WPCW
WPCW, virtual channel 19, is a CW owned-and-operated television station licensed to Jeannette, United States and serving the Pittsburgh television market. The station is owned by the CBS Television Stations subsidiary of CBS Corporation, as part of a duopoly with Pittsburgh-licensed CBS owned-and-operated station KDKA-TV; the two stations share studios at the Gateway Center in downtown Pittsburgh. On cable, WPCW is carried on Comcast Xfinity channel 15 in standard definition and channel 808 in high definition, Verizon FiOS channels 3 and 503. By way of extended cable coverage, WPCW serves as the default CW affiliate for the Johnstown–Altoona–State College television market, since that area lacks a CW affiliate of its own though CW-affiliated superstation WPIX in New York is carried on Xfinity in State College. WPCW was a Johnstown station for most of its history. WPCW signed on the air on October 15, 1953 as WARD-TV on analog UHF channel 56, with studios on Franklin Street in downtown Johnstown.
It operated at a power of 91,000 watts visual, 45,500 watts aural power, which, as it was learned in these experimental days of UHF, was rather low for a UHF station. It was co-owned by Central Broadcasting through its Rivoli Realty subsidiary along with WARD radio; the station was the area's CBS affiliate with a secondary ABC affiliation. During the late-1950s, it was briefly affiliated with the NTA Film Network. On March 22, 1971, Jonel Construction Company bought WARD-AM-FM-TV and changed their calls to WJNL-AM-FM-TV the following year, doing business as Cover Broadcasting, Inc. Having been issued a construction permit to do so in 1969, the television station moved to the stronger UHF channel 19 and dropped ABC programming; the channel move brought a transmitter power increase to 215,000 watts visual, 21,500 watts aural. Jonel left the Franklin Street studio for a new facility located on Benshoff Hill, not too far from the transmitter atop Cover Hill in suburban Johnstown; the radio stations moved to the Benshoff Hill location in 1977, after the Franklin Street studios were destroyed in a massive flood.
With the move to the stronger channel 19 and its substantial power increase, WJNL-TV was still plagued by a weak signal. Most of Western Pennsylvania is a rugged dissected plateau. At the time, UHF stations did not get good reception in rugged terrain; this left the station dependent on cable–then as now, all but essential for acceptable television in much of this market. In fact, Johnstown viewers got better signals from WFBG-TV in KDKA-TV in Pittsburgh. After WFBG-TV was sold in 1973, that station changed its callsign to WTAJ-TV in part to acknowledge its Johnstown viewership; as a result, WJNL-TV never thrived, was more or less a non-factor in a market dominated by WJAC-TV. It only stayed afloat because of the tremendous success of its FM sister, an adult contemporary powerhouse. In 1982, Johnstown and Altoona/State College were collapsed into a single designated market area. CBS gave its affiliation in the newly enlarged market to Altoona's WTAJ-TV, as it had a large viewership in Johnstown.
In contrast, WJNL-TV could not be seen at all in much of the eastern part of the market. As a result, WJNL-TV became an independent station. Forced to buy an additional 19 hours of programming a day, its ratings plummeted further. Channel 19 was sold on February 1, 1983 to WFAT Incorporated, a company headed by Leon Crosby, a former owner of the original KEMO-TV in San Francisco, renamed WFAT-TV. Crosby had an ownership interest in WPGH-TV in neighboring Pittsburgh from 1973 to 1978, in addition to serving as that station's President and General Manager. Under the direction of Crosby, who had gained a favorable reputation from turning around failing stations, the new WFAT-TV underwent a substantial technical overhaul intended to overcome its ongoing stigma of poor signal reception; the station's transmitter facility was moved from Cover Hill to Pea Vine Hill, a much higher summit atop Laurel Hill Mountain in Ligonier Township, just over the Cambria County border in neighboring Westmoreland County, about 10 miles east of the Cover Hill location.
