WUTV телеарнасының тарихы мен эволюциясы

Fox affiliate in Buffalo, New York
the Washington University student television station in St. Louis, Missouri

WUTV signed on the air on December 21, 1970, as a general entertainment independent station, and its original studios were located at the transmitter site in Grand Island, New York. The station was owned by Ultravision Broadcasting Company, from which the "UTV" in the WUTV callsign originates. Ultravision was owned by Stan Jasinski, who had first applied for the station's license in 1963 and also owned Buffalo's WMMJ (1300 AM) at the time; shortly thereafter, Jasinski spun off WMMJ to country musician Ramblin' Lou Schriver, who turned it into present day WXRL. The WUTV call sign was originally to be used for a station on VHF channel 3 in Indianapolis, Indiana, under the ownership of department store William H. Block Co., which never went on the air; the call sign was later issued to another station in Youngstown, Ohio, with a construction permit on channel 21 that also never launched, with NBC affiliate WFMJ TV purchasing that permit and moving from channel 73 to the channel 21 allocation that the Youngstown WUTV permit was originally intended to broadcast on. WUTV was the only independent station in Buffalo for many years; its schedule included cartoons (such as Astro Boy and Yogi Bear), sitcoms (such as The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet, The Patty Duke Show, and The Munsters), and sci fi shows (such as Lost in Space, Ultraman, The Invaders and Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea), along with classic movies and drama series. It was the first commercially successful UHF station in Western New York; previous efforts on the UHF dial, including WBES TV (channel 59), WBUF TV (channel 17), and WNYP TV (channel 26) all had failed within a few years of their debuts. Ultravision Broadcasting sold the station to Whitehaven Entertainment Corporation in 1977. The station was acquired by Citadel Communications, a Bronxville based company not related to the larger radio station owner Citadel Broadcasting, in 1984. On October 9, 1986, WUTV became one of the original charter affiliates of the newly launched Fox network. At the time, Fox only aired late night programming five days a week, so WUTV was still essentially programmed as an independent station. However, by 1989, WUTV was one of several Fox affiliates nationwide that were disappointed with the network's weak prime time programming offerings, particularly on Saturday nights, which were bogging down WUTV's otherwise successful lineup. Fox then signed an agreement with WNYB TV (channel 49, now WNYO TV) to become its new Buffalo affiliate, and WUTV reverted to being an independent station full time, effective September 1, 1989. Ahead of the disaffiliation from Fox, Act III Broadcasting (a company controlled by Norman Lear) offered to buy WUTV, and Citadel accepted. This proceeded by a duopoly waiver from WUHF in Rochester, citing cross ownership, which was normally not allowed by the FCC, and regularly did not allow a waiver in the process, until 2000 (Act III did apply for a waiver for the station). The sale was finalized in June 1990, and Lear moved WNYB TV's stronger programming to WUTV, in turn bringing the Fox affiliation back to the station. The Buffalo Sabres, who held a minority stake in the new WUTV, which was then sold WNYB TV to Tri State Christian Television (Act III was known for such acquisition practices). On January 16, 1995, WUTV became a secondary affiliate of the upstart United Paramount Network (the UPN affiliation subsequently moved to WNGS (channel 67, now WBBZ TV) in April 1998, with WONS (channel 21, WVTT CD) simulcasting WNGS the following year, and then to WNLO (channel 23) in 2003). Later that year, ABRY Partners purchased WUTV and the rest of the Act III Broadcasting stations; the group was then renamed Sullivan Broadcasting. Sinclair Broadcast Group acquired WUTV as part of its purchase of Sullivan in 1998; Sinclair then bought WNYO TV in 2001, creating a duopoly with WUTV. Since the 1994 NFL season, WUTV has aired Buffalo Bills games via the NFL on Fox; they are given at least two games a season to air, usually when the team plays host to an NFC team at Highmark Stadium; although the station has seen more games aired since 2014 when the NFL instituted cross flex rules, meaning that games can be arbitrarily moved to the station from WIVB, which airs most of the team's games. After Sinclair came to a retransmission consent agreement in February 2007 nationally with Time Warner Cable, WUTV and WNYO TV's high definition feeds began to be carried locally by the provider. WUTV's HD feed was not available on the region's other cable provider, Atlantic Broadband, until 2012. The Time Warner Cable agreement was to expire at the end of 2010, and the two companies were late in reaching an agreement. In the event Sinclair had pulled WUTV from TWC, a separate agreement allows Fox programming to be piped in from out of market (likely involving Nexstar Media Group, whose stations have been used as out of market superstations in the past to temporarily replace in market network affiliates displaced due to carriage disputes). This made WUTV particularly vulnerable to a prolonged blackout. It does not produce any local content, serving mostly as a "pass through" for automated programming. Much of its syndicated programming could be seen on other cable channels (such as TBS, WGN and TVGN), and much of its daytime programming consisted of infomercials. The dispute was resolved without a blackout. On May 15, 2012, Sinclair Broadcast Group and Fox agreed to a five year extension to the network's affiliation agreement with Sinclair's 19 Fox stations, including WUTV, allowing them to continue carrying the network's programming until 2017. Grit was added to a subchannel in October–November 2014. The second subchannel was affiliated with The Country Network until early 2017 when it was announced to be switching over to TBD. On June 1, 2017, both digital subchannels were replaced, 29.2 with the previously announced TBD and 29.3 with Charge!.

