CBS Television Stations announced the closing of its acquisition of independent, full-power WLNY-TV NYC (Channels 10/55) from Local Media TV Holdings LLC and initial plans for operating the station. Highlights include the addition of three hours of live local newscasts each weekday, including the tri-state area’s first one-hour 9 p.m. news program.
The pairing of WLNY (whose call letters stand for We Love New York) with WCBS-TV (CBS 2), the Flagship of the CBS Television Network, gives CBS a duopoly in the nation’s largest media market.
Peter Dunn, President, CBS Television Stations, announced that veteran New York local television executive Betty Ellen Berlamino has been named Vice President and Station Manager of WLNY. Berlamino assumes her new role after having served as Senior Vice President and Director of Sales, CBS Television Stations, since June 2011. Prior to joining CBS, Berlamino spent 17 years with WPIX-TV, the New York affiliate of The CW, including nearly 10 years as the station’s President and General Manager.
WLNY will launch weekday 7-9 a.m. and 9-10 p.m. local news programs early this summer. The 9 p.m. newscast will feature CBS 2 anchors Chris Wragge and Dana Tyler, weathercaster Lonnie Quinn and sports anchor Otis Livingston as well as WLNY’s Richard Rose, who will report nightly from the CBS 2-WLNY news bureau on Long Island. The on-air team for the station’s morning show will be announced at a later date.
In addition to his role on the 9 p.m. newscasts, Rose will host a weekly Sunday morning public affairs show that will begin airing in a few weeks.
Effective immediately, WLNY programming will be broadcast in HD.
WLNY is widely distributed by cable, satellite and other subscription television service providers in the New York-New Jersey-Connecticut tri-state area. The station appears as either Channel 10 or Channel 55 on most channel lineups and Channel 55 as an over-the-air service.
With the creation of the WCBS-WLNY duopoly, CBS now has duopolies in 10 markets, including New York, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Dallas, San Francisco, Boston, Detroit, Miami, Sacramento and Pittsburgh. The CBS Television Stations group includes 29 stations, including 16 that are part of the CBS Television Network, eight affiliates of The CW Network, three independent stations and two MyNetworkTV affiliates.
On the FCC database WLNY shows up as either channel 45 at 15kw from a transmit site on the East side of Manhattan or channel 47 at 1000kw from a transmit site in Eastern Long Island. Wondering which on air signal is currently active.
In the digital world, very few stations are as they appear. WLNY is indeed broadcasting on 45, however, viewers with digital TVs/Converters will see 55.1 as the channel that WLNY is on.
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