With the move came its most powerful transmitter power increase yet to 1.6 million watts visual, 166,000 watts aural. This enabled the station to provide a grade B signal to Pittsburgh's eastern suburbs; the new transmitter provided a clear city-grade signal to Johnstown, allowed the station to introduce itself to viewers in the Pittsburgh area who had not been aware that the station had been on the air for 30 years at the time. However, it still had a problem attracting Altoona viewers due to the mountainous terrain separating the two cities, resulting in marginal reception at best on the eastern side of the market. Crosby addressed this by signing on a VHF translator in Altoona; the changes did little to improve the station's fortunes because the major Pittsburgh independents were available on cable. While WFAT now had a decent signal in most of the market, its on-air look was still primitive, it was one of the few stations in small markets, that still used art cards rather than CGI technology.
Its character generator had been in servi
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American English-language commercial terrestrial television network, a flagship property of NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast. The network is headquartered at 30 Rockefeller Plaza in New York City, with additional major offices near Los Angeles and Philadelphia; the network is one of the Big Three television networks. NBC is sometimes referred to as the "Peacock Network", in reference to its stylized peacock logo, introduced in 1956 to promote the company's innovations in early color broadcasting, it became the network's official emblem in 1979. Founded in 1926 by the Radio Corporation of America, NBC is the oldest major broadcast network in the United States. At that time the parent company of RCA was General Electric. In 1930, GE was forced to sell the companies as a result of antitrust charges. In 1986, control of NBC passed back to General Electric through its $6.4 billion purchase of RCA. Following the acquisition by GE, Bob Wright served as chief executive officer of NBC, remaining in that position until his retirement in 2007, when he was succeeded by Jeff Zucker.
In 2003, French media company Vivendi merged its entertainment assets with GE, forming NBC Universal. Comcast purchased a controlling interest in the company in 2011, acquired General Electric's remaining stake in 2013. Following the Comcast merger, Zucker left NBCUniversal and was replaced as CEO by Comcast executive Steve Burke. NBC has thirteen owned-and-operated stations and nearly 200 affiliates throughout the United States and its territories, some of which are available in Canada and/or Mexico via pay-television providers or in border areas over-the-air. During a period of early broadcast business consolidation, radio manufacturer Radio Corporation of America acquired New York City radio station WEAF from American Telephone & Telegraph. Westinghouse, a shareholder in RCA, had a competing outlet in Newark, New Jersey pioneer station WJZ, which served as the flagship for a loosely structured network; this station was transferred from Westinghouse to RCA in 1923, moved to New York City. WEAF acted as a laboratory for AT&T's manufacturing and supply outlet Western Electric, whose products included transmitters and antennas.
The Bell System, AT&T's telephone utility, was developing technologies to transmit voice- and music-grade audio over short and long distances, using both wireless and wired methods. The 1922 creation of WEAF offered a research-and-development center for those activities. WEAF maintained a regular schedule of radio programs, including some of the first commercially sponsored programs, was an immediate success. In an early example of "chain" or "networking" broadcasting, the station linked with Outlet Company-owned WJAR in Providence, Rhode Island. C. WCAP. New parent RCA saw an advantage in sharing programming, after getting a license for radio station WRC in Washington, D. C. in 1923, attempted to transmit audio between cities via low-quality telegraph lines. AT&T refused outside companies access to its high-quality phone lines; the early effort fared poorly, since the uninsulated telegraph lines were susceptible to atmospheric and other electrical interference. In 1925, AT&T decided that WEAF and its embryonic network were incompatible with the company's primary goal of providing a telephone service.
