ABC/MyNetworkTV affiliate in Youngstown, Ohio
WYTV
(channel 33) is a
television station
in
Youngstown, Ohio
, United States, affiliated with
ABC
and
MyNetworkTV
. It is owned by
Vaughan Media, LLC
, which maintains
joint sales
and
shared services
agreements (JSA/SSA) with
Nexstar Media Group
, owner of
CBS
affiliate
WKBN-TV
(channel 27) and
low-power
Fox
affiliate
WYFX-LD
(channel 62), for the provision of certain services. The three stations share studios on Sunset Boulevard in Youngstown's
Pleasant Grove
neighborhood, where WYTV's transmitter is also located.
History
[
edit
]
The station originated as WKST-TV (UHF
analog
channel 45) as the television partner to
WKST radio
, and was licensed to
New Castle, Pennsylvania
, on April 4, 1953.
Besides serving New Castle, it was the default ABC affiliate in Youngstown, making Youngstown at the time one of the smallest markets to have full-time affiliates of all three networks (following the demise of the
DuMont Television Network
), as ABC would be relegated to secondary status in many markets until the 1970s. It also served the northern and western portions of the
Pittsburgh
market with poor signals from
WENS
(frequency now occupied by
WINP-TV
). After WENS signed off due to financial problems (some assets would be used to launch what eventually became
WPNT
), WKST-TV was the only full-time ABC affiliate in
Western Pennsylvania
until September 1958 when
WTAE-TV
went live; future sister station
WJET-TV
would sign on in
Erie, Pennsylvania
, in 1966.
After being
dark
for a period of time,
[2]
WKST-TV moved to the stronger channel 33 in 1959, improving its over-the-air signal in the process.
[3]
After moving channels, WYTV was replaced on channel 45 by
WXTV
, an
independent station
that signed on in November 1960;
[4]
WXTV would be forced off the air on February 28, 1962, and never resumed broadcasting,
[5]
the FCC denied their license application in April 1964 after an extensive investigation into it and co-owned
WWIZ
in
Lorain, Ohio
.
[6]
[7]
[8]
In 1973, channel 45 was re-allocated to nearby
Alliance, Ohio
, as an educational channel and became
WNEO
.
[9]
In September 1963, WKST-TV moved its
city of license
and most of its operations to Youngstown under its current call letters, WYTV (it carried the
"-TV"
suffix from 1983 to 1998).
Along with WTAE-TV and to a lesser extent
WTVN/WSYX
in
Columbus
, WYTV at times has also served as the default ABC affiliate to the
Wheeling, West Virginia
?
Steubenville, Ohio
, market, which has only two commercial stations,
WTOV-TV
and
WTRF-TV
(the latter being a sister station to WYTV during the 1990s and again since 2017). Although the area finally got a full-time ABC affiliate in 2008 when WTRF-TV launched one on its
third digital subchannel
, WYTV remains on cable in parts of the market.
The station was Youngstown's first Fox network affiliate from 1994 to 1998. Youngstown did not have a full-time Fox affiliate for the network's first decade, so WYTV joined the network as a secondary affiliate in part due to the network's
acquisition of the rights
to
NFL
football. As Fox had rights to the
National Football Conference
, the rights weren't as much for the
Cleveland Browns
and
Pittsburgh Steelers
since
both teams
were in the
American Football Conference
and shared the Youngstown television market since
NBC
at the time retained AFC rights and their games remained on
WFMJ-TV
. (In the Browns case, no games would air at all for
three years
during this time.) Rather, the secondary Fox affiliation was for the NFC's
San Francisco 49ers
, who were and still are today owned by the locally-based DeBartolo-York family and won
Super Bowl XXIX
during this time.
WYTV was owned by a consortium of local investors until 1965, when a group headed by Adam Young Inc. (whose namesake founder, along with his son Vincent, would start
Young Broadcasting
21 years later) purchased the station.
[10]
A company known as Aurovideo, Inc., which was owned by the Adams-Russell Company,
[11]
acquired WYTV on November 13, 1970.
