united states city springville new york branding buffalo s buzz slogan buffalo s locally owned & operated tv station this slogan is used despite the existence of locally owned pbs station wned tv your hometown tv channels digital 7 vhf virtual 67 psip subchannels 67.1 independent metv 67.2 this tv 67.3 metv 67.4 daystar affiliations metv 2011 present owner philip a. arno itv of buffalo llc first air date march 12 1993 as wjtq 1 call letters meaning wbbz buffalo s buzz former callsigns wngs 1997 2011 buffalo wings former channel number s analog 67 1997 2009 former affiliations all primary channel infomercials home shopping 1996 1997 upn 1997 2003 independent 2003 2006 retro television network 2006 2009 this tv 2009 2010 2011 silent 2009 2010 daystar 2010 transmitter power 26.9 kw height 577 facility id 9088 transmitter coordinates 42 34 04 n 78 43 24 w 42.56778 n 78.72333 w 42.56778 ; 78.72333 website wbbz.tv wbbz tv virtual channel 67 vhf digital channel 7 is a metv affiliated television station serving the buffalo new york united states that is licensed to springville new york . the station is owned by itv of buffalo a company controlled by former news photographer philip a. arno . the station s business office and studio are located at the eastern hills mall in the town of clarence and its transmitter is located near springville in the hills of southern erie county . contents 1 digital television 1.1 digital channels 2 history 2.1 early years 2.2 equity and wkbw era 2.3 temporary shutdown and return 2.4 relaunch as wbbz 3 personnel 3.1 notable current staff 3.2 notable former staff 4 programming 4.1 originally proposed local programming 4.2 regularly scheduled local programming 4.3 previous local programming 4.3.1 sports 4.4 specials 4.5 other programming 5 ratings 6 references 7 external links digital television edit digital channels edit channel video aspect psip short name programming 2 67.1 720p 16 9 wbbz tv independent metv 67.2 480i 4 3 thistv this tv 67.3 metv metv complete schedule 67.4 daystar daystar history edit early years edit the station was founded as wjtq on march 12 1993 and changed its call letters to wngs in may 1993 by bill smith an amateur radio enthusiast and his wife caroline powley daughter of late lptv innovator john r. powley who built several full service uhf television stations using economical ham radio equipment and surplus educational television translator transmitters . 3 wngs initially broadcast on analog uhf channel 67 . although licensed as a full power station it transmitted its analog signal at low power with a directional northward pattern covering much of the southtowns but not reaching the city of buffalo proper . radiated power in the direction of buffalo was limited due to a treaty with canada that protected the coverage area of chch tv 3 a midland based rebroadcaster of hamilton based independent station chch tv channel 11 that also operated on uhf channel 67 . as a result from the city of buffalo northward it was only available on cable or satellite and in certain places in the southern tier it was not available at all . wngs logo used during upn affiliation . the station started with an infomercial home shopping format but added general entertainment barter talk shows cartoons and low budget sitcoms in 1997 . wngs became a upn affiliate in april 1998 but lost the affiliation to wnlo channel 23 in january 2003 . 4 5 shortly afterward wngs dropped most of its entertainment programming in favor of infomercials . for most of its time as an independent station and upn affiliate wngs operated from studios in west valley new york . olean low powered station wons lp shared the upn affiliation under a mutual agreement with wngs until the network was picked up by wnlo at which time the station began carrying programming from the sportsman channel . at least one television listings provider decisionmark corporation then owner of titantv which is now owned by broadcast interactive media had erroneously listed wons lp as a translator of wngs . since 2012 wons lp channel 25 now wvtt cd is affiliated with the america one network now youtoo america . equity and wkbw era edit after equity broadcasting took ownership of the station wngs became an affiliate of equity s retro television network rtn . during equity s ownership the station was operated by granite broadcasting owner of abc affiliate wkbw tv channel 7 under a local marketing agreement . as part of the agreement wngs was carried on wkbw s digital subchannel . along with rtn programming wngs aired sports programming from wkbw tv and various sports broadcasts . see below equity sold rtn to luken communications in 2008 . following a dispute between equity and luken all of equity s rtn affiliates including wngs disaffiliated from the network on january 4 2009 . wngs continued to carry other programs such as sports and locally produced b movie film showcase off beat cinema . 6 7 8 later that month wngs switched its affiliation to this tv . 9 the rtn affiliation later moved to a digital subchannel of wgrz then to the pairing of low power stations w30bw in olean and wbxz lp assuming they get their transmitter installed in buffalo . temporary shutdown and return edit on april 16 2009 as a result of its bankruptcy equity media holdings auctioned off 60 of its television stations . wngs was sold to daystar television network who already owned wdtb lp in nearby hamburg along with six other full service stations and nine lptv and class a stations for a total of us 7.4 million . 10 also around this time wngs s agreement with wkbw tv ended . 