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VHF Early development Local tv stations in the United States were focused on the VHF dial (channels 213) in the early days of the industry. However, it soon became apparent that the twelve channels offered on the VHF dial would not be enough to meet the demands of the growing market.
As a reward for companies to operate UHF stations, the FCC unwinded the ownership limit for a provided entity from five to 7 stations, supplied that no more than 5 were on the VHF dial. With this chance to broaden its lineup of O&O s, NBC purchased WBUF-TV (channel 17) in Buffalo in 1955 and WKNB-TV (channel 30) in New Britain, Connecticut (near Hartford) in 1957, and altered WKNB's call letters to WNBC-TV (the present-day WNBC in New York City utilized the WRCA-TV callsign from 1954 to 1960).
However, WBUF regularly ranked behind its VHF rivals, WGR-TV (channel 2, now WGRZ) and WBEN-TV (channel 4, now WIVB-TV). Similarly, This Is Noteworthy ranked behind VHF rival WNHC-TV (channel 8, now WTNH); WNBC faced an additional issue as its signal was not strong enough to cover New Haven and western Connecticut (nearly all of Connecticut belongs to the Hartford-New Sanctuary market).
While it found a buyer for WNBC (which kept its NBC association), there were no takers for WBUF, and it went off the air in 1958. NBC then connected with WGR-TV, where it remains to this day. NBC donated WBUF's license and a few of its equipment to PBS WNED-TV, which took over the channel 17 frequency in 1959 (due to a variety of transactions, the WBUF-TV license is now held by WNLO and the channel 17 frequency was later on held by WBXZ-LD; WNED still holds the virtual channel 17 in the Buffalo market, however has actually not promoted it considering that the early 2000s).
However, CBS' scores were amazingly low in those markets. In 1959, CBS decided to move its Hartford and Milwaukee affiliations to VHF stations WTIC-TV and WITI-TV (channel 6) respectively, and sold off what ended up being WHCT (now Univision affiliate WUVN) and WXIX (now CW affiliate WVTV) paradoxically, CBS was returned to the UHF dial in Milwaukee following an association switch in December 1994, which saw WITI becoming a Fox station, while its previous CBS affiliation transferred to WDJT-TV (channel 58).