WPIX

WPIX, virtual and VHF digital channel 11, is a CW-affiliated television station licensed to New York, New York, United States. The station is owned by the E. W. Scripps Company. Since its inception in 1948, WPIX's studios and offices have been located in the Daily News Building on East 42nd Street (also known as "11 WPIX Plaza") in Midtown Manhattan. The station's transmitter is located at the Empire State Building.

This article is about the New York City television station. For the NYC radio station formerly called WPIX-FM, see WFAN-FM.

WPIX
New York, New York
United States
ChannelsDigital: 11 (VHF)
Virtual: 11 (PSIP)
Branding
  • PIX 11 (general)
  • "PIX 11 News" (newscasts)
  • (pronounced as "picks")
  • The CW PIX 11 (during promos for CW network shows)
Slogan"New York's Very Own"
Programming
SubchannelsSee § Digital channels
Affiliations
Ownership
OwnerE. W. Scripps Company[1]
(sale to Mission Broadcasting pending[2])
(Scripps Media, Inc.)
History
FoundedApril 1947 (1947-04) (73 years ago)[3]
First air dateJune 15, 1948 (1948-06-15) (72 years ago)
Former channel number(s)
  • Analog:
  • 11 (VHF, 1948–2009)
  • Digital:
  • 33 (UHF, 1999–2002, 2004–2009)
  • 12 (VHF, 2002–2004)
Former affiliations
Call sign meaningNew York's Picture (PIX) Newspaper
(after nameplate slogan of the Daily News, its founding owner)
Technical information
Licensing authorityFCC
Facility ID73881
ERP7.5 kW
5.5 kW (CP)
HAAT405 m (1,329 ft)
506 m (1,660 ft) (CP)
Transmitter coordinates40°44′54″N 73°59′9″W
40°42′46.8″N 74°0′47.3″W (CP)
Links
Public license informationProfile
LMS
Websitewww.pix11.com

WPIX is also available as a regional superstation via satellite and cable in the United States and Canada. It is the largest CW affiliate by market size that is not owned and operated by either of the network's co-owners, ViacomCBS or AT&T's WarnerMedia.

History

As an independent station (1948–1995)
An early WPIX test pattern, 1948, 1949 to 1976.

The station first signed on the air on June 15, 1948; it was the fifth television station to sign on in New York City and was the market's second independent station.[4] It was also the second of three stations to launch in the New York market during 1948, debuting one month after Newark, New Jersey-based independent WATV (channel 13) and two months before WJZ-TV (channel 7). WPIX's call letters come from the slogan of the newspaper that founded the station, the Tribune-owned New York Daily News, whose slogan was "New York's Picture Newspaper". In its earliest years, WPIX maintained a secondary studio (called "Studio Five") at 110 Central Park South, where programs shot in front of a studio audience were produced.

WPIX Plaza, southwest corner of 2nd Avenue and 42nd Street.

Until becoming owned outright by Tribune in 1991, WPIX operated separately from the company's other television and radio outlets through the News-owned license holder, WPIX, Incorporated – which in 1963, purchased New York radio station, WBFM (101.9 FM) and soon changed that station's call letters to WPIX-FM. British businessman Robert Maxwell bought the Daily News in 1991. Tribune retained WPIX and WQCD; the radio station was sold to Emmis Communications in 1997. WPIX initially featured programming that was standard among independents: children's programs, movies, syndicated reruns of network programs, public affairs programming, religious programs and sports – specifically, the New York Yankees, whose baseball games WPIX carried from 1951 to 1998.

To generations of New York children, channel 11 was also the home of memorable personalities. In 1955, original WPIX staffer and weather forecaster Joe Bolton, donned a policeman's uniform and became "Officer Joe," hosting several programs based around Little Rascals, Three Stooges, and later Popeye shorts. Another early WPIX personality, Jack McCarthy, also hosted Popeye and Dick Tracy cartoons as "Captain Jack" in the early 1960s, though he was also the longtime host of channel 11's St. Patrick's Day parade coverage from 1949 to 1992. WPIX aired a local version of Bozo the Clown (with Bill Britten in the role) from 1959 to 1964; comic performers Chuck McCann and Allen Swift also hosted programs on WPIX during the mid-1960s before each moved to other entertainment work in Hollywood. Jazz singer Joya Sherrill hosted a weekday children's show, Time for Joya (later known as Joya's Fun School). Channel 11 produced the Magic Garden series, which ran on the station from 1972 to 1984. Beginning in the late 1970s and continuing through spring 1982, the station aired "TV PIXX", a television video game show played during commercial breaks of afternoon programs. Kids would call into the station for the chance to control a video game via telephone in hopes of winning prizes.

