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WLNY-TV, channel 55, is an independent television station licensed to Riverhead, New York, with main studios in Melville, New York and transmitter in Middle Island, New York. WLNY's primary over-the-air signal serves most of Long Island, comprising Nassau and Suffolk counties.^[1] The station is owned by CBS Corporation, and is one-half of a television duopoly with WCBS-TV (channel 2).

Founded by Long Island businessman Michael Pascucci,^[2] the station went on the air April 28, 1985 as WLIG, with the on-air branding TV-55. It was the first Long Island-based independent television station since the demise of WSNL-TV (channel 67, now WFTY-TV), which was merged with Newark, New Jersey-based independent WWHT-TV (now WFUT-TV) several years earlier. During its first year of operations, WLIG employed a number of gimmicks to attract viewers, such as a Watch and Win Sweepstakes in which viewers were shown a "code word" on-screen during a particular show and had to send in a postcard with that word for the chance to win a prize,^[3] and offering 100,000 free loop antennas to non-cable viewers who couldn't receive the station clearly. The efforts paid off, as WLIG gradually became a solid ratings player.

By June 1987, WLIG was estimated to reach 200,000 viewers, and was carried on eight of nine cable television systems on Long Island.^[4] The lone exception was Cablevision, the largest system in Long Island, which claimed that TV-55 added nothing to the service they already offered, and so, refused to carry it.^[5] A cable subscriber advocacy group, New Yorkers for Fair Cable, claimed that the real reason was that WLIG competed with services that Cablevision owned and offered, specifically News 12 Long Island.^[6] In October 1987, BQ Cable Company (now part of Time Warner Cable) began offering WLIG to subscribers in Brooklyn and Queens.^[4]

During its early years, WLIG relied heavily on old movies and reruns of classic television shows, and positioned itself as a station offering family-friendly entertainment consistent with the philosophy of its founder, a devout Roman Catholic. It featured a daily newscast at 10 p.m., and other local programming, such as a political talk show called Focus on Long Island. Sports programming and some first-run syndicated programming rounded out the broadcast day. By the late 1980s, WLIG had dropped its local news broadcasts, except for a 5-minute newscast that continued to air until a new full-fledged, half-hour 10 p.m. newscast debuted in 1993. The station also aired several half-hour feeds of CNN Headline News until the mid-1990s, providing its only broadcast outlet for Long Island residents without cable. In the meantime, the station gradually began adding newer films and stronger syndicated programming to its lineup, eventually scoring a major victory in early 1991 when they landed Wheel of Fortune, Jeopardy! and The Oprah Winfrey Show, which at that time were the top three syndicated programs on television.

On September 1, 1996, WLIG changed its call letters to WLNY (for "We Love New York") and rebranded itself as NY 55.^[7] Still, its location on the fringes of the New York City television market made cable television coverage of the station an ongoing concern. Although the FCC imposed "must carry" rules on cable companies in 1992, in 1997, they allowed some cable systems in New Jersey to exclude WLNY from carriage. WLNY, along with WRNN-TV and WPXN-TV, appealed, but the courts upheld the FCC decision.^[8] In spite of these difficulties, WLNY still receives cable coverage from Northern New Jersey to Southern Connecticut, and on satellite television.

In 1997, WLNY was assigned UHF channel 57 for its digital television operations, making it one of 18 full-service television stations in the country to have neither analog nor digital assignments within the new core television station spectrum, channels 2 through 51. The station began broadcasting in digital in 2002, with a low-power signal under Special Temporary Authority, then made news in 2005 when it struck a deal with Qualcomm to surrender its analog license and build full DTV facilities on channel 57, allowing Qualcomm to use the channel 55 frequency for its MediaFLO service. At the time, approximately 92 percent of Long Island's population receives television service by cable or satellite, so the FCC approved the request, and on December 31, 2005, WLNY shut down its analog signal and became a digital-only station. The FCC has since changed the station's callsign to WLNY-DT. The FCC later announced it would remove the -DT suffix from call signs after the analog shutoff unless a station applied to keep it;^[9] the station elected to change its callsign to WLNY-TV, adding the -TV suffix the station did not use prior to 2006, and the change took effect on June 19, 2009.^[10]

WLNY-DT requested channel 47 as its final, in-core broadcast channel after the end of the 2009 DTV conversion, but the FCC initially ruled the election in conflict with another station -- WNJU, a Spanish-language station licensed to Linden, New Jersey which broadcast its analog signal on channel 47.^[11] Eventually the issues were worked through and WLNY gained FCC approval for its move to digital channel 47, which it began broadcasting from on June 13, 2009.

At some point since 1996, WLNY dropped its NY 55 branding in favor of the old TV-55, but on October 22, 2007, WLNY once again changed its branding, this time from TV-55 to TV 10/55 to reflect its most frequent cable and satellite assignments. The station also debuted a new set and graphics for their 11 p.m. newscast, replacing the old set which dated back to the early 1990s.

