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WWOR-TV channel 9 is the flagship station of the MyNetworkTV network. It is licensed in Secaucus, New Jersey and serves New York City and the New York metropolitan area. WWOR is owned by Fox Television Stations, a division of the News Corporation. Its nearby sister station is Fox network flagship WNYW (channel 5).
WWOR-TV's studios and main offices are located at 9 Broadcast Plaza in Secaucus. The transmitter is atop the Empire State Building in Manhattan.
In areas of the United States where MyNetworkTV programs aren't available over-the-air, WWOR is seen via satellite to subscribers of Echostar's Dish Network.
nel 9 signed on the air on October 11, 1949, as WOR-TV, owned by the Bamberger Broadcasting Service, which also operated WOR radio (710 AM) and WOR-FM (98.7 MHz., later WXLO and now WRKS-FM).
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Encyclopedia
WWOR-TV channel 9 is the flagship station of the MyNetworkTV network. It is licensed in Secaucus, New Jersey and serves New York City and the New York metropolitan area. WWOR is owned by Fox Television Stations, a division of the News Corporation. Its nearby sister station is Fox network flagship WNYW (channel 5).
WWOR-TV's studios and main offices are located at 9 Broadcast Plaza in Secaucus. The transmitter is atop the Empire State Building in Manhattan.
In areas of the United States where MyNetworkTV programs aren't available over-the-air, WWOR is seen via satellite to subscribers of Echostar's Dish Network.
As WOR-TV
Channel 9 signed on the air on October 11, 1949, as WOR-TV, owned by the Bamberger Broadcasting Service, which also operated WOR radio (710 AM) and WOR-FM (98.7 MHz., later WXLO and now WRKS-FM). Bamberger Broadcasting was a division of R. H. Macy and Company, and was named after the Bamberger's department store chain. Exactly ten months earlier, Bamberger launched Washington, D.C.'s fourth television station, WOIC-TV (now WUSA), also on channel 9.
On WOR-TV's opening night, a welcome address was read by WOR radio's morning host, John B. Gambling. The only problem was the audio portion of the speech wasn't heard because of a technical glitch. The gremlin was fixed, and Gambling repeated the message later that evening, prior to sign-off. That first broadcast, and other early WOR-TV shows, emanated from the New Amsterdam Roof Theatre, located near Times Square.
WOR-TV entered the New York market as the last of the city's VHF stations to sign-on, and one of three independents -- the others being WPIX (channel 11) and Newark, New Jersey-based WATV (channel 13, later WNTA-TV, now known as WNET). However, plans were underway to make both channel 9 and its Washington sister station charter affiliates of the Mutual Television Network. WOR radio had enjoyed a long relationship with the Mutual Radio Network, and WOR-TV was chosen to be the New York outlet for Mutual Television, which never went to air. Channel 9 remained an independent, while WOIC-TV was sold to a joint venture of the Washington Post and CBS in 1950.
WOR-TV didn't get a network affiliation, but it did get a new owner in 1952, when Macy's/Bamberger's sold the WOR stations to the General Tire and Rubber Company, which had already broadcasting interests in four cities: in Boston, with the regional Yankee Radio Network and WNAC-AM-FM-TV there; in Memphis, with WHBQ radio (who would launch a new television station a year later); and KHJ-AM-FM-TV in Los Angeles and KFRC-AM-FM in San Francisco. The outlets in the latter two cities were operated by General Tire subsidiary Don Lee Broadcasting, and the WOR stations were assigned to this subsidiary. In 1955, General Tire purchased RKO Radio Pictures, giving the company's TV stations access to RKO's film library, and soon after General Tire merged its broadcast interests as General Teleradio. In 1959, General Tire's broadcasting and film divisions were renamed as RKO General.
During the 1950s, all three of New York's independents struggled to find acceptable programming. The field would increase by one in 1956 when former DuMont flagship station WABD (channel 5, later WNEW-TV and now WNYW) became an independent. Through this era, WOR-TV's programming was comparable to its rivals, with a blend of movies, children's programs, and public affairs shows. In 1962 the independent field was narrowed to three, as WOR-TV and its competition benefitted from the sale of WNTA-TV to the non-profit Educational Broadcasting Corporation, who would convert channel 13 into a non-commercial educational station (now WNET).