WPIX's Circle 11 logo, used from 1969 to 1976 and 1984 to 1995.

From its early years through the 1960s, WPIX, like the other two major independents in New York, WOR-TV (channel 9) and WNEW-TV (channel 5), struggled to acquire other programming. In 1966, WPIX debuted The Yule Log, which combines Christmas music with a film loop of logs burning inside a fireplace. Airing on Christmas Eve and/or Christmas morning initially until 1989, the film was made in 1966 and was shot at Gracie Mansion, with the cooperation of then Mayor John V. Lindsay. WPIX revived the Yule Log due to viewer demand in 2001, and has proven to be just as popular. Several of Tribune's other television stations (as well as WGN America and Antenna TV) have carried the WPIX version, complete with its audio soundtrack, on Christmas morning since the late 2000s, and is also streamed online on WPIX's website.[5] Since 1977, Channel 11 has aired a live broadcast of Midnight Mass from St. Patrick's Cathedral every Christmas Eve.[6][7]

The station's famous "Circle 11" logo – predating the existence of the World Trade Center (which was not completed until 1973), which it closely resembled – was first unveiled in 1969 (an advertising billboard for WPIX with the "Circle 11" logo began appearing that year at Yankee Stadium). By the mid-1970s, WPIX emerged as the second highest-rated independent station in the area, behind WNEW-TV. WPIX dropped the "Circle 11" when it rebranded as "11 Alive" in September 1976, though it continued to appear during station editorials until around 1982 (the "Alive" slogan was popularized by such stations as Atlanta's WXIA-TV, which itself has branded as "11 Alive" ever since that point, with the exception of a brief removal in 1995); the "Circle 11" logo returned as part of the "11 Alive" branding in 1984, before being restored full-time in the fall of 1986. Its relaunch featured a series of humorous promos in which a fictional station employee, "Henry Tillman," was searching for a "big idea" for something uniquely New York in nature to serve as the perfect WPIX symbol. The running gag in these ads was the fact that Tillman was constantly surrounded by – but never noticed – objects resembling a giant "11", most notably the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center.

The first 11 Alive logo, which was used from 1976 to 1982. A modified version of the logo is used for its 11.2 subchannel, adding ".2" next to the 11.

In 1978, WPIX was uplinked to satellite and became a superstation that was distributed to cable providers throughout the U.S. (many providers carried WPIX's signal until the early 1990s, when most systems outside of the Northeastern United States began replacing WPIX with the superstation feed of WGN-TV,[8] though the station continues to be distributed through Dish Network domestically (which since it halted sales of the package to new subscribers in September 2013, is available only to grandfathered subscribers of its a la carte superstation tier) and on most cable and satellite providers throughout Canada). Two years later, WPIX began operating on a 24-hour programming schedule.

During the late 1980s, WPIX fell to sixth place in the ratings among New York's VHF stations, behind WNYW (which was now owned by Fox) and a resurgent WWOR (then owned by MCA–Universal). After president Leavitt Pope stepped down as general manager (though he remained as president and CEO of WPIX), Michael Eigner was transferred from Los Angeles sister station KTLA to become WPIX's general manager in August 1989.[9][10]

Over the next few years the station engineered a slow turnaround that eventually resulted in WPIX becoming the leading independent station in the market. In 1994, the station became the exclusive home of the New York City Marathon, carrying the event for the next five years. It was during the initial broadcast of that event that WPIX unveiled a stylized serifed "11" logo; the new numerical look eventually became the full-time logo, augmented with The WB's logo after the station affiliated with that network in 1995.