[12]
On June 22, 1983,
Benedek Broadcasting
purchased 50% of the station with investor Robert L. Dudley, and formed the Youngstown Broadcasting Company as licensee.
[13]
Benedek purchased the remaining stake on November 25, 1985,
[14]
and remained the station's owner until the company's
bankruptcy filing
in 2002. Instead of being purchased by
Gray Television
, WYTV was bought by Chelsey Television, LLC and was managed by
Barrington Broadcasting
.
[15]
The station has applied to increase its digital signal to one
megawatt
at the end of the transition.
[16]
On February 6, 2007, Chelsey Television filed an application with the
FCC
to sell WYTV to Parkin Broadcasting of California, which then leased out the station to WKBN/WYFX owner
New Vision Television
under a shared services agreement?essentially a
local marketing agreement
under different legal terms. At the time, some critics wondered if the shared services agreement was legal, since the Youngstown market only has four full-power television stations (WFMJ, WKBN, WYTV, and
PBS
member station
WNEO)?not enough to legally permit a
duopoly
under FCC rules. New Vision and Parkin share an office building in Los Angeles and have a "cozy relationship",
[
citation needed
]
leading to speculation that Parkin is simply a
shell corporation
that enables New Vision to circumvent FCC ownership rules. This is not unlike what Sinclair Broadcast Group does with
Cunningham Broadcasting
, which is a shell corporation of Sinclair. Nonetheless, the FCC approved the shared services agreement on July 30, 2007.
[17]
WYTV then moved from its 3800 Shady Run Road studios over to the WKBN/WYFX facilities in Boardman Township.
The 24-hour local weather channel had also been offered on the
digital tier
of
Time Warner Cable
at one point. Originally called "Weather on the 3s", the channel shows continuous weather updates through WYTV's relationship with
WeatherBug
. It was redesigned on February 24, 2009, when WKBN and WYFX had their on-air look redesigned and "Weather on the 3s" was made to match those two station's on-air look. It was renamed "My Valley Weather" to coincide with the launch of the combined weather website for WYTV and WKBN. This station is currently the only commercial outlet in the area with three digital subchannels. Along with sister station WKBN, WYTV plans on having two subchannels broadcasting in
high-definition
with
MyYTV
broadcasting in HD. The future of the "My Valley Weather" subchannel was uncertain due to MyYTV proposing an upgrade to HD. As of February 2012, MyYTV is still in
standard definition
, however,
[18]
and its HD feed is currently available only on cable. On July 1, 2013, WYTV added
Bounce TV
to 33.3, displacing the MyValley Weather channel.
On May 7, 2012,
LIN TV Corporation
announced that it will acquire the New Vision Television station group for $330.4 million and the assumption of $12 million in debt. Along with the outright ownership of WKBN-TV, the agreement includes the acquisition of New Vision's shared services agreement with PBC Broadcasting (who is also transferring the licenses of the PBC-owned stations to Vaughan Media), giving LIN operational control of WYTV.
[19]
LIN and Vaughan also entered into a joint sales agreement for WYTV.
[20]
On October 2, the FCC approved the proposed sale to LIN TV.
[21]
The transaction was closed on October 12, 2012.
[22]
On March 21, 2014,
Media General
announced that it would purchase LIN Media and its stations, including WKBN-TV, WYFX-LD, and the SSA and JSA with WYTV, in a $1.6 billion merger.
[23]
[24]
The FCC approved the deal on December 12, 2014, but a condition of the deal requires Media General to end the JSA between WKBN-TV and WYTV within two years due to tighter regulations on such deals.
[25]
The merger was completed on December 19.
[26]
Despite the conditions, WKBN-TV continues to operate WYTV, including after
Nexstar Media Group
acquired Media General in early 2017.
In 2017, WKBN sold its spectrum for $34 million as part of the FCC's
spectrum reallocation
program and will move its broadcasting to WYTV's frequency.
[27]
WKBN-TV moved to WYTV's frequency on April 23, 2018. To make room for WKBN-TV, Bounce TV moved from 33.3 to WYFX's 19.4 while
Ion Television
moved from 27.3 to WYFX 19.3.
