. for the low power repeater station holding the calls wnlo cd in norfolk virginia see wvbt . wnlo buffalo new york united states branding cw 23 general news 4 newscasts slogan tv now keeping you connected channels digital 32 uhf virtual 23 psip subchannels 23.1 the cw 23.2 bounce tv affiliations the cw 2006 present cbs alternate owner media general sale to nexstar broadcasting group pending wivb broadcasting llc first air date may 13 1987 call letters meaning western new york buffalo sister station s wivb tv former callsigns wneq tv 1987 2001 former channel number s analog 23 1987 2009 former affiliations pbs 1987 2001 independent 2001 2002 upn 2002 2006 transmitter power 1 000 kw height 303 metres 994 ft facility id 71905 transmitter coordinates 43 1 48 n 78 55 15 w 43.03000 n 78.92083 w 43.03000 ; 78.92083 coordinates 43 1 48 n 78 55 15 w 43.03000 n 78.92083 w 43.03000 ; 78.92083 website cw23.com wnlo virtual channel 23 uhf digital channel 32 is a cw affiliated television station located in buffalo new york united states . the station is owned by media general as part of a duopoly with cbs affiliate wivb tv channel 4 . the two stations share studios on elmwood avenue in buffalo wnlo s transmitter is located on the eastern side of grand island . however master control and some internal operations for both stations are based at hub facilities within sister station wish tv s north meridian street studios in indianapolis indiana . the station can be considered an alternate cbs affiliate as it simulcasts the cbs overnight news and the cbs morning news from wivb tv . the station is also responsible for airing cbs programs when wivb tv is unable to or otherwise chooses not to air a program due to local or syndicated programming commitments . wnlo is not available in portions of cattaraugus county that are served by atlantic broadband where wsee dt2 out of erie pennsylvania is used as a less expensive alternative . contents 1 history 1.1 as a pbs member station 1.2 as a commercial station 2 digital television 2.1 digital channels 2.2 analog to digital conversion 3 programming 4 newscasts 4.1 notable current on air staff 5 references 6 external links history edit as a pbs member station edit the station signed on the air on may 13 1987 as wneq tv and was the second public television outlet serving the buffalo market . it was operated under an educational license and was sister station to wned tv channel 17 which had a commercial license but operated as an educational station wned tv s commercial license stemmed from its origins as wbuf tv the region s first commercial uhf station in the 1950s ; wned tv operated under wbuf tv s original license for its entire existence to that point . the analog uhf channel 23 allocation was originally intended to be part of a plan for a statewide public television network the concept of which would much later become thinkbright that would have seen a signature tower housing transmitters for channel 23 as well as wbfo 88.7 fm on the university at buffalo s amherst campus . studios were to be located there as well during development of the futuristic new u.b. complex in the 1970s . budget constraints curbed the plan and years of tension between the university and wned tv board members ended allowing the station to go forward with its plans for the uhf channel . wneq tv s broadcast day began daily at 4 p.m. and it usually aired between six and seven hours of programming per day . in 1992 many cable providers in hamilton and niagara began carrying wneq tv displacing long standing wqln from erie pennsylvania in the process . in the fall of 1998 most of the cable providers in those regions started to remove wneq as they were struggling with limited channel capacity and because of the fact that it had a limited daily program schedule . one year later rogers cable began carrying wneq on its digital tier for customers in the greater toronto area . the buffalo market was unable to support two public stations as both struggled financially . as a result the educational foundation put wneq tv up for sale . lin tv owner of cbs affiliate wivb tv wanted to buy wneq tv and run it as a commercial station . however that was problematic due to the fact that wneq tv was operating under an educational license . one solution was for lin to purchase wned tv which already had a commercial license instead which would have resulted in wneq tv becoming the area s primary pbs station . it was rejected since uhf channel 17 had long been established as a pbs station and a move to channel 23 might cause confusion among viewers potentially reducing the amount of donations that the viewer supported station would receive . eventually the federal communications commission fcc agreed to re assign channel 23 to a commercial license and assigned channel 17 an educational license . as a result the buffalo market retained an educational licensed station and lin tv was given the go ahead to purchase the converted to commercial wneq tv . as a commercial station edit in march 2001 lin closed on its purchase of wneq tv and converted it to a general entertainment independent station under the call sign wnlo . the station later secured the upn affiliation for the buffalo market in 2003 when the network s affiliation agreement with the weaker rated wngs channel 67 now wbbz tv expired . on cable in toronto wnlo was replaced with wtvs from detroit michigan in january 2001 when it relaunched as a commercial station . in 2005 rogers submitted a successful request to the canadian radio television and telecommunications commission crtc to allow carriage of wnlo in ontario . the station would not compete on advertising revenue from the toronto area as rogers suggested with another buffalo station it carried wnyo tv and the signal was also available over the air in a good portion of the golden horseshoe of southern ontario . on january 24 2006 cbs corporation and time warner announced the shutdown of both upn and the wb effective that fall . in place of these two networks a new fifth network the cw television network its name representing the first initials of parent companies cbs and warner jointly owned by both companies would launch with a lineup primarily featuring the most popular programs from both networks . 