uses the callsign formerly used by wkyc see kyw tv . wkyc cleveland ohio united states branding wkyc channel 3 general channel 3 news newscasts slogan see the possible channels digital 17 uhf virtual 3 psip affiliations .1 nbc .2 justice network .3 weather radar owner tegna media wkyc tv llc first air date october 31 1948 ; 67 years ago 1948 10 31 call letters meaning kyw cleveland nod to former calls of kyw tv former callsigns wnbk 1948 1956 kyw tv 1956 1965 former channel number s analog 4 vhf 1948 1954 3 vhf 1954 2009 digital 2 vhf 1999 2009 transmitter power 868 kw height 296.1 m facility id 73195 transmitter coordinates 41 23 9.7 n 81 41 20.5 w 41.386028 n 81.689028 w 41.386028 ; 81.689028 coordinates 41 23 9.7 n 81 41 20.5 w 41.386028 n 81.689028 w 41.386028 ; 81.689028 licensing authority fcc public license information profile cdbs website www.wkyc.com wkyc virtual channel 3 uhf digital channel 17 is an nbc affiliated television station located in cleveland ohio united states . the station is owned by tegna inc. wkyc maintains studio facilities located on lakeside avenue in downtown cleveland along the shore of lake erie and its transmitter is located in suburban parma . contents 1 history 1.1 early years 1.2 westinghouse moves in 1.3 nbc returns 1.4 nbc cedes control to multimedia and then gannett 2 digital television 2.1 digital channels 2.2 analog to digital conversion 3 sports telecasts 3.1 current 3.1.1 cleveland indians 3.2 past 3.2.1 cleveland browns 4 programming 5 news operation 5.1 early years and struggles 5.2 turning the corner 5.3 finding success 6 notable alumni 7 cable coverage in canada 8 references 9 external links history edit early years edit the station first signed on the air on october 31 1948 as wnbk broadcasting on vhf channel 4 . it was the second television station in cleveland to debut ten months after wews tv channel 5 and was the fourth of nbc s five original owned and operated stations to sign on three weeks after wnbq now wmaq tv in chicago . wnbk was a sister station to wtam radio 1100 am which was owned by nbc since 1930 . although there was no coaxial cable connection to new york city at & t had just installed a cable connection between wnbk wnbq wspd tv now wtvg in toledo kstp tv in st. paul minnesota and ksd tv now ksdk in st. louis creating nbc s midwest network . wnbk became one of the originators of programming for the regional network along with wnbq . two days after signing on on november 2 wnbk transmitted its coverage of the truman dewey election results to the nbc midwest network . on january 11 1949 wnbk began carrying nbc s new york originated programming live via a cable connection to philadelphia . 1 as a result of frequency reallocations resulting from the federal communications commission s 1952 sixth report and order 2 wnbk was moved to channel 3 swapping frequencies with fellow nbc affiliate wlwc now wcmh tv in columbus in order to alleviate same channel interference with another nbc station wwj tv now wdiv tv across lake erie in detroit . after construction was completed on the station s new transmitter in parma 3 the channel switch took place on april 25 1954 . 4 5 westinghouse moves in edit in may 1955 nbc agreed to trade wnbk and wtam am fm to westinghouse electric corporation in return for kyw radio and wptz television in philadelphia . 6 although cleveland was a top 10 television and radio market at the time nbc had long wanted to trade up its holdings to a larger market . also philadelphia was the largest market in which it did not own a station . the swap became official on january 22 1956 as nbc moved its operations including much of its cleveland staff to philadelphia with wptz becoming wrcv tv . 7 westinghouse took over the wnbk wtam operation and changed its call letters to kyw am fm tv on february 13 1956 . 8 under westinghouse ownership kyw tv launched barnaby a children s program which starred linn sheldon as the title character . the show premiered in 1956 and was an immediate hit running on weekday afternoons for ten years . in 1961 channel 3 originated a local 90 minute weekday daytime variety talk show with former band singer mike douglas which went up against wews s one o clock club . quickly eclipsing the competition the mike douglas show became so popular that westinghouse decided to carry the program on its other stations in 1963 and eventually to syndicate the program nationwide . two nbc programs were notably excluded from kyw tv s schedule the tonight show which was reformatted after original host steve allen s departure as the short lived tonight america after dark was dropped by channel 3 in june 1957 and replaced with a late night movie following the 11 00 p.m. newscast . nbc revived tonight with jack paar as host in july of that year but kyw tv continued with its own programming which also included the westinghouse produced and syndicated new steve allen regis philbin and merv griffin programs . the paar hosted tonight show would not be seen in cleveland until october 1957 when nbc agreed to terms with wews to carry the program . kyw tv also did not carry nbc s early evening newscast the huntley brinkley report for exactly one year comprising the 1959 1960 television season . like with the tonight show wews also ran this program . 9 also during this period wfmj tv out of youngstown ohio was the nearest full time nbc station to cleveland . many were able to receive wfmj with a good antenna and uhf converter at that time . nbc returns edit further information nbc red network kyw am kyw tv wtam and westinghouse broadcasting despite its success in cleveland westinghouse was not happy with how the 1956 trade with nbc played out . almost as soon as the ink dried on the trade the fcc and the u.s. department of justice launched an investigation claiming nbc extorted and coerced them into agreeing to the deal . 