In the late 1940s, the station was bought by a consortium of Western New York families known as the WGR Corporation. The company signed on WGR-TV (channel 2) in 1953 and WGR-FM (now WGRF) in 1959. WGR Corporation bought several other television and radio stations in the 1950s, and eventually became known as Transcontinent Broadcasting. Transcontinent merged with Taft Broadcasting in 1964. Taft sold off WGR-TV in 1983. Due to a now-repealed FCC rule that prohibited TV and radio stations in the same market, but with different owners, from sharing the same call letters, the TV station amended its call letters to WGRZ after it was sold. The company retained both WGR radio and WGRF.