WBEN-TV

Lore & Background

The station first signed on the air on May 14, 1948, as WBEN-TV. It was Buffalo's first television station, and the fifth-oldest station in New York state. The station was originally owned by the Butler family, along with the Buffalo Evening News and WBEN radio (930 AM and 106.5 FM; 930 AM is still WBEN, while 106.5 FM is now WYRK, and 102.5 FM is a separate station, not a direct successor); the holding company for the WBEN stations was WBEN, Inc. Its radio sister had been one of CBS Radio's first 16 affiliates when that network premiered in 1928, but by 1948 had switched networks to the NBC Blue network, which had become ABC in 1943. Accordingly, channel 4 originally signed on as an NBC television affiliate, and with it aired The Howdy Doody Show, a show hosted by local native Bob Smith, who had spent the past few years at WBEN radio before departing for national television. WBEN-TV picked up CBS programming in January 1949, 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 WBUF-TV (channel 17) when NBC moved its programs to newly purchased WBUF-TV 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 language of Spanish at 5 p.m. weekdays and the half-hour Your Museum of Science, which featured the curator of the Buffalo Museum of Science on Saturday mornings. Another staple throughout the 1950s and early 1960s was a short visit to the North Pole with Santa Claus and Forgetful the Elf. This was a daily show that aired only during December and was

In Their Own Story

The static of a snowy February night crackles through the TV set as the broadcast cuts to WBEN-TV. In a dimly lit living room, a family huddles around the screen, eyes fixed on the ice where the Sabres are down by one with seconds left. The commentator's voice rises in pitch, echoing off the walls as he describes the rush up the ice. A sudden silence falls over the room as the puck drops into the net, followed instantly by an eruption of sound from the booth that vibrates through the television speakers, mirroring the roar of the crowd at the arena.

Reader's Guide

WIVB-TV (channel 4) is a CBS affiliate. Its sister station WNLO (channel 23) is the CW affiliate. The source article does not mention any role as a broadcaster for the Buffalo Sabres.

Did You Know?

• WBEN-TV signed on May 14, 1948, as Buffalo's first television station.
• The station originally signed on as an NBC affiliate but picked up CBS programming in January 1949 and has remained with CBS ever since.
• The call letters changed to WIVB-TV on November 1, 1977, after the station was sold to Howard Publications.
• WIVB-TV gained local rights to the Buffalo Bills from WGRZ-TV in 1998 when the AFC package moved to CBS.