August 10, 1948…WJZ-TV (WABC) Signs On In New York
August 10, 1948…WJZ-TV (WABC) Signs On In New York
New York’s Channel 7 came to life 68 years ago today, so Happy Birthday! Below are articles from “Billboard” and “Broadcasting” that describe the gala night.
Since a lot of us are a bit rusty on ABC television’s owned & operated roots, here’s a short primer.
On April 19, 1948, the ABC Television Network began its broadcasts on its first primary affiliate, WFIL-TV in Philadelphia. Only the month before, ABC bought the Duland Riding Academy at 7 West 66 Street at their network’s new home, which would allow them to leave the space at 30 Rock, that they inherited in the NBC Blue Network deal.
In that it would be four months until WJZ came to the air in NYC,
some of those first ABC shows were shown on Dumont’s WABD. Finally, August 10, 1948, the network’s flagship owned-and-operated station, WJZ-TV in New York City, began its broadcasts. ABC’s other owned-and-operated stations launched over the course of the next 13 months.
WENR-TV in Chicago launched on September 17, 1948, while WXYZ-TV in Detroit went on the air October 9, 1948. KGO-TV in San Francisco went on the air May 5, 1949.
On May 7, 1949, Billboard revealed that ABC would spend $2.5 million to convert the old Vitagraph/Warner East Annex in Hollywood into The Prospect Studios, and construct a transmitter on Mount Wilson in anticipation of the launch of KECA-TV, which went on the air on September 16, 1949. The rest as they say, is history. Enjoy and share! -Bobby Ellerbee
WJZ-TV (Channel 7) and WJZ-FM (95.5) originally broadcast from atop the Hotel Pierre before moving to the Empire State Building a few years later.
When I lived in D.C. In the late ’50s the WJZ call letters had already moved to channel 13 in Baltimore. Channel 7, WMAL was the ABC affiliate in Washington.
When did WJZ get assigned to Baltimore?
A Noble experiment.