united states branding wetm 18 general wetm 18 news wetm 2 on dt2 slogan your local news leader channels digital 18 uhf psip subchannels 18.1 nbc in hd 18.2 independent in sd 18.3 laff in sd 18.4 escape in sd affiliations nbc dt1 independent dt2 laff dt3 escape dt4 owner nexstar broadcasting group nexstar broadcasting inc. first air date september 10 1956 ; 60 years ago 1956 09 10 call letters meaning elmira city and times mirror former owner ; sister station was wstm sister station s wsyr tv wwti wivt wbgh cd wroc tv wutr wfxv wpny lp wfff tv wvny former callsigns wsye tv 1956 1980 former channel number s analog 18 1956 2009 digital 2 2004 2009 former affiliations dt2 upn 2004 2006 transmitter power 45 kw height 376 m class dt facility id 60653 transmitter coordinates 42 6 22 n 76 52 17 w 42.10611 n 76.87139 w 42.10611 ; 76.87139 licensing authority fcc public license information profile cdbs website mytwintiers.com wetm tv is the nbc affiliated television station for the central and western twin tiers of southern upstate new york and northern pennsylvania . licensed to elmira it broadcasts a high definition digital signal on uhf channel 18 from a transmitter on hawley hill in big flats . the station can also be seen on time warner cable channel 3 and in high definition on digital channel 1203 . 1 owned by the nexstar broadcasting group wetm has studios on east water street in downtown elmira . contents 1 history 2 digital television 2.1 digital channels 2.2 analog to digital conversion 3 programming 4 news operation 4.1 notable former staff 5 references 6 external links history edit the station signed on september 10 1956 as wsye tv . it was owned by newhouse communications as a semi satellite of nbc affiliate wsyr tv now wstm tv in syracuse . it is elmira s oldest surviving station signing on two years after wtve which went dark after hurricane hazel blew through the elmira area in 1954 and took out its tower . originating early on from wsye s original studios on hawley hill was a ladies informational program called the dana near show . in 1980 newhouse sold its entire television division including wsye and wsyr to the times mirror company . the new owners changed the call letters to wstm tv and wetm tv respectively . times mirror gradually cut the last ties between the two stations while establishing wetm as a full fledged station in its own right . it sold wetm to smith broadcasting in 1986 . under smith s ownership a reversal of the station s origins took place with the april 1996 launch of a cable only binghamton version of wetm through a local marketing agreement with time warner cable . 2 set up in the wake of established nbc affiliate wicz tv defecting to fox the arrangement saw time warner cable sell binghamton market advertising and replace syndicated programs that aired on other binghamton stations with programming acquired by wetm for the binghamton market while wetm sold regional advertising seen in both markets . 2 in 1997 smith bought binghamton low power station wbgh lp and made it an over the air semi satellite of wetm ; 3 4 wbgh eventually split off except for simulcasting wetm s newscasts . wetm became the first outlet in the elmira market with an internet presence starting in 1998 . in 2000 smith broadcasting entered into a management agreement with the ackerley group to operate wetm . clear channel communications inherited the management agreement when it purchased ackerley in late 2001 . in 2004 smith broadcasting sold wetm outright to clear channel after the death of smith broadcasting founder robert smith . on april 20 2007 clear channel entered into an agreement to sell its entire television stations group to providence equity partners . 5 newport announced on july 19 2012 that it would sell twelve of its television stations including wetm to the nexstar broadcasting group . 6 the sale was finalized on december 3 2012 . on july 26 the station was knocked off the air by widespread power outages caused by a confirmed tornado that struck downtown elmira during the afternoon . by the next day around mid morning wetm had a feed restored to time warner cable . 7 8 digital television edit digital channels edit the station s digital signal is multiplexed channel video aspect psip short name programming 9 18.1 1080i 16 9 wetm dt main wetm tv programming nbc 18.2 480i 4 3 wetm 2 wetm dt2 programming independent 18.3 wetm 3 laff 18.4 wetm 4 escape wetm dt2 has its roots in w30aa a translator of pbs affiliate wskg tv in binghamton . that station closed down the translator in 2003 after concluding the expenses required to operate w30aa were not justified by its limited viewership base . 10 wskg subsequently sold the w30aa license to clear channel communications then owned of wetm which brought it back on the air in september 2004 as low powered upn affiliate wttx lp identified on air as upn 30 . at this point it was began to be seen through a simulcast on wetm s second digital subchannel since its analog broadcasting radius was very limited . 11 with the september 2006 merger of upn and the wb to form the cw wttx competed to become the area s affiliate . ultimately this went to cable only wb 100 station wbe which was operated by rival abc affiliate weny tv . wttx was dealt another blow when wskg launched full time satellite wska on the channel 30 allotment forcing clear channel to shut down the low powered station . wttx s programming was moved to wetm dt2 which became an independent outlet after the cw launched on september 18 2006 . wetm dt2 won a new york state broadcasters association award for its coverage of high school sports in 2006 2008 and 2010 . the station had shown local sports such as elmira jackals hockey as well as new york yankees baseball . analog to digital conversion edit wetm tv became the first station in elmira to broadcast a high definition feed in 2005 with the launch of a digital signal on vhf channel 2 . the station shut down its analog signal over uhf channel 18 at 12 01 a.m. on june 12 2009 the official date in which full power television stations in the united states transitioned from analog to digital broadcasts under federal mandate . the station s digital signal relocated from its pre transition vhf channel 2 to uhf channel 18 . 