WZMY-TV

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WZMY-TV
Derry / Manchester / Concord, New Hampshire
Branding	My TV New England
Slogan	My TV is Your TV
Channels	50 (UHF) analog, 35 (UHF) digital
Translators	18 W18AE Killington, VT
Affiliations	MyNetworkTV
Owner	Shooting Star Broadcasting
Founded	January 22, 1983
Call letters meaning	WZMY-TV (also refers to current MyNetworkTV affiliaion)
Former callsigns	WNDS (1983-2005) WQNH (applied for in 1988, unused) WXPO (1969-1973)
Former affiliations	Global Shopping Network (1997), Independent (1969-2006)
Website	mytvstation.tv

WZMY-TV "My TV New England" is a MyNetworkTV affiliated television station in Derry, New Hampshire, serving Southern New Hampshire and the northern fringes of the Boston, Massachusetts television market. WZMY's transmitter is located 5 miles north of the Massachusetts border in Hudson, New Hampshire. Although WZMY's analog signal on channel 50 does not cover all of the Boston market, the station is offered on most cable systems. On Comcast cable, WZMY can found on channel 18. Owned by Shooting Star Broadcasting, it bases much of its schedule on viewer suggestions. WZMY can also be seen over-the-air on a repeater: W18AE channel 18 in Killington, VT. Overnight, WZMY airs home shopping and other paid programming.

The station is well known in New England for legendary weatherman Al Kaprielian and as a result of his popularity, was a "Guest Meteorologist" on The Weather Channel's Abrams & Bettes: Beyond The Forcast program on November 10, 2006. WZMY is also known for its weekend candlepin bowling program, which (as of September 2006) is on hiatus. Locally, channel 50 was also the home of the short-lived television station WXPO-TV that was licenced to nearby Manchester, New Hampshire, also targeting the Boston market.

WZMY's southern Vermont translator W18AE has a coverage area that overlaps with two of WGMU-CA's repeaters W61CE in Rutland, VT and W17CI in Claremont, NH. WGMU, which was a UPN affiliate, is currently the MNTV affiliate for the Burlington, VT - Plattsburgh, NY television market.

Contents 1 History 1.1 As WXPO-TV 1.2 Channel 50 becomes WNDS 1.3 WZMY adds MyNetworkTV 1.4 Logos 2 Local Programming 2.1 Newscasts 2.1.1 As WNDS 2.1.2 As WZMY 2.1.3 News Team 2.2 Other Local Programs 2.2.1 As WNDS 2.2.2 As WZMY 3 External links

[edit] History

[edit] As WXPO-TV

WXPO-TV signed on early in October 1969, owned by Merrimack Valley Communications. WXPO had two studios, with its offices and master production facilities were located on Dutton Street in downtown Lowell, Massachusetts, and its "main" studio was on Governor Dinsmore Road in Windham, New Hampshire (to comply with FCC regulations requiring that a station's main studio be located within 15 miles of the city of licence). The original vision was to air business news during the daytime, and a general entertainment format, including sports, late in the afternoon and in the evening.

Its Treehouse 50 program in the afternoons gained a cult following with Boston-area college students, as it had slapstick comedy and the Warner Brothers cartoons that had been released to television stations at that time. In addition, channel 50 was the first station to have news updates every hour, ^{[citation needed]} long before the 24-hour news sources of the early 1990s, was the first New England television station (beating WKBG, now WLVI) to air a ten o'clock newscast ^{[citation needed]} (however, it had no newsfilm to use), and attempted to do live remotes with some mixed success. In addition, WXPO was infamous ^{[citation needed]} for a New Year's Eve show that by 1:00 a.m. had started to become particularly strange.

However, the station's coverage in many parts of Greater Boston was spotty at best. The station's transmitter was located less than 1,000 feet from WLLH-AM 1400, making high-quality production impossible during the day due to RF interference with the cameras. Advertisers were scared off when the Lowell Sun blacklisted anyone who advertised on the station.^{[citation needed]} Bills went unpaid for several months.^{[citation needed]}

By early 1970, the vast majority (90%) of the staff was removed from the payroll, although many continued with the station, believing it could pull through. Unfortunately for them, the spring of that year saw the Lowell studio closing its doors. Finally, in June the power company pulled the plug at the Windham studios during a Maverick rerun, taking WXPO off the air.

On July 17, 1973, channel 50 returned to the air with a test transmission, with plans to return the station to the air later that year, possibly as New Hampshire's CBS affiliate. Unfortunately, those plans were never realized, and the WXPO-TV license was deleted in 1975. Channel 50 would not again be seen in the market until 1983.

[edit] Channel 50 becomes WNDS

WNDS signed on September 5, 1983 and became known as "The Winds of New England" airing an independent format that was a constant of the station for most of its years of operation. In April 1988, the station applied for the calls WQNH, which were never used. In 1997, CTV of Derry, the then-owners of WNDS, attempted to sell the station to the Global Shopping Network, who operated channel 50 from April to June with a home shopping format. [1] However, GSN failed to make important payments for WNDS (as well as their other stations), effectively returning control to the station to CTV. [2], [3]

In September 1998, WNDS began the News Now local newscast at 7 and 10 p.m., as well as a short-lived Saturday afternoon newscast. By 2003, the 11:57 a.m. news update was expanded into a full noon newscast. However, the station began to struggle by 2004-05 as the noon news was discontinued and the 10 p.m. edition cut by 20 minutes in favor of syndicated programming like That 70's Show. As such, CTV of Derry sold channel 50 again, this time to Shooting Star Broadcasting.

