WBZ-TV

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WBZ-TV
Boston, Massachusetts
Branding	CBS 4
Channels	4 (VHF) analog, 30 (UHF) digital
Affiliations	CBS
Owner	CBS Corporation
Founded	June 9, 1948
Call letters meaning	named after radio station WBZ-AM
Former affiliations	NBC (1948–95)
Website	cbs4boston.com

WBZ-TV "CBS 4" is the CBS Corporation owned-and-operated television station serving the Boston, Massachusetts and southern New Hampshire television market. The station's transmitter is located in Needham, Massachusetts while studios are located at the WBZ Broadcast Center in Boston. Before becoming a CBS affiliate January 2, 1995, the station was an NBC affiliate.

Contents 1 History 1.1 Logos 2 Coverage area 3 Newscasts 3.1 Weekdays 3.2 Saturday 3.3 Sunday 4 Staff 4.1 On-Air Talent 4.2 Administration 5 See also 6 References 7 External links

[edit] History

WBZ-TV took to the air for the first time June 9, 1948. It is New England's oldest commercial television station. Owned by Westinghouse Broadcasting, a subsidiary of Westinghouse Electric Corporation, WBZ-TV immediately joined NBC.

The station was knocked-off the air August 31, 1954, when Hurricane Carol toppled the station's self-supporting tower over its studios. A temporary transmitter was installed on a nearby tower and later on WNAC-TV's original tower. In 1957, WBZ-TV began broadcasting from a 1200-foot (366-meter) tower in Needham. The tower site is now known as the CBS Digital Television Broadcasting Facility, and is used by several Boston-area television stations, including WGBH-TV and WCVB-TV.

WBZ-TV was a pioneer in Boston television. In 1948, it began live broadcasts of Boston's two Major League Baseball teams at the time, the Red Sox and the old Boston Braves; broadcasts that at first were split with WNAC. It was also the first Boston station to have daily newscasts, starting with the station's very first night on the air.

In the mid-1960s, it adopted the Eyewitness News format that had been pioneered at sister station KYW-TV in Philadelphia. It led the news ratings in Boston for many years until WCVB-TV passed it in the early 1980s, but even then was a strong second for more than a decade.

The station also broadcast many locally produced programs over the years. One of the most beloved was the long-runing Big Brother Bob Emery show, hosted by veteran radio performer Emery, who first did the show on Boston-area radio in 1921 and who in 1947 hosted the first five-times-a-week children's show on network television on DuMont. For nearly two decades, from 1956 until 1974, Rex Trailer hosted a popular weekend-morning children's show called Boomtown. For part of that time, Boomtown originated from an outdoor "western town" set built next to WBZ's studios.

From 1977 to 1989, Evening Magazine aired on the station. The original co-hosts were Robin Young and Marty Sender; later, Barry Nolan and Sara Edwards co-hosted the program.

People Are Talking, a live early-afternoon talk show in the 1980s and early 1990s, aired on the station as well. Originally hosted by Nancy Merrill, "People Are Talking" was later hosted by Buzz Luttrell, but the best-known host was the program's last, Tom Bergeron.

WBZ has aired local sporting events over the years. Besides the Braves (1948 until they moved to Milwaukee prior to the 1953 season) and the Red Sox (1948-1957; 1972-1974, and a handful of games in 2003 and 2004), WBZ also broadcast the Boston Celtics from 1972-73 through 1984-85. In 1980, WBZ was the first Boston television station to broadcast live wire-to-wire coverage of the Boston Marathon; the station has done so every year since. In April 2007, WBZ will be the exclusive broadcast home for marathon coverage.[1]

Over the past few years, WBZ and parent CBS have co-produced a live telecast of the annual Boston Pops' July 4th concert at Boston's Hatch Shell along the Charles River. The entire concert is broadcast live locally by WBZ. The CBS network joins the show in progress at 10 p.m. to show the Pops' signature versions of "1812 Overture" and "Stars And Stripes Forever," as well as the fireworks over the Charles.

For several years, the station has aired exclusive First Night Boston coverage on New Year's Eve, showcasing festivities from Boston, New England, and the world.

As an NBC affiliate, the station was known to preempt several hours of network programming a day—a common practice among Group W stations. It primarily preempted several daytime morning programs. On January 3, 1983, when People Are Talking expanded to one hour, WBZ-TV dropped NBC's Another World, which would move to WQTV (now WBPX) until the fall of 1987, when the show moved to WHLL (now WUNI-TV) and later to WMFP in the early 1990s. The station also dropped many Saturday morning cartoons in 1990, though NBC would end such programming in 1992. NBC normally did not tolerate pre-emptions by its affiliates. However, it was generally satisfied with WBZ-TV, which was one of NBC's strongest affiliates.

