WJZ-TV
This article needs additional citations for verification. (December 2012) |
FCC | |
Facility ID | 25455 |
---|---|
ERP | 30 kW |
HAAT | 305 m (1,001 ft) |
Transmitter coordinates | 39°20′5″N 76°39′2″W / 39.33472°N 76.65056°W |
Links | |
Public license information | |
Website | www |
WJZ-TV (channel 13) is a
History
Early history
The station first signed on the air on November 1, 1948, as WAAM, becoming the third television station in Baltimore behind WBAL-TV (channel 11) and WMAR-TV (channel 2), all within just over a year. The station was originally owned by Radio-Television of Baltimore Inc., whose principals were Baltimore businessmen and brothers, Ben and Herman Cohen.[4][5] Channel 13 was originally an ABC affiliate, the network's fifth outlet to be located on the East Coast.[6] It carried a secondary affiliation with the DuMont Television Network until its closure in 1956. Both affiliations moved from WMAR-TV, which became an exclusive CBS affiliate.[7]
On the station's second day of operations, WAAM broadcast the 1948 presidential election returns and various entertainment shows, remaining on the air for 23 consecutive hours.[8] Channel 13 has been housed in the same studio facility, located near Druid Hill Park on what was then known as Malden Hill (now known as Television Hill), since the station's inception; the building was the first in Baltimore specifically designed for television production and broadcasting. As a DuMont affiliate, WAAM originated many Baltimore Colts games for the network's National Football League coverage.[9][10]
The
All of Baltimore's television stations at the time had fairly short transmission towers in the medium's early years; channel 13's original tower was located next to the station's studios. In 1959, WJZ-TV collaborated with WBAL-TV and WMAR-TV to form a joint venture to build the world's first three-pronged
WJZ-TV nearly lost its ABC affiliation in 1977, when the network briefly pursued WBAL-TV just as ABC became the most-watched broadcast network (in prime time) in the United States for the first time. However, WBAL-TV declined the ABC affiliation offer due to ABC's last-place network evening newscast offerings of the time (a situation that would improve in ensuing years), keeping ABC on channel 13.[16][17]
Switch to CBS
In June 1994, ABC agreed to an affiliation deal with the broadcasting division of the
Group W felt betrayed by ABC after so many years of loyalty, as channel 13 had been ABC's longest-tenured affiliate at the time (a distinction that now belongs to
CBS' move to WJZ immediately resolved several scheduling issues the network had with WBAL-TV. The station had picked up half of its Saturday morning programming, as well as an hour of daytime programming. WJZ-TV also picked up the Late Show with David Letterman, which had aired on WNUV (channel 54) after WBAL passed on it (one of the few CBS affiliates to do so).[26] Westinghouse then bought CBS on November 24, 1995, making WJZ-TV a CBS owned-and-operated station. Notably, this marked the first time that CBS had wholly owned a television station in the Baltimore/Washington corridor; it had been minority owner of WTOP-TV in Washington (now WUSA) from 1950 to 1955.
WJZ-TV used a stylized "13" logo, using a font face exclusive to Group W, from 1967 to 2023. It was the last remaining Group W/Westinghouse station to utilize the typeface. In 2002, the
CBS extended its usage of the WJZ call sign to radio on November 3, 2008, when CBS Radio changed the call signs of two of its Baltimore stations, WHFS (105.7 FM) and WJFK (1300 AM), to WJZ-FM and WJZ in reflection of their connection to WJZ-TV; the changes coincided with the move of WJFK's local sports radio programming, including a program co-hosted by WJZ-TV sports anchor Mark Viviano, to WJZ-FM.[27] On February 2, 2017, CBS Radio announced that it would spin off from CBS Corporation and merge with Entercom (now Audacy, Inc.), effectively separating WJZ-TV from the WJZ radio stations;[28] the transaction closed on November 17, 2017.[29]
Programming
WJZ-TV was the Baltimore area affiliate of the It's Academic high school quiz competition, currently on hiatus looking for a TV station in Baltimore since its long time sponsor backed out.
