WKYC-TV history

On January 11, 1949, WNBK began carrying NBC's New York-originated programming live via a cable connection to Philadelphia.

A move to Channel 3 was mandated in 1954, when its erection of the most powerful antenna in the Midwest caused interference with other local channels.

In May 1955, NBC agreed to trade WNBK and WTAM-AM-FM to Westinghouse Electric Corporation in return for KYW radio and WPTZ television in Philadelphia.

Despite its success in Cleveland, Westinghouse was not happy with how the 1956 trade with NBC played out.

Only 2 years after hiring Paul Sciria as its first full-time news reporter, the station introduced one of the nation's first half-hour newscasts in 1959.

NBC re-assumed control of the Cleveland stations on June 19, 1965.

The AM station, for instance, had become a top 40 powerhouse under the moniker "KY11." WKYC-TV was separated from its sister stations in 1972, when NBC sold the WKYC radio stations to Ohio Communications.

In 1986 WKYC became the city's first VHF channel to broadcast in stereo.

After years of sagging ratings and continuing to be the lowest-rated of the network's owned and operated stations, NBC sold majority control of WKYC (51%) to Multimedia, Inc. in 1990.

Network ownership was again severed in 1991, when NBC sold the station to Multimedia, Inc., of Greenville, SC.

The Gannett Company purchased Multimedia on December 4, 1995.

WKYC accomplished another first in Cleveland television history by becoming the first station in Northeast Ohio to broadcast in high-definition in 1999.

Around the first week of October 2012, Gannett entered a dispute against Dish Network regarding compensation fees and Dish's AutoHop commercial-skip feature on its Hopper digital video recorders.

On June 29, 2015, the Gannett Company split in two, with one side specializing in print media and the other side specializing in broadcast and home video media.