verification . please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources . unsourced material may be challenged and removed . february 2013 learn how and when to remove this template message wcax tv burlington montpelier vermont plattsburgh new york united states city burlington vermont branding wcax channel 3 movies on dt2 slogan vermont s most trusted news source channels digital 22 uhf virtual 3 psip subchannels 3.1 cbs 3.2 movies translators 20 w20cs d rutland vt affiliations cbs owner mount mansfield television inc. martin family first air date september 26 1954 ; 62 years ago 1954 09 26 call letters meaning college of agriculture extension service once provided by university of vermont ; derived from former sister station wcax radio now wvmt former callsigns wmvt 1954 1955 former channel number s analog 3 vhf 1954 2009 former affiliations fox secondary 1994 1997 transmitter power 443 kw height 845 m 2 772 ft facility id 46728 transmitter coordinates 44 31 33.5 n 72 48 55.9 w 44.525972 n 72.815528 w 44.525972 ; 72.815528 licensing authority fcc public license information profile cdbs website www.wcax.com wcax tv channel 3 is a television station in burlington vermont usa . wcax tv is affiliated with the cbs television network and has been locally owned by the hasbrook martin family and their company mount mansfield television since the station s inception . wcax tv has studios on joy drive in south burlington and its transmitter is based on mount mansfield vermont s highest peak . aside from its primary coverage area of the champlain valley and environs wcax tv s over the air signal also carries across the u.s. canada border into portions of southern quebec . the station can be seen on cable in montreal as far north as saguenay and as far east as gasp . it is also available on every cable system in vermont . contents 1 history 1.1 viewership in canada 1.2 local programming 1.3 wcax dt2 2 digital television 2.1 digital channels 2.2 analog to digital conversion 3 news operation 4 references 5 external links history edit wcax was the call sign of a station run by students that made the first radio broadcast from the university of vermont campus october 10 1924 . 1 vermont s first television station channel 3 first signed on air on september 26 1954 as wmvt licensed originally to the capital city of montpelier . the station was owned by charles p. hasbrook former publisher of the now defunct burlington daily news along with wcax radio 620 am now wvmt which he purchased in 1939 and sold in 1963 . in may 1955 wmvt s community of license was moved from montpelier to burlington the state s largest city 2 and one month later the station s call letters were changed to wcax tv to match its radio sister . 3 in 1958 hasbrook turned over the station s ownership to his stepson dr. stuart t. red martin jr. who ran the station until his death in 2005 . an engineer by trade red martin assisted his stepfather in building the station from the ground up and upon channel 3 s sign on was installed as its first general manager . 4 peter r. martin red martin s oldest son is the station s current president and general manager . although wcax radio was originally affiliated with nbc before moving to cbs in 1940 wcax tv has always been a cbs affiliate . as such it is one of the few stations in the country not counting network owned and operated stations that has had the same owner channel number and primary network affiliation throughout its history . the station did hold a secondary fox affiliation from 1994 1997 carrying fox sports and fox kids programming ; through this arrangement wcax tv was able to carry fox s nfl coverage which consisted of the rights to nfc games that had been held by cbs and thus aired on wcax tv until 1994 . the secondary fox affiliation ended when wfff tv signed on in 1997 . 5 on october 25 2006 wcax tv upgraded its digital signal to broadcast cbs programming in high definition . viewership in canada edit the station has long had significant viewership in montreal which is more than ten times as large as its american coverage area . in the past it has identified itself as serving burlington plattsburgh montreal to acknowledge its canadian viewership though this practice largely ended in the 1990s . like other champlain valley stations wcax tv once made a significant portion of its advertising sales across the border . however canadian advertising business has almost completely dried up mostly due to the arrival of newer stations such as ckmi dt 1 coupled with the canadian simultaneous substitution regulations and the availability of network affiliates from other united states markets such as boston and detroit on canadian satellite systems . citation needed local programming edit this channel s longest running local programs both dating to the founding of the station are a daily twenty minute agricultural information program entitled across the fence produced in association with the university of vermont extension service and a thirty minute weekly public affairs show called you can quote me . in september 2006 wcax tv introduced its third local program called late night saturday . it was produced in conjunction with champlain college for its media arts department . the program was hosted by tim kavanagh and aired weekly on saturday nights . it offered local musicians and artists a chance to perform in front of a live studio audience and showcase their work . it also featured local celebrities such as rusty dewees and national celebrities such as luis guzman . it ended after three seasons 6 wcax dt2 edit logo used as wcaxtra in 2007 wcax tv began to operate a 24 hour local weather and news channel on a new digital subchannel . originally called weather 3.2 and later wcaxtra it featured news updates and live local weather along with the fcc required three hours of e i compliant children programming per week . on weekends if sports games ran long the news could be found on the secondary channel though that practice ended in recent years . a 10 p.m. newscast was run for a while exclusively on 3.2 . after it was cancelled the 5 30 program the 30 was run as a repeat in that timeslot . on april 30 2015 the channel was replaced with the movies network . 