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Wikipedia

WCBS-TV

March 29, 2023

For other uses, see WCBS.

WCBS-TV (channel 2) is a television station in New York City, serving as the flagship of the CBS network. It is owned and operated by the network's CBS News and Stations division alongside Riverhead, New York–licensed independent station WLNY-TV (channel 55). Both stations share studios within the CBS Broadcast Center on West 57th Street in Midtown Manhattan, while WCBS-TV's transmitter is located at One World Trade Center.

WCBS-TV
Channels
BrandingCBS New York; CBS 2 News
Programming
Affiliations
Ownership
Owner
WLNY-TV
History
FoundedJuly 21, 1931
(91 years ago) (1931-07-21)
First air date
July 1, 1941
(81 years ago) (1941-07-01)
Former call signs
WCBW (1941–1946)
Former channel number(s)
  • Analog:
  • 2 (VHF, 1941–2009)
  • Digital:
  • 56 (UHF, 1997–2009)
  • 33 (UHF, 2009–2019)
  • Translator:
  • 53 W55AA Bronx
Call sign meaning
Columbia Broadcasting System, former legal name of CBS
Technical information
Licensing authority
FCC
Facility ID9610
ERP548 kW
HAAT520 m (1,706 ft)
Transmitter coordinates40°42′46.8″N 74°0′47.3″W / 40.713000°N 74.013139°W / 40.713000; -74.013139
Translator(s)22 (UHF) Riverhead
Links
Public license information
  • Public file
  • LMS
Websitewww.cbsnews.com/newyork/

History

Early years (1931–1951)

 
First logo used in experimental television broadcasts

WCBS-TV's history dates back to CBS' opening of experimental station W2XAB on July 21, 1931, using the mechanical television system that had been more-or-less perfected in the late 1920s.[2][3] Its first broadcast featured New York Mayor Jimmy Walker, Kate Smith, and George Gershwin.[4] The station had the first regular seven-day broadcasting schedule in American television, broadcasting 28 hours a week. Among its early programming were Harriet Lee (1931), The Television Ghost (1931–1933), Helen Haynes (1931–1932), and Piano Lessons (1931–1932). Because W2XAB was broadcasting its video on 2750 kc and audio separately on W2XE at 6120 kc in the shortwave band in 1931,[5] the experimental station's signal could be received in nearby states beyond the New York metropolitan area, as far away as Boston and Baltimore.[2][3] In Allentown, Pennsylvania, some 80 miles (130 km) distant, the local newspaper even listed W2XAB's daily program schedules, for example, as did the Ithaca Journal in upstate New York, 175 miles (282 km) northwest.[5][6]

Announcer-director Bill Schudt was the station's only paid employee; all other staff were volunteers. W2XAB pioneered program development including small-scale dramatic acts, monologues, pantomime, and the use of projection slides to simulate sets. Engineer Bill Lodge[7] devised the first synchronized sound wave for a television station in 1932, enabling W2XAB to broadcast picture and sound on a single shortwave channel instead of the two previously needed. On November 8, 1932, W2XAB broadcast the first television coverage of presidential election returns. The station suspended operations on February 20, 1933, as monochrome television transmission standards were in flux, and in the process of changing from the limited mechanical operation to an all-electronic system. W2XAB returned with an all-electronic system in 1939 from a new studio complex in Grand Central Station and a transmitter located at the Chrysler Building broadcasting on channel 2.[8] W2XAB transmitted the first color broadcast in the United States on August 28, 1940.[9]

On June 24, 1941, W2XAB received a commercial construction permit and program authorization as WCBW. The station went on the air at 2:30 p.m. on July 1, one hour after rival WNBT (channel 1, formerly W2XBS), making it the second authorized fully commercial television station in the United States. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) issued permits to CBS and NBC at the same time and intended WNBT and WCBW to sign on simultaneously on July 1, so no one station could claim to be the "first". WCBW's initial broadcast was the first local newscast aired on a commercial station in the country. Its assigned frequency was 60–66 MHz, now known as channel 3 but then referred to as Channel 2 in the 1940–46 alignment of the VHF band.[citation needed]

Program schedules were irregular through the summer and early fall of 1941. Regular daily operations began on October 29 and WCBW received a full broadcast license, its construction permit and commercial program authorization on March 10, 1942. After the war, the FCC re-allocated the television and FM bands. WCBW closed down its operation on the old channel 2 at the end of February 1946 (the 60–66 MHz band had been re-allocated to WPTZ in Philadelphia as channel 3) in order to move to a new channel 2 at 54–60 MHz. It quickly began operation on the new frequency, where it remained from the spring of 1946 for the next 63 years until the end of analog full power television service in the late spring of 2009.

After the FCC allowed television stations owned by radio stations in the same city to use the same call letters as the radio station with the suffix -TV,[10] the call letters were changed to WCBS-TV on November 1, 1946.[11] The change coincided with the renaming of CBS' New York radio stations, WABC (880 AM) and WABC-FM (101.1), as WCBS and WCBS-FM.[11]

Later analog years (1951–2008)

On February 26, 1951, WCBS-TV became the first station to broadcast a regularly scheduled feature film series, The Late Show. On August 11, 1951, WCBS-TV broadcast the first baseball game on color television, between the Brooklyn Dodgers and Boston Braves from Ebbets Field. As were all color programs at the time, it was transmitted via a field-sequential color system developed by CBS. Signals transmitted this way could not be seen on existing black-and-white sets. The CBS color system was scrapped after the FCC embraced the alternative RCA all-electronic dot sequential system, which was fully compatible with the existing monochrome television standard, late in 1953. However, CBS telecast few programs in color, either locally or through the network, until the mid-1960s when color television sets became more affordable to the American public.[citation needed]

 
Variant used by the station from 2013 to 2016; the logo was used from 1997 to 2016.

In May 1997, the station adopted the "CBS 2" branding, along with sister stations KCBS-TV in Los Angeles and WBBM-TV in Chicago, while retaining a unique and distinctive logo.

WCBS-TV's over-the air signal was not affected by the September 11 terrorist attacks that destroyed the World Trade Center. Unlike its competitors, channel 2 had long maintained a full-powered backup transmitter at the Empire State Building after moving its main transmitter to the North Tower of the then-new World Trade Center in 1975. The station's coverage of the attacks was also simulcast nationally on Viacom (which owned CBS at the time) cable network VH1 that day. In the immediate aftermath of the attacks, WCBS-TV was briefly the only full-coverage over-the-air television service operating in New York City, although the station lent transmission time to other stations who had lost their transmitters until they found suitable backup equipment and locations. The backup transmitter had been put into operation once before, when the World Trade Center bombing of February 26, 1993, knocked most of the area's stations off the air for a week.

Digital era

WCBS-TV discontinued regular programming on its analog signal, over VHF channel 2, at 2 p.m. on June 12, 2009, as part of the federally mandated transition from analog to digital television.[12] The station moved its digital signal from its pre-transition UHF channel 56, which was among the high band UHF channels (52–69) that were removed from broadcasting use as a result of the transition, to channel 33,[13] using PSIP to display WCBS-TV's virtual channel as 2 on digital television receivers. Since the station qualified for the nightlight clause in the DTV Delay Act,[14][15] WCBS kept its analog signal on for one month to provide public service announcements, starting at 3 p.m. on June 12 and permanently shutting it down during the early morning hours of July 13, 2009; this possibly made it the last full power NTSC broadcast television station in the United States to discontinue analog transmissions.[14]

Digital subchannel 2.2, branded as CBS New York Plus, was launched in November 2011 as a 24-hour news channel drawing upon the resources of WCBS-TV, WCBS radio (880 AM), WINS (1010 AM), and WFAN (660 AM). The Plus service was eventually planned to be rolled out to CBS' other owned-and-operated stations, but only WCBS and KYW-TV in Philadelphia added Plus channel services.[16]

On December 12, 2011, CBS Television Stations announced its intent to purchase Riverhead, New York-licensed WLNY-TV (channel 55), later announced for a purchase price of $55 million, creating a duopoly with WCBS-TV.[17] The company announced that it would add additional on-air staff and expand WLNY's local news programming (at the time, that station had only an 11 p.m. newscast). The FCC approved the sale on January 31, 2012, and CBS took control of the station on March 30. WLNY suspended its own news operations the previous day[18] and began airing WCBS-TV produced newscasts on July 2, 2012.

WCBS-TV as of February 2012 has a construction permit for a digital fill-in translator on channel 22, to be licensed to Plainview, New York, which would serve portions of eastern and central Long Island where WCBS-TV's signal is affected by the presence of WFSB, a CBS affiliate in Hartford, Connecticut, which also broadcasts on channel 33.[19] In 2016, WCBS-TV returned to transmitting from One World Trade Center in lower Manhattan.[20]

On October 21, 2014, CBS and Weigel Broadcasting announced the launch of a new digital subchannel service called Decades, scheduled to launch on all CBS-owned stations on May 25, 2015, including on WCBS-TV on channel 2.2. The channel is co-owned by CBS and Weigel (owner of CBS affiliate WDJT-TV in Milwaukee), with Weigel being responsible for distribution to non-CBS-owned stations. It airs programs from the extensive library of CBS Television Distribution (now CBS Media Ventures), including archival footage from CBS News.[21] On September 3, 2018, Decades was replaced on 2.2 by Start TV. (Decades returned to the New York market in October 2019, when it was added to WNYW channel 5.5 as part of an agreement between Weigel and Fox Television Stations).[22]

As a result of the 2016–17 FCC spectrum incentive auction, WCBS-TV moved its digital signal from channel 33 to channel 36 on August 1, 2019.

