WBES-TV

WBES-TV was an early UHF television station in Buffalo, New York. The station operated on channel 59 from studios in the Hotel Lafayette in Buffalo. WBES-TV, the second UHF station (and third TV station overall) in Western New York, was very short-lived, signing on September 29, 1953 and shutting down for the last time on December 19 of the same year. An independent station for its entire existence, WBES-TV was plagued by technical and financial problems, the primary factor in the station's failure. Channel 59 was never reissued in Buffalo.

WBES-TV tower atop Hotel Lafayette

Tom Jolls, at the time a radio personality at Lockport's WUSJ, was one of the station's personalities. He would eventually return to television a decade later, first with WBEN-TV, then more permanently with WKBW-TV, where he spent 24 years as a weatherman.[1]

After WBES-TV was shut down, Buffalo was left with two stations, market leader WBEN-TV (channel 4) and fellow UHF upstart WBUF-TV (channel 17); WGR-TV (channel 2) signed on for the very first time on August 14, 1954, using WBES-TV's broadcast tower.

References
  1. Pergament, Alan (June 7, 2023). "Tom Jolls, part of Channel 7's legendary 'Irv, Rick and Tom' broadcast team, dies at 89". Buffalo News. Retrieved June 8, 2023.
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