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105-533: WPVI-TV (channel 6), branded 6 ABC , is a television station in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania , United States, serving as the market's ABC outlet. Owned and operated by the network's ABC Owned Television Stations division, the station maintains studios on City Avenue in the Wynnefield Heights section of Philadelphia, and a transmitter in the city's Roxborough neighborhood. The station first signed on

210-626: A barter in some cases. Knight Ridder Knight Ridder / ˈ r ɪ d ər / was an American media company, specializing in newspaper and Internet publishing . Until it was bought by McClatchy on June 27, 2006, it was the second largest newspaper publisher in the United States, with 32 daily newspaper brands sold. Its headquarters were located in San Jose , California . The corporate ancestors of Knight Ridder were Knight Newspapers, Inc. and Ridder Publications, Inc. The first company

315-721: A contract dispute with ABC , WPVI was pulled from Cablevision systems in Monmouth, Ocean and Mercer counties on March 7, 2010. Verizon FiOS carries WPVI on channel 16 in Ocean County and extreme southern Monmouth County. WPVI is also carried by Comcast in New Castle County and portions of Kent County in Delaware. As such, WPVI is classified as a significantly viewed station in Warren , Hunterdon, Middlesex, Monmouth and Ocean counties. In

420-543: A 7 p.m. newscast for independent station KDOC-TV ). On September 15, 2014, the newscast was expanded to a full hour-long broadcast, making WPHL the second station in the Philadelphia area (along with competitor WTXF) to carry an hour-long newscast at 10 p.m. Competitor station WPSG was the only station in the area to broadcast a half-hour newscast in the time slot, Eyewitness News at 10 on The CW Philly , produced by sister station KYW. This would change on July 18, 2022, when

525-661: A Knight newspaper. The minority stake in WAKR's parent company, Summit Radio, also included the establishment of WAKR-TV (channel 49) , as well as WAKR-FM (97.5) and six radio stations purchased in Dayton, Ohio , Dallas , Texas, and Denver , Colorado. WAKR-TV was built and signed on by Summit on July 23, 1953, as the Akron market's ABC affiliate, moving to channel 23 on December 1, 1967. Knight Ridder divested its stake in Summit Radio by 1977;

630-638: A brief time, the combined company was the largest newspaper publisher in the United States. Knight Ridder had a long history of innovation in technology . It was the first newspaper publisher to experiment with videotex when it launched its Viewtron system in 1983. After investing six years of research and $ 50 million into the service, Knight Ridder shut down Viewtron in 1986 when the service's interactivity features proved more popular than news delivery. Knight-Ridder purchased Dialog Information Services Inc. from Lockheed Corporation in August 1988. In October 1988,

735-474: A computerized AccuWeather center. WPVI introduced a new HD-capable helicopter in February 2006. Live shots from the helicopter, officially named "Chopper6 HD", were shown in high definition. Furthermore, on July 23, 2006, starting with the 6 p.m. newscast (the official announcement was made on July 24), Action News began broadcasting in full 720p high-definition; all field video shown during WPVI's newscasts

840-440: A magnet board. In recent years, attempts have been made to modernize the newscasts. In 1998, it began downplaying its use of chromakey. The magnet board gave way to a video screen in 2000 and a chromakey wall in 2005. On February 13, 2006, a revamped and fully modernized set debuted which included a glass etching background of several historical landmarks in Philadelphia positioned behind the anchor desk, shiftable lighting effects and

945-415: 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

1050-637: A new broadcasting complex at their same location at 4100 City Avenue near Bala Cynwyd next door to the Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine . The facilities are wired for high definition newscasts and is the third studio in the station's 72-year history since the station has moved to a circular building in 1964. On December 19, 2023, at approximately 8:30 p.m. WPVI's Chopper 6 crashed in Washington Township, Burlington County, New Jersey , while returning from an assignment, killing both

1155-511: A planned merger between the two entities in 1968 failed to be consummated. In 1954, Ridder Newspapers launched WDSM-TV in Superior , Wisconsin , serving the Duluth , Minnesota market. Initially a CBS affiliate, it switched to its present NBC affiliation a year and a half after the station's launch. It was spun off after Ridder's merger with Knight Newspapers, Inc. From 1956 to 1962, Knight and

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1260-511: A purchase price of $ 6.5 billion in cash, stock and debt. The deal gave McClatchy 32 daily newspapers in 29 markets, with a total circulation of 3.3 million. However, for various reasons, McClatchy decided immediately to resell twelve of these papers. On April 26, 2006, McClatchy announced it was selling the San Jose Mercury News , Contra Costa Times , Monterey Herald , and St. Paul Pioneer Press to MediaNews Group (with backing from

1365-494: A secondary affiliation with DuMont until that network shut down in 1956. The WFIL radio stations originally broadcast from the Widener Building in downtown Philadelphia. With the anticipated arrival of WFIL-TV, Triangle secured a new facility for the stations, located at Market and 46th streets, which opened in 1947. In 1963, Triangle built one of the most advanced broadcast centers in the nation on City (or City Line) Avenue in