On December 12, 2018, WCBS-TV in cooperation with CBS Interactive, launched CBSN New York - a local version and partner of the CBSN service.[23] CBS News New York can be accessed from cbsnewyork.com, cbsnews.com, and their respective mobile and streaming apps.

On December 4, 2019, CBS Corporation and Viacom remerged; WCBS and WLNY therefore became part of ViacomCBS (now Paramount Global).[24][25]

Programming

News operation

Upon becoming commercial station WCBW in 1941, the station broadcast two daily news programs, at 2:30 and 7:30 p.m. weekdays, anchored by Richard Hubbell.[26] Most of the newscasts featured Hubbell reading a script with only occasional cutaways to a map or still photograph. When Pearl Harbor was bombed on December 7, 1941, WCBW (which was usually off the air on Sunday to give the engineers a day off), took to the air at 8:45 p.m. that Sunday with an extensive special report. The national emergency even broke down the unspoken wall between CBS radio and television. WCBW executives convinced radio announcers and experts such as George Fielding Elliot and Linton Wells to come down to the Grand Central Station studios during the evening and give information and commentary on the attack. The WCBW special report that night lasted less than 90 minutes. But that special broadcast pushed the limits of live television in 1941 and opened up new possibilities for future broadcasts. As CBS wrote in a special report to the FCC, the unscheduled live news broadcast on December 7 "was unquestionably the most stimulating challenge and marked the greatest advance of any single problem faced up to that time." Additional newscasts were scheduled in the early days of the war. In May 1942, WCBW (like almost all television stations) sharply cut back its live program schedule and the newscasts were cancelled, since the station temporarily suspended studio operations, resorting exclusively to the occasional broadcast of films. This was primarily due to the fact that much of the staff had either joined the service or were redeployed to war-related technical research, and to prolong the life of the early, unstable cameras which were now impossible to repair due to the wartime lack of parts.

In May 1944, as the war began to turn in favor of the Allies, WCBW reopened the studios and the newscasts returned, briefly anchored by Ned Calmer, and then by Everett Holles.[27] After the war, expanded news programs appeared on the WCBW schedule—renamed WCBS-TV in 1946—first anchored by Milo Boulton and later by Douglas Edwards. On May 3, 1948, Douglas Edwards began anchoring CBS Television News, a regular 15-minute nightly newscast on the rudimentary CBS network, including WCBS-TV. It aired every weeknight at 7:30 p.m. and was the first regularly scheduled network television news program featuring an anchor. The NBC television network's offering at the time NBC Television Newsreel (premiering in February 1948) was simply film with voice narration. In 1950, the name of the nightly news was changed to Douglas Edwards with the News, and the following year, it became the first news program to be broadcast on both coasts, thanks to a new coaxial cable connection, prompting Edwards to use the greeting "Good evening everyone, coast to coast." The broadcast was renamed the CBS Evening News when Walter Cronkite replaced Edwards in 1962.[28] Edwards remained with CBS News with various daytime television newscasts and radio news broadcasts until his retirement on April 1, 1988.

In the 1950s through the mid-1960s, WCBS-TV's local newscasts were anchored by CBS News correspondents Robert Trout (at 7 p.m.) and by Don Hollenbeck and later Douglas Edwards (at 11 p.m.). Beginning in 1965, production of local news broadcasts on WCBS-TV and other CBS-owned television stations, which had been previously produced by CBS News, were taken over by the local stations. Trout and Edwards were succeeded by Jim Jensen. Jensen had only come to WCBS-TV a year earlier (he had been at WBZ-TV in Boston), but was already well known for his coverage of Robert F. Kennedy's 1964 campaign for the United States Senate. During the 1960s, WCBS-TV battled WNBC-TV (channel 4) for the top-rated news department in New York City. After WABC-TV (channel 7) introduced Eyewitness News in the late 1960s, WCBS-TV went back and forth in first place with Channel 7, in a rivalry that continued through the 1970s. For much of the early 1980s, New York's "Big Three" stations took turns in the top spot. During this time, three of the longest-tenured anchor teams in New York – Jensen and Rolland Smith, WABC-TV's Roger Grimsby and Bill Beutel, and WNBC-TV's Chuck Scarborough and Sue Simmons – went head-to-head with each other.[citation needed] On January 25, 1982, WCBS-TV debuted its 5 p.m. weekday newscast. WCBS-TV had many well-known personalities during this era: anchors Dave Marash, Rolland Smith, Michele Marsh and Vic Miles; meteorologists Dr. Frank Field and John Coleman; reporters Meredith Vieira, Randall Pinkston, Tony Guida, John Stossel and Arnold Díaz and sportscaster Warner Wolf. Vieira, Pinkston and Guida later moved to the CBS network.

In 1988, controversy involving an exchange between Jim Jensen and co-anchor Bree Walker, whose fingers and toes are fused together as a result of the condition ectrodactyly. After Walker did a report about her experience with the condition, Jensen asked Walker, on the air, if her parents would have aborted her had they known she would have been born with the condition. Walker kept her composure on air but soon left the station. The incident took place shortly before Jensen's entry to drug rehabilitation. As the 1990s began, Channel 2 found itself increasingly losing its ratings share to WNBC. On August 31, 1992, Channel 2 debuted its one-hour weekday morning newscast, this time with the anchor team of Morry Alter and Lisa Rudolph, Jay Trelease with traffic, and Craig Allen with weather. In late 1994 Jensen was taken off the anchor desk and demoted to host of a Sunday morning public-affairs show, Sunday Edition. He also hosted a few episodes of the regular Sports Update show on Sunday nights at 11:30 p.m. At the time, Jensen had served as an anchor longer than anyone in New York television history (he has since been passed by WABC-TV's Beutel and WNBC's Scarborough). In 1995, Jensen was forced to retire shortly after the Westinghouse Electric Corporation announced it was buying CBS. By the end of 1995, Channel 2's ratings were in last place for the first time in its history, while WNBC's ratings had risen to second place – a pecking order that would remain in place for eleven years. The station's news branding change from Channel 2 News to just 2 News during that time, contributed to the station's last-place finish in the February 1996 sweeps period.[citation needed]

1996 "massacre": Mass firings and format changes

 
WCBS-TV's news logo from 1997 to 2000

On October 2, 1996, the station executed an unprecedented mass firing without any advance warning, citing the need to shake up its news operation. Seven people were fired: anchors John Johnson, Michele Marsh and Tony Guida; sports anchor Bernie Smilovitz (who promptly returned to his previous station, WDIV in Detroit); and reporters Reggie Harris, Roseanne Colletti and Magee Hickey.[29] The firings came after the 6 p.m. newscast. Johnson and Marsh had anchored the 5 p.m. newscasts and signed off at 6 p.m. saying, "We'll see you at 11," but never got a chance to say goodbye on the air.

The "massacre," as it has come to be known, was part of a move enacted by then-news director Bill Carey to boost ratings, although it came at a time when CBS was under pressure to boost revenues, having just merged with Westinghouse. It was also part of a major reconstruction of the newscast, culminating in the May 1997 rebranding to News 2; two months prior, Warner Wolf had returned to the station, having left in 1992 for WUSA-TV, the CBS affiliate in Washington.

When the News 2 name was put in place, a format change was also instituted, going for a faster-paced newscast with more stories; this was reinforced by reminders that News 2 had "More news in less time, every time" and a "Rundown" of stories to come. A new, bold and italicized "2" logo, contained in a blue or white slanted box alongside the CBS eye, replaced the long-running Futura "2" used in some form since the 1980s; the overall station branding switched from New York's Channel 2 to simply CBS 2 at this point, remaining the primary brand of the station to this day. After a year, little to no progress in the ratings was made, so this format was done away with; a new "virtual studio" format (involving CGI being used to depict sections of the news studio that did not exist in reality), alongside bright, orange and white graphics and a "club" remix of WBBM-TV's "This is Chicago, Chicago's My Town" theme (which the station has used in various forms for all but a few years since 1982) was tried out. This did not work either, so this approach was also abandoned, in favor of a more "traditional" newscast. The "club" remix of the WBBM theme would continue to be used until early 2000.[citation needed]

CBS 2 News

 
"CBS 2 News" nighttime open from September 22, 2013, to April 21, 2016. On April 22, 2016, the logo was changed to a new numeric "2" for the first time since 1997, in the same font used by WBBM-TV and KCBS-TV, also used since 1997.

