WROC-TV (channel 8) is a television station in Rochester, New York, United States, affiliated with CBS and owned by

Nexstar Media 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 ...

. The station's studios are located on Humboldt Street in downtown Rochester, and its transmitter is located on Pinnacle Hill in Brighton, New York. However, master control and some internal operations are based at

Springfield, Massachusetts Springfield is a city in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, United States, and the seat of Hampden County. Springfield sits on the eastern bank of the Connecticut River near its confluence with three rivers: the western Westfield River, the ...

–licensed Nexstar

sister station In broadcasting, sister stations or sister channels are radio or television stations operated by the same company, either by direct ownership or through a management agreement. Radio sister stations will often have different formats, and somet ...

and NBC affiliate WWLP's studios in Chicopee. Prior to 2021, the WROC studios hosted the master control operations of Nexstar's "virtual triopoly" in the Quad Cities television market of southeastern Iowa and west-central Illinois, which includes fellow CBS affiliate WHBF-TV, CW affiliate KGCW, and

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''). Twelv ...

-affiliated LMA partner KLJB.

History

WROC-TV is Rochester's oldest television station, signing on June 11, 1949, as WHAM-TV, an NBC affiliate on channel 6. It was owned originally by

Stromberg-Carlson Stromberg-Carlson was a telecommunications equipment and electronics manufacturing company in the United States. It was formed in 1894 as a partnership by Swedish immigrants Alfred Stromberg (1861 Varnhem, Sweden - 1913 Chicago) and Androv Ca ...

, a telephone equipment manufacturer, along with WHAM radio. The station was also affiliated with the now-defunct

DuMont Television Network The DuMont Television Network (also known as the DuMont Network, DuMont Television, simply DuMont/Du Mont, or (incorrectly) Dumont ) was one of America's pioneer commercial television networks, rivaling NBC and CBS for the distinction of being ...

. WHAM-TV moved to channel 5 on July 24, 1954, as part of a revision of upstate New York's VHF allotments resulting from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC)'s ''Sixth Report and Order'' of 1952. However, WHAM-TV on channel 5 dealt with interference issues from CBLT, a

CBC Television CBC Television (also known as CBC TV) is a Canadian English-language broadcast television network owned by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, the national public broadcaster. The network began operations on September 6, 1952. Its French-l ...

station from Toronto, after that station moved from its original channel 9 allocation to channel 6 in 1956. CBLT was replaced on channel 9 by CFTO-TV in 1960, and that channel relocation would later play an indirect role in the station's second frequency shift, eight years later. Stromberg-Carlson merged with

General Dynamics General Dynamics Corporation (GD) is an American publicly traded, aerospace and defense corporation headquartered in Reston, Virginia. As of 2020, it was the fifth-largest defense contractor in the world by arms sales, and 5th largest in the Uni ...

in 1955. General Dynamics was not interested in owning broadcast outlets, and put the WHAM radio and television outlets on the market. In 1956, WHAM-TV was sold to Transcontinent Broadcasting, which owned WGR radio and

WGR-TV WGRZ (channel 2) is a television station in Buffalo, New York, United States, affiliated with NBC and owned by Tegna Inc. The station's studios are located on Delaware Avenue in downtown Buffalo, and its transmitter is located on Warner Hill Ro ...

in Buffalo; the new owners changed the call letters to the current WROC-TV. In 1961, Transcontinent sold the station to Veterans Broadcasting Company, which subsequently sold its half of what is today WHEC-TV (channel 10) to the

Gannett Company Gannett Co., Inc. () is an American mass media holding company headquartered in McLean, Virginia, in the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area.WROC (AM) and WROC-FM. (The WHAM-TV callsign is now used on Rochester's ABC affiliate, channel 13, previously known as WOKR. Other than the shared callsign, that station is unrelated to the earlier WHAM-TV.) Under Veterans' ownership, WROC-TV moved to channel 8 on September 8, 1962, as part of another channel allocation change, this one being a switch involving Rochester and

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 ...

. The FCC moved WROC-TV's former channel 5 east to Syracuse, and it was taken by

Meredith Corporation Meredith Corporation was an American media conglomerate based in Des Moines, Iowa, that owned magazines, television stations, websites, and radio stations. Its publications had a readership of more than 120 million and paid circulation of more ...

