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Westinghouse Broadcasting

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Group W
Group W

Group W, also known as the Westinghouse Broadcasting Company, was a division of Westinghouse Electric Corporation. The company adopted the Group W moniker in 1963, and it handled Westinghouse's television and radio operations, owning several stations across the United States and distributing television shows for syndication. Westinghouse Broadcasting was headquartered along with its parent company in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, though it maintained offices in New York City and Los Angeles as well.

The stations are best known for the distinctive font (closely, but not accurately mimicked in Ray Larabie's freeware font "Anklepants") they adopted in the late 1960s. Group W fonts had been used on some non-Group W stations as well.

History

The Westinghouse Electric and Manufacturing Corporation entered into broadcasting with the November 2, 1920 sign-on of KDKA radio in Pittsburgh. KDKA, which bills itself as the world's first commercially-licensed radio station, was an outgrowth of experimental station 8XK, a 75-watt station that was located in the Pittsburgh suburb of Wilkinsburg, and founded in 1916 by Westinghouse employee Frank Conrad.

Westinghouse launched three more radio stations in 1921: WJZ, originally licensed to Newark, New Jersey, in September; WBZ, first located in Springfield, Massachusetts, in October; and KYW, originally based in Chicago, in November. WBZA in Boston, a station which shared WBZ's frequency and simulcasted WBZ's programming, signed-on in November 1924.

Westinghouse was one of the founding owners of the Radio Corporation of America in 1919, and in 1926 RCA established the National Broadcasting Company, a group of 24 radio stations that made up the first radio network in the United States. Through its association with RCA, all of Westinghouse's stations became affiliates of NBC's Blue Network when it was launched on January 1, 1927. Most of the Blue Network's programming originated at WJZ, which in 1923 had its licensed moved to New York City, and its ownership transferred to RCA.

In 1931, Westinghouse switched the call letters of its two Massachusetts stations, with WBZA moving to Springfield and WBZ going to Boston. The two stations had suffered from interference problems, though the Boston facility was the more powerful of the two. In 1934, KYW was moved from Chicago to Philadelphia following a Federal Communications Commission-dictated frequency realignment. Westinghouse's next station was its first purchase: WOWO in Fort Wayne, Indiana joined the group in August 1936. The Westinghouse group survived the split of NBC's radio division in 1940, leaving NBC with only the Red Network. WBZ/WBZA, KDKA, and KYW became affiliates of NBC-Red after the split, while WOWO, which had a secondary affiliation with NBC-Blue, fell back on its primary relationship with CBS. The 1941 North American Radio Broadcasting Agreement saw all of Westinghouse's stations move to their current dial positions, and all but one were granted clear channel allocations, WBZA being the only exception. Despite the assignments which resulted from NARBA, WBZA became a daytime-only operation as it continued to share frequencies with WBZ.

Later in the 1940s, Westinghouse moved on to develop FM and television stations as the FCC began to issue permits for those services. Westinghouse built FM sister stations for WBZ/WBZA, KDKA, KYW, and WOWO, all of which were on the air by the end of the decade. FM radio was, initially, an unsuccessful venture for Westinghouse, and the company would sell all of their FM stations (with the exception of WBZ-FM, which was sold in 1981) by the end of the 1950s.

WBZ-TV in Boston, which signed-on in June 1948, is the only television station to have been built by the company. The remainder of Westinghouse's expansion into television was made through purchases, starting with WPTZ-TV in Philadelphia, in 1952. KPIX in San Francisco was bought in 1954; WDTV (now KDKA-TV) in Pittsburgh was added in 1955; and WAAM-TV (now WJZ-TV) in Baltimore was purchased in 1957.

Moving back to AM radio, Westinghouse returned to Chicago with its 1956 purchase of WIND. In 1962, Westinghouse re-entered the New York market when it bought WINS, then a local Top-40 powerhouse. That same year, the company also agreed to buy another top-rated music station, KFWB in Los Angeles. However, the FCC ordered Westinghouse to sell one of its existing AM stations, as they reached the then-limit of seven AM stations per owner. Westinghouse decided to shut down WBZA and return its license to the FCC later in 1962. However, Westinghouse didn't close on the KFWB deal until 1966.