In 2000, Joel Cheatwood, creator of the 7 News format at WSVN in Miami, was appointed as the station's news director. At his suggestion, the newscasts were rebranded from News 2 to the CBS 2 Information Network, using "content partners" such as U.S. News & World Report and VH1. He also gave the newscasts more of a tabloid feel. While considerably watered down compared to Bill Applegate's work at WBBM-TV in Chicago, John Lippmann's work at KCBS-TV in Los Angeles, Fox flagship WNYW, and Cheatwood's work at WSVN – and even compared to WSVN's sister station, WHDH in Boston—it was much flashier than had been seen on New York's "Big Three" affiliates. He also retooled the 11 p.m. report as a "gritty, down-to-earth" style newscast, termed Nightcast. At this point, the station was sharing studio space with CBS Sports (having shared street-side studios with CBS' then-morning newscast, The Early Show, as a part of its short-lived attempt at a newscast at 4 p.m., which they had attempted in the early 1990s). It also began usage of two different music packages from Edd Kalehoff (who had composed WNBC's "We're 4 New York" campaign and "NBC Stations" package that was in use at the time), one for the normal newscasts titled "WCBS Grand", which began alongside the debut of the 4 p.m. news, and another package especially intended for Nightcast. It did not work, and Cheatwood was gone by 2002 in favor of New York veteran news director Dianne Doctor. The station became simply CBS 2, and gradually phased out the tabloid elements, the Information Network, and Nightcast. In its place, Doctor introduced a "news for the people" approach similar to that of her previous employer, WNBC. The Kalehoff-produced themes were replaced with the John Hegner-produced "News in Focus" which sister KCBS had used starting in 1997 (and had replaced just days before WCBS adopted the package). Several pieces of "WCBS Grand" have since been recycled by Kalehoff as music cues on The Price Is Right under the title "Grandeur." The graphics and logo mainly became blue and silver, with that color motif remaining to this day (albeit with the addition of gold) with successive graphics packages, including the last several which have been shared with most of the other stations in the CBS O&O group.

After Doctor's arrival, WCBS placed a revived emphasis on hard news, while attempting to revive some elements of its glory days. For instance, in 2003 Arnold Diaz rejoined the station to revive "Shame on You", an Emmy Award–winning series of investigative segments. He had worked at the station from 1973 to 1995, leaving to serve a similar investigative role at ABC News. In December 2005, Diaz once again departed, this time leaving for WNYW. Another segment was "Eat at Your Own Risk", which highlighted unsafe conditions at New York-area restaurants. Ironically, the cafeteria at the CBS Broadcast Center was cited for violations by the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. Violations included the presence of rats and roaches, as well as food temperature issues.[30]

Despite this and other attempts at fixes, the ratings did not significantly improve under Doctor's watch. Doctor was criticized for airing "Shame on You" and "Eat at Your Own Risk" segments ahead of major stories. She also came under fire when channel 2 led its 11 p.m. newscast of May 24, 2005, with a story and exclusive video of actor Burt Reynolds slapping a CBS producer, while rivals WABC-TV and WNBC-TV led with an important vote in the U.S. House on stem cell research.[citation needed]

On May 27, 2004, Doctor fired popular sports anchor Warner Wolf, three months before his contract expired, without giving Wolf a chance to say goodbye on air. This incident was widely panned by several newspapers, including the New York Daily News, and the move alienated and angered many viewers. Wolf was replaced by the much younger Chris Wragge, who was brought in from NBC affiliate KPRC-TV in Houston. On June 1, 2005, Jim Rosenfield rejoined the station to anchor the 5 and 11 p.m. newscasts with Roz Abrams, who joined channel 2 the previous year after an 18-year run at WABC-TV. The son of a former CBS executive, Rosenfield had worked at the station from 1998 to 2000 before moving to WNBC (to anchor Live at Five) after a contract dispute with channel 2. Rosenfield replaced Ernie Anastos, who moved to WNYW in July 2005.[citation needed]

On August 22, 2005, WCBS-TV launched its new Doppler weather radar named "Live Doppler 2 Million". It has one million watts of power, and is live, compared to other dopplers in the market which are delayed by about 15 minutes. "Live Doppler 2 Million" was the punch line of a joke on an episode of Jimmy Kimmel Live! and was ridiculed on the popular Opie and Anthony radio show. The station renamed the radar in 2006 to "Live Doppler". The station also uses the VIPIR radar processing software. Coincidentally, transportation reporter Arthur Chi'en was fired from the station three months earlier after mistakenly using expletives live on the air in response to someone from Opie and Anthony disrupting his live report as part of their "Assault on the Media" contest. On April 14, 2006, Dianne Doctor left WCBS-TV. The station decided to move its news department in a new direction under new general manager Peter Dunn, who axed "Shame on You" and "Eat at Your Own Risk". Doctor reportedly did not agree with the new plans, and opted to leave. The station has since overhauled its graphics and anchor lineup, winning praise from media observers.

Partnership with The Weather Channel; ratings improvement

In early September 2006, WCBS-TV's weather department entered into a partnership with The Weather Channel, with meteorologists from the cable channel often appearing on-air with existing WCBS-TV meteorologists. WCBS-TV also received information from The Weather Channel, in addition to using its radars and satellite imagery. The Weather Channel featured updates with WCBS for New York City's weather on its Evening Edition program with one of the WCBS meteorologists, and forecast intros on WCBS began with "now time for your exclusive forecast from CBS 2 and The Weather Channel." On July 7, 2008, this partnership ended when it was announced that The Weather Channel had been sold to NBCUniversal (owner of competitor WNBC).[citation needed]

Personnel change

On November 6, 2006, WCBS-TV made a personnel change on its noon and 5 p.m. newscasts. Former sports director and anchor Chris Wragge became co-anchor of both programs, along with newly hired Kristine Johnson; both replaced Roz Abrams and Mary Calvi on those newscasts; Abrams' contract was allowed to lapse, and Calvi was reassigned to weekends as the sole evening anchor. Calvi co-anchored on mornings with Rob Morrison. More changes came on December 25, 2006, as John Elliot was introduced as the new morning and noon meteorologist, replacing Audrey Puente, whose abrupt breach-of-contract demotion led to her being allowed to become the new chief meteorologist at WWOR-TV less than two weeks later. WCBS-TV also hired Lonnie Quinn, who had been a weatherman in Miami, as they phased out John Bolaris, who had rejoined WCBS in 2002. On June 25, 2007, Wragge and Johnson added the 11 p.m. newscast to their duties, trading places with Dana Tyler and Jim Rosenfield on the noon program; Tyler and Rosenfield continued to co-anchor the 6 p.m. newscast. Rosenfield left WCBS in May 2008 and was replaced with recently hired weekend anchor Don Dahler.[citation needed]

Improvement in ratings, new set

In the February 2007 ratings period, WCBS-TV finished second behind WABC-TV from sign-on to sign-off – its best showing in 16 years, although most of its newscasts still finished in third place at that time. By the November 2007 sweeps period, channel 2's local evening newscasts had overtaken WNBC for second place (mainly due to declining ratings at WNBC). It was channel 2's best news performance in 12 years, but it still trailed WABC-TV by a fairly wide margin. On April 11, 2007, WCBS-TV became the third New York City television station to begin broadcasting its newscasts in high-definition. In May 2008, WCBS led WNBC by an even wider margin. However, its longtime #1 noon newscast's ratings fell behind WABC, the only other station to offer a noon newscast in the New York area. WCBS has been unable to regain the lead at noon since, although they were still second in New York City among the market's evening broadcasts at the time.

WCBS elected to change the noon anchors again after approximately a year and put the noon broadcast in the hands of the morning news team; the then-current anchors were Maurice DuBois and Mary Calvi with John Elliott providing weather forecasts. DuBois has since switched to anchoring the weeknight 5 and 11 p.m. newscasts with Johnson (with Wragge moving to The Early Show; he later returned to anchor WCBS's 6 p.m. weekday broadcast with Dana Tyler) and is now partnered with Calvi weekday mornings and at noon.

WCBS-TV today

 
Reporter Kathryn Brown reporting on the Summer 2012 North American heat wave from the Times Square subway station on July 18, 2012.

In the February 2011 Nielsen sweeps period, WCBS-TV's 11 p.m. newscast unseated WABC-TV for first place in total households in that timeslot. WABC continued to lead in the key demographics at 11 p.m.. WCBS-TV quickly lost its lead at 11 p.m. after WABC-TV regained its status as #1 at 11 p.m. in the May 2011 sweeps.[31] WABC-TV has since kept its #1 status at 11 p.m. Recently,[when?] WCBS-TV has fallen back to third place due to an increase in ratings at WNBC.

On March 12 and 13, 2020, WCBS-TV's evening newscasts were produced by Los Angeles sister station KCBS-TV, and its morning newscasts originated from KPIX-TV in San Francisco, after the CBS Broadcast Center was closed for disinfection due to two employees testing positive for COVID-19, with weathercasts being originated from the weather department's mobile broadcast unit.[32][33] Newscasts resumed from the Broadcast Center that weekend;[34] however, on March 18, the Broadcast Center was again shut down and production was transferred back to KCBS-TV.[35] On March 20, WCBS-TV began to originate newscasts with their regular talent from the Stamford, Connecticut, studios of YES Network, which were otherwise dark due to the delay of Major League Baseball's upcoming season due to the pandemic,[36] before moving back again to the Broadcast Center, beginning on April 17, with the morning newscast.

