![WKBW building](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/ea/WKBW_building.JPG)
WKBW-TV (channel 7) is a
television station
A television station is a set of equipment managed by a business, organisation or other entity, such as an amateur television (ATV) operator, that transmits video content and audio content via radio waves directly from a transmitter on the earth ...
in
Buffalo, New York
Buffalo is the second-largest city in the U.S. state of New York (behind only New York City) and the seat of Erie County. It is at the eastern end of Lake Erie, at the head of the Niagara River, and is across the Canadian border from South ...
, United States, affiliated with
ABC
ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script known as the alphabet.
ABC or abc may also refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Broadcasting
* American Broadcasting Company, a commercial U.S. TV broadcaster
** Disney–ABC Television ...
. Owned by the
E. W. Scripps Company
The E. W. Scripps Company is an American broadcasting company founded in 1878 as a chain of daily newspapers by Edward Willis "E. W." Scripps and his sister, Ellen Browning Scripps. It was also formerly a media conglomerate. The company is he ...
, the station maintains studios at 7 Broadcast Plaza in downtown Buffalo and a transmitter on Center Street in
Colden. However,
master control
Master control is the technical hub of a broadcast operation common among most over-the-air television stations and television networks. It is distinct from a production control room (PCR) in television studios where the activities such as switc ...
and some internal operations are based at the studios of sister station and fellow ABC affiliate
WRTV
WRTV (channel 6) is a television station in Indianapolis, Indiana, United States, affiliated with ABC and owned by the E. W. Scripps Company. The station's studios are located on Meridian Street north of downtown Indianapolis, and its transmit ...
in
Indianapolis
Indianapolis (), colloquially known as Indy, is the state capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Indiana and the seat of Marion County. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the consolidated population of Indianapolis and Marion ...
.
WKBW-TV is one of many local Buffalo television stations that are available
over-the-air and on
cable television
Cable television is a system of delivering television programming to consumers via radio frequency (RF) signals transmitted through coaxial cables, or in more recent systems, light pulses through fibre-optic cables. This contrasts with broa ...
in Canada, particularly in
Southern Ontario
Southern Ontario is a primary region of the province of Ontario, Canada, the other primary region being Northern Ontario. It is the most densely populated and southernmost region in Canada. The exact northern boundary of Southern Ontario is disp ...
. For many years, it was carried via microwave to cable systems in such areas as
Corning and
Horseheads
Horseheads is a town in Chemung County, New York, United States. The population was 19,412 at the 2020 census. The name of the town is derived from the number of bleached horses' skulls once found there.
Horseheads is north of the city of Elmi ...
; this ended when
WENY-TV
WENY-TV (channel 36) is a television station in Elmira, New York, United States, affiliated with ABC, CBS and The CW Plus. Owned by Lilly Broadcasting, the station has studios on Old Ithaca Road in Horseheads, and its transmitter is located ...
signed on as the ABC affiliate for the
Elmira market.
History
Clinton Churchill/CapCities ownership (1957–1986)
The Channel 7 frequency was hotly contested during the 1950s; the ''
Buffalo Courier-Express
The ''Buffalo Courier-Express'' was a morning newspaper in Buffalo, New York. It ceased publication on September 19, 1982.
History
The ''Courier-Express'' was created in 1926 by a merger of the ''Buffalo Daily Courier'' and the ''Buffalo Morning ...
'' and former
WBUF-TV
WBUF-TV was a television station that broadcast on ultra high frequency (UHF) channel 17 in Buffalo, New York, United States. It broadcast from August 17, 1953, to February 1955 and again from March 1955 until the morning of October 1, 1958.
Th ...
owner Sherwin Grossman tried several times to gain rights to the channel allocation (to compete with ''
The Buffalo News
''The Buffalo News'' is the daily newspaper of the Buffalo–Niagara Falls metropolitan area, located in downtown Buffalo, New York. It recently sold its headquarters to Uniland Development Corp. It was for decades the only paper fully owned by W ...
''s
WBEN-TV), but was unable to secure a license. The competition for the channel 7 allocation continued to grow when the city's first UHF station,
WBES-TV
WBES-TV was an early UHF television station in Buffalo, New York. The station operated on channel 59 from studios in the Hotel Lafayette in Buffalo. WBES-TV, the second UHF station (and third TV station overall) in Western New York, was very shor ...
, failed. Clinton Churchill, original owner of 50,000
watt
The watt (symbol: W) is the unit of power or radiant flux in the International System of Units (SI), equal to 1 joule per second or 1 kg⋅m2⋅s−3. It is used to quantify the rate of energy transfer. The watt is named after James Wa ...
radio station WKBW (1520 AM, now
WWKB
WWKB (1520 AM broadcasting, AM) is a commercial radio, commercial Radio broadcasting, radio station in Buffalo, New York. It broadcasts a sports betting radio format and is owned and operated by Audacy, Inc. Most programming is from the co-owned B ...
), was granted the license to operate the station in 1957. WKBW-TV was originally intended to be an
independent station
An independent station is an independent radio or terrestrial television station which is independent in some way from broadcast networks. The definition of "independence" varies from country to country, reflecting governmental regulations, market ...
. However, after WBUF was shut down by its second owner,
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an Television in the United States, American English-language Commercial broadcasting, commercial television network, broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Enterta ...
, on September 30, 1958, then-ABC affiliate WGR-TV (channel 2, now
WGRZ
WGRZ (channel 2) is a television station in Buffalo, New York, United States, affiliated with NBC and owned by Tegna Inc. The station's studios are located on Delaware Avenue in downtown Buffalo, and its transmitter is located on Warner Hill Ro ...
) re-added NBC programs. As a result of the network shuffle, WKBW-TV premiered as ABC's new Buffalo affiliate when it went on the air on November 30, 1958. The station's studios were originally located at 1420 Main Street in the former Churchill Tabernacle Church, with WKBW radio located next door at 1430 Main Street.
Churchill sold the WKBW stations to Capital Cities Broadcasting (which later became
Capital Cities Communications
Capital Cities/ABC Inc. was an American media company. It was founded in 1985 when Capital Cities Communications purchased the much larger American Broadcasting Company. It eventually proposed a merger of equals with The Walt Disney Company and ...
) in 1961, earning a handsome return on his original investment into WKBW radio in 1926. CapCities would serve as WKBW-TV's longest-tenured owner, owning it and its radio sister for 25 years, and the station would reach its peak during Capital Cities' ownership. WKBW-TV produced iconic children's programing such as ''
Rocketship 7 {{refimprove, date=April 2014
''Rocketship 7'' was a children's television series that aired weekday mornings on WKBW-TV in Buffalo, New York from 1962 to 1978 and from 1992 to 1993.
The host of the show was Dave Thomas, who had joined WKBW in 1 ...
'' and ''
The Commander Tom Show
The ''Commander Tom Show'' was a children's television series that aired weekday afternoons on Channel 7 WKBW-TV in Buffalo, New York, premiering on December 20, 1965.
The host of the show was Tom Jolls, who had joined WKBW as a weatherman earlie ...
'' from the 1960s to the 1980s. A staple of its morning programming for many years was ''
Dialing for Dollars,'' which later became ''
AM Buffalo
WKBW-TV (channel 7) is a television station in Buffalo, New York, United States, affiliated with ABC. Owned by the E. W. Scripps Company, the station maintains studios at 7 Broadcast Plaza in downtown Buffalo and a transmitter on Center Stree ...
'' after the ''Dialing for Dollars'' franchise was discontinued; ''AM Buffalo'' still airs today. Under Capital Cities' ownership, in 1978 the WKBW stations moved their studios from Main Street to their present location, "7 Broadcast Plaza", on Church Street a few blocks southwest of
Niagara Square
Niagara Square is a public square located at the intersections of Delaware Avenue, Court Street, Genesee Street, and Niagara Street in Buffalo, New York. It is the central hub of Joseph Ellicott's original radial street pattern that he designed ...
.
In 1977, WKBW-TV unsuccessfully sued the
Canadian Radio-Television Commission
The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC; french: Conseil de la radiodiffusion et des télécommunications canadiennes, links=) is a public organization in Canada with mandate as a regulatory agency for broadcasti ...
(CRTC) over
simultaneous substitution
Simultaneous substitution (also known as simsubbing or signal substitution) is a practice mandated by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) requiring broadcast distribution undertakings (BDUs) in Canada to dist ...
rules. In ''
Capital Cities Communications Inc v Canadian Radio-Television Commission'', WKBW-TV argued that the CRTC did not have jurisdiction to enforce simultaneous substitution if the stations simulcasting an American program did not broadcast across a provincial line (in WKBW's case, the stations in question were in
Toronto
Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...
and
Hamilton Hamilton may refer to:
People
* Hamilton (name), a common British surname and occasional given name, usually of Scottish origin, including a list of persons with the surname
** The Duke of Hamilton, the premier peer of Scotland
** Lord Hamilt ...
, both of which were primarily carried only in the province of
Ontario
Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central Ca ...
