WTEN (channel 10) 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 ea ...
licensed to
Albany, New York
Albany ( ) is the capital of the U.S. state of New York, also the seat and largest city of Albany County. Albany is on the west bank of the Hudson River, about south of its confluence with the Mohawk River, and about north of New York Cit ...
, United States, serving the
Capital District
A capital district, capital region or capital territory is normally a specially designated administrative division where a country's seat of government is located. As such, in a federal model of government, no state or territory has any poli ...
as an affiliate of
ABC. 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 ...
, it is a sister station to
Fox affiliate
WXXA-TV (channel 23, also licensed to Albany), which is operated under a
shared services
Shared services is the provision of a service by one part of an organization or group, where that service had previously been found, in more than one part of the organization or group. Thus the funding and resourcing of the service is shared and th ...
agreement (SSA) with
Mission Broadcasting. Both stations share studios on Northern Boulevard in Albany's
Bishop's Gate
A bishop is a person of authority in a Christian church.
Bishop, Bishops or Bishop's may also refer to:
Religious roles
* Bishop (Catholic Church)
* Bishop (Eastern Orthodox Church)
* Bishop (Latter Day Saints)
* Bishop (Methodism)
Places Anta ...
section, while WTEN's transmitter is located on the
Helderberg Escarpment
The Helderberg Escarpment, also known as the Helderberg Mountains, is an escarpment in eastern New York, United States, roughly west of the city of Albany. The escarpment is the northeastern extremity of the Allegheny Plateau. It rises steep ...
west of
New Salem.
WTEN formerly operated full-time
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 radioiso ...
WCDC-TV (channel 19) in
Adams, Massachusetts
Adams is a New England town, town in northern Berkshire County, Massachusetts, Berkshire County, Massachusetts, United States. It is part of the Pittsfield, Massachusetts, Pittsfield, Massachusetts Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was ...
; this station's transmitter was located on
Mount Greylock
Mount Greylock is a mountain located in the northwest corner of Massachusetts and is the highest point in the state. Its summit is in the western part of the town of Adams (near its border with Williamstown) in Berkshire County. Geologically ...
, the highest peak in Massachusetts. WCDC-TV's signal covered portions of western Massachusetts and southern
Vermont
Vermont () is a U.S. state, state in the northeast New England region of the United States. Vermont is bordered by the states of Massachusetts to the south, New Hampshire to the east, and New York (state), New York to the west, and the Provin ...
that received a marginal to non-existent
over-the-air signal from WTEN, although there was significant overlap between the two stations'
contours otherwise. WCDC-TV was a straight
simulcast
Simulcast (a portmanteau of simultaneous broadcast) is the broadcasting of programmes/programs or events across more than one resolution, bitrate or medium, or more than one service on the same medium, at exactly the same time (that is, simul ...
of WTEN; the only on-air references to the station were during
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 jurisdicti ...
(FCC)-mandated hourly
legal identifications. Aside from the transmitter, WCDC-TV did not maintain any physical presence locally in Adams. Nexstar scheduled a shutdown date of December 1, 2017 for WCDC-TV, through the FCC's
spectrum incentive auction, but damage to the station's transmission line forced it to end operations two weeks early on November 19.
History
WTEN began broadcasting on October 14, 1953 as WROW-TV on UHF channel 41. It was owned by the Hudson Valley Broadcasting Company, operating alongside
WROW radio (590 AM). The two stations shared space inside a former retirement home for
nuns on a farm dirt road in the town of
North Greenbush
North Greenbush is a town in Rensselaer County, New York, United States. North Greenbush is located in the western part of the county. The population was 13,292 at the 2020 census.
The town has three main hamlets, Wynantskill in the northeastern ...
, near
Troy
Troy ( el, Τροία and Latin: Troia, Hittite: 𒋫𒊒𒄿𒊭 ''Truwiša'') or Ilion ( el, Ίλιον and Latin: Ilium, Hittite: 𒃾𒇻𒊭 ''Wiluša'') was an ancient city located at Hisarlik in present-day Turkey, south-west of Ç ...
. It broadcast from a temporary transmitter in
Herkimer, limiting the signal to the immediate area. The station went to full power and installed a permanent tower next to the studio a few months later.
