Founded in 1954 by a group of local businessmen led by Carl Gallo, My NBC5 (originally known as WIRI) came into being to bring the first television station to the Plattsburgh, New York area. The idea sparked when Gallo and his partners at Great Northern Television realized that the residents of the "North Country" and Vermont were too far away to get reliable TV signals from big cities like Syracuse or Boston. They built the station to connect these rural communities, eventually changing the call letters to WPTZ. Today, the station is owned by Hearst Television, a major media company that owns local news stations across the country. Today, My NBC5 is run by a team of journalists working across state lines and is mainly focused on severe winter weather, outdoor tourism (like skiing and hiking), and local politics for both Vermont and Upstate New York. They are based in South Burlington, Vermont, and Plattsburgh, New York, serving a unique region known as the Champlain Valley that spans two states. One interesting fact: A unique fact about My NBC5 is its international reach. Because the station's signal is so strong and located near the border, it has a massive audience in Montreal, Canada. For decades, many Canadians grew up watching American TV shows and news on this specific channel, making it a household name in a different country.