AT&T offered to sell the station to RCA in a deal that included the right to lease AT&T's phone lines for network transmission. RCA spent $1 million to purchase WEAF and Washington sister station WCAP, shut down the latter station, merged its facilities with surviving station WRC; the division's ownership was split among RCA, its founding corporate parent General Electric and Westinghouse. NBC started broadcasting on November 15, 1926. WEAF and WJZ, the flagships of the two earlier networks, were operated side-by-side for about a year as part of the new NBC. On January 1, 1927, NBC formally divided their respective marketing strategies: the "Red Network" offered commercially sponsored entertainment and music programming. Various histories of NBC suggest the color designations for the two networks came from the color of the pushpins NBC engineers used to designate affiliate stations of WEAF and WJZ, or from the use of double-ended red and blue colored pencils. On April 5, 1927, NBC expanded to the West Coast with the launch of the NBC Orange Network known as the Pacific Coast Network.
This was followed by the debut of the NBC Gold Network known as the Pacific Gold Network, on October 18, 1931. The Orange Network carried Red Network programming, the Gold Network carried programming from the Blue Network; the Orange Network recreated Eastern Red Network programming for West Coast stations at KPO in San Francisco. In 1936, the Orange Network affiliate stations became part of the Red Network, at the same time the Gold Network became part of the Blue Network. In the 1930s, NBC developed a network for shortwave radio stations, called the NBC White Network. In 1927, NBC moved its operations to 711 Fifth Avenue in Manhattan, occupying the upper floors of a building de
KSNV
KSNV, virtual channel 3, is an NBC-affiliated television station licensed to Las Vegas, United States. The station is owned by the Sinclair Broadcast Group as part of a duopoly with CW affiliate KVCW; the two stations share studios on Foremaster Lane in Las Vegas. It was the flagship station of the Intermountain West Communications Company—which was founded by the late James E. Rogers—until the gradual sale of its remaining stations that began in 2013; the station went on the air as KLRJ-TV on VHF channel 2 on January 23, 1955. In September 1955, it changed its calls to KORK-TV to match its radio sisters, soon after moved its city of license and studio facilities to Las Vegas, it has always been an NBC affiliate, but shared ABC with KLAS-TV until KSHO-TV signed on in 1956. During the late 1950s, the station was briefly affiliated with the NTA Film Network. In 1960, the Donrey Media Group bought the KORK stations. In 1967, KORK-TV moved to channel 3 in order to operate from Potosi Mountain without being short-spaced to KNXT in Los Angeles, which operated on channel 2.
In 1971, a group of local residents led by Las Vegas attorney Jim Rogers began an effort to take control of channel 3. Rogers' group gained more support when Donrey began to preempt NBC programming in order to sell more local advertising in the late 1970s. NBC was far less tolerant of programming preemptions than the other networks at the time; the most notable of these preemptions was the 1978 World Series, angering both NBC and several Las Vegas area viewers, some of whom filed complaints to the Federal Communications Commission. Facing pressure from both NBC and the FCC, Donrey was forced to sell the station to the Rogers group's holding company, Valley Broadcasting Company, in 1979. Donrey retained KORK radio and as a result on October 1, 1979, the TV station changed its call letters to KVBC, reflecting the new ownership. In the late 1980s, KVBC's sign-on to sign-off ratings climbed to an all-time high, thanks in part to a strong primetime lineup by NBC. Two major "events" aided KVBC's rise to the top.
In May 1988, an explosion and fire rocked the Pacific Engineering and Production Company in Henderson. KVBC was knocked off the air for a few minutes, because its transmitter facilities atop Black Mountain were positioned just above the blast site. Once KVBC was back on the air, it was the first local station to continuously broadcast its breaking news coverage of the explosion; that year, CBS produced 48 Hours in Las Vegas, a feature about Las Vegas that portrayed the city as full of gamblers and riddled by crime. In response, KVBC produced a one-hour documentary entitled Las Vegas, Beyond 48 Hours, which painted a more realistic picture of "Sin City" and its residents. KVBC was first to document The Mirage volcano explosion during its initial test in front of an unsuspecting nighttime audience. With the digital transition completed, the station added the -DT suffix to its legal call sign on June 23, 2009. On June 18, 2010, KVBC filed an application with the FCC to change the station's call letters to KSNV-DT, reflecting the renaming of Valley Broadcasting Company to Southern Nevada Communications, as well as better reflecting the station's relationship with sister stations KRNV-DT in Reno and KENV-DT in Elko.
