WYOU
Encyclopedia
WYOU is the CBS
-affiliated television station
for Northeastern Pennsylvania
that is licensed to Scranton
. It broadcasts a high definition
digital signal on VHF channel 13 from a transmitter at the Penobscot Knob
tower farm near Mountain Top. Owned by Mission Broadcasting
, the station is operated by the Nexstar Broadcasting Group
through a joint sales agreement
(JSA) as sister to NBC
affiliate WBRE-TV
. Although most of WYOU's operations are based at WBRE's facilities on South Franklin Street in Downtown Wilkes-Barre
, it has a sales office on Lackawanna Avenue in Downtown Scranton that is shared with a WBRE news bureau. Syndicated
programming on the station includes: Entertainment Tonight
, Judge Judy
, The Insider
and Judge Joe Brown.
in the country. This area is very mountainous making UHF reception difficult. However, the station was in a unique situation since Scranton/Wilkes-Barre was a "UHF island" before the government mandated digital transition. As a result, it operated several translators to repeat its signal. During March of 2010, in a cost-cutting move, all owned and operated translators were shut down after Nexstar determined that its VHF signal for WYOU is adequate enough to reach the Wilkes-Barre viewing market. According to nepahdtv.com, this move was met with some dismay from viewers in areas where reception of signals from Penobscot Knob is difficult if not impossible, leaving many people in rural areas without their signal. Despite this, no effort from Nexstar has been made to bring back any of the repeaters.
A digital channel 25 translator in Waymart
remains operating, as the facility is owned and operated by NextEra Energy Resources
. Windmills run by the company in the area surrounding Waymart interfere with the transmission of full-power television signals.
; and 101.3 FM, now WGGY
). Studios were located in the basement of Scranton Prep High School at Wyoming Avenue and Ash Street in Downtown Scranton. The station remained at this location for many years even after Scranton Preparatory School
moved there. Managed for many years by founder Frank Megargee's daughter Madge Megargee Holcomb, Scranton Broadcasters was at one time probably the only broadcasting company in the country run by five women. This included Mrs. Holcomb, her mother Mrs. Megargee, and Frank Megargee's younger daughters: Katharine Megargee Collins, Mary Megargee Griffin, and Jean Megargee Reap.
Despite its link with one of Northeast Pennsylvania
's most prestigious broadcasters (the AM station had been founded in 1925), WGBI-TV operated on a tight budget. For example, the Megargees found AT&T
's rates for a dedicated network feed line too high for their liking. This forced station engineers to switch to and from the signal of WCBS-TV
in New York City
whenever CBS programming was on-the-air. As a result, picture quality for network programming left much to be desired. The switchover was a delicate process requiring tight coordination between engineers stationed around the clock at the transmitter site and directors at the studios since no one there could see the WCBS feed.
WGBI went into a limited partnership with the Philadelphia Bulletin
in 1958 and was renamed WDAU-TV after WCAU-TV in Philadelphia, which was also owned by the newspaper. The Federal Communications Commission
(FCC) ruled that there was so much signal overlap between the two stations that they were effectively a duopoly
. Its Grade B signal reaches the Lehigh Valley
, which is part of the Philadelphia market. The Bulletin opted to retain WDAU-TV, and sold WCAU-TV to CBS. Even with new ownership, WDAU continued to rebroadcast WCBS's signal for network programming until the 1970s, when complaints about the poor quality of color network programming led it to buy a network feed. The limited partnership was short-lived, as the Bulletin sold its share of WDAU back to the Megargee family in 1959.
In 1984, WDAU was sold to Keystone Broadcasters. As a result, WDAU severed all remaining ties to the WGBI radio stations (which were retained by the Megargee family until the early 1990s; the stations have since changed their call signs and were eventually acquired by their current owner Entercom Communications
). Keystone, in turn, sold the station to Diversified Communications
of Portland, Maine
two years later, with the "WYOU" callsign being implemented on October 9. Soon afterward, the station moved to facilities on Lackawanna Avenue.