[Capital Cities/ABC The Early Years: How The Minnow Swallow The Whale, Chilton Books, 1993, page 11] It was originally the
Capital District
A capital district, capital region or capital territory is normally a specially designated administrative division where a country's seat of government is located. As such, in a federal model of government, no state or territory has any poli ...
's ABC affiliate.
Within their first year, the station was losing money, and on the verge of
bankruptcy
Bankruptcy is a legal process through which people or other entities who cannot repay debts to creditors may seek relief from some or all of their debts. In most jurisdictions, bankruptcy is imposed by a court order, often initiated by the debto ...
. By November 1954, Hudson Valley's shareholders sold controlling interest to a
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
-based syndicate group led by legendary radio broadcaster/author
Lowell Thomas
Lowell Jackson Thomas (April 6, 1892 – August 29, 1981) was an American writer, actor, broadcaster, and traveler, best remembered for publicising T. E. Lawrence (Lawrence of Arabia). He was also involved in promoting the Cinerama widescree ...
and his manager/business partner Frank Smith, who also became president of the company upon completion of the sale.
[Capital Cities/ABC The Early Years: How The Minnow Swallow The Whale, Chilton Books, 1993, page 15] After the sale, the station switched its affiliation to
CBS on February 1, 1955. In the spring of 1956, the station's
call letters were changed to WCDA (for "Capital District Albany") and a satellite station, WCDB (channel 29) in nearby
Hagaman, New York
Hagaman (), formerly Hagamans Mills, is a Village (New York), village in Montgomery County, New York, Montgomery County, New York (state), New York, United States. The population was 1,292 at the 2010 census. It is named after Joseph Hagaman, the f ...
was launched to reach areas in the northern portion of the market where the main signal didn't penetrate.
[Albany Times-Union, April 22, 1956, page H-4] In December 1957, Hudson Valley merged with Durham Broadcasting Enterprises, the owners of
WTVD
WTVD (channel 11) is a television station licensed to Durham, North Carolina, United States, broadcasting the ABC network to the Research Triangle area. Owned and operated by the network's ABC Owned Television Stations division, it maintains ...
in
Durham Durham most commonly refers to:
*Durham, England, a cathedral city and the county town of County Durham
*County Durham, an English county
* Durham County, North Carolina, a county in North Carolina, United States
*Durham, North Carolina, a city in N ...
to form Capital Cities Television Corporation (predecessor of
Capital Cities Communications
Capital Cities/ABC Inc. was an American media company. It was founded in 1985 when Capital Cities Communications purchased the much larger American Broadcasting Company. It eventually proposed a merger of equals with The Walt Disney Company and ...
) with WCDA as its flagship station.
That same year, the call letters were changed again to the current WTEN when the station moved to
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 10. By this time, the market had expanded to cover not only east-central New York, but also large swaths of southwestern Vermont and western Massachusetts. Not only is this market one of the largest east of the Mississippi River, but much of it is very mountainous. UHF stations have never covered large areas or rugged terrain very well. When the FCC allocated two additional VHF channels to Albany, Hudson Valley sought and received permission to move to channel 10.
Upon moving to the VHF band, the station's transmitter was moved to
Vail Mills, approximately west of Albany. This was necessary to protect both
WHEC-TV/WVET-TV in
Rochester and
WJAR-TV
WJAR (channel 10) is a television station in Providence, Rhode Island, United States, affiliated with NBC. Owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group, the station has studios on Kenney Drive in Cranston, Rhode Island (shared with Telemundo owned-and-ope ...
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 ...
. But the new transmitter proved inadequate for serving the Capital District proper. The FCC eventually allowed a waiver in 1963 which let WTEN move its transmitter to Voorheesville, closer to Albany. The new transmitter, located on the Helderberg Escarpment, was on some of the highest ground in the region, giving WTEN a coverage area comparable to that of long-dominant
WRGB
WRGB (channel 6) is a television station licensed to Schenectady, New York, United States, serving the Capital District as an affiliate of CBS. It is owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group alongside CW affiliate WCWN (channel 45, also licensed to Sch ...
