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- Published: 19 Nov 2009
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Call letters | KYW-TV |
---|---|
Station logo | |
Station branding | CBS 3 HD (general) CBS 3 Eyewitness News (newscasts) |
Station slogan | Only CBS 3 HD (general) CBS 3 HD is Always On (newscasts) |
Digital | 26 (UHF)Virtual: 3 (PSIP) |
Affiliations | CBS |
Subchannels | 3.1 CBS |
Airdate | September 1, 1941 |
Location | Philadelphia, Pennsylvania |
Callsign meaning | Based on callsign of AM sister station. |
Former callsigns | WPTZ-TV (1941-1956)WRCV-TV (1956-1965) |
Former channel numbers | Analog:3 (VHF, 1941-2009) |
Owner | CBS Corporation |
Licensee | CBS Broadcasting, Inc. |
Sister stations | KYW, WIP, WOGL, WPHT, WYSP, WPSG-TV |
Former affiliations | NBC (1941-1995) |
Effective radiated power | 790 kW |
Haat | 375 m |
Facility id | 25453 |
Coordinates | |
Homepage | cbsphilly.com |
KYW-TV is the CBS owned and operated television station in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. The station broadcasts a high definition digital signal on UHF channel 26 (Virtual Channel 3) from a transmitter located in the Roxborough section of Philadelphia. KYW-TV shares a studio facility with its sister CW flagship station WPSG just north of Center City Philadelphia. Syndicated programming on the station includes: Dr. Phil, The Dr. Oz Show, The Doctors, Entertainment Tonight and The Insider.
On July 1, 1941, W3XE received a commercial license—the third in the United States, and the first outside New York City—as WPTZ-TV. The station signed on for the first time on September 1. The station originally broadcast from a tower in the Philadelphia suburb of Wyndmoor. It significantly cut back operations after the U.S. entered World War II, but returned to a full schedule 1945. It then became one of three stations (along with WNBT and WRGB in Schenectady, New York) that premiered NBC's regular television service in 1946 (WRGB is now a CBS affiliate). The Westinghouse Electric Corporation, owner of Philadelphia's NBC radio affiliate KYW (1060 AM), purchased WPTZ-TV in 1952 (The WPTZ call letters are now those of the Hearst Television-owned NBC affiliate in the Burlington, Vermont/Plattsburgh, N.Y. market).
Shortly after NBC took control of channel 3, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) collapsed the Lehigh Valley, most of northern Delaware and southern New Jersey (including Atlantic City) into the Philadelphia market. NBC realized WRCV-TV's existing tower was inadequate for this enlarged market. In 1957, channel 3 moved to a new tower in Roxborough. The tower was co-owned with WFIL-TV (channel 6, now WPVI-TV) and added much of Delaware, the Lehigh Valley and southern New Jersey to the station's city-grade coverage. Along with the transmitter move, NBC upgraded channel 3 from black-and-white to color transmissions.
However, almost immediately after the trade was finalized, Westinghouse complained to the FCC and the United States Department of Justice about NBC's coercion and an lengthy investigation was launched. In August 1964 NBC's license for WRCV radio and television was renewed by the FCC—but only on the condition that the 1956 station swap be reversed. Following nearly a year of appeals by NBC, Westinghouse regained control of WRCV-AM-TV on June 19, 1965. Westinghouse had moved the KYW call letters to Cleveland after the swap, and upon regaining control of the Philadelphia outlets channel 3 became KYW-TV. Group W, as Westinghouse's broadcasting division was known by this time, took over a transmitter facility far superior to the one it relinquished in 1956. To this day, KYW-TV insists that it "moved" to Cleveland in 1956 and "returned" to Philadelphia in 1965—in fact, some staffers who worked at KYW-TV in Cleveland (talk show host Mike Douglas and news anchor Tom Snyder among them) moved to Philadelphia along with the call letters.
Like most affiliates that pre-empt poorer performing network programs, KYW-TV used the pre-emptions in order to gain an increase in local advertising rates which potentially come with ratings increases. This proved to be a very profitable decision at first, as KYW-TV was either first or second in the Philadelphia television ratings for most of the 1960s and 1970s. However, the station (and NBC) faltered in the late 1970s, and by 1980 KYW-TV was the lowest-rated network affiliate in Philadelphia. By 1985, NBC had recovered, but channel 3 hadn't. For the rest of its NBC affiliation, KYW-TV was NBC's lowest-rated major-market affiliate during a very successful period for the network as a whole. It continued to heavily pre-empt NBC programming, much to NBC's chagrin.
In 1994, sister station WJZ-TV in Baltimore lost its affiliation with ABC after that network announced a deal with the E.W. Scripps Company to switch all but two of Scripps' television stations to ABC. One of the Scripps-owned stations joining ABC was Baltimore's NBC affiliate, WMAR-TV. This did not sit well with Westinghouse, who felt betrayed by ABC after nearly half a century of loyalty. As a safeguard, Group W began shopping for affiliation deals of its own. Group W eventually struck an agreement to switch KYW-TV, WBZ-TV, and WJZ-TV to CBS (Westinghouse's two other stations, KDKA-TV in Pittsburgh and KPIX in San Francisco were already CBS affiliates). CBS was initially skeptical about including KYW-TV in the deal. While KYW-TV was a poor third, CBS-owned WCAU-TV (channel 10) was a solid runner-up to dominant, ABC-owned WPVI-TV. However, after Westinghouse offered to sell CBS a minority stake in KYW-TV, CBS agreed to move its affiliation to channel 3 and put channel 10 up for sale.
