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 earth's surface to any number of tuned receivers simultaneously.
147-584: WBZ-TV (channel 4) is a television station in Boston, Massachusetts , United States, serving as the market's CBS outlet. It is owned and operated by the network's CBS News and Stations division alongside independent WSBK-TV (channel 38). Both stations share studios on Soldiers Field Road in the Allston–Brighton section of Boston. WBZ-TV's transmitter is located on Cedar Street in Needham, Massachusetts , on
294-572: A TV network and an individual station within the network is referred to as O&O or affiliate , respectively. Because television station signals use the electromagnetic spectrum, which in the past has been a common, scarce resource, governments often claim authority to regulate them. Broadcast television systems standards vary around the world. Television stations broadcasting over an analog system were typically limited to one television channel , but digital television enables broadcasting via subchannels as well. Television stations usually require
441-539: A barter in some cases. Major League Baseball This is an accepted version of this page Major League Baseball ( MLB ) is a professional baseball league and the highest level of organized baseball in the United States and Canada . One of the "Big Four" major professional sports leagues in the United States and Canada , MLB comprises 30 teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and
588-441: A broadcast license from a government agency which sets the requirements and limitations on the station. In the United States, for example, a television license defines the broadcast range , or geographic area, that the station is limited to, allocates the broadcast frequency of the radio spectrum for that station's transmissions, sets limits on what types of television programs can be programmed for broadcast and requires
735-615: A "mega-block" of news, and dismissed its former lead anchor Josh Binswanger, leading to the return of longtime anchor Jack Williams to the evening newscasts. In addition, Ed Carroll's contract was not renewed and in October 2005 the station hired Ken Barlow from KARE in Minneapolis , Minnesota, to replace him as chief meteorologist. The 4 p.m. newscast was discontinued later in 2006. In late August 2006, WBZ-TV hired anchor Chris May from WHDH-TV, pairing him with Sara Underwood as anchors of
882-468: A 2006–07 investigation produced the Mitchell Report , which found that many players had used steroids and other performance-enhancing substances , including at least one player from each team. Each team plays 162 games per season, with Opening Day traditionally held during the first week of April. Six teams in each league then advance to a four-round postseason tournament in October, culminating in
1029-499: A 5 p.m. newscast with a regular hard-news format. In the early 1980s, WBZ-TV lost its longtime spot as Boston's highest-rated news station to WCVB, but even then placed a strong second for more than a decade. Its evening news team—consisting of anchors Jack Williams and Liz Walker , the late meteorologist Bruce Schwoegler, and sportscaster Bob Lobel —was the longest-running news team in New England from 1981 until Walker moved to
1176-661: A CBS-owned-and-operated station (and has remained so ever since). As a condition of the merger, CBS had to sell WPRI-TV (channel 12) in Providence, Rhode Island , which was acquired by CBS earlier that year. Channel 4 provides at least grade B signal coverage to all of Rhode Island, and city-grade coverage within Providence itself as well as Fall River and New Bedford . At the time, the FCC normally did not allow common ownership of two stations with overlapping signals, and would not even consider
1323-651: A batter could foul off any number of pitches with no strikes counted against him; this gave an enormous advantage to the batter. After the 1919 World Series between the Chicago White Sox and Cincinnati Reds, baseball was rocked by allegations of a game-fixing scheme known as the Black Sox Scandal . Eight players— "Shoeless" Joe Jackson , Eddie Cicotte , Claude "Lefty" Williams , George "Buck" Weaver , Arnold "Chick" Gandil , Fred McMullin , Charles "Swede" Risberg , and Oscar "Happy" Felsch —intentionally lost
1470-545: A black box and the "CBS News Boston" logo beside it. As an NBC affiliate, the station was known to preempt several hours of network programming per day—a common practice among Group W television stations affiliated with NBC and CBS. This was significant, since WBZ-TV was NBC's third-largest affiliate, and second-largest in the Eastern Time Zone . It primarily preempted several of the network's morning programs, with most preempted programs appearing on independent stations in
1617-406: A chance for recreation and for taking their minds off their work even more than before." With the approval of President Roosevelt, spring training began in 1942 with few repercussions. The war interrupted the careers of stars including Stan Musial , Bob Feller , Ted Williams , and Joe DiMaggio , but baseball clubs continued to field their teams. Branch Rickey, president and general manager of
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#17328553154441764-399: A competing program that was similarly structured (to be anchored by Peter Mehegan and Mary Richardson, who later became the long-running anchor team on Chronicle ), but it was WNEV who made three attempts at a Live on 4 -inspired show. First, it premiered the two-hour live talk/magazine show Look in the fall of 1982 (renamed New England Afternoon in its second and final year), it failed in
1911-634: A daytime talk show with those of a traditional newscast, went on to become a trendsetter in the Boston market in the 1980s. First anchored by Gail Harris and Chris Marrou, it later had hosting assumed by many other WBZ staff members, including entertainment reporter Joyce Kulhawik and news anchor Chris Conangla in the mid-1980s. Live on 4 gave a loose preview of the news to be covered more in depth at 6 p.m. and 11 p.m. with featuring stories on lifestyle, health and entertainment topics, along with live, in-studio guests. At one point, WCVB considered launching
2058-577: A deal with the E. W. Scripps Company to switch three of Scripps' television stations—including its Baltimore outlet, WMAR-TV —to ABC as a condition of retaining its network affiliations with WEWS-TV in Cleveland and WXYZ-TV in Detroit; CBS intended to affiliate with those two stations, as it was about to lose its longtime affiliates in those markets to Fox due to a deal with New World Communications . Westinghouse felt betrayed by ABC's decision, and as
2205-404: A few months prior to Watkins' arrival). Evening enjoyed an over-13-year run, the last nine of which had it compete directly with WCVB's newsmagazine Chronicle . In September 1990, due to a decline in the franchise's popularity and tabloid TV magazines heralding bigger ratings and revenue, Group W canceled Evening/PM , with the last WBZ broadcast airing on December 17 of that year. The program
2352-500: A grand jury in Pittsburgh related to cocaine trafficking. The 1994–95 Major League Baseball strike from August 12, 1994, to April 25, 1995, caused the cancellation of over 900 games and the forfeit of the entire 1994 postseason. Routinely in the late 1990s and early 2000s, baseball players hit 40 or 50 home runs in a season, a feat that was considered rare even in the 1980s. It later became apparent that at least some of this power surge
2499-491: A greater emphasis on " hard news " coverage, are changes which the station believed would help regain viewership it had lost to rival station WCVB. Susan Walker, a broadcast professor at the Boston University , criticized the station's concurrent adoption of a standard graphics and branding scheme similar to its sister stations, which she believed put too much emphasis on WBZ being a CBS station, rather than branding itself as
2646-633: A little better in subsequent campaigns—but in their eighth season (1969) the Mets became the first of the 1960s expansion teams to play in the postseason, culminating in a World Series title over the heavily favored Baltimore Orioles. In 1966, the major leagues moved to the "Deep South" when the Braves moved to Atlanta. In 1968, the Kansas City Athletics moved west to become the Oakland Athletics . In 1969,
