WIVB-TV
FCC | |
Facility ID | 7780 |
---|---|
ERP | 800 kW |
HAAT | 415 m (1,362 ft) |
Transmitter coordinates | 42°39′33″N 78°37′32″W / 42.65917°N 78.62556°W |
Links | |
Public license information | |
Website | www |
WIVB-TV (channel 4) is a
History
The station first signed on the air on May 14, 1948, as WBEN-TV. and has remained with that network ever since.
As the only station in Buffalo for its first several years, channel 4 also carried secondary affiliations with ABC and DuMont. It lost NBC when WGR-TV (channel 2, now WGRZ) signed on in August 1954, and ABC to WGR-TV when NBC moved its programs to newly purchased WBUF-TV (channel 17) in 1956. WBEN-TV continued to share DuMont programming with WGR-TV until 1956 when that network ceased operations. It operated from studios on the 18th floor of the Statler Hotel until 1960, when it moved to its current facilities on Elmwood Avenue. That studio—expanded by the WBEN stations—had originally been built for WBUF-TV, which had gone dark in 1958, two months before the sign-on of present-day ABC affiliate WKBW-TV (channel 7).
One early show running from the late 1940s until 1970 was Meet the Millers, a weekday afternoon series featuring Bill and Mildred Miller providing cooking and household tips. Two educational local shows aimed toward children were the hour-long Fun to Learn consisting of 15-minute segments which taught various subjects including the
When the
In the late 1970s, WBEN/WIVB ended up playing an early role in the emerging cable television industry. Their satellite uplink facility, initiated by general manager Les Arries in 1976, uplinked sporting events for worldwide distribution, and was used to transmit American TV programming into Canada until Canadian authorities put an end to this practice.
WIVB-TV nearly dropped its CBS affiliation and became an NBC affiliate in
WIVB-TV gained the local rights to the
In 2000, LIN bought the station then known as WNEQ-TV, the market's secondary
Programming
WIVB-TV currently airs no local non-news programming, except for the public affairs program By the People, which has been a staple of its programming on Sundays at 6 a.m. for many decades.
Under LIN ownership, WIVB (and LIN's other CBS affiliates in markets where the company owned a station duopoly) did not broadcast CBS Saturday Morning nor (in most cases) the weekend editions of the CBS Evening News, broadcasting extended hour-long local evening newscasts on Saturdays and Sundays instead. Sister station WNLO aired the weekend editions of the CBS Evening News, but, unlike most LIN duopoly stations in this scenario, did not carry CBS This Morning Saturday as it is committed to The CW's Saturday morning block (currently One Magnificent Morning). As an exception, if CBS Sports programming ran into the 6:30 p.m. half-hour on weekends, local news would air from 6 to 7 on WNLO, and the abbreviated network newscast, if any, might air on WIVB-TV.
In fall 2015, WIVB, now under Media General ownership, began to consistently carry both CBS This Morning Saturday and the weekend editions of the CBS Evening News.
On the numerous occasions that CBS' coverage of the men's final of the US Open tennis tournament was pushed back from Sunday to Monday afternoon (and occasionally other sports coverage held over to weekdays), WIVB-TV delegated this coverage to WNLO to air its regular local and syndicated programming. If necessary due to the length of the match, WIVB-TV simulcasted coverage during the usual CBS Evening News timeslot and took over coverage fully once WNLO began airing CW programming at 8 pm. The station did carry the final in full in 2013, when it was scheduled for Monday instead of Sunday from the outset. This arrangement ended in 2015 when ESPN became the exclusive carrier of the tournament.
As part of the team's new regional media deal with Nexstar, Buffalo Bills preseason broadcasts moved to WIVB in 2021 (the move was originally scheduled for 2020 before the NFL canceled its 2020 preseason due to COVID-19 concerns). The contract took effect across Nexstar's other stations in the Bills' market in 2018.[23]
News operation
WIVB-TV presently broadcasts 37 hours of locally produced newscasts each week (with six hours each weekday and 3+1⁄2 hours each on Saturdays and Sundays). In addition, the station produces an additional 18+1⁄2 hours of newscasts weekly for WNLO (with 3+1⁄2 hours on weekdays, and a half-hour each on Saturdays and Sundays). This totals 55+1⁄2 hours of newscasts on a weekly basis between the two stations; in regards to the number of hours devoted to news programming, it is the highest local newscast output among all broadcast television stations in the Buffalo market (in contrast, WGRZ produces 30+1⁄2 hours and WKBW-TV produces 24+1⁄2 hours of newscasts each week).
