call sign see wcau disambiguation . this article needs additional citations for verification . please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources . unsourced material may be challenged and removed . march 2013 learn how and when to remove this template message wcau philadelphia pennsylvania united states branding nbc 10 general nbc 10 news newscasts slogan count on it . channels digital 34 uhf virtual 10 psip affiliations .1 nbc o & o .2 cozi tv 62.3 telemundo owner nbcuniversal nbc telemundo license llc founded september 1946 first air date may 23 1948 ; 68 years ago 1948 05 23 call letters meaning where cheer awaits you derived from former sister radio station now wpht sister station s wwsi comcast sportsnet philadelphia former channel number s analog 10 vhf 1948 2009 digital 67 uhf 2005 2009 former affiliations cbs 1948 1995 transmitter power 700 kw height 400.1 m 1 313 ft facility id 63153 transmitter coordinates 40 2 30 n 75 14 11 w 40.04167 n 75.23639 w 40.04167 ; 75.23639 licensing authority fcc public license information profile cdbs website www.nbcphiladelphia.com wcau channel 10 is an nbc owned and operated television station located in philadelphia pennsylvania united states . the station is owned by the nbcuniversal owned television stations subsidiary of nbcuniversal and operates as part of a television duopoly with atlantic city new jersey licensed telemundo owned and operated station wwsi channel 62 . both networks are owned by nbcuniversal a division of the locally based media firm comcast . wcau maintains studios on monument road in bala cynwyd along the philadelphia montgomery county line and its transmitter is based in the roxborough section of philadelphia . contents 1 history 1.1 as a cbs station 1.2 switch from cbs to nbc 1.3 as an nbc owned station 2 studios 3 digital television 3.1 digital channels 3.2 analog to digital conversion 4 news operation 5 notable personalities 5.1 current personalities 5.2 former personalities 6 references 7 external links history edit as a cbs station edit in 1946 the philadelphia evening bulletin secured a construction permit for channel 10 1 naming its proposed station wpen tv after the newspaper s wpen radio stations 950 am now wkdn and 98.1 fm later wcau fm and now wogl . the picture changed dramatically in 1947 when the philadelphia record folded . the bulletin inherited the record s goodwill along with the rights to buy the wcau radio stations 1210 am now wpht and the original wcau fm 102.9 fm from their longtime owners brothers isaac and leon levy . the bulletin sold the less powerful wpen and wcau fm with the latter being renamed wpen fm it is now wmgk . the bulletin kept its fm station renaming it wcau fm to match its new am sister . the newspaper also kept its construction permit for channel 10 renaming it wcau tv . wcau tv went on the air on may 23 1948 as philadelphia s third television station . 2 it secured an affiliation with cbs through the influence of the levy brothers who continued to work for the newspaper as consultants . wcau radio had been one of cbs s original 16 affiliates when the network premiered in 1927 . a year later the levy brothers persuaded their brother in law william s. paley to buy the struggling network . the levy brothers were shareholders and directors at cbs for many years . due to this long relationship channel 10 signed on as cbs s third television affiliate . original studio at 1622 chestnut street . in the late 1950s the federal communications commission fcc collapsed northern delaware southern new jersey and the lehigh valley into the philadelphia market . the bulletin realized that channel 10 s original tower atop the psfs building in center city was not nearly strong enough to serve this larger viewing area . in 1957 wcau tv moved to a new 1 200 foot 370 m tower in roxborough which added most of delaware the jersey shore and the lehigh valley to its city grade coverage . wcau tv ident from 1973 to 1995 . the 10 survived with only minor changes until 1995 . also in 1957 the bulletin formed a limited partnership with the megargee family owner of cbs affiliate wgbi tv channel 22 in scranton . as part of the deal channel 22 s call letters were changed to wdau tv wdau s call letters were changed again to wyou in 1986 . soon afterward the fcc ruled that the bulletin could not keep both stations due to a large signal overlap in the lehigh valley . although the bulletin had only bought a minority stake in channel 22 the fcc ruled that this stake was so large that the two stations were effectively a duopoly . the bulletin could not afford to get a waiver to keep both stations so it opted to keep its stake in wdau tv and sell the wcau stations to cbs . cbs had to seek a waiver to buy the wcau stations as the signals of the wcau stations overlapped with those of wcbs am fm tv in new york city in the case of the am stations both were clear channel stations ; the fcc at the time usually did not allow common ownership of clear channel stations with overlapping nighttime coverage areas . however in its application for a waiver cbs cited nbc s then ownership of wrcv tv in philadelphia channel 3 now kyw tv and wrca tv in new york city now wnbc . the fcc readily granted the waiver and cbs took control in 1958 . from 1965 to 1986 wcau tv was the only network owned station in philadelphia . as such it was the only station in the city that did not heavily or moderately preempt network programming . it ran an hour of