WJZ-TV

:"This article is about the television station in Baltimore, Maryland. For the former WJZ-TV located in New York City, see WABC-TV."Infobox_Broadcast
call_letters = WJZ-TV
station_
station_slogan = Maryland's News Station; Complete Coverage
station_branding = WJZ 13 (general)
Eyewitness News (newscasts)
analog = 13 (VHF)
digital = 38 (UHF)
affiliations = CBS
founded = | airdate = November 2, 1948
location = Baltimore, Maryland
callsign_meaning = named after the former callsign of what is now WABC (AM), which stood for its original location in New Jersey
former_callsigns = WAAM (1948-1957)
owner = CBS Corporation
former_affiliations = DuMont (1948-1956)
ABC (1948-1995; secondary until 1955)
effective_radiated_power = 316 kW (analog)
1000 kW (digital)
HAAT = 292 m (analog)
312 m (digital)
facility_id = 25455
coordinates = coord|39|20|5.2|N|76|39|1.6|W|type:landmark_scale:2000
homepage = [http://www.wjz.com/ www.wjz.com]

WJZ-TV, channel 13, is an owned and operated television station of the CBS Television Network, located in Baltimore, Maryland. WJZ-TV's studios and offices are located on Television Hill in the Woodberry section of Baltimore, adjacent to the transmission tower it shares with four other Baltimore television stations.

From its sign-on in 1948, until the Westinghouse/CBS merger in 1995, WJZ-TV was affiliated with ABC, and was one of that networks strongest affiliates.

History

Baltimore's third television station started on November 2, 1948 as WAAM, owned by brothers Ben and Herman Cohen. Its first broadcast was the 1948 presidential election returns. Its studio was the first in Baltimore specifically designed for television. Ironically, it was the only station in Baltimore without ties to a radio station.

Channel 13 was originally a primary affiliate of the DuMont Television Network, and originated many Baltimore Colts games for the network. ( [http://members.aol.com/cingram/television/dumont3.htm] , [http://members.aol.com/cingram/television/dumonta9.htm] ) WAAM also carried a secondary affiliation with ABC, and became a full ABC affiliate upon DuMont's demise in 1956.

The Westinghouse Electric Corporation purchased WAAM in 1957 and renamed it WJZ-TV. The WJZ call letters had previously resided on ABC's flagship radio/television combination in New York City, which changed its calls to WABC in 1953. However, Westinghouse's history with that set of call letters went back even further, as it was the original owner of WJZ radio, the flagship station of NBC's Blue Network, which would eventually become the American Broadcasting Company.

In 1959, WJZ-TV built the world's first three-antenna candelabra tower, shared with WMAR-TV and WBAL-TV. The convert|730|ft|m|sing=on tower significantly improved the station's coverage in central Maryland, and also added new viewers in Pennsylvania and Delaware. It still operates from this convert|730|ft|m|sing=on tower today, which can be seen from Interstate 83 in Baltimore. However, the FCC Antenna Structure Registration page gives the tower's height as 997 feet (304 meters). [http://wireless2.fcc.gov/UlsApp/AsrSearch/asrRegistration.jsp?regKey=600292] , [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woodberry,_Baltimore#Television_Hill]

Over the years, WJZ-TV frequently pre-empted ABC programming in favor of local shows and syndicated content from Westinghouse's broadcasting division, Group W. However, ABC was more than satisfied with channel 13, which virtually dominated Baltimore. Additionally, Baltimore viewers could watch ABC programs on Washington, D.C.'s WMAL-TV/WJLA-TV, whose signal decently covers most of the Baltimore area.

From 1957 to 1964, one of the station's highest-rated programs was "The Buddy Deane Show", an in-studio teen dance show modeled after ABC's "American Bandstand". Deane's program was the inspiration for the John Waters 1988 motion picture "Hairspray" and its subsequent Broadway musical version, which in turn has been made into a film.

In 1976, Oprah Winfrey became an anchor for the station's 6:00 p.m. newscast. She also co-hosted channel 13's local talk show, "People Are Talking" with Richard Sher, which premiered on August 14, 1978, and ran until she left for Chicago in 1983. The segment continues to run on the morning newscasts.

