WPIX (channel 11), branded as PIX 11, is a television station in New York City, serving as the de facto flagship of The CW. The station is owned by Mission Broadcasting and operated under a local marketing agreement (LMA) by Nexstar Media Group, which is The CW's parent company. Since its inception in 1948, WPIX has maintained studios and offices in the Daily News Building on East 42nd Street (also known as "11 WPIX Plaza") in Midtown Manhattan. The station's transmitter is located at the Empire State Building.
WPIX is also available as a regional superstation via satellite and cable in the United States and Canada. It is the largest Nexstar-operated station by population of market size.
History
As an independent station (1948–1995) The station first signed on the air on June 15, 1948; it was the fifth television station to sign on in New York City and was the market's second independent station."WPIX inaugural, TV station to have glittering debut." Broadcasting - Telecasting, June 14, 1948, pg. 27. It was also the second of three stations to launch in the New York market during 1948, debuting one month after Newark, New Jersey–based independent WATV (channel 13, now PBS member station WNET) and two months before WJZ-TV (channel 7, now WABC-TV). WPIX's call letters come from "New York's Picture ("PIX") Newspaper", the nameplate slogan of its founding owner, the New York Daily News. The Daily Newss partial corporate parent was the Chicago-based Tribune Company, publishers of the Chicago Tribune.
Until becoming owned outright by Tribune in 1991, WPIX operated separately from the company's other television and radio outlets (including WGN-TV in Chicago, which signed on two months before WPIX in April 1948) through the News-owned license holder, WPIX, Incorporated—which in 1963, purchased New York radio station WBFM (101.9 FM) and soon changed that station's call sign to WPIX-FM and then to WQCD in 1988. British businessman Robert Maxwell bought the Daily News in 1991. Tribune retained WPIX and WQCD; the radio station was sold to Emmis Communications in 1997 (it is now WFAN-FM, owned by Audacy). WPIX initially featured programming that was standard among independents: children's programs, movies, syndicated reruns of network programs, public affairs programming, religious programs and sports—specifically, the New York Yankees, whose baseball games WPIX carried from 1951 to 1998.
To generations of New York children, channel 11 was also the home of memorable personalities. In 1955, original WPIX staffer and weather forecaster Joe Bolton, donned a policeman's uniform and became "Officer Joe", hosting several programs based around Little Rascals, Three Stooges, and later Popeye shorts. Another early WPIX personality, Jack McCarthy, also hosted Popeye and Dick Tracy cartoons as "Captain Jack" in the early 1960s, though he was also the longtime host of channel 11's St. Patrick's Day parade coverage from 1949 to 1992. WPIX aired a local version of Bozo the Clown (with Bill Britten in the role) from 1959 to 1964; comic performers Chuck McCann and Allen Swift also hosted programs on WPIX during the mid-1960s before each moved to other entertainment work in Hollywood. Jazz singer Joya Sherrill hosted a weekday children's show, Time for Joya (later known as Joya's Fun School). Channel 11 produced the Magic Garden series, which ran on the station from 1972 to 1984. Beginning in the late 1970s and continuing through spring 1982, the station aired "TV PIXX", a television video game show played during commercial breaks of afternoon programs. Kids would call into the station for the chance to control a video game via telephone in hopes of winning prizes.
Another staple of WPIX's programming was its selection of movies; unlike many independent stations, WPIX's library went beyond the usual offerings from major studios and low-budget B-movies, to movies produced by Samuel Goldwyn and imports from Britain. The station also became famous to many area viewers for their various holiday broadcasts of films that became traditions at the station, such as the broadcast of the 1934 movie March of the Wooden Soldiers on Thanksgiving Day. This reputation for film programming (for much of the station's history, a movie ran at 8 p.m. every night in prime time; movies also made up much of the schedule on weekends) became so ingrained that the station frequently promoted itself as being "New York's Movie Station" during the late 1980s and 1990s. Another notable programming stunt was Shocktober, where for the entire month of October, various horror and thriller films were played; this occurred for several years in the early 1990s, and became a cult favorite among area viewers.
From its early years through the 1960s, WPIX, like the other two major independents in New York, WOR-TV (channel 9, now WWOR) and WNEW-TV (channel 5, now WNYW), struggled to acquire other programming. In 1966, WPIX debuted The Yule Log, which combines Christmas music with a film loop of logs burning inside a fireplace. Airing on Christmas Eve and/or Christmas morning initially until 1989, the film was made in 1966 and was shot at Gracie Mansion, with the cooperation of then Mayor John V. Lindsay. WPIX revived the Yule Log due to viewer demand in 2001, and has proven to be just as popular. Several of Tribune's other television stations (as well as WGN America and Antenna TV) have carried the WPIX version, complete with its audio soundtrack, on Christmas morning since the late 2000s, and is also streamed online on WPIX's website. Since 1977, Channel 11 has aired a live broadcast of Midnight Mass from St. Patrick's Cathedral every Christmas Eve.