The change to KSNV-DT became official on July 9, 2010. Jim Rogers died of cancer on June 14, 2014, at the age of 75. On September 3, 2014, Intermountain West Communications announced that it would sell KSNV-DT to Sinclair Broadcast Group for $120 million; as Sinclair owned a duopoly in Las Vegas, KVMY and KVCW, the company planned to sell the license assets of one of the three stations to comply with FCC ownership restrictions, with the divested station's programming being moved to the other stations. 80–85% of proceeds from the sale will go toward the formation of the Rogers Educational Foundation, which will support students and educators in Southern Nevada. On November 1, 2014, KSNV began the process of swapping signals with KVMY. Additionally, the two stations swapped virtual channel numbers, which moved KVMY to channel 3, KSNV to channel 21. On November 4, 2014, the call letters on KVMY's license were changed to KSNV, the existing KSNV license changed its call letters to KVMY; these moves put KSNV under Sinclair ownership, operating under the license for the former KVMY.
Indeed, the licensee for KSNV still reads "KUPN Licensee, LLC"—reflecting KVMY's former call letters. The previous channel 3 license was sold to Howard Stirk Holdings. A similar swap occurred during Sinclair's acquisition of WCIV in Charleston, South Carolina, in which its ABC programming and call sign were moved to another Sinclair-owned signal, the previous WCIV channel 4 license (re
KPTV
KPTV, virtual and VHF digital channel 12, is a Fox-affiliated television station licensed to Portland, United States. The station is owned by Meredith Corporation, as part of a duopoly with Vancouver, Washington-licensed MyNetworkTV affiliate KPDX; the two stations share studios on NW Greenbrier Parkway in Beaverton and transmitter facilities in the Sylvan-Highlands section of Portland. Master control operations for both KPTV and KPDX are based at Meredith's West Coast hub facility at the studios of Phoenix, Arizona sister station KPHO-TV. KPTV signed on the air on September 1952, as Oregon's first television station. KPTV broadcast on channel 27, making it the nation's first commercial television station to broadcast on the UHF band.. The station was owned by Empire Coil; as Portland's only television station at the time, it carried programming from all four networks of the time: ABC, CBS, NBC and the DuMont Television Network. CBS programming was dropped from KPTV's schedule when Portland's first VHF station, KOIN-TV, signed on the air on October 15, 1953.
KPTV became a primary NBC affiliate, continued to air some ABC and DuMont programming. KPTV aired programs from the short-lived Paramount Television Network during the early 1950s. During the late 1950s, the station was briefly affiliated with the NTA Film Network. Empire Coil sold KPTV and its other broadcast property, WXEL in Cleveland, to Storer Broadcasting on November 17, 1954. On August 11, 1954, KPTV became the first television station in Portland to broadcast in color, three days before KOIN achieved the same milestone; the VHF channel 12 allocation in Portland was first occupied by KLOR-TV, which signed on March 8, 1955, as a primary ABC affiliate with a secondary DuMont affiliation. However, KLOR's network affiliations were short-lived. In 1956, KLOR lost its affiliations with both networks as the DuMont Television Network ceased operations, the ABC affiliation moved to KGW-TV when that station signed on the air in December. On April 17, 1957, Detroit businessman George Haggerty purchased KPTV from Storer and KLOR from its local owners.
