WJTQ

**WJTQ**, virtual channel 67 (VHF digital channel 7), is an independent station serving Buffalo, New York, United States that is licensed to Springville. The station is owned by Chicago-based Weigel Broadcasting, as part of a duopoly with New Line Network affiliate WNLB (channel 55). The two stations share studios at the Eastern Hills Mall in the Town of Clarence, and transmitter facilities near Springville in the hills of southern Erie County.

## History

### Early years

The station was founded on March 12, 1993 as Weigel's first station outside of it's base in the Lake Michigan region.

WJTQ initially broadcast on analog UHF channel 67. Although licensed as a full-power station, it transmitted its analog signal at low power with a directional northward pattern covering much of the Southtowns, but not reaching the city of Buffalo proper. Radiated power in the direction of Buffalo was limited due to a treaty with Canada that protected the coverage area of CHCH-TV-3, a Midland-based rebroadcaster of Hamilton-based independent station CHCH-TV (channel 11) that also operated on UHF channel 67. As a result, from the city of Buffalo northward, it was only available on cable or satellite, and in certain places in the Southern Tier, it was not available at all.

The station started with an infomercial/home shopping format, but added general-entertainment barter talk shows, cartoons and low-budget sitcoms in 1994. WJTQ became a charter UPN affiliate on January 16, 1995, but lost the affiliation to WNEQ-TV (channel 23) in January 2003. Shortly afterward, WJTQ formed Western New York's first television station duopoly when Weigel purchased WNLB from New Line Stations, New Line's station group. Up until this point, WJTQ operated from studios in West Valley, New York.

### Bringing MeTV and This TV to Western New York

In 2008, WJTQ launched a second digital subchannel that was an extension of Weigel's succesful MeTV brand from Chicago. It's lineup of classic programming has since grown to be popular not only in Western New York, but also in Canada's Greater Toronto Area. Later that year, a third digital subchannel was launched as a charter affiliate of This TV, which Weigel at the time shared ownership of with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.

WJTQ was assigned a post-transition digital frequency on WWKB's former analog channel allocation, channel 7, at the end of the 2009 digital transition. Complicating matters, though, was that Kitchener, Ontario's CTV owned-and-operated station CKCO-TV, a station serving portions of southern Ontario with a signal that penetrates Western New York, was being assigned the same channel 7 allocation by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) for its own digital signal should it have applied to simulcast digitally before its analog channel 13 broadcasts end in August 2011, when that station would move digital broadcasts to channel 13.

WJTQ moved positions on Time Warner Cable to channel 5 in November 2010. The station's website returned sometime in December 2010. As of 2014, WJTQ is still not available on cable providers in southern Ontario (being outside the United States, it is not subject to must-carry rules).

In 2011, WJTQ was forced to find a new studio location to house its operations. Weigel had preferred to use the former Studio Arena Theater, but had been unable to secure a deal; it also passed on the Buffalo Central Terminal due to the building's state of disrepair. The Eastern Hills Mall, which holds the station's offices, originally rejected the plan to build a studio at the mall but later relented and allowed it to be constructed. By early 2012, the studio at the Eastern Hills Mall began construction; the first program was taped from there in June.

## Digital television

### Digital channels

The station's digital signal is multiplexed:

 67.2
 67.3
 67.4

On December 1, 2013, This TV was replaced on the 67.3 subchannel with a WNLB simulcast as Weigel had sold it's share in This TV to Tribune Broadcasting, which owns WBBU. The simulcast moved in 2014 with Heroes & Icons' launch.