City Elmira Affiliations CBS | Slogan This Is Home | |
Branding WENY CBS (general)
WENY News (newscasts) Channels Digital: WENY-DT 36.2 (UHF/PSIP) Owner Lilly Broadcasting, LLC | ||
WENY-DT2 is the CBS-affiliated television station for the Central and Western Twin Tiers of Southern Upstate New York and Northern Pennsylvania. It is a second digital subchannel of ABC affiliate WENY-TV that is owned by Lilly Broadcasting. Over-the-air, the station broadcasts a 1080i high definition digital signal on UHF channel 36.2 from a transmitter on Higman Hill in Corning. WENY-DT2 can also be seen on Time Warner Cable channel 12 and in high definition on digital channel 1209. Its parent station has studios on Old Ithaca Road in Horseheads (along NY 13). Syndicated programming on this outlet includes The Big Bang Theory, Judge Judy, TMZ on TV, and The Doctors among others.
Contents
History
On October 20, 2008, CBS signed an affiliation agreement with WENY to air the network on a new second digital subchannnel with a proposed launch date of January 1, 2009. This marked the first time that CBS ever had an affiliate based in Elmira. Before then, the area had been served by longtime default affiliate WBNG-TV in Binghamton while the Ithaca area was served by WTVH. The western portions of the area, including Canisteo and Hornell, were covered by Buffalo's WIVB-TV. According to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), WENY had a request to flash-cut from analog to digital broadcasting after the old transition date of February 17, 2009. On that date, WENY-DT2 launched on Time Warner systems in Elmira, Corning, Hornell, and Ithaca.
The flash-cut was performed at the end of May, and WENY began broadcasting exclusively in digital. The new CBS station began its transmission over-the-air at this point. WENY-DT2's coverage area includes Steuben and Chemung Counties in New York which borders the Erie market and sister station CBS affiliate WSEE-TV. It is unknown if there is any coordination of the two CBS stations that come within one county of each other in coverage and serve an area reaching between Cleveland, Ohio and Binghamton (not inclusive).
Newscasts
Rival WETM has traditionally been a ratings stronghold in the Twin Tiers area. This is because the news department at WENY is quite small compared with the NBC outlet and most other big three affiliates. In addition, WENY does not provide any newscasts on weekends despite operating three major programming services (ABC, CBS, and The CW) so WETM is currently the only outlet that airs broadcasts for Elmira and Corning seven days a week. Other traditional news timeslots currently lacking a program on WENY's channels include a full two-hour weekday morning shown, midday broadcast at noon during the week, and a newscast weeknights at 5. There is however, the market's only show weeknights at 5:30 seen on this CBS subchannel (WETM does not produce a newscast then).
Weeknights at 6 and 11, the ABC and CBS subchannels simulcast local news although there can sometimes be a delay or preemption on one service due to network obligations. Although WENY upgraded its newscast to high definition level on April 23, 2012, the shows on this CBS subchannel are only transmitted in 16:9 standard definition widescreen. A full HD feed of the CBS station can only be seen on Time Warner Cable. WENY shares resources with sister stations WSEE and WICU-TV in Erie in order to cover the Western Twin Tiers region.