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WPXI digital channel 48 (virtual channel 11) is the NBC television affiliate based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It is owned by Cox Enterprises. Its transmitter is located on the north side of Pittsburgh. Syndicated programming on the station includes The Ellen DeGeneres Show , The Doctors , Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? , Family Feud , Judge Judy , Jeopardy! and Wheel of Fortune .

History

On September 1, 1957 Channel 11 signed on as WIIC-TV , the second commercial VHF station in Pittsburgh. It was owned by the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and immediately took NBC programming from KDKA-TV.

Bill Cardille (now a former Channel 11 host and weather forecaster) signed the station on the air. Some of the first original programming to air on WIIC included Studio Wrestling and Chiller Theatre , both hosted by Cardille.

In 1964, the station was sold to current owner Cox Enterprises. In 1970, WIIC made Pittsburgh broadcasting history as Eleanor Schano became the first woman to anchor a newscast alone. Schano also hosted a weekly 30-minute public affairs program called Face to Face .

During much of the 1970s, WIIC trailed in a distant third place in the ratings behind KDKA-TV and WTAE-TV. This coincided with much of the period where NBC also struggled in the ratings. About 1975, Channel 11 branded itself as e11even, then around 1977 used the 11 Alive moniker.

On April 20, 1981, the call sign was changed to WPXI ( P ittsburgh 11, with XI being the Roman numeral sign for 11). Although the station has officially never had the -TV suffix since adopting the WPXI call sign, the station has on occasion been marketed as WPXI-TV . The WIIC calls still reside in Pittsburgh, but on a low-powered independent station airing music videos.

WPXI also has been airing the Jerry Lewis Telethon as the Pittsburgh affiliate of the annual event. The local portion of the telethon is still hosted by Bill Cardille.

In 2000, Cox Enterprises purchased WTOV in Steubenville, Ohio and WJAC-TV in Johnstown, Pennsylvania from Sunrise Television. These stations, also NBC affiliates often appear in channel lineups for the same viewers that watch WPXI, either by over-the-air signal or via cable provider, and due to the proximity of the three stations to each other (as well as the common affiliation with NBC), are occasionally marketed together as a result. Cox changed the stations' on-air appearances to match WPXI's look, despite WPXI changing its own look in 2004. Those stations still use WPXI's former look.

Over the Labor Day weekend of 2007, WPXI introduced its new studio location in the city's Summer Hill neighborhood near the Parkway North. The move ended a 50-year tradition at Television Hill in the city's Fineview neighborhood. The station's tower is to remain in place at the top of the station's current location. WPXI officially launched their 6 PM newscast from their new studio in Summer Hill on October 6. WPXI is the first station in Pittsburgh broadcasting news in high definition, though not without criticism for technical glitches during the initial week of the new system run. With the switch to HD came a new set, created by FX Group & new HD graphics, created by Hothaus Creative.

As part of its 50th anniversary, WPXI announced it would air classic TV programs on a digital subchannel from the Retro Television Network. The additional channel began on October 15, 2007.

In mid-October 2008, WPXI, in collaboration with Cox's longtime partner Internet Broadcasting, launched a redesigned Web site. As of early November 2008, the Web sites of all of Cox's stations east of the Mississippi River are using the new format pioneered by WPXI; the Web sites of the company's stations west of the Mississippi River followed suit a month later. As of January 7, 2010, The website's navigation bar and pages have been re-done.

Newscasts

WPXI occasionally pre-empts programming to report breaking news. Typically, WPXI offers 4 1/2 hours of live newscasts on Channel 11. It offers an 1 1/2 on PCNC and 1 hour on WPGH-TV. Previous branding for newscasts include WIIC-TV 11 News , News/Watch , Instant News , Steel City News and Newscenter 11 .

Weekdays

WPXI was the first channel to offer a 5:30 PM newscast in Pittsburgh beginning in 1987. The newscast was named Channel 11 News First Edition . They were also the first station to offer a 5 PM newscast in the early 1990s. The newscast was named Channel 11 News First at 5.

