WGRZ (channel 2) is a television station in Buffalo, New York, United States, affiliated with NBC and owned by Tegna Inc. The station's studios are located on Delaware Avenue in downtown Buffalo, and its transmitter is located on Warner Hill Road in South Wales, New York.
History
The station first signed on the air on August 14, 1954, as WGR-TV, owned by the WGR Corporation, along with WGR (550 AM). WGR-TV started out as an NBC affiliate sharing the 184 Barton Street studios of UHF outlet WBUF-TV (Channel 17). In 1955, WBUF-TV, which was dark at the time, was sold to NBC. In January 1956, WGR-TV became an ABC affiliate after NBC moved its programming to the company-owned WBUF.
Most TV sets could not receive channels above 13 or needed a special device to do it. All television reception at the time was via set-top or rooftop aerial antennas. UHF television technology was in its infancy, and most people did not understand how to receive the signals or had antennas designed to pick up UHF channels. UHF signals also did not travel as well as VHF, making it hard for viewers outside of Buffalo and its adjacent suburbs to get a clear picture. WGR-TV itself began its existence using the tower and transmitter of another defunct UHF station, the short-lived WBES-TV on channel 59. WBUF was an experiment by NBC to see if UHF television was yet viable if enough investment were placed into a UHF station; the experiment was not a success, and in September 1958, the station facility was donated to a public broadcaster to become WNED-TV, and NBC reaffiliated with WGR-TV.
ABC programming was not available in Buffalo for another two months until WKBW-TV (channel 7) signed on in November of that year as a full-time affiliate of that network. The failure of WBUF was a blow to UHF but served as a boon to WGR-TV locally. Viewers could easily receive the station's VHF channel 2 signal, and WGR-TV now had more syndicated and network program options. The station also carried some shows from the DuMont Television Network, until it shut down in 1956.
In 1959, WGR-TV launched an FM radio station, WGR-FM (96.9 MHz, now WGRF). Originally a simulcast of its AM radio sister, it began airing its own programming under the WGRQ call sign in 1973. Over the years, WGR Corporation bought several other radio and television stations across the country, including WNEP-TV in Scranton–Wilkes-Barre, WHAM-TV in Rochester (the call letters of which Transcontinent would change to WROC-TV, and is of no relation to the current station using the WHAM-TV call sign) and WDAF-AM/FM/TV in Kansas City, and eventually became known as Transcontinent Broadcasting. Transcontinent merged with Taft Broadcasting in 1964.
During the 1960s, WGR-TV also operated a repeater station on VHF Channel 6 in Jamestown, New York. The repeater on Channel 6 continued until the Channel 2 transmitter was moved from Elmwood Avenue in Buffalo to the South Wales transmitter site, which greatly improved signal coverage into the population center of the mountainous Chautauqua region south of Buffalo. In 1972, the station moved into its current Downtown Buffalo facility at 259 Delaware Avenue. In the early 1980s, in preparation for an ownership change, the station changed its call letters. At the time, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) would not permit stations with different owners to share the same call sign. On May 1, 1983, WGR-TV added a "Z" to its call sign, thus becoming WGRZ-TV. Z was chosen because of the letter's resemblance to the number 2. Less than two weeks later, Taft Broadcasting and General Cinema Corporation (which operated the Coral Television division) completed the trade deal that was first announced in December 1982. Taft gave channel 2 to General Cinema. In exchange, Taft acquired WCIX (channel 6) in Miami (now WFOR-TV on channel 4). Taft held on to 550 WGR and 96.9 WGRQ until 1987, when both stations were sold to Rich Communications. The AM station is now owned by Audacy, Inc., while its former FM sister is now owned by Cumulus Media.