WBBZ-TV (channel 67) is a television station licensed to Springville, New York, United States, serving the Buffalo area. It has a primary affiliation with MeTV, but is otherwise programmed as an independent station. WBBZ-TV is owned by ITV of Buffalo, a company controlled by former news photographer Philip A. Arno. The station's studios are located at the Eastern Hills Mall in the town of Clarence (in a census-designated place called Harris Hill), and its transmitter is located near Springville in the hills of southern Erie County.
History Early years The station was assigned the call sign WJTQ on March 12, 1993, which was changed to WNGS (for "Buffalo wings") that March; it signed on December 15, 1996. The station was founded by Bill Smith, an amateur radio enthusiast, and his wife, Caroline Powley, daughter of late LPTV innovator John R. Powley.
WNGS initially broadcast on analog UHF channel 67. Although licensed as a full-power station, it transmitted its analog signal at low power with a northward directional pattern covering much of the Southtowns, but not reaching Buffalo proper. Signals broadcast in the direction of Buffalo were limited due to a treaty with Canada that protected the coverage area of CHCH-TV-3, a Midland, Ontario–based rebroadcaster of Hamilton–based CHCH-TV (channel 11) that also operated on UHF channel 67. As a result, from the city of Buffalo northward, it was only available on cable or by satellite.
The station began with an infomercial/home shopping format, but added general-entertainment barter talk shows, cartoons and low-budget sitcoms in 1997. WNGS became a UPN affiliate in April 1998, picking up a secondary affiliation with the fledgling Pax TV network upon its launch until the sign-on of WPXJ-TV in Batavia in July 1999; WNGS lost the UPN affiliation to WNLO (channel 23) in January 2003. Shortly afterward, WNGS dropped most of its entertainment programming in favor of infomercials. For most of its time as an independent station and UPN affiliate, WNGS operated from studios in West Valley, New York.
WONS-LP, a low-power station in Olean, New York, shared the UPN affiliation under a mutual agreement with WNGS until the network was picked up by WNLO; WONS then began carrying programming from The Sportsman Channel. At least one television listings provider (TitanTV) erroneously listed WONS-LP as a translator of WNGS.
Equity and WKBW era Powley and Smith sold WNGS, along with WNYI in Ithaca and KWWF in Waterloo, Iowa, to Equity Broadcasting in 2004; WNGS was valued at $5 million, but the terms of the deal called for a $1 million discount if the application for its alloted digital channel 46 was not approved within three years. After Equity took ownership of the station, WNGS became an affiliate of its Retro Television Network (RTN). During Equity's ownership, the station was operated by Granite Broadcasting, owner of ABC affiliate WKBW-TV (channel 7), under a local marketing agreement (LMA). As part of the agreement, WNGS was carried on WKBW's digital subchannel. Along with RTN programming, WNGS aired sports programming from WKBW-TV and other sports broadcasts.
Equity sold RTN to Luken Communications in 2008. Following a dispute between Equity and Luken, all of Equity's RTN affiliates, including WNGS, disaffiliated from the network on January 4, 2009. WNGS continued to carry other programs, such as sports and locally produced B-movie film showcase Off Beat Cinema. Later that month, WNGS switched its affiliation to This TV. The RTN affiliation later moved to a digital subchannel of WGRZ.
Temporary shutdown and return WNGS, formerly on a digital subchannel of WKBW-TV, had planned to launch its own digital signal on WKBW-TV's former analog channel allocation, channel 7, at the end of the 2009 digital transition.
By December 2008, both the ability of WNGS to transition to its own digital facilities and its ability to continue broadcasting were directly jeopardized as (according to a DTV status report by the station), "On December 8, 2008, the licensee's parent corporation filed a petition for bankruptcy relief under Chapter 11 of the federal bankruptcy code, case #4:08-BK-17646-M, U.S. district court for the district of Arkansas. This station must obtain post-petition financing and court approval before digital facilities may be constructed. The station will cease analogue broadcasting on June 12, 2009, regardless of whether digital facilities are operational by that date. The station will file authority to remain silent if so required by the FCC."http://fjallfoss.fcc.gov/cgi-bin/ws.exe/prod/cdbs/forms/prod/cdbsmenu.hts?context=25&appn=101285347&formid=387&fac_num=9088
While the station had applied for an extension for a construction permit for its digital transmitter,http://fjallfoss.fcc.gov/cgi-bin/ws.exe/prod/cdbs/forms/prod/cdbsmenu.hts?context=25&appn=101284599&formid=337&fac_num=9088 it was unable to continue analog operations as it was not only a full-service station, but it also operated on a frequency which was to be reallocated for non-broadcast use at the end of the digital television transition. Further complicating matters was that Kitchener, Ontario's CKCO-TV, a station serving portions of southern Ontario with a signal that penetrates Western New York, was assigned the same channel 7 allocation by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) for its own digital signal. It should have applied to simulcast digitally before its analog channel 13 broadcasts ended in August 2011, when that station would move digital broadcasts to channel 13.
On April 16, 2009, as a result of its bankruptcy, Equity Media Holdings auctioned off 60 of its television stations, including WNGS. WNGS was sold to Daystar Television Network for a total of $7.4 million. Daystar already owned WDTB-LP in nearby Hamburg, along with six other full-service stations and nine LPTV and Class A stations. Also around this time, WNGS's agreement with WKBW-TV ended. The sale was approved by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in August 2009.
