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KDKA-TV

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KDKA-TV is the CBS owned and operated (O&O) television station in Pittsburgh. It broadcasts its analog signal on VHF channel 2, and its digital signal on UHF channel 25 from its transmitter in Pittsburgh.

History

As WDTV

The station went on the air on January 11, 1949 as WDTV (W DuMont TeleVision), owned and operated by the DuMont Television Network. It originally broadcast on channel 3, moving to channel 2 in 1952 to alleviate interference with WNBK in Cleveland (now WKYC-TV, which for several years was a sister station to KDKA-TV).

At the time, Pittsburgh was the sixth-largest market in the country (behind New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, and Washington). However, WDTV's only competition came from UHF stations, as well as grade B signals from stations in Johnstown ,Wheeling , and Youngstown. In fact, no other commercial VHF stations signed on in Pittsburgh until 1957 (the only other VHF station in town was educational WQED-TV). At the time, UHF stations were unviewable without a very expensive converter. Even with a converter, the signals from these stations were barely viewable.

As a result, WDTV had a de facto monopoly on Pittsburgh television; Pittsburgh became the strongest market for DuMont (and therefore, WDTV its flagship station). Owning the only viewable station in such a large market gave DuMont considerable leverage in getting its programs cleared in large markets where it didn't have an affiliate. As CBS, NBC and ABC had secondary affiliations with WDTV, this was a strong incentive to stations in large markets to clear DuMont's programs or risk losing valuable advertising in the sixth-largest market. WDTV aired all DuMont network shows live, and cherry-picked the best shows from the other networks, airing them on kinescope on an every-other-week basis.

WDTV's sign-on was also significant because it was now possible to feed live programs from the East to the Midwest and vice versa. In fact, its second broadcast was the activation of the coaxial cable linking the two regions. It would be another two years before the West Coast received live programming, but this was the beginning of the modern era of network television.

By 1954, DuMont was in serious financial trouble. Paramount Pictures, which owned a stake in DuMont, vetoed a merger with ABC-who had merged with United Paramount Theaters, Paramount's former theater division, a year before. Since the FCC had ruled that Paramount controlled DuMont and there were still lingering questions about whether UPT had actually broken off from DuMont, Paramount didn't want to risk the FCC's wrath. Desperate for cash, DuMont was forced to sell WDTV to Westinghouse Electric Corporation for $9.75 million in late 1954. While the sale gave DuMont a short-term cash infusion, it eliminated DuMont's leverage in getting clearances in other major markets. Within two years, the DuMont network was no more.

After the sale closed in 1955, Westhinghouse changed WDTV's calls to KDKA-TV, after KDKA-AM 1020, the world's first licensed commercial radio station. It became a primary CBS affiliate, retaining secondary affiliations with NBC until 1957 (when WIIC-TV, now WPXI, signed on) and ABC until 1958 (when WTAE-TV signed on). It became the flagship station of Westinghouse's broadcasting arm, Group W. (The WDTV calls now reside on a CBS affiliate in Weston, West Virginia, which is unrelated to the current KDKA-TV.)

As KDKA-TV

As a CBS affiliate, KDKA-TV dominated the ratings. It was not uncommon for newscasts anchored by Bill Burns to draw a 50 percent share of audience (or higher).

The station was known from the 1960s through the 1990s to pre-empt CBS programs that received low ratings, usually replaced by locally produced shows, high-rated syndicated programming, and Pittsburgh Pirates baseball games. Even the daytime soap opera As The World Turns wasn't immune as KDKA pre-empted the serial for a large portion of its still-continuing run, most notably in the 1960s (for movies), and from 1978 to 1990, where the 2 to 3PM hour usually reserved for the national CBS feed of ATWT was replaced by the popular talk program "Pittsburgh 2Day." After Pittsburgh 2Day's cancellation in 1990, KDKA would later give in to pressure from both CBS and ATWT fans to air the show.

Starting in 1993, KDKA stopped running CBS This Morning and instead ran syndicated Disney cartoons, an unusual move for a major-market station. It resumed carrying the CBS morning show several years later.

In 1994 Westinghouse made a deal with CBS to convert the entire Group W television unit -- which included KDKA, KYW-TV in Philadelphia, WBZ-TV in Boston, WJZ-TV in Baltimore and KPIX-TV in San Francisco -- to CBS owned-and-operated affiliates. KDKA and KPIX were already CBS affiliates; while KYW and WBZ were NBC stations and WJZ was an ABC station. The conversion was complete by the fall of 1995. Part of the deal required KDKA to run the entire CBS lineup without pre-emption, except in the case of breaking news or weather.

In early 1996, Westinghouse merged with CBS, making KDKA-TV a CBS owned-and-operated station, after four decades as being simply a CBS affiliate. Viacom merged with CBS in 2000, making KDKA a sister station with Pittsburgh UPN affiliate WNPA-TV (now WPCW). Ironically, in 1994, Viacom purchased Paramount, which figured so prominently in DuMont's collapse, and in fact had announced plans to launch UPN prior to being acquired by Viacom.

In 2001, KDKA began producing a 10 p.m. newscast on WPCW. In 2005, KDKA added a two hour morning newscast on WPCW.

Today, KDKA-TV is owned by CBS Television Stations, while KDKA Radio is owned by CBS Radio. Both companies are subsidiaries of the CBS Corporation.

