WBTS-LD

WYCN-LD (channel 8) is a low-power television station in Providence, Rhode Island, United States, broadcasting the Spanish-language network Telemundo. Owned and operated by NBCUniversal's Telemundo Station Group, the station has studios on Kenney Drive in Cranston, Rhode Island (shared with NBC affiliate WJAR (channel 10), owned by the Sinclair Broadcast Group), and its transmitter is located on East Main Street in Norton, Massachusetts.

Originally licensed to Boston, the station was founded in 1995 as W32AY by the Spanish-language television network Telemundo (which was then under separate ownership). Later, as WTMU-LP, it carried that network as a translator of Merrimack, New Hampshire–licensed WNEU (channel 60), whose signal did not reach the city of Boston.

On January 7, 2016, NBC Owned Television Stations President Valari Staab confirmed that NBC had declined to renew its affiliation with Boston-based WHDH (channel 7), and that it planned to launch an owned-and-operated outlet to be known as NBC Boston on January 1, 2017. At the time, NBC did not announce which station(s) would be used to carry the new service over-the-air, and WHDH's owner Sunbeam Television sued NBCUniversal under the presumption that it planned to only use WNEU, contending that doing so would have considerably reduced the ability of viewers to receive the network over the air in Boston, thus bolstering the cable services provided by NBCUniversal's parent company Comcast in the area.

On August 31, 2016, NBCUniversal filed to acquire the low-power station from its owner ZGS Communications. The following month, ZGS filed a request to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to upgrade the station to a digital signal. NBC later announced that the station, renamed WBTS-LD, would serve as the main station of the NBC Boston service as part of a simulcast with WNEU-DT2 (virtual channel 60.2). Until April 1, 2018, NBC also leased a subchannel of WMFP (virtual channel 60.5) in Lawrence, to provide a full-power signal for viewers in the Boston area. On January 18, 2018, it started an additional transmission service in the Boston area through a channel sharing agreement with PBS member station WGBX-TV (channel 44), under the license of WYCN-CD (now WBTS-CD).

Due to its low-power status and transmitter location (roughly equidistant between Providence and Boston), WYCN-LD's broadcast radius does not cover the entire Providence metropolitan area. It is therefore simulcast in widescreen standard definition on Class A translator station WRIW-CD (channel 51), which shares spectrum with Providence-licensed full-power PBS member WSBE-TV (channel 36).

W32AY, WTMU-LP: Telemundo for Boston

The station first signed on the air in April 1995 as W32AY, operating on UHF channel 32 from the Prudential Tower in Boston as a Telemundo owned-and-operated station. In September 2000, the station began to simulcast its programming on WWDP (channel 46), giving it a chance to better compete with Univision affiliate WUNI (channel 27), the established Spanish-language station in the area. Telemundo sold W32AY to ZGS Communications in 2001. In February 2002, W32AY changed its call letters to WTMU-LP, and on July 1, WWDP discontinued its relay of the station's programming.

In December 2002, NBC (which had acquired Telemundo in 2001) purchased WPXB (channel 60, now WNEU); WNEU began to carry Telemundo programming as a satellite of WTMU in April 2003.

WTMU went off-the-air in 2004, as the channel 32 allocation had been assigned to WBPX for its digital signal, and the station's attempt to move to channel 67 was hindered by interference from WBPX's analog signal on channel 68. WTMU resumed broadcasting operations in December 2006; it reduced its effective radiated power and relocated its transmitter to a tower in Medford to alleviate the interference.

Although low-power stations were exempt from the 2009 analog shutdown that full-service stations were subject to, WTMU initiated plans for a digital signal on October 27, 2006, by applying for a construction permit for a digital companion channel on VHF channel 3. On August 28, 2008, WTMU changed its plans and applied to flash-cut to channel 42, which was to have become available after WHDH moved its digital signal to VHF channel 7; the original application was dismissed by the FCC on March 27, 2009, but a new application was filed on May 21. A move was necessary, as the spectrum that channel 67 is located within had been auctioned off and was being removed from the television bandplan as a result of the transition.

Before WTMU's application could be approved, WHDH requested to return its digital signal to channel 42, leading WTMU to withdraw its application for the channel on August 24 and filing instead to move to channel 46; the FCC dismissed the channel 42 application on August 26, 2009, at the same time also canceling the construction permit for the previously proposed digital companion channel. In the meantime, WTMU was unable to get a digital signal on the air before being forced to terminate the analog signal on April 9, 2010, resulting in the station suspending operations. To avoid losing its license due to not broadcasting for a year, WTMU resumed broadcasting on April 4, 2011, using its existing analog facilities but operating on channel 46 under special temporary authority (STA). It again suspended operations on April 9, but returned to the air on March 14, 2012.

NBC10 Boston

On August 31, 2019, WYCN-LD shut down its RF channel 46 transmitter; that October, it moved to channel 36, relocated its transmitter to Norton, Massachusetts, switched from NBC to Telemundo, and changed its city of license to Providence, Rhode Island, leaving WBTS-CD as Boston's sole NBC station.

Technical information

Subchannels

The station's signal is multiplexed:

Notes

References

External links

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{{Major U.S. TV O-O Stations

1995 establishments in Massachusetts
Cozi TV affiliates
YCN-LD
Telemundo affiliates
Telemundo Station Group
Television channels and stations established in 1995
YCN-LD
YCN-LD
TeleXitos affiliates