WNBC (NBC 4 New York)

About WNBC (NBC 4 New York)

Experimental Roots: W2XBS (1928)

WNBC traces its lineage to experimental station W2XBS, founded by the Radio Corporation of America on July 1, 1928 — just two years after NBC was created as America's first nationwide radio network. Originally a test bed for RCA's Photophone theater television system using a low-definition mechanical scanning process, W2XBS was soon used mostly for reception and interference tests. The call letters signified W2XB-south, referencing RCA's first experimental station at General Electric's Schenectady factory, which evolved into today's WRGB; GE was then the parent of both RCA and NBC.

In one of television's most charming origin stories, RCA chose a papier-mâché Felix the Cat doll for experimental broadcasts in 1928 — selected for its tonal contrast and ability to withstand the intense studio lights — placing it on a rotating phonograph turntable and televising it about two hours a day. The doll remained on the turntable for nearly a decade as RCA refined picture definition and converted to electronic television. The station left the air around 1933 as RCA shifted its attention to all-electronic cathode-ray-tube research in Camden, New Jersey, under Dr. Vladimir K. Zworykin.

A Catalog of Television Firsts

Reborn with all-electronic technology — NBC converted a radio studio in the RCA Building at Rockefeller Center for television in 1935, and small-scale programming began in mid-1936 for an audience of about 75 receivers in RCA executives' homes — W2XBS on "Channel 1" amassed an extraordinary list of firsts: the first televised Broadway drama (June 1938); the first live news event covered by a mobile unit, a fire in an abandoned building (November 1938); the first live telecast of a presidential speech, Franklin D. Roosevelt opening the 1939 New York World's Fair on April 30, 1939, making FDR the first U.S. president on television; the first live telecasts of college and Major League Baseball (both 1939); the first NFL game telecast (1939); the first NHL game (early 1940); the first broadcast of religious services (Easter Sunday 1940); the first multi-city network telecast of a political convention (the 1940 Republican National Convention, seen also in Philadelphia and Schenectady); and the feature film The Crooked Circle on June 18, 1940.

America's First Commercial TV Station

On June 24, 1941, W2XBS received a commercial license under the call letters WNBT — for "NBC Television." NBC and CBS were instructed to sign on simultaneously on July 1 so neither could claim to be first, but WNBT signed on at 1:30 p.m., a full hour before CBS's WCBW. As a result, WNBC inadvertently holds the distinction of being the oldest continuously operating commercial television station in the United States — and NBC the oldest commercial network — and the only one ready to accept sponsors from its first day. The opening ceremony featured the national anthem and the day's program announcements. On its very first day, WNBT broadcast the world's first official television advertisement: before a Brooklyn Dodgers–Philadelphia Phillies baseball game, a Bulova watch announcement — for which the company paid between $4.00 and $9.00 — displayed a test pattern modified into a clock face, with "Bulova Watch Time" in the corner and a sweeping second hand, for one minute.

Call-Letter Changes and the Tonight Show

The station's identity evolved with its corporate parent: WNBT became WRCA-TV on October 18, 1954, named for RCA; on May 22, 1960, channel 4 became WNBC-TV (the WNBC calls had briefly belonged to NBC's New Britain, Connecticut, station, now WVIT, from 1957 until its sale earlier in 1960); and on June 1, 1992 — following the 1988 sale of sister radio station WNBC, now WFAN — the "-TV" suffix was dropped and the station became simply WNBC, rebranding as "4 New York" with Edd Kalehoff's "We're 4 New York" image campaign. On September 5, 1995, it rebranded again as "NBC 4," with newscasts titled NewsChannel 4; the "4 New York" branding was revived part-time in July 2007 and full-time in March 2008.

WNBC-TV earned a permanent place in broadcasting history as the birthplace of The Tonight Show. It began on the station in 1953 as a local late-night program, The Steve Allen Show, and NBC executive Sylvester "Pat" Weaver brought it to the network in 1954. Studio 6B — home to the show under Jack Paar, Johnny Carson, and today Jimmy Fallon — served as WNBC's news studio while Tonight was produced in Los Angeles.

Ownership: The NBC Flagship

WNBC (channel 4) is the flagship station of the NBC television network, owned and operated through the NBC Owned Television Stations division (NBC Telemundo License LLC) of NBCUniversal, itself a subsidiary of Comcast. It operates alongside Linden, New Jersey–licensed Telemundo outlet WNJU (channel 47) in a duopoly; the two stations share studios and offices at 30 Rockefeller Plaza in Midtown Manhattan, co-located with NBC's corporate headquarters, and broadcast from the same transmitter at One World Trade Center. WNJU's Fort Lee, New Jersey, facilities double as WNBC's New Jersey news bureau. The station broadcasts digitally on UHF channel 35 (shared with WNJU), virtual 4, at 575 kW.

