affiliate in new york city . wpxi pittsburgh pennsylvania united states branding channel 11 general channel 11 news newscasts slogan coverage you can count on channels digital 48 uhf virtual 11 psip subchannels 11.1 nbc 11.2 me tv 11.3 laff translators 23 uhf uniontown pennsylvania 33 uhf new castle pennsylvania 21 uhf derry pennsylvania construction permit affiliations nbc owner cox media group wpxi inc. founded june 1955 first air date september 1 1957 ; 59 years ago 1957 09 01 call letters meaning pittsburgh xi 11 in roman numerals sister station s wpgh tv wpnt through a news share agreement former callsigns wiic tv 1957 1981 former channel number s analog 11 vhf 1957 2009 transmitter power 1000 kw height 289 m 948 ft facility id 73910 transmitter coordinates 40 27 48 n 80 0 16 w 40.46333 n 80.00444 w 40.46333 ; 80.00444 licensing authority fcc public license information profile cdbs website www.wpxi.com wpxi channel 11 is an nbc affiliated television station located in pittsburgh pennsylvania united states . the station is owned by the cox media group a subsidiary of atlanta based cox enterprises . wpxi s offices and studios are located on evergreen road in the summer hill neighborhood of pittsburgh and its transmitter is located on television hill in the fineview section of the city on the site of the station s original studio location . on cable wpxi is carried on comcast channels 12 channel 10 in bethel park standard definition and 811 high definition and verizon fios channels 11 standard definition and 511 high definition . contents 1 history 1.1 wiic 1.2 wpxi 2 local programming 2.1 current 2.2 past 3 digital television 3.1 digital channels 3.2 analog to digital conversion 4 programming 4.1 syndicated programming 5 newscasts 5.1 pittsburgh cable news channel 5.2 ratings 5.3 notable current on air staff 5.4 notable former on air staff 6 references 7 external links history edit wiic edit proposed logo for wiic tv showing cbs affiliation . the logo was from 1955 two years before wiic tv went on the air and before becoming a primary affiliate with nbc . 1 on september 1 1957 pittsburgh s second commercial vhf station signed on as wiic . the station s construction permit was originally issued by the federal communications commission fcc in june 1955 to wiic incorporated a joint venture of the pittsburgh post gazette which owned wwsw radio 970 am now wbgg and pittsburgh radio supply house the then owners of wjas radio 1320 am . 2 both radio stations had competed individually for the permit grant along with other applicants . cbs which was looking to gain its own full time affiliate in the market signed a contract with the then unnamed channel 11 shortly thereafter . 3 before the freeze on television station licenses the two stations were competing for the channel 10 license originally assigned to pittsburgh before the fcc reallocated the channels in 1952 with channel 10 going to altoona ; the hearst corporation then owners of wcae and eventual owners of wtae tv and two other companies were also applying for the channel 10 license . 4 channel 11 however did not sign on for well over two years after its permit was granted . the primary reason for the delay was on the part of wens tv channel 16 now winp tv whose application for the permit had been denied and later contested the fcc s original decision . 5 in the interim cbs continued to have most of its programs cleared by westinghouse owned kdka tv channel 2 at the time pittsburgh s only commercial vhf station . when cbs decided to make kdka tv its full time pittsburgh affiliate nbc who shared time on kdka tv with cbs abc and station founder dumont since its sign on in 1949 reached a deal to affiliate with wiic . 6 also as a condition of the license grant wjas radio had to be sold ; nbc wound up purchasing that station in august 1957 . 7 the wjas interests later divested their 50 percent share of wiic to another local broadcaster . 8 bill cardille signed the station on the air . in addition to cardille five other announcers that were with the station when it launched in 1957 include mal alberts bob cochran ed conway len johnson and mark schaefer . some of the first original programming to air on wiic included studio wrestling and chiller theatre both hosted by cardille . shortly after its sign on wiic was briefly affiliated with the nta film network sharing the affiliation with kdka tv wtae tv and public television station wqed . 9 in 1964 wiic was sold to current owner cox enterprises ; cox subsequently traded its share in the then new cable system today s buckeye cablesystem in toledo ohio to the post gazette s parent company block communications which is based in toledo . 10 11 the station has been the longest running nbc affiliate under cox s ownership especially after its sister stations in charlotte and atlanta switched their affiliations to abc in 1978 and 1980 respectively . in 1970 wiic made pittsburgh broadcasting history when eleanor schano became the first woman to anchor a newscast solo . schano also hosted a weekly 30 minute public affairs program called face to face . during much of the 1970s wiic trailed in a distant third place in the ratings behind kdka tv and wtae tv . this coincided with much of the period where nbc also struggled in the ratings . in 1970 when the pittsburgh steelers moved to the american football conference after the nfl merger channel 11 became the station of record for the team ; this partnership continued through 1997 . even though it aired most of the games from the steelers glory years of the 1970s typically the highest rated television programs in the market during that time channel 11 stayed in the ratings basement . around 1975 channel 11 branded itself as e11even . around 1977 wiic used the 11 alive moniker which had become popularized by fellow nbc affiliate wxia tv in atlanta and wpix in new york city . wiic carried the operation prime time package in 1979 . 