WIVT
Encyclopedia
WIVT is the ABC
-affiliated television station
for Upstate
new York's Eastern Southern Tier
licensed to Binghamton
. It broadcasts a high definition
digital signal on UHF channel 34 from a transmitter at its studios on Ingraham Hill
Road southwest of Downtown Binghamton. The station can also be seen on Time Warner Cable
channel 6 and in high definition on digital channel 703. Owned by Newport Television
, WIVT is sister to Class A
NBC
affiliate WBGH-CA
and the two outlets share studios. However, master control and some internal operations are based at centralcasting
facilities within WSYR-TV
's facility on Bridge Street in East Syracuse
. Syndicated
programming on this station includes Wheel of Fortune
, Jeopardy!
, Judge Joe Brown and Judge Judy
among others.
to serve as that purpose. WBGH can also be seen in HD on Time Warner
Cable digital channel 700.
of WKBW-AM
-TV
in Buffalo
, secured a construction permit
for Binghamton's third television station in 1956. He named it WBJA-TV after his wife Beth J. Anscombe. Initially, the station was allocated to UHF analog channel 56. However not long after Anscombe won the permit, two competing ABC affiliates in Northeastern Pennsylvania
(WILK-TV channel 34 in Wilkes-Barre and WARM-TV channel 16 in Scranton) merged to form WNEP-TV
. The newly merged station retained WILK's license but used WARM's old UHF channel 16.
Seeing a chance to use more signal at less cost, Anscombe sought and won a new construction permit for analog channel 34. The new station signed-on November 9, 1962 from studios at its transmitter site on Ingraham Hill south of Binghamton. It has always been an ABC affiliate. The Northeastern Pennsylvania
-area station now known as WOLF-TV
signed-on in 1985 using analog channel 56. WBJA was sold in the late-1970s and the call letters were changed to WMGC-TV while adopting the slogan "Magic 34". It dropped the branding by the mid to late-1980s but kept the call letters until the Ackerley Group
bought the station in 1997. At that time, it adopted the current calls WIVT.
This was where a connection to WIXT (now WSYR) came in as the new call-sign was based on that station in Syracuse
. A few months later, Ackerley nearly lost its investment. On May 31, 1998, a tornado
ripped through WIVT's Ingraham Hill studios and blew down its tower. Cross-town rival CBS
affiliate WBNG-TV
had live reports that night literally from the WIVT facilities. It had a feed restored to cable
providers within days but was off-air for several months. Ackerley merged with Clear Channel Communications
in 2001. On April 20, 2007, the company entered into an agreement to sell its entire television stations group to Newport Television, a broadcasting group established by Providence Equity Partners
. WIVT ceased analog transmission after midnight on June 12, 2009. Initially, the station continued its digital broadcasts on VHF
channel 4 while new equipment was installed.
That had been in use at co-owned CBS affiliate KGPE
in Fresno, California
for analog operations and was installed for WIVT's digital operations on channel 34 in early August. The channel 4 signal, which had been broadcasting since June 16, 2003, was located on a low-band
of VHF and vulnerable to impulse noise
. WIVT commenced digital operations on channel 34 early in the morning on August 17 and channel 4 went dark on August 18. Since WBGH operates as part of the WIVT twinstick, this station's second digital subchannel now carries WBGH in 1080i high definition as of February 9, 2010. The official plan is to broadcast that station in high definition in the future with the Federal Communications Commission
(FCC) roll-out plan for low-power digital stations.
For its entire existence, WBNG has held the number one spot in Nielsen ratings
by a wide margin. For the most part during its first forty years on-the-air, WIVT has been a non-factor in the local newscast race in Binghamton . It has spent most of its history as the third station in what was at one point essentially a two-station market
. WIVT reaped virtually no benefit when the area's long-time NBC affiliate WICZ switched to Fox in 1996. Since then, that outlet has consistently been at a distant second place behind WBNG with significantly lower ratings. Immediately after taking control, the Ackerley Group significantly upgraded WIVT's news department with the ability to share resources with WIXT's well-respected news department in Syracuse as well as the company's other television properties in Upstate New York.
