Editing WBAL-TV (section)

==Programming==
===Preemptions and deferrals===
During its initial run as an NBC affiliate, WBAL-TV preempted the first season of ''[[Saturday Night Live]]'' (which was titled ''NBC's Saturday Night'') because of concerns regarding its fairly edgy content for the time; instead, the station aired movies in the comedy show's time slot throughout that season.<ref>{{cite news |last=Carter |first=Bill |date=October 20, 1975 |title=NBC's live Saturday Night, missing on channel 11, is fine television |url=https://baltimoresun.newspapers.com/article/the-baltimore-sun/159525198/ |work=[[The Baltimore Sun]] |location= |access-date=November 21, 2024}}</ref> When it cleared the network's entire late night Saturday lineup in the summer of 1976, the station purchased it mainly for the monthly newsmagazine ''[[Weekend (1974 TV program)|Weekend]]'', on which the sketch program's ''[[Weekend Update]]'' segments are based, and which NBC insisted the station pick up alongside ''SNL'' as part of a package deal. The program began running on the station—initially for a trial period—on August 14, 1976, with WBAL-TV airing a disclaimer before the program warning that it contained mature material.<ref>{{cite news |last=Carter |first=Bill |date=July 23, 1976 |title=WBAL finally picks up Saturday Night, and good-by Nick Charles |url=https://baltimoresun.newspapers.com/article/the-baltimore-sun/159524820/ |work=[[The Baltimore Sun]] |location= |access-date=November 21, 2024}}</ref>

As a CBS affiliate, WBAL-TV preempted an hour of the network's daytime schedule every day, as well as half of its [[Saturday morning cartoon]] lineup. Channel 11 also did not run CBS' [[The CBS Late Movie|late night programming]]. Baltimore viewers who wanted to see the entire CBS lineup could be able to view those programs through [[WUSA (TV)|WDVM-TV/WUSA]] in Washington, which was available over-the-air in most of the adjacent Baltimore area and preempted little network programming. The station also preempted ''[[Late Show with David Letterman]]'' in favor of continuing with ''[[The Arsenio Hall Show]]'' when it debuted in the fall of 1993; in response, CBS arranged for [[WNUV]] to carry the Letterman series instead.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.baltimoresun.com/news/bs-xpm-1993-07-30-1993211231-story.html | title=Letterman lands Baltimore slot with WNUV TURNED ON IN L.A. -- Fall Preview | date=July 30, 1993 }}</ref>

WBAL-TV is one of the few NBC affiliates that does not air the [[Today with Hoda & Jenna|fourth hour]] of ''[[Today (American TV program)|Today]]'' (which can be seen in the area via NBC O&O [[WRC-TV]] in Washington).

===Sports programming===
In 1970, when the then-[[Baltimore Colts]] moved to the newly formed and realigned [[American Football Conference]] as part of the AFL–NFL merger of professional football of 1970, WBAL-TV displaced WMAR-TV (which had aired most of the team's games since 1956) as the station of record for the team (as NBC was the rightsholder for all AFC games). During its first season as such, the station provided coverage of the Colts' victory in [[Super Bowl V]] in 1971. This partnership continued until 1981, when WMAR-TV became the team's unofficial home station again for their last three seasons in Baltimore (although the station continued to air Colts games in those three seasons, they were limited to home interconference contests). When the reorganized [[Baltimore Ravens]] began play in 1996 after moving the old [[Cleveland Browns]] franchise to Maryland, WBAL-TV became the new team's station of record, but only for two seasons; in 1998, most games were moved to WJZ-TV. Presently, WBAL-TV airs any Ravens games when they play on NBC's ''[[NBC Sunday Night Football|Sunday Night Football]]'' and on ''[[Monday Night Football]]'' contests exclusive to ESPN, the latter being a benefit of Hearst's 20 percent ownership of ESPN.