Appropriately for a station with roots in a newspaper, WIVB-TV has a strong news tradition. WBEN-TV was the early news leader in Buffalo until approximately 1972, when (briefly) WGR-TV and then (more long-term) WKBW-TV overtook it. Channel 4 then spent most of the next 30 years as a solid, if usually distant, runner-up to WKBW-TV, well ahead of market laggard WGR-TV (later WGRZ). However, it was a major beneficiary of various changes (including WKBW-TV changing hands to a smaller company, aging of its news team, and general programming mistakes) at WKBW-TV in the mid-1990s. Most notably, it snagged local rights to The Oprah Winfrey Show from WKBW-TV in 1995.[24] By 2000, after the retirement of WKBW-TV's longtime anchorman Irv Weinstein and weather anchor Tom Jolls – the last of the traditional "Irv, Rick and Tom" team at channel 7 – and Nielsen's adoption of market metering in Buffalo at the same time, WIVB-TV had taken over the number-one spot for the first time in over a quarter century. It remained number one for the next decade until a series of budget cuts, a retransmission consent dispute with Time Warner Cable,[25] and the slow response to replace departing news anchors pushed most of its newscasts to second, behind WGRZ, who has since also come under ownership of a major national media company. By 2013, WIVB-TV, despite producing the most hours of news content, had the smallest news staff of any of the three stations in the market, after WKBW-TV went on a hiring spree to boost its staff.
WIVB has long been considered to favor older viewers, even dating back to the 1970s when its rivals were promoting flashier, more sensational approaches to the news. Jacquie Walker, the station's lead co-anchor, has been with the station since 1984, the longest continuous run of any news anchor in the history of Buffalo television.[26] Walker announced her retirement from the anchor desk in April 2024 as she moves into a senior correspondent role[27] previously held by her former co-anchor Rich Newberg.[28] The station frequently places significant emphasis on its weather operation. Don Paul spent nearly 30 years as WIVB's chief meteorologist before he was pushed into retirement in 2016; after a stint at WKBW, Nexstar reversed its decision and invited Paul back in a part-time position.[29] The station's current chief meteorologist is Todd Santos, a former personality on The Weather Channel and NBC Weather Plus; another prominent meteorologist on the staff is Mike Cejka, who has been with WIVB since 1983. The station has also typically differed in its approach to hiring meteorologists in that none of them are Western New York natives (whereas WKBW and WGRZ hired mostly local personalities); Kaylee Wendt, the last meteorologist to have lived in western New York before arriving at WIVB, left the station in February 2019.
The news operation at WIVB-TV has historically favored a straight newscast, as opposed to the more activist approach of WGRZ (WIVB-TV highlighted this in an advertising campaign in the mid-2000s, when it used the slogan "today's news and tomorrow's weather" and asserted that it "doesn't take sides," a reference to WGRZ's use of the "On Your Side" slogan).
Since 1993, the station has produced an annual holiday promo featuring a custom version of Jolly Demis's "Christmas Time Again". The promos, featuring short snippets of the families of each member of the WIVB news team, have become a tradition in Western New York, long after most other stations discontinued using the song (only WIVB and KSAZ-TV in Phoenix, Arizona, still use it).[30]
This station debuted a weekday morning newscast on September 19, 1994, known as Wake Up!. It was the second local broadcast in the market after WKBW-TV's Good Morning Western New York, which launched in 1987. Unlike the WKBW-TV broadcast, which was (and remains) a weekday-only program, Wake Up! has aired seven days a week from its inception, with a two-hour version (originally only one hour from 1994 to January 2013) airing on Saturdays and Sundays. (The weekend edition was originally co-anchored by Chuck Gurney, the first openly gay television personality in the Buffalo market.)[31] During the mid-1990s, WIVB-TV used the 24 Hour News Source format, which had previously been used earlier in the decade on WGRZ-TV. In March 2001, WIVB-TV began airing a nightly 10 p.m. newscast on WNLO known as The 10 O'Clock News. During the week, this program competes with WGRZ-TV's prime time newscast that currently airs on Fox affiliate WUTV (and previously ran on WPXJ-TV and WNYO-TV); WNLO has led the ratings race at 10 p.m. ever since the program's debut.