WYOU was purchased by Nexstar Broadcasting in 1996. Two years later, Nexstar bought rival WBRE and sold WYOU to Mission Broadcasting, but kept control of WYOU's operations under a joint sales agreement with WBRE as the senior partner.
On February 17, 2009 as part of the optional transition to digital-only broadcasting, WYOU left UHF channel 22 and continues to operate its digital signal on VHF channel 13.
WYOU still has a film archive dating back to the 1950s. A 1972 flood ruined the film archive in WBRE's basement.
affiliate WNEP-TV
, for much of the time from the 1950s to the 1980s. This was achieved through its coverage of major stories including the Knox Mine Disaster
and U.S. Senate hearings on racketeering in the late 1950s. The Associated Press commended the station on its gavel-to-gavel coverage of the Senate hearings and news director Tom Powell was courted by CBS to be a network news anchor. During the 1950s and 1960s, mirroring the longstanding rivalry between Scranton and Wilkes-Barre, WDAU dominated Scranton while WBRE ruled Wilkes-Barre.
In the early 1980s, channel 22 strengthened its hand when it brought in Gary Essex, longtime anchorman at WNEP, and teamed him with popular anchorwoman Debbie Dunleavy. It also became the second station in the market to use a news helicopter as well as the first to air a newscast in drive time.
WYOU remained a solid runner-up to WNEP through the early 1990s. However, after Nexstar began the JSA with WBRE, channel 22's ratings plummeted, and would never recover, since WBRE was always favored before WYOU. Some have referred to WYOU as the "ugly step-sister" due to Nexstar's perceived unwillingness to invest in channel 22's news department. Even luring away another former popular WNEP anchorman, Frank Andrews, did not help the cause. He left the station in March 2006 to make a successful bid for a seat in the state house
where he served under his real name, Frank Andrews Shimkus
.
In 2002, both stations dropped their separate weekday morning and noon newscasts in favor of Pennsylvania Morning and Pennsylvania Midday which were jointly-produced and simulcast on both stations. Both programs were discontinued at the start of 2008, with WYOU replacing Pennsylvania Morning with the 6 o'clock hour of the nationally syndicated morning show, The Daily Buzz
, and returning to airing its own noon newscast.
In an effort to become more competitive with dominant WNEP, WYOU and WBRE instituted a major shakeup in format in the fall of 2006. WYOU relaunched its weeknight newscasts with a talk/debate format, with WBRE maintaining a more traditional format, setting a more clear competition against WNEP. Each WYOU weeknight broadcast started off with weather ("StormCenter Weather", another innovation) and a shortened rundown of the day's top stories. The show then focused on an ongoing story, investigation, or topic and brought in analysts and experts to discuss it. Viewers were able to call into the station and participate in the discussions. WYOU generally did a traditional newscast whenever WBRE had programming that bumped its news back by a significant amount of time.
On June 16, 2008, there were several more major changes made on the two stations. Candice Kelly, who anchored on the station, moved to the weeknight newscasts on WBRE. She was joined by newcomer Drew Speier. WYOU and WBRE's midday shows switched anchors. Mark Hiller moved from WBRE’s 11 a.m. news to WYOU’s noon broadcast, while Eva Mastromatteo switched over to WBRE at 11. Hiller also debuted as anchor of WYOU’s new First at 4 weekday broadcast, the first 4 p.m. newscast in the market. This was followed at 4:30 by The Insider
which moved from its 7 o'clock slot. WYOU dropped its 5 p.m. show and aired two episodes of Judge Judy
. At 6 o'clock, Lyndall Stout (who anchored on WBRE) joined Eric Scheiner for the half-hour WYOU Inter@ctive. The station also launched a new weeknight newscast, WYOU News at 7, to compete against WNEP's 7 p.m. newscast. All of the preceding changes were an attempt to better compete against WNEP.
WYOU and WBRE shared a Williamsport
Bureau on West 4th Street, though only WBRE appeared on the sign and WBRE's logo was dominant on the bureau's vehicle. There was no weekend sports anchor on WYOU.
