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Spectrum News 1 Rochester (formerly Spectrum News Rochester and Time Warner Cable News Rochester) is an American
cable news Cable news channels are television networks devoted to television news broadcasts, with the name deriving from the proliferation of such networks during the 1980s with the advent of cable television. In the United States, the first nationwide ca ...
television channel owned by
Charter Communications Charter Communications, Inc., is an American telecommunications and mass media company with services branded as Spectrum. The company is headquartered in Stamford, Connecticut. With over 32 million customers in 41 states as of 2022, it is the ...
through its acquisition of
Time Warner Cable Time Warner Cable Enterprises LLC was an American cable television company. Before it was acquired by Charter Communications on May 18, 2016, it was ranked the second largest cable company in the United States by revenue behind only Comcast, o ...
in May 2016, as an affiliate of its
Spectrum News Spectrum News (formerly Time Warner Cable News) is the brand for a slate of United States cable news, cable news television channels that are owned by Charter Communications through its acquisition of Time Warner Cable in May 2016. Each of the ...
slate of regional news channels. The channel provides 24-hour rolling news coverage focused primarily on Rochester,
New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York New York may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * ...
and the nearby
Genesee River The Genesee River ( ) is a tributary of Lake Ontario flowing northward through the Twin Tiers of Pennsylvania and New York (state), New York in the United States. The river contains several waterfalls in New York at Letchworth State Park and Roch ...
and
Finger Lakes The Finger Lakes are a group of eleven long, narrow, roughly north–south lakes located directly south of Lake Ontario in an area called the ''Finger Lakes region'' in New York (state), New York, in the United States. This region straddles th ...
regions. The channel is carried on channel 9 in
standard definition Standard-definition television (SDTV; also standard definition or SD) is a television system that uses a resolution that is not considered to be either high or enhanced definition. ''Standard'' refers to offering a similar resolution to the ...
, as well as high definition, the latter of which is typically rendered automatically by those Charter Communications customers' high definition supported set-top boxes.
Standard definition Standard-definition television (SDTV; also standard definition or SD) is a television system that uses a resolution that is not considered to be either high or enhanced definition. ''Standard'' refers to offering a similar resolution to the ...
feeds come through to those customers who purchase Spectrum's Basic-Tier level of cable service. As of March 6, 2018, all customers are required to utilize digital receivers to view the station. These digital receivers come in two types: High Definition Multimedia Interface - HDMI - supported High Definition television digital receivers, and for those televisions void of HDMI connectivity, standard digital receivers. Higher tiered customers view the channel on
digital Digital usually refers to something using discrete digits, often binary digits. Businesses *Digital bank, a form of financial institution *Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) or Digital, a computer company *Digital Research (DR or DRI), a software ...
channel 200 in high definition in Rochester. Channel 14 in other Charter Communications systems within the region fill in the extent of the area's coverage. As with the rest of its upstate sister news channels in upstate New York, Spectrum News Rochester shares news content with
New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...
-based NY1, Charter Communications' flagship regional cable news channel (which the provider carries on the
digital Digital usually refers to something using discrete digits, often binary digits. Businesses *Digital bank, a form of financial institution *Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) or Digital, a computer company *Digital Research (DR or DRI), a software ...
tiers of its Upstate New York systems).