In July 2002 after dropping a separate show, a two-hour weekday morning show known as Daybreak debuted on WIVT. The broadcast, airing from 5 until 7, was simulcasted on sister stations WWTI in Watertown and WUTR in Utica. The newscast was produced by WIXT from a secondary set at its studios and included brief localized updates (focusing on Binghamton) twice an hour. Most coverage, however, presented was regional in nature with area-wide weather forecasts. After the tornado destroyed its newly renovated studios, this station temporarily relocated to the facilities of PBS
affiliate WSKG-TV
in Vestal
while rebuilding on Ingraham Hill. However, the upgrades proved unsustainable and cuts began to be made as a result.
The station closed down its sports department in 2006 at the same time its full-length newscast weeknights at 11 was reduced to a short five-minute update
. WIVT also began originating its early weeknight shows, including musical performances, from secondary studios in the Oakdale Mall
in Johnson City
. During this period, sister outlet WBGH simulcasted WIVT's weeknight newscasts at 5:30 and 6 as well as the update at 11. Due to a lack of meteorologists (except for a lone weather anchor) base at WWTI, this station's forecasting personnel provided most weather segments taped in advance for that station. On Memorial Day
in 2009 in order to increase its presence against WIVT and WBNG, WICZ added a thirty minute newscast seen weeknights at 6.
On June 5, 2009, WIVT and WBGH announced there would be a consolidation of news operations with sister outlet WETM in Elmira after Newport Television made across the board cuts. WBNG reported all but two people from the news staff and all production personnel for the news department would be terminated. The Press & Sun-Bulletin
identified the two personnel remaining as news anchor Peter Quinn and News Director
Jim Ehmke but also said fifteen other members of the original 28 person staff, including non-news personnel, would remain based in Binghamton. The two continued to be locally operated and maintain engineer staff at the studios on Ingraham Hill Road. Initially, WIVT and WBGH simulcasted all newscasts from WETM with hardly any coverage of Binghamton except during regional weather forecast segments. This left the Eastern Southern Tier with two television stations for local news, and as a result, there was a noticeable increase in viewership on WBNG and (to a lesser extent) on WICZ.
It would not be until June 28 of that year when a separate newscast focusing on the Binghamton area was brought back to WIVT and WBGH. This is taped in advance (featuring locally-based photojournalists) and aired weeknights at 6 and again at 11 with updated weather and sports cut-ins in the later show. Originally airing from a secondary set at WETM's studios on East Water Street in Downtown Elmira, production of the news and sports segments eventually shifted back to the Ingraham Hill facility with weather cut-ins from Elmira. Currently, WIVT simulcasts WETM's newscasts on weekday mornings (second hour only) and weekdays at noon. On weekends, WETM's show at 11 is the only broadcast seen on WIVT. Meanwhile, WBGH carries the Elmira station's early evening news at 6 on Sundays and late broadcast at 11 on both weekend nights. Those broadcasts are not seen at all on WIVT.
Anchors
NewsChannel 34 Storm Team Meteorologists
Sports
Reporters
American Broadcasting Company
The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...
-affiliated television station
Television station
A television station is a business, organisation or other such as an amateur television operator that transmits content over terrestrial television. A television transmission can be by analog television signals or, more recently, by digital television. Broadcast television systems standards are...
for Upstate
Upstate New York
Upstate New York is the region of the U.S. state of New York that is located north of the core of the New York metropolitan area.-Definition:There is no clear or official boundary between Upstate New York and Downstate New York...
new York's Eastern Southern Tier
Southern Tier
The Southern Tier is a geographical term that refers to the counties of New York State west of the Catskill Mountains along the northern border of Pennsylvania. It is a loosely defined term that generally includes the counties that border Pennsylvania west of Delaware County inclusive...
licensed to Binghamton
Binghamton, New York
Binghamton is a city in the Southern Tier of New York in the United States. It is near the Pennsylvania border, in a bowl-shaped valley at the confluence of the Susquehanna and Chenango Rivers...