On May 1, the two stations merged under KPTV's license. On April 17, 1959, KPTV became an ABC affiliate; that year, KPTV was sold to the NAFI Corporation, which purchased Chris-Craft Boats in early 1960 and changed its name to Chris-Craft Industries. Color broadcasting by KPTV ended when NBC changed affiliations to KGW, in 1959, but returned in 1962, when ABC began color broadcasting. KPTV can boast being the home of the two top children's TV hosts in Portland's history: Rusty Nails, a sweet-natured clown, the rough inspiration for The Simpsons creator Matt Groening's Krusty the Klown. While Rusty Nails ran Three Stooges shorts, Ramblin' Rod ran Popeye cartoons. Ramblin' Rod was the longest-running kid's show in Portland TV history, airing from 1964 to 1997. Other KPTV children's hosts included longtime KPTV personality Gene Brendler who played "Bent Nails", George Ross, who played "Dr. Zoom." Bob Adkins, better known as "Addie Bobkins," brought his show to KPTV from Eugene's KVAL-TV in 1961. "Addie Bobkins" featured a wise-cracking beatnik hand puppet named "Weird Beard."
Both Ross and Adkins ran a variety of cartoons to entertain the kids. On March 1, 1964, KPTV lost its ABC affiliation to independent station KATU, which had debuted in March 1962. KPTV sued KATU's then-owner Fisher Broadcasting for breach of contract. KPTV soon became known as one of the top independent stations in the western United States. By the late 1960s, it was a regional superstation carried on every cable system in Oregon, as well as a number of cable systems in parts of Washington and Idaho. In 1967, Portland Wrestling returned to KPTV after a 12-year absence. Frank Bonnema, news reporter and afternoon movie host, served as the voice of Portland Wrestling until shortly before his death on October 5, 1982. KPTV had originated telecasts of professional wrestling in 1953, with commentator Bob Abernathy, but lost the franchise to rival KOIN two years later. KPTV regained the franchise in 1967, aired the wrestling matches until December 1991. Wrestling commentators were KISN radio DJ Don Coss and former wrestlers Dutch Savage and Stan Stasiak.
Portland Wrestling's chief promoters were Don Owen, former wrestler-referee Sandy Barr. Primary long-time sponsors for the show were Chevrolet dealers Ron Tonkin of Portland and Friendly of Lake Oswego, the celebrated ever-smiling furniture dealer Tom Peterson. Peterson was the top sponsor for KPTV's late night movies. In 1970, KPTV became the first television station in the market to broadcast Portland Trail Blazers basketball games, with sports director Jimmy Jones serving as the team's first play-by-play television announcer.
DuMont Television Network
The DuMont Television Network was one of the world's pioneer commercial television networks, rivalling NBC and CBS for the distinction of being first overall in the United States. It was owned by DuMont Laboratories, a television equipment and set manufacturer, began operation on August 15, 1946; the network was hindered by the prohibitive cost of broadcasting, by regulations imposed by the Federal Communications Commission which restricted the company's growth, by the company's partner, Paramount Pictures. Despite several innovations in broadcasting and the creation of one of the television's biggest stars of the 1950s, the network never found itself on solid financial ground. Forced to expand on UHF channels during an era when UHF tuning was not yet a standard feature on television sets, DuMont fought an uphill battle for program clearances outside its three owned-and-operated stations in New York City, Washington, D. C. and Pittsburgh ending network operations on August 6, 1956. DuMont's latter-day obscurity, caused by the destruction of its extensive program archive by the 1970s, has prompted TV historian David Weinstein to refer to it as the "Forgotten Network".
A few popular DuMont programs, such as Cavalcade of Stars and Emmy Award winner Life Is Worth Living, appear in television retrospectives or are mentioned in books about U. S. television history. DuMont Laboratories was founded in 1931 by Dr. Allen B. DuMont with only $1,000, a laboratory in his basement, he and his staff were responsible for many early technical innovations, including the first consumer all-electronic television receiver in 1938. Their most revolutionary contribution came when the team extended the life of a cathode ray tube from 24 to 1000 hrs, making television sets a practical product for consumers; the company's television receivers soon became the gold standard of the industry. In 1942, DuMont worked with the Army in developing radar technology during World War II; this brought in $5 million for the company. Early sales of television receivers were hampered by the lack of scheduled programming being broadcast. A few months after selling his first set in 1938, DuMont opened his own New York-area experimental television station in Passaic, New Jersey.
