WBZ-TV

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WBZ-TV is the CBS owned-and-operated television station serving the Boston, Massachusetts television market. The station's transmitter is located in Needham, Massachusetts while studios are located on Soldiers Field Road in north Boston's Brighton neighborhood. It is a sister station to independent WSBK-TV.

History

WBZ-TV took to the air for the first time June 9, 1948. It was the first commercial television station in New England. It was owned by Westinghouse Broadcasting (later known as Group W), a subsidiary of Westinghouse Electric Corporation, along with WBZ radio (AM 1030 and 100.7 FM, now WZLX). The station immediately joined NBC owing to WBZ-AM's long affiliation with NBC Radio. It is the only television station to have been built from the ground up by Group W.

The station was knocked off the air August 31, 1954, when Hurricane Carol toppled the station's self-supporting tower over its studios. A temporary transmitter was installed on a nearby tower and later on the original tower of WNAC-TV (channel 7, now WHDH-TV). In 1957, WBZ-TV began broadcasting from a 1200-foot (366-meter) tower in Needham. The tower site is now known as the CBS Digital Television Broadcasting Facility, and is used by several Boston-area television stations, including WGBH-TV (channel 2) and WCVB-TV (channel 5).

Channel 4 nearly lost its NBC affiliation in 1955, when Westinghouse balked at NBC's offer to trade sister stations KYW-AM and WPTZ-TV (now KYW-TV) in Philadelphia in exchange for the network's owned and operated cluster in Cleveland. In response, NBC threatened to yank its programming from both WBZ-TV and WPTZ unless Westinghouse agreed to the trade. The swap was made in 1956, but Westinghouse immediately complained to the Federal Communications Commission and the Justice Department about NBC's extortion. In 1965, the FCC ordered the swap reversed without NBC realizing any profit on the deal.

WBZ-TV was a pioneer in Boston television. In 1948, it began live broadcasts of Boston's two Major League Baseball teams, the Red Sox and the Boston Braves; broadcasts that at first were split with WNAC. It was also the first Boston station to have daily newscasts, starting with the station's very first night on the air.

In the mid-1960s, it adopted the Eyewitness News format that had been pioneered at KYW-TV. It led the news ratings in Boston for many years until WCVB passed it in the early 1980s, but even then was a strong second for more than a decade. Its evening news team--anchors Liz Walker and Jack Williams, meteorologist Bruce Schwoegler, sportscaster Bob Lobel, entertainment reporter Joyce Kulhawik, and senior correspondent John Henning--was the longest-running news team in New England from 1980 until Schwoegler retired in 2001.

The station also broadcast many locally produced programs over the years. One of the most beloved was the long-runing Big Brother Bob Emery show, hosted by veteran radio performer Emery, who first did the show on Boston-area radio in 1921 and who in 1947 hosted the first five-times-a-week children's show on network television on DuMont. For nearly two decades, from 1956 until 1974, Rex Trailer hosted a popular weekend-morning children's show called Boomtown. For part of that time, Boomtown originated from an outdoor "western town" set built next to WBZ-TV's studios.

From 1977 to 1990, Evening Magazine aired on the station. The original co-hosts were Robin Young and Marty Sender; later, Barry Nolan and Sara Edwards co-hosted the program.

People Are Talking, (1980-1993) a live early-afternoon talk show aired on WBZ, as it did on some other Westinghouse stations. In Boston, it was originally hosted by Nancy Merrill; "People Are Talking" was later hosted by Buzz Luttrell, but the best-known host was the program's last, Tom Bergeron.

WBZ-TV was also the first station to air daily Mass State Lottery drawings in Boston, starting in 1975. Tom Bergeron credits one of his early TV jobs to hosting lottery drawings on Channel 4. The station holds the record for having the rights to the games the longest (12 years), before passing the torch to Channel 7 (then known as WNEV-TV) in 1987. Eleven years later, Lottery Live would return to WBZ, with long-time host Dawn Hayes still at the helm. Due to new limited contacts permitting the local stations to carry Lottery Live for only 3 years at a time, WBZ moved the games to sister station WSBK in 2001.

