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Plattsburgh, New York/Burlington, Vermont United States |
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Branding | NBC 5 NBC 5 News The Valley CW (DT2) The Valley’s MeTV (DT3) |
Slogan |
Covering the Champlain Valley and Beyond Dare to Defy (DT2) |
Channels |
Digital: 14 (UHF) Virtual: 5 () |
Subchannels | 5.1 NBC 5.2 The CW 5.3 MeTV |
Translators | 31 (UHF) WNNE Hartford, VT |
Owner |
Hearst Television (Hearst Stations, Inc.) |
First air date | December 8, 1954 |
Call letters' meaning | PlatTZburgh (sic) |
Sister station(s) |
WMUR-TV, WMTW, WCVB-TV |
Former callsigns | WIRI (1954–1956) |
Former channel number(s) |
Analog: 5 (VHF, 1954–2009) |
Former affiliations |
Both secondary: DuMont (1954–1955) ABC (1954–1968) DT2: NBC WX+ (2006–2009) This TV (2009–2013) |
Transmitter power | 650 kW |
Height | 845 m |
Facility ID | 57476 |
Transmitter coordinates | 44°31′32″N 72°48′56″W / 44.52556°N 72.81556°W |
Licensing authority | FCC |
Public license information: |
Profile CDBS |
Website |
www WPTZ-DT2 Website |
WPTZ is the NBC-affiliated television station for Upstate New York's North Country and Northern Vermont's Champlain Valley. Licensed to Plattsburgh, New York, it broadcasts a high definition digital signal on UHF channel 14 (or virtual channel 5.1 via PSIP) from a transmitter on Vermont's highest peak, Mount Mansfield. Owned by Hearst Television, the station has studios on Television Drive in the town of Plattsburgh. WPTZ previously served as the default NBC affiliate for northern areas of the nearby Watertown, New York market (most notably Massena), while WSTM-TV in Syracuse served Watertown proper. Both WPTZ and WSTM-TV lost those statuses on December 1, 2016 when WVNC-LD signed on as the Watertown market's first full-time NBC affiliate.
The station signed on the air on December 8, 1954 as WIRI, licensed to the hamlet of North Pole, New York. It was owned by the Great Northern Broadcasting Company along with WIRY radio (1340 AM). The station's first studio facilities were located on Cornelia Street/Route 3 in Plattsburgh; the transmitter was located on Terry Mountain in Peru, New York. The station would have had the call letters WIRY-TV to match its radio sister, but at the time Federal Communications Commission regulations did not allow two stations to share the same base call letters if they were licensed to different cities.