KYW-TV
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KYW-TV, channel three, is the CBS owned-and-operated television station in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. KYW-TV shares studios with sister stations KYW radio (1060 kHz.) and WPSG (channel 57) at Independence Mall East in downtown Philadelphia, while its transmitter is located in the Roxborough section of the city.
History
As WPTZ-TV
The channel three facility in Philadelphia is one of the world's oldest television stations. It began in 1932 as W3XE, an experimental station owned by Philco. In 1941, it began sharing programs with W2XBS (later WNBT and now WNBC-TV) in New York City, becoming NBC's second television affiliate, and creating a link between the station and the network that would last for 56 years.On September 3, 1941, W3XE received a commercial license as WPTZ-TV, the nation's third commercial television station and the first outside New York City. It was one of three stations (along with WNBT and WRGB in Schenectady, New York) that premiered NBC's regular television service in 1946. The Westinghouse Electric Corporation, owner of Philadelphia's NBC radio affiliate KYW, purchased WPTZ-TV in 1952.
As an NBC-owned station
In 1956, Westinghouse traded WPTZ-TV and KYW radio to NBC in exchange for Cleveland's WNBK television and WTAM-AM-FM. NBC, who had long sought an owned-and-operated station in Philadelphia, was at first rebuffed by Westinghouse. NBC remained persistent, as it threatened to cancel its affiliation from WPTZ-TV and Westinghouse's other NBC-TV affiliate, WBZ-TV in Boston, unless Westinghouse agreed to the trade.When NBC took over in February 1956, changed channel three's calls letters were changed to WRCV-TV (for the RCA-Victor record label; KYW radio adopted the WRCV calls as well). Shortly after NBC took over, WRCV-TV moved from their original transmission tower in the suburb of Wyndmoor to a new 1,100-foot tower in Roxborough. The tower was co-owned with WFIL-TV (channel 6, now WPVI-TV) and added much of Delaware and the Lehigh Valley to WRCV's city-grade coverage.
However, almost immediately after the trade was finalized, Westinghouse complained to the FCC and the United States Department of Justice about NBC's extortion. After a thorough investigation and a protracted legal battle, the FCC ordered the swap reversed without NBC realizing any profit on the deal. Westinghouse had moved the KYW call letters to Cleveland after the swap, and upon regaining control of WRCV-AM-TV on June 19, 1965, channel three became KYW-TV. Group W, as Westinghouse's broadcasting division was known by this time, took over facilities far superior to the one it relinquished in 1956 -- along with the transmitter move, NBC also upgraded channel three technically, including converting the station from black-and-white to color transmissions.
As KYW-TV
Despite its status as NBC's largest affiliate, KYW-TV spent much of the next thirty years pre-empting many NBC programs, choosing to air its own local programming instead. The production arm of Westinghouse Broadcasting was partially responsible for the pre-emptions, as channel three aired shows produced and syndicated by Group W, such as The Mike Douglas Show (which moved with KYW to Philadelphia from Cleveland in 1965), The David Frost Show, and Hour Magazine. Pre-empted network programming was usually daytime game shows or reruns of lower-rated primetime programs, with an average of two hours per day. At one point, in the fall of 1980, KYW-TV preempted the entire morning NBC schedule after the Today Show. Over the years, NBC contracted independent stations WPHL-TV (channel 17), WTAF/WTXF (channel 29) and WKBS/WGTW (channel 48) to air programs pre-empted by channel three.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. However, NBC was very peturbed at losing valuable advertising in the nation's fourth-largest market. This was especially the case in the middle 1980s and early 1990s, when channel three was NBC's lowest-rated major-market affiliate during a very successful period for the network as a whole. (As a sidebar, sister station WBZ-TV pre-empted NBC programming almost as often as KYW-TV, but NBC did not seem to mind as much since WBZ-TV was always one of its strongest affiliates.)
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 joing ABC was Baltimore's NBC affiliate, WMAR-TV. Westinghouse was outraged, and as a safeguard began shopping for affiliation deals for the entire Group W television unit. 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). The announcement also meant that CBS would sell its longtime owned-and-operated station in Philadelphia, WCAU-TV (channel 10), despite that station's stronger ratings performance.
As a CBS-owned station
On September 10, 1995, KYW-TV and WCAU-TV swapped network affiliations, part of a more complex affiliation/ownership deal involving NBC and the new CBS/Group W partnership. CBS acquired a minority ownership share in channel three, while NBC-owned stations in Denver and Salt Lake City became CBS stations, with Group W assuming majority ownership. NBC and Group W/CBS also traded broadcasting facilities in Miami. The Westinghouse Electric Corporation purchased CBS in early 1996, making channel three 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 affiliate, WPSG, and that station moved into the KYW facility on Independence Mall. On January 1, 2003, KYW-TV went into compliance with the CBS Mandate and officially rebranded itself as CBS 3.
When Viacom spun off CBS Corporation in 2005, KYW-TV and WPSG, along with KYW radio the rest of Viacom's broadcasting interests, became a part of the new company. In 2007, KYW-TV and WPSG will move to a new broadcast complex on Spring Garden Street in Center City.
Logos
From 1967 to 2003, KYW's logo was a stylized "3" in the distinctive font made famous by Group W. It was the longest continuously-used logo in Philadelphia television history until 2006, when WPVI's simple "6" logo passed it.The logo was finally retired after KYW rebranded itself as CBS 3. The only major change came in 1997, when the CBS Eye was placed in front of the "3." In its place, it used a plainer "3" in a font similar to that of other CBS O&Os.
