WSNL went on the air with two daily newscasts: a half-hour early evening broadcast and an hour-long newscast at 10 p.m., in addition to coverage of high school sports; it also carried some off-network reruns and first-run syndicated programming. One of the more noteworthy series among this batch was "Phil Donahue", which had been in national syndication since 1970, but had not been available in the crucial New York City market since WPIX (channel 11) dropped the show in the fall of 1970. After the station's demise, "Donahue" would not find another outlet until WOR-TV (channel 9) acquired the local rights to the program in 1976, followed by WNBC (channel 4) in 1977. The station also carried games from the short-lived New York Stars of the World Football League in 1974.