(channel 6).
In 1966, WTEN and WROW-AM-
FM moved to new facilities to Albany's northside on Northern Boulevard, where WTEN remains to this day (the WROW radio stations moved out in 1993, ten years after they were sold by Capital Cities). In 1967, the old studio in North Greenbush was burned down by a fire caused by arson, but the station's owner donated its old transmitter to
WRPI radio.
On April 27, 1971, Capital Cities sold WTEN to Poole Broadcasting. Following its purchase of several broadcast properties from
Triangle Publications
Triangle Publications Inc. was an American media group based first in Philadelphia, and later in Radnor, Pennsylvania. It was a privately held corporation, with the majority of its stock owned by Walter Annenberg and his sisters. Its holding ...
, Capital Cities had to sell off two VHF stations to stay within the FCC's limit of five stations per owner at the time. In mid-1977, Poole sold WTEN and sister stations
WJRT-TV
WJRT-TV (channel 12) is a television station licensed to Flint, Michigan, United States, serving as the ABC affiliate for northeastern Michigan. Owned by Allen Media Broadcasting, the station maintains studios on Lapeer Road in Flint, with offi ...
in
Flint, Michigan
Flint is the largest city and seat of Genesee County, Michigan, United States. Located along the Flint River, northwest of Detroit, it is a principal city within the region known as Mid Michigan. At the 2020 census, Flint had a population of 8 ...
, and
WPRI-TV
WPRI-TV (channel 12) is a television station in Providence, Rhode Island, United States, affiliated with CBS and MyNetworkTV. It is owned by Nexstar Media Group, which provides certain services to dual Fox/ CW affiliate WNAC-TV (channel 64) und ...
in Providence to
Knight-Ridder
Knight Ridder was an American media company, specializing in newspaper and Internet publishing. Until it was bought by McClatchy on June 27, 2006, it was the second largest newspaper publisher in the United States, with 32 daily newspaper brand ...
; the deal would be finalized in 1978. Before the sale could be completed, Knight-Ridder signed an affiliation deal with ABC. which resulted in WTEN swapping affiliations with WAST (channel 13, now
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 ...
-affiliated
WNYT) on October 23, 1977, thus returning ABC back to channel 10 (WPRI-TV had switched to ABC from CBS that June and would eventually reaffiliate with CBS in September 1995, nine years after WTEN's former owners, Capital Cities, completed its acquisition of ABC in January 1986). Upon Knight-Ridder's exit from broadcasting in 1989, WTEN and sister station
WKRN-TV
WKRN-TV (channel 2) is a television station in Nashville, Tennessee, United States, affiliated with ABC and owned by Nexstar Media Group. The station's studios are located on Murfreesboro Road (U.S. Routes 41 and 70S) on Nashville's southeast ...
in
Nashville
Nashville is the capital city of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the seat of Davidson County. With a population of 689,447 at the 2020 U.S. census, Nashville is the most populous city in the state, 21st most-populous city in the U.S., and the ...
were sold to
Young Broadcasting
Young Broadcasting, LLC was an American media company that owned or operated 12 television stations in 10 markets with a total U.S. television household coverage of 5.9%. The company was formerly known as Young Broadcasting Inc. and was the outgr ...
. Since the Young purchases of the two stations plus WTEN satellite WCDC were made through two separate deals, they were consummated more than three months apart.
WTEN signed-on its digital signal on UHF channel 26 in 2004 and began offering high definition service right from the start. This can also be seen on
Spectrum
A spectrum (plural ''spectra'' or ''spectrums'') is a condition that is not limited to a specific set of values but can vary, without gaps, across a continuum. The word was first used scientifically in optics to describe the rainbow of colors i ...
basic channel 10 and
digital
Digital usually refers to something using discrete digits, often binary digits.
