WNYW (channel 5) is a television station in New York City. It is the flagship station of the Fox television network, owned and operated through its Fox Television Stations division. Under common ownership with Secaucus, New Jersey–licensed MyNetworkTV flagship WWOR-TV (channel 9), the two stations share studios at the Fox Television Center on East 67th Street in Manhattan's Lenox Hill neighborhood; WNYW's transmitter is located at One World Trade Center.
History DuMont origins (1944–1956) The station traces its history to 1938, when television set and equipment manufacturer Allen B. DuMont founded experimental station W2XVT in Passaic, New Jersey. That station's call sign was changed to W2XWV when it moved to Manhattan in 1940. On May 2, 1944, the station received its commercial license, the third in New York City and fifth overall in the United States.FCC History Cards for WNEW-TV (WNYW). Federal Communications Commission. It began broadcasting on VHF channel 4 as WABD with its call sign made up of DuMont's initials."DuMont station now commercial." Broadcasting – Broadcast Advertising, May 15, 1944, pg. 32. It was one of the few television stations that continued to broadcast during World War II, making it the fifth-oldest continuously broadcasting commercial station in the United States (after WNBT/WRCA/WNBC, WCBW/WCBS-TV, WPTZ/WRCV/KYW, and WRGB). The station originally had its studios in the DuMont Building at 515 Madison Avenue, with its transmitter tower atop the same building. (The original tower, long abandoned by the station, still remains.) On December 17, 1945, WABD moved to channel 5."WABD off the air during transition." Broadcasting – Broadcast Advertising, September 24, 1945, pg. 75. WNBT (now WNBC) took over channel 4 the following spring, moving from channel 1, which the FCC was de-allocating from the VHF TV broadcast band. The series Here's How first aired on WABD in 1946.
Soon after channel 5 received its commercial license, DuMont Laboratories began a series of experimental coaxial cable hookups between WABD and W3XWT (now WTTG), a DuMont-owned experimental station in Washington, D.C. These hookups were the beginning of the DuMont Television Network, the world's first licensed commercial television network. (However, NBC was feeding a few programs and special events from its New York station WNBT to outlets in Philadelphia and Schenectady as early as 1940.) DuMont began regular network service in 1946 with WABD as the flagship station."FCC authorizes WTTG commercials." Broadcasting – Telecasting, December 2, 1946, pg. 81. On June 14, 1954, WABD and DuMont moved into the $5 million DuMont Tele-Centre at 205 East 67th Street in Manhattan's Lenox Hill neighborhood, inside the shell of the space formerly occupied by Jacob Ruppert's Central Opera House. Channel 5 is still headquartered in the same building, which was later renamed the Metromedia TeleCenter, and is now known as the Fox Television Center.
By February 1955, DuMont realized it could not continue in network television. In most cities around the U.S., NBC and CBS had secured affiliations with the top TV stations, making it difficult for DuMont shows to develop an audience and attract advertising dollars. DuMont decided to shut down the network's operations and run WABD and Washington station WTTG as independent stations. DuMont had previously sold WDTV in Pittsburgh to the locally based Westinghouse Electric Corporation, arguably hastening DuMont's demise. WABD thus became the New York market's fourth independent station, alongside WOR-TV (channel 9), WPIX (channel 11) and Newark-licensed WATV (channel 13).
After DuMont wound down network operations in August 1955, DuMont Laboratories spun off WABD and WTTG into a new firm, the DuMont Broadcasting Corporation."DuMont network to quit in telecasting 'spin-off.'" Broadcasting – Telecasting, August 15, 1955, pg. 64."DuMont completes spin-off, separates broadcasting, labs.'" Broadcasting – Telecasting, December 5, 1955, pg. 7. Channel 5 gained a sister station in 1957, when DuMont purchased WNEW (1130 AM, now WBBR) in April of that year."DuMont pays $7.5 million for WNEW." Broadcasting, March 25, 1957, pp. 31–32."FCC okays record buy: $7.5 million for WNEW." Broadcasting – Telecasting, April 29, 1957, pg. 76. The deal also included a Federal Communications Commission (FCC) construction permit for an FM radio station, which went on the air as 102.7 WNEW-FM when it began operations in August 1958."Changing Hands." Broadcasting, November 18, 1957, pg. 96"For the Record." Broadcasting – Telecasting, January 6, 1958, pg. 91.