12 programming edit syndicated programming on this station includes wheel of fortune jeopardy who wants to be a millionaire and the dr. oz show among others . news operation edit wetm has traditionally been a ratings stronghold in the central twin tiers area . this is because the news department at rival weny is quite small compared with wetm . in addition weny does not provide any newscasts in several traditional timeslots such as a midday broadcast during the week weeknights at 5 and weekends news despite operating three major programming services abc cbs and the cw . there is however the market s only local news offering weeknights at 5 30 seen on weny dt2 . wetm does not produce a newscast then unlike most nbc affiliates in the eastern time zone . while serving as a semi satellite of wstm wetm produced separate local newscasts that were seen weeknights at 6 and 11 from its original hawley hill studios . there were also weekday morning news and weather cut ins airing at 25 and 55 past the hour during today airing from 7 until 9 . the 2004 launch of wetm dt2 wttx lp introduced the area s first prime time newscast at 10 which is still seen for thirty minutes on weeknights . wetm 18 news at 10 currently competes with a ten minute news and weather update airing on fox affiliate wydc which is taped in advance . wetm dt2 also simulcasts the entire weekday morning show weekday news at noon in addition to the weeknight newscasts at 5 and 6 from the main channel . on june 5 2009 wivt and wbgh in binghamton announced there would be a consolidation of news operations with wetm after newport television made across the board cuts . 13 14 however those two stations would continue to be locally operated and maintain engineer staff at their own studios in binghamton . 15 wivt and wbgh began simulcasting wetm s newscasts with only regional weather coverage of the eastern twin tiers and not much of a news focus . 16 a separate newscast specifically focusing on the binghamton area was brought back to those two stations on june 28 2009 through a simulcast on both outlets . 17 this effort originally consisted of a 6 p.m. weeknight newscast entirely produced from wetm s studios . eventually production of the news and sports portions of the broadcast was shifted back to binghamton . these segments are recorded earlier in the day usually by 5 o clock and feature locally based photojournalists . a repeat of the 6 o clock newscast at 11 was subsequently added to the schedules of wivt and wbgh . soon after adding the hyper local bighamton news wivt ceased simulcasting wetm s newscasts making the taped weeknight program the only local news shown on the station . however wbgh continued to air wetm s weekend 11 p.m. newscast until at some point in late 2013 . wetm upgraded its local newscast production to high definition level on july 15 2014 . it is the second television station in the market to perform the change as rival weny switched on april 23 2012 . notable former staff edit josh mora sports anchor 1994 1996 ; now working for full sail university 18 staci lyn honda now at wsyr tv ken rosato now at wabc tv rod denson references edit tv.twcc.com listings via entering the appropriate zip codes a b ross chuck april 22 1996 . tv station hooks up with cable outlet ; new york s wetm crafts local marketing agreement . advertising age . retrieved december 20 2015 . application search details wbgh cd . cdbs public access . federal communications commission . retrieved december 20 2015 . fybush scott september 11 1997 . fire at wvip . north east radiowatch . retrieved december 20 2015 . clear channel agrees to sell television station group to providence equity partners press release . clear channel communications . 2007 04 20 . retrieved 2007 04 20 . newport sells 22 station for 1 billion . tvnewscheck . july 19 2012 . retrieved july 19 2012 . http www.wetmtv.com news local story tornado threat has now passed orxt8yhfh0qt5i0likyyeg.cspx http www.wetmtv.com news local story wetm tv programming restored to time warner cable exi61hs6dukwtr7kgup6za.cspx rabbitears tv query for wetm fybush scott july 14 2003 . car dealer broadcaster boch dies . northeast radio watch . retrieved january 22 2010 . fybush scott september 27 2004 . rhode islanders fight wrni sale . northeast radio watch . retrieved january 22 2010 . dtv tentative channel designations for the first and the second rounds pdf . retrieved 2012 03 24 . http www.newschannel34.com news local story wivt and wbgh to expand local news to the d9sj cstc0w ict5k50qfw.cspx http www.wbng.com news local 47047142.html http www.pressconnects.com article 20090606 business 906060387 wivt elmira station consolidate news department at wivt wbgh combined with wetm . ynn binghamton . june 5 2009 . retrieved october 6 2012 . http www.newschannel34.com news local story newschannel34 will be returning june 29th with dhi4bmkinemwwjcpuuxcqw.cspx josh mora s linkedin profile . retrieved 10 january 2013 . external links edit official website query the fcc s tv station database for wetm tv query tv fool