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WMAQ-TV (NBC 5) is the NBC owned & operated television station in Chicago, Illinois. The station transmits from atop the Sears Tower while its studios are located in the NBC Tower in downtown Chicago. It also has a street-level windowed studio known as Studio 5 on N. Michigan Avenue.
History
The station was previously known as WNBQ before changing to its current call letters in 1964. It operated from the Merchandise Mart before moving to their current home at the NBC Tower in 1989.
As WNBQ, the station became the first to broadcast all programs in color, in 1956.
The Jerry Springer Controversy
WMAQ achieved notoriety in 1997 when the station, in an effort to boost its newscast ratings, hired Jerry Springer as a commentator. At the same time, the station adopted a more tabloid news format by bringing in Joel Cheatwood. Cheatwood was known for establishing fast-paced tabloid newscasts at WSVN in Miami, Florida and WHDH in Boston, Massachusetts.
Though Springer was once a newscaster in Cincinnati, Ohio, his association with his infamous talk show (which was broadcast from WMAQ's studios at the time) led to the belief that the newscast was being dumbed down. There were a handful of Springer supporters. Nevertheless, the incident triggered a lot of negative publicity, both locally and nationally. The station's longtime anchor team, Carol Marin and Ron Magers, resigned in protest and the station saw a drop in its ratings. Springer only made two commentaries before being let go, and station management later admitted it made a mistake in hiring him.
Magers wound up at rival WLS-TV, where he still is today. Marin joined rival WBBM-TV while contributing reports at CBS before coming back to WMAQ in 2004 as a special correspondent.
References
- Johnson, Steve (July/August 1997). How Low Can TV News Go?. Columbia Journalism Review.
- Broadcasting in Chicago: 1921-1989
External Links
| Broadcast television in Chicagoland and Northwest Indiana | |
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| Full power |
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| Low power |
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| ATSC 1.1 MPEG-4 (converter required for older sets) | |
| ATSC 3.0 | |
| Cable | |
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| Defunct | |
| Silent |
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