Two veterans of Western New York television broadcasting are buying a dormant Springville television station from a national religious broadcaster with plans to bring it to life.

Philip A. Arno and Donald M. Angelo, through ITV of Buffalo LLC, agreed to pay more than $2.75 million to acquire WNGS-TV from Texasbased Daystar Television Network. The deal is subject to Federal Communications Commission approval.

WNGS, founded in 1996 and formerly found on Channel 67, has been “dark” since last June 12, when all U. S. television stations were mandated to switch from analog to digital signals.

Its previous owner, Equity Media Holdings, couldn’t afford to make the transition and went out of business. Equity’s assets, including its 60 stations, were sold to various buyers, including Daystar, which acquired seven full-power and nine low-power stations for $7.4 million in summer 2009.

Daystar, a subsidiary of Word of God Fellowship, is a nonprofit television network founded in 1997 and owned by Marcus and Joni Lamb. Located in Dallas, the company owns and operates more than 70 stations and broadcasts on another 80, reaching 42 of the top 50 markets and 81 million U. S. homes. It also broadcasts via satellite into more than 200 countries and 671 million households.

But it never converted WNGS to digital and never reactivated the station. Arno and Angelo plan to do so, although Arno said they’re still deciding on their programming format. He declined to specify the options.

“We’ve got two separate possibilities, and we’re trying to determine which way to go with it,” said Arno, of Clarence Center. “We have a pretty good idea of what’s needed in the area,

but we’re still trying to figure out what’s practical.”

Under the sale agreement, Daystar must now get the station back on the air by June 12, because the FCC won’t allow a station to be “dark” for more than a year or it can lose its license, Arno said. Specific programming between now and the closing of the sale will be up to Daystar, he said.

The old analog signal had been sent from a small tower in Springville that “barely reached the market,” but Arno said the new signal will be completely digital and “will reach all of Western New York” at full power. The station will likely be based in Clarence.

“This is a signal that will reach throughout the entire area,” he said. “It’ll go to Lake Ontario, roughly, and to Batavia on one side, and almost down to Dunkirk. It will cover the market as well as any station.”

WNGS has had a short but convoluted history. When it was first launched, it initially offered an infomercial and “home shopping” format before adding general entertainment and low-budget shows in 1997.

It became a UPN affiliate in April 1998 but lost the relationship to WNLO, owned by LIN TV, in January 2003. It returned to infomercials before Equity bought it and made it a Retro Television Network (RTN) affiliate, showing old television shows like “Rockford Files” and “Magnum P. I.” From 2006 to April 2009, the station was run under a local marketing agreement with WKBW Channel 7.

After Equity sold RTN in 2008, the station lost that programming, replacing it first with older syndicated library or “public domain” movies and then with This TV until it went completely off the air in June 2009. RTN programming, now RTV, is now found on a digital channel owned by WGRZ, Channel 2.

Arno, of Clarence, and Angelo, of Amherst, have a long history in Western New York broadcasting, and both are Western New York natives. Arno started in 1969 at WKBW radio, and besides Channel 7, he has also worked at WIVB, Channel 4, and at WUTV, Channel 29, when it first went on the air in 1970. He also spent 18 years in the Los Angeles market.

Angelo spent 45 years in broadcast news, sales and management in Buffalo and several other cities, including helping to launch WNYB TV 49 and the Niagara Frontier Sports Network, and running television and cable advertising for the Buffalo Sabres. He also held management posts at WUTV, WNED and more recently as local advertising manager for WGRZ. He recently founded Angelo Media Services and Nickel City Media LLC.