WJZ-TV
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| WJZ-TV | |
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| Baltimore, Maryland | |
| Branding | WJZ 13 |
| Slogan | "Baltimore's News Station" |
| Channels | 13 (VHF) analog, 38 (UHF) digital |
| Affiliations | CBS |
| Owner | CBS Corporation |
| Founded | 1948 |
| Call letters meaning | named after the former callsign of WABC-AM 770, which stood for WABC's original location in New Jersey |
| Former callsigns | WAAM-TV (1948-57) |
| Former affiliations | ABC (1948-95), DuMont (1948-56) |
| Website | www.wjz.com |
WJZ-TV, "WJZ 13" is a CBS-owned and operated television station in Baltimore, Maryland. It broadcasts on channel 13.
Contents |
[edit] History
Channel 13 started on November 2, 1948 as WAAM-TV, owned by Ben and Herman Cohen. It immediately joined ABC, becoming the network's second affiliate. WFIL-TV in Philadelphia joined ABC a few months earlier. WAAM-TV also carried programming from the DuMont Network [1].
Westinghouse bought the station in 1957 and renamed it WJZ-TV. The WJZ calls had previously resided on ABC's flagship cluster in New York City, which changed its calls to WABC-AM-TV in 1953.
Two years later, WJZ built the world's first three-antenna candelabra tower, shared with WMAR-TV and WBAL-TV. It still operates from this tower today, which can be seen from Interstate 83 in Baltimore.
From 1957-1964, one of the station's highest-rated programs was "The Buddy Deane Show", an in-studio teen dance show modeled after American Bandstand. Deane's program was the inspiration for the John Waters 1988 motion picture Hairspray and its subsequent Broadway version.
In 1976, Oprah Winfrey became an anchor for the station's 6:00PM newscast. She also co-hosted WJZ's local talk show, People Are Talking with Richard Sher, which premiered on August 14, 1978, and ran until she left for Chicago in 1983. The segment continues to run on the morning newscasts.
In 1994, ABC cut a deal with E.W. Scripps Company to switch three of Scripps' television stations to ABC affiliates. Scripps owned WMAR, then Baltimore's NBC affiliate. ABC agreed to the deal as a condition of keeping its affiliation on Scripps' two biggest stations, WXYZ-TV in Detroit and WEWS-TV in Cleveland. Both stations had been heavily wooed by CBS, which was about to lose its longtime Detroit and Cleveland affiliates to Fox.
Group W, Westinghouse's broadcasting division, was very upset at how WJZ had been treated after so many years of loyalty to ABC. It began searching for an affiliation deal of its own. Eventually, Westinghouse and CBS cut a deal to switch all of Group W's television stations to CBS. WJZ's sister stations included NBC affiliates KYW-TV in Philadelphia and WBZ-TV in Boston; and CBS affiliates KDKA-TV in Pittsburgh and KPIX-TV in San Francisco. The affiliation switch occurred on January 2, 1995, ending WJZ's 47-year link with ABC and making it the third station in Baltimore to affiliate with CBS (WMAR had held the affiliation from 1947 to 1981, then WBAL from 1981 until the switch). Westinghouse then bought CBS in early 1996, making WJZ a CBS owned-and-operated station (O&O).
WJZ has used its current stylized "13" logo since 1967. The only other former Group W TV station that still uses the distinctive Group W font is KPIX (Several former Group W radio stations, including WOWO and KYW still use the font)./ However, while KPIX calls itself "CBS 5" under the CBS Mandate, WJZ does not call itself "CBS 13", but instead continues to use its call letters on air, as three other current sister stations also don't follow the mandate either - KDKA (which has a CBS-mandated logo but not branding), KUTV in Salt Lake City (which does not follow any form of the Mandate) and WCCO-TV (which also does not follow any form of the Mandate).
WJZ is the Baltimore-area affiliate of the It's Academic high school quiz competition.
 Unknown-1999 logo |
 WJZ-TV logo from 1999 until 2003 |
[edit] Newscasts
Since the early 1970s, WJZ has had the highest-rated newscasts in Baltimore, with the Eyewitness News format and name borrowed from its sister station KYW. Between 1977 and 1987, Jerry Turner and Al Sanders were the top news team until Turner's death. Denise Koch took over afterwards; she remains at the anchor desk alongside Vic Carter, who succeeded Sanders following the latter's death in 1995. However, in recent years, WBAL has taken over the number 1 spot at 5 p.m., 6 p.m. and 11 p.m., with WJZ rating a solid second place during this period. Like other CBS O&O stations, WJZ offers a web only newscast, "WJZ At Your Desk", shown weekdays.
WJZ currently airs newscasts at the following hours:
[edit] Weekdays
- 4:55am - 6:00am: Rise N' Shine
- 6:00am - 8:00am: Morning Edition (with segments from The Early Show during the 7am hour)
Don Scott & Marty Bass
- 12noon - 12:30pm: Eyewitness News at Noon
Kellye Lynn & Don Scott
- 4:00pm - 4:30pm: Eyewitness News at 4
Kai Jackson and Sally Thorner
- 4:30pm - 5:00pm: Eyewitness News at 4:30
Vic Carter and Denise Koch
- 5:00pm - 6:00pm: Eyewitness News at 5
Kai Jackson and Sally Thorner
- 6:00pm - 7:00pm: Eyewitness News at 6
Vic Carter and Denise Koch
- 11:00pm - 11:35pm: Eyewitness News at 11
Vic Carter and Denise Koch
[edit] Saturday
- 6:00am - 8:00am: Eyewitness News Saturday Morning
- 6:00pm - 6:30pm: Eyewitness News at 6
- 11:00pm - 11:35pm: Eyewitness News at 11
[edit] Sunday
- 8:00am - 9:00am: Eyewitness News Sunday Morning
- 6:30pm - 7:00pm: Eyewitness News at 6:30 &
- 11:00pm - 11:35pm: Eyewitness News at 11
Mary Bubala
[edit] Personalities
[edit] Current
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[edit] Former
- George Baumann (d.2002)
- Randy Blair (d.1983)
- John Buren
- Chris Ely
- Boomer Esiason - interned while in college
- Dick Gelfman
- Katie Leahan
- Frank Luber
- Ralphe Neill
- Don O'Brien
- Sandra Pinckney
- Al Sanders (d.1995)
- Deborah Stone
- Lou Tilley
- Brooks Tomlin
- Jerry Turner (d.1987)
- Oprah Winfrey
[edit] External links
| Broadcast television in the Baltimore market (Nielsen DMA #24) | |||
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WMAR 2 (ABC) - WBAL 11 (NBC) - WJZ 13 (CBS) - WMJF 16 (Ind/MTV2) - WMPT 22 / WMPB 67 (PBS/MPB) - WUTB 24 (MNTV) - WBFF 45 (Fox) - WNUV 54 (The CW)(The Tube on DT2) |
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