WYOU

For the Madison, WI community access channel, see WYOU (Madison).
WYOU


Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania
United States
Branding WYOU (general)
Eyewitness News (newscasts)
Slogan It's All About YOU! (general)
Everywhere You Are (newscasts)
Channels Digital: 13 (VHF)
Virtual: 22 (PSIP)
Subchannels 22.1 CBS
Translators 25 (UHF) Waymart
Affiliations CBS
Owner Mission Broadcasting
(Mission Broadcasting, Inc.)
Operator Nexstar Broadcasting Group
First air date June 7, 1953 (1953-06-07)
Call letters' meaning The word you; see slogan
Sister station(s) WBRE-TV
Former callsigns WGBI-TV (1953–1958)
WDAU-TV (1958–1986)
Former channel number(s) Analog: 22 (1953–2009)
Transmitter power 30 kW
Height 471 m
Facility ID 17010
Transmitter coordinates 41°10′58″N 75°52′26″W / 41.18278°N 75.87389°W / 41.18278; -75.87389
Licensing authority FCC
Public license information: Profile
CDBS
Website www.pahomepage.com

WYOU is the CBS-affiliated television station for Northeastern Pennsylvania that is licensed to Scranton. It broadcasts a high definition digital signal on VHF channel 13 from a transmitter at the Penobscot Knob tower farm near Mountain Top. Owned by Mission Broadcasting, the station is operated by the Nexstar Broadcasting Group through a shared services agreement (SSA) as sister to NBC affiliate WBRE-TV. Although most of WYOU's operations are based at WBRE's facilities on South Franklin Street in Downtown Wilkes-Barre, it has a sales office on Lackawanna Avenue in Downtown Scranton that is shared with a WBRE news bureau.

History

The station was launched on June 7, 1953 as WGBI-TV. It was owned by the Megargee family and its company, Scranton Broadcasters, along with WGBI radio (910 AM, now WBZU; and 101.3 FM, now WGGY). Studios were located in the basement of Scranton Prep High School on Wyoming Avenue in Downtown Scranton. The station remained at this location for many years even after Scranton Preparatory School moved there. Managed for many years by founder Frank Megargee's daughter Madge Megargee Holcomb, Scranton Broadcasters was at one time probably the only broadcasting company in the country run by five women. This included Mrs. Holcomb, her mother Mrs. Megargee, and Frank Megargee's younger daughters: Katharine Megargee Collins, Mary Megargee Griffin, and Jean Megargee Reap.

Despite its link with one of Northeast Pennsylvania's most prestigious broadcasters (the AM station had been founded in 1925), WGBI-TV operated on a tight budget. For example, the Megargees found AT&T's rates for a dedicated network feed line too high for their liking. This forced station engineers to switch to and from the signal of WCBS-TV in New York City whenever CBS programming was on-the-air. As a result, picture quality for network programming left much to be desired. The switchover was a delicate process requiring tight coordination between engineers stationed around the clock at the transmitter site and directors at the studios since no one there could see the WCBS feed.

WGBI went into a limited partnership with the Philadelphia Bulletin in 1958 and was renamed WDAU-TV after WCAU-TV in Philadelphia, which was also owned by the newspaper. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) ruled that there was so much signal overlap between the two stations that they were effectively a duopoly. Its Grade B signal reaches the Lehigh Valley, which is part of the Philadelphia market. The Bulletin opted to retain WDAU-TV, and sold WCAU-TV to CBS. Even with new ownership, WDAU continued to rebroadcast WCBS's signal for network programming until the 1970s, when complaints about the poor quality of color network programming led it to buy a network feed. The limited partnership was short-lived, as the Bulletin sold its share of WDAU back to the Megargee family in 1959. However, Channel 22 retained the WDAU call sign for three decades even after the Megargees regained full ownership of the station.

Scranton Broadcasters then sold the station to Keystone Broadcasters in 1984. As a result, WDAU severed all remaining ties to the WGBI radio stations (which were retained by the Megargee family until the early 1990s; the stations have since changed their call signs and were eventually acquired by their current owner Entercom Communications). Keystone, in turn, sold the station to Diversified Communications of Portland, Maine in 1986, with the call letters changed to the current WYOU on October 9. Soon afterward, the station moved to facilities on Lackawanna Avenue.

