call letters or branding see kyw and cbs 3 . 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 . december 2012 learn how and when to remove this template message kyw tv philadelphia pennsylvania united states branding cbs 3 general cbs 3 eyewitness news newscasts slogan expect more the pride of philadelphia channels digital 26 uhf virtual 3 psip affiliations .1 cbs o & o .2 decades owner cbs corporation cbs broadcasting inc. founded 1932 as experimental station w3xe first air date september 1 1941 ; 75 years ago 1941 09 01 call letters meaning derived from sister station kyw radio 1 sister station s kyw wip fm wogl wpht wpsg wzmp wxtu former callsigns wptz 1941 1956 wrcv tv 1956 1965 former channel number s analog 3 vhf 1941 2009 former affiliations nbc 1941 1995 transmitter power 790 kw height 375 m 1 230 ft facility id 25453 transmitter coordinates 40 2 33 n 75 14 33 w 40.04250 n 75.24250 w 40.04250 ; 75.24250 licensing authority fcc public license information profile cdbs website philadelphia.cbslocal.com kyw tv channel 3 is a cbs owned and operated television station located in philadelphia pennsylvania united states . the station is owned by the cbs television stations subsidiary of cbs corporation along with cw station wpsg channel 57 and several radio stations including kyw 1060 am . the kyw stations and wpsg share studios and office facilities located just north of center city philadelphia and kyw tv s transmitter is located in the roxborough section of philadelphia . contents 1 history 1.1 as wptz 1.2 as an nbc owned station 1.3 as kyw tv 1.4 as a cbs owned station 2 digital television 2.1 digital channels 2.2 analog to digital conversion 3 logos 4 news operation 4.1 controversy 4.2 notable current on air staff 4.2.1 notable former on air staff 5 cable telco and satellite carriage 6 references 7 external links history edit as wptz edit the channel 3 facility in philadelphia is one of the world s oldest television stations . it began in 1932 as w3xe an experimental station owned by philadelphia s philco corporation at the time and for some decades to come one of the world s largest manufacturers of radio and television sets . philco engineers created much of the station s equipment including cameras . when the station began operations as w3xe it was based within philco s production plant at c and east tioga streets in north philadelphia complete with a small studio and transmitter . in 1941 it began sharing programs with w2xbs later wnbt and now wnbc tv in new york city becoming nbc s second television affiliate and creating a link between the station and the network that would last for 54 years . 2 on july 1 1941 w3xe received a commercial license the third in the united states and the first outside of new york city as wptz . the station signed on for the first time on september 1 . philco then moved wptz s studios to the penthouse suite of the architect s building at 17th and sansom streets in downtown philadelphia while retaining master control facilities at the philco plant . the station originally broadcast from a tower in the philadelphia suburb of wyndmoor . it significantly cut back operations after the u.s. entered world war ii but returned to a full schedule in 1945 . channel 3 relocated its entire operation to the wyndmoor transmitter facility during world war ii when the station aired little programming . it then became one of three stations along with wnbt and schenectady new york s wrgb that premiered nbc s regular television service in 1946 . when full broadcasting was resumed the station reactivated its studio in the architect s building remaining there until 1947 . wptz then moved into unused space at 1619 walnut street in center city where kyw radio was housed . what is now kyw tv has been based in center city ever since . 3 the westinghouse electric corporation owner of philadelphia s longtime nbc radio affiliate kyw purchased wptz in 1953 for a then record price of 8.5 million . 4 the wptz call letters are now used for the nbc affiliate in plattsburgh new york . as an nbc owned station edit in may 1955 westinghouse agreed to trade wptz and kyw radio to nbc in exchange for wnbk television and wtam am fm in cleveland and 3 million in cash compensation . 5 nbc had long sought an owned and operated television station in philadelphia the largest market where it did not own a station . it had made several offers over the years for the philadelphia stations but westinghouse declined each time . after being rebuffed by westinghouse on several occasions nbc threatened to drop its affiliation from wptz and westinghouse s other nbc television affiliate wbz tv in boston unless westinghouse agreed to the trade . 6 nbc took over operation of wptz and kyw in late january 1956 ; 7 on february 13 1956 channel 3 s call letters were changed to wrcv tv in reference to the rca victor record label ; kyw radio adopted the wrcv calls as well . 8 shortly after nbc took control of channel 3 the federal communications commission fcc collapsed the lehigh valley most of northern delaware and southern new jersey including atlantic city into the philadelphia market . nbc realized wrcv tv s existing tower was inadequate for this enlarged market . in 1957 channel 3 moved to a new 1 100 foot 340 m tower in roxborough . the tower was co owned with wfil tv channel 6 now wpvi tv and added much of delaware the lehigh valley and southern new jersey to the station s city grade coverage . the new transmitter enabled channel 3 to broadcast in color for the first time . however almost immediately after the trade was finalized westinghouse complained to the fcc and the united states department of justice about nbc s coercion and a lengthy investigation was launched . 