Group W eventually struck an agreement to switch WBZ-TV, KYW-TV and WJZ-TV to CBS (Westinghouse's two other stations, KDKA-TV in Pittsburgh and KPIX in San Francisco, were already CBS affiliates). Westinghouse felt betrayed by ABC's decision, and as a safeguard began shopping for affiliation deals for the entire Group W television unit. Scripps Company to switch three of Scripps' television stations-including its Baltimore outlet, WMAR-TV-to ABC as a condition of retaining its network affiliations with WEWS-TV in Cleveland and WXYZ-TV in Detroit CBS intended to affiliate with those two stations, as it was about to lose its longtime affiliates in those markets to Fox due to a deal with New World Communications. In 1994, sister station WJZ-TV in Baltimore lost its affiliation with ABC after that network announced a deal with the E. įurther information: 1994–1996 United States broadcast television realignment The station was the first to employ a female (Betty Adams) reporter, the first to employ a black reporter ( Terry Carter) full-time, the first to have an all-female news team ( Shelby Scott and Gail Harris), the first to have a black full-time nightly news anchor ( Liz Walker), and was home to the city's first minority affairs program. On October 12, 1957, WBZ-TV broadcast a half-hour special program on Sputnik 1, featuring a motion picture of the final stage of its rocket crossing the pre-dawn sky of Baltimore, shot by sister station WJZ-TV. It was also the first Boston station to have daily newscasts, starting with the station's very first night on the air. In 1948, it began live broadcasts of Boston's two Major League Baseball teams, the Red Sox and the Braves, broadcasts that at first were split with WNAC-TV. WBZ-TV (sometimes informally referred to as "BZ" both on- and off-air) was a pioneer in Boston television. WBZ-TV retained its NBC affiliation as a result of the canceled sale. However, in 1964, the FCC nullified the NBC-RKO trade and ordered the NBC-Westinghouse swap reversed without NBC realizing any profit on the deal. Approval of the RKO-NBC deal would have potentially made WBZ-TV an ABC affiliate, completing a three-way swap of network affiliations in Boston. The threat reemerged in 1960 after NBC announced it would swap the Philadelphia stations in exchange for a competing Boston outlet, then-CBS affiliate WNAC-TV (channel 7, now defunct) and its sister radio stations, from RKO General. Department of Justice about NBC's extortion. The swap was made in February 1956, but Westinghouse immediately complained to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and the U.S. In response, NBC threatened to pull its programming from both WBZ-TV and WPTZ unless Westinghouse agreed to the trade. The tower site is now owned by American Tower Corporation, and is used by several Boston-area television stations, including WGBH-TV (channel 2) and WCVB-TV (channel 5).Ĭhannel 4 was in danger of losing its NBC affiliation when Westinghouse balked at NBC's initial offer to trade sister stations KYW radio and WPTZ television (now KYW-TV) in Philadelphia in exchange for WTAM-AM- FM and WNBK television (now WKYC-TV) in Cleveland. In 1957, WBZ-TV began broadcasting from a 1,200-foot (366 m) tower in Needham, along with WBZ-FM at 106.7 FM (now WMJX). A temporary transmitter was installed using a short, makeshift tower at the studio site and later on the original tower of WEEI-FM (now WBGB) in Malden. The station was knocked off the air on August 31, 1954, when Hurricane Carol destroyed its transmitter tower. The WBZ stations would not move into what was then known as the Westinghouse Broadcasting Center until June 17, 1948, when the building was opened. The station originally operated from inside the Hotel Bradford alongside its radio sister its current home was not completed at the time, although master control and its self-supporting tower over the building were in use at sign-on. At its sign-on, WBZ-TV became the first commercial television station to begin operations in the New England region. The station was from its inception associated with the NBC television network, owing to WBZ radio (1030 AM)'s longtime affiliation with NBC's radio networks. The dedication was followed by the station's first news broadcast, hosted by Arch MacDonald. Due to the uncertainty surrounding the exact day the station would launch, all of the messages were prerecorded and one of the speakers (Liebman) had died before the program aired. Liebman, Boston Mayor James Michael Curley, Boston Chamber of Commerce president C. Edwin Van Etten, Archbishop Richard Cushing, Rabbi Joshua L. The station's dedicatory program aired at 6:30 pm and featured remarks from the Very Rev. Early logotype for WBZ-TV as seen on a station bumper, circa 1960.Īs the only television station that was built from the ground up by the Westinghouse Electric Corporation, WBZ-TV began operations 10 am at Jwith test patterns.
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