). The
Supreme Court of Canada
The Supreme Court of Canada (SCC; french: Cour suprême du Canada, CSC) is the Supreme court, highest court in the Court system of Canada, judicial system of Canada. It comprises List of Justices of the Supreme Court of Canada, nine justices, wh ...
ruled in the CRTC's favor, declaring broadcasting to be a federal undertaking under Canadian law, and that whether the station broadcast across a provincial line was irrelevant to that fact.
Queen City Broadcasting/Granite Broadcasting Co. years (1986–2014)
![WKBW 2013 Logo](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4d/WKBW_2013_Logo.png)
When Capital Cities announced its acquisition of ABC in March 1985, it was required to divest stations to stay within
Federal Communications Commission
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that regulates communications by radio, television, wire, satellite, and cable across the United States. The FCC maintains jurisdiction ...
(FCC) ownership limits of the era. The company announced the sale of WKBW-TV to J. Bruce Llewelyn's Queen City Broadcasting in August of that year; the sale of the station would be completed in early 1986, shortly after Capital Cities completed its acquisition of ABC. At that point, WKBW radio was sold to Price Communications and had its call letters changed to WWKB (that station is currently owned by
Audacy
Audacy, previously known as Radio.com, is a free broadcast and Internet radio platform owned by the namesake company Audacy, Inc. (formerly known as Entercom). The Audacy platform functions as a music recommender system and is the national umbr ...
). In late 1993,
Granite Broadcasting
Granite Broadcasting LLC is a broadcasting holding company in New York City which owns one television station in the United States, in Syracuse, New York. Granite was founded by W. Don Cornwell and Stuart Beck in 1988, acquired a 45% minority stake in WKBW-TV from Queen City Broadcasting. A year-and-a-half later, in June 1995, Granite bought the remaining 55% interest in the station.
Until 2000,
New York Lottery
The New York Lottery is the state-operated lottery in the US state of New York (state), New York that began in 1967. As part of the New York State Gaming Commission, it provides revenue for public education and is based in Schenectady, New York, ...
drawings were shown on WKBW-TV (these have since moved to WGRZ and were discontinued in October 2013; they have since been reinstated). WKBW-TV, through at least the early 2000s, operated the Niagara Frontier
radio reading service
A radio reading service or reading service for the blind is a public service of many universities, community groups and public radio stations, where a narrator reads books, newspapers and magazines aloud for the benefit of the blind and vision-imp ...
on its
second audio program
Second audio program (SAP), also known as secondary audio programming, is an auxiliary audio channel for analog television that can be broadcast or transmitted both over-the-air and by cable television. Used mostly for audio description or oth ...
feed, though it was pulled after the
Super Bowl XXXVIII halftime-show controversy
The Super Bowl XXXVIII halftime show, which was broadcast Live television, live on February 1, 2004, from Houston, Texas, on the CBS television network, is notable for a moment in which Janet Jackson's breast—adorned with a Nipple shield ...
in 2004 due to content concerns and the FCC's stricter enforcement of obscenity laws, which included some RRS titles.
WNED-FM
WNED-FM (94.5 MHz) is a non-commercial radio station licensed to Buffalo, New York. WNED-FM offers a classical music radio format. It is owned by the Western New York Public Broadcasting Association (formerly the Western New York Educational TV ...
's subcarrier then was contracted to carry the service from then on.
From 2006 to April 2009, WKBW-TV operated WNGS, owned at the time by
Equity Media Holdings
Equity Media Holdings Corporation was a broadcasting company based in Little Rock, Arkansas that owned and operated television stations across the United States. Prior to March 30, 2007, the company was known as Equity Broadcasting, a name later ...
, under a
local marketing agreement
In North American broadcasting, a local marketing agreement (LMA), or local management agreement, is a contract in which one company agrees to operate a radio or television station owned by another party. In essence, it is a sort of lease or tim ...
for most of that time while channel 67 was affiliated with the then-Equity-owned
Retro Television Network
Retro TV (stylized as retrotv), formerly known as Retro Television Network, is an American broadcast television network owned by Get After It Media. The network mainly airs classic television sitcoms and drama series from the 1950s through th ...
. Equity went bankrupt in 2009, selling off RTN to company shareholder Henry Luken's
Luken Communications
Get After It Media, formerly known as Luken Communications and Reach High Media Group, is a privately owned American broadcast holding company, based in Chattanooga, Tennessee, which owns or operates around 80 television stations in the United St ...
by January 2009 (which led to WNGS and other Equity stations dropping the network) and the Equity stations being liquidated, with WNGS sold to the
Daystar Television Network
The Daystar Television Network (commonly referred to as Daystar Television, often shortened to Daystar) is an American evangelical Christian-based religious television network owned by the Word of God Fellowship, founded by Marcus Lamb in 1993. ...
in April 2009 (the station has since been resold to a local group run by Philip A. Arno). As a result of the changes, WKBW-TV ended the LMA with WNGS which has since changed its call to
WBBZ-TV
WBBZ-TV (channel 67) is an independent television station licensed to Springville, New York, United States, serving the Buffalo area. It is owned by ITV of Buffalo, a company controlled by former news photographer Philip A. Arno. WBBZ-TV's stud ...
.
The Scripps era (2014–present)
On February 10, 2014, the
E. W. Scripps Company
The E. W. Scripps Company is an American broadcasting company founded in 1878 as a chain of daily newspapers by Edward Willis "E. W." Scripps and his sister, Ellen Browning Scripps. It was also formerly a media conglomerate. The company is he ...
announced that it would acquire WKBW-TV as well as
MyNetworkTV
MyNetworkTV (unofficially abbreviated MyTV, MyNet, MNT or MNTV, and sometimes referred to as My Network) is an American commercial broadcast television syndication service and former television network owned by Fox Corporation, operated by its ...
affiliate
WMYD
WMYD (channel 20) is an independent television station in Detroit, Michigan, United States. It is owned by the E. W. Scripps Company alongside ABC affiliate WXYZ-TV (channel 7). Both stations share studios at Broadcast House on 10 Mile Road in ...
in
Detroit
Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at th ...
from Granite Broadcasting for $110 million. The FCC approved the sale on May 2. The sale was completed on June 16. The completion of the purchase resulted in WKBW-TV becoming Scripps' first station in the state of New York. With Scripps' acquisition of WKBW-TV, each of Buffalo's "Big Three" network affiliates will have at one point or another been owned by a company with newspaper interests; WIVB-TV, founded in 1948 as WBEN-TV, was owned by the Butler family, then-owners of the ''Buffalo Evening News'', from its inception until the early '70s (and both had shared partial ownership by
Warren Buffett
Warren Edward Buffett ( ; born August 30, 1930) is an American business magnate, investor, and philanthropist. He is currently the chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway. He is one of the most successful investors in the world and has a net w ...
's
Berkshire Hathaway
Berkshire Hathaway Inc. () is an American Multinational corporation, multinational conglomerate (company), conglomerate holding company headquartered in Omaha, Nebraska, United States. Its main business and source of capital is insurance, from ...
from 2014 to 2017, via BH's stake in
Media General
Media General was an American media company based in Richmond, Virginia. The company's origins can be traced back to 1887 when Richmond attorney Joseph Bryan acquired ''The Richmond Daily Times'', which later became ''The Richmond Times-Dispatch' ...
);
Gannett Company
Gannett Co., Inc. () is an American mass media holding company headquartered in McLean, Virginia, in the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area.[USA Today
''USA Today'' (stylized in all uppercase) is an American daily middle-market newspaper and news broadcasting company. Founded by Al Neuharth on September 15, 1982, the newspaper operates from Gannett's corporate headquarters in Tysons, Virgini ...]
and various other newspapers around the country, acquired WGRZ-TV in 1996. E. W. Scripps spun-off their papers to
Journal Media Group
Journal Media Group (formerly Journal Communications) was a Milwaukee, Wisconsin-based newspaper publishing company. The company's roots were first established in 1882 as the owner of its namesake, the ''Milwaukee Journal'', and expanded into br ...
on April 1, 2015, while Gannett's broadcasting and digital media operations were spun off to the new
Tegna
Tegna Inc. (stylized in all caps as TEGNA) is an American publicly traded broadcast, digital media and marketing services company headquartered in Tysons Corner, Virginia. It was created on June 29, 2015, when the Gannett Company split into t ...
on June 29, 2015.
On September 24, 2020, a consortium made up of Scripps and Berkshire Hathaway announced the proposed purchase of
Ion Media
Ion Media (formerly known as Paxson Communications Corporation and Ion Media Networks) was an American broadcasting company that owned and operated over 71 television stations in most major American markets (through its television stations group ...
, including its
Ion Television
Ion Television is an American broadcast television network owned by the Katz Broadcasting subsidiary of the E. W. Scripps Company. The network first began broadcasting on August 31, 1998, as Pax TV, focusing primarily on family-oriented enter ...
owned-and-operated station in the Buffalo market,
WPXJ-TV (channel 51). Scripps chose not to retain WPXJ as Buffalo has fewer than eight unique television station owners, not enough to permit a duopoly in any case. WPXJ was instead included in a package of stations resold to Inyo Broadcast Holdings.
On December 31, 2021, beginning with the 11 p.m. newscast, WKBW had its first major rebrand in 18 years. The station changed its logo to a new one that it had been using for its digital operations for the previous few months.
