WNGS-TV has a new owner and, in a matter of days, will switch from religious programming to showing movies and vintage TV shows as an affiliate of This TV network.

The purchase of the long-dormant Springville television station by ITV of Buffalo and two other entities, all controlled by Western New York broadcasting industry veteran Philip A. Arno, was approved earlier this week by the Federal Communications Commission.

The purchase of WNGS, founded in 1996 and found on broadcast Channel 67.1, is a major step forward in plans by the new owners to revive the station.

The switch to This TV is expected to occur within a day or two, Arno said Wednesday. This TV is a network from MGM and Weigel Broadcasting that features movies from the film libraries of MGM, United Artists, Orion Pictures and others. It also carries classic television shows such as “Mister Ed,” “The Patty Duke Show,” “Sea Hunt” and “The Outer Limits.”

For now, WNGS is available only over the air, although Arno said the station has “must-carry” status that requires it to be included on local cable and satellite services.

“We are finalizing signal testing and should be able to talk to the new owners regarding a launch date very soon,“ said Matthew Tremblay, a Time Warner spokesman.

Arno added, “We anticipate that we’ll be on all the providers within the next three weeks.” The station, which previously had a limited signal, has installed a new transmitter and tower about four miles north of Springville that Arno said should make its signal available throughout the Buffalo metro area.

The programming switch will return WNGS to the This TV stable. The station briefly carried This TV programming after it lost the ability to carry programs as part of the Retro Television Network (RTN) in

January 2009.

WNGS carried This TV programming until it went off the air in June 2009, when all U. S. television stations were required to switch from analog to digital signals. It has since returned to the air with religious programming.

Arno agreed in May to pay more than $2.75 million to acquire WNGS-TV from Texasbased religious broadcaster Word of God Fellowship.

Word of God, better known as the Daystar Television Network, purchased the station last year when its previous owner, the bankrupt Equity Media Holdings, sold off its stable of 60 stations.

Arno, of Clarence, started in the broadcasting industry in 1969 at WKBW radio. He also has worked at WKBW-TV and WIVB-TV, as well as at WUTV, Channel 29, when it first went on the air in 1970. He also spent 18 years in the Los Angeles market.

Donald M. Angelo, another local broadcasting veteran, was part of the original group that agreed to purchase the station, but he is no longer involved in the acquisition, Arno said.

drobinson@buffnews.comnull