Diemazz

WKTV
Utica, New York
Branding	NewsChannel 2 The CW 11 Central New York (on DT2)
Slogan	Where the News Comes First
Channels	Analog: 2 (VHF) Digital: 29 (UHF)
Affiliations	NBC The CW (on DT2)
Owner	Smith Media, LLC (Smith Media License Holdings, LLC)
First air date	December 1, 1949
Call letters’ meaning	Kallet TeleVision (former owner)
Former channel number(s)	13 (1949-1957)
Former affiliations	DuMont (secondary, 1949-1955) [1]
Transmitter Power	34.7 kW (analog) 708 kW (digital)
Height	421 m (analog) 402 m (digital)
Facility ID	60654
Transmitter Coordinates	43°6′8.4″N 74°56′19″W / 43.102333, -74.93861
Website	wktv.com

WKTV, channel 2, is the NBC-affiliated television station for Utica, New York. Its transmitter is located in the Eatonville section of Middleville. Owned by Smith Media, LLC, the station has studios on Smith Hill Road in Utica. Syndicated programming on WKTV includes: Jeopardy!, Wheel of Fortune, Dr. Phil, and Judge Judy. The station operates the area's CW affiliate on its second digital subchannel. Known on-air as The CW 11 Central New York, it is also offered on Time Warner cable channel 11 which is where it get the branding from. WKTV-DT2 gets all of its programming from The CW Plus. WKTV airs the entire NBC schedule except for a pre-emption of Last Call with Carson Daly in favor of Judge Joe Brown. After that, the station airs Seinfeld reruns followed by paid programming. From late-2005 on, WKTV has aired the Bill Keeler Show (a local comedy series and current topics venue) on early Saturday mornings and late Sunday nights.

History

WKTV began broadcasting on December 1, 1949 (located on channel 13) with NBC and DuMont affiliations. ^[2] Soon after, the station also picked up CBS and ABC giving it the interesting situation of being a local network affiliate for all major television networks for a period of time. The DuMont affiliation ended in the mid-1950s with the closure of that network and, due to a dispute with CBS, that affiliation ended soon after. WHEN-TV in Syracuse would became the default affiliate for the Utica area. On January 1, 1959, WKTV moved from channel 13 to channel 2 in a dial realignment. This change involved a station located on channel 13 in Hamilton, Ontario switching channel positions to add a channel 13 allotment in Rochester. This in turn, allowed a relocation of a UHF channel 13 in Albany. With the move, WKTV upgraded its signal and began to cover a fairly wide area stretching from as far south as the Catskills, as far east as the Berkshires, and into Canada. In the mid-1950s, a young local radio announcer named Dick Clark joined the staff of announcers at WKTV. He was a talented, good looking announcer and quickly gathered a following. Mr. Clark’s father was the manager of Utica radio station WRUN-AM and the son wanted to avoid the name recognition factor. To avoid confusion, Dick Clark became known as Dick Clay on-the-air. WKTV enjoyed a monopoly in the Utica television market until 1970 when WUTR signed on as an ABC affiliate. The station then became an exclusive NBC affiliate which has resulted in the statiobn being one of the oldest affiliates of the network today.

In 1980, Kallet Television would sell WKTV to Harron Communications (owner of a chain of cable companies in the Northeast and WMTW in Portland, Maine). During this time, WKTV was carried on cable systems in areas as far away as Schenectady, and for a time, in Syracuse. In the mid-1980s, the FCC ruled on cross ownership of broadcast, cable, and print media in the same communities. Harron Communication owned both WKTV and Harron Cable TV in Utica. It was required that they divest themselves of one or the other. In 1992, an agreement was reached between Harron and Smith Broadcasting. One year later, after Harron purchased the cable system in Utica (later sold to Adelphia and now part of Time Warner), Smith Broadcasting acquired WKTV. Today, the station is owned by Smith Media, LLC which is a successor to Smith Broadcasting as well as a subsidiary of Boston Ventures. Back in 1998, the creation of The WB 100+ led WKTV to partner with the group to launch a cable-only WB affiliate. This new station replaced WPIX from New York City on area cable systems. It used the "WBU" call sign in a fictional manner. On January 24, 2006, The WB and UPN announced that they would end broadcasting and merge. The new 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 September 18, WKTV created a new second digital subchannel to simulcast WBU and offer non-cable subscribers access to CW programming. That station then began using the WKTV-DT2 calls officially. Originally, this CW subchannel was known as "Central New York's CW" but, in recent times, was rebranded to "The CW 11 Central New York" to reflect its channel 11 location on Time Warner cable.

Local programming specials

America's Greatest Heart Run and Walk

WKTV hosts a telethon for the American Heart Association every March during the same weekend as America's Greatest Heart Run and Walk. The telethon is broadcasted live from Utica College and usually begins the Friday evening before the run / walk. It continues on Saturday during the event with live coverage from various points along the course. Ironically, the telethon usually out-raises the WIBX Heart Radiothon by more than tenfold even though the radiothon was the original event from the entire Heart Weekend.

Boilermaker Road Race

For many years, WKTV has provided live coverage of the Boilermaker Road Race, a 15 kilometer (9.3 mile) road race that begins near Utica Boilers and ends at the F.X. Matt Brewery. Coverage is anchored primarily from the finish line where the WKTV's sports anchors are usually stationed. Another anchor desk is set up at the starting line that is usually staffed by news anchors. The coverage is supplemented by live trucks positioned at key points along the course, portable transmitters on the race's media truck, motorcycles (driven by volunteers), and a helicopter (rented for the entire race day). The coverage is unique in that it begins by covering the race itself, following the leaders throughout the race, with interviews after they reach the finish line. Then, the focus shifts to the local angles of the race, with slices of life on the volunteers who make the race happen, local notables running the race (usually including current WKTV personalities), and former personalities who come back home to run. There is also coverage of post-race events.