News Operation: News 4 New York

Branded as NBC 4 New York with newscasts titled News 4 New York, the station is one of the heaviest local-news producers in the market, airing morning, midday, evening, and late newscasts seven days a week alongside NBC News network programming. Its newsroom sits at the center of the NBCUniversal news-gathering machine at 30 Rock, drawing on NBC News, MSNBC, CNBC, and Telemundo resources. The station has historically been a laboratory for broadcast innovation — its early mobile-unit fire coverage in 1938 and its V-E Day coverage on May 8, 1945, when a camera atop the Astor Hotel marquee panned crowds celebrating the end of the war in Europe, set templates for live remote news. The pioneering program The Voice of Firestone Televues, which began on WNBT on November 29, 1943, became the first regularly scheduled TV program not featuring news or sports, and on April 10, 1944, the station began feeding it weekly to a small network of stations — considered the NBC Television Network's first regularly scheduled program.

September 11, 2001

During the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, WNBC's transmitter facilities — along with those of eight other New York television stations and several radio stations — were destroyed with the World Trade Center. Broadcast engineer Bill Steckman died in the attack, along with Donald DiFranco of WABC-TV, Gerard Copolla of WNET, Steve Jacobson of WPIX, and Bob Pattison and Isaias Rivera of WCBS-TV. In the immediate aftermath, WNBC temporarily fed its signal to three UHF stations still broadcasting — PBS member station WLIW and independents WMBC-TV and W26CE — before resuming over-the-air transmission from the former Channel 68 site in West Orange, New Jersey. From 2005 the station broadcast from the Empire State Building, returning to its transmitter site of the 1930s through the 1970s, and in late 2017 it moved to One World Trade Center in lower Manhattan.

Programming and Sports

As the NBC flagship, WNBC carries the network's full schedule — Today, NBC Nightly News, prime-time entertainment, and the network's powerhouse sports portfolio including Sunday Night Football, the Olympics, and Notre Dame football — with local preemptions for its extensive newscasts. The station's sports heritage dates to 1939, when it televised the first Major League Baseball and NFL games ever broadcast; through NBC's rights it has aired the region's teams in the Super Bowl, the World Series, the NBA Finals, and the Olympics. Its syndicated and local programming blends with network daytime and late-night, including The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon — broadcast from the very Studio 6B complex where the franchise was born as a WNBC local show seven decades earlier.

Digital Era and Streaming

WNBC ended analog broadcasting on VHF channel 4 in June 2009 as part of the federal digital transition, having occupied the 66–72 MHz band since the 1946 post-war reallocation (it originally broadcast on channel 1). Its digital signal moved through UHF channels 28 and 36 before settling on channel 35 in a spectrum-sharing arrangement with sister station WNJU — an increasingly common efficiency in the post-auction broadcast landscape. The station streams live to authenticated pay-TV subscribers through the NBC app and at nbcnewyork.com, and its newscasts and clips are distributed across NBC's digital platforms, Peacock, and social channels. Subchannels carry NBC's multicast networks, extending the station's digital footprint.

Studios and the 30 Rock Legacy

WNBC's studios and offices at 30 Rockefeller Plaza place it at the symbolic heart of American broadcasting — the Art Deco tower whose RCA/NBC origins are intertwined with the station's own 1928 experimental beginnings. From the converted radio studio of 1935 to today's high-definition newsrooms overlooking Rockefeller Center, the station has operated from Rockefeller Center for nine decades. Its transmitter at One World Trade Center, shared with WNJU, returns its signal to lower Manhattan with a commanding height of 496 meters above average terrain.

How to Watch

WNBC broadcasts over the air on virtual channel 4.1 (NBC in high definition), receivable with an antenna across the New York metropolitan area, with additional multicast subchannels. It is carried on all major cable, satellite, and telco systems in the tri-state region, typically on channel 4. Authenticated subscribers can stream the station live through the NBC app and nbcnewyork.com, the station's digital home for News 4 New York streaming, weather, and on-demand video. National audiences encounter its legacy nightly: The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon still originates from 30 Rockefeller Plaza, in the building where WNBC put The Steve Allen Show on local air in 1953.