User:CoolKatt number 99999/Draft
 | |
| Channels | |
|---|---|
| Branding | myTV |
| Programming | |
| Affiliations | Independent |
| Ownership | |
| Owner | Shooting Star Broadcasting |
| History | |
| Founded | January 22, 1983 (1969 as WXPO-TV) |
Former call signs | WXPO-TV (1969-70) WNDS (1983-88, 1993-2005) WQNH (1988-93) WZMY-TV (2005–2011) WBIN-TV (2011–2018) |
| Global Shopping Network (1997) | |
Call sign meaning | "WZ myTV" |
| Technical information[1] | |
Licensing authority | FCC |
| Facility ID | 14682 |
| Links | |
Public license information | |
| Website | www.mytvstation.tv |
- This station shouldn't be confused with My Network TV, a News Corporation-controlled primetime network set to launch in September 2006 (see below).
WZMY-TV is an independent television station serving Southern New Hampshire and the northern fringes of the Boston, Massachusetts television market. Owned by Shooting Star Broadcasting, it's known on air as myTV, and therefore bases much of its schedule on viewer suggestions.
The station is well known in the region for legendary weatherman Al Kaprielian, as well as its weekend candlepin bowling program, which (as of September 2005) is on hiatus.
History[edit]
Channel 50 first signed on as WXPO-TV early in October 1969, from two studios. Its offices and master production facilites were located on Dutton Street in downtown Lowell, Massachusetts; however, its "main" studio was on Governor Dinsmore Road in Windham, New Hampshire to comply with FCC regulations requiring that a station's main studio be located within 15 miles of the city of licence. The original vision was to air business news during the daytime, and a general entertainment format -- including sports -- late in the afternoon and in the evening. The station was then owned by Merrimack Valley Communications, licensed to Manchester, and mainly targeted the Boston market.
Its Treehouse 50 program in the afternoons gained a cult following with Boston-area college students, as it had slapstick comedy and the Warner Brothers cartoons that had been released to television stations at that time. In addition, channel 50 was the first station to have news updates every hour, long before the 24-hour news sources of the early 1990s, was the first New England television station (beating WKBG, now WLVI) to air a ten o'clock newscast (however, it had no newsfilm to use), and attempted to do live remotes with some mixed success. In addition, WXPO was infamous for a New Year's Eve show that by 1:00AM had started to become particularly strange.
However, the station's coverage in many parts of Greater Boston was spotty at best. The station's transmitter was located less than 1,000 feet from WLLH-AM 1400, making high-quality production impossible during the day due to RF interference with the cameras. Advertisers were scared off when the Lowell Sun blacklisted anyone who advertised on the station. Bills went unpaid for several months.
By early 1970, the vast majority (90%) of the staff was removed from the payroll, although many continued with the station, believing it could pull through. Unfortunately for them, the spring of that year saw the Lowell studio closing its doors. Finally, in June the power company pulled the plug at the Windham studios during a Maverick rerun, taking WXPO off the air.
On July 17, 1973, channel 50 returned to the air with a test transmission, with plans to return the station to the air later that year, possibly as New Hampshire's CBS affiliate. Unfortunately, those plans were never realized, and the original WXPO-TV license was deleted in 1975.
Channel 50 again returned to the airwaves on January 22, 1983 as WNDS, again airing an independent format that was a constant of the station for most of its years of operation. By that point, channel 50's city of license was changed to Derry. Beginning in April 1988, the station held the WQNH callsign, but in December 1993 returned to WNDS. In 1997, CTV of Derry, the then-owners of WNDS, attempted to sell the station to the Global Shopping Network, who operated channel 50 from April to June with a home shopping format. [1] However, GSN failed to make important payments for WNDS (as well as their other stations), effectively returning control to the station to CTV. [2], [3]
In September 1998, WNDS began the News Now local newscast at 7 and 10PM, as well as a short-lived Saturday afternoon newscast. By 2003, the 11:57AM news update was expanded into a full noon newscast. However, the station began to struggle by 2004-05 as the noon news was discontinued and the 10PM edition cut by 20 minutes in favor of syndicated programming like That 70's Show. As such, CTV of Derry sold channel 50 again, this time to Shooting Star Broadcasting.
In the summer of 2005, Shooting Star announced that the station would change the call letters to WZMY-TV and the branding to myTV [4], coinciding with a major overhaul of the programming lineup, including the complete removal of the 10PM news, the delaying of the 7PM by 30 minutes to 7:30, new local programs, and other changes [5] based on viewer responses on the old WNDS website, as well as the immediate placing on hiatus of the Candlepin Stars and Strikes program in favor of Perry Mason reruns. [6]. The station relaunched on September 26th.
