Experimenting with New York City station and expansion (1941–1994) CBS's involvement in television dates back to the opening of experimental station W2XAB in New York City on July 21, 1931. On June 24, 1941, W2XAB received a commercial
construction permit and program authorization as WCBW. Later renamed
WCBS-TV, it would ultimately be the only station () originally built and signed on by CBS. The rest of the stations would be acquired by CBS, either in an ownership stake or outright purchase. In 1950, when rival
NBC was dominant in television and black and white transmission was widespread, CBS began to buy or build their own stations (outside of New York City) in
Los Angeles,
Chicago, and other major cities. Up to that point, CBS programming was seen on such stations as
KTTV in Los Angeles, in which CBS – as a bit of insurance and to guarantee program clearance in that market – quickly purchased a 50% interest, partnering with the
Los Angeles Times. CBS then sold its interest in KTTV (now the West Coast flagship of the
Fox network) and purchased outright Los Angeles pioneer station KTSL in 1950, renaming it KNXT (after CBS's existing Los Angeles radio property, KNX), later to become
KCBS-TV. In 1953, CBS bought pioneer television station WBKB in Chicago, which had been signed on by former investor Paramount Pictures (and would become a sister company to CBS again decades later) as a commercial station in 1946, and changed that station's call sign to
WBBM-TV, moving the CBS affiliation away from
WGN-TV. The network bought Washington, D.C. affiliate WOIC (now
WUSA) in a joint venture with
The Washington Post in 1950, only to sell its stake to the
Post in 1954 due to tighter FCC ownership regulations. CBS would also temporarily rely on
UHF technology by owning WXIX in Milwaukee (now
CW affiliate
WVTV) and WHCT in Hartford (now
Univision affiliate
WUVN), but as UHF was not viable for broadcasting at the time (due to the fact that most television sets of the time were not equipped with UHF tuners), CBS decided to sell those stations off and affiliate with
VHF stations
WITI and WTIC-TV (now
WFSB). More long-term, CBS bought stations in Philadelphia (
WCAU, now owned by NBC) and St. Louis (KMOX-TV, now
KMOV), but would eventually sell these stations off as well; before buying KMOX-TV, CBS had attempted to purchase and sign on the channel 11 license in St. Louis, now
KPLR-TV. CBS did attempt to sign on a station in Pittsburgh, as it was at the time the sixth-largest market but had just one commercial VHF station in DuMont-owned WDTV, while the rest were either on UHF (the modern-day
WPGH-TV and
WINP-TV) or
public television (
WQED). Although the FCC turned down CBS's request to buy the channel 9 license in nearby Steubenville, Ohio and move it to Pittsburgh (that station, initially CBS affiliate WSTV-TV, is now NBC affiliate
WTOV-TV), CBS did score a major coup when Pittsburgh-based
Westinghouse Electric, a co-founder of NBC with RCA, bought WDTV from struggling DuMont and opted to affiliate the now-recalled
KDKA-TV with CBS instead of NBC (like
KDKA radio) due to NBC extorting and coercing Westinghouse to trade
KYW radio and WPTZ (now
KYW-TV) for Cleveland stations
WTAM, WTAM-FM (now
WMJI), and WNBK (now
WKYC); the trade ended up being reversed in 1965 by order of the FCC and the Department of Justice after an eight-year investigation. Had CBS not been able to affiliate with KDKA-TV, it would have affiliated with eventual NBC affiliate WIIC-TV (now
WPXI) once it signed on in 1957 instead. This coup would eventually lead to a much stronger relationship between Westinghouse and CBS. CBS was a central player in a multi-year affiliation drama in
Miami, Florida, in the 1980s. Long-standing affiliate
WTVJ (channel 4) in Miami (along with most of the
Storer Communications chain) was to have been sold to
Lorimar-Telepictures in May 1986, but that deal fell apart when CBS inquired with ownership of
WCIX (channel 6) about a possible purchase. WTVJ was sold to NBC in January 1987, but contractually obligated to be run as a CBS affiliate until January 1, 1989. After CBS failed to secure an affiliation with outgoing NBC affiliate
WSVN, the network bought WCIX and moved all network programming there as part of
a larger six-station, two-market affiliation swap. CBS's ownership of WCIX was generally regarded as a failure due to the station's signal and technical deficiencies, with then-station group president
Howard Stringer telling local media in July 1989, "we can never be better than third". CBS then acquired Midwest Communications in 1992, which owned
WCCO-TV in Minneapolis and
WFRV-TV in Green Bay.
