HORSEHEADS, NY (WENY) -- November 19th makes a special day in WENY-TV history. The station signed on the air for the first time on this day - 50 years ago.

We're taking a look back at how it all began. WENY started as a radio station, and later expanded to add the TV station in 1969. The operation was owned by the Green Group, run by Howard Green. Green acquired the television equipment from a defunct TV station in Jamestown, New York - bringing it to Elmira.

Former WENY anchor and news director Tom Seem remembers that day.

"Tons and tons of rather old equipment was trucked from Jamestown to NY, in the Mark Twain Hotel, and it was set up by a team of engineers to become WENY TV," he explained.

And so it began - WENY-TV signed on the air on November 19th, 1969, calling the Mark Twain Hotel in downtown Elmira home. The television equipment was housed in the basement, with the TV studio on the first floor. The station's radio operation and newsroom was on the hotel's 7th floor. 

Seem made the transition from the radio station to the television side, reporting and anchoring for the area's newest TV station. He also worked to keep the information flowing to the community through the station's first tragedy - the flood of 1972, which devastated communities across the Twin Tiers. 

"First of all, there were two or three things that happened, the radio station and the TV station went off the air. the TV station studios were inundated by water, it came right in on the first floor of the Mark Twain hotel, the radio stations transmitter was over by Dunn field, it was inundated by water, it went off the air," Seem said. 

The flood took the station off the air for several days, but WENY eventually was able to get back to reporting the local news - working in partnership with a radio station in Horseheads to transmit information to the community. 

"We all did very different kinds of reporting, and all fed them into WIQT (radio), which was Dave Ridenour's station, which ran news of the flood and the local situation almost constantly. We had no place else to put our product. we had people working, we could not shoot any film and have it go anyplace, but we did our best, and once the technicians got hold of some area up near our transmitter, and we were able to set up a little temporary studio up there, and of on air reporting, with all sorts of fans and noise and transmitters going on in the background, and it was pretty awful," Seem explained. 

Not long after the flood, the station relocated from Elmira into a former Army Corps of Engineer building on Old Ithaca Road in Horseheads - where we broadcast from to this day. Local journalist Jay LaScolea, originally from Bath, joined the team in 1994. 

"I started in November of 1994, and I remember my first day on the job they were celebrating the 25th anniversary of WENY in November of 1994. I had sent tapes, and here I am dating myself, tapes, all around the country and I graduated college in 1994 and I wanted to get hired as a reporter at a television station," LaScolea remembers.

While over the years, the technology has come along way.  But our mission over the past 50 years remains the same. Focused on providing important information and perspective - whether it's a local story or a national disaster - like the September 11th terror attacks in 2001.

"I remember coming in and reporter crying in the newsroom, I remember people calling and I would pick up the phone and they'd say "Is this the end of the world?" I mean this is... people were scared and they wanted reassurance and that's why I think what we do, what I had done when I worked here is.. you offered so much comfort to people in many ways," said LaScolea, "Then I got to go to New York City in the days after to report on the aftermath, and that was something that I will always remember, I did it right after it happened, and then we went back a year later and reported on that, and that was I remember the most as a reporter covering the aftermath of 9/11."

LaScolea, who worked as an anchor at WENY until 2005, has fond memories of working at his hometown television station.

"It is very special when you see former teachers and family, friends of family or family members that will just come up to you and say 'I watch you every night' or at our church, they would say 'I just saw you on the news last night.' When you are reporting on a story, especially if I would go to Bath, right, and there was an event happening there, that was extra special for me because that was my community, right? But this whole region not just that... The Twin Tiers is home, so you'd treat every story I think extra special because it's home, and you want to take care of home, and you want to make sure you are giving it your best. That's why I love this is home," he said.

During this time the station has remained committed to the Twin Tiers - with community involvement a cornerstone of its mission. WENY TV broadcast the Muscular Dystrophy Association telethon on Labor Day weekend for over 40 years, and has also been supportive of other local charitable organizations, such as the Children's Miracle Network, Alzheimer's Association, JDRF, the Arctic League, and Food Bank of the Southern Tier, just to name a few. 

The station has operated under the local ownership of Lilly Broadcasting for the past 20 years, had has grown and changed dramatically during that time. What was once a single ABC affiliate station, is now the ABC, CBS and CW affiliate for the Elmira-Corning broadcast market. WENY also serves as the broadcast hub for Lilly Broadcasting - running master control operations for Lilly stations in Elmira, Erie, Pennsylvania, Honolulu, Hawaii, Marquette, Michigan, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. 

Even through all the change - we remain a family.

LaScolea agrees. "I learned very quickly how special this place was in the time that I was here, and the friendships and the family and the people I still consider friends and like family to today."