.svg) | |
| |
|---|---|
| Channels | |
| Branding |
|
| Programming | |
| Affiliations |
|
| Ownership | |
| Owner | |
| WNEU, WBTS-CD, WVIT, WRDM-CD, NECN, NBC Sports Boston | |
| History | |
First air date | April 3, 1995 (in Boston, Massachusetts; license moved to Providence in 2019[1]) |
Former call signs |
|
Former channel number(s) |
|
| |
Call sign meaning | "We're Your Community Network" (former branding for the current WBTS-CD under Nashua community broadcasting format) |
| Technical information[2] | |
Licensing authority | FCC |
| Facility ID | 64996 |
| ERP | 12.655 kW[1] |
| HAAT | 43.7 m (143 ft)[1] |
| Transmitter coordinates | 41°59′49.4″N 71°9′14.3″W / 41.997056°N 71.153972°W[1] |
| Translator(s) | WRIW-CD 51 Providence |
| Links | |
Public license information | LMS |
| Website | www |
WYCN-LD (channel 8) is a low-power television station in Providence, Rhode Island, United States, broadcasting the Spanish-language network Telemundo. Owned and operated by NBCUniversal's Telemundo Station Group, the station has studios on Kenney Drive in Cranston, Rhode Island (shared with NBC affiliate WJAR (channel 10), owned by the Sinclair Broadcast Group), and its transmitter is located on East Main Street in Norton, Massachusetts.
Originally licensed to Boston, the station was founded in 1995 as W32AY by the Spanish-language television network Telemundo (which was then under separate ownership). Later, as WTMU-LP, it carried that network as a translator of Merrimack, New Hampshire–licensed WNEU (channel 60), whose signal did not reach the city of Boston.
On January 7, 2016, NBC Owned Television Stations President Valari Staab confirmed that NBC had declined to renew its affiliation with Boston-based WHDH (channel 7), and that it planned to launch an owned-and-operated outlet to be known as NBC Boston on January 1, 2017. At the time, NBC did not announce which station(s) would be used to carry the new service over-the-air, and WHDH's owner Sunbeam Television sued NBCUniversal under the presumption that it planned to only use WNEU, contending that doing so would have considerably reduced the ability of viewers to receive the network over the air in Boston, thus bolstering the cable services provided by NBCUniversal's parent company Comcast in the area.
On August 31, 2016, NBCUniversal filed to acquire the low-power station from its owner ZGS Communications. The following month, ZGS filed a request to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to upgrade the station to a digital signal. NBC later announced that the station, renamed WBTS-LD, would serve as the main station of the NBC Boston service as part of a simulcast with WNEU-DT2 (virtual channel 60.2). Until April 1, 2018, NBC also leased a subchannel of WMFP (virtual channel 60.5) in Lawrence, to provide a full-power signal for viewers in the Boston area. On January 18, 2018, it started an additional transmission service in the Boston area through a channel sharing agreement with PBS member station WGBX-TV (channel 44), under the license of WYCN-CD (now WBTS-CD).
Due to its low-power status and transmitter location (roughly equidistant between Providence and Boston), WYCN-LD's broadcast radius does not cover the entire Providence metropolitan area. It is therefore simulcast in widescreen standard definition on Class A translator station WRIW-CD (channel 51), which shares spectrum with Providence-licensed full-power PBS member WSBE-TV (channel 36).
- ^ a b c d "Displacement for LPTV Station Application". Licensing and Management System. Federal Communications Commission. May 10, 2018. Archived from the original on November 19, 2018. Retrieved June 30, 2019.
- ^ "Facility Technical Data for WYCN-LD". Licensing and Management System. Federal Communications Commission.