Nexstar announced on April 3, 2009 that WYOU would shut down its news department effective the following day. This resulted in the lay-off of fourteen personnel. Syndicated programming now airs in place of the newscasts. The station saves nearly one million dollars a year from closing down its news department. As a measure of how far WYOU's once-proud news department had fallen, the last Nielsen
ratings issued before the shutdown showed its weeknight 11 o'clock newscast only garnered a four percent share. Even with the ending of local news, WYOU struggles to receive even a 3% share of the ratings for syndicated programming in place of former newscasts. The secondary set at WBRE's facilities used to produce the newscasts on WYOU was eventually modified to broadcast an afternoon lifestyles show on WBRE called Pa Live.
WYOU StormCenter Weather Team
Reporters
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...
-affiliated television station
Television station
A television station is a business, organisation or other such as an amateur television operator that transmits content over terrestrial television. A television transmission can be by analog television signals or, more recently, by digital television. Broadcast television systems standards are...
for Northeastern Pennsylvania
Northeastern Pennsylvania
Northeastern Pennsylvania is a geographic region of Pennsylvania that includes the Pocono Mountains, the Endless Mountains and the industrial cities of Scranton, Wilkes-Barre, Pittston, Hazleton and Carbondale....
that is licensed to Scranton
Scranton, Pennsylvania
Scranton is a city in the northeastern part of Pennsylvania, United States. It is the county seat of Lackawanna County and the largest principal city in the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre metropolitan area. Scranton had a population of 76,089 in 2010, according to the U.S...
. It broadcasts a high definition
High-definition television
High-definition television is video that has resolution substantially higher than that of traditional television systems . HDTV has one or two million pixels per frame, roughly five times that of SD...
digital signal on VHF channel 13 from a transmitter at the Penobscot Knob
Penobscot Knob
Penobscot Knob, also Penobscot Mountain, is a hill located near Mountain Top, Pennsylvania and Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, that is best known as the site of many local television and radio station transmitters...
tower farm near Mountain Top. Owned by Mission Broadcasting
Mission Broadcasting
Mission Broadcasting, Inc. is a television station group that owns 15 television stations operated by Nexstar Broadcasting. The group's president is David S. Smith, who founded the company in 1998. In most areas where Mission owns a station, its arrangements allow Nexstar to control two of the top...
, the station is operated by the Nexstar Broadcasting Group
Nexstar Broadcasting Group
Nexstar Broadcasting Group, Inc., is an entity of broadcast television stations headquartered in Irving, Texas. The company consists of 50 television stations across the U.S., ranging from market sizes 9 to 201 . 43 of the stations are broadcasting at full power, with the other 4 broadcasting at...
through a joint sales agreement
Local marketing agreement
In U.S. and Canadian broadcasting, a local marketing agreement is an agreement in which one company agrees to operate a radio or television station owned by another licensee...
(JSA) as sister to NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
affiliate WBRE-TV
WBRE-TV
WBRE-TV is the NBC-affiliated television station for Northeastern Pennsylvania that is licensed to Wilkes-Barre. It broadcasts a high definition digital signal on VHF channel 11 from a transmitter at the Penobscot Knob antenna farm near Mountain Top. It can also be seen on Comcast and Service...
. Although most of WYOU's operations are based at WBRE's facilities on South Franklin Street in Downtown Wilkes-Barre
Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania
Wilkes-Barre is a city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania, the county seat of Luzerne County. It is at the center of the Wyoming Valley area and is one of the principal cities in the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre metropolitan area, which had a population of 563,631 as of the 2010 Census...
, it has a sales office on Lackawanna Avenue in Downtown Scranton that is shared with a WBRE news bureau. Syndicated
Television syndication
In broadcasting, syndication is the sale of the right to broadcast radio shows and television shows by multiple radio stations and television stations, without going through a broadcast network, though the process of syndication may conjure up structures like those of a network itself, by its very...
programming on the station includes: Entertainment Tonight
Entertainment Tonight
Entertainment Tonight is a daily tabloid television entertainment television news show that is syndicated by CBS Television Distribution throughout the United States, Canada and in many countries around the world. Linda Bell Blue is currently the program's executive producer...
