WJZ-TV - History

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. Channel 13 was originally an ABC affiliate; it was the second primary affiliate of the fledgling network. Until 1956, it carried a secondary affiliation with the DuMont Television Network, and originated many Baltimore Colts games for DuMont.

The Westinghouse Electric Corporation purchased WAAM in May 1957. Westinghouse took control of the station in August of that year, and renamed it WJZ-TV the following month. The WJZ call letters had previously resided on ABC's flagship radio/television combination in New York City, which changed its calls to WABC-AM-FM-TV 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 ABC.

All of Baltimore's TV stations had fairly short TV towers in the 1940s-50s with WJZ's at just over 700 feet tall. But in 1959, WJZ-TV built the world's first three-antenna candelabra tower and at roughly 1000 foot above average terrain, at the time, it was the tallest free standing TV antenna in the U.S., shared with WMAR-TV (channel 2) and WBAL-TV (channel 11). The 997-foot (304 m) tower significantly improved the station's coverage in central Maryland, and also added new viewers in Pennsylvania and Delaware and of course Washington, D.C. It still operates from this 997-foot (304 m) tower today, which can be seen from Interstate 83 in Baltimore, not to mention from many parts of Baltimore County. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Antenna Structure Registration page gives the tower's height as 997 feet (304 meters).,

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 (notably the former ABC daytime soap opera Dark Shadows, which WJZ-TV pre-empted during the mid-1960s). However, ABC was more than satisfied with channel 13, which was one of its strongest affiliates. Additionally, Baltimore viewers could watch ABC programs on Washington, D.C.'s WMAL-TV/WJLA-TV (channel 7), whose signal decently covers most of the Baltimore area.

WJZ-TV nearly lost its ABC affiliation in 1977 when the network briefly wooed WBAL-TV (owned by the Hearst Corporation) in the wake of a dispute between ABC and Group W. However, WBAL declined the ABC affiliation offer due to ABC's last-place network evening newscast offerings of the time, keeping ABC on channel 13 for the next 18 years.

From 1957 to 1964, one of the station's highest-rated programs was The Buddy Deane Show, an in-studio teen dance show similar to ABC's American Bandstand, which WJZ-TV also pre-empted in favor of the Deane program. 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 (channel 7) in Detroit and WEWS (channel 5) 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. ABC was reluctant to include WMAR in the deal; it had been a ratings also-ran for over 30 years while WJZ-TV was one of the strongest ABC affiliates in the nation. However, not wanting to be relegated to UHF in two markets with few viable choices for a new affiliate, ABC opted to end its 47-year affiliation with channel 13 and move its affiliation to channel 2.

Group W felt betrayed by ABC after so many years of loyalty. At the time, channel 13 had been affiliated with ABC longer than any station not owned and operated by the network. As a safeguard, it began to shop for an affiliation deal of its own. Eventually, Westinghouse agreed to a long-term affiliation contract with CBS. As a result, WJZ-TV and sister stations in Philadelphia and Boston became CBS affiliates (Westinghouse's two other television stations, in Pittsburgh and San Francisco, were already CBS affiliates, but had to stop preempting network programming as a condition of the deal). The affiliation switch, the second in Baltimore television history, occurred early on the morning of January 2, 1995. 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 on November 24, 1995, making WJZ-TV a CBS owned-and-operated station. Notably, this gave CBS its first wholly owned station in the Baltimore/Washington area; CBS had been a minority owner of WTOP-TV in Washington (channel 9, now WUSA) from 1950 to 1954.

WJZ-TV has used its current "Stylized 13" logo, using a font face exclusive to Group W, 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" (which required WJZ to call itself "CBS 13"), preferring to use its call letters.

The CBS affiliation came with an added plus in 1998, when the network gained the rights to air all afternoon National Football League games wherein the visitors were part of the American Football Conference. The NFL's current team in Baltimore, the Ravens, play in the AFC, and so most of their games are seen on WJZ-TV. The Ravens' only Super Bowl appearance also aired on the station, as the Ravens defeated the New York Giants in Super Bowl XXXV.