Spectrum News Rochester

The channel launched on April 22, 1987 as a local origination channel using the fictional call sign "WGRC-TV" (standing for "Greater Rochester Cablevision," the area's major cable provider at the time); as such, it is the oldest channel among the Spectrum News networks and the only one that was not launched by Charter Communications predecessor Time Warner Cable. The channel originally ran syndicated cartoons 6 to 9 AM, classic sitcoms 9 AM-Noon, a movie at noon, more syndicated cartoons 2 to 5 PM, family sitcoms 5 to 6 PM, then-fairly recent sitcoms till 8 PM, a movie at 8 PM, and after 11 PM a mix of sitcoms and drama shows. Weekends the station ran a mix of movies and drama shows and cartoons. Originally carried on channel 5, the channel produced the first prime time newscast in the Rochester market, which aired nightly at 10:00 p.m. Gradually the station added evolved to air more talk shows and game shows but still some cartoons and sitcoms and movies. In 1992, the service was moved to channel 9, and was rebranded as "GRC9News;" at that point, the channel added an early evening newscast at 7:00 p.m. In 1993 a 6 to 9 a.m. newscast was added. The station now ran talk shows till 3 p.m., cartoons at 5 p.m., some sitcoms 5 to 7 p.m., still a movie in prime time, and now talk shows and rebroadcasts of news late nights. A newscast was added at noon in 1994 and in early 1995 cartoons were dropped and the newscast began at 4 PM. The channel evolved to a news based format by then.

After Time Warner Cable acquired the cable television franchise rights for the area, the channel was renamed again as "R News" on July 4, 1995 and adopted a 24-hour news format with rolling newscasts throughout the day. On May 25, 2005, Time Warner Cable announced that it would eliminate 30 staff positions from the channel and Syracuse-based sister network News 10 Now in a cost-saving consolidation of its three regional news channels at the time in upstate New York. News 10 Now and R News's technical production and master control operations were merged with Albany-based sister channel Capital News 9.

With the move, Capital News 9 began serving as the production and studio hub for the news programming of both channels, while News 10 Now began handling production responsibilities for weather forecast segments for all of its sister news channels statewide, using the channel's weather staff. Each of the channels retained their respective news gathering crews, producers, facilities and news management; the channels also simulcast the Albany-produced political review program Capital Tonight. In addition, the cable access channels on the systems in each of the channels' markets began sharing broadcasts of collegiate sporting events in the event that Time Warner Cable could secure the rights to air the telecasts in all of its upstate markets.

Former Time Warner Cable News logo used until September 20, 2016.

On August 4, 2009 at 5:00 a.m. Eastern Time, the channel was renamed from R News to YNN Rochester, becoming the second TWC-owned news channel to adopt the "YNN" brand (standing for "Your News Now"), after Buffalo-based sister channel YNN Buffalo (which was the first to use the brand when it launched in April of that year). The "YNN" brand was later expanded to its sister channels in Syracuse (as YNN Central New York) and Albany (as YNN Capital Region). On December 16, 2013, the channel rebranded as Time Warner Cable News Rochester as part of a branding standardization across the provider's news channels that included the introduction of a new graphics and music package.[1]

On September 20, 2016, it was announced that all TWC News channels would be renamed as Spectrum News months after Charter Communications acquired Time Warner Cable. This transition completed & became live on March 14, 2017. Nearly one year following the initial changeover announcement, on September 18, 2017, Spectrum News retooled to a 4K inspired, modern & all new graphics and music package.

On July 27, 2018, the New York Public Service Commission revoked Charter's cable franchises in the state of New York, citing failures to meet conditions imposed on the provider as part of the TWC purchase.[2][3][4] Despite the revocation of Charter's cable franchises in New York, the future fate of Spectrum News in Rochester after Spectrum's exit from New York State is currently unknown.

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