please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources . unsourced material may be challenged and removed . december 2012 learn how and when to remove this template message wgrz buffalo new york united states branding channel 2 2 on your side wgrz general channel 2 news newscasts slogan on your side newscasts this is home station identification channels digital 33 uhf virtual 2 psip subchannels 2.1 nbc 2.2 antenna tv 2.3 justice network owner tegna media multimedia entertainment llc first air date august 14 1954 ; 62 years ago 1954 08 14 call letters meaning wgr world s greatest radio derived from former sister radio station z 2 refers to virtual channel and former analog channel former callsigns wgr tv 1954 1983 wgrz tv 1983 2009 former channel number s analog 2 1954 2009 former affiliations primary nbc 1954 1956 abc 1956 1958 secondary dumont 1954 1955 1 dt2 rtv 2009 2011 transmitter power 480 kw height 295 m facility id 64547 transmitter coordinates 42 43 6.6 n 78 33 47.2 w 42.718500 n 78.563111 w 42.718500 ; 78.563111 website www.wgrz.com wgrz virtual channel 2 uhf digital channel 33 is an nbc affiliated television station located in buffalo new york united states . the station is owned by tegna . wgrz maintains studios located at 259 delaware avenue in downtown buffalo and its transmitter is located at 11530 warner hill road in south wales new york . contents 1 digital television 1.1 digital channels 1.2 analog to digital conversion 2 history 3 programming 4 news operation 4.1 storm team 2 weather 4.2 ratings 4.3 current on air staff 4.3.1 news 4.3.2 contributors 4.3.3 notable former on air staff 5 logo 6 additional facts 7 references 8 external links digital television edit digital channels edit wgrz carries the following programming 2 channel video aspect psip short name programming 2.1 1080i 16 9 wgrz hd main wgrz programming nbc 2.2 480i wgrz2 .2 antenna tv 2.3 4 3 wgrz2 .3 justice network wgrz dt2 was affiliated with nbc weather plus until that network shut down in december 2008 and aired a locally originated weather plus channel between that time and june 2009 . the dt2 channel then switched to universal sports which it carried through the end of 2011 . retro television network was previously seen on wgrz dt3 . the 2.3 channel was removed in september 2011 with no replacement in order to provide better picture quality to both the dt2 and the main wgrz signal ; the dt3 subchannel had never gained significant cable carriage and by that time much of the programming was being duplicated by wbbz tv . 3 although the dt2 subchannel has achieved significant cable penetration dating to its time as a weather plus outlet universal sports itself converted to a cable and satellite only service in january 2012 as part of comcast s overhaul of the nbc sports division . 4 wgrz dt2 then became an affiliate of antenna tv competing with wbbz tv . the dt2 subchannel returned to weather on january 1 2014 affiliating with weathernation tv with the local branding stormteam 2 weathernation ; antenna tv then moved to a reactivated dt3 . justice network was added as a digital subchannel in january 2015 replacing weathernation tv . 5 analog to digital conversion edit wgrz discontinued regular programming on its analog signal over vhf channel 2 at 1 p.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 33 . 6 through the use of psip digital television receivers display the station s virtual channel as its former vhf analog channel 2 . as part of the safer act 7 wgrz kept its analog signal on the air until june 26 to inform viewers of the digital television transition through a loop of public service announcements from the national association of broadcasters . wgrz dropped the tv suffix like most gannett stations just a week after the transition . history edit wgrz tv logo used from 1998 to october 29 2011 . the station first signed on the air on august 14 1954 as wgr tv owned by the wgr corporation founder george rand along with wgr 550 am . it was an nbc affiliate sharing the 184 barton street studios of uhf outlet wbuf tv channel 17 . in 1955 wbuf tv which was silent at the time was sold to nbc . in january 1956 wgr tv became an abc affiliate after nbc moved its programming to wbuf tv ; it turned out to be a bad move . all television reception at the time was via set top or rooftop aerial antennas . uhf television technology was in its infancy and most people did not understand how to receive the signals which are very different and subject to much greater degradations in strength than those of the other local stations which transmitted on vhf . wgr tv returned to nbc in september 1958 after nbc shut down the money bleeding wbuf tv which eventually was revived as a public television station ; the license is currently held by wnlo channel 23 while the channel 17 space is currently occupied by wned tv although wgr tv continued to carry a secondary affiliation with abc for another two months until wkbw tv channel 7 signed on in november of that year as a full time abc affiliate . the abject failure of wbuf tv in buffalo actually gave uhf a bad name to the broadcasting industry and the viewing public but served as a boon to wgr tv locally . viewers still wanted more choices could easily receive the vhf channel 2 signal and the station now had more syndicated and network program options . the station also carried programming from the now defunct dumont television network . 