WPXI - History

History

On September 1, 1957, Pittsburgh's second commercial VHF station signed on as WIIC. The station's license and construction permit were originally issued by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in June 1955 to WIIC Incorporated -- a joint venture of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, which owned WWSW radio (970 AM, now WBGG), and Pittsburgh Radio Supply House, the then-owners of WJAS radio (1320 AM). Both radio stations had competed individually for the license grant along with other applicants. CBS, which was looking to gain its own full-time affiliate in the market, signed an contract with the then-unnamed channel 11 shortly thereafter.

Channel 11, however, did not sign on for well over two years after its license was granted. The primary reason for the delay was on the part of WENS-TV (channel 16, now WINP-TV), whose application for the license had been denied and later contested the FCC's original decision. In the interim CBS continued to have most of its programs cleared by Westinghouse-owned KDKA-TV (channel 2), at the time Pittsburgh's only commercial VHF station. When CBS decided to make KDKA-TV its full-time Pittsburgh affiliate, NBC (who shared time on KDKA-TV with CBS, ABC, and station founder DuMont since its sign-on in 1949) reached a deal to affiliate with WIIC. Also, as a condition of the license grant, WJAS radio had to be sold; NBC wound up purchasing that station in August 1957. The WJAS interests later divested their 50 percent share of WIIC to another local broadcaster.

Bill Cardille (now a former Channel 11 host and weather forecaster) signed the station on the air. It addition to Cardille, five other announcers that were with the station during sign-on in 1957 include Mal Alberts, Bob Cochran, Ed Conway, Len Johnson and Mark Schaefer. Some of the first original programming to air on WIIC included Studio Wrestling and Chiller Theatre, both hosted by Cardille.

In 1964 WIIC was sold to current owner Cox Enterprises; Cox subsequently traded its share in the then new cable system in Toledo, Ohio to the Post-Gazette's parent company, which is based in Toledo. The station has been the longest running NBC affiliate under Cox's ownership, especially after its sister stations in Charlotte and Atlanta switched over to ABC in 1978 and 1980, respectively.

In 1970, WIIC made Pittsburgh broadcasting history as Eleanor Schano became the first woman to anchor a newscast alone. Schano also hosted a weekly 30-minute public affairs program called Face to Face.

During much of the 1970s, WIIC trailed in a distant third place in the ratings behind KDKA-TV and WTAE-TV (channel 4). This coincided with much of the period where NBC also struggled in the ratings. About 1975, Channel 11 branded itself as "e11even", then around 1977 used the "11 Alive" moniker.

On April 20, 1981, the station's call sign was changed to WPXI (Pittsburgh 11, with XI being the Roman numeral sign for 11). Although the station has officially never had the -TV suffix since adopting the WPXI call sign, the station has on occasion been marketed as WPXI-TV. The WIIC calls lived on in Pittsburgh, on a low-powered independent station airing music videos (that station is currently silent).

WPXI also has been airing the Jerry Lewis Telethon as the Pittsburgh affiliate of the annual event. The local portion of the telethon is still hosted by Bill Cardille.

In 2000, Cox Enterprises purchased WTOV in Steubenville, Ohio and WJAC-TV in Johnstown, Pennsylvania from Sunrise Television. These stations, also NBC affiliates often appear in channel lineups for the same viewers that watch WPXI, either by over-the-air signal or via cable provider, and due to the proximity of the three stations to each other (as well as the common affiliation with NBC), are occasionally marketed together as a result. Cox changed the stations' on-air appearances to match WPXI's look, despite WPXI changing its own look in 2004. WTOV still used WPXI's former look until October 2010, and WJAC-TV adopted WPXI's current design in October 2011.

Over the Labor Day weekend of 2007, WPXI introduced its new studio location in the city's Summer Hill neighborhood near the Parkway North. The move ended a 50-year tradition at Television Hill in the city's Fineview neighborhood. The station's tower is to remain in place at the top of the station's current location. WPXI officially launched its 6 p.m. newscast from its new studio in Summer Hill on October 6. WPXI is the first station in Pittsburgh broadcasting news in high definition. It has been criticized for technical glitches during the initial week of the new system run. With the switch to HD came a new set, created by FX Group & new HD graphics, created by Hothaus Creative.

As part of its 50th anniversary, WPXI announced it would air classic TV programs on a digital subchannel from the Retro Television Network. The additional channel began on October 15, 2007.

In mid-October 2008, WPXI, in collaboration with Cox's longtime partner Internet Broadcasting, launched a redesigned website. As of early November 2008, the websites of all of Cox's stations east of the Mississippi River are using the new format pioneered by WPXI; the websites of the company's stations west of the Mississippi River followed suit a month later. As of January 7, 2010, The website's navigation bar and pages have been re-done. In 2011, Cox Media Group's partnership with Internet Broadcasting was dissolved, and the Cox television stations relaunched or are relaunching their Web site operations in-house. WPXI's and WSOC-TV's Web sites remained under the stewardship of Internet Broadcasting until late January 2012 when they became the last two stations to have redesigned and relaunched their Web sites to match the format of the in-house Web operations of its sister stations.

On July 20, 2012, Cox put WJAC and WTOV, plus stations in El Paso, Texas and Reno, Nevada, on the market after it purchased four television stations in Jacksonville, Florida and Tulsa, Oklahoma from Newport Television. Once the sales of WJAC and WTOV are completed, WPXI will become Cox's only remaining NBC-affiliated station since the stations that Cox purchased from Newport are affiliated with Fox, CBS and the MyNetworkTV programming service.

WPXI currently uses the number 11 drawn into a circle, which debuted in 1987. The "11" symbol is colored gold, while the box around it is dark blue. WPXI previously used the NBC Peacock in its logo, which was copied by sister stations WTOV and WJAC-TV and is still used by WTOV, but revamped its own look in October 2004. WPXI's current look uses the circle 11 logo with stylized "WPXI" below it.