WICZ-TV

Fox affiliate in Binghamton, New York

WICZ TV (channel 40) is a television station in Binghamton, New York, United States, affiliated with Fox and MyNetworkTV. Owned by Imagicomm Communications, the station has studios on Vestal Parkway East (NY 434) in Vestal, and its transmitter is located on Ingraham Hill Road in the town of Binghamton.

The station signed on November 1, 1957, as WINR TV, the area's second television station, and aired an analog signal on UHF channel 40. The station was originally owned by the then Rochester based Gannett Company, which purchased the station's construction permit along with NBC Radio Network affiliate WINR (680 AM) in January of that year. The WINR stations were part of a newspaper broadcast combination owned by Gannett in Binghamton, operating alongside the Binghamton Press. Upon its purchase of WINR, the Press went to work towards completing the construction of channel 40, and used its pages to educate readers on how to receive the new UHF signal. At its sign on, WINR TV was primarily an NBC television affiliate, though it also carried some ABC programming before WBJA TV (channel 34, now WIVT) went on the air in 1962. Gannett announced on July 30, 1970, that it would sell its Binghamton broadcasting interests, while retaining the Binghamton Press. Broadcast tower manufacturer Stainless, Inc. acquired WINR TV as part of this divestiture. Upon receiving approval of the sale, the station changed its call letters to the current WICZ TV (for company owner Henry Guzewicz) on April 7, 1971. That fall, the station moved to an 870 feet (265 m) tower on Ingraham Hill; it had previously shared a transmitter location with WINR radio. WICZ already had a secondary affiliation with Fox to carry Fox Kids, the network regained an over the air affiliate in Binghamton a year later when WETM's owners, Smith Broadcasting, purchased WBGH LP (channel 8, now WBGH CD channel 20) and made it a semi satellite of WETM. Stainless, whose holdings by this point included its tower manufacturing business, WICZ TV, and KTVZ in Bend, Oregon, was sold to Northwest Broadcasting for $17 million in 1997. Though Northwest would sell the Stainless tower company to SpectraSite Holdings in 1999, it would still own WICZ under the Stainless Broadcasting name. During the late 1990s, WICZ added a secondary affiliation with UPN; in 2000, Northwest bought W10CO (channel 10), changed its call letters to WBPN LP, and moved UPN programming there. On September 16, 2013, it was announced that Mission Broadcasting would acquire WICZ TV and WBPN LP from Stainless Broadcasting. Upon the deal's completion, the stations' operations would have been taken over by Nexstar Broadcasting Group, making them sister stations to WIVT and WBGH CA. Stainless withdrew the license assignment application on March 18, 2015, following the deal's cancellation. In February 2019, Reuters reported that Apollo Global Management had agreed to acquire the entirety of Brian Brady's television portfolio, which it intended to merge with Cox Media Group (which Apollo is acquiring at the same time) and stations spun off from Nexstar Media Group's purchase of Tribune Broadcasting, once the purchases were approved by the FCC. In March 2019 filings with the FCC, Apollo confirmed that its newly formed broadcasting group, Terrier Media, would acquire Northwest Broadcasting, with Brian Brady holding an unspecified minority interest in Terrier. In June 2019, it was announced that Terrier Media would instead operate as Cox Media Group, as Apollo had reached a deal to also acquire Cox's radio and advertising businesses. The transaction was completed on December 17. On March 29, 2022, Cox Media Group announced it would sell WICZ TV and 17 other stations to Imagicomm Communications, an affiliate of the parent company of the INSP cable channel, for $488 million; the sale was completed on August 1.

Since switching networks, WICZ has consistently maintained lower viewership than rival CBS outlet WBNG TV and remains ranked at second, but that gap has closed slightly in recent years. The big three affiliate has always been a ratings powerhouse in Binghamton. For the most part, WIVT has always been a non factor in the local newscast race. The ABC outlet has spent most of its history as the third station in what was originally a two station market (since WIVT did not sign on until November 1962) and virtually gained no benefit when WICZ joined Fox. On Memorial Day in 2009, in an attempt to increase its presence against WBNG, WICZ added a thirty minute newscast weeknights at 6 joining their flagship nightly prime time broadcast at 10. WBNG already established a weeknight newscast in the prime time slot airing on its CW second digital subchannel. The prime time newscast on WBNG DT2 would eventually be expanded to weekends at some point in time. On June 5, 2009, there was an increase in viewership on WICZ (and to a larger extent on WBNG) when WIVT announced its plans to consolidate news operations with WETM TV in Elmira. WIVT eventually began simulcasting some of WETM's newscasts featuring regional weather coverage but not a full news focus of the Eastern Twin Tiers region. A separate, taped newscast specifically covering the Binghamton area was subsequently brought back to WIVT on June 28. On August 19, 2012, WICZ became the market's first television station to upgrade local news production to high definition level. The transition included a new on air look with state of the art graphics and updated set design.

WICZ TV shut down its analog signal, over UHF channel 40, on April 16, 2009. The station's digital signal remained on its pre transition VHF channel 8, using virtual channel 40.