Sports programming

From 1956 until 1993, WCBS-TV carried most New York Giants games through the network's coverage of the National Football League. CBS lost the rights to the National Football Conference (NFC) to Fox in 1994, resulting in Giants games moving to WNYW; currently, Giants preseason games are carried by NBC owned-and-operated station WNBC (with WWOR-TV being served as an overflow station if the Summer Olympics conflicts with the preseason schedule). After a 5-year absence, the NFL returned to CBS and WCBS-TV in 1998 through a package of American Football Conference (AFC) games; the station currently airs New York Jets preseason games and most regular season games, along with occasional Giants games, usually when the team plays host to an AFC opponent at MetLife Stadium (or, since 2014, through the 'cross-flex' broadcast rules, any Giants games where they play another NFC team that are moved from Fox to CBS). The station also aired occasional Jets games when they played at home to an NFC team from 1970 to 1993. During the regular season, some Jets games are rotated with WNBC (through NBC Sunday Night Football), WNYW (through NFL on Fox and Thursday Night Football), WABC-TV (through Monday Night Football), WPIX (through Monday Night Football, if WABC-TV is not airing them and select TNF telecasts not carried by Fox's package it shares with NFL Network), and in rare cases, WWOR-TV (through Monday Night Football). The station has aired the Giants' victory in Super Bowl XXI and loss in Super Bowl XXXV.

In 1980, WCBS-TV aired Game 6 of the Stanley Cup Finals via an episode of CBS Sports Spectacular, where the New York Islanders won their first of four straight Stanley Cups. In 2021 and 2022, the station aired the New York City ePrix after the network acquired the rights to broadcast Formula E races.[37]

In 2002, WCBS-TV acquired the over-the-air rights to New York Yankees baseball games, replacing Fox owned-and-operated station WNYW. The games, produced by the new YES Network, remained on the station until the 2004 season; the rights moved to UPN affiliate (now MyNetworkTV owned-and-operated station) WWOR-TV beginning in 2005. It also aired any Yankees or Mets games as part of CBS' MLB broadcast contract from 1990 to 1993.

On-air staff

Notable current on-air staff

Notable former on-air staff

Technical information

Subchannels

The station's digital signal is multiplexed:

Subchannels of WCBS-TV[1]
Channel Res. Aspect Short name Programming
2.1 1080i 16:9 WCBS-HD Main WCBS-TV programming / CBS
2.2 480i STARTTV Start TV
2.3 DABL Dabl
2.4 FAVE-TV Fave TV
2.5 CIRCLE Circle

Translator

City of license Callsign Channel ERP HAAT Facility ID Transmitter coordinates
Riverhead WCBS-TV (DRT) 22 10.4 kW 173.7 m (569.9 ft) 9610 40°53′50.3″N 72°54′54.2″W / 40.897306°N 72.915056°W / 40.897306; -72.915056 (WCBS (DRT))

See also

References

  1. ^ a b "Digital TV Market Listing for WCBS". RabbitEars.Info. Retrieved January 26, 2017.
  2. ^ a b "Columbia is Telecasting!" (PDF). Television News: 253. September–October 1931. Retrieved November 5, 2020.
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  4. ^ Inaugural Broadcast Program
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  6. ^ "Television". Ithaca Journal. September 5, 1931. p. 7.
  7. ^ Lawrence H. Rogers, II (July 2000). History of U.S. Television: A Personal Reminiscence. AuthorHouse. pp. 59–. ISBN 978-1-58500-825-4.
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  9. ^ . Novia.net. Archived from the original on September 22, 2013. Retrieved October 22, 2013.
  10. ^ "Call Letter Style Adopted for Video" (PDF). Broadcasting–Telecasting. August 19, 1946. p. 82. Retrieved December 16, 2022.
  11. ^ a b "WABC Becomes WCBS; Shifting FM, Video Calls" (PDF). Broadcasting–Telecasting. September 2, 1946. p. 94. Retrieved December 16, 2022.
  12. ^ List of Digital Full-Power Stations
  13. ^ CDBS Print. Fjallfoss.fcc.gov. Retrieved on June 4, 2012.
  14. ^ a b "UPDATED List of Participants in the Analog Nightlight Program" (PDF). Federal Communications Commission. June 12, 2009. Retrieved June 4, 2012.
  15. ^ aviator1212 (June 24, 2009). "WCBS TV New York Analog TV Sign Off June 12th 2009". Archived from the original on December 13, 2021. Retrieved December 30, 2016 – via YouTube.
  16. ^ Huff, Richard (October 18, 2011). "WCBS tries to bridge news and information-gathering power of local channels and sports media". New York Daily News. Retrieved February 15, 2022.
  17. ^ "CBS Paying $55 Million For WLNY New York". TVNewsCheck.com. December 21, 2011. Retrieved October 22, 2013.
  18. ^ "WLNY/Ch. 10/55 to suspend newscasts March 29 as part of merger deal with WCBS/Ch. 2". NY Daily News. March 15, 2012. Retrieved October 22, 2013.
  19. ^ "CDBS Print". Licensing.fcc.gov. Retrieved February 13, 2012.
  20. ^ "One World Trade Center adds ION Media as newest broadcaster tenant". New York Post. May 8, 2017. Retrieved May 27, 2020.
  21. ^ Malone, Michael (October 21, 2014). "CBS, Weigel Ready 'Decades' Digi-Net". Broadcasting & Cable. Retrieved November 22, 2019.
  22. ^ Petski, Denise (July 10, 2019). "Fox Television Stations To Carry Weigel Broadcasting's Decades TV Network Beginning in Q3". Deadline Hollywood. Retrieved October 14, 2019.
  23. ^ Malone, Michael (December 13, 2018). "CBS Television Stations Launch CBSN New York". nexttv.com. Broadcasting+Cable. Retrieved October 8, 2020.
  24. ^ Weprin, Alex (December 4, 2019). "Bob Bakish's Memo to ViacomCBS Staff: Merger "a Historic Moment"". Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved February 15, 2022.
  25. ^ Goldsmith, Jill (February 15, 2022). "ViacomCBS To Rebrand As Paramount Global". Deadline Hollywood. Retrieved February 16, 2022.
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  30. ^ Restaurant Inspection Information: NYC DOHMH December 10, 2005, at the Wayback Machine
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  33. ^ "CBS New York turns local news over to Los Angeles as studios remain closed". NewscastStudio. Retrieved March 13, 2020.
  34. ^ Tsoflias Siegel, Stephanie (March 15, 2020). "Some WCBS Staffers Back After Coronavirus-Related Studio Closure". TVSpy. Retrieved March 18, 2020.
  35. ^ Ariens, Chris (March 18, 2020). "KCBS Anchors Will Again Fill in on WCBS With Coronavirus Concerns Not Yet Contained". TVSpy. Retrieved March 18, 2020.
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  37. ^ Impey, Steven (November 19, 2022). "Formula E agrees exclusive three-year CBS broadcast deal". SportsPro.

External links

  • Official website
  • FCC History Cards for WCBS-TV
  • Aerial view of WCBS-TV studios from Google Local
 
Wikimedia Commons has media related to WCBS-TV.