[28]
MyYTV
[
edit
]
On June 13, 2006, WYTV announced that it would launch a new second digital subchannel in September 2006 featuring MyNetworkTV. The move made that station the last full-power channel to launch a secondary subchannel in Youngstown. The official launch occurred September 5 while soon after on September 18 WB outlet "
WBCB
" (controlled and operated by
NBC
affiliate
WFMJ-TV
) became part of The CW. The digital subchannel is branded as
MyYTV
.
In
Bessemer, Pennsylvania
,
Comcast
replaced
Pittsburgh
's
WPCW
with WYTV-DT2 in October despite the former becoming a CW affiliate. Armstrong Cable (one of the
market
's largest cable systems) carries the station on channel 13 replacing
WUAB
the MyNetworkTV affiliate in
Cleveland
. In addition, Comcast and Time Warner Cable systems in Ohio also carry the channel. Comcast carries this station on analog while Time Warner Cable shows it on their digital tier.
[29]
[30]
At its sign-on, it originally aired eighteen hours of original local programming each week and another 30½ hours of programming that was not original. The station carries taped high school football and basketball "Game of the Week" match-ups as well as tape delayed
Youngstown State University
football along with men's and women's basketball home games. It also aired
Mahoning Valley Thunder
arena football games and currently show select
Mahoning Valley Scrappers
baseball games.
For a period as a separate station, WYTV produced a prime time newscast at 10 on this MyNetworkTV second digital subchannel. This competed with another broadcast airing at the same time on Fox affiliate WYFX that is still produced today by WKBN. WYTV-DT2 currently repeats the main channel's weekday morning show from 7 until 9 that is known as
33 News at Daybreak
. This broadcast features news anchor Len Rome (who is also a health reporter, "Good Question" segment producer, and feature reporter),
weather caster
Jim Loboy, and news reporter Greta Mittereder (who also produces the "Greta On The Go" segment).
An HD simulcast is also offered on
WYFX-LD2
(Channel 62.2).
Programming
[
edit
]
Children's programming
[
edit
]
WYTV became known for its programming targeted to kids. WYTV aired
cartoons
and other kid-themed programming between the after school hours of 4 and 6 p.m. It once aired a kids' show during the 1980s entitled
33 Powwww
which consisted of a "voice-activated" video game powered by the
Mattel
Intellivision
. Viewers would call in to play this game and win prizes. Cartoons were also aired during the show. The
TV POWWW
concept was a syndicated franchise seen on television stations throughout the United States such as WCLQ in Cleveland (now
WQHS-TV
). WYTV also has produced the local quiz show
YSU Academic Challenge
in which
high school
and
middle school
students from all over the area answered questions for prizes.
Fox programming
[
edit
]
During its affiliation pact with Fox, which lasted until low-power sister station WYFX signed on in 1998, WYTV preempted ABC programming whenever Fox programming aired.
[
citation needed
]
Saving Private Ryan
[
edit
]
WYTV was not among the ABC affiliates to preempt the
Veterans Day
airing of the film
Saving Private Ryan
in 2004 out of fears of being fined by the FCC for indecency in the wake of the
Super Bowl XXXVIII halftime show controversy
, feeling that the film aired unedited on
terrestrial television
in the past without FCC repercussions.
[31]
Because WYTV did opt to air
Saving Private Ryan
, this gave viewers in the Columbus, Cleveland, and Pittsburgh television markets that were able to view WYTV either over-the-air or on
cable television
the option of watching the film, since
Sinclair Broadcast Group
,
E. W. Scripps Company
, and
Hearst-Argyle Television
(owners of WSYX,
WEWS-TV
, and WTAE-TV, respectively) did not allow any of their ABC affiliates to air the film. As Sinclair and Scripps each own additional ABC affiliates in the state, WYTV ultimately was one of only two ABC affiliates in the state of Ohio to air the film, alongside then-ABC
owned-and-operated station
WTVG
. It was later determined that showing the movie was not a violation of FCC regulations.
News operation
[
edit
]
For a period as a separate station, WYTV produced a prime time newscast at 10 p.m. on its MyNetworkTV second digital subchannel. This competed with another broadcast airing at the same time on Fox affiliate WYFX that was produced by WKBN.