In 1940, the station moved to Manhattan as W2XWV on channel 4. Unlike CBS and NBC, which reduced their hours of television broadcasting during World War II, DuMont continued full-scale experimental and commercial broadcasts throughout the war. In 1944, W2XWV became WABD and moved to channel 5 in 1945, the third commercial television station in New York. On May 19, 1945, DuMont opened experimental W3XWT in Washington, D. C. A minority shareholder in DuMont Laboratories was Paramount Pictures, which had advanced $400,000 in 1939 for a 40% share in the company. Paramount had television interests of its own, having launched experimental stations in Los Angeles in 1939 and Chicago in 1940. DuMont's association with Paramount would come back to haunt DuMont later. Soon after his experimental Washington station signed on, DuMont began experimental coaxial cable hookups between his laboratories in Passaic and his two stations, it is said that one of those broadcasts on the hookup announced that the U. S. had dropped an atomic bomb on Nagasaki, Japan, on August 9, 1945.
This was considered to be the official beginning of the DuMont Network by both Thomas T. Goldsmith, the network's chief engineer and DuMont's best friend, DuMont himself. Regular network service began on August 15, 1946, on WABD and W3XWT. In 1947, W3XWT became WTTG, named after Goldsmith; the pair were joined in 1949 by WDTV in Pittsburgh. Although NBC in New York was known to have station-to-station television links as early as 1940 with WPTZ in Philadelphia and WRGB Schenectady, New York, DuMont received its station licenses before NBC resumed its sporadic network broadcasts after the war. ABC had just come into existence as a radio network in 1943 and did not enter network television until 1948 when it signed on a flagship station in New York City, WJZ-TV. CBS waited until 1948 to begin network operations, because it was waiting for the Federal Communications Commission to approve its color television system. Other companies, including Mutual, the Yankee Network, Paramount, were interested in starting television networks, but were prevented from doing so by restrictive FCC regulations.
Despite no history of radio programming or stable of radio stars to draw on and perennial cash shortages, DuMont was an innovative and creative network. Without the radio revenues that supported mighty NBC and CBS, DuMont programmers relied on their wits and on connections with Broadway; the network provided original programs that are remembered more than 60 years later. The network ignored the standard business model of 1950s TV, in which one advertiser sponsored an entire show, enabling it to have complete control over its content. Instead, DuMont sold commercials to many different advertisers, freeing producers of its shows from the veto power held by sole sponsors; this became the standard model for US television. Some commercial time was sold regionally on a co-op basis. DuMont holds another important place in American TV history. WDTV's sign-on made it possible for stations in the Midwest to receive live network programming from stations on the East
CBS
CBS is an American English language commercial broadcast television and radio network, a flagship property of CBS Corporation. The company is headquartered at the CBS Building in New York City with major production facilities and operations in New York City and Los Angeles. CBS is sometimes referred to as the Eye Network, in reference to the company's iconic symbol, in use since 1951, it has been called the "Tiffany Network", alluding to the perceived high quality of CBS programming during the tenure of William S. Paley, it can refer to some of CBS's first demonstrations of color television, which were held in a former Tiffany & Co. building in New York City in 1950. The network has its origins in United Independent Broadcasters Inc. a collection of 16 radio stations, purchased by Paley in 1928 and renamed the Columbia Broadcasting System. Under Paley's guidance, CBS would first become one of the largest radio networks in the United States, one of the Big Three American broadcast television networks.
