WFHW-LP

This article may need to be rewritten to comply with Wikipedia's quality standards. You can help. The talk page may contain suggestions. (May 2024)

WFHW-LP (channel 58) was a low-power television station in Buffalo, New York, United States, founded by consumer rights advocate Ralph Nader in summer 1989 as W58AV on UHF 58.^[1][2] The station broadcast from the top of the Marine Midland Bank Tower (now Seneca One Tower) in downtown Buffalo, with an initial power of 100 watts (later upgraded to 1000, and finally, 15,100 watts). From the beginning, the station aired a large amount of locally produced fare, with programming from Channel America,^[3] as well as a partnership with The Learning Channel.^[4] By 1991, the station had partnered up with Medaille College, though this would only last until January 1, 1993.^[5]

At some point in the mid-1990s, the station upgraded from translator to LPTV status, and changed its call letters to WFHW-LP after what would become its last operator, the local chapter of the non-profit Friendship House.^[6] The station went silent on Halloween in 1999 after the Friendship House ceased operations, several years before the digital television transition in the United States.^[7] Channel 58 would not be reissued; it would later be allocated to WJET-TV in Erie, Pennsylvania, as a temporary digital channel prior to the transition, after which it (along with all stations between 52 and 69) would be removed from the television spectrum.