WSEE-TV

WSEE-TV (Ex-Analog Channel 35) is the CBS-affiliated television station for the Northwest Region of Pennsylvania that is licensed to Erie. It broadcasts a high definition digital signal on UHF channel 16 from a transmitter east of Langdon in Greene Township. Owned by Lilly Broadcasting, the station is operated through a local marketing agreement (LMA) by SJL Broadcast Management Corporation. This makes it a sister station to NBC affiliate WICU-TV and the two share studios on State Street in Downtown Erie. Syndicated programming on WSEE includes Wheel of Fortune, Jeopardy!, Dr. Phil, and Ellen. It can also be seen on WICU's third digital subchannel which airs on VHF channel 12.3 from the same tower.[1] [2] [3] [4]

Digital programming
It operates the area's CW affiliate on a second digital subchannel. Known on-air as The CW Erie, this can also be seen on Time Warner channel 3 and WICU's second digital subchannel. WSEE-DT2 gets all of its programming from The CW Plus.

History
WSEE-TV began broadcasting on April 24, 1954 as a CBS affiliate.[5] ABC programming was shared by WSEE and WICU until WJET-TV signed-on in 1966. UPN content was aired on weekends by WSEE beginning January 16, 1995. In 1998, this station launched a cable-only WB affiliate as part of The WB 100+. It had the fictional call sign "WBEP".[6] On January 24, 2006, UPN and The WB announced that they would cease broadcasting and merge. The new combined network would be called The CW. The letters would represent the first initial of its corporate parents: CBS (the parent company of UPN) and the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warner_Bros. Warner Bros.] unit of Time Warner. On September 18 of that year, WSEE launched a new second digital subchannel to simulcast "WBEP" allowing non-cable subscribers access to the new network. That station began official use of the call sign WSEE-DT2 and became part of The CW Plus. This service is similar to The WB 100+.

Back in 2002, WICU entered into a local marketing agreement with WSEE. From that point until June 1, 2009, this station continued to operate from its own studios on Peach Street (U.S. 19) in Downtown Erie. On that date, WSEE merged into WICU's facilities on State Street. It completed its digital transition on February 17, 2009 at noon renaming on pre-transitional channel 16.[7] On May 14, Lilly Broadcasting advised all off-air staffers at WSEE that their services would no longer be required. Most on-air personnel have continued to work through the duration of the contracts although at least one (WICU reporter Kelsie Smith) was moved to sister station WENY-TV, two vacant WICU meteorologist positions were eliminated, and another (WSEE news anchor Raychel Vendetti) was laid-off outright.[8]

Its over-the-air digital broadcast signal covers Erie, Warren, and Crawford counties in Pennsylvania; reaches east to Jamestown, New York, west to Ashtabula, Ohio, north to London and Hamilton in Ontario, and south to Clarion, Pennsylvania. The station can also be seen via satellite in North America and the Caribbean through C band. It is available in Costa Rica through one of the country's major cable providers, Cabletica, and in Puerto Rico on all three cable companies serving the island as well as part of the locals package on Dish Network. WSEE currently only distributes CBS's prime time and most daytime programming in HD. All news and syndicated programming are broadcast in standard definition even though some of the network and syndication companies have made HD feeds of those shows available.

Out-of-market coverage
WSEE was carried on Rogers Cable in London, Ontario until September 2005 when it was replaced by Detroit's WWJ-TV. It was also offered on many cable systems in the Hamilton, Niagara, and Grand River regions of Ontario. The station was dropped in these areas in the early-1990s. WSEE is still available on some cable systems in Canada that serve communities on Lake Erie. Atlantic Broadband, the cable provider that serves McKean County, Pennsylvania and portions of Cattaraugus County, New York, announced that WSEE would replace Buffalo's WIVB-TV in January 2009. That station has had several high-profile compensation disputes with that cable company.[9] Though an agreement was eventually reached with WIVB, WSEE was kept on the Atlantic Broadband lineups. However, Time Warner Cable announced it would remove WSEE (along with WICU) from its cable lineups in Westfield and Dunkirk, New York in favor of CFTO-TV from Toronto and the new YNN Buffalo despite the fact that Westfield and Dunkirk are arguably within WSEE's must carry territory.