In mid-January 1994, the station began airing the Action Pack programming block with TekWar TV movie. WPIX earned the biggest ratings of all the stations airing the program, with an 11.7/17 rating.[11]

WB affiliation (1995–2006)
WPIX's original "WB 11" logo, used from 1994 to 1999. The box with "THE" was removed in a variant used from 1999 to 2006.

On November 2, 1993, the Warner Bros. Television division of Time Warner and the Tribune Company announced the formation of The WB Television Network. Due to the company's ownership interest in the network (initially a 12.5% stake, before expanding to 22%), Tribune signed the majority of its independent stations to serve as The WB's charter affiliates, resulting in WPIX becoming a network affiliate for the first time upon its January 11, 1995 debut.[12]

The station was verbally branded as "The WB, Channel 11" (simply adding The WB name to the "Channel 11" branding in use since 1986), until it was simplified to "The WB 11" in 1997, and further to "WB11" in 2000. Initially, WPIX's programming remained unchanged, as The WB had broadcast only primetime shows on Wednesday nights at its launch. As with other WB-affiliated stations during the network's first four years, WPIX ran feature films and select first-run scripted series prior to its 10:00 p.m. newscast on nights when The WB did not offer network programming.

WB network and syndicated daytime programs (such as Maury and Jerry Springer) became more prominent on channel 11's schedule starting in 1996 at the expense of most of its local-interest programming outside of news. In September 1999, when The WB completed its prime time expansion and the network began running its programming Sunday through Friday nights, Movies were limited to Saturday evenings and weekend afternoons.

Screencap of the frozen WPIX image from September 11, 2001.

On September 11, 2001, the transmitter facilities of WPIX, and several other New York City area television and radio stations were destroyed when two hijacked airplanes crashed into the World Trade Center; both of the complex's main towers collapsed due to fires caused by the impact. WPIX lead engineer Steve Jacobson[13] was among those who were killed in the terrorist attack.[14] WPIX's satellite feed froze on the last video frame received from the WTC mast, an image of the North Tower burning and the start of the impact of the South Tower; the image remained on-screen for much of the day until WPIX was able to set up alternate transmission facilities (the microwave relay for WPIX's satellite feed was also located at the World Trade Center). WPIX also broadcast on W64AA in the interim.[15] Since then, WPIX has transmitted its signal from the Empire State Building.[16]

The station's coverage of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attack was notable in that WPIX's helicopter was the last to land following an FAA directive that grounded all aircraft. WPIX was given special permission to continue airing aerial video from its helicopter after the collapse of the World Trade Center, though that permission wasn't conditioned on WPIX distributing the footage as a pool camera. Footage from WPIX's helicopter was one of many videos used by the NIST in its investigation into the collapse of the World Trade Center complex.[17]

CW affiliation (2006–present)
WPIX logo, used from September 18, 2006, to November 30, 2008. This logo was also used on St. Louis sister station KPLR-TV.

On January 24, 2006, the Warner Bros. Entertainment unit of Time Warner and CBS Corporation announced that the two companies would shut down The WB and UPN and in their place, would combine the two networks' respective programming to create a new "fifth" network called The CW.[18][19] As part of the announcement, Tribune signed ten-year affiliation agreements with the network for 16 of its 19 WB-affiliated stations, including WPIX.[20] Tribune chose not to exercise an ownership interest in The CW—making WPIX the largest CW affiliate that is not owned by either CBS Corporation (now ViacomCBS) or Time Warner (now WarnerMedia) and the largest English-language network-affiliated station that is not an owned-and-operated station of its respective network, as well as the only major New York City television station that is not network-owned.

WPIX began transitioning its on-air branding to "CW 11" during the summer of 2006; prior to the start of the station's 10:00 p.m. newscast on September 17, 2006 (which aired following The WB's final night of programming and the night prior to The CW's official launch), shortly after airing the WB's final sign off bumper featuring stars from the WB's shows, the station aired a video montage of past WPIX logos, starting with a 1948 test pattern and concluding with the official unveiling of the new "CW11" logo.[21]

