verification . please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources . unsourced material may be challenged and removed . october 2014 learn how and when to remove this template message wbz tv boston massachusetts united states branding wbz channel 4 general wbz news newscasts slogan get closer general your home for the patriots during nfl season channels digital 30 uhf virtual 4 psip affiliations .1 cbs o & o .2 decades owner cbs corporation cbs television licenses llc first air date june 9 1948 ; 68 years ago 1948 06 09 call letters meaning derived from sister station wbz radio sister station s wbmx wbz wbz fm wods wsbk tv wzlx former channel number s analog 4 vhf 1948 2009 former affiliations nbc 1948 1995 dumont 1948 53 ; a few programs a week abc 1948 57 a few programs a week transmitter power 825 kw height 390 m 1 280 ft facility id 25456 transmitter coordinates 42 18 37 n 71 14 14 w 42.31028 n 71.23722 w 42.31028 ; 71.23722 licensing authority fcc public license information profile cdbs website boston.cbslocal.com wbz tv channel 4 is a cbs owned and operated television station located in boston massachusetts united states . the station is owned by the cbs television stations subsidiary of cbs corporation and is part of a duopoly with mynetworktv affiliate wsbk tv channel 38 the two stations share studios and office facilities located on soldiers field road in the allston brighton section of boston ; wbz tv s transmitter is located in needham massachusetts on a tower site that is owned by cbs which is shared with transmitters belonging to wcvb tv wgbh tv wgbx tv and wsbk tv . wbz tv is also one of six local boston television stations seen in canada by subscribers to satellite provider bell tv and is also seen on most cable systems in atlantic canada . contents 1 history 1.1 as an nbc affiliate 1.2 switch to cbs 2 digital television 2.1 digital channel 2.2 analog to digital conversion 3 programming 3.1 syndicated programming 3.2 bob emery and boomtown 3.3 evening magazine 3.4 people are talking 3.5 miscellaneous 3.6 lottery 3.7 special events 3.8 sports 4 logos and imaging 5 news operation 5.1 notable former on air staff 6 see also 7 references 8 external links history edit as an nbc affiliate edit as the only television station that was built from the ground up by the westinghouse electric corporation wbz tv began operations on june 9 1948 at 6 15 pm with a broadcast hosted by arch macdonald . 1 the station was from its inception associated with the nbc television network owing to wbz radio 1030 am s longtime affiliation with the nbc red network . at its sign on wbz tv became the first commercial television station to begin operations in the new england region . the station originally operated from inside the hotel bradford alongside its radio sister ; its current home was not completed at the time although master control and its self supporting tower over the building were in use at sign on . the wbz stations would not move into what was then known as the westinghouse broadcasting center until june 17 1948 when the building was opened . the station was knocked off the air on august 31 1954 when hurricane carol destroyed its transmitter tower . a temporary transmitter was installed using a short makeshift tower at the studio site and later on the original tower of weei fm now wods in malden . in 1957 wbz tv began broadcasting from a 1200 foot 366 m tower in needham along with the original wbz fm at 106.7 fm now wmjx . the tower site is now known as the cbs digital television broadcasting facility and is used by several boston area television stations including wgbh tv channel 2 and wcvb tv channel 5 . channel 4 was in danger of losing its nbc affiliation when westinghouse balked at nbc s initial offer to trade sister stations kyw radio and wptz television now kyw tv in philadelphia in exchange for wtam am fm and wnbk television in cleveland . in response nbc threatened to pull its programming from both wbz tv and wptz unless westinghouse agreed to the trade . the swap was made in february 1956 but westinghouse immediately complained to the federal communications commission and the u.s. department of justice about nbc s extortion . the threat reemerged in 1960 after nbc announced it would swap the philadelphia stations in exchange for a competing boston outlet then cbs affiliate wnac tv channel 7 and its sister radio stations from rko general . 2 3 approval of the rko nbc deal would have potentially made wbz tv an abc affiliate completing a three way swap of network affiliations in boston . 4 but in 1964 the fcc nullified the nbc rko trade and ordered the nbc westinghouse swap reversed without nbc realizing any profit on the deal . 5 wbz tv sometimes informally referred to as bz both on and off air was a pioneer in boston television . in 1948 it began live broadcasts of boston s two major league baseball teams the red sox and the braves broadcasts that at first were split with wnac tv . it was also the first boston station to have daily newscasts starting with the station s very first night on the air . on october 12 1957 wbz tv broadcast a half hour special program on sputnik 1 featuring a motion picture of the final stage of its rocket crossing the pre dawn sky of baltimore shot by sister station wjz tv . 