KDKA is also available on cable in Johnstown, Altoona, and Wheeling.

Recent logo/call letters controversy

KDKA-TV used the distinct "stylized 2" "Group W" font for its logo for some years after it became a CBS O&O, dropping it in 2003 in favor of a plainer "2." (See below.) After KDKA dropped the font, it adopted a much plainer logo similar to that of other CBS O&Os. This led to speculation that the station might soon call itself "CBS2", following the lead of WCBS-TV in New York, KCBS-TV in Los Angeles and WBBM-TV in Chicago in the near future. This was reinforced when the station updated the logo again in September 2005, this time more mimicking that of WBBM-TV.

However, the station has continued to refer to itself as KDKA-TV or KDKA-TV2.

Station trivia

  • Pop singer Christina Aguilera made her first TV appearance on KDKA-TV.
  • KDKA was also the home of early work by comedian and Pittsburgh native Dennis Miller, who in the early '80s hosted a local weekend entertainment show called Punchline that was produced by KDKA.
  • KDKA is credited with the first "network" TV feed in world history.
  • The station had the world's first father-daughter broadcast team. Beginning in the 1970s, KDKA's noon news broadcast was anchored by veteran Pittsburgh anchorman Bill Burns and his daughter Patti Burns, often referred to as the "Patti and Daddy show."
  • The station is one of the few east of the Mississippi River (along with KYW, KQV, and KTGG) whose call letters begin with "K."
  • KDKA is one of only four CBS O&O stations (in addition to KUTV in Salt Lake City, WCCO in Minneapolis and WJZ in Baltimore) that doesn't use the "CBS Mandate" for the on-air name (CBS [channel #] [city/market descriptor]).
  • The station uses a variation of the "VIPIR" system for its radar.

Station Images

Newscasts

Weekdays

  • KDKA-TV Morning News - 5:00-7:00 a.m. - Sonni Abatta and Keith Jones, meteorologist Rebecca Hower, and Jim Lokay with traffic.
  • "Pittsburgh Today Live" - 9:00-10:00 a.m. - Kristine Sorenson, Jon Burnett (part-time), and meteorologist Rebecca Hower.
  • KDKA-TV News at Noon - 12:00-12:30 p.m.- Sonni Abatta and Stacy Smith, and meteorologist Rebecca Hower.
  • KDKA-TV News at 4 - 4:00-5:00 p.m.- Patrice King Brown and Stacy Smith and chief meteorologist Jeff Verszyla or weathercaster Jon Burnett.
  • KDKA-TV News at 5 - 5:00-6:00 p.m.- Ken Rice and Kristine Sorensen and chief meteorologist Jeff Verszyla.
  • KDKA-TV News at 6 - 6:00-7:00 p.m.- Patrice King Brown and Stacy Smith, chief meteorologist Jeff Verszyla, and Bob Pompeani on sports.
  • KDKA-TV News at 11 - 11:00-11:35 p.m.- Patrice King Brown and Ken Rice, chief meteorologist Jeff Verszyla, and Bob Pompeani on sports.

Saturdays

  • KDKA-TV Saturday Morning - 6:00-8:00 a.m.- Paul Martino and Brenda Waters, and Jon Burnett with weather.
  • KDKA-TV News at 6 - 6:00-6:30 p.m.- Don Cannon and Stephanie Watson, Jon Burnett with weather, and Bob Pompeani, John Steigerwald, or Mike Zappone on sports.
  • KDKA-TV News at 7 - 7:00-7:30 p.m.- Don Cannon and Stephanie Watson, Jon Burnett with weather, and Bob Pompeani, John Steigerwald, or Mike Zappone on sports
  • KDKA-TV News at 11 - 11:00-11:35 p.m.- Don Cannon and Stephanie Watson, Jon Burnett with weather, and Bob Pompeani, John Steigerwald, or Mike Zappone on sports.

Sundays

  • KDKA-TV News at 6:30 - 6:30-7:00 p.m. - Don Cannon and Stephanie Watson, Jon Burnett with weather, and Bob Pompeani, John Steigerwald, or Mike Zappone on sports.
  • KDKA-TV News at 11 - 11:00-11:35 p.m.- Don Cannon and Stephanie Watson, Jon Burnett with weather, and Bob Pompeani, John Steigerwald, or Mike Zappone on sports.

Current On-Air Personalities

Anchors:

Weather:

  • Jeff Verszyla (chief meteorologist) - weekday evening meteorologist.
  • Rebecca Hower (meteorologist) - KDKA-TV Morning News, Pittsburgh Today Live, KDKA-TV News at Noon.)
  • Jon Burnett (weather forecaster) - weekend morning and evening newscasts.
  • Dennis Bowman (AMS meteorologist) - fill-in duties.

Sports:

Heath Team:

Reporters:

Former On-Air Personalities

Local Programming

Past

Present

Contact Info

KDKA-TV
One Gateway Center
Pittsburgh, PA 15222

Main Switchboard: 412-575-2200
News Desk 2: 412-575-2245
Newsroom Fax: 412-575-2871
Consumer Editor Yvonne Zanos: 412-575-2234
Marketing: 412-575-3275
Programming: 412-575-2347
Engineering: 412-575-2439
Public Events/Talent Appearances: 412-575-2365

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