9 10 on september 22 1959 the justice department issued a decision which in part forced nbc to divest wrcv am tv by the end of 1962 . 11 several months later in early 1960 nbc announced it would trade the wrcv stations to rko general in exchange for its boston outlets wnac am fm tv . rko would also acquire nbc s wrc am fm tv in washington d.c. in a separate but related sale and nbc would replace washington in its tv station portfolio with ktvu in the san francisco bay area to be purchased separately by the network . 12 13 as regulators sifted through that multi level transaction philco corporation the original operators of wptz interjected itself into the dispute by first protesting the fcc s 1957 renewal of nbc s licenses for the wrcv stations . then in may 1960 philco filed an application with the fcc to build a new station on channel 3 . 14 in august 1964 the fcc renewed nbc s licenses for wrcv am tv again but this time only on the condition that the 1956 station swap with westinghouse be reversed . 15 both rko general and philco contested the fcc s decision initially but soon each firm gave up their efforts and bowed out of the competition . 16 17 following nearly a year of appeals by nbc westinghouse regained control of wrcv am tv on june 19 1965 . westinghouse had moved the kyw call letters to cleveland after the swap and channel 3 became kyw tv upon the company regaining control of the philadelphia outlets . 18 group w as westinghouse s broadcasting division was known by this time took over a transmitter facility far superior to the one it relinquished in 1956 . to this day kyw tv insists that it moved to cleveland in 1956 and returned to philadelphia in 1965 in fact some staffers who worked at kyw tv in cleveland talk show host mike douglas meteorologist dick goddard and news anchor tom snyder among them moved to philadelphia along with the call letters . 19 as kyw tv edit the former kyw building on independence mall east used by the station from 1972 to 2007 . this building has since been demolished and replaced by the national museum of american jewish history . despite its status as nbc s largest affiliate kyw tv spent much of the next thirty years pre empting many nbc programs choosing to air local or syndicated programming instead . the production arm of westinghouse broadcasting was partially responsible for the pre emptions as channel 3 along with its sister stations in the group w chain aired shows produced and syndicated by group w such as the mike douglas show whose production moved from cleveland to the walnut street studio philadelphia in 1965 and then taped at independence mall east until 1978 the david frost show and evening magazine known as pm magazine on stations that were not owned by westinghouse . pre empted network programming was usually lower rated daytime game shows soap operas or reruns of primetime programs with an average of two hours per day . at one point in the fall of 1980 kyw tv preempted nbc s entire morning schedule after the today show . over the years nbc contracted independent stations wphl tv wtaf tv wtxf tv wkbs tv and wgtw tv to air programs preempted by channel 3 . however at the time nbc was far less tolerant of pre emptions than the other networks and was rather perturbed at losing valuable advertising in the nation s fourth largest market . like most affiliates that pre empt poorer performing network programs kyw tv used the pre emptions in order to gain an increase in local advertising rates which potentially come with ratings increases . this proved to be a very profitable decision at first as kyw tv was either first or second in the philadelphia television ratings for most of the 1960s and 1970s . however the station and nbc faltered in the late 1970s and by 1980 kyw tv was the lowest rated network affiliate in philadelphia . it stayed in the ratings basement even when nbc rebounded to become the nation s most watched network by 1985 . for the rest of its tenure as an nbc affiliate kyw tv was the network s lowest rated major market affiliate during a very prosperous period for nbc as a whole . it continued to heavily pre empt nbc programming much to the network s chagrin . in 1994 baltimore sister station wjz tv 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 to abc . one of the scripps owned stations joining abc was baltimore s nbc affiliate wmar tv . this did not sit well with westinghouse who felt betrayed by abc after nearly half a century of loyalty . as a safeguard group w intensified a search which had begun prior to wjz s affiliation loss for affiliation deals of its own . group w eventually struck an agreement to switch kyw tv wbz tv and wjz tv to cbs westinghouse already had two cbs affiliates in its portfolio at the time kdka tv in pittsburgh and kpix tv in san francisco . cbs was initially skeptical about including kyw tv in the deal . while kyw tv was a poor third cbs owned wcau tv channel 10 was a solid runner up to long dominant abc owned wpvi tv . however after westinghouse offered to sell cbs a minority stake in kyw tv cbs agreed to move its affiliation to channel 3 and put