MyTV vs. My Network TV[edit]
In February 2006, Fox announced the formation of My Network TV, which will provide programming to UPN and WB stations that are not affiliated with The CW in September 2006. WZMY's owners may file a lawsuit against Fox, stating that they filed the My TV name as a trademark in the Summer of 2005, and that Fox's My Network TV would lead to confusion, especially in the Boston area (where they have yet to get an affiliate) [7]. One possibility is that as a settlement, WZMY could become the My Network TV affiliate for Boston and launch a satellite to better serve the Boston metropolitan area. This was boosted further by the fact that CBS-owned WSBK announced they would notseek the MNTV affiliation.
Local programming[edit]
Newscasts[edit]
As WNDS[edit]
This is the listing of the station's old News Now broadcasts:
- News Now at 7 - 7-7:30PM Monday-Friday
- News Now at 10 - 10-10:10PM Monday-Friday
In addition, some news/weather updates as well as stand-alone weather updates from Al Kaprielian were provided throughout the day. When myTV launched, the 10:00PM news was dropped.
As WZMY[edit]
At WZMY's launch, only one news broadcast was on the schedule:
- myTV Now - 7:30-8:00PM Monday-Friday (discontinued on March 10th, 2006)
This newscast was discontinued on March 10, 2006, although a re-formatted myTV Prime does include newscast elements.
News Broadcast Schedule, as of 3/10/06:
- "myTV Prime" - 8:00-9:30PM - Monday-Friday. News updates each halfhour, Al K's weather, and the great local talk you love!
In addition, weather updates from Al Kaprielian are provided each hour from noon to midnight. News is no longer provided outside of myTV Prime.
Other local programs[edit]
As WNDS[edit]
For most of WNDS's existence, the station ran a candlepin bowling show each weekend at noon called Candlepin Stars and Strikes, which (as of 2006) is on hiatus. In addition, during the early 2000s, the station ran a public affairs program titled Capital Ideas, but this program is also off the air.
Prior to the switch to Global Shopping Network in April 1997, WNDS also ran three additional shows: High School Sports Review, which looked at high school sports news in the station's broadcast region, Sports Wrap, a sports talk show discussing Boston sports, and WNDS News Up Front, a local newsmagazine. When regular programming was restored in June, these three shows were not resurrected.
As WZMY[edit]
As of the original schedule for myTV ([8], [9]), local programming includes:
- My New England - 1-1:30PM every day, with other showings throughout the day (local areas and businesses)
- myTV Prime - 8:00-10:30 PM Monday-Friday (talk show about local topics)
- Wild World - 7-7:30PM Saturdays (an review show of action sports around the region)
In addition, the station has said that candlepin bowling may return to the schedule, although no timetable has been announced.
On March 13, 2006, myTV Prime was re-formatted to remove political elements and was moved to a 8-9:30PM time slot, incorporating elements from the discontinued myTV Now.
WZMY News Team[edit]
WZMY-TV has the same anchors and reporters that were broadcasting on WNDS.
- Al Kaprielian, My TV Chief Meteorologist
- Rick Gordon, My TV Fill-In Meteorologist
- Doug Finck, My New England Host
- Eric Sheiner, Director of Content & My TV Prime News Reader & Reporter
- Gail Scott-Key, My TV Prime News Reader & Reporter
- Mike DeBlasi - My TV Prime Anchor
- Nicole Papageorge - My TV Prime Anchor
Bios can be read at http://mytvstation.tv/stories.asp?id=47.
External links[edit]
| Broadcast television in New Hampshire | ||
|---|---|---|
|
WMUR 9 (ABC) - WENH 11/WLED 49/WEKW 52 (PBS/NHPTV) - WPXG 21 (i) - W26CQ 26 (ABC) - WNNE 31 (NBC) - WZMY 50 (IND) - WNEU 60 (TMD) | ||
| Past broadcast stations | ||
|
WHED 15 / WEDB 40 (PBS/NHPTV) - WNHT 21 (IND, CBS) - WXPO 50 (IND) | ||
| Broadcast television available on cable only: | ||
|
CKSH-TV 9 (SRC) (Sherbrooke) | ||
| See also, Broadcast television in Boston, Champlain Valley, Portland and Sherbrooke / Estrie
| ||
- ^ "Facility Technical Data for WWJE-DT". Licensing and Management System. Federal Communications Commission.