How We Started:
On February 15, 1950 Channel 3 signed on for the first time as WSYR-TV. The station was located on the seventh floor of the Kemper Building in downtown Syracuse. The station was able to begin broadcasting with the help of engineers at General Electric's Liverpool plant. E.R. "Curly" Vadeboncoeur helped put the station on the air and operated it until 1980. That same year the station’s call letters were changed from WSYR to the current WSTM.In 1958 we moved into a broadcast center at 1030 James Street in Syracuse. We've been broadcasting from here ever since.
The early stars came to Channel 3 from radio and had huge followings in the Syracuse area: Deacon Doubleday and his Farm Show, Jim Deline and the Gang’s Music and Variety Show, and Kay Russell’s Ladies Day, which would become the longest running women’s show in the country.
Technological Firsts:
WSTM was the first television station in Syracuse to broadcast in color (1957), the first to use videotape machines (1958), the first to use all-electronic news gathering (1973), and the first to broadcast in full stereo sound (1986). NBC-3 was the first to bring weather radar to Syracuse (1985) and we were the first station in the country with Live Triple Doppler Radar (2000). Our latest technological advance is High Definition Television (HDTV). On November 26th, 2002 we became the first station in the Syracuse market to broadcast in true high definition - a 1080i signal - on over the air digital channel 54. The signal is broadcast from our new community antenna in the Town of Onondaga.
Programming:
Channel 3 has always been an NBC affiliate, but our history includes a rich tradition of local programming. Over the years, viewers have tuned in for shows like "Monster Movie Matinee" and "The STM Club". "Saturday Showboat" was the longest running children’s program in the country.
News Department:
Action News 3 started with one man, Fred Hillegas, who anchored newscasts until 1972. Newscasts were originally only ten minutes long and didn't expand to 30 minutes until the 1960's. News is now our most extensive local production, with more than six hours of live programming each weekday and three and a half more on the weekends on WSTM and WSTQ. Our committment to provide Central New York with in-depth reporting is evident to viewers of our I-Team and other special reports.
Some Channel 3 alumni have gone on to gain national recognition, including NBC’s Bob Costas and Herb Weisbaum; Dan Kloeffler at MSNBC; Steve Kroft, and Jim Axelrod with CBS; Jeanne Meserve at ABC and now CNN; and Dave Ryan and John Nicholson at ESPN.
The station’s management is committed to community involvement and actively partners with Central New York’s businesses and not-for-profit organizations to help make this area a better place to live and work. In addition to their broadcasting jobs, staffers are also involved in the community, lending both recognizable faces and personal expertise to dozens of programs and projects.
WSTM is a part of Barrington Broadcasting and has become one of the prominent stations in the company’s growing international communications holdings. On July 1, 2003 the company added WSTQ, the current CW affiliate for Central New York. We are proud to also feature CNYcentral.com in our growing family of media outlets.