Programming
Until recently, WKBW-TV signed off on Saturday and Sunday mornings for a half-hour from 4:00 to 4:30 a.m.; there was no station information, but the
American
American(s) may refer to:
* American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America"
** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America
** American ancestry, pe ...
and
Canadian
Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...
national anthem
A national anthem is a patriotic musical composition symbolizing and evoking eulogies of the history and traditions of a country or nation. The majority of national anthems are marches or hymns in style. American, Central Asian, and European n ...
s were played before and after the test pattern, like Sinclair-owned stations WUTV (channel 29) and
WNYO-TV
WNYO-TV (channel 49) is a television station in Buffalo, New York, United States, affiliated with MyNetworkTV. It is owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group alongside Fox affiliate WUTV (channel 29). Both stations share studios on Hertel Avenue near ...
(channel 49), which continue to sign off on Monday mornings.
Local programming
Current
* ''AM Buffalo'' with Emily Lampa—Airs weekday mornings from 10:00 to 10:30 a.m. The program, which dates back to the early 1960s and was known as ''
Dialing for Dollars'' until 1978, consists mostly of
brokered segments with paid sponsors as "guests." The show only had an "AM" version prior to 2004; a ''PM Buffalo'' version aired between 2004 and 2008 and a weekend version called ''Buffalo Weekend'' aired from 2008 to 2009 (the weekend version now airs under the ''AM Buffalo'' name).
* ''Countdown to 19/20##'' (title changes each year to correspond with the coming year) is an annual tradition held on
New Year's Eve
In the Gregorian calendar, New Year's Eve, also known as Old Year's Day or Saint Sylvester's Day in many countries, is the evening or the entire day of the last day of the year, on 31 December. The last day of the year is commonly referred to ...
. The multi-part broadcast covers, most notably, official coverage of the ''Buffalo
Ball Drop
The Times Square Ball is a time ball located in New York City's Times Square. Located on the roof of One Times Square, the ball is a prominent part of a New Year's Eve celebration in Times Square commonly referred to as the ball drop, where the ...
'' (formerly the ''
97 Rock Ball Drop''), billed as the second-largest New Year's Eve ball drop in the United States (behind only the more famous
Times Square Ball
The Times Square Ball is a time ball located in New York City's Times Square. Located on the roof of One Times Square, the ball is a prominent part of a New Year's Eve celebration in Times Square commonly referred to as the ball drop, where the ...
); the event has historically been televised in
synchronized split screen
Split screen may refer to:
* Split screen (computing), dividing graphics into adjacent parts
* Split screen (video production), the visible division of the screen
* ''Split Screen'' (TV series), 1997–2001
* Split-Screen Level, a bug in the vid ...
alongside the national ''
New Year's Rockin' Eve'' broadcast and has been carried by the station since 1988. Also covered by the broadcast are local
First Night
First Night is a North American artistic and cultural celebration on New Year's Eve, taking place from afternoon until midnight. Some cities have all their events during the celebration outside, but some cities have events that are hosted indoors ...
celebrations.
* ''Dyngus Day Diary'' is an annual special summarizing Buffalo's annual
Dyngus Day
Easter Monday refers to the day after Easter Sunday in either the Eastern or Western Christian traditions. It is a public holiday in some countries. It is the second day of Eastertide. In Western Christianity, it marks the second day of the Octa ...
parade. It is hosted by "Airborne Eddy" Dobosiewicz, a local comedian, historian, and on-again/off-again WKBW contributor.
Historical
* ''
Rocketship 7 {{refimprove, date=April 2014
''Rocketship 7'' was a children's television series that aired weekday mornings on WKBW-TV in Buffalo, New York from 1962 to 1978 and from 1992 to 1993.
The host of the show was Dave Thomas, who had joined WKBW in 1 ...
'', a morning children's show hosted by weatherman
Dave Thomas Dave may refer to:
Film, television, and theater
* Dave (film), ''Dave'' (film), a 1993 film starring Kevin Kline and Sigourney Weaver
* Dave (musical), ''Dave'' (musical), a 2018 stage musical adaptation of the film
* Dave (TV channel), a digital ...
and "Promo the Robot" from 1962 until Thomas left the station for
WPVI-TV
WPVI-TV (channel 6), branded on-air as 6 ABC, is a television station in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States, airing programming from the ABC network. Owned and operated by the network's ABC Owned Television Stations division, the station ...
in
Philadelphia
Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...
in 1978 (changing his on-air moniker to Dave Roberts in the process). Thomas also hosted ''Dialing for Dollars'' which became ''AM Buffalo'' in 1978. A revival aired from 1992 to 1993 immediately after ''Commander Tom'' was cancelled; this version, effectively a retooled version of ''Commander Tom'' with new hosts, featured
Commander Mike (Randall) and sidekick "Yeoman Bob," with guest appearances by Commander Tom.
* ''
The Commander Tom Show
The ''Commander Tom Show'' was a children's television series that aired weekday afternoons on Channel 7 WKBW-TV in Buffalo, New York, premiering on December 20, 1965.
The host of the show was Tom Jolls, who had joined WKBW as a weatherman earlie ...
'' was an afternoon children's show hosted by WKBW-TV weatherman
Tom Jolls
Tom Jolls (born August 16, 1933) is a retired television personality best known for his 34-year tenure at WKBW-TV in Buffalo, New York. At WKBW, Jolls hosted "The Weather Outside" segments during ''Eyewitness News'', performed many of the station' ...
from 1965 until 1991 when budget cuts forced its cancellation. In its last decade, the show aired on weekends only.
* ''In Conversation'' was a program that aired in the 1960s and 1970s, in which
Liz Dribben would interview celebrities on tour in Buffalo.
* ''
Off Beat Cinema
''Off Beat Cinema'' is a two-hour hosted movie show that airs on television stations throughout the United States in late-night time slots. It originated from WKBW-TV in Buffalo, New York from its launch on Sunday October 31, 1993 until July 2 ...
'', a collection of offbeat
B movie
A B movie or B film is a low-budget commercial motion picture. In its original usage, during the Golden Age of Hollywood, the term more precisely identified films intended for distribution as the less-publicized bottom half of a double feature ...
s, was created at WKBW-TV in 1993; it ran on WKBW-TV in overnight Friday and/or Saturday time slots from 1993 to 2012, and was also syndicated to the
Retro Television Network
Retro TV (stylized as retrotv), formerly known as Retro Television Network, is an American broadcast television network owned by Get After It Media. The network mainly airs classic television sitcoms and drama series from the 1950s through th ...
. The program moved to
WBBZ-TV
WBBZ-TV (channel 67) is an independent television station licensed to Springville, New York, United States, serving the Buffalo area. It is owned by ITV of Buffalo, a company controlled by former news photographer Philip A. Arno. WBBZ-TV's stud ...
in August 2012.
* WKBW-TV aired an annual 12-hour
Variety Kids telethon
A telethon (a portmanteau of "television" and "marathon") is a televised fundraising event that lasts many hours or even days, the purpose of which is to raise money for a charitable, political or other purportedly worthy cause.
Most telethons f ...
each March, with
Mr. Food
Art Ginsburg (July 29, 1931 – November 21, 2012), commonly known as Mr. Food, was an Americans, American television chef and best selling author of cookbooks (not to be confused with the comedy character Mr Food on BBC Radio's Steve Wrigh ...
(until his 2012 death) and
Clint Holmes
Clint Holmes (born 9 May 1946) is a British-born singer-songwriter and Las Vegas entertainer, and TV announcer.
Bio
He was born in Bournemouth, England, the son of an African-American jazz musician and an English opera singer. He was raised in ...
co-hosting along with WKBW-TV's personalities. In 2020, the telethon moved to
WGRZ
WGRZ (channel 2) is a television station in Buffalo, New York, United States, affiliated with NBC and owned by Tegna Inc. The station's studios are located on Delaware Avenue in downtown Buffalo, and its transmitter is located on Warner Hill Ro ...
and
WBBZ-TV
WBBZ-TV (channel 67) is an independent television station licensed to Springville, New York, United States, serving the Buffalo area. It is owned by ITV of Buffalo, a company controlled by former news photographer Philip A. Arno. WBBZ-TV's stud ...
.
*As part of a perpetual contract, WKBW was the local broadcast outlet for ''
Monday Night Football
''ESPN Monday Night Football'' (abbreviated as ''MNF'' and also known as ''ESPN Monday Night Football on ABC'' for simulcasts) is an American live television broadcast of weekly National Football League (NFL) games currently airing on ESPN, AB ...
'' games that feature the
Buffalo Bills
The Buffalo Bills are a professional American football team based in the Buffalo metropolitan area. The Bills compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) East division. ...
. In 2022, WKBW surrendered its rights and
WGRZ
WGRZ (channel 2) is a television station in Buffalo, New York, United States, affiliated with NBC and owned by Tegna Inc. The station's studios are located on Delaware Avenue in downtown Buffalo, and its transmitter is located on Warner Hill Ro ...
acquired them. WKBW was also the longtime home of Bills preseason games before the Bills signed a statewide agreement with WIVB owner
Nexstar Media Group
Nexstar Media Group, Inc. is an American publicly traded media company with headquarter offices in Irving, Texas; Midtown Manhattan; and Chicago, Illinois. The company is the largest television station owner in the United States, owning 197 te ...
