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WMAQ-TV
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WMAQ-TV
WMAQ-TV (channel 5) is a television station in Chicago, Illinois, United States. It is owned and operated by the NBC television network via its NBC Owned Television Stations division. Under common ownership with Telemundo station WSNS-TV (channel 44), the two stations share studio facilities at the NBC Tower on North Columbus Drive in the city's Streeterville neighborhood and broadcast from the same transmitter atop the Willis Tower in the Chicago Loop.
The station first signed on the air on October 8, 1948, as WNBQ; it was the fourth television station to sign on in Chicago. It was also the third of NBC's five original owned-and-operated television stations to begin operations, after WNBC-TV in New York City and WRC-TV in Washington, D.C., and before WKYC in Cleveland and KNBC in Los Angeles. WNBQ initially broadcast a minimum of two hours of programming per day.
The station originally proposed WNBY as its call letters. However, at NBC's request, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) approved an application filed by the network to change the station's calls to WNBQ. This move was announced on March 3, 1948.
NBC officials cited the need to avoid possible confusion with WMBI (1110 AM, now WXES) and to obtain a callsign that was closer to co-owned NBC Red Network radio station WMAQ (670 AM, now WSCR) and WMAQ-FM (101.1, now WKQX) as the reasons for the change.
The station's first mid-week broadcast occurred the month following its sign-on when Paul Winchell and Joseph Dunninger were featured on the NBC variety series, The Floor Show. The half-hour program was recorded via kinescope and rebroadcast on WNBQ at 8:30 p.m. on Thursdays.
WNBQ originated several programs for the NBC television network from its original studio facilities—a 170,000-square-foot (15,794 m2) studio on the 19th floor of the Merchandise Mart on the city's Near North Side—during the 1950s, including Kukla, Fran and Ollie, featuring Burr Tillstrom and Fran Allison; Garroway at Large, starring Dave Garroway; and Studs' Place, hosted by Studs Terkel. Television critics referred to the broadcasts—often low-budget with few celebrity guests but a good deal of inventiveness—as examples of the "Chicago School of Television".
Although NBC had long owned the WMAQ radio stations, the television station continued to maintain a callsign separate from those used by its co-owned radio outlets; this changed on August 31, 1964, when the network changed the station's calls to WMAQ-TV.
The call letters of its sister radio station were initially assigned by the government but were creatively used to form the phrase "We Must Ask Questions", which the radio station took as its motto in the 1920s. Although the station's role as a program provider to NBC diminished in the 1960s, WMAQ-TV gathered and distributed more than 200 news footage feeds per month from overseas and the Central United States to NBC News.
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WMAQ-TV
WMAQ-TV (channel 5) is a television station in Chicago, Illinois, United States. It is owned and operated by the NBC television network via its NBC Owned Television Stations division. Under common ownership with Telemundo station WSNS-TV (channel 44), the two stations share studio facilities at the NBC Tower on North Columbus Drive in the city's Streeterville neighborhood and broadcast from the same transmitter atop the Willis Tower in the Chicago Loop.
The station first signed on the air on October 8, 1948, as WNBQ; it was the fourth television station to sign on in Chicago. It was also the third of NBC's five original owned-and-operated television stations to begin operations, after WNBC-TV in New York City and WRC-TV in Washington, D.C., and before WKYC in Cleveland and KNBC in Los Angeles. WNBQ initially broadcast a minimum of two hours of programming per day.
The station originally proposed WNBY as its call letters. However, at NBC's request, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) approved an application filed by the network to change the station's calls to WNBQ. This move was announced on March 3, 1948.
NBC officials cited the need to avoid possible confusion with WMBI (1110 AM, now WXES) and to obtain a callsign that was closer to co-owned NBC Red Network radio station WMAQ (670 AM, now WSCR) and WMAQ-FM (101.1, now WKQX) as the reasons for the change.
The station's first mid-week broadcast occurred the month following its sign-on when Paul Winchell and Joseph Dunninger were featured on the NBC variety series, The Floor Show. The half-hour program was recorded via kinescope and rebroadcast on WNBQ at 8:30 p.m. on Thursdays.
WNBQ originated several programs for the NBC television network from its original studio facilities—a 170,000-square-foot (15,794 m2) studio on the 19th floor of the Merchandise Mart on the city's Near North Side—during the 1950s, including Kukla, Fran and Ollie, featuring Burr Tillstrom and Fran Allison; Garroway at Large, starring Dave Garroway; and Studs' Place, hosted by Studs Terkel. Television critics referred to the broadcasts—often low-budget with few celebrity guests but a good deal of inventiveness—as examples of the "Chicago School of Television".
Although NBC had long owned the WMAQ radio stations, the television station continued to maintain a callsign separate from those used by its co-owned radio outlets; this changed on August 31, 1964, when the network changed the station's calls to WMAQ-TV.
The call letters of its sister radio station were initially assigned by the government but were creatively used to form the phrase "We Must Ask Questions", which the radio station took as its motto in the 1920s. Although the station's role as a program provider to NBC diminished in the 1960s, WMAQ-TV gathered and distributed more than 200 news footage feeds per month from overseas and the Central United States to NBC News.
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