History


As an entertainment-formatted cable channel; expansion of news programming

The channel launched on September 21, 1989 as a local origination channel using the fictional
call sign In broadcasting and radio communications, a call sign (also known as a call name or call letters—and historically as a call signal—or abbreviated as a call) is a unique identifier for a transmitter station. A call sign can be formally as ...
"WGRC-TV" (standing for "Greater Rochester Cablevision," the area's major cable provider at the time); as such, it is the oldest channel among the Spectrum News networks and one of two that was not launched by Charter Communications or predecessor Time Warner Cable (the other being Spectrum News 1 of Kentucky, which launched under the ownership of Insight Communications). Originally carried on Greater Rochester Cablevision channel 5, the channel originally maintained a format modeled after general entertainment
independent station An independent station is a broadcast station, usually a television station, not affiliated with a larger broadcast television network, network. As such, it only broadcasts broadcast syndication, syndicated programs it has purchased; brokered pr ...
s (such as that of WUHF hannel 31prior to and after affiliating with
Fox Foxes are small-to-medium-sized omnivorous mammals belonging to several genera of the family Canidae. They have a flattened skull; upright, triangular ears; a pointed, slightly upturned snout; and a long, bushy tail ("brush"). Twelve species ...
in October 1986). On weekdays, WGRC ran a mix of syndicated
sitcom A sitcom (short for situation comedy or situational comedy) is a genre of comedy produced for radio and television, that centers on a recurring cast of character (arts), characters as they navigate humorous situations within a consistent settin ...
s and drama series (consisting of classic sitcoms from 9:00 a.m. to noon, family-oriented and then-relatively-recent off-network sitcoms from 5:00 to 8:00 p.m. and a mix of sitcoms and dramas in late night after 11:00 p.m.), syndicated cartoons (from 6:00 to 9:00 a.m. and 2:00 to 5:00 p.m.), and daily movie showcases at noon and 8:00 p.m.; weekends consisted of a mix of movies, drama series and children's animated series. The channel launched a news department on April 22, 1990 with the premiere of ''News 5 Rochester: The Ten O'clock News'', a nightly half-hour broadcast that was the first local prime time newscast ever offered in the Rochester market. Gradually, the channel's programming evolved to include additional syndicated talk shows and
game show A game show (or gameshow) is a genre of broadcast viewing entertainment where contestants compete in a game for rewards. The shows are typically directed by a game show host, host, who explains the rules of the program as well as commentating a ...
s, while continuing to feature some off-network cartoons, sitcoms and feature film packages. On February 3, 1992, the service was moved to channel 9, and was rebranded as "GRC9"; while it continued to air morning cartoons and movies in early prime time, the channel's schedule shifted by this time to feature syndicated talk shows from noon to 3:00 p.m., cartoon shorts and animated series from 3:00 to 5:00 p.m., sitcoms from 5:00 to 7:00 p.m., and talk shows and rebroadcasts of its local newscasts in late night. After the channel move and rebranding, GRC9's newscasts adopted a presentation model based on that pioneered in 1987 by
Moses Znaimer Moses Znaimer (; born 1942) is a Canadian media executive. He is the co-founder and former head of Citytv, the first independent television station in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, and the current head of ZoomerMedia. Early life and education Znai ...
for
CITY-TV CITY-DT (channel 57), branded as Citytv Toronto or simply Citytv, is a television station in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, serving as the flagship station of the Citytv network. It is owned and operated by network parent Rogers Sports & Media alo ...
/
Toronto Toronto ( , locally pronounced or ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most populous city in Canada. It is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a p ...
's ''
CityPulse City''News'' is the title of news and current affairs programming on Rogers Sports & Media's Citytv network in Canada. The newscast division was founded on September 28, 1975 as City''Pulse'' as a standalone local newscast on the network's Toron ...
'' newscasts: its traditional anchor-desk-centered news set was replaced with an open newsroom, in which anchors were positioned in various sections of the newsroom (such as the assignment desk, monitor banks, and a glass-etched map of Rochester). The channel also undertook a gradual expansion of its news programming, adding an early evening newscast at 7:00 p.m. upon the rebrand, followed in 1993 by the premiere of a three-hour-long morning newscast (airing from 6:00 to 9:00 a.m.). On April 4, 1993, GRC9 retitled its newscasts as "''R News''" to signify their local focus. The channel would continue its evolution into a primarily news-based programming format: a midday newscast at noon was added in 1994 and in early 1995, evening newscasts were expanded to 4:00 p.m., replacing cartoons and syndicated sitcoms.


