the wnew callsign see wnew disambiguation . for the former shortwave radio station wnyw see wnyw shortwave and wyfr . wnyw new york new york united states branding fox 5 general slogan experience the magic we are fox 5 general channels digital 44 uhf virtual 5 psip affiliations .1 fox o & o .2 movies .4 mynetworktv owner fox television stations fox television stations inc. founded 1938 as experimental station w2xvt first air date may 2 1944 ; 72 years ago 1944 05 02 call letters meaning disambiguation of wnew tv see article sister station s wwor tv yes network former callsigns wabd 1944 1958 wnew tv 1958 1986 former channel number s analog 4 vhf 1938 1945 5 vhf 1945 2009 former affiliations dumont 1944 1956 independent 1956 1986 transmitter power 246 kw height 367 m 1 204 ft facility id 22206 transmitter coordinates 40 44 54.4 n 73 59 8.4 w 40.748444 n 73.985667 w 40.748444 ; 73.985667 licensing authority fcc public license information profile cdbs website www.fox5ny.com wnyw channel 5 is the flagship television station of the fox broadcasting company in new york city . wnyw is owned by the fox television stations subsidiary of 21st century fox and operates as part of a duopoly with secaucus new jersey based mynetworktv flagship station wwor tv channel 9 . the two stations maintain studio facilities at the fox television center in the yorkville section of manhattan and its transmitter atop the empire state building . the station is available on satellite to directv subscribers in the few areas of the eastern united states that do not have an over the air fox affiliate and on dish network as part of all american direct s distant network package ; directv also carries wnyw on its latin american service and on jetblue s livetv inflight entertainment system . wnyw is also available on cable providers in the caribbean . contents 1 history 1.1 dumont origins 1.2 the metromedia era 1.3 birth of a new network 2 digital television 2.1 digital channels 2.2 analog to digital conversion 3 programming 3.1 sports programming 4 news operation 4.1 notable current on air staff 4.2 notable former on air staff 5 in popular culture 6 references 7 external links history edit dumont origins edit the station traces its history to 1938 when television set and equipment manufacturer allen b. dumont founded experimental station w2xvt in passaic new jersey whose callsign was later changed to w2xwv when it moved to manhattan in 1940 . on may 2 1944 the station received its commercial license the third in new york city on vhf channel 4 as wabd its callsign named after dumont s initials . 1 it was one of the few television stations that continued to broadcast during world war ii making it the fourth oldest continuously broadcasting commercial station in the united states . 2 the station originally broadcast from the dumont building at 515 madison avenue with a transmission tower atop the building the original tower long abandoned by the station still remains . on december 17 1945 wabd moved to channel 5 . 3 wnbt now wnbc took over channel 4 moving from channel 1 which the fcc was deallocating from the vhf tv broadcast band . soon after channel 5 received its commercial license dumont laboratories began a series of experimental coaxial cable hookups between wabd and w3xwt a dumont owned experimental station in washington d.c. now wttg . these hookups were the beginning of the dumont television network the world s first licensed commercial television network although nbc was feeding a few programs and special events from their new york station to outlets in philadelphia and schenectady as early as 1940 . dumont began regular network service in 1946 with wabd as the flagship station . 4 on june 14 1954 wabd and dumont moved into the 5 million dumont tele centre at 205 east 67th street in manhattan s lenox hill area inside the shell of the space formerly occupied by jacob ruppert s central opera house ; channel 5 is still headquartered in the same building as of 2015 which was later renamed the metromedia telecenter and now known as the fox television center . the fox television center 205 east 67th street in new york city was opened by dumont on june 14 1954 as the dumont tele centre and is the station s current studio . by february 1955 dumont realized it could not continue in network television and decided to shut down the network s operations and operate wabd and its washington d.c. station wttg also operating on channel 5 as independent stations . wabd thus became the new york market s fourth independent station alongside future sister station wor tv now wwor wpix channel 11 and newark licensed watv channel 13 now wnet . after dumont wound down network operations in august 1955 dumont laboratories spun off wabd and wttg into a new firm the dumont broadcasting corporation . 5 6 channel 5 gained sister stations on radio in 1957 when dumont purchased wnew 1130 am now wbbr in april of that year 7 8 and the construction permit for whfi which was renamed wnew fm 102.7 fm when it began operations in august 1958 . 9 10 the metromedia era edit in may 1958 dumont broadcasting changed its name to the metropolitan broadcasting corporation in an effort to distinguish itself from its former corporate parent . 11 12 four months later on september 7 1958 wabd s call letters were changed to wnew tv to match its radio sisters . 13 14 the final major corporate transaction involving the station during 1958 occurred in december when washington based investor john kluge acquired paramount pictures controlling interest in metropolitan broadcasting and appointed himself as the company s chairman . 15 metropolitan broadcasting began expanding its holdings across the united states and would change its corporate name to metromedia in 1961 . 