WDTB-LD


WDTB-LD is a Daystar-owned television station, under the license of Word of God Fellowship, Inc. The station is licensed to Hamburg, New York, but has applied for a change of its city of license from Hamburg to Buffalo. The station's signal on channel 40 was inactive/off the air due to a technical conflict with the digital signal of CFTO-TV; Toronto's digital signal also being on channel 40, though it is 65 miles away, but has returned to the air at some point following the Canadian digital transition, on August 31, 2011. It has since returned to the airwaves on UHF 29 with a Virtual channel of 39.1.

History

The station was granted a broadcast license on May 31, 1989 under the call sign W39BC on channel 39, but did not sign on until 1993. When WIVB-TV was granted channel 39 for its digital signal in 1997, W39BC was displaced, but allowed to move to channel 40, and gained the call-sign of WBUF-LP. In 1999, it gained its current call-sign.

Recent developments

Daystar purchased WNGS, channel 67 from bankrupt owner, Equity Media Holdings. Because Daystar already had WDTB-LP, it chose to sell the station to ITV of Buffalo, LLC, a partnership owned by local TV personalities Philip Arno and Donald Angelo, for $2,750,000, with plans to program the station from Clarence. As of July 2012, Daystar programming is being carried on WBBZ-DT4, as part of the conditions of sale to ITV.
At the same time, Daystar applied to move WDTB-LP's city of license from Hamburg to Buffalo, and to move to channel 28 afterwards, so it no longer conflicts with CFTO-DT. This application was dismissed, though the station was later approved for upgrading to digital operations on UHF 29. The station's digital license was issued on December 5, 2016, with the station changing its call sign to WDTB-LD.