WNYA

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WNYA-TV / WNYA-CA
Pittsfield, Massachusetts-Albany, New York
Branding	My TV 4 Albany
Slogan	None
Channels	WNYA: 51 (UHF) WNYA-CA: 15 (UHF) analog, WRGB-DT 6.2 (UHF digital
Affiliations	My Network TV
Owner	Venture Technologies Group, LLC JSA with Freedom Communications
Founded	September 1, 2003
Call letters meaning	W New York Albany
Former affiliations	UPN (2003-2006)
Transmitter Power	1.58 MW/28.0 kW
Website	mytv4albany.com

WNYA-TV "My TV 4 Albany" is the callsign of the MyNetworkTV affiliate for the Capital Region area of New York State. WNYA's main signal is broadcast on channel 51 and is licenced to and transmits from Pittsfield, Massachusetts. WNYA-CA, channel 15, is licensed to Albany, New York and serves as an in-town relay of the main WNYA signal broadcasting from the Helderberg Mountain tower farm in New Scotland, New York. WNYA is owned and operated by Venture Technologies Group, LLC., and its sales are handled by CBS affiliate WRGB through a joint sales agreement (JSA). This relationship allows WRGB and WNYA to share programming and for WNYA's signal to be simulcasted on WRGB's DT2 digital subchannel. WNYA does not have a digital signal of its own.

WNYA can be considered a rimshot signal into the Springfield, Massachusetts TV market, however the Berkshire Mountains and a barely passable spacing to WZMY from Derry, New Hampshire, which is on channel 50, interfere with the signal. WZMY also has a repeater, W18AE on channel 18, in Killington, VT which causes interference as well. WZMY, once an independent station is now Boston's MNTV affiliate.

Contents 1 History 1.1 WNYA 1.2 WNYA-CA 2 WNYA as "UPN Capital Region" 3 WRGB Involvement 4 MyNetworkTV 4.1 Logo Gallery 5 References 6 External links

[edit] History

[edit] WNYA

What today is WNYA can indirectly trace its history to WUVW, a unbuilt station on channel 51, licenced to Pittsfield which was given a permit in the mid-1950s and was cancelled in the 1970s. The allocation that became WNYA was proposed in October 1996 by Pappas Telecasting [1] but went without an owner for several years until it was auctioned off in February 2002 with Venture Technologies getting the winning bid for $1.3 million. The FCC ganted the construction permit and the WNYA calls to Venture a year later.

[edit] WNYA-CA

What today is WNYA-CA signed on in 1996 as WVBX-LP, a repeater of WVBG-LP licensed to Easton, New York in Washington County that aired on channel 39. In Septmeber 1997, WVBG became the UPN affiliate for the market though the station could never get carriage on Time Warner Cable which maintained carriage of WSBK Boston. This affiliation ended at the start of 2000 when cable-only WEDG-TV (later UPN4) signed on. WVBX would then become an independent station before signing off in early 2002. While dark, WVBX upgraded to Class A status and moved down to Albany. [2].

[edit] WNYA as "UPN Capital Region"

In April 2003, WNYA signed the initial SSA agreement with WRGB and their affiliation with UPN (becoming the first full-power broadcast UPN affiliate in the Capital District) and announced a sign-on date of September 1, 2003. WNYA signed on the air in mid-July for testing purposes and WNYA-CA did so in late August. The official launch of the WNYA stations came at 6:00 a.m. on September 1 with the staions using the UPN Capital Region branding. WNYA signed on taking the channel positions of UPN4 on Time Warner systems plus Charter Communications systems and the independent Mid-Hudson Cablevision in Greene County. Adelphia systems would replace WSBK with WNYA at the start of 2004 with DirecTV and Dish Network adding the station later in 2004.

WNYA's original lineup included several new shows that had gone unclaimed in the market, shows not previously cleared, and various older shows. WNYA also aired replays of WRGB's noon (at 1:00 p.m.) and 11:00 p.m. (at 11:30 p.m.) newscasts as well as the public affairs program Sunday Morning with Liz Bishop. This practice ended in mid-2004.

[edit] WRGB Involvement

The JSA between WNYA and WRGB has led to some common involvement between the two stations, this was first apparent a mere six hours after signing on when WNYA broadcast CBS's coverage of the U.S. Open tennis tournament on Labor Day because of the latter's involvement with 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 did not happen in 2005. There also has been the swapping of syndicated programs between the two stations. In late 2005, WRGB signed an extension that keeps 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 extension of WRGB's weekday morning newscast, CBS 6 First News, from 7-8 AM with anchor Ed O'Brien and meteorologist Tom Mailey. The newscast is called CBS 6 First News on My TV 4 Albany. This move could be seen as a preemptive move by WRGB to fend off a challenge by FOX affiliate WXXA-TV which had announced their plans for a morning newscast two weeks earlier. Rumors of WRGB producing a 10:00 p.m. newscast had circulated, however the pickup of a second run of Dr. Phil to air at that hour has shifted those rumors of future WRGB sister WCWN (the CW affiliate).

[edit] MyNetworkTV

It was announced in January 2006 that UPN and The WB would cease operations and be replaced by The CW Television Network in September 2006. The Albany area's WB affiliate, WCWN (at that time still WEWB), was one of the initial CW affiliates named when the CW was announced.

On March 9, 2006, it was announced that WNYA would become an affiliate of My Network TV after UPN ceases operations in September ^[1]. WNYA would begin airing ads for the new network and put banner ads on their website that June.

On July 30, 2006, WNYA's website became a promotion website for the up and coming My Network TV. There was no information about the station and its programming. On August 2, 2006, the redesigned website was finished and the new WNYA MNTV logo was shown for the first time. With UPN affiliation, the station's logo did not include a channel number in it. Now the new logo is based on the station's position on most Time Warner systems, channel 4 in a manner similar to the station it replaced, WEDG-TV (UPN4). Ironically, nowhere in WNYA's county of licence of Berkshire County is WNYA on channel 4 and in the northernmost part of that county, an actual channel 4 (WBZ-TV) carries that spot on the Time Warner system out of North Adams.

Though WNYA aired My Network TV programming in primeime from the network's launch, the last two weeks of UPN programming aired in late nights from 1:00 a.m. to 3:00 a.m. early Tuesday-Saturday.

[edit] Logo Gallery

WNYA UPN logo used until August 2006.

Ad for WRGB morning news from WNYA's old website.

WNYA's current logo.

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Station Website
• WRGB Website
• Query the FCC's TV station database for WNYA
• Query the FCC's TV station database for WNYA-CA