7 on digital cable wcax dt2 can be seen on comcast channel 331 burlington telecom channel 303 charter channel 295 and time warner channel 165 . digital television edit digital channels edit the station s digital signal is multiplexed channel video aspect psip short name programming 8 3.1 1080i 16 9 wcax hd main wcax tv programming cbs 3.2 480i movies movies analog to digital conversion edit wcax tv shut down its analog signal over vhf channel 3 on february 17 2009 the original date in which full power television stations in the united states were to transition from analog to digital broadcasts under federal mandate which was later pushed back to june 12 2009 . the station s digital signal relocated from its pre transition uhf channel 53 which was among the high band uhf channels 52 69 that were removed from broadcasting use as a result of the transition to uhf channel 22 formerly the analog channel position for abc affiliate wvny which continues on channel 13 . 9 through the use of psip digital television receivers display the station s virtual channel as its former vhf analog channel 3 . news operation edit wcax tv grew out of a newspaper and has long been committed to local coverage . it has more of a vermont focus compared with nbc affiliate wptz which is based across lake champlain in plattsburgh . in 1997 wcax tv launched its weekday morning show that originally ran for one hour . it later expanded to a full two hour broadcast . it has been carrying cbs news up to the minute since october 2005 following thirteen years of not airing it . in august 2006 it launched the first website designed for mobile phone browsers . until early 2009 it was the only wireless website in the market when wptz added the service . citation needed starting july 16 2007 wcax tv began to produce a weeknight 10 o clock broadcast on wcaxtra known as the channel 3 news at 10 . although it was the first prime time show in the area fox affiliate wfff tv started a 10pm newscast in 2008 . in 2010 wcax tv put the 10pm newscasts on a hiatus due to the majority of viewers not receiving wcaxtra digital channel 3.2 through their cable companies . on november 14 wcax tv relaunched its newscasts with a new look and became the first broadcaster in the area to air local news in 16 9 widescreen enhanced standard definition . however this was not true high definition unlike wfff tv who has been airing its broadcasts in full 1080i resolution . in addition to its main studios the station operates four news bureaus . an outpost in montpelier was established in 1964 and is located on state street u.s. 2 in vermont s state capital . that was followed by bureaus located in rutland vermont on north main street opened in 1967 plattsburgh opened in 1973 and west lebanon new hampshire launched in 2002 . citation needed on december 2 2008 the station laid off three of its employees and cut two vacant jobs . although it declined to identify the laid off employees the channel stated that they were both on air and off air personnel . shawna lidsky weekday morning sports anchor and sports reporter and rachael morrow weekday morning news producer and reporter were two on air personnel that were laid off . also longtime photog steve longchamp was among the personalities let go . owner peter martin said that declining advertising revenues along with the economic crisis caused the layoffs . those were the first job cuts seen in the station s history . citation needed on january 19 2009 wcax tv announced that it had laid off several more employees . it specifically mentioned the declining automobile commercial revenue which is a major source of advertising for the station as the cause of the second round of layoffs . on may 12 2009 at the end of the weeknight 6 o clock broadcast marselis parsons announced that he would be retiring as weeknight anchor and news director . he stepped down as news director at the end of may and anchored the 6 p.m. newscast throughout the summer . parsons has been with wcax tv since 1967 and was news director and weeknight anchor from 1984 until 2009 . the station had won dozens citation needed of awards under his direction including the radio and television news director association s best television newscast in the united states in 2003 . citation needed parsons continued with the station as a part time features reporter until his death in 2015 . former wcax tv news reporter anson tebbetts took over as news director at the end of may 2009 and senior reporter darren perron began anchoring the broadcast when parsons vacated the position . citation needed on june 23 2009 wcax tv upgraded its local news to high definition . the station switched its studio cameras to high definition field cameras made the transition to hd later in the fall . new graphics flags and intros were also put in place . the previous graphics had been used in all of its newscasts since 2000 . on september 16 2009 wcax tv announced that it would be hiring a full time news reporter for the re opening