WNGS
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| WNGS | |
|---|---|
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| Springville/Buffalo, New York | |
| Branding | RTN 11 (cable channel) |
| Channels | Analog: 67 (UHF) |
| Translators | WONS-LP 25 Olean |
| Affiliations | RTN |
| Owner | Equity Media Holdings Corporation (LMA with Granite Broadcasting Corporation) (EBC Buffalo, Inc.) |
| First air date | 1997 |
| Call letters’ meaning | Buffalo WiNGS |
| Former affiliations | infomercials/home shopping (1996-1997) UPN (1997-2003) independent (2003-2004) |
| Transmitter Power | 34.7 kW (analog) 15.5 kW (digital) |
| Height | 143 m (analog) 410.8 m (digital) |
| Facility ID | 9088 |
| Transmitter Coordinates | (analog) (digital) |
| Website | www.rtn11.com |
WNGS 67 (branded as RTN 11) is a television station licensed to Springville, New York, serving the Buffalo television market. The station is run under a local marketing agreement by WKBW (Channel 7), and airs mostly programming from the Retro Television Network, along with sports programming from Channel 7, repeats of Buffalo Bills preseason games, Cleveland Indians, New York Yankees, and New York Mets games that are broadcast over-the-air by WKYC (Channel 3) in Cleveland, WWOR (Channel 9) and WPIX (Channel 11) in New York City, respectively.
WNGS can be seen on analog channel 67, and on the digital subchannel of WKBW-DT (channel 38.2), and can be viewed in the Buffalo market on Time Warner cable channel 11, and on DirecTV and DISH Network channel 67. After the analog shutoff in February 2009, WNGS's digital signal will move to channel 7 and will be also broadcast from WKBW's tower allowing for better reception (although, it may cause interference in some areas of the Southern Tier as Granite-owned CBS affiliate WBNG uses channel 7 as its digital signal already).
Although licensed as a full-power station, it currently transmits its analog signal at low power with a directional northward pattern covering much of the Southtowns but not reaching the city proper. Radiated power in the direction of Buffalo is limited due to a treaty with Canada that protects the coverage area of CHCH's Midland channel 67 translator station. Thus, from the city of Buffalo northward, it is usually only available on cable or satellite, and in certain places in the Southern Tier, it is not available at all.
WNGS was founded by amateur radio enthusiast Bill Smith, and Caroline Powley in 1996. Powley is the daughter of the legendary late LPTV (Low Power Television Broadcast) innovator John R. Powley, who built several full-service UHF TV stations using economical "ham" radio equipment and surplus educational TV "translator" transmitters.
The station signed on in 1996 with an informercial/home shopping format, but added general-entertainment barter talk shows, cartoons and low-budget sitcoms in 1997, along with a UPN affiliation. However, it lost the UPN affiliation to WNLO in 2003. Not long after the disaffiliation, WNGS dropped most of its entertainment programming in favor of infomercials. After Equity Broadcasting took ownership of the station, WNGS became a Retro Television Network affiliate.
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[edit] Past logos
 logo used during UPN affiliation |
 logo used while independent |
[edit] WONS-LP
RTN 11 can also be seen on a Class-A repeater, WONS-LP channel 25, in Olean, a station that has a fairly rich history of its own. First signing on in the 1980s as W20AB on channel 20 and affiliated with the American Christian Television System (ACTS), the station soon moved to channel 25 and received W25AK calls for a time before earning a shared UPN affiliation with WNGS. The new UPN 25 established a new set of calls, WONS, and held on to its affiliation until 2003, when both WONS and WNGS lost the affiliation to WNLO. (Certain television listings continued to list UPN shows in WONS's schedule for reasons unknown.) Nevertheless, WONS continued programming from the Urban America Television Network and Shop at Home Network, as well as a small share of local content. WONS has also had past affiliations with Family Net, America One Network (A1), the American Independent Network (AIN), and Network One. In the 1990's, Enchanted Mountain Television provided local programming for WONS.
The death knell for WONS came in 2006. At that time, Urban America and Shop at Home both ceased (or planned to cease) operations, leaving the station with virtually no programming. The decision was made to rebroadcast the RTN11 signal from WNGS at that time.
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- WNGS/RTN11 Current Homepage
- Query the FCC's TV station database for WNGS
- Query the FCC's TV station database for WONS-LP
- BIAfn's Media Web Database -- Information on WNGS-TV
- WNGS-TV at fccinfo.com
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