10 11 the investigators discovered that group w had only agreed to the deal after nbc threatened to remove its affiliation from wptz the present day kyw tv and westinghouse s other nbc affiliate wbz tv in boston and to withhold a primary affiliation with newly purchased kdka tv in pittsburgh . in 1964 after an investigation that lasted eight years the fcc ordered the swap to be reversed . 12 nbc re assumed control of the cleveland stations on june 19 1965 . instead of restoring the previous wnbk and wtam identities the stations new call letters became wkyc am fm tv mostly as a nod to westinghouse s stewardship of the stations . 13 the am station for instance had become a top 40 powerhouse under the moniker ky11 . wkyc tv was separated from its sister stations in 1972 when nbc sold the wkyc radio stations to ohio communications . 14 the am station changed its calls to wwwe before restoring its historic wtam calls in 1996 while the fm station became wwwm and then in 1982 wmji . in a reverse of what took place in 1956 some radio and television staffers who worked for westinghouse in cleveland moved to philadelphia along with the kyw call letters . this included news reporter tom snyder news director al primo and mike douglas . wkyc tv continued to air the mike douglas show for many years after both the host and the program moved to philadelphia where it remained until 1978 . westinghouse also took the eyewitness news name and format with it from cleveland to philadelphia ; it would later return to cleveland being used on wews from 1972 to 1990 . other westinghouse employees such linn sheldon clay conroy who played barnaby s sidekick woodrow the woodsman before getting a spinoff show of his own and staff announcer jay miltner who had been with the station since its inception in 1948 remained in cleveland . to this day the philadelphia stations insist they moved to cleveland in 1956 and returned to philadelphia in 1965 after the trade was voided . 1 nbc also relocated many of their top philadelphia radio and television executives and some on air personalities to cleveland such as meteorologist wally kinnan . kinnan s arrival displaced dick goddard who had been with channel 3 since 1961 . goddard moved to philadelphia with westinghouse but returned to cleveland in early 1966 and joined wjw tv channel 8 . evening sports anchor jim graner who had joined the station in 1957 while also serving as the color commentator for the cleveland browns radio network remained through the transition ; he stayed on until his death in 1976 . 15 16 one show that made the jump to cleveland was the award winning documentary series montage produced and directed by dennis goulden . this nationally acclaimed series of over 250 episodes investigated the issues and lifestyles of the cleveland community during the 1960s and 1970s . the tonight show also returned to wkyc tv s schedule in february 1966 after airing on wews during channel 3 s westinghouse years . at the same time channel 3 enjoyed several technical advances with nbc s parent company rca and since 1986 general electric . it was cleveland s first television station to broadcast full time in color on september 13 1965 almost immediately after nbc regained channel 3 from group w the first to broadcast in stereo in 1985 and the first vhf station to closed caption its local newscasts for the hearing impaired in 1990 . 1 nbc cedes control to multimedia and then gannett edit after years of sagging ratings nbc sold majority control of wkyc 51 % to multimedia inc. in 1990 . 17 due to its long ownership by nbc to this day channel 3 is the only major station in cleveland to have never changed its primary affiliation . at that time multimedia s entertainment division now part of nbc s syndication arm produced a number of syndicated daytime talk shows and as a result multimedia productions such as the jerry springer show who himself had come from then sister station wlwt in cincinnati sally jessy raphael and donahue ended up on wkyc s daily schedule . in 1993 the nbc peacock was dropped from the primary station logo which italicized the numeral 3 was put in a square and took a red white blue color scheme though wkyc was still and continues to be to this day identified as channel 3 the previous logo was a plain helvetica 3 also used 1976 84 and was modified to become the logo today after replacing the logo used 1984 91 an abstract rectangular 3 . . the gannett company purchased multimedia in november 1995 and acquired the remaining 49 % of the station from nbc in early 1999 . wkyc accomplished another first in cleveland television history by becoming the first station in northeast ohio to broadcast in high definition in 1999 . soon after gannett bought full control of the station it moved from its longtime studios in the former east ohio gas building on east sixth street in downtown cleveland 18 to its state of the art lakeside avenue studio on the shores of lake erie which channel 3 refers to as its digital broadcast center . on july 1 2011 wkyc became cleveland s television outlet for the ohio lottery s daily drawings as well as its saturday night game show cash explosion ; the rights returned to the lottery s former longtime broadcaster wews tv which had carried the drawings from the early 1970s until