-owned WHEN-TV (now WTVH), which was previously on channel 8. The move also allowed a new station on channel 9 to enter the Syracuse market; it signed on as WNYS-TV (later WIXT-TV and now WSYR-TV) the following day. Veterans Broadcasting was merged into

Rust Craft Broadcasting The Rust Craft Greeting Card Company was an American greeting card, printing company and owner of television stations. The company The company was founded in a bookstore in Kansas City, Missouri, in 1906 by its owner, Fred Winslow Rust. The comp ...

in February 1965. Rust Craft sold its television unit to Ziff Davis in 1979. This resulted in the breakup of the WROC stations, as WROC (AM) and WPXY were later sold by Rust-Craft to members of the firm's broadcast management team. Within a few years, however, Ziff Davis broke up its television group; WROC-TV and sister stations WEYI-TV in Saginaw, Michigan, WRDW-TV in Augusta, Georgia, and WTOV-TV in Steubenville, Ohio were spun-off to Television Station Partners LP, a group composed of Ziff Davis's broadcast executives, in 1983. Television Station Partners sold channel 8, along with the Saginaw and Steubenville outlets, to Smith Broadcasting in 1996. Nexstar then purchased WROC-TV in 1999, which makes WROC-TV one of Nexstar's oldest stations. WROC-TVHeadquarters

It was while under the stewardship of Television Station Partners that WROC-TV made another switch: In April 1989, NBC announced it would end its 40-year partnership with channel 8 and move its Rochester affiliation to then-CBS station WHEC-TV. This move was the result of WROC-TV's poor performance and constant preemptions of NBC network programming (NBC was very intolerant of preemptions at this time, and was the number one network at the time, adding to NBC's frustration with channel 8). WROC-TV agreed to terms to affiliate with CBS in May, and channel 8 soon began airing CBS' Saturday morning children's programs (with the notable exception of '' Pee-wee's Playhouse'') and

daytime Daytime as observed on Earth is the period of the day during which a given location experiences natural illumination from direct sunlight. Daytime occurs when the Sun appears above the local horizon, that is, anywhere on the globe's hemis ...

game shows '' Family Feud'' and ''

Now You See It Now You See It may refer to: * Now You See It (American game show), ''Now You See It'' (American game show), a 1974–1975 game show, resurrected in 1989 * Now You See It (Australian game show), ''Now You See It'' (Australian game show), a 1985–1 ...

'', all of which had been preempted by WHEC-TV. Channel 8 began airing the full CBS schedule on August 13, 1989. For many years, WROC-TV was one of three Rochester area stations offered on cable in the

Ottawa Ottawa (, ; Canadian French: ) is the capital city of Canada. It is located at the confluence of the Ottawa River and the Rideau River in the southern portion of the province of Ontario. Ottawa borders Gatineau, Quebec, and forms the core ...

–

Gatineau Gatineau ( ; ) is a city in western Quebec, Canada. It is located on the northern bank of the Ottawa River, immediately across from Ottawa, Ontario. Gatineau is the largest city in the Outaouais administrative region and is part of Canada's N ...

and Eastern Ontario regions. The Rochester area stations were replaced with Detroit stations when the microwave relay system that provided these signals was discontinued. Until January 2009, WROC-TV was also available in many Central Ontario communities such as Belleville,

Cobourg Cobourg ( ) is a town in the Canadian province of Ontario, located in Southern Ontario east of Toronto and east of Oshawa. It is the largest town in and seat of Northumberland County. Its nearest neighbour is Port Hope, to the west. It is ...

, and Lindsay. On July 9, 2012, WROC-TV replaced Louisville's WLKY on Time Warner Cable systems in that station's region, when WLKY's owners, Hearst Television, pulled its stations off Time Warner Cable's systems in a retransmission dispute. However, Nexstar complained that Time Warner Cable has used their signals outside their markets without permission, while Time Warner Cable was within its rights to use their signals as replacements until a deal with Hearst is reached. WROC-TV, for its part, made the best of its predicament, naming the administrator of a Facebook group of tongue-in-cheek Louisvillean WROC-TV fans its fan of the week and making a handful of other shout-outs to its emerging Louisville fanbase. The substitution of WROC-TV in place of WLKY lasted until July 19, 2012, when a deal was reached between Hearst and Time Warner.

Programming

Syndicated programming

Syndicated Syndication may refer to: * Broadcast syndication, where individual stations buy programs outside the network system * Print syndication, where individual newspapers or magazines license news articles, columns, or comic strips * Web syndication, ...

programming on WROC-TV includes '' Wheel of Fortune'', '' Jeopardy!'', and '' Inside Edition''. All are distributed by CBS Media Ventures.

News operation

In August 1957, WROC-TV began airing the area's first 11 o'clock broadcast called ''Eleventh Hour News''. Regular sports segments were added to the show on April 7, 1958. WROC-TV enjoyed ratings dominance with popular anchorman Tom Decker and weatherman Bob Mills. Anne Keefe, another well-known talent who split time between WROC radio and TV, contributed to the station's success in the 1960s and 1970s. However, by the mid-1970s, Decker, Mills and Keefe left. The loss of these popular veteran broadcasters and the station's failure to keep up with changing technology lead to a ratings slump that lasted more than three decades. From the mid-1970s through the early 2000s, WROC-TV's newscasts struggled in the

Nielsen ratings Nielsen Media Research (NMR) is an American firm that measures media audiences, including television, radio, theatre, films (via the AMC Theatres MAP program), and newspapers. Headquartered in New York City, it is best known for the Nielsen rat ...

