Owned by the Boston-based WGBH Educational Foundation, it is a sister station to that organization's flagship and namesake, WGBH-TV, channel 2 (however, WGBY-TV brands as a separate, locally focused PBS outlet).

WGBY-TV's transmitter is located on the peak of Mount Tom in Holyoke with the area's commercial television stations.

[2] Prior to the station's sign-on (and for the network's first year of existence), viewers in Western Massachusetts could watch PBS programming over the air on outskirt public television stations, including WGBH-TV to the east, WMHT from Albany from the west, or WEDH from Hartford (the latter remains available on most cable providers in the Springfield market).

The WGBH Educational Foundation held the license of WFCR from 1961 until its transfer to the University of Massachusetts Amherst in 1967, four years before WGBY-TV began operations.

The Friday edition of the series is entitled The State We're In and deals with local and Commonwealth political issues, along with debate programming in election years.