WABC-TV

WABC-TV, channel 7, is the flagship station of the ABC television network, located in New York City. WABC-TV is owned by the Disney-ABC Television Group division of the Walt Disney Company. The station's studios and offices are located near Lincoln Square on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, adjacent to ABC's corporate headquarters; its transmitter is atop the Empire State Building.

WABC-TV is best known in broadcasting circles for its version of the Eyewitness News format and for its morning show, syndicated nationally by corporate cousin Disney-ABC Domestic Television.

In the few areas of the eastern United States where an ABC station isn't receivable over-the-air, WABC is available on satellite via DirecTV (which also provides coverage of the station to Latin American and Caribbean countries and through major U.S. air carriers on LiveTV inflight entertainment system) and Dish Network (which carries the station as part of All American Direct's distant network package).

History

WABC

WABC may refer to:

WABC (AM)

WABC (770 AM), known as "NewsTalkRadio 77 WABC" is a radio station in New York City. Owned by the broadcasting division of Cumulus Media, the station broadcasts on a clear channel and is the flagship station of the Westwood One Network (successor to Cumulus Media Networks; formerly Citadel Media and ABC Radio Networks). WABC shares studio facilities with sister stations WNSH (94.7 FM), WPLJ (95.5 FM), and WNBM (103.9 FM) above Pennsylvania Station in midtown Manhattan. Its transmitter is located in Lodi, New Jersey. WABC's 50,000 watt non-directional clear channel signal can be heard at night in much of the eastern U.S. and Canada.

Since 1982 WABC has programmed a talk radio format. From 1960 to 1982, WABC broadcast a Top 40 music format and was the dominant contemporary music station in the New York City area, serving as a template for many other Top 40 stations around the country. During this time, WABC was among the most listened to radio stations in North America.

Today, WABC uses on-air slogans such as Breaking News and Stimulating Talk, New York's 50,000 Watt Beacon of Freedom and Where New York Comes to Talk. Many of WABC's hosts have now moved on to national syndication. The station serves as the flagship station for syndicated talk-radio hosts Mark Levin, John Batchelor and Don Imus. It was also where the nationally syndicated programs hosted by Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity got their start, although those programs are now heard on WABC's Talk Radio rival in New York, 710 WOR.

WPLJ

WPLJ (95.5 FM) is a radio station in New York City owned by the broadcasting division of Cumulus Media. WPLJ shares studio facilities with sister stations WABC (770 AM), WNSH (94.7 FM), and WNBM (103.9 FM) inside 2 Penn Plaza (above Pennsylvania Station) in midtown Manhattan, and its transmitter is atop the Empire State Building. The station airs a Hot Adult Contemporary music format, and is the home of the Todd & Jayde morning show.

WPLJ broadcasts in the HD Radio format.

Station history

Early years

The station went on the air on May 4, 1948 under the call sign WJZ-FM, and in March 1953, the station's call letters were changed to WABC-FM following the merger of the American Broadcasting Company with United Paramount Theatres. As most FM stations did during the medium's formative years, 95.5 FM simulcasted the programming of its AM sister station.

In the early 1960s, however, WABC-FM began to program itself separately from WABC (AM). During the 1962–63 New York City newspaper strike, the station carried a news format for 17 hours daily. Two-and-a-half years before WINS launched its own around-the-clock, all-news format in April 1965, it was the first attempt at an all-news format in the New York market. This was followed by stints with Broadway show tunes and general freeform programming, including broadcasts of New York Mets baseball games. WABC's AM personalities, notably Dan Ingram, Chuck Leonard, and Bob Lewis, hosted programs on the FM side which were the total opposites of the Top 40-powered sound for which they were better known on AM. WABC-FM did continue to simulcast its AM sister station during Herb Oscar Anderson's morning drive program.