WNGS ended its analog programming on June 12, 2009, after not being able to complete its transition to digital-only broadcasts on time, and switched to a "nightlight" service, broadcasting only a still screen reading "WNGS has ceased operations as of June 12, 2009". Though it technically extended the broadcast life of the station, this was not allowed to continue any later than July 12, far too soon for a digital over-the-air signal to be ready. Daystar's last-minute proposal to transmit from a broadcast tower used by WNYO-TV (channel 49) in Folsomdale, New York, instead of using WKBW-TV's Colden tower was rejected due to WNYO-TV owner Sinclair Broadcast Group's last-minute decision to broadcast WNYO-TV on its lower power digital channel 34 from Grand Island, and receiving FCC approval to transfer its digital signal to a full-power channel 49 transmission from Folsomdale on June 12. On July 12, the analog transmitter was turned off, starting the clock on the station's requirement to build digital facilities by July 12, 2010, when the FCC could consider the license abandoned and delete it.
Because WNGS failed to begin digital broadcasts on channel 7 after June 12, 2009, local cable providers had an option to no longer carry the station despite WNGS' direct fiber connection to the providers from West Valley. As the Buffalo market stretches west to near Erie, Pennsylvania, east towards Rochester, New York, north towards Toronto, and several counties in northern Pennsylvania in an area with several varieties of terrain, pay television service is almost a requirement for optimum viewing in outlying areas. Very few households watched the over-the-signals of many of the stations, resulting in serious trouble for WNGS if it were unable to continue maintaining its must-carry status. While Daystar's existing analog translator stations could maintain the station's service in the area, WDTB-LP only covered small portions of the city of Buffalo, far from providing market-wide coverage by any means. DirecTV customers in the Buffalo market stopped receiving WNGS on June 22, 2009.
By March 2010, the station still had not returned to the air in any form. Time Warner Cable (TWC) ended its hold on WNGS' channel 11 cable slot; WNLO was moved into that position and TWC's regional cable news channel YNN Buffalo was placed on channel 9, the former location of WNLO.
On May 14, 2010, Daystar filed to sell WNGS to ITV of Buffalo, LLC, a partnership owned by local TV personalities Philip Arno and Donald Angelo, for $2.75 million, with plans to program the station from Clarence, New York. Angelo later dropped his involvement in the station. WNGS finally completed its digital transmitter and returned to the air on channel 7 in late May 2010, a month before the license would have been deleted, carrying programming from Daystar. The sale was completed on September 16, 2010; at that time, the station rejoined This TV. As it had done with KOCE-TV in the Los Angeles market after a failed sale, a condition of sale was that Daystar would have the right to program one subchannel on WNGS indefinitely. The station invoked must carry and returned to Time Warner Cable on channel 5 (a prime cable position that WNGS specifically lobbied to obtain) in November 2010.
Relaunch as WBBZ WNGS changed its call sign to WBBZ-TV at 5a.m. on August 1, 2011, as part of a planned drastic increase in the station's local programming. The This TV affiliation moved to a digital subchannel, while it began carrying MeTV on its main channel.
WBBZ-TV struggled to find a studio location to house its operations. Arno had preferred to use the former Studio Arena Theater, but had been unable to secure a deal; he also passed on the Buffalo Central Terminal due to the building's state of disrepair.Kwiatkowski, Jane (July 31, 2011). Shift of WNGS-TV to start Monday. The Buffalo News. Retrieved July 31, 2011. The Eastern Hills Mall, which holds the station's offices, originally rejected the plan to build a studio at the mall but later relented and allowed it to be constructed. By early 2012, the studio at the Eastern Hills Mall began construction; the first program was taped from there in June. WBBZ-TV was forced to stop producing programs with a live studio audience due to the Eastern Hills Mall's upcoming redevelopment and the closure of its concourse but was granted permission to continue using the mall for general production in January 2024, using a back entrance.
After an appeal to the Federal Communications Commission, WBBZ-TV invoked must-carry on additional Time Warner Cable systems in Western New York in November 2012. TWC had initially refused to carry WBBZ-TV in those areas, ostensibly because of signal quality issues.Beagle, Ben (November 15, 2012). Time Warner adds Buffalo-area channel . Batavia Daily News. Retrieved May 20, 2014.
In August 2023, WBBZ entered into a joint sales agreement with radio station WECK.
Personnel WBBZ-TV hired former WKBW-TV sports director and general manager of the Empire Sports Network, Bob Koshinski as its executive in charge of production in 2012. He was promoted to vice president and general manager and served in those posts until resigning in January 2015; he continued to serve as a sports host through summer of that year. John DiSciullo, WKBW-TV's program director of three decades, was hired as executive in charge of production; he also serves as on-air host for local programs. Chris Musial, former general manager at WIVB-TV, was hired as a consultant (and was later promoted as Koshinski's replacement) in 2015. As of May 2013, the station employs fifteen people, not counting Arno.
Notable current staff Sam Castronova – football analyst Andrew Dan-Jumbo – host of Talk with Your Mouth Full Lauren Fix – automotive contributor