2793-504: A local station. WBZ-TV launched a streaming news service, CBSN Boston (now CBS News Boston) on September 24, 2019, as part of a rollout of similar services (each localized versions of the national CBSN service) across the CBS-owned stations. The station's signal is multiplexed : WBZ-TV discontinued regular programming on its analog signal, over VHF channel 4, on June 12, 2009, the official date on which full-power television stations in
2940-646: A man for many reasons. Color is not one of them." That year, Robinson won the inaugural Major League Baseball Rookie of the Year Award (separate NL and AL Rookie of the Year honors were not awarded until 1949). Less than three months later, Larry Doby became the first African-American to break the color barrier in the American League with the Cleveland Indians. The next year, a number of other black players entered
3087-415: A much shorter wavelength, and thus requires a shorter antenna, but also higher power. North American stations can go up to 5000 kW ERP for video and 500 kW audio, or 1000 kW digital. Low channels travel further than high ones at the same power, but UHF does not suffer from as much electromagnetic interference and background "noise" as VHF, making it much more desirable for TV. Despite this, in
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#17328553154443234-413: A new National Agreement which tied independent contracts to the reserve-clause contracts. The agreement also set up a formal classification system for minor leagues, the forerunner of today's system that was refined by Branch Rickey . Several other early defunct baseball leagues are considered major leagues, and their statistics and records are included with those of the two modern major leagues. In 1969,
3381-499: A new logo with WBZ lettering and the CBS eye contained within a series of squares. CBS would extend the logo design to then-sister radio station WBZ (1030 AM) in 2010. Alongside the introduction of a new set and the CBS O&;O graphics package in 2011, WBZ introduced a logo combining the 2004 "CBS 4" logo with the squared WBZ lettering below it. However, the "squares" logo continued to be used as
3528-630: A new sponsorship deal between the Boston Pops, Eaton Vance , and Bloomberg L.P. The 2018 edition was simulcast by WHDH. WBZ-TV has aired local sporting events over the years, that have originated either in-house, or through NBC or CBS . Besides the Braves (from 1948 until the team moved to Milwaukee before the 1953 season ) and the Red Sox ( 1948 – 1957 , 1972 – 1974 , and a handful of games in 2003 and 2004 , along with certain games aired nationally on NBC from 1948 to 1989 ), WBZ-TV also broadcast
3675-484: A new state sweepstakes, Mass Millions , was introduced, and was televised on Lottery Live each Friday. Substitute hosts during the original WBZ run of Lottery Live included Evening Magazine reporter Steve Aveson (later of New England Cable News ) and WBZ radio personality Ron Robin. The station holds the record for having the longest initial involvement with the Lottery (12 years), culminating in its decision to release
3822-437: A new subscription service hosted on Apple TV . WBZ-TV presently broadcasts 34 hours, 35 minutes of locally produced newscasts each week (with 5 hours, 5 minutes each weekday; 4 hours, 5 minutes on Saturdays; and 5 hours, 5 minutes on Sundays). WBZ operates a Bell LongRanger 206LIV helicopter for newsgathering called "Sky Eye". In addition to its main studios, the station operates two other news bureaus. The "Worcester Bureau"
3969-431: A one-armed outfielder, got the chance to advance to the major leagues. However, MLB rosters did not include any black players through the end of the war. Black players, many of whom served in the war, were still restricted to playing Negro league baseball . Wartime blackout restrictions , designed to keep outdoor lighting at low levels, caused another problem for baseball. These rules limited traveling and night games to
4116-492: A rebellion by players against the hated "reserve clause", which restricted the free movement of players between clubs. Teams came and went; 1882 was the first season where the league's membership was the same as the preceding season's, and only four franchises survived to see 1900. Competitor leagues formed regularly and also disbanded regularly. The most successful was the American Association (1882–1891), sometimes called
4263-407: A result of the budget cuts, roughly 30 staffers were released from WBZ-TV and WSBK-TV, including longtime sports director Bob Lobel, entertainment reporter Joyce Kulhawik, and WSBK anchor Scott Wahle. Lobel left channel 4 on May 16, 2008, while Kulhawik and Wahle left on May 29, 2008, and May 30, 2008, respectively. Steve Burton would become the new sports director, while the position that Kulhawik held
4410-513: A safeguard began shopping for affiliation deals for the entire Group W television unit. Group W eventually struck an agreement to switch WBZ-TV, KYW-TV and WJZ-TV to CBS (Westinghouse's two other stations, KDKA-TV in Pittsburgh and KPIX in San Francisco, were already CBS affiliates). The Boston market's third network affiliation switch took place on January 2, 1995. The NBC affiliation went to
4557-418: A secondary logo during the early 2010s, including certain promotions and on monitors in the station's news set. On March 31, 2023, WBZ debuted the "CBS News" graphics and music package, following other CBS owned and operated stations. The morning newscast was the last time the "CBS 4/WBZ" logo was used to identify the station; for the afternoon newscasts, the "CBS News" graphics debuted, with WBZ call letters in
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4704-528: A single-game MLB attendance record in their first home appearance with 78,672 fans. In 1961, the first Washington Senators franchise moved to Minneapolis–St. Paul to become the Minnesota Twins . Two new teams were added to the American League at the same time: the Los Angeles Angels (who soon moved from downtown L.A. to nearby Anaheim ) and a new Washington Senators franchise. The NL added
4851-631: A special documentary film directed by Michael Bavaro titled Rex Trailer's Boomtown featuring old clips and interviews with childhood fans such as Jay Leno , Steven Wright , Tom Bergeron and Jimmy Tingle . The broadcast master is now part of the permanent collection at the Museum of Television & Radio in New York City. In April 1977, Evening Magazine premiered on the station. A weeknight magazine series that originated on San Francisco sister station KPIX-TV, it expanded to Group W's other stations in
4998-635: A station to broadcast a minimum amount of certain programs types, such as public affairs messages . Another form of television station is non-commercial educational (NCE) and considered public broadcasting . To avoid concentration of media ownership of television stations, government regulations in most countries generally limit the ownership of television stations by television networks or other media operators, but these regulations vary considerably. Some countries have set up nationwide television networks, in which individual television stations act as mere repeaters of nationwide programs . In those countries,
5145-483: A station which broadcasts structured content to an audience or it refers to the organization that operates the station. A terrestrial television transmission can occur via analog television signals or, more recently, via digital television signals. Television stations are differentiated from cable television or other video providers as their content is broadcast via terrestrial radio waves. A group of television stations with common ownership or affiliation are known as
5292-534: A successful Baltimore chop, the batter hits the ball forcefully into the ground, causing it to bounce so high that the batter reaches first base before the ball can be fielded and thrown to the first baseman. The adoption of the foul strike rule—in the NL in 1901, in the AL two years later—quickly sent baseball from a high-scoring game to one where scoring runs became a struggle. Before this rule, foul balls were not counted as strikes:
5439-567: A three-way swap of network affiliations in Boston. However, in 1964, the FCC nullified the NBC-RKO trade and ordered the NBC-Westinghouse swap reversed without NBC realizing any profit on the deal. WBZ-TV retained its NBC affiliation as a result of the canceled sale. WBZ-TV (sometimes informally referred to as "BZ" both on- and off-air) was a pioneer in Boston television. In 1948, it began live broadcasts of Boston's two Major League Baseball teams,