Over the years, WJZ-TV frequently preempted ABC programming in favor of locally produced programs and syndicated content from Westinghouse's broadcasting division, Group W, such as The Mike Douglas Show and the original version of The Merv Griffin Show; notably, the former ABC daytime soap opera Dark Shadows was preempted during the mid-1960s. From 1970 to 1972, WJZ-TV dropped General Hospital, The Newlywed Game, and The Dating Game to make room for The Mike Douglas Show, the three shows were seen instead on now-defunct WMET-TV, and not telecast in color. By 1972, WJZ-TV re-added The Newlywed Game to their schedule. During the mid-1970s, WJZ-TV re-added General Hospital, and stayed on the station until the switch to WMAR-TV in 1995. WJZ-TV aired The Edge of Night in pattern from its December 1975 relocation from CBS to ABC until September 16, 1983; the following Monday, the soap opera was moved to a one-day delay time slot of 11 am, where it remained until the series took a two-week hiatus in favor of ABC's coverage of the 1984 Summer Olympics.[30] Despite the preemptions and delays, ABC was more than satisfied with channel 13, which was one of its strongest affiliates. Additionally, Baltimore viewers could watch ABC programs on Washington's WMAL-TV/WJLA-TV (channel 7), whose signal decently covers most of the Baltimore area.
From 1957 to 1964, one of the station's highest-rated programs was The Buddy Deane Show, an in-studio teen dance show similar to ABC's American Bandstand, which WJZ-TV also preempted in favor of the Deane program. Deane's program was the inspiration for the John Waters 1988 motion picture Hairspray and its subsequent Broadway musical version, which in turn has been made into a film.
Since becoming a CBS affiliate, WJZ-TV has carried the network's lineup in pattern with virtually no preemptions except for breaking news emergencies and Orioles baseball games, as per an agreement between Group W and CBS. Prior to September 2019, WJZ-TV aired the CBS Evening News on a half-hour tape delay, due to an hour-long 6 p.m. newscast.
Sports programming
WJZ-TV has been the de facto broadcaster for the Baltimore Ravens of the National Football League, airing a majority of the team's contests since CBS acquired rights to the American Football Conference in 1998, including their Super Bowl XXXV and XLVII appearances, both victories, at the end of the 2000 and 2012 seasons.
Channel 13 has also served two stints as the television home of the Baltimore Orioles baseball team, from
News operation
WJZ-TV presently broadcasts 44 hours, 55 minutes of locally produced newscasts each week (with 7 hours, 35 minutes each weekday, four hours on Saturdays and three hours on Sundays).
Soon after Westinghouse bought WJZ-TV, it significantly beefed up the station's news department. On October 12, 1957, WJZ-TV cameraman John Kelly filmed a motion picture of the final stage of
WJZ-TV was the first station in Baltimore to hire a full-time consumer reporter, as well as the first station to organize an investigative reporting team. In 1965, shortly after it adopted the Eyewitness News format, Wiley Daniels became the first African-American anchor in Baltimore. He worked alongside Jerry Turner, one of the most popular anchormen in Baltimore television history. Al Sanders was paired with Turner in 1977; he and Turner were the top news team until Turner succumbed to esophageal cancer. Denise Koch succeeded Turner upon his death in 1988; she remains at the anchor desk alongside Vic Carter, who succeeded Sanders following the latter's death in 1995.
WJZ-TV is known as a legacy station and both on-air and off-air employees typically have decades of service. Koch and Carter currently make up the longest-tenured evening anchor team in Baltimore TV history, having co-anchored the 6 p.m. newscast since 1995. The all-time record is also held by the former WJZ-TV anchor team of Don Scott and Marty Bass. The duo topped weekday morning newscast ratings from 1984 to 2014 as co-anchors of Eyewitness News Morning Edition and Rise & Shine. Former WJZ weather anchor Bob Turk holds to the title of the longest-tenured talent at a single station in Maryland TV. Turk forecast weather on weekday evenings for nearly 50 years, from 1973 until his dismissal in 2022. Former news director Gail Bending held her title from 1991 until her dismissal on March 31, 2023.[citation needed]
In 1976, Oprah Winfrey was hired as Jerry Turner's co-anchor for the station's 6 p.m. newscast. By April 1977 she was moved anchor of morning cut-ins[32] and eventually helped to launch and co-hosted channel 13's local talk show, People Are Talking with Richard Sher. Winfrey co-hosted People Are Talking from August 14, 1978, until she left for Chicago in 1984. During that time, she and Sher would also co-anchor Eyewitness News at Noon and in 1983 she teamed up with Marty Bass to launch Eyewitness News Morning Edition.
