WLNY-TV

WLNY-TV, channel 55, is an independent television station licensed to Riverhead, New York, United States serving the New York City market. The station is owned by CBS Corporation, and is one-half of a television duopoly with CBS' flagship station WCBS-TV (channel 2). The stations share studio facilities inside the CBS Broadcast Center in Midtown Manhattan, and WLNY maintains a secondary studio in Melville, New York, with its transmitter based in Middle Island, New York.

WLNY's primary over-the-air signal serves most of Long Island, comprising Nassau and Suffolk counties, and is available widely on cable television in most of the New York City television market.

History

The proposed WRIV-TV

The origins of channel 55 date back to 1967, when WRIV radio in Riverhead applied for a construction permit for UHF channel 55. The proposed WRIV-TV likely would have gone to air as the NBC affiliate for eastern Long Island, presumably due to the presence of WRIV radio's part-owner at the time, NBC News anchor Chet Huntley. WRIV-TV would have filled a coverage hole for NBC in eastern Long Island, as there was limited reception from New York City's WNBC-TV (channel 4) and the UHF signal from WATR-TV (channel 20, now WCCT-TV) in Waterbury, Connecticut. In comparison, eastern Long Island was well served by the Connecticut-based VHF signals from CBS on WTIC-TV (channel 3, now WFSB) and ABC on WNHC-TV (channel 8, now WTNH). WRIV-TV was ready to go on the air by the early 1970s, but the combination of a tough economic environment and the widespread popularity of cable television – which enabled viewers on eastern Long Island to receive New York City television stations clearly – likely prevented WRIV-TV from making it on the air.