5586-551: A tower site that was formerly owned by CBS and is now owned by American Tower Corporation (which is shared with transmitters belonging to sister station WSBK as well as WCVB-TV , WBTS-CD and WGBX-TV ). As the only television station that was built from the ground up by the Westinghouse Electric Corporation , WBZ-TV began operations 10 a.m. at June 9, 1948, with test patterns. The station's dedicatory program aired at 6:30 p.m. and featured remarks from
5733-425: A variety of ways to generate revenue from television commercials . They may be an independent station or part of a broadcasting network , or some other structure. They can produce some or all of their programs or buy some broadcast syndication programming for or all of it from other stations or independent production companies. Many stations have some sort of television studio , which on major-network stations
5880-479: A waiver for stations with overlapping city-grade signals. In 1996, WBZ-TV became the first former Group W television station to drop the classic Group W font. After the 2000 acquisition of CBS by its former subsidiary, Viacom , which effectively made the station locally owned because Viacom's parent National Amusements is based in the suburbs of Boston, WBZ-TV's operations were merged with that of Boston's UPN affiliate, WSBK-TV ; concurrently, WBZ-TV also took over
6027-613: Is headquartered in Midtown Manhattan . Baseball's first all-professional team, the Cincinnati Red Stockings , was founded in 1869. The first few decades of professional baseball saw rivalries between leagues, and players often jumped from one team or league to another. These practices were essentially ended by the National Agreement of 1903, in which AL and NL agreed to respect each other's player contracts, including
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6174-577: Is located in the Worcester Plaza office tower at 440–446 Main Street in that city. The " New Hampshire Bureau" is located on Elm Street in Manchester . The station's weather radar is located at Worcester Regional Airport . Along with other CBS-owned stations, WBZ offers a web-only "@ Your Desk" newscast available live and on-demand. WBZ produces a weeknight 8 p.m. newscast for sister station WSBK. Although
6321-792: Is often used for newscasts or other local programming . There is usually a news department , where journalists gather information. There is also a section where electronic news-gathering (ENG) operations are based, receiving remote broadcasts via remote pickup unit or satellite TV . Outside broadcasting vans, production trucks , or SUVs with electronic field production (EFP) equipment are sent out with reporters , who may also bring back news stories on video tape rather than sending them back live . To keep pace with technology United States television stations have been replacing operators with broadcast automation systems to increase profits in recent years. Some stations (known as repeaters or translators ) only simulcast another, usually
6468-560: The CBS Evening News to 6:30 pm, and the station picking up Extra for 7 pm). The 90-minute 5 p.m. news remained originally until June 2004, when WBZ launched a 4 p.m. newscast for the first time (to complete with WHDH's newscast in the same timeslot). The 4 p.m. newscast was an hour long; the 5 p.m. hour was then given to Dr. Phil , a scheduling prompted by a contractual prohibition on scheduling Dr. Phil directly against The Oprah Winfrey Show , as well as
6615-496: The Eyewitness News format that had been pioneered at Philadelphia sister station KYW-TV. WBZ was the first Boston station to have a regularly-scheduled late afternoon news program. In the 1970s, the station aired First 4 News at 5:30 pm, anchored initially by Jack Williams and Pat Mitchell, then by Gail Harris. On July 21, 1979, a new format premiered in this time slot: Live on 4 , a more informal program mixing elements of
6762-475: The 1812 Overture and " Stars and Stripes Forever ", as well as the fireworks over the Charles River. Live coverage of the event was broadcast in high-definition for the first time beginning in 2007. CBS ended its national broadcast of the event following the 2012 concert; Boston Pops executive producer David G. Mugar believed CBS made this decision due to poor ratings, due primarily to NBC counterprogramming
6909-509: The American League (AL), with 29 in the United States and 1 in Canada. Formed in 1876 and 1901, respectively, the NL and AL cemented their cooperation with the National Agreement in 1903, making MLB the oldest major professional sports league in the world. They remained legally separate entities until 2000, when they merged into a single organization led by the commissioner of baseball . MLB
7056-846: The Boston Braves became the Milwaukee Braves , the St. Louis Browns became the Baltimore Orioles , and the Philadelphia Athletics became the Kansas City Athletics . The 1958 Major League Baseball season began to turn Major League Baseball into a nationwide league. Walter O'Malley , owner of the Brooklyn Dodgers and "perhaps the most influential owner of baseball's early expansion era," moved his team to Los Angeles, marking
7203-619: The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and the U.S. Department of Justice about NBC's extortion . The threat reemerged in 1960 after NBC announced it would swap the Philadelphia stations in exchange for a competing Boston outlet, then-CBS affiliate WNAC-TV (channel 7, now defunct) and its sister radio stations, from RKO General . Approval of the RKO-NBC deal would have potentially made WBZ-TV an ABC affiliate, completing
7350-588: The Great Depression , baseball's popularity had begun a downward turn in the early 1930s. By 1932, only two MLB teams turned a profit. Attendance had fallen, due at least in part to a 10% federal amusement tax added to baseball ticket prices. Baseball owners cut their rosters from 25 men to 23, and even the best players took pay cuts. Team executives were innovative in their attempts to survive, creating night games, broadcasting games live by radio, and rolling out promotions such as free admission for women. Throughout
7497-653: The Houston Astros and the New York Mets in 1962. The Astros (known as the "Colt .45s" during their first three seasons) became the first southern major league franchise since the Louisville Colonels folded in 1899 and the first franchise to be located along the Gulf Coast . The Mets established a reputation for futility by going 40–120 during their first season of play in the nation's media capital—and by playing only
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#17328553154447644-504: The Massachusetts Lottery . During the station's 6 p.m. newscast, graphic slides featuring the Lottery and The Numbers Game logos would appear with the nightly results from the Boston and Tri-State (Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont) regions. This would continue in varied forms, usually as the newscast went to commercial break, for almost a decade. In the spring of 1984, WBZ introduced local live lottery drawings. In response to
7791-591: The National Association of Base Ball Players (NABBP). The NABBP existed as an amateur league for 12 years. By 1867, more than 400 clubs were members. Most of the strongest clubs remained those based in the Northeastern United States. For professional baseball 's founding year, MLB uses the year 1869—when the first professional team, the Cincinnati Red Stockings , was established. A schism developed between professional and amateur ballplayers after
7938-474: The National Basketball Association (NBA). Baseball games are broadcast on television, radio, and the internet throughout North America and in several other countries. MLB has the highest total season attendance of any sports league in the world; in 2023, it drew more than 70.75 million spectators. MLB also oversees Minor League Baseball , which comprises lower-tier teams affiliated with
8085-539: The Nielsen ratings and was canceled in 1984. Three years later, WNEV tried the even more news-oriented copy New England News: Live at Five , which essentially became Boston's first proper 5 p.m. newscast, although it still featured the informal structure of Live on 4 . Although this competitor to Live on 4 drew high ratings, the format ended after only a year, due to the departure of its creator, anchor Dave Wright. From 1988 to 1991, WNEV (which became WHDH-TV in 1990) ran