In December 2007, the news departments of WYTV and WKBN physically merged. As a result, over 40 personnel at WYTV and six at WKBN were laid-off.
[32]
Under the shared services agreement, the senior station partner began producing newscasts on this ABC affiliate from a secondary set at the Sunset Boulevard studios. A previous plan calling for WYTV to build streetside satellite studios in downtown Youngstown was abandoned due to the consolidation. The current operational status of its
Doppler
weather radar
based at the old facility on Shady Run Road is unknown. The two stations gradually had their on-air looks mirror each other while their respective websites became identical. New logos for the stations and updated websites debuted in January 2009 including combined operations for sports and weather.
Due to the duopoly, WYTV and WKBN maintain separate primary anchors for news, weather, and sports during the week but share most general assignment reporters and video footage. The two initially maintained separate websites as well; however, after LIN Media took over ownership of WKBN/WYFX and operations of WYTV, WYTV's website became a redirect to WKBN's website with only WYTV's
station identification
information available on WKBN's site.
On May 6, 2010, the two outlets upgraded their combined news operation to high definition complete with new graphics on WYTV. There are news and weather sharing partnerships with
WKBN
(570 AM),
WNIO
(1390 AM),
WNCD
(93.3 FM),
WAKZ
(95.9 FM),
WMXY
(98.9 FM), and
WBBG
(106.1 FM).
In November 2013, WYTV along with WKBN debuted a branded tool for showing live broadcasts from a moving vehicle. "33 Live Drive Action Cam" is a
Jeep Patriot
that can chase storms, show road conditions and respond to breaking news.
Also in November 2013, WYTV began separating its content from that of WKBN and WYFX. This included WYTV receiving its own website once again.
Subchannels
[
edit
]
The station's signal is
multiplexed
:
References
[
edit
]
- ^
"Facility Technical Data for WYTV"
.
Licensing and Management System
.
Federal Communications Commission
.
- ^
"Court Rules for WKST-TV Ch. 45"
(PDF)
.
Broadcasting
. May 12, 1958. p. 10
. Retrieved
November 14,
2019
.
- ^
"Government notes"
(PDF)
.
Broadcasting
. August 3, 1959. p. 76
. Retrieved
November 14,
2019
.
- ^
Silika, Adrian (November 15, 1960).
"Information Shows Lift Quality of Sunday's TV"
.
The Vindicator
. p. 17
. Retrieved
November 13,
2019
.
- ^
"Channel 45 Goes Off Air; Faces Hearing Before FCC"
.
The Vindicator
. March 1, 1962. pp. 1, 2
. Retrieved
November 13,
2019
.
- ^
"FCC kills WWIZ, WXTV (TV)"
(PDF)
.
Broadcasting
. April 6, 1964. p. 92
. Retrieved
November 13,
2019
.
- ^
"WWIZ, WXTV(TV) ordered off air"
(PDF)
.
Broadcasting
. April 27, 1964. p. 64
. Retrieved
November 13,
2019
.
- ^
"Date of WWIZ, WXTV(TV) & WFAR renewal decision"
(PDF)
.
Broadcasting
. April 6, 1964. p. 174
. Retrieved
November 13,
2019
.
- ^
"2 ETV's for 3 schools asked"
(PDF)
.
Broadcasting
. May 24, 1971. p. 36
. Retrieved
November 14,
2019
.
- ^
"$8.5 million sales approved"
(PDF)
.
Broadcasting
. February 15, 1965. p. 46
. Retrieved
October 31,
2022
.
- ^
"WYTV Broadcasting Cablecastng Yearbook 1983"
(PDF)
.
americanradiohistory.com
. Retrieved
March 3,
2019
.
- ^
"WYTV Broadcasting Cablecasting Yearbook 1973"
(PDF)
.
americanradiohistory.com
. Retrieved
March 3,
2019
.
- ^
"WYTV Broadcasting Cablecastng Yearbook 1985"
(PDF)
.
americanradiohistory.com
. Retrieved
March 3,
2019
.
