| Callsign: | WVNC-LD | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Digital: | 24 (UHF) | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Virtual: | 45 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Founded: | March 24, 2015 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Location: | Watertown, New York | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Country: | United States | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Callsign Meaning: | Watertown Television North Country | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Former Callsigns: | W45EI-D (2015–2016) | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Former Channel Numbers: | Digital: 45 (UHF, 2016–2020) | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Owner: | SagamoreHill Broadcasting | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Licensee: | SagamoreHill of Watertown Licenses, LLC | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Erp: | 15 kW | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Haat: | 107.20NaN0 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Class: | LD | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Facility Id: | 188838 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Coordinates: | 43.9679°N -75.8059°W | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Licensing Authority: | FCC | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Embed Header: | Translator | ||||||||||||||||||||||
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WVNC-LD (channel 45) 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 must rely on cable and satellite to reach the entire market.
WVNV-LD (channel 45) in Potsdam operates as a translator of WVNC-LD; this station's transmitter is located on Bagdad Road southwest of Potsdam.
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 (its frequency has never been reactivated and would eventually be taken out of service in the late-2010s spectrum reallocation).
On August 28, 2016, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) 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.[1] 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.[2] WPTZ and WSTM-TV are still available on cable along with WVNC-LD.
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.[3] [4]
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.
The station's signal is multiplexed:
| Res. | Aspect | Short name | Programming | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 45.1 | WVNCNBC | NBC | ||
| 45.2 | Antenna | Antenna TV | ||
| 45.3 | ION | Ion Television | ||
| 45.4 | GritTv | Grit | ||
| 45.5 | Bounce | Bounce TV | ||
| 45.6 | CourtTv | Court TV | ||
| 45.7 | QVC | QVC |