8232-528: The Red Sox and the Braves , broadcasts that at first were split with WNAC-TV. It was also the first Boston station to have daily newscasts, starting with the station's very first night on the air. On October 12, 1957, WBZ-TV broadcast a half-hour special program on Sputnik 1 , featuring a motion picture of the final stage of its rocket crossing the pre-dawn sky of Baltimore , shot by sister station WJZ-TV . The station
8379-598: The Texas Rangers . In 1977, baseball expanded again , adding a second Canadian team, the Toronto Blue Jays , as well as the Seattle Mariners . Subsequently, no new teams were added until the 1990s and no teams moved until 2005. By the late 1960s, the balance between pitching and hitting had swung in favor of the pitchers. In 1968—later nicknamed "the year of the pitcher" —Boston Red Sox player Carl Yastrzemski won
8526-661: The World Series , a best-of-seven championship series between the two league champions first played in 1903. The New York Yankees have the most championships with 27. The reigning champions are the Los Angeles Dodgers , who defeated the New York Yankees in the 2024 World Series . MLB is the third-wealthiest professional sports league by revenue in the world after the National Football League (NFL) and
8673-534: The electricity bill and emergency backup generators . In North America , full-power stations on band I (channels 2 to 6) are generally limited to 100 kW analog video ( VSB ) and 10 kW analog audio ( FM ), or 45 kW digital ( 8VSB ) ERP. Stations on band III (channels 7 to 13) can go up by 5 dB to 316 kW video, 31.6 kW audio, or 160 kW digital. Low-VHF stations are often subject to long-distance reception just as with FM. There are no stations on Channel 1 . UHF , by comparison, has
8820-780: The first and second Negro National Leagues (1920–1931 and 1933–1948), the Eastern Colored League (1923–1928), the American Negro League (1929), the East–West League (1932), the Negro Southern League (1932), and the Negro American League (1937–1948). In 2021, baseball reference website Baseball-Reference.com began to include statistics from those seven leagues into their major-league statistics. In May 2024, Major League Baseball announced that it
8967-442: The "beer and whiskey league" for its tolerance of the sale of alcoholic beverages to spectators. For several years, the NL and American Association champions met in a postseason championship series—the first attempt at a World Series . The two leagues merged in 1892 as a single 12-team NL, but the NL dropped four teams after the 1899 season. This led to the formation of the American League in 1901 under AL president Ban Johnson , and
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#17328553154449114-531: The 1870s. In 1876, the National League of Professional Base Ball Clubs (later known as the National League or NL) was established after the NA proved ineffective. The league placed its emphasis on clubs rather than on players. Clubs could now enforce player contracts, preventing players from jumping to higher-paying clubs. Clubs were required to play the full schedule of games instead of forfeiting scheduled games when
9261-557: The 1960s and 1970s, as baseball expanded, NFL football had been surging in popularity, making it economical for many of these cities to build multi-purpose stadiums instead of single-purpose baseball fields. Because of climate and economic issues, many of these facilities had playing surfaces made from artificial turf , as well as the oval designs characteristic of stadiums designed to house both baseball and football. This often resulted in baseball fields with relatively more foul territory than older stadiums. These characteristics changed
9408-593: The 1980s, 1990s, and early 2000s). Marathon coverage would move to WCVB-TV in 2023. The station has long been associated with the New England Patriots of the National Football League , an association that began in 1965 after NBC 's acquisition of rights to the American Football League , of which the Patriots were a part of then. After WBZ's switch to CBS, Patriots regular season games would not air on
9555-458: The 1990s. During the 1980s, baseball experienced a number of significant changes the game had not seen in years. Home runs were on the decline throughout the decade, with players hitting 40 home runs just 13 times and no one hitting more than 50 home runs in a season for the first time since the Dead-ball era (1900–1919). The 1981 Major League Baseball strike from June 12 until July 31 forced
9702-486: The American League batting title with an average of just .301, the lowest in the history of Major League Baseball. Detroit Tigers pitcher Denny McLain won 31 games, making him the only pitcher to win 30 games in a season since Dizzy Dean in 1934. St. Louis Cardinals starting pitcher Bob Gibson achieved an equally remarkable feat by allowing an ERA of just 1.12. Following these pitching performances, in December 1968
9849-869: The American and National Leagues both added two expansion franchises . The American League added the Seattle Pilots (who became the Milwaukee Brewers after one disastrous season in Seattle) and the Kansas City Royals . The NL added the first Canadian franchise, the Montreal Expos , as well as the San Diego Padres . In 1972, the second Washington Senators moved to the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex to become
9996-435: The Boston Celtics from 1972 to 1985 (and again from 1990 to 1994 through NBC's broadcast contract with the NBA ). In 1981, WBZ-TV was the first Boston television station to broadcast live wire-to-wire coverage of the Boston Marathon ; the station continued to do so every year through 2022, and was the only Boston station to do so starting in 2007 (WCVB-TV and WHDH-TV also carried the race in its entirety during much of
10143-407: The Boston Pops' live broadcast with an encore broadcast of its competing Fourth of July special from New York City. In 2016 (which also marked Mugar's retirement), CBS resumed network coverage of the concert, airing the final two hours, with the entire concert continuing to air locally on WBZ. On March 7, 2017, it was announced that the telecast would move to Bloomberg Television in 2017, as part of
10290-409: The Brooklyn Dodgers, began making efforts to introduce a black baseball player to the previously all-white professional baseball leagues in the mid-1940s. He selected Jackie Robinson from a list of promising Negro league players. After obtaining a commitment from Robinson to "turn the other cheek" to any racial antagonism directed at him, Rickey agreed to sign him to a contract for $ 600 a month. In what
10437-711: The Dodgers when they came to town, abandoning the Negro league teams that they had followed exclusively. Robinson's promotion met a generally positive, although mixed, reception among newspaper writers and white major league players. Manager Leo Durocher informed his team, "I don't care if he is yellow or black or has stripes like a fucking zebra. I'm his manager and I say he plays." After a strike threat by some players, NL President Ford C. Frick and Baseball Commissioner Happy Chandler let it be known that any striking players would be suspended. Robinson received significant encouragement from several major-league players, including Dodgers teammate Pee Wee Reese who said, "You can hate
10584-667: The Great Depression, no MLB teams moved or folded. The onset of World War II created a shortage of professional baseball players, as more than 500 men left MLB teams to serve in the military. Many of them played on service baseball teams that entertained military personnel in the US or in the Pacific. MLB teams of this time largely consisted of young men, older players, and those with a military classification of 4F , indicating mental, physical, or moral unsuitability for service. Men like Pete Gray ,
10731-608: The Hotel Bradford alongside its radio sister; its current home was not completed at the time, although master control and its self-supporting tower over the building were in use at sign-on. The WBZ stations would not move into what was then known as the Westinghouse Broadcasting Center until June 17, 1948, when the building was opened. The station was knocked off the air on August 31, 1954, when Hurricane Carol destroyed its transmitter tower. A temporary transmitter