The Metromedia era (1957–1986) In May 1958, DuMont Broadcasting changed its name to the Metropolitan Broadcasting Corporation to distinguish itself from its former corporate parent."DuMont revenue grows, name change approved." Broadcasting, May 19, 1958, pg. 84."For the record." Broadcasting, June 23, 1958, pg. 99 Four months later, on September 7, 1958, WABD's call letters were changed to WNEW-TV to match its radio sisters.WNEW-TV/Metropolitan Broadcasting advertisement. Broadcasting, September 8, 1958, pg. 17."Name change." Broadcasting, September 8, 1958, pg. 84 The final major corporate transaction involving the station during 1958 occurred in December. Washington-based investor John Kluge acquired Paramount Pictures' controlling interest in Metropolitan Broadcasting and appointed himself as the company's chairman."Kluge buying Paramount's 21% of Metropolitan Broadcasting." Broadcasting, December 1, 1958, pg. 9. Metropolitan Broadcasting began expanding its holdings across the United States, and changed its corporate name to Metromedia in 1961."It's Metromedia." Broadcasting – Telecasting, April 3, 1961, pg. 56. However, the Metropolitan Broadcasting name was retained for Metromedia's TV and radio station properties until 1967."Metromedia gets its TV team in uniform." Broadcasting, March 25, 1968, pp. 56–57.
In the early 1960s, WNEW-TV was a leader in producing local children's shows. They included Romper Room (until 1966, when it moved to WOR-TV), The Sandy Becker Show and The Sonny Fox Show, which was later known as Wonderama. Bob McAllister took over hosting Wonderama in 1967 and by 1970 it was syndicated to the other Metromedia stations. WNEW-TV also originated The Jerry Lewis MDA Labor Day Telethon in 1966, and broadcast the program annually until 1986 when it moved to future sister station WWOR-TV, where it aired through 2012. In the early 1960s, the educational series Columbia Lectures in International Studies was shown on early weekday mornings, before Sandy Becker, and was distributed to other Metromedia stations. The station also aired cultural programs such as Festival of the Performing Arts. However, the station's prime time schedule during those years was dominated by reruns of recently concluded crime dramas such as Peter Gunn, Outlaws, and the 1950s edition of Dragnet, bringing the station some criticism for overly violent programming. In the 1970s, and early 1980s, local programming also included a weekly public affairs show hosted by Gabe Pressman, the New York edition of PM Magazine, and Midday Live, a daily talk/information show hosted by Lee Leonard, and later by Bill Boggs. The station also carried movies, cartoons, off-network sitcoms, drama series and a prime time nightly newscast at 10 pm.
By the 1970s, channel 5 was one of the strongest independent stations in the country. Despite WOR-TV's and WPIX's eventual status as national superstations, WNEW-TV was the highest-rated independent in New York. From the early 1970s to the late 1980s, channel 5 was available as a regional superstation in large portions of the Northeastern United States, including most of Upstate New York, and sections of eastern Pennsylvania, southern New England, and the Philadelphia market portion of New Jersey.
The Fox era (1986–present)
On May 4, 1985, Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation, which had recently bought a controlling interest in the 20th Century Fox film studio, announced its purchase of Metromedia's six independent television stations, including WNEW-TV."Another spin for TV's revolving door." Broadcasting, May 6, 1985, pp. 39–40."Life among the high rollers." Broadcasting, May 13, 1985, pp. 36–39. In the interim between the announcement and the buyout, Metromedia references were largely phased out of channel 5's branding. Upon taking control nearly one year later, on March 7, 1986, channel 5's call sign was changed slightly to the present WNYW. The change was made due to an FCC rule in place (no longer in effect) that prohibited television and radio stations with different ownership from sharing the same call sign."For the record." Broadcasting, March 17, 1986, pg. 118 Along with the other former Metromedia independent stations, WNYW formed the cornerstone of the Fox Broadcasting Company when it launched on October 9, 1986.
WNYW's schedule initially changed very little, as Fox aired programming only on late nights and weekends on two nights of the week in the network's first few years. It was not until 1993 that Fox began broadcasting a full seven nights' worth of programming. Although it began taking on the look of a network-owned station in the fall of 1986, channel 5 continued to carry decades-old syndicated cartoons, sitcoms and films into the late 1980s.
Murdoch had one local obstacle to overcome before his purchase of channel 5 could become final. News Corporation had owned the New York Post since 1976 and the FCC's media ownership rules barred common ownership of newspapers and broadcast licenses in the same media market. The FCC granted Murdoch a temporary waiver to keep the Post and WNYW to allow News Corporation to complete its purchase of the Metromedia television stations. News Corporation sold the New York Post in 1988, but bought the paper back five years later with a permanent waiver of the cross-ownership rules.
In late summer 1986, WNYW debuted the nightly newsmagazine A Current Affair, one of the first shows to be labeled as a "tabloid television" program. Originally a local program, it was first anchored by Maury Povich, formerly of Washington sister station WTTG. (He also briefly anchored WNYW's evening newscasts.) Within a year of its launch, A Current Affair was syndicated to the other Fox-owned stations. In 1988, the series entered into national syndication, where it remained until the original incarnation of the program was cancelled in 1996. On August 1, 1988, the station dropped its weekday morning cartoons in favor of a local news and information program titled Good Day New York, which continues to this day.
Following the launch of the Fox network, WNYW lost much of its out-of-market superstation reach, as most markets in the Northeast had their own Fox affiliates. WNYW continued to be seen on cable in the Binghamton metropolitan area and the New York side of the Plattsburgh–Burlington market until the late 1990s, when WICZ-TV and WFFF-TV joined the network.