verification . please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources . unsourced material may be challenged and removed . november 2012 learn how and when to remove this template message wned tv buffalo new york toronto ontario united states canada branding wned channels digital 43 uhf virtual 17 psip subchannels 17.1 pbs 17.2 create affiliations pbs 1970 present owner western new york public broadcasting association first air date august 17 1953 ; 63 years ago 1953 08 17 call letters meaning western new york educational television sister station s wbfo wned fm former callsigns wbuf tv 1953 1959 former channel number s analog 17 uhf 1953 2009 former affiliations primary nbc 1955 1958 silent 1958 1959 net 1959 1970 secondary cbs 1953 1954 abc 1953 1955 dumont 1953 1955 transmitter power 156 kw height 328 m facility id 71928 transmitter coordinates 43 1 48 n 78 55 15 w 43.03000 n 78.92083 w 43.03000 ; 78.92083 website www.wned.org wned tv channel 17 is a pbs member television station located in buffalo new york united states . the station is owned by the western new york public broadcasting association . wned tv s studios are located in horizons plaza on 140 lower terrace in downtown buffalo and its transmitter is located in grand island new york . in addition to buffalo wned tv also has a substantial viewership in southern ontario canada including toronto . many cable and satellite providers in southern ontario include wned tv as the pbs station and more than half of its financial support comes from canada . contents 1 history 1.1 as wbuf tv 1.2 as wned tv 2 translator network 3 viewership in southern ontario 4 digital television 4.1 digital channels 4.2 analog to digital conversion 5 see also 6 references 7 external links history edit as wbuf tv edit channel 17 first went on the air on august 17 1953 as wbuf tv operating as a commercial station the second in buffalo after then nbc affiliated wben tv channel 4 . at first wbuf tv was locally owned and carried programs from cbs abc and dumont . wgr tv channel 2 now wgrz later signed on in august 1954 and became the market s nbc affiliate with wben tv joining cbs . this left wbuf tv with abc and the failing dumont network . unable to compete with two strong vhf stations the original owners of channel 17 took their station dark in february 1955 . only one month later in march nbc announced that it would purchase channel 17 partly as an experiment to see if a uhf station could compete with vhf stations given sufficient signal strength marketing promotion and investments in both programming and technical facilities . the network also hoped to expand its presence in major markets beyond the five stations where the federal communications commission fcc allowed any network or group owner to operate full power vhf outlets a limit nbc had reached by 1949 . a revision of the fcc s ownership policy in 1954 created openings for additional ownership of two uhf outlets . nbc expanded wbuf s transmitter power considerably to improve its signal strength and range and built a new studio and transmitter complex on buffalo s north side to provide service capabilities to match market leading wben tv and fast rising wgr tv which took the abc affiliation when nbc moved its programming to channel 17 . however despite a large investment wbuf never made much headway against wben tv and wgr tv . part of the problem was that television manufacturers were not required to include built in uhf tuning capability . viewers needed a converter to watch wbuf and even with one the picture quality was often inferior to the vhf competition without an outdoor antenna . in fact viewers in the eastern portion of the buffalo metropolitan area often opted to watch nbc on wroc tv in rochester which then operated with full power on channel 5 . broadcaster dave roberts then still known as dave thomas worked at wbuf from 1956 to 1958 . the final blow came in late 1956 when the fcc ended an almost decade long competitive process and issued a construction permit for buffalo s only remaining vhf allocation channel 7 . the winner was churchill broadcasting owner of wkbw radio for the station which was to become wkbw tv . realizing that it could not hope to compete against three vhf stations nbc signed off wbuf on september 30 1958 two months to the day before wkbw tv signed on and returned its affiliation to wgr tv . more or less by default abc signed with the new channel 7 . after wbuf was shut down nbc returned the channel 17 license to the fcc . the wbuf studio building was acquired by wben which moved its radio and television stations there and from which wivb tv the successor to wben tv still operates . as wned tv edit the western new york public broadcasting association a nonprofit educational group was granted a new construction permit and channel 17 returned to the air on march 30 1959 as wned tv the first noncommercial educational station in new york state . nbc donated equipment to the new station . although the channel 17 license still had a commercial classification wned tv operated as an educational station . its first general manager was leslie c. martin jr. who held the position from 1959 to 1966 . in 1975 the western new york public broadcasting association bought two commercial radio stations webr am and wrez fm . the am station had been founded in 1924 while the fm station was founded as webr fm in 1960 becoming wbce in the early 1970s before becoming wrez . the fm station was renamed wned fm in 1977 when it adopted a classical music format . in 1977 webr became the nation s first public all news radio station and was the top rated public radio station in the country by 1978 . in 1993 it was renamed wned am after cutbacks in government funding forced it to dramatically cut its local programming in favour of network and syndicated content . the am station was sold off to a religious broadcaster in 2012 when the western new york public broadcasting association bought buffalo s other full npr member wbfo and moved most of wned radio s programming there . on may 23 1987 wned tv signed on a sister station wneq tv on uhf channel 23 . however both struggled financially . it soon became apparent that buffalo was not big enough to support two public television stations . as a result the western new york public broadcasting association put wneq tv up for sale ; it then announced the sale of wneq tv to lin broadcasting owner of wivb tv in late 1999 . until this time wned tv had maintained the old commercial license it had inherited from wbuf tv while wneq tv had operated on a traditional non commercial license . lin needed wned tv s commercial license in order to make its acquisition viable . at one point it seemed likely that lin would actually purchase channel 17 from the western new york public broadcasting association . this would have resulted in the wned tv intellectual unit moving to channel 23 which would have made wneq tv the area s primary pbs station while channel 17 would have become a commercial station . however the long history of channel 17 as a pbs member station made this an undesirable option for the public broadcaster due to concerns that having wneq tv become the market s sole pbs outlet would cause viewer confusion and potentially reduce the amount of donations that the station would receive . as well wned tv was carried on the basic cable tier of cable systems in the golden horseshoe and particularly toronto a major source of donations during the channel s fundraising drives while wneq tv had been repeatedly denied permission by the canadian radio television and telecommunications commission to be carried on basic cable in toronto meaning the public broadcaster risked losing access to a major source of its revenue if it abandoned channel 17 . the fcc was persuaded to allow channel 17 and channel 23 to swap licenses allowing wneq tv to be sold to lin . after 42 years of being a commercial licensee operating as a non commercial broadcaster wned tv received an educational license in 2000 . wneq tv was sold to lin in early 2001 ; that station is now wnlo and operates as the market s cw affiliate . through the use of a digital subchannel wned tv began providing thinkbright as a second programming service in the late 2000s covering most of new york state with 12 hours a day of regional educational and cultural programming . it was available on all new york pbs member stations except long island new york city . thinkbright later became thinkbright and well and was discontinued in 2011 to merge with world . over time wned tv has become a leading pbs member station . it produced several original programs that have been carried throughout the pbs network and its member stations such as the mark russell comedy specials and reading rainbow produced in association with the great plains network until early 2006 . starting in may 2006 co production of reading rainbow continued with educate inc. of baltimore maryland after the university of nebraska regents the owners of gpn and net sold its long time production interest to wned tv . 1 translator network edit wned tv was simulcast on many translators covering the southern tier of western new york for several decades . because of inadequate signal coverage to rural schools in the valley areas of mountainous southwestern new york state wned tv once had a massive network of translator licenses in some cases even extra legal . the transmitters and towers belonged to the chautauqua board of cooperative educational services the experimental appalachian television project and cattaraugus area television system cats group and were scattered across numerous small towns in chautauqua cattaraugus and allegany counties . the network predates the fcc s discontinuation of channels 70 to 83 since some of the cattaraugus county licenses were in that range . in addition the cats system originated some of its own local programming such as live high school football games this was possible mainly because one of the licenses w26aa was also a former commercial independent station that of former ctv affiliate wnyp whose license was still active ; eventually that station was spun off to a religious broadcaster and became wnyb . the remaining stations in chautauqua and allegany counties were expunged from the fcc records and presumably shut down in 2012 leaving the translator network without any remaining transmitters . viewership in southern ontario edit for the better part of the last four decades wned tv has relied heavily on viewership in toronto and southern ontario for viewership and financial support ; since at least 1999 it has identified as serving buffalo toronto on air . toronto is the center of a market with over seven million people seven times the population of wned tv s american coverage area . wned tv has long operated a sales office in toronto and more than half of its members are in canada . indeed wned tv opted against moving its intellectual unit to channel 23 due to concerns that it would lose most of its canadian viewership on cable . not only does wned tv take its large canadian audience into account in its programming but more than half of its financial support comes in canadian dollars . digital television edit digital channels edit channel video aspect psip short name programming 1 17.1 1080i 16 9 wned hd main wned tv programming