural independent station KIKU (channel 20). The two stations ...
in
Honolulu Honolulu (; ) is the capital and largest city of the U.S. state of Hawaii, which is in the Pacific Ocean. It is an unincorporated county seat of the consolidated City and County of Honolulu, situated along the southeast coast of the island ...
,
Hawaii Hawaii ( ; haw, Hawaii or ) is a state in the Western United States, located in the Pacific Ocean about from the U.S. mainland. It is the only U.S. state outside North America, the only state that is an archipelago, and the only stat ...
was the other).


Out-of-market and Canadian viewership

WPTZ previously served as the default NBC affiliate for northern areas of the nearby Watertown, New York, market (most notably Massena), while WSTM-TV in Syracuse served Watertown proper. Both WPTZ and WSTM-TV lost those statuses on December 1, 2016, when
WVNC-LD WVNC-LD (channel 45) is a low-power television station in Watertown, New York, United States, affiliated with NBC and owned by SagamoreHill Broadcasting. The station's studios are located at Public Square in downtown Watertown, and its trans ...
signed on as the Watertown market's first full-time NBC affiliate.NBC to launch affiliate in Watertown
''
Watertown Daily Times The ''Watertown Daily Times'' is a newspaper published six days a week, Tuesday through Sunday, in Watertown, New York. It provides coverage of Jefferson County, Lewis County, St. Lawrence County and Oswego County. It was founded in 1861 and ...
'', November 4, 2016
Like the other network stations that serve Plattsburgh and Burlington, WPTZ has a large audience in southern
Quebec Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirtee ...
, Canada. This includes
Montreal Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-most populous city in Canada and List of towns in Quebec, most populous city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian ...
, a city with ten times as many people as all of WPTZ's entire American viewing area. For many years, station promos and IDs have read "North Pole/Plattsburgh/Burlington/Montreal" or "Plattsburgh/Burlington/Montreal" to acknowledge its large cable viewership in Canada. WPTZ is widely carried on cable in the province of Quebec as far north as Saguenay and as far east as Gaspé. In addition, Southern Quebec viewers can also pick up WPTZ's over-the-air signal with a well-placed antenna. The
Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC; french: Conseil de la radiodiffusion et des télécommunications canadiennes, links=) is a public organization in Canada with mandate as a regulatory agency for broadcasti ...
(CRTC)'s
simultaneous substitution Simultaneous substitution (also known as simsubbing or signal substitution) is a practice mandated by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) requiring broadcast distribution undertakings (BDUs) in Canada to dist ...
rules mandate cable systems to replace WPTZ's signal with that of
CFCF-DT CFCF-DT (channel 12) is a television station in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, part of the CTV Television Network. It is owned and operated by network parent Bell Media alongside Noovo flagship CFJP-DT (channel 35). Both stations share studios at th ...
, CKMI-DT-1, or
CJNT-DT CJNT-DT (channel 62) is a television station in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, part of the Citytv network. Owned and operated by network parent Rogers Sports & Media, the station maintains studios inside the Rogers Building at the corner of McGill ...
within their broadcasting areas when one of those stations is airing the same program at the same time as WPTZ.


References


External links

* {{Hearst Television channels and stations established in 1954 1954 establishments in New York (state) PTZ NBC network affiliates MeTV affiliates Defy TV affiliates Hearst Television