On April 2, 2007, investor Sam Zell announced plans to purchase the Tribune Company, with intentions to take the publicly traded firm private. The deal was completed on December 20, 2007.[22] Prior to the sale's closure, WPIX had been the only commercial television station in New York City to have never been involved in an ownership transaction (Tribune subsequently filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 2008, due to debt accrued from Zell's leveraged buyout and costs from the company's privatization; it emerged from bankruptcy in December 2012 under the control of its senior debt holders Oaktree Capital Management, Angelo, Gordon & Co. and JPMorgan Chase).[23][24] The station began gradually adopting a modernized "Circle 11" logo in mid-October 2008, featuring a slimmer version of the WB-era "11" (the CW logo is sometimes used next to the "Circle 11", primarily in station promos for CW programs). The station's branding was then changed to "PIX 11" on December 1, 2008 (the "PIX" in the call letters are pronounced phonetically, similar to the word "picks").[25]

On August 17, 2012, Cablevision removed the station from its New York area systems, part of a carriage dispute with Tribune in which WPIX's Hartford, Philadelphia and Denver sister stations were removed from Cablevision's systems in those markets.[26] Cablevision accused Tribune of demanding higher carriage fees (claiming to total in the tens of millions of dollars) for use to help pay off debt, and alleged that it illegally bundled carriage agreements for WPIX and Hartford's WTIC-TV (which was later pulled as well, but unlike co-owned WCCT, was initially unaffected due to a separate carriage agreement); the company denied the claims, stating its approach complied with FCC regulations.[27] The stations and WGN America were restored in an agreement reached on October 26, following a plea by Connecticut State Senator Gayle Slossberg for the FCC to intervene in the dispute.[28]

On May 23, 2016, WPIX owner Tribune Broadcasting and The CW reached a five-year affiliation agreement that renewed the network's affiliations with twelve of Tribune's CW-affiliated stations (including WPIX) through the 2020–21 television season; the deal came after a year-long disagreement between The CW's managing partner CBS Corporation and Tribune concerning financial terms, specifically the amount of reverse compensation that The CW had sought from the group's CW affiliates.[29][30]

Aborted sale to Sinclair; sale to Nexstar and resale to Scripps

On May 8, 2017, Sinclair Broadcast Group announced that it would acquire Tribune Media for $3.9 billion, plus the assumption of $2.7 billion in debt held by Tribune. Had the deal been able to receive regulatory approval by the FCC and the U.S. Department of Justice's Antitrust Division, the deal would have marked the station's first change in ownership since its sign-on in 1948, and have resulted in WPIX becoming the Hunt Valley, Maryland-based company's largest television station by market size (supplanting ABC affiliate WJLA-TV in Washington, D.C.).[31][32][33][34][35] In order to comply with FCC ownership restrictions, Sinclair would then sell WPIX and sister station WGN-TV in Chicago to a third party to be determined later.[36] On February 28, 2018, Sinclair filed to sell WPIX to Cunningham Broadcasting for a below market-value price of $15 million; Sinclair planned to provide programming and sales to the station, and held an option to acquire WPIX outright.[37] The sale of WPIX to Cunningham was withdrawn on April 24, 2018, with Sinclair opting instead to acquire WPIX outright.[38]

On July 18, 2018, hours after Sinclair submitted a revision to the acquisition proposal that also abandoned plans for WGN-TV and CW-affiliated sisters KDAF in Dallas–Fort Worth and KIAH in Houston to be sold to Cunningham and another closely tied third-party in order to address concerns expressed by FCC chairman Ajit Pai concerning the partner licensees Sinclair proposed using to allow it to operate certain Tribune stations in circumvention of the 39% national ownership cap, the FCC Commissioners' Board voted unanimously, 4-0, to send the Sinclair-Tribune acquisition proposal to an evidentiary review hearing before an administrative law judge amid "serious concerns" about Sinclair's forthrightness in its applications to sell certain stations in markets where Sinclair and Tribune both had television properties.[39][40][41][42][43][44][45][46][47][48][49][50][51][52] On August 9, 2018, Tribune announced it would terminate the Sinclair deal, and concurrently filed a breach of contract lawsuit in the Delaware Chancery Court, alleging that Sinclair engaged in protracted negotiations with the FCC and the DOJ over regulatory issues, refused to sell stations in markets where it already had properties, and proposed divestitures to parties with ties to Sinclair executive chair David D. Smith that were rejected or highly subject to rejection to maintain control over stations it was required to sell.[53][54][55][56][57][58][59][60]