.
Syndicated programming
''
Live with Kelly and Ryan
''Live with Kelly and Ryan'' (or simply ''Live'') is an American syndicated morning talk show hosted by Kelly Ripa and Ryan Seacrest. Executive produced by Michael Gelman, the ''Live with...'' show formula has aired under various hosts since ...
'', ''
Right This Minute
''Right This Minute'' (alternatively abbreviated as ''RTM'') was an American syndicated television program that debuted on September 12, 2011. Produced by MagicDust Television in conjunction with television station groups Cox Media Group, Gray ...
'', ''
The Kelly Clarkson Show
''The Kelly Clarkson Show'' is an American daytime television variety talk show hosted by American singer Kelly Clarkson. It is produced and distributed by NBCUniversal Syndication Studios and features Clarkson interviewing celebrities and seg ...
'' and ''
Hot Bench
''Hot Bench'' is a nontraditional panel-based court show that made its debut in first-run syndication on September 15, 2014. The series is produced by ''Judge Judy''s Judge Judy Sheindlin, who also created the program and concept with executi ...
'' are among the station's
syndicated offerings. Beginning in the 2015–2016 television season, the station also began carrying ''The List'', which along with ''RightThisMinute'', is among Scripps' internally produced programming for their stations (''RTM''s presence on WKBW predated Scripps buying the station). The station has begun to carry bartered
Entertainment Studios
Entertainment Studios, Inc., also known as Allen Media Group, is an American media and entertainment company based in Los Angeles. Owned and founded in 1993 by businessman Byron Allen, the company was initially involved in the production and d ...
programming in overnights since the purchase by Scripps, replacing hours of paid programming.
Internet initiatives
During the 1990s and through much of the 2000s, WKBW-TV was proactive in its ventures on the Internet. The station was among the first in Western New York to launch a website in the mid-1990s and was the first to offer
RSS
RSS ( RDF Site Summary or Really Simple Syndication) is a web feed that allows users and applications to access updates to websites in a standardized, computer-readable format. Subscribing to RSS feeds can allow a user to keep track of many di ...
feeds and
podcasts. WKBW-TV streamed its noon newscasts live online, one of the few major network affiliates to offer a video stream at the time (the feed was removed from the WKBW.com page in April 2007, but remained in operation through at least mid-2008; Scripps reactivated the stream in 2015). On demand video of newscasts is available. WKBW-TV redesigned its website in April 2007 using the YouNews TV platform for locally contributed viewers photos and videos. In December 2010, the station's webmaster was laid off. The station's website continued to be managed internally by Granite until October 2014, when a Scripps-run modern site designed for compatibility with both traditional PC and mobile tablet and smartphone platforms came online, along with the standard Scripps interface for the station's mobile/tablet apps.
Financial difficulties and cutbacks
WKBW-TV's then-owner Granite Broadcasting filed for
bankruptcy
Bankruptcy is a legal process through which people or other entities who cannot repay debts to creditors may seek relief from some or all of their debts. In most jurisdictions, bankruptcy is imposed by a court order, often initiated by the debtor ...
in 2006; as a result, the station group as a whole was hit hard by financial difficulties. Longtime anchors were either dismissed or seen significant pay cuts. The station still produced less news content during the week than its competitors (24½ hours, compared to 36 for WGRZ/WUTV and up to 40 for WIVB-TV/WNLO), is the only one that does produce a weekend morning newscast; both competitors also produce 10 p.m. newscasts for other stations, which WKBW does not. From September to November 2008, no Saturday newscasts were produced and the station again suspended its Saturday 6:00pm newscast in 2010 and 2011 (though its late newscast now airs after
college football
College football (french: Football universitaire) refers to gridiron football played by teams of student athletes. It was through college football play that American football rules first gained popularity in the United States.
Unlike most ...
). From 2005 to 2012, the station only employed two meteorologists compared to WIVB-TV's four and WGRZ's five (WKBW-TV used general assignment reporters on weekend weather forecasts during this time) and only two sports anchors compared to WGRZ's four (WIVB-TV also currently has just two sports reporters). The station also relied more on photojournalists than its competitors, and as a result, it has fewer general assignment reporters. As the
Great Recession
The Great Recession was a period of marked general decline, i.e. a recession, observed in national economies globally that occurred from late 2007 into 2009. The scale and timing of the recession varied from country to country (see map). At ...
set in at the start of 2008, ABC prime time and syndicated early prime programming was often preempted with
paid programming
Paid or PAID may refer to:
* ''Paid'' (1930 film), an American film starring Joan Crawford
* ''Paid'' (2006 film), a Dutch film
*''Personality and Individual Differences'', a journal
See also
* Paide, the capital of Järva County, Estonia
* P ...
to make up lost revenue. This has been reduced through the years as the station recovered, though some low-profile timeslots in prime time continue to carry charitable organization programming from
Operation Smile
Operation Smile is a nonprofit medical service organization founded in 1982 by Dr. William P. Magee Jr. and his wife Kathleen (Kathy) S. Magee. It is headquartered in Virginia Beach, Virginia.
In addition to providing cleft lip and palate repair ...
,
St. Jude Children's Research Hospital
St. Jude Children's Research Hospital is a pediatric treatment and research facility located in Memphis, Tennessee. Founded in 1962, it is a 501(c)(3) designated nonprofit medical corporation which focuses on children's catastrophic diseases, pa ...
and the
Billy Graham Crusades. Since January 31, 2008, union employees at that station who work as producers, engineers, reporters, photographers and assignment desk editors, had been working without a contract. Talks were ongoing between
NABET
The National Association of Broadcast Employees and Technicians (NABET-CWA) is a labor union representing employees in television, radio, film, and media production. A division of the Communications Workers of America (CWA), NABET represents abou ...
Local 25 and the management at WKBW-TV, though recent contract offers have been rejected. The two sides, after significant acrimony and a complaint to the
National Labor Relations Board
The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) is an independent agency of the federal government of the United States with responsibilities for enforcing U.S. labor law in relation to collective bargaining and unfair labor practices. Under the Natio ...
, came to an agreement on March 4, 2011. Upon WKBW-TV general manager Bill Ransom's retirement, his replacement, Mike Nurse, made a concerted effort to reverse the damage done during Ransom's tenure, boosting the weather staff to four meteorologists (all of which are natives to Western New York), revamping the morning show with new hosts and a new name and moving to a three-man sports department. Scripps further increased the staff to five meteorologists and again revamped the news department largely with familiar names in Buffalo television.
News operation
WKBW-TV currently broadcasts 32 hours of locally produced newscasts each week (with six hours on weekdays and one hour each on Saturdays and Sundays). In addition, the station produces a half-hour sports wrap-up program ''Sunday Sports Final,'' which airs Sunday evenings after the 11 p.m. newscast. Along with forecasts for WKBW-TV's news programs, WKBW-TV's weather staff also provides forecasts for two local radio stations owned by
Townsquare Media
Townsquare Media, Inc. (formerly Regent Communications until 2010) is an American radio network and media company based in Purchase, New York. The company started in radio and expanded into digital media toward the end of the 2000s, starting wi ...
,
WMSX
WMSX (96.1 FM) is a commercial radio station in Buffalo, New York, calling itself ''96.1 The Breeze.'' WMSX has an adult contemporary radio format, switching to Christmas music for much of November and December. It is owned by Townsquare Media ...
and
WYRK
WYRK (106.5 MHz) is a commercial FM radio station in Buffalo, New York, and serving Western New York. It is owned by Townsquare Media and it broadcasts a country music radio format. The studios and offices are on Lafayette Square in Buffalo in ...
, as well as for
Audacy
Audacy, previously known as Radio.com, is a free broadcast and Internet radio platform owned by the namesake company Audacy, Inc. (formerly known as Entercom). The Audacy platform functions as a music recommender system and is the national umbr ...
-owned
WBEN.
The Irv, Rick and Tom era (1970–1989)
The station had news operations from its beginning, but ceased broadcasting a 6:00 p.m. newscast in the fall of 1965, due to a mass exodus of viewers to WBEN-TV. In lieu of a 6:00 p.m. newscast, WKBW-TV's evening newscast aired at 7:20 p.m. in its early years. From 1970 to September 1, 2003 and again from October 27, 2008 to December 31, 2021, WKBW-TV has called its news operation ''Eyewitness News'' and used variations of the iconic
circle 7 logo
The Circle 7 logo is an often-used television station logo in the United States. Designed in the early 1960s for the American Broadcasting Company's five owned-and-operated stations (all of which broadcast on VHF channel 7), the logo, or a ...
until 2022. However, since the fall of 1972, it borrowed most of the basic elements of the "
Action News
''Action News'' is a local television newscast format originating in the United States. First conceived in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, it is characterized by a tight format with strict time limits on set packages, a focus on surrounding suburbs, ...
" format used at longtime sister station
WPVI-TV
WPVI-TV (channel 6), branded on-air as 6 ABC, is a television station in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States, airing programming from the ABC network. Owned and operated by the network's ABC Owned Television Stations division, the station ...
in
Philadelphia
Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...
