WBES-TV

Last updated

WBES-TV
Channels
Programming
Affiliations Independent
Ownership
OwnerBuffalo-Niagara Television Corporation
History
First air date
September 29, 1953 (1953-09-29)
Last air date
  • December 19, 1953 (1953-12-19)
  • (81 days)
WBES-TV tower atop Hotel Lafayette Hotel-Lafayette-antenna.jpg
WBES-TV tower atop Hotel Lafayette

WBES-TV was an early UHF television station in Buffalo, New York. The station was formerly owned by the Buffalo-Niagara Television Corporation. [1]

Contents

History

The station operated on UHF channel 59 from studios in the Hotel Lafayette in Buffalo. WBES-TV, the second UHF station (and third TV station overall) in Western New York, was very short-lived, signing on September 29, 1953 and shutting down for the last time on December 19 of the same year. An independent station for its entire existence, WBES-TV was plagued by technical and financial problems, the primary factor in the station's failure. Channel 59 was never reissued in Buffalo.

Tom Jolls, at the time a radio personality at Lockport's WUSJ, was one of the station's personalities. He would eventually return to television a decade later, first with WBEN-TV (channel 4, now WIVB-TV, then more permanently with WKBW-TV (channel 7), where he spent 24 years as a weatherman. [2]

After WBES-TV was shut down, Buffalo was left with two stations, market leader WBEN-TV and fellow UHF upstart WBUF-TV (channel 17); WGR-TV (channel 2) signed on for the very first time on August 14, 1954, using WBES-TV's broadcast tower. [3]

References

  1. "Radio and TV: Chimp to Join Garroway". Buffalo Courier-Express. Buffalo, New York. January 29, 1953. p. 5. Retrieved May 29, 2025 via Newspapers.com.
  2. Pergament, Alan (June 7, 2023). "Tom Jolls, part of Channel 7's legendary 'Irv, Rick and Tom' broadcast team, dies at 89". Buffalo News. Retrieved June 8, 2023.
  3. "WBES-TV Halts Operations, Returns Its License to FCC". Buffalo Evening News. Buffalo, New York. December 19, 1953. p. 8. Retrieved May 29, 2025 via Newspapers.com.