has been the
NBC affiliate in the
Boston, Massachusetts and southern
New Hampshire television markets since
January 2 ,
1995 . Before 1995, WHDH was a
CBS affiliate. The station's transmitter is located in
Newton, Massachusetts , while its studios are located at 7 Bulfinch Place near
Government Center in downtown Boston. It is one of six local Boston TV stations seen in
Canada on the
Bell ExpressVu satellite provider. The station is owned by Sunbeam Television - because of this, it is the largest NBC affiliate that is not a network
Owned And Operated Station . As of
May 2006 ,
NBC Weather Plus is now offered on the broadcast, as digital subchannel 7-02. The
Providence, Rhode Island -
New Bedford, Massachusetts NBC affiliate,
WJAR , also provides the 24-hour weather channel.
Channel 7 first went on the air on
June 21 ,
1948 as WNAC-TV, the second television station in Boston (a few months after
WBZ-TV ). It was owned by the
General Tire along with WNAC (1260 AM, now
WMKI ), flagship of the
Yankee Network , a
New England regional radio network. General Tire had purchased the Yankee Network in 1943. WNAC first broadcasted from a studio on Brookline Avenue before moving to its current facilities near Government Center in the
1960s .
In
1952 , General Tire merged with General Teleradio, a year-old merger of the Bamberger Broadcasting Service (WOR-AM-FM-TV in
New York City ) and the West Coast regional Don Lee Broadcasting System. General Teleradio was retained as the name for General Tire's broadcasting division. General Tire bought
RKO Radio Pictures in
1955 after General Tire found RKO's film library a perfect programming source for WNAC and its other television stations. The name changed a few times over the next three years before becoming RKO General in
1958 .
WNAC was originally a
CBS affiliate, but shared
ABC programming with WBZ until
1957 when WHDH-TV signed on channel 5. It switched affiliations with WHDH in
1961 and joined ABC. It stayed with ABC until
1972 , when channel 5 lost its license. The licensees of the station that replaced it,
WCVB-TV , planned to air a large amount of local programming, heavily preempting CBS programming in the process. This didn't sit very well with CBS, who immediately cut a new deal with WNAC. However, WNAC retained the version of the
Circle 7 Logo it had adopted in the late 1960s until
1977 , when it began using a Times-Serif-Italic "7".
By
1965 , RKO General faced numerous investigations into its business and financial practices. Though the
FCC renewed the broadcast license for WNAC in
1969 , RKO General lost the license in
1981 after General Tire admitted to a stunning litany of corporate misconduct as part of a settlement with the
U.S. Securities And Exchange Commission . Among other things, General Tire admitted that it had committed financial fraud over illegal political contributions and bribes. But in the FCC hearing, RKO General had denied these same practices. In light of RKO's dishonesty, the FCC stripped RKO of the Boston license and the licenses for WOR-TV in
New York and KHJ-TV in
Los Angeles . The FCC had previously conditioned renewal of the latter two stations' licenses on WNAC's renewal. An appeals court partially reversed the ruling, finding that the FCC had erred in tying the latter two stations' renewals to WNAC's license. It upheld the WNAC revocation and ordered a rehearing on the other stations.
'' on WNEV]]
RKO appealed this decision, but after almost two years of legal action agreed to a settlement in
1982 . It agreed to sell WNAC's assets to New England Television, a merger of two of the original challengers to the station's license controlled by Boston businessman
David Mugar . As part of the agreement, the FCC granted a full license to New England Television. The change took effect on
May 22 , 1982. At that time, the station's call letters were changed to WNEV and the old "7" logo was dropped in favor of a new ''Se7en'' logo. This logo would change to one of a number 7 made up of seven dots in
1987 .
In
1990 , WNEV's owner bought WHDH (850 AM, now
WEEI ) and renamed the TV station WHDH-TV. Those call letters had previously been used by the old channel ''5'' from
1957 until it lost its license in
1972 . In
1993 , WHDH-TV was sold to Sunbeam Television of
Miami , who still owns the station today. Shortly afterward, it adopted its present
Circle 7 Logo , the same one also used by its Miami sister station,
WSVN .
Over the years, channel 7 as WNAC preempted little programming. As WNEV, the station prempted programming in moderation. The preempted programs often aired on WHLL (now
WUNI-TV ). From
1989 to
1990 , the station preempted ''CBS Morning News'' in favor of a children's show called ''Ready To Go''. In late
1993 , ''CBS News This Morning'' was dropped and picked up by WABU (now
WBPX ). WHDH then began an expanded morning local newscast. When the station became a NBC affiliate, Channel 7 ran the entire network programming lineup.
WHDH-TV stayed with CBS until
January 2 ,
1995 , when WBZ took over the CBS affiliation as part of a group deal between CBS and WBZ's owner,
Group W .
Fox considered an affiliation deal with WHDH. However, WHDH opted to become the NBC affiliate. Recently, the station was rumored to be in negotiations with
NBC Universal to be acquired from Sunbeam Television and become a NBC owned & operated station, with Fox acquiring the Miami station, WSVN; however, each time these rumors surface, Ansin, the owner, and his staff would refute these rumors, stating that the stations are not for sale.