March 29, 2023
wcbs, other, uses, wcbs, this, article, needs, additional, citations, verification, please, help, improve, this, article, adding, citations, reliable, sources, unsourced, material, challenged, removed, find, sources, news, newspapers, books, scholar, jstor, ja. For other uses see WCBS This article needs additional citations for verification Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources Unsourced material may be challenged and removed Find sources WCBS TV news newspapers books scholar JSTOR January 2012 Learn how and when to remove this template message WCBS TV channel 2 is a television station in New York City serving as the flagship of the CBS network It is owned and operated by the network s CBS News and Stations division alongside Riverhead New York licensed independent station WLNY TV channel 55 Both stations share studios within the CBS Broadcast Center on West 57th Street in Midtown Manhattan while WCBS TV s transmitter is located at One World Trade Center WCBS TVNew York New YorkUnited StatesChannelsDigital 36 UHF Virtual 2BrandingCBS New York CBS 2 NewsProgrammingAffiliations2 1 CBS2 2 Start TV2 3 Dabl 1 2 4 Fave TV2 5 CircleOwnershipOwnerCBS News and Stations CBS Broadcasting Inc Sister stationsWLNY TVHistoryFoundedJuly 21 1931 91 years ago 1931 07 21 First air dateJuly 1 1941 81 years ago 1941 07 01 Former call signsWCBW 1941 1946 Former channel number s Analog 2 VHF 1941 2009 Digital 56 UHF 1997 2009 33 UHF 2009 2019 Translator 53 W55AA BronxFormer affiliationsDT2 CBS Plus 2011 2015 Decades 2015 2018 Call sign meaningColumbia Broadcasting System former legal name of CBSTechnical informationLicensing authorityFCCFacility ID9610ERP548 kWHAAT520 m 1 706 ft Transmitter coordinates40 42 46 8 N 74 0 47 3 W 40 713000 N 74 013139 W 40 713000 74 013139Translator s 22 UHF RiverheadLinksPublic license informationPublic fileLMSWebsitewww wbr cbsnews wbr com wbr newyork wbr Contents 1 History 1 1 Early years 1931 1951 1 2 Later analog years 1951 2008 1 3 Digital era 2 Programming 2 1 News operation 2 1 1 1996 massacre Mass firings and format changes 2 1 2 CBS 2 News 2 1 3 Partnership with The Weather Channel ratings improvement 2 1 4 Personnel change 2 1 5 Improvement in ratings new set 2 1 6 WCBS TV today 2 2 Sports programming 2 3 On air staff 2 3 1 Notable current on air staff 2 3 2 Notable former on air staff 3 Technical information 3 1 Subchannels 3 2 Translator 4 See also 5 References 6 External linksHistory EditEarly years 1931 1951 Edit First logo used in experimental television broadcasts WCBS TV s history dates back to CBS opening of experimental station W2XAB on July 21 1931 using the mechanical television system that had been more or less perfected in the late 1920s 2 3 Its first broadcast featured New York Mayor Jimmy Walker Kate Smith and George Gershwin 4 The station had the first regular seven day broadcasting schedule in American television broadcasting 28 hours a week Among its early programming were Harriet Lee 1931 The Television Ghost 1931 1933 Helen Haynes 1931 1932 and Piano Lessons 1931 1932 Because W2XAB was broadcasting its video on 2750 kc and audio separately on W2XE at 6120 kc in the shortwave band in 1931 5 the experimental station s signal could be received in nearby states beyond the New York metropolitan area as far away as Boston and Baltimore 2 3 In Allentown Pennsylvania some 80 miles 130 km distant the local newspaper even listed W2XAB s daily program schedules for example as did the Ithaca Journal in upstate New York 175 miles 282 km northwest 5 6 Announcer director Bill Schudt was the station s only paid employee all other staff were volunteers W2XAB pioneered program development including small scale dramatic acts monologues pantomime and the use of projection slides to simulate sets Engineer Bill Lodge 7 devised the first synchronized sound wave for a television station in 1932 enabling W2XAB to broadcast picture and sound on a single shortwave channel instead of the two previously needed On November 8 1932 W2XAB broadcast the first television coverage of presidential election returns The station suspended operations on February 20 1933 as monochrome television transmission standards were in flux and in the process of changing from the limited mechanical operation to an all electronic system W2XAB returned with an all electronic system in 1939 from a new studio complex in Grand Central Station and a transmitter located at the Chrysler Building broadcasting on channel 2 8 W2XAB transmitted the first color broadcast in the United States on August 28 1940 9 On June 24 1941 W2XAB received a commercial construction permit and program authorization as WCBW The station went on the air at 2 30 p m on July 1 one hour after rival WNBT channel 1 formerly W2XBS making it the second authorized fully commercial television station in the United States The Federal Communications Commission FCC issued permits to CBS and NBC at the same time and intended WNBT and WCBW to sign on simultaneously on July 1 so no one station could claim to be the first WCBW s initial broadcast was the first local newscast aired on a commercial station in the country Its assigned frequency was 60 66 MHz now known as channel 3 but then referred to as Channel 2 in the 1940 46 alignment of the VHF band citation needed Program schedules were irregular through the summer and early fall of 1941 Regular daily operations began on October 29 and WCBW received a full broadcast license its construction permit and commercial program authorization on March 10 1942 After the war the FCC re allocated the television and FM bands WCBW closed down its operation on the old channel 2 at the end of February 1946 the 60 66 MHz band had been re allocated to WPTZ in Philadelphia as channel 3 in order to move to a new channel 2 at 54 60 MHz It quickly began operation on the new frequency where it remained from the spring of 1946 for the next 63 years until the end of analog full power television service in the late spring of 2009 After the FCC allowed television stations owned by radio stations in the same city to use the same call letters as the radio station with the suffix TV 10 the call letters were changed to WCBS TV on November 1 1946 11 The change coincided with the renaming of CBS New York radio stations WABC 880 AM and WABC FM 101 1 as WCBS and WCBS FM 11 Later analog years 1951 2008 Edit This section needs expansion with more information on the station from the 1950s to the present day You can help by adding to it February 2011 On February 26 1951 WCBS TV became the first station to broadcast a regularly scheduled feature film series The Late Show On August 11 1951 WCBS TV broadcast the first baseball game on color television between the Brooklyn Dodgers and Boston Braves from Ebbets Field As were all color programs at the time it was transmitted via a field sequential color system developed by CBS Signals transmitted this way could not be seen on existing black and white sets The CBS color system was scrapped after the FCC embraced the alternative RCA all electronic dot sequential system which was fully compatible with the existing monochrome television standard late in 1953 However CBS telecast few programs in color either locally or through the network until the mid 1960s when color television sets became more affordable to the American public citation needed Variant used by the station from 2013 to 2016 the logo was used from 1997 to 2016 In May 1997 the station adopted the CBS 2 branding along with sister stations KCBS TV in Los Angeles and WBBM TV in Chicago while retaining a unique and distinctive logo WCBS TV s over the air signal was not affected by the September 11 terrorist attacks that destroyed the World Trade Center Unlike its competitors channel 2 had long maintained a full powered backup transmitter at the Empire State Building after moving its main transmitter to the North Tower of the then new World Trade Center in 1975 The station s coverage of the attacks was also simulcast nationally on Viacom which owned CBS at the time cable network VH1 that day In the immediate aftermath of the attacks WCBS TV was briefly the only full coverage over the air television service operating in New York City although the station lent transmission time to other stations who had lost their transmitters until they found suitable backup equipment and locations The backup transmitter had been put into operation once before when the World Trade Center bombing of February 26 1993 knocked most of the area s stations off the air for a week Digital era Edit WCBS TV discontinued regular programming on its analog signal over VHF channel 2 at 2 p m on June 12 2009 as part of the federally mandated transition from analog to digital television 12 The station moved its digital signal from its pre transition UHF channel 56 which was among the high band UHF channels 52 69 that were removed from broadcasting use as a result of the transition to channel 33 13 using PSIP to display WCBS TV s virtual channel as 2 on digital television receivers Since the station qualified for the nightlight clause in the DTV Delay Act 14 15 WCBS kept its analog signal on for one month to provide public service announcements starting at 3 p m on June 12 and permanently shutting it down during the early morning hours of July 13 2009 this possibly made it the last full power NTSC broadcast television station in the United States to discontinue analog transmissions 14 Digital subchannel 2 2 branded as CBS New York Plus was launched in November 2011 as a 24 hour news channel drawing upon the resources of WCBS TV WCBS radio 880 AM WINS 1010 AM and WFAN 660 AM The Plus service was eventually planned to be rolled out to CBS other owned and operated stations but only WCBS and KYW TV in Philadelphia added Plus channel services 16 On December 12 2011 CBS Television Stations announced its intent to purchase Riverhead New York licensed WLNY TV channel 55 later announced for a purchase price of 55 million creating a duopoly with WCBS TV 17 The company announced that it would add additional on air staff and expand WLNY s local news programming at the time that station had only an 11 p m newscast The FCC approved the sale on January 31 2012 and CBS took control of the station on March 30 WLNY suspended its own news operations the previous day 18 and began airing WCBS TV produced newscasts on July 2 2012 WCBS TV as of February 2012 has a construction permit for a digital fill in translator on channel 22 to be licensed to Plainview New York which would serve portions of eastern and central Long Island where WCBS TV s signal is affected by the presence of WFSB a CBS