1470-531: A simulcast in that standard for WPVI-TV's main channel. As WPSG's physical channel is UHF channel 33, it is the first time in 16 years that WPVI-TV is available in some form on the UHF band. Outside of the Philadelphia market in central New Jersey, WPVI is carried on Channel 6 on Comcast in the municipalities of Plainsboro , South Brunswick , Monroe , Cranbury , Jamesburg , Helmetta , Spotswood and East Brunswick, New Jersey in southern Middlesex County as well as

1575-530: A slower, modernized version of the theme performed by the London Philharmonic Orchestra on September 20, 1996, the station immediately received complaints from viewers and reverted to the old theme only three days later. The intro has traditionally been accompanied by seasonal footage of various Philadelphia/ Delaware Valley residents and landmarks (usually starting with a picture or zoom in of Center City Philadelphia , focused on City Hall , or on

1680-492: A smear campaign against him. The WFIL stations, along with radio-television combinations in New Haven, Connecticut , and Fresno, California , were sold to Capital Cities Communications . As a condition of the sale, Capital Cities had to spin off the radio stations to other entities – in Philadelphia, WFIL-FM (now WIOQ) was sold to its general manager John Richer, and WFIL (AM) went to LIN Broadcasting . On May 1, 1971, shortly after

1785-501: A station that went on the air in 2012), are the only Philadelphia area stations whose digital signals operate on the VHF band, as all others physically broadcast on UHF. The FCC advises that a single antenna position will likely not pull both low- and high-band VHF signals (unlike the analog era). On August 10, 2023, CBS News and Stations activated their station WPSG (channel 57) as the market's lighthouse station for ATSC 3.0 , which includes

1890-425: 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

1995-496: 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,

2100-470: Is broadcast via terrestrial radio waves. A group of television stations with common ownership or affiliation are known as 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

2205-634: Is not produced by WPVI but rather in-house. On September 11, 2023, WPVI-TV, along with sister stations WABC-TV and WTVD, launched an additional hour-long newscast at 10 a.m. which took over the time slot previously occupied by Tamron Hall . The newscast is co-anchored by Alyana Gomez, Nydia Han and Alicia Vitarelli with meteorologist Karen Rogers. The broadcast continues to deliver news in a traditional format, and also allows more focus to be placed on local newsmakers, and further discussion on topics addressed on Good Morning America and Live with Kelly and Mark . The 2011–13 ABC series Body of Proof , which

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2310-792: 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

2415-470: Is shot in high-definition. On September 12, 2009, WPVI debuted another new revamped and fully modernized set, wider than the last set at the original round building, with a bigger news desk, AccuWeather center and a revised glass-etched background which added the Comcast Center to the featured landmarks. It also added a touch-screen video wall, the first for any station in the country, which the station dubs

2520-599: The Cox publishing family jointly operated Biscayne Television, which owned NBC affiliate WCKT in Miami, Florida , as well as WCKR radio , which this entity purchased from Cox; Knight sold off WQAM to a third party as part of Biscayne's formation. Revelations of improper behavior and underhanded tactics by Biscayne and National Airlines (which signed on WPST-TV , also in Miami ) to secure their licenses, along with ethics violations within

2625-651: The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) passed a rule barring companies from owning newspapers and broadcast outlets in the same market . However, the agency " grandfathered " several existing newspaper and broadcasting cross-combinations in several markets. Triangle asked the FCC to grandfather its cluster of the Inquirer , the Daily News and WFIL-AM-FM-TV, but was turned down. As a result, in 1969, one year after

2730-600: The Hearst Corporation ) for $ 1 billion. Daily newspapers owned by Knight Ridder and its predecessors – listed alphabetically by place of publication – included: A list of companies that were at one time or another owned by Knight Ridder: Knight Newspapers entered broadcasting in 1946 via the purchase of minority ownership stakes in WQAM in Miami, WIND in Chicago, and WAKR in Akron; all three stations were in markets served by

2835-763: The Monmouth County borough of Roosevelt . WPVI moved to channel 38 in the late 1980s (by what was then Storer Cable) and later moved back to channel 6 by Comcast in the late 1990s. WPVI is also available on channel 6 on all Comcast systems in Ocean County as well as in Lambertville . Comcast added WPVI's HD feed to its lineups in Ocean and southern Middlesex counties, Roosevelt and Lambertville on August 22, 2012, on digital channel 906. WPVI's Live Well Network subchannel (both in high definition and standard definition ) were added to

2940-662: The NBC Blue Network . However, WFIL-TV started out carrying programming from the DuMont Television Network , as ABC had not yet ventured into broadcast television. When the ABC television network debuted on April 19, 1948, WFIL-TV became its first affiliate . Channel 6 joined ABC before the network's first owned-and-operated station , WJZ-TV in New York City (now WABC-TV ), signed on in August that year. However, it retained

