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| Channels for WWHC-LD | |
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WVTT-CD (channel 34) andWWHC-LD (channel 20) arelow-power television stations licensed toOlean, New York, United States, serving theBuffalo area. Owned byInnovate Corp., the stations share transmitter facilities on Warner Hill Road inSouth Wales, New York.
WVTT-CD first signed on March 7, 1986, as W20AB on channel 20 by Choice Olean Television, Inc. and was affiliated with theAmerican Christian Television System (ACTS) andTempo Television. The station was the first station to broadcast from the city, and the first television station in the Southern Tier of Western New York to prove to be commercially viable;WNYP-TV (channel 26), an earlier effort based inJamestown, failed after only three years in the late 1960s and was passed on to a religious broadcaster.
Channel 20 was broadcast from the roof of the Palace Theater building in downtown Olean, but its signal was not well received outside of the city proper. The station acquired channel 25 (known then as W25AK) on August 24, 1987, as a repeater of the channel 20 signal, and signed on the air on April 12, 1989. The Palace Theater building was demolished in 1998 causing the channel 20 signal to go dark; its license, however, remains active as of 2013[update]. Channel 25 became the primary channel for the station and changed its call sign to WONS-LP ("Olean's News Source") on March 8, 1999, gaining the sharedUPN affiliation withBuffalo stationWNGS (channel 67). The new UPN 25 held on to its affiliation until WNGS was added to the Olean-area cable line-up. WONS-LP later began to carry programming from theUrban America Television Network andShop at Home Network, as well as a small share of local content. WONS-LP has also had past affiliations withFamilyNet,America One Network (A1), theAmerican Independent Network (AIN), andNetwork One. The station was also among the initial affiliates of Main Street TV, the forerunner of America One. In 2006, Urban America and Shop at Home both ceased operations. The channel was then affiliated withThe Sportsman Channel until that network moved exclusively to cable in 2009. America One once again listed the station as one of their affiliates as of 2011.[3] That network merged withYoutoo TV in 2015.
WONS-LP's operations were taken over byColonial Radio Group, owners ofWBYB,WXMT andWVTT, in October 2011.[4] The call sign was changed to WVTT-CA (matching Colonial'stalk radio station) in February 2012. On April 29, 2013, Colonial ended its involvement with the station, but the two stations would share control of the WVTT calls until Colonial relinquished them in 2018.[5] In June 2013, Choice Tower Rentals announced the sale of WVTT-CA, as well as the still-active W20AB license, to Milachi Media (an alias for William and Paige Christian, who also own stakes in Waypoint Media; the deal will put the station under common ownership withWYDC (channel 48) andWJKP-LD (channel 39) inCorning,WBGT-CD (channel 46) inRochester, and severalElmira/Corning radio stations.[6] (Waypoint later transferred the license to another shell company, "Novia Communications", then to "Woodland Communications", both of which have the same principal owners.) In 2014, the company acquired radio stationsWMXO,WOEN,WGGO andWQRS in Cattaraugus County, making the four stations sister stations to WVTT-CA.[7]
On December 17, 2014, the station was licensed for digital operation, changing its call sign to WVTT-CD. Its channel 34 was previously used byWNYO-TV prior to the full-power analog shutdown in 2009; as part of the change, WVTT's broadcast transmitter was relocated from Olean to its current location on the Machias–Yorkshire town line, a considerable distance from Olean with a much broader signal capable of covering most ofWestern New York; it remains licensed to Olean. To accommodate the move, WVTT'svirtual channel changed from 25 to 34, as the move brought the signal within range ofCBLFT, also on channel 25 out ofToronto. W20AB's license was given the call sign WWHC-LP, with the signal now operating using WVTT's former broadcast area mostly confined to the city of Olean. As of 2020, both WVTT and WWHC are off the air;construction permit applications were filed to move WWHC to WVTT's current location and move WVTT to the currentWGRZ tower inSouth Wales, New York, with intent to return both stations to air in August.
In 2017, WVTT accepted an offer of over $9,000,000 to move to the high-VHF spectrum, down from its UHF position, in the FCC's spectrum incentive auction.[8] When the station moved on March 13, 2020,[9] it occupied channel 11 (Channel 34 was taken over byABC affiliateWKBW-TV (channel 7), which moved down the dial from 38). The station also changed affiliations toThis TV, some time after March 2017 (after WBBZ-DT2 had dropped the affiliation); This TV affiliated withWBXZ-LP (channel 56) on its twelfthdigital subchannel in August 2019.Decades andMovies!, twoWeigel Broadcasting subchannels, were added on June 1, 2018.[10][11] Both moved to WBBZ (which carries Weigel's main networkMeTV) on July 1, 2020.[12]
In 2018, the WWHC license was traded toDTV America Corporation in exchange for ABC affiliateWPBY-LD (channel 35) inLafayette, Indiana.[13] On August 6, DTV America's parent companyHC2 Holdings purchased the WVTT-CD license.[14]
As of 2025,construction permits have been granted to both stations to move to adjacent channel 17 and 18 allocations operating from theWUTV transmitter onGrand Island and change the city of license to Buffalo, formally eliminating over-the-air television service in Olean.
Despite existing in one of the smallest markets in the United States (Nielsen does not even recognize it as a separatedesignated market area, instead listing it as a subset of the Buffalo market) and the lack of a major network affiliation, channels 20 and 25 had a long history of local programming. The station, at various times in its history, carried alocal newscast and several other local programs, most of which werepublic affairs and interview shows.
WVTT-CA resumed local newscasts, including a simulcast of WVTT-FM's morning show and an evening newscast, from October 7, 2011, until April 29, 2013.[15] WVTT-CA operated a staff of approximately a half-dozen reporters but did not have a weather or sports department, although Blaise O'Connor returned to the station for a short time (the only weather forecasts WVTT-CA used were hastily tacked on, rip-and-read radio style, to the end of each evening newscast; its morning newscast forecasts were phoned in by radio meteorologist Jim Renaldi, who continues to forecast for WVTT-FM). The evening newscast was, for its entire run under Colonial stewardship, anchored by Alexa Olson and Colonial CEO Jeff Andrulonis. The morning newscast was initially hosted by area radio veterans Michael Baldwin and Casey Hill, and later by former WESB morning host Josh Hatcher.
The stations' signals aremultiplexed:
| Channel | Res. | Aspect | Short name | Programming |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 34.1 | 480i | 16:9 | WVTT-CD | Defy |
| 34.2 | NTD America | |||
| 34.3 | 4:3 | Shop LC | ||
| 34.4 | 16:9 | 365BLK | ||
| 34.5 | Outlaw | |||
| 34.6 | NBC American Crimes | |||
| 34.7 | 4:3 | Oxygen |
| Channel | Res. | Aspect | Short name | Programming |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 20.1 | 480i | 4:3 | WWHC-LP | Infomercials |
| 20.2 | ||||
| 20.3 | 16:9 | Defy | ||
| 20.4 | 365BLK | |||
| 20.5 | Outlaw | |||
| 20.6 | 4:3 | Infomercials | ||
| 20.7 | 16:9 | Fubo Sports Network |
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 | ||
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| The CW | ||
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| ATSC 3.0 | ||
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