affiliate in Hartford Connecticut which also broadcasts on channel 33 19 In 2016 WCBS TV returned to transmitting from One World Trade Center in lower Manhattan 20 On October 21 2014 CBS and Weigel Broadcasting announced the launch of a new digital subchannel service called Decades scheduled to launch on all CBS owned stations on May 25 2015 including on WCBS TV on channel 2 2 The channel is co owned by CBS and Weigel owner of CBS affiliate WDJT TV in Milwaukee with Weigel being responsible for distribution to non CBS owned stations It airs programs from the extensive library of CBS Television Distribution now CBS Media Ventures including archival footage from CBS News 21 On September 3 2018 Decades was replaced on 2 2 by Start TV Decades returned to the New York market in October 2019 when it was added to WNYW channel 5 5 as part of an agreement between Weigel and Fox Television Stations 22 As a result of the 2016 17 FCC spectrum incentive auction WCBS TV moved its digital signal from channel 33 to channel 36 on August 1 2019 On December 12 2018 WCBS TV in cooperation with CBS Interactive launched CBSN New York a local version and partner of the CBSN service 23 CBS News New York can be accessed from cbsnewyork com cbsnews com and their respective mobile and streaming apps On December 4 2019 CBS Corporation and Viacom remerged WCBS and WLNY therefore became part of ViacomCBS now Paramount Global 24 25 Programming EditNews operation Edit Upon becoming commercial station WCBW in 1941 the station broadcast two daily news programs at 2 30 and 7 30 p m weekdays anchored by Richard Hubbell 26 Most of the newscasts featured Hubbell reading a script with only occasional cutaways to a map or still photograph When Pearl Harbor was bombed on December 7 1941 WCBW which was usually off the air on Sunday to give the engineers a day off took to the air at 8 45 p m that Sunday with an extensive special report The national emergency even broke down the unspoken wall between CBS radio and television WCBW executives convinced radio announcers and experts such as George Fielding Elliot and Linton Wells to come down to the Grand Central Station studios during the evening and give information and commentary on the attack The WCBW special report that night lasted less than 90 minutes But that special broadcast pushed the limits of live television in 1941 and opened up new possibilities for future broadcasts As CBS wrote in a special report to the FCC the unscheduled live news broadcast on December 7 was unquestionably the most stimulating challenge and marked the greatest advance of any single problem faced up to that time Additional newscasts were scheduled in the early days of the war In May 1942 WCBW like almost all television stations sharply cut back its live program schedule and the newscasts were cancelled since the station temporarily suspended studio operations resorting exclusively to the occasional broadcast of films This was primarily due to the fact that much of the staff had either joined the service or were redeployed to war related technical research and to prolong the life of the early unstable cameras which were now impossible to repair due to the wartime lack of parts In May 1944 as the war began to turn in favor of the Allies WCBW reopened the studios and the newscasts returned briefly anchored by Ned Calmer and then by Everett Holles 27 After the war expanded news programs appeared on the WCBW schedule renamed WCBS TV in 1946 first anchored by Milo Boulton and later by Douglas Edwards On May 3 1948 Douglas Edwards began anchoring CBS Television News a regular 15 minute nightly newscast on the rudimentary CBS network including WCBS TV It aired every weeknight at 7 30 p m and was the first regularly scheduled network television news program featuring an anchor The NBC television network s offering at the time NBC Television Newsreel premiering in February 1948 was simply film with voice narration In 1950 the name of the nightly news was changed to Douglas Edwards with the News and the following year it became the first news program to be broadcast on both coasts thanks to a new coaxial cable connection prompting Edwards to use the greeting Good evening everyone coast to coast The broadcast was renamed the CBS Evening News when Walter Cronkite replaced Edwards in 1962 28 Edwards remained with CBS News with various daytime television newscasts and radio news broadcasts until his retirement on April 1 1988 In the 1950s through the mid 1960s WCBS TV s local newscasts were anchored by CBS News correspondents Robert Trout at 7 p m and by Don Hollenbeck and later Douglas Edwards at 11 p m Beginning in 1965 production of local news broadcasts on WCBS TV and other CBS owned television stations which had been previously produced by CBS News were taken over by the local stations Trout and Edwards were succeeded by Jim Jensen Jensen had only come to WCBS TV a year earlier he had been at WBZ TV in Boston but was already well known for his coverage of Robert F Kennedy s 1964 campaign for the United States Senate During the 1960s WCBS TV battled WNBC TV channel 4 for the top rated news department in New York City After WABC TV channel 7 introduced Eyewitness News in the late 1960s WCBS TV went back and forth in first place with Channel 7 in a rivalry that continued through the 1970s For much of the early 1980s New York s Big Three stations took turns in the top spot During this time three of the longest tenured anchor teams in New York Jensen and Rolland Smith WABC TV s Roger Grimsby and Bill Beutel and WNBC TV s Chuck Scarborough and Sue Simmons went head to head with each other citation needed On January 25 1982 WCBS TV debuted its 5 p m weekday newscast WCBS TV had many well known personalities during this era anchors Dave Marash Rolland Smith Michele Marsh and Vic Miles meteorologists Dr Frank Field and John Coleman reporters Meredith Vieira Randall Pinkston Tony Guida John Stossel and Arnold Diaz and sportscaster Warner Wolf Vieira Pinkston and Guida later moved to the CBS network In 1988 controversy involving an exchange between Jim Jensen and co anchor Bree Walker whose fingers and toes are fused together as a result of the condition ectrodactyly After Walker did a report about her experience with the condition Jensen asked Walker on the air if her parents would have aborted her had they known she would have been born with the condition Walker kept her composure on air but soon left the station The incident took place shortly before Jensen s entry to drug rehabilitation As the 1990s began Channel 2 found itself increasingly losing its ratings share to WNBC On August 31 1992 Channel 2 debuted its one hour weekday morning newscast this time with the anchor team of Morry Alter and Lisa Rudolph Jay Trelease with traffic and Craig Allen with weather In late 1994 Jensen was taken off the anchor desk and demoted to host of a Sunday morning public affairs show Sunday Edition He also hosted a few episodes of the regular Sports Update show on Sunday nights at 11 30 p m At the time Jensen had served as an anchor longer than anyone in New York television history he has since been passed by WABC TV s Beutel and WNBC s Scarborough In 1995 Jensen was forced to retire shortly after the Westinghouse Electric Corporation announced it was buying CBS By the end of 1995 Channel 2 s ratings were in last place for the first time in its history while WNBC s ratings had risen to second place a pecking order that would remain in place for eleven years The station s news branding change from Channel 2 News to just 2 News during that time contributed to the station s last place finish in the February 1996 sweeps period citation needed 1996 massacre Mass firings and format changes Edit WCBS TV s news logo from 1997 to 2000 On October 2 1996 the station executed an unprecedented mass firing without any advance warning citing the need to shake up its news operation Seven people were fired anchors John Johnson Michele Marsh and Tony Guida sports anchor Bernie Smilovitz who promptly returned to his previous station WDIV in Detroit and reporters Reggie Harris Roseanne Colletti and Magee Hickey 29 The firings came after the 6 p m newscast Johnson and Marsh had anchored the 5 p m newscasts and signed off at 6 p m saying We ll see you at 11 but never got a chance to say goodbye on the air The massacre as it has come to be known was part of a move enacted by then news director Bill Carey to boost ratings although it came at a time when CBS was under pressure to boost revenues having just merged with Westinghouse It was also part of a major reconstruction of the newscast culminating in the May 1997 rebranding to News 2 two months prior Warner Wolf had returned to the station having left in 1992 for WUSA TV the CBS affiliate in Washington When the News 2 name was put in place a format change was also instituted going for a faster paced newscast with more stories this was reinforced by reminders that News 2 had More news in less time every time and a Rundown of stories to come A new bold and italicized 2 logo contained in a blue or white slanted box alongside the CBS eye replaced the long running Futura 2 used in some form since the 1980s the overall station branding switched from New York s Channel 2 to simply CBS 2 at this point remaining the primary brand of the station to this day After a year little to no progress in the ratings was made so this format was done away with a new virtual studio format involving CGI being used to depict sections of the news studio that did not exist in reality alongside bright orange and white graphics and a club remix of WBBM TV s This is Chicago Chicago s My Town theme which the station has used in various forms for all but a few years since 1982 was tried out This did not work either so this approach was also abandoned in favor of a more traditional newscast The club remix of the WBBM theme would continue to be used until early 2000 citation needed CBS 2 News Edit CBS 2 News nighttime open from September 22 2013 to April 21 2016 On April 22 2016 the logo was changed to a new numeric 2 for the first time since 1997 in the same font used by WBBM TV and KCBS TV also used since 1997 In 2000 Joel Cheatwood creator of the 7 News format at WSVN in Miami was appointed as the station s news director At his suggestion the newscasts were rebranded from News 2 to the CBS 2 Information Network using content partners such as U S News amp World Report and VH1 He also gave the newscasts more of a tabloid feel While considerably watered down compared to Bill Applegate s work at WBBM TV in Chicago John Lippmann s work at KCBS TV in Los Angeles Fox flagship WNYW