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WWOR-TV is a digital channel 38, and virtual channel 9, licensed to New Jersey and serving NY, NY and CT, the Tri-States in the metropolitan area. WWOR is part of the Fox Television Stations, which is a sister affiliate to the Fox network WNYW channel 5, and part of the News Corporation. The studios of WWOR-TV and its main offices are situated on Route 3, in Seacaucus. The transmitter sits on top of the Manhattan’s Empire State Building. In October 1949, Channel 9 went on air as WOR-TV. This television station was owned by Bamberger Broadcasting Service and they also operated radio shows including WOR radio and WOR-FM. About ten months earlier, WOIC-TV, now known as WUSA was launched by Bamberger in Washington D.C. This was the fourth television station of Bamberger.
The opening night of WOR-TV, there was supposed to be a welcome address by John B. Gambling, morning host at WOR. However, because of a technical problem, the audio speech was not heard properly. The technical glitch was fixed, and the message was repeated in the evening by Gambling. The next step for WOR-TV was to enter the New York market. This became the last station to sign on as a VHF station. However, there were plans in the pipeline to make channel 9 and the sister station in Washington, affiliates of Mutual Television Networks. While a network affiliation was in the plan, WOR-TV didn’t receive one. But, in 1952, they got a new owner as WOR stations were sold by Bamberger to General Tire and Rubber Company.
WOR-TV played the role of an independent station and featured local public affairs, off-network programs and children’s shows including Romper Room and Friendly Giant. They also featured a set of movies and showed Mighty Joe Young, King Kong and Thanksgiving, a day after Thanksgiving! In 1962, Joe Franklin, nostalgia maven moved his talk program from WABC-TV to WOR-TV. When the Joe Franklin show came to a close in 1993, over 28,000 episodes had been in the making, with over 350,000 guests interviewed, and was considered to be a long time running program, locally or nationally.
In April 1987, WOR-TV was taken over by MCA, and the only change was that an extra W was added. The TV station became known as WWOR-TV. It featured a new logo, but the programming remained the same. In the fall, WWOR-TV dropped many of its pubic affairs programs and religious shows, except for Sunday Mass. The morning lineup was filled with cartoons and stronger syndicated programs were shown in the evenings. Classic sitcoms took over the late mornings, while afternoons consisted of drama shows, movies and game shows. As of 30th January, 2011, WWOR-TV continues to be the only network with the English language, which has in-house news, and produced locals news in 4.3 standard definitions.
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