The Westinghouse Broadcasting Company, also known as Group W, was the

broadcasting Broadcasting is the distribution of audio or video content to a dispersed audience via any electronic mass communications medium, but typically one using the electromagnetic spectrum ( radio waves), in a one-to-many model. Broadcasting beg ...

division of

Westinghouse Electric Corporation The Westinghouse Electric Corporation was an American manufacturing company founded in 1886 by George Westinghouse. It was originally named "Westinghouse Electric & Manufacturing Company" and was renamed "Westinghouse Electric Corporation" in ...

. It owned several

radio Radio is the technology of signaling and communicating using radio waves. Radio waves are electromagnetic waves of frequency between 30 hertz (Hz) and 300 gigahertz (GHz). They are generated by an electronic device called a transmi ...

and

television Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or the medium of television transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertisin ...

stations across the United States and distributed television shows for

syndication Syndication may refer to: * Broadcast syndication, where individual stations buy programs outside the network system * Print syndication, where individual newspapers or magazines license news articles, columns, or comic strips * Web syndication, ...

. Westinghouse Broadcasting was formed in the 1920 as Westinghouse Radio Stations, Inc. It was renamed Westinghouse Broadcasting Company in 1954, and adopted the ''Group W'' moniker on May 20, 1963. It was a self-contained entity within the Westinghouse corporate structure; while the parent company was headquartered in

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Allegheny County. It is the most populous city in both Allegheny County and Western Pennsylvania, the second-most populous city in Pennsylva ...

, Westinghouse Broadcasting maintained headquarters in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

. It kept national sales offices in

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

and

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, largest city in the U.S. state, state of California and the List of United States cities by population, sec ...

. Group W stations are best known for using a distinctive corporate

typeface A typeface (or font family) is the design of lettering that can include variations in size, weight (e.g. bold), slope (e.g. italic), width (e.g. condensed), and so on. Each of these variations of the typeface is a font. There are thousands o ...

, introduced in 1963, for their logos and on-air imaging. Similarly styled typefaces had been used on some non-Group W stations as well and several former Group W stations still use it today. The Group W corporate typeface has been digitized and released freely by John Sizemore;

Ray Larabie Raymond Larabie (born 1970) is a Canadian designer of TrueType and OpenType computer fonts. He owns Typodermic Fonts, which distributes both commercially licensed and shareware/freeware fonts. Biography and career Larabie was born in Ottawa, ...

freeware Freeware is software, most often proprietary, that is distributed at no monetary cost to the end user. There is no agreed-upon set of rights, license, or EULA that defines ''freeware'' unambiguously; every publisher defines its own rules for t ...

font "Anklepants" borrows heavily from the typeface and is occasionally used as a substitute. The font is also used in the video game ''Damnation''. Westinghouse Broadcasting was also well known for two long-running television programs, the ''

Mike Douglas Show ''The Mike Douglas Show'' was an American daytime television talk show that was hosted by Mike Douglas. It began as a local program in Cleveland before being carried on other stations owned by Westinghouse Broadcasting. The show went into nati ...

'' and ''

PM Magazine ''PM/Evening Magazine'' is a television series with a news and entertainment format. It was syndicated to stations throughout the United States. In most areas, ''Evening/PM Magazine'' was broadcast from the late 1970s into the late 1980s. Origi ...

'' (called ''

Evening Magazine ''Evening Magazine'' is the name of various news and entertainment-style local television shows in different markets. Concept On August 9, 1976, Westinghouse (Group W) Broadcasting-owned KPIX in San Francisco debuted a locally-produced magazin ...

'' in Group W's core broadcast markets).

History

Radio origins

The Westinghouse Electric and Manufacturing Company entered broadcasting with the November 2, 1920, sign-on of KDKA radio in Pittsburgh. The oldest surviving licensed commercial radio station in the United States, KDKA was an outgrowth of experimental station 8XK, a 75-watt station that was located in the Pittsburgh suburb of Wilkinsburg, and founded in 1916 by Westinghouse assistant chief engineer

Frank Conrad Frank Conrad (May 4, 1874 – December 10, 1941) was an electrical engineer, best known for radio development, including his work as a pioneer broadcaster. He worked for the Westinghouse Electrical and Manufacturing Company in East Pittsburgh, P ...

. Westinghouse launched three more radio stations between 1920 and 1921: WJZ, originally licensed to

Newark, New Jersey Newark ( , ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of New Jersey and the seat of Essex County and the second largest city within the New York metropolitan area.WBZ, first located in Springfield, Massachusetts; and KYW, originally based in

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

. WBZA in

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

, a station which shared WBZ's frequency and simulcasted WBZ's programming, signed on in November 1924. Westinghouse was one of the founding owners of the

Radio Corporation of America The RCA Corporation was a major American electronics company, which was founded as the Radio Corporation of America in 1919. It was initially a patent trust owned by General Electric (GE), Westinghouse, AT&T Corporation and United Fruit Com ...

(RCA) in 1919, and in 1926 RCA established the National Broadcasting Company (NBC), a group of 24 radio stations that made up the first radio network in the United States. Westinghouse initially owned a 20 percent stake in NBC, and as a result, all of Westinghouse's stations became affiliates of NBC's Blue Network when it was launched on January 1, 1927. Most of the Blue Network's programming originated at WJZ, which in 1923 had its license moved to New York City, and its ownership transferred to RCA. In 1931, Westinghouse switched the call letters of its two Massachusetts stations, with WBZA moving to Springfield and WBZ going to Boston. The two stations had suffered from interference problems, though the Boston facility was the more powerful of the two. In 1934, KYW was moved from Chicago to

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, largest city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the List of United States cities by population, sixth-largest city i ...

following a

Federal Communications Commission The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that regulates communications by radio, television, wire, satellite, and cable across the United States. The FCC maintains jurisdicti ...