. It broadcasts a high definition
High-definition television
High-definition television is video that has resolution substantially higher than that of traditional television systems . HDTV has one or two million pixels per frame, roughly five times that of SD...
digital signal on UHF channel 34 from a transmitter at its studios on Ingraham Hill
Ingraham Hill
Ingraham Hill is a hill in Binghamton, New York which contains the television and radio broadcast towers for the surrounding metropolitan area. The summit rises to an elevation of . These towers include TV stations WBNG, WICZ, WIVT, WSKG-TV and radio stations WNBF, WAAL, WWYL and many more. The...
Road southwest of Downtown Binghamton. The station can also be seen on Time Warner Cable
Time Warner Cable
Time Warner Cable is an American cable television company that operates in 28 states and has 31 operating divisions...
channel 6 and in high definition on digital channel 703. Owned by Newport Television
Newport Television
Newport Television, LLC is 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. In September 2007, Newport agreed to sell KFTY and KVOS-TV to LK Station Group LLC for $26.6...
, WIVT is sister to Class A
Class A television service
The class A television service is a system for regulating some low-power television stations in the United States. Class A stations are denoted by the broadcast callsign suffix "-CA" or "-CD" , although very many analog -CA stations have a digital companion channel that was assigned the -LD...
NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
affiliate WBGH-CA
WBGH-CA
WBGH-CA is the Class A NBC-affiliated television station for New York's Eastern Southern Tier licensed to Binghamton. It broadcasts a low-powered analog signal on UHF channel 20 from a transmitter at its studios on Ingraham Hill Road. The station can also be seen on Time Warner Cable channel 5 and...
and the two outlets share studios. However, master control and some internal operations are based at centralcasting
Centralcasting
In terrestrial radio and television broadcasting, centralcasting refers to the use of systems automation by which customised signals for broadcast by multiple individual stations may be created at one central facility.- :...
facilities within WSYR-TV
WSYR-TV
WSYR-TV is the ABC-affiliated television station for Central New York State that is licensed to Syracuse. It broadcasts a high definition digital signal on UHF channel 17 from a transmitter on Sevier Road in Pompey. The station can also be seen on Time Warner channel 9 and in high definition on...
's facility on Bridge Street in East Syracuse
East Syracuse, New York
East Syracuse is an incorporated village and a suburb of the City of Syracuse in eastern Onondaga County, New York. United States. As of the 2000 U.S. Census, the village had a population of 3,178....
. Syndicated
Television syndication
In broadcasting, syndication is the sale of the right to broadcast radio shows and television shows by multiple radio stations and television stations, without going through a broadcast network, though the process of syndication may conjure up structures like those of a network itself, by its very...
programming on this station includes Wheel of Fortune
Wheel of Fortune (U.S. game show)
Wheel of Fortune is an American television game show created by Merv Griffin, which premiered in 1975. Contestants compete to solve word puzzles, similar to those used in Hangman, to win cash and prizes determined by spinning a large wheel. The title refers to the show's giant carnival wheel that...
, Jeopardy!
Jeopardy!
Griffin's first conception of the game used a board comprising ten categories with ten clues each, but after finding that this board could not be shown on camera easily, he reduced it to two rounds of thirty clues each, with five clues in each of six categories...
, Judge Joe Brown and Judge Judy
Judge Judy
Judge Judy is an American court show featuring former family court judge Judith Sheindlin arbitrating over small claims cases in small claims court...
among others.
Digital programming
Due to its Class A status, WBGH does not air a digital signal of its own. However, there is one offered in high definition on WIVT's second digital subchannelDigital subchannel
In broadcasting, digital subchannels are a means to transmit more than one independent program at the same time from the same digital radio or digital television station on the same radio frequency channel. This is done by using data compression techniques to reduce the size of each individual...
to serve as that purpose. WBGH can also be seen in HD on Time Warner
Time Warner
Time Warner is one of the world's largest media companies, headquartered in the Time Warner Center in New York City. Formerly two separate companies, Warner Communications, Inc...
