york montreal quebec united states canada city burlington vermont branding local 44 general local 44 news newscasts slogan local news that matters channels digital 43 uhf virtual 44 psip subchannels 44.1 fox 44.2 escape 44.3 bounce tv affiliations fox owner nexstar broadcasting group nexstar broadcasting inc. first air date august 31 1997 ; 19 years ago 1997 08 31 call letters meaning we re fox forty four former analog and current psip channel sister station s wvny former channel number s analog 44 uhf 1997 2009 former affiliations secondary on main feed the wb 1999 2006 the cw 2006 2007 transmitter power 47 kw height 839 m class dt facility id 10132 transmitter coordinates 44 31 33 n 72 48 55 w 44.52583 n 72.81528 w 44.52583 ; 72.81528 licensing authority fcc public license information profile cdbs website mychamplainvalley.com wfff tv channel 44 is the fox affiliate for vermont s champlain valley upstate new york s north country and montreal quebec . licensed to burlington vermont it broadcasts on uhf channel 43 virtual channel 44.1 via psip from a transmitter on vermont s highest peak mount mansfield . owned by nexstar broadcasting group wfff tv operates abc affiliate wvny owned by mission broadcasting through a local marketing agreement ; the two stations share studios on mountain view drive in colchester vermont . like other network stations serving plattsburgh and burlington wfff tv has a large audience in southern quebec canada . this includes montreal a city ten times more populous than all of wfff tv s entire american viewing area combined . most vid otron systems in canada carry wfff tv as their fox affiliate . contents 1 history 1.1 simultaneous substitution problems 2 digital television 2.1 digital channels 2.2 analog to digital conversion 3 news operation 4 references 5 external links history edit wfff tv signed on august 31 1997 . 1 prior to the station s launch the champlain valley was the last top 100 television market without a primary fox affiliate ; 2 cbs affiliate wcax tv aired fox sports and fox kids programming while the network s full schedule was available on most vermont cable systems through foxnet . 3 new york state cable systems had imported wnyw from new york city while canadian cable systems carried wutv from buffalo new york or wuhf from rochester new york . 4 wfff tv was originally owned by champlain valley telecasting but was operated by heritage media owner of nbc affiliate wptz through an lma . 3 wfff tv originally planned to broadcast its analog channel 44 signal from mount mansfield ; however while the federal communications commission fcc granted a construction permit the station was unable to secure approval from the mount mansfield collocation association . as a result after three years of attempts it was forced to transmit from wptz s tower on terry mountain in peru new york under special temporary authority resulting in less over the air coverage of the eastern portion of the market than anticipated . 5 wfff tv along with the other burlington plattsburgh stations were able to sign their digital signals on the air from mount mansfield in 2006 6 but its analog signal remained on terry mountain until 2009 . shortly before wfff tv began broadcasting heritage media announced the sale of its broadcasting properties including wptz and the lma with wfff tv to sinclair broadcast group ; 4 soon after taking over in early 1998 sinclair sold wptz and the wfff tv lma to sunrise television . sunrise promptly swapped wptz to hearst argyle television but transferred wfff tv s non license assets to smith broadcasting which like sunrise was controlled by robert smith ; 7 soon afterward the station began to operate independently of wptz . smith bought wfff tv outright a year later . 8 in february 1999 wfff tv began airing thirty second daily vignettes called vermont s most wanted along with sister program citizen s patrol . the efforts were produced in cooperation with local law enforcement and the champlain valley branch of the national crimestoppers non profit organization . the station added a secondary affiliation with the wb in 1999 after wbvt lp now wgmu lp dropped that network in favor of upn . 9 for a time the two hours of prime time programming from the wb aired in separate two hour long blocks weeknights at 5 and 10 . wfff tv eventually moved the entire two hours of programming to a delayed basis at 10 p.m. after fox prime time in continuous block named the wb time . wfff tv also cleared the kids wb blocks as well as the daytime wb block that replaced the weekday block in early 2006 in addition to fox s own children s programming . despite the secondary affiliation area cable systems continued to carry wpix new york city s wb affiliate . the death of bob smith head of family owned smith broadcasting in 2003 10 led to the family s decision in 2004 to sell its group of stations to an investment group called smith media llc . 11 after researching markets where the company now had ownership in it was discovered wvny was up for sale . finding a way to satisfy fcc ownership rules smith media partnered with lambert broadcasting and became the senior partner in a local marketing agreement with wvny . smith media shut down that station s longtime facilities in south burlington reduced redundant staff and relocated its operations into wfff tv s colchester facilities . 