Westinghouse Broadcasting facts for kids

The Westinghouse Broadcasting Company, also known as Group W, was a big part of the Westinghouse Electric Corporation. It was in charge of broadcasting, which means it owned many radio and television stations across the United States. Group W also helped share TV shows with other stations.

This company started way back in the 1920s. It was first called Westinghouse Radio Stations, Inc. In 1954, its name changed to Westinghouse Broadcasting Company. Then, on May 20, 1963, it started using the nickname Group W. Even though its main parent company was in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Group W had its own main office in New York City. It also had sales offices in Chicago and Los Angeles.

Group W stations were famous for using a special typeface (a style of writing) for their logos and on-air look. This unique style was introduced in 1963. Some stations that were never part of Group W also used similar fonts. Even today, some former Group W stations still use this classic look. You can even find fonts inspired by it, like "Anklepants," or see it in the video game Damnation.

Westinghouse Broadcasting was also well-known for two popular TV shows. These were The Mike Douglas Show and PM Magazine. In some of Group W's main cities, PM Magazine was called Evening Magazine.

TV Stations Group W Owned

Here are some of the television stations that Westinghouse Broadcasting owned. They are listed in alphabetical order by state and city.

If you see two bold asterisks (**) next to a station's call letters, it means Westinghouse built and started that station.

Major TV Channels

This list does not include KCNC-TV in Denver, WFOR-TV in Miami, and KUTV in Salt Lake City. Group W took over these stations for a short time before CBS officially bought Westinghouse.

Radio Stations Group W Owned

Here is a partial list of the radio stations Westinghouse Broadcasting owned.

TV Shows and Movies from Group W

Group W had a special division called Group W Productions (first known as WBC Productions). This part of the company created and shared many well-known TV shows. They sold these shows to other stations in the U.S. and even to other countries.

Late Night Talk Shows

• PM East (with Mike Wallace and Joyce Davidson)/PM West (with Terrence O'Flaherty) (1961–1962)
• The Steve Allen Show (1962–1964)
• That Regis Philbin Show! (1964–1965)
• The Merv Griffin Show (1965–1969)
• The David Frost Show (1969–1972)
• The Howard Stern Radio Show, (1998–2001) (as Eyemark Entertainment)

Daytime Shows

• The Mike Douglas Show (1963–1980)
• The John Davidson Show (1980–1982)
• Hour Magazine, hosted by Gary Collins (1980–1989)
• The Wil Shriner Show (1986–1987)
• Couch Potatoes, a game show hosted by Marc Summers (1989; made with Saban Entertainment)
• Every Second Counts, a game show hosted by Bill Rafferty (1984)
• Scrabble, a pilot for a game show with Steve Edwards as host (1990; made with Reg Grundy Productions)
• That's Amore, a game show hosted by Luca Barbareschi (1992-1993, made with Four Point Entertainment and RTI Mediaset)
• Vicki!, a talk show hosted by Vicki Lawrence (1992–1994)
• Marilu, a talk show hosted by Marilu Henner (1994–1995)
• Morning Stretch, an exercise show hosted by Joanie Greggains (produced at KPIX during the 1980s)
• Day and Date, hosted by Dana King and Patrick Vanhorn (also produced at KPIX, 1995-1997; started as Group W before changing to Eyemark)

Group W and its station KPIX created something special in 1975. It was America's first non-news magazine TV series, Evening Magazine, with host Jan Yanehiro. After a few years, other Group W stations started their own versions. Eventually, other local stations across the country also aired the show, calling it PM Magazine.

Made-for-TV Movies

• Mafia Princess, starring Tony Curtis and Susan Lucci (1986)

Kids' and Animated Shows

• Dino Babies
• Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (the 1987 cartoon)
• Speed Racer (the 1993 cartoon)
• Way Cool (1991–1992)
• The shows from the Filmation library, like He-Man and the Masters of the Universe, She-Ra: Princess of Power, Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids, Ghostbusters, and BraveStarr.

Other Syndicated Shows

• Fight Back! with David Horowitz (1976–1992)
• Bob Vila's Home Again (1990-2005)
• The George Michael Sports Machine (1995)
• Martha Stewart Living (1993–2004)

What Happened to Group W Productions

After Westinghouse merged with CBS in 1996, Group W Productions joined with other companies to form Eyemark Entertainment. Later, Eyemark became part of King World Productions. Now, most of the old Group W and Eyemark shows are owned by CBS Television Distribution. However, the Filmation library and The George Michael Sports Machine are owned by NBCUniversal. Bob Vila's Home Again is owned by Bob Vila, and the 1987 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cartoon is now owned by Viacom.

Cable TV Channels Group W Owned

Group W also owned parts of several cable TV channels:

• The Nashville Network (TNN) (Group W later bought all of it; it's now Spike)
• The Disney Channel (Group W owned half of it, but then sold their share to The Walt Disney Company before the channel started)
• Home Team Sports (now Comcast SportsNet Mid-Atlantic) and FSN Southwest
• Home Theater Network (1978–1987)
• Satellite News Channel (owned with ABC; this channel stopped after only one year)
• Showtime (Group W owned half of Showtime from 1981 to 1982)
• Wisconsin Sports Network (owned with Time Warner Cable from 1996 to 1998, then merged into another channel. Later bought by Fox and became FSN North and FSN Wisconsin).
• Z Channel (part of TelePrompTer-owned Theta Cable)