On December 3, 2018, Nexstar Media Group announced it would acquire Tribune's assets for $6.4 billion in cash and debt. The deal—which would make the Irving, Texas-based company the largest television station operator by total number of stations upon its expected closure late in the third quarter of 2019—would mark channel 11's first ownership change since its sign-on (not counting Tribune's 1991 transfer of the station from the separate WPIX Inc. entity into the Tribune Broadcasting subsidiary).[61][62][63][64][65][66][67][68][69][70][71] On March 20, 2019, as part of the sale of 19 Nexstar and Tribune stations to Tegna Inc. and the E. W. Scripps Company in separate deals worth $1.32 billion, Nexstar announced that it would sell WPIX to Cincinnati-based Scripps for $75 million (giving the company its second property in the state of New York after WKBW-TV in Buffalo, which was acquired by Scripps from Granite Broadcasting in June 2014). The deal marks a re-entry into the New York metropolitan area for Scripps, which had owned Bridgeport-licensed WSAH between 2002 and 2007 as an owned-and-operated station of the now-defunct Shop at Home Network. A possible motive for the sale may have been the fact that the station operates on a VHF digital channel assignment, which, given that the New York City market accounts for 6.44% of U.S. television households according to Nielsen market tabulations, would put Nexstar over the 39% national ownership cap as WPIX cannot be counted for 50% of its total reach under the "UHF discount". Because of this, following closure of the Nexstar–Tribune merger and sales associated with the deal, WPIX became Scripps' largest station by market size (displacing ABC-affiliated WFTS-TV in Tampa–St. Petersburg) while its Los Angeles sister station KTLA became Nexstar's largest station (supplanting MyNetworkTV-affiliated KRON-TV in San Francisco). Under the terms of the deal, Scripps provided Nexstar an option to buy back WPIX between March 31, 2020 and December 31, 2021.[1][72] The sale, which was approved by the FCC on September 16, was completed on September 19.[73][74]

Pending sale to Mission Broadcasting

On July 13, 2020, Nexstar announced that it had transferred its option to purchase WPIX to partner company Mission Broadcasting and that Mission had exercised the option to buy WPIX for $75 million plus accrued interest. The transaction is expected to close later in the year.[2]

Digital television

Digital channels

The station's digital signal is multiplexed:

Channel Video Aspect PSIP Short Name Programming[75]
11.11080i16:9PIX11Main WPIX programming / The CW
11.2480i4:3AntennaAntenna TV
11.316:9CourtTVCourt TV
11.4TBDTBD

On January 1, 2011, Tribune launched its new digital broadcast network, Antenna TV, which affiliated with WPIX through a new fourth digital subchannel. In May 2012, WPIX moved Antenna TV to digital subchannel 11.2, while digital channel 11.4 was removed (Estrella TV, which was carried on 11.2 at the time, is now affiliated with Port Jervis low-power station WASA-LD, which is owned by the network's parent company Liberman Broadcasting). 11.4 returned to the air in 2018 as an affiliate of TBD.

Analog-to-digital conversion

WPIX discontinued regular programming on its analog signal, over VHF channel 11, at 12:30 p.m. on June 12, 2009, as part of the federally mandated transition from analog to digital television.[76] The station's digital signal relocated from its pre-transition UHF channel 33 to VHF channel 11.[77][78]

Sports programming

WPIX served as the longtime over-the-air television broadcaster of New York Yankees baseball from 1951 to 1998. Mel Allen served as the primary announcer for the broadcasts, Red Barber from 1965 to 1966, Phil Rizzuto from 1967 to 1996, and Bobby Murcer from 1997 to 1998. With his "Holy Cow!" catchphrase, Rizzuto became very popular especially through the 1970s.

At various points, WPIX also aired Major League Baseball's New York Giants, the New York Football Giants and New York Jets, professional wrestling from 1984 to 1991 from various companies such as Pro Wrestling USA, AWA All Star Wrestling, UWF, NWA/WCW Worldwide and Pro, GLOW and briefly WWF (now WWE) from late 1998 to early 1999, the NHL's New York Rangers, the MISL's New York Arrows and local college basketball. However, it was through its coverage of Yankees baseball that WPIX gained perhaps its greatest fame and identity.