, combined with the format
news director
A news director is an individual at a broadcast station or network or a newspaper who is in charge of the news department. In local news, the news director is typically in charge of the entire news staff, including journalists, news presenters, ph ...
Irv Weinstein
Irwin B. "Irv" Weinstein (April 29, 1930 – December 26, 2017) was an American local television news anchor and occasional radio actor. He hosted WKBW-TV's '' Eyewitness News'' in Buffalo, New York, for 34 years, from 1964 to 1998, becoming an ic ...
developed and called "Rock 'n' Roll Radio News" (modified for television). It even used "
Move Closer to Your World
Move Closer to Your World (MCTYW) is a television news music package composed in 1970 by Walt LissSanders, Nancy (May 22, 2022)Walt Liss Co-Author of Famous News Theme and WKBW Exec Has passed ''Buffalo Broadcasters Association. Retrieved September ...
," the theme song made famous by WPVI-TV (though it was known by the station as "The Eyewitness News Theme" and WKBW, through its employee Walt Liss, claimed to be the station that originated it
[Sanders, Nancy (May 22, 2022)]
Walt Liss Co-Author of Famous News Theme and WKBW Exec Has passed
''Buffalo Broadcasters Association.'' Retrieved September 11, 2022.—despite the theme bearing strong similarities to WPVI's existing theme by Tom Sellers). Furthermore, WKBW-TV was a source for much of WPVI-TV's on-air talent. Weinstein was WKBW-TV's main anchor from 1964 until his retirement on New Year's Eve 1998, doubling as news director for most of that time. From 1965 to 1989, he was partnered with sports director
Rick Azar
Rick may refer to:
People
*Rick (given name), a list of people with the given name
*Alan Rick (born 1976), Brazilian politician, journalist, pastor and television personality
*Johannes Rick (1869–1946), Austrian-born Brazilian priest and mycol ...
and weatherman
Tom Jolls
Tom Jolls (born August 16, 1933) is a retired television personality best known for his 34-year tenure at WKBW-TV in Buffalo, New York. At WKBW, Jolls hosted "The Weather Outside" segments during ''Eyewitness News'', performed many of the station' ...
(who had been poached from WBEN-TV and did double duty as host of ''Commander Tom''); the three formed the longest continuously running anchor team in television history until Azar's retirement in 1989. The noon newscast, during the mid-1970s, featured the first pairing of the long-running WPVI anchor team of
Jim Gardner James or Jim Gardner may refer to:
* James Gardner (surveyor), British engineer
* James Gardner (designer) (1907–1995), British industrial designer
* James Gardner (musician) (born 1962), British musician and composer
* James A. Gardner (1943–1 ...
and
Dave Thomas Dave may refer to:
Film, television, and theater
* Dave (film), ''Dave'' (film), a 1993 film starring Kevin Kline and Sigourney Weaver
* Dave (musical), ''Dave'' (musical), a 2018 stage musical adaptation of the film
* Dave (TV channel), a digital ...
(now known as Dave Roberts), with
Danny Neaverth Daniel J. "Danny" Neaverth, Sr. (born May 11, 1938) is an American disc jockey and television personality from Buffalo, New York. He is best known for a run of over 40 years as a morning disc jockey in Buffalo, including 25 years at heritage top-40 ...
frequently filling in for Thomas. Prior to 1983, the station adhered to the
National Association of Broadcasters
The National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) is a trade association and lobby group representing the interests of commercial and non-commercial over-the-air radio and television broadcasters in the United States. The NAB represents more than ...
's
Seal of Good Practice. The station's morning news program, the first in Western New York, debuted in 1989. ''Good Morning Western New York'' (the program's title from 1989 to 2000 and from September 2009 to September 2010) initially started at 6:00 a.m., before moving up to 5:30 a.m. in 1996 and 5:00 a.m. by 2000; as of August 2016, it currently starts at 4:30 a.m. Between 2000 and September 1, 2003 and from October 27, 2008 to 2009, the morning show was known as ''Eyewitness News This Morning'' and from September 2, 2003 to October 24, 2008 was known as ''7 News This Morning'' (WKBW-TV's morning show predated by seven years the next competitor, WIVB-TV, which did not debut its morning newscast, ''Wake Up!'' until 1994. WGRZ-TV followed suit with ''Daybreak'' in 1996).
1989–2003
From about 1989 until February 1997, the station identified itself as ''News Channel 7,'' but kept the ''Eyewitness News'' name for its newscasts out of posterity, resulting in rather long station announcements (for example, "From WKBW-TV News Channel 7, this is ''Eyewitness News'' at 5"); a similar situation arose on then-
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainmen ...
affiliate
WJXT
WJXT (channel 4) is an independent television station in Jacksonville, Florida, United States. It is owned by Graham Media Group alongside CW affiliate WCWJ (channel 17). Both stations share studios at 4 Broadcast Place on the south bank of th ...
in
Jacksonville
Jacksonville is a city located on the Atlantic coast of northeast Florida, the most populous city proper in the state and is the List of United States cities by area, largest city by area in the contiguous United States as of 2020. It is the co ...
,
Florida
Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...
from 1997 to 2002, that station also continued to call its newscasts ''Eyewitness News'' while identifying as ''WJXT NewsChannel 4'' for general purposes. During this era, it also reorchestrated the "Move Closer to Your World" theme with a more futuristic synthesizer-based version. From 1998 to 2002, it used the slogan "Your Hometown Advantage." ''Eyewitness News'' had been the most-watched newscast in the Buffalo market for many years and was at times even more popular in the Toronto market than the local news programs in that area. Some critics have contended this was due to Canadian viewers' attitudes that local Toronto television newscasts were "staid" and "boring" as contrasted with WKBW-TV's "tabloid" and "sensational" style of production, with American television stations approaching local news coverage as a "product" rather than a "public service," as is Canada's tradition. However, in 2000, the
Nielsen ratings
Nielsen Media Research (NMR) is an American firm that measures media audiences, including television, radio, theatre, films (via the AMC Theatres MAP program), and newspapers. Headquartered in New York City, it is best known for the Nielsen rat ...
system switched the Buffalo market from a diary market to an automatically metered market and in part because of WKBW-TV's inflated reputation (coupled with Weinstein's and Jolls' respective retirements), eventually rival WIVB-TV overtook the #1 spot, although it was still very much a three-way battle between the market's local news stations. Beginning in the mid-1990s, the station began making some questionable moves that arguably began its fall to the bottom. The first was declining to renew ''
The Oprah Winfrey Show
''The Oprah Winfrey Show'', often referred to as ''The Oprah Show'' or simply ''Oprah'', is an American daytime broadcast syndication, syndicated talk show that aired nationally for 25 seasons from September 8, 1986, to May 25, 2011, in Chicag ...
,'' which served as the lead-in for WKBW-TV's 5:00 news; rival WIVB-TV picked up the show along with ''
Wheel of Fortune The Wheel of Fortune or ''Rota Fortunae'' has been a concept and metaphor since ancient times referring to the capricious nature of Fate. Wheel of Fortune may also refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Art
* ''The Wheel of Fortune'' (Burne-Jo ...
'' and ''
Jeopardy!
''Jeopardy!'' is an American game show created by Merv Griffin. The show is a quiz competition that reverses the traditional question-and-answer format of many quiz shows. Rather than being given questions, contestants are instead given genera ...
'' in September 2012 to serve as the lead-in to WIVB-TV's prime time programming, which has been credited with helping hasten WKBW-TV's decline and WIVB-TV's rise in the ratings. In 2000, WKBW-TV displaced longtime 5:00pm anchor Kathleen Leighton to mornings in favor of former WIVB-TV weather anchor Maria Genero, who had been host of the talk show ''Good Day New York.'' Genero's experience as an evening news anchor was minimal and within months, Leighton quit the station, with Genero being moved to mornings. Not long afterward, WIVB-TV passed WKBW-TV for first place in nearly all timeslots—the first time in almost 30 years that WKBW-TV had lost the lead. Then, in 2002, after four years of using "Your Hometown Advantage," WKBW-TV adopted the slogan "Live, Local, Late Breaking," a slogan used on stations across the country and, on September 2 of that year, started its own local talk show (''WNY Live!'') that originally was used for long-form features but quickly turned into a mainly
advertorial
An advertorial is an advertisement in the form of editorial content. The term "advertorial" is a blend (see portmanteau) of the words "advertisement" and "editorial." Merriam-Webster dates the origin of the word to 1946.
In printed publications, t ...
program, a type of program mainly prevalent in lower-trafficked morning timeslots, but rarely successful in the afternoons, a move that was described as "deadly" to the ratings for its evening newscasts. In September 2003, however, came the most iconic change: dropping their long branding heritage for a more generic news imaging.
First 7 News era (2003–2008)
![WKBW news vehicle](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8d/WKBW_news_vehicle.jpg)
WKBW-TV decided to adopt a new identity, thus bringing the ''Eyewitness News'' era to an end. The station's newscasts were rebranded as ''7 News'' in September 2003 and "Move Closer to Your World" was dropped in favor of a more contemporary
news music package (''Right Here, Right Now'' by
615 Music
615 Music is a broadcast production music company based in Nashville, Tennessee. Founded by Randy Wachtler. 615 Music composes television news music packages and custom image campaigns for many television networks around the world. 615 Music als ...
