17 Facts About WGRZ

WGRZ is a television station in Buffalo, New York, United States, affiliated with NBC and owned by Tegna Inc The station's studios are located on Delaware Avenue in downtown Buffalo, and its transmitter is located on Warner Hill Road in South Wales, New York.

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-TV was the last of the three Buffalo television news outlets to produce a midday newscast, which it debuted in February 2008 in a traditional noon time slot.

On January 17,2011, WGRZ debuted a new set for its newscasts during Daybreak, which was designed for the transition to high definition newscasts and features extensive use of steel, glass and wood in combination with HD flat panel displays, blue lighting, and a background of several local landmarks .

WGRZ began to broadcast its field video in full HD on October 29,2011, making Channel 2 the only Buffalo television station to offer all aspects of its news production in true HD.

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WGRZ is the only television station in Western New York to currently operate an in-house weather radar from its broadcast tower in South Wales, New York.

In February 2010, WGRZ unveiled a new weather set that includes HD flat panel displays, improved lighting, and graphics and technology upgrades which would be phased in throughout that spring.

In January 2014, WGRZ debuted their new digital subchannel called Storm Team 2 WeatherNation TV.

On July 16,2015, WGRZ debuted Rooftop Weather, which is a brand new outdoor weather set built on the roof of their Buffalo studios.

However, in the May 2009 sweeps, WGRZ lost significant ground to WIVB-TV and a resurgent WKBW-TV, and fell to a distant second, closer to third-place WKBW-TV than it was to WIVB-TV.

Only the late evening newscasts during the week trail WIVB-TV in viewership; however, WGRZ is still dominant in the key demographics which advertisers covet most.

WGRZ held the lead in the ratings viewership for most of the time between 2011 and November 2018; during the latter sweeps month, WIVB retook the ratings lead.

WGRZ was one of the founding members of the "Love Network" that carried the Jerry Lewis MDA Labor Day Telethon; WGRZ continued to carry the telethon until the end of its run as a syndicated program .

In 2020, WGRZ took over the long-running Variety Kids telethon, which had aired on WKBW-TV from 1962 to 2019; WGRZ shares the broadcast with WBBZ-TV.

WGRZ-DT2 was affiliated with NBC Weather Plus until that network shut down in December 2008, and aired a locally originated "Weather Plus" channel between that time and June 2009.

WGRZ discontinued regular programming on its analog signal, over VHF Channel 2, at 1 p m on June 12,2009, the official date in which full-power television stations in the United States transitioned from analog to digital broadcasts under federal mandate.

WGRZ dropped the -TV suffix, like most Gannett stations, just a week after the transition.