10878-551: The Justice Department, WBZ (AM) was then divested to iHeartMedia . In the early 1960s, WBZ unveiled a new stylized "4" logo, using a distinctive font that had been designed especially for Group W. The logo became italicized in 1987, but remained the same font. It kept this logo for over 30 years until it unveiled its first "News 4 New England" logo in September 1996, a year and a half after the switch from NBC to CBS. The old logo
11025-485: The MLB Playing Rules Committee voted to reduce the strike zone from knees to shoulders to top of knees to armpits and lower the pitcher's mound from 15 to 10 inches, beginning in the 1969 season. In 1973, the American League, which had been suffering from much lower attendance than the National League, sought to increase scoring even further by initiating the designated hitter (DH) rule. Throughout
11172-501: The Mass Lottery's second major game, Megabuck$ , WBZ, in conjunction, created Lottery Live , a series of live and hosted minute-long machine studio drawings. Done in the style of a game show format (albeit truncated), it was not only meant to let viewers see the process of lottery results, but to generate excitement and interest into the Lottery. Hosted by Evening Magazine contributor and 4 Today host Tom Bergeron, Lottery Live aired
11319-747: The Special Baseball Records Committee of Major League Baseball officially recognized six major leagues: the National League, American League, American Association, Union Association (1884), Players' League (1890), and Federal League (1914–1915). The status of the National Association as a major league has been a point of dispute among baseball researchers; while its statistics are not recognized by Major League Baseball, its statistics are included with those of other major leagues by some baseball reference websites, such as Retrosheet . Some researchers, including Nate Silver , dispute
11466-552: The U.S., the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is taking another large portion of this band (channels 52 to 69) away, in contrast to the rest of the world, which has been taking VHF instead. This means that some stations left on VHF are harder to receive after the analog shutdown . Since at least 1974, there are no stations on channel 37 in North America for radio astronomy purposes. Most television stations are commercial broadcasting enterprises which are structured in
11613-474: The United States transitioned from analog to digital broadcasts under federal mandate. The station's digital signal continued to broadcast on its pre-transition UHF channel 30, using virtual channel 4. As part of the SAFER Act , WBZ temporarily kept its analog channel on the air to broadcast information regarding the transition to digital television. In 2015, CBS and Weigel Broadcasting 's Decades network
11760-515: The Very Rev. Edwin Van Etten, Archbishop Richard Cushing , Rabbi Joshua L. Liebman , Boston Mayor James Michael Curley , Boston Chamber of Commerce president C. Lawrence Muench, and Governor Robert F. Bradford . Due to the uncertainty surrounding the exact day the station would launch, all of the messages were prerecorded and one of the speakers (Liebman) had died before the program aired. The dedication
11907-600: The World Series in exchange for a ring worth $ 100,000 ($ 1,712,780.35 in 2022 dollars). Despite being acquitted, all were permanently banned from Major League Baseball. Baseball's popularity increased in the 1920s and 1930s. The 1920 season was notable for the death of Ray Chapman of the Cleveland Indians . Chapman, who was struck in the head by a pitch and died a few hours later, became the only MLB player to die of an on-field injury. Both leagues quickly began to require
12054-482: The area, including future sister station WSBK-TV and WQTV (now WBPX-TV ). In addition, programs preempted by WBZ-TV could be seen on NBC's Providence affiliate WJAR , which provides a city-grade signal to the Boston area. In January 1983, when People Are Talking expanded to one hour, WBZ-TV dropped the NBC soap opera Another World , which moved first to WQTV, then to Worcester -based WHLL-TV (now WUTF-TV ), and finally, in
12201-460: The balance of its run, ending in 2011. In October 2009, WBZ-TV became the Boston outlet for the game shows Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy! and moved The Insider and Entertainment Tonight to sister-station WSBK-TV. Previously, both aforementioned game shows aired on WSBK-TV since 2001, and on WHDH prior to then. WBZ-TV was a local television pioneer in lottery. It was the first station, in 1975, to air official lottery drawing results from
12348-470: The budget cuts at CBS, WBZ-TV's 11 p.m. newscast was number one in its time slot in the 2007–08 season (it has since slipped back to second place). On September 15, 2008, the station was in the process of upgrading its news set for high definition broadcasts. During that time, all newscasts originated from the on-air area of the newsroom. The renovations lasted for at least six weeks. On December 11, 2008, WBZ and sister station WSBK-TV respectively became
12495-531: The cancellation of 713 total games and resulted in a split-season format. In 1985, Pete Rose broke Ty Cobb 's all-time hits record with his 4,192nd hit, and in 1989 Rose received a lifetime ban from baseball as a result of betting on baseball games while manager of the Cincinnati Reds . Rose was the first person to receive a lifetime ban from baseball since 1943. 1985 also saw the Pittsburgh drug trials which involved players who were called to testify before
12642-577: The center field fence, and the Huntington Avenue Grounds of the Boston Red Sox , which was 635 feet (194 m) to the center field fence, thus home runs were rare, and "small ball" tactics such as singles , bunts , stolen bases , and the hit-and-run play dominated the strategies of the time. Hitting methods like the Baltimore chop were used to increase the number of infield singles. On
12789-554: The club was no longer in the running for the league championship, which happened frequently under the NA. A concerted effort was made to curb gambling on games, which was leaving the validity of results in doubt. The first game in the NL—on Saturday, April 22, 1876 (at Jefferson Street Grounds in Philadelphia )—is often pointed to as the beginning of MLB. The early years of the NL were tumultuous, with threats from rival leagues and
12936-573: The condition of the baseball itself. The baseball used American rather than the modern Australian wool yarn and was not wound as tightly, affecting the distance that it would travel. More significantly, balls were kept in play until they were mangled, soft and sometimes lopsided. During this era, a baseball cost three dollars, equal to $ 52.72 today (in inflation-adjusted USD ), and owners were reluctant to purchase new balls. Fans were expected to throw back fouls and (rare) home runs. Baseballs also became stained with tobacco juice, grass, and mud, and sometimes
13083-432: The contentious reserve clause . The period before 1920 was the dead-ball era , when home runs were rarely hit. Professional baseball was rocked by the Black Sox Scandal , a conspiracy to fix the 1919 World Series . Baseball survived the scandal, albeit with major changes in its governance as the relatively weak National Commission was replaced with a powerful commissioner of baseball with near-unlimited authority over
13230-601: The contract, upon which WCVB had their turn to air the games (from 1994 to 1998). Eleven years after leaving its original station, Lottery Live returned to WBZ on May 20, 1998, with longtime host Dawn Hayes (from the WNEV/WHDH era) still at the helm. By this time, in addition to The Numbers Game still airing six nights a week at 7:53 pm, late-night airings (during the 11 p.m. newscast) drew Megabuck$ , Mass Million$ , Mass Ca$ h (1991) and The Big Game (1996) on individual nights. Due to new limited contracts permitting
13377-500: The daily Numbers Game following the last main segment of Evening at 7:55 p.m. weeknights. Twice a week, during the NBC prime time lineup at 9:58 pm, the Megabuck$ drawings would air. Bergeron was known for wearing a tuxedo during Megabuck$ drawings that he nicknamed the "mega tux". The Numbers Game also aired Saturdays at 7:55 pm. Beginning on May 1, 1987 (a few months before Lottery Live ended its original WBZ run),
