WKOF

WKOF (channel 15), branded CBS5, is a television station in Syracuse, New York, United States, affiliated with CBS. It is owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group alongside WSTM-TV (channel 3), an affiliate of NBC and The CW. The two stations, collectively branded as CNYCentral, share studios on James Street northeast of downtown Syracuse; WKOF's transmitter is located near Sentinel Heights in the town of Onondaga. Prior to December 1, 2025, CBS programming in Syracuse was supplied by WTVH (channel 5), which is owned by Deerfield Media and operated by Sinclair. WTVH began broadcasting as WHEN on December 1, 1948. It was Syracuse's first television station, owned by the Meredith Corporation; it broadcast on channel 8 from 1948 to 1961. Meredith owned WHEN alongside WHEN radio; when it sold the radio station in 1976, channel 5 changed its call sign to WTVH. While WTVH was initially the dominant station in Syracuse television news ratings, the market became more competitive in the 1980s. Granite Broadcasting acquired WTVH in 1993. WTVH's news ratings continued to decline under Granite ownership. In 2009, amid the Great Recession, Granite entered into a multi-city agreement with Barrington Broadcasting, then-owner of WSTM-TV, to combine operations; 40 employees of WTVH were laid off. Sinclair acquired Barrington in 2013, while Granite retained the WTVH license, among its last assets. After winning the authority to build a new Syracuse TV station at federal auction, Sinclair built WKOF in 2025 and moved WTVH's branding and CBS programming to that station, leaving WTVH to broadcast Roar.