3045-599: The Philadelphia Museum of Art ). Later the intro format was adopted by sister stations KGO-TV and WLS-TV with the News Series 2000 Plus theme music. For over 30 years starting in the late 1970s, Jefferson "Jeff" Kaye (also a WKBW alumnus, and one who would later become known nationally for his work on NFL Films ) announced the familiar open: " Action News , Delaware Valley's leading news program", as well as rejoins and closings. Even through staff announcing changes for

3150-405: 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 a station to broadcast a minimum amount of certain programs types, such as public affairs messages . Another form of television station

3255-534: 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

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3360-409: The "Action News Big Board". The set was updated once again on March 31, 2014, with the addition of a large, 12-screen HD video wall behind the main anchor desk. On June 26, 2017, Action News debuted a new set for its newscasts, which now features three large HD video walls, including one used for the weather segments and special modifications to allow the use of computer-generated graphics on set, which

3465-581: The 11 p.m. newscast. In addition, the station produces a public affairs program on Sunday mornings called Inside Story , which discusses local and national issues; as it does not have a regular host, members of WPVI's anchor staff rotate hosting duties for the program. Since New Jersey is split between the Philadelphia and New York City markets, WPVI cooperates with its New York City sister station, WABC-TV, in covering New Jersey events. The two stations share reporters, live trucks and helicopters in areas where their markets overlap. The two stations also cooperate in

3570-474: The 1952 addition to the 46th and Market studio). In 1957, ABC added the program as part of its weekday afternoon network lineup and renamed it American Bandstand to reflect its more widespread broadcast scope. Other well known locally produced shows included the children's programs Captain Noah and His Magical Ark ; a cartoon show hosted by Sally Starr ; and Chief Halftown (whose host, Traynor Ora Halftown ,

3675-554: The 1980s, when WCAU briefly took the lead at 5 p.m.; and in 2001, when WCAU took first place at 11 p.m. for a few months. Many top executives in ABC's television station group previously worked at WPVI. WPVI's longtime anchor Jim Gardner and weatherman Dave Roberts respectively joined the station in 1976 and 1978, after each had spent time at WPVI's then-sister station in Buffalo, New York , WKBW-TV . Gary Papa joined in 1981 from another Buffalo station, WGR-TV (now WGRZ ), and stayed with

3780-689: The Comcast's southern Middlesex County system on November 27, 2012 (Live Well had previously been carried on that system through feeds from WPVI's New York City sister station WABC-TV), but have not been mapped into the Comcast digital boxes or DTAs. In Plumsted Township , Ocean County, WPVI is carried in lieu of WABC-TV as Plumsted is served by Comcast's Garden State system (based out of Mount Holly , Burlington County ) which does not carry any New York City stations. Cablevision also carries WPVI on channel 6 on its southern Monmouth County system. Both Comcast and Cablevision carry WPVI throughout Ocean County. Due to

3885-552: The FCC itself, resulted in the licenses for both stations being revoked. A replacement license for WCKT was granted in 1960 to Sunbeam Television , the lone bidder for the prior license not to have engaged in any unethical behavior; Biscayne sold to Sunbeam WCKT's non-license assets: the studios, intellectual property and all off- and on-air personnel for the new station, which took the WCKT name for continuity. Cox repurchased WCKR, reviving that station's prior WIOD call sign. Following

3990-623: The Knight-Ridder chain refusing to run the two reporters' stories. After the war and the discrediting of many initial news reports written and carried by others, Strobel and Landay received the Raymond Clapper Memorial Award from the Senate Press Gallery on February 5, 2004, for their coverage. The Huffington Post headlined the two as "the reporting team that got Iraq right". The Columbia Journalism Review described

4095-884: The Lehigh Valley (most of which is in the Philadelphia market), WPVI is carried by Service Electric , RCN and Blue Ridge Communications . The station can be seen in Lancaster County as far west as Elizabethtown and as far north as Tamaqua , McAdoo , Hazleton , and Honesdale (in the Scranton – Wilkes-Barre market). WPVI is also carried on cable systems in Elkton and North East in Cecil County , Maryland . Atlantic Broadband carries WPVI in Middletown, Delaware , Delaware City, Delaware , and Chesapeake City, Maryland areas as well as

4200-561: The Roxborough neighborhood. It started transmitting from a 600-foot (183 m) tower, but in 1957, it moved to a new 1,100-foot (335 m) tower, which it co-owned with NBC -owned WRCV-TV (channel 3, now CBS owned-and-operated station KYW-TV). The new tower added much of Delaware and the Lehigh Valley to the station's city-grade coverage. WFIL-TV was also one of the first TV stations in Philadelphia to broadcast local color . In 1968,

4305-552: 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

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4410-404: The United States. When WFIL-TV premiered it on April 6, 1970, the format allowed the news program to feature more stories than KYW-TV's Eyewitness News due to strict time limits on story packages. Within a few months, the station took first place in the Philadelphia news ratings for the first time. It had previously been behind KYW-TV and WCAU-TV, as was the case with most ABC affiliates. Despite

