WBBM-TV
WBBM-TV traces its history to 1940 when Balaban and Katz, a subsidiary of Paramount Pictures, signed on experimental station W9XBK, the first all-electronic television facility in Chicago.WBKB aired some of the earliest CBS programs, including the 1947 debut of Junior Jamboree (later renamed Kukla, Fran and Ollie after it moved to NBC in 1948).On September 26, 1960, WBBM's McClurg Court studios served as the site of the first televised presidential debate between John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon.In October 1987, Center City Communications—a locally based investor group led by attorney Brenda Minor—filed a challenge to the FCC's renewal of WBBM-TV's station license.The challenge sparked calls for the FCC to reform its comparative renewal process, which certain broadcasters claim was used solely for the purpose of "extort[ing]" large cash settlements from stations.[14][15] The station was brought back under common ownership with Paramount Pictures when Viacom—which acquired the studio from Gulf and Western in 1994—merged with (the original) CBS Corporation in a $36 billion deal in February 2000.[12] On September 21, 2008, WBBM-TV moved to new facilities in the "Block 37" studio at the corner of Dearborn and Washington streets, with a 30-by-19-foot (9.1 m × 5.8 m) LED screen that adorns the lower facade of the 17-story building (which some residents complained is "tacky and visually hyperactive").[19][20] This move coincided with the upgrade of channel 2's newscasts to high definition, making WBBM the fourth television station in the Chicago market to begin broadcasting their newscasts in the format (field footage converted to the format over a period of years); in early 2006, the WBBM radio stations moved into new studio facilities within Two Prudential Plaza on North Stetson Avenue.WBBM-TV moved its news set upstairs to a more traditional studio in September 2017 after an obligation to maintain its main studio in the streetside space for ten years was fulfilled, with CBS eventually removing the LED screen and putting the space up for retail lease in 2019, though with no interest coming in during the COVID-19 pandemic, WBBM-TV returned to using it late in 2020 to allow for wider social distancing of station workspaces.[24][25] Decades moved to WCIU-DT4 on September 3, 2018, with WBBM-DT2 becoming the home of a second Weigel/CBS concept network known as Start TV, which specializes in airing procedural dramas with women in the lead roles.[34] The first attempt to telecast a Cubs' game, on April 21, 1946, was unsuccessful, due to electrical interference in the State-Lake building where the station's transmitter was located.Presently, WBBM-TV carries Bears regular season games only during weeks in which the team is scheduled to host an American Football Conference (AFC) opponent at Soldier Field in a Sunday afternoon timeslot.From 2003 to 2007, WBBM-TV served as the host broadcaster of the Chicago Marathon, which is held annually in October, taking over from NBC owned-and-operated station WMAQ-TV; to accommodate the telecast, some CBS News programs were preempted or delayed.Led by anchors Bill Kurtis and Walter Jacobson, weatherman John Coughlin and sports director Johnny Morris, WBBM dominated the news ratings during the late 1970s and early 1980s.Bob Sirott and Phil Ponce—who would both later host the newsmagazine program Chicago Tonight on PBS member station WTTW (channel 11)—were also employed as reporters for WBBM-TV during this period.Porterfield—who is African American—later left to become a reporter and part-time anchor at WLS, but his earlier demotion led Jesse Jackson and his locally based civil rights organization Operation PUSH to begin a boycott of WBBM-TV (at one point, drafting a proposal to CBS and WBBM-TV station management that called for the station to implement a 40% minority hiring quota, hire two black male anchors to its news staff and have CBS grant a financial commitment of $11 million to minority interests) that lasted