WGRZ (channel 2) is a television station in Buffalo, New York, United States, affiliated with NBC. It is owned by the Tegna subsidiary of Nexstar Media Group; Nexstar also owns CBS affiliate WIVB-TV (channel 4) and CW station WNLO (channel 23). WGRZ's studios are located on Delaware Avenue in downtown Buffalo, and its transmitter is located on Warner Hill Road in South Wales, New York.
History
The station first signed on the air on August 14, 1954, as WGR-TV, owned by the WGR Corporation, along with WGR (550 AM).FCC History Cards for WGR-TV (WGRZ). Federal Communications Commission. WGR-TV started out as an NBC affiliate sharing the 184 Barton Street studios of UHF outlet WBUF-TV (Channel 17). In 1955, WBUF-TV, which was dark at the time, was sold to NBC. In January 1956, WGR-TV became an ABC affiliate after NBC moved its programming to the company-owned WBUF.
Most TV sets could not receive channels above 13 or needed a special device to do it. All television reception at the time was via set-top or rooftop aerial antennas. UHF television technology was in its infancy, and most people did not understand how to receive the signals or had antennas designed to pick up UHF channels. UHF signals also did not travel as well as VHF, making it hard for viewers outside of Buffalo and its adjacent suburbs to get a clear picture. WGR-TV itself began its existence using the tower and transmitter of another defunct UHF station, the short-lived WBES-TV on channel 59. WBUF was an experiment by NBC to see if UHF television was yet viable if enough investment were placed into a UHF station; the experiment was not a success, and in September 1958, the station facility was donated to a public broadcaster to become WNED-TV, and NBC reaffiliated with WGR-TV.
ABC programming was not available in Buffalo for another two months until WKBW-TV (channel 7) signed on in November of that year as a full-time affiliate of that network. The failure of WBUF was a blow to UHF but served as a boon to WGR-TV locally. Viewers could easily receive the station's VHF channel 2 signal, and WGR-TV now had more syndicated and network program options. The station also carried some shows from the DuMont Television Network, until it shut down in 1956.
In 1959, WGR-TV launched an FM radio station, WGR-FM (96.9 MHz, now WGRF). Originally a simulcast of its AM radio sister, it began airing its own programming under the WGRQ call sign in 1973. Over the years, WGR Corporation bought several other radio and television stations across the country, including WNEP-TV in Scranton–Wilkes-Barre, WHAM-TV in Rochester (the call letters of which Transcontinent would change to WROC-TV, and is of no relation to the current station using the WHAM-TV call sign) and WDAF-AM/FM/TV in Kansas City, and eventually became known as Transcontinent Broadcasting. Transcontinent merged with Taft Broadcasting in 1964.
During the 1960s, WGR-TV also operated a repeater station on VHF channel 6 in Jamestown, New York. The repeater on channel 6 continued until the channel 2 transmitter was moved from Elmwood Avenue in Buffalo to the South Wales transmitter site, which greatly improved signal coverage into the population center of the mountainous Chautauqua region south of Buffalo. In 1972, the station moved into its current Downtown Buffalo facility at 259 Delaware Avenue.
In December 1982, Taft Broadcasting agreed to trade WGR-TV to movie theater chain General Cinema in return for WCIX in Miami (channel 6, now WFOR-TV on channel 4). At the time, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) would not permit stations with different owners to share the same call sign. On May 1, 1983, in preparation for the ownership change, WGR-TV added a "Z" to its call sign, thus becoming WGRZ-TV. Z was chosen because of the letter's resemblance to the number 2, and also allowed General Cinema to continue trading on the WGR call letters and their then 60-year legacy in Buffalo. The trade closed two weeks later, with WGRZ becoming part of General Cinema's Coral Television division. In exchange, Taft acquired WCIX (channel 6) in Miami (now WFOR-TV on channel 4). Taft held on to 550 WGR and 96.9 WGRQ until 1987, when both stations were sold to Rich Communications. The AM station is now owned by Audacy, Inc., while its former FM sister is now owned by Cumulus Media.
In the years following the 1983 exchange deal, WGRZ-TV changed hands several times. General Cinema exited the broadcasting business in 1986 by selling Coral Television to WGRZ Acquisition Corp., a partnership between SJL Broadcast Management, TA Associates and Smith Broadcasting. The price tag was $56 million. Native Buffalonian and former Newport Television CEO Sandy DiPasquale also held an ownership stake in WGRZ-TV (through his stake in Smith Broadcasting) at this time. Two years later, Tak Communications purchased WGRZ-TV from the SJL-led group for $100 million in 1988. In October 1990, Tak's lenders sued the company to force the appointment of a receiver; Tak would file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in January 1991 after reaching an agreement with its lenders. After Tak's creditors sought to take control of the company in December 1992, they would ultimately seize the company's assets in early 1994. In February 1995, Argyle Television Holdings II, a broadcasting holding company formed by a group of managers who had recently left Argyle I after that company sold all of its stations to New World Communications, was offered $146 million and received court approval to purchase WGRZ and KITV (in Honolulu, Hawaii) for $91 million. Argyle II closed on WGRZ-TV in April of that year, followed by KITV two months later.