13524-512: The early 1990s, Lawrence -licensed WMFP . The station also dropped some Saturday morning cartoons in 1990 (which also aired on WHLL), two years before NBC abandoned such programming in favor of a Saturday edition of the morning news show Today and live-action series aimed at teenagers such as Saved by the Bell . NBC has traditionally been less tolerant of preemptions than the other networks and had to find alternate independent stations to air
13671-469: The fall of 1993 (later moving to WHDH's daytime lineup in 1994), WBZ switched their late afternoon newscast to 5:30 pm, and began airing the freshman syndicated series American Journal (with WBZ alumnus Nancy Glass as anchor) at its 5 p.m. lead-in. American Journal would itself move to WCVB starting in its second season. During the 1994–95 season, WBZ dropped late afternoon news altogether, airing The Maury Povich Show at 5 p.m. instead. By
13818-571: The first major league franchise on the West Coast. O'Malley also helped persuade the rival New York Giants to move west to become the San Francisco Giants. Giants owner Horace Stoneham had been contemplating a move to Minnesota amid slumping attendance at the aging Polo Grounds ballpark when O'Malley invited him to meet San Francisco Mayor George Christopher in New York. After Stoneham
13965-464: The former CBS affiliate, WHDH-TV (channel 7). After a 47-year relationship with NBC, channel 4 became the third station in Boston to align with CBS. The network had originally affiliated with WNAC-TV in 1948, then moved to channel 5 ( the original WHDH-TV ) in 1961; it then returned to WNAC-TV (predecessor to the current WHDH) in 1972 and remained on channel 7 until the switch. When Westinghouse merged with CBS outright on November 24, 1995, WBZ-TV became
14112-507: The founding of the Cincinnati club. The NABBP split into an amateur organization and a professional organization. The National Association of Professional Base Ball Players , often known as the National Association (NA), was formed in 1871. Its amateur counterpart disappeared after only a few years. The modern Chicago Cubs and Atlanta Braves franchises trace their histories back to the National Association of Professional Base Ball Players in
14259-453: The fourth and fifth stations in the Boston market (behind WCVB, WHDH and WLVI) to begin broadcasting its newscasts in high definition. On May 19, 2009, WBZ/WSBK and Fox-owned WFXT entered into a Local News Service agreement that allows the stations to share local news video, along with a helicopter for traffic reports and breaking news. The helicopter originally used as part of the sharing agreement (which WFXT and WBZ/WSBK stopped using in 2013)
14406-401: The fourth-largest radio broadcaster in the United States, the sale was conducted using a Reverse Morris Trust so that it would be tax-free. While CBS shareholders retained a 72% ownership stake in the combined company, Entercom was the surviving entity, separating WBZ (AM) and its sister radio stations from WBZ-TV. The sale was completed on November 17, 2017; under the terms of a settlement with
14553-420: The highest point available in the transmission area, such as on a summit , the top of a high skyscraper , or on a tall radio tower . To get a signal from the master control room to the transmitter, a studio/transmitter link (STL) is used. The link can be either by radio or T1 / E1 . A transmitter/studio link (TSL) may also send telemetry back to the station, but this may be embedded in subcarriers of
14700-429: The hole " between the corner and middle infielders. Starting pitchers were no longer expected to throw complete games ; it was enough for a starter to pitch 6–7 innings and turn the game over to the team's closer , a position which grew in importance over these decades. As stolen bases increased, home run totals dropped. After Willie Mays hit 52 home runs in 1965, only one player ( George Foster ) reached that mark until
14847-515: The juice of licorice, which some players would chew for the purpose of discoloring the ball. Also, pitchers could manipulate the ball through the use of the spitball (In 1921, use of this pitch was restricted to a few pitchers with a grandfather clause ). Additionally, many ballparks had large dimensions, such as the West Side Grounds of the Chicago Cubs, which was 560 feet (170 m) to
14994-517: The late 1970s, before it began to be distributed to stations not owned by Westinghouse as PM Magazine . On WBZ, the original hosting teams were Robin Young and Marty Sender (1977–1980); Sender and Candace Hasey (1980–1981); and Sender and Sara Edwards (1981–1982). Later, Edwards and Barry Nolan became the longest running pair to host the program (1982–1989), before Jim Watkins replaced Nolan permanently in October 1989 (guests hosts had joined Edwards for
15141-605: The local stations to carry Lottery Live for only three years at a time, WBZ moved the games to sister station WSBK-TV in 2001. From 2003 through 2016, WBZ produced coverage of the Boston Pops Orchestra 's annual Fourth of July concert at the Hatch Memorial Shell . In the event's first decade on the station, the 10 pm. ET hour of the show was broadcast nationally by CBS – featuring the Pops' signature performances of
15288-400: The local television station has no station identification and, from a consumer's point of view, there is no practical distinction between a network and a station, with only small regional changes in programming, such as local television news . To broadcast its programs, a television station requires operators to operate equipment, a transmitter or radio antenna , which is often located at
15435-562: The lottery rights to another station in 1987. Both WCVB and WNEV (present-day WHDH) were in the running for picking up the rights; in the end, the torch was passed to WNEV, who saw the acquisition as helping their station revenues and key ratings periods (that station's newscasts were continually in third place). Channel 7 continued the Lottery Live title and format with different hosts, upon its move on August 31, 1987. WNEV/WHDH aired Lottery Live for seven seasons, until new ownership terminated
15582-419: The main broadcast. Stations which retransmit or simulcast another may simply pick-up that station over-the-air , or via STL or satellite. The license usually specifies which other station it is allowed to carry. VHF stations often have very tall antennas due to their long wavelength , but require much less effective radiated power (ERP), and therefore use much less transmitter power output , also saving on
15729-592: The major league clubs, and the MLB Draft League , a hybrid amateur-professional showcase league. MLB and the World Baseball Softball Confederation jointly manage the international World Baseball Classic tournament. In the 1860s, aided by soldiers playing the game in camp during the Civil War , "New York"-style baseball expanded into a national game and spawned baseball's first governing body,
15876-641: The major leagues. Satchel Paige was signed by the Indians and the Dodgers added star catcher Roy Campanella and Don Newcombe , who was later the first winner of the Cy Young Award for his outstanding pitching. MLB banned the signing of women to contracts in 1952, but that ban was lifted in 1992. There have been no female MLB players since then. From 1903 to 1952, the major leagues consisted of two eight-team leagues whose 16 teams were located in ten cities, all in
16023-557: The major-league status of the Union Association by pointing out that franchises came and went and that the St. Louis club was deliberately "stacked"; the St. Louis club was owned by the league's president and it was the only club that was close to major-league caliber. In December 2020, Major League Baseball announced its recognition of seven leagues within Negro league baseball as major leagues:
16170-460: The move was officially made in an attempt to alleviate lingering confusion from the 1995 affiliation swap, though the branding brought the station in line with other CBS-owned stations. The "CBS 4" branding was phased out during the first quarter of 2007 and in February 2007, the station's newscast title was reverted from CBS 4 News to WBZ News . The rebranding was completed on February 4, 2007, during