WPIX lost the broadcast rights for the Yankees to WNYW in 1998, more so the result of regional cable sports networks (in this case, MSG) gaining team broadcast rights, leaving broadcast stations with fewer games to air.[79] In 1999, the station acquired rights to New York Mets games, which up until that point had spent their entire televised history (since 1962) with (W)WOR.[80]

In 2015, the Yankees returned to WPIX after a 17-year absence, having picked up YES Network's package of over-the-air Yankees broadcasts, replacing WWOR-TV. The games co-exist with WPIX's existing Mets broadcasts (produced by SportsNet New York).[81]

Since 2013, WPIX has simulcast some ESPN Monday Night Football telecasts involving the New York Giants or New York Jets by arrangement with WABC-TV, the main rightsholder in New York for the over-the-air simulcasts.[82][83] WPIX has also carried NFL Network Thursday Night Football telecasts involving the Giants or Jets[82] (mostly prior to the NFL's decision to simulcast most Thursday night games on CBS, NBC, or Fox).

In March 2017, it was announced that WPIX would air selected New York Cosmos soccer games beginning in the 2017 season.[84]

News operation

WPIX presently broadcasts 44 hours of locally produced newscasts each week (with eight hours each weekday and two hours each on Saturdays and Sundays). One On One with Andy Adler airs at 10:45 on Sunday nights, during the PIX 11 News at 10.

As most stations did in the late 1940s and early 1950s, WPIX aired filmed coverage of news events. The station's first news program, TelePIX Newsreel, was the first in New York City to consist entirely of filmed coverage. From 1948 to 1965, WPIX produced Three Star News, a 6:30pm newscast which employed a three-anchor format—with Kevin Kennedy reading world and national news, John Tillman reporting local stories and Joe Bolton as the weatherman. Bolton was later assigned to host children's programming and was replaced by Gloria Okon. The program was cancelled after an FCC complaint that some of Tillman's "man on the street" interviews were staged with paid actors, most notable of which was a "pro-Castro sympathizer", who was "interviewed" with a copy of the Daily Worker newspaper conveniently tucked under his arm.

WPIX also produced many acclaimed news documentaries during the 1950s and early 1960s through its WPIX International production arm. Among its productions were The Secret Life of Adolf Hitler; Cuba, Castro and Communism; and the Eva Perón profile The Most Powerful Woman of the Century. Channel 11's efforts first got attention when the station covered the collision and sinking of the New York-bound oceanliner SS Andrea Doria off the coast of Nantucket in 1956. From 1977 to 1984, WPIX used the Action News title and format for its local news programs. The station aired a half-hour newscast at 7:30 p.m., and a one-hour program (which at some points, also ran for 30 minutes) at 10 p.m.

WPIX produced the Independent Network News, a national newscast that was syndicated to independent stations from June 1980 to June 1990. The program – whose live feed was transmitted nationally weeknights at 9:30 p.m. (ET) – featured the same on-air staff as channel 11's newscasts and was broadcast from the same news studio, with INN logos covering the station's own logo on various set pieces.[85] In New York City, WPIX paired a 10 p.m. replay of the national news with a live local newscast at 10:30 p.m., called the Action News Metropolitan Report. As part of a midday expansion of INN, starting in 1981, channel 11 also launched a newscast at 12:30pm. During the decade, WPIX also produced two other programs syndicated to stations that carried the INN program: the business-oriented Wall Street Journal Report; and From the Editor's Desk, a Sunday news discussion program hosted by Richard D. Heffner, host of the long-running public-affairs program The Open Mind.

WPIX was also famous for the many post-news editorials that were delivered by Richard N. Hughes, vice president of news operations from 1969 to 1995. His editorials ended with the tagline "What's your opinion? We'd like to know". Periodically, he would read excerpts from viewers' letters in response to the editorials, invariably closing each excerpt by saying, "And that ends that quote." In 1984, the station renamed its local and syndicated news programs as The Independent News. In 1986, the national INN newscast was renamed USA Tonight and aired at 10 p.m., while the 7:30 p.m. program retained the Independent News title and the 10:30 local newscast was renamed New York Tonight. When INN was cancelled, the 7:30 p.m. program ended as well, and WPIX focused its efforts on the 10 p.m. newscast.

