 | |
| |
|---|---|
| City | Buffalo, New York |
| Channels | |
| Branding | Fox 29 |
| Programming | |
| Affiliations | |
| Ownership | |
| Owner |
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| WNYO-TV | |
| History | |
First air date | December 21, 1970 (54 years ago) (1970-12-21) |
Former channel numbers |
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| |
Call sign meaning | Ultravision |
| Technical information[2] | |
Licensing authority | FCC |
| Facility ID | 415 |
| ERP | 1,000kW |
| HAAT | 329 m (1,079 ft) |
| Transmitter coordinates | 43°1′32.2″N78°55′42.1″W / 43.025611°N 78.928361°W /43.025611; -78.928361 |
| Links | |
Public license information | |
| Website | wutv29 |
WUTV (channel 29) is atelevision station inBuffalo, New York, United States, affiliated with theFox network. It is owned bySinclair Broadcast Group alongsideMyNetworkTV affiliateWNYO-TV (channel 49). The two stations share studios on Hertel Avenue near Military Road in Buffalo; WUTV's transmitter is located on Whitehaven Road (nearI-190) inGrand Island, New York, behind its former main studio building.
Since February 2008, WUTV serves as the Fox network feed received in theCayman Islands. It joined thePrimetime 24 lineup in 2009, serving most of the Caribbean islands.[3] The station is also broadcast in parts of Canada, in particular throughout the adjacentGolden Horseshoe region ofOntario, including theGreater Toronto Area.
WUTV signed on the air on December 21, 1970, as a general entertainmentindependent station, and its original studios were located at the transmitter site inGrand Island, New York. The station was owned by Ultravision Broadcasting Company, from which the "UTV" in the WUTV callsign originates. Ultravision was owned by Stan Jasinski, who had first applied for the station's license in 1963 and also owned Buffalo's WMMJ (1300 AM) at the time; shortly thereafter, Jasinski spun off WMMJ tocountry musicianRamblin' Lou Schriver, who turned it into present-dayWXRL. The WUTVcall sign was originally to be used for a station onVHF channel 3 inIndianapolis, Indiana, under the ownership of department storeWilliam H. Block Co., which never went on the air; the call sign was later issued to another station inYoungstown, Ohio, with aconstruction permit on channel 21 that also never launched, withNBC affiliateWFMJ-TV purchasing that permit and moving fromchannel 73 to the channel 21 allocation that the Youngstown WUTV permit was originally intended to broadcast on.
WUTV was the only independent station in Buffalo for many years; its schedule includedcartoons (such asAstro Boy andYogi Bear),sitcoms (such asThe Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet,The Patty Duke Show, andThe Munsters), andsci-fi shows (such asLost in Space,Ultraman,The Invaders andVoyage to the Bottom of the Sea), along with classicmovies anddrama series. It was the first commercially successful UHF station inWestern New York; previous efforts on the UHF dial, includingWBES-TV (channel 59),WBUF-TV (channel 17), andWNYP-TV (channel 26) all had failed within a few years of their debuts. Ultravision Broadcasting sold the station to Whitehaven Entertainment Corporation in 1977. The station was acquired byCitadel Communications, aBronxville-based company not related to the larger radio station ownerCitadel Broadcasting, in 1984.
On October 9, 1986, WUTV became one of the original charter affiliates of the newly launched Fox network. At the time, Fox only aired late-night programming five days a week, so WUTV was still essentially programmed as an independent station. However, by 1989, WUTV was one of several Fox affiliates nationwide that were disappointed with the network's weak prime time programming offerings, particularly on Saturday nights, which were bogging down WUTV's otherwise successful lineup. Fox then signed an agreement with WNYB-TV (channel 49, now WNYO-TV) to become its new Buffalo affiliate, and WUTV reverted to being an independent station full-time, effective September 1, 1989.[4]
Ahead of the disaffiliation from Fox,Act III Broadcasting (a company controlled byNorman Lear) offered to buy WUTV, and Citadel accepted.[5] This proceeded by a duopoly waiver fromWUHF in Rochester, citing cross-ownership, which was normally not allowed by the FCC, and regularly did not allow a waiver in the process, until 2000 (Act III did apply for a waiver for the station).[6] The sale was finalized in June 1990, and Lear moved WNYB-TV's stronger programming to WUTV, in turn bringing the Fox affiliation back to the station. TheBuffalo Sabres, who held a minority stake in the new WUTV, which was then sold WNYB-TV to Tri-State Christian Television (Act III was known for such acquisition practices).[7]
On January 16, 1995, WUTV became a secondary affiliate of the upstartUnited Paramount Network (the UPN affiliation subsequently moved to WNGS (channel 67, nowWBBZ-TV) in April 1998, with WONS (channel 21,WVTT-CD)simulcasting WNGS the following year, and then toWNLO (channel 23) in 2003). Later that year, ABRY Partners purchased WUTV and the rest of the Act III Broadcasting stations; the group was then renamed Sullivan Broadcasting.[8]Sinclair Broadcast Group acquired WUTV as part of its purchase of Sullivan in 1998;[9] Sinclair then bought WNYO-TV in 2001, creating a duopoly with WUTV.