). From 2006 to 2007, WKBW-TV also produced ''Sportsnite'', a nightly sports talk program hosted by members of WKBW-TV's sports department, that aired weeknights at 7 p.m. on WNGS. However, in April 2007, due to very poor ratings despite a barrage of heavy advertising, the
Buffalo Sabres
The Buffalo Sabres are a professional ice hockey team based in Buffalo, New York. The Sabres compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Atlantic Division in the Eastern Conference. The team was established in 1970, along w ...
being in the playoffs and the upcoming
2007 NFL Draft, ''Sportsnite'' was cancelled. WNGS was not available on satellite providers during ''Sportsnite''s run, therefore limiting the show's audience. Through 2009, WKBW-TV continued to produce a special version of ''Sportsnite'', ''Sportsnite Niagara'', in cooperation with
Niagara University
Niagara University (NU) is a private Catholic university in the Vincentian tradition in Lewiston in Niagara County, New York. It is run by the Congregation of the Mission and has 3,300 undergraduate students in 50 academic programs. Appro ...
during college hockey and basketball season. WKBW-TV suspended its Saturday newscasts in September 2008, during college football season; the station resumed those newscasts that December after football season ended (in previous years, each newscast was delayed approximately one hour in the event of football games).
Return to Eyewitness News (2008–2011)
The station revived "Move Closer to Your World" for promotions celebrating the station's 50th anniversary, for the intro to breaks during its newscasts. It also reintroduced the theme for the introduction to its 11 p.m. newscasts on September 19, 2008 (along with the restoration of the "
Do you know where your children are?
"Do you know where your children are?" is a question used as a public service announcement (PSA) for parents on American television especially from the late 1960s through the late 1980s. Accompanied by a time announcement, this phrase is typical ...
" speech), and began using the ''Eyewitness News'' name for its 2 a.m. one-minute news brief. On October 22, 2008, WKBW-TV news anchors launched what has been described as the "Big Tease," an announcement that an ostensibly top-secret "major change" was coming; although only a few of the senior members of the staff knew about the change, it was widely predicted to be a revival of the ''Eyewitness News'' name and classic theme. On October 27, 2008 beginning with its morning newscast, the ''Eyewitness News'' brand permanently returned to WKBW-TV's newscasts, and "Move Closer to Your World" was fully restored to all of the station's newscasts. Nevertheless, the station retained the 2003 studio set and graphics package for the next two years and the ''7 News'' branding and "Live, Local, Late Breaking" slogan were relegated to the 2 a.m. news brief. Preliminary results were promising: due to this and WIVB-TV's carriage disputes with
Time Warner Cable
Time Warner Cable, Inc. (TWC) was an American cable television company. Before it was acquired by Charter Communications on May 18, 2016, it was ranked the second largest cable company in the United States by revenue behind only Comcast, operat ...
and
Atlantic Broadband
Breezeline (previously Atlantic Broadband) is the trade name for the United States operations of Cogeco Communications, constituting the 8th largest cable operator in the United States, based on the number of television service customers served ...
, WKBW-TV's newscasts climbed back to a strong second place, behind WGRZ. Although it had retreated back to third when WIVB-TV returned to the two cable providers, WKBW-TV kept many of those viewers gained during the dispute and has made the Buffalo market's television newscasts a much closer three-way ratings race again, with only the station's morning newscast still in distant third. Ratings have waffled since that time. From September 2009 to September 2010, the title of the morning newscast was changed to ''Good Morning WNY.'' After Bridget Blythe's departure in October 2010, the morning show reverted it back to the ''Eyewitness News This Morning'' title, with Ginger Geoffery and Patrick Taney as anchors. The morning show increased its popularity in key demographics, tying WIVB-TV for second place in the ratings in May 2011; however, ratings for the 11:00 p.m. newscast dropped to fourth place among the market's late evening news broadcasts, behind the WIVB-TV-produced 10:00pm newscast on
WNLO. WKBW-TV also updated its set and graphics in October 2010. Ratings somewhat rebounded by October 2011; WKBW-TV's 11:00 p.m. newscast jumped to second place, behind WIVB-TV but ahead of WGRZ.
Upgrade to high definition
On August 13, 2011, beginning with its 6:00 p.m. newscast, WKBW-TV became the first television station in the Buffalo market to begin broadcasting its local newscasts in
high definition. The move coincided with WKBW-TV's decision to
outsource
Outsourcing is an agreement in which one company hires another company to be responsible for a planned or existing activity which otherwise is or could be carried out internally, i.e. in-house, and sometimes involves transferring employees and ...
its
master control
Master control is the technical hub of a broadcast operation common among most over-the-air television stations and television networks. It is distinct from a production control room (PCR) in television studios where the activities such as switc ...
operations to a company in
Atlanta, Georgia
Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,715 ...
; although it resulted in the loss of several Buffalo jobs, the master control outsourcing was far less expensive than attempting to upgrade the existing master control room from
standard definition
Standard-definition television (SDTV, SD, often shortened to standard definition) is a television system which uses a resolution that is not considered to be either high or enhanced definition. "Standard" refers to it being the prevailing sp ...
to HD. Rival WGRZ, which had been using a mix of HD graphics and upconverted SD video, announced its intentions to upgrade to true HD in response to this, which it did on October 29, 2011. Market leader WIVB-TV, which originally announced no intention to upgrade to true HD, announced its intentions to upgrade to true HD in response to its two rivals, which it did on February 1, 2012. WKBW-TV's studio cameras are true HD; however, the bulk of the station's news video is produced in 4:3 standard definition, which is then upconverted to a
16:9 aspect ratio.
2010–2013
The early 2010s were a time of upheaval for the WKBW-TV newsroom as Ransom and news director John Di Sciullo, two key leaders, departed the station (Ransom retired, while Di Sciullo left for WBBZ). Ransom's replacement, Michael Nurse, sought to overhaul the relatively undermanned newsroom by increasing the staff and overhauling the morning show. Brought in to host the newly branded ''Good Morning'' were out-of-market newcomers Cole Heath and Tiffany Lundberg, with meteorologist and feature reporter
Mike Randall held over from the previous staff. However, WIVB-TV strengthened their morning show staff at the same time, undermining any possible gains WKBW-TV may have made with its re-staffing and the morning show lost a third of its audience in the fall of 2013, even with promos for the morning show during Bills preseason coverage (which may have actually backfired, as the ad campaign had portrayed Heath and Lundberg as unable to pronounce the names of towns in the station's coverage area).
Scripps takes over (2014–2021)
In August 2014, one year after the revamp, ''Good Morning'' was canceled, Heath and Lundberg were fired, and Randall was demoted to weekends (at his request, to accommodate his acting career). In its place, a straight ''Eyewitness News''-branded newscast with a particular focus on weather was introduced, featuring Gray and meteorologist Andy Parker (who at the time was meteorologist for competitor ''Daybreak'' on market-leading WGRZ), both of whom returned to WKBW-TV after several years elsewhere; already on-staff meteorologist Autumn Lewandowski also contributes. Scripps planned on using WKBW-TV's morning show as a pilot system to test the format; had it been successful, the company would have rolled out the new format on its other stations across the United States.
[Pergament, Alan (September 29, 2014)]
Channel 7's rise could benefit from questionable moves at channel 4
''The Buffalo News''. Retrieved September 29, 2014. The format wasn't well received, and the morning show was reformatted to a more standard newscast beginning on September 21, 2015, with Gray being replaced by Katie Morse, who came over from then-
Time Warner Cable News
Spectrum News (formerly Time Warner Cable News) is the brand for a slate of cable news television channels that are owned by Charter Communications through its acquisition of Time Warner Cable in May 2016. Each of the 15 regional channels primari ...
in a trade that sent 12-year news veteran John Borsa to Time Warner Cable News. On the evening news front, veteran anchorman Keith Radford was signed to a contract extension following the Scripps takeover while Sports Reporter Jeff Russo was promoted to co-anchor.
[
On September 27, 2014, WKBW-TV adopted the standardized imaging and graphics used by other Scripps stations, and changed its circle 7 logo, the last remaining remnant of the ''7 News'' era, to the once-ABC O&O proprietary version, matching that of new sister station ]WXYZ-TV
WXYZ-TV (channel 7) is a television station in Detroit, Detroit, Michigan, United States, affiliated with American Broadcasting Company, ABC. It is owned by the E. W. Scripps Company alongside Independent station (North America), independent st ...
in Detroit; by coincidence, like WKBW-TV, WXYZ-TV was another station sold off by ABC to Scripps in the Capital Cities-ABC merger of 1986 to comply with ownership limits. Its ''Eyewitness News'' branding was initially retained, albeit with a slight alter to "7 Eyewitness News," until it was dropped in January 2022. The station initially continued to incorporate the classic "Move Closer to Your World" theme into its newscast openings until 2016 when it was dropped completely in favor of the Scripps "Inergy" theme, a move that caused a decline in viewership, since the theme had been used for over four decades (with a brief hiatus during the ''7 News'' era), and was a longtime television staple among many Western New Yorkers and Southern Ontarians.