4515-476: The Wynnefield Heights community, in a circular building across from rival WCAU-TV (channel 10). The station still broadcasts from the facility today, even as a new digital media building was constructed that now houses production of the station's newscasts and other local programs, while the original studio was turned over to public broadcaster WHYY-FM - TV . Channel 6 was the first station to sign on from

4620-574: The agreement allows WPVI to expand its coverage of stories involving the Hispanic community, while permitting WUVP to utilize such of WPVI's resources as helicopter video. The arrangement follows other partnerships between ABC and Univision (including the Fusion cable channel, as well as similar agreements in other markets), as well as a similar agreement in Philadelphia between WCAU and Telemundo station WWSI (channel 62) established after NBCUniversal acquired

4725-728: The air on September 13, 1947, as WFIL-TV. It is Philadelphia's second-oldest television station, signing on six years after WPTZ (now KYW-TV ). The first program broadcast on channel 6 was a live remote of an exhibition game of the Philadelphia Eagles against the Chicago Bears from Franklin Field . This was followed by an inaugural program that evening. WFIL-TV was originally owned by Walter Annenberg 's Triangle Publications , publishers of The Philadelphia Inquirer and owners of WFIL radio ( 560 AM , and 102.1 FM ). The WFIL stations were

4830-453: The anchors of that newscast and allowed the team to utilize the Big Board more frequently. This changed on June 26, 2017, when the entire news set was redone in a more modernized style and the smaller desk was removed, moving the anchors to the new main desk. The station also introduced "Mobile 6", a news vehicle used for reports during the station's early evening newscasts. In the spring of 2012,

4935-545: The company placed its eight broadcast television stations up for sale to reduce debt and to pay for the purchase of Dialog. In 1997, when Tony Ridder was CEO, it bought four newspapers from The Walt Disney Company formerly owned by Capital Cities Communications , after Disney's purchase of Cap Cities mainly for the ABC television network ( The Kansas City Star , Fort Worth Star-Telegram , Belleville News-Democrat and (Wilkes-Barre) Times Leader for $ 1.65 billion. It was, at

5040-452: The company's flagship property, had become very profitable in its own right. However, before the merger could be completed, Capital Cities was required to sell channel 6 and its sister station, WTNH in New Haven, Connecticut, as both stations had a large signal overlap with network flagship WABC-TV. Owning two stations with a significant signal overlap was prohibited by the FCC regulations of

5145-621: The desk at the end of the 10 p.m. newscast to anchor the 11 p.m. show on WPVI. With this, WPVI became the third ABC owned-and-operated station to be involved in a news share agreement, after KGO-TV in San Francisco (which produces a 9 p.m. newscast for independent station KOFY-TV ) and WTVD in Raleigh (which produced a 10 p.m. newscast for CW affiliate WLFL until June 2022), and was later joined in 2014 by KABC-TV in Los Angeles (which produced

5250-698: The divestment of their stake in Summit Radio, Knight Ridder acquired Poole Broadcasting, which consisted of WJRT-TV in Flint , Michigan , WTEN in Albany , New York and its satellite WCDC in Adams , Massachusetts , and WPRI-TV in Providence , Rhode Island . Immediately after the acquisition of these stations was finalized, Knight Ridder cut a corporate affiliation deal with ABC, switching then-CBS affiliates WTEN/WCDC and WPRI (the latter of which eventually rejoined CBS) to ABC (WJRT

5355-399: The early 1990s, WPVI preempted only the first half-hour of The Home Show . WPVI-TV also did not run other ABC daytime programs, notably The Edge of Night and numerous sitcom reruns . ABC was able to get most of its daytime schedule on the air in Philadelphia anyway through contracts with independent stations WKBS-TV (channel 48) and WTAF-TV (channel 29). In 1997, per a directive from

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5460-479: The flagship of the communications empire of Triangle Publications, which owned two Philadelphia newspapers (the morning Inquirer and, later, the evening Daily News ), periodicals including TV Guide , Seventeen and the Daily Racing Form , and a broadcasting group that would grow to ten radio and six television stations. WFIL radio had been an ABC radio affiliate dating back to the network's existence as

5565-420: 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

5670-485: The introduction of the "Circle 6" logo. The 2014 Philadelphia-set How to Get Away with Murder also uses a fictional WPVI representation within the universe of that series. In the second episode of the ABC sitcom Abbott Elementary , Jacob, Melissa and Barbara are seen watching a WPVI newscast. The station's signal is multiplexed : WPVI-TV signed on its digital signal on November 1, 1998. The station shut down its analog signal, over VHF channel 6, on June 12, 2009,

5775-544: The latter station. In 2016, WPVI lost the rights to televise the Wawa Welcome America festivities to WCAU. The station had televised July 4 event since at least 1983. In September 2018, WPVI became the third station in the Philadelphia area to start its weekday morning newscast at 4 a.m., following WTXF and WCAU. Only KYW-TV currently starts its morning newscast at 4:30 a.m. while WPHL-TV starts its newscast at 5 a.m.; however, WPHL's program, PHL 17 Morning News ,

