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WTEN, channel 10, is an ABC-affiliated television station licensed to Albany, New York, USA. WTEN is owned by Richmond, Virginia-based Media General, and operates Fox affiliate WXXA-TV (channel 23, owned by Shield Media, LLC) through joint sales and shared services agreements. The two outlets share studios in the Bishop's Gate section of Albany; WTEN's transmitter in located in Voorheesville, New York. WCDC-TV, channel 19 in Adams, Massachusetts, operates as a full-time satellite of WTEN. This station broadcasts from a transmitter on Mount Greylock, the highest peak in Massachusetts. WCDC-TV's signal covers the western half of Massachusetts, and portions of Vermont, Connecticut, and New Hampshire. ==History== WTEN began broadcasting on October 14, 1953 as WROW-TV on UHF channel 41 from a temporary transmitter in Herkimer, New York, limiting the signal to the immediate area. The station went to full power and installed a permanent antenna tower next to the studio a few months later. WROW-TV was founded by Hudson Valley Broadcasting Company, operating alongside WROW radio (590 AM). The two stations shared space inside a former retirement home for nuns on a farm dirt road in the town of North Greenbush near Troy.〔Capital Cities/ABC The Early Years: How The Minnow Swallow The Whale, Chilton Books, 1993, page 11〕 WROW-TV carried the Capital District's CBS Television Network affiliation at its launch. Within their first year, the station was losing money, and on the verge of bankruptcy, prompted the company's management to sell the WROW stations. By November of 1954, Hudson Valley's shareholders sold its majority stake to a New York City-based syndicate group led by legendary radio broadcaster/author Lowell Thomas and his manager/business partner Frank Smith, who also became president of the company upon completion of the sale. 〔Capital Cities/ABC The Early Years: How The Minnow Swallow The Whale, Chilton Books, 1993, page 15〕 In the spring of 1956, the channel's call letters were changed to WCDA and a satellite station, WCDB (channel 29) in nearby Hagaman, New York was launched to reach areas where the main signal could not.〔Albany Times-Union, April 22, 1956, page H-4〕 The call letters were changed again to the current WTEN in 1957 when the station moved to VHF channel 10. Upon moving to the VHF band, the station's transmitter was moved to Vail Mills, approximately 35 miles west of the Capital District. The previous site in Herkimer was fell outside of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) 170-mile separation requirement for VHF-high band stations in the Northeastern United States, and WTEN's new channel 10 signal was required to protect both WHEC-TV/WVET-TV in Rochester and WJAR-TV in Providence, Rhode Island. But the new transmitter proved inadequate for serving the Capital District proper. The FCC eventually allowed a waiver in 1963 which let WTEN move its transmitter to Voorheesville, closer to Albany.〔http://lists.bostonradio.org/pipermail/boston-radio-interest/2008-January.txt〕 In December 1957, Hudson Valley merged with Durham Broadcasting Enterprises, the owners of WTVD in Durham, North Carolina to form Capital Cities Television Corporation (predecessor of Capital Cities Communications) with WTEN as its flagship station. In 1966, WTEN and WROW-AM-FM moved to new facilities on Northern Boulevard in Albany, where WTEN remains to this day (the radio stations relocated in 1993, ten years after they were sold by Capital Cities). In 1967, the old studio in North Greenbush was burned down by a fire caused by arson, but the station's owner donated its old transmitter to WRPI radio. On February 24, 1971, Capital Cities sold WTEN to Poole Broadcasting. Following its purchase of several broadcast properties from Triangle Publications, Capital Cities had to sell off two VHF stations to stay within the FCC's limit of five per owner. In 1977, Poole sold WTEN and sister stations WJRT-TV in Flint, Michigan, and WPRI-TV in Providence to Knight-Ridder. The new owner signed an affiliation deal with ABC which resulted in WTEN swapping affiliations with WAST (channel 13, now WNYT) on October 23, 1977. Upon Knight-Ridder's exit from broadcasting in 1989, WTEN and sister station WKRN-TV in Nashville were sold to Young Broadcasting. Since the Young purchases of the two stations plus WTEN satellite WCDC were made through two separate deals, they were consummated more than three months apart. WTEN signed-on its digital signal on UHF channel 26 in 2004 and began offering high definition service right from the start. This can also be seen on Time Warner digital channel 1810. On October 1, 2007, Young Broadcasting launched the Retro Television Network on a new third digital subchannel of WTEN. This was part of a test of the network with sister stations WBAY-TV in Green Bay and KRON-TV in San Francisco. In an effort to cut costs, the company eliminated ten positions from WTEN on January 31, 2008 fueling speculations that the company might sell the station in order to pay down its financial debt. In January 2009, after failing to meet the minimum standards for being listed on NASDAQ, Young Broadcasting was dropped from the exchange. One month later, on February 13, they declared Chapter 11 bankruptcy.〔()〕 The company planned to auction off its stations in a New York City bankruptcy court on July 14, 2009 but canceled the auction last minute.〔("Young Broadcasting Calls Off Auction", from broadcastingcable.com July 14, 2009 )〕 RTV has been replaced by a 480i widescreen feed of ABC's Live Well Network as part of a group deal with Young's other stations. On July 27, 2012, it was announced that the Capital District's Fox affiliate, WXXA-TV would be sold from Newport Television to Shield Media, LLC (owned by White Knight Broadcasting Vice president Sheldon Galloway) for $19.2 million. That company will then enter into joint sales and shared services agreements with Young Broadcasting resulting in WTEN operating WXXA. On October 23, the FCC granted the transaction. After consummation of the sale, master control of the Fox outlet will likely move from WXXA's Corporate Circle studios to WTEN's offices.〔(Shield Buying Newport's WXXA For $19.4M ), ''TVNewsCheck'', July 27, 2012.〕〔()〕 The move was completed on March 23, 2013. On June 6, 2013, Young Broadcasting announced that it would merge with Media General.〔(Media General, Young Broadcasting To Merge ), ''TVNewsCheck'', June 6, 2013.〕 The merger was approved by the FCC on November 8, after Media General shareholders approved the merger a day earlier;〔(FCC Approves Media General-Young Merger ) Broadcasting & Cable, Retrieved 8 November 2013〕 it was completed on November 12. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア(Wikipedia)』 ■ウィキペディアで「WTEN」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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