WUTV discontinued regular programming on its analog signal, over UHF channel 29, at 11:59 p. m. on February 17, 2009, the original target date on which full power television stations in the United States were to transition from analog to digital broadcasts under federal mandate (which was later moved to June 12); this made WUTV the first television station in Buffalo to switch to digital. The station's digital signal remained on its pre transition UHF channel 14, using virtual channel 29. WUTV kept its analog signal on the air until March 3, 2009, to inform viewers of the digital television transition through a loop of public service announcements from the National Association of Broadcasters. WUTV, along with PBS member station WNED TV (channel 17) were the only Buffalo television stations that did not terminate their analog signals on the new June 12 date.

Up until 2003, Rogers Cable carried WUTV in Ottawa and London, Ontario; that year, Rogers replaced WUTV with Detroit owned and operated station WJBK as the Fox station available in these markets. The reason for the switch in Ottawa was twofold. The main reason was that MCI, the company which microwaved U. S. network television signals to Ottawa from Rochester, had decided to discontinue this service (until 2003, the ABC, NBC, and CBS stations available in Ottawa had originated from Rochester). Secondly, Rogers chose Detroit as the new source for U. S. television network signals because Canadian broadcasters were concerned about the increased Canadian advertising revenues that Buffalo stations would attract, were they to receive an expanded viewing audience across Ontario. Since Detroit (which like Buffalo, is located adjacent to a Canadian media market) is a much larger market than either Buffalo or Rochester, advertising prices would be much higher and it would therefore not be economical for Canadian businesses to purchase advertising time on such stations. Although WUTV was the Fox affiliate available in Ottawa, Rogers decided to switch to WJBK in order to ensure uniformity in the source cities for all U. S. network television signals. Rogers switched to WJBK in the London market because the signal for the CBS affiliate available in London, WSEE TV (out of Erie, Pennsylvania) was of lower quality than that of Detroit's CBS station, WWJ TV. Hence, Rogers' London system switched from WSEE TV to WWJ TV and, as in Ottawa, decided to switch its Fox affiliate from WUTV to WJBK for source city uniformity for the U. S. network signals. Rogers continues to carry WUTV in both standard and high definition for customers in the Golden Horseshoe, including Toronto. Cogeco Cable carries WUTV in standard definition for its customers in the Golden Horseshoe, but carries WJBK in high definition. For many years, WUTV was carried on cable in Quebec as far east as Gaspe, and was once carried on cable in Montreal and Montérégie until 1997, when Vidéotron replaced WUTV with WFFF TV in Burlington, Vermont (the Fox station that signed on the air at the time). Originally, its sister station in Rochester, WUHF, was carried on cable in the Western Montreal suburbs during 1995. Those stations were the first Fox stations to be carried on cable in Montreal. It also returned temporarily when WFFF TV was off the air for a brief time in the mid 2000s. WUTV was also carried via microwave on cable systems in Central New York, including the towns of Sullivan and Chittenango in the mid 1970s. Because of its Canadian coverage, the station plays the respective American and Canadian national anthems "The Star Spangled Banner" and "O Canada" and a display of both countries' national flags during its sign off for maintenance on early Monday mornings between 3 and 5 a. m.