CBS Broadcast Center - Overview

Overview

The nearly block-long facility at 524 West 57th Street, in the Hell's Kitchen section of Manhattan, serves as the headquarters of CBS News and the main broadcast facility for CBS News, CBS Sports, New York City O&O flagship station WCBS-TV, and CBS-owned independent station WLNY. Black Entertainment Television also uses the Broadcast Center for 106 & Park and other in-studio shows for the network (Both BET and CBS were part of Viacom before being separated by the Viacom/CBS split). CBS Television Distribution's nationally syndicated newsmagazine, Inside Edition, is also taped at the CBS Broadcast Center.

The Broadcast Center is also the production base for the CBS Radio Network. The network's Master Control (aka Central Control) on the first floor also serves as the routing center for other programming distributed by Dial Global (formerly Westwood One). The radio network's flagship station, WCBS (AM), was housed in the Broadcast Center from 2000 (moving from Black Rock, CBS's corporate headquarters at 51 West 52nd Street) until 2011 when it relocated to 345 Hudson Street in lower Manhattan, billed on-air as "The CBS Hudson Square Broadcast Center."

In addition to the Broadcast Center, CBS has one other major studio centers in Manhattan — the Ed Sullivan Theater (CBS-TV Studio 50) at 1697 Broadway, the home of the Late Show with David Letterman. The General Motors Building (CBS-TV Studio 58) on Fifth Avenue and 58th Street, was the home of The Early Show until December 31, 2011. The Early Show's successor, CBS This Morning, premiered from newly-constructed Studio 57 at the Broadcast Center on January 9, 2012.

The Center opened as the CBS Production Center in the late 1950s, when the network's master control, film and videotape facilities, and four studios were located in the Grand Central Terminal building. Operations moved from Grand Central to the Broadcast Center in stages, ending in late 1964.

From the 1950s to 1970s, another prominent CBS stage in New York was Studio 52 (now the disco-theater Studio 54) at 254 West 54th Street, around the corner from Studio 50. CBS also leased the Himan Brown studios at 221 West 26th Street (now Chelsea Studios) for several shows in the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s.

In early 2012, it was announced The Nate Berkus Show would not be renewed. After a few months it was announced that Anderson Cooper's talk show would move into Studio 42 leaving its home in the Time Warner Center.

Also in 2012, CBS acquired the Long Island based independent channel WLNY, setting up a duopoly with local WCBS-TV. Following the merger, CBS closed WLNY's former Melville studios, relocating most station operations to the Broadcast Center with two new shows created for WLNY, a morning show called The Couch and an evening broadcast at 9:00, both staffed by WCBS personnel and originating from the WCBS studios.