WNYB is a television station in the Buffalo, New York (licensed to Jamestown, New York) market that runs Christian-oriented religious programming. Owned by Tri-State Christian Television, WNYB broadcasts on digital channel 26 from a main transmitter at 9030 Center Road in Arkwright and studios at 5775 Big Tree Road in Orchard Park. WNYB's signal is rebroadcast on signals in Buffalo (WBNF-CD, channel 15) and Rochester (W42CO-D).

History [link]

The Channel 26 license has been in existence since the 1960s, when it was utilized by an independent station called WNYP-TV c. 1966-1969. The station's majority shareholder was Lowell W. "Bud" Paxson, who later co-founded the Home Shopping Network.^[1] Shortly after becoming the first American station to ever affiliate with a Canadian TV network (CTV, via relay of the CFTO-TV Toronto off-air signal), affiliates of the "Big 3" U.S. networks threatened legal action, and the station went dark, a week after curtailing local news broadcasts and abruptly laying off staff.

The station had become notorious and almost legendary among Western New York's broadcast community of the day, for gaffes and programming mishaps. Strange things took place that some at the time thought was due to incompetence, or even employee sabotage. For instance, the station showed the same episode of The Aquanauts several times, every day at the same time, over a two week period. Also, the equipment used to pick up the CFTO off-air signal for the CTV network feed on occasion would relay the video from distant TV stations in Cadillac, Michigan and Syracuse, New York, instead of Toronto. Often, when CFTO video actually was being rebroadcast, the station switcher failed to drop the CFTO identification to display the WNYP call letters, which was considered a Federal Communications Commission (FCC) violation. Inexplicably, the audio line from a Jamestown radio station could sometimes be heard in the background of the CTV programming.

Shortly before it went dark the station started to identify as "WJTV", when it quickly had to revert back to "WNYP" because the FCC denied permission for them to use those call letters. (Paxson later started the PAX TV network, now known as Ion Television, and owns WPXJ-TV in the market.)

After going dark, the channel was used for much if the 1970s and 1980s by a low power experimental Appalachian Television Service "translator" relay station (W26AA) of WNED-TV from Buffalo, operated by the regional Board of Cooperative Educational Services, which was able to originate local programming from studios in Fredonia.

The license was re-issued to a new group years later, and Channel 26 signed on again on September 24, 1988 under the new calls WTJA. Part of the station's programming lineup duplicated those on the Buffalo stations. Much of the programming consisted of public domain material, and the station was virtually ignored by local advertisers. Buffalo area cable systems were unable to receive an adequate signal from the transmitter, and declined carriage on that basis. The "Grade B" signal coverage barely reached the southern Buffalo suburbs, and the station once again went dark in 1991, due to financial problems.

Grant Broadcasting purchased the license in 1995. Rather than immediately putting the station back on the air, Grant negotiated with Tri-State Christian Television, owner of WNYB Channel 49 (now WNYO), for the Channel 49 position, in exchange for the Channel 26 position, cash and a new broadcasting facility. With a new 5 MegaWatt transmitter and tall tower in one of the highest hills of western New York State, channel 26 would change from having a very poor signal to one of the largest coverage areas in the U.S. Northeast, viewable from Erie, Pennsylvania to the southwest suburbs of Toronto, Ontario.

Tri-State accepted, and on January 10, 1997, it took over the Channel 26 position, moving its religious programming and the WNYB call letters to the new channel. (Grant in turn took over Channel 49, which became WB and now myNetworkTV affiliate WNYO-TV).

WNYB completed its transition to full-time digital broadcasting in early May 2009. Its digital signal, which had been seen on channel 27, was moved back to channel 26 when the analog signal was turned off. As such, the station does not use a virtual channel.

The station is especially seen on Time Warner Cable channel 23 (not to be confused with WNLO-TV, which is a CW affiliate seen on cable channel 11).

WNYB is the least watched full-power station in the Buffalo market, behind the second-lowest, WBBZ-TV.^[2]

Digital television [link]

References [link]

1. ^ "1968 Broadcasting Yearbook". Broadcasting Publications, accessed via davidgleason.com/americanradiohistory.com: p. A-38. 1968. https://www.davidgleason.com/Archive%20BC-YB/1968/Section%20A%20TV%20Broadcasting%20Yearbook%201968-9.pdf. Retrieved 2009-09-24. 
2. ^ Pergament, Alan (August 4, 2011). WNYB Looking to Serve Spanish Audience. Still Talkin' TV. Retrieved August 5, 2011.

External links [link]

• TCT
• Query the FCC's TV station database for WNYB
• Query the FCC's TV station database for WBNF-CD
• Query the FCC's TV station database for W42CO-D
• BIAfn's Media Web Database -- Information on WNYB-TV

References [link]