Cable digital channel 700.
| Channel | Name | Video Display resolution The display resolution of a digital television or display device is the number of distinct pixels in each dimension that can be displayed. It can be an ambiguous term especially as the displayed resolution is controlled by all different factors in cathode ray tube , flat panel or projection... |
Aspect Aspect ratio The aspect ratio of a shape is the ratio of its longer dimension to its shorter dimension. It may be applied to two characteristic dimensions of a three-dimensional shape, such as the ratio of the longest and shortest axis, or for symmetrical objects that are described by just two measurements,... |
Programming |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 34.1 | WIVT-HD | 720p 720p 720p is the shorthand name for 1280x720, a category of High-definition television video modes having a resolution of 1080 or 720p and a progressive scan... |
16:9 16:9 16:9 is an aspect ratio with a width of 16 units and height of 9. Since 2009, it has become the most common aspect ratio for sold televisions and computer monitors and is also the international standard format of HDTV, Full HD, non-HD digital television and analog widescreen television ... |
main WIVT programming/ABC (HD) |
| 34.2 | WIVT-DT2 | 1080i 1080i 1080i is the shorthand name for a high-definition television mode. The i means interlaced video; 1080i differs from 1080p, in which the p stands for progressive scan. The term 1080i assumes a widescreen aspect ratio of 16:9, implying a frame size of 1920×1080 pixels... |
16:9 | WBGH-CA "NBC 5" (HD) |
History
Al Anscombe, former General ManagerGeneral manager
General manager is a descriptive term for certain executives in a business operation. It is also a formal title held by some business executives, most commonly in the hospitality industry.-Generic usage:...
of WKBW-AM
WWKB
WWKB is an AM radio station in Buffalo, New York that operates on a frequency of 1520 kHz. It is owned and operated by Entercom Communications. The station carries a progressive talk radio format. Declaring itself as A New Voice, A New Choice, The Voice of the New Majority; WWKB carries a number...
-TV
WKBW-TV
WKBW-TV, channel 7, is the ABC affiliate for the Buffalo, New York television market, and is one of many local Buffalo TV stations seen over-the-air and on cable in Canada. Its transmitter is located at 8909 Center Street in Colden. The station is owned by the Granite Broadcasting Corporation, who...
in Buffalo
Buffalo, New York
Buffalo is the second most populous city in the state of New York, after New York City. Located in Western New York on the eastern shores of Lake Erie and at the head of the Niagara River across from Fort Erie, Ontario, Buffalo is the seat of Erie County and the principal city of the...
, secured a construction permit
Construction permit
A construction permit or building permit is a permit required in most jurisdictions for new construction, or adding on to pre-existing structures, and in some cases for major renovations. Generally, the new construction must be inspected during construction and after completion to ensure compliance...
for Binghamton's third television station in 1956. He named it WBJA-TV after his wife Beth J. Anscombe. Initially, the station was allocated to UHF analog channel 56. However not long after Anscombe won the permit, two competing ABC affiliates in Northeastern Pennsylvania
Northeastern Pennsylvania
Northeastern Pennsylvania is a geographic region of Pennsylvania that includes the Pocono Mountains, the Endless Mountains and the industrial cities of Scranton, Wilkes-Barre, Pittston, Hazleton and Carbondale....
(WILK-TV channel 34 in Wilkes-Barre and WARM-TV channel 16 in Scranton) merged to form WNEP-TV
WNEP-TV
WNEP-TV is the ABC-affiliated television station for northeastern Pennsylvania licensed to Scranton. It broadcasts a high definition digital signal on UHF channel 50 from a transmitter on Penobscot Knob in Mountain Top...
. The newly merged station retained WILK's license but used WARM's old UHF channel 16.
Seeing a chance to use more signal at less cost, Anscombe sought and won a new construction permit for analog channel 34. The new station signed-on November 9, 1962 from studios at its transmitter site on Ingraham Hill south of Binghamton. It has always been an ABC affiliate. The Northeastern Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania
The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is a U.S. state that is located in the Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The state borders Delaware and Maryland to the south, West Virginia to the southwest, Ohio to the west, New York and Ontario, Canada, to the north, and New Jersey to...
