WBES-TV was an early
UHF television station in
Buffalo, New York
Buffalo is the second-largest city in the U.S. state of New York (behind only New York City) and the seat of Erie County. It is at the eastern end of Lake Erie, at the head of the Niagara River, and is across the Canadian border from Sou ...
. The station operated on channel 59 from studios in the
Hotel Lafayette
Hotel Lafayette, also known as the Lafayette Hotel, is a historic hotel building located at Buffalo in Erie County, New York.
History and features
It is a seven-story steel frame and concrete building designed in the French Renaissance style. I ...
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; it would not be used again in Western New York until being reallocated to
Rochester, New York
Rochester () is a city in the U.S. state of New York, the seat of Monroe County, and the fourth-most populous in the state after New York City, Buffalo, and Yonkers, with a population of 211,328 at the 2020 United States census. Located in W ...
station
WHAM-TV
WHAM-TV (channel 13) is a television station in Rochester, New York, United States, affiliated with ABC and The CW. It is owned by Deerfield Media, which maintains a local marketing agreement (LMA) with Sinclair Broadcast Group, owner of Fox ...
, where it was used as the temporary digital channel prior to the
digital television transition.
WBES-TV has occasionally been erroneously listed as being on channel 56 or 58, two channels that were later issued to other licensees, both
low-power stations: 56 became
WBXZ-LP, a station operated as of 2015 by Steven Ritchie. Channel 58, last known as
WFHW-LP
WFHW-LP was a low-powered community-oriented television station licensed to Buffalo, New York, founded by consumer rights advocate Ralph Nader in summer 1989 as W58AV on UHF 58. The station broadcast from the top of the Marine Midland Bank Tower ...
, has also gone silent.
Channels 52 through 69 were removed entirely from broadcast television use soon after the 2009 completion of
US DTV transition.
After WBES-TV was shut down, Buffalo was left with two stations, market leader
WBEN-TV (channel 4) and fellow UHF upstart
WBUF-TV
WBUF-TV 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.
Th ...
(channel 17);
WGR-TV (channel 2) signed on for the very first time on August 14, 1954, using WBES-TV's broadcast tower.
External links
History of UHF Television in BuffaloHistory of Television in Buffalo
{{Buffalo TV
Television stations in New York (state)
Television channels and stations established in 1953
1953 disestablishments in New York (state)
Defunct television stations in the United States
1953 establishments in New York (state)
Television channels and stations disestablished in 1953
BES-TV