-dictated frequency realignment. Westinghouse's next station was its first purchase: WOWO in

Fort Wayne, Indiana Fort Wayne is a city in and the county seat of Allen County, Indiana, United States. Located in northeastern Indiana, the city is west of the Ohio border and south of the Michigan border. The city's population was 263,886 as of the 2020 Censu ...

, joined the group in August 1936. The North American Regional Broadcasting Agreement of 1941 saw all of Westinghouse's original stations move to their current frequencies. With WOWO's power increase to 50,000

watt The watt (symbol: W) is the unit of power or radiant flux in the International System of Units (SI), equal to 1 joule per second or 1 kg⋅m2⋅s−3. It is used to quantify the rate of energy transfer. The watt is named after James ...

s later that year, the Westinghouse stations were now also clear-channel stations. A decade later, the FCC forbade common ownership of two or more clear channel stations with overlapping nighttime coverage, though the commission allowed Westinghouse to keep WBZ, KYW, KDKA, and WOWO together under a

grandfather clause A grandfather clause, also known as grandfather policy, grandfathering, or grandfathered in, is a provision in which an old rule continues to apply to some existing situations while a new rule will apply to all future cases. Those exempt from t ...

. Among them, the four stations' nighttime signals blanketed almost all of the eastern half of North America. Despite the assignments which resulted from NARBA, WBZA became a 1,000-watt daytime-only operation as it continued to share a frequency with WBZ. The Westinghouse group survived the government-dictated split of NBC's radio division in 1943. WBZ/WBZA, KDKA, and KYW became affiliates of NBC's

Red Network Red is the color at the long wavelength end of the visible spectrum of light, next to orange and opposite violet. It has a dominant wavelength of approximately 625–740 nanometres. It is a primary color in the RGB color model and a secondar ...

while WOWO, which had a secondary affiliation with the Blue Network, fell back on its primary relationship with

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainm ...

. Westinghouse expanded to the West Coast in 1944 with its purchase of 5,000-watt KEX in

Portland, Oregon Portland (, ) is a port city in the Pacific Northwest and the list of cities in Oregon, largest city in the U.S. state of Oregon. Situated at the confluence of the Willamette River, Willamette and Columbia River, Columbia rivers, Portland is ...

, a station which also shared a frequency with WOWO. Westinghouse would increase KEX's power to 50,000 watts in 1948. Later in the 1940s, Westinghouse moved on to develop FM and television stations as the FCC began to issue permits for those services. Westinghouse built FM sister stations for WBZ/WBZA, KDKA, KYW, KEX, and WOWO, all of which were on the air by the end of the decade. FM radio was, initially, an unsuccessful venture for Westinghouse, and the company would silence most of its FM stations during the 1950s. Of the early Westinghouse FMs, only the original KDKA-FM (now

WLTJ WLTJ (92.9 FM, "Q92.9") is a commercial radio station in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It is owned by The Frischling Family, through licensee WPNT Media Subsidiary, LLC, and broadcasts a hot adult contemporary radio format. The studios are in Pit ...

) and the second WBZ-FM facility (now

WMJX WMJX (106.7 FM) – branded Magic 106.7 – is a commercial adult contemporary radio station licensed to Boston, Massachusetts. Owned by Audacy, Inc., the station serves Greater Boston and much of surrounding New England. The WMJX studios ...

) proved to be worth keeping, and Westinghouse sold those outlets in the early 1980s. Moving back to AM radio, Westinghouse returned to Chicago with its 1956 purchase of

WIND Wind is the natural movement of air or other gases relative to a planet's surface. Winds occur on a range of scales, from thunderstorm flows lasting tens of minutes, to local breezes generated by heating of land surfaces and lasting a few ho ...

. In 1962, Westinghouse re-entered the New York market when it bought WINS, then a local Top-40 powerhouse, from J. Elroy McCaw. Having reached the FCC's then-limit of seven AM stations, Westinghouse sold KEX to actor and singer Gene Autry, and later decided to shut down WBZA and return its license to the FCC. In 1966, Westinghouse agreed to buy another top-rated music station,

KFWB KFWB (980 AM) is a commercial radio station in Los Angeles, California. It airs a classic Regional Mexican music format. KFWB is owned by Lotus Communications. The station has a colorful history, being the radio voice of Warner Bros. Studios i ...

. On April 19, 1965, WINS dropped music and instituted a 24-hour, all-news format. KYW went all-news six months later on September 12, three months after Westinghouse regained control of the station (see ''The 1956 Trade with NBC'', below). KFWB would adopt the format on March 11, 1968. The three stations all prospered with their new formats, usually ranking among the five highest-rated stations in their markets. During the 1970s and 1980s, WIND also tinkered with a part-time news format, though it had little success against the dominant all-news station in Chicago, CBS-owned WBBM. In the 1970s, Westinghouse Radio also developed a prodigious reputation for its innovation in analytical techniques and tools for radio sales and buying. Using sophisticated mathematical modeling, the group promoted its "New Math Calculator" which became extremely popular in ad agencies for planning radio campaigns. This was no simple look-up table; it introduced innovative measures such as "reach index" and "gross cume" to operationalize its core models. Westinghouse later introduced an even more comprehensive tool, stylized as the "Numa Radio Planner". In the days before desktop computers, these "slide rules" were state-of-the-art in audience planning research. Over the next quarter-century, Westinghouse would purchase several other radio stations, including KFBK in

Sacramento, California ) , image_map = Sacramento County California Incorporated and Unincorporated areas Sacramento Highlighted.svg , mapsize = 250x200px , map_caption = Location within Sacramento ...