WBZ-TV has aired local sporting events over the years. Besides the Braves (1948 until they moved to Milwaukee prior to the 1953 season) and the Red Sox (1948-1957; 1972-1974, and a handful of games in 2003 and 2004), WBZ-TV also broadcast the Boston Celtics from 1972-73 through 1984-85. In 1980, WBZ-TV was the first Boston television station to broadcast live wire-to-wire coverage of the Boston Marathon; the station has done so every year since. In April 2007, WBZ will be the exclusive broadcast home for marathon coverage.[1]

Over the past few years, WBZ-TV and parent CBS have co-produced a live telecast of the annual Boston Pops' July 4 concert at Boston's Hatch Shell along the Charles River. The entire concert is broadcast live locally by WBZ. The CBS network joins the show in progress at 10 p.m. to show the Pops' signature versions of "1812 Overture" and "Stars And Stripes Forever," as well as the fireworks over the Charles.

For several years, the station has aired exclusive First Night Boston coverage on New Year's Eve, showcasing festivities from Boston, New England, and the world.

File:Wbz 1980.PNG

WBZ-TV's main anchors in the 1990s.

File:WBZ Promo89.jpg

Screengrab of WBZ-TV 4 promo from 1989.

As an NBC affiliate, the station was known to preempt several hours of network programming a day—a common practice among Group W stations. This was significant, since WBZ-TV was NBC's second-largest affiliate in the Eastern Time Zone. It primarily preempted several daytime morning programs. On January 3, 1983, when People Are Talking expanded to one hour, WBZ-TV dropped NBC's Another World, which would move to WQTV (now WBPX) until the fall of 1987, when the show moved to WHLL (now WUNI-TV) and later to WMFP in the early 1990s. The station also dropped many Saturday morning cartoons in 1990, even though NBC later abandoned such programming in favor of live-action, teen-oriented shows, such as Saved by the Bell. NBC has traditionally been less tolerant of preemptions than the other networks. However, it was generally satisfied with WBZ-TV, which was one of NBC's strongest affiliates. As a sidebar, sister station KYW-TV in Philadelphia (ironically, NBC's largest affiliate) also heavily preempted NBC programming, but it spent most of the 1980s and 1990s as NBC's weakest major-market affiliate.

In 1994, Group W and CBS struck an affiliation deal that resulted in three of Group W's five stations--WBZ-TV, KYW-TV and WJZ-TV in Baltimore--switching to CBS (Group W's other two stations, KDKA-TV in Pittsburgh and KPIX-TV in San Francisco, were already CBS affiliates). The station ended its nearly 47-year affiliation with NBC on September 11, 1995. NBC Nightside ended at 5 am, followed by local news and CBS This Morning. WBZ-TV thus became the third station in Boston to affiliate with CBS. The network had originally affiliated with WNAC-TV in 1948, then moved to channel 5 (then known as WHDH-TV, no relation to the current WHDH-TV) in 1962. It then returned to channel 5 in 1972 and stayed there until the switch. As a CBS affiliate, the station aired the entire CBS schedule with no pre-emptions except for local news emergencies, as per Westinghouse's agreement with CBS.

When Westinghouse merged with CBS in early 1996, WBZ-TV became a CBS owned and operated station. As a condition of the merger, CBS had to sell recently-acquired WPRI-TV in Providence. WBZ-TV's city-grade signal covers most of Rhode Island, while WPRI's city-grade signal reaches most of the Boston metropolitan area. FCC regulations at the time did not allow common ownership of two or more television stations with overlapping city-grade signals.

Although the station tends to rank #1 in daytime and primetime ratings, Channel 4's local news ratings have suffered since the switch in network affiliations. Taken as a whole, its local news is the lowest rated of Boston's "Big 3" affiliates, having dipped behind a resurgent WHDH-TV as well. In January of 2006, attempting to bolster its local news ratings, Channel 4 reinstated its 5 p.m. news and dismissed its former lead anchor Josh Binswanger, leading to the return of long-time anchor Jack Williams to the prime-time newscasts. In addition, Ed Carroll's contract was not renewed and in October 2005 the station hired Ken Barlow from KARE-TV in Minneapolis, Minnesota, to replace him as chief meteorologist.

In late August 2006, WBZ-TV ended its 4 PM weekday newscast and hired anchor Chris May from WHDH channel 7. Chris May, along with Sara Underwood, anchor the 5 PM weekday news on WBZ-TV. Both of them anchor the TV38 News, a newscast on sister station WSBK-TV, as of September 18, 2006. WHDH now airs the only 4 PM weekday newscast in the Boston area.

