WVNC-LD


WVNC-LD is a low-power television station in Watertown, New York, United States, affiliated with NBC. Owned by SagamoreHill Broadcasting, the station maintains studios at Public Square in downtown Watertown, and its transmitter is located on Miser Road in the town of Rutland.
Due to WVNC-LD's low-power status, its broadcast radius only covers the immediate Watertown area. Therefore, it relies on cable and satellite to reach the entire market.

History

Although the channel 45 frequency had never been used in Watertown prior to 2015, the adjacent channel 46 was the home of WLOT-LP, Watertown's UPN affiliate, until its owner died in 2005 and the station went dark.
On August 28, 2016, the Federal Communications Commission approved the transfer of control of a low-power digital television license in Watertown, W45EI-D, from Sunrise, Florida–based DTV America Corporation to SagamoreHill Broadcasting. The new owners promptly renamed the station WVNC-LD and signed it to an affiliation deal with NBC, giving the Watertown area its first locally-based full-time NBC affiliate. The new station signed on December 1, 2016. Prior to WVNC-LD's sign-on, North Country cable systems received either WSTM-TV in Syracuse or WPTZ in Plattsburgh, depending on the location. WWNY-TV previously had a secondary affiliation with the network until 1995. WPTZ and WSTM-TV are still available on cable along with WVNC-LD.

Programming

WVNC-LD's main channel clears the entire NBC schedule, including The More You Know, NBC's E/I-compliant block which, as a low-power station, it is not required to clear.
In addition to NBC programming, WVNC-LD operates the Watertown market's Antenna TV affiliate on its LD2 subchannel. Until recently, WVNC-LD2 also carried programs from the MyNetworkTV programming service, filling in programming for all time slots outside of the MyNetworkTV programming schedule with the Antenna TV schedule.

Local programming

WVNC-LD airs no local news programming, despite station officials stating at its launch that planning was underway to open a news department by early 2018. The station does, however, stream events of local interest on its YouTube channel.

Translators

In addition to its main transmitter, WVNC-LD also operates three translators:
StationCity of licenseFacility IDERPHAATTransmitter coordinates
WVNG-LDGouverneur9 1259355 kW
WTKJ-LDWatertown19 12883415 kW
WVNV-LDPotsdam45 1826180.075 kW

Subchannels

The station's signal is multiplexed:
ChannelRes.AspectShort nameProgramming
xx.11080i16:9WVNCNBCNBC
xx.2480i16:9AntennaAntenna TV
xx.3480i16:9IONIon Television
xx.4480i16:9GritTvGrit
xx.5480i16:9BounceBounce TV
xx.6480i16:9CourtTvCourt TV
xx.8480i16:9SonlifeSonLife