;

WNEW-FM WNEW-FM (102.7 FM, ''NEW 102.7'') is a hot adult contemporary formatted radio station, licensed to New York, New York and owned by Audacy, Inc. The station's studios are located at the Audacy facility in the Hudson Square neighborhood of Ma ...

in New York,

KTWV KTWV (94.7 FM) is a commercial radio station licensed to Los Angeles, California, and broadcasting to the Greater Los Angeles area. The station is owned by Audacy, Inc., and airs an urban adult contemporary radio format. KTWV has studios on ...

in Los Angeles, and

WMMR WMMR (93.3 FM, "93-3 WMMR") is a commercial radio station licensed to serve Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The station is owned by the Beasley Broadcast Group, through licensee Beasley Media Group, LLC, and broadcasts an active rock radio format. ...

in Philadelphia. WOWO was sold to other interests in 1982 and WIND was spun off in 1985, two years before Group W bought WMAQ from NBC after that network announced it was closing its radio division.

Expansion into television

Westinghouse entered television on June 9, 1948, with the sign-on of

WBZ-TV WBZ-TV (channel 4) is a television station in Boston, Massachusetts, United States, airing programming from the CBS network. It is owned and operated by the network's CBS News and Stations division alongside independent station WSBK-TV (ch ...

in Boston; it is the only television station to have been built by the company. Westinghouse's first station purchase was with WPTZ (now KYW-TV) in Philadelphia, in 1953.

KPIX KPIX-TV (channel 5) is a television station licensed to San Francisco, California, United States, serving as the San Francisco Bay Area's CBS network outlet. It is owned and operated by the network's CBS News and Stations division alongside ...

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...

was bought in 1954; WDTV (now

KDKA-TV KDKA-TV (channel 2) is a television station in Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States, airing programming from the CBS network. It is owned-and-operated station, owned and operated by the network's CBS News and Stations division a ...

) in Pittsburgh was added in 1955; and WAAM (now

WJZ-TV WJZ-TV (channel 13) is a television station in Baltimore, Baltimore, Maryland, United States, airing programming from the CBS network. It is Owned-and-operated station, owned and operated by the network's CBS News and Stations division, and ma ...

) in

Baltimore Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the List of municipalities in Maryland, most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, and List of United States cities by popula ...

was purchased in 1957. Westinghouse's only other outright television station purchase was in

Charlotte, North Carolina Charlotte ( ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of North Carolina. Located in the Piedmont region, it is the county seat of Mecklenburg County. The population was 874,579 at the 2020 census, making Charlotte the 16th-most populo ...

, where it purchased WRET-TV from

Ted Turner Robert Edward "Ted" Turner III (born November 19, 1938) is an American entrepreneur, television producer, media proprietor, and philanthropist. He founded the Cable News Network (CNN), the first 24-hour cable news channel. In addition, he fo ...

in early 1980, and changed its call letters to WPCQ-TV. Turner used the proceeds from the sale of the Charlotte station to help him launch

CNN CNN (Cable News Network) is a multinational cable news channel headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S. Founded in 1980 by American media proprietor Ted Turner and Reese Schonfeld as a 24-hour cable news channel, and presently owned by ...

. The company also purchased cable TV system operator

TelePrompTer A teleprompter, also known as an autocue, is a display device that prompts the person speaking with an electronic visual text of a speech or script. Using a teleprompter is similar to using cue cards. The screen is in front of, and usually be ...

in 1981, which it renamed Group W Cable the following year. The TelePrompTer acquisition also brought animation producer

Filmation Filmation Associates was an American production company that produced animation and live-action programming for television from 1963 until 1989. Located in Reseda, California, the animation studio was founded in 1962. Filmation's founders and ...

into the Group W fold. However, Westinghouse would leave the cable TV system business in 1986, and would later sell the Filmation library to

L'Oréal L'Oréal S.A. () is a French personal care company headquartered in Clichy, Hauts-de-Seine with a registered office in Paris. It is the world's largest cosmetics company and has developed activities in the field concentrating on hair color, ...

in 1989. During that period, Group W was known in full as Westinghouse Broadcasting and Cable, Inc.

The 1956 trade with NBC

In June 1955, Westinghouse announced that it would sell its Philadelphia stations, KYW radio and WPTZ, to NBC. In exchange Westinghouse received NBC's

Cleveland Cleveland ( ), officially the City of Cleveland, is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located in the northeastern part of the state, it is situated along the southern shore of Lake Erie, across the U.S. ...

stations, WTAM radio and WNBK television, along with $3 million in compensation. The deal was approved in January 1956; one month later Westinghouse moved the KYW call letters to Cleveland and NBC renamed the Philadelphia stations WRCV (AM) and WRCV-TV. Both companies also transferred much of their respective management and some on-air personnel to their new cities. Most notably, both ''

The Mike Douglas Show ''The Mike Douglas Show'' was an American daytime television talk show that was hosted by Mike Douglas. It began as a local program in Cleveland before being carried on other stations owned by Westinghouse Broadcasting. The show went into natio ...