On October 25, 2009, WJZ-TV became the third Baltimore station to begin airing newscasts in
During the noon newscast on August 9, 2018, WJZ-TV unveiled a new set, and introduced the same on-air graphics scheme used by other CBS owned-and-operated stations (the last among the group to do so).[33] On August 20, 2018, WJZ-TV expanded its morning newscasts from 5–7 a.m. to 4:30–7 a.m., becoming the last station in Baltimore to start their morning newscasts at 4:30 am. On September 9, 2019, WJZ debuted a 7 p.m. newscast for the first time, and the CBS Evening News was moved to 6:30 p.m.
WJZ-TV launched a streaming news service, CBSN Baltimore (now CBS News Baltimore), a localized version of the national
In 2022, the station partnered with The Baltimore Banner. Articles from WJZ's website appear on the Banner's website, while Banner journalists appear on the station's 9 a.m. newscasts.[35]
Current on-air staff
- Marty Bass – weathercaster
Notable former on-air staff
- Nick Charles (deceased)
- in New York City
- Adam May – was most recently at WBAL-TV
- Bob McAllister (deceased)
- Michael Olesker
- Royal Parker (deceased)
- Al Sanders (deceased)
- Richard Sher
- Ken Singleton (retired)
- Sally Thorner (retired)
- Jerry Turner (deceased)
- Oprah Winfrey
Technical information
Subchannels
The station's signal is
Channel | Res. | Aspect | Short name | Programming |
---|---|---|---|---|
13.1 | 1080i | 16:9 |
WJZ-TV | Main WJZ-TV programming / CBS |
13.2 | 480i | StartTV | Start TV | |
13.3 | Dabl | Dabl | ||
13.4 | FaveTV | Fave TV | ||
13.5 | Catchy | Catchy Comedy | ||
13.6 | Movies | Movies! |
Analog-to-digital conversion
WJZ-TV shut down its analog signal, over
WMAR-TV took over the channel 38 allocation as it moved its digital signal from channel 52 as a result of the phaseout of channels 52–69.The switch caused problems for some viewers due to reception issues related to the transition, but the Federal Communications Commission granted WJZ-TV a power increase that helps some people.[40]
Spectrum repacking
As a part of the
References
- ^ "Television stations granted to three" (PDF). Broadcasting – Telecasting. May 27, 1946. p. 90.
- ^ "Baltimore's WAAM (TV) opens as DuMont outlet" (PDF). Broadcasting – Telecasting. November 8, 1948. p. 27.
- ^ "Facility Technical Data for WJZ-TV". Licensing and Management System. Federal Communications Commission.
- ^ David Michael Ettlin; et al. (March 23, 1994). "Ben Cohen dies, co-owned Pimlico". The Baltimore Sun.
- ISBN 9781467120425.
- ^ "WAAM Baltimore signs as ABC video affiliate" (PDF). Broadcasting – Telecasting. July 12, 1948. p. 48.
- ^ "The Progress Report" (PDF). Broadcasting. June 14, 1948. Retrieved September 12, 2021.
- ^ "WAAM's big day; new TV outlet was on air 23 hours Nov. 2–3" (PDF). Broadcasting – Telecasting. November 15, 1948. p. 98.
- ^ Clarke Ingram. "DuMont Television Network historical archive".
- ^ "DuMont Television Network | Historical Web Site". dumonthistory.com.
- ^ "WBC's WAAM (TV) buy: $4.4 million" (PDF). Broadcasting – Telecasting. May 13, 1957. p. 112.
- ^ "WAAM (TV) becomes WJZ-TV as FCC waives call rule" (PDF). Broadcasting – Telecasting. August 5, 1957. p. 92.
