Schenectady - Albany - Troy, New York United States |
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City | Schenectady, New York |
Branding | CBS 6 WRGB News |
Slogan | WRGB News |
Channels |
Digital: 6 (VHF) Virtual: 6 (PSIP) |
Subchannels |
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Translators | 19 (UHF) Pittsfield, MA 24 (UHF) Kingston 39 (UHF) Schenectady 45.3 (UHF), WCWN-DT3, Schenectady |
Affiliations | |
Owner |
Sinclair Broadcast Group (WRGB Licensee, LLC) |
Founded | January 13, 1928 (as experimental station W2XB) |
First air date | February 26, 1942 |
Call letters' meaning |
Walter Ransom Gail Baker (GE engineer and head of NTSC) |
Sister station(s) | WCWN |
Former channel number(s) |
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Former affiliations | |
Transmitter power | 30.2 kW |
Height | 383 m |
Facility ID | 73942 |
Transmitter coordinates | 42°37′31″N 74°0′38″W / 42.62528°N 74.01056°WCoordinates: 42°37′31″N 74°0′38″W / 42.62528°N 74.01056°W |
Licensing authority | FCC |
Public license information: |
Profile CDBS |
Website | cbs6albany |
WRGB, channel 6, is a television station licensed to Schenectady, New York, USA. WRGB is owned by the Sinclair Broadcast Group, and is the CBS affiliate for the Albany-Schenectady-Troy television market. The station shares its studio and office facility with co-owned WCWN (channel 45) in Niskayuna, New York, and its transmitter is based near Voorheesville, New York. WCWN additionally carries a simulcast of WRGB's main channel for the convenience of UHF viewers unable to receive WRGB's VHF signal.
WRGB is most notable for being among the first experimental television stations in the world. It began with test broadcasts in early 1928. Later that year the first daily programs were broadcast. It later became one of a handful of television stations licensed for commercial broadcasting operation before the end of World War II.
The station launched the on-camera careers of TV chefs Art "Mr. Food" Ginsburg in the mid-70s; and of Rachael Ray, who launched her "30 Minute Meals" segment on WRGB's newscasts in the mid-90s.
One of the first television stations in the world, WRGB traces its roots to an experimental station founded on January 13, 1928 broadcast from the General Electric facility in Schenectady under the call letters W2XB. It was popularly known as "WGY Television" after its sister radio station (though WMAK, the predecessor of modern station WBEN in Buffalo also had partial control of the station, which was relinquished shortly after the station signed on). In 1940, it began sharing programs with W2XBS (forerunner of WNBC) in New York City receiving the New York station directly off the air from a mountaintop and rebroadcasting the signal, becoming NBC's first television affiliate. Later, the New York connection was achieved via coaxial cable and eventually by satellite. The NBC affiliation would last for 42 years. The station initially broadcast on 790 kHz from a 380-meter antenna. The station also broadcast on the frequency of 379.5 kHz, with 24 vertical lines of resolution and 21 frames per second. Its call-sign was changed to W2XAD rather quickly in 1928 and moved to 31.4 MHz. Towards December 1928, the station would receive yet another change and upgrade with its call letters becoming W2XAF, keeping its frequency, frame rate and vertical lines.