Under the terms of Westinghouse's deal with CBS, KYW-TV began carrying the entire CBS schedule in pattern with no pre-emptions except for local news emergencies. Westinghouse bought CBS outright in early 1996, making KYW-TV a CBS owned-and-operated station.
In 2000, the combined company was purchased by Viacom. The Viacom deal brought KYW-TV under common ownership with Philadelphia's UPN station, WPSG, and that station moved into the KYW-AM-TV facility on Independence Mall. On January 1, 2003, KYW-TV went into compliance with the CBS Mandate and officially rebranded itself as CBS 3. The 5AM Station ID is now the only place where the KYW branding is heard. When Viacom spun off CBS Corporation in 2006, KYW-AM-TV and WPSG, along with the rest of Viacom's broadcasting interests, became a part of the new company.
As part of the analog television shutdown and digital conversion, KYW-TV shut down its analog transmitter on June 12, 2009, and continued to broadcast on its pre-transition digital channel 26. However, through the use of PSIP, digital television receivers display KYW-TV's virtual channel as 3. KYW-TV was the only Philadelphia market station participating in the "Analog Nightlight" program, and did so through July 12, 2009.
When the station began operations as W3XE in 1932, it was based within Philco's production plant, at C and East Tioga streets in North Philadelphia, complete with a small studio and transmitter. After receiving the commercial license from the FCC in 1941, Philco moved WPTZ-TV's studios to the penthouse suite of the Architect's Building, at 17th and Sansom streets in downtown Philadelphia, while retaining master control facilities at the Philco plant.
Channel 3 relocated its entire operation to the Wyndmoor transmitter facility during World War II, when the station aired little programming. When full broadcasting was resumed, the station reactivated its studio in the Architect's Building, remaining there until 1950. WPTZ-TV then moved into unused space at 1619 Walnut Street in Center City, where KYW radio was housed. What is now KYW-TV has been based in Center City ever since.
The Mike Douglas Show, which moved from Cleveland to Philadelphia in 1965, was taped at the Walnut Street studio until 1972, then at Independence Mall East. In 1978 the program moved to Los Angeles and remained there until it ended in 1982.
Channel 3's newscasts, anchored by Vince Leonard starting in 1958 (during its stint as NBC-owned WRCV-TV), had long been second behind WCAU-TV, but the new format catapulted KYW-TV to first place. Also seen on the air during that time were future talk show host Tom Snyder and Marciarose Shestack. Primo took the concept with him to WABC-TV in New York in 1968, albeit an improved version which introduced the concept of chatter among the anchors ("happy talk"). It was this modified format that was emulated throughout the United States.
Channel 3 dominated the ratings for the rest of the 1960s, but faced a new challenger after WFIL-TV introduced Action News to Philadelphia. For most of the 1970s, KYW-TV traded first place with WFIL/WPVI. In 1972, KYW-TV hired Philadelphia-area native Jessica Savitch as a reporter, and later co-anchor alongside Leonard. Mort Crim also joined as an anchor during that period, forming what native Philadelphians called the "Camelot of television news." However, in 1977, WPVI beat KYW-TV in most timeslots by a wide margin during a sweeps period. In a case of especially bad timing, Savitch left for NBC News later that year. Crim left for WDIV in Detroit in 1978. Channel 3's ratings went into rapid decline. The station tried to stop the decline by adopting a new format called "Direct Connection", with reporters assigned to "beats" such as medical, consumer, entertainment, and gossip, among others. It didn't work, and by the time Leonard left for KPNX in Phoenix in 1980, Eyewitness News had crashed into last place. For most of the next 20 years, KYW-TV was a very distant third behind WPVI-TV and WCAU-TV. Despite the presence of personalities such as Maria Shriver and Maury Povich (who anchored briefly in the early 1980s), Eyewitness News stayed in the ratings basement.
In 1991, KYW-TV rebranded itself as KYW 3 after being known on-air as simply "channel 3" for most of its history (except for the "Direct Connection" era, when it was known as "3 for All"). It also abandoned the longstanding Eyewitness News name after 26 years and experimented with giving each newscast a different name. The morning and noon news became "Newsday," the 6 p.m. news "Newsbeat," and the 11 p.m. news "The News Tonight." It also started using a theme based on the musical signature of its radio sister, one of the top all-news stations in the country and the highest-rated radio station in Philadelphia for most of the last 40 years. Group W hoped to gain the trust of viewers who already associated KYW radio with high-quality news. However, neither of these fixes worked, and channel 3 stayed in the ratings basement. The experiment with different newscast names ended in 1994, just before it became a CBS station, when the station began calling its news operation "News 3". The Eyewitness News name was restored in early 1998.
