WHDH-TV: Encyclopedia II - WHDH-TV - History

WHDH-TV - History

Channel 7 first went on the air on June 21, 1948, as WNAC-TV, the second television station in Boston. The station took its calls from WNAC-AM, the flagship station of the Yankee Network, a New England regional radio network. It was owned by General Teleradio, a subsidiary of General Tire, who purchased the Yankee Network in 1943. The company became RKO General in 1958 after the purchase of RKO Radio Pictures. Channel 7 first broadcasted from a studio on Brookline Avenue before moving to its current facilities near Government Center in the 1960s.

WNAC was originally a CBS affiliate, moving to ABC in 1961 when it switched affiliations with WHDH-TV, channel 5. It stayed with ABC until 1972, when channel 5's license was sold to a local group which renamed it WCVB-TV. The new owners planned to air a large amount of local programming. This didn't sit very well with CBS, who immediately cut a new deal with WNAC.

By 1965, RKO General faced numerous investigations into its business and financial practices. Though the FCC renewed the broadcast license for WNAC in 1969, RKO General lost the license in 1981 after General Tire admitted before the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission that it had committed financial fraud over illegal political contributions and bribes. But in the FCC hearing, it had denied these same practices. In light of RKO's dishonesty, the FCC stripped RKO of the Boston license and the licenses for WOR-TV in New York and KHJ-TV in Los Angeles. The FCC had previously conditioned renewal of the latter two stations' licenses on WNAC's renewal. An appeals court partially reversed the ruling, finding that the FCC had erred in tying the latter two stations' renewals to WNAC's license. It upheld the WNAC revocation and ordered a rehearing on the other stations.

New England Television, a merger of the two original challengers to WNAC's renewal, took over the license for channel 7 on May 22, 1982. At that time, the station's call letters were changed to WNEV and a new Se7en logo was adopted. This logo would change to one of a number 7 made up of seven dots in 1987 before the current encircled 7.

In 1990, WNEV's owner bought WHDH-AM 850 (now defunct; the frequency is now home to WEEI) and renamed the TV station WHDH-TV. Those call letters had previously been used by channel 5 from 1957 to 1972. In 1993, WHDH-TV was sold to Sunbeam Television, who still owns the station today. Shortly afterward, it adopted its present Circle 7 logo, the same one also used by its Miami sister station, WSVN.

Over the years, Channel 7 as WNAC preempted little programming. As WNEV, the station prempted programming in moderation. The preempted programs often aired on WHLL (now WUNI-TV). From 1989 to 1990, the station preempted CBS Morning News in favor of a children's show called Ready To Go. In late 1993, CBS News This Morning was dropped and picked up by WABU (now WBPX). WHDH then began an expanded morning local newscast. When the station became a NBC affiliate, Channel 7 ran the entire network programming lineup.

WHDH-TV stayed with CBS until January 2, 1995, when WBZ-TV claimed the CBS affiliation as part of a group deal between CBS and WBZ's owner, Group W. Fox considered an affiliation deal with WHDH. However, WHDH opted to become the NBC affiliate. Recently, the station was rumored to be in negotiations with NBC Universal to be acquired from Sunbeam Television and become a NBC owned & operated station.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "History", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki