Local HD newscasts coming to Youngstown

Just when you thought it would take years for a TV market the size of Youngstown to produce local High Definition newscasts, guess again. New Vision Television has been putting all of the pieces together since 2007 in order to produce and air HD newscasts on WKBN, WYFX and WYTV. In fact, upgrades for HD are being made on the WYTV set in addition to the power increase we reported on earlier for the ABC affiliate. The WKBN / WYFX set was completed last fall in anticipation of the HD upgrades. The stations currently have eight HD cameras for field reporting but may have to resort to some SD cameras for heavier newsdays. Also laptop computers will be used to edit news stories out in the field. The HD newscasts are expected to begin on April 19th. Another upgrade will be similar to the HD upgrade WKBN DT 41 (27-1) did by also adding WYFX on 27-2. WYTV DT 36 (33-1) will begin broadcasting its MyYTV station on 33-2 in HD before April 19th. It’s unclear if the “My Valley Weather” channel on 33-3 will be eliminated since two HD channels will be on WYTV. This will leave WFMJ’s CW affiliate “WBCB” on 21.2 (20) as the only network in the Valley in SD. You can also check www.wkbn.com/ or www.wytv.com/ for more details on the upgrades.