This station has been part of the Primetime 24 lineup since November 1997 when it replaced Raleigh's WRAL-TV due to that station's regular pre-emptions of CBS programming. The service provides American network television service to C band satellite and some cable viewers in Latin America, the Caribbean, and in rural parts of the United States where local signals are not available. This feed of WSEE varies from its local one where local commercials are replaced with ads directed towards the Caribbean (especially direct response ads). Also, the station's local newscasts are replaced with infomercials although there is a taped Caribbean weather forecast by WSEE's weather staff (often in tropical garb) nightly at 11.

News operation
On May 28, 2009, WSEE aired its final newscast from its Peach Street studios. After moving into WICU's facilities and going without local broadcasts for nearly four days, news returned to the air. This station's weeknight 11 o'clock broadcast moved to 10 on WSEE-DT2 so it would no longer compete with WICU. It is then re-aired on WSEE at 11. WSEE-DT2 simulcasts the first hour of WICU's weekday morning show, airs the nationally syndicated morning broadcast The Daily Buzz from 6 to 9, simulcasts WICU's 12:30 newscast, and re-airs for a third time the 10 p.m. broadcast early the next morning.

The WICU and WSEE facilities are currently unable to air two live broadcasts at the same time because there is only one news set. However, it is unknown how this station is able to air an hour-long weekday morning show at 6 while WICU produces a separate broadcast. That channel's weeknight 5:30 newscast is in fact a relabeled rerun of its 5 o'clock show which allows WSEE to use the facilities to tape its weeknight 6 o'clock broadcast. Similarly, WICU's midday newscast airs at 12:30 p.m. as opposed to the traditional noon to accommodate WSEE's live noon newscast. The two stations share weekend broadcasts which can be delayed on one station due to network programming. Despite earlier indications that WICU and WSEE would begin consolidating their news operations, as of April 2010, only the reporting staff is shared between the two.

Newscast titles

 * WSEE News (1954–1968)
 * Eyewitness News (1968–1976)
 * News 35 (1976–1984)
 * Newswatch 35 (1984-summer 2005)
 * WSEE Newswatch (Summer 2005–present)

Station slogans

 * "News Where You Live" (1975–1979)
 * "Erie's Number One Source for News" (1979–1982)
 * "In Touch with Erie" (1982–1985)
 * "We're Looking out for You!" (1985–1988)
 * "Keeping Us Strong" (1988–1993)
 * "Accurate. Fair. Dependable." (1993–1997)
 * "People You Can Count On" (1997–2002)
 * "The Team You Trust" (2002–2006)
 * "Watching out for You" (2006–present)