11 the sale was approved by the federal communications commission in august 2009 . wngs went off the air on june 12 2009 after not being able to complete its transition to digital only broadcasts in time and remained silent for almost a year . meanwhile on may 14 2010 daystar filed to sell the station to itv of buffalo llc 12 a partnership owned by local tv personalities philip arno and donald angelo for 2.75 million with plans to program the station from clarence . 13 angelo later dropped his involvement in the station . previous wngs tv logo . wngs finally completed its digital transmitter and returned to the air in late may 2010 carrying programming from daystar . 14 the sale was completed on september 16 2010 ; at that time the station rejoined this tv . 15 however as part of the deal daystar must remain on wngs in the form of a digital subchannel for 10 years a deal which was previously made with koce tv in the los angeles area as a compromise after daystar was unable to purchase that station . wngs formerly on a digital subchannel of wkbw tv had planned to launch its own digital signal on wkbw tv s former analog channel allocation channel 7 at the end of the 2009 digital transition . by december 2008 both the ability of wngs to transition to its own digital facilities and its ability to continue broadcasting were directly jeopardized as according to a dtv status report by the station on december 8 2008 the licensee s parent corporation filed a petition for bankruptcy relief under chapter 11 of the federal bankruptcy code case 4 08 bk 17646 m us district court for the district of arkansas . this station must obtain post petition financing and court approval before digital facilities may be constructed . the station will cease analogue broadcasting on june 12 2009 regardless of whether digital facilities are operational by that date . the station will file authority to remain silent if so required by the fcc . 16 while the station had applied for an extension for a construction permit for its digital transmitter 17 it was unable to continue analog operations as it is not only a full service station but it also operated on a frequency which was to be reallocated for non broadcast use at the end of the digital television transition . further complicating matters was that kitchener ontario s ctv owned and operated station ckco tv a station serving portions of southern ontario with a signal that penetrates western new york being assigned the same channel 7 allocation by the canadian radio television and telecommunications commission for its own digital signal should it have applied to simulcast digitally before its analog channel 13 broadcasts end in august 2011 when that station would move digital broadcasts to channel 13 . 18 daystar s last minute proposal to transmit from a broadcast tower used by wnyo tv channel 49 in folsomdale new york instead of using wkbw tv s colden tower was rejected due to wnyo tv owner sinclair broadcast group s last minute decision to broadcast wnyo tv on its lower power digital channel 34 from grand island and receiving fcc approval to transfer its digital signal to a full power channel 49 transmission from folsomdale on june 12 . because wngs failed to begin digital broadcasts on channel 7 after june 12 2009 local cable providers had an out to no longer carry the station despite wngs s direct fiber connection to the providers from west valley . as the buffalo market stretches west to near erie east towards rochester north towards toronto and several counties in northern pennsylvania in an area with several varieties of terrain pay television service is almost a requirement for optimum viewing in outlying areas resulting in the buffalo hamilton toronto area having one of the highest pay television penetration rates in the northeast . very few households watch the over the signals of many of the stations resulting in serious trouble for wngs if it were unable to continue maintaining its must carry status . while daystar s existing analog translator stations could maintain the station s service in the area wdtb lp only covers small portions of the city of buffalo far from providing market wide coverage by any means . on june 12 2009 wngs switched to a nightlight service broadcasting only a still screen reading wngs has ceased operations as of june 12 2009 . though it technically extended the broadcast life of the station this was not allowed to continue any later than july 12 far too soon for a digital over the air signal to be ready . directv customers in the buffalo market stopped receiving wngs on june 22 2009 . by march 2010 the station still had not returned to the air in any form . time warner cable ended its hold on wngs s channel 11 cable slot ; wnlo was moved into that position and time warner s regional cable news channel ynn buffalo was placed on channel 9 the former location of wnlo . 19 in late may 2010 wngs finally started transmitting its digital signal on channel 7 . 14 it invoked must carry and returned to time warner cable on channel 5 a prime cable position that wngs specifically lobbied to obtain in november 2010 . 20 the station s website returned sometime in december 2010 . after an appeal to the federal communications commission wbbz tv also invoked must carry in time warner cable s other western new york service areas in november 2012 ; twc had initially refused to carry wbbz tv in those markets ostensibly because of signal quality issues . 21 as of 2014 wbbz tv is still not available on the region s other cable provider atlantic broadband cogeco which covers portions of cattaraugus county ; mckean county pennsylvania ; and southern ontario the last of which being outside the united states is not subject to must carry rules . relaunch as wbbz edit wngs changed its call sign to wbbz tv at 5 00