'' and the '' Eyewitness News'' format originated on KYW-TV during its tenure in Cleveland. However, the ink had barely dried on FCC approval of the trade when the

United States Department of Justice The United States Department of Justice (DOJ), also known as the Justice Department, is a federal executive department of the United States government tasked with the enforcement of federal law and administration of justice in the United Stat ...

opened an investigation into the deal, on claims that NBC had employed

extortion Extortion is the practice of obtaining benefit through coercion. In most jurisdictions it is likely to constitute a criminal offence; the bulk of this article deals with such cases. Robbery is the simplest and most common form of extortion, ...

and coercion. The Justice Department believed that NBC abused its power as a broadcast network by threatening to withhold or cancel affiliations with Westinghouse-owned stations unless the latter company agreed to the network's terms and participate in the trade. Specifically, it was determined that NBC threatened to drop its programming from both WPTZ and Boston's WBZ-TV; to withhold a primary affiliation from newly acquired KDKA-TV in Pittsburgh (that station would sign with CBS as a primary affiliate); and to withhold or pull an NBC affiliation from any other major-market station Westinghouse would purchase in the future. Based on these findings, a civil antitrust suit was filed against NBC and its parent company RCA, on behalf of Westinghouse in December 1956. During this ordeal NBC attempted to circumvent the investigation by trading the Philadelphia stations in return for

RKO General RKO General, Inc. (previously General Teleradio, RKO Teleradio Pictures, and RKO Teleradio) was, from 1952 through 1991, the main holding company for the noncore businesses of the General Tire and Rubber Company and, after General Tire's reorganiz ...

's radio and television properties in Boston, which would have resulted in WBZ-TV losing its NBC affiliation to rival station WNAC-TV; the proposed NBC-RKO station swap never materialized. In August 1964, after a nearly eight-year-long investigation, the FCC ordered a reversal of the swap. NBC appealed the ruling, extending the ordeal by another year, but the ruling was upheld on appeal. Westinghouse was also allowed to keep the cash compensation from the original deal. When Westinghouse regained control of the Philadelphia stations on June 19, 1965, it restored the KYW calls to the radio station and renamed the television station KYW-TV. And in a reversal of nine years prior, both NBC and Westinghouse relocated various personnel between both cities.

Later years in television

Throughout its history as an operator of television stations, Westinghouse Broadcasting had relationships with all three major networks. KYW-TV (in both Cleveland and Philadelphia), WBZ-TV, and WPCQ-TV were NBC affiliates, KPIX and KDKA-TV were aligned with CBS, and WJZ-TV was an ABC station. All of Group W's stations were located within the top 40 television markets. Westinghouse's television stations were all known for their very deep connection to their home markets. They often pre-empted network programming in favor of local programs, and all of them carried programming produced by Group W, which was a major force in

television syndication Broadcast syndication is the practice of leasing the right to broadcasting television shows and radio programs to multiple television stations and radio stations, without going through a broadcast network. It is common in the United States wher ...

(see ''Syndication programs'', below). However, for the most part the networks did not seem to mind. Most of them were among their networks' strongest performers. KDKA-TV and WJZ-TV dominated their markets, while WBZ-TV and KPIX were solid runners-up. The only exceptions were KYW-TV and WPCQ. KYW-TV had been one of Westinghouse's (and NBC's) crown jewels for many years, but faltered in the late 1970s and eventually became NBC's weakest major-market affiliate by the mid-1980s. Westinghouse found no success in the Charlotte market, as WPCQ remained an also-ran during its Group W years. Despite the record purchase price, Group W ran the station on a shoestring budget. Under Group W, WPCQ had a marginal signal, a minimal local news presence and a program schedule more typical of an independent station, with a large number of cartoons and second-hand syndicated programming. WPCQ was also a UHF network affiliate competing against two long-established network stations on VHF. It also had to deal with three longer-established NBC affiliates, on VHF channels from nearby cities, that were also available over-the-air in large parts of the Charlotte market. Westinghouse was able to escape Charlotte when it sold WPCQ (now

WCNC-TV WCNC-TV (channel 36) is a television station in Charlotte, North Carolina, United States, affiliated with NBC. The station is owned by Tegna Inc. WCNC-TV's studios are located in the Wood Ridge Center office complex off Billy Graham Parkway ...

) to Odyssey Television Partners (later to become Renaissance Broadcasting) in 1985. The subpar performance of KYW-TV and WPCQ was particularly embarrassing for NBC, as it came during a very prosperous period for the network as a whole. Aside from WPCQ, Group W almost expanded into the country's top two markets; it emerged as a leading bidder for RKO General's independent stations WOR-TV (currently

WWOR-TV WWOR-TV (channel 9) is a television station licensed to Secaucus, New Jersey, United States, serving the New York City area as the flagship of MyNetworkTV. It is owned and operated by Fox Television Stations alongside Fox flagship WNYW ...

) in Secaucus, New Jersey (serving New York City), and came to a deal to buy KHJ-TV (currently KCAL-TV) in Los Angeles. However, the protracted legal issues that had dogged RKO General for years delayed the transfer of KHJ to Westinghouse, and they ultimately withdrew their offer. They were also outbid for WOR by a consortium of

Cox Enterprises Cox Enterprises, Inc. is a privately held global conglomerate headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, United States, with approximately 55,000 employees and $21 billion in total revenue. Its major operating subsidiaries are Cox Communications and ...

and

MCA/Universal MCA Inc. (originally an initialism for Music Corporation of America) was an American media conglomerate founded in 1924. Originally a talent agency with artists in the music business as clients, the company became a major force in the film ind ...

(though the former company dropped out over questions of who would be running the station). In 1987, Westinghouse/Group W attempted to try a bid for the station group handled by KKR, with six stations formerly held by SCI Holdings, but the deal ultimately fell through.

Merger with CBS

Within a year-long span during 1994–95, a series of surprising events occurred which not only changed the look of the television industry but also ended Westinghouse's uniqueness among television station operators. In 1994, the

Fox Broadcasting Company The Fox Broadcasting Company, commonly known simply as Fox and stylized in all caps as FOX, is an Television in the United States, American Commercial broadcasting, commercial terrestrial television, broadcast television network owned by Fox C ...

agreed to a multi-year, multi-station affiliation deal with New World Communications, resulting in most of New World's stations switching to Fox. Among these stations were longtime CBS affiliates

WJBK-TV WJBK (channel 2) is a television station in Detroit, Michigan, United States, airing programming from the Fox network. Owned and operated by the network's Fox Television Stations division, the station maintains studios and transmitter facilitie ...