News operation
Shortly after Westinghouse regained control of KYW-TV, news director Al Primo pioneered the Eyewitness News format. This format has the reporters actually presenting their stories instead of having an anchor read them. Primo used the cue "007" from the film From Russia with Love as the theme. Within a few years, Group W's other television stations had adopted the format. KYW's newscasts, anchored by Vince Leonard since 1958 (during its brief stint as an NBC O&O), had long been second behind WCAU, but the new format catapulted KYW to first place. 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.
KYW spent most of the 1970s going back and forth with WPVI in first place. In 1972, KYW hired Philadelphia native Jessica Savitch as a young face alongside Leonard. However, after Savitch left for NBC News in 1977, KYW's ratings went into rapid decline. By the time Leonard left for KPNX in Phoenix in 1980, KYW had crashed into last place.
For most of the next three decades, KYW was a very distant third behind WPVI and WCAU. The subpar performance of KYW's once-proud news division was a major reason why NBC wanted an O&O in Philadelphia. Despite the presence of personalities such as Maria Shriver and Maury Povich, KYW stayed in the ratings basement.
In 1991, KYW 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" (the 5:30 p.m. news was cancelled) and the 11 p.m. news "The News Tonight." It also started using a theme based on the musical signature of its radio cousin, 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. The experiment with different newscast names only lasted until 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 1998.
KYW 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 sister station WBBM-TV in Chicago. It originated at KCBS-TV in Los Angeles in 1997. KYW 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 used music based on this theme for its last decade as a CBS O&O. In 2005, KYW ditched "News In Focus" in favor of another "Channel 2 News"-based tune, "The Enforcer" by Frank Gari.
2003 was also the year that KYW became a factor in the Philadelphia news race for the first time in decades. The previous summer, it persuaded WPVI's longtime 5 p.m. anchor Marc Howard to jump ship to anchor the 11 p.m. news. Kathy Orr, weekend weathercaster at WCAU, also moved to KYW. In September 2003 KYW added WCAU's Larry Mendte and Alycia Lane from WTVJ in Miami. Mendte and Lane 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., anchored by Marc Howard and Denise Saunders (who left the station in 2004 and replaced by Alycia Lane until January 16, 2006, when Lane in turn was replaced by current anchor Angela Russell). The change proved successful, and for the last two years KYW has waged a spirited battle with WCAU for second place behind longtime leader WPVI. In 2005, it introduced a customized graphics package created by Emmy Award winner Randy Pyburn of Pyburn Films. A variant of this is used on WPSG for its morning news program. 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.
KYW cooperates with sister station WCBS 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 O&O stations, KYW-TV offers a web only newscast called "CBS 3 At Your Desk", shown weekdays.
Newscasts
The station's radar is called "Mega Doppler 3".
Weekday
- Eyewitness News This Morning 5:00-7:00 a.m. (anchored by Ukee Washington and Susan Barnett, Brooks Tomlin with Weather and Bob Kelly on Traffic)
- Eyewitness News at Noon 12-12:30 p.m. (anchored by Ukee Washington and Pat Ciarrocchi with Tom Lamaine on Weather)
- Eyewitness News at 4 4-5 p.m. (anchored by Marc Howard and Angela Russell with Kathy Orr on Weather)
- Eyewitness News at 6 6-6:30 p.m. (anchored by Larry Mendte and Alycia Lane, Kathy Orr with Weather and Beasley Reece with Sports)
- Eyewitness News at 11 11-11:35 p.m. (anchored by Larry Mendte and Alycia Lane, Kathy Orr with Weather and Beasley Reece with Sports)
Weekends
- Eyewitness News This Morning 5:30-7, 9-10 Saturday, 5:30-8:30 Sunday (anchored by Calvin Hughes and Lesley Van Arsdell with Carol Erickson on Weather)
- Eyewitness News at 11 a.m. 11 a.m.-12 p.m. Sunday (anchored by Calvin Hughes and Lesley Van Arsdell with Carol Erickson on Weather)
- Eyewitness News at 6 6-6:30 p.m. Saturday (anchored by Mary Stoker Smith, Maria Larosa with Weather and Steve Bucci with Sports)
- Eyewitness News at 6:30 6:30-7 p.m. Sunday (anchored by Mary Stoker Smith, Maria Larosa with Weather and Steve Bucci with Sports)
- Eyewitness News at 11 11-11:35 p.m. (anchored by Mary Stoker Smith, Maria Larosa with Weather and Steve Bucci with Sports)
See also
External links
- [KYW-TV website]
- [Query the FCC's TV station database for KYW-TV]
- [Broadcast Pioneers of Philadelphia]
| Terrestrial television>Broadcast television in the Philadelphia / Camden / Wilmington market [(Nielsen DMA #4)] | ||
|---|---|---|
|
KYW 3 (CBS) -
WPVI 6 (ABC) -
W07DC 7 (ABC) -
WELL-CA 8 (DS) -
WCAU 10 (NBC) -
WHYY 12 (PBS) -
WPHL 17 (The WB - to be MNTV in 09/06) (The Tube on DT2) -
WNJS 23/WNJT 52 (PBS/NJN) -
W25AW 25 (A1) -
WFPA-CA 28 (TFR) -
WTXF 29 (Fox) -
WQAV-LP 34 (AV/Ind) -
WYBE 35 (Public) -
WLVT 39 (PBS) -
WMGM 40 (NBC) -
W40AZ 40 (Smile) -
WMCN 44 (ShN) -
WGTW 48 (TBN) -
WTVE 51 (Religious) -
WPSG 57 (UPN - to be The CW in 09/06) -
WBPH 60 (FamNet) -
WPPX 61 (i) -
WWSI 62 (TMO) -
WUVP 65 (UVN) -
WFMZ 69 (Ind)
| ||
| Past broadcast stations | ||
|
WKBS 48 (IND)
| ||
| Local cable television channels | ||
| CN8 - Comcast SportsNet Philadelphia | ||
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