WBZ-TV
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WBZ-TV (CBS4) is the CBS television owned-and-operated station serving the Boston television market. Its transmitter is located in Needham, Massachusetts while the studios are located in the Allston/Brighton neighborhood of Boston. Its signal covers Greater Boston, southern New Hampshire, northern Rhode Island, and northeastern Connecticut. The station is also one of six local Boston TV stations seen in Canada on the Bell ExpressVu satellite provider.
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History
WBZ-TV was the first television station in New England when it signed on in June 9, 1948. Owned by the Westinghouse along with WBZ radio, WBZ-TV immediately joined NBC.
The station went off the air on August 31, 1954 when Hurricane Carol toppled the station's self-supporting tower over its studios. A temporary transmitter was installed on a nearby tower and later on WNAC-TV's (today WHDH-TV) tower. In 1957, WBZ-TV began broadcasting from a 1200-foot tower in Needham, Massachusetts. The tower site is now known as the Viacom digital television facility which is used by several Boston-area television stations, including WGBH-TV and WCVB-TV.
WBZ-TV was a pioneer in Boston television with live broadcasts of Boston institutions such as Red Sox games and daily local newscasts. The station also broadcasted locally produced programs such as Evening Magazine in the 1970s and 1980s as well as a talk show called People Are Talking in the 1980s and early 1990s. One of the latter program's host was Tom Bergeron.
A partnership between Westinghouse and CBS led to WBZ-TV switching its affiliation to the CBS network in 1995. WHDH-TV picked up the NBC affiliation. When Westinghouse bought that network in 1996, WBZ-TV became a CBS owned and operated station.
For many years, WBZ-TV was a strong second to long-dominant WCVB-TV in the Boston news race. However, it has had much less success since switching to CBS. It is currently the lowest-rated of the Boston "big 3" affiliates, having sunk behind WHDH-TV as well. With somewhat of an identity crisis while being the lowest rated station, it changed its news and station branding continuously, from "Eyewitness News" to "WBZ News 4" to "News 4 New England" to "WBZ 4 News". At last, on February 1, 2004, WBZ changed its station branding and logo to the current CBS 4 identity.
After Viacom's merger with CBS in 2000, WBZ-TV's operations were merged with that of WSBK-TV and later with WLWC-TV, which serves the Providence, Rhode Island/New Bedford market. Today, the master control for all three stations as well as the studios and offices of WBZ-TV and WSBK-TV are located at WBZ's facilities in Boston.
Newscasts
Helicopter: Sky Eye 4 (Bell LongRanger 206L)
Weekdays
- CBS 4 News This Morning - 5:00 AM to 7:00 AM
- CBS 4 News at Noon - 12:00 PM to 12:30 PM
- CBS 4 News at 4 - 4:00 PM to 5:00 PM
- CBS 4 News at 6 - 6:00 PM to 6:30 PM
- CBS 4 News at 11 - 11:00 PM to 11:35 PM
Saturday
- CBS 4 News This Morning - 6:00 AM to 8:00 AM
- CBS 4 News at 6 - 6:00 PM to 6:30 PM
- CBS 4 News at 11 - 11:00 PM to 11:35 PM
Sunday
- CBS 4 News This Morning - 6:00 AM to 9:00 AM
- CBS 4 News at 11:30 - 11:30 AM to 12:00 AM
- CBS 4 News at 6:30 - 6:30 PM to 7:00 PM
- CBS 4 News at 11 - 11:00 PM to 11:30 PM
See also
References
- Inside CBS 4: History (2005). CBS4Boston.com (http://cbs4boston.com/history/).
- WBZ-TV (3-26-2005). The Boston Radio Dial (http://www.bostonradio.org/radio/wbz-tv.html).