WYCI

WYCI

Saranac Lake–Plattsburgh, New York/ Burlington, Vermont United States
City	Saranac Lake, New York
Branding	YCN
Slogan	Your Local View
Channels	Digital: 34 (UHF) (application)[1] Virtual: 40 (PSIP)
Affiliations	40.1 H&I/MNTV 40.2 Decades
Owner	Cross Hill Communications, LLC
First air date	September 11, 2007 (2007-09-11)
Call letters' meaning	Yankee Communications International
Sister station(s)	WYCX-CD/WYCU-LD
Former callsigns	WCWF (2006–2009) WNMN (2009–2016)
Former channel number(s)	Analog: 40 (UHF, 2007–2009) Digital: 40 (UHF, 2009–2018)
Former affiliations	Ion Television (primary: 2007–2009; DT2: 2010–2011, 2014–2015) MyNetworkTV (DT3: 2010–2015) Retro TV (2009–2014) Tuff TV (2014–2017)
Transmitter power	485 kW (DTS1 application)[1] 10.2 kW (DTS2 application)[1]
Height	336 m (1,102 ft) (DTS1 application)[1] 97 m (318 ft) (DTS2 application)[1]
Facility ID	77515
Transmitter coordinates	44°34′24″N 73°40′30″W / 44.57333°N 73.67500°W / 44.57333; -73.67500 (DTS1 application)[1] 44°20′28.1″N 74°7′41.5″W / 44.341139°N 74.128194°W / 44.341139; -74.128194 (DTS2 application)[1]
Licensing authority	FCC
Public license information:	Profile CDBS
Website	ycnnow.com

WYCI is a primary Heroes & Icons and secondary MyNetworkTV affiliated television station licensed to Saranac Lake, New York, United States and serving Upstate New York's North Country. The station currently brands as YCN, an initialism for "Yankee Communications Network." It previously broadcast a digital signal on virtual and UHF channel 40 from a transmitter on the WNBZ-FM tower north of the village along the Essex and Franklin county line. The station can also be seen on Spectrum channel 18 and Comcast channel 80. Owned by Cross Hill Communications, LLC, WYCI has studios on Pine Haven Shores Road in Shelburne, Vermont.

In July 2018, the station went silent to meet a contractual deadline in agreement with T-Mobile.^[2] The station will resume broadcasting on channel 34 from transmitter sites on Terry Mountain and Mount Pisgah once an application to construct a distributed transmission system passes coordination with Canada, gets approved by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and the facilities are constructed.

History

The station applied for its construction permit on September 22, 1995. The FCC approved it on October 4, 2004. It originally planned to use UHF analog channel 61 (from which the Channel 61 Associates, LLC name for the station's licensee was derived) but switched to channel 40 because channels 51-69 would no longer be used for television after the DTV transition.^[3] In 2006, the station decided on the call letters WCWF sparking speculation that the station would be an affiliate of The CW. However, that affiliation went to Fox affiliate WFFF-TV (channel 44), first as a replacement for its secondary WB affiliation and then on a new digital subchannel (The CW affiliation later moved to a subchannel of NBC affiliate WPTZ, channel 5; it now airs on sister station WNNE, channel 31).

Former WNMN logo

While it searched for its own affiliation, WCWF finally began broadcasting September 11, 2007 as a repeater of Ion Television affiliate WWBI-LP, the owners of which held a stake in the station.^[4][5] After a short time on-the-air, the station signed-off telling the FCC it was preparing to switch to digital.^[4] In November 2008, Channel 61 Associates sold the station to Twin Valley Television, a broadcaster based in Burlington which also goes by Convergence Entertainment & Communications or CEC.^[6][7] Twin Valley took control of the station while the sale was still pending FCC approval. As of 2011, however, the application for transfer of ownership no longer appears on the FCC website.^[8]

At the end of 2008, it signed back on from a temporary low power analog transmitter which was meant to last until its permanent digital transmitter was ready on June 12, 2009.^[9][10] However, there were delays in getting its new transmitter installed so the station switched its temporary transmitter to digital for the time being.^[11] In early 2009, the station became an affiliate of the Retro Television Network. On June 16, 2009, WCWF changed its call letters to WNMN.^[12]

Meanwhile, Twin Valley also purchased WGMU-CA (formerly Vermont's MyNetworkTV affiliate once owned by Equity Media Holdings) which was approved by the FCC in July 2009. That station along with its translators were turned into repeaters of WNMN which greatly expanded its coverage area into the greater Burlington and Plattsburgh areas. The owner announced that WNMN would air a mix of RTV and local programming on its main channel, while also carrying five digital subchannels, one of which airs MyNetworkTV (WGMU's former affiliation).^[13] MyNetworkTV affiliate WNMN-DT3 also began offering Tuff TV on July 15, 2010. The subchannel was to be carried on Comcast channel 18, but was never made available.^[14]

Cross Hill Communications, LLC was granted the licence of WNMN by the FCC on October 30, 2013. At that time they became a TUFF TV affiliate. On March 9, 2016, the call sign was changed to WYCI.^[15] As of 2017, most likely as a direct result of this transition of station management, WYCI offered no subchannels other than its primary Retro TV channel, leaving the Burlington–Plattsburgh market without a MyNetworkTV affiliate. As of April 1, 2017, WYCI became a Heroes and Icons affiliate; sometime in 2018, they eventually resumed operations of their DT2 subchannel, this time offering the Decades service. WYCI is carried on Comcast and Spectrum (former Time Warner and Charter) systems throughout the market.^[16] By January 1, 2018, both Dish Network and DirecTV started carrying WYCI throughout the market. On September 3, 2018, MyNetworkTV programming returned to the Burlington–Plattsburgh market, ironically over the very station that had formerly offered it on their DT3 subchannel, this time on their primary channel as a secondary affiliation to H&I, filling in programming for all time slots outside of the MyNetworkTV programming schedule with the H&I schedule.^{[17][18][19][20]}

Digital television

Repeaters

WNMN was previously relayed on a network of four translators:

WGMU-LP, W19BR and WBVT-LP would have their licenses cancelled by the FCC on March 12, 2015 for failure to broadcast for a year. WVMA-CD has since been sold to another ownership group.

References

External links

Query the FCC's TV station database for WYCI