History Tidbit

February 27, 2013 Off By Eric O'Brien

wiicad1955

 

Can you believe your eyes? Our friend, Clarke Ingram spotted this 1955 ad today. CBS was, in fact, originally destined to be the exclusive network for WIIC-TV (11). Channel 11’s license was issued in 1955, but the sign-on was delayed because WENS-TV’s application for the license was denied and the decision was being challenged. WENS later ended up being unsuccessful on Channel 16. Most of the CBS programming ended up being aired on KDKA-TV (2) which shared time between NBC, CBS, ABC and DuMont. CBS and KDKA became network and affiliate and NBC reached a deal with WIIC and  the station signed on officially in 1957.. Channel 11 was WIIC from 1957-1981 when it became WPXI.

CategoryHistory Tidbit
TagsCBS Historic Stuff NBC WIIC WPXI

1 Comment

  • Neil Rattigan says:
    February 27, 2013 at 1:00 pm

    Part of KDKA-TV’s decision to affililiate with CBS was the bad blood between Westinghouse and NBC. Legend has it NBC threatened to pull Westinghouse’s affiliations with WPTZ Philadelphia and WBZ Boston if it didn’t agree to exchange properties in Philly and Cleveland in 1955. Westinghouse reluctantly agreed to the swap, then fought it in court for almost a decade, and won. Before that, KDKA-TV was set to hook up with NBC.

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