-area station now known as WOLF-TV
WOLF-TV
WOLF-TV is the Fox-affiliated television station for Northeastern Pennsylvania that is licensed to Hazleton. It broadcasts a high definition digital signal on UHF channel 45 from a transmitter at the Penobscot Knob antenna farm near Mountain Top. Owned by New Age Media, the station is sister to CW...
signed-on in 1985 using analog channel 56. WBJA was sold in the late-1970s and the call letters were changed to WMGC-TV while adopting the slogan "Magic 34". It dropped the branding by the mid to late-1980s but kept the call letters until the Ackerley Group
Ackerley Group
The Ackerley Group was an American media company that owned several television stations that was taken over by Clear Channel Communications in 2001. Its chairman was Seattle-based businessman Barry Ackerley.-Stations list :...
bought the station in 1997. At that time, it adopted the current calls WIVT.
This was where a connection to WIXT (now WSYR) came in as the new call-sign was based on that station in Syracuse
Syracuse, New York
Syracuse is a city in and the county seat of Onondaga County, New York, United States, the largest U.S. city with the name "Syracuse", and the fifth most populous city in the state. At the 2010 census, the city population was 145,170, and its metropolitan area had a population of 742,603...
. A few months later, Ackerley nearly lost its investment. On May 31, 1998, a tornado
Tornado
A tornado is a violent, dangerous, rotating column of air that is in contact with both the surface of the earth and a cumulonimbus cloud or, in rare cases, the base of a cumulus cloud. They are often referred to as a twister or a cyclone, although the word cyclone is used in meteorology in a wider...
ripped through WIVT's Ingraham Hill studios and blew down its tower. Cross-town rival CBS
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...
affiliate WBNG-TV
WBNG-TV
WBNG-TV is the CBS-affiliated television station for Upstate New York's Eastern Southern Tier licensed to Binghamton. It broadcasts a high definition digital signal on VHF channel 7 from a transmitter on Ingraham Hill Road southwest of downtown. The station can also be seen on Time Warner Cable...
had live reports that night literally from the WIVT facilities. It had a feed restored to cable
Cable television
Cable television is a system of providing television programs to consumers via radio frequency signals transmitted to televisions through coaxial cables or digital light pulses through fixed optical fibers located on the subscriber's property, much like the over-the-air method used in traditional...
providers within days but was off-air for several months. Ackerley merged with Clear Channel Communications
Clear Channel Communications
Clear Channel Communications, Inc. is an American media conglomerate company headquartered in San Antonio, Texas. It was founded in 1972 by Lowry Mays and Red McCombs, and was taken private by Bain Capital LLC and Thomas H. Lee Partners LP in a leveraged buyout in 2008...
in 2001. On April 20, 2007, the company entered into an agreement to sell its entire television stations group to Newport Television, a broadcasting group established by Providence Equity Partners
Providence Equity Partners
Providence Equity Partners is a global private equity investment firm focused on media, entertainment, communications and information investments...
. WIVT ceased analog transmission after midnight on June 12, 2009. Initially, the station continued its digital broadcasts on VHF
Very high frequency
Very high frequency is the radio frequency range from 30 MHz to 300 MHz. Frequencies immediately below VHF are denoted High frequency , and the next higher frequencies are known as Ultra high frequency...
channel 4 while new equipment was installed.
That had been in use at co-owned CBS affiliate KGPE
KGPE
KGPE, virtual channel 47, is the CBS affiliated television station for the Fresno, California market. KGPE's digital signal is on UHF channel 34 from Auberry, California. It's currently owned by High Plains Broadcasting and operated by Newport Television, LLC....
in Fresno, California
Fresno, California
Fresno is a city in central California, United States, the county seat of Fresno County. As of the 2010 census, the city's population was 510,365, making it the fifth largest city in California, the largest inland city in California, and the 34th largest in the nation...
for analog operations and was installed for WIVT's digital operations on channel 34 in early August. The channel 4 signal, which had been broadcasting since June 16, 2003, was located on a low-band
Band I
Band I is the name of a radio frequency range within the very high frequency part of the electromagnetic spectrum.Band I ranges from 47 to 88 MHz, and it is primarily used for radio and television broadcasting....
of VHF and vulnerable to impulse noise
Impulse noise
Impulse noise could mean:*impulse noise *Electromagnetic interference*Burst noise...
