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WABC-TV (channel 7) is a
television station A television station is a set of equipment managed by a business, organisation or other entity, such as an amateur television (ATV) operator, that transmits video content and audio content via radio waves directly from a transmitter on the ea ...
in
New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
, serving as the flagship of the ABC network. Owned and operated by the network's ABC Owned Television Stations division, the station maintains studios in the Lincoln Square neighborhood of
Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...
, adjacent to ABC's corporate headquarters; its
transmitter In electronics and telecommunications, a radio transmitter or just transmitter is an electronic device which produces radio waves with an antenna. The transmitter itself generates a radio frequency alternating current, which is applied to the ...
is located at the
Empire State Building The Empire State Building is a 102-story Art Deco skyscraper in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. The building was designed by Shreve, Lamb & Harmon and built from 1930 to 1931. Its name is derived from " Empire State", the nickname of the ...
. WABC-TV is best known in broadcasting circles for its version of the ''
Eyewitness News ''Eyewitness News'' is a style of television news presentation that emphasizes visual elements and action video, replacing the older "man-on-camera" newscast. History Pioneered by Westinghouse The earliest known use of the ''Eyewitness Ne ...
'' format and for its
morning show Breakfast television (Europe, Canada, and Australia) or morning show (United States) is a type of news or infotainment television programme that broadcasts live in the morning (typically scheduled between 5:00 and 10:00a.m., or if it is a ...
, syndicated nationally by corporate cousin
Walt Disney Television Disney General Entertainment Content, doing business as Walt Disney Television, is an American entertainment company that oversees television content and assets owned and operated by The Walt Disney Company. Forming the company's General Enter ...
.


History


As WJZ-TV (1948–1953)

The station signed on August 10, 1948, as WJZ-TV, the first of three television stations signed on by ABC during that same year, with WENR-TV in
Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = List of sovereign states, Count ...
and
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 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 ...
being the other two. Channel 7's call letters came from its then-sister radio station, WJZ. In its early years, WJZ-TV was programmed much like an
independent station An independent station is an independent radio or terrestrial television station which is independent in some way from broadcast networks. The definition of "independence" varies from country to country, reflecting governmental regulations, marke ...
, as the ABC television network was still, for the most part, in its very early stages of development; the ABC-owned stations did air some common programming during this period, especially after the 1949 fall season when the network's prime time schedule began to expand. The station's original transmitter site was located at
The Pierre The Pierre is a luxury hotel located at 2 61st Street (Manhattan), East 61st Street, at the intersection of that street with Fifth Avenue, in Manhattan, New York City, facing Central Park. Designed by Schultze and Weaver, Schultze & Weaver, th ...
Hotel at 2 East 61st Street, before moving to the Empire State Building a few years later. The station's original studios were located at 77 West 66th Street, with additional studios at 7 West 66th Street. A tunnel linked ABC studios at 7 West 66th Street to the lobby of the Hotel des Artistes, a block north on West 67th Street. Another studio inside the Hotel des Artistes was used for ''Eyewitness News Conference''.


As WABC-TV (1953–present)

The station's call letters were changed to WABC-TV on March 1, 1953, after ABC merged its operations with
United Paramount Theatres American Broadcasting-Paramount Theatres, Inc. (originally United Paramount Theatres, later the American Broadcasting Companies and ABC Television) was the post-merger parent company of the American Broadcasting Company and United Paramount Thea ...
, a firm which was broken off from former parent company
Paramount Pictures Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American film and television production company, production and Distribution (marketing), distribution company and the main namesake division of Paramount Global (formerly ViacomCBS). It is the fifth-oldes ...
by decree of the U.S. government. The WJZ-TV callsign was later reassigned to
Westinghouse Broadcasting The Westinghouse Broadcasting Company, also known as Group W, was the broadcasting division of Westinghouse Electric Corporation. It owned several radio and television stations across the United States and distributed television shows for syndicat ...
(the original owners of WJZ radio in New York) as an historical nod in 1957 for their newly acquired
television station A television station is a set of equipment managed by a business, organisation or other entity, such as an amateur television (ATV) operator, that transmits video content and audio content via radio waves directly from a transmitter on the ea ...
in
Baltimore Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic, and the 30th most populous city in the United States with a population of 585,708 in 2020. Baltimore was ...
– a station that was, by coincidence, an ABC affiliate until 1995. As part of ABC's expansion program, initiated in 1977, ABC built 7 Lincoln Square on the southeast corner of West 67th Street and Columbus Avenue, on the site of an abandoned moving and storage warehouse. At about the same time, construction was started at 30 West 67th Street on the site of a former parking lot. Both buildings were completed in June 1979 and WABC-TV moved its offices from 77 West 66th Street to 7 Lincoln Square. On September 11, 2001, the transmitter facilities of WABC-TV, as well as eight other local television stations and several radio stations, were destroyed when two hijacked airplanes crashed into and destroyed the north and south towers of the World Trade Center. WABC-TV's transmitter maintenance engineer Donald DiFranco died in the attack. In the immediate aftermath, the station fed its signal to
WNYE-TV WNYE-TV (channel 25) is a non-commercial independent television station in New York City. The station is operated by NYC Media, a division of the Mayor's Office of Media and Entertainment, and is sister to public radio station WNYE (91.5 FM). ...
, WHSE-TV, WHSI-TV, and the
New Jersey Network The New Jersey Network (NJN) was a network of public television and radio stations serving the U.S. state of New Jersey. NJN was a member of the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) for television and the National Public Radio (NPR) for radio, br ...
before establishing temporary facilities at the Armstrong Tower in
Alpine, New Jersey Alpine is a borough in Bergen County, New Jersey, United States, approximately north of Midtown Manhattan. It is the easternmost community in New Jersey. As of the 2010 United States census, the borough's population was 1,849,
. The station eventually re-established transmission facilities at the Empire State Building, its original home when it signed on the air in 1948. ABC News Now was launched in 2004 on digital subchannels of the ABC O&O stations. On January 31, 2005, ABC removed ABC News Now from O&O and affiliated stations' subchannels as the channel ended its experimental phase originally. The group changed its programming on secondary channels to ABC Plus, a local news and public affairs format. ABC teamed up with
AccuWeather AccuWeather Inc. is an American media company that provides commercial weather forecasting services worldwide. AccuWeather was founded in 1962 by Joel N. Myers, then a Pennsylvania State University graduate student working on a master's degree ...
to launch a multicast service on WABC's third subchannel between December 9, 2005, and March 31, 2006. On May 27, 2007, WABC-TV's studios suffered major damage as the result of a fire that knocked the station off the air shortly before the start of the 11:00 p.m. newscast. According to preliminary reports, the fire may have been ignited by a spotlight coming into contact with a curtain inside the news studio; the station's website later reported the cause as an "electrical malfunction". The station's building was evacuated and the fire was brought under control, though the studio was said to be "badly damaged", having suffered smoke and water damage. WABC-TV resumed broadcasting at around 1:00 a.m. on May 28, 2007 (initially carrying the network's 10:00 p.m. West Coast feed of '' Brothers & Sisters'', followed by the full broadcast of ''
World News Now ''World News Now'' (or WNN) is an American overnight news broadcast seen on ABC. Airing during the early morning hours each Monday through Friday, the program features a mix of general news and off-beat stories, along with weather forecasts, sp ...
''). Due to the fire, the station broadcast ''Eyewitness News'' from the newsroom, while ''Live! with Regis and Kelly'', whose set was also affected, moved to the set of ''
Who Wants to Be a Millionaire ''Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?'' (often informally called ''Millionaire'') is an international television game show franchise of British origin, created by David Briggs, Mike Whitehill and Steven Knight. In its format, currently owned and l ...
''. Starting with the 5:00 p.m. newscast on June 20, 2007, the station resumed the ''Eyewitness News'' and ''Live!'' broadcasts from its main studios at Columbus Avenue and 66th Street. The
Live Well Network Localish (formerly Live Well Network, stylized as LOCALISH) is a lifestyle TV network owned by ABC Owned Television Stations, part of Walt Disney Television, a subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company. Localish's 24/7 channel streams on Hulu Li ...
(LWN) was launched on April 27, 2009, in high definition by ABC's O&O stations on the stations' .2 subchannels. WABC-TV discontinued regular programming on its analog signal,
VHF Very high frequency (VHF) is the ITU designation for the range of radio frequency electromagnetic waves (radio waves) from 30 to 300 megahertz (MHz), with corresponding wavelengths of ten meters to one meter. Frequencies immediately below VHF ...
channel 7, at 12:30 p.m. on June 12, 2009, as part of the federally mandated transition from analog to digital television. The station's digital signal relocated from its pre-transition UHF channel 45 to VHF channel 7. WABC's digital signal was initially difficult to receive over-the-air in New York City. The station was requested by
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 ...
(FCC) to broadcast at a lower power; WABC was among many stations which have found it necessary to increase power to restore coverage to the same level as its former analog signal. On June 29, 2009, WABC filed an application with the FCC to increase power from 11.69 kW to 27 kW. On January 31, 2010, the FCC granted a
special temporary authority Special Temporary Authority (STA) in U.S. broadcast law is a type of broadcast license which temporarily allows a broadcast station to operate outside of its normal technical or legal parameters. In the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) st ...
(STA) for the station to increase power to 26.9 kW. In May 2013, WABC-TV and
Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Since ...
sister station In broadcasting, sister stations or sister channels are radio or television stations operated by the same company, either by direct ownership or through a management agreement. Radio sister stations will often have different formats, and somet ...
WPVI-TV WPVI-TV (channel 6), branded on-air as 6 ABC, is a television station in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States, airing programming from the ABC network. Owned and operated by the network's ABC Owned Television Stations division, the stati ...
became the first two ABC-owned stations to offer live, web-based streaming of programming to authenticated subscribers of participating cable and satellite television providers as provided through the relaunched ''Watch ABC''
mobile app A mobile application or app is a computer program or software application designed to run on a mobile device such as a phone, tablet, or watch. Mobile applications often stand in contrast to desktop applications which are designed to run on d ...
s. ABCOTS indicated in January 2015 that its stations' 3rd subchannel would affiliated with Laff network upon launch on April 15, 2015, but until then LWN would run on both subchannels. ABC Stations rebranded Live Well Network on .2 as Localish on February 17, 2020, to add an outlet for the Localish lifestyle content.