As a 24-hour local news channel

After Time Warner Cable acquired the cable television franchise rights for the area, the channel was renamed again on July 4, 1995, adopting "R News" as its universalized branding and converting the channel to a 24-hour rolling news format. The remaining syndicated programming on GRC9's schedule would subsequently be moved to "WRWB-TV", which Time Warner Cable launched (initially carried on channel 26) to provide WB network programming to the market. ("WRWB" converted into a broadcast service on the DT2 subchannel of
ABC ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script. ABC or abc may also refer to: Arts, entertainment and media Broadcasting * Aliw Broadcasting Corporation, Philippine broadcast company * American Broadcasting Company, a commercial American ...
affiliate
WHAM-TV WHAM-TV (channel 13) is a television station in Rochester, New York, United States, affiliated with ABC and The CW. It is owned by Deerfield Media, which maintains a local marketing agreement (LMA) with Sinclair Broadcast Group, owner of Fox ...
hannel 13in November 2006.) On May 25, 2005, Time Warner Cable announced that it would eliminate 30 staff positions from the channel and
Syracuse Syracuse most commonly refers to: * Syracuse, Sicily, Italy; in the province of Syracuse * Syracuse, New York, USA; in the Syracuse metropolitan area Syracuse may also refer to: Places * Syracuse railway station (disambiguation) Italy * Provi ...
-based sister network News 10 Now in a cost-saving consolidation of its three regional news channels at the time in
Upstate New York Upstate New York is a geographic region of New York (state), New York that lies north and northwest of the New York metropolitan area, New York City metropolitan area of downstate New York. Upstate includes the middle and upper Hudson Valley, ...
. News 10 Now and R News's technical production and master control operations were transferred to Albany-based sister channel
Capital News 9 Spectrum News 1 Capital Region (formerly Time Warner Cable News Capital Region) is an American cable news television channel owned by Charter Communications as an affiliate of its Spectrum News slate of regional news channels. The channel prov ...
, which began serving as a hub for all three news channels. (Sister network NY1 continued to maintain separate master control operations at its
Manhattan Manhattan ( ) is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the Boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City. Coextensive with New York County, Manhattan is the County statistics of the United States#Smallest, larg ...
facilities.) With the move, Capital News 9 began serving as the production and studio hub for the news programming of both channels, while News 10 Now began handling production responsibilities for weather forecast segments for all of its sister news channels statewide, using the channel's weather staff. Each of the channels retained their respective news gathering crews, producers, facilities and news management; the channels also simulcast the Albany-produced political review program ''Capital Tonight''. In addition, the cable access channels on the systems in each of the channels' markets began sharing broadcasts of collegiate sporting events in the event that Time Warner Cable could secure the rights to air the telecasts in all of its upstate markets. On August 4, 2009 at 5:00 a.m.
Eastern Time The Eastern Time Zone (ET) is a time zone encompassing part or all of 23 states in the eastern part of the United States, parts of eastern Canada, and the state of Quintana Roo in Mexico. * Eastern Standard Time (EST) is five hours behi ...
, the channel was renamed as YNN Rochester, becoming the second TWC-owned regional news channel to adopt the "YNN" ("Your News Now") brand, after Buffalo-based sister channel YNN Buffalo (which became the pilot service for the new brand when that channel launched on March 25, 2009). The "YNN" brand was later expanded to its sister channels in Syracuse (as YNN Central New York) and Albany (as YNN Capital Region). On December 16, 2013, the channel rebranded as Time Warner Cable News Rochester as part of a branding standardization across the provider's news channels that included the introduction of a new graphics and music package. On September 20, 2016, it was announced that all TWC News channels would be renamed under the Spectrum News brand as a result of Charter Communications' then-recent acquisition of Time Warner Cable. The transition was completed on March 14, 2017, with Time Warner Cable News Rochester being renamed Spectrum News Rochester. Nearly one year following the initial changeover announcement, on September 18, 2017, Spectrum News Rochester retooled to a modernized, 4K-inspired graphics and music package. In May 2021, Spectrum News Rochester was renamed Spectrum News 1 Rochester.


References




External links


Official Website
{{LocalCableNews Television stations in Rochester, New York Spectrum News channels Television channels and stations established in 1990 1990 establishments in New York (state) 24-hour television news channels in the United States