Technology and computing Hardware
*Digital electronics, electronic circuits which operate using digital signals
**Digital camera, which captures and stores digital i ...
channel 1200. On October 1, 2007, Young Broadcasting launched the Retro Television Network on a new third digital subchannel of WTEN. This was part of a test of the network with sister stations
WBAY-TV
WBAY-TV (channel 2) is a television station in Green Bay, Wisconsin, United States, affiliated with ABC and owned by Gray Television. The station's studios are located on South Jefferson Street in downtown Green Bay (across from the historic B ...
in
Green Bay and
KRON-TV
KRON-TV (channel 4) is a television station licensed to San Francisco, California, United States, serving the San Francisco Bay Area as an affiliate of MyNetworkTV. Owned by Nexstar Media Group, KRON-TV maintains studios on Front Street in the c ...
in
San Francisco
San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...
.
In an effort to cut costs, the company eliminated ten positions from WTEN on January 31, 2008 fueling speculations that the company might sell the station in order to pay down its financial debt. In January 2009, after failing to meet the minimum standards for being listed on
NASDAQ
The Nasdaq Stock Market () (National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations Stock Market) is an American stock exchange based in New York City. It is the most active stock trading venue in the US by volume, and ranked second ...
, Young Broadcasting was dropped from the exchange. One month later, on February 13, they declared
Chapter 11
Chapter 11 of the United States Bankruptcy Code (Title 11 of the United States Code) permits reorganization under the bankruptcy laws of the United States. Such reorganization, known as Chapter 11 bankruptcy, is available to every business, wheth ...
bankruptcy. The company planned to auction off its stations in a New York City bankruptcy court on July 14, 2009 but canceled the auction at the last minute. After multiple issues with RTV's operations and programming, Young switched their main subchannel affiliations to ABC's
Live Well Network
Localish (formerly Live Well Network, stylized as LOCALISH) is a lifestyle TV network owned by ABC Owned Television Stations, part of Walt Disney Television, a subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company.
Localish's 24/7 channel streams on Hulu Live ...
as part of a group deal with Young's other stations in 2012.
![WTEN Headquarters](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/33/WTEN_Headquarters.jpg)
On July 27, 2012, it was announced that the Capital District's Fox affiliate, WXXA-TV, owned by
Newport Television
Newport Television, LLC was a television station holding company founded by Providence Equity Partners and Sandy DiPasquale in 2007 to acquire the television stations owned by Clear Channel Communications.
History
In September 2007, Newport ag ...
, would be sold to Shield Media,
LLC (owned by
White Knight Broadcasting White Knight Broadcasting is a company based in Lafayette, Louisiana owning three stations, based in Louisiana and Texas. It was founded in 1995 when it purchased then-religious independent station KWLB (now KSHV-TV) in Shreveport, LA.
On April 24, ...
Vice president
A vice president, also director in British English, is an officer in government or business who is below the president (chief executive officer) in rank. It can also refer to executive vice presidents, signifying that the vice president is on t ...
Sheldon Galloway) for $19.2 million. That company then entered into a shared services agreement with Young Broadcasting resulting in WTEN operating WXXA. On October 23, the FCC granted the transaction. The move was completed on March 23, 2013. Soon afterward, WXXA closed its studios on Corporate Circle in Albany and moved its operations to WTEN.
On June 6, 2013, Young Broadcasting announced that it would merge with
Media General
Media General was an American media company based in Richmond, Virginia. The company's origins can be traced back to 1887 when Richmond attorney Joseph Bryan acquired ''The Richmond Daily Times'', which later became ''The Richmond Times-Dispatch' ...
. The merger was approved by the FCC on November 8, after Media General shareholders approved the merger a day earlier; it was completed on November 12.
More than two years later, on January 27, 2016, it was announced that the
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 ...
would buy Media General for $4.6 billion. WTEN and the operations of WXXA became part of "Nexstar Media Group." The acquisition resulted in Nexstar owning stations in every television market in Upstate New York; the sale was completed on January 17, 2017.
WCDB
In the spring of 1956, satellite station WCDB on UHF channel 29 in Hagaman was launched to reach areas in the northern portion of the market where the main WCDA signal couldn't reach.