. WIVT commenced digital operations on channel 34 early in the morning on August 17 and channel 4 went dark on August 18. Since WBGH operates as part of the WIVT twinstick, this station's second digital subchannel now carries WBGH in 1080i high definition as of February 9, 2010. The official plan is to broadcast that station in high definition in the future with the Federal Communications Commission
Federal Communications Commission
The Federal Communications Commission is an independent agency of the United States government, created, Congressional statute , and with the majority of its commissioners appointed by the current President. The FCC works towards six goals in the areas of broadband, competition, the spectrum, the...
(FCC) roll-out plan for low-power digital stations.
News operation
Nielsen Ratings
Nielsen ratings are the audience measurement systems developed by Nielsen Media Research, in an effort to determine the audience size and composition of television programming in the United States...
by a wide margin. For the most part during its first forty years on-the-air, WIVT has been a non-factor in the local newscast race in Binghamton . It has spent most of its history as the third station in what was at one point essentially a two-station market
Media market
A media market, broadcast market, media region, designated market area , Television Market Area , or simply market is a region where the population can receive the same television and radio station offerings, and may also include other types of media including newspapers and Internet content...
. WIVT reaped virtually no benefit when the area's long-time NBC affiliate WICZ switched to Fox in 1996. Since then, that outlet has consistently been at a distant second place behind WBNG with significantly lower ratings. Immediately after taking control, the Ackerley Group significantly upgraded WIVT's news department with the ability to share resources with WIXT's well-respected news department in Syracuse as well as the company's other television properties in Upstate New York.
In July 2002 after dropping a separate show, a two-hour weekday morning show known as Daybreak debuted on WIVT. The broadcast, airing from 5 until 7, was simulcasted on sister stations WWTI in Watertown and WUTR in Utica. The newscast was produced by WIXT from a secondary set at its studios and included brief localized updates (focusing on Binghamton) twice an hour. Most coverage, however, presented was regional in nature with area-wide weather forecasts. After the tornado destroyed its newly renovated studios, this station temporarily relocated to the facilities of PBS
Public Broadcasting Service
The Public Broadcasting Service is an American non-profit public broadcasting television network with 354 member TV stations in the United States which hold collective ownership. Its headquarters is in Arlington, Virginia....
affiliate WSKG-TV
WSKG-TV
WSKG-TV is a public television station in Binghamton, New York, broadcasting locally on channel 46 as a Public Broadcasting Service member station. It is owned and operated by the WSKG Public Telecommunications Council, Inc....
in Vestal
Vestal, New York
Vestal is a town within Broome County in the Southern Tier of New York, and lies between the Susquehanna River and the Pennsylvania border. As of the 2000 census, the population was 26,535, estimated to have grown to 27,369 in 2009....
while rebuilding on Ingraham Hill. However, the upgrades proved unsustainable and cuts began to be made as a result.
The station closed down its sports department in 2006 at the same time its full-length newscast weeknights at 11 was reduced to a short five-minute update
Eleven @ 11:00
Eleven @ 11:00 is the title of the 11:00 p.m. newscast on many local television stations in the United States. The name is based on the fact that the newscast will run for at least eleven minutes before the first commercial break, a summarized weather forecast segment will air during that time, or...
. WIVT also began originating its early weeknight shows, including musical performances, from secondary studios in the Oakdale Mall
Oakdale Mall
Oakdale Mall is an enclosed Super-regional shopping mall in Johnson City, New York, United States. The mall has a gross leasable area of .It offers many shops and stores, including anchor stores Sears, Macy's, J. C. Penney, Bon-Ton, and Burlington Coat Factory...
in Johnson City
Johnson City, New York
Johnson City is a village in Broome County, New York, United States. The population was 15,535 at the 2000 census. It is part of the Binghamton Metropolitan Statistical Area....
. During this period, sister outlet WBGH simulcasted WIVT's weeknight newscasts at 5:30 and 6 as well as the update at 11. Due to a lack of meteorologists (except for a lone weather anchor) base at WWTI, this station's forecasting personnel provided most weather segments taped in advance for that station. On Memorial Day
Memorial Day
Memorial Day is a United States federal holiday observed on the last Monday of May. Formerly known as Decoration Day, it originated after the American Civil War to commemorate the fallen Union soldiers of the Civil War...
in 2009 in order to increase its presence against WIVT and WBNG, WICZ added a thirty minute newscast seen weeknights at 6.
