Sources
Help build the largest human-edited directory on the web.
Submit a site - Become an editor
Wikipedia. Licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License.
Are you an expert in this subject? Join the discussion and share your knowledge at Wikipedia.org.
WJZ-TV
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| WJZ-TV | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Baltimore, Maryland | |
| Branding | WJZ 13 |
| Slogan | "Baltimore's News Station" |
| Channels | 13 (VHF) analog, 38 (UHF) digital |
| Affiliations | CBS |
| Owner | CBS Corporation |
| Founded | November 2, 1947 |
| Call letters meaning | named after the former callsign of WABC-AM 770, which stood for WABC's original location in New Jersey |
| Former callsigns | WAAM-TV (1948-1957) |
| Former affiliations | CBS (1947-1948) DuMont (1948-1956), ABC (1953-1995) |
| Website | www.wjz.com/ |
WJZ-TV, channel 13, is a CBS owned-and-operated television station in Baltimore, Maryland. Its studios and transmitter are located in Baltimore.
Contents |
Channel 13 started on November 2, 1947 as WAAM-TV, owned by brothers Ben and Herman Cohen. It joined the DuMont Television Network within months of signing on [1]. WAAM-TV began a secondary affiliation with ABC when that network begain full-fledged network operations in 1953. When DuMont closed down operations in 1956, channel 13 became a full-time ABC affiliate.
The Westinghouse Electric Corporation purchased WAAM-TV in 1957 and renamed it WJZ-TV. The WJZ calls 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 they were the original owners of WJZ radio (now WABC (AM)), 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. It still operates from this tower today, which can be seen from Interstate 83 in Baltimore.
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 American Bandstand. Deane's program was the inspiration for the John Waters 1988 motion picture Hairspray and its subsequent Broadway version.
In 1976, Oprah Winfrey became an anchor for the station's 6:00PM newscast. She also co-hosted WJZ'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 cut a deal with E.W. Scripps Company to switch three of Scripps' television stations to ABC affiliates. Scripps owned WMAR, then Baltimore's NBC affiliate. ABC agreed to the deal as a condition of keeping its affiliation on Scripps' two biggest stations, WXYZ-TV in Detroit and WEWS-TV in Cleveland. Both stations had been heavily wooed by CBS, which was about to lose its longtime Detroit and Cleveland affiliates to Fox.
Group W, Westinghouse's broadcasting division, was very upset at how WJZ had been treated after so many years of loyalty to ABC. It began searching for an affiliation deal of its own. Eventually, Westinghouse and CBS cut a deal to switch all of Group W's television stations to CBS. WJZ's sister stations included NBC affiliates KYW-TV in Philadelphia and WBZ-TV in Boston; and CBS affiliates KDKA-TV in Pittsburgh and KPIX in San Francisco. The affiliation switch occurred on January 2, 1995, ending WJZ's 47-year link with ABC and making it the third station in Baltimore to affiliate with CBS (WMAR had held the affiliation from 1947 to 1981, then WBAL from 1981 until the switch). Westinghouse then bought CBS in early 1996, making WJZ a CBS owned-and-operated station (O&O).
WJZ has used its current stylized "13" logo since 1967, but a little variated. The only other former Group W TV station that still uses the distinctive Group W font is KPIX (Several former Group W radio stations, including WOWO and KYW still use the font)./ However, while KPIX calls itself "CBS 5" under the CBS Mandate, WJZ does not call itself "CBS 13", but instead continues to use its call letters on air, as four other current sister stations also don't follow the mandate either - KDKA (which has a CBS-mandated logo but not branding), KUTV in Salt Lake City (which does not follow any form of the Mandate), WBZ-TV (which followed the Mandate until abandoning it in February 2007) and WCCO-TV (which also does not follow any form of the Mandate)
WJZ is the Baltimore-area affiliate of the It's Academic high school quiz competition.
For over 30 years, WJZ dominated the news ratings in Baltimore, with the Eyewitness News format and name borrowed from its sister station KYW. Between 1977 and 1987, Jerry Turner and Al Sanders (Albert Gay) 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. However, in recent years, WBAL has taken over the top spot at 5 p.m., 6 p.m. and 11 p.m., with WJZ coming in second. Like other CBS O&O stations, WJZ offers a web only newscast, "WJZ At Your Desk", shown weekdays.
WJZ currently airs newscasts at the following hours:
- 4:55am - 6:00am: Rise N' Shine
- 6:00am - 8:00am: Morning Edition (with segments from The Early Show during the 7am hour)
Don Scott & Marty Bass
- 12noon - 12:30pm: WJZ Eyewitness News at Noon
Don Scott & Mary Bubala
- 4:00pm - 4:30pm: WJZ Eyewitness News at 4
Kai Jackson and Sally Thorner
- 4:30pm - 5:00pm: WJZ Eyewitness News at 4:30
Vic Carter and Denise Koch
- 5:00pm - 6:00pm: WJZ Eyewitness News at 5
Kai Jackson and Sally Thorner
- 6:00pm - 7:00pm: WJZ Eyewitness News at 6
Vic Carter and Denise Koch
- 11:00pm - 11:35pm: WJZ Eyewitness News at 11
Vic Carter and Denise Koch
- 6:00am - 8:00am: WJZ Eyewitness News Saturday Morning
Jessica Kartalija
- 6:00pm - 6:30pm: WJZ Eyewitness News at 6
Adam May
- 11:00pm - 11:35pm: WJZ Eyewitness News at 11
Adam May
- 8:00am - 9:00am: WJZ Eyewitness News Sunday Morning
Jessica Kartalija
- 6:30pm - 7:00pm: WJZ Eyewitness News at 6:30
Adam May
- 11:00pm - 11:35pm: WJZ Eyewitness News at 11
Adam May
|
|
- George Baumann (d.2002)
- Randy Blair (d.1983)
- John Buren
- Chris Ely
- Boomer Esiason - interned while in college
- Dick Gelfman
- Katie Leahan
- Frank Luber
- Ralph Neill
- Don O'Brien
- Michael Olesker
- Sandra Pinckney
- Al Sanders (d.1995)
- Deborah Stone
- Lou Tilley
- Brooks Tomlin
- Jerry Turner (d.1987)
- Oprah Winfrey
| Broadcast television in the Baltimore market (Nielsen DMA #24) | |||
|---|---|---|---|
|
WMAR 2 (ABC) - WBAL 11 (NBC) - WJZ 13 (CBS) - WMJF 16 (Ind/MTV2) - WMPT 22 / WMPB 67 (PBS/MPT) - WUTB 24 (MNTV) - WBFF 45 (Fox) - WNUV 54 (The CW) |
|||
