Call letters' meaning see WKTV Affiliation The CW (via The CW Plus) | Founded 2014 | |
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Branding "Central New York's
CW 11" (general)
"NewsChannel 2" (newscasts) Slogan TV Now (general)
Where the News Comes First (newscasts) Channels Digital: WKTV-DT 29.6 (UHF)
Virtual: 2.3 (PSIP) Affiliations The CW (via The CW Plus) Owner Heartland Media
(WKTV, Licensee LLC) Motto TV Now (general); Where the News Comes First (newscasts) | ||
WKTV-DT3 is the CW-affiliated television station for Central Upstate New York's Mohawk Valley. The station is a third digital subchannel of NBC affiliate WKTV that is owned by Heartland Media. Over-the-air, WKTV-DT3 broadcasts a 720p high-definition digital signal on UHF channel 29.6 (or virtual channel 2.3 via PSIP) from a transmitter in the Eatonville section of Fairfield and Herkimer. It is also available on Charter Spectrum channel 11 and in high definition on digital channel 1212. WKTV-DT3's parent station has studios on Smith Hill Road in Deerfield (with a Utica postal address). It is part of the national CW Plus programming service.
Contents
History
The station signed-on November 10, 2014 as an affiliate of MeTV. As recommended by Weigel Broadcasting, MeTV's owners, WKTV-DT3 cleared the entire MeTV schedule. After much deliberation between WKTV and Time Warner Cable, WKTV-DT3 was added to Time Warner Cable's Utica line-up in the summer of 2015 on channel 1245.
On October 26, 2015, parent station WKTV announced that it had signed an affiliation agreement with CBS to carry its programs on its second digital subchannel beginning November 22, making WKTV-DT2 CBS' first full-time affiliate in Utica. It was also announced that WKTV-DT3 would switch its affiliation from MeTV to The CW (WKTV-DT2's former affiliation), while MeTV programs were moved to a newly created fourth subchannel. WKTV-DT3 subsequently inherited WKTV-DT2's cable channel position, as well as its programming from The CW Plus, while the new fourth subchannel immediately took over WKTV-DT3's former cable channel position.
In May 2016, WKTV-DT3 upgraded its over-the-air digital signal into 720p high definition; thus offering over-the-air access to the high definition feed for The CW for the first time in the Utica/Rome market.
Newscasts
When WKTV-DT3 first signed on, it did not air any newscasts in favor of MeTV programming. However, on November 23, 2015, WKTV-DT3 began airing the 10 p.m. newscast that had previously aired on WKTV-DT2 as a CW affiliate. On January 25, 2016, WKTV-DT3 also added a 7 a.m. newscast, making it the first station in the Utica market to carry local news at that time. Both newscasts air every weekday for a half-hour and are virtually identical to WKTV's regular newscasts. During weather forecast segments, WKTV (and thus WKTV-DT3) features live NOAA National Weather Service weather radar data from several regional sites. On-air, this system is known as "StormTracker 2 Live Doppler".