WGRZ-TV nearly lost its NBC affiliation in 1994 when NBC's parent company, General Electric, announced plans to purchase King World Productions, the then-owner of CBS affiliate WIVB-TV (channel 4). Had it occurred, WIVB-TV would have become an NBC owned-and-operated station. However, the deal never materialized, and WIVB-TV was sold to the LIN TV Corporation after attempts to sell that station to Westinghouse Broadcasting, New World Communications, Tribune Broadcasting, Paramount Stations Group and the E. W. Scripps Company fell through; as a result, the Buffalo market was one of the few areas to not be affected by the affiliation switches that took place between late 1994 and late 1996. (Coincidentally, King World would eventually be acquired by CBS in 2000, who merged the company into CBS Television Distribution [now CBS Media Ventures] in 2007; CBS and Viacom had broken up at the time of King World's dissolution.) WGRZ lost the local rights to the Buffalo Bills to WIVB-TV when the NFL returned to CBS in 1998 after the network acquired the rights to the American Football Conference package; this ended a 33-year run for Channel 2 as the Bills' unofficial hometown station. Presently, WGRZ airs Bills games when they are featured on NBC's Sunday Night Football.
Gannett acquired WGRZ-TV and WZZM-TV in Grand Rapids, Michigan, from Argyle II in a 1996 swap deal that saw KOCO-TV in Oklahoma City and WLWT in Cincinnati being traded by Gannett to Argyle II. The deal was triggered by issues from cross-ownership rules related to Gannett's ownership of The Cincinnati Enquirer and the Niagara Gazette, as well as cross-ownership rules related to Gannett's 1995 acquisition of Multimedia Cablevision in the Oklahoma City market. In January 1997, seven months prior to Argyle II's merger with the broadcasting unit of the Hearst Corporation, the deal formed Hearst-Argyle Television (which Hearst now wholly owns under the name Hearst Television). WGRZ dropped the "-TV" suffix in 2009.
On June 29, 2015, the Gannett Company split in two, with one side specializing in print media and the other side specializing in broadcast and digital media. WGRZ was retained by the latter company, named Tegna.
Nexstar Media Group, the owner of WIVB-TV and WNLO (channel 23) in the Buffalo market, acquired Tegna in a deal announced in August 2025 and completed on March 19, 2026. The deal included approval for Nexstar to own three station licenses in markets such as Buffalo.
Programming Previous local programs include the talk show Your Today in WNY (2007–2008), the talk show Nearly Noon (hosted by Dan Neaverth, 1980s), a local version of Bowling for Dollars (hosted by Ed Kilgore, for two runs – one in the 1970s and a second shorter run in 2008), the classic television anthology series Lunchtime with the Classics (September 7, 2010 – September 6, 2011), and the weekly late-night series In the Buff (February 17, 2013 – late 2013). The Healthy Zone (2010–2014) was a weekday show hosted by Maria Genero and Dr. Derek Alessi, which focused on physical, emotional, community and financial health and wellness. 2 The Unknown featured psychic Karen Reece and aired for one season (2014–15) on WGRZ; it was the series' second season (its previous season had aired on WBBZ under the title Secrets from Beyond). Reece returned to WBBZ as host of Psychic Encounters (later The Karyn Reece Show) in 2016. The Cat's Pajamas was an overnight block, usually presenting movies, with weatherman Barry Lillis hosting and news updates from the WGRZ overnight team between films.
The syndicated cartoon series Colonel Bleep used WGR-TV as its flagship station in the late 1950s; Richard Ullman syndicated the show from Buffalo (production was handled by Robert D. Buchanan out of Miami, Florida).
In 2000, WGRZ-TV took over the broadcast rights to televise the New York Lottery's live drawings from longtime home WKBW-TV, when that station's contract with the lottery ran out. WGRZ dropped the lottery drawings in October 2013.
Sports programming WGRZ airs select Buffalo Bills games since 2006 as part of NBC's Sunday Night Football package. WGRZ also simulcasts any Bills games those that are exclusive to NBC's streaming service Peacock, as per NFL local team anti-siphoning rules (other non-Peacock streaming or cable games are syndicated to other stations in most cases).WGRZ promo emphasizing that Peacock was not required for local viewers to see the 2023 Week 16 Bills game despite NBC promos claiming otherwise
WGRZ formerly aired selected Buffalo Sabres games from 2005 to 2021 as part of NBC's broadcast contract with the NHL. Despite a conflict with the Kentucky Derby in 2007, WGRZ aired game 5 of the Senators–Sabres playoff series in its entirety, including the overtime period that NBC omitted and moved to Versus (later NBCSN).OT of Senators-Sabres as received via Versus, also simulcast on WGRZ/WHEC
News operation
WGRZ presently broadcasts hours of locally produced newscasts each week (with five hours each weekday, three hours on Saturdays and hours on Sundays). In addition, replays of WGRZ's midday and 6 p.m. newscasts air on a one-hour delay on WGRZ-DT2. Unlike most television stations, WGRZ takes an openly activist "watchdog journalism" approach to its news coverage, with its commitment to "Holding People In Power Accountable" and being "On Your Side". As a result of this and larger corporate investment, WGRZ has the largest staff in the Buffalo television market with more general assignment/feature reporters, and sports reporters than either WIVB or WKBW-TV.