Since the1994 NFL season, WUTV has airedBuffalo Bills games via theNFL on Fox; they are given at least two games a season to air, usually when the team plays host to anNFC team atHighmark Stadium; although the station has seen more games aired since2014 when the NFL instituted cross-flex rules, meaning that games can be arbitrarily moved to the station fromWIVB, which airs most of the team's games.[10]
After Sinclair came to aretransmission consent agreement in February 2007 nationally withTime Warner Cable, WUTV and WNYO-TV'shigh definition feeds began to be carried locally by the provider. WUTV's HD feed was not available on the region's other cable provider,Atlantic Broadband, until 2012. The Time Warner Cable agreement was to expire at the end of 2010, and the two companies were late in reaching an agreement. In the event Sinclair had pulled WUTV from TWC, a separate agreement allows Fox programming to be piped in from out of market (likely involvingNexstar Media Group, whose stations have been used as out-of-marketsuperstations in the past to temporarily replace in-market network affiliates displaced due to carriage disputes). This made WUTV particularly vulnerable to a prolonged blackout. It does not produce any local content, serving mostly as a "pass-through" for automated programming. Much of its syndicated programming could be seen on other cable channels (such asTBS,WGN andTVGN), and much of its daytime programming consisted ofinfomercials. The dispute was resolved without a blackout.On May 15, 2012, Sinclair Broadcast Group and Fox agreed to a five-year extension to the network's affiliation agreement with Sinclair's 19 Fox stations, including WUTV, allowing them to continue carrying the network's programming until 2017.[11]Grit was added to a subchannel in October–November 2014.[12]
The second subchannel was affiliated withThe Country Network until early 2017 when it was announced to be switching over toTBD.[13] On June 1, 2017, both digital subchannels were replaced, 29.2 with the previously announced TBD and 29.3 withCharge!.[14]
Until 2013, WUTV did not air news programming, making Buffalo the largest television market in the United States whose Fox affiliate did not offer any newscasts at all (Sinclair is believed to have paid a large fee to Fox to avoid the network's mandate that its affiliates carry local news). The station long opted to air syndicated programming instead of carrying news programming, as it is within range of the Toronto market and features advertising targeted atSouthern Ontario viewers, along with the large number of stations within the Buffalo market and those receivable in the market fromHamilton and Toronto that already produce local newscasts.
This lack of local news programming ended on April 8, 2013, as the 10 p.m. newscast produced byNBC affiliateWGRZ channel 2 moved from WNYO-TV to WUTV. Along with the move, it was expanded to seven nights per-week, and the station also announced plans to air an encore of the final hour of WGRZ's morning show on a one-hour delay. These moves were part of an effort to better compete against theWIVB-produced newscasts in the same timeslots on CW affiliateWNLO—both of which have been historically more successful even though WGRZ has surpassed WIVB in most of its main newscasts.[15] Under the terms of the agreement to carry WGRZ's newscasts on WUTV, Sinclair had no editorial control over the newscasts.[16] In addition to carrying WGRZ's newscasts,WHAM-TV meteorologists provideFox 29 Weather Updates between programs.
