| WNYO-TV | |
|---|---|
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| Buffalo, New York | |
| Branding | My TV Buffalo |
| Channel | Digital: 49 (UHF) |
| Subchannels | 49.1 MyNetworkTV HD 49.2 MyNetworkTV SD |
| Owner | Sinclair Broadcast Group (New York Television, Inc.) |
| First air date | September 1987 |
| Callsign meaning | Western New York / Ontario |
| Sister station(s) | WUTV |
| Former callsigns | WNYB-TV (1987-1996) |
| Former channels | Analog: 49 (UHF, 1987-2009) Digital: 34 (UHF, 2004-2009 |
| Former affiliations | Fox (1987-1990) TBN / TCT (1990-1996) The WB (1996-2006) |
| Effective power | 198 kW |
| Height | 376 m |
| Facility ID | 67784 |
| Antenna coordinates | 42°46′53.6″N 78°27′25.9″W / 42.781556°N 78.457194°W |
| Website | mytvbuffalo.com |
WNYO-TV is the MyNetworkTV-affiliated television station for Buffalo, New York. It broadcasts a high definition digital signal on UHF channel 49 from a transmitter at Ironwood Golf Course in Cowlesville along the Wyoming and Erie County line. Owned by the Sinclair Broadcast Group, the station is sister to Fox affiliate WUTV and the two share studios on Hertel Avenue in the northwest section of Buffalo near the border with Kenmore. Syndicated programming on WNYO includes: Family Guy, The Simpsons, Law & Order: Criminal Intent, and According to Jim.
It is widely available on cable in Ontario, Canada distributed in Kingston, Brockville, Cornwall, and Ottawa via a fiber optic line. WNYO is also the MyNetworkTV affiliate on digital cable systems in Canadian markets that utilize Buffalo stations such as Toronto. However neither WNYO nor any other MyNetworkTV affiliate is available on cable in portions of Cattaraugus County, New York where Atlantic Broadband is the cable provider. This is likely due to financial demands as must carry would normally apply in that area. In situations such as this, Atlantic usually picks up the station out of Erie, Pennsylvania but that area has no MyNetworkTV affiliate.
History
WNYO was founded by the Knox-Swados group, original owners of the Buffalo Sabres NHL franchise, who had intended it to serve as an outlet (owned by Aud Television, LLC) to telecast their hockey games to the Buffalo and Rochester markets as well as the Niagara Peninsula region of Southern Ontario. Financing of the transmitter was facilitated by the prospect of potentially using the five million watt signal for late-night encrypted adult content subscription service which was available in many northeastern television markets in the 1980s. However, the station never pursued this option due to the rapid growth of cable.
After tower construction and signal testing regular broadcasting of this station started in September 1987 as a Fox affiliate. They were known on-air as "Fox 49" and had the call sign WNYB-TV. It operated under a corporate deal from its new owner the TVX Broadcast Group. In 1988, the station was sold to Act III Broadcasting which almost immediately turned around and offered to buy WUTV from Citadel Broadcasting. Citadel accepted the offer in 1989 and the sale was finalized in June 1990. Act III moved WNYB's stronger programming, including its Fox affiliation, to WUTV. WNYB was then sold to Tri-State Christian Television and began to carry religious programming full-time including programming from the Trinity Broadcasting Network.
Grant Broadcasting acquired channel 26 in Jamestown in 1995 and negotiated with Tri-State Christian Television for WNYB in exchange for channel 26 and cash as well as a new broadcasting facility. The station changed hands in Spring 1996 and became a WB affiliate at night with Kids WB programming airing late in the afternoons. TBN and other Christian programming continued to air for the rest of the day until September 1996. At that point, Trinity Broadcasting continued to air from 9 in the morning until Noon, from Midnight to 7 A.M. on weekdays, and until 3 P.M. on Sundays. They also adopted the current call sign WNYO-TV. Because channel 26 was still not operable, the Christian WNYB intellectual unit was unable to move there in 1996. Finally in January 1997, the Christian programming moved to channel 26 along with the WNYB call letters. The Sinclair Broadcast Group purchased WUTV in 1997 and WNYO in 2001 making the two sisters.
On January 24, 2006, The WB and UPN announced that they would end broadcasting and merge. The new combined network would be called The CW. The letters would represent the first initial of its corporate parents, CBS (the parent company of UPN) and the Warner Bros. unit of Time Warner. On February 22, News Corporation announced that they would start up another new network called MyNetworkTV. This new service, which would be sister 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, not mentioned as becoming CW affiliates, another option besides becoming independent. It was also created to compete against The CW.
MyNetworkTV launched on September 5 and WNYO became an affiliate of the network. Former UPN affiliate WNLO, that is owned by the LIN TV Corporation, became an affiliate of The CW when that network officially launched on September 18. WNYO turned-off their analog signal on June 12, 2009 as part of the DTV transition in the United States. On the same day, the station moved its digital operations from channel 34 to their previous analog position on channel 49. Its pre-transition digital transmitter was located on the northeastern side of Grand Island and aired on UHF channel 34.
Newscasts
From August 16, 2004 until March 2006, WNYO produced a nightly prime time newscast called WB 49 News at 10 as part of Sinclair's News Central operation. Local news originated from this station while national news, weather, and sports aired from the News Central headquarters in Hunt Valley, Maryland. Despite record growth in ratings by WNYO's broadcast and a five year verbal commitment to its staff from Sinclair, the station's newscast was eventually shutdown. That was due to poor financial planning by Sinclair. It occurred as part of the systematic shutdown of the company's news operations around the country that actually began roughly twelve months after the inaugural newscast on WNYO. News Central folded at the end of March 2006.
On April 13, Sinclair announced that NBC affiliate WGRZ-TV would begin producing a new weeknight 10 o'clock newscast for WNYO using WGRZ's current news staff. Originally to be called 2 On NYO 10 at 10, the show began broadcasting on April 20 known as 2 News on 49, 10 at 10. The production is now known as 2 on Your Side at 10 and originates from WGRZ's studios on Delaware Avenue (a.k.a. NY 384) in downtown Buffalo. The broadcast originally aired ten minutes of news and weather with a sports show, called The Sports Zone, completing the half hour. However due to low ratings, The Sports Zone was cut to only 6–8 minutes of sports news. Unlike the other 10 P.M. news that airs on WNLO, WNYO's news only airs on weeknights. It has consistently lagged behind the WIVB-produced show on WNLO in the ratings because it is not a seven day operation. Sister station WUTV airs no local newscasts despite its Fox affiliation.
2 On Your Side at 10
(Weeknights 10 to 10:30)
- Anchor:
- Maryalice Demler
- Weather:
- Sports:
- Ed Kilgore
WNYO features additional news personnel from WGRZ. See that article for a complete listing.
External links
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