This signed off in 1957 after WCDA moved its transmitter closer to Albany, making WCDB redundant even though it did provide some primary CBS coverage to
Utica. The
WCDB
WCDB is a college radio station located at The University at Albany in Albany, New York. WCDB currently broadcasts at 90.9 FM with a signal covering the Capital District and reaching parts of Western Massachusetts. The station is staffed complet ...
call sign would return to the air in 1978 for the student-run radio station at
University at Albany
The State University of New York at Albany, commonly referred to as the University at Albany, UAlbany or SUNY Albany, is a public research university with campuses in Albany, Rensselaer, and Guilderland, New York. Founded in 1844, it is one ...
. The UHF channel 29 allocation remained in the Albany market until the DTV transition in 2009; however, no other station had used the channel number since WCDB's sign-off.
WCDC-TV
WCDC began broadcasting on February 5, 1954 as WMGT ("Mount Greylock Television") on UHF channel 74, the highest channel to ever be used by a full-power television station in U.S. history. WMGT began as a separate station affiliated with the
DuMont network. The tower location on
Mount Greylock
Mount Greylock is a mountain located in the northwest corner of Massachusetts and is the highest point in the state. Its summit is in the western part of the town of Adams (near its border with Williamstown) in Berkshire County. Geologically ...
(part of a
state reserve) helped WMGT serve first as the market's secondary affiliate of DuMont and later as a major boost to WCDA. In December 1954, WMGT moved to channel 19 extending the station's range to the Capital District of New York State. In February 1956, it was forced off the air when a storm damaged its transmitter tower. Capital Cities bought the license and returned it to the air in 1957 under its final calls, WCDC. (The
WMGT callsign now resides at an NBC-affiliated station in
Macon, Georgia
Macon ( ), officially Macon–Bibb County, is a consolidated city-county in the U.S. state of Georgia. Situated near the fall line of the Ocmulgee River, it is located southeast of Atlanta and lies near the geographic center of the state of Geo ...
.) After Capital Cities returned WCDC to the air and until it shut down, it served as a straight simulcast of WCDA/WTEN. Due to substantial snow and ice build-up, a tower collapse forced WCDC off the air again in March 1983. Most cable systems on the Vermont and Massachusetts sides of the market picked up WCDC's signal. WTEN's various owners also leased tower space to other entities, including the
Massachusetts State Police
The Massachusetts State Police (MSP) is an agency of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts' Executive Office of Public Safety and Security, responsible for criminal law enforcement and traffic vehicle regulation across the state. As of 10/4/2022, it ...
and competitor WNYT for their area translator station, as well as the area's main
NPR
National Public Radio (NPR, stylized in all lowercase) is an American privately and state funded nonprofit media organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It differs from other ...
station,
WAMC-FM.
WCDC's digital signal on UHF channel 36 signed on nearly eighteen months before WTEN's did in 2002. However, it did not upgrade to high definition until WTEN-DT signed-on. WCDC shut down its analog signal on channel 19 on June 12, 2009, following WTEN's lead.
Citing declining over-the-air viewership, Nexstar Broadcasting, through the FCC's spectrum incentive auction in April 2017, was awarded $34,558,086 to agree to take WCDC-TV off the air; at the time, it indicated that WCDC would enter a channel sharing agreement (CSA) to continue providing service to viewers. Nexstar subsequently announced that WCDC would instead go dark December 1, 2017;
however, damage to the station's transmission line in a storm would take WCDC off the air on November 19, almost two weeks earlier than scheduled. Nexstar informed the FCC that, due to insufficient time and a lack of available tower crews, the line would not be repaired before the planned shutdown date.
Nexstar surrendered the WCDC-TV license for cancellation on February 12, 2018.
On December 22, 2017, WAMC entered into an agreement to purchase the Mount Greylock transmitter and tower from Nexstar for just above $1 million. Due to it sitting on
Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation
The Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR) is a state agency of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, situated in the Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs. It is best known for its parks and parkways. The DCR's mission is ...
land and WTEN's lease having expired two years prior, WAMC could have been taken off the air without their purchasing of the facility. WAMC now owns the facility itself, but not the land beneath, which is under lease with the MDCR until 2025, and will fundraise in order to rebuild their financial reserves.
Programming
Syndicated programming
Syndicated programming on WTEN includes ''
The Doctors'', ''
Judge Judy
''Judge Judy'' is an American Court show#Arbitration-based reality court show, arbitration-based reality court show presided over by former Manhattan Family Court Judge Judy Sheindlin, Judith Sheindlin. The show featured Sheindlin as she adjudi ...