WYOU was purchased by Nexstar Broadcasting as its first station property in 1996. In 1998, Nexstar bought rival WBRE and sold WYOU to Mission Broadcasting, but kept control of WYOU's operations under a joint sales agreement with WBRE as the senior partner. Gradually, most operations were consolidated at WBRE's studios, though Nexstar retained WYOU's former facility as a sales office and news bureau.

WYOU still has a film archive dating back to the 1950s. A 1972 flood ruined the film archive in WBRE's basement.

Digital television

Digital channel

Channel Video Aspect PSIP Short Name Programming[1]
22.1 1080i 16:9 WYOU-DT Main WYOU programming / CBS

Analog-to-digital conversion

WYOU shut down its analog signal, over UHF channel 22, on February 17, 2009, the original target date in which full-power television stations in the United States were to transition from analog to digital broadcasts under federal mandate (which was later pushed back to June 12, 2009). The station's digital signal remained on its pre-transition VHF channel 13.[2] Through the use of PSIP, digital television receivers display the station's virtual channel as its former UHF analog channel 22.

Translators

WYOU serves one of the largest geographic markets in the country. This area is very mountainous making UHF reception difficult. However, the station was in a unique situation since Scranton/Wilkes-Barre was a "UHF island" before the government mandated digital transition. As a result, it operated several translators to repeat its signal. During March 2010, in a cost-cutting move, all owned and operated translators were shut down after Nexstar determined that its VHF signal for WYOU is adequate enough to reach the entire market. According to nepahdtv.com, this move was met with some dismay from viewers in areas where reception of signals from Penobscot Knob is difficult if not impossible even in digital, leaving many rural viewers without access to CBS programming over the air. Despite this, no effort from Nexstar has been made to bring back any of the repeaters, presumably due to the very high penetration of cable television in the region.

A digital channel 25 translator in Waymart remains operating, as the facility is owned and operated by NextEra Energy Resources. Windmills run by the company in the area surrounding Waymart interfere with the transmission of full-power television signals.

Out-of-market carriage

In New York state, WYOU is carried on Time Warner Cable in Port Jervis, located in Orange County. Interestingly enough, it is not over the state line on Cablevision in nearby Matamoras, located in Pike County. Orange County and Pike County are in the New York City DMA.

Programming

Syndicated programming on the station includes: Entertainment Tonight, Judge Judy and The Insider.

News operation

WDAU-TV was a solid runner-up to WBRE, and later ABC affiliate WNEP-TV, for much of the time from the 1950s to the 1980s. This was achieved through its coverage of major stories including the Knox Mine Disaster and U.S. Senate hearings on racketeering in the late 1950s. The Associated Press commended the station on its gavel-to-gavel coverage of the Senate hearings and news director Tom Powell was courted by CBS to be a network news anchor. During the 1950s and 1960s, mirroring the longstanding rivalry between Scranton and Wilkes-Barre, WDAU dominated Scranton while WBRE ruled Wilkes-Barre.

In the early 1980s, channel 22 strengthened its hand when it brought in Gary Essex, longtime anchorman at WNEP, and teamed him with popular anchorwoman Debbie Dunleavy. It also became the second station in the market to use a news helicopter as well as the first to air a newscast in drive time.

WYOU remained a solid runner-up to WNEP through the early 1990s. However, after Nexstar began the JSA with WBRE in 1998, Nexstar began pouring more resources into WBRE. Channel 22's ratings plummeted and would never recover; it has spent most of the new millennium as one of CBS' weakest affiliates--a far cry from the days when it was one of the network's strongest affiliates. Some have referred to WYOU as the "ugly step-sister," since Nexstar has long favored WBRE over WYOU and was reportedly unwilling to make a significant investment in channel 22's news department. Even luring away another former popular WNEP anchorman, Frank Andrews, did not help the cause. He left the station in March 2006 to make a successful bid for a seat in the state house where he served under his real name, Frank Andrews Shimkus.