, Judge Judy
Judge Judy
Judge Judy is an American court show featuring former family court judge Judith Sheindlin arbitrating over small claims cases in small claims court...
, The Insider
The Insider (TV series)
The Insider is an American tabloid television news program covering events and celebrities. It debuted on September 13, 2004 as a spinoff of Entertainment Tonight and started as a popular segment that took viewers "behind closed doors" and gave them "inside" information...
and Judge Joe Brown.
Digital programming
| Virtual channel | Physical channel | Programming |
|---|---|---|
| 22.1 | 13.1 | main WYOU programming / CBS HD |
Translators
WYOU serves one of the largest geographic marketsMedia market
A media market, broadcast market, media region, designated market area , Television Market Area , or simply market is a region where the population can receive the same television and radio station offerings, and may also include other types of media including newspapers and Internet content...
in the country. This area is very mountainous making UHF reception difficult. However, the station was in a unique situation since Scranton/Wilkes-Barre was a "UHF island" before the government mandated digital transition. As a result, it operated several translators to repeat its signal. During March of 2010, in a cost-cutting move, all owned and operated translators were shut down after Nexstar determined that its VHF signal for WYOU is adequate enough to reach the Wilkes-Barre viewing market. According to nepahdtv.com, this move was met with some dismay from viewers in areas where reception of signals from Penobscot Knob is difficult if not impossible, leaving many people in rural areas without their signal. Despite this, no effort from Nexstar has been made to bring back any of the repeaters.
A digital channel 25 translator in Waymart
Waymart, Pennsylvania
Waymart is a borough in Wayne County, Pennsylvania, United States. The population was 1,341 at the 2010 census.-Geography:Waymart is located at ....
remains operating, as the facility is owned and operated by NextEra Energy Resources
NextEra Energy Resources
NextEra Energy Resources is an wholesale electricity supplier based in Juno Beach, Florida. It is a subsidiary of NextEra Energy, Inc. , a Fortune 200 company. Prior to 2009, NextEra Energy Resources was known as FPL Energy....
. Windmills run by the company in the area surrounding Waymart interfere with the transmission of full-power television signals.
History
WYOU was launched on June 7, 1953 as WGBI-TV. It was owned by the Megargee family and its company, Scranton Broadcasters, along with WGBI radio (910 AM, now WBZUWBZU
WBZU is a News/Talk AM broadcasting radio station licensed to the city of Scranton, Pennsylvania. The station currently relays the programming of WILK and the "WILK News Radio" network. WBZU is currently owned by...
; and 101.3 FM, now WGGY
WGGY
WGGY 101.3 FM, also known as Froggy 101, is a country music radio station that broadcasts out of Scranton, Pennsylvania, its city of license...
). Studios were located in the basement of Scranton Prep High School at Wyoming Avenue and Ash Street in Downtown Scranton. The station remained at this location for many years even after Scranton Preparatory School
Scranton Preparatory School
Scranton Preparatory School is a Catholic and Jesuit college preparatory day school for boys and girls. The current enrollment is 860 students. Prep is fully accredited by the Pennsylvania State Department of Public Instruction and by the Middle States Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools...
moved there. Managed for many years by founder Frank Megargee's daughter Madge Megargee Holcomb, Scranton Broadcasters was at one time probably the only broadcasting company in the country run by five women. This included Mrs. Holcomb, her mother Mrs. Megargee, and Frank Megargee's younger daughters: Katharine Megargee Collins, Mary Megargee Griffin, and Jean Megargee Reap.
Despite its link with one of Northeast Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania
The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is a U.S. state that is located in the Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The state borders Delaware and Maryland to the south, West Virginia to the southwest, Ohio to the west, New York and Ontario, Canada, to the north, and New Jersey to...
's most prestigious broadcasters (the AM station had been founded in 1925), WGBI-TV operated on a tight budget. For example, the Megargees found AT&T
American Telephone & Telegraph
AT&T Corp., originally American Telephone and Telegraph Company, is an American telecommunications company that provides voice, video, data, and Internet telecommunications and professional services to businesses, consumers, and government agencies. AT&T is the oldest telecommunications company...
