WNKW

**WNKW**, channel 11, is an NBC owned-and-opeated television station licensed to Gotham City, New Jersey. The station is owned by the NBCUniversal Owned Television Stations subsidiary of NBCUniversal. Syndicated programming on WNKW includes *The Ellen DeGeneres Show, Steve, Access* (including its live counterpart), and *Extra* among others.

## History

WNKW-TV began broadcasting on May 13, 1949 as an NBC affiliate with a secondary DuMont affiliation. It shared DuMont with then-CBS affiliate WKGC (channel 4, also the same station from which WNKW took it's NBC affiliation; now a CW affiliate; CBS having moved to WGOM-TV, channel 9, now ABC affiliate WGCN, in 1954) until 1956. WNKW then became exclusively affiliated with NBC. WNKW is also the only station in Gotham City to never change its primary affiliation. WNKW also aired syndicated programs from the Paramount Television Network; including *Time For Beany*, *Hollywood Reel*, *Sandy Dreams*, *Hollywood Wrestling*, and *Cowboy G-Men*.

The station was originally owned by the Weaver family. It was sold to Filmways (now part of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer) in 1962. The upstart Pearl Broadcasting bought WNKW in 1965.

From the mid-1970s to 2003, WNKW was known on-air as "Gotham 11".

Despite its status as one of NBC's largest affiliates, WNKW-TV pre-empted many NBC programs, choosing to air local or syndicated programming instead. At one point, in the fall of 1980, WNKW-TV pre-empted NBC's entire morning schedule after the *Today* show. Over the years, NBC contracted independent stations WKGC, WFFG-TV/WFXG and WJLX-TV/WGOM-TV to air programs preempted by channel 11. In addition, most of the area got at minimum a Grade B signal from WTDP-TV in Metropolis, Delaware. However at the time, NBC was far less tolerant of pre-emptions than the other networks and was rather perturbed at losing valuable advertising on it's only affiliate in the state of New Jersey.

Like most affiliates that pre-empt poorer performing network programs, WNKW-TV used the pre-emptions in order to gain an increase in local advertising rates which potentially come with ratings increases. This proved to be a very profitable decision at first, as WNKW-TV often competed for second in the Gotham City television ratings for most of the 1960s and 1970s. However, the station (and NBC) faltered in the late 1970s, and by 1980 WNKW-TV was the lowest-rated network affiliate in Gotham City. It stayed in the ratings basement even when NBC rebounded to become the nation's most-watched network by 1985. For the rest of its tenure as an NBC affiliate, WNKW-TV was one of the network's lowest-rated major-market affiliates during a very prosperous period for NBC as a whole. It continued to heavily pre-empt NBC programming, much to the network's chagrin.

Pearl Broadcasting exited the broadcasting business in 1986 and sold WNKW to General Electric. As General Electric had recently acquired NBC, this resulted in channel 11 becoming the market's second owned-and-operated station (after WGC-TV, channel 7, which was owned by ABC from its sign-on in 1948 to 1996, when it converted into a CBS owned-and-operated station during the 1994–96 United States broadcast TV realignment). In a bit of irony, WNKW continued to preempt a large number of NBC programs, though since the 1994-95 television season it has carried the entire NBC schedule.

The New Jersey Lottery drawings were shown on WNKW between 1987 and 1994, representing the only hiatus in coverage of the New Jersey Lottery drawings by rival station WGCN.

WNKW's broadcasts became digital-only, effective June 12, 2009. Digital channel 11 transmits at a lower power than it did on digital channel 17, so in some locations, there has been a reduction in coverage. Many VHF stations are applying to the FCC for power increases to restore their coverage area after moving from UHF back to VHF.

The station carried NBC Weather Plus on its second digital subchannel from 2004 to 2008, when the network began winding down operations and became an automated local weather channel known as NBC Plus. On February 25, 2009, WNKW was one of the last NBC O&Os to carry Universal Sports, airing it on digital subchannel 11.3; it was removed on January 1, 2012, when Universal Sports transitioned into a cable and satellite-only network. In early 2011, WNKW's 11.2 digital subchannel switched its programming from the NBC Plus/"WNKW StormTrack" radar loop to a 24-hour news and lifestyle network carried only on NBC's O&Os called NBC Nonstop (under the branding "NBC Gotham Nonstop"; NBC Nonstop relaunched as Cozi TV on December 20, 2012); the subchannel also carried a weeknight 9 p.m. newscast, which was eventually cancelled.

### National Slogans

* All the Best on Gotham 11 (1976-1978; localized version of NBC ad campaign)
* Gotham See Us (1978-1979; localized version of NBC ad campaign)
* Gotham 11, Proud As A Peacock! (1979-1981; localized version of NBC ad campaign)
* Gotham 11, Our Pride is Showing (1981-1982; localized version of NBC ad campaign)
* We're Gotham 11, Just Watch Us Now (1982-1983; localized version of NBC ad campaign)
* Gotham 11 There, Be There (1983-1984; localized version of NBC ad campaign)
* Gotham 11, Let's All Be There (1984-1986; localized version of NBC ad campaign)
* Come Home to Gotham 11 (1986-1987; localized version of NBC ad campaign)
* Come on Home to Gotham 11 (1987-1988; localized version of NBC ad campaign)
* Come Home to the Best, Only on Gotham 11 (1988-1990; localized version of NBC ad campaign)
* Gotham 11. The Place To Be (1990-1992; localized version of NBC ad campaign)
* It's Here on Gotham 11 (1992-1993; localized version of NBC ad campaign)
* Got Everybody Watching Gotham 11 (1993-1994; localized version of NBC ad campaign)
* It's Gotham 11! (1994-1995; localized version of NBC ad campaign)
* The Year to Be on Gotham 11 (1995-1996; localized version of NBC ad campaign)

## Gallery

WNKW's logo from 1961 to 1976.WNKW's logo from 1976 to 1979.WNKW's logo from 1979 to 1986.WNKW's logo from 1986 to 1992.WNKW's logo from 1992 to 1995.WNKW identification from 1992-1995, recorded on August 2, 1994 (this was taken while severe thunderstroms struck Gotham City that evening).WNKW's logo from 1995 to 2004.

### WNKW StormTrack Meteorologists

* Alton Shiels - chief meteorologist (AMS Seal of Approval); weeknights "WNKW 11NBC News at 4", "WNKW 11NBC News at 5", "WNKW 11NBC News at 6" and "WNKW 11NBC News at 11" (joined 1994)

## Former on-air staff

* Johnlee Kavic - meteorologist (1983-1995)
* Nicolas Anderson - anchor and host of "On The Point with Nicolas Anderson" (1996-2018)

## Current Programming Schedule

WKGC 4 (The CW)
**WGC-TV** 7 (CBS)
WGCN 9 (ABC)
****WNKW**** 11 (NBC)
**WNJN** 32 (PBS)
**WFXG** 45 (Fox)
**WGOM-TV** 60 (MNTV)