WCBS-TV (CBS 2 New York)

About WCBS-TV (CBS 2 New York)

Origins: Experimental Station W2XAB

WCBS-TV's history reaches back further than any other New York television station. It began on July 21, 1931, when CBS opened experimental station W2XAB using the mechanical television system of the late 1920s. Its first broadcast featured New York Mayor Jimmy Walker, singer Kate Smith, and composer George Gershwin. The station boasted the first regular seven-day broadcasting schedule in American television, airing 28 hours a week, with early programming including Harriet Lee, The Television Ghost (1931–1933), Helen Haynes, and Piano Lessons. Because W2XAB transmitted video on 2750 kc and audio separately on shortwave in 1931, its signal reached nearby states — newspapers as far away as Allentown, Pennsylvania, and Ithaca, New York, printed its daily schedules. Announcer-director Bill Schudt was the station's only paid employee; everyone else was a volunteer.

The experimental station pioneered constantly: engineer Bill Lodge devised the first synchronized sound wave for television in 1932, allowing picture and sound on a single channel. On November 8, 1932, W2XAB broadcast the first television coverage of presidential election returns. Operations were suspended on February 20, 1933, as standards shifted from mechanical to all-electronic television; the station returned in 1939 with an all-electronic system from new studios in Grand Central Station and a transmitter on the Chrysler Building, and on August 28, 1940, transmitted the first color broadcast in the United States — though in a system incompatible with black-and-white sets.

Becoming a Commercial Station

On June 24, 1941, W2XAB received a commercial construction permit and program authorization as WCBW. It went on the air at 2:30 p.m. on July 1 — one hour after rival WNBT — making it the second authorized fully commercial television station in the United States. The FCC had issued permits to CBS and NBC simultaneously and intended both to sign on together so neither could claim to be first. WCBW's initial broadcast was the first local newscast aired on a commercial station in the country. Regular daily operations began October 29, 1941, and the station received its full broadcast license on March 10, 1942.

After the war, the FCC reallocated the television and FM bands; WCBW left the old channel 2 at the end of February 1946 and moved to the new channel 2 at 54–60 MHz, where it remained for the next 63 years until the end of analog service in 2009. After the FCC allowed TV stations to share their co-owned radio stations' call letters, the call sign was changed to WCBS-TV on November 1, 1946 — coinciding with the renaming of CBS's New York radio stations WABC (880 AM) and WABC-FM as WCBS and WCBS-FM.

Ownership: The CBS Flagship

WCBS-TV (channel 2), branded as CBS New York, is the flagship station of the CBS television network, owned and operated through the CBS News and Stations division (CBS Broadcasting Inc.). It operates in a duopoly with Riverhead, New York–licensed independent station WLNY-TV (channel 55), acquired by CBS Television Stations in 2012 for a reported $55 million; the FCC approved the sale on January 31, 2012, CBS took control on March 30, and WLNY began airing WCBS-produced newscasts on July 2, 2012. The CBS and Viacom remerger of December 4, 2019, placed both stations within ViacomCBS, now Paramount. The station broadcasts digitally on UHF channel 36 (virtual 2) with an effective radiated power of 548 kW.

Broadcasting Firsts

Channel 2's record of firsts is unmatched in local television. On February 26, 1951, WCBS-TV became the first station to broadcast a regularly scheduled feature-film series, The Late Show. On August 11, 1951, it televised the first baseball game in color — the Brooklyn Dodgers versus the Boston Braves from Ebbets Field — using CBS's field-sequential color system, which was scrapped after the FCC adopted RCA's compatible system in late 1953. On May 3, 1948, Douglas Edwards began anchoring CBS Television News, a regular 15-minute nightly newscast carried on the rudimentary CBS network including WCBS-TV — the first regularly scheduled network television news program with an anchor; it became the first news program broadcast on both coasts in 1951 via coaxial cable, with Edwards greeting viewers "coast to coast," and was renamed the CBS Evening News when Walter Cronkite succeeded him in 1962.