On April 19, 1965, WINS dropped music and instituted the world's first 24-hour all-news format. KYW also went all-news on September 12. KFWB would adopt the format on March 11, 1968. All three stations went on to success in their markets. During the 1970s, WIND also tinkered with a part-time news format, though it had little success against the dominant all-news station in Chicago, CBS-owned WBBM.

Over the next quarter-century, Westinghouse would purchase several other radio stations, including KFBK in Sacramento, California; WMAQ in Chicago, WNEW-FM in New York, and WMMR-FM in Philadelphia. WOWO was sold to other interests in 1982, and WIND was spun-off in 1988 after Group W bought WMAQ from NBC. During this time, Group W's only other television station purchase was in Charlotte, North Carolina, where it operated WRET-TV (later WPCQ and now WCNC-TV) from 1980 until 1986.

It also purchased cable TV system operator TelePrompTer in 1981, which it renamed Group W Cable the following year. However, Group W would leave the cable TV system business in 1986.

The 1956 trade with NBC

In 1956, Westinghouse sold its Philadelphia stations -- KYW radio and WPTZ-TV -- to NBC. In exchange, Westinghouse received NBC's Cleveland stations, WTAM-AM-FM and WNBK television. After the deal closed, Westinghouse moved the KYW call letters to its new Cleveland cluster, while NBC renamed the Philadelphia stations WRCV-AM-TV. However, the ink had barely dried on the deal when Westinghouse complained to the FCC and the U.S. Justice Department, claiming that NBC had extorted it into agreeing to the deal. It turned out that NBC had threatened to pull its television programming from WPTZ-TV and WBZ-TV unless Westinghouse agreed to the swap. Following a thorough investigation which lasted several years, the FCC and Justice Department ordered the swap reversed without NBC realizing any profit on the deal. Westinghouse regained control of the Philadelphia stations on June 19, 1965; restoring the KYW calls to the radio station and renaming the television station KYW-TV.

Merger with CBS

Throughout its history as an operator of television stations, Westinghouse Broadcasting had relationships with all three major networks: KYW-TV, WPCQ, and WBZ-TV were NBC affiliates, KPIX and KDKA-TV were aligned with CBS, and WJZ-TV was an ABC station. All of Group W's stations were located within the top 30 television markets. Except for KYW-TV, the five stations that comprised the core of Group W's television unit for most of its existence were strong performers in their respective markets, usually ranking first or second in the ratings. However, a series of surprising events that occurred in the course of a year ended Westinghouse's uniqueness among station operators.

In 1994, the Fox Broadcasting Company agreed to a multi-year, multi-station affiliation deal with New World Communications, resulting most of New World's stations switching to Fox. Among these stations were longtime CBS affiliates WJBK-TV in Detroit and WJW-TV in Cleveland. To replace these outlets, CBS pursued longtime ABC affiliates WEWS in Cleveland and WXYZ-TV in Detroit. Both stations were owned by the E.W. Scripps Company, who used this leverage to strike an similar affiliation deal of its own with ABC. Unwilling to risk losing two of its strongest and longest-standing affiliates, ABC agreed to the deal. The deal called for three of Scripps' stations to join ABC. One of them was Baltimore's then-NBC affiliate, WMAR-TV, which displaced that city's longtime ABC affiliate, Group W-owned WJZ-TV.

Westinghouse was upset at how ABC had treated WJZ-TV after many years of loyalty, and sought an affiliation deal of its own. Eventually, it agreed to affiliate its entire television unit with CBS. This deal resulted in a three-way deal involving CBS, NBC and Westinghouse that unfolded during 1995:

  • On January 2, WJZ-TV and WBZ-TV switched from ABC and NBC, respectively, to CBS.
  • On September 10, KYW-TV switched from NBC to CBS. KCNC-TV in Denver and KUTV in Salt Lake City, two former NBC-owned stations, also became CBS affiliates. The Group W/CBS partnership assumed control of the three stations, with Group W as majority owner.
  • On September 12, CBS-owned WCIX in Miami swapped channel locations with NBC-owned WTVJ. CBS and NBC traded their Miami broadcasting facilities to compensate each other for the loss of stations. WCIX changed its call letters to WFOR-TV, and CBS sold controlling interest in the station to Westinghouse.