12 this arrangement placed wfff tv in the unusual position of being the senior partner as a fox affiliated station in a virtual duopoly with an abc affiliate most virtual or legal duopolies involving a fox affiliate and a big three affiliated station result in the fox affiliate serving as the junior partner . logo of the television channel used between 2007 and 2013 when the wb and upn were shut down to create the cw in september 2006 wfff tv became a secondary affiliate of the new network airing its primetime programming in the same block that formerly housed wb programming . cw programming moved to a new subchannel of wfff tv on september 27 2007 ; the subchannel immediately replaced wpix on comcast s vermont systems with charter communications in new york state following suit on december 31 . the subchannel continued to carry cw programming until march 4 2013 when wptz s subchannel assumed the cw affiliation for the burlington plattsburgh market 13 leaving wfff tv s subchannel with only syndicated programming 14 until october 1 2013 when it shut down and was replaced over the air with a standard definition feed of the main channel . 15 the station became digital only effective february 17 2009 . as a result some parts of the viewing area were left without a full powered fox affiliate including enosburg in franklin county vermont as well as parts of franklin and essex counties in new york state . due to an ongoing retransmission dispute time warner cable replaced wfff tv with wnyf cd from watertown massena new york on december 16 2010 . its cw subchannel was also dropped though the network remained available through wpix . sister station wvny was simultaneously replaced with future sister station wutr from utica new york . on the same date sister station wktv the nbc affiliate in utica was replaced by another of wfff tv s future sister stations wbre tv from wilkes barre pennsylvania and its cw affiliated subchannel with hbo family for the same reason . 16 wfff tv was restored on january 8 2011 after a new deal the terms of which both sides refused to reveal was reached with time warner . 17 smith media agreed to sell wfff tv to nexstar broadcasting group on november 5 2012 . concurrently lambert broadcasting sold wvny to mission broadcasting whose stations are all operated by nexstar through shared services agreements . 18 on february 5 2013 the fcc approved the sale of wfff tv . 19 the transaction was completed on march 1 20 leaving utica nbc affiliate wktv as smith media s only remaining television station property . on january 27 2016 it was announced that nexstar would buy media general for 4.6 billion . wfff and wvny will become part of nexstar media group and will join a cluster of television stations nexstar will own in new england including abc affiliate wtnh in new haven connecticut cbs affiliate wpri tv in providence rhode island and nbc affiliate wwlp in springfield massachusetts . in addition wfff and wvny will also become sisters with fellow fox and abc affiliates wxxa tv and wten respectively in albany new york . these stations also serve bennington county vermont and nexstar upon consummation will be responsible for fox and abc programming in 13 of the 14 counties in vermont . the lone exception windham county is served by boston s wfxt and wcvb tv respectively abc programming in windham county is also available through manchester new hampshire s wmur tv . 21 on june 15 2016 nexstar announced that it has entered into an affiliation agreement with katz broadcasting for the escape laff grit and bounce tv networks the last one of which is owned by bounce media llc whose coo jonathan katz is president ceo of katz broadcasting bringing one or more of the four networks to 81 stations owned and or operated by nexstar including wfff tv and wvny . 22 simultaneous substitution problems edit wfff tv has significant viewership in the much larger montreal market because it is available over the air alongside other vermont stations and used as the fox station on vid otron s cable systems . as the youngest full power station covering the entire market it still relies heavily on montreal for advertising revenue while the area s other stations have somewhat lessened their dependence on advertising . in 2003 and 2004 wfff tv was involved in a commercial war with montreal s cjnt tv . for some time its commercials on non network programs such as that 70s show were blocked by simultaneous substitution simsub on montreal cable systems . under canadian radio television and telecommunications commission crtc regulations simultaneous substitution demanded the cable companies in canada replace wfff tv s signal with cjnt tv s signal when the same program and episode was running at the same time . this is the same practice as the fcc s syndication exclusivity rule in the united states . in response wfff tv frequently shifted its schedule to keep its commercials from being blocked in montreal . in response to this station s schedule shuffling cjnt moved its schedule accordingly to retain simsub rights . this resulted in a cat and mouse game of changing programming schedules every few weeks leaving viewers confused . the changes usually occurred with little to no advance warning sometimes making local schedules in tv guide both us and canadian versions outdated by the time they were published . 23 wfff tv eventually solved the problem by adding a second daily airing of that 70s show giving it access to a second strip of programming from the distributor which was available only to stations carrying a full hour of the program . it would then flip the two airings so the exclusive strip was shown in the shared time slot meaning cjnt could no longer simsub the program since wfff tv was not airing the same episode . 23 digital television edit digital channels edit the station s digital signal is multiplexed channel video aspect psip short name programming 24 44.1 720p 16 9 wfff hd main wfff tv programming fox 44.2 480i 4 3 escape escape 44.3 bounce bounce tv analog to digital conversion edit wfff tv shut down its analog signal over uhf channel 44 on february 17 2009 the original target date