12 wpxi edit wpxi s current studios from interstate 279 northbound . on april 20 1981 the station s call sign was changed to wpxi for pittsburgh 11 with xi being the roman numeral for 11 . 13 although the station has officially never had the tv suffix since adopting the wpxi call sign the station has on occasion been marketed as wpxi tv . the wiic calls in pittsburgh were later used by a low powered independent station that ran a music video format that station is currently silent . wpxi joined the ad hoc tv network mgm ua premiere network with the november 10 1984 showing of clash of the titans . 14 wpxi also televised the jerry lewis mda telethon as the love network affiliate of the annual event for the pittsburgh market until the muscular dystrophy association decided to move the telethon from syndication to abc in 2013 . the local portion of the telethon continued to be hosted by bill cardille until the 2012 telethon . in 2000 cox enterprises purchased wtov in steubenville ohio and wjac tv in johnstown pennsylvania from sunrise television . those stations which are also nbc affiliates often appear in channel lineups for the same viewers that watch wpxi either by over the air signal or via cable provider and due to the proximity of the three stations to each other as well as the common affiliation with nbc were occasionally marketed together as a result . cox changed the stations on air appearances to match wpxi s look despite wpxi changing its own look in 2004 . wtov still used wpxi s former look until october 2010 and wjac tv adopted wpxi s current design in october 2011 . over the labor day weekend of 2007 wpxi began relocating from its longtime studios at television hill in pittsburgh s fineview neighborhood after 50 years to a new studio facility in the city s summer hill neighborhood near the parkway north . the station s transmitter tower continues to be located in the fineview neighborhood . 15 wpxi began broadcasting its newscasts from the summer hill studio on october 6 beginning with the 6 p.m. newscast . in turn it also became the first station in the pittsburgh market to begin broadcasting its local newscasts in high definition . the station was criticized for technical glitches during the initial week of the new system run . 16 17 with the switch to hd came a new set created by fx group and a new graphics package designed by hothaus creative . in mid october 2008 wpxi in collaboration with cox s longtime partner internet broadcasting launched a redesigned website . by early november 2008 the websites of all of cox s stations east of the mississippi river began using the new format pioneered by wpxi ; the websites of the company s stations west of the mississippi river followed suit a month later . in 2011 cox media group s partnership with internet broadcasting was dissolved and the cox television stations relaunched their website operations in house . wpxi s and wsoc tv s websites remained under the stewardship of internet broadcasting until late january 2012 when they became the last two stations to have redesigned their websites to match the format of the in house web operations of their sister stations . with cox media group s february 23 2013 sale of wjac and wtov a sale which also included stations in el paso texas and reno nevada to the sinclair broadcast group owners of local fox affiliate wpgh tv and mynetworktv affiliate wpmy which was completed on may 2 18 wpxi is now cox s only remaining nbc affiliated station . the two remain connected to wpxi under a news share agreement it has had with wpgh tv . wpxi currently uses the number 11 drawn into a circle which debuted in 1987 . the 11 symbol is colored gold while the box around it is dark blue . wpxi previously used the nbc peacock in its logo which was copied by sister stations wtov and wjac and is still used by wtov but revamped its own look in october 2004 . wpxi s current look uses the circle 11 logo with a stylized wpxi below it . on september 2 2013 wpxi expanded its noon news to an hour becoming pittsburgh s first hour long noon newscast . 19 although it has closed the gap with pittsburgh s other stations wpxi remains one of nbc s weakest major market affiliates due in no small part due to the stations s delays in signing on in its early years after established nbc affiliates in nearby markets its sister stations as well as wfmj tv in youngstown ohio all of which have been decades long market leaders in their respective markets as well as nbc s issues with westinghouse in the 1950s . 20 nbc did come close to upgrading its affiliation in pittsburgh in 1994 when westinghouse was looking to sign a group wide affiliation deal for its group w stations . due to hearst television owner of wtae tv and sinclair broadcast group owner of wpgh tv each having strong ties to abc and fox respectively wpxi would ve likely affiliated with cbs had westinghouse signed with nbc effectively reversing what would ve likely been the originally intended affiliations had channel 11 not had a delay in signing on . ultimately westinghouse signed with cbs despite nbc offering more money and wpxi remained with nbc making the pittsburgh market one of the few major markets not to be affected by the 1994 united states broadcast tv realignment . 21