WNLO - History

History

The station began operation on May 13, 1987 as WNEQ-TV and was the second public television outlet serving the Buffalo market. The analog UHF channel 23 allocation was originally intended to be part of a statewide plan for public television that would have seen a signature tower housing transmitters for channel 23 as well as WBFO-FM 88.7 on the University at Buffalo's Amherst Campus.

Studios were to be located there as well during development of the futuristic "New U.B." complex in the 1970s. Budget constraints canceled the scheme and years of tension between the university and WNED board members ended allowing the station to go forward with its plans for the UHF channel. It was operated under an educational license and was sister station to WNED-TV which had a commercial license used as an educational station.

WNEQ's programming day began daily at 4 p.m. and usually had between 6–7 hours of broadcast per day. In 1992, many cable systems in Hamilton and Niagara began carrying WNEQ displacing long standing WQLN from Erie, Pennsylvania in the process. In Fall 1998, most cable systems in those regions started to remove WNEQ because they were struggling with limited channel capacity and the fact that it only offered between 6-7 hours of programming per day. One year later, Rogers Communications began carrying WNEQ on its digital tier for customers in the Greater Toronto Area.

The Buffalo market was unable to support two public stations as both struggled financially. As a result, the educational foundation put WNEQ up for sale. LIN TV (owner of CBS affiliate WIVB) wanted to buy WNEQ and run it as a commercial operation. However, that was problematic due to WNEQ's status as an educational license. One solution was for LIN TV to purchase WNED instead, which was already a commercial license, and make WNEQ the area's primary PBS station.

It was rejected since analog UHF channel 17 had long been established as a PBS station and a move to channel 23 might cause confusion among viewers potentially reducing the amount of donation the viewer-supported station would receive. Eventually, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) agreed to re-classify channel 23 as a commercial license and channel 17 as an educational license. As a result, the Buffalo market retained an educational license and LIN TV was given the go-ahead to purchase the converted-to-commercial WNEQ.

In March 2001, the company closed on its purchase of WNEQ and converted it to a general entertainment Independent with the call sign WNLO. With the launch came a securing of the UPN affiliation for the Buffalo market as of 2003 when the network's agreement with weaker WNGS expired. On cable in Toronto, WNLO was replaced with WTVS from Detroit, Michigan in January 2001 when it relaunched as the current station. In 2005, Rogers submitted a successful request to the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) to allow carriage of WNLO in Ontario. The station would not compete on advertising revenue from the Toronto area (as Rogers suggested with another Buffalo station it carried, WNYO-TV) and the signal also was available over-the-air for a good portion of the Golden Horseshoe of Southern Ontario.

On January 24, 2006, CBS Corporation and Time Warner announced they would shut down both UPN and The WB that fall. In place of these two networks, a new "fifth" network, jointly owned by both companies, would launch, with a lineup of the most popular programming of both networks. The network was given the name "The CW Television Network" ("CW" representing the first initials of CBS and Warner). On February 22, News Corporation announced it would start up another new network called MyNetworkTV. This new service, which would be sister to Fox, would be operated by Fox Television Stations and its syndication division Twentieth Television. MyNetworkTV was created in order to give UPN and WB stations, not mentioned as becoming CW affiliates, another option besides becoming Independent. It was also created to compete against The CW. In April, WNLO removed UPN from its station logo following the lead of News Corporation-owned UPN affiliates. MyNetworkTV launched September 5 on Sinclair Broadcast Group-owned WNYO while WNLO became part of The CW on September 18, 2006.

On November 2 of that year, WNLO began broadcasting The CW in high definition on its digital signal. Until this point, it was rebroadcasting WIVB's high definition channel because UPN had little to no HD programming to broadcast. On May 18, 2007, LIN TV announced the company was exploring strategic alternatives that could have resulted in its sale. In early-July 2007, WNLO launched its own website. Previously, the station had its a separate section within WIVB's web address.

In October 2008, LIN TV broke off all retransmission deals with Time Warner Cable. LIN TV was demanding a fee of 25 cents per month per subscriber to carry each of its stations as it is entitled to under federal must carry regulations. Time Warner had initially refused to accept these fees and, on October 2, WNLO and sister station WIVB were removed from Time Warner lineups. LIN TV and Time Warner reached an agreement for the two stations and each were returned to the cable system's lineup on October 30. As part of the agreement, WNLO's high definition signal began to be carried on Time Warner's digital tier for the first time. Another retransmission consent dispute will take WIVB and WNLO off DISH Network lineups in March 2011.

WNLO is not available in portions of Cattaraugus County, New York served by Atlantic Broadband where WSEE-DT2 out of Erie, Pennsylvania is used as a less expensive alternative. WNLO switched-off its analog transmitter at 9 in the morning on June 12, 2009. Its digital operations remained on its pre-transition assignment (32). Through the use of PSIP, most television receivers display WNLO's channel number as 23. Its previous allotment on channel 23 is now used by Ion Television owned-and-operated station WPXJ-TV for digital transmission.

On March 10, 2010, the station acquired a universal cable channel slot on Time Warner Cable systems throughout Western New York after years of being on different channels throughout the provider's service area. The station moved to channel 11 because Time Warner Cable ended a reserve for former channel 11 slot holder WNGS which had been off the air for several months. Most cable providers had previously placed WNLO on channel 9 which had to be cleared for Time Warner's in-house cable-only news channel YNN Buffalo move from cable channel 14 which had not been available to all of its subscribers.