City Sarasota, Florida Owner Citadel Communications | Channels Digital: 39 (UHF) | |
Branding SNN: Suncoast News Network Subchannels .1: 1080i 16:9 WSNN-HD
.2 480i 4:3 WSNN-D2
.3 480i 4:3 WSNN-D3 Affiliations .1 Independent
.2 Grit
.3 Laff | ||
WSNN-LD is a television station licensed to Sarasota, Florida, United States. Owned by Citadel Communications and managed by LDB Media, LLC, the station's Suncoast News Network (SNN) service provides 24-hour rolling news coverage focusing primarily on the Sarasota area (including Sarasota, Manatee, and Charlotte counties). SNN operates in conjunction with the Sarasota Herald-Tribune, and is headquartered in the newspaper's offices in downtown Sarasota. SNN is carried on Comcast channel 6 (SD), 400 (HD) in Sarasota and Charlotte Counties, on Frontier FiOS on channel 9 (SD) and 509 (HD) and over the air on channel 39.
Contents
History
The SNN operation was launched on September 17, 1995, exclusively on Comcast. Over its history, it was branded as SNN Local News, SNN Local News 6, SNN News 6 and Six News Now, which were often used interchangeably. SNN received national attention in 2007, when a clip of chief meteorologist Justin Mosely (who worked with the channel from 2004 to 2013 and returned in March 2014) reacting frightened after a cockroach crawled up his leg during a live weather segment went viral after it was posted on various video websites including YouTube.
In November 2008, the Sarasota Herald-Tribune (then owned by The New York Times Company) announced that it would sell SNN News 6, and stop broadcasting at the end of December 2008. This deadline was extended after the company struck agreements with a group of investors, led by SNN general manager Linda DesMaris and her husband Doug Barker, to purchase the channel; however on January 25, 2009, one of the investors dropped out of the deal. On January 29, 2009, the Herald-Tribune announced that SNN News 6 would go dark, effective at midnight on January 29, 2009. The company would later find another investor in Phil Lombardo, CEO of the television station group Citadel Communications in Bronxville, New York. On February 26, 2009, after a four-week hiatus, SNN was back on the air under the management of LDB Media, LLC, with the majority of its former on-air staff. Since its inception, the channel was exclusively carried on Comcast's systems in Sarasota and Charlotte Counties. In the summer of 2012, SNN struck a carriage deal with Verizon FiOS to add the channel; FiOS began carrying SNN in the Sarasota area at 2:00 a.m. Eastern Time on September 13, 2012.
In January 2014, Lombardo and Citadel Communications acquired a majority interest in the company. As a result, Citadel took over broadcast operations of SNN. During February 2014, the SNN studio facilities underwent a major remodeling. One month earlier on February 12, SNN debuted a new graphics package, and began incorporating the Sarasota Herald-Tribune logo on its lower third banner graphics; the weather graphics were rolled out on February 22. On March 2, the channel debuted a new logo (an "SNN" wordmark with a blue wave underneath) and rebranded as SNN: Suncoast News Network. The following day on March 3 at 5:00 p.m. Eastern, SNN unveiled a new main news set and weather center (the latter of which incorporates the logo previously used under the "SNN Local News 6" brand). The station's image resembles those of Citadel stations WLNE-TV in Providence, Rhode Island and KLKN in Lincoln, Nebraska, who have become sister stations to SNN.
On September 24, 2014, Citadel announced that SNN's operations would be merged with its over-the-air television station in Sarasota, WLWN-LD (channel 39), on October 15; as part of the consolidation, WLWN changed its call letters to WSNN-LD. The combined station retains SNN's existing programming and cable carriage; WSNN also intends to add a second digital subchannel carrying entertainment programming. WLWN had previously been affiliated with the Live Well Network, and before that was a repeater for the Trinity Broadcasting Network. On April 15th, WSNN launched two subchannels from Katz Broadcasting, GRIT and Laff.
Digital channels
WSNN-LD's digital signal is multiplexed:
Programming
SNN features a mix of live and pre-recorded newscasts, although it produces live segments within its looped programming during breaking news events, as well as live weather segments during the morning and evening hours, with more frequent updates during severe weather events. The station occasionally broadcasts high school football games and parades in the area.
In addition to regular rolling news programming, WSNN also shows local and syndicated programs, such as Access Hollywood Live, ES.TV, Celebrity Page, Recipe.TV, P. Allen Smith Garden Style, The 700 Club, Healthy Living, Today's Homeowner with Danny Lipford, 50PlusPrime, Suncoast FYI, Chef Rolf's New Florida Cooking, Ingman Marine Boat Buying Guide, Healthy Living, On The Money, RaceWeek, Thriving on The Suncoast, Positively Paula, Small Town Big Deal, Intelligence for Your Life, Matter of Fact With Soledad O'Brien and Ron Hazelton's HouseCalls. Programs on SNN have significantly increased since 2014.
History
SNN was the first television news operation to convert to an all digital-disk-based non-linear editing system through Avid. SNN was one of the first news operations to have a combined print and broadcast newsroom, collaborating with the Sarasota Herald-Tribune on news content. Since 2002, SNN has maintained a content-sharing agreement with Tampa-based NBC affiliate WFLA-TV (channel 8) and NBC News, which allows SNN to use stories from WFLA, NBC News and NBC-affiliated stations (that agreement replaced an earlier deal between the channel, Fox owned-and-operated station WTVT (channel 13), and the now-defunct CONUS Communications), and also allowed for cooperation between the Herald-Tribune and the Tampa Tribune, prior to Media General's sale of that paper to World Media Holdings in 2012.
SNN also provides national and international news content from CNN Newsource, and weather forecasts supplied by Accuweather and The Weather Channel. The channel also utilizes radar data from the National Weather Service's Tampa radar site. SNN also operates several weather and traffic cameras across the Suncoast region; in April 2014, SNN installed a camera atop One Sarasota Tower, under a brand licensing deal with the Palm Auto Mall. A new scroll was added August 31, replacing a red, fast-paced scroll. On September 15, Justin Mosley introduced a future cast for rainfall, which has not been seen since SNN was added to FiOS. SNN premiered a new weather graphic exclusive to weather warnings at the beginning of 2015. SNN will begin multiplex programming on February 2, 2015. On June 15, 2015, SNN began showing Access Hollywood Live, replacing replayed newscasts from SNN Headline News. On that same day for Verizon FiOS customers, channels changed from channel 26/526 to channel 9/509. In 2016, SNN upgraded graphics and slightly updated logo. In 2017, SNN plans to upgrade to a new studio, replacing the current 11 year old studio space.