WPVI-TV
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WPVI-TV (6 ABC) is the ABC affiliate in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, owned by ABC's parent company Disney, with transmitter in Roxborough. Its signal covers the Delaware Valley area including Philadelphia, New Jersey, and Delaware.
History
The station, Philadelphia's second-oldest station, signed on the air in 1947 under the call letters WFIL-TV. It was owned by the Annenberg family's Triangle Communications, owners of The Philadelphia Inquirer, with WFIL radio. It was originally a CBS station carrying some DuMont shows. When WCAU signed on in 1948, it naturally took the CBS affiliation as WCAU radio had long been the CBS affiliate in Philadelphia. WFIL then joined ABC, which had only entered television a few months before. It became the fledgling network's first affiliate. WFIL-AM-FM had been an affiliate of ABC Radio and its predecessor, the NBC Blue Network. The hit TV show American Bandstand got its start on WFIL in the 1950s before the show went national over the entire ABC network.
Knight Publications (now Knight Ridder) bought Triangle Communications in 1970. As a condition of the sale, Knight had to sell WFIL and WNHC-TV (now WTNH-TV) in New Haven. In 1971, both stations were sold to Capital Cities Communications, and WFIL became WPVI. In 1986, ABC and CapCities merged, making Channel 6 an ABC owned and operated (O&O) station.
WFIL/WPVI has a rich history of local children's shows. In the years before Channel 6 became an ABC O&O, the station preempted ABC programs in favor of local programs. Independent stations WTAF/WTXF and WKBS usually aired the preempted ABC shows that channel 6 did not air.
On January 22, 1987 WPVI became infamous for re-broadcasting in full the suicide of Pennsylvania treasurer Budd Dwyer on their 5 PM and 6 PM Action News broadcasts without warning viewers. Dwyer's suicide occured at a press conference which aired on live on the Noon broadcast.
Action News
The station is famous for starting the "Action News" format, which was used by many stations throughout the United States, most notibly WPIX-TV in New York City. When it premiered on April 6th, 1970 the format allowed for the news program to have more stories, more often. They've used the same music package since 1972, the infamous "Move Closer to Your World" by Al Ham, which was also used by many stations that used the Action News format - including WPIX. The composition is well-known throughout the Delaware Valley and has helped WPVI stay number one in Philadelphia for more than thirty years.
Largely because it has been the market leader for so long, WPVI is known for keeping things old-fashioned, with an "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" mentality. However in recent years, attempts have been made to modernize the newscasts, as the magnetboard used for weathercasts gave way to a video screen in 1998. The station switched to a more thunderous and authoritative version of "Move Closer to Your World" by the London Philharmonic Orchestra in 1997. However, amidst viewer complaints the theme was switched back to the old version after only five days. When it changed its on-air name from "Channel 6" to "6ABC," it simply lodged the ABC logo inside the 70s-vintage "6" logo.
WPVI cooperates with sister station WABC-TV New York in the production and broadcast of statewide New Jersey political debates. When the two stations broadcast a statewide office debate, such as Governor or U. S. Senate, they will pool resources and have anchors or reporters from both stations participate in the debate. Additionaly, the two stations cooperate in the gathering of news in New Jersey where their markets overlap; sharing reporters, live trucks, and helicopters.