Detroit Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at t ...

and

WJW-TV WJW (channel 8) is a television station in Cleveland, Ohio, United States, affiliated with the Fox network. Owned by Nexstar Media Group, WJW maintains studios on Dick Goddard Way (named for the station's late longtime weatherman—previousl ...

in Cleveland. To avoid being consigned to the UHF band in two major markets, CBS heavily courted ABC affiliates

WXYZ-TV WXYZ-TV (channel 7) is a television station in Detroit, Michigan, United States, affiliated with ABC. It is owned by the E. W. Scripps Company alongside independent station WMYD (channel 20). Both stations share studios at Broadcast House on ...

in Detroit and

WEWS-TV WEWS-TV (channel 5) is a television station in Cleveland, Ohio, United States, affiliated with ABC. It has been owned by the E. W. Scripps Company since its inception in 1946, making it one of two stations that have been built and signed on by ...

in Cleveland. Both stations were owned by the E. W. Scripps Company, who used this leverage to strike a similar multi-station affiliation deal of its own with ABC. Unwilling to risk losing two of its strongest and longest-standing affiliates, ABC and Scripps agreed to a 10-year affiliation contract with WEWS, WXYZ and three

other Other often refers to: * Other (philosophy), a concept in psychology and philosophy Other or The Other may also refer to: Film and television * ''The Other'' (1913 film), a German silent film directed by Max Mack * ''The Other'' (1930 film), a ...

stations. One of these additional stations was Baltimore's then-NBC affiliate,

WMAR-TV WMAR-TV (channel 2) is a television station in Baltimore, Baltimore, Maryland, United States, affiliated with American Broadcasting Company, ABC and owned by the E. W. Scripps Company. The station's studios and offices are located on York Road ( ...

, which would displace that city's longtime ABC affiliate, Group W-owned WJZ-TV. ABC was initially skeptical of including WMAR in the deal; WJZ-TV had been one of ABC's strongest affiliates, and had been the dominant station in Baltimore for a quarter-century. In contrast, WMAR had been a ratings also-ran for over 30 years. However, Scripps demanded that WMAR be included if the deal was to go through. Well aware that there were few viable choices for replacement affiliates in Detroit or Cleveland, ABC gave in. The loss of WJZ-TV's ABC affiliation did not sit well with Westinghouse. At the time, WJZ-TV had been affiliated with ABC for 46 years, longer than any station that wasn't owned by the network. Westinghouse sought an affiliation deal of its own, and after several months of negotiations with the other networks, Westinghouse agreed to affiliate its entire television unit with CBS. Under the terms of the deal, all five Group W stations would carry the entire CBS schedule with no pre-emptions except for local news emergencies (as noted above, prior to this, Group W stations were known for pre-empting selected programming of their affiliated networks with Group W-mandated content). The deal resulted in a three-way transaction between Group W, CBS, and NBC, which unfolded between the summer of 1994 and the summer of 1995. The terms were as follows: * In September 1994, KPIX and KDKA-TV ended their long-standing policies of pre-empting some CBS shows, and began carrying the entire CBS schedule with no pre-emptions. (KPIX however at the time aired CBS prime time programming an hour earlier than normal, a practice that continued until 1998.) * On January 2, 1995, WJZ-TV and WBZ-TV switched from ABC and NBC, respectively, to CBS, while

WBAL-TV WBAL-TV (channel 11) is a television station in Baltimore, Maryland, United States, affiliated with NBC. It is the flagship property of Hearst Television, which has owned the station since its inception, and is sister to the company's sole r ...

and

WHDH-TV WHDH (channel 7) is an independent television station in Boston, Massachusetts, United States. It is owned by Sunbeam Television alongside Cambridge-licensed CW affiliate WLVI (channel 56). WHDH and WLVI share studios at Bulfinch Place (nea ...

affiliated with NBC; WMAR-TV took on WJZ-TV's ABC affiliation. * On September 10, 1995, at 1:00 a.m. EDT, KYW-TV switched from NBC to CBS. CBS traded its previous Philadelphia station,

WCAU-TV WCAU (channel 10) is a television station in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States, airing programming from the NBC network. It is owned and operated by the network's NBC Owned Television Stations division alongside Mount Laurel, New Jerse ...

, to NBC in return for

KCNC-TV KCNC-TV (channel 4) is a television station in Denver, Colorado, United States, airing programming from the CBS network. It is owned and operated by the network's CBS News and Stations division, and maintains studios on Lincoln Street (between ...

Denver Denver () is a consolidated city and county, the capital, and most populous city of the U.S. state of Colorado. Its population was 715,522 at the 2020 census, a 19.22% increase since 2010. It is the 19th-most populous city in the Unit ...

and

KUTV KUTV (channel 2) is a television station in Salt Lake City, Utah, United States, affiliated with CBS. It is owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group alongside independent station KJZZ-TV (channel 14) and St. George–licensed MyNetworkTV affiliate K ...

Salt Lake City Salt Lake City (often shortened to Salt Lake and abbreviated as SLC) is the capital and most populous city of Utah, United States. It is the seat of Salt Lake County, the most populous county in Utah. With a population of 200,133 in 2020, th ...

