City Saranac Lake | Slogan WYCI TV 40 | |
Channels Digital: 40 (UHF)
Virtual: 40 (PSIP) Affiliations Heroes & Icons (2017–present) Owner CEC Media Group, LLC
(Channel 61 Associates, LLC.) First air date September 11, 2007; 9 years ago (2007-09-11) | ||
WYCI is the Heroes & Icons-affiliated television station for Upstate New York that is licensed to Saranac Lake. It broadcasts a digital signal on UHF channel 40 from a transmitter on the WNBZ-FM tower north of the village along the Essex and Franklin County line. The station can also be seen on Charter channel 18, and Comcast channel 80. It is owned by CEC Media Group, also known as Twin Valley Television. WYCI has studios on Pine Haven Shores Road in Shelburne, Vermont.Station is now owned by Cross Hills Communications LLC.
Contents
CEC is disfunct & has not had a office in Pine Haven Shores Road for years, this fact verified with landlord . Equipment abandoned was thrown out or auctioned for partial satisfaction of the lease.
History
The station applied for its construction permit on September 22, 1995. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) approved it on October 4, 2004. It was originally planning on using UHF analog channel 61 (from which the Channel 61 Associates, LLC name for the station's licensee is derived) but switched to channel 40 because channels 51-69 would no longer be used for television after the DTV transition. In 2006, the station decided on the call letters WCWF sparking speculation that the station would be an affiliate of The CW. However, that affiliation went to Fox affiliate WFFF-TV, first as a replacement for its secondary WB affiliation and then on a new digital subchannel (The CW affiliation has since moved to a subchannel of NBC affiliate WPTZ).
While it searched for its own affiliation, WCWF finally began broadcasting September 11, 2007 as a repeater of Ion Television affiliate WWBI-LP, the owners of which held a stake in the station. After a short time on-the-air, the station signed-off telling the FCC it was preparing to switch to digital. In November 2008, Channel 61 Associates sold the station to Twin Valley Television, a broadcaster based in Burlington which also goes by Convergence Entertainment & Communications or CEC. Twin Valley took control of the station while the sale was still pending FCC approval. As of 2011, however, the application for transfer of ownership no longer appears on the FCC website.
At the end of 2008, it signed back on from a temporary low power analog transmitter which was meant to last until its permanent digital transmitter was ready on June 12, 2009. However, there were delays in getting its new transmitter installed so the station switched its temporary transmitter to digital for the time being. In early-2009, the station became an affiliate of the Retro Television Network. On June 16, 2009, WCWF changed its call letters to WNMN.
Meanwhile, Twin Valley also purchased WGMU-CA (formerly Vermont's MyNetworkTV affiliate once owned by Equity Media Holdings) which was approved by the FCC in July 2009. That station along with its translators were turned into repeaters of WNMN which greatly expanded its coverage area into the greater Burlington and Plattsburgh areas. The owner announced that WNMN would air a mix of RTV and local programming on its main channel, while also carrying five digital subchannels, one of which airs MyNetworkTV (WGMU's former affiliation). MyNetworkTV affiliate WNMN-DT3 also began offering Tuff TV on July 15, 2010. The subchannel was to be carried on Comcast channel 18, but as of 2013 is still not available.
On March 9, 2016, the callsign was changed to WYCI.
Repeaters
WNMN was previously repeated on a network of four repeaters:
WGMU-LP, W19BR and WBVT-LP would have their licenses cancelled by the FCC on March 12, 2015 for failure to broadcast for a year. WVMA-CD has since been sold to another ownership group.