WNYA

Infobox_Broadcast
call_letters = WNYA
city =
station_
station_slogan = Turn Us On. Crank Us Up.
Check Us Out!
station_branding = My 4 Albany
(cable slot)
analog = 51 (UHF)
digital = none
other_chs = WNYA-CA 15 Albany NY
affiliations = MyNetworkTV
network =
founded =
airdate = September 1, 2003
location = Pittsfield, Massachusetts
callsign_meaning = New York Albany
former_callsigns =
former_channel_numbers =
owner = Venture Technologies Group, LLC
licensee =
sister_stations =
former_affiliations = UPN (2003-2006)
effective_radiated_power = 141 kW
HAAT = 293 m
class =
facility_id = 136751
coordinates = coord|42|30|8|N|73|18|56|W|type:landmark_scale:2000
homepage = [http://www.my4albany.com/ my4albany.com]

WNYA is the MyNetworkTV-affiliated television station for the Capital District of New York State and western New England. Licensed to Pittsfield, Massachusetts, the station broadcasts an analog signal on UHF channel 51 with no companion digital channel. Its transmitter is located northwest of the city on Berry Mountain. WNYA operates a Class A repeater, WNYA-CA. Licensed to Albany, this station broadcasts an analog signal on UHF channel 15 with no digital simulcast either. Its transmitter is located on Mount Pinnacle in New Scotland, New York. WNYA-CA serves as the Capital District relay of the main WNYA signal.

Owned by Venture Technologies Group, the station has studios on Fern Avenue in Schenectady. WNYA is known on-air as "My 4 Albany". The name is derived from the station's channel location on area cable systems. This station and WCDC-TV (a full-time satellite of ABC affiliate WTEN) can be considered rimshot signals into the nearby Springfield / Holyoke television market. Along with overnight Corner Store TV infomercials, syndicated programming on WNYA includes: "My Wife and Kids", "Still Standing", "According to Jim", and "Becker". There are no newscasts on this station. During the 2008 MLB season, it has simulcasted New York Yankees games that are split between WWOR and the YES Network.

Digital television

Because it was granted an original construction permit after the FCC finalized the DTV allotment plan on April 21, 1997, the station did not receive a companion channel for a digital television station. Instead, on or before February 17, 2009 (which is the end of the digital TV conversion period for full-service stations) WNYA will be required to turn off its analog signal and turn on its digital signal (called a "flash-cut").

History

WNYA

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

WNYA-CA

What today is WNYA-CA signed on in 1996 known as WVBX-LP. The station was a repeater of WVBG-LP that was licensed to Easton in Washington County, New York on channel 39. In September 1997, WVBG became a UPN affiliate although the station could never get carriage on Time Warner Cable. Instead, the cable system offered WSBK-TV from Boston. The UPN affiliation ended at the start of 2000 when cable-only "WEDG-TV" (known later as "UPN 4") signed on. WVBX would then become an independent station before signing off in early-2002. While dark, WVBX was upgraded to Class A status and had its license moved to Albany. A new transmitter was built at the tower farm in the Helderberg Mountains in New Scotland. The station was given the current call letters WNYA-CA and was announced as becoming a WNYA repeater. Of special note, it is unusual for a repeater station to sign on earlier that its parent station.

UPN Capital Region

In April 2003, WNYA's owner signed a joint sales agreement (JSA) with Freedom Communications (owner of CBS affiliate WRGB). WNYA and WNYA-CA then announced a sign-on date of September 1. WNYA signed on the air in mid-July for testing purposes (WNYA-CA did the same in late-August). The official launch of WNYA and WNYA-CA came at 6 A.M. on September 1 with the stations using the "UPN Capital Region" branding. WNYA became the first full-powered, over-the-air, UPN affiliate in the Capital District.

Although WNYA and WNYA-CA did not sign-on broadcasting digital signals of their own, WRGB added a new second digital subchannel to serve as that purpose. From its sign-on, WNYA took the cable channel position of WEDG-TV on Time Warner, Charter, and independent Mid-Hudson Cablevision (in Greene County, New York). Adelphia cable systems would replace WSBK with WNYA at the start of 2004 with DirecTV and Dish Network adding the station later that year.