5880-642: The league's inception until 2022. From 1997 to 2004 and since 2021, WPVI has served as the local broadcaster of nationally aired NHL on ABC games featuring the Philadelphia Flyers . WPVI also airs select Philadelphia 76ers contests via the network's contract with the NBA . WPVI-TV presently airs 53 hours, 25 minutes of locally produced newscasts each week (with 8 hours, 5 minutes each weekday and 6 + 1 ⁄ 2 hours each on Saturdays and Sundays). Action News Sports Sunday airs Sunday nights at 11:45 after

5985-400: 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

6090-420: The main anchor desk. On January 12, 2022, Sharrie Williams temporarily became the sole anchor of the weeknight edition when her 5 p.m. co-anchor Rick Williams (no relation) was promoted to anchor of the 11 p.m. newscast the previous day, replacing longtime anchor Jim Gardner who stepped down after 45 years as he began a semi-retirement in which he would only anchor the 6 p.m. newscast until he fully retired from

6195-419: 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

6300-587: The major networks were already well established. For digital transmissions VHF channels are very noisy in particular Low-VHF (channels 2–6). It is difficult to receive the signals without the standardized 30' outdoor antenna. Fewer than 40 full power stations in the United States are using Low-VHF channels since the mandatory digital conversion in 2009, and major network affiliates are mostly in large sparsely populated direct marketing areas where outdoor antennas are common. WPVI-TV had been broadcasting digital signals on UHF channel 64 from 1998 until 2009, but that channel

6405-421: The network (a distinction now held by Dallas – Fort Worth 's WFAA , owned by Tegna Inc. ). A decade later, in 1996, The Walt Disney Company purchased Capital Cities/ABC. On January 22, 1987, the station partially rebroadcast the suicide of Pennsylvania state treasurer R. Budd Dwyer —which had occurred at a press conference earlier that morning—during its noon newscast. On September 12, 2009, WPVI moved to

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6510-420: The new Disney ownership, WPVI-TV began carrying the entire ABC network schedule for the first time in the station's history with the network. It came at the expense of its highly rated local talk show, AM/Live (formerly AM/Philadelphia ), which was shifted to an overnight timeslot to make room for ABC's then-new talk show The View . AM/Live was moved to 12:35 a.m. following Politically Incorrect and

6615-550: The new regulation was made official, Triangle sold the Inquirer and the Daily News to Knight Newspapers (later renamed Knight Ridder ). In 1970, the FCC forced Triangle to sell off its broadcasting properties due to protests from then- Pennsylvania Governor Milton Shapp . Shapp complained that Triangle had used its three Pennsylvania television stations—WFIL-TV, WLYH-TV (now WXBU ) in Lebanon and WFBG-TV (now WTAJ-TV ) in Altoona —in

6720-475: The newscast was officially modified to become a hybrid local and national news-based hour-long broadcast, CBS News Philadelphia NOW on The CW Philly , to coincide with the launching of the broadcast's format across several CBS O&Os and affiliated stations and KYW itself beginning the use of a brand new updated studio for all Eyewitness News broadcasts earlier that day. This would change again on August 31, 2023, when CBS News Philadelphia NOW on The CW Philly

6825-700: The official date on which full-power television stations in the United States transitioned from analog to digital broadcasts under federal mandate. The station's digital signal relocated from its pre-transition UHF channel 64, which was among the high band UHF channels (52-69) that were removed from broadcasting use as a result of the transition, to its analog-era VHF channel 6. In an analog world, operations on VHF channels (those between 2 and 13) could operate at power levels significantly lower than UHF stations (saving electricity costs), and still cover greater areas. The All-Channel Receiver Act of 1964 guaranteed that all new TVs must be designed to receive UHF channels, but

6930-419: The penultimate station in the group to debut the standardized ABC O&O graphics package. This retains the 1995 arrangement of "Move Closer to Your World". On May 26, 2011, WPVI debuted an hour-long 4 p.m. newscast to replace The Oprah Winfrey Show , which ended its 25-year syndication run one day prior; this edition was broadcast from a smaller news desk located next to the main anchor desk that only housed

7035-512: The pilot and photojournalist. The victims were identified as 67-year-old pilot Monroe Smith and 45-year-old photographer Christopher Dougherty. Under Capital Cities ownership, channel 6 frequently preempted ABC programming in favor of locally produced and syndicated shows. In January 1975, when ABC entered the morning news field with AM America , WPVI chose not to carry the second hour of the program in favor of continuing Captain Noah and His Magical Ark at 8 a.m.; in response to viewer complaints,