Programming

WABC has long presented events such as the
Columbus Day Columbus Day is a national holiday in many countries of the Americas and elsewhere, and a federal holiday in the United States, which officially celebrates the anniversary of Christopher Columbus's arrival in the Americas on October 12, 1492. ...
Parade and
Puerto Rican Day Parade The Puerto Rican Day Parade (also known as the National Puerto Rican Day Parade) takes place annually in the United States along Fifth Avenue in the Manhattan borough of New York City. The parade is held on the second Sunday in June, in hon ...
and beginning in 2017, they became the first television station to air the New York City LGBT Pride March. In addition, the station is also producing local programs such as ''Here and Now'', a program covering the latest issues, trends and news stories impacting the local black community, ''Tiempo'', a weekly program that focus on the issues affecting local Hispanic citizens, and ''Up Close'', a public affairs program on the latest issues with the newsmakers. The station also formerly produced ''Viewpoint'', a weekly program that highlighted the cultural and community efforts in New York, Long Island and New Jersey (each of these regions rotated weekly). As of 2021, aside from ''Live with Kelly and Ryan'', WABC's first-run syndicated programs include ''
Tamron Hall Tamron Hall (born September 16, 1970) is an American broadcast journalist and television talk show host. In September 2019, Hall debuted her self-titled syndicated daytime talk show, which earned her a Daytime Emmy Award. Hall was formerly a ...
'', ''
Rachael Ray Rachael Domenica Ray (born August 25, 1968) is an American cook, television personality, businesswoman, and author. She hosts the syndicated daily talk and lifestyle program '' Rachael Ray'', and the Food Network series ''30 Minute Meals'' ...
'', ''
Jeopardy! ''Jeopardy!'' is an American game show created by Merv Griffin. The show is a quiz competition that reverses the traditional question-and-answer format of many quiz shows. Rather than being given questions, contestants are instead given genera ...
'' and ''
Wheel of Fortune The Wheel of Fortune or '' Rota Fortunae'' has been a concept and metaphor since ancient times referring to the capricious nature of Fate. Wheel of Fortune may also refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Art * ''The Wheel of Fortune'' (Burne-J ...
''. The station also airs off-network reruns of '' Wipeout'' and ''
Castle A castle is a type of fortified structure built during the Middle Ages predominantly by the nobility or royalty and by military orders. Scholars debate the scope of the word ''castle'', but usually consider it to be the private fortified r ...
'', both former ABC programs, during weekend late nights.


''Live with Kelly and Ryan''

WABC-TV produces the nationally syndicated talk show ''Live with Kelly and Ryan''. Until the station's newscasts were moved to a separate studio in 2011, the program originated in the same ground-floor studio at 7 Lincoln Square as ''Eyewitness News'', thus creating a situation which forced local news updates broadcast during ''
Good Morning America ''Good Morning America'' (often abbreviated as ''GMA'') is an American morning television program that is broadcast on ABC. It debuted on November 3, 1975, and first expanded to weekends with the debut of a Sunday edition on January 3, 1993. ...
'' and ''Live'' to be produced from the WABC-TV newsroom and the morning show's presence also limited the size of the ''Eyewitness News'' set. The program's roots originated with ''A.M. New York'', which debuted in 1970 as a local version of
NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American English-language commercial broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a division of Comcast, its headquarters are l ...
's ''
Today Today (archaically to-day) may refer to: * Day of the present, the time that is perceived directly, often called ''now'' * Current era, present * The current calendar date Arts, entertainment, and media Films * ''Today'' (1930 film), a 1930 ...
'' show; its first host was John Bartholomew Tucker, who remained with the program until 1972. After Tucker's departure, a succession of hosts came and went, the most successful of whom was Stanley Siegel, who hosted from 1975 to 1978 (for a year beginning in 1977, the series was called ''The Stanley Siegel Show''). After 1980, the show was retitled ''Good Morning New York'', whose co-hosts in the last years of its run in that form included
Spencer Christian Spencer Christian (born July 23, 1947) is an American television broadcaster, best known as the former weather forecaster for ABC's ''Good Morning America'' from 1986 to 1998. He currently is the weather forecaster for ABC-owned KGO-TV in San Fr ...
, Andrea Kirby, Judy Licht, Dick Wolfsie and longtime ''Eyewitness News'' reporter and anchor Doug Johnson. After years of a losing ratings battle against '' Donahue'' on WNBC-TV, WABC-TV cancelled ''Good Morning New York'' in early 1983. The current show began as the station's second attempt at a local morning show a month later, aptly titled ''The Morning Show'' (using the "Circle 7" logo in the actual text for one of the "o"s) and was originally hosted by
Regis Philbin Regis Francis Xavier Philbin (; August 25, 1931 – July 25, 2020)Archived aGhostarchiveand thWayback Machine was an American television presenter, talk show host, game show host, comedian, actor, and singer. Once called "the hardest working ma ...
and
Cyndy Garvey Cyndy Garvey (née Cynthia Truhan) (born July 16, 1949, Detroit, Michigan) is an American television personality and former wife of baseball player Steve Garvey. Career Cyndy Garvey replaced Sarah Purcell as Regis Philbin's co-host of the local n ...
. After Garvey's departure a year later, she was replaced by Ann Abernathy, who in turn, left in 1985 to return to
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. That year, Kathie Lee Johnson (who would marry
Frank Gifford Francis Newton Gifford (August 16, 1930 – August 9, 2015) was an American football player, actor, and television sports commentator. After a 12-year playing career as a halfback and flanker for the New York Giants of the National Foo ...
a year later) became Philbin's new co-host. In 1988,
Buena Vista Television Buena ( ) is a borough in Atlantic County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, the borough's population was 4,603,Kelly Ripa Kelly Ripa (; born October 2, 1970) is an American actress and talk show host. Since 2001, she has been the co-host of the syndicated morning talk show '' Live! with Kelly and Ryan'' in various formats. As an actress, Ripa's best known roles ...
. Philbin left the show in November 2011 and the show aired for nearly a year as ''Live! with Kelly'' until former
New York Giants The New York Giants are a professional American football team based in the New York metropolitan area. The Giants compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) East divisio ...
defensive end
Michael Strahan Michael T. Strahan ( ; born November 21, 1971) is an American television personality, journalist, and former professional football player. He played his entire 15-year professional career as a defensive end for the New York Giants of the Nation ...
became Ripa's permanent co-host in September 2012. In May 2016, Strahan left the show to become a full-time anchor at ''Good Morning America'', thus leaving Ripa as the solo host again. On May 1, 2017, it was announced that
Ryan Seacrest Ryan John Seacrest (born December 24, 1974) is an American media personality and producer. He is the co-host of '' Live with Kelly and Ryan'', as well as the host of multiple media shows including ''American Idol'', ''American Top 40'', and ' ...
would become the new host of the show; in order to accommodate his syndicated radio show ''
On Air with Ryan Seacrest ''On Air with Ryan Seacrest'' is a weekday syndicated radio program hosted by Ryan Seacrest. It was launched in 2004 as a drive time show at the same time on Los Angeles Top 40 station 102.7 KIIS-FM as the television show with the same name, ...
'' (which normally originates from Los Angeles), an additional studio was built within WABC's facilities.