, usually placing a distant third behind WOKR/WHAM-TV and WHEC-TV. Even with the strong NBC prime time lineup in the mid-to-late 1980s (the last few years of WROC-TV's affiliation contract with NBC) and the CBS lineup during the early 2000s, its newscasts remained stubbornly in third place. However, after finally establishing some stability with its anchor team, market share has been growing over the course of the past decade. In the November 2008 ratings period, WROC-TV's 11 p.m. newscast finished ahead of slumping WHEC-TV for the first time in many years. After becoming operated by Nexstar, WUHF's separate news department was shut down. Two anchors, a producer, and a photographer were added to WROC-TV's news staff. The remainder of its personnel was laid-off in this move. On September 1, 2005, a nightly half-hour prime time broadcast (produced by WROC-TV) called ''Fox First at 10'' began airing on WUHF. Originating from a secondary set at this station's facilities, the show eventually expanded to 45 minutes followed by a fifteen-minute sports highlight program known as ''Sports Extra''. On September 13, 2010, this station began airing a weekday 4 p.m. newscast for a half-hour (an area first). As of 2011, WROC-TV's newscasts remain in third place overall. On September 4, 2012, WROC-TV became the second Rochester area TV station to have upgraded its local newscasts to

high definition High definition or HD may refer to: Visual technologies *HD DVD, discontinued optical disc format *HD Photo, former name for the JPEG XR image file format *HDV, format for recording high-definition video onto magnetic tape * HiDef, 24 frames-pe ...

. The 10 p.m. newscast on WUHF was included in the upgrade. WROC's relationship with WUHF ended in December 2013 due to Sinclair's purchase of the assets of ABC affiliate WHAM-TV (along with the sale of its license to an affiliated company), and the re-location of WUHF to its facilities. WUHF's 10 p.m. newscast was replaced by a WHAM-produced version on January 1, 2014.

Notable former on-air staff

Stacey Pensgen Stacey Elizabeth Pensgen (born May 25, 1982) is an American former competitive figure skater who won the silver medal at the 2000 Four Continents Championships. She is currently the evening meteorologist for WHEC-TV News10NBC in Rochester, New Y ...

– chief meteorologist (

AMS AMS or Ams may refer to: Organizations Companies * Alenia Marconi Systems * American Management Systems * AMS (Advanced Music Systems) * ams AG, semiconductor manufacturer * AMS Pictures * Auxiliary Medical Services Educational institutions * A ...

Seal of Approval, now at WHEC-TV)

Technical information

Subchannels

The station's digital signal is multiplexed: On June 15, 2016, Nexstar announced that it has entered into an affiliation agreement with Katz Broadcasting for the Escape, Laff,

Grit Grit, Grits, or Gritty may refer to: Food * Grit (grain), bran, chaff, mill-dust or coarse oatmeal * Grits, a corn-based food common in the Southern United States Minerals * Grit, winter pavement-treatment minerals deployed in grit bins * ...

, and Bounce TV networks, bringing one or more of the four networks to 81 stations owned and/or operated by Nexstar, including WROC-TV. As a result, WROC-TV added two additional subchannels carrying Escape and Laff on August 20, 2016 (at the time of the agreement, Grit was available in Rochester on WHAM-DT3).

Analog-to-digital conversion

WROC-TV discontinued regular programming on its analog signal, over

VHF Very high frequency (VHF) is the ITU designation for the range of radio frequency electromagnetic waves (radio waves) from 30 to 300 megahertz (MHz), with corresponding wavelengths of ten meters to one meter. Frequencies immediately below VHF ...

channel 8, at 11:35 p.m. on June 12, 2009 (following the late newscast), the official date in which full-power television stations in the United States transitioned from analog to digital broadcasts under federal mandate. The station's digital signal remained on its pre-transition

UHF Ultra high frequency (UHF) is the ITU designation for radio frequencies in the range between 300 megahertz (MHz) and 3 gigahertz (GHz), also known as the decimetre band as the wavelengths range from one meter to one tenth of a meter (on ...

channel 45. Through the use of PSIP, digital television receivers display the station's virtual channel as its former VHF analog channel 8.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Wroc-Tv CBS network affiliates Bounce TV affiliates Laff (TV network) affiliates Ion Mystery affiliates Television channels and stations established in 1949 ROC-TV Nexstar Media Group 1949 establishments in New York (state)