WNYA's original line-up included several new shows that had gone unclaimed in the market, some not previously cleared, and various older ones. As another byproduct of the JSA, WNYA aired replays of WRGB's weekday Noon (at 1 P.M.) and 11 P.M. (at 11:35) newscasts. WRGB's public affairs program known as "Sunday Morning with Liz Bishop" was also included. The practice ended in mid-2004.

MyNetworkTV

Back on January 24, 2006, The WB and UPN announced that they would end broadcasting and merge. The newly combined network would be called The CW. The letters would represent the first initial of its corporate parents: CBS (the parent company of UPN) and the Warner Bros. unit of Time Warner. On February 22, News Corporation announced that they would start up another new broadcast television network called MyNetworkTV. This new network, which would be sister to Fox, would be operated by Fox Television Stations and its syndication division, Twentieth Television.

MyNetworkTV was created to give UPN and WB stations, not mentioned as becoming CW affiliates, another option besides becoming independent. It was also created to compete against The CW. It was announced that WEWB would become the market's CW after owner Tribune signed a 10 year affiliation deal with the new network on most of its WB stations. On March 9, 2006, it was announced that WNYA would become an affiliate of MyNetworkTV. WNYA would begin airing ads for the new network and put banner ads on their website in June.

On July 30, WNYA's web address became a promotional website for the new network. There was no information about the station and its programming. On August 2, a new website was shown with a new MyNetworkTV logo. With UPN affiliation, the station's logo did not include a channel number in it. The MyNetworkTV logo is based on cable-only WEDG-TV channel position on Time Warner cable systems. Ironically, nowhere in Berkshire County is WNYA currently on channel 4.

In North Adams, channel 4 is the spot where Boston's CBS affiliate WBZ-TV is located. Despite its MyNetworkTV affiliation (which took effect on-air on September 5), WNYA aired the last two weeks of UPN programming. However, it aired in late nights from 1 to 3 A.M. from Tuesday to Saturday. WEWB (now WCWN) began broadcasting The CW on September 18. On April 18, 2008, WNYA launched its high definition channel on Time Warner cable in Albany despite being unable to broadcast HD over the air. This coincides with the first Yankee baseball broadcast they have the rights to.

WRGB involvement

The JSA between WNYA and WRGB led to some common involvement between the two stations. It was first apparent a mere six hours after WNYA signed on when the station broadcasted CBS's coverage of the U.S. Open tennis tournament on Labor Day because of WRGB airing the "Jerry Lewis MDA Telethon" during that time. This arrangement continued in 2004, but due to a crop of syndication launches on Labor Day in 2005, it did not happen that year (U.S. Open Tennis did air on cable on Time Warner channel 3 in the Capital District). There was also some swapping of syndicated programs between the two stations. In late-2005, Freedom Communications signed an extension that was to have kept the JSA agreement in place until the end of 2008 (it had been set to expire on August 31, 2006).

On April 17, 2006, it was announced that WNYA would begin airing an hour-long extension of WRGB's weekday morning news at 7 A.M. The newscast was known as "CBS 6 First News on My TV 4 Albany". This move could be seen as a pre-emptive move by WRGB to fend off a challenge by Fox affiliate WXXA-TV which had announced their plans to launch weekday morning news two weeks earlier. Rumors of WRGB producing a 10 P.M. newscast on WNYA had circulated as well. However, the pickup of a second run of "Dr. Phil" to air at that hour killed the rumors.

On June 19, 2006, Freedom Communications announced the purchase of WB affiliate WEWB from Tribune Broadcasting for $17 million dollars. This purchase was finalized on December 6 giving the Capital District its first duopoly. As a result, WRGB began to control three stations in the market. In February 2007, the JSA with WRGB was terminated. As a result, WRGB-DT2's broadcast of WNYA's digital signal was terminated as well. For a time after, WNYA's website had listed WRGB's street address for advertising information.

External links

* [http://www.my4albany.com WNYA "My 4 Albany"]
* [http://www.mynetworktv.com MyNetworkTV]
*TVQ|WNYA
*TVQ|WNYA-CA