's rates for a dedicated network feed line too high for their liking. This forced station engineers to switch to and from the signal of WCBS-TV
WCBS-TV
WCBS-TV, channel 2, is the flagship station of the CBS television network, located in New York City. The station's studios are located within the CBS Broadcast Center and its transmitter is atop the Empire State Building, both in Midtown Manhattan....
in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
whenever CBS programming was on-the-air. As a result, picture quality for network programming left much to be desired. The switchover was a delicate process requiring tight coordination between engineers stationed around the clock at the transmitter site and directors at the studios since no one there could see the WCBS feed.
WGBI went into a limited partnership with the Philadelphia Bulletin
Philadelphia Bulletin
For the 2004 resurrection of the Bulletin, see The Bulletin .The Philadelphia Bulletin was a daily evening newspaper published from 1847 to 1982 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It was the largest circulation newspaper in Philadelphia for 76 years and was once the largest evening newspaper in the...
in 1958 and was renamed WDAU-TV after WCAU-TV in Philadelphia, which was also owned by the newspaper. The Federal Communications Commission
Federal Communications Commission
The Federal Communications Commission is an independent agency of the United States government, created, Congressional statute , and with the majority of its commissioners appointed by the current President. The FCC works towards six goals in the areas of broadband, competition, the spectrum, the...
(FCC) ruled that there was so much signal overlap between the two stations that they were effectively a duopoly
Duopoly (broadcasting)
In United States broadcast television and radio, duopoly is a term used to describe a single company which owns two or more stations in the same city or community....
. Its Grade B signal reaches the Lehigh Valley
Lehigh Valley
The Lehigh Valley, known officially by the United States Census Bureau as the Allentown-Bethlehem-Easton, PA-NJ metropolitan area and referred to locally as The Valley and A-B-E, is a metropolitan region consisting of Lehigh, Northampton, Berks, and Carbon counties in eastern Pennsylvania and...
, which is part of the Philadelphia market. The Bulletin opted to retain WDAU-TV, and sold WCAU-TV to CBS. Even with new ownership, WDAU continued to rebroadcast WCBS's signal for network programming until the 1970s, when complaints about the poor quality of color network programming led it to buy a network feed. The limited partnership was short-lived, as the Bulletin sold its share of WDAU back to the Megargee family in 1959.
In 1984, WDAU was sold to Keystone Broadcasters. As a result, WDAU severed all remaining ties to the WGBI radio stations (which were retained by the Megargee family until the early 1990s; the stations have since changed their call signs and were eventually acquired by their current owner Entercom Communications
Entercom Communications
Entercom Communications Corporation is the fourth-largest broadcasting company in the United States. As of November 2009, Entercom operates 110 radio stations in 23 markets across the United States....
). Keystone, in turn, sold the station to Diversified Communications
Diversified Communications
Diversified Communications is a broadcasting company, headquartered in Portland, Maine. Among the various publications and broadcast outlets, the company organizes trade shows, publishes magazines, produces digital business and operates broadcast stations....
of Portland, Maine
Portland, Maine
Portland is the largest city in Maine and is the county seat of Cumberland County. The 2010 city population was 66,194, growing 3 percent since the census of 2000...
two years later, with the "WYOU" callsign being implemented on October 9. Soon afterward, the station moved to facilities on Lackawanna Avenue.
WYOU was purchased by Nexstar Broadcasting in 1996. Two years later, Nexstar bought rival WBRE and sold WYOU to Mission Broadcasting, but kept control of WYOU's operations under a joint sales agreement with WBRE as the senior partner.
On February 17, 2009 as part of the optional transition to digital-only broadcasting, WYOU left UHF channel 22 and continues to operate its digital signal on VHF channel 13.
WYOU still has a film archive dating back to the 1950s. A 1972 flood ruined the film archive in WBRE's basement.