and Cheatwood s work at WSVN and even compared to WSVN s sister station WHDH in Boston it was much flashier than had been seen on New York s Big Three affiliates He also retooled the 11 p m report as a gritty down to earth style newscast termed Nightcast At this point the station was sharing studio space with CBS Sports having shared street side studios with CBS then morning newscast The Early Show as a part of its short lived attempt at a newscast at 4 p m which they had attempted in the early 1990s It also began usage of two different music packages from Edd Kalehoff who had composed WNBC s We re 4 New York campaign and NBC Stations package that was in use at the time one for the normal newscasts titled WCBS Grand which began alongside the debut of the 4 p m news and another package especially intended for Nightcast It did not work and Cheatwood was gone by 2002 in favor of New York veteran news director Dianne Doctor The station became simply CBS 2 and gradually phased out the tabloid elements the Information Network and Nightcast In its place Doctor introduced a news for the people approach similar to that of her previous employer WNBC The Kalehoff produced themes were replaced with the John Hegner produced News in Focus which sister KCBS had used starting in 1997 and had replaced just days before WCBS adopted the package Several pieces of WCBS Grand have since been recycled by Kalehoff as music cues on The Price Is Right under the title Grandeur The graphics and logo mainly became blue and silver with that color motif remaining to this day albeit with the addition of gold with successive graphics packages including the last several which have been shared with most of the other stations in the CBS O amp O group After Doctor s arrival WCBS placed a revived emphasis on hard news while attempting to revive some elements of its glory days For instance in 2003 Arnold Diaz rejoined the station to revive Shame on You an Emmy Award winning series of investigative segments He had worked at the station from 1973 to 1995 leaving to serve a similar investigative role at ABC News In December 2005 Diaz once again departed this time leaving for WNYW Another segment was Eat at Your Own Risk which highlighted unsafe conditions at New York area restaurants Ironically the cafeteria at the CBS Broadcast Center was cited for violations by the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene Violations included the presence of rats and roaches as well as food temperature issues 30 Despite this and other attempts at fixes the ratings did not significantly improve under Doctor s watch Doctor was criticized for airing Shame on You and Eat at Your Own Risk segments ahead of major stories She also came under fire when channel 2 led its 11 p m newscast of May 24 2005 with a story and exclusive video of actor Burt Reynolds slapping a CBS producer while rivals WABC TV and WNBC TV led with an important vote in the U S House on stem cell research citation needed On May 27 2004 Doctor fired popular sports anchor Warner Wolf three months before his contract expired without giving Wolf a chance to say goodbye on air This incident was widely panned by several newspapers including the New York Daily News and the move alienated and angered many viewers Wolf was replaced by the much younger Chris Wragge who was brought in from NBC affiliate KPRC TV in Houston On June 1 2005 Jim Rosenfield rejoined the station to anchor the 5 and 11 p m newscasts with Roz Abrams who joined channel 2 the previous year after an 18 year run at WABC TV The son of a former CBS executive Rosenfield had worked at the station from 1998 to 2000 before moving to WNBC to anchor Live at Five after a contract dispute with channel 2 Rosenfield replaced Ernie Anastos who moved to WNYW in July 2005 citation needed On August 22 2005 WCBS TV launched its new Doppler weather radar named Live Doppler 2 Million It has one million watts of power and is live compared to other dopplers in the market which are delayed by about 15 minutes Live Doppler 2 Million was the punch line of a joke on an episode of Jimmy Kimmel Live and was ridiculed on the popular Opie and Anthony radio show The station renamed the radar in 2006 to Live Doppler The station also uses the VIPIR radar processing software Coincidentally transportation reporter Arthur Chi en was fired from the station three months earlier after mistakenly using expletives live on the air in response to someone from Opie and Anthony disrupting his live report as part of their Assault on the Media contest On April 14 2006 Dianne Doctor left WCBS TV The station decided to move its news department in a new direction under new general manager Peter Dunn who axed Shame on You and Eat at Your Own Risk Doctor reportedly did not agree with the new plans and opted to leave The station has since overhauled its graphics and anchor lineup winning praise from media observers Partnership with The Weather Channel ratings improvement Edit In early September 2006 WCBS TV s weather department entered into a partnership with The Weather Channel with meteorologists from the cable channel often appearing on air with existing WCBS TV meteorologists WCBS TV also received information from The Weather Channel in addition to using its radars and satellite imagery The Weather Channel featured updates with WCBS for New York City s weather on its Evening Edition program with one of the WCBS meteorologists and forecast intros on WCBS began with now time for your exclusive forecast from CBS 2 and The Weather Channel On July 7 2008 this partnership ended when it was announced that The Weather Channel had been sold to NBCUniversal owner of competitor WNBC citation needed Personnel change Edit On November 6 2006 WCBS TV made a personnel change on its noon and 5 p m newscasts Former sports director and anchor Chris Wragge became co anchor of both programs along with newly hired Kristine Johnson both replaced Roz Abrams and Mary Calvi on those newscasts Abrams contract was allowed to lapse and Calvi was reassigned to weekends as the sole evening anchor Calvi co anchored on mornings with Rob Morrison More changes came on December 25 2006 as John Elliot was introduced as the new morning and noon meteorologist replacing Audrey Puente whose abrupt breach of contract demotion led to her being allowed to become the new chief meteorologist at WWOR TV less than two weeks later WCBS TV also hired Lonnie Quinn who had been a weatherman in Miami as they phased out John Bolaris who had rejoined WCBS in 2002 On June 25 2007 Wragge and Johnson added the 11 p m newscast to their duties trading places with Dana Tyler and Jim Rosenfield on the noon program Tyler and Rosenfield continued to co anchor the 6 p m newscast Rosenfield left WCBS in May 2008 and was replaced with recently hired weekend anchor Don Dahler citation needed Improvement in ratings new set Edit In the February 2007 ratings period WCBS TV finished second behind WABC TV from sign on to sign off its best showing in 16 years although most of its newscasts still finished in third place at that time By the November 2007 sweeps period channel 2 s local evening newscasts had overtaken WNBC for second place mainly due to declining ratings at WNBC It was channel 2 s best news performance in 12 years but it still trailed WABC TV by a fairly wide margin On April 11 2007 WCBS TV became the third New York City television station to begin broadcasting its newscasts in high definition In May 2008 WCBS led WNBC by an even wider margin However its longtime 1 noon newscast s ratings fell behind WABC the only other station to offer a noon newscast in the New York area WCBS has been unable to regain the lead at noon since although they were still second in New York City among the market s evening broadcasts at the time WCBS elected to change the noon anchors again after approximately a year and put the noon broadcast in the hands of the morning news team the then current anchors were Maurice DuBois and Mary Calvi with John Elliott providing weather forecasts DuBois has since switched to anchoring the weeknight 5 and 11 p m newscasts with Johnson with Wragge moving to The Early Show he later returned to anchor WCBS s 6 p m weekday broadcast with Dana Tyler and is now partnered with Calvi weekday mornings and at noon WCBS TV today Edit Reporter Kathryn Brown reporting on the Summer 2012 North American heat wave from the Times Square subway station on July 18 2012 In the February 2011 Nielsen sweeps period WCBS TV s 11 p m newscast unseated WABC TV for first place in total households in that timeslot WABC continued to lead in the key demographics at 11 p m WCBS TV quickly lost its lead at 11 p m after WABC TV regained its status as 1 at 11 p m in the May 2011 sweeps 31 WABC TV has since kept its 1 status at 11 p m Recently when WCBS TV has fallen back to third place due to an increase in ratings at WNBC On March 12 and 13 2020 WCBS TV s evening newscasts were produced by Los Angeles sister station KCBS TV and its morning newscasts originated from KPIX TV in San Francisco after the CBS Broadcast Center was closed for disinfection due to two employees testing positive for COVID 19 with weathercasts being originated from the weather department s mobile broadcast unit 32 33 Newscasts resumed from the Broadcast Center that weekend 34 however on March 18 the Broadcast Center was again shut down and production was transferred back to KCBS TV 35 On March 20 WCBS TV began to originate newscasts with their regular talent from the Stamford Connecticut studios of YES Network which were otherwise dark due to the delay of Major League Baseball s upcoming season due to the pandemic 36 before moving back again to the Broadcast Center beginning on April 17 with the morning newscast Sports programming Edit From 1956 until 1993 WCBS TV carried most New York Giants games through the network s coverage of the National Football League CBS lost the rights to the National Football Conference NFC to Fox in 1994 resulting in Giants games moving to WNYW currently Giants preseason games are carried by NBC owned and operated station WNBC with WWOR TV being served as an overflow station if the Summer Olympics conflicts with the preseason schedule After a 5 year absence the NFL returned to CBS and WCBS TV in 1998 through a package of American Football Conference AFC games the station currently airs New York Jets preseason games and most regular season games along with occasional Giants games usually when the team plays host to an AFC opponent at MetLife Stadium or since 2014 through the cross flex broadcast rules any Giants games where they play another NFC team that are moved