, while

KUSA Kusa or KUSA may refer to: * Kusa, Russia, a town in Chelyabinsk Oblast, Russia * Kusa, Latvia, a village in Madona District, Latvia * Kusa, Oklahoma, United States * Kusa, indigenous name of Beles River (in Gumuz language) * Kusa, Afghanistan ...

and

KSL-TV KSL-TV (channel 5) is a television station in Salt Lake City, Salt Lake City, Utah, United States, affiliated with NBC. It is the Flagship (broadcasting), flagship television property of locally based Bonneville International, the for-profit bro ...

affiliated with NBC and

KMGH-TV KMGH-TV (channel 7) is a television station in Denver, Colorado, United States, affiliated with ABC. It is owned by the E. W. Scripps Company alongside Sterling-licensed independent station KCDO-TV, channel 3 (and its Denver-licensed translat ...

affiliated with ABC. CBS then traded controlling interest in KCNC and KUTV to Westinghouse in return for a minority stake in KYW-TV. (KCNC'
station history page
erroneously implies that this trade was between NBC and Westinghouse.) The swap in Philadelphia was delayed when CBS discovered it would face a massive

capital gains Capital gain is an economic concept defined as the profit earned on the sale of an asset which has increased in value over the holding period. An asset may include tangible property, a car, a business, or intangible property such as shares ...

tax bill if it sold WCAU to NBC outright. ** As a result of the trade, CBS-owned WCIX in

Miami Miami ( ), officially the City of Miami, known as "the 305", "The Magic City", and "Gateway to the Americas", is a coastal metropolis and the county seat of Miami-Dade County in South Florida, United States. With a population of 442,241 at ...

swapped channel locations with NBC-owned

WTVJ WTVJ (channel 6) is a television station in Miami, Florida, United States, airing programming from the NBC network. It is owned and operated by the network's NBC Owned Television Stations division alongside Fort Lauderdale–licensed WSCV (ch ...

. CBS and NBC traded their Miami broadcasting facilities to compensate each other for the loss of stations. WCIX changed its call letters to WFOR-TV, and CBS sold controlling interest in WFOR to Westinghouse. * Westinghouse and CBS formed a joint venture that assumed ownership of KYW-TV, KCNC, KUTV and WFOR, with Westinghouse as majority owner. Giving Group W control of the venture allowed CBS to have some interest in its affiliates and avoid violating FCC rules at the time that forbade groups from owning TV stations that covered more than 25% of the country (CBS O&O's reached 21.8% prior to the purchase, and Group W reached 9.7%.) A short time later, Westinghouse announced it was buying CBS outright, a transaction which closed in late 1995. As a condition of the merger, both CBS and Group W were forced to sell off several radio stations due to the FCC's then-current ownership limits. CBS also had to sell

WPRI-TV WPRI-TV (channel 12) is a television station in Providence, Rhode Island, United States, affiliated with CBS and MyNetworkTV. It is owned by Nexstar Media Group, which provides certain services to dual Fox/ CW affiliate WNAC-TV (channel 64) ...

Providence, Rhode Island Providence is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Rhode Island. One of the oldest cities in New England, it was founded in 1636 by Roger Williams, a Reformed Baptist theologian and religious exile from the Massachusetts ...

(which was acquired in March 1995 and would swap affiliations with

WLNE-TV WLNE-TV (channel 6) is a television station licensed to New Bedford, Massachusetts, United States, serving as the ABC affiliate for the Providence, Rhode Island area. The station is owned by Standard Media, and maintains studios in the Orms ...

one hour before KYW-TV assumed the CBS affiliation) due to a significant signal overlap with WBZ-TV, which provides a city-grade signal to much of the Providence market. At the time, the FCC normally did not allow common ownership of stations with overlapping signals, and would not even consider granting a waiver for a city-grade overlap; the FCC began to allow common ownership of stations with overlapping signals without a waiver in 2000.

Epilogue and legacy

Following the completion of the CBS takeover, the former Westinghouse Broadcasting operations took on the CBS name and identity, though the Group W name survived until the end of the 1990s as a holding company within the merged entity's structure. The Westinghouse-CBS merger resulted in several longtime rivals on the radio dials of New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, and Philadelphia becoming sister stations. From that point forward, however, Westinghouse proceeded to transform itself from its legendary role as a diversified conglomerate with a strong industrial heritage into a media giant. Over the next year, it sold off almost all of its non-broadcast properties. In 1997, Westinghouse changed its name to CBS Corporation and moved its headquarters to New York. Westinghouse's cable television network properties—consisting then of

The Nashville Network The Nashville Network, usually referred to as TNN, was an American country music-oriented cable television network. Programming included music videos, taped concerts, movies, game shows, syndicated programs, and numerous talk shows. On Septembe ...

(now the general-interest

Paramount Network Paramount Network is an American basic cable television channel owned by the MTV Entertainment Group unit of Paramount Media Networks. The network's headquarters are located at the Paramount Pictures studio lot in Los Angeles. The channel was ...

) and Country Music Television, which CBS/Westinghouse purchased from Gaylord Entertainment in 1996, and equity stakes in

regional sports network In the United States and Canada, a regional sports network (RSN) is a cable television channel (many of which are also distributed on direct broadcast satellite services) that presents sports programming to a local market or geographical region. ...

s Midwest Sports Channel (now split into Fox Sports North, serving Minnesota and the Dakotas, and

Fox Sports Wisconsin Bally Sports Wisconsin (BSWI) is an American regional sports network owned by Diamond Sports Group, and operates as an affiliate of Bally Sports. Operating as the "Wisconsin" sub-feed of Fox Sports North until 2007, the channel was known as Fox ...

, both of which CBS purchased in conjunction with its 1992 acquisition of Midwest Television and its two stations,

WCCO-TV WCCO-TV (channel 4) is a television station licensed to Minneapolis, Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States, broadcasting the CBS network to the Minneapolis–Saint Paul, Twin Cities area. It is owned-and-operated station, owned and operated by th ...