saturday morning cartoons during the 7 a.m. hour on a one week delay to run the hour long locally produced children s program the gene london show which ended in 1977 . beginning in 1978 wcau tv began preempting an hour of sunday morning cartoon reruns and in the beginning of 1979 the station preempted an hour of the saturday morning cartoons . by 1980 the station was running the entire saturday morning cartoon lineup again and by early in 1981 the sunday morning hour of children s programs was brought back . switch from cbs to nbc edit see also 1994 united states broadcast tv realignment wcau s boxed 10 logo was adopted upon its new affiliation with nbc in september 1995 and its use lasted until february 2012 . former o & o wjar in providence rhode island also adopted the logo following its purchase by nbc . in 1994 cbs entered into a long term affiliation agreement with westinghouse group w broadcasting owners of philadelphia s longtime nbc affiliate kyw tv channel 3 . westinghouse converted three of its stations kyw tv among them into cbs affiliates . cbs was reluctant to include kyw tv in the deal since it had been a very distant third in the philadelphia ratings for more than a decade . in contrast wcau was a solid runner up to abc owned station wpvi tv channel 6 . ultimately cbs decided to affiliate with channel 3 and sell channel 10 ending a 47 year relationship including 37 years of ownership with the station . nbc and new world communications then emerged as the leading bidders for wcau . 3 nbc had wanted to own a station in philadelphia for many years ; for most of the broadcasting era philadelphia was the largest market where nbc didn t own a station . it briefly succeeded in 1956 when it extorted westinghouse into exchanging channel 3 then called wptz tv and kyw radio for nbc s cleveland stations wtam am fm and wnbk television . however after westinghouse complained the fcc and the u.s. justice department nullified the swap in june 1965 . new world got into the bidding because it had just signed a multi year affiliation deal with fox and intended to make wcau a fox station had it emerged victorious . fox s affiliate in philadelphia wtxf tv was about to become an affiliate of the united paramount network which was to be programmed mostly by wtxf s owner paramount pictures . new world found the chance to give fox a vhf station in the nation s fourth largest market too much to resist . fox jumped into the bidding as well in case new world s bid fell through . however viacom which bought paramount in mid 1994 opted instead to sell wtxf to fox . new world pulled out of the bidding war for wcau as well effectively handing channel 10 to nbc . had wcau become a fox station it would have retained its status as the home station of the nfl s philadelphia eagles . the station had carried eagles games since 1950 and had carried the majority of eagles games since cbs won the rights to nfl games in 1956 . indeed fox had cut its affiliation deal with new world because it had recently won the rights to the national football conference where the eagles play and most games were thus moved to wtxf ; new world owned a large number of cbs affiliates . as an nbc owned station edit while kyw tv s sister stations wbz tv in boston and wjz tv in baltimore switched to cbs in january 1995 the swap was delayed in philadelphia when cbs discovered that an outright sale of channel 10 would have forced it to pay massive clarification needed taxes on the proceeds from the deal . 4 to solve this problem cbs nbc and group w entered into a complex ownership and affiliation deal in late 1994 . nbc traded kcnc tv in denver and required in a deal was kutv in salt lake city nbc had acquired that station earlier that year to cbs in return for wcau which for legal reasons would be an even trade . cbs then traded controlling interest in kcnc and kutv to group w in return for a minority stake in kyw tv that would result in two latter stations displacing their respective longtime network affiliates kmgh tv and ksl tv . as compensation for the loss of stations nbc and cbs traded broadcasting facilities in miami . the deal officially took effect on september 10 1995 . group w s parent the westinghouse electric corporation purchased cbs two months later making cbs s philadelphia radio stations sisters to wcau am wpht s longtime rival kyw radio . although the radio stations had dropped the wcau calls some years before nbc dropped the tv suffix from channel 10 s callsign soon after it assumed control . in january 2011 the philadelphia based cable and media company comcast acquired a 51 % majority stake in wcau s parent company by then known as nbc universal which effectively makes the station locally owned . 5 comcast bought the other 49 % in early 2013 . in march 2013 nbcuniversal announced that it would buy telemundo affiliate wwsi from zgs communications for 20 million giving wcau a duopoly partner as with several other nbc o & os . 6 the sale was completed on june 2 of that year . 7 studios edit wcau studios u.s. national register of historic places show map of pennsylvania show map of the us location 1618 22 chestnut st. philadelphia pennsylvania coordinates 39 57 19 n 75 10 27 w 39.95528 n 75.17417 w 39.95528 ; 75.17417 coordinates 39 57 19 n 75 10 27 w 39.95528 n 75.17417 w 39.95528 ; 75.17417 built 1931 architect harry sternfeld ; multiple architectural style modern movement art deco nrhp reference 83002281 8 added to nrhp january 27 1983 channel 10