'''''"NBC5 Chicago"''''' is the
NBC Owned And 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 North Michigan Avenue.
The station signed on
January 7 ,
1948 , as WNBQ. Eight years later, it became the first station to broadcast all of its programs in color. Though NBC had long owned
WMAQ-AM , it did not change the TV station's call letters to match until 1964.
WMAQ-TV gained fame for its newscasts during the
1960s , anchored by
Floyd Kalber , with weatherman
Harry Volkman (later of
WBBM-TV ,
WGN-TV and
WFLD ), and commentator
Len O'Connor . In the early
1970s ,
Jane Pauley , later of NBC national news, co-anchored WMAQ-TV's 10 PM news with Kalber. The station operated from the Merchandise Mart before moving to the NBC Tower in 1989.
The station was not only a launching pad for Jane Pauley, but also for a few other personalities before they went national as well, including
CBS sportsman
Greg Gumbel ,
CNN Headline News morning anchor
Robin Meade , ''
Inside Edition '' host
Deborah Norville , and ''
The Insider '' host
Pat O'Brien .
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. Previously, Cheatwood was known for establishing fast-paced tabloid newscasts at
WSVN in
Miami and
WHDH in
Boston .
Though Springer was once a newscaster in
Cincinnati, Ohio , his association with his
Infamous Talk Show (which was, and continues to broadcast from WMAQ's NBC Tower studios- interestingly NBC's parent company
NBC Universal currently distributes the show) 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 well-respected longtime anchor team,
Carol Marin and
Ron Magers , resigned in protest. News broadcasts at that time originated from a studio that opened onto the station's newsroom. As Marin signed off her last newscast, station personnel stood en masse in the newsroom behind her in a symbolic show of support for her decision to resign. 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.