16 however the metropolitan broadcasting name was retained for metromedia s tv and radio station properties until 1967 . 17 in the early 1960s wnew tv produced children s shows such as romper room until 1966 when it moved to wor tv the sandy becker show and the sonny fox show which was later known as wonderama . bob mcallister took over hosting wonderama in 1967 and by 1970 wonderama was syndicated to the other metromedia stations . wnew tv also originated the jerry lewis mda labor day telethon in 1966 and broadcast the program annually until 1986 when it moved to wwor tv where it has aired through 2012 . in the 1970s local programming also included a weekly public affairs show hosted by gabe pressman and midday live a daily talk information show hosted by lee leonard and later by bill boggs . the station also carried movies cartoons off network sitcoms and drama series and a primetime newscast at 10 p.m. by the 1970s channel 5 was one of the strongest independent stations in the country . despite wor tv s and wpix s eventual statuses as national superstations wnew tv was the highest rated independent in new york . from the early 1970s to the late 1980s channel 5 was available as a regional superstation in large portions of the northeastern united states including most of upstate new york and portions of eastern pennsylvania and southern new england . birth of a new network edit wnyw s secondary on air logo since 2012 in 1986 rupert murdoch s news corporation who had then recently bought a controlling interest in the 20th century fox film studio purchased the metromedia television stations including wnew tv . 18 19 the e in the call letters was replaced with a y slightly changing it to wnyw on march 7 1986 . 20 along with the other former metromedia stations wnyw formed the cornerstone of the fox broadcasting company when it launched on october 9 1986 . wnyw s schedule initially changed very little as fox aired programming only on late nights and weekends in the network s first few years . although it began taking on the look of a network owned station in the spring of 1987 channel 5 continued to carry cartoons and sitcoms into the late 1980s . as a result channel 5 was still considered an independent station . murdoch had one local obstacle to overcome before his purchase of channel 5 could become final as news corporation had owned the new york post since it purchased the newspaper in 1976 ; the federal communications commission s media ownership rules barred common ownership of newspapers and broadcast licenses in the same media market . the fcc granted murdoch a temporary waiver to keep the post and wnyw in order to complete its purchase of the metromedia television stations . news corporation would sell the new york post in 1988 but bought the paper back five years later with a permanent waiver of the cross ownership rules . in the late summer of 1986 wnyw debuted the nightly newsmagazine a current affair one of the first shows to be labeled as a tabloid television program . originally a local program it was first anchored by maury povich formerly of washington d.c. sister station wttg and who would later briefly also anchor wnyw s evening newscasts . within a year of its launch a current affair was syndicated to the other fox owned stations ; 21 and in 1988 the series entered into national syndication where it remained until the original incarnation of the program was cancelled in 1996 . in august 1988 the station dropped its weekday morning cartoons in favor of a local news information program titled good day new york which continues to this day . in 1994 fox gained broadcast rights to road games of the national football conference ; as a result since then wnyw has been the unofficial home station of the new york giants . among the notable giants games aired on the station is the team s victory in super bowl xlii when the giants defeated the new england patriots who were 18 0 at the time and were one win away from the second perfect season in nfl history . the nfc road game contract also includes occasional new york jets games . from 1999 to 2001 wnyw held the broadcast rights to new york yankees game telecasts displacing longtime broadcaster wpix as of 2013 wnyw continues to show yankees games through fox s broadcast contract with major league baseball . in 2001 fox bought bhc communications a television station group owned by chris craft industries which effectively created a duopoly between wnyw and its former rival wwor tv . in the fall of 2001 wnyw dropped fox kids weekday block and moved it to wwor tv where it ran for a few more months before fox discontinued the network s weekday children s lineup at the end of that year . in 2004 fox television stations announced that it would move wwor s operations from secaucus to wnyw s facility at the fox television center in manhattan . while some office functions were merged plans for a full move to manhattan were abandoned later that year due to pressure from new jersey congressman steve rothman whose congressional district includes secaucus and senator frank lautenberg 22 23 on grounds that any move to manhattan would violate the conditions of wwor s broadcast license . the company also considered moving wnyw s operations to secaucus but to date both stations continue to maintain separate studio facilities . on september 11 2001 the transmitter facilities of wnyw eight other new york city television stations and several radio stations were destroyed when two hijacked airplanes crashed into and destroyed the north and south towers of world trade center . the station s transmitter has since been relocated to an antenna located atop the empire state