- ^ "Stations (continued, top of page)" (PDF). Broadcasting – Telecasting. August 12, 1957. p. 94.
- ^ a b Rasmussen, Fred (September 21, 1997). "A Tower of Power Rose Up Above City Structure". The Baltimore Sun.
- ^ "ASR Registration 1035558".
- ^ "In Brief" (PDF). Broadcasting. March 21, 1977. p. 30. Retrieved April 15, 2023.
- ^ "In Brief" (PDF). Broadcasting. March 28, 1977. p. 34. Retrieved April 15, 2023.
- ^ Zurawik, David (June 17, 1994). "ABC-TV to Switch from WJZ to WMAR". The Baltimore Sun. Retrieved September 8, 2018.
- ^ "Three suitors line up to call on jilted WJZ-TV". June 18, 1994.
- ^ Wollenberg, Skip (July 15, 1994). "CBS, Westinghouse Agree on Broad TV Station Partnership". Associated Press.
- ^ Zurawik, David (January 1, 1995). "Get ready, get set, get confused, in TV's big switch in Baltimore Changing Channels". The Baltimore Sun. Retrieved June 29, 2012.
- ^ "Bumped CBS shows to be aired on WJZ two months late". The Baltimore Sun. October 28, 1994.
- Baltimore SunStatewide TV. January 1, 1995. p. 7.
- Baltimore SunStatewide TV. January 1, 1995. p. 9.
- ^ "WBAL will switch to NBC by year's end". July 28, 1994.
- ^ "After a lo-o-o-ong wait, it's Tom Snyder TURNED ON IN L.A." January 9, 1995.
- ^ Chris, Kaltenbach (November 4, 2008). "Something to talk about: 105.7 FM switches to sports". The Baltimore Sun. Retrieved November 30, 2021.
- ^ Gantz, Sarah (February 2, 2017). "CBS Radio to merge with Entercom Communications, forming radio giant". The Baltimore Sun. Retrieved November 30, 2021.
- ^ Hu, Cherie (November 11, 2017). "Entercom Finalizes Merger With CBS Radio, Becoming No. 2 Radio Operator in US". Billboard. Retrieved December 13, 2017.
- ^ "Station Clearances".
- ^ Molczan, T. (June 30, 2013). "Motion Picture of Sputnik 1 Rocket from Baltimore on October 12, 1957". satobs.org. Retrieved September 1, 2013.
- ^ Ariens, Chris (May 18, 2011). "Oprah on Her Time at WJZ: 'Humiliated,' Embarrassed' and 'Sexually Harassed'". Adweek. Retrieved April 7, 2023.
- ^ Zurawik, David. "New anchorwoman, set, graphics debut at WJZ-TV today and tomorrow". The Baltimore Sun. Retrieved December 28, 2022.
- ^ Dillon, Dak (August 23, 2021). "WJZ launches CBSN Baltimore". NewscastStudio. Retrieved August 23, 2021.
- ^ "WJZ, Baltimore Banner set to launch partnership - CBS Baltimore". CBS News. August 19, 2022. Retrieved December 28, 2023.
- ^ Kiesewetter, John (July 27, 1998). "Esiason and Collinsworth score in front of camera". The Cincinnati Enquirer. Archived from the original on January 10, 2013.
- ^ "Digital TV Market Listing for WJZ". rabbitears.info.
- ^ "DTV Tentative Channel Designations for the First and the Second Rounds" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on August 29, 2013. Retrieved March 24, 2012.
- ^ "CDBS Print". licensing.fcc.gov.
- ^ "Fixing VHF DTV Reception Problems". TV Technology. June 19, 2009.
- ^ "Searchable Clearinghouse | National Association of Broadcasters".
External links
- Official website
- This is Baltimore on YouTube– WJZ-TV promotional film from 1959.
- "WJZ-TV". Archived from the original on December 19, 1996. Retrieved December 17, 2006.*
- "WJZ-TV". Archived from the original on December 4, 2010. Retrieved October 7, 2013.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link) - WJZ-TV Collection, Mid-Atlantic Regional Moving Image Archive
- View archival footage held by the University of Baltimore