News operation
WDAU-TV was a solid runner-up to WBRE, and later ABCAmerican Broadcasting Company
The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...
affiliate WNEP-TV
WNEP-TV
WNEP-TV is the ABC-affiliated television station for northeastern Pennsylvania licensed to Scranton. It broadcasts a high definition digital signal on UHF channel 50 from a transmitter on Penobscot Knob in Mountain Top...
, for much of the time from the 1950s to the 1980s. This was achieved through its coverage of major stories including the Knox Mine Disaster
Knox Mine disaster
The Knox Mine disaster was a mining accident that took place in Port Griffith, a town in Jenkins Township, Pennsylvania, near Pittston, on January 22, 1959....
and U.S. Senate hearings on racketeering in the late 1950s. The Associated Press commended the station on its gavel-to-gavel coverage of the Senate hearings and news director Tom Powell was courted by CBS to be a network news anchor. During the 1950s and 1960s, mirroring the longstanding rivalry between Scranton and Wilkes-Barre, WDAU dominated Scranton while WBRE ruled Wilkes-Barre.
In the early 1980s, channel 22 strengthened its hand when it brought in Gary Essex, longtime anchorman at WNEP, and teamed him with popular anchorwoman Debbie Dunleavy. It also became the second station in the market to use a news helicopter as well as the first to air a newscast in drive time.
WYOU remained a solid runner-up to WNEP through the early 1990s. However, after Nexstar began the JSA with WBRE, channel 22's ratings plummeted, and would never recover, since WBRE was always favored before WYOU. Some have referred to WYOU as the "ugly step-sister" due to Nexstar's perceived unwillingness to invest in channel 22's news department. Even luring away another former popular WNEP anchorman, Frank Andrews, did not help the cause. He left the station in March 2006 to make a successful bid for a seat in the state house
Pennsylvania House of Representatives
The Pennsylvania House of Representatives is the lower house of the bicameral Pennsylvania General Assembly, the legislature of the U.S. state of Pennsylvania. There are 203 members, elected for two year terms from single member districts....
where he served under his real name, Frank Andrews Shimkus
Frank Andrews Shimkus
Frank Andrews Shimkus is a retired broadcaster and Democratic politician in Pennsylvania.Shimkus grew up in the High Works neighborhood of Scranton. He graduated from the University of Scranton in 1973 with a degree in English. He then went into broadcasting, despite the misgivings of his father...
.
In 2002, both stations dropped their separate weekday morning and noon newscasts in favor of Pennsylvania Morning and Pennsylvania Midday which were jointly-produced and simulcast on both stations. Both programs were discontinued at the start of 2008, with WYOU replacing Pennsylvania Morning with the 6 o'clock hour of the nationally syndicated morning show, The Daily Buzz
The Daily Buzz
The Daily Buzz is a nationally syndicated breakfast television news and infotainment program. The show is produced by Fisher Communications and is owned and distributed by ACME Communications; it is broadcast every weekday morning from studios at Full Sail University in Winter Park, Florida...
, and returning to airing its own noon newscast.
In an effort to become more competitive with dominant WNEP, WYOU and WBRE instituted a major shakeup in format in the fall of 2006. WYOU relaunched its weeknight newscasts with a talk/debate format, with WBRE maintaining a more traditional format, setting a more clear competition against WNEP. Each WYOU weeknight broadcast started off with weather ("StormCenter Weather", another innovation) and a shortened rundown of the day's top stories. The show then focused on an ongoing story, investigation, or topic and brought in analysts and experts to discuss it. Viewers were able to call into the station and participate in the discussions. WYOU generally did a traditional newscast whenever WBRE had programming that bumped its news back by a significant amount of time.
On June 16, 2008, there were several more major changes made on the two stations. Candice Kelly, who anchored on the station, moved to the weeknight newscasts on WBRE. She was joined by newcomer Drew Speier. WYOU and WBRE's midday shows switched anchors. Mark Hiller moved from WBRE’s 11 a.m. news to WYOU’s noon broadcast, while Eva Mastromatteo switched over to WBRE at 11. Hiller also debuted as anchor of WYOU’s new First at 4 weekday broadcast, the first 4 p.m. newscast in the market. This was followed at 4:30 by The Insider
The Insider (TV series)
The Insider is an American tabloid television news program covering events and celebrities. It debuted on September 13, 2004 as a spinoff of Entertainment Tonight and started as a popular segment that took viewers "behind closed doors" and gave them "inside" information...
which moved from its 7 o'clock slot. WYOU dropped its 5 p.m. show and aired two episodes of Judge Judy
Judge Judy
Judge Judy is an American court show featuring former family court judge Judith Sheindlin arbitrating over small claims cases in small claims court...