Starting on February 2, 2009, WNLO began airing a two-hour extension of WIVB-TV's weekday morning newscast. It has since cut the extended morning show by an hour to make room for a partially brokered local talk show. It also rebroadcasts WIVB-TV's weekend morning newscast and may air the hour-long weekend 6 p.m. newscasts which normally air on WIVB-TV, if CBS Sports programming runs over into the timeslot.
WIVB-TV began broadcasting its newscasts in true high definition on February 1, 2012.[32] It was the last of the television stations in the Buffalo market to upgrade its news programming to HD; WKBW-TV had done so in 2011, and WGRZ aired some HD content as early as February 2010.[33] The 10 p.m. newscast on WNLO was included in the upgrade.
From approximately 1995 until the end of 2009, WIVB-TV built and operated a large network of over eighty AWS/
WIVB-TV ended its separate sports segments in March 2015 and integrated sports reports into the regular newscasts.[35] The sportscasts returned under Nexstar ownership in 2017. A one-hour afternoon newscast was added in the 4 p.m. weekday time slot in early 2016.[36]
Accolades and honors
For most of the time since 2000, WIVB-TV has been the most-watched news station in Western New York (according to
This station reclaimed the top position in the November 2007 sweeps although still in a statistical tie with WGRZ, and as of May 2009, is now solidly back in first place. All three stations in the Buffalo market have been, at various times in their history, among the highest-rated stations in the country and they continue to be fiercely competitive. The cable carriage disputes in October 2008 threatened WIVB-TV's high standing, pushing the station to a distant third, but with the official November sweeps out and the disputes resolved, WIVB-TV regained the lead. The end of The Oprah Winfrey Show in 2010, which traditionally has given a strong lead-in to WIVB-TV's newscasts, were expected to mark the end of WIVB-TV's lead in the ratings. Ratings for its replacement for the 2011–12 and 2012–13 seasons, Anderson, had initially been very poor, to the point where despite being placed in an earlier time slot, it had caused harm to both the show airing immediately after it (The Dr. Oz Show), and the evening newscasts, which are currently firmly in second place, halfway between new market leader WGRZ (which has The Ellen DeGeneres Show as a lead-in to its evening newscast) and third-place WKBW-TV (which had The Doctors as its lead-in).[37] By the start of the 2012 season, the ratings for both Anderson and the WIVB-TV newscasts had recovered.[38] By November 2018, WIVB had reclaimed the lead in news viewership following several years in which WGRZ had the highest viewership.[39]
The station and its staff have won several
Notable former staff
- Marty Angelo – producer, creator, writer (1977–1980) – Disco Step-by-Step Dance TV Show
- Stan Barron – occasional sports contributor (1965–1984)
- John Beard – anchor (1978–1981; later worked in Los Angeles at KNBC and KTTV, then returned to Buffalo to anchor Daybreak for WGRZ)
- Jericka Duncan – reporter; now at CBS News
- Tom Jolls – WBEN-TV news anchor (early 1960s); left for WKBW-TV in 1965 to become weather anchor for 34 years
- Chuck Lampkin – anchor (1970–1980)
- Van Miller – sports director, weather anchor and host of It's Academic and Beat the Champ (1955–1998); also radio broadcaster for the Buffalo Bills
- John Murphy – sports director from (2008 to 2012); now at WGRas a radio host
- WGRZ-TVin the mid-1990s
- Pam Oliver – reporter (1988–1990; left to become a sideline reporter for NFL on Fox and NBA on TNT)
- Dick Rifenburg – sports (1951–1982)
- Tom Torbjornsen– automotive expert (2000s)
Technical information
Subchannels
The station's signal is
Channel | Res. | Aspect | Short name | Programming |
---|---|---|---|---|
4.1 | 1080i | 16:9 |
WIVB-HD | Main WIVB-TV programming / CBS |
4.2 | 480i | QVC | QVC | |
49.4 | 480i | 16:9 | GetTV | GetTV (WNYO-DT4 )
|
Analog-to-digital conversion
WIVB-TV discontinued regular programming on its analog signal, over
Spectrum reallocation
On April 14, 2017, WIVB announced that it had sold its spectrum in the FCC's