Westinghouse bought CBS outright in 1996, and the Group W name faded into broadcasting history as the Westinghouse Broadcasting operations took on the CBS name and identity. As a condition of the merger, CBS had to sell recently-acquired WPRI-TV in Providence, Rhode Island, due to a significant signal overlap with WBZ-TV. WPRI's city-grade signal covers most of the Boston area. At the time, the FCC did not allow common ownership of stations with overlapping city-grade signals. The merger also made WMAQ-AM a sister station to its longtime rival, WBBM-AM. The two all-news stations were operated side-by-side until August 2, 2000; when all-sports WSCR moved to WMAQ's longtime frequency at 670 kHz and the WMAQ calls faded into radio history.

A few of the former Westinghouse radio stations (now owned by CBS Radio) still use the former Group W font today (eg. KDKA, KYW, and WINS). WOWO, now owned by Inner City Broadcasting, and two television stations, WJZ-TV and KPIX, continue to use this font as well. The other stations retired the font early in the 21st century.

Syndicated programs

Some of their best-known programs were syndicated and seen in primetime, through its syndication division, Group W Productions; many were talk/variety, during the 1960's and sold internationally.

Late night talk/variety shows

Daytime shows

Group W also syndicated and franchised the program Evening Magazine (alternatively titled PM Magazine on stations not owned and operated by Group W) to local stations.

Animated series

First-run syndicated shows

After the merger in 1996, Group W Productions was renamed Eyemark Entertainment. Today, the Group W and Eyemark libraries are owned by King World Productions, following the latter company's acquisition by CBS in 2000.

Television stations formerly owned by Group W

Current DMA# Market Station Years Owned Current Affiliation
4. Philadelphia WPTZ-TV/KYW-TV 3 1952-56
1965-95 		CBS owned-and-operated (O&O)
5. Boston WBZ-TV 4 1948-95 CBS owned-and-operated (O&O)
6. San Francisco-Oakland-San Jose KPIX-TV 5 1954-95 CBS owned-and-operated (O&O)
16. Cleveland KYW-TV 3
(now WKYC-TV) 		1956-65 NBC affiliate owned by Gannett Company
22. Pittsburgh KDKA-TV 2 1955-95 CBS owned-and-operated (O&O)
24. Baltimore WJZ-TV 13 1957-95 CBS owned-and-operated (O&O)
27. Charlotte WPCQ-TV 36
(now WCNC-TV) 		1980-86 NBC affiliate owned by A.H. Belo Corporation
This list does not include KCNC-TV in Denver, KUTV in Salt Lake City and WFOR-TV in Miami. These stations were taken over by Group W in the interim period before the completion of CBS's acquisition by Westinghouse.

AM Radio Stations Owned

Unless otherwise noted, all stations are currently owned by CBS Radio.
Station City Years Owned Other Locations Sold To Current Format
KDKA-1020 Pittsburgh 1920–95 Talk radio
WJZ-770 Newark, N.J. 1921–22 flagship of NBC's Blue Network, sold to RCA WABC, with talk radio
WBZ-1030 Boston 1921–95 Springfield 1921–31 News/talk
WBZA Springfield, MA 1921–62 Boston 1921–31 (none, off the air) (defunct)
KYW*-1060 Philadelphia 1922-56
1965-95 		Chicago 1922–34 reacquired by Westinghouse in 1965
(see below for more info) 		All-news
KYW*-1100 Cleveland 1956-65 reacquired by NBC in 1965
(see below for more info) 		Now WTAM owned by Clear Channel, with talk radio
WOWO-1190 Fort Wayne, IN 1936–82 Price Communications Owned by Inner City Broadcasting, with talk radio
WIND-560 Chicago 1956-85 Tichenor Radio (now part of Univision) Owned by Salem Communications, with talk radio
WINS-1010 New York City 1962–95 All-news
KFWB-980 Los Angeles 1966–95 All-news
KFBK-1530 Sacramento 1986–94 Chancellor Broadcasting Owned by Clear Channel Communications, with talk radio
WMAQ-670 Chicago 1988–95 WSCR, with sports radio

* KYW-AM was sold to NBC in 1956 and renamed WRCV, but was sold back to Group W in 1965 at the FCC's order.

Cable networks

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