Sports programming

WABC-TV serves as the local over-the-air broadcaster of ''
Monday Night Football ''ESPN Monday Night Football'' (abbreviated as ''MNF'' and also known as ''ESPN Monday Night Football on ABC'' for simulcasts) is an American live television broadcast of weekly National Football League (NFL) games currently airing on ESPN, ...
'' games, airing simulcasts of the ESPN-televised games carried nationally on ABC. However, ESPN-only ''MNF'' telecasts involving the Giants or Jets air locally on
WPIX WPIX (channel 11) is a television station in New York City. Owned by Mission Broadcasting, it is operated under a local marketing agreement (LMA) by Nexstar Media Group, making it a ''de facto'' owned-and-operated station and flagship of ...
. Previously, the station carried coverage of the Giants' victory in
Super Bowl XXV Super Bowl XXV was an American football game between the American Football Conference (AFC) champion Buffalo Bills and the National Football Conference (NFC) champion New York Giants to decide the National Football League (NFL) champion for the ...
. Since 2013, WABC-TV serves as the exclusive local English-language carrier of the annual
New York City Marathon The New York City Marathon (currently branded TCS New York City Marathon after its headline sponsor (commercial), sponsor) is an annual Marathon (sport), marathon () that courses through the five boroughs of New York City. It is the largest mar ...
. The station preempts a weekend edition of ''Good Morning America'' and delays ''This Week'' to schedule time for the live broadcast. The marathon is also simulcast on
ESPN2 ESPN2 is an American multinational pay television network owned by ESPN Inc., a joint venture between The Walt Disney Company (which owns a controlling 80% stake) and Hearst Communications (which owns the remaining 20%). ESPN2 was initially fo ...
nationally (although viewers in the Tri-State area cannot see it via ESPN2 because the simulcast is blacked out locally). WABC-TV currently airs any
New York Knicks The New York Knickerbockers, shortened and more commonly referred to as the New York Knicks, are an American professional basketball team based in the New York City borough of Manhattan. The Knicks compete in the National Basketball Associat ...
and
Brooklyn Nets The Brooklyn Nets are an American professional basketball team based in the New York City borough of Brooklyn. The Nets compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the Atlantic Division of the Eastern Conference. The ...
games televised via the '' NBA on ABC''. The station has aired the Knicks' appearances in the
1970 Events January * January 1 – Unix time epoch reached at 00:00:00 UTC. * January 5 – The 7.1 Tonghai earthquake shakes Tonghai County, Yunnan province, China, with a maximum Mercalli intensity of X (''Extreme''). Between 10,000 and ...
,
1972 Within the context of Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) it was the longest year ever, as two leap seconds were added during this 366-day year, an event which has not since been repeated. (If its start and end are defined using mean solar tim ...
and 1973 NBA Finals (where the Knicks won in 1970 and 1973), as well as the then-New Jersey Nets' appearance in the
2003 NBA Finals The 2003 NBA Finals was the championship round of the National Basketball Association (NBA)'s 2002–03 season, and the culmination of the season's playoffs. The Western Conference champion San Antonio Spurs played the Eastern Conference cham ...
. WABC-TV aired
New York Rangers The New York Rangers are a professional ice hockey team based in the New York City borough of Manhattan. They compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Metropolitan Division in the Eastern Conference. The team plays its ho ...
,
New York Islanders The New York Islanders (colloquially known as the Isles) are a professional ice hockey team based in Elmont, New York. The Islanders compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Metropolitan Division in the Eastern Conferenc ...
and
New Jersey Devils The New Jersey Devils are a professional ice hockey team based in Newark, New Jersey. The Devils compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Metropolitan Division in the Eastern Conference. The club was founded as the Kan ...
games carried through the ''
NHL on ABC The ''NHL on ABC'' is an American presentation of National Hockey League (NHL) games produced by ESPN on ABC (formerly known as ABC Sports), and televised on ABC in the United States. The network first broadcast NHL games during the 1993 Stan ...
''; this included the Devils' victories in the
2000 File:2000 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Protests against Bush v. Gore after the 2000 United States presidential election; Heads of state meet for the Millennium Summit; The International Space Station in its infant form as seen from S ...
and
2003 Stanley Cup Finals The 2003 Stanley Cup Finals was the championship series of the National Hockey League's (NHL) 2002–03 season, and the culmination of the 2003 Stanley Cup playoffs. The second-seeded Eastern Conference champion New Jersey Devils defeated the ...
, as well as their appearance in the 2001 Stanley Cup Finals. Beginning in
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, it officially reassumed this duty, this time as the OTA simulcast partner of the ''
NHL on ESPN The broadcasts of National Hockey League (NHL) games produced by ESPN have been shown on its various platforms in the United States, including ESPN itself, ABC, ESPN+, ESPN2, ESPNEWS, ESPNU, and Hulu. Since 2021, games have been broadcast un ...
''. Through the ABC portion of the ''
MLS on ESPN ''MLS on ESPN'' is the branding used for television presentations of Major League Soccer on ESPN properties, including ABC and ESPN2. Major League Soccer on ESPN debuted in 1996, the league's first season, and ended in 2022 when MLS moved all of ...
'' package, WABC-TV aired
New York City FC New York City Football Club is an American professional soccer club based in New York City that competes in Major League Soccer (MLS), the highest level of American soccer, as a member of the league's Eastern Conference. The club is co-owned b ...
's victory in the
2021 MLS Cup MLS Cup 2021 was the 26th edition of the MLS Cup, the championship match of Major League Soccer (MLS) at the conclusion of the 2021 MLS Cup Playoffs. The soccer match was played on December 11, 2021, at Providence Park in Portland, Oregon, Unit ...
and the
New York Red Bulls The New York Red Bulls are an American professional soccer club based in the New York metropolitan area. The Red Bulls compete in Major League Soccer (MLS) as a member of the Eastern Conference. The club was established in October 1994 and be ...
' appearance in the 2008 MLS Cup. WABC-TV also previously aired any
New York Yankees The New York Yankees are an American professional baseball team based in the New York City borough of the Bronx. The Yankees compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) East division. They are one ...
and
New York Mets The New York Mets are an American professional baseball team based in the New York City borough of Queens. The Mets compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member of the National League (NL) East division. They are one of two major lea ...
games through ABC's baseball contract; this included the Yankees' victory in the 1977 World Series and appearance in the
1981 World Series The 1981 World Series was the championship series of Major League Baseball's (MLB) 1981 season. The 78th edition of the World Series, it was a best-of-seven playoff played between the American League (AL) champion New York Yankees and the Nati ...
.