A WPIX news van in Brooklyn

Over the years, channel 11 has won many news awards and was the first independent station to win a New York area Emmy award for outstanding newscast, first earning the statuette in 1979 and again in 1983. It was a significant comeback for a news operation that was accused of falsifying news reports in the late 1960s, such as labeling stock footage as being shown "via satellite", and claiming a voice report was live from Prague when it had actually been made from a pay telephone in Manhattan. As a result, Forum Communications – led by future PBS and NBC News president Lawrence Grossman – approached the Federal Communications Commission to challenge WPIX Inc.'s license to operate channel 11. WPIX and the Daily News prevailed in 1979 after years of litigation.[86]

On June 5, 2000, WPIX launched a weekday morning newscast, the WB11 Morning News (now the PIX 11 Morning News),[87] which has grown to challenge the established network morning programs as well as its more direct competitor, WNYW's Good Day New York.

On April 26, 2008, WPIX became the fourth television station in New York City to begin broadcasting its local newscasts in high definition. The station resumed a half-hour early evening newscast on September 14, 2009, that ran nightly at 6:30 p.m.,[88][89] until it was replaced by syndicated reruns on June 27, 2010.[90] Three months later, on September 11, the station launched a weekend evening 6 p.m. newscast (making WPIX one of the few U.S. television stations to carry an early evening newscast on weekends, without an existing weekday news program in that daypart).[91] On September 20, 2010, WPIX expanded its weekday morning newscast to five hours, with the addition of an hour at 4 a.m.[92]

On October 11, 2010, newly appointed news director Bill Carey instituted controversial format changes for the newscasts in an attempt to boost the station's ratings. Carey made the newscasts flashier than they had previously been; Kaity Tong and Jim Watkins were replaced as anchors of the weeknight 10 p.m. broadcasts by Jodi Applegate, and multiple commentators and an edgy graphics and music package were introduced. The revamped newscast's first week was not well received by most viewers or critics, with the station fielding numerous complaints through phone calls, emails and Facebook comments,[93] as well as a scathing review in the Daily News.[93] A Facebook page was created calling for Tong and Watkins's return to the 10pm news.[94] WPIX's sports department was shut down in March 2011, with sports segments being reduced to a two-minute feature presented by the station's news anchors. In September 2011, WPIX relieved Watkins of his duties as weekend anchor, replacing him with Tong (who now solo anchors the 5 and 10 p.m. newscasts on Saturdays and Sundays). By late 2011, the station's newscast ratings would fall to last place. Carey, who stepped down on October 3, 2012, was replaced as news director by Mark Effron in April 2013.[95][96]

On September 12, 2011, WPIX restored an early evening newscast to its weeknight schedule with the debut of an hour-long 5 p.m. broadcast, which was originally aimed at women between the ages of 18 and 49.[97] On December 19, 2012, Jodi Applegate left WPIX, to prepare for the birth of her child through a gestational surrogate. Morning anchor Tamsen Fadal was later named her replacement; the station later restored a two-anchor format with the hiring of WNBC sports anchor Scott Stanford as Fadal's co-anchor on the 5pm and 10pm newscasts in September 2013.[98] In March 2014, WPIX hired consumer reporter Arnold Diaz (who was fired by WNYW two months earlier due to the shutdown of its consumer investigative unit) to head up a new four-person investigative unit.[99] On April 5, 2014, WPIX moved its weekend early evening newscast one hour earlier, from 6 to 5 p.m.[100]

On April 23, 2014, the station debuted a new graphics package during its 5 p.m. newscast (the opening sequences used in this package had previously debuted in January 2014, but were updated with the revamp); along with the change, the station brought back Non-Stop Music's "WPIX Custom News Package", which had previously been used as the theme for WPIX's evening newscasts from 1994 until the 2010 format change. On June 9, the station reduced the morning newscast to four hours (with the 4 a.m. hour replaced with syndicated programs) to allow the station "the flexibility to invest more resources into the key morning hours".[101] On July 14, 2014, John Muller (who joined WPIX in 1999 and served as anchor of the morning newscast from its launch until he left for ABC News in 2011) returned to the station as evening co-anchor; Scott Stanford was reassigned to lead sports anchor (as part of a gradual reformation of the sports department that included the launch of the highlight program PIX11 Sports Desk).[102]

