WPTZ

About WPTZ

WPTZ (channel 5), branded "NBC 5," is the NBC affiliate for the Burlington, Vermont–Plattsburgh, New York market — on air since December 8, 1954, it is owned by Hearst Television and broadcasts from studios in South Burlington, Vermont.

WPTZ signed on December 8, 1954, as WIRI, licensed to the hamlet of North Pole, New York, making it one of the pioneering television stations of the Champlain Valley. Owned at launch by the Great Northern Broadcasting Company, it has been a primary NBC affiliate since its inception. The station became WPTZ in 1956, and its community of license was changed to Plattsburgh, New York, in 2011.

Ownership brought the station into one of America's major station groups: Heritage Media acquired WPTZ in 1987, and Hearst Television — then Hearst-Argyle — took over in 1998, pairing it in a duopoly with CW affiliate WNNE, licensed to Montpelier/Hartford, Vermont. WPTZ has long served as the market's flagship NBC station, transmitting from an antenna on Mount Mansfield, Vermont's highest peak.

Today WPTZ operates as "NBC 5" from studios on Community Drive in South Burlington, Vermont — a facility it moved into in 2019 after decades in Plattsburgh and Colchester — with a secondary studio and news bureau in Plattsburgh, New York. It brands itself "Covering the Champlain Valley and Beyond," serving viewers across northern Vermont, northeastern New York, and into Quebec, alongside sister station WNNE. Its digital home is mynbc5.com.