Minneapolis Minneapolis () is the largest city in Minnesota, United States, and the county seat of Hennepin County. The city is abundant in water, with thirteen lakes, wetlands, the Mississippi River, creeks and waterfalls. Minneapolis has its origins ...

St. Paul Paul; grc, Παῦλος, translit=Paulos; cop, ⲡⲁⲩⲗⲟⲥ; hbo, פאולוס השליח (previously called Saul of Tarsus;; ar, بولس الطرسوسي; grc, Σαῦλος Ταρσεύς, Saũlos Tarseús; tr, Tarsuslu Pavlus; ...

and

WFRV-TV WFRV-TV (channel 5) is a television station in Green Bay, Wisconsin, United States, affiliated with CBS. Owned by Nexstar Media Group, the station maintains studios on East Mason Street in Green Bay, and its transmitter is located north of Mor ...

in Green Bay) and Home Team Sports (now

NBC Sports Washington NBC Sports Washington is an American regional sports network owned by Ted Leonsis's Monumental Sports & Entertainment, and operates as an affiliate of NBC Sports Regional Networks. Headquartered in Bethesda, Maryland, the channel broadcasts reg ...

) in the

–

Washington Washington commonly refers to: * Washington (state), United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A metonym for the federal government of the United States ** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered o ...

area—were consequently reorganized as CBS Cable (a name used prior by CBS Inc. for an arts-oriented basic cable channel it operated from October 1981 to December 1982). In 1998, the company created a new licensing subsidiary under the

name. In this sense, the Westinghouse-CBS merger turned out to be a "

wag the dog ''Wag the Dog'' is a 1997 American political satire black comedy film produced and directed by Barry Levinson and starring Dustin Hoffman and Robert De Niro. The film centers on a spin doctor and a Hollywood producer who fabricate a war in Al ...

" transaction. After selling off its nuclear assets to BNFL in 1999, CBS Corporation was merged into Viacom, thus ending the corporate legacy of the ''original'' Westinghouse for good. TNN and CMT were consolidated into Viacom's

MTV Networks Paramount Media Networks (formerly known as Warner Cable Communications, Warner-Amex Satellite Entertainment, MTV Networks, Viacom Media Networks, and ViacomCBS Domestic Media Networks) is an American mass media division of Paramount Global tha ...

basic cable unit post-merger, with HTS andbeing sold to Comcast and Midwest Sports Channel being sold to

News Corporation News Corporation (abbreviated News Corp.), also variously known as News Corporation Limited, was an American multinational mass media corporation controlled by media mogul Rupert Murdoch and headquartered at 1211 Avenue of the Americas in New ...

shortly afterward. Viacom, however, changed its name to

CBS Corporation The second incarnation of CBS Corporation (the first being a short-lived rename of the Westinghouse Electric Corporation) was an American multinational media conglomerate with interests primarily in commercial broadcasting, publishing, and ...

in 2006 and spun off most of its cable and movie interests as a new Viacom. With a few exceptions, the "new" CBS Corporation retained the same television properties that the old CBS Corporation held prior to the Viacom merger, including the ''new'' Westinghouse. Theater chain National Amusements, which had held controlling interest in the "old" Viacom since 1986, retained controlling interest in both the "new" CBS and Viacom. Excluding WMAQ (shut down in 2000 to allow all-sports

WSCR WSCR (670 AM) – branded as 670 The Score – is a commercial sports radio station licensed to serve Chicago, Illinois, servicing the Chicago metropolitan area and much of surrounding Northern Illinois, Northwest Indiana and parts of the Milwa ...

to move to its old dial position) and KFWB (placed in a holding trust as a consequence of CBS's purchase of KCAL-TV; the trust divested the station in 2016), all of the former Group W radio stations were part of CBS Radio until its merger with Entercom (now Audacy, Inc.) on November 17, 2017. While the merged company took Entercom's name, CBS shareholders held controlling interest in the enlarged Entercom. Following the merger, one of the former Group W stations, WBZ, was spun off to iHeartMedia. CBS had previously announced in 2016 that it had been looking to leave the radio business. In 2019, Viacom and CBS 2019 merger of CBS and Viacom, reunited as ViacomCBS, with National Amusements as the majority shareholder until being renamed as Paramount Global in 2022. Currently, only four stations continue to use the classic Group W font: radio stations WINS-AM (owned by Audacy, Inc.) and WOWO (owned by Pathfinder Communications Corporation), and CBS owned-and-operated stations WJZ-TV and KPIX. The other stations discontinued using the typeface early in the 21st century or, in the case of KDKA, in 2020.

Former Westinghouse-owned stations

Stations are arranged in alphabetical order by state and city of license. Note: Two boldface asterisks appearing following a station's call letters (**) indicate a station that was built and signed-on by Westinghouse.

Television stations

:''This list does not include

in Denver, Colorado, Denver, WFOR-TV in Miami, Florida, Miami, and

. These stations were taken over by Group W in the interim period before the completion of CBS's acquisition by Westinghouse.''

Radio stations

(a partial listing)

Syndicated programs

Some of their best-known programs were syndicated and seen in primetime and early/late fringe through its syndication division, Group W Productions, which was originally known as WBC Productions until 1968. Many of these programs were also sold internationally (under the name of Westinghouse Broadcasting International). In 1992, the Westinghouse Broadcasting International unit has signed a deal with Mitsubishi to represent the catalog for the Japanese market.