In January 2007, the station launched Project Mass.[2], a commitment to cover the community's top concerns in government, transit, healthcare, education, finance, and the environment. The initiative kicked-off with an online town meeting.

Channel 4 has changed its news and station branding continuously since the affiliation switch, from "Eyewitness News" to "WBZ News 4" to "News 4 New England" to "WBZ 4 News". On February 1, 2004, WBZ rebranded itself as "CBS4," as per the CBS Mandate. The "CBS4" branding has been phased-out during the first quarter of 2007, and as of February 2007, the station's newscast title was reverted from "CBS 4 News" to "WBZ News". The return of "WBZ-TV" and "WBZ News" took place Sunday, February 4, 2007, during the station's coverage of the Super Bowl.[3] This makes the station the first station owned by CBS to depart from the CBS Mandate standardization since; it joins sister stations KDKA-TV Pittsburgh, WCCO-TV Minneapolis-St. Paul, KUTV Salt Lake City and WJZ-TV Baltimore in not following the Mandate currently.

After Viacom's (whose head Sumner Redstone comes from Boston) merger with CBS in 2000, WBZ-TV's operations were merged with that of Boston's UPN affiliate, WSBK-TV, and later with WLWC-TV, the UPN affiliate in nearby Providence. Today, the master control for all three stations as well as the studios and offices of WBZ-TV and WSBK-TV are co-located at WBZ's facilities at 1170 Soldiers Field Road in the Allston section of Boston; however, with the pending sale of WLWC to Cerberus Capital Management, it is unknown where WLWC will be mastered from in the future.

In April, 2007 'BZ was the only local news station to have complete coverage of the Boston Marathon.

Logos

In the early 1960s, WBZ unveiled a new stylized "4" logo, using a distinctive font that had been designed especially for Group W. The logo became italicized in the late 1980s, but remained the same font. It kept this logo for over 30 years until it unveiled its first "News 4 New England" logo in September 1996. The old logo was the longest-used numeric logo in New England television history until WCVB's stylized "5" crossed the 31-year mark in 2003.

The "Circle-4" logo that replaced the original "News 4" logo in 1998 was often referred to on-air by WBZ sports anchor Bob Lobel as "The Circle 4 Ranch". As of 2007, WBZ has dropped the CBS Mandated "CBS4" logo & branding and now refers to itself simply as "WBZ".

Coverage area

WBZ-TV's transmitter and antenna are located in Needham, Massachusetts, on the same tower as WCVB-TV/DT, WGBH-TV/DT, WGBX-TV/DT, and WSBK-TV's HDTV transmitter. In fact, the tower and site are owned by CBS itself. Its signal covers Greater Boston, southern New Hampshire, northern Rhode Island, and northeastern Connecticut. WBZ is also one of six local Boston TV stations seen in Canada on the Bell ExpressVu satellite provider, and is also seen on most cable systems in Atlantic Canada and eastern Quebec.

Newscasts

File:Wbz anchors 2007.JPG

WBZ-TV's main anchors.

File:Wbz weather 2007.JPG

WBZ-TV's chief meteorologist Ken Barlow gives a weather forecast.

WBZ-TV operates a Bell LongRanger 206LIV called SkyEye 4. In addition to its Boston studios, the station operates news bureaus in Worcester, MA [4] and Manchester, NH [5]. The station's radar, known as "WBZ Doppler Live", is located at Worcester Regional Airport. Along with other CBS-owned stations, WBZ offers a web-only "@ Your Desk" newscast, available live and on-demand.

Weekdays

• WBZ News This Morning - 5:00 a.m. to 7:00 a.m.
• WBZ News at Noon - 12:00 p.m. to 12:30 p.m.
• WBZ News at 5pm - 5:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m.
• WBZ News at 6pm - 6:00 p.m. to 6:30 p.m.
• WBZ News at 11pm - 11:00 p.m. to 11:35 p.m.

Saturday

• WBZ News This Morning - 6:00 a.m. to 8:00 a.m.
• WBZ News at 6pm - 6:00 p.m. to 6:30 p.m.
• WBZ News at 11pm - 11:00 p.m. to 11:35 p.m.