- ^
"WYTV Broadcasting Cablecastng Yearbook 1986"
(PDF)
.
americanradiohistory.com
. Retrieved
March 3,
2019
.
- ^
"RBR's Morning E-Paper"
. Archived from
the original
on January 3, 2007
. Retrieved
July 5,
2006
.
- ^
Service Area Map - FCC
[
permanent dead link
]
- ^
"WYTV employees to lose seniority under new owner"
.
vindy.com
. Archived from
the original
on August 22, 2007
. Retrieved
January 23,
2013
.
- ^
[1]
Archived
March 6, 2012, at the
Wayback Machine
- ^
Malone, Michael (May 7, 2012).
"LIN Acquiring New Vision Stations for $330 Million"
.
Broadcasting & Cable
. Retrieved
May 7,
2012
.
- ^
"Joint Sales Agreement"
(PDF)
.
Federal Communications Commission
. May 4, 2012. Archived from
the original
(PDF)
on January 12, 2016
. Retrieved
January 26,
2015
.
- ^
[2]
[
dead link
]
- ^
"LIN Completes New Vision Stations Buy"
.
TVNewsCheck
. October 12, 2012
. Retrieved
January 26,
2015
.
- ^
Reid Blackwell, John (March 21, 2014).
"MG will combine with LIN TV chain"
.
Richmond Times-Dispatch
. Retrieved
March 22,
2014
.
- ^
"Television companies to merge"
.
The Vindicator
. March 22, 2014
. Retrieved
March 22,
2014
.
- ^
FCC Okays Media General/LIN Merger
Broadcasting & Cable
(December 12, 2014)
- ^
Media General Completes Merger With LIN Media
Archived
December 19, 2014, at the
Wayback Machine
, Press Release,
Media General
, Retrieved December 19, 2014
- ^
"Big money from FCC auction means end of some TV stations"
.
post-gazette.com
. Retrieved
March 3,
2019
.
- ^
Attention viewers: WKBN is switching frequencies
WKBN-TV (April 20, 2018)
- ^
MyYTV Announces Program Line-Up
.
- ^
Station unveils plans for MyYTV
.
- ^
"Scaring Private Ryan: 20 ABC Affiliates Nix Movie"
.
businessdailyjournal.com
. Archived from
the original
on November 9, 2013
. Retrieved
March 3,
2019
.
- ^
"WKBN-TV lays off at least 6 workers"
. Vindy.com. Archived from
the original
on July 29, 2012
. Retrieved
January 23,
2013
.
- ^
"Digital TV Market Listing for WYTV"
.
rabbitears.info
. Retrieved
March 3,
2019
.
External links
[
edit
]
|
---|
|
Over-the-air
|
- WFMJ-TV 21
(.1
NBC
,
.2
CW
, .3
Dabl
)
- WKBN-TV 27
(.1
CBS
,
.2
Fox
)
- WYTV 33
(.1
ABC
, .2
MNTV
)
- WNEO 45
(.1
PBS
, .2 Fusion, .3
FNX
)
- WYFX-LD 62
(.1
Fox
,
.2
MNTV
, .3
Ion
, .4
Bounce
, .5
Laff
, .6
ANT
)
|
---|
Cable
| |
---|
Defunct
| |
---|
|
ABC
network affiliates licensed to and serving the state of
Ohio
|
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Primary*
| |
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Secondary**
| |
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(*) ? indicates station is in one of Ohio's primary
TV markets
(**) ? indicates station is in an out-of-state TV market, but reaches a small portion of Ohio
|
ABC
network affiliates licensed to and serving the Commonwealth of
Pennsylvania
|
---|
Primary*
| |
---|
Secondary**
| |
---|
(*) ? indicates station is in one of Pennsylvania's primary
TV markets
(**) ? indicates station is in an out-of-state TV market, but reaches a small portion of Pennsylvania
|
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|
ABC
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CBS
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The CW
(
O&O
)
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Fox
| |
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MyNetworkTV
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NBC
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Other stations
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TV channels
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TV programs
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Other assets
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Acquisitions
| |
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- 1
Nexstar operates these stations under an
SSA
.
- 2
These stations broadcast these networks on their digital subchannels.
|