A partnership struck between Westinghouse and CBS in late 1994 led to WBZ-TV switching its affiliation to CBS. The station ended its nearly 47-year affiliation with NBC on January 2, 1995. As a CBS affiliate, the station did not preempt any CBS programming as per Westinghouse's agreement with CBS. WHDH-TV, the former CBS affiliate, picked up the NBC affiliation. When Westinghouse merged with CBS in early 1996, WBZ-TV became a CBS owned and operated station. As a condition of the merger, CBS had to sell recently-acquired WPRI-TV in Providence. WBZ-TV's city-grade signal covers most of Rhode Island, while WPRI's city-grade signal reaches most of the Boston metropolitan area. FCC regulations at the time did not allow common ownership of two or more television stations with overlapping city-grade signals.

Although the station tends to rank #1 in daytime and primetime ratings, Channel 4's local news ratings have suffered since the switch in network affiliations. Taken as a whole, its local news is the lowest rated of Boston's "Big 3" affiliates, having dipped behind a resurgent WHDH-TV as well. In January of 2006, attempting to bolster its local news ratings, Channel 4 reinstated its 5 p.m. news and dismissed its former lead anchor Josh Binswanger, leading to the return of long-time anchor Jack Williams to the prime-time newscasts. In addition, Ed Carroll's contract was not renewed and in October 2005 the station hired Ken Barlow from KARE-TV in Minneapolis, Minnesota, to replace him as chief meteorologist.

In late August 2006, WBZ-TV ended its 4 PM weekday newscast and hired anchor Chris May from WHDH channel 7. Chris May, along with Sara Underwood, anchor the 5 PM weekday news on WBZ-TV. Both of them anchor the TV38 News @ 9:30, a newscast on sister station WSBK-TV, as of September 18, 2006. WHDH now airs the only 4 PM weekday newscast in the Boston area.

Channel 4 has changed its news and station branding continuously, from "Eyewitness News" to "WBZ News 4" to "News 4 New England" to "WBZ 4 News". On February 1, 2004, WBZ changed to the current "CBS 4" identity, as per the CBS Mandate. The "CBS4" branding will end in early 2007, with new general manager Ed Piette (formerly of WCCO-TV, which does not follow the mandate) stating that the station will bring back the WBZ calls in the station's branding. [2] [3]

After Viacom's (whose head Sumner Redstone comes from Boston) merger with CBS in 2000, WBZ-TV's operations were merged with that of Boston's UPN affiliate, WSBK-TV, and later with WLWC-TV, the UPN affiliate in nearby Providence. Today, the master control for all three stations as well as the studios and offices of WBZ-TV and WSBK-TV are co-located at WBZ's facilities at 1170 Soldiers Field Road in the Allston section of Boston.

[edit] Logos

In the early 1960s, WBZ unveiled a new stylized "4" logo, using a distinctive font that had been designed especially for Group W. The logo became italicized in the late 1980s, but remained the same font. It kept this logo for over 30 years until it unveiled its first "News 4 New England" logo in September 1996. The old logo was the longest-used numeric logo in New England television history until WCVB's stylized "5" crossed the 31-year mark in 2003.

The "Circle-4" logo that replaced the original "News 4" logo in 1998 was often referred to on-air by WBZ sports anchor Bob Lobel as "The Circle 4 Ranch".

WBZ's stylized "4" logo (1965-Sept. 1996)	Screengrab from 1989 of old WBZ logo. This version was used from the late 1980s to 1992.	1992-1993 logo.	Original "News 4 New England" logo (Sept. 1996-Jan. 1998)
Circle 4 logo (Jan. 1998-Sept. 2003)	Crescent 4 Logo (Sept. 2003-Jan. 2004)	The first CBS4 logo, a black and gold version of the current logo (Jan. 2004-Jan. 2005)	Current logo (Jan. 2005-Present)

[edit] Coverage area

WBZ-TV's transmitter and antenna are located in Needham, Massachusetts, on the same tower as WCVB-TV/DT, WGBH-TV/DT, WGBX-TV/DT, and WSBK-TV's HDTV transmitter. In fact, the tower and site are owned by CBS itself. Its signal covers Greater Boston, southern New Hampshire, northern Rhode Island, and northeastern Connecticut. WBZ is also one of six local Boston TV stations seen in Canada on the Bell ExpressVu satellite provider, and is also seen on most cable systems in Atlantic Canada and eastern Quebec.

