City | Sarasota, Florida |
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Branding | SNN: Suncoast News Network |
Channels | Digital: 39 (UHF) |
Subchannels | |
Affiliations |
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Owner | Citadel Communications |
Operator | LDB Media, LLC |
Call letters' meaning | Suncoast News Network |
Transmitter power | 8.5 kW |
Height | 149 m |
Transmitter coordinates | 27°20′26″N 82°27′55″W / 27.34056°N 82.46528°W |
Licensing authority | FCC |
Public license information: |
Profile CDBS |
Website | www |
WSNN-LD is a television station licensed to Sarasota, Florida, United States. Owned by Citadel Communications and managed by LDB Media, LLC, the station's Suncoast News Network (SNN) service provides 24-hour rolling news coverage focusing primarily on the Sarasota area (including Sarasota, Manatee, and Charlotte counties). SNN operates in conjunction with the Sarasota Herald-Tribune, and is headquartered in the newspaper's offices in downtown Sarasota. SNN is carried on Comcast channel 6 (SD), 400 (HD) in Sarasota and Charlotte Counties, on Frontier FiOS on channel 9 (SD) and 509 (HD) and over the air on channel 39.
The SNN operation was launched on September 17, 1995, exclusively on Comcast. Over its history, it was branded as SNN Local News, SNN Local News 6, SNN News 6 and Six News Now, which were often used interchangeably. SNN received national attention in 2007, when a clip of chief meteorologist Justin Mosely (who worked with the channel from 2004 to 2013 and returned in March 2014) reacting frightened after a cockroach crawled up his leg during a live weather segment went viral after it was posted on various video websites including YouTube.
In November 2008, the Sarasota Herald-Tribune (then owned by The New York Times Company) announced that it would sell SNN News 6, and stop broadcasting at the end of December 2008. This deadline was extended after the company struck agreements with a group of investors, led by SNN general manager Linda DesMaris and her husband Doug Barker, to purchase the channel; however on January 25, 2009, one of the investors dropped out of the deal. On January 29, 2009, the Herald-Tribune announced that SNN News 6 would go dark, effective at midnight on January 29, 2009. The company would later find another investor in Phil Lombardo, CEO of the television station group Citadel Communications in Bronxville, New York. On February 26, 2009, after a four-week hiatus, SNN was back on the air under the management of LDB Media, LLC, with the majority of its former on-air staff. Since its inception, the channel was exclusively carried on Comcast's systems in Sarasota and Charlotte Counties. In the summer of 2012, SNN struck a carriage deal with Verizon FiOS to add the channel; FiOS began carrying SNN in the Sarasota area at 2:00 a.m. Eastern Time on September 13, 2012.