News operation

WABC-TV presently broadcasts 43 hours, 55 minutes of locally produced newscasts each week (with 6 hours, 35 minutes each weekday and 5½ hours each on Saturdays and Sundays). The station partners with Philadelphia sister station, WPVI-TV – which popularized the ''
Action News ''Action News'' is a local television newscast format originating in the United States. First conceived in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, it is characterized by a tight format with strict time limits on set packages, a focus on surrounding suburbs, ...
'' format – in the production and broadcast of statewide
New Jersey New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delawa ...
political debates. When the two stations broadcast a statewide office debate, such as for
Governor A governor is an administrative leader and head of a polity or political region, ranking under the head of state and in some cases, such as governors-general, as the head of state's official representative. Depending on the type of political ...
or U.S. Senate, they'll pool resources and have anchors or reporters from both stations participate in the debate. Additionally, the two stations share coverage of news from New Jersey where their markets overlap, pooling reporters, live trucks, and helicopters.


News department history


=Beginning to 1968

= WABC-TV launched ''Report to New York'', its first regular news program, on October 26, 1959, featuring
Scott Vincent Scott Vincent (December 24, 1922 – May 31, 1979) was an American radio and television announcer and newscaster. Radio Scott Vincent was a staff announcer for nearly 25 years at ABC's flagship owned-and-operated station WABC-TV in New York ...
with news, Howard Cosell with sports, and Lynn Dollar with the weather. ''Report to New York'' aired Monday through Friday at 11:00 p.m. By January 1961, channel 7 expanded ''Report to New York'' with a 15-minute early edition at 6:15 p.m. on weeknights, and on Saturday and Sunday evenings. On October 22, 1962, WABC-TV expanded its weeknight news to 45-minutes, and retitled it ''The Big News''. Newcomers
Bill Beutel William Charles Beutel (December 12, 1930 – March 18, 2006) was an American television reporter, journalist, and anchor. He was best known for working over four decades with the American Broadcasting Company, spending much of that time anchoring ...
and Jim Burnes were the anchors, with Cosell continuing on sports and Rosemary Haley as "weather girl". However, this effort failed to draw viewers from the ratings leader
WCBS-TV WCBS-TV (channel 2) is a television station in New York City, serving as the flagship of the CBS network. It is owned and operated by the network's CBS News and Stations division alongside Riverhead, New York–licensed independent station W ...
and second-place
WNBC-TV WNBC (channel 4) is a television station in New York City, serving as the flagship of the NBC network. It is owned and operated by the network's NBC Owned Television Stations division alongside Linden, New Jersey–licensed Telemundo statio ...
.


=The ''Eyewitness News'' era

= In early 1968, Beutel left the station to become the
London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...
bureau chief for
ABC News ABC News is the news division of the American broadcast network ABC. Its flagship program is the daily evening newscast '' ABC World News Tonight with David Muir''; other programs include morning news-talk show '' Good Morning America'', '' ...
and was replaced by
Roger Grimsby Roger Olin Grimsby (September 23, 1928 – June 23, 1995) was an American journalist, television news anchor and actor. Grimsby, who for eighteen years was seen on ABC's flagship station WABC in New York City, is known as one of the pioneers of ...
, who was transferred by ABC from
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 17t ...
sister station
KGO-TV KGO-TV (channel 7) is a television station licensed to San Francisco, California, United States, serving as the San Francisco Bay Area's ABC network outlet. Owned and operated by the network's ABC Owned Television Stations division, KGO-TV ma ...
. In a complete revamp, Grimsby was joined by Tex Antoine doing weather, celebrity gossip columnist
Rona Barrett Rona Barrett (born Rona Burstein, October 8, 1936) is an American gossip columnist and businesswoman. She runs the Rona Barrett Foundation, a non-profit organization in Santa Ynez, California, dedicated to the aid and support of senior citizens ...
, ''
New York Daily News The New York ''Daily News'', officially titled the ''Daily News'', is an American newspaper based in Jersey City, NJ. It was founded in 1919 by Joseph Medill Patterson as the ''Illustrated Daily News''. It was the first U.S. daily printed in ...
'' columnist
Jimmy Breslin James Earle Breslin (October 17, 1928 – March 19, 2017) was an American journalist and author. Until the time of his death, he wrote a column for the New York ''Daily News'' Sunday edition.''Current Biography 1942'', pp. 648–51: "Patterson, ...
with political commentary and reviews by Martin Bookspan and Allan Jeffries, while Cosell continued doing sports. Known as ''Roger Grimsby and the Noisemakers'', this format didn't help the ratings, which plunged to an all-time low. Later that year, newly hired news director
Al Primo Albert Thomas Primo (July 3, 1935 – September 29, 2022) was an American television news executive who was credited with creating the ''Eyewitness News'' format. More than a hundred markets have taken the ''Eyewitness News'' name to label their ...
brought to WABC-TV the ''
Eyewitness News ''Eyewitness News'' is a style of television news presentation that emphasizes visual elements and action video, replacing the older "man-on-camera" newscast. History Pioneered by Westinghouse The earliest known use of the ''Eyewitness Ne ...
'' format and branding, in which reporters present their stories directly to the viewers. Having experienced great success introducing the format during his time at
KYW-TV KYW-TV (channel 3) is a television station in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States, airing programming from the CBS network. It is owned and operated by the network's CBS News and Stations division alongside CW affiliate WPSG (channel ...
in Philadelphia, Primo this time added a twist – a degree of conversational chatter among the anchors, known as "happy talk". The "Tar Sequence" cue from the musical score of the 1967 film ''
Cool Hand Luke ''Cool Hand Luke'' is a 1967 American prison drama film directed by Stuart Rosenberg, starring Paul Newman and featuring George Kennedy in an Oscar-winning performance. Newman stars in the title role as Luke, a prisoner in a Florida prison ca ...
'', composed by
Lalo Schifrin Boris Claudio "Lalo" Schifrin (born June 21, 1932) is an Argentine-American pianist, composer, arranger and conductor. He is best known for his large body of film and TV scores since the 1950s, incorporating jazz and Latin American musical eleme ...
, was introduced as the theme music. The score included a telegraphic-style melody appropriate for a newscast. The ''Eyewitness News'' format and theme music were quickly adopted by ABC's other four owned-and-operated stations at the time: KGO-TV, WLS-TV in Chicago, WXYZ-TV in Detroit and KABC-TV in Los Angeles (though KGO-TV and WXYZ-TV didn't use the ''Eyewitness News'' title for their programs). The format quickly rejuvenated a station that had long been an also-ran to WCBS-TV and WNBC-TV. Within a year, Channel 7 had shot to first place in the ratings for the first time in its history, displacing longtime leader WCBS-TV. It spent most of the decade going back and forth with WCBS-TV for first place. For a time in the 1980s, it fell into last place among the network-owned stations, but still fought with WNBC-TV for second place. Retaining only Grimsby, Cosell, and Antoine from the earlier ''Noisemakers'' format, Primo also hired Tom Dunn away from WCBS-TV to serve as Grimsby's co-anchor. After Dunn departed for
WOR-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 1970, Bill Beutel returned to the station as his replacement and for the next 16 years, Grimsby and Beutel were the faces of ''Eyewitness News''. The Grimsby-Beutel team were split up for several months in 1975 after ABC had reassigned Beutel to its new morning show, ''
AM America ''AM America'' was a morning news program produced by ABC in an attempt to compete with the highly rated ''Today'' on NBC. Premiering on January 6, 1975, the show never found an audience against ''Today'' or the CBS combo of the ''CBS Morning Ne ...
'' that January. The station brought in WXYZ-TV's Bill Bonds and veteran
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 ...
anchor Tom Ellis to help replace Beutel, with Grimsby teaming with Ellis at 6:00 p.m. and Bonds at 11:00 p.m. When ''AM America'' was canceled and replaced with ''Good Morning America'' in November 1975, Beutel was re-teamed with Grimsby at 6:00 p.m., with Ellis joining Bonds at 11:00 p.m.. Bonds returned to Detroit in June 1976 and was replaced by
Larry Kane Larry Kane (born October 21, 1942) is an American journalist, news anchor and author. Kane spent 36 years as a news anchor in Philadelphia, and is the only person to have anchored at all three Philadelphia owned and operated television stations ...
, who lasted only one year as the sole 11:00 p.m. anchor before returning to his home market of Philadelphia. Ellis remained until May 1977 and Kane's successor,
Ernie Anastos Ernie Anastos (born July 12, 1943) is an American news anchor and the host of the show ''Positively America with Ernie Anastos''. He anchored the news at 6 p.m. on WNYW in New York City. He was also the anchor of the 5 and 10 p.m. newscasts on Fo ...
, began his New York career at the station; he co-anchored at 11:00 p.m. with
Rose Ann Scamardella Rose Ann Scamardella (born July 20, 1947) is a former anchorwoman of WABC-TV's ''Eyewitness News'' in New York City, and the inspiration for Gilda Radner's character "Roseanne Roseannadanna" on ''Saturday Night Live''. Biography Rose Ann Scamar ...
and later Kaity Tong, for his entire 12-year tenure there. On November 30, 1981, the station became the second in the city to expand its late afternoon/evening newscasts by adding of a 5:00 p.m. edition, first presented by Rose Ann Scamardella and Storm Field, later succeeded by Kaity Tong and
Tom Snyder Thomas James Snyder (May 12, 1936 – July 29, 2007) was an American television personality, news anchor, and radio personality best known for his late night talk shows '' Tomorrow'', on the NBC television network in the 1970s and 1980s, and ' ...
, the latter only lasting several months before being replaced by 11:00 p.m. co-anchor Ernie Anastos. In 1985, the station lured WLS-TV's news director, Bill Applegate, from Chicago to New York City. Applegate claimed credit for taking WLS-TV from last to first in only two years and ABC hoped he could work the same magic at the flagship station. In the wake of declining ratings, Grimsby was fired on April 16, 1986, a move for which Applegate drew considerable ire and Grimsby was quickly hired by rival WNBC-TV. In 1987, Channel 7 surged back into first place. It has been the ratings leader in New York City since then, and has grown to become the most-watched broadcast television station in the United States. Beutel stepped down from the anchor desk in 2001, which concluded the longest tenure for a main anchor in New York City television history at that time. His record has since been surpassed by WNBC's Chuck Scarborough and
WXTV WXTV-DT (channel 41) is a television station licensed to Paterson, New Jersey, United States, serving as the Univision outlet for the New York City area. It is one of two flagship stations of the Spanish-language network (the other being WL ...
's Rafael Pineda. Scarborough's uninterrupted run behind the desk is the longest in New York television (since 1974). Pineda is second, having started with WXTV in 1972, retiring in 2013 after 41 years.