until August 1986; in the midst of the boycott, Gary Cummings resigned as WBBM vice president and general manager in March 1986, and was replaced two weeks later by one-time assistant news director Johnathan Rodgers, who became the first African American GM at the station.Applegate took Jacobson off the anchor desk (Jacobson eventually left for WFLD in April 1993) and controversially made the newscasts much flashier than they had previously been; the reporting staff during this period notably included Elizabeth Vargas (formerly with ABC News), Rob Stafford (now at WMAQ-TV), Jim Avila (now at ABC), Larry Mendte (now a commentator at WPIX in New York City) and Dawn Stensland (a former 10 p.m. anchor at Fox-owned WTXF-TV in Philadelphia).For most of the next decade, WLS and WMAQ fought for first place, while WBBM-TV's news division languished, with its newscasts often trailing syndicated reruns on WFLD.Harry Porterfield returned to WBBM-TV after 24 years at WLS-TV on August 3, 2009, to anchor the 11 a.m. news with Roseanne Tellez, and also to continued "Someone You Should Know", the series of feature reports he began at WBBM in 1977.[55] During the February 2010 Nielsen ratings sweeps period, the 10 p.m. news slipped back to third place behind WMAQ due in large part to the latter network's airing of the 2010 Winter Olympics.[70] In June 2020, WBBM-TV was honored with a Peabody Award for the report "Unwarranted", a 2019 investigation into botched police raids in Chicago and the impact they left on families and their homes.From 1994 to 1997, 2000 to 2001, 2002 to 2008 and since 2010, WBBM-TV used an updated and synthesized version of the original theme specially written for the station titled "The CBS Enforcer Music Collection", composed by Frank Gari.On June 21, 2010, with the adoption of a new standardized graphics package that was rolled out across CBS' O&Os, WBBM-TV brought back "Enforcer" with an orchestrated "New Generation" version originally commissioned by New York City sister station WCBS-TV.[83] In addition, WBBM-TV applied for a construction permit to build a low-power fill-in repeater on UHF channel 26 (the former allocation of the analog signal of WCIU-TV).
ATSC 3.0ChicagoChannelsDigitalVirtualCBS News and StationsFormer affiliationsIndependentParamountCall signWBBM radioFacility IDtelevision stationOwned and operatedWillis TowerBalaban and KatzParamount PicturesWilliam C. "Bill" EddyWorld War IIEastern Time ZoneWCBS-TVSchenectady, New YorkKYW-TVPhiladelphiaKukla, Fran and Ollieindependent stationDuMont Television NetworkSt. LouisNational Football LeagueChicago CardinalsPhiladelphia EaglesWGN-TVUnited Paramount TheatresUnited States Supreme CourtFederal Communications CommissionKDKA-TVPittsburghParamount Television NetworkParamount Networkflagship stationsAmerican Broadcasting Companycommon ownership of two television stationsmarket780 AM96.3 FMWLS-TVCBS-affiliated stationAlpena, MichiganDaley PlazaWTMJ-TVWHBF-TVQuad CitiesKalamazoo, MichiganLake MichiganSpringfieldZenithpay-per-viewPhonevisionStreetervillehorse stableice rinkbowling alleyWhat's My Line?1956 Democratic National ConventionColumbia RecordsJohn F. KennedyRichard NixonDonahueSiskel & EbertState Streetstation licenseOperation PUSHpublic affairscomparative renewalViacomGulf and WesternCBS CorporationChevy Chase, MarylandMills CorporationBlock 37Michigan Avenuehigh definitionTwo Prudential PlazaCOVID-19 pandemicsocial distancingtransitioned from analog to digital broadcastsvirtual channelWeigel BroadcastingDecadesdigital multicast networksoft launchedWCIU-DT4Start TVCBS RadioAudacyReverse Morris TrustRob JohnsonNewsNationNexstarChicago CubsPhilip K. WrigleyBrooklyn DodgersChicago Bears1993 seasonNational Football ConferenceAmerican Football ConferenceSoldier FieldBuffalo BillsMinnesota VikingsSuper Bowl XLIIndianapolis ColtsChicago BullsNBA on CBSChicago MarathondelayedBill KurtisWalter JacobsonJohn CoughlinJohnny MorrisRobert Wusslernews directorVan Gordon Sauterhard newsGene SiskelPam ZekmanMike Parker