Past programming preemptions and deferrals In October 1987, WIXT decided to preempt ABC's airings of
Full House in order to air first-run syndicated airings of
Silver Spoons, feeling the latter show was of superior quality.
Bridge Street In 2004, WIXT-TV premiered the area's only locally produced daytime talk/entertainment/lifestyle magazine show known as
Bridge Street (named from the address of the studios). The program airs weekdays at 10 a.m. from a secondary set. In July 2008, 46-year station veteran Mike Price retired. The station's news studio was renamed the "Mike Price Studio" on July 9 in dedication to his work on
Bridge Street. On December 29,
Maureen Green (a former WSYR-TV anchor) was featured as a substitute co-host on
Bridge Street filling in for Rick Gary. This was the first time Green was seen on the airwaves since being fired from her position at WTVH as main weeknight anchor in December 2007. On March 20, 2009, Keith Kobland (former weekday morning and noon anchor on WTVH until its consolidation with WSTM-TV) joined Carrie Lazarus to co-host
Bridge Street filling in for Rick Gary. On April 24, WSYR-TV announced that Rick Gary had left the station after serving for more than two decades. Dan Cummings and Keith Kobland joined Carrie Lazarus as temporary replacements until February 1, 2010, when
Bridge Street was relaunched with a new look hosted by Chris Brandolino with an occasional guest. The show was then hosted by TeNesha Murphy and Sistina Giordano as of January 2017. Murphy left the station in 2020. On September 1, 2020, WSYR Sports Director Steve Infanti joined Sistina Giordano as co-host.
News operation By the early 1980s, channel 9 rose from third to first place in the Syracuse ratings, and it has remained there more or less ever since. Coinciding with this ratings growth, work commenced on a new facility on Bridge Street in East Syracuse in 1985. Construction was completed in 1986 and WIXT-TV moved there soon afterward. In 2000, a new news set and newsroom built by NewSet debuted. Also that year in response to declining ratings, WIXT-TV began a new segment called "Your Stories". This feature is where viewers can call the station, not an automated phone system, and get right on-line with a staffer for help with questions. The most popular topics are turned into segments which air at 5:16 during the weeknight news at 5. "Your Stories" was reinvented in 2007 when WSYR-TV started the "Consumer Protection Unit". This is divided into three different parts: "Your Stories", "The Real Deal", and "Consumer Reports". While WSYR-TV remains number one in
Nielsen ratings in Central New York for the whole day-part, it has spent much of the new millennium in a spirited battle with WSTM-TV on weekday mornings and weeknights at 11. WSYR-TV makes up for this with huge leads during the week at noon, 5, 5:30, and 6. With the consolidation of WTVH and WSTM-TV on March 2, 2009, there has been a noticeable decline in viewership especially on WTVH which now only airs separately-branded newscasts on weeknights with the same coverage. As a result, WSYR-TV has seen increased viewership. Currently, there are only three news operations that cover the area including cable-only
Spectrum News. Sister station WWTI in Watertown was hit by across the board cuts from Newport Television in June 2009. Eventually, it began simulcasting WSYR-TV's newscasts every night at 11 and added half-hour reports from the
Buffalo Bills training camp produced by fellow ABC affiliate and sister station WHAM-TV in Rochester. After letting go the few on-air news staff that it had, the station became a news bureau of WSYR-TV with contributions of content from the
North Country from a single reporter. WSYR-TV was an affiliate of
CNN Newsource, but in a late-2008 cost-cutting move Newport Television chose to terminate all station affiliations with the network. That leaves
ABC NewsOne as its lone source of national and world material. Weekday and weekend live newscasts that air on the main channel are repeated on WSYR-DT2 with the exception of the weekend news at 6 p.m. and 11 p.m. However, when the live news is delayed or preempted altogether by live
ABC Sports programming, the newscast is then replaced by another show on WSYR-DT2. The station operates its own
weather radar at its transmitter site known as "Live Doppler 9" making it the only local weather radar based in the Syracuse area. The radar is specifically tuned to be more sensitive to displaying
lake-effect snow bands, which the station argues may not always appear on the further-out public
NOAA National Weather Service radars out of
Montague, Binghamton and Buffalo. There is a live streaming video feed of "Live Doppler 9" on its website. WSYR-TV also offers a live video stream of all its weekday newscasts. On January 29, 2011, WSYR-TV became the first station in Central New York (and until the fall of 2016, the only station in the Syracuse area) to broadcast local news in true high definition. With the switch to HD came a new set, a new logo (which uses the same "Circle 9" design as fellow ABC affiliates
WSOC-TV in
Charlotte, North Carolina,
WTVC in
Chattanooga, Tennessee, and
KMBC-TV in
Kansas City, Missouri, though with the 2007 version of the ABC logo placed on the bottom right side) and a new slogan ("The Local Station"); as a result, the station's logo that was used since 1996 (which was rendered in the
FF Meta typeface) was retired.
WRGB in Albany, in January 2008, became the first station in upstate New York to broadcast their local newscasts in high definition. In mid-December 2010, WSTM-TV and
CBS affiliate WTVH (at the time operated by WSTM-TV) became the first two stations in the market to offer local newscasts in
16:9 enhanced definition widescreen. Although not truly high definition, the broadcasts match the
aspect ratio of HD television screens. Both of those stations would ultimately upgrade their local newscasts to true HD on October 23, 2016. On June 27, 2011, WSYR-TV's 25-year-duo Rod Wood and Carrie Lazarus were inducted into the New York State Broadcasters Association Hall of Fame. As one of the longest-running anchor teams in the United States, their names join those of Walter Cronkite, Barbara Walters and other broadcast legends. WSYR-TV have previously used many versions of
Frank Gari's "News Station" music package including customized vocal versions of the theme using old station slogans, "Making a Difference" and "Central New York's News Source." They used the theme from 1993 until August 19, 2013, in favor of "Aerial" by
Stephen Arnold Music. On January 30, 2018, WSYR-TV received a significant news studio set upgrade. On April 3, 2023, sister station
WUTR in
Utica began simulcasting the 5 and 6 a.m. hours of WSYR-TV's morning newscast.
Personalities On December 22, 2006,
Nancy Duffy, a former general assignment reporter for the station, died after a long illness. She became the first female police reporter in Central New York after joining the
Syracuse Herald-Journal in 1966. She was Syracuse's first female television reporter when she moved to WHEN-TV (now WTVH) in 1967. Duffy became the first woman to join the Syracuse Press Club and later served as its president. In 1970, Duffy served as press secretary at Syracuse City Hall. She returned to WHEN-TV after a year and moved to WNYS-TV as a weekday morning anchor and reporter in 1977. She is credited with founding the local
St. Patrick's Day parade, formally named the Syracuse St. Patrick's Parade. On March 2, 2017, Carrie Lazarus transitioned away from anchoring in favor of a special correspondent role. She was replaced by Christie Casciano. Due to the
COVID-19 pandemic, longtime anchor Rod Wood took a leave of absence from WSYR-TV after April 13, 2020's broadcasts. He provided routine updates from home but never returned to the anchor desk and retired just before his 80th birthday in November 2020. Senior reporter Jeff Kulikowsky, who filled in for most of 2020, took the job full-time.
Notable former on-air staff •
Steve Kroft – reporter (1971–1974) •
Dan Maffei – reporter (1991–1993) •
Jim Rose – sports anchor •
Jeff Rossen – reporter ==Technical information==