Sunday

• WBZ News This Morning - 6:00 a.m. to 9:00 a.m.
• Sunday with Liz Walker - 11:00 a.m. to 11:30 a.m.
• Patriots Gameday - 11:30 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. (seasonal)
• WBZ News at 11:30am - 11:30 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. (off-season)
• WBZ News at 6:30pm - 6:30 p.m. to 7:00 p.m.
• WBZ News at 11pm - 11:00 p.m. to 11:30 p.m.
• Sports Final with Bob Lobel - 11:30 p.m. to 12:00 a.m.

Newscast names

• Eyewitness News (1965-93)
• WBZ News 4 (1993-96)
• News 4 New England (1996-2000)
• WBZ 4 News (2000-04)
• CBS 4 News (2004-07)
• WBZ News (2007-present)

News Team

Anchors

• Paula Ebben - Weekday Mornings and Noon
• Jonathan Elias - will join station in October
• Dawn Hasbrouck - Weekend Evenings (Also Reporter)
• Lisa Hughes - Principal Anchor at 6 and 11 p.m. (Weeknights)
• Ken MacLeod - Weekend Mornings & Evenings (Also Reporter)
• Chris May - 5 p.m. Weekdays (also on: TV38 News on WSBK-TV)
• Kate Merrill - weekend mornings (Also Reporter)
• Sara Underwood - 5 p.m. Weekdays(also on: TV38 News on WSBK-TV)
• Scott Wahle - Weekday Mornings/Noon
• Jack Williams - Principal Anchor at 6 and 11 p.m. (Weeknights)

Meteorologists

• Ken Barlow - Chief Meteorologist 5, 6, and 11 p.m. Weeknights (also on: TV38 News on WSBK-TV)
• Barry Burbank - Weekday Mornings and Noon
• Mish Michaels - Field Meterologist, fill-in
• Melissa Bell - Weekend Meteorologist
• Ellen Ferrara - Freelance Meteorologist
• Sarah Wroblewski - Fill-in Meteorologist, weather producer (Due to Melisa Bell's pregnancy, Sarah will fill in for her until Melissa's return from Maternity Leave.)
• Buzz Lopez - Fill-in Meteorologist, weather producer

Sports

• Steve Burton - Reporter/Fill-in Anchor
• Alice Cook - Reporter
• Bob Lobel - Sports Director seen Sunday through Thursdays
• Dan Roche - Anchors Fridays and Saturdays

I-Team Reporters

• Joe Bergantino
• Kathy Curran

Reporters

• Karen Anderson - Manchester Bureau
• Paul Burton
• Sera Congi
• Eileen Curran
• Beth Germano
• Christina Hager
• Jon Keller - Political Editor
• Joyce Kulhawik - Arts & Entertainment Editor
• Dan Rea
• Alice Richmond - Legal Analyst
• David Robichaud
• Peg Rusconi
• Ron Sanders - Worcester Bureau
• Bill Shields
• Joe Shortsleeve - Chief Correspondent
• T.J. Winick

Traffic

• Rich Kirkland
• Scott Pike - Weeknights
• Bruce Adams - Weekends

Hosts

• Dr. Mallika Marshall - HealthWatch (also medical editor)
• Yadires Nova-Salcedo - Centro
• Liz Walker - Sunday with Liz Walker

Administration

• Ed Piette, President/General Manager
• Angie Kucharski, Vice President/Station Manager
• Jennifer Street, News Director
• David Hatcher, Assistant News Director
• Andrew Kinkead, General Sales Manager
• Wendy McMahon, Marketing/Creative Services Director
• Ro Dooley Webster, Communications Director
• Pat Kreger, Public Affairs Director
• Christine Ferrara, Programming Manager
• Jack Barry, Operations/Engineering Director
• Stephanie Miller, Webmaster

