WBAL-TV

WBAL-TV, channel 11, is an NBC-affiliated television station located in Baltimore, Maryland, United States. It is the flagship television station of Hearst Television, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Hearst Corporation, and is locally co-owned with sister radio stations WBAL (1090 AM) and WIYY (97.9 FM). The three stations share a studio and office facility on Television Hill in the Woodberry section of Baltimore, near the transmitting tower that WBAL-TV shares with WIYY and four other Baltimore television stations.

History

WBAL-TV began operations on March 11, 1948, from its original studios on North Charles Street in Downtown Baltimore. The station's parent, the Hearst Corporation, also owned WBAL radio and two local newspapers, the Baltimore News-Post and the Baltimore American (which later merged as the Baltimore News-American before shutting down in 1986). WBAL-TV is one of two Hearst-owned broadcast properties to have been built and signed on by the company (the other being WTAE-TV in Pittsburgh), and the oldest to be continuously owned by Hearst through its various television subsidiaries through the years. At its launch, WBAL-TV was an NBC affiliate, owing to its radio sister's long affiliation with the NBC Red Network.

WBAL

WBAL may refer to:

WBAL (AM)

WBAL (1090 kHz AM) is a News radio/Talk/Sports radio station located in Baltimore, Maryland, USA. Owned by the Hearst Corporation, WBAL broadcasts from a three-tower transmitting facility in Randallstown, Maryland. The station shares its studios and offices with sister stations WBAL-TV (channel 11) and WIYY (97.9 FM, formerly WBAL-FM) on Television Hill in Baltimore's Woodberry neighborhood.

As a 50,000-watt Class A clear-channel station, WBAL is the most powerful station in Maryland. Its directional nighttime signal covers most of the eastern half of North America, and reaches as far as Nova Scotia and Bermuda. Its daytime signal easily covers most of the Washington metropolitan area, most of the Eastern Shore, and large portions of Delaware and Pennsylvania. WBAL employs the largest number of news staff of any radio station in the state. WBAL and WIYY are the only two radio stations still owned by Hearst.

History

WBAL began broadcasting after being dedicated on November 2, 1925, as a subsidiary of the Consolidated Gas Electric Light and Power Company, a predecessor of Constellation Energy. WBAL's initial broadcasting studio was located at the utility's offices on Lexington Street, and it operated as part of the Blue Network of the National Broadcasting Company. On January 12, 1935, with radio becoming more commercialized, there was little justification for public service company ownership of a radio station, and WBAL was sold to the Hearst-controlled American Radio News Corporation, who operated it alongside the Baltimore News-Post and Baltimore American (later merged as the Baltimore News-American).