In 1974, CBS dropped its former full name and became known as CBS, Inc. The Westinghouse Electric Corporation acquired the network in 1995, renamed its corporate entity to the current CBS Broadcasting, Inc. in 1997, adopted the name of the company it had acquired to become CBS Corporation. In 2000, CBS came under the control of Viacom, formed as a spin-off of CBS in 1971. In late 2005, Viacom split itself into two separate companies and re-established CBS Corporation – through the spin-off of its broadcast television and select cable television and non-broadcasting assets – with the CBS television network at its core. CBS Corporation is controlled by Sumner Redstone through National Amusements, which controls the current Viacom. CBS operated the CBS Radio network until 2017, when it merged its radio division with Entercom. Prior to CBS Radio provided news and features content for its portfolio owned-and-operated radio stations in large and mid-sized markets, affiliated radio stations in various other markets.
While CBS Corporation owns a 72% stake in Entercom, it no longer owns or operates any radio stations directly, though CBS still provides radio news broadcasts to its radio affiliates and the new owners of its former radio stations. The television network has more than 240 owned-and-operated and affiliated television stations throughout the United States; the company ranked 197th on the 2018 Fortune 500 of the largest United States corporations by revenue. The origins of CBS date back to January 27, 1927, with the creation of the "United Independent Broadcasters" network in Chicago by New York City talent-agent Arthur Judson; the fledgling network soon needed additional investors though, the Columbia Phonograph Company, manufacturers of Columbia Records, rescued it in April 1927. Columbia Phonographic went on the air on September 18, 1927, with a presentation by the Howard L. Barlow Orchestra from flagship station WOR in Newark, New Jersey, fifteen affiliates. Operational costs were steep the payments to AT&T for use of its land lines, by the end of 1927, Columbia Phonograph wanted out.
In early 1928 Judson sold the network to brothers Isaac and Leon Levy, owners of the network's Philadelphia affiliate WCAU, their partner Jerome Louchheim. None of the three were interested in assuming day-to-day management of the network, so they installed wealthy 26-year-old William S. Paley, son of a Philadelphia cigar family and in-law of the Levys, as president. With the record company out of the picture, Paley streamlined the corporate name to "Columbia Broadcasting System", he believed in the power of radio advertising since his family's "La Palina" cigars had doubled their sales after young William convinced his elders to advertise on radio. By September 1928, Paley bought out the Louchhheim share of CBS and became its majority owner with 51% of the business. During Louchheim's brief regime, Columbia paid $410,000 to A. H. Grebe's Atlantic Broadcasting Company for a small Brooklyn station, WABC, which would become the network's flagship station. WABC was upgraded, the signal relocated to 860 kHz.
The physical plant was relocated – to Steinway Hall on West 57th Street in Manhattan, where much of CBS's programming would originate. By the turn of 1929, the network could boast to sponsors of having 47 affiliates. Paley moved right away to put his network on a firmer financial footing. In the fall of 1928, he entered into talks with Adolph Zukor of Paramount Pictures, who planned to move into radio in response to RCA's forays into motion pictures with the advent of talkies; the deal came to fruition in September 1929: Paramount acquired 49% of CBS in return for a block of its stock worth $3.8 million at the time. The agreement specified that Paramount would buy that same stock back by March 1, 1932 for a flat $5 million, provided CBS had earned $2 million during 1931 and 1932. For a brief time there was talk that the network might be renamed "Paramount Radio", but it only lasted a month – the 1929 stock market crash sent all stock value tumbling, it galvanized Paley and his troops, who "had no alternative but to turn the network around and earn the $2,000,000 in two years....
This is the atmosphere in which the CBS of today was born." The near-bankrupt movie studio sold its CBS shares back to CBS in 1932. In the first year of Paley's wa
WNET
WNET, channel 13, is a non-commercial educational, public television station licensed to Newark, New Jersey and serving the New York metropolitan area. WNET is owned by WNET.org and is the parent of Long Island PBS station WLIW and the operator of the New Jersey Public broadcasting network NJTV. WNET is a member station of, a primary program provider to, PBS. WNET's main studios and offices are located in Midtown Manhattan with an auxiliary street-level studio in the Lincoln Center complex on Manhattan's Upper West Side; the station's transmitter is located at One World Trade Center. WNET commenced broadcasting on May 15, 1948, as WATV, a commercial television station owned by Atlantic Television, a subsidiary of Bremer Broadcasting Corporation. Frank V. Bremer, the CEO owned two North Jersey radio stations, WAAT and WAAT-FM; the three stations were based in the Mosque Theatre at 1020 Broad Street in Newark. WATV was the first of three new stations in the New York City television market to sign on the air during 1948, was the first independent station.