Late night talk/variety shows

* ''PM East/PM West, PM East'' (with Mike Wallace and Joyce Davidson)/''PM East/PM West, PM West'' (with Terrence O'Flaherty) (1961–1962) * ''The Steve Allen Show'' (1962–1964) * ''Regis Philbin, That Regis Philbin Show!'' (1964–1965) * ''The Merv Griffin Show'' (1965–1969) * ''The David Frost Show'' (1969–1972) * ''The Howard Stern Radio Show'' (1998–2001) (as Eyemark Entertainment)

Daytime shows

* ''

'' (1963–1980) * ''John Davidson (entertainer), The John Davidson Show'' (1980–1982) * ''Hour Magazine'', hosted by Gary Collins (actor), Gary Collins (1980–1989) * ''The Wil Shriner Show'' (1986–1987) * ''Couch Potatoes (game show), Couch Potatoes'', game show hosted by Marc Summers (1989; co-production with Saban Entertainment) * ''Every Second Counts (US game show), Every Second Counts'', game show hosted by Bill Rafferty, produced by Charles Colarusso Productions (1984) *''House Party''; talk show hosted by Steve Doocy (1990; co-production with Universal Television, NBC Productions) * ''Scrabble (game show), Scrabble'', unsold syndicated run pilot with Steve Edwards (talk show host), Steve Edwards as host (1990; co-production with Reg Grundy Productions) * ''That's Amore'', game show hosted by Luca Barbareschi (1992-1993, co-production with Four Point Entertainment and RTI Mediaset) * ''Vicki!'', talk show hosted by Vicki Lawrence (1992–1994) * ''Marilu'', talk show hosted by Marilu Henner (1994–1995) * ''Morning Stretch'', exercise and fitness program hosted by Joanie Greggains (produced at KPIX during the 1980s) * ''Day and Date'', hosted by Dana King and Patrick Vanhorn (also produced at KPIX, 1995–1997; initially went under Group W name before switch to Eyemark name mid-season) Group W and KPIX also created, in 1975 (with its premiere in 1976), America's first non-news magazine series, ''

'' with host Jan Yanehiro. After the first few years, it franchised to Group W stations and eventually to other markets through local stations, using the name ''

'' on non-Group W stations airing the show.

Made-for-TV movies

* ''Mafia Princess'', starring Tony Curtis and Susan Lucci (1986)

Children's/animated series

*''Dino Babies'' *''Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1987 TV series), Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles'' (1987 version) *''Speed Racer'' (1993 version) *''Way Cool'' (1991–1992)

*The in-house

library (''He-Man and the Masters of the Universe'', ''She-Ra: Princess of Power'', ''Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids'', ''Filmation's Ghostbusters, Ghostbusters'', ''BraveStarr'', among other titles)

First-run syndicated shows

*''Fight Back! with David Horowitz'' (1976–1992) *''Bob Vila's Home Again'' (1990-2005) *''The George Michael Sports Machine'' (1995) *''Martha Stewart Living#Television program, Martha Stewart Living'' (1993–2004)

End of Group W Productions

After the merger with CBS in 1996, Westinghouse acquired Ed Wilson and Bob Cook's MaXam Entertainment and merged it with Group W Productions and CBS Enterprises (including CBS Broadcast International) to form Eyemark Entertainment,CBS TO ACQUIRE MAXAM ENTERTAINMENT
24 January 1996 with CBS Broadcast International acquiring the overseas rights to the Group W backlog. Eyemark was in turn folded into King World Productions following the latter company's acquisition by CBS in 2000. King World gained control of most of the Group W and Eyemark libraries from 2000 to 2005. These libraries are now controlled by CBS Media Ventures. The

library and ''The George Michael Sports Machine'' are owned by NBCUniversal, ''Bob Vila's Home Again'' is owned by Bob Vila with Telco Productions handling distribution rights, and the 1987 ''Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1987 TV series), Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles'' series is also owned by CBS Media Ventures with DVD rights licensed to Lionsgate Home Entertainment.

Cable networks

(then co-owned with Gaylord Entertainment Company, Gaylord Entertainment; Group W later bought Gaylord's stake in the channel; later owned by Viacom (2005–present), Viacom's MTV Networks as Spike (TV channel), Spike) * Disney Channel, The Disney Channel (then co-owned with The Walt Disney Company; Disney later bought Group W's 50 percent stake prior to its launch) * Home Team Sports (now Comcast SportsNet Mid-Atlantic) (Baltimore, Maryland, Baltimore\

network) and Fox Sports Southwest, FSN Southwest (Dallas, Texas, Dallas network) * Home Theater Network (1978–1987) * Satellite News Channel (co-owned with ABC; network went defunct after a year) * Showtime (TV channel), Showtime (50 percent stake with Viacom from 1981 (when Group W acquired

), until they sold their half of Showtime back to Viacom in 1982) * Wisconsin Sports Network (co-owned with the Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Milwaukee Time Warner Cable franchise from 1996 to 1998, then merged into CBS Cable's Midwest Sports Channel (MSC). Later bought by Fox Broadcasting Company, Fox in 2000 and became Fox Sports North, FSN North and Fox Sports Wisconsin, FSN Wisconsin). ''(No relation to the present-day Wisconsin Sports Network, website of the same name.)'' * Z Channel (under TelePrompTer-owned Theta Cable)

External links

Group W (the Westinghouse Broadcasting Co.) audio tapes
at the University of Maryland Libraries

Notes

References

{{Animated television series created for syndication Westinghouse Broadcasting, Audacy, Inc. Defunct broadcasting companies of the United States Defunct radio broadcasting companies of the United States CBS Media Ventures Westinghouse Electric Company Mass media companies based in New York City Mass media companies established in 1995 Mass media companies disestablished in 1999 1995 establishments in New York (state) 1999 disestablishments in New York (state) Defunct companies based in New York City Filmation Television syndication distributors Defunct radio networks in the United States