Moving O&Os and merger with Westinghouse (1994–2000) In 1994, the
Fox Broadcasting Company agreed to a multi-year, multi-station affiliation deal with
New World Communications, resulting in most of New World's stations switching to Fox. This set off a chain of affiliation changes across the country and other multi-station affiliation deals for the next couple of years. Unable to find a station who would agree to replace New World's
WJBK-TV in Detroit, CBS struck an eleventh-hour deal to purchase UHF station WGPR (now
WWJ-TV) outright. CBS also had trouble finding a station who would agree to replace New World's
WAGA in Atlanta, and therefore bought UHF station WVEU (now
WUPA) out of desperation, even though WVEU had the lowest ratings and the weakest signal out of Atlanta's full-power stations. The
Westinghouse Electric Corporation, through its
Westinghouse Broadcasting (Group W) division, sought an affiliation deal of its own, and after several months of negotiations with the other networks, Westinghouse agreed to affiliate its entire television unit with CBS. Among the Group W stations,
KPIX in San Francisco and
KDKA-TV in Pittsburgh were already CBS affiliates, while
WJZ-TV in Baltimore and
WBZ-TV in Boston switched from ABC and NBC, respectively. This affiliation pact displaced existing CBS-owned
WCAU-TV; after NBC prevailed in a bidding war for the station, NBC agreed to sell to the CBS–Group W partnership
KCNC-TV in
Denver,
KUTV in
Salt Lake City, and WTVJ's license and transmitter. In turn, CBS sold to NBC both WCAU-TV and WCIX's license and transmitter. CBS retained WCIX's intellectual property, thus, when the asset swap took place on September 10, 1995, WCIX "moved" to channel 4 and was renamed WFOR-TV, operating on WTVJ's former license. Westinghouse would then buy CBS outright, a transaction which closed in late 1995. CBS had also bought
WPRI-TV in Providence, Rhode Island in early 1995 prior to the deal closing; at the time, the FCC normally did not allow common ownership of multiple stations with overlapping coverage areas, so WPRI was sold off in favor of Westinghouse's WBZ. Following the completion of the CBS takeover, the former Westinghouse Broadcasting operations took on the CBS name and identity, though the Group W name survived until the end of the 1990s as a holding company within the merged entity's structure. In 1997, Westinghouse changed its name to CBS Corporation. When CBS/Westinghouse began purchasing several broadcasting assets from
Gaylord Entertainment during the late 1990s, these transactions included the acquisition of
KTVT in Dallas.
Merger with, split from, and reunion with Viacom (2000–present) On May 24, 2000, with the merger of
Viacom and
CBS Corporation, Viacom's
Paramount Stations Group were combined with CBS's
owned-and-operated stations division to form the
Viacom Television Stations Group. At the time, Viacom owned the
UPN network and the Paramount Stations Group controlled UPN's owned-and-operated stations. The merger created duopolies between CBS and UPN stations in Philadelphia (KYW-TV and
WPSG), Boston (WBZ-TV and
WSBK-TV), Miami (WFOR and
WBFS-TV), Dallas–Fort Worth (KTVT and
KTXA), Detroit (WWJ-TV and
WKBD-TV) and Pittsburgh (KDKA-TV and
WNPA). Viacom had also exercised a contractual clause that forced
Chris-Craft Industries to either buy Viacom out of UPN, or have the former sell its ownership stake in the network to Viacom. On March 20, 2000, Chris-Craft allowed Viacom to buy out its 50% stake, giving Viacom full control of the network. However on August 12 of that year,
Fox Television Stations outbid Viacom for Chris-Craft's UPN stations. Viacom then took full control of UPN affiliates
WTVX in Fort Pierce, Florida, and
WLWC in
New Bedford, Massachusetts, from Straightline Communications in 2001, after the Paramount Stations Group had operated the two stations through local marketing agreements since 1997. In 2002, Viacom traded UPN stations
KTXH in Houston and
WDCA in Washington, D.C. to Fox in exchange for KBHK-TV (now
KPYX) in San Francisco, one of the former Chris-Craft stations, resulting in the creation of a duopoly with CBS-owned KPIX. Viacom also bought independent Los Angeles station
KCAL-TV in 2002, creating a duopoly with CBS-owned KCBS, which broadcasting industry observers also speculated was done to use as possible future leverage against UPN affiliate
KCOP-TV, another former Chris-Craft station owned by Fox. In 2005, Viacom bought CBS-affiliate
KOVR in Sacramento, resulting in another duopoly with UPN-owned-and-operated
KMAX-TV. Viacom also purchased the low-powered stations
WTCN-CA and
WWHB-CA, integrating their local operations with WTVX. Viacom also sold some of their stations, creating duopolies for their new owners instead. The UPN-owned-and-operated
WUPL was sold to
Belo Corporation, owners of CBS affiliate
WWL-TV in New Orleans, after Belo turned down Viacom's offer to purchase WWL. On February 10, 2005, UPN-owned stations
WNDY-TV in Indianapolis and
WWHO in Columbus, Ohio, were sold to the
LIN TV Corporation, owners of then-CBS Indianapolis affiliate
WISH-TV. Later on November 4, 2005,
The New York Times Company bought UPN-owned-and-operated station
KAUT-TV to create a duopoly with NBC affiliate
KFOR-TV in Oklahoma City. Viacom Television Stations Group was then rebranded to CBS Television Stations on January 3, 2006, three days after Viacom split itself into two publicly traded companies, the second incarnations of
CBS Corporation and
Viacom, both of which remained controlled by
National Amusements. On January 24, 2006, CBS Corporation and
Time Warner announced that it would shut down UPN and competitor
The WB to launch
The CW later that September. The formation of The CW to replace both UPN and The WB triggered the