=2000–present

= WABC-TV's news department is respected for its straightforward presentation (especially during breaking news). For the last decade, it has waged a spirited battle for first place, but for most of the time has held onto the lead, helped in part by lead-ins from the highly rated talk and entertainment shows. For over 24 years (December 1986 to May 2011), the lead-in for the 5:00 p.m. ''Eyewitness News'' broadcast had been ''
The Oprah Winfrey Show ''The Oprah Winfrey Show'', often referred to as ''The Oprah Show'' or simply ''Oprah'', is an American daytime syndicated talk show that aired nationally for 25 seasons from September 8, 1986, to May 25, 2011, in Chicago, Illinois. Produced ...
'' at 4:00 p.m. and its strong ratings brought viewers along to the 5:00 p.m. newscast. The newscasts were replayed on one of channel 7's digital subchannels, another which also carried local weather and news channel. WABC-TV's website had a link for live streaming video of "Channel 7 Eyewitness News NOW", which offered live local and national weather updated from AccuWeather alongside local news. The format of "Eyewitness News NOW" is similar to the defunct NBC Weather Plus. On February 24, 2011, AccuWeather and ABC both replaced ENN as well as similar news channels on WABC-TV's sister stations, KABC-TV in Los Angeles and WLS-TV in Chicago, replacing them in all three cities with a
standard definition Standard-definition television (SDTV, SD, often shortened to standard definition) is a television system which uses a resolution that is not considered to be either high or enhanced definition. "Standard" refers to it being the prevailing sp ...
,
letterboxed Letterboxing is the practice of transferring film shot in a widescreen aspect ratio to standard-width video formats while preserving the film's original aspect ratio. The resulting videographic image has mattes (black bars) above and below ...
simulcast of the Live Well Network, and then on April 15, 2015, these stations were replaced by Laff. On December 2, 2006, WABC-TV became the second station in the New York City market to begin broadcasting its local newscasts in high definition. On September 7, 2010, WABC-TV expanded its weekday morning newscast, moving its start time to 4:30 a.m. 3 Days earlier on September 4, 2010, WABC added an hour-long extension of its Saturday morning newscast from 9:00 a.m. – 10:00 a.m. On May 26, 2011, WABC-TV added another hour of local news at 4:00 p.m. to replace ''Oprah'', which aired its last original episode the previous day. WABC also produces a 7:00 p.m. newscast on Saturdays following college football during the regular season. On September 24, 2011, the station began broadcasting its newscasts and public affairs programs from a new street-level window studio at a former
Disney Store The Disney Store is a chain of specialty stores selling only Disney related items, many of them exclusive, under its own name and Disney Outlet. It was a business unit of Disney Consumer Products with the Disney Parks, Experiences and Products s ...
location in the ABC building on 66th Street and Columbus Avenue. The space previously used for news broadcasts was used to expand the ''Live with Kelly'' studio. In January 2012, the station also expanded its weekend 11:00 p.m. newscasts to an hour. On September 8, 2014, the station expanded its Noon newscast to one full hour from the previous half hour. WABC-TV will leave its longtime home of Lincoln Square upon the completion of a new campus for Disney, located at
Hudson Square Hudson Square is a neighborhood in Lower Manhattan in New York City. It is bounded approximately by Clarkson Street to the north, Canal Street to the south, Varick Street to the east, and the Hudson River to the west. To the north of the neig ...
in Lower Manhattan. On January 31, 2022, WABC announced they would be launching a 24/7 stream titled "ABC 7 New York 24/7 Stream." As part of the launch of the service, WABC announced a new 6:30 p.m. newscast, available only through the stream.


Notable current on-air staff


=Anchors

= * Sade Baderinwa * Sandra Bookman – also host of ''Here and Now'' *
Michelle Charlesworth Michelle Charlesworth (born June 7, 1970) is an American television news reporter and anchor. Since 1998 she has been a reporter for both ABC News and WABC-TV, as well as a weekend morning anchor for WABC-TV's Eyewitness News. She is best know ...
– also reporter and fill-in anchor * Liz Cho *
David Novarro David Novarro (born October 1, 1959) is an American television news journalist for WABC-TV in New York City. He is the co-anchor of ''Eyewitness News'' @Noon with Shirleen Allicot and the 4 pm newscast with Liz Cho. He is featured on a segment ca ...
*
Bill Ritter August William Ritter Jr. (born September 6, 1956) is an American politician and lawyer who served as the 41st Governor of Colorado from 2007 to 2011. A member of the Democratic Party, he served as the district attorney for Denver before his ele ...
– also host of ''Eyewitness News UpClose'' * Ken Rosato – also host of ''New York Viewpoint'' * Joe Torres – also host of ''Tiempo'' and fill-in anchor


=Weather

= * Lee Goldberg ( AMS Seal of Approval) – chief meteorologist *
Sam Champion Samuel James Champion (born August 13, 1961) is an American weather anchor who is best known for his combined 25-year career on the ABC flagship station WABC-TV and ''Good Morning America''. He formerly co-anchored '' AMHQ: America's Morning He ...