News Operation

As commercial WCBW in 1941, the station aired two daily news programs at 2:30 and 7:30 p.m. weekdays, anchored by Richard Hubbell — mostly script-reading with occasional maps or stills. When Pearl Harbor was bombed on December 7, 1941, WCBW, normally dark on Sundays, took to the air at 8:45 p.m. with an extensive special report; CBS later told the FCC the unscheduled broadcast "was unquestionably the most stimulating challenge and marked the greatest advance of any single problem faced up to that time." In May 1942 the newscasts were cancelled as staff joined the war effort and unstable early cameras could not be repaired; they returned in May 1944 as the Allied position improved, anchored briefly by Ned Calmer and then Everett Holles, and after the war by Milo Boulton and Douglas Edwards.

Through the 1950s and mid-1960s, local newscasts were anchored by CBS News correspondents including Robert Trout. Today the station broadcasts 33 hours and 35 minutes of local news each week — 5 hours 5 minutes each weekday, 3 hours 35 minutes on Saturdays, and 4 hours 35 minutes on Sundays — under the CBS News New York brand. In November 2011 it launched CBS New York Plus on digital subchannel 2.2, a 24-hour news service drawing on WCBS-TV, WCBS radio, WINS, and WFAN; the Decades nostalgia network launched on 2.2 in May 2015 and was replaced by Start TV in September 2018.

September 11, 2001

WCBS-TV's foresight saved its signal on September 11, 2001. Unlike its competitors, channel 2 had long maintained a full-powered backup transmitter at the Empire State Building after moving its main transmitter to the North Tower of the World Trade Center in 1975. When the towers fell, its over-the-air signal was unaffected, and its coverage of the attacks was simulcast nationally on the Viacom-owned cable network VH1 that day. In the immediate aftermath, WCBS-TV was briefly the only full-coverage over-the-air television service operating in New York City, and it lent transmission time to rival stations that had lost their transmitters until they found backup facilities. The backup transmitter had previously been pressed into service after the February 26, 1993, World Trade Center bombing knocked most area stations off the air for a week. In 2016, the station returned its main transmission to lower Manhattan at One World Trade Center.

Digital Transition and Streaming

WCBS-TV ended regular programming on its analog VHF channel 2 signal at 2 p.m. on June 12, 2009, moving its digital signal from pre-transition UHF channel 56 to channel 33 (virtual 2); under the DTV Delay Act's "nightlight" provision it kept the analog signal on for a month of public-service announcements, finally signing off in the early hours of July 13, 2009 — possibly the last full-power NTSC broadcast in the United States. As a result of the 2016–17 spectrum incentive auction, the station moved its digital signal from channel 33 to channel 36 on August 1, 2019. A digital fill-in translator on channel 22 serves eastern and central Long Island.

On December 12, 2018, WCBS-TV and CBS Interactive launched CBSN New York, a local streaming news service — now branded CBS News New York — available at cbsnewyork.com and cbsnews.com and through mobile and connected-TV apps, offering live local newscasts and on-demand segments free of charge.

Studios and Transmission

WCBS-TV shares studios with WLNY-TV inside the CBS Broadcast Center on West 57th Street in Midtown Manhattan, the network's historic New York production home. Its transmitter is located at One World Trade Center in lower Manhattan, returning the station's signal to the downtown site where it broadcast from 1975 to 2001. With 548 kW of effective radiated power from a height of 520 meters above average terrain, the signal covers the nation's largest media market, and a translator extends coverage into eastern Long Island.

Sports and Entertainment Programming

As the CBS flagship, WCBS-TV carries the network's premier sports properties with a strong regional emphasis, including NFL coverage featuring the Giants and Jets, and historically the Yankees, Mets, Knicks, Rangers, Islanders, Nets, and Devils through CBS's various sports rights. The station's entertainment legacy includes originating The Late Show movie franchise in 1951, a format that became a staple of late-night television nationwide. Its program schedule blends CBS network programming — daytime dramas, prime-time hits, and the CBS Evening News — with its local newscasts and WLNY-TV's independent lineup.

How to Watch

WCBS-TV broadcasts over the air on virtual channel 2.1 (CBS in high definition), receivable with an antenna throughout the New York metropolitan area, with additional subchannels including Start TV. It is carried on all major cable, satellite, and telco providers in the region, typically on channel 2. Cord-cutters can stream live local news free through the CBS News app and at cbsnews.com/newyork, which carries the CBS News New York streaming channel with live newscasts around the clock. The station's website at cbsnews.com/newyork offers live streams, on-demand video, and breaking-news coverage of the tri-state area.