#pa
WRYT in Pittsburgh is today’s WPGP, a Salem Media Group conservative-talk station.
The Philadelphia Evening Bulletin newspaper, owner of WPEN Radio, wanted to build a sister TV station. It secured a construction permit in 1946. When The Philadelphia Record, owner of WCAU Radio, folded in 1947, the Bulletin acquired the WCAU stations. It sold less-powerful WPEN-AM and WCAU-FM, keeping 50,000-watt WCAU-AM and renaming its FM station WCAU-FM. It also kept the construction permit for the TV station, renaming it WCAU-TV.
The TV station signed on in 1948 as a CBS affiliate. It entered a partnership with a Scranton TV station in 1957, but the FCC ruled the stations’ signals overlapped too much. CBS acquired WCAU-AM/FM/TV in 1958.
When Westinghouse, owner of Philadelphia’s NBC affiliate, KYW-TV, entered into a long-term affiliation agreement with CBS in 1994, CBS decided to sell WCAU-TV and purchase KYW-TV. NBC purchased WCAU-TV.
NBC purchased Philadelphia’s Telemundo affiliate, WWSI-TV, in 2013, giving WCAU a duopoly partner.
As of 2017, NBCUniversal owns the station. WCAU and WWSI are slated to move into the new Comcast Technology Center in downtown Philadelphia after the building’s completion in 2018.
Here’s a 1981 WCAU-TV newscast:
Source: Wikipedia (WCAU)
WCAU-TV in Philadelphia aired a series of investigations in 1968 called “Suffer the Little Children.” Reporter Bill Baldini uncovered abuse and neglect at Pennhurst, a state institution for children and adults with intellectual disabilities. Here are the reports:
Here are other entries about Pittsburgh’s legendary KDKA Radio.
It looks like Johnny Boyer enjoyed a career in sports broadcasting. Here’s a 1954 picture of him interviewing Jackie Robinson. It’s hard to find much about him. Do you know anything about Boyer?