KYW-TV used music packages based on KYW radio's musical signature until 2003. That year it adopted "News in Focus", by composer John Hegner as its theme song. This package, like the majority of themes for CBS' owned and operated stations, is based on "Channel 2 News," written in 1975 for WBBM-TV in Chicago. Channel 3 used an updated version written in 2003 for sister station WCBS-TV in New York. The change to "News In Focus" came just after KYW began calling itself CBS 3. Ironically, WCAU-TV used music based on this theme for its last decade as a CBS-owned station. In 2005, KYW-TV ditched "News In Focus" in favor of another "Channel 2 News"-based tune, "The Enforcer" by Frank Gari.
Also in 2003, KYW-TV became a factor in the Philadelphia news race for the first time in over 20 years. The previous summer, it persuaded WPVI-TV's longtime 5 p.m. anchor, Marc Howard, to jump ship to anchor its 11 p.m. news. Kathy Orr, weekend weathercaster at WCAU, also moved to channel 3. But those moves did nothing to help the ratings, and the station languished in last place for almost a full year.
Then, in September 2003, the station lured Larry Mendte away from WCAU. Mendte had been the lead anchor at that station when it defeated WPVI in the ratings for the first time in 30 years. Alycia Lane, a weekend anchor at WTVJ in Miami) was added to compliment Mendte, and they became the station's new top anchor team, anchoring the 6 p.m. and 11 p.m. news.
The 5 p.m. news was moved to 4 p.m. and Marc Howard moved off the 11 p.m. newscast to anchor with Denise Saunders. The change proved successful, as KYW moved ahead of WCAU at 11 p.m. and came within a point of knocking off WPVI in the time slot. Saunders left the station in 2004 and was replaced by Angela Russell. Russell left the station on December 26, 2008. The 4 p.m. newscast has since been co-anchored by 6 p.m. co-anchor Susan Barnett. Today, KYW-TV is in second place in most time slots while WPVI-TV (a.k.a. 6ABC) continues to dominate with its newscasts despite having its digital signal on interference-prone channel 6. WTXF-TV (a.k.a. FOX 29) leads in prime time programming.
In 2005, KYW introduced a customized graphics package created by Emmy Award winner Randy Pyburn of Pyburn Films. Interestingly, the Pyburn graphics package is quite similar to the one it created for WNBC-TV in 2003, which some of NBC's owned and operated stations are currently standardizing around.
In April 2007, KYW-TV began broadcasting its newscasts in high-definition, becoming the third Philadelphia television station to do so. The switch coincided with the station's move from its former Independence Mall studios to its new facility on Hamilton Street.
On February 2, 2009, KYW's news department began broadcasting a 10pm newscast on sister station WPSG. It was announced in the fall of 2009 that the noon news on KYW would be ditched in favor of a talk show, "TalkPhilly". Only WPVI and WTXF will air noon newscasts after this format change.
KYW-TV cooperates with sister station WCBS-TV in the production and broadcast of statewide New Jersey political debates. When the two stations broadcast a statewide office debate, such as Governor or U.S. Senate, they will pool resources and have anchors or reporters from both stations participate in the debate. Additionally, the two stations cooperate in the gathering of news in New Jersey where their markets overlap; sharing reporters, live trucks, and helicopters. Like other CBS-owned stations, KYW-TV offers a web only newscast called "CBS 3 At Your Desk", shown daily. On September 1, 2010, KYW-TV switched to the same graphics package used by WCBS-TV and KCBS-TV.
Interestingly after the affiliation and ownership swap on September 10, 1995 WNBC did not object to now NBC co-owned sister station WCAU continuing to be carried in southern Middlesex County on Comcast Channel 39 (moved back to channel 10 in late 1998 and again to digital cable channel 253 to preserve bandwidth in November 2006), but on the other hand Comcast did not restore the now CBS KYW to the system for another twelve years. Cablevision in the Asbury Park area of Monmouth County (previously Harte-Hanks Cable and Monmouth Cablevision) carried KYW-TV until September 10, 1995. WCAU replaced KYW on that system after the network switch. Verizon FiOS may have at one time carried KYW in South Brunswick Township, Middlesex County. But if it was it now appears to have been removed from the FiOS South Brunswick lieup.
KYW is available to Comcast Cable customers in Ocean County on channel 256. It is not available to Cablevision customers in Lakewood, Seaside Heights and southern Monmouth County, even though Cablevision carries other Philadelphia stations on these systems. DirecTV and Dish Network do not carry any Philadelphia stations in any area outside the Philadelphia market that gets New York channels on cable.
Category:Television stations in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Category:Television stations in Pennsylvania Category:Television stations in New Jersey Category:Television stations in Delaware Category:KYW-TV Category:CBS network affiliates Category:CBS Corporation television stations Category:Channel 26 digital TV stations in the United States Category:Channel 3 virtual TV stations in the United States Category:Television channels and stations established in 1941 Category:Westinghouse Broadcasting Category:Major League Baseball over-the-air television broadcasters
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