Weekends

WPXI dropped the NBC Saturday morning cartoons in September, 1990 in favor of a newscast airing from 8 AM-12:30 PM. The success of the weekend morning news prompted NBC network officials to extend the Today show to weekends. WPXI, however, has since scaled back its weekend morning news.

Pittsburgh native Jodi Applegate co-anchored NBC's Weekend Today , but was never seen locally due to WPXI's weekend morning news.

Pittsburgh Cable News Channel

The station went into cable television on January 1, 1994, with the launch of PCNC - the Pittsburgh Cable News Channel. PCNC brought the first 10 newscast to Pittsburgh. The final installment of PCNC's 10 news aired on January 26, 2006 as WPXI took over WPGH-TV's news operation.

PCNC offers 2 newscasts: "Pittsburgh This Morning", a 7-8 weekday newscast and a 7 weeknight newscast.

Channel 11 News on FOX 53

As of January 12, 2006, Sinclair Broadcast Group (owner of FOX affiliate WPGH-TV) and Cox entered into an agreement where WPXI began producing a newscast specifically for WPGH. This agreement, called a "news share", began January 30, 2006. All of WPGH's former news staff, except for sportscaster Alby Oxenreiter, were laid off. The 10 PM newscast became Channel 11 News on FOX 53 at Ten . Oxenreiter's "Ox on FOX Sports Extra" fills the final 15 minutes of the newscast.

Ratings

Over the past decade, Pittsburgh has been a perennially competitive market for local news, with news ratings usually differing by less than a full ratings point. More recently, however, WPXI has had a increase in most dayparts and although it continues maintain a tie with KDKA in the market for daytime news, according to the Nielsen May 2009 ratings period. Also during this period, WPXI had in increase during the morning hours and the WPXI-produced 10 news remained in first place.

Logo

WPXI currently uses the number 11 drawn into a circle, which debuted in 1987. The 11 symbol is colored gold, while the box around it is dark blue. WPXI previously used the NBC Peacock in its logo, which was copied by sister stations WTOV & WJAC-TV & is still used by those stations, but revamped its look in October 2004. WPXI's current look uses the circle 11 logo with stylized "WPXI" below it.

Music

WPXI is known to commission its own theme music from companies, although it has previously used the famous Move Closer to Your World theme. It has commissioned both "Total Coverage" (its previous package still used by WJAC & WTOV) & after WPXI moved to their new Summer Hill Television Building, they started using the Tower V.2, ending the NBC collection all together.

Local Programming

Channel 11 has had only 1 major foray into producing local programming. From 1963-1984, the station produced and broadcast "Chiller Theater," a late Saturday evening horror film show hosted by Bill Cardille, or as he was referred to, "Chilly Billy." Cardille and a cast of characters would introduce the film being shown, as well as perform skits during breaks in the film. Cardille became well-known for hosting the show & the shows themselves became part of local yore. The final program aired on January 1, 1984. Cardille remained on-air @ Channel 11 through the early-mid-1990s as the AM & noon weather forecaster. Cardille remains in Pittsburgh as midday personality on WJAS radio & occasional Chiller Theater reunions have been held over the years.

The show was part of a trend during the 1960s & 1970s for TV stations to produce local programming. Local stations often created their own children's shows as well. Horror theater shows, such as Shock Theatre , hosted by Ghoulardi & Big Chuck and Little John in Cleveland, as well as Chiller Theater , were not only easy to produce, but popular with the local audience.

For its part, WPXI (known then as WIIC) produced "Cartoon Colorama", which aired old-time cartoons produced in color format (hence the name), hosted by Willie the Duck, a hand-puppet with a Donald Duck type of voice, speaking to off-camera announcer Don Riggs (who served as Willie's comedy foil) in between the cartoons. The show had been previously hosted by a character called "Captain Jim".

Present

  • Our Region's Business
  • Talkin' Pittsburgh
  • Impact
  • Celebrate the Season Parade
  • Carol Sing
  • Jerry Lewis MDA Telet

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