from Fox to CBS The station also aired occasional Jets games when they played at home to an NFC team from 1970 to 1993 During the regular season some Jets games are rotated with WNBC through NBC Sunday Night Football WNYW through NFL on Fox and Thursday Night Football WABC TV through Monday Night Football WPIX through Monday Night Football if WABC TV is not airing them and select TNF telecasts not carried by Fox s package it shares with NFL Network and in rare cases WWOR TV through Monday Night Football The station has aired the Giants victory in Super Bowl XXI and loss in Super Bowl XXXV In 1980 WCBS TV aired Game 6 of the Stanley Cup Finals via an episode of CBS Sports Spectacular where the New York Islanders won their first of four straight Stanley Cups In 2021 and 2022 the station aired the New York City ePrix after the network acquired the rights to broadcast Formula E races 37 In 2002 WCBS TV acquired the over the air rights to New York Yankees baseball games replacing Fox owned and operated station WNYW The games produced by the new YES Network remained on the station until the 2004 season the rights moved to UPN affiliate now MyNetworkTV owned and operated station WWOR TV beginning in 2005 It also aired any Yankees or Mets games as part of CBS MLB broadcast contract from 1990 to 1993 On air staff Edit This section does not cite any sources Please help improve this section by adding citations to reliable sources Unsourced material may be challenged and removed July 2020 Learn how and when to remove this template message Notable current on air staff Edit Tony Aiello general assignment reporter Dick Brennan general assignment reporter and fill in anchor Mary Calvi anchor Maurice DuBois anchor Alice Gainer general assignment reporter and fill in anchor Dr Max Gomez medical reporter Carolyn Gusoff Long Island reporter Cindy Hsu anchor Kristine Johnson anchor Marcia Kramer chief political reporter Otis Livingston sports anchor Jennifer McLogan Long Island correspondent Jessica Moore anchor and general assignment reporter Lonnie Quinn chief weathercaster Dana Tyler anchor host of Eye on New York Chris Wragge anchorNotable former on air staff Edit Roz Abrams retired Al Albert retired Steve Albert retired Vanessa Alfano currently runs her own blog Craig Allen now at WCBS AM and weekends at WPIX Morry Alter retired Ernie Anastos later at WNYW Tiki Barber now at CBS Sports Radio Steve Bartelstein retired from TV Pat Battle now at WNBC Bruce Beck now at WNBC Len Berman now at WOR AM John Bolaris last at WTXF TV Jim Bouton deceased Richard Brown retired Maureen Bunyan was most recently at WJLA TV until January 2017 Tracee Carrasco now at Fox Business Duke Castiglione now at WCVB TV Ti Hua Chang last at WNYW Julie Chen host of CBS Big Brother Alexis Christoforous business reporter now at ABC News Linda Church retired John Coleman died January 20 2018 Penny Crone retired Chet Curtis deceased Don Dahler now at CBS News Vince DeMentri last at WICS Arnold Diaz now at WPIX Diane Dimond retired Tom Dunn deceased Douglas Edwards deceased Linda Ellerbee Tamsen Fadal now at WPIX Dr Frank Field retired Ira Joe Fisher retired from TV Jack Ford now at CBS News as Legal Expert Emily Frances retired from TV now runs a blog Shon Gables host of Black Enterprise Business Report Leeza Gibbons winner of The Celebrity Apprentice is also best known for her work on Entertainment Tonight from 1984 to 2000 Frank Gifford deceased Megan Glaros formerly at WBBM TV Amanda Grove 1999 2002 Tony Guida now at WCBS AM Brett Haber now at Tennis Channel Lester Holt now at NBC News Huell Howser later host of California s Gold on KCET in Los Angeles deceased Carol Iovanna president of her own production company Jim Jensen deceased John Johnson retired Sara Lee Kessler news anchor on WOR AM Sukanya Krishnan later at WNYW Pia Lindstrom retired Tamara Leitner now at NBC News Steve Levy now at ESPN Lynda Lopez now at WCBS AM Kerri Lyon now at SKDKnickerbocker Diane Macedo now at ABC News Josh Mankiewicz now at NBC News Dave Marash now at KSFR Sal Marchiano retired Michele Marsh 1979 1996 deceased Carol Martin Todd McDermott now at WPBF West Palm Beach Jim McKay deceased Rob Morrison retired from TV now a real estate agent Paul Moyer retired Jill Nicolini now at WPIX Bill O Reilly fired from Fox News Channel Ralph Penza deceased Randall Pinkston was most recently at Al Jazeera America until its shutdown on April 12 2016 Mike Pomeranz now at Bally Sports San Diego Dave Price now at WNBC Shimon Prokupecz now at CNN Audrey Puente now at WNYW John Roberts now at Fox News Channel Carol Reed deceased Jim Rosenfield now at WCAU Jim Ryan retired John Schriffen now at ESPN Joel Siegel deceased Dave Sims now play by play commentator for the Seattle Mariners on Root Sports Northwest and Westwood One Rolland Smith retired Andrea Stassou John Stossel now at Fox Business and Fox News Amy Stone was most recently at China Central Television Kate Sullivan last at WBBM TV Mike Taibbi now at PBS NewsHour John Tesh retired from TV now a musician Robert Trout deceased Earl Ubell deceased Jane Velez Mitchell was most recently at HLN Meredith Vieira former NBC News and daytime talk show host Bree Walker Robb Weller now a radio host at UBN radio Brian Williams former NBC Nightly News anchor 2004 2015 was most recently at MSNBC until December 9 2021 Joe Witte now a researcher at the Goddard Spaceflight Center Warner Wolf was most recently at WABC with Imus in the Morning until December 3 2016 Bob Young deceased Technical information EditSubchannels Edit The station s digital signal is multiplexed Subchannels of WCBS TV 1 Channel Res Aspect Short name Programming2 1 1080i 16 9 WCBS HD Main WCBS TV programming CBS2 2 480i STARTTV Start TV2 3 DABL Dabl2 4 FAVE TV Fave TV2 5 CIRCLE CircleTranslator Edit City of license Callsign Channel ERP HAAT Facility ID Transmitter coordinatesRiverhead WCBS TV DRT 22 10 4 kW 173 7 m 569 9 ft 9610 40 53 50 3 N 72 54 54 2 W 40 897306 N 72 915056 W 40 897306 72 915056 WCBS DRT See also EditEarly television stations Media in New York City New Yorkers in journalism WCBS AM aka WCBS Newsradio 880 kHz WCBS FM 101 1 MHz References Edit a b Digital TV Market Listing for WCBS RabbitEars Info Retrieved January 26 2017 a b Columbia is Telecasting PDF Television News 253 September October 1931 Retrieved November 5 2020 a b Columbia s First Television Program to be on Tuesday Decatur Herald September 19 1931 p 20 via Newspapers com Inaugural Broadcast Program a b Butterfield C E September 6 1931 Television in the making The Morning Call Allentown PA Associated Press p 16 Television Ithaca Journal September 5 1931 p 7 Lawrence H Rogers II July 2000 History of U S Television A Personal Reminiscence AuthorHouse pp 59 ISBN 978 1 58500 825 4 W2XAB CBS New York Earlytelevision org Retrieved October 22 2013 CBS Color Television System Chronology Novia net Archived from the original on September 22 2013 Retrieved October 22 2013 Call Letter Style Adopted for Video PDF Broadcasting Telecasting August 19 1946 p 82 Retrieved December 16 2022 a b WABC Becomes WCBS Shifting FM Video Calls PDF Broadcasting Telecasting September 2 1946 p 94 Retrieved December 16 2022 List of Digital Full Power Stations CDBS Print Fjallfoss fcc gov Retrieved on June 4 2012 a b UPDATED List of Participants in the Analog Nightlight Program PDF Federal Communications Commission June 12 2009 Retrieved June 4 2012 aviator1212 June 24 2009 WCBS TV New York Analog TV Sign Off June 12th 2009 Archived from the original on December 13 2021 Retrieved December 30 2016 via YouTube Huff Richard October 18 2011 WCBS tries to bridge news and information gathering power of local channels and sports media New York Daily News Retrieved February 15 2022 CBS Paying 55 Million For WLNY New York TVNewsCheck com December 21 2011 Retrieved October 22 2013 WLNY Ch 10 55 to suspend newscasts March 29 as part of merger deal with WCBS Ch 2 NY Daily News March 15 2012 Retrieved October 22 2013 CDBS Print Licensing fcc gov Retrieved February 13 2012 One World Trade Center adds ION Media as newest broadcaster tenant New York Post May 8 2017 Retrieved May 27 2020 Malone Michael October 21 2014 CBS Weigel Ready Decades Digi Net Broadcasting amp Cable Retrieved November 22 2019 Petski Denise July 10 2019 Fox Television Stations To Carry Weigel Broadcasting s Decades TV Network Beginning in Q3 Deadline Hollywood Retrieved October 14 2019 Malone Michael December 13 2018 CBS Television Stations Launch CBSN New York nexttv com Broadcasting Cable Retrieved October 8 2020 Weprin Alex December 4 2019 Bob Bakish s Memo to ViacomCBS Staff Merger a Historic Moment Hollywood Reporter Retrieved February 15 2022 Goldsmith Jill February 15 2022 ViacomCBS To Rebrand As Paramount Global Deadline Hollywood Retrieved February 16 2022 Early TV Anchors poynter org April 4 2006 Retrieved May 19 2019 Black and white television studio photograph Newsinfo iu edu Retrieved October 22 2013 The Origins Of Television News In America by Mike Conway Chapter The Birth of CBS TV News Columbia s Ambitious Experiment at the Advent of U S Commercial Television Peter Lang Publishing New York NY Sandomir Richard October 3 1996 At WCBS TV a Big Round Of News Staff Dismissals The New York Times Retrieved February 15 2022 Restaurant Inspection Information NYC DOHMH Archived December 10 2005 at the Wayback Machine It s a Clean Sweep of the November Sweeps for WABC Channel 7 FishbowlNY Mediabistro com November 28 2011 Retrieved October 22 2013 Barone Vincent March 11 2020 CBS closes NYC offices after two employees positive for coronavirus New York Post Retrieved March 13 2020 CBS New York turns local news over to Los Angeles as studios remain closed NewscastStudio Retrieved March 13 2020 Tsoflias Siegel Stephanie March 15 2020 Some WCBS Staffers Back After Coronavirus Related Studio Closure TVSpy Retrieved March 18 2020 Ariens Chris March 18 2020 KCBS Anchors Will Again Fill in on WCBS With Coronavirus Concerns Not Yet Contained TVSpy Retrieved March 18 2020 Malone Michael March 20 2020 CBS Owned Stations Pitch In with National Newscasts Broadcasting amp Cable Retrieved March 21 2020 Impey Steven November 19 2022 Formula E agrees exclusive three year CBS broadcast deal SportsPro External links EditOfficial website FCC History Cards for WCBS TV Aerial view of WCBS TV studios from Google Local WCBS TV logos and screenshots from 1950s to the present day Wikimedia Commons has media related to WCBS TV Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title WCBS TV amp oldid 1146461520, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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