7140-736: The popular Dancing with the Stars . The Eagles' remaining games are split between KYW-TV ( CBS ), WCAU-TV ( NBC ) and WTXF-TV ( Fox ) through their respectively owned networks' NFL broadcast rights and NFL Network through its Thursday Night Football package. On January 28, 2010, WPVI entered into a multi-year agreement with Major League Soccer expansion team Philadelphia Union to broadcast select games along with Comcast SportsNet Philadelphia and later WPHL. Since 2023, these rights have been picked up by Apple TV with select games simulcast on Fox (locally on WTXF). The station also formerly broadcast Union games through ABC's MLS television contracts from

7245-470: The production and broadcast of statewide New Jersey political debates. Whenever the two stations broadcast a statewide office debate, such as those involving gubernatorial or U.S. Senate races, WPVI and WABC will pool resources and have anchors or reporters from both stations participate in the debate. The station is famous for pioneering the Action News format, which was used by many stations throughout

7350-476: 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

7455-780: The reporting as "unequaled by the Bigfoots working at higher-visibility outlets such as the New York Times , the Washington Post , the Wall Street Journal and the Los Angeles Times ". Later after the war, their work was featured in Bill Moyers ' PBS documentary "Buying The War" and was dramatized in the 2017 film Shock and Awe . On March 13, 2006, The McClatchy Company announced its agreement to purchase Knight Ridder for

7560-424: The rest of Silicon Valley. The internet division had been established there three years earlier. The company rented several floors in a downtown high-rise as its new corporate base. In November 2005, the company announced plans for "strategic initiatives," which involved the possible sale of the company. This came after three major institutional shareholders publicly urged management to put the company up for sale. At

7665-404: The sale was approved and Capital Cities took control of channel 6, WFIL-TV changed its call letters to the current WPVI-TV. In March 1985, Capital Cities Communications announced it was purchasing ABC, a move that stunned the broadcast industry since ABC was some four times larger than Capital Cities at the time. Some have said that Capital Cities was only able to pull off the deal because WPVI-TV,

7770-498: The same personalities as WPVI's weekday 5 p.m. and weekend evening newscasts with a few notable differences. Features anchor Alicia Vitarelli does not appear on the weeknight edition of the broadcast. Meteorologist Adam Joseph joins the weeknight broadcast and Brittany Boyer covers the weekend edition, while sports director Ducis Rodgers and Gabriella Galati join their respective teams. Additionally, weeknight anchors Sharrie Williams and Gray Hall and weekend anchor Walter Perez operate from

7875-426: The same theme music, " Move Closer to Your World ", composed by Al Ham , since October 1, 1972. The theme had become such an iconic aspect of Action News that news director Dave Davis considered it to be the station's " national anthem ". The theme has remained relatively unchanged (aside from a stereo rearrangement of the theme used since December 1994) since it was first introduced; when WPVI attempted to introduce

7980-459: The station a temporary power increase to 30 kilowatts, following consent given from WEDY in New Haven, Connecticut, and WRGB in Schenectady, New York . Because of potential interference with other stations and with FM radio , there was doubt as to whether this increase could be granted. Some viewers did notice an improvement in their signal; however, WPVI continued to receive complaints regarding

8085-576: The station expanded its weekend 11 p.m. newscasts to one hour. On September 8, 2014, the station's noon newscast also expanded to one full hour as a new daytime schedule was implemented. On September 15, 2012, WPVI-TV took over production of MyNetworkTV affiliate WPHL-TV (channel 17)'s 10 p.m. newscast from NBC-owned WCAU (which began producing the 10 p.m. newscast in December 2005, after WPHL shut down its own in-house news department). The newscast, Action News at 10pm on PHL 17 , respectively utilizes most of

8190-453: The station in general, Kaye remained the constant voice of Action News . His voice started to show signs of decaying in the mid-2000s, reaching a point to where Kaye's newly recorded opens in late January 2010 were pulled in less than a week. On June 21, 2010, Kaye was replaced with veteran announcer Charlie Van Dyke , who had become WPVI's station announcer in 2006. Kaye died on November 16, 2012. On September 23, 2023, Charlie Van Dyke himself

8295-637: The station later moved Captain Noah to 7 a.m., with the one hour of AM America shifting to a tape-delay at 8:30. When AM America ' s successor, Good Morning America premiered in November 1975, WPVI-TV aired only one hour at 9 a.m. on tape. With the arrival of Donahue in January 1976, the station began clearing the first hour live at 7 a.m., with Captain Noah following at 8 a.m. Channel 6 began carrying both hours of GMA live in September 1978; Captain Noah

8400-454: The station mistakenly referred to as augmented reality (AR) graphics. After the 2009 death of Gary Papa, Channel 6 took eighteen months to name a replacement for the position of sports director. In January 2011, Keith Russell was named as the 6 and 11 p.m. sports anchor, while Jamie Apody was named sports anchor for the 5 p.m. newscast, a position vacant since the departure of longtime 5 p.m. sports anchor Scott Palmer. Russell left in 2012, and

