WVTT-CD first signed on March 7, 1986, as W20AB on channel 20 by Choice Olean Television, Inc. and was affiliated with the
American Christian Television System (ACTS) and
Tempo Television. The station was the first station to broadcast from the city, and the first television station in the Southern Tier of Western New York to prove to be commercially viable;
WNYP-TV (channel 26), an earlier effort based in
Jamestown, failed after only three years in the late 1960s and was passed on to a religious broadcaster. Channel 20 was broadcast from the roof of the Palace Theater building in downtown Olean, but its signal was not well received outside of the city proper. The station acquired channel 25 (known then as W25AK) on August 24, 1987, as a repeater of the channel 20 signal, and signed on the air on April 12, 1989. The Palace Theater building was demolished in 1998 causing the channel 20 signal to go dark; its license, however, remains active . Channel 25 became the primary channel for the station and changed its call sign to WONS-LP ("Olean's News Source") on March 8, 1999, gaining the shared
UPN affiliation with
Buffalo station
WNGS (channel 67). The new UPN 25 held on to its affiliation until WNGS was added to the Olean-area cable line-up. WONS-LP later began to carry programming from the
Urban America Television Network and
Shop at Home Network, as well as a small share of local content. WONS-LP has also had past affiliations with
FamilyNet,
America One Network (A1), the
American Independent Network (AIN), and
Network One. The station was also among the initial affiliates of Main Street TV, the forerunner of America One. In 2006, Urban America and Shop at Home both ceased operations. The channel was then affiliated with
The Sportsman Channel until that network moved exclusively to cable in 2009. America One once again listed the station as one of their affiliates as of 2011. That network merged with
Youtoo TV in 2015. WONS-LP's operations were taken over by
Colonial Radio Group, owners of
WBYB,
WXMT and
WVTT, in October 2011. The call sign was changed to WVTT-CA (matching Colonial's
talk radio station) in February 2012. On April 29, 2013, Colonial ended its involvement with the station, but the two stations would share control of the WVTT calls until Colonial relinquished them in 2018. In June 2013, Choice Tower Rentals announced the sale of WVTT-CA, as well as the still-active W20AB license, to Milachi Media (an alias for William and Paige Christian, who also own stakes in Waypoint Media; the deal will put the station under common ownership with
WYDC (channel 48) and
WJKP-LD (channel 39) in
Corning,
WBGT-CD (channel 46) in
Rochester, and several
Elmira/Corning radio stations. (Waypoint later transferred the license to another shell company, "Novia Communications", then to "Woodland Communications", both of which have the same principal owners.) In 2014, the company acquired radio stations
WMXO,
WOEN,
WGGO and
WQRS in Cattaraugus County, making the four stations sister stations to WVTT-CA. On December 17, 2014, the station was licensed for digital operation, changing its call sign to WVTT-CD. Its channel 34 was previously used by
WNYO-TV prior to the full-power analog shutdown in 2009; as part of the change, WVTT's broadcast transmitter was relocated from Olean to its current location on the Machias–Yorkshire town line, a considerable distance from Olean with a much broader signal capable of covering most of
Western New York; it remains licensed to Olean. To accommodate the move, WVTT's
virtual channel changed from 25 to 34, as the move brought the signal within range of
CBLFT, also on channel 25 out of
Toronto. W20AB's license was given the call sign WWHC-LP, with the signal now operating using WVTT's former broadcast area mostly confined to the city of Olean. As of 2020, both WVTT and WWHC are off the air;
construction permit applications were filed to move WWHC to WVTT's current location and move WVTT to the current
WGRZ tower in
South Wales, New York, with intent to return both stations to air in August. In 2017, WVTT accepted an offer of over $9,000,000 to move to the high-VHF spectrum, down from its UHF position, in the FCC's spectrum incentive auction. When the station moved on March 13, 2020, On August 6, DTV America's parent company
HC2 Holdings purchased the WVTT-CD license. As of 2025,
construction permits have been granted to both stations to move to adjacent channel 17 and 18 allocations operating from the
WUTV transmitter on
Grand Island and change the city of license to Buffalo, formally eliminating over-the-air television service in Olean. In February 2026, WVTT-CD suffered damage to its transmitter and went silent. ==Local programming==