Because WNLO's broadcast signal is centered further north than the former WIVB-TV Tower that was in Colden, the move further deteriorated reception of the channel in the western Southern Tier, where it had already been marginalized after the first digital transition and move to UHF, while at the same time improving the station's coverage along the Golden Horseshoe in Ontario, including a city-grade signal in Toronto.[45] To restore its Southern Tier coverage area, Nexstar reached an agreement to transfer channel 32 to WUTV, which has historically put a greater emphasis on its Canadian viewership than WIVB has; WIVB and WNLO would in turn receive the channel 36 allocation (being vacated by adjacent-market channels WENY-TV and CITS-DT) that WUTV had originally purchased, which will allow it to reposition its signal so that it again serves the Southern Tier.[2][1] The realignment took effect on the day of the repack, August 1, 2019.[46]
Carriage disputes
WIVB-TV has had significant contract disputes with both of the major cable television providers in the station's coverage area,
After that, WIVB-TV openly advocated for Time Warner Cable customers to switch to
There was no agreement or negotiation with Atlantic Broadband, but that company continued to retransmit WIVB-TV without permission through 2008.[48] Atlantic Broadband announced it would discontinue carrying WIVB-TV in favor of WSEE-TV on January 1, 2009, and were apparently making no effort to negotiate a new deal.[49] However, due to this date falling on a holiday, WIVB-TV granted a 30-day extension at the end of which was an agreement that allowed WIVB-TV to continue to be carried uninterrupted.[50] The agreement, originally set to expire in January 2012, was presumably renewed, as the channel remains available on that company's providers. WNLO was not included in the agreement, and CW service is now provided in these areas by WSEE-DT2.
On March 4, 2011, LIN Media pulled WIVB-TV and WNLO from Dish Network (the same service WIVB-TV and WNLO explicitly advised viewers to change to during the Time Warner Cable dispute) due to the expiration of the existing retransmission consent agreement; the blackout lasted nine days.[51]
WIVB was pulled from DirecTV as part of a broader dispute between DirecTV and Nexstar on July 4, 2019, a dispute that was resolved on August 29.
WIVB was again pulled from DirecTV as part of another dispute between DirecTV and Nexstar at 7 p.m. (ET) on July 2, 2023.[52]
References
- ^ a b "WNLO Petition for Rulemaking Channel 36 – 10.26.2018" (PDF).
- ^ a b "WUTV Petition for Rulemaking" (PDF).
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- ^ "Broadcasting Magazine March 27, 1967 p. 59" (PDF). americanradiohistory.com.
- ^ "Facility Technical Data for WIVB-TV". Licensing and Management System. Federal Communications Commission.
- Broadcasting – Telecasting, May 24, 1948, pg. 104.
- ^ "Annual" (PDF). americanradiohistory.com. Retrieved January 26, 2024.
- ^ "BC-1949/1949-01-17-BC" (PDF). worldradiohistory.com. Retrieved January 26, 2024.
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- ^ "Broadcasting Yearbook" (PDF). americanradiohistory.com. Retrieved January 26, 2024.
- ^ "The Buffalo Broadcasters: Photograph Collection". Archived from the original on October 14, 2014. Retrieved March 12, 2014.
- ^ "King World Productions has reached an agreement..." Los Angeles Times. June 27, 1988. Retrieved October 27, 2021.
- ^ "King World to buy Buffalo television station". United Press International. June 24, 1988. Retrieved October 27, 2021.
- ^ Cichon, Steve (June 25, 2019). "Buffalo in the '70s: The home of Nickelodeon (and almost MTV)". Buffalo News. Retrieved November 15, 2022.
- ^ "LESS THAN KING'S RANSOM FOR WIVB IN BUFFALO". Variety. May 29, 1995. Retrieved November 1, 2021.
- ^ "King World sells WIVB-TV". United Press International. May 26, 1995. Retrieved November 1, 2021.
- ^ "WIVB-TV IS SOLD FOR $95 MILLION". The Buffalo News. May 25, 1995. Retrieved November 1, 2021.
- ^ Callan, James (August 28, 2014). "CBS Renews Affiliation Deal for 12 Lin Media TV Stations". Bloomberg L.P.
- ^ Pergament, Alan (October 1, 2014). "NFL cross flex policy involving Bills is costing Ch.4 big time at a bad time Archived October 1, 2014, at the Wayback Machine." The Buffalo News. Retrieved October 1, 2014.
- ^ "Sale of WNEQ-TV completed". Buffalo Business Journal. July 24, 2001. Retrieved November 1, 2021.
- ^ "WIVB WNLO". The Business Journals. Retrieved January 27, 2024.