By the early 1970s, WNEW-TV became the leading station for cartoons and sitcoms, while WPIX aired a similar format with more movies. As a result WOR-TV sought a different programming strategy, one that was more adult-oriented, with a heavy emphasis on films, reruns of hour-long network dramas, game shows, and sports. The station gradually phased out most sitcoms (though some sitcoms began being run more during late mornings from 1984 until after the station was sold in 1987) and all children's programming with the exception of the local version of Romper Room, which moved from WNEW-TV in the late 1960s. They also were the first New York City station to have a 12 p.m. newscast on weekdays. They also produced several hours a day of local talk shows and public affairs programming. Later in the decade, WOR-TV looked towards the United Kingdom for alternative offerings. On the week of September 6, 1976, channel 9 offered programming from Thames Television during primetime, completely presented as if Thames was actually running WOR-TV. Many of these shows had never before been seen on American television, and one of them provided America's first look at Thames' greatest export -- The Benny Hill Show. Also included that week was an episode of Man About The House, which would be reinvented the following year on ABC as Three's Company. WOR-TV aired episodes of the BBC's science-fiction series Doctor Who during this period as well.
Despite its ambitious programming, WOR-TV was perceived as an also-ran, even though the station was very profitable for RKO General. But with the advent of cable and satellite-delivered television, independent stations were being uplinked for regional and national distribution, thus gaining the title of "superstations". In April 1979, Syracuse, New York-based Eastern Microwave, Inc. began distributing WOR-TV to cable and C-band satellite subscribers across the United States, joining WTBS (now WPCH-TV) in Atlanta and WGN-TV in Chicago as national superstations.
Troubles with the FCC
While WOR-TV was gaining national exposure, a battle for the station's survival -- and that of its owner -- was well underway. In 1975, RKO applied for renewal of its license to operate WOR-TV. The Federal Communications Commission conditioned this renewal on that of its sister station, WNAC-TV in Boston. In 1980, the FCC stripped RKO of WNAC-TV's license due to a litany of offenses dating back to the 1960s, but ultimately because RKO had withheld evidence of corporate misconduct by General Tire. The decision meant that RKO lost WOR-TV's license and that of another sister station, KHJ-TV in Los Angeles (RKO General, Inc. (KHJ-TV), 3 FCC Rcd 5057 (1988)). However, an appeals court ruled that the FCC had erred in tying WOR-TV and KHJ-TV's renewals to WNAC-TV, and ordered new proceedings. RKO soon found itself under renewed pressure from the FCC, which began soliciting applications for all of the company's broadcast licenses in February 1983.
Move to New Jersey
In order to buy itself some time, RKO (with the help of New Jersey senator Bill Bradley) persuaded the U.S. Congress to pass a law requiring the FCC to automatically renew the license of any VHF station that moved its license to New Jersey, a state which for many years complained of being "underserved" by VHF stations from the New York City and Philadelphia markets. (With the 1962 conversion of Newark's channel 13 to non-commercial, New Jersey had no commercial VHF allocations located within the state.) RKO was able to retain WOR-TV by moving the channel 9 license to Secaucus (seven miles west of Manhattan) on April 20, 1983. Three years later WOR-TV established a physical presence in New Jersey with the opening of their new studio facility, Nine Broadcast Plaza, on January 13, 1986. However, for all practical purposes, WOR-TV remained a New York City station. A month later, the New Jersey State Senate petitioned the FCC to approve an extension of the channel 9 signal into southern New Jersey. Because of various other issues, the request was denied.
The move to New Jersey did little to relieve the regulatory pressure on RKO, which opted to put WOR-TV up for sale in 1985. Westinghouse Broadcasting, Chris-Craft Industries (who would, ironically, purchase the station 7 years later), and MCA/Universal emerged as the leading suitors for WOR-TV, and the station was sold to MCA in late 1986. The announcement of this deal came just in the nick of time for RKO: in 1987, an administrative law judge recommended that RKO be stripped of its remaining broadcast properties due to a litany of misconduct. Eventually, WOR radio would be sold to Hartford, Connecticut-based Buckley Broadcasting, and WRKS-FM would go to Summit Broadcasting.
