WSEE-TV 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 by SJL Broadcast Management Corporation through a local marketing agreement (LMA). This makes it a sister station to NBC affiliate WICU-TV. The two share studios on State Street in downtown Erie. Syndicated programming on WSEE includes: Wheel of Fortune, Jeopardy!, Dr. Phil, and Ellen. The station operates the area's CW affiliate on its second digital subchannel. Known on-air as Northwest Pennsylvania CW 3, it can also be seen on Time Warner Cable channel 3 (hence the branding). This station gets all of its programming from The CW Plus.

Digital programming

The station's signal is multiplexed.

Virtual Channel	Video	Aspect	Programming
35.1	1080i	16:9	main WSEE programming / CBS HD
35.2	480i	4:3	WSEE-DT2 "Northwest Pennsylvania CW 3"

History

WSEE-TV began broadcasting on April 24, 1954 as a CBS affiliate. ABC programming was shared by WSEE and WICU until WJET-TV signed-on in 1966. UPN content was aired on weekends by WSEE from 1995 until 2006 when UPN and The WB merged to become The CW. The area's WB affiliate was cable-only "WBEP" that existed from 1998 until 2006 and was operated by WSEE. The CW is now narrowcasted on cable and simulcasted on WSEE's second digital subchannel. Since 2002, WSEE has been operated by WICU under a local marketing agreement (LMA). The station completed its digital transition on February 17, 2009 at Noon renaming on its pre-transitional channel, 16. In late-May 2009, WSEE and its CW subchannel moved from its longtime home on Peach Street in downtown Erie to WICU's facilities on State Street.

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 their contracts though at least one (WICU reporter Kelsie Smith) was moved to sister station WENY-TV, two vacant WICU meteorologist positions were eliminated, and another (WSEE anchor Raychel Vendetti) was laid-off outright.

 Their over-the-air digial 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.

Primetime 24

WSEE-TV 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 Primetime 24 service provides American network television service to C-Band 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 their 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.

Coverage in Canada

WSEE was carried on Rogers Cable in London, Ontario until September 2005, when it was replaced by Detroit's WWJ-TV.

WSEE 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.

Eastward reach

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. Though an agreement was eventually reached with WIVB, WSEE was kept on the Atlantic Broadband lineups. WENY-TV (also owned by Lilly Broadcasting), also brought CBS service to the Elmira market in January 2009 (on a new second digital subchannel) that included Steuben and Chemung Counties in New York State. It is unclear if there will be any coordination of the two CBS stations which will come within one county of each other in coverage and would cover an area reaching between Cleveland and Binghamton (not inclusive). It has been noted that with the recent WICU-WSEE merger, the newscast schedules of this station and WENY-DT2 mirror each other. However, also in January 2009, 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.

Newscasts

On May 28, 2009, WSEE aired its final newscast from their Peach Street studios. After going without news for nearly four days, local news returned to the air at 6 p.m. Since the studios are unable to broadcast two live shows at the same time, all of WSEE's newscasts are now taped in advance except weekdays at noon since WICU does not air a newscast at that hour. Unlike most CBS affiliates in the Eastern Time Zone, WSEE does not air local news weeknights at 5 or 5:30. There are no weekend newscasts either except for a sports highlight show and evening weather updates. Eventually, as contracts expire, the news teams of WSEE and WICU will merge so that they produce newscasts for all three stations.

News/Station Presentation

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)

Current personalities

Anchors

• Stephanie Schelkun - weekday mornings and reporter
• Scott Bremner - weekdays at noon and 6
  • Senior Reporter
• Jacqueline Policastro - weeknights at 6 and 10
  • reporter
• Kristin Kane - fill-in (shared with WICU)

WSEE Newswatch Storm Team Meteorologists

• Joey Stevens - Chief seen weeknights
• Ray Petelin (AMS and NWA Seals of Approval) - weekday mornings and noon
• Cheryl Scott - weekends and reporter (shared with WICU)

Sports

• Gary Drapcho - Director seen weeknights and Sportswatch Magazine host
• K.C. Kantz - weekends and sports reporter

Former personalities

• 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

References

External links

• WSEE-TV
• WSEE-DT2 "Northeast Pennsylvania CW 3"
• WICU-TV