16317-471: The nature of professional baseball, putting a higher premium on speed and defense over home-run hitting power since the fields were often too big for teams to expect to hit many home runs and foul balls hit in the air could more easily be caught for outs. Teams began to be built around pitching—particularly their bullpens—and speed on the basepaths. Artificial surfaces meant balls traveled quicker and bounced higher, so it became easier to hit ground balls " in
16464-446: The noon newscast in 2000. Other personalities who came to channel 4 during this time were political reporter John Henning and Kulhawik. Williams remained at WBZ until his retirement in June 2015, Walker gave up anchoring duties in 2005 and hosted a Sunday morning talk show for several years before leaving the station in October 2008. With syndicated news and tabloid programming becoming more
16611-409: The norm in the late 1980s and early 1990s, Live on 4 , like Evening Magazine , was starting to become of lesser importance to Group W. In 1991, after a 12-year-run, Live on 4 was dropped after WBZ-TV acquired A Current Affair for the 5:30 p.m. time slot (the program previously aired on WFXT ). WBZ launched a 5 p.m. newscast at that time. When ACA moved to WCVB's late night schedule in
16758-527: The northeastern and mid-western United States: New York City had three teams and Boston , Chicago, Philadelphia , and St. Louis each had two teams. St. Louis was the southernmost and westernmost city with a major league team. The longest possible road trip, from Boston to St. Louis, took about 24 hours by railroad. After a half-century of stability, starting in the 1950s, teams began to move out of cities with multiple teams into cities that had not had them before. From 1953 to 1955, three teams moved to new cities:
16905-735: The operations of WLWC , the UPN affiliate in nearby Providence, which had been run out of WSBK-TV. Today, the operations of WBZ-TV and WSBK-TV are co-located at WBZ's studios in Brighton. WLWC was sold in 2006 to the Four Points Media Group , a holding company owned by private equity firm Cerberus Capital Management ; it, along with the other Four Points stations, has since been acquired by Sinclair Broadcast Group (WLWC would subsequently be sold to OTA Broadcasting and Ion Media ). On February 2, 2017, CBS agreed to sell CBS Radio to Entercom , then
17052-515: The point that the 1942 season was nearly canceled. On January 14, 1942, MLB Commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis wrote to U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt , pleading for the continuation of baseball during the war. Roosevelt responded, "I honestly feel that it would be best for the country to keep baseball going. There will be fewer people unemployed and everybody will work longer hours and harder than ever before. And that means that they ought to have
17199-476: The programmes seen on its owner's flagship station, and have no television studio or production facilities of their own. This is common in developing countries . Low-power stations typically also fall into this category worldwide. Most stations which are not simulcast produce their own station identifications . TV stations may also advertise on or provide weather (or news) services to local radio stations , particularly co-owned sister stations . This may be
17346-526: The reserve clause, led to the organization of the Major League Baseball Players Association to collectively bargain with the owners, which in turn led to the introduction of free agency in baseball. Modern stadiums with artificial turf surfaces began to change the game in the 1970s and 1980s. Home runs dominated the game during the 1990s. In the mid-2000s, media reports disclosed the use of anabolic steroids among MLB players;
17493-522: The resulting bidding war for players led to widespread contract-breaking and legal disputes. The war between the AL and NL caused shock waves throughout the baseball world. At a meeting at the Leland Hotel in Chicago in 1901, the other baseball leagues negotiated a plan to maintain their independence. A new National Association was formed to oversee these minor leagues. After 1902, the NL, AL, and NA signed
17640-411: The show weekdays at 9 am. Despite its overnight success, channel 4 had little interest in keeping the show as a part of its schedule, in part because the station had to give priority to the upcoming Group W-distributed talk show, The Wil Shriner Show , in the fall of 1987. Oprah moved to a 5 p.m. weekday time slot on WCVB-TV, where it became an institution (later moving to 4 p.m. in 1994) for
17787-563: The sport. MLB rose in popularity in the decade following the Black Sox Scandal, and unlike major leagues in other sports it endured the Great Depression and World War II without any of its teams folding. Shortly after the war, Jackie Robinson broke baseball's color barrier . Some teams moved to different cities in the 1950s and 1960s. The AL and NL added eight clubs in the 1960s: two in 1961, two in 1962, and four in 1969. Player discontent with established labor practices, especially
17934-463: The station again until 1998 , when CBS acquired the television rights to the NFL's present AFC . Since then, the majority of Patriots regular season games have aired on WBZ, and in 2009 , the station became the Patriots' "official" station, gaining rights to preseason games and airing the weekly program Patriots All Access . Three of the Patriots' Super Bowl appearances— XX , XXXVIII and LIII (including
18081-423: The station tends to rank No. 1 in daytime and prime time ratings, Channel 4's local news ratings have suffered since the switch in network affiliations. This is partly because at the time of the switch, CBS was well behind NBC in the network ratings. Taken as a whole, its local newscasts are the lowest rated of Boston's "Big 3" affiliates, having dipped behind a resurgent WHDH-TV as well. In the mid-1960s, it adopted
18228-491: The station's coverage of the Super Bowl. This made WBZ-TV the first station owned by CBS to depart from CBS's standardization, and one of a handful of CBS-owned stations to brand with its call letters rather than the CBS name. General manager Ed Piette told The Boston Globe that he decided to ditch the "CBS 4" branding when he arrived in Boston for his first day of work and a cabbie asked him, "Whatever happened to WBZ?" The move
18375-564: The station's weekday 5 p.m. newscast. May subsequently moved to Philadelphia sister station KYW-TV, where he would remain until 2015. Underwood's contract with the station was not renewed and she left the station on March 4, 2008. In January 2007, the station launched Project Mass, a commitment to cover the community's top concerns in government, transit, healthcare, education, finance and the environment. The initiative kicked off with an online town meeting. WBZ's on-air staff continued to change in late 2007, when longtime morning anchor Scott Wahle
18522-437: The success of a similar move by Philadelphia sister station KYW-TV. Channel 4 changed its news and station branding continuously in the decade following the affiliation switch; after having changed from its longstanding brand of Eyewitness News to WBZ News 4 in 1993 (prior to the switch), the newscasts were rebranded to News 4 New England in 1996 and WBZ 4 News in 2000. On February 1, 2004, WBZ rebranded itself as "CBS 4",
18669-399: The summer of 1995, the station's news had fallen to third place for the very first time, thanks in part to WHDH and WCVB's full-hour 5 p.m. news accounting for their ratings dominance. In response, WBZ began airing two hours of news between 5 p.m. and 7 p.m. that fall, with the end time of the news block later being scaled back to 6:30 p.m. in 1997 (to accommodate the move of
18816-439: The team's wins in the latter two)—were televised by WBZ. In April 2021, the station announced that WBZ-TV and its sister station WSBK-TV would air New England Revolution matches throughout the 2021 season; most matches were aired on WSBK, with select matches (including, in 2021, the season opener) airing on WBZ-TV. WBZ and WSBK lost the local rights to Revolution matches in 2023, when all MLS broadcasts shift to MLS Season Pass ,
18963-454: The use of new, white baseballs whenever a ball became scuffed or dirty, helping bring the "dead-ball" era to an end. The following year, the New York Yankees made their first World Series appearance. By the end of the 1930s, the team had appeared in 11 World Series, winning eight of them. Yankees slugger Babe Ruth had set the single-season home run record in 1927, hitting 60 home runs; breaking his own record of 29 home runs. Afflicted by