- ^ "Nexstar Media Group, Inc". Nexstar Media Group, Inc. Retrieved January 27, 2024.
- ^ "Fred Jackson to join Bills postgame show; Catalana replaced on sidelines". The Buffalo News. August 2, 2018. Retrieved October 28, 2018.
- ^ Pergament, Alan (May 26, 2011). "Oprah exits, impact to be felt at Ch. 4". stilltalkintv.com. Archived from the original on August 22, 2011. Retrieved May 26, 2011.
- ^ a b Pergament, Alan (May 23, 2013). "Ch.4 owner, TWC in money dispute again". buffalonews.com. Archived from the original on October 7, 2013. Retrieved January 26, 2024.
- ^ "Jacquie Walker: Record setting class". October 3, 2019.
- ^ Veronica, Nick (April 16, 2024). "40-year News 4 veteran Jacquie Walker to leave anchor desk next month". WIVB-TV. Retrieved April 16, 2024.
- ^ Pergament, Alan (June 4, 2021). "Rich Newberg creates a love letter to Buffalo, its history and local news". The Buffalo News. Retrieved April 16, 2024.
- ^ "Don Paul returns to WIVB after abrupt exit by Stevie Daniels | Columnists | buffalonews.com". June 22, 2020.
- ^ "VIDEO: 25th Anniversary of the "News 4 Holiday Jingle!"". December 21, 2018.
- ^ "Ed Drantch finds a new home at Channel 7, the station known for his kind of reporting – City & Region – The Buffalo News". Archived from the original on November 2, 2014.
- ^ "Still Talkin TV » Ch.4 News About to Add HD". Archived from the original on January 3, 2012. Retrieved December 14, 2011.
- ^ "Talkin' TV: Channel 2 News Picture Will be Changing". Archived from the original on February 12, 2010. Retrieved February 19, 2010.
- ^ "4 Warn Weather Team first in WNY to use New York's 'Mesonet'". February 14, 2020.
- ^ "Ch.4 has new game plan, dropping traditional 6 p.m. Sportscast - Talkin' TV". Archived from the original on March 13, 2015. Retrieved March 10, 2015.
- ^ "Alan Pergament: The highs and lows of the year in TV | Entertainment | buffalonews.com". December 29, 2017.
- ^ Pergament, Alan (September 15, 2011). "Beard Dropping Midday News; Ch. 2 News on Early Roll". Still Talkin' TV. Retrieved September 15, 2011.
- ^ "Courics Show Has Uphill Climb on Channel 7". stilltalkintv.com. Retrieved January 26, 2024.
- ^ "WIVB Channel 4 climbs to the top in November sweeps | Entertainment | buffalonews.com". November 29, 2018.
- ^ "RabbitEars TV Query for WIVB". Retrieved March 6, 2021.
- ^ "DTV Tentative Channel Designations for the First and Second Rounds" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on August 29, 2013. Retrieved March 24, 2012.
- ^ "Termination of Buffalo" (PDF). shawbroadcast.ca. March 5, 2009. Retrieved January 26, 2024.
- ^ Pergament, Alan (April 14, 2017). "WIVB isn't 'going off the air'". The Buffalo News. Retrieved April 14, 2017.
- ^ "WIVB/WNLO Channel Sharing FAQ | We're 4 Buffalo". Archived from the original on April 12, 2018. Retrieved April 12, 2018.
- ^ "RabbitEars Contour Map for WIVB-TV". rabbitears.info.
- ^ Fybush, Scott (June 24, 2019). "Here Comes the Repack". NorthEast Radio Watch. Retrieved June 24, 2019.
- ^ "WIVB parent, T-W Cable at odds". Buffalo Business First. September 15, 2008. Retrieved March 17, 2018.
- ^ Atlantic Broadband Customers. WIVB-TV press release. December 19, 2007.
- ^ "WESB News". WESB B107.5-FM/1490-AM | WBRR 100.1 The Hero. Retrieved January 27, 2024.
- ^ "Channel 4 still on board for Bradford and Salamanca, N.Y." The Bradford Era. January 30, 2009. Retrieved January 27, 2024.
- ^ "DISH May Drop WIVB and WNLO". wivb.com. Retrieved January 26, 2024.
- ^ Littleton, Cynthia (July 2, 2023). "Nexstar Stations and NewsNation Go Dark on DirecTV as Carriage Contract Expires". Variety.