8505-407: The station on December 21 after his final 6 p.m. newscast and ceding that anchor position to successor Brian Taff the next evening. On March 9, weekend morning anchor Gray Hall was officially promoted to become Sharrie Williams' new permanent co-anchor on the weeknight edition effective on March 14 in addition to being named the sole anchor of a streaming-only newscast at 6:30 p.m. Perez remains at

8610-715: The station until his death in 2009. One factor in WPVI's dominance is talent continuity. Most of WPVI's on-air staff has been at the station for over ten years, and several for 20 years or more. Gardner was the station's main weeknight anchor from May 1977 until his retirement in December 2022, the longest tenure for any main anchor in Philadelphia history, and the second-longest anchor tenure of any United States local television anchor after Dave Ward at Houston sister station KTRK-TV . Rob Jennings served as longtime weekend anchor beginning in that same year and held that post until his retirement on July 21, 2013. The station's newscasts have used

8715-452: The station's newspaper roots, it was hampered by the fact that ABC was not on par with CBS and NBC until the early 1970s. WFIL-TV/WPVI-TV waged a battle for first place with KYW-TV for most of the 1970s. However, in 1977, it won a sweeps period by a wide margin, and has been in first place since. It is one of the most dominant major-market stations in the country, winning virtually every time slot. Its dominance has only been challenged twice—in

8820-470: The surrounding portions of southern New Castle County and southern Cecil County. Atlantic Broadband carries the major network affiliates from Philadelphia and Baltimore on both sides of the state line. 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

8925-550: The time, similar to the same "one-to-a-market" rule that forced Triangle to split its newspaper/broadcast combination in Philadelphia many years earlier. Capital Cities sought a waiver of the rules to keep WPVI, citing CBS' then-ownership of WCAU-TV locally in Philadelphia and WCBS-TV in New York. The FCC granted the waiver, and when the transaction was finalized in early 1986, WPVI-TV became an ABC owned-and-operated station. Prior to that, WPVI has been ABC's largest affiliate not owned by

9030-595: The time, the company had a higher profit margin than many Fortune 500 companies, including ExxonMobil . In the run-up to the 2003 invasion of Iraq , Knight Ridder DC Bureau reporters Jonathan Landay and Warren Strobel wrote a series of articles critical of purported intelligence suggesting links between Saddam Hussein , the obtainment of weapons of mass destruction , and Al-Qaeda , citing anonymous sources. Landay and Strobel's stories ran counter to reports by The New York Times , The Washington Post and other national publications, resulting in some newspapers within

9135-455: The time, the most expensive newspaper acquisition in history. For most of its existence, the company was based in Miami, with headquarters on the top floor of the Miami Herald building. In 1998, Knight Ridder relocated its headquarters from Miami to San Jose, Calif.; there, that city's Mercury News —the first daily newspaper to regularly publish its full content online—was booming along with

9240-527: The viewability of its digital signal. The problems have continued to this day. WPVI, along with WPPT (channel 35), Allentown, Pennsylvania –licensed stations WLVT-TV (channel 39) and WFMZ-TV (channel 69), Wilmington, Delaware –licensed stations WHYY-TV (channel 12) and WDPN-TV (channel 2, a 2013 move-in from Jackson, Wyoming ), Bethlehem, Pennsylvania -licensed station WBPH-TV (channel 60), Princeton, New Jersey -licensed WMCN-TV (channel 44), and Atlantic City, New Jersey –licensed WACP (channel 4,

9345-399: 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 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

9450-613: Was Let's Pop the Question , from 1947 to 1948. As a result of ABC losing Monday Night Football to now-sister network ESPN in the 2000s, WPVI has aired the Philadelphia Eagles' preseason and Monday night games, as well as the team's coaches' show (those programs moved to WCAU-TV in 2015). More recently, the Monday games have aired on news partner WPHL, while WPVI has opted to air the regularly-scheduled ABC programming, which includes

9555-461: Was a full-blooded member of the Seneca Nation ), and two variety programs: The Al Alberts Showcase , a talent show emceed by the lead singer of The Four Aces ; and The Larry Ferrari Show , on which the host played organ versions of both popular and religious music. WFIL-TV also produced an early and long-running program on adult literacy, Operation Alphabet . One of its earliest local series

9660-832: Was already affiliated with ABC when the affiliation deal was made). As part of the deal, Poole Broadcasting would eventually become Knight Ridder Broadcasting. Knight Ridder would acquire several television stations in medium-sized markets during the 1980s, including three stations owned by The Detroit News which the Gannett Company —which purchased the newspaper in 1986—could not keep due to Federal Communications Commission regulations on media cross-ownership and/or television duopolies then in effect. (None of Knight Ridder's later acquisitions changed their network affiliations under Knight Ridder ownership; for example, then-NBC affiliate WALA-TV in Mobile , Alabama remained an NBC affiliate when it

9765-425: Was difficult to receive with an indoor antenna, even within Philadelphia proper. WPVI's audio signal transmitted on a frequency of 87.75 MHz (+10 kHz shift) and was picked up on the lower end of the dial on most FM radios in Philadelphia and surrounding areas prior to the digital transition. As of June 12, 2009, the station's main programming is no longer heard on 87.75 MHz on FM radios. The FCC granted

