W3XE-WPTZ-KYW-TV |
(some material has been edited)
by Joanne Calabria While TV industry talk is revolving around cable, satellite dishes, and other high tech, Channel 3 has been taking a look at its past -- a past which chronicles the history of television. Channel 3 was first granted permission to operate an experimental station in 1932 as W3XE, but actually began experimenting with this new medium as far back as 1928. Since then, Philadelphia's first TV station and NBC's longest affiliate has continued to be an innovator in news and entertainment. As an experimental station in 1932, channel 3, then operating out of the Philco company plant at C & Tioga Streets, lived up to its label. Founded by the Philco Corporation, the station first broadcast into homes of 100 of the company's employees, mostly engineers. As the Philco engineers tinkered with the new technology, the station aired employee talent shows and travelogues to enable them to check the quality of the broadcast signal. But it wasn't long until the staff began toying with the station programming as well. In 1939, W3XE, telecast the first college night football game, Temple University versus Kansas, and the following year started regular telecasts of the University of Pennsylvania home games which continued up until 1951. Also in 1951, the station became an affiliate of the National Broadcasting Company (NBC's first) broadcasting network shows into an estimated 150 homes. New ground continued to be broken into the forties as channel 3 aired 60 hours of the 1940 Republican National Convention, the first major coverage of a national political conclave. The signal was sent to the station's tower, then located at Wyndmoor, Pennsylvania to Princeton, New Jersey, and then onto the Empire State Building from which NBC broadcast it nationally. In 1941, the station was granted a commercial TV license with the call sign WPTZ. This was Pennsylvania's first commercial station and the country's second. In 1941, viewers saw the first telecast of the Mummers Parade, and was treated to a six-part serial drama in 1942, "Last Year's Nest." This drama was produced in Philadelphia and telecast nationally. In 1946, channel 3 got its first commercial sponsor, the Atlantic Richfield Company, which sponsored Penn football. The Gimbel Brothers became the station's first full-show sponsor with "All Eyes on Gimbels." The first half of the show was product demonstrations and tips, and the second half of the show was a kiddie's program where a company of talented youngsters sang and danced. It wasn't until the early fifties when TVs became fixtures in many homes. Channel 3 was at the forefront with programming introducing Ernie Kovacs to the public with an early morning series of TV shows. Ernie's co-host on the show was Edie Adams, who later became Mrs. Kovacs. In June 1953, WPTZ was sold to Group W, known then as Westinghouse Radio Stations Inc. On December 18, 1953, the day after the FCC had approved "compatible color" WPTZ became the first localk station to broadcast a commercial television program, clips from the Walt Disney Technicolor productions, "Living Desert" and "Ben and Me." In January 1956, channel 3 became an NBC owned and operated station.. NBC acquired the station through an exchange of broadcast properties with Westinghouse. In February the call letters were changed to WRCV. In June 1965, channel 3 took on the KYW-TV call letters when NBC and Group W (as Westinghouse was then known) were forced by the FCC to again exchange properties. In 1968, the "Eyewitness News" format was born as channel 3. This is the format where a reporter delivers their own stories instead of gathering the information for the news anchor to read. Channel 3 has developed some of the finest news talent in the counrty with the likes of: Jessica Savitch, Tom Snyder, David Brenner, and Tom Pettit.
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