Looks like WKBW also has a new, very plain logo, dropping the iconic circle-7 logo. The new logo looks like it was created in Microsoft Word 2003.

That makes WKBW one of the only Channel 7 stations in the US not to use some variation of a circle-7 logo. The only others I can think of include KTBC Fox 7 in Austin, WPBN 7&4 in Traverse City, MI and WDBJ 7 in Roanoke, VA.

The new logo:

I once worked with a very well-meaning and talented woman who was the head of our newsroom's graphics department. She was responsible for the look of the set and the design of the keys or supers that appeared on air. The problem was that she was never satisfied and was always changing or tweaking things, driving everyone crazy.

One day she actually said this to me: "The ratings go up when we change the set. It's been proven. Really!"

I think I walked into a wall my eyes were rolling so far back in my head. But the sad thing is she really, really believed it. 

I like the new logo for WKBW, clean and modern looking and long overdue.  Same with dated Eyewitness News, KB has been bottom of the ratings for years, so it wasn't working anymore.   The ABC affiliate in Detroit has the same old logo that Buffalo had and trails the local NBC and FOX affiliates, 

The reference to The 716 is showing some Toronto influence in Buffalo.  Most of a certain age know that Drake's term of "The 6" refers to Toronto and the 416/647 area codes.  Interesting too that they gave almost half of the report on Ontario's latest changes fighting COVID, telling viewers the changes on our side of the border. 

You know you're a local icon when a rival TV station does a fawning feature on you. WIVB's PM Magazine debuted in 1979 with a feature profile of WKBW's Irv Weinstein (includes some hilarious local ads). I've seen networks and channels give a nod to broadcasters on rival stations who are retiring (or who've died) but never a tribute at the height of their careers! Though I guess it was a canny way for a new show on what was then a #2 or #3 rated channel to get WKBW viewers to change the channel. 

Last edited by Hansa (January 5, 2022 1:07 pm)

I remember seeing an interview with Irv discussing ch 7's problems in the late 50's. We were the number four station in a three station market. He also commented that more people watched ch 4's test pattern than ch 7's newscast. On this side of the border, nobody could get ch 7 when it signed on because their antenna only covered ch 2-6. For another $100 or so would get an antenna to cover ch 7-13. Consumers weren't pleased. $100 to receive ONE channel! The early 1960's saw the introduction of an antenna which covered the entire 2-13 VHF spectrum. It became known as the 2-4-7 head.

mace wrote:

I remember seeing an interview with Irv discussing ch 7's problems in the late 50's. We were the number four station in a three station market. He also commented that more people watched ch 4's test pattern than ch 7's newscast. On this side of the border, nobody could get ch 7 when it signed on because their antenna only covered ch 2-6. For another $100 or so would get an antenna to cover ch 7-13. Consumers weren't pleased. $100 to receive ONE channel! The early 1960's saw the introduction of an antenna which covered the entire 2-13 VHF spectrum. It became known as the 2-4-7 head.

Mace, refers to Toronto reception problems with WKBW....that's odd.  I remember watching WKBW the night it signed on in the late 1950's, we lived at Vaughn Rd and Oakwood Ave.  The station had a great signal downtown.  Everyone  had an antenna capable of highband reception...at least in our neighbourhood because we all received CHCH and CFTO.  In fact, I recall my dad and uncle setting up our UHF antenna and a back-of-TV Set single-channel UHF converter  for WBUF Channel 17 which was for a number of years the NBC O&O station.  As you may know, WBUF was a major financial failure - WKBW and WGR succeeded. I also started selling cable door-to-door ahead of the wiring crews in North York in the 1960's.  WKBW was receivable by everyone..in North York for many years.  We moved to North York in early 1959.  So our antenna and those of our neighbours received WKBW.  When people started buying colour TV sets, in Toronto, in large numbers around 1967, cable was a necessity for many people who wanted to receive WGR and WBEN (2 & 4) clearly.  I made a lot of money in Cable TV sales commissions.  But WKBW was the least difficult station to receive from Buffalo in the 1960's - at least in North York.  That's my first-hand observation.
 

Before cable, I couldn't watch Ch. 7 here in Scarborough. I live near a hydro corridor that really affected reception of the other two Buffalo channels as well, but they still came through appreciably better than Ch. 7 did. 

I find it interesting in the newspaper article above that the original owners of WBUF-TV tried to have it moved from channel 17 to channel 8. If this had happened, I wonder what, if anything, it would have meant for the existence of a station on channel 7, not to mention a future Toronto outlet on channel 9. 

I'm as far from an expert on these technical issues as you can get, but there aren't a lot of markets where there were adjacent VHF TV stations before the conversion to HD. New York, Chicago and L.A. have stations on channels 4 & 5, but other than that they are all separated from each other by at least one channel. 

It didn't happen, of course, and 17 remained on 17 until the repack. But you can only imagine what the Buffalo and Toronto TV dial might have looked like had this one request been granted. 

My cousin and his family moved to Willowdale  [Yonge/Drewry area] in 1959. They could never get ch 7. They had a different looking antenna head that I believe was only designed to receive ch 2-6. I will search for some photos online to explain the difference.

RA, the ch. 4/5 phenomenon as I recall for analogue could exist in some markets in the USA because there was a small guard band between Ch. 4 and 5, which allowed for adjacent channel operation in some US markets. I think NYC was another.  I believe the stations were always co-located on the same transmitting facility i.e. Empire State Building.  Today, adjacent channel operation is the norm with ATSC-1 - and stations aren't co-sited for that to occur.  Consider Buffalo RF channels 31, 32, 33, 34 all operate from different transmitter sites at different power levels.  Thanks for posting the article about WBUF.  In that article it went "dark' before NBC purchased the station.  My recollection of receiving it at Oakwood/Vaughn Road was after it was bought by NBC at which time it increased power to around 1 million watts.  I also recall single channel UHF converters that had an off/on switch mounted on the back of our B&W TV.  The company that sold the Ch. 17 converters was located around the Caledonia/Castlefield area.  Mace I suppose that the Ch. 7 problem was why Scarborough Cable (CUC) which was operated by Geoff Conway was such a roaring success.   Lots of people associated with CUC became multi-millionaires.  WUTV which is mentioned in the article is probably one of the most successful UHF stations ever launched.  Even in the early 1970's UHF independents had a tough slog.  But WUTV was different with great over the air reception and later cable reception in Toronto, coupled with a great sales organization in Toronto.  Airtime Sales did very well and then really prospered when WUTV became a FOX affiliate.  I knew the ownership group who acquired WUTV from the original founders. So here is a little known "fun fact".  Legendary TV Producer - Norman Lear - All in the Family, Jeffersons, Good Times, etc.,  owned WUTV Buffalo for a few years - through his ACT III Communications company.  He sold a group of 8 stations in 1996 for half a billion dollars.  He was only 72 years old at the time he sold WUTV.

here is another article about WBUF-TV

https://web.archive.org/web/20091020100925/http://geocities.com/Athens/Olympus/3514/wbuf.html
 

Last edited by tvguy (January 7, 2022 10:27 am)