News team
Anchors WSEE Newswatch Storm Team Meteorologists Sports Reporters Notable former staff
 * TBD - weekday mornings
 * Scott Bremner - weekdays at noon and reporter
 * "Thoughts from Under the Hat" and "The Newsmakers" segments producer
 * Scott MacDonnell - weeknights and reporter
 * Lisa Weismann - weeknights and reporter
 * Lisa Adams - weekends and weekend producer
 * Joey Stevens - Chief seen weeknights
 * Ray Petelin (AMS and NWA Seals of Approval) - weekday mornings and noon
 * Julie Coates - weekends
 * Liz Crawford - fill-in and news reporter
 * Gary Drapcho - Director seen weeknights and Sportswatch Magazine host
 * Jay Puskar - weekends
 * William Cornelius - "Chef William" segment producer
 * Art Ginsburg - "Mr. Food" segment producer
 * Kara Coleman - weekday mornings
 * Paul Wagner - weeknights
 * Amanda Post - education
 * John Rupolo - nightly
 * Jamison Hixenbaugh
 * Vanessa Herring
 * John Last
 * Tim Mello
 * Jacqueline Policastro - anchor, Washington Correspondent (2007–2010) now morning reporter at WISH TV, Indianapolis IN
 * Phil Fatica - Anchor, (1986–1990), currently serving as Erie County Councilman
 * Scott Baker - anchor/reporter (1988–1993), later with WTAE in Pittsburgh, now with breitbart.tv
 * Jennifer Boresz - reporter (2005–2006), now a reporter/fill-in anchor at WTOL-TV Toledo, Ohio
 * Stu Boyar - sports (1978–1985), now at WGRZ-TV Buffalo, NY
 * Kelly Curran - meteorologist/reporter (2005–2007), now a meteorologist/reporter at WICS-TV Springfield, IL
 * Heidi Deja-reporter (1988–1990) now a media relations manager in NC
 * Jim Dewart - weathercaster (1974–1984), died in 1994
 * Micah Johnson - reporter, anchor (1984–1985) now CEO of Entegy Group MediaStars International
 * Tim Earl - meteorologist (1981–1995) Currently lives in Dallas, TX staffing IT and Telecommunication Projects
 * Dana Elderkin - anchor (1974), now a college professor in North Carolina
 * Leila Feinstein - reporter (1995–2000), now an anchor at KTLA-TV in Los Angeles, California
 * Barry Finn - Chief Meteorologist (1983–1984)
 * T.J. Marshall - weather anchor (summer, 1999), now in seminary preparing for priesthood.
 * John Meyer - sports (2004–2005), now a sports reporter at WTAE-TV Pittsburg, PA
 * Jennifer Mobilia - Anchor/Reporter (2007–2009), laid off as a result of WSEE-WICU merger
 * Kym Morey - reporter (1990–1991), died in 1991
 * Lloyd Newell - Primary anchor (1984–1986), now a professor at Brigham Young University and the host of Music and the Spoken Word
 * Carol Pella - reporter (1974–2002), retired
 * Dave Price - reporter (1997), now serves as weather anchor for The Early Show on CBS
 * Bill Schubert - meteorologist (1995–2004), now at WTOV in Steubenville, Ohio/Wheeling, W.Va.; was one of the first meteorologists on air at The Weather Channel
 * Don Shriver - anchor (1999–2004), retired
 * John Stehr - anchor/reporter (1980), now primary anchor at WTHR-TV in Indianapolis, Indiana
 * Mark Strzepek - meteorologist (1996–1998) - now senior meteorologist for Direct Energy in Houston, TX. Has previously worked at AccuWeather, KBMT in Beaumont, TX, KXXV in Waco, TX.
 * Drew Sugars - anchor (1994–1998) - now anchor at KCOY in Santa Maria, CA
 * Nerissa Sugars - anchor (1994–1998) - now lead anchor at KCOY in Santa Maria, CA
 * Kim Thomas - reporter (2005–2006), now a reporter at WJET-TV Erie
 * Tony Victor-anchor/reporter (1998–2000), now working as director of major gifts for Gannon University.
 * Pat Van Zandt - anchor (2001–2008), working in the non-profit sector
 * Raychel Vendetti - anchor (2003–2009), laid off as a result of the WICU-WSEE merger
 * Carol Wilson - reporter (1992–2007), retired
 * Pete Yaksick - anchor/reporter (2001–2003), now a professor of Criminology at Mercyhurst College
 * Rudy Yovich - sports (1989–1993), now Assistant Athletic Director at IPFW
 * Lisa Zompa - anchor/reporter (1988–2005), now working as director of development for Erie City Mission
 * Kim Young - reporter/anchor (1994–2002), now a professor of Journalism at Penn State Erie, The Behrend College and host of Weekend All Things Erie on WQLN
 * Freda Tarbell - anchor/reporter (1985–1999), now Community Relations Coordinator for the PA Department of Environmental Protection