In March 2021, WUTV established a studio to produce content for Sinclair's national news programming, such asThe National Desk. The station does not produce long-form news programming from this studio and continued to carry the WGRZ-produced program in the meantime.[17]
On July 1, 2021, WUTV introduced a new in-house newscast; it used resources from other Sinclair-owned stations in the state of New York, with its anchors based out ofWSTM-TV inSyracuse and its weather and sports segments produced from WHAM-TV inRochester.[18] The program failed to make much of a ratings impression; in the November 2022 sweeps period, the WIVB–WNLO newscast attracted four times as many viewers. As a result, Sinclair discontinued it effective January 27, 2023, with Sinclair's national news service,The National Desk, airing in its stead. Four people lost their jobs: a news director, two reporters, and a photographer.[19]
The station's signal ismultiplexed:
| Channel | Res. | Aspect | Short name | Programming |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 29.1 | 720p | 16:9 | WUTVFOX | Fox |
| 29.2 | 480i | 4:3 | ROAR | Roar |
| 29.3 | Charge! | Charge! | ||
| 49.1 | 720p | 16:9 | WNYO-MY | MyNetworkTV (WNYO-TV) |
WUTV discontinued regular programming on its analog signal, overUHF channel 29, at 11:59 p.m. on February 17, 2009, the original target date on which full-power television stations in the United States were totransition from analog to digital broadcasts under federal mandate (which was later moved to June 12); this made WUTV the first television station in Buffalo to switch to digital.[20] The station's digital signal remained on its pre-transition UHF channel 14,[21] usingvirtual channel 29.[1]
As part of theSAFER Act,[22] WUTV kept its analog signal on the air until March 3, 2009, to inform viewers of thedigital television transition through a loop ofpublic service announcements from theNational Association of Broadcasters. WUTV, along withPBS member stationWNED-TV (channel 17) were the only Buffalo television stations that did not terminate their analog signals on the new June 12 date.
Up until 2003,Rogers Cable carried WUTV inOttawa andLondon, Ontario; that year, Rogers replaced WUTV with Detroitowned-and-operated stationWJBK as the Fox station available in these markets. The reason for the switch in Ottawa was twofold. The main reason was thatMCI, the company which microwaved U.S. network television signals to Ottawa from Rochester, had decided to discontinue this service (until 2003, theABC, NBC, andCBS stations available in Ottawa had originated from Rochester). Secondly, Rogers chose Detroit as the new source for U.S. television network signals because Canadian broadcasters were concerned about the increased Canadian advertising revenues that Buffalo stations would attract, were they to receive an expanded viewing audience across Ontario. Since Detroit (which like Buffalo, is located adjacent to aCanadian media market) is a much larger market than either Buffalo or Rochester, advertising prices would be much higher and it would therefore not be economical for Canadian businesses to purchase advertising time on such stations.
Although WUTV was the Fox affiliate available in Ottawa, Rogers decided to switch to WJBK in order to ensure uniformity in the source cities for all U.S. network television signals. Rogers switched to WJBK in the London market because the signal for the CBS affiliate available in London,WSEE-TV (out ofErie, Pennsylvania) was of lower quality than that of Detroit's CBS station,WWJ-TV. Hence, Rogers' London system switched from WSEE-TV to WWJ-TV and, as in Ottawa, decided to switch its Fox affiliate from WUTV to WJBK for source city uniformity for the U.S. network signals.[23] Rogers continues to carry WUTV in both standard and high definition for customers in the Golden Horseshoe, includingToronto.
Cogeco Cable carries WUTV in standard definition for its customers in theGolden Horseshoe, but carries WJBK in high definition. For many years, WUTV was carried on cable inQuebec as far east asGaspe, and was once carried on cable inMontreal andMontérégie until 1997, whenVidéotron replaced WUTV withWFFF-TV inBurlington, Vermont (the Fox station that signed on the air at the time). Originally, its sister station in Rochester,WUHF, was carried on cable in the Western Montreal suburbs during 1995. Those stations were the first Fox stations to be carried on cable in Montreal. It also returned temporarily when WFFF-TV was off the air for a brief time in the mid-2000s. WUTV was also carried via microwave on cable systems in Central New York, including the towns of Sullivan and Chittenango in the mid 1970s.
Because of its Canadian coverage, the station plays the respective American and Canadiannational anthems "The Star-Spangled Banner" and "O Canada" and a display of both countries'nationalflags during itssign-off for maintenance on early Monday mornings between 3 and 5 a.m.
Broadcast television stations by affiliation in the state ofNew York | ||
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Includes stations in out-of-state TV markets, but reaching a portion of New York | ||
| ABC | ||
| CBS | ||
| Fox | ||
| NBC | ||
| The CW | ||
| Ion Television | ||
| Independent | ||
| PBS | ||
| Religious | ||
| Spanish | ||
| Other | ||
| ATSC 3.0 | ||
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Broadcast television stations by affiliation in the Commonwealth ofPennsylvania | ||
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Includes stations in out-of-state TV markets, but reaching a portion of Pennsylvania | ||
| ABC | ||
| CBS | ||
| Fox | ||
| NBC | ||
| The CW | ||
| Ion Television | ||
| Independent | ||
| PBS | ||
| Religious | ||
| Spanish | ||
| Other | ||
| ATSC 3.0 | ||
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** Owned by third parties and operated by Sinclair through various operating agreements. *** Owned by Sinclair and operated byMarquee Broadcasting. JV Joint venture. | ||||||||||||||||||