2006 United States broadcast TV realignment, a chain of affiliation changes across the country and the establishment of competitor
MyNetworkTV. On the day of the network launch announcement, The CW immediately announced it had reached affiliation agreements with
Tribune Broadcasting (who had owned a stake in The WB) and CBS Television Stations. Tribune originally committed 16 stations that were previously affiliated with The WB, while CBS committed 11 of its UPN stations. Both companies also owned several UPN and WB-affiliated stations that did not join The CW in overlapping markets; these stations either later affiliated with MyNetworkTV or another network, or became completely independent. As part of its affiliation agreement with the network,
Tribune Media agreed to divest its ownership interest in The WB (a move it made partly to avoid shouldering shutdown costs for The WB). and did not acquire an equity stake in The CW. In 2007, CBS-owned-and-operated
WFRV-TV in Green Bay and its satellite
WJMN-TV in Escanaba, Michigan, were sold to
Liberty Media. That same year,
Cerberus Capital Management formed the holding company
Four Points Media Group to serve as a buyer for seven smaller-market stations, including CBS-owned-and-operated stations
KUTV in Salt Lake City and
KEYE-TV in Austin, Texas; and The CW affiliates
WTVX in Fort Pierce, Florida, and
WLWC in
New Bedford, Massachusetts. Also including were KUSG (now
KMYU) in St. George, Utah, which served as satellite station of KUTV; and
WTCN-CA and
WWHB-CA, the sister stations to WTVX. The sale with Four Points closed on January 10, 2008. In 2009 and 2010, three managers at its New York City station, WCBS-TV, were named CBS Television Stations executives while continuing to manage at the station. Station manager Peter Dunn was named CBS Television Stations President in November 2009. On June 14, 2010,
Local TV, owner of CBS affiliate
WTKR, acquired The CW affiliate
WGNT from CBS Television Stations to create its own duopoly in the
Hampton Roads area. On December 12, 2011, CBS Television Stations announced its intent to purchase
Riverhead, New York-licensed
WLNY-TV (channel 55), later announced for a purchase price of $55 million, creating a duopoly with WCBS-TV. The company announced that it would add additional on-air staff and expand WLNY's local news programming (at the time, that station had only an 11 p.m. newscast). The FCC approved the sale on January 31, 2012, and CBS took control of the station on March 30. WLNY suspended its own news operations the previous day and began airing WCBS-TV produced newscasts on July 2, 2012. On October 21, 2014, CBS and
Weigel Broadcasting announced the launch of a new
digital subchannel service called
Decades, scheduled to launch on all CBS owned and operated stations in May 2015. The channel is co-owned by CBS and Weigel, with Weigel being responsible for distribution to stations outside CBS Television Stations. It airs programs from the extensive library of
CBS Television Distribution, including archival footage from
CBS News. An additional CBS-owned subchannel service,
Dabl, launched on September 9, 2019; this service, although carried on the CBS Television Stations, is run by CBS Television Distribution. The station group made a couple of content agreements in 2014 and 2015. The stations agreed in December 2014 for its content to be shown on Curb's Taxi TV. In May 2016, Adam Wiener was named as the Executive Vice President and General Manager of CBS Local Digital Media, responsible for all digital and streaming initiatives of the CBS Television Stations. On August 1, 2018, CBS Television Stations and
CBS Interactive announced plans to launch
CBSN Local, a group of streaming local news channels, led by Wiener, to be distributed through the existing national
CBSN service. The first of these services, CBSN New York, launched on December 13, 2018, with Los Angeles following in June 2019. Eleven other markets launched, most recently CBS News Miami in January 2022. CBS and Viacom then
merged for the second time, forming
ViacomCBS (now
Paramount Skydance Corporation), on December 4, 2019. In January 2021, it was reported that Dunn and Friend had been placed on administrative leave, following allegations of racist and sexist conduct. On April 15, 2021, CBS Television Stations and
CBS News announced that their respective divisions would merge into a single entity. It was also announced that
Neeraj Khemlani (former Executive Vice President of
Hearst Newspapers) and
Wendy McMahon (former President of the
ABC Owned Television Stations Group) were named presidents and co-heads. This transition was completed on May 3. On July 16, 2021, CBS named Adrienne Roark as a president for the CBS Stations, effective August 2; she primarily oversees the group's stations in the eastern United States. Two additional presidents were announced on August 13, 2021: Jennifer Mitchell, who would oversee CBS's stations in the western half of the country starting on September 7, and Tom Canedo, who immediately began overseeing the eight CBS-owned CW affiliates. In the fall of 2022, WSBK-TV and WBFS-TV returned to independence, ending the only affiliations of MyNetworkTV carried by any Paramount station. On May 5, 2023, CBS announced that its eight CW affiliates would drop the network and become independent in September, with the intention of expanding local programming, including live sports, as well as programming from other Paramount properties. Paramount and
Warner Bros. Discovery (the latter being Time Warner's successor) sold a majority stake in The CW to
Nexstar Media Group on October 3, 2022; as part of the deal, CBS was given the right to end its CW affiliations. In May 2025, McMahon resigned as president of CBS News and Stations. == Stations ==