1 in 1959 wgr tv launched an fm radio station wgr fm 96.9 now wgrf . originally a simulcast of its am radio sister it began airing its own programming under the wgrq callsign in 1973 . over the years wgr corporation bought several other radio and television stations across the country including wnep tv in scranton wilkes barre wham tv in rochester the call letters of which transcontinent would change to wroc tv and is of no relation to the current station using the wham tv callsign and wdaf am fm tv in kansas city and eventually became known as transcontinent broadcasting . transcontinent merged with taft broadcasting in 1964 . during the 1960s wgr tv also operated a repeater station on vhf channel 6 in jamestown new york ; this continued until the channel 2 transmitter was moved from elmwood avenue in buffalo to the south wales transmitter site which greatly improved signal coverage into the population center of the mountainous chautauqua region south of buffalo . in 1972 the station moved into its current downtown buffalo facility at 259 delaware avenue . on may 1 1983 wgr tv added a z to its callsign thus becoming wgrz tv . less than two weeks later taft broadcasting and general cinema corporation which operated the coral television division completed the trade deal that was first announced in december 1982 in which taft gave channel 2 to general cinema while in exchange taft acquired miami s wcix taft held on to wgr radio and wgrq wrlt until 1987 when both stations were sold to rich communications ; the am station is now owned by entercom communications while its former fm sister is now owned by cumulus media . in the years following the 1983 exchange deal wgrz tv changed hands several times . general cinema exited the broadcasting business by selling coral television to wgrz acquisition corp. a partnership between sjl broadcast management ta associates and smith broadcasting for 56 million in 1986 . native buffalonian and former newport television ceo sandy dipasquale also held an ownership stake in wgrz tv through his stake in smith broadcasting at this time . two years later tak communications purchased wgrz tv from the sjl led group for 100 million in 1988 . less than four years later in 1991 tak filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy and a group of creditors seized the company s assets in 1994 . argyle television holdings ii a broadcasting holding company formed by a group of managers who had recently left argyle i after that company sold all of its stations to new world communications purchased the station and then sister station kitv in honolulu hawaii from tak s creditors for 91 million on wgrz tv s end in 1995 . argyle ii closed on wgrz tv in april of that year followed by kitv two months later . wgrz tv nearly lost its nbc affiliation in 1994 when nbc s parent company general electric announced plans to purchase king world productions the then owner of cbs affiliate wivb tv channel 4 . had it occurred wivb tv would have become an nbc owned and operated station . however the deal never materialized and wivb tv was sold to the lin tv corporation instead coincidentally king world would eventually be acquired by cbs parent cbs corporation who merged the company into cbs television distribution in 2007 . however it did lose the local rights to the buffalo bills to wivb tv when the nfl returned to cbs in 1998 after the network acquired the rights to the american football conference package . 8 gannett acquired wgrz tv and wzzm tv in grand rapids michigan from argyle ii in a 1996 swap deal that saw koco tv in oklahoma city oklahoma and wlwt in cincinnati ohio being traded by gannett to argyle ii . 9 the deal which was related to issues from cross ownership rules related to gannett s ownership of the cincinnati enquirer closed in january 1997 seven months prior to argyle ii s merger with the broadcasting unit of the hearst corporation to form what then became hearst argyle television which hearst now wholly owns under the name hearst television . wgrz dropped the tv suffix in 2009 . around the first week of october 2012 gannett entered a dispute against dish network regarding compensation fees and dish s autohop commercial skip feature on its hopper digital video recorders . gannett ordered that dish discontinue autohop on the account that it is affecting advertising revenues for wgrz . gannett threatened to pull all of its stations such as wgrz should the skirmish continue beyond october 7 and dish and gannett fail to reach an agreement . 10 11 the two parties eventually reached an agreement after extending the deadline for a few hours . 12 on june 29 2015 the gannett company split in two with one side specializing in print media and the other side specializing in broadcast and digital media . wgrz was retained by the latter company named tegna . 13 programming edit sports extra a weekly sports show hosted by adam benigni former buffalo sabres & new jersey devils hockey player andrew peters former buffalo bills & chicago bears football player ruben brown and heather prusak . additional contributors periodically appear depending on the sports topic being covered . sports talk sunday a weekly sports show . formerly known as the bucky & sully show it features the buffalo news sports columnists bucky gleason and jerry sullivan . the program had previously aired on the buffalo news s web site prior to 2013 and on wbbz tv from 2013 to 2015 . 2 your home a housing show about renovation of homes throughout western new york formerly known as diy western new york tee 2 green a golfing program hosted by kevin sylvester . wny living a weekly saturday morning lifestyle show hosted by wkse 98.5 fm radio host janet snyder