In 2002, both stations dropped their separate weekday morning and noon newscasts in favor of Pennsylvania Morning and Pennsylvania Midday which were jointly-produced and simulcast on both stations. Both programs were discontinued at the start of 2008, with WYOU replacing Pennsylvania Morning with the 6 o'clock hour of the nationally syndicated morning show, The Daily Buzz, and returning to airing its own noon newscast.

In an effort to become more competitive with dominant WNEP, WYOU and WBRE instituted a major shakeup in format in the fall of 2006. WYOU relaunched its weeknight newscasts with a talk/debate format, with WBRE maintaining a more traditional format, setting a more clear competition against WNEP. Each WYOU weeknight broadcast started off with weather ("StormCenter Weather", another innovation) and a shortened rundown of the day's top stories. The show then focused on an ongoing story, investigation, or topic and brought in analysts and experts to discuss it. Viewers were able to call into the station and participate in the discussions. WYOU generally did a traditional newscast whenever WBRE had programming that bumped its news back by a significant amount of time.

On June 16, 2008, there were several more major changes made on the two stations. Candice Kelly, who anchored on the station, moved to the weeknight newscasts on WBRE. She was joined by newcomer Drew Speier. WYOU and WBRE's midday shows switched anchors. Mark Hiller moved from WBRE’s 11 a.m. news to WYOU’s noon broadcast, while Eva Mastromatteo switched over to WBRE at 11. Hiller also debuted as anchor of WYOU’s new First at 4 weekday broadcast, the first 4 p.m. newscast in the market. This was followed at 4:30 by The Insider which moved from its 7 o'clock slot. WYOU dropped its 5 p.m. show and aired two episodes of Judge Judy. At 6 o'clock, Lyndall Stout (who anchored on WBRE) joined Eric Scheiner for the half-hour WYOU Inter@ctive. The station also launched a new weeknight newscast, WYOU News at 7, to compete against WNEP's 7 p.m. newscast. All of the preceding changes were an attempt to better compete against WNEP.

WYOU and WBRE shared a Williamsport Bureau on West 4th Street, though only WBRE appeared on the sign and WBRE's logo was dominant on the bureau's vehicle. There was no weekend sports anchor on WYOU.

Nexstar announced on April 3, 2009 that WYOU would shut down its news department effective the following day. This resulted in the layoff of fourteen personnel. Syndicated programming aired in place of the newscasts for just under three years. The station saved nearly one million dollars a year from closing down its news department.[3][4] As a measure of how far WYOU's once-proud news department had fallen, the last Nielsen ratings issued before the shutdown showed its weeknight 11 o'clock newscast only garnered a four percent share.[5] Even with the ending of its separate news department, WYOU struggled to receive even a 3% share of the ratings for syndicated programming in place of former newscasts.[6] The secondary set at WBRE's facilities used to produce the newscasts on WYOU was eventually modified to broadcast an afternoon lifestyle show on WBRE called PA Live.

On April 2, 2012, WBRE began broadcasting its local newscasts in high definition, with a new news set, HD camera and forecasting equipment. With the upgrade, WBRE began producing half-hour newscasts at noon and 7 p.m. on WYOU, and the station began to simulcast WBRE's weekday morning, and nightly 6 and 11 p.m. newscasts (the first such newscasts on WYOU since its in-house news department folded just under three years earlier); these newscasts are also broadcast in high definition. This is a similar operation to existing joint news operations formed by Nexstar/Mission stations the year prior, between WUTR and WFXV in Utica, New York, and WTVW and WEHT in Evansville, Indiana.[7]

References

  1. ↑ RabbitEars TV Query for WYOU
  2. ↑ "DTV Tentative Channel Designations for the First and the Second Rounds" (PDF). Retrieved 2012-03-24.
  3. ↑ Seder, Andrew M. (April 3, 2009). "WYOU ceasing news broadcasts". The Times Leader. Retrieved April 3, 2009.
  4. ↑ http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/191255-WYOU_Scraps_News.php?rssid=20065
  5. ↑ Brown, Stacy. Relive Channel 22 news history. The Times-Tribune, 2009-04-03.
  6. ↑ Brown, Stacy. WNEP-TV sweeps ratings. The Times-Tribune, 2009-06-19.
  7. ↑ WBRE, WYOU To Launch HD Newscasts, TVNewsCheck, February 10, 2012.

External links

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