=Sports

= *
Ryan Field Ryan Field may refer to: * Baton Rouge Metropolitan Airport, also known as Ryan Field, in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, United States * Ryan Field (airport), also known as Ryan Airfield, in Tucson, Arizona, United States * Ryan Field (sportscaster) (born ...
– sports director * Sam Ryan – sports reporter


=Reporters

= * N.J. Burkett – general assignment reporter *
Lauren Glassberg Lauren Glassberg (born June 2, 1970) is an American journalist. Currently, Glassberg is a features reporter and substitute co-anchor for WABC-TV's editions of ''Eyewitness News'' in New York City. Lauren joined the ABC Affiliate in March 2000. ...
– general assignment reporter; fill-in anchor * Shannon Sohn – NewsCopter 7 reporter * Toni Yates – general assignment reporter; fill-in anchor


Notable former on-air staff

*
Roz Abrams Roslyn Maria Abrams (born September 7, 1948) is a former American television news journalist. She had a long career as an anchor on ''Eyewitness News'', which is broadcast by WABC-TV, working in Manhattan. More recently she worked for WCBS-TV, al ...
(retired) *
Ernie Anastos Ernie Anastos (born July 12, 1943) is an American news anchor and the host of the show ''Positively America with Ernie Anastos''. He anchored the news at 6 p.m. on WNYW in New York City. He was also the anchor of the 5 and 10 p.m. newscasts on Fo ...
(last at
WNYW WNYW (channel 5) is a television station in New York City, serving as the flagship of the Fox network. It is owned and operated by the network's Fox Television Stations division alongside Secaucus, New Jersey–licensed MyNetworkTV flagsh ...
, retired from television) * Tex Antoine (deceased) * Steve Bartelstein (retired from television) *
Bill Beutel William Charles Beutel (December 12, 1930 – March 18, 2006) was an American television reporter, journalist, and anchor. He was best known for working over four decades with the American Broadcasting Company, spending much of that time anchoring ...
(deceased) * Bill Bonds (deceased; was best known for his work at former
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 ...
sister station
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 ...
) *
Jim Bouton James Alan Bouton (; March 8, 1939 – July 10, 2019) was an American professional baseball player. Bouton played in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a pitcher for the New York Yankees, Seattle Pilots, Houston Astros, and Atlanta Braves between 196 ...
(deceased) *
Spencer Christian Spencer Christian (born July 23, 1947) is an American television broadcaster, best known as the former weather forecaster for ABC's ''Good Morning America'' from 1986 to 1998. He currently is the weather forecaster for ABC-owned KGO-TV in San Fr ...
(left to join ''Good Morning America'', now with
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 17t ...
sister station
KGO-TV KGO-TV (channel 7) is a television station licensed to San Francisco, California, United States, serving as the San Francisco Bay Area's ABC network outlet. Owned and operated by the network's ABC Owned Television Stations division, KGO-TV ma ...
) *
Lisa Colagrossi Lisa Colagrossi (May 9, 1965 – March 20, 2015) was an American journalist and television news anchor and reporter. She was a reporter for WABC-TV In New York City from September 2001 until her death on March 20, 2015. Career Prior to joinin ...
(deceased) * Bertha Coombs (now with CNBC) *
Victoria Corderi Victoria Corderi (born 1957) is an American journalist and recipient of three national news Emmys and a George Foster Peabody Award for Excellence in Journalism. She is also a 1997 recipient of the Edward R. Murrow Award for investigative journa ...
(was most recently at NBC News as a reporter for ''
Dateline NBC ''Dateline NBC'' is a weekly American television news magazine/reality legal show that is broadcast on NBC. It was previously the network's flagship general interest news magazine, but now focuses mainly on true crime stories with only occasio ...
'') * Howard Cosell (later with
ABC Sports ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script known as the alphabet. ABC or abc may also refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Broadcasting * American Broadcasting Company, a commercial U.S. TV broadcaster ** Disney–ABC Televisi ...
) (deceased) *
Penny Crone Barbara Penny Crone Forney (born 1950 in New York City) is a former American television and radio reporter, media personality, and current real estate broker for the Douglas Elliman real estate company in New York. Career Born in New York to Haro ...
(retired) * Tom Dunn (deceased) * Tom Ellis (later at
WCVB-TV WCVB-TV (channel 5) is a television station in Boston, Massachusetts, United States, affiliated with ABC and owned by Hearst Television. The station's studios are located on TV Place (off Gould Street near the I-95/ MA 128/Highland Avenue ...
,
WNEV-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 ...
and NECN, deceased) *
Bill Evans William John Evans (August 16, 1929 – September 15, 1980) was an American jazz pianist and composer who worked primarily as the leader of his trio. His use of impressionist harmony, interpretation of traditional jazz repertoire, block ch ...
(left on February 5, 2019, now with WLNG) * Dave Evans (retired) * Storm Field (retired) *
Ira Joe Fisher Ira Joe Fisher (born October 31, 1947, Salamanca, New York) is an American broadcaster, poet, and educator.. The winner of two regional Emmys, he currently presents Speaking Fearlessly seminars and teaches at UConn and Mercy College. He was the ...
(retired from television) * Amy Freeze (now with Fox Weather) *
Frank Gifford Francis Newton Gifford (August 16, 1930 – August 9, 2015) was an American football player, actor, and television sports commentator. After a 12-year playing career as a halfback and flanker for the New York Giants of the National Foo ...
(later with ABC Sports) (deceased) *
Carlos Granda Carlos Granda is a reporter for KABC-TV News in Los Angeles. Background Carlos Granda holds a Bachelor's degree in Mass Communications and Broadcast Journalism from the University of South Florida. He became interested in journalism after ...
(now with
KABC-TV KABC-TV (channel 7) is a television station in Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California, United States, serving as the West Coast of the United States, West Coast Flagship (broadcasting), flagship of the American Broadcasting Company, ABC network. ...
) *
Roger Grimsby Roger Olin Grimsby (September 23, 1928 – June 23, 1995) was an American journalist, television news anchor and actor. Grimsby, who for eighteen years was seen on ABC's flagship station WABC in New York City, is known as one of the pioneers of ...
(deceased) *
Mark Haines Mark Haines (April 19, 1946 – May 24, 2011) was a host on the CNBC television network. Early life and education Haines grew up in Oyster Bay, New York, and resided in Monmouth County, New Jersey. His ''alma mater'' was Denison Univers ...
(later with CNBC) (deceased) * Robb Hanrahan (deceased) *
Steve Hartman Stephen Robert Hartman (born April 14, 1963) is an American broadcast journalist. Hartman earned a degree in broadcast journalism at Bowling Green State University, graduating in 1985. Hartman lives with his wife, Andrea, and their three chil ...
(now with CBS News) * Edye Hill (Tarbox) (later with
Fox News The Fox News Channel, abbreviated FNC, commonly known as Fox News, and stylized in all caps, is an American multinational conservative cable news television channel based in New York City. It is owned by Fox News Media, which itself is o ...
) *
Carol Iovanna Carol Iovanna (born March 2, 1952) is a former newscaster on Fox News from 1996 to 2006. She often did the headlines in the late night hours during the weekends. Before Fox, she worked at WCBS-TV and WABC-TV. Iovanna also anchored the news on ''L ...
(retired from television) * John Johnson (retired) *
Larry Kane Larry Kane (born October 21, 1942) is an American journalist, news anchor and author. Kane spent 36 years as a news anchor in Philadelphia, and is the only person to have anchored at all three Philadelphia owned and operated television stations ...
(later with
KYW-TV KYW-TV (channel 3) is a television station in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States, airing programming from the CBS network. It is owned and operated by the network's CBS News and Stations division alongside CW affiliate WPSG (channel ...
and KYW radio, was most recently with the
Comcast Network The Comcast Network (TCN) was an American cable television network owned by the Comcast Corporation, through NBCUniversal; it was carried mostly on Comcast cable systems in four states and 20 television markets in the Eastern U.S. from New Jers ...
until its October 2, 2017 rebranding) * Bob Lape (now with WCBS radio) * Judy Licht (retired from television) *
Nancy Loo Nancy Loo is the West Coast Bureau Correspondent for NewsNation in Los Angeles. Early life In 1964, Loo was born in Hong Kong. Loo was raised in Northern California, U.S. Career Loo landed her first broadcasting job out of the University of ...
(now with
NewsNation NewsNation is an American subscription television network owned by the Nexstar Media Group, and is the company's only wholly-owned, national cable-originated television channel. The channel runs a mixture of entertainment programming (consist ...
) *
Dorothy Lucey Dorothy Lucey (born November 19, 1958) is an American entertainment reporter who formerly co-hosted ''Good Day L.A.'', the morning news program on Los Angeles Fox affiliate KTTV. Career Lucey graduated from George Washington University in 197 ...
(later with
KTTV KTTV (channel 11) is a television station in Los Angeles, California, United States, serving as the West Coast flagship of the Fox network. It is owned and operated by the network's Fox Television Stations division alongside MyNetworkTV ou ...
) * Felipe Luciano (retired from television) * Joan Lunden (later with ''Good Morning America'') *
Sal Marchiano Salvatore Joseph "Sal" Marchiano (born March 3, 1941) is a former American sportscaster who worked in New York radio and television for forty four years. In December 2008 he retired from his position as sports director and anchor for the WPIX Ch ...
(retired) * Art McFarland (retired) * Corey McPherrin (now with
WFLD WFLD (channel 32) is a television station in Chicago, Illinois, United States, airing programming from the Fox network. It is owned and operated by the network's Fox Television Stations division alongside Gary, Indiana–licensed MyNetworkTV ...
) *
