WBZ-TV - History - As A CBS-owned Station

As A CBS-owned Station

Although the station tends to rank #1 in daytime and primetime ratings, Channel 4's local news ratings have suffered since the switch in network affiliations. This is partly because at the time of the switch, CBS was well behind NBC in the network ratings. Taken as a whole, its local news is the lowest rated of Boston's "Big 3" affiliates, having dipped behind a resurgent WHDH-TV as well. In January 2006, attempting to bolster its local news ratings, Channel 4 reinstated its 5 pm news and dismissed its former lead anchor Josh Binswanger, leading to the return of long-time anchor Jack Williams to the prime-time newscasts. In addition, Ed Carroll's contract was not renewed and in October 2005 the station hired Ken Barlow from KARE-TV in Minneapolis, Minnesota, to replace him as chief meteorologist.

In late August 2006, WBZ-TV ended its 4 pm weekday newscast and hired anchor Chris May from WHDH-TV. May, along with Sara Underwood, anchored the 5 p.m. weekday news on WBZ-TV. May has since moved to sister station KYW-TV in Philadelphia, and Underwood's contract with the station was not renewed. She left the station on March 4, 2008. As of September 18, 2006, WHDH now airs the only 4 p.m. weekday newscast in the Boston area.

In January 2007, the station launched Project Mass, a commitment to cover the community's top concerns in government, transit, healthcare, education, finance, and the environment. The initiative kicked-off with an online town meeting.

Channel 4 has changed its news and station branding continuously since the affiliation switch, from "Eyewitness News" to "WBZ News 4" to "News 4 New England" to "WBZ 4 News". On February 1, 2004, WBZ rebranded itself as "CBS 4;" the move was officially made in an attempt to alleviate lingering confusion from the 1995 affiliation swap, though the branding brought the station in line with other CBS-owned stations. The "CBS 4" branding was phased-out during the first quarter of 2007 and, as of February 2007, the station's newscast title was reverted from "CBS 4 News" to "WBZ News". The rebranding was completed on February 4, 2007, during the station's coverage of the Super Bowl. This makes the station the first station owned by CBS to depart from CBS' standardization since. It joins sister stations KDKA-TV in Pittsburgh, WCCO-TV in Minneapolis-St. Paul, WJZ-TV in Baltimore, and, from 2008–12, WWJ-TV in Detroit, in using call letters in its branding as opposed to the CBS name. General manager Ed Piette told The Boston Globe that he decided to ditch the "CBS 4" branding when he arrived in Boston for his first day of work and a cabbie asked him, "Whatever happened to WBZ?" Piette hopes to reemphasize WBZ-TV's local identity—a strategy that worked well when he was general manager at WCCO-TV.

After the 2000 acquisition of CBS by its former subsidiary, Viacom, WBZ-TV's operations were merged with that of Boston's UPN affiliate, WSBK-TV, and later with WLWC, the UPN affiliate in nearby Providence. Today, the operations of WBZ-TV and WSBK-TV are co-located at WBZ's studios in Brighton. WLWC was sold in 2006 to the Four Points Media Group, a holding company owned by private equity firm Cerberus Capital Management; it, along with the other Four Points stations, has since been acquired by Sinclair Broadcast Group.

WBZ's on-air staff continued to change in late 2007, when longtime morning anchor Scott Wahle was re-assigned and replaced by former WFXT anchor David Wade. In January 2008, longtime morning and midday meteorologist Barry Burbank was re-assigned to the weekend programs. He was replaced by meteorologist Todd Gutner.

On February 29, 2008, it was reported that the 2007-2008 Writers Guild of America strike caused a significant loss in viewers during the late news. WBZ-TV finished with an average of 157,800 total viewers, down from 177,800 viewers in 2007.

On April 1, 2008, CBS' owned-and-operated television stations division ordered widespread budget cuts and staff layoffs from its stations. As a result of the budget cuts, roughly 30 staffers were released from WBZ-TV and WSBK-TV, including longtime sports director Bob Lobel, entertainment reporter Joyce Kulhawik, and WSBK anchor Scott Wahle. Lobel left channel 4 on May 16, while Kulhawik and Wahle left on May 29 and 30, respectively. Steve Burton is now the new sports director, while the position that Kulhawik held was eliminated. Jack Williams filled in for the 9 p.m. spot in the interim. It was announced on June 6 that reporter and now former-weekend anchor Kate Merrill will anchor the news, along with general assignment duty weekdays at 5 and 6 p.m. Lobel subsequently served as a guest co-host on CBS Radio sister station WODS's morning show in late 2008 and a guest sports anchor on WBZ radio in January 2009. Even with the budget cuts at CBS, WBZ-TV's 11 p.m. newscast was number one in its time slot in the 2007-08 time frame (it has since slipped back to second place).

On December 12, 2011, WBZ officially debuted a brand new studio. The new set was better optimized for high definition broadcasting; featuring LED lighting, a dedicated weather area, and 16 high definition monitors. Additionally, WBZ also adopted the standardized CBS graphics package used by other CBS O&O stations such as WCBS-TV. The new look, plus a greater emphasis on "hard news" coverage, are changes which the station hopes will help re-gain viewership it had lost to rival station WCVB. Ed Piette explained that the new look was an overdue change, as their current set had been in use for a decade, and thought it was no different than Cadillac automobiles updating their signature look since its establishment. Susan Walker, a broadcast professor at the Boston University however, criticized the re-branding for putting too much emphasis on WBZ being a CBS station (by using CBS's new standardized look for its owned and operated stations) and not branding itself as a local station.