The station's "Circle 11" logo – predating the existence of the World Trade Center (which was not completed until 1973), which it closely resembled – was first unveiled in 1969 (an advertising billboard for WPIX with the "Circle 11" logo began appearing that year at Yankee Stadium). By the mid-1970s, WPIX emerged as the second highest-rated independent station in the area, behind WNEW-TV. WPIX dropped the "Circle 11" when it rebranded as "11 Alive" in September 1976, though it continued to appear during station editorials until around 1982 (the "Alive" slogan was popularized by such stations as Atlanta's WXIA-TV, which itself has branded as "11 Alive" ever since that point, with the exception of a brief removal in 1995); the "Circle 11" logo returned as part of the "11 Alive" branding in 1984, before being restored full-time in the fall of 1986. Its relaunch featured a series of humorous promos in which a fictional station employee, "Henry Tillman", was searching for a "big idea" for something uniquely New York in nature to serve as the perfect WPIX symbol. The running gag in these ads was that Tillman was constantly surrounded by – but never noticed – objects resembling a giant "11", most notably the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center.
In 1978, WPIX was uplinked to satellite and became a superstation that was distributed to cable providers throughout the U.S. (many providers carried WPIX's signal until the early 1990s, when most systems outside of the Northeastern United States began replacing WPIX with the superstation feed of WGN-TV, though the station continues to be distributed through Dish Network domestically (which since it halted sales of the package to new subscribers in September 2013, is available only to grandfathered subscribers of its a la carte superstation tier) and on most cable and satellite providers throughout Canada). Two years later, WPIX began operating on a 24-hour programming schedule.
During the late 1980s, WPIX fell to sixth place in the ratings among New York's VHF stations, behind WNYW (which was now owned by Fox) and a resurgent WWOR (then owned by MCA–Universal). After president Leavitt Pope stepped down as general manager (though he remained as president and CEO of WPIX), Michael Eigner was transferred from Los Angeles sister station KTLA to become WPIX's general manager in August 1989.
Over the next few years the station engineered a slow turnaround that eventually resulted in WPIX becoming the leading independent station in the market. In 1994, the station became the exclusive home of the New York City Marathon, carrying the event for the next five years. It was during the initial broadcast of that event that WPIX unveiled a stylized serifed "11" logo; the new numerical look eventually became the full-time logo, augmented with The WB's logo after the station affiliated with that network in 1995.
In mid-January 1994, the station began airing the Action Pack programming block with the TV movie TekWar. WPIX earned the biggest ratings of all the stations airing the program, with an 11.7/17 rating.
WB affiliation (1995–2006) On November 2, 1993, the Warner Bros. Television division of Time Warner and the Tribune Company announced the formation of The WB Television Network. Due to the company's ownership interest in the network (initially a 12.5% stake, before expanding to 22%), Tribune signed the majority of its independent stations to serve as The WB's charter affiliates, resulting in WPIX becoming a network affiliate for the first time upon its January 11, 1995, debut.
The station was verbally branded as "The WB, Channel 11" (simply adding The WB name to the "Channel 11" branding in use since 1986), until it was simplified to "The WB 11" in 1997, and further to "WB11" in 2000. Initially, WPIX's programming remained unchanged, as The WB had broadcast only prime time shows on Wednesday nights at its launch. As with other WB-affiliated stations during the network's first four years, WPIX ran feature films and select first-run scripted series prior to its 10 p.m. newscast on nights when The WB did not offer network programming.
WB network and syndicated daytime programs (such as Maury and Jerry Springer) became more prominent on channel 11's schedule starting in 1996 at the expense of most of its local-interest programming outside of news. By September 1999, when The WB completed its prime time expansion and the network began running its programming Sunday through Friday nights, movies were limited to Saturday evenings and weekend afternoons.
September 11 attacks
On September 11, 2001, the transmitter facilities of WPIX and several other New York City area television and radio stations were destroyed when two hijacked airplanes crashed into the World Trade Center; both of the complex's main towers collapsed due to fires caused by the impact. WPIX lead engineer Steven A. JacobsonRemembering Steve Jacobson, PIX11 News engineer killed on Sept. 11 pix11.com September 11, 2015. Retrieved August 9, 2018 was among those who were killed in the terrorist attack.They loved broadcasting: engineers who died on 9/11 were dedicated to keeping their stations on the air, Broadcasting & Cable, September 9, 2002, pp.30. Retrieved August 9, 2018. WPIX's satellite feed froze on the last video frame received from the WTC mast, a replay of the North Tower burning and the start of the impact of the South Tower; the image remained on-screen for much of the day until WPIX was able to set up alternate transmission facilities (the microwave relay for WPIX's satellite feed was also located at the World Trade Center). WPIX also broadcast on W64AA in the interim.After the collapse, stations struggle, Broadcasting & Cable, September 17, 2001, pp. 20-22. Retrieved August 9, 2015. Since then, WPIX has transmitted its signal from the Empire State Building.