Christmas Cards

WKTV is popular in their coverage area for their Christmas Cards where station personnel play practical jokes on each other or gather with their families. Each person (or group / family) gets about 7-10 seconds of face time and various shots are spliced together to create a 60-second spot. In order to include every employee, several versions are created and the various versions are rotated throughout the holiday season. The song "Christmas Is Paintin' The Town" by The Oak Ridge Boys is played in the background every year. For many years, every single version always ended with a shot of former General Manager Steve Merren and his family with a menorah prominently displayed somewhere in the shot. Since Merren exited the station, every version ends differently. Current General Manager Vic Vetters does not appear in every version.

Newscast titles

• World News (1950s-mid 1960s)
• WKTV News (mid 1960s-1975)
• NewsCenter 2 (1975-1986)
• TV 2 News (1986-1995)
• NewsChannel 2 (1995-present)

Station slogans

• Central New York's 24 Hour News Channel (1989-1997)
• Where the News Comes First (1997-present)

News team

Anchors

• Megan Koskovich - weekday mornings and reporter
• Don Shipman - weekday mornings and Noon
• Vic Vetters - Vice President and General Manager seen weekdays at Noon
• Steve McMurray - News Director seen weeknights at 5 and 5:30
• Kristen Copeland - weeknights at 5 and 5:30
• Bill Worden - weeknights at 6, 10, and 11
• Gary Liberatore - weekend mornings and reporter
• Nicole Estaphan - weekend evenings and reporter

Storm 2 Tracker Meteorologists

• Matt Lanza - weeknights
• Adam Musyt - weekday mornings and Noon
• Jill Reale - weekend mornings
• Bill Kardas - weekend evenings

Sports

• Jason Powles - Director seen weeknights at 6, 10, and 11
• Brian Sandler - weekends and sports reporter

Reporters

• David Dellecese - Assistant News Director and Assignment Editor
• Joleen Ferris
• Pat Bailey
• Evan White

Past personalities

• Donna Adamo (now at WTVH in Syracuse, NY)
• Joe Agostinelli
• Sara Allen (now at KPRC-TV in Houston, formerly at WBIR-TV in Knoxville, Tennessee)
• Sandy Arnn
• Jeff Baskin
• Lyle Bosley (deceased)
• Courtney Brennan
• Joe Brown
• Andrea Bullard (now at WSTM-TV in Syracuse, NY)
• Ryan Burr (2006–present (anchor, ESPNEWS, NASCAR Now))
• Fran Cafarell (now an attorney in Rochester, NY - often did the weather report braless in the mid 70's)^{[citation needed]}
• Kyla Campbell (at WJAC-TV in Johnstown, PA until 2008, Now at WBRE-TV in Wilkes-Barre, PA)
• Lila Carney (formerly at WHEC-TV)
• Bill Carroll
• Dick Clark (started his TV career at WKTV)
• Nate Crossett
• Matt DiNardo (now at WRIC in Richmond, Virginia)
• Robert Earle (later host of GE College Bowl; Clark replaced him as news anchor)^[3]
• Tiffany Eddy
• Jerry Fiore (1977-1989, WFLA-TV in Tampa, FL, then WROC-TV in Rochester, NY)
• Desiree Fraser
• Jack Fredericks
• Amanda Gabeler
• Mavis Glass
• Molly Graves
• Lynda Hammond
• Donna Hanover
• Karen Huxtable
• Crystal Jackson
• Andy Jenks (now at WWBT in Richmond Virginia)
• Aaron Keller
• Karey Kirkpatrick
• Susan Koeppen
• Heather Kovar (now anchor at News 12 Connecticut)
• Dick Lawler (retired)
• Teresa Lee
• Melissa Long (left for WROC-TV in Rochester, NY, now at CNN)
• Kristin Lowman (now at WXXA in Albany, NY)
• Rich Lupia
• Rich Luterman (now at WJBK in Detroit)
• Kelly Lynch
• Ryan Nobles (now at WWBT in Richmond Virginia)
• Wendy Peterson
• Kevin Nunn
• Brianne Puleo
• Lisa Quintana
• Bill Sally
• Lisa Shell
• Stacey Simms (morning co-host WBT-AM RADIO in Charlotte, author of "I Can't Cook, But I Know Someone Who Can")
• Meg Stapleton (formerly at KTUU-TV in Anchorage, former press aide to Alaska Gov. Palin, McCain/Palin campaign spokesperson)
• Liz Tedone
• Susan Tran (now at WSOC in Charlotte)
• Vic Vetters (general manager of WKTV, as well as general manager of WFFF/WVNY Burlington, VT)
• Cassie Vogel (1994-1997) (now owns The Media Coach-company providing media training for businesses, formerly Director of Corporate Communication for Ubisoft, Director of Public Relations for Red Storm Entertainment, and at WTVD in Durham, NC)
• Rich von Ohlen
• Justine Waldman (now at WFTX in Fort Myers, Fl. Fox 4 New as a Reporter/Anchor/Weather.)
• Jessica Weinstein (now at WGRZ in Buffalo, formerly at WHEC-TV in Rochester, NY)
• Ed Whitaker
• Dennis Williams (recently fired from WIVB Buffalo)

References

External links

• WKTV "NewsChannel 2"
• WKTV-DT2 "The CW 11 Central New York"
• Query the FCC's TV station database for WKTV

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