In early 2015, WKBW, in partnership with the Western New York Chevy
Chevrolet ( ), colloquially referred to as Chevy and formally the Chevrolet Motor Division of General Motors Company, is an American automobile division of the American manufacturer General Motors (GM). Louis Chevrolet (1878–1941) and oust ...
Dealers, introduced the "7 First Alert Mobile Weather Lab"; a specialized SUV
A sport utility vehicle (SUV) is a car classification that combines elements of road-going passenger cars with features from off-road vehicles, such as raised ground clearance and four-wheel drive.
There is no commonly agreed-upon definitio ...
designed for storm chasing
Storm chasing is broadly defined as the deliberate pursuit of any severe weather phenomenon, regardless of motive, but most commonly for curiosity, adventure, scientific investigation, or for news or media coverage. A person who chases storm ...
, complete with a dashcam, multiple radar sources, and a built-in weather station
A weather station is a facility, either on land or sea, with instruments and equipment for measuring atmospheric conditions to provide information for weather forecasts and to study the weather and climate. The measurements taken include tempera ...
for live broadcasts. This made WKBW the first and only television station in the Buffalo market that owns and operates their own storm chaser vehicle.
In December 2015, Co-Anchor, Joanna Pasceri, was replaced by newcomer, Ashley Rowe, who joined Keith Radford and Jeff Russo at the anchor desk.
In August 2016, WKBW hired Don Paul, the longtime chief meteorologist at rival WIVB. It also promoted Sports Reporter Joe Buscaglia to Sports Director, and added one half hour to its morning newscasts to begin at 4:30 a.m. in response to its rivals. The hiring of Paul and another reporter, Ali Touhey, was originally to provide personnel for a weekend morning newscast that Scripps had planned to launch on the station in early 2016, but Scripps postponed, then ultimately canceled the newscast before it debuted. As a result, WKBW's First Alert weather team had eight meteorologists on their payroll (including two freelancers and mostly off-air graphic artist Dave Vogan), by far the most of any station in the market. Citing budget issues, WKBW released Paul after his two-year contract expired in December, 2018; he eventually returned to WIVB.
In April 2017, WKBW received a brand new set which is inspired by the Scripps graphics package.
In fall 2017, WKBW began airing ''The Now'', a local/national hybrid lifestyle and soft news magazine, in the 7 p.m. time slot, following '' World News Tonight'' and preceding '' The List''. It initially outrated WIVB's 6:30 p.m. newscast on WNLO, the only comparable competition, but ratings quickly collapsed after several months.
WKBW has an association with Syracuse University
Syracuse University (informally 'Cuse or SU) is a Private university, private research university in Syracuse, New York. Established in 1870 with roots in the Methodist Episcopal Church, the university has been nonsectarian since 1920. Locate ...
's S. I. Newhouse School of Public Communications
The S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications, commonly known as Newhouse School, is the communications and journalism school of Syracuse University in Syracuse, NY. It has programs in print and broadcast journalism; music business; graphic ...
, employing entry-level graduates of the university as part of the school's Journalism Career Program. Most move on to other stations in the Scripps portfolio within a few years.
On August 6, 2019, it was announced that General Manager, Michael Nurse, as well as two key Sales Managers, were let go. Although details were not provided, it was speculated that the changes occurred as a result of the station's continuing ratings woes, and a preference for Scripps to move the station in a new direction. Marc Jaromin was hired to replace Nurse. Jaromin criticized his technical and on-air staff for multiple technical and editorial errors during a December 21 simulcast of an NFL Network
NFL Network (occasionally abbreviated on-air as NFLN) is an American sports-oriented pay television network owned by the National Football League (NFL) and is part of NFL Media, which also includes NFL.com, NFL Films, NFL Mobile, NFL Now and NFL ...
''Thursday Night Football
''Thursday Night Football'' (often abbreviated as ''TNF'') is the branding used for broadcasts of National Football League (NFL) games that broadcast primarily on Thursday nights. Most of the games kick off at 8:15 Eastern Time (8:20 prior to 20 ...
'' game airing on a Saturday night with the Bills against the rival New England Patriots
The New England Patriots are a professional American football team based in the Greater Boston area. They compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) AFC East, East divisio ...
(a game that effectively determined that season's AFC East
The American Football Conference – Eastern Division or AFC East is one of the four Division (sport), divisions of the American Football Conference (AFC) in the National Football League (NFL). There are currently four teams that reside in the d ...
division championship), stating the game broadcasts and pre-game and post-game shows were well below the broadcast standards for an NFL market station.
On December 18, 2020, longtime ''AM Buffalo'' host Linda Pellegrino retired after three decades of hosting the morning show. Melanie Camp, who joined ''AM Buffalo'' several months prior, took over as host three days later.
Lead Anchor, Keith Radford, who had been reduced to a part-time schedule in 2019, announced his intent to retire at the end of 2020; however, he ended up staying until June 2021. He was replaced by 5:30 pm anchor, Jeff Russo.
Second 7 News era (2022–present)
On January 1, 2022, WKBW ditched its ''Eyewitness News'' branding for the second time after 13-plus years. Its newscasts returned to the "7 News" brand for the first time since October 26, 2008. With the change, WKBW also abandoned its circle 7 logo
The Circle 7 logo is an often-used television station logo in the United States. Designed in the early 1960s for the American Broadcasting Company's five owned-and-operated stations (all of which broadcast on VHF channel 7), the logo, or a ...
for the first time ever.
In June 2022, Ashley Rowe opted to leave to spend more time with family and was replaced by Lia Lando.
Notable current on-air staff
* Mike Randall (AMS AMS or Ams may refer to:
Organizations Companies
* Alenia Marconi Systems
* American Management Systems
* AMS (Advanced Music Systems)
* ams AG, semiconductor manufacturer
* AMS Pictures
* Auxiliary Medical Services
Educational institutions
* A ...
and NWA
NWA or Nwa most commonly refers to:
* N.W.A ("Niggaz Wit Attitudes"), a hip hop group from Compton, California, US
* National Wrestling Alliance, a professional wrestling organization
NWA or Nwa may refer to:
Music
* New Weird America, a subgenr ...
Seals of Approval) – Senior meteorologist and feature reporter
Notable former staff
* Rick Azar
Rick may refer to:
People
*Rick (given name), a list of people with the given name
*Alan Rick (born 1976), Brazilian politician, journalist, pastor and television personality
*Johannes Rick (1869–1946), Austrian-born Brazilian priest and mycol ...
– Sports director (1958–1989; first voice ever heard on WKBW as he signed on the station in 1958, was the station's sports director for 28 years)
* Stan Barron – Sports director (1958–1965); the station's first sports director (Azar held other duties for the time); traded to WBEN in 1965
* Brenda Brenon
Brenda Brenon is a former Sports commentator, sportscaster.
Early life
Brenon grew up in the suburbs outside of Buffalo, New York. She was the youngest of ten children. She graduated from high school in three years and from Buffalo State College ...
– Sports reporter (1987–1994; also appeared on the ''NHL on NBC
The ''NHL on NBC'' is an American presentation of National Hockey League (NHL) games produced by NBC Sports, and televised on NBC properties, including MSNBC, CNBC, Golf Channel, USA Network and NBCSN in the United States.
While NBC covered t ...
'', ''NHL on ABC
The ''NHL on ABC'' is an American presentation of National Hockey League (NHL) games produced by ESPN on ABC (formerly known as ABC Sports), and televised on ABC in the United States.
The network first broadcast NHL games during the 1993 Stan ...
'', and ''ESPN National Hockey Night
The broadcasts of National Hockey League (NHL) games produced by ESPN have been shown on its various platforms in the United States, including ESPN itself, ABC, ESPN+, ESPN2, ESPNEWS, ESPNU, and Hulu. Since 2021, games have been broadcast under ...
''; later worked for NESN
New England Sports Network, popularly known as NESN , is an American regional sports network, regional sports cable television, cable and satellite television, satellite television network owned by a joint venture of Fenway Sports Group (which ow ...
)
* Melanie Camp – Host of ''AM Buffalo'' (2020–2022, now at KPRC-TV
KPRC-TV (channel 2) is a television station in Houston, Houston, Texas, United States, affiliated with NBC and owned by Graham Media Group. Its studios are located on Southwest Freeway (Interstate 69 in Texas, I-69/U.S. Route 59 in Texas#Inters ...
in Houston)
* Liz Dribben – Co-host of ''Dialing for Dollars'' (1964–1968; later appeared on WNYC
WNYC is the trademark and a set of call letters shared by WNYC (AM) and WNYC-FM, a pair of nonprofit, noncommercial, public radio stations located in New York City. WNYC is owned by New York Public Radio (NYPR), a nonprofit organization that di ...
and WEVD
WEVD was an American brokered programming radio station with some news-talk launched in August 1927 by the Socialist Party of America. Making use of the initials of recently deceased party leader Eugene Victor Debs in its call sign, the station ...
in New York City)
* Jim Gardner James or Jim Gardner may refer to:
* James Gardner (surveyor), British engineer
* James Gardner (designer) (1907–1995), British industrial designer
* James Gardner (musician) (born 1962), British musician and composer
* James A. Gardner (1943–1 ...