'', ''
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 ...
'', and ''
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 ...
''.
News operation
For most of its history, WTEN was a solid runner-up to WRGB, especially after moving its transmitter to Voorheesville. WNYT overtook WTEN for the runner-up spot by the late 1980s, and in 1992, scored its first late news victory. WTEN has generally remained at a stable second place since then, although for a period in the early 2000s, it fell back to third. At times during the 1990s and 2000s, this station has occasionally finished ahead of WRGB or, more recently, WNYT. In terms of
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 ...
, the Capital District has been a very competitive market, with WRGB, WTEN and WNYT waging a spirited battle for first place.
In November 2009, WNYT's newscasts slipped back to third place largely resulting from its owner
Hubbard Broadcasting
Hubbard Broadcasting, Inc. is an American television and radio broadcasting corporation based in St. Paul, Minnesota. It was founded by Stanley E. Hubbard.
The corporation has broadcast outlets scattered across Minnesota, Wisconsin, Missouri, ...
deciding to terminate many of its popular news team members. One notable personality let go from the NBC affiliate was Lydia Kulbida who was hired by WTEN in time to help launch the market's only over-the-air weekday local news show at 4 (which occurred on September 21, 2009). On October 26, 2011, WTEN became the second station in Albany to upgrade its newscasts to high definition level.
As a full-time satellite of WTEN, WCDC simulcast all newscasts from its parent outlet. Although there were no separate title openings or local cut-ins provided during the broadcasts, there was coverage of Western Massachusetts and Southwestern Vermont. Since 2001, rival WNYT has been the only Capital District-based television station to operate a bureau in Western Massachusetts (located in
Pittsfield
Pittsfield is the largest city and the county seat of Berkshire County, Massachusetts, United States. It is the principal city of the Pittsfield, Massachusetts Metropolitan Statistical Area which encompasses all of Berkshire County. Pittsfield ...
). With the consolidation of WXXA with WTEN, the ABC affiliate took over production of the Fox station's newscasts. The two stations' reporting staffs were merged immediately following the completion of Shield Media's purchase of WXXA. On January 24, 2013, the Fox outlet dropped its separate weeknight 5 and 11 o'clock newscasts.
WXXA's weekday morning newscast (seen 7 to 9 a.m.) and nightly prime time broadcast at 10 were retained as this programming does not directly compete with local news airing on WTEN.
Notable former on-air talent
*
Ted Knight
Ted Knight (born Tadeusz Wladyslaw Konopka; December 7, 1923August 26, 1986) was an American actor well known for playing the comedic roles of Ted Baxter in ''The Mary Tyler Moore Show'', Henry Rush in ''Too Close for Comfort'', and Judge Elihu ...
– "Windy Knight" and host of ''The Early Show'' (1955-1957; deceased)
*
Tim Lake – News anchor (2016–2022)
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 ...
:
WCDC carried WTEN's two subchannels as 19.2 and 19.3 respectively, and they were carried locally in Massachusetts on the digital tier of
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 ...
, and later its successor,
Charter Communications
Charter Communications, Inc., is an American telecommunications and mass media company with services branded as Spectrum. With over 32 million customers in 41 states, it is the second-largest cable operator in the United States by subscribers, ...
.
Analog-to-digital conversion
WTEN shut down its analog signal, over VHF channel 10, on June 12, 2009, 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 channel 26.
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 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 10. In 2019, during the digital television repack, WTEN moved from UHF channel 26 to UHF channel 24.
See also
*
List of television stations in New York
This is a list of broadcast television stations licensed to cities in the U.S. state of New York.
Full-power stations
VC refers to the station's PSIP virtual channel. RF refers to the station's physical RF channel.
Defunct full-power station ...
References
External links
WTENWXXA-TV "Fox 23"
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wten
Television channels and stations established in 1953
1953 establishments in New York (state)
TEN
Ion Mystery affiliates
True Crime Network affiliates
GetTV affiliates
ABC network affiliates
Nexstar Media Group