As WWOR-TV
MCA assumed control of WOR-TV on April 21 1987. Initially, only the calls changed to WWOR-TV with a new logo and programming stayed pretty much the same. That fall, WWOR-TV relaunched as a station perceived as different from a year prior. The station dropped most of its public affairs shows; Romper Room was cut back to 30 minutes and moved to 6:00 a.m.; all religious shows except for the Sunday Mass were dropped; cartoons were added to the station's lineup; and stronger syndicated shows were mixed in the early evenings. The late mornings consisted of classic sitcoms held over from the later RKO days and afternoons continued to consist of drama shows and movies also held over from the RKO days. Later that fall, in primetime, the Million Dollar Movie was relegated to weekends in favor of the controversial Morton Downey Jr. talk show; and the 8:00 newscast was moved to 10:00 p.m., and expanded to an hour. The overhaul continued in 1988, when it added evening sitcoms, including reruns of NBC's top-rated sitcom The Cosby Show. WWOR-TV also borrowed program formats used on the Westinghouse stations: a short-lived version of Evening Magazine aired in primetime, and a locally produced talk show called People Are Talking ran at 11 a.m. That show would later change its title to 9 Broadcast Plaza (named after the station's Secaucus studio location), and then to The Richard Bey Show for syndication.
In 1989, the FCC created the "Syndicated Exclusivity Rights" rule, otherwise known as "SyndEx." This rule stated that when a station in any market had the rights to air certain syndicated programs, the cable company had to block it out on out-of-town stations. Due to this rule, and to lighten the burden on cable companies, Eastern Microwave picked up broadcast rights to shows that were considered "SyndEx-proof" and could be inserted into WWOR's cable feed to replace programming that could not be aired nationally. Most of the programs came from the Universal and Quinn Martin libraries, along with some shows from the Christian Science Monitors television service, as well as some holdovers from the pre-syndex era that had aired on the local New York feed before the law was passed. Eastern Microwave would eventually launch a separate feed for satellite and cable subscribers on January 1, 1990, known as the "WWOR EMI Service".
In the fall of 1990, WWOR-TV began using Universal 9 for its on-air branding, highlighting its association with the MCA/Universal entertainment empire. However, MCA's ambitious ownership of the station ended when it was bought by Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd. of Osaka, Japan. Since the FCC does not allow foreign companies to own more than 25 percent of television stations, channel 9 had to be sold. On January 1, 1991, MCA spun-off the assets of WWOR-TV into a new company called Pinelands, Incorporated. However, the station continued to use Universal 9 as its on-air name until early 1992. In 1993 Pinelands was acquired by boat maker Chris-Craft Industries and its broadcasting subsidiary, United Television.
UPN affiliation
Two years later, Chris-Craft/United and Viacom's newly-acquired subsidiary Paramount Pictures banded together to form the United Paramount Network, the sixth U.S. television service when it debuted in January 1995. At the network's launch, WWOR-TV was UPN's "flagship" station. However, UPN did not allow WWOR's superstation feed to carry UPN programming nationally. (In contrast the WB allowed WGN-TV, one of WWOR's superstation counterparts, to air network programming on its cable feed during that network's early years.)
On January 1, 1997, with only a month's advance warning, Advance Entertainment Corporation, which had purchased the satellite distribution rights to WWOR from Eastern Microwave a few months earlier, stopped uplinking the national version. The EMI Service's transponder space was sold to Discovery Communications for the then six-month-old Animal Planet. Amid an outcry from satellite dish owners, National Programming Services uplinked the station again exclusively for satellite subscribers. The national feed was back to being the same feed as the one for the New York market. NPS dropped WWOR in 1999, in favor of Pax, but still carried the New York feed of WWOR on its Superstations package except in areas where the local UPN (and later, MyNetworkTV) affiliate invoked SyndEx to block it out.
In 2000, Chris-Craft announced that it was selling its television stations. It was believed that Viacom, which had gained complete control of UPN a year earlier by purchasing Chris-Craft/United's half of the network not long after buying CBS, would end up buying the group as a whole. However, Viacom lost the bid for Chris-Craft/United to Fox Television Stations, making WWOR-TV a sister station to longtime rival WNYW. This created a unique situation in which the largest affiliate station of one network was owned by the operator of another network. While some cast doubt on UPN's future, Fox quickly cut a new affiliation deal with UPN.