– Anchor (1974–1976; later became anchor for WPVI-TV
WPVI-TV (channel 6), branded on-air as 6 ABC, is a television station in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States, airing programming from the ABC network. Owned and operated by the network's ABC Owned Television Stations division, the station ...
in Philadelphia until retiring in 2022)
* Tom Jolls
Tom Jolls (born August 16, 1933) is a retired television personality best known for his 34-year tenure at WKBW-TV in Buffalo, New York. At WKBW, Jolls hosted "The Weather Outside" segments during ''Eyewitness News'', performed many of the station' ...
– Weather forecaster/''Commander Tom Show'' host (as Commander Tom 1965–1991), announcer (1965–1999)
* Jeff Kaye – Announcer (1965–1977)
* John Murphy—Sports director (1989–September 16, 2007); concurrently worked for the Buffalo Bills Radio Network
The Buffalo Bills Radio Network is a broadcast radio network based in Buffalo, New York. Its primary programming is broadcasts of Buffalo Bills home and away games to a network of 24 stations in upstate New York, the Northwestern and Northern Ti ...
, where he remains
* Danny Neaverth Daniel J. "Danny" Neaverth, Sr. (born May 11, 1938) is an American disc jockey and television personality from Buffalo, New York. He is best known for a run of over 40 years as a morning disc jockey in Buffalo, including 25 years at heritage top-40 ...
– Weather (1970s; better known as a disc jockey)
* Dave Thomas Dave may refer to:
Film, television, and theater
* Dave (film), ''Dave'' (film), a 1993 film starring Kevin Kline and Sigourney Weaver
* Dave (musical), ''Dave'' (musical), a 2018 stage musical adaptation of the film
* Dave (TV channel), a digital ...
– Host of ''Dialing for Dollars''/''Rocketship 7'' (1960s–1978; promoted to WPVI-TV
WPVI-TV (channel 6), branded on-air as 6 ABC, is a television station in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States, airing programming from the ABC network. Owned and operated by the network's ABC Owned Television Stations division, the station ...
under the alias "Dave Roberts"; father of actor David Boreanaz
David Paul Boreanaz ( born May 16, 1969) is an American actor, television producer, and director known for playing the roles of vampire-turned-private investigator Angel on The WB/UPN ''Buffy the Vampire Slayer'' supernatural drama (1997–2003 ...
)
* Tommy Shannon
Tommy Shannon (born Thomas Lafitte Smedley; April 18, 1946) is an American bass guitarist, who is best known as a member of Double Trouble, a blues rock band led by Stevie Ray Vaughan. Born in Tucson, Arizona, Shannon moved to Dumas, Texas whe ...
– host of ''Buffalo Bandstand'' (1960s)
* Clip Smith
Warren P. "Clip" Smith (April 22, 1941 – August 21, 2004) was a Buffalo, New York media personality and newsman. Smith was a sports reporter at WKBW-TV from 1971 until being fired in December 1988, and later returned to radio in Buffalo at WGR ...
– Sports/weather anchor (1971–1989)
* Mark Thompson – reporter and weather anchor (later became chief meteorologist at KTTV
KTTV (channel 11) is a television station in Los Angeles, California, United States, serving as the West Coast flagship of the Fox network. It is owned and operated by the network's Fox Television Stations division alongside MyNetworkTV outle ...
in Los Angeles and a Fox
Foxes are small to medium-sized, omnivorous mammals belonging to several genera of the family Canidae. They have a flattened skull, upright, triangular ears, a pointed, slightly upturned snout, and a long bushy tail (or ''brush'').
Twelve sp ...
announcer)
* Mary Travers
Mary Allin Travers (November 9, 1936 – September 16, 2009) was an American singer-songwriter who was known for being in the famous 1960s folk trio Peter, Paul and Mary, along with Peter Yarrow and Paul Stookey. Travers grew up amid the burg ...
– "Action 7" consumer reporter (now known as "Mary Travers-Murphy"), former town supervisor of Orchard Park. Now Executive Director of the Family Justice Center in Buffalo, NY
* Irv Weinstein
Irwin B. "Irv" Weinstein (April 29, 1930 – December 26, 2017) was an American local television news anchor and occasional radio actor. He hosted WKBW-TV's '' Eyewitness News'' in Buffalo, New York, for 34 years, from 1964 to 1998, becoming an ic ...
– Reporter/anchor (1964–1998)
* Frankie Yankovic
Frank John Yankovic (July 28, 1915 – October 14, 1998) was an American accordion player and polka musician. Known as "America's Polka King", Yankovic was considered the premier artist to play in the Slovenian style during his long career. He ...
– Host of ''Polka Time'' (1962)
Technical information
Subchannels
The station's digital signal is multiplexed:
Between 2009 and 2015, the station had not multiplexed its channels. The two networks carried by WKBW-TV on its digital subchannels prior to 2009 (Retro Television Network
Retro TV (stylized as retrotv), formerly known as Retro Television Network, is an American broadcast television network owned by Get After It Media. The network mainly airs classic television sitcoms and drama series from the 1950s through th ...
, via WNGS, and the now-defunct World Championship Sports Network
Universal Sports was an American sports-oriented digital cable and satellite television network. It was owned as a joint venture between InterMedia Partners (which owned a controlling 92% interest) and NBCUniversal (which owned the remaining 8%).
...
) were later carried on WGRZ-TV
WGRZ (channel 2) is a television station in Buffalo, New York, United States, affiliated with NBC and owned by Tegna Inc. The station's studios are located on Delaware Avenue in downtown Buffalo, and its transmitter is located on Warner Hill R ...
; Retro is now on WBXZ. It was announced that WKBW-TV would air the Laff
Laff (legal name: Laff Media, LLC) is an American digital multicast television network headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia and is owned by the Katz Broadcasting subsidiary of the E. W. Scripps Company. The network specializes in comedy programmi ...
network on 7.2 starting on April 15, 2015; however, the launch was delayed due to equipment issues. Both Laff and Escape
Escape or Escaping may refer to:
Computing
* Escape character, in computing and telecommunication, a character which signifies that what follows takes an alternative interpretation
** Escape sequence, a series of characters used to trigger some so ...
, which airs on 7.3, debuted on April 28, 2015. Shortly following WUTV
WUTV (channel 29) is a television station in Buffalo, New York, United States, affiliated with the Fox network. It is owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group alongside MyNetworkTV affiliate WNYO-TV (channel 49). Both stations share studios on Hertel ...
dropping its affiliation with the network, WKBW added Grit as a third subchannel in mid/late June 2017.
Analog-to-digital conversion
WKBW-TV discontinued regular programming on its analog signal, over VHF
Very high frequency (VHF) is the ITU designation for the range of radio frequency electromagnetic waves (radio waves) from 30 to 300 megahertz (MHz), with corresponding wavelengths of ten meters to one meter.
Frequencies immediately below VHF ...
channel 7, on June 12, 2009, the official date in which full-power television stations in the United States transitioned from analog to digital broadcasts under federal mandate. The station's digital signal remained on its pre-transition UHF
Ultra high frequency (UHF) is the ITU designation for radio frequencies in the range between 300 megahertz (MHz) and 3 gigahertz (GHz), also known as the decimetre band as the wavelengths range from one meter to one tenth of a meter (on ...
channel 38. Through the use of PSIP
The Program and System Information Protocol (PSIP) is the MPEG (a video and audio industry group) and privately defined program-specific information originally defined by General Instrument for the DigiCipher 2 system and later extended for the A ...
, digital television receivers display the station's virtual channel
In most telecommunications organizations, a virtual channel is a method of remapping the ''program number'' as used in H.222 Program Association Tables and Program Mapping Tables to a channel number that can be entered via digits on a receiver's ...
as its former VHF analog channel 7. VHF channel 7 was reassigned to WNGS (channel 67, now WBBZ-TV), at the time under the control of WKBW, for its post-transition digital channel.
On March 13, 2020, WKBW moved its physical frequency down to channel 34 (previously held by WVTT-CD
WVTT-CD, virtual channel 34 ( VHF digital channel 11), is a low-powered, Class A television station serving the Twin Tiers that is licensed to Olean, New York. The station is owned by HC2 Holdings. The station's transmitter is located on Warne ...
, which moved down the dial to VHF channel 11) as the result of a domino effect stemming from the broadcast spectrum auction. The station's virtual channel 7 did not change.
See also
*''Bruce Almighty
''Bruce Almighty'' is a 2003 American fantasy comedy film directed by Tom Shadyac and written by Steve Koren, Mark O'Keefe and Steve Oedekerk. The film stars Jim Carrey as Bruce Nolan, a down-on-his-luck television reporter who complains to God ...
''
*Circle 7 logo
The Circle 7 logo is an often-used television station logo in the United States. Designed in the early 1960s for the American Broadcasting Company's five owned-and-operated stations (all of which broadcast on VHF channel 7), the logo, or a ...
References
External links
*
Rocketship 7 Tribute site
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wkbw-Tv
ABC network affiliates
Bounce TV affiliates
Ion Mystery affiliates
Grit (TV network) affiliates
E. W. Scripps Company television stations
KBW-TV
Television channels and stations established in 1958
1958 establishments in New York (state)