One unusual daytime program, consisted of a camera focused on a teletypewriter printing wire service news stories, interspersed with cut-aways to mechanical toys against a light music soundtrack. Another early series by the station was Stairway to Stardom, one of the first TV series with an African-American host. On October 6, 1957, Bremer Broadcasting announced it had sold its stations for $3.5 million to National Telefilm Associates, an early distributor of motion pictures for television, joining its NTA Film Network. On May 7, 1958, channel 13's call sign was changed to WNTA-TV to reflect the new ownership. NTA's cash resources enabled WNTA-TV to produce a schedule of programming with greater emphasis on the people and events of New Jersey, compared to the other commercial television stations. NTA sought to make channel 13 a center of nationally syndicated programming and produced several such entries, notably the anthology drama series Play of the Week; the station continued to lag behind New York's other independent stations—WNEW-TV, WOR-TV and WPIX —in terms of audience size, NTA incurred a large debt load.
National Telefilm Associates put the WNTA stations up for sale in February 1961. At least three prospective purchasers expressed interest in WNTA-TV; the most prominent was the New York City-based group Educational Television for the Metropolitan Area, a consortium of businesspeople, cultural leaders and educators who intended to turn channel 13 into an educational station. By this time, it was obvious that the non-commercial frequency that the Federal Communications Commission allocated to the city, UHF channel 25, would not be nearly adequate enough to cover a market that stretched from Fairfield County, Connecticut, in the north to Ocean County, New Jersey, in the south. Prior to 1964, when the FCC required television manufacturers to include UHF tuners in newer sets as per the All-Channel Receiver Act, most viewers could not view UHF stations except with an expensive converter. For those who could access UHF stations, reception was marginal under the best conditions. With assistance from the University of the State of New York, ETMA had attempted to purchase channel 13 and convert it into a non-commercial station in 1957, when Bremer Broadcasting first put the station on the block.
This time ETMA was competing with NTA founding president Ely Landau, who had resigned from the company to head his own venture for this. ETMA's initial bid of $4 million was rejected by NTA. With the support and guidance of National Educational Television, ETMA received an endorsement from newly appointed FCC chairman Newton N. Minow, who established public hearings to discuss the fate of channel 13; the pendulum shifted in favor of channel 13 going non-commercial, the private firms withdrew their interest. On June 29, 1961, ETMA agreed to purchase WNTA-TV for $6.2 million. About $2 million of that amount came from five of the six remaining commercial VHF stations, all of whom were pleased to see a competitor eliminated. In addition, CBS donated a facility in Manhattan to ETMA and NET for production uses; the FCC approved the transfer in October, converted channel 13's commercial license to non-commercial. The outgoing New Jersey governor, Robert B. Meyner, addressing state lawmakers' concerns over continued programming specific to New Jersey, fearing the FCC would move the channel 13 allocation to New York City, petitioned the United States courts of appeals on September 6, 1961, to block the sale of WNTA-TV.
The court ruled in the state's favor two months later. The unsettled deal caused National Telefilm Associates to reconsider its decision to sell the station altogether, NTA made plans to go forward: WNTA-TV made a play to acquire broadcast rights for the New York Mets baseball team for its inaugural 1962 season. Faced with either consummating the transaction or seeing it cancelled, ETMA settled their differences with New Jersey officials on December 4, 1961. After a few last-minute issues arose to cause further delays, the transfer became final on December 22; that evening, WNTA-TV signed off for the final time. ETMA and NET then