On September 11, 2001, the transmitter facilities of WWOR-TV and eight other New York City television stations, and several radio stations, were destroyed when two hijacked airplanes crashed into and destroyed the World Trade Center towers. The attacks delayed the closing of the Chris-Craft deal for several days. With its broadcast signal shut down, WWOR fed its signal directly to cable and satellite systems, running wall-to-wall 9/11 news coverage from CNN and later the Fox News Channel. Channel 9 resumed regular programming September 17 2001 at 1 a.m. The transmitter has since been relocated to an antenna located atop the Empire State Building, along with most of the other major New York City stations.
Fox began integrating the operations of its two stations soon afterwards. In the fall of 2001, WWOR-TV began running Fox Kids programs that were moved from WNYW. The afternoon Fox Kids block would be short-lived, as Fox canceled all weekday kids programming several months later. The station had been running syndicated children's shows for one hour (7 to 8 a.m.) on weekdays, but dropped cartoons in favor of various live-action, half-hour programs in the fall of 2006. (Channel 9 was the last commercial station remaining in New York City to air children's programming on weekdays, an ironic twist from 20 years earlier.) WNYW also placed several of its under-performing programs on WWOR, and cherry-picked channel 9's stronger-performing programs for placement on channel 5's schedule. Currently, WWOR offers several "double-runs" of WNYW programming, but the two stations' individual schedules (outside of network programming) are much different. They also maintain separate news departments, although some staffers have switched from one station to the other.
MyNetworkTV affiliation
On January 24, 2006, the UPN and WB networks announced that they would merge into a new network, known as the CW Television Network. WPIX, which had been a WB affiliate since 1995, was announced as the CW's New York affiliate.
On January 25, 2006, the day following the announcement of the creation of the CW network, WWOR-TV changed its branding from UPN 9 to WWOR 9, and revamped its logo to just feature the boxed "9". WWOR had just introduced a new news graphics package and a revised logo almost three weeks prior, with UPN branding. The station also stopped promoting UPN programming. Similar changes were also made to Fox's other UPN affiliates, as the CW network list did not include any of the Fox-owned UPN stations. The formation of MyNetworkTV, of which WWOR-TV and the other Fox-owned UPN stations have become affiliates, was announced on February 22, 2006, less than a month later.
With the impending switch to MyNetworkTV, channel 9's on-air branding was changed to My 9. Starting on April 4, the My 9 moniker was used for broadcasts of Nets basketball and Yankees baseball. Two weeks later, on April 17, WWOR incorporated the My 9 brand into the remaining non-UPN elements of its branding, including news. On June 2, WWOR changed its logo again, this time adopting one similar to the logo presented at the MyNetworkTV launch announcement, and this logo (in the information box, above at the top of this article) was used with the network's launch in September.
Despite the announced launch date of MyNetworkTV on September 5, 2006, UPN continued to broadcast on stations across the country until September 15, 2006. While some UPN affiliates who switched to MyNetworkTV aired the final two weeks of UPN programming outside its regular primetime period, the Fox-owned stations, including WWOR, dropped UPN entirely on August 31, 2006.
Sports programming
As an independent station, channel 9's schedule was heavy on sports programming. Early in its history WOR-TV established itself as the home of National League baseball in New York, carrying games of the Brooklyn Dodgers (beginning in 1950) and the New York Giants (beginning in 1951) until both teams moved to California following the 1957 season. From 1958 to 1961 the station aired a small schedule of Philadelphia Phillies games, matchups against the Dodgers and Giants. In 1962 WOR-TV gained broadcast rights for the New York Mets, the National League's new expansion team. The partnership between the station and the team would last through the 1998 season, after which the Mets moved their broadcasts to WPIX.
Channel 9 acquired rights for the NHL's New York Rangers and the NBA's New York Knicks in 1966, holding onto both teams until 1989, when the two teams became cable-exclusive on the MSG Network. The New York Islanders, New York/New Jersey Nets, local college basketball, New York Cosmos soccer, and WWWF/WWF wrestling also shared airtime on channel 9 (Since WWOR was a UPN affiliate, it aired Smackdown from 1999 to 2006 until UPN and The WB merged to form the CW, in which the show moved over to CW affiliate WPIX 11, but then later moved back to WWOR when Smackdown became part of MyNetworkTV's Friday Night lineup). But for a generation of New York sports fans, the station became synonymous with its relationships with the Mets, Knicks, and Rangers.
