WIVB-TV Television News Film and Video Archives

During the period of the mid-1960s to the early 1990s, the eight counties of Western New York faced dramatic challenges to social norms, the economy, and politics. During the turbulent 1960’s, Buffalo along with other major U.S. cities experienced inner city riots, civil rights and anti-war protests, and white flight to the suburbs. The 1970s saw an inmate uprising at Attica that led to prison reform at a great cost to human life. Major environmental issues including the Love Canal neighborhood and the nuclear clean-up at West Valley attracted national attention. During the 1980s and early 1990s, Western New York struggled with a loss of major industries including Bethlehem Steel, and became a one newspaper city with the shutdown of the Buffalo Courier Express. Despite social, economic, and political upheavals, Western New York’s unique religious and ethnically diverse culture provided a tightly-knitted fabric of tradition that helped stabilize families and neighborhoods. As the “City of Good Neighbors,” Buffalo celebrated its storied history and found new ways to cope with a rapidly changing world. While Buffalo is now experiencing an economic renaissance, many of the issues that confronted the Western New York region and the state of New York a half century ago continue to present challenges. These include matters involving race relations, civil rights, preservation, education and the environment. It is the hope of the Buffalo Broadcasters Association that this up-close and personal television news chronicle of Western New York’s moving image history will shed new light on the character of a region and its people, and provide valuable lessons for addressing the critical issues of our time.