19110-419: The various programs that WBZ-TV did not air. Despite this, NBC was generally satisfied with WBZ-TV, which was one of NBC's strongest affiliates. As a sidebar, Philadelphia sister station KYW-TV (NBC's largest affiliate at the time) also heavily preempted NBC programming, but it spent most of the 1980s and 1990s as NBC's weakest major-market affiliate. The station also broadcast many locally produced programs over
19257-560: The war until peace was called on February 27, 1991. Station management elected to keep the newscast going, but now as a newsmagazine that specialized in investigative reports. Now with Randy Price as the principal anchor, the title was shortened to The 7:30 Report . The show continued on for another year and a half. Then, from September 1992 until September 2009, WBZ aired Entertainment Tonight —which it had acquired from WHDH-TV—at 7:30 p.m. (that show has been syndicated by CBS since 2006). People Are Talking , which ran from 1980 to 1993,
19404-542: The years. One of the most beloved was the long-running Big Brother Bob Emery show, hosted by veteran radio performer Bob Emery , who first did the show on Boston-area radio in 1921 and who in 1947 hosted the first five-times-a-week children's show on network television on DuMont. For nearly two decades, from 1956 to 1974, Rex Trailer hosted a popular weekend morning children's show called Boomtown . For part of that time, Boomtown originated from an outdoor "western town" set built next to WBZ-TV's studios. In 2005, WBZ aired
19551-399: Was "absorbing the available Negro Leagues numbers into the official historical record." The period between 1900 and 1919 is commonly referred to as the "dead-ball era". Games of this era tended to be low-scoring and were often dominated by pitchers, such as Walter Johnson , Cy Young , Christy Mathewson , Mordecai Brown , and Grover Cleveland Alexander . The term also accurately describes
19698-448: Was a live early-afternoon talk show that aired on WBZ, as it did on some other Westinghouse stations (notably Baltimore, whose version of the program was at one time co-hosted by Oprah Winfrey ). In Boston, it was originally hosted by Nancy Merrill and later by Buzz Luttrell, but the best-known host was the program's last, Tom Bergeron. WBZ-TV carried The Oprah Winfrey Show during its first nationally syndicated year (1986–1987), airing
19845-511: Was added to 4.2 upon its launch. Television station The Fernsehsender Paul Nipkow ( TV Station Paul Nipkow ) in Berlin , Germany , was the first regular television service in the world. It was on the air from 22 March 1935, until it was shut down in 1944. The station was named after Paul Gottlieb Nipkow , the inventor of the Nipkow disk . Most often the term "television station" refers to
19992-606: Was done in the hopes of re-emphasizing WBZ-TV's local identity and trading on the call letters' then eight-decade history in Boston—a strategy that worked well when Piette was general manager at Minneapolis–Saint Paul sister station WCCO-TV . The logo that was used for the "CBS 4" branding returned to the station in December 2011, but the station still brands with its call letters to this day. In January 2006, attempting to bolster its local news ratings, WBZ reinstated its 5 p.m. news (with Dr. Phil moving back to 3 pm) as part of
20139-492: Was eliminated. Jack Williams filled in for the 9 p.m. spot in the interim. On June 6, 2008, weekend anchor/reporter Kate Merrill was appointed as 9 p.m. anchor on WSBK, along with general assignment reporting duties for the weekday 5 p.m. and 6 p.m. newscasts. Lobel subsequently served as a guest co-host on then-sister station WODS' morning show in late 2008 and a guest sports anchor on WBZ radio in January 2009. Even with
20286-506: Was followed by the station's first news broadcast, hosted by Arch MacDonald . The station was from its inception associated with the NBC television network, owing to WBZ radio (1030 AM)'s longtime affiliation with NBC's radio networks . At its sign-on, WBZ-TV became the first commercial television station to begin operations in the New England region. The station originally operated from inside
20433-514: Was in danger of losing its NBC affiliation when Westinghouse balked at NBC's initial offer to trade sister stations KYW radio and WPTZ television (now KYW-TV ) in Philadelphia , in exchange for WTAM-AM - FM and WNBK television (now WKYC-TV) in Cleveland . In response, NBC threatened to pull its programming from both WBZ-TV and WPTZ unless Westinghouse agreed to the trade. The swap was made in February 1956, and Westinghouse immediately complained to
20580-544: Was installed using a short, makeshift tower at the studio site and later on the original tower of WEEI-FM (now WBGB ) in Malden . In 1957, WBZ-TV began broadcasting from a 1,200-foot (366 m) tower in Needham, along with WBZ-FM at 106.7 FM (now WMJX ). The tower site is now owned by American Tower Corporation, and is used by several Boston-area television stations, including WGBH-TV (channel 2) and WCVB-TV (channel 5). Channel 4
20727-461: Was later involved in a crash that killed two people in Seattle on March 18, 2014, while on loan by Helicopters, Inc. for use by KOMO-TV during technical upgrades to that station's own helicopter. On December 12, 2011, WBZ debuted a new news set, replacing one that had been used for nearly a decade, it features LED lighting, a dedicated weather area, and 16 high definition monitors. The new look, plus
20874-603: Was later referred to as "The Noble Experiment", Robinson was the first black baseball player in the International League since the 1880s, joining the Dodgers' farm club, the Montreal Royals , for the 1946 season. The following year, the Dodgers called up Robinson to the major leagues. On April 15, 1947, Robinson made his major league debut at Ebbets Field before a crowd of 26,623 spectators, including more than 14,000 black patrons. Black baseball fans began flocking to see
21021-521: Was originally replaced in the weeknight 7:30 slot by Family Feud from December 18, 1990, through mid-January 1991. With action in the Gulf War reaching a breaking point at that time, the station decided to begin airing expanded coverage of the war at 7:30 pm, in an ongoing series titled Crisis in the Gulf: The 7:30 Report . Anchored by Jack Williams and Liz Walker, it served as a comprehensive update on
21168-449: Was persuaded to move to California, Time magazine put O'Malley on its cover. MLB Commissioner Ford C. Frick had opposed the meeting, but the dual moves proved successful for both franchises—and for MLB. Had the Dodgers moved out west alone, the St. Louis Cardinals —1,600 mi (2,575 km) away —would have been the closest NL team. Instead, the joint move made West Coast road trips economical for visiting teams. The Dodgers set
21315-608: Was reassigned and replaced by former WFXT anchor David Wade. In January 2008, longtime morning and midday meteorologist Barry Burbank was reassigned to the weekend programs. He was replaced by meteorologist Todd Gutner. On February 29, 2008, it was reported that the 2007-2008 Writers Guild of America strike caused a significant loss in viewers during the late news. WBZ-TV finished with an average of 157,800 total viewers, down from 177,800 viewers in 2007. On April 1, 2008, CBS's owned-and-operated television stations division ordered widespread budget cuts and staff layoffs from its stations. As
21462-496: Was the first in the Boston market to employ a female reporter (Betty Adams), the first to employ a Black full-time reporter ( Terry Carter ), the first to have an all-female news team ( Shelby Scott and Gail Harris), the first to have a Black full-time nightly news anchor ( Liz Walker ), and the first to air a minority affairs program. In 1994, sister station WJZ-TV in Baltimore lost its affiliation with ABC after that network announced
21609-446: Was the longest-used numeric logo in New England television history until WCVB's stylized "5" crossed the 31-year mark in 2003. The "Circle 4" logo that replaced the original "News 4" logo in 1998 was often referred to on-air by WBZ sports anchor Bob Lobel as "The Circle 4 Ranch". In 2004, WBZ began using CBS's standardized branding, becoming "CBS 4". In 2007, it dropped the standardized logo and reverted to being known as just "WBZ", using
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