1 2 3 on february 22 news corporation announced it would start up another new network called mynetworktv . 4 5 this new service which would be a sister network to fox would be operated by fox television stations and its syndication division twentieth television . mynetworktv was created in order to give upn and wb stations that were not mentioned as becoming cw affiliates another option besides becoming an independent station as well as to compete against the cw . in april wnlo removed the upn branding from its station logo following the lead of news corporation s upn affiliates . mynetworktv launched on september 5 on sinclair broadcast group owned wnyo tv channel 49 while wnlo became part of the cw upon its launch on september 18 2006 . on november 2 of that year wnlo began broadcasting cw network programming in high definition on its digital signal . until this point it was rebroadcasting wivb tv s high definition feed because upn had little to no hd programming to broadcast . on may 18 2007 lin tv announced the company was exploring strategic alternatives that could have resulted in its sale . in early july 2007 wnlo launched its own website ; previously the station s web page was merely a separate section within wivb tv s website . in october 2008 lin tv broke off all retransmission deals with time warner cable . lin tv was demanding a fee of 25 cents per month per subscriber to carry each of its stations as it is entitled to under federal must carry regulations . twc had initially refused to accept these fees and on october 2 wnlo and sister station wivb tv were removed from the provider s lineups . lin tv and twc reached an agreement for the two stations and each were returned to the cable provider s lineup on october 30 . as part of the agreement wnlo s high definition signal began to be carried on twc s digital tier for the first time . another retransmission consent dispute threatened to take wivb tv and wnlo off dish network lineups in march 2011 . on march 10 2010 the station acquired a universal cable channel slot on time warner cable systems throughout western new york after years of being on different channels throughout the provider s service area . the station moved to channel 11 because time warner cable ended a reserve for former channel 11 slot holder wngs which had been off the air for several months . 6 most cable providers had previously placed wnlo on channel 9 which had to be cleared for the move of twc s in house cable only news channel ynn buffalo from cable channel 14 which had not been available to all of its subscribers . on march 21 2014 it was announced that media general would acquire lin . 7 the merger was completed on december 19 bringing wivb tv and wnlo under common ownership with abc affiliate wten and under the same management as fox affiliate wxxa tv both in albany . 8 on january 27 2016 media general announced that it had entered into a definite agreement to be acquired by nexstar broadcasting group . the combined company will be known as nexstar media group and own 171 stations including wivb and wnlo . 9 10 digital television edit digital channels edit channel video aspect psip short name programming 11 23.1 1080i 16 9 wnlo hd main wnlo programming the cw 23.2 480i 4 3 bounce bounce tv in june 2013 wnlo announced it would begin carrying bounce tv an african american oriented television network on its second digital subchannel ; the network began to be carried on channel 23.2 on july 1 . 12 analog to digital conversion edit wnlo discontinued regular programming on its analog signal over uhf channel 23 at 9 a.m. 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 channel 32 . 13 through the use of psip digital television receivers display the station s virtual channel as its former uhf analog channel 23 . the uhf channel 23 allotment formerly allocated to wnlo for its analog signal is now used for the digital signal of ion television owned and operated station wpxj tv virtual channel 51 . programming edit syndicated programming on wnlo includes the office who wants to be a millionaire and cops . in 2015 wnlo acquired raycom sports s acc network package of college football and college basketball broadcasts from the atlantic coast conference . the acc package had previously aired on wbbz tv for the previous two seasons . newscasts edit after wivb tv took over operations of wnlo in march 2001 the cbs affiliate began producing a nightly half hour prime time newscast on channel 23 . known as the 10 o clock news it competed with another newscast in the timeslot on pax affiliate wpxj tv that was produced by nbc affiliate wgrz tv channel 2 ; it was eventually dropped in 2003 . on april 20 2006 wgrz started producing a half hour prime time newscast for the wb now mynetworktv affiliate