9870-423: Was ended due to WPSG dropping its CW affiliation and returning to being an independent station the next day, September 1. While the newscast would return to being an hour-long edition of CBS News Philadelphia on the newly renamed Philly 57 on September 5, it has now been moved to an earlier start time of 8 p.m. In December 2013, WPVI entered into a news share agreement with Univision -owned WUVP-DT (channel 65);

9975-453: Was followed by the following month with the sale of KTVY-TV to WHO-TV owner Palmer Communications, for $ 50 million. WTEN was the next-to-last station to be sold, going to Young Broadcasting for $ 38 million, and WJRT would eventually becoming the final Knight Ridder station, to be sold to SJL Broadcasting for $ 39 million. • Shock and Awe , 2018 film about a group of journalists at Knight Ridder's Washington Bureau who investigate

10080-657: Was founded by John S. Knight upon inheriting control of the Akron Beacon Journal from his father, Charles Landon Knight , in 1933; the second company was founded by Herman Ridder when he acquired the New Yorker Staats-Zeitung , a German language newspaper, in 1892. As anti-German sentiment increased in the interwar period , Ridder successfully transitioned into English language publishing by acquiring The Journal of Commerce in 1926. Both companies went public in 1969 and merged on July 11, 1974. For

10185-500: Was moved to weekends and remained there for the remainder of its run. Even in the years after WPVI became an ABC-owned station, it continued to preempt an hour of ABC daytime programs in favor of other programs. Wildwood, New Jersey –based NBC affiliate WMGM-TV (channel 40) picked up the preempted ABC shows until 1987, when those programs returned to channel 29, which was now WTXF-TV . The preempted programs were usually magazine shows, game shows or reruns of ABC prime time sitcoms . By

10290-705: Was owned by Knight Ridder and would switch to Fox several years after Knight Ridder sold the station.) In early 1989, Knight Ridder announced its exit from broadcasting, selling all of its stations to separate buyers; the sales were finalized in the summer and early fall of that year. This deal was made in order to reduce their debt loads from the proceedings. One of the stations, WALA-TV went to Burnham Broadcasting for $ 40 million, while WKRN would go to Young Broadcasting for $ 50 million, KOLD-TV to News-Press & Gazette Company for an undisclosed price, and two television stations WPRI and WTKR to Narragansett Television L.P. for $ 150 million on February 18, 1989. This

10395-690: Was recovered by the FCC for resale in March 2008. WPVI-TV was by far the largest urban station to broadcast in the Low-VHF band after the mandatory digital transition in 2009. Next to Philadelphia, the next largest market area served by a major network affiliate with a Low-VHF channel was Las Vegas , served by NBC affiliate KSNV-DT (which shifted their intellectual unit to a new sister UHF station in 2014 when it came under new ownership to address major reception issues). WPVI-DT went back to channel 6, where they had been broadcasting analog signals since 1948. The WPVI-TV signal

10500-672: Was renamed Philly After Midnight , where it lasted until 2001. Channel 6 has a long history of producing local programs. On March 26, 1948, it aired a production of "Parsifal" from the John Wanamaker Store that featured Bruno Walter conducting 50 players from the Philadelphia Orchestra , a chorus of 300, and the Wanamaker Organ . Perhaps its most notable local production was Bandstand , which began in 1952 and originated from WFIL-TV's newly constructed Studio B (located in

10605-422: Was replaced by Ducis Rodgers who was officially named sports director. On April 26, 2024, Apody announced via social media that she was leaving Action News after 18 years at the station despite the fact that she had not been seen on the air since October 2023, stating that her family life becoming more of a priority was the reason for her departure. On March 12, 2024, starting with the noon newscast, WPVI became

10710-553: Was replaced with voice actor Gabriel "Gabe" Kunda as the new voice of Action News (as of March 2024, Van Dyke still does voiceover work for sister stations KABC in Los Angeles, KFSN in Fresno and WABC in New York). For many years, WPVI's dominance fostered an "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" mentality. Its logo, a simple stylized "6", has been used with only minor changes since 1967 when it

10815-479: Was set around the Philadelphia Medical Examiner's Office and produced by ABC's television production division , used WPVI live trucks and microphones with the station's mic flags in a fictional sense, along with fictional press conference news graphics from the station, though none of WPVI's actual staff appeared during the course of the series, and retained the graphics and live truck look used before

10920-570: 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 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

11025-453: Was still WFIL-TV. In June 1995, the "6" was placed in a blue box, the station was later re-branded as 6ABC in June 1996 with the red ABC logo augmented on the bottom right of the 6. The red ABC logo was later replaced with a 2007-era glossy logo on December 4, 2010, and the ABC logo was updated (as recent as 2021). Well into the 1990s, it still used chromakey graphics, and weather forecasts utilized

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