6 screengrab of wbz tv 4 promo from 1989 as an nbc affiliate the station was known to preempt several hours of network programming per day a common practice among group w television stations affiliated with nbc and cbs . this was significant since wbz tv was nbc s third largest affiliate and second largest in the eastern time zone . it primarily preempted several of the network s morning programs with most preempted programs appearing on independent stations wsbk tv and wqtv now wbpx . in january 1983 when people are talking expanded to one hour wbz tv dropped the nbc soap opera another world which moved first to wqtv then to worcester based whll tv now wuni tv and later with lawrence licensed wmfp in the early 1990s . the station also dropped a couple of saturday morning cartoons in 1990 which also aired on whll even though nbc later abandoned such programming in favor of a saturday edition of the morning news show today and live action series aimed at teenagers such as saved by the bell . nbc has traditionally been less tolerant of preemptions than the other networks and had to find alternate independent stations to air whatever programs that wbz did not air . despite this nbc was generally satisfied with wbz tv which was one of nbc s strongest affiliates . as a sidebar philadelphia sister station kyw tv nbc s largest affiliate at the time also heavily preempted nbc programming but it spent most of the 1980s and 1990s as nbc s weakest major market affiliate . switch to cbs edit in 1994 sister station wjz tv in baltimore lost its affiliation with abc after that network announced a deal with the e. w. scripps company to switch all but two of scripps television stations including its baltimore outlet wmar tv to abc . westinghouse felt betrayed by abc s decision and as a safeguard began shopping for affiliation deals for the entire group w television unit . group w eventually struck an agreement to switch wbz tv kyw tv and wjz tv to cbs westinghouse s two other stations kdka tv in pittsburgh and kpix in san francisco were already cbs affiliates . the boston market s third network affiliation switch took place on january 2 1995 . after a 47 year relationship with nbc channel 4 became the third station in boston to align with cbs . the network had originally affiliated with wnac tv in 1948 then moved to channel 5 the original whdh tv in 1961 ; it then returned to wnac tv prdecessor to the current whdh in 1972 and remained on channel 7 until the switch . as a cbs affiliate wbz tv airs the entire cbs schedule with no preemptions except for extended breaking news coverage as per westinghouse s original agreement with cbs . when westinghouse merged with cbs outright on november 24 1995 wbz tv became a cbs owned and operated station . as a condition of the merger cbs had to sell recently acquired wpri tv channel 12 in providence rhode island . channel 4 provides at least grade b signal coverage to all of rhode island and city grade coverage within providence itself as well as fall river and new bedford . at the time the fcc normally did not allow common ownership of two stations with overlapping signals and would not even consider a waiver for stations with overlapping city grade signals . in 1996 wbz tv became the first former group w station to drop the classic group w font . although the station tends to rank 1 in daytime and primetime ratings channel 4 s local news ratings have suffered since the switch in network affiliations . this is partly because at the time of the switch cbs was well behind nbc in the network ratings . taken as a whole its local newscasts are the lowest rated of boston s big 3 affiliates having dipped behind a resurgent whdh tv as well . channel 4 has changed its news and station branding continuously since the affiliation switch from its longstanding brand of eyewitness news to wbz news 4 to news 4 new england to wbz 4 news . on february 1 2004 wbz rebranded itself as cbs 4 ; the move was officially made in an attempt to alleviate lingering confusion from the 1995 affiliation swap 7 though the branding brought the station in line with other cbs owned stations . the cbs 4 branding was phased out during the first quarter of 2007 and in february 2007 the station s newscast title was reverted from cbs 4 news to wbz news . the rebranding was completed on february 4 2007 during the station s coverage of the super bowl . 8 this makes the station the first station owned by cbs to depart from cbs standardization since . it joins sister stations kdka tv in pittsburgh wcco tv in minneapolis st. paul wjz tv in baltimore and from 2008 to 2012 wwj tv in detroit in using call letters in its branding as opposed to the cbs name . general manager ed piette told the boston globe that he decided to ditch the cbs 4 branding when he arrived in boston for his first day of work and a cabbie asked him whatever happened to wbz the move was done in the hopes of re emphasizing wbz tv s local identity and trading on the call letters then eight decade history in boston a strategy that worked well when piette was general manager at wcco tv . the logo that was used for the cbs 4 branding returned to the station in december 2011 but the station still brands with its call letters to this day . 9 after the 2000 acquisition of cbs by its former subsidiary viacom wbz tv s operations were merged with that of boston s upn affiliate wsbk tv and later with wlwc the upn affiliate in nearby providence . today the operations of wbz tv and wsbk tv are co located at wbz s studios in brighton . wlwc was sold in 2006 to the four points media group a holding company owned by private equity