Larry Mendte Lawrence David Mendte (born January 16, 1957) is an American news anchor, commentator and radio talk show host. Mendte is currently hosting three TV shows, ''Jersey Matters'', ''The Delaware Way'', and ''Another Thing with Larry Mendte''. Mend ...
(now with WABC) *
George Michael George Michael (born Georgios Kyriacos Panayiotou; 25 June 1963 – 25 December 2016) was an English singer and songwriter. He is considered one of the most significant cultural icons of the MTV generation and is one of the best-selling music ...
(later with
WRC-TV WRC-TV (channel 4) is a television station in Washington, D.C., airing programming from the NBC network. It is owned and operated by the network's NBC Owned Television Stations division alongside Class A Telemundo outlet WZDC-CD (channel 44 ...
; former host of ''
The George Michael Sports Machine ''The George Michael Sports Machine'' is a syndicated, sports-related American television program which was launched in 1984. The show aired weekends, usually on Sunday nights, and originated from WRC-TV in Washington, D.C., one of NBC's owned and ...
'') (deceased) * Tim Minton (last at WNBC, retired from television) * Rob Nelson (later with
NewsNation NewsNation is an American subscription television network owned by the Nexstar Media Group, and is the company's only wholly-owned, national cable-originated television channel. The channel runs a mixture of entertainment programming (consist ...
) * Mary Nissenson (deceased) *
Gil Noble Gilbert Edward "Gil" Noble (February 22, 1932 – April 5, 2012) was an American television reporter and interviewer. He was the producer and host of New York City television station WABC-TV's weekly show '' Like It Is'', originally co-hosted ...
(deceased) * Mike Parker (was most recently at
WBBM-TV WBBM-TV (channel 2) is a television station in Chicago, Illinois, United States, airing programming from the CBS network. Owned and operated by the network's CBS News and Stations division, the station maintains studios on West Washington ...
in
Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = List of sovereign states, Count ...
) (deceased) * Jim Paymar (now a producer; President of Paymar Communications) * Jeff Pegues (now with CBS News) *
Charles Perez Charles Perez (born March 2, 1963) is an American writer and television news reporter, anchor and talk show host. Career Perez was in the news business in the 1990s through the 2000s, during which he anchored and reported for WABC-TV in New ...
(retired) * Tappy Phillips (retired) *
Richie Powers Richard Francis Powers (October 14, 1930 – July 31, 1998) was a professional basketball referee in the NBA from 1956 to 1979. He worked 25 NBA Finals games, including the triple-overtime Game 5 contest in the 1976 NBA Finals between the Suns a ...
(deceased) * Rob Powers (now at
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 ...
) * Shimon Prokupecz (now with CNN) *
Geraldo Rivera Geraldo Rivera (born Gerald Riviera; July 4, 1943) is an American journalist, attorney, author, political commentator, and former television host. He hosted the tabloid talk show '' Geraldo'' from 1987 to 1998. He gained publicity with the liv ...
(now with Fox News) * Susan Roesgen (now at WGNO) * Gloria Rojas (later with
WNBC WNBC (channel 4) is a television station in New York City, serving as the flagship of the NBC network. It is owned and operated by the network's NBC Owned Television Stations division alongside Linden, New Jersey–licensed Telemundo stati ...
, deceased) * Jeff Rossen (later with NBC News; now with
Hearst Television Hearst Television, Inc. (formerly Hearst-Argyle Television) is a broadcasting company in the United States owned by Hearst Communications. From 1998 to mid-2009, the company traded its common stock on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol ...
) *
Rose Ann Scamardella Rose Ann Scamardella (born July 20, 1947) is a former anchorwoman of WABC-TV's ''Eyewitness News'' in New York City, and the inspiration for Gilda Radner's character "Roseanne Roseannadanna" on ''Saturday Night Live''. Biography Rose Ann Scamar ...
(retired) *
John Schubeck John Schubeck (March 18, 1936 – September 26, 1997) was an American television reporter and anchor, and one of the few to anchor newscasts on all three network owned-and-operated stations in one major market. Schubeck was born in Detroit, Mic ...
(deceased) *
Marvell Scott Marvell Scott (born February 28, 1973) is a physician and former journalist. He is a graduate of Wheaton Central High School in Wheaton, Illinois, a graduate of the University of Delaware and a graduate of Wright State University Boonshoft Sc ...
(retired from television; now a team physician) * Rosanna Scotto (now with WNYW) * Joel Siegel (later with ''Good Morning America'') (deceased) *
Tom Snyder Thomas James Snyder (May 12, 1936 – July 29, 2007) was an American television personality, news anchor, and radio personality best known for his late night talk shows '' Tomorrow'', on the NBC television network in the 1970s and 1980s, and ' ...
(deceased) * Lara Spencer (left to join ''Good Morning America'', later hosted '' The Insider'' and ''
Antiques Roadshow ''Antiques Roadshow'' is a British television programme broadcast by the BBC in which antiques appraisers travel to various regions of the United Kingdom (and occasionally in other countries) to appraise antiques brought in by local people ( ...
'', has since rejoined ''GMA'') *
Lori Stokes Lori Stokes (born September 16, 1962) is an American former journalist and news anchor. She was the evening news anchor for the 5, 6, and 10 O’Clock news at Fox 5 NY WNYW in New York City from 2021 to 2022. She formerly co-hosted ''Good Day Ne ...
(was most recently with
WNYW WNYW (channel 5) is a television station in New York City, serving as the flagship of the Fox network. It is owned and operated by the network's Fox Television Stations division alongside Secaucus, New Jersey–licensed MyNetworkTV flagsh ...
; now retired) *
Spencer Tillman Spencer Allen Tillman (born April 21, 1964) is an American former professional football player who played running back for eight seasons for the Houston Oilers and San Francisco 49ers in the National Football League (NFL). College career Colle ...
(now with
Houston Houston (; ) is the most populous city in Texas, the most populous city in the Southern United States, the fourth-most populous city in the United States, and the sixth-most populous city in North America, with a population of 2,304,580 ...
sister station
KTRK-TV KTRK-TV (channel 13) is a television station in Houston, Texas, United States, airing programming from the ABC network. Owned and operated by the network's ABC Owned Television Stations division, the station maintains studios on Bissonnet Stre ...
and also, commentator with
Fox Sports Fox Sports is the brand name for a number of sports channels, broadcast divisions, programming, and other media around the world. The ''Fox Sports'' name has since been used for other sports media assets. These assets are held mainly by the F ...
) * Lee Thomas (now with
WJBK 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 facil ...
) * Melba Tolliver (retired) * Kaity Tong (now with
WPIX WPIX (channel 11) is a television station in New York City. Owned by Mission Broadcasting, it is operated under a local marketing agreement (LMA) by Nexstar Media Group, making it a ''de facto'' owned-and-operated station and flagship of ...
) * John Bartholomew Tucker (deceased) *
David Ushery David Ushery (born June 5, 1967) is an African-American television news anchor at WNBC News 4 New York, NBC’s flagship owned and operated station. An integral member of the NBC 4 New York News team, Ushery has covered many of the largest and m ...
(now with WNBC) *
Scott Vincent Scott Vincent (December 24, 1922 – May 31, 1979) was an American radio and television announcer and newscaster. Radio Scott Vincent was a staff announcer for nearly 25 years at ABC's flagship owned-and-operated station WABC-TV in New York ...
(deceased) *
Rolonda Watts Rolonda Watts (born July 12, 1959) is an American actress, producer, and television and radio talk show host. She is best known for hosting the eponymous '' Rolonda'', an internationally syndicated talk show which aired from 1994 to 1997. Watts ...
(later with ''
Inside Edition ''Inside Edition'' is an American news broadcasting newsmagazine program that is distributed in first-run syndication by CBS Media Ventures. Having premiered on January 9, 1989, it is the longest-running syndicated-newsmagazine program that is no ...
'' and talk show ''
Rolonda ''Rolonda'' is a syndicated daytime talk show that aired from January 17, 1994, to May 18, 1997. It featured Rolonda Watts as the host, was produced by Watts Works Productions in association with King World Productions, and was also distributed ...
'') * Diana Williams (retired) * Joe Witte (now a researcher at the
Goddard Space Flight Center The Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) is a major NASA space research laboratory located approximately northeast of Washington, D.C. in Greenbelt, Maryland, United States. Established on May 1, 1959 as NASA's first space flight center, GSFC empl ...
) * Warner Wolf (was most recently with WABC's ''
Imus in the Morning ''Imus in the Morning'' was a long-running radio show hosted by Don Imus. The show originated on June 2, 1968, on various stations in the Western United States and Cleveland, Ohio before settling on WNBC radio in New York City in 1971. In Octobe ...
'' radio show until December 3, 2016) *
Jenna Wolfe Jenna Wolfe (born Jennifer Wolfeld; February 26, 1974) is a Jamaican-American journalist and personal trainer. From 2007 to 2014, she was a correspondent for NBC's ''Today'', and Sunday co-anchor from 2007 to 2012 and news anchor for ''Weekend To ...
(previously with NBC's ''
Today Today (archaically to-day) may refer to: * Day of the present, the time that is perceived directly, often called ''now'' * Current era, present * The current calendar date Arts, entertainment, and media Films * ''Today'' (1930 film), a 1930 ...
'', now moderator of ''First Things First with
Cris Carter Graduel Christopher Darin Carter (born November 25, 1965) is an American former football wide receiver who played in the National Football League (NFL) for the Philadelphia Eagles (1987–1989), the Minnesota Vikings (1990–2001) and the Mia ...
and Nick Wright'' on FS1) *
Eli Zaret Eli Zaret (born March 17, 1950) is an American sports broadcaster and journalist based in Detroit, Michigan. Zaret was a radio and television sports reporter and author who worked in both Detroit and New York from 1974 until 2004. After leaving ...