[edit] Newscasts

WBZ-TV operates a Bell LongRanger 206LIV called SkyEye 4. In addition to its Boston studios, the station operates news bureaus in Worcester, MA [4] and Manchester, NH [5]. The station's radar is called "First Alert Doppler," which is located at Worcester Regional Airport. Along with other CBS-owned stations, WBZ offers a web-only "@ Your Desk" newscast, available live and on-demand.

[edit] Weekdays

• CBS 4 News In the Morning - 5:00 a.m. to 7:00 a.m.
• CBS 4 News Live @ Noon - 12:00 p.m. to 12:30 p.m.
• CBS 4 News Live @ 5:00 - 5:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m.
• CBS 4 News Live @ 6:00 - 6:00 p.m. to 6:30 p.m.
• CBS 4 News Live @ 11:00 - 11:00 p.m. to 11:35 p.m.

[edit] Saturday

• CBS 4 News In the Morning - 6:00 a.m. to 8:00 a.m.
• CBS 4 News Live @ 6:00 - 6:00 p.m. to 6:30 p.m.
• CBS 4 News Live @ 11:00 - 11:00 p.m. to 11:35 p.m.

[edit] Sunday

• CBS 4 News In the Morning - 6:00 a.m. to 9:00 a.m.
• Sunday with Liz Walker - 11:00 a.m. to 11:30 a.m.
• Patriots Gameday - 11:30 a.m. to 12:00 p.m.
• CBS 4 News Live @ 6:30 - 6:30 p.m. to 7:00 p.m.
• CBS 4 News Live @ 11:00 - 11:00 p.m. to 11:30 p.m.
• Sports Final with Bob Lobel - 11:30 p.m. to 12:00 a.m.

[edit] Staff

[edit] On-Air Talent

• Karen Anderson, Manchester Bureau Reporter
• Ken Barlow, Chief Meteorologist
• Melissa Bell, Meteorologist
• Gwen Belton, National Correspondent
• Joe Bergantino, I-Team Reporter
• Barry Burbank, Meteorologist
• Paul Burton, Reporter
• Steve Burton, Sports Anchor/Reporter
• Alexis Christoforous, National Correspondent
• Sera Congi, Reporter
• Alice Cook, Sports Reporter
• Eileen Curran, Reporter
• Kathy Curran, I-Team Reporter
• Charlie D'Agata, National Correspondent
• Paula Ebben, News Anchor
• Ellen Ferrara, Meteorologist
• Manuel Gallegus, National Correspondent
• Beth Germano, Correspondent
• Christina Hager, Correspondent
• John Henning, Senior Correspondent
• Lisa Hughes, Principal Anchor
• Kasey Kaufman, Reporter
• Jon Keller, Political Editor
• Rich Kirkland, Traffic Reporter
• Joyce Kulhawik, Arts & Entertainment Editor
• Sharon Lee, Reporter
• Drew Levinson, National Correspondent
• Bob Lobel, Sports Director
• Ken MacLeod, News Anchor/Reporter
• Dr. Mallika Marshall, HealthWatch Editor
• Chris May, News Anchor
• Kate Merrill, News Anchor/Reporter
• Mish Michaels, Meteorologist
• Jennifer Miller, National Correspondent
• Yadires Nova-Salcedo, Host
• Teri Okita, National Correspondent
• Dan Rea, Reporter
• Alice Richmond, Legal Analyst
• Susan Roberts, National Correspondent
• David Robichaud, Reporter
• Dan Roche, Sports Reporter
• Peg Rusconi, Reporter
• Ron Sanders, Worcester Bureau Reporter
• Bill Shields, Reporter
• Joe Shortsleeve, Chief Correspondent
• Aleen Sirgany, National Correspondent
• Sara Underwood, News Anchor
• Scott Wahle, News Anchor
• Liz Walker, Host
• Jack Williams, Principal Anchor
• TJ Winick, Reporter

[edit] Administration

• Ed Piette, President/General Manager
• Angie Kucharski, Vice President/Station Manager
• Jennifer Street, News Director
• David Hatcher, Assistant News Director
• Andrew Kinkead, General Sales Manager
• Wendy McMahon, Marketing/Creative Services Director
• Ro Dooley Webster, Communications Director
• Pat Kreger, Public Affairs Director
• Christine Ferrara, Programming Manager
• Jack Barry, Operations/Engineering Director
• Stephanie Miller, Webmaster

[edit] See also

• WBZ (AM)
• WSBK-TV
• WLWC-TV

[edit] References

• Inside CBS 4: History (2005). CBS4Boston.com.
• WBZ-TV (3-26-2005). The Boston Radio Dial.

[edit] External links

• Station Website
• WSBK Website
• WLWC Website
• WBZ on UK TV-Ark
• Query the FCC's TV station database for WBZ-TV