WENY-TV

WENY-TV (channel 36) is a television station in Elmira, New York, United States, affiliated with ABC and CBS. Owned by Lilly Broadcasting, the station has studios on Old Ithaca Road in Horseheads, and its transmitter is located on Higman Hill in Corning.

The station signed on November 19, 1969, after Howard Green, owner of WENY radio (1230 AM, now WMAJ and 92.7 FM, now WCBF) and WCMC-AM-TV in Wildwood, New Jersey, was awarded analog UHF channel 36 by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). Another area broadcaster, Frank Saia, had surrendered the construction permit to build what would have been WEHH-TV on the same channel.

Green purchased the initial equipment from defunct station WNYP-TV, hiring Larry Taylor (previously the Assistant Chief Engineer of WNYP-TV) to move and install the broadcast equipment. Green and Taylor brought the equipment into a space on the ground floor of the Mark Twain Hotel in Downtown Elmira which had been a restaurant. The station's analog antenna was side-mounted to the Hawley Hill tower of NBC affiliate WSYE-TV (now known as WETM-TV). A further addition was constructed to the building that housed WSYE to allow for the installation of the WENY analog transmitter. The station's digital transmitter was relocated to Corning.

WENY began operations out of a mixed color/black-and-white facility. Its broadcasts of ABC network programming were actually retransmissions of either WABC-TV in New York City or WNYS-TV (now WSYR-TV) in Syracuse, New York. The former was received via microwave while the latter was received via a deep fringe hotel rooftop antenna. The station aired a small amount of locally produced programming including an Elmira edition of Claster Television's long-running children's program Romper Room and a late-Saturday night horror movie hosted by disc jockey Paul Leigh as the ghoulish "Undertaker".

During the disastrous flooding caused by Hurricane Agnes in 1972, WENY was abandoned due to rising waters. Engineers were able to remove a small amount of equipment to the Hawley Hill site where the station managed a limited broadcasting schedule of news and emergency announcements until the studios could be reoccupied. After this, Green obtained a building on Old Ithaca Road in Horseheads that had been used by the Army Corps of Engineers. In 1973, Taylor, along with engineer Gary Simon, moved the station from the hotel to the garage of the property where it remains to this day. In 2000, longtime owner Howard Green sold WENY to current owner Lilly Broadcasting (owned by Brian Lilly, son of SJL Broadcasting's George Lilly) thus separating the television station from its radio sisters which were sold to Eolin (Olin) Broadcasting.

According to the FCC, it had an application to air a digital signal on UHF channel 55. However, the station opted to perform a flash-cut instead. Qualcomm holds licenses for the channel 55 spectrum. Approval of WENY's request to flash-cut allowed that company's wholly owned subsidiary, MediaFLO United States, to expand its "mediacast" service coverage in New York State without loss of broadcast service to the public. WENY's digital transmitter was relocated to Corning. The station's coverage area includes Steuben and Chemung counties in New York which borders the Erie, Pennsylvania, market and sister stations WSEE-TV and WICU-TV.

In July 2014, WENY became the subject of criticism when it cut away from the closing minutes of the 2014 FIFA World Cup Final to broadcast coverage of a tornado warning affecting the area.

WENY-DT2 is the CBS-affiliated second digital subchannel of WENY-TV, broadcasting in 1080i high definition on channel 36.2.