WBUF-TV

WBUF-TV^[a] was a television station that broadcast on ultra high frequency (UHF) channel 17 in Buffalo, New York, United States. It broadcast from August 17, 1953, to February 1955 and again from March 1955 until the morning of October 1, 1958.

The first of two early UHF television stations in Buffalo, the station—like others in its day—struggled to gain traction because of coverage and reception issues specific to UHF stations and not experienced by their very high frequency (VHF) counterparts. The station went on the air under the aegis of local owners. After its initial shutdown in February 1955, it was bought by NBC in part as an experiment hoping to mitigate the issues ailing UHF broadcasting across the country and also because revised ownership rules allowed station groups to purchase additional UHF stations. In August 1956, all NBC programs moved to WBUF, which at the same time moved into a new showplace studio facility. Despite high UHF set conversion rates (as sets had to be converted to receive UHF in the days before the All-Channel Receiver Act) and a high-power installation, WBUF was generally a failure—NBC ratings were far lower in Buffalo than in most other cities, and the station lost money—and the approval of a third VHF station for the city signaled WBUF-TV's final demise in 1958.

WBUF left a legacy in Buffalo of notable broadcast personalities in and out of the market, including Rick Azar and Mac McGarry, as well as a substantial physical plant. The channel 17 transmission facility was donated to start WNED-TV, Buffalo's educational TV station, which began broadcasting in March 1959. The studio has been occupied since 1960 by WBEN-TV (now known as WIVB-TV).

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