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WCAU ("NBC10") is the NBC station serving the Philadelphia area, owned by NBC-Universal, with transmitter in Roxborough. Its signal covers the Delaware Valley area including Philadelphia, New Jersey, and Delaware.
History
The station was originally owned by the Philadelphia Bulletin and affiliated with CBS along with WCAU-AM, one of CBS' charter affiliates when the network premiered in 1928. The Bulletin sold WCAU-AM-FM-TV to CBS in 1957. Due to the network ownership, channel 10 was the only Philadelphia-market station that did not preempt network programming.
In 1994, CBS made a deal with Westinghouse, owners of rival KYW-TV. Westinghouse converted all of its stations to CBS affiliates, forcing CBS to sell WCAU-TV. Fox, who was originally to have their network programming bumped off of Paramount's WTXF channel 29 in favor of UPN, and NBC entered a bidding war for the station. Fox backed out when Paramount opted to sell WTXF to them. This automatically gave channel 10 to NBC. NBC had wanted an O&O station in Philadelphia since the 1950s, and even blackmailed Westinghouse into briefly selling what became KYW before the FCC forced the reversal of the swap. On September 11, 1995, channels 3 and 10 traded network affiliations. CBS kept the former WCAU radio stations, WPHT (ex-WCAU) and WOGL (ex-WCAU-FM), which are now owned by sister company Infinity Broadcasting.
News operation
WCAU's news operation was the ratings leader in Philadelphia until the early 1970s. John Facenda, who later gained fame as the voice of NFL Films, was the station's main anchorman from shortly after it signed on until 1973. WCAU wasn't seriously challenged for the lead until the 1970s, when KYW and later WPVI passed it. WCAU has since recovered somewhat and has been runner-up to WPVI for much of the last 30 years.
However, in the past few years the newscasts have been becoming what some media watchers call "tabloid tv;" adopting a newscast with some of the same features as many FOX affiliates such as WNYW-TV. Such newscasts incorporate flashy graphics with sensationalistic stories, some with little or no local relevance. One WNBC-TV employee remarked, "When I am in Philadelphia, I don't watch the news." Despite this WCAU has been waging a strong battle for second place in the ratings with a rebounding KYW.
John Zacherle
In the 1950s WCAU was especially active in creating a variety of local programming that aired not only in the Philadelphia market but was often broadcast in the New York City as well. Among its popular programs was "Shock Theater", a horror film hosted by John Zacherle, that debuted in 1957. Zacherle, who also recorded a hit record "Dinner with Drac" financed by his friend Dick Clark, eventually moved to New York City and emerged as one of pioneers of the horror-comedy genre.