In 1994, ABC agreed to an affiliation deal with the broadcasting division of the E.W. Scripps Company, which called for three of Scripps' television stations to become ABC affiliates. ABC agreed to the deal as a condition of keeping its affiliation on Scripps' two biggest stations, WXYZ-TV in Detroit and WEWS in Cleveland. Both stations had been heavily wooed by CBS, which was about to lose its longtime Detroit and Cleveland affiliates to Fox. One of the stations due to switch was Baltimore's then-NBC affiliate, WMAR-TV.

Westinghouse Broadcasting felt betrayed by ABC after so many years of loyalty and as a safeguard, began to shop for an affiliation deal of its own. Eventually, Westinghouse agreed to a longterm affiliation contract with CBS. As a result, WJZ-TV and its sister stations in Philadelphia and Boston became CBS affiliates (Westinghouse's two other television stations, in Pittsburgh and San Francisco, were already CBS affiliates).

The affiliation switch, the second in Baltimore television history, occurred on January 2, 1995, ending WJZ-TV's 47-year link with ABC. As a result, channel 13 became the third station in Baltimore to affiliate with CBS. The network had originally affiliated with WMAR-TV in 1948 before moving to WBAL-TV in 1981. Westinghouse then bought CBS in early 1996, making WJZ-TV a CBS owned-and-operated station.

WJZ-TV has used its current "Stylized 13" logo, using a font face exculsive to Westinghouse Broadcasting, since 1967. The only real change came in May 1997, when it added the CBS Eye to its logo. WJZ currently does not brand under the CBS Mandate, and uses its call letters in its branding.

WJZ-TV is the Baltimore-area affiliate of the "It's Academic" high school quiz competition. Channel 13 has also served two stints as the television home of the Baltimore Orioles baseball team, and has been the over-the-air home of the Orioles since 1994. It is one of the few "Big Three" stations that airs baseball on a regular basis.

Digital television

Analog-to-digital conversion

After the analog television shutdown and digital conversion, which is tentatively scheduled to take place on February 17, 2009http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DA-06-1082A2.pdf] , WJZ-TV will move its digital broadcasts back to its present analog channel number, 13. [http://fjallfoss.fcc.gov/cgi-bin/ws.exe/prod/cdbs/forms/prod/cdbsmenu.hts?context=25&appn=101234236&formid=387&fac_num=25455 CDBS Print ] ] http://fjallfoss.fcc.gov/prod/cdbs/forms/prod/getattachment_exh.cgi?exhibit_id=616897]

Newscasts

Soon after Westinghouse bought WJZ-TV, it significantly beefed up the station's news department. Within a few years, it passed WMAR-TV for second place. Like the other Group W stations, WJZ-TV adopted the "Eyewitness News" format pioneered at sister station KYW-TV in Philadelphia. By the early 1970s, WJZ-TV had passed WBAL-TV for first place--a lead it held for over 30 years. In recent years, however, WBAL-TV has taken over the top spot at 5, 6 and 11 p.m., though WJZ-TV is still a strong second.

WJZ-TV was the first station in Baltimore to hire a full-time consumer reporter, as well as the first station to organize an investigative reporting team. In 1965 -- shortly after it adopted the "Eyewitness News" format -- Wiley Daniels became the first African-American reporter in Baltimore. He was joined two years later by Jerry Turner, one of the most popular anchormen in Baltimore television history. Between 1977 and 1987, Jerry Turner and Al Sanders were the top news team until Turner's death. Denise Koch took over afterwards; she remains at the anchor desk alongside Vic Carter, who succeeded Sanders following the latter's death in 1995. Like other CBS-owned stations, channel 13 offers a web only newscast, "WJZ At Your Desk", shown weekdays.

Personalities

Current

Notable alumni

*George Bauman, deceased
*Kathryn Brown, now works for CBS News
*John Buren, long-time sports anchor - now works in Real Estate in the Baltimore area
*Boomer Esiason (interned at WJZ-TV as a student at the University of Maryland) ( [http://www.enquirer.com/columns/kiese/1998/07/072798jki.html] )
*Al Sanders, anchorman (1972 - 1995), deceased
*Jerry Turner, anchorman (1962 - 1987), deceased
*Oprah Winfrey

References

External links

* [http://www.wjz.com/ WJZ-TV website]
*TVQ|WJZ-TV