WICZ-TV

WICZ-TV is the Fox-affiliated television station for the Eastern Twin Tiers of Southern Upstate New York and Northern Pennsylvania. Licensed to Binghamton, it broadcasts a high definition digital signal on VHF channel 8 (or virtual channel 40.1 via PSIP) from a transmitter on Ingraham Hill southwest of downtown. The station can also be seen on Time Warner Cable channel 3 and in HD on digital channel 1206. Owned by the Stainless Broadcasting Company subsidiary of Northwest Broadcasting, WICZ is sister to low-powered MyNetworkTV affiliate WBPN-LP and the two outlets share studios on Vestal Parkway East (NY 434) in Vestal.

History

The station signed on November 1, 1957 as WINR-TV, the area's second television station, and aired an analog signal on UHF channel 40. The station was originally owned by the Gannett Company (which purchased the station just before its launch) along with WINR radio (680 AM) and the Binghamton Press. WINR-TV was primarily an NBC affiliate, though it also carried some ABC programming before WBJA-TV (channel 34, now WIVT) went on the air in 1962.Broadcast tower manufacturer Stainless, Inc. acquired WINR-TV in 1971 and changed its call letters to WICZ-TV (named for company owner Henry Guzewicz). That fall, the station moved to an 870-foot (270 m) tower on Ingraham Hill; it had previously shared a transmitter location with WINR radio.