During the July 2014 ratings period and again during the August 2014 ratings period, WPIX beat WNYW and WNBC, earning 3rd place in ratings only behind WABC and WCBS in the 5 p.m. timeslot among adults 25–54 (as well as in certain other demographics) for the first time since 2011; it was the only newscast in the market to make year-to-year gains in key demographics. WPIX's newscasts also saw increases in the morning and at 10pm in the 25–54 demographic.[103]

On April 20, 2015, WPIX debuted a 6pm newscast on weekdays with current evening anchors John Muller and Tamsen Fadal.[104] On December 8, 2015, WPIX announced the hiring of former WWOR anchor Brenda Blackmon, and the addition of a new 6:30 p.m. program, to rival the network news on the other main stations. Kaity Tong and Blackmon began anchoring the broadcast on January 11, 2016. The 6:30 p.m. newscast was cancelled in September 2016.[105]

On April 13, 2016, WPIX made an announcement of more anchor changes preceding May Sweeps. This includes Scott Stanford moving from evening sports anchor to morning news anchor with Sukanya Krishnan. Kori Chambers, formerly on the morning show, and weekend evenings, will co-anchor with Tamsen Fadal on the weekday 5 p.m. version and handle political coverage for the station. Andy Adler, who handled weekend sports duties, will become the primary sports anchor. In addition, Kala Rama and Craig Treadway, who anchored on the weekends, will now anchor the first portion of the morning news (5–6 a.m.).

In May 2017, WPIX once again revamped its anchor lineup. The station announced that former CBS Morning News and Early Today anchor Betty Nguyen would become part of the morning news team along with a returning Dan Mannarino, with Scott Stanford once again returned to anchoring sports for the evening broadcasts. In addition, WPIX announced that it would begin featuring traffic reports from WCBS radio's Tom Kaminski, who reports from the radio station's helicopter as he does every weekday; when he files his television reports the helicopter is referred to as "Air 11".

As of September 2017, WPIX's news studio is also the home base for the daily syndicated entertainment news series Daily Mail TV from CBS Television Distribution, which WPIX carries in the New York market. This was done to avert a costly remodeling of the Daily Mail New York bureau for television operations. WPIX only contributes technical staff to the series, and Daily Mail TV is taped using removable logos which overlay WPIX's logos on the set during 'dark' time for the studio (in breaking news situations during Daily Mail TV tapings, WPIX originates coverage from its newsroom instead).[106]

In January 2020, WPIX expanded its morning newscast to include the 9 a.m. hour; the newscast now runs from 4:30 to 10 a.m.[107]

On-air staff

Notable current on-air staff

Notable former on-air staff

Public affairs and special events

WPIX was a leader in public affairs and special event programming, inspired by its roots under the ownership of the Daily News. Early on, it offered the first in-depth program to look at New York City government, City Hall. WPIX children's show personality Jack McCarthy anchored the station's coverage of the annual St. Patrick's Day Parade; the station later added the Columbus Day and National Puerto Rican Day Parade to its stable. Later on, the station produced Essence, a series inspired by Essence magazine and hosted by the publication's chief editor, Susan L. Taylor. The station also formerly aired the Macy's 4th of July fireworks event. Along with the New York City Marathon, these events moved to WNBC (channel 4) after the station joined The WB. Since 2000, the Macy's fireworks event is currently carried nationally on NBC, while WABC-TV (locally) and ESPN2 (nationally outside the New York City area) broadcast the Marathon.[108]

Special guest Coby Kranz was invited onto the daily news segment on his 11th birthday, because he was one of the only people to turn 11 on 11/11/11.[109]

Editor's Desk host Richard D. Heffner served as host of The Open Mind, which was produced by WPIX (and was concurrently aired on PBS member stations), before moving to other New York studios. Since 1992, WPIX has produced PIX News Closeup (hosted by WPIX senior correspondent Marvin Scott since its debut), a half-hour public affairs and interview program on Sunday mornings that focuses on domestic and international issues in the news, and discussions on political issues.

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