On June 5, 2009, WIVT and WBGH announced there would be a consolidation of news operations with sister outlet WETM in Elmira after Newport Television made across the board cuts. WBNG reported all but two people from the news staff and all production personnel for the news department would be terminated. The Press & Sun-Bulletin
Press & Sun-Bulletin
The Press & Sun-Bulletin is a daily newspaper serving the area around Binghamton, New York. It was formed by the 1985 merger of The Evening Press and The Sun-Bulletin. It is owned by the Gannett Company, who purchased The Binghamton Press in 1943 and The Sun-Bulletin in 1971.-External links:**...
identified the two personnel remaining as news anchor Peter Quinn and News Director
News Director
A news director is an individual at a broadcast station or network or a newspaper who is in charge of the news department. In local news, the news director is typically in charge of the entire news staff, including journalists, news presenters, photographers, copy writers, television producers,...
Jim Ehmke but also said fifteen other members of the original 28 person staff, including non-news personnel, would remain based in Binghamton. The two continued to be locally operated and maintain engineer staff at the studios on Ingraham Hill Road. Initially, WIVT and WBGH simulcasted all newscasts from WETM with hardly any coverage of Binghamton except during regional weather forecast segments. This left the Eastern Southern Tier with two television stations for local news, and as a result, there was a noticeable increase in viewership on WBNG and (to a lesser extent) on WICZ.
It would not be until June 28 of that year when a separate newscast focusing on the Binghamton area was brought back to WIVT and WBGH. This is taped in advance (featuring locally-based photojournalists) and aired weeknights at 6 and again at 11 with updated weather and sports cut-ins in the later show. Originally airing from a secondary set at WETM's studios on East Water Street in Downtown Elmira, production of the news and sports segments eventually shifted back to the Ingraham Hill facility with weather cut-ins from Elmira. Currently, WIVT simulcasts WETM's newscasts on weekday mornings (second hour only) and weekdays at noon. On weekends, WETM's show at 11 is the only broadcast seen on WIVT. Meanwhile, WBGH carries the Elmira station's early evening news at 6 on Sundays and late broadcast at 11 on both weekend nights. Those broadcasts are not seen at all on WIVT.
Newscast titles
- First News 34 (1988-1993)
- 34 Eyewitness NewsEyewitness NewsEyewitness News is a style of news broadcasting used by local television stations in different markets across the United States. It refers to a particular style of television newscast with an emphasis on visual elements and action video...
(1993-1998) - NewsChannel 34 (1998-2009, used 2009-present on weeknights and for news operation as a whole)
- WETM 18 News (2009-present, featured during WETM news simulcasts)
Station slogans
- "Your News Source for the '90s" (1993-1998)
- "Coverage You Can Count On" (1998–present)
News team
+ denotes personnel based at WIVT and WBGHAnchors
- Zach Wheeler - weekday mornings
- Brittni Smallwood - weekday mornings and reporter
- Jenelle Tortorella - weekdays at noon
- + Jim Ehmke - News DirectorNews DirectorA news director is an individual at a broadcast station or network or a newspaper who is in charge of the news department. In local news, the news director is typically in charge of the entire news staff, including journalists, news presenters, photographers, copy writers, television producers,...
seen weeknights - Sara Sultanik - weekends and reporter (also producer)
NewsChannel 34 Storm Team Meteorologists
- Joe Pasquarelli (AMSAmerican Meteorological SocietyThe American Meteorological Society promotes the development and dissemination of information and education on the atmospheric and related oceanic and hydrologic sciences and the advancement of their professional applications. Founded in 1919, the American Meteorological Society has a membership...
Seal of Approval) - Chief seen weekday mornings and noon (also "Joe's Garden" segment producer) - Tom Esterguard - weeknights
- Nick Borelli - weekends
Sports
- + Liana Bonavita - weeknights
- Mario Sacco - weekends
Reporters
- Fred Ball - "Cooking with Chef Fred" segment producer
- + Joe Stanley - "Joe Knows" segment producer
- + Peter Quinn - fill-in weeknight news anchor
- Bobby Brooks
- Sam Smink
- Chris Hush