In the summer of 2005, WNDS's owner, Shooting Star Broadcasting, announced that the station would change the call letters to WZMY-TV and the branding to "My TV" [4], coinciding with a major overhaul of the programming lineup, including the complete removal of the 10 p.m. news, the relocation of the 7 p.m. news to 7:30, new local programs, and other changes [5] based on viewer responses on the old WNDS website, as well as the immediate placing on hiatus of the Candlepin Stars and Strikes program in favor of Perry Mason reruns. [6]. The station relaunched on September 26, 2005.

[edit] WZMY adds MyNetworkTV

On January 24, 2006, the WB and UPN networks announced that they would merge into The CW, as of September 2006. WLVI became the Boston and Manchester area affiliate for the new network. WSBK-TV, the Boston UPN affiliate, reverted to its previously held independent status.

In February 2006, News Corporation announced the formation of MyNetworkTV, with the goal of providing programming to former UPN and WB stations that would not be seeking affiliation with The CW (such as in markets that had both a UPN and WB station). WZMY, having already established itself as "My TV," considered filing a lawsuit in order to block the new network from taking its similar sounding name, but did not follow through with such action.

On July 21, 2006, members of the "My TV Club" (who get special My TV-related announcements through their e-mail) received an e-mail announcing that WZMY would be affiliating with MyNetworkTV. Details on this affiliation was announced to the general public on Wednesday, July 26. [7] Details became available Monday afternoon, July 24, to the media & on WZMY's website. With the new affiliation, the station's branding became My TV New England, although it still used "My TV" as well. The new branding reflects the New England region instead of simply Boston because of its status as a New Hampshire-based station, as well as its Vermont translator. The station redesigned their website to reflect MNTV and have began airing promos for the new network, but was still using its original "My TV" logo on-air. WZMY's current MNTV logo retains the "My TV" moniker from its previous logo. Since September 5, 2006, WZMY has been using the new MNTV logo with all on-air programming and the "My TV New England" branding is now used on all programming as well. Since WXPO, WNDS, and WZMY have always been independent stations, the current MNTV affiliation is the first broadcast television network that channel 50 has been affiliated with.

[edit] Logos

Logo for the old WXPO-TV.

The most recent version of the late 90s WNDS logo, which was retired after the September 26, 2005 relaunch.

WZMY's previous My TV logo.

WZMY's current My TV logo with network affiliation.

[edit] Local Programming

[edit] Newscasts

[edit] As WNDS

Before channel 50 became "My TV", WNDS called its newscasts News Now, which debuted in 1998. These were the newscasts at the end of WNDS's run:

• News Now at 7 (7 to 7:30 PM Monday-Friday)
• News Now at 10 (10 to 10:30 PM Monday-Friday)

Both of these broadcasts began with WNDS's news operation, although the 10:00 p.m. news was also a 30-minute broadcast originally. At various points, WNDS also had weekend afternoon and weekday noon newscasts, but these were eventually dropped.

In addition, some news/weather updates as well as stand-alone weather updates from Al Kaprielian were provided throughout the day. When My TV launched, the 10 PM news was dropped. The news team remained the same throughout the transition.

[edit] As WZMY

When the station was relaunched, it had only one news program on the schedule, My TV Now, which aired from 7:30 to 8 PM. An additional 60-minute news and commentary program, My TV Prime, aired from 9 to 10 PM. However, on March 10, 2006, the two programs were consolidated into a new, 90-minute version of My TV Prime that aired from 8 to 9:30 PM. News was no longer provided outside of that program. By July 2006, channel 50 had discontinued My TV Prime in favor of sitcom reruns. Weather updates from chief meteorologist Al Kaprielian are still provided each hour from noon to midnight, but these (as of August 2006) are now accompanied by news updates (using the My TV Now title). It remains to be seen if the station decides to air full newscasts again with the MyNetworkTV affiliation.

[edit] News Team

• Al Kaprielian, My TV Chief Meteorologist
• Doug Finck, My New England Host
• Mike DeBlasi, My TV Anchor
• Nicole Papageorge, My TV Anchor
• Christina Heller, My TV Anchor

(Eric Shiener left WZMY to go to WYOU in Scranton, PA. Gail Scott-Key also left the station recently, and Christina Heller has taken her place.)

[edit] Other Local Programs

[edit] As WNDS

For most of WNDS's existence, the station ran a candlepin bowling show each weekend at noon called Candlepin Stars and Strikes, which was dropped from the schedule in August 2005. While My TV has stated that it would restore the show [8], it remains on hiatus as of September 2006. In addition, during the early 2000s, channel 50 ran a public affairs program titled Capital Ideas, but this program is also off the air.

Prior to the switch to Global Shopping Network in April 1997, WNDS also ran three additional shows: High School Sports Review, which looked at high school sports news in the station's broadcast region, Sports Wrap, a sports talk show discussing Boston sports, and WNDS News Up Front, a local newsmagazine. When regular programming was restored in June, these three shows were not resurrected.

[edit] As WZMY

Much of My TV's current local programming consists of visits to businesses around the region. The general show for this format is My New England, although as of August 2006 variants focusing on specific topics have been added, such as My Premier Bride and My Good Health. These programs appear throughout the day. Additionally, several local businesses (particularly car dealerships, but sometimes other businesses such as Dollar Bill's Discount World) have elected instead to produce infomercials that appear on weekend mornings. The latter programming had also appeared on WNDS.

When My TV launched, two other local programs also existed: a talk show entitled My TV Prime, which originally aired from 9 to 10 PM, and later from 8 to 9:30 PM, and Wild World, a review of action sports around the region, which was produced by Dan Egan. However, the station has subsequently discontinued these shows from its lineup (although Wild World is still produced for other outlets).

[edit] External links

• WZMY-TV Website
• MyNetworkTV Website
• WXPO-TV 50 at UHF Morgue
• Query the FCC's TV station database for WZMY
• Query the FCC's TV station database for W18AE