On December 12, 2011, CBS Television Stations announced its intent to purchase WLNY-TV, creating a duopoly with the CBS network's flagship station WCBS-TV; terms of the purchase were originally not made public, though an FCC application for the purchase later revealed that CBS was purchasing WLNY for $55 million.^[12] The company announced that it would add additional on-air staff and expand WLNY's local news programming outside the current 11 p.m. newscast. The Federal Communications Commission approved the sale on January 31, 2012,^[13] and CBS took control of the station on March 30, 2012, giving the company its tenth television station duopoly.^[13][14]

Tribune Broadcasting-owned WPIX (channel 11) is already in an existing affiliation agreement with the CW Television Network (owned in a joint venture between CBS Corporation and Time Warner), which does not expire until 2016.^[15] As such, WLNY-TV will continue to operate as an independent station, one of three in CBS's portfolio alongside KCAL-TV in Los Angeles and KTXA in the Fort Worth-Dallas metroplex. The sale to CBS did not include repeaters WLNY-CD (channel 45) in Mineola, New York, WLIG-LD (channel 17) in Morristown, New Jersey, and W27CD in Stamford, Connecticut, which will be sold separately to Local Media TV Holdings.^[16][17] On March 12, 2012, WLNY-CD changed its call letters to WMUN-CD^[18] and WLIG-LD changed its call letters to WNMF-LD;^[19] the WLIG-LP call letters then moved to W17CR, a station in Plainview, New York that WLNY acquired on November 28, 2011 in a deal originally reached in 2005 and is not involved in the sale of either WLNY-TV or the other repeaters.^[20][21] On March 29, 2012, the day before the completion of WLNY-TV's sale to CBS, WMUN-CD, WNMF-LD, and W27CD signed off temporarily due to the end of the feed from WLNY's Melville studios, in advance of the completion of their sale to Local Media TV Holdings, LLC on April 3.^[22]

On March 15, 2012 it was announced that 20 of WLNY's approximately 55 staffers would be laid-off from the station and given offers to buyout their salaries; about 30 other employees would remain with the station following the completion of CBS' purchase of WLNY, including anchor Richard Rose.^[23]

WLNY-TV also has two Mobile DTV feeds, one of subchannel 55.1, labelled "WLNY MH1", and a blank feed of 55.2, labelled "WLNY MH2", broadcasting at 3.67 Mbit/s. This is the highest bitrate of any New York City television station mobile feed.^[24][25]

On Monday, April 9, 2012, WLNY started broadcasting local programming in high definition for the first time.^[26]

WLNY carries a typical independent schedule of movies and syndicated shows, plus religious programming and infomercials. WLNY offers "second-chance" viewing of programs such as Judge Judy, Dr. Phil, The Doctors and Entertainment Tonight, as WLNY airs these shows in the early evening and primetime, compared to earlier broadcasts on the main New York City stations. Often, most of WLNY's movie airings are also carried by another local station within a day or so.

The station enjoys widespread coverage on cable in New York City as well as other parts of lower New York state, Connecticut, and New Jersey. While many of those areas see a separate feed due to SyndEx laws (similar to the old WOR EMI Service and WGN America), Jeopardy! and Wheel of Fortune were the last two programs preempted on the SyndEx feed; both programs were dropped entirely as of March 30, 2012. Subscribers in the New York City market who receive the station on DirecTV and Dish Network view the station's clean over-the-air feed.

In June 2009, WLNY completely revamped its weeknight primetime schedule, replacing the movie with all of its syndicated programming. To replace the primetime movie WLNY recently reintroduced an afternoon movie to its schedule. It still airs a late night movie, or a rerun of Matlock (or, previously, one of the NBC Mystery Movie series WLNY had rights to -- Banacek, McCloud, and McMillan & Wife).

Over the years, WLIG/WLNY also broadcast professional and collegiate sports. WLNY carried Big East Conference college basketball for many years until that conference moved its games exclusively to cable in the New York City market. For a number of years, WLNY also carried New York Islanders hockey games and New Jersey Nets basketball games as overrun when they could not be broadcast on regional sports networks due to conflicts with other games. WLNY has occasionally picked up CBS Sports events that WCBS-TV cannot carry due to news pre-emptions, such as airing The NFL Today on September 11, 2011 while WCBS-TV aired the day's tribute ceremonies. It is possible that such arrangements may occur in the future with both stations now being commonly-owned.

As an independently-owned station, WLIG/WLNY produced a local news program, originally at 10 p.m. on weeknights. Prior to the station's sale to CBS, WLNY's newscast ran for 35 minutes at 11 p.m. Monday through Fridays and was rebroadcast Tuesday through Saturday mornings at 5 a.m. WLNY also produced a weekly public affairs show, tv10/55 Focus. The news and public affairs shows focused mostly on Long Island issues, aside from weather and sports coverage, which served most of the New York City market. On March 15, 2012, it was announced that the station would be suspending its news operations after at the end of the month; the last 11 p.m. newscast on the station aired on March 29, 2012 and was replaced with Entertainment Tonight thereafter.

The first locally-produced program on WLNY under CBS ownership debuted in mid-April 2012: a revamped public affairs show, Exit 10/55, which airs in the same timeslot as tv10/55 Focus.

WLNY resumed regular newscasts on July 2, 2012 with a two-hour morning program, Live From the Couch (which competes against the longer-established morning newscasts on WNYW and WPIX); and a one-hour newscast at 9:00 PM. Both programs are based out of WCBS-TV's West 57th Street studios in Manhattan. Additional newscasts are likely to be added in the future.^[27]

• Exit 10/55 (public-affairs; premiered April 15, 2012)
• Live from the Couch (premiered July 2, 2012)
• TV 10/55 News at 9 (premiered July 2, 2012)

• Carolina Bermudez - co-anchor, Live from the Couch
• John Elliott - co-anchor, Live from the Couch
• Carolyn Gusoff - Long Island bureau reporter; co-host of Exit 10/55
• Lisa Kerney - co-anchor, Live from the Couch
• Richard Rose - Long Island bureau reporter; co-host of Exit 10/55
• Dana Tyler - co-anchor, TV 10/55 News at 9
• Chris Wragge - co-anchor, TV 10/55 News at 9

WLNY features additional news personnel from WCBS-TV. Please see that article for a complete listing.

WLNY-TV is carried on the following cable television systems:^[28]

• * Not Carried in Mercer, Monmouth and Ocean counties. (carried in HD on channel 710 where carried)
• ** Not carried by all Comcast systems in New York DMA

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