WFHW-LP

WFHW-LP

Buffalo, New York United States
Channels	Analog: 58 (UHF)
Branding	WAV-TV 58 (1989–1991) WBCT (We're Buffalo's Community Television) (1991) Community Television from Medaille College (1991–1993) Citizens Television Systems (secondary, 1988–1999)
Programming
Affiliations	Independent Channel America (1988–1996) TLC (1988–1991)
Ownership
Owner	Citizens Television System, Inc.
History
Founded	July 31, 1985
First air date	July 13, 1989 (1989-07-13)
Last air date	October 31, 1999 (1999-10-31) (10 years, 110 days)
Former call signs	W58AV (1989–1996)
Call sign meaning	Friendship House Western New York
Technical information
Licensing authority	FCC
Facility ID	11381
Class	TX
ERP	15.1 kW
HAAT	186 m (610 ft)
Transmitter coordinates	42°52′48″N 78°52′36″W
Links
Public license information	LMS

WFHW-LP (channel 58) was a low-power television station in Buffalo, New York, United States.

History

WJTN-TV

The channel 58 allocation had originally been allocated to Jamestown, New York, in the 1950s. It was originally to be built by radio station WJTN, before Sherwin Grossman and Gary Cohen challenged WJTN for the channel 58 allocation. Both WJTN and the Grossman/Cohen consortium abandoned the efforts (WJTN never entered television, while Grossman and Cohen shifted their efforts to WBUF-TV in Buffalo).

The only commercial effort to serve Jamestown directly with over-the-air television since the aborted launch of WJTN-TV was in the late 1960s, when WJTN's crosstown rival WKSN—then owned by future Pax TV and HSN founder Bud Paxson—launched WNYP (the forerunner of current religious broadcaster WNYB) on channel 26.

W58AV

In summer 1989, consumer rights advocate Ralph Nader reactivated Western New York's channel 58 allocation with the launch of translator station W58AV. The station broadcast from the top of the Marine Midland Bank Tower (now Seneca One Tower) in downtown Buffalo, with an initial power of 100 watts (later upgraded to 1,000, and finally, 15,100 watts). From the beginning, the station aired a large amount of locally produced fare, with programming from Channel America, as well as a partnership with The Learning Channel. By 1991, the station had partnered up with Medaille College, though this would only last until January 1, 1993.

WFHW-LP

At some point in the mid-1990s, the station upgraded from translator to LPTV status, and changed its call letters to WFHW-LP after what would become its last operator, the local chapter of the non-profit Friendship House. The station went silent on Halloween in 1999 after the Friendship House ceased operations, several years before the digital television transition in the United States. Channel 58 would not be reissued; it was deleted along with all others over 36 in a series of spectrum reallocations.