In late September 2001, WWOR-TV aired a number of New York Yankees baseball games that were originally scheduled to air on WNYW. In 2005, channel 9 picked up Yankees games on a full-time basis. Produced by the YES Network, WWOR-TV's Yankees contests from 2005-2008 aired mostly on Friday evenings. In 2009, due to the success of the returning Smackdown on Friday nights, Yankee games on channel 9 will air mainly on Tuesday nights.() In the spring of 2006, the New Jersey Nets returned to channel 9, as the station aired some regular-season and first-round playoff games. These were games that could not be carried by YES due to conflicts with YES's Yankees coverage. As YES produces the games, in both cases, there is virtually no difference between games broadcast by YES and WWOR.
In a notable event, WWOR-TV aired two Rangers games in late 2007. () In addition, the station aired one Knicks contest in December 2007, and another in March 2008. () Each of the four games are produced by the MSG Network. It marked the first time regular season Rangers and Knicks games have been carried on local New York television (not including national network telecasts) since the teams aired over WBIS-TV (now WPXN-TV) during their respective 1996-97 seasons. ()
Digital television
The station's digital signal is multiplexed:
WWOR-DT
WWOR-DT broadcasts a multiplexed signal on digital channel 38.
Digital channels>| Channel | Name | Video | Aspect | Programming |
|---|
| 9.1 | WWOR-DT | 720p | 16:9 | Main WWOR-TV/My Network TV programming | | 9.2 | WWOR-DT2 | 480i | 4:3 | WNYW-TV |
Analog-to-digital conversion
After the DTV transition in the United States scheduled for June 12, 2009 , WWOR-TV will continue digital broadcasts on its current pre-transition channel number, 38 using PSIP to display WWOR's virtual channel as 9. Post-transition WWOR-DT will continue to operate along with WCBS-DT and WNBC-DT on the shared Empire UHF Master Antenna system with no changes to its current operational parameters (WABC-DT, WPIX-DT, and WNET-DT post-transition will no longer be part of this shared antenna system as they will move to their pre-transition VHF allotment.
Newscasts
As most of New York's independent stations were during the 1960s and '70s, WOR-TV was a very minor player in the area of local news. Until 1971, the station did not carry any live news programming, but had a early morning audio read newscast over the station logo. Then in 1971, WOR-TV launched its first live newscast, News at Noon, ironically the market's first midday newscast. The reason the Network stations did not carry a noon newscast was that they were O & O stations obligated to carry all network programming. This helped make WOR-TV's newscast successful. In 1983, following the move to New Jersey, channel 9 launched News 9: Primetime, which aired nightly at 8:00 p.m. After the MCA takeover in 1987, the 8:00 newscast was moved to the later time period of 10:00 p.m., and expanded to an hour. It also took a more aggressive tack than it had previously. The Noon program, which was later merged into 9 Broadcast Plaza, ended due to a slide in ratings in 1993 and was replaced with syndicated programming. By then, networks cut back on daytime offerings giving the noon hour back to their affiliates. That enabled the network stations to have a newscast at noon making WWOR's newscast at noon unnecessary.
WWOR's nightly newscast is currently called My9 News at Ten. Despite the presence of its sister station WNYW's long-running and successful news program at the same time, WWOR has been able to compete simply because both use separate studios. The WWOR newscast also has a larger focus on New Jersey issues, a condition the station has adhered to since its license was transferred from New York City to Secaucus.
In areas of central New Jersey where the New York and Philadelphia markets overlap, both WWOR and WNYW share resources with their Philadelphia sister station WTXF-TV. The stations share reporters for these stories.