Subchannels

The station's digital signal is
multiplexed In telecommunications and computer networking, multiplexing (sometimes contracted to muxing) is a method by which multiple analog or digital signals are combined into one signal over a shared medium. The aim is to share a scarce resource - a ...
:


Cable carriage disputes


Cablevision (2010)

On March 7, 2010, at 12:02 a.m. WABC-TV's signal was removed from
Cablevision Cablevision Systems Corporation was an American cable television company with systems serving areas surrounding New York City. It was the fifth-largest cable provider and ninth-largest television provider in the United States. Throughout its e ...
's New York area systems (including iO Digital Cable) after failing to reach terms on a new
retransmission consent Retransmission consent is a provision of the 1992 United States Cable Television Consumer Protection and Competition Act that requires cable operators and other multichannel video programming distributors (MVPDs) to obtain permission from commer ...
agreement; the station was replaced by either a blank screen or a looping video containing a message from Cablevision about the removal. To avoid interruption of programming, the station urged Cablevision subscribers in the station's viewing area (totaling up to three million subscribers) to switch to other services, such as Verizon FiOS and
DirecTV DirecTV (trademarked as DIRECTV) is an American multichannel video programming distributor based in El Segundo, California. Originally launched on June 17, 1994, its primary service is a digital satellite service serving the United States. I ...
or simply view the station over the air through an over-the-air digital antenna and if necessary, a digital converter box, for older television sets. WABC's sister station, WPVI-TV in Philadelphia was also pulled from Cablevision's New Jersey systems in Mercer,
Ocean The ocean (also the sea or the world ocean) is the body of salt water that covers approximately 70.8% of the surface of Earth and contains 97% of Earth's water. An ocean can also refer to any of the large bodies of water into which the wor ...
and Monmouth Counties. Later that same day at approximately 8:50 p.m., 20 minutes into ABC's broadcast of the 82nd Annual Academy Awards, Cablevision and ABC reached a deal, restoring WABC and WPVI's signals for Cablevision subscribers after a nearly 21-hour blackout.


Time Warner Cable (2010)

In July 2010, ABC's parent company Disney announced that it was involved in a carriage dispute with
Time Warner Cable Time Warner Cable, Inc. (TWC) was an American cable television company. Before it was acquired by Charter Communications on May 18, 2016, it was ranked the second largest cable company in the United States by revenue behind only Comcast, opera ...
(now
Spectrum A spectrum (plural ''spectra'' or ''spectrums'') is a condition that is not limited to a specific set of values but can vary, without gaps, across a continuum. The word was first used scientifically in optics to describe the rainbow of colors ...
), its first with that provider in 10 years. This dispute involved four ABC owned-and-operated stations (WABC-TV and sister stations
KABC-TV KABC-TV (channel 7) is a television station in Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California, United States, serving as the West Coast of the United States, West Coast Flagship (broadcasting), flagship of the American Broadcasting Company, ABC network. ...
in Los Angeles,
WTVD WTVD (channel 11) is a television station licensed to Durham, North Carolina, United States, broadcasting the ABC network to the Research Triangle area. Owned and operated by the network's ABC Owned Television Stations division, it maintains ...
in
Durham, North Carolina Durham ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of North Carolina and the county seat of Durham County. Small portions of the city limits extend into Orange County and Wake County. With a population of 283,506 in the 2020 Census, Durham is the 4th- ...
and
WTVG WTVG (channel 13) is a television station in Toledo, Ohio, United States, affiliated with ABC and The CW. Owned by Gray Television, the station maintains studios on Dorr Street ( SR 246) in Toledo, and its transmitter is located on Stadium Road ...
in
Toledo, Ohio Toledo ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Lucas County, Ohio, United States. A major Midwestern United States port city, Toledo is the fourth-most populous city in the state of Ohio, after Columbus, Ohio, Columbus, Cleveland, and Cincinnat ...
he latter station would be sold by ABC the next year,
Disney Channel Disney Channel, sometimes known as simply Disney, is an American pay television channel that serves as the flagship property of Disney Branded Television, a unit of the Disney General Entertainment Content division of The Walt Disney Comp ...
and the
ESPN ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). The ...
networks. If a deal wasn't in place, the affected stations and cable channels would've been removed from Time Warner and
Bright House Networks Bright House Networks, LLC also simply known as Bright House, was an American telecom company. Prior to its purchase by Charter Communications, it was the tenth-largest multichannel video service provider and the 6th largest cable internet prov ...
systems across the country. On September 2, 2010, Disney and Time Warner Cable reached a long-term agreement to keep the channels on Time Warner Cable systems.


See also

*
Circle 7 logo The Circle 7 logo is an often-used television station logo in the United States. Designed in the early 1960s for the American Broadcasting Company's five owned-and-operated stations (all of which broadcast on VHF channel 7), the logo, or a v ...
*
List of television stations in New York (by region) This is a list of broadcast television stations serving cities in the state of New York, as of 2016–2017. The branding that the stations are commonly use are shown in bold. Albany/Schenectady/Troy Area *Channel 6: WRGB - (CBS) - Schenectad ...
* Media in New York City *
New Yorkers in journalism New York City has been called the media capital of the world. Many journalists work in Manhattan, reporting about international, American, business, entertainment, and New York metropolitan area-related matters. New Yorkers in journalism A ...
*
WABC (AM) WABC (770 AM) is a commercial radio station licensed to New York, New York, carrying a conservative talk format known as "Talkradio 77". Owned by John Catsimatidis' Red Apple Media, the station's studios are located in Red Apple Media headqu ...
(770 kHz) *
WPLJ WPLJ (95.5 FM) is a non-commercial Christian adult contemporary music radio station licensed to New York City. It is owned by the Educational Media Foundation (EMF) and broadcasts EMF's flagship programming service, K-Love. WPLJ's transmi ...
(95.5 MHz)


References


External links

* *
Classic and current WABC-TV station ID's, promos and clips
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wabc-Tv 1948 establishments in New York City ABC network affiliates This TV affiliates Companies based in Manhattan ABC Owned Television Stations Television channels and stations established in 1948 ABC-TV Upper West Side