WNAC-TV, channel 7, was a television station located in Boston, Massachusetts, United States. The station was owned by RKO General. Originally established in 1948, WNAC-TV signed off for the final time at 1:00 a.m. on May 22, 1982, due to improprieties by its parent company; it was replaced that morning with WNEV-TV (now WHDH), which operates on a separate license. The station was Boston's original CBS television affiliate; except for a period from 1961 to 1972 during which it was an ABC affiliate, WNAC-TV would remain with CBS until its replacement with WNEV-TV.
History
Origins
WNAC-TV first signed on the air on June 21, 1948 as the second television station in Boston after WBZ-TV (channel 4), which had debuted 12 days earlier. Channel 7 originally operated as a CBS affiliate but also carried some programs from ABC and the DuMont Television Network. The station was originally owned by General Tire, along with WNAC radio (then at 1260 AM, frequency now occupied by WBIX; later moved to 680 AM, now WRKO), which served as the flagship station of the Yankee Network, a regional New England radio network. General Tire had purchased the Yankee Network in 1943. WNAC-TV first broadcast from the WNAC/Yankee Network's studios at 21 Brookline Avenue, near Fenway Park, before RKO moved its Boston operations to new facilities near Government Center at 40 Hawkins Street (later renamed 7 Bulfinch Place) in 1968.
In 1950, General Tire bought the West Coast regional Don Lee Broadcasting System. Two years later, it acquired the Bamberger Broadcasting Service (owners of WOR-AM-FM-TV in New York City) and merged its broadcasting interests into a new division, General Teleradio. General Tire purchased RKO Radio Pictures in 1955 after General Tire found that RKO's film library would be a perfect programming source for WNAC-TV and its other television stations. The studio was merged into General Teleradio to become RKO Teleradio; after the film studio was dissolved, the business was renamed RKO General in 1959.
By 1955, ABC began to increase the amount of programming seen as "secondary clearances" on channel 7, which continued until the original incarnation of WHDH-TV signed on over channel 5 in 1957. However, WNAC-TV was in danger of losing its CBS affiliation that same year when Storer Broadcasting (which had very good relations with CBS) planned to purchase WMUR-TV (channel 9) in nearby Manchester, New Hampshire, and move its transmitter to just outside Haverhill, Massachusetts, only 20 miles north of Boston; approval of the move would have potentially made WNAC-TV a full-time ABC affiliate and resulted in channel 5 becoming an independent station. However, Storer's purchase of channel 9 never materialized following an outcry from New Hampshire viewers that led regulators to reject its request to build a new tower near Haverhill. Storer eventually entered Boston with its purchase of UHF station WIHS-TV (channel 38) in 1966, changing its call letters to WSBK-TV. The station also had a secondary affiliation with the Paramount Television Network and was among Paramount's strongest affiliates, carrying programs such as Time For Beany, Dixie Showboat, Hollywood Reel and Armchair Detective. From 1948 to 1950, WNAC-TV shared the rights to Boston Braves game telecasts with WBZ-TV and shared rights to Boston Red Sox telecasts with WBZ-TV from 1948 to 1954. In the fall of 1948, WNAC-TV became the first station to televise Boston Bruins games, carrying the third, and sometimes second, period of home games.
WNAC-TV was nearly sold by RKO General, along with its radio sisters, to NBC as part of a multi-city transaction and station trade between the two companies announced in March 1960. As a preemptive move, CBS decided to move its Boston affiliation to WHDH-TV when the changeover became official. However, final approval of the RKO-NBC deal was held up at the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and the U.S. Department of Justice because of issues involving NBC's ownership of WRCV-AM-TV in Philadelphia, which RKO would acquire in the trade. Meanwhile, WNAC-TV reached an agreement to carry ABC programs in what was thought to be an interim arrangement. The affiliation swap between WNAC-TV and WHDH-TV took effect on January 1, 1961. The RKO-NBC transaction never materialized, and channel 7 would remain an RKO-owned ABC affiliate for the next 11 years.