. At 6 o'clock, Lyndall Stout (who anchored on WBRE) joined Eric Scheiner for the half-hour WYOU Inter@ctive. The station also launched a new weeknight newscast, WYOU News at 7, to compete against WNEP's 7 p.m. newscast. All of the preceding changes were an attempt to better compete against WNEP.
WYOU and WBRE shared a Williamsport
Williamsport, Pennsylvania
Williamsport is a city in and the county seat of Lycoming County, Pennsylvania in the United States. In 2009, the population was estimated at 29,304...
Bureau on West 4th Street, though only WBRE appeared on the sign and WBRE's logo was dominant on the bureau's vehicle. There was no weekend sports anchor on WYOU.
Nexstar announced on April 3, 2009 that WYOU would shut down its news department effective the following day. This resulted in the lay-off of fourteen personnel. Syndicated programming now airs in place of the newscasts. The station saves nearly one million dollars a year from closing down its news department. As a measure of how far WYOU's once-proud news department had fallen, the last Nielsen
Nielsen Ratings
Nielsen ratings are the audience measurement systems developed by Nielsen Media Research, in an effort to determine the audience size and composition of television programming in the United States...
ratings issued before the shutdown showed its weeknight 11 o'clock newscast only garnered a four percent share. Even with the ending of local news, WYOU struggles to receive even a 3% share of the ratings for syndicated programming in place of former newscasts. The secondary set at WBRE's facilities used to produce the newscasts on WYOU was eventually modified to broadcast an afternoon lifestyles show on WBRE called Pa Live.
Out of Market Stations
In New York state, WYOU is carried in Port Jervis, Sullivan County on Time Warner Cable. Interestingly enough, it is not over the state line in nearby Matamoras, Pike County on Cablevision. Sullivan County & Pike County are in the New York City DMA.Newscast titles
- Northeast Pennsylvania News Report (1953-1958)
- Your Esso Reporter (1958-1960)
- WDAU News (1960-1970)
- News Scene 22 (1970-1985)
- News 22 (1985-2000; 2002-2005)
- 22 Action NewsAction NewsAction News is a local television newscast format in the United States. It was conceived in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, at WFIL-TV by then-news director Mel Kampmann in 1970 as a response to the "Eyewitness News" format used on rival station KYW-TV...
(2001-2002) - WYOU News (2005-2009)
Station slogans
- "Looking Good" (1979-1981)
- "We've Got The Touch, You and 22" (1983-1984; localized version of CBS ad campaign)
- "The News for Northeast Pennsylvania" (1986-1987)
- "The Heart of Pennsylvania" (secondary 1986-1987, primary 1987-1998)
- "Your News of the '90s" (early-1990s)
- "Your 24 Hour News Source" (early-mid 1990s)
- "Working for You" (1998-2005)
- "It's All About YOU!" (2005-present)
- "Only WYOU" (2011-present; localized version of CBS ad campaign)
Last news team
Anchors- Mark Hiller - weekdays at noon and 4
- Eric Scheiner - weeknights
- Lyndall Stout - weeknights
- Eric Deabill - weekends and reporter
- Laurie Monteforte - fill-in
- Mike Conigliaro - weeknight sports at 6, 7, and 11
WYOU StormCenter Weather Team
- David Kuharchik - Chief seen weeknights
- Kristi Capel - weekdays at noon
- Brian Fitzgerald - weekends
Reporters
- David DeCosmo - Scranton Newsroom
- Mike Trim - investigative
- Joe Holden - investigative
- Jeremy Deebel - Williamsport Bureau Chief