Logo adopted for NBC radio in 1943
July 1, 1941, 80 years ago: WNBT, owned by the National Broadcasting Company, begins broadcasting out of New York City, on Channel 4. It becomes WRCA on October 18, 1954, and WNBC on May 22, 1960.
On the exact same day, WCBW, owned by the Columbia Broadcasting Service, begins broadcasting on Channel 2. It becomes WCBS on November 1, 1946.
The Federal Communications Commission licensed them with the instruction to sign on simultaneously on July 1, so that neither of the 2 major broadcasting networks, NBC nor CBS could claim exclusively to have the 1st commercial television station in New York City. (ABC, the American Broadcasting Company, did not yet exist.) But NBC cheated, going on the air at 1:30 PM, a full hour before the time to which CBS had agreed.
New York’s other VHF TV stations:
* WABD, Channel 5, began airing on the DuMont network on May 2, 1944; moved to Metromedia on August 6, 1956; became WNEW on September 7, 1958; and joined the Fox network and became WNYW on March 7, 1986.
* WATV, Channel 13, began airing as an independent station on May 15, 1948; switched to National Educational Television (NET) and the letters WNDT on September 16, 1962; and became WNET, with NET becoming the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) on October 1, 1970.
* WPIX, Channel 11, began airing as an independent station on June 15, 1948; joined The WB Network on January 11, 1995; and moved to The CW on September 17, 2006.
* WJZ, Channel 7, began airing on ABC on August 10, 1948; and became WABC on March 1, 1953.
* WOR, Channel 9, began airing as an independent station on October 11, 1949; became WWOR on April 29, 1987; joined UPN on January 16, 1995; and moved to MyNetwork on September 17, 2006.
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July 1, 1941 was a Tuesday. Baseball was the only sport in season at the time, and these games were played on that day, most of them broadcast on radio, but none on television:
* The New York Yankees swept a doubleheader from the Boston Red Sox at Yankee Stadium. In the opener, Joe DiMaggio went 2-for-4, in support of Marius Russo, extending his hitting streak to 43 games, as the Yankees won, 7-2.
In the nightcap, DiMaggio went 1-for-3 with an RBI, making it 44 straight, tying the major league record set in 1897 by Willie Keeler, then with the National League's Baltimore Orioles. (Keeler would be an original Yankee, or rather an original New York Highlander, from 1903 to 1909.) Bill Dickey hit a home run in support of Ernie "Tiny" Bonham, and the Yankees led, 9-2 after 5 innings, when the game was called due to darkness. Yankee Stadium didn't get permanent lights until 1946, using temporary lights to host boxing cards.
Ted Williams went 2-for-6 in the doubleheader, en route to a .406 batting average for the season. DiMaggio would break Keeler's record the next day, extending his streak to 56 straight games with a hit, before Cleveland stopped him on July 17.
* The New York Giants lost to the Boston Braves, 6-4 at Braves Field in Boston.
* The Brooklyn Dodgers lost to the Philadelphia Phillies, 6-4 at Ebbets Field. Stan Benjamin singled home 2 runs of Hugh Casey in the top of the 10th inning. The Dodgers went on to win the Pennant, anyway, but this was a foreshadowing of Casey's trouble against the Yankees in the World Series.
* The Philadelphia Athletics beat the Washington Senators, 10-1 at Shibe Park in Philadelphia.
* The Detroit Tigers beat the Chicago White Sox, 5-1 at Comiskey Park in Chicago.
* The St. Louis Cardinals beat the Pittsburgh Pirates, 11-7 at Forbes Field in Pittsburgh.
* The Cleveland Indians beat the St. Louis Browns, 10-6 at Sportsman's Park in St. Louis.
* And the Chicago Cubs were supposed to play the Cincinnati Reds at Crosley Field in Cincinnati, but the game was rained out, and was never made up.
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