Past Personalities

• Teri Adler - reporter (2005-2007)
• Charles Austin - reporter (1972-2003)
• Steve Aveson - Evening Magazine feature correspondent (1981-1986)
• Suzanne Bates - anchor/reporter (1987-2000, now owns communications firm [6])
• Len Berman - sports anchor (1973-1978, now at WNBC-TV in New York)
• Josh Binswanger - anchor/reporter (1994-1998 and 2001-2005)
• Jeanne Blake - science and health editor (1985-1991)
• Clark Booth - reporter (1967-1975)
• Jack Borden - anchor (1959-1980)
• David Brudnoy - commentator (1993-2004, deceased)
• Kim Carrigan - anchor (2001-2004, now at WFXT)
• Ed Carroll - chief meteorologist (1993-2005, now at WGGB in Springfield, Massachusetts)
• Terry Carter - the first black news anchor on local television news (1965-1968)
• Virginia Cha - anchor (1995-2000) Now at CNN
• Jack Chase - anchor (1953-1982, deceased)
• Pauline Chou - reporter (Now a CBS Correspondent)
• Jack Cole - anchor (1972-1975)
• Chris Conangla - anchor (1983-1987)
• Kerry Connolly - anchor (2001-2004)
• John Dougherty - anchor/reporter (1988-1999)
• Mike Dowling - sports anchor/reporter (1984-1985, now at WCVB)
• Ysabel Duron - reporter (1979-1980, now at KRON-TV in San Francisco)
• Sara Edwards - Evening Magazine co-host/entertainment reporter (1984-1991, now at CN8)
• Tom Ellis - anchor (1968-1975, now at NECN)
• Carmen Fields - reporter (1986-1987)
• Robin Hamilton - anchor/reporter (?-2006)
• Gail Harris - anchor/reporter (1977-1981)
• Linda Harris - reporter (1977-1985)
• Candace Hasey - "Evening Magazine" co-host (1982-1983?)
• Andy Hiller - political reporter (1977-1993, now at WHDH-TV)
• Jack Hynes - anchor (1955-1956)
• Dennis Kauff - reporter (1982-1985, deceased)
• Kasey Kaufman - anchor/reporter (1986-2007)
• Don Kent - veteran meteorologist (1955-1983)
• Sharon King - consumer reporter/talk show host (1970s-1982?)
• Gary LaPierre - anchor
• Shelli Lockhart - anchor/reporter (2001-2006, now at WDAF-TV in Kansas City)
• Paula Lyons - consumer reporter (1994-2003)
• Arch McDonald - WBZ-TV's first anchorman (1948-1979, deceased)
• Mike Macklin - reporter/anchor (1984-1994)
• Chris Marrou - anchor (1980-1981, now at KENS-TV in San Antonio)
• Jennifer McLogan - anchor/reporter (1979-1982, now at WCBS-TV in New York)
• Peter Mehegan - anchor/reporter (1967-1981, now at WCVB)
• Pat Mitchell - anchor/reporter/host (1972-1977)
• Sean Mooney - anchor/reporter (1997-1999)
• Pam Moore - anchor/reporter (1986-1991, now at KRON-TV in San Francisco)
• Dave Murray - meteorologist (1986-1989, now at KTVI in St. Louis)
• Bob Neumeier - sports anchor/reporter (1981-2001, now at NBC Sports)
• Barry Nolan - Evening Magazine co-host/reporter (1980-1989, now at CN8)
• Uma Pemmaraju - anchor/reporter (1988-1996, now at Fox News Channel)
• Tony Pepper - anchor (1974-1981)
• Randy Price - anchor (1983-1995, now at WHDH-TV)
• Bill Rappleye - reporter (1992-1996) Now at WJAR-TV
• Nancy Russo - meteorologist (1989-1992)
• Walt Sanders - reporter (1967-1995)
• Carolyn Sawyer - reporter (1990-1992 and 1997-2004)
• Marty Sender - Evening Magazine co-host (1977-1980)
• Bruce Schwoegler - longtime chief meteorologist (1968-2001)
• Shelby Scott - first female anchor and reporter for WBZ (1965-1996)
• Don Shane - sports anchor/reporter (1983-1989, now at WXYZ-TV in Detroit)
• Sarah-Ann Shaw - reporter (1969-2000)
• Lauren Thierry - anchor/reporter (1989-1991)
• Roger Twibell - sports anchor (1978-1981, now at ESPN)
• Jack Walton - reporter
• Jim Watkins - Evening Magazine host/reporter (1989-1991, now at WPIX-TV)
• Ted Wayman - anchor/reporter (1990-2006)
• Jack White - investigative reporter (1979-1981, deceased)
• David Wittman - anchor (1982-1991, now at WOIO-TV in Cleveland)
• Sharon Wright - consumer/investigative reporter (1981-1986, now at WMAQ-TV in Chicago)
• Robin Young - Evening Magazine co-host (1977-1982, now at WBUR)

See also

• WBZ (AM)
• WSBK-TV
• WLWC-TV

References

• Inside CBS 4: History (2005). CBS4Boston.com.
• WBZ-TV (3-26-2005). The Boston Radio Dial.

External links

• Station Website
• WSBK Website

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