Newscast titles
- News 9 (1981-1987)
- The News at Noon/The News at Ten - (1987-1988)
- Channel 9 News - (1988-1995)
- News 9 - (1995)
- UPN 9 News - (1995-2006)
- 9 News - (2006) This title was used during the transition between UPN and MyNetworkTV
- My9 News - (2006-present)
News Music Packages
News At NoonAnd YouWWOR First 1987 NewsWWOR Month 1987 NewsWWOR Year 1987 NewsWWOR 1988 NewsLiberty AmericanaRaw PowerWWOR 1995New York NewsTriumphant ReunionTop StoryWhen The Story BreaksThe ViperThe Viper 2008
Personalities
Anchors
- Brenda Blackmon - weeknights
- Mike Gilliam - weekends
- Jennifer Jordan - weekends
- Harry Martin - weeknights
Weather
Sports
- Russ Salzberg - weeknights
- Scott Stanford - weekends
Reporters
- Ti-Hua Chang
- Pat Collins
- Giovanna Drpic
- Tena Ezzeddine
- Brenda Flanagan
- John Huddy
- Cora Ann Mihalik
- Barbara Nevins-Taylor
- Megan Vega
- Marion Etoile Watson
Notable alumni
Office locations
WOR-TV's first studio location was in the New Amsterdam Roof Theatre, located on 42nd Street west of Times Square. This was a temporary setup; some time later the station moved uptown to a new facility on West 67th Street, near the present-day location of WABC-TV.
During the early years of RKO General ownership, WOR-TV moved back to Times Square, and closer to its sister radio stations. Channel 9's studios were co-located with WOR radio at 1440 Broadway for several years, then in 1968 moved to new studios three blocks north at 1481 Broadway, while the station's offices remained at 1440 Broadway. In addition, for several years starting in 1953, it maintained a separate studio for news and special events programming at the 83rd floor of the Empire State Building. () When the WOR-TV license was moved to New Jersey in 1983, the station remained in New York City while a modern complex in Secaucus was being constructed. The new facility, Nine Broadcast Plaza, opened in April 1986.
In 2004, three years after the News Corporation bought the station, it announced that WWOR would leave Secaucus and be consolidated with WNYW at the Fox Television Center in Manhattan. The News Corporation planned to keep 9 Broadcast Plaza as a satellite relay station for WNYW and WWOR (the facility also performs master control operations for Fox-owned MyNetworkTV affiliate WUTB in Baltimore). While some office functions have been merged, plans for a full move were scuttled in late 2004 due to pressure from New Jersey Congressman Steve Rothman (whose congressional district includes Secaucus) and Senator Frank Lautenberg. (, ) The two lawmakers contended that any move to Manhattan would violate WWOR's conditions of license. When the FCC renewed channel 9's license in 1983 (in accordance with the Bradley-sponsored law), it had required RKO to move the station's main studio to New Jersey and increase coverage of New Jersey events. Had the consolidation occurred, channel 9's news department would have been shut down, or at the very least downsized to the point that it would not be able to adequately cover New Jersey events.
Facts
- Upon moving to Secaucus, channel 9 became the second VHF station licensed in New Jersey, after WNET in Newark -- which was commercial until 1962 as WATV and later WNTA-TV.
- In 1962, nostalgia maven Joe Franklin moved his daily talk program to WOR-TV from WABC-TV, where it had run for the previous 12 years. When
The Joe Franklin Show ended on August 6, 1993, its host had interviewed over 350,000 guests on over 28,000 episodes, making it one of the longest-running programs in television history, local or national.The long-running public affairs show Firing Line got its start at WOR-TV in 1966 and ran on the station for 240 episodes until 1971, after which its host, William F. Buckley, Jr., moved the program to public television where it aired until its demise in 1999.In the 1971 film Shaft, a sign for WOR-TV's studios can be seen for a brief second in the opening sequence (look for the "stylised 9" logo as Richard Roundtree, playing the film's title character, walks around Times Square).A WOR-TV helicopter is shown in the 1975 film Dog Day Afternoon, complete with a video crew trying to get coverage of the bank hold-up; an NYPD helicopter forces WOR's helicopter out of the area.In 1984, WOR-TV aired a music video show, Rock 9 Videos, produced in association with WAPP-FM (now WKTU-FM)In 1989/90, WWOR was incorporated into the popular Universal Studios Florida ride, Kongfrontation. This ride was sacrificed in 2003 for "Mummy: The Ride", a high-speed indoor rollercoaster.
See also
External links
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