WBAL-TV
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| WBAL-TV | |
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| Baltimore, Maryland | |
| Branding | WBAL-TV 11 (general) WBAL-TV 11 News -or- 11 News (newscasts) |
| Slogan | Live. Local. Latebreaking. |
| Channels | Analog: 11 (VHF) Digital: 59 (UHF) |
| Affiliations | NBC NBC Weather Plus (on digital subchannel 11.2) |
| Owner | Hearst-Argyle Television (WBAL Hearst-Argyle Television, Inc.) |
| First air date | March 11, 1948 |
| Call letters’ meaning | BALtimore |
| Sister station(s) | WBAL, WIYY |
| Former affiliations | NBC (1948-1981) CBS (1981-1995) |
| Transmitter Power | 316 kW (analog) 513 kW (digital) |
| Height | 299 m (analog) 312 m (digital) |
| Facility ID | 65696 |
| Transmitter Coordinates | |
| Website | www.wbaltv.com |
WBAL-TV, channel 11, is an NBC-affiliated television station in Baltimore, Maryland. WBAL-TV is owned by Hearst-Argyle Television, a publicly-traded company which is majority-owned by the Hearst Corporation, which also owns sister radio stations WBAL (1090 AM) and WIYY (97.9 FM). The three stations share a studio and office facility on Television Hill in the Woodberry section of Baltimore, near the transmitting tower WBAL-TV shares with WIYY and four other Baltimore television stations.
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[edit] History
WBAL-TV began operations on March 11, 1948 from its original studios on North Charles Street in Downtown Baltimore. It was owned by Hearst Corporation along with the Baltimore News-Post, Baltimore American (which later merged as the Baltimore News-American before shutting down in 1986) and WBAL-AM. It is one of two Hearst-owned stations to have been built from the ground up by the company (the other being Pittsburgh's WTAE-TV), and the oldest to be continuosly owned by Hearst through their various television subsidiaries through the years.
At its launch, WBAL-TV was an NBC affiliate. Early programming include Musical Almanac, Look and Cook, and Know Baltimore, along with news and sports productions. In the 1950s, the station introduced Romper Room, Baltimore's first live morning variety show. This show eventually became a nationally franchised program.
WBAL-TV produced several local bowling shows in the 1960s and early 1970s, including Strikes and Spares, Pinbusters, Duckpins for Dollars, Bowling for Dollars, and Spare Time. The station even went as far as building bowling alleys at its studios. It also launched several children's entertainment shows during this period, such as Rhea and Sunshine, Pete the Pirate, P.W. Doodle, Heads Up, and the teen-oriented Kirby Scott Show.
WBAL-TV's first stint as an NBC affiliate ended on August 30, 1981, when the station swapped affiliations with WMAR-TV (channel 2), then owned by the Baltimore Sun, and became a CBS affiliate. CBS was not pleased with WMAR-TV's frequent pre-emptions and low news ratings. As a CBS affiliate, however, channel 11 pre-empted an hour of the network's daytime schedule everyday, as well as half of its Saturday cartoon lineup. Channel 11 also did not run CBS's late night programming. Baltimore viewers who wanted to see the entire CBS line-up could do so through WDVM-TV/WUSA in Washington, D.C., which was available over-the-air in most of the Baltimore area and pre-empted little network programming.
In 1994, the E.W. Scripps Company, the present owners of WMAR-TV, negotiated with ABC to affiliate with its Baltimore station as part of a multi-station deal. In response, CBS and Westinghouse Broadcasting formed a partnership, resulting in the CBS affiliation moving from WBAL-TV to Westinghouse's WJZ-TV (channel 13), Baltimore's longtime ABC affiliate. Largely by default, channel 11 rejoined the NBC network on January 2, 1995, and has remained the market's NBC affiliate since then.
In August 2005, WBAL-TV launched a 24-hour local weather channel, WBAL-TV 11 Insta-Weather Plus, broadcast over-the-air on digital channel 11-2 and by cable in much of Maryland on Comcast channel 208.
The station was a prominent feature in the movie Diner, set in Baltimore. One of the characters' girlfriends works there, and another character watches College Bowl, an NBC program doubtlessly aired on WBAL-TV.
[edit] Newscasts
Channel 11 used the Action News title and format for its newscasts from about 1973 until 1988. Since the late 1980s, it has been branded News 11, WBAL-TV 11 News, or just simply 11 News.
From the early 1960s through the 1970s, WBAL-TV was the ratings leader in Baltimore. WJZ-TV took the lead in the 1970s and held it for 30 years, but WBAL-TV was a strong runner-up for most of that time. In recent years, WBAL-TV's newscasts placed first at 5 p.m., 6 p.m. and 11 p.m..
[edit] Personalities
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[edit] Former personalities
- Curt Anderson, now in the Maryland General Assembly[2]
- Amanda Arnold
- Sade Baderinwa, now with WABC-TV in New York City
- Vince Bagli [3]
- Ray Bennett
- Campbell Brown
- Spencer Christian, now with KGO-TV in San Francisco
- Carol Costello
- Marilyn Getas, now with KION-TV in Salinas, California
- Mike Hambrick [4]
- Edie House [5]
- Josh Howell
- Rolf Hertsgaard [6]
- Jennifer Johnson
The Weekend Action News, r-l, Rob Roblin, Curt Anderson and Chris Thomas, 1981.
- Lloyd Kramer [7]
- Joe Krebs, now with WRC-TV in Washington, D.C.
- Norm Lewis, now with WMAR-TV
- Vicki Mabrey, now with ABC News
- Frank W. Mann
- Carolyn McEnrue, now with KLST in San Angelo, Texas
- Jim Mustard
- Rudy Miller [8]
- Royal Parker (Royce Polikoff) [9]
- Tony Pann
- Lisa Salters, now with ESPN
- Sue Simmons, now with WNBC-TV in New York City
- Ron Smith, now with WBAL radio
- Chris Thomas
- Noel Tucker, now with KGMB-TV in Honolulu, Hawaii
- Mark Viviano, now with WJZ-TV
- Julius Westheimer
[edit] Awards and achievements
WBAL-TV has boasted many television firsts, including:
- the first Baltimore television station to broadcast in color;
- the first station in Maryland (and the eighth in the world) to acquire a videotape cartridge machine;
- the first station in Baltimore to acquire a mobile satellite news-gathering system (dubbed "NEWSTAR 11");
- the first Baltimore station to hire an African-American news anchor and an African-American news director.[1]
In addition, WBAL-TV became the first Baltimore TV station to win a Peabody Award for local news coverage (and the first Baltimore television station to win the award in any category in more than fifty years). WBAL's "11 News" was also awarded as one of the top three Best Television Newscasts by the National Headliners Association, alongside WFAA-TV in Dallas, and sister station WCVB-TV in Boston.
Other awards include:
- regional Edward R. Murrow Awards, the George Polk Award and the American Bar Association Gavel Award - for excellence in reporting and journalism;
- Outstanding television news operation in Baltimore (by the Associated Press and United Press International)
[edit] References
[edit] External links
- WBAL-TV Website
- WBAL-TV History
- WBAL-TV's YouTube Video Channel
- Query the FCC's TV station database for WBAL-TV
- BIAfn's Media Web Database -- Information on WBAL-TV
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