The station aired any [[Baltimore Orioles]] baseball games as part of NBC's broadcast contract with Major League Baseball from the establishment of the new Orioles franchise in 1954 (move of the old [[St. Louis Browns]] to the city) until 1981; it also aired all of the Orioles' postseason games through NBC's limited contract from 1995 to 2000. During its time as a CBS station, WBAL-TV also broadcast select games involving the Orioles through CBS's MLB broadcast contract from 1990 to 1993. From 1964 until his retirement in 1995, Vince Bagli was WBAL-TV's [[sportscaster]]. His colleagues at the station called him the "Dean of Baltimore Sports".<ref>{{cite news|last=Campbell|first=Colin|title=Vince Bagli, longtime WBAL-TV sportscaster known as 'Dean of Baltimore sports', dies at 93|url=https://www.baltimoresun.com/obituaries/bs-md-ob-vince-bagli-20201007-tm4j3cfqdzddpc2nodc37xy344-story.html|date=October 7, 2020|access-date=October 7, 2020}}</ref>

===News operation===
[[File:Wbal tv live shot.JPG|thumb|right|175px|WBAL-TV, Channel 11 longtime reporters Deborah Weiner and Jayne Miller prepare for a live shot outside old St. Paul's Church (Episcopal) at North Charles and East Saratoga Streets during the funeral there of former [[List of mayors of Baltimore|Baltimore City Mayor]], [[Maryland Governor]], and [[Comptroller of Maryland|Comptroller]] [[William Donald Schaefer]], April 27, 2011]]
WBAL-TV presently broadcasts 35 hours of locally produced newscasts each week (with five hours each weekday, {{frac|4|1|2}} hours on Saturdays and {{frac|5|1|2}} hours on Sundays); the station also produces a weekly public affairs program on Sunday mornings called ''11 TV Hill''.

Appropriately for a station with roots in a newspaper, channel 11 has a rich news tradition. WBAL's newscasts have spent the better part of its history in either first or second place in the ratings. It led the ratings from the 1960s until WJZ-TV passed it in the early 1970s. However, for the better part of the last 40 years, WBAL-TV had waged a spirited battle for first place in the ratings with WJZ-TV. In recent years, WBAL-TV's newscasts placed first at 5, 6 and 11 p.m. However, in the November 2009 [[Nielsen ratings]] [[sweeps]] period—the first since the debut of ''[[The Jay Leno Show]]''—WBAL's 11 p.m. newscast fell precipitously from first to a distant second behind WJZ (by contrast, the 11 p.m. newscast on WRC-TV in nearby Washington, D.C. was one of the least affected late-night newscasts of any NBC affiliate or [[owned-and-operated station]] in the country; it continued to dominate its competitors). WBAL still continued to lead at 5 and 6 p.m. until the November 2011 sweeps period. Since NBC took Leno off of prime time in February 2010—in part due to complaints from WBAL and other affiliates about effects on its newscasts—viewership of channel 11's late newscast has often come close to the WJZ newscast. However, since the November 2011 sweeps period, WJZ's newscasts took the lead in nearly all time slots but WBAL is still a strong second.

In 1974, WBAL introduced the ''[[Action News]]'' format to Baltimore. Characterized by short, usually 90 second, news "packages" and upbeat introductory news themes, Baltimore's ''Action News'' briefly replaced WJZ as the number one news station in Baltimore during the mid-1970s. The architect of the success was news director [[Ron Kershaw]], who had come to Baltimore from [[Texas]] and was considered somewhat ahead of his time.<ref>{{cite book|last=Dunne|first=John Gregory|author-link=John Gregory Dunne|title=Regards: The Selected Nonfiction of John Gregory Dunne|url=https://archive.org/details/regardsselectedn00dunn |url-access=registration|quote=ron kershaw news director.|year=2006|page=[https://archive.org/details/regardsselectedn00dunn/page/n91 80] | isbn=978-1-56025-816-2 | publisher=Thunder's Mouth Press}}</ref> He brought in talented anchors like [[Sue Simmons]] and [[Spencer Christian]] but also replaced long-time local news anchor Rolf Hertsgaard with controversial out-of-towner [[Don Harrison]] and streamlined the news operation. Kershaw later brought other innovations to [[WNBC-TV]] in [[New York City]] and [[WBBM-TV]] in [[Chicago]] as news director at those stations.

WBAL-TV lent then-meteorologist Sandra Shaw to Hearst sister station [[WDSU-TV]] in [[New Orleans]] on September 1, 2008, to assist with the Louisiana station's coverage of [[Hurricane Gustav]].

On January 3, 2009, WBAL-TV became the second station in Baltimore (behind WBFF) to begin broadcasting its local news programming in [[High-definition television|high definition]]. Only the in-studio cameras and footage from the station's helicopter were in HD at the time of the switch. For over a year, most field reports were still in [[pillarbox]]ed [[4:3]] [[standard definition]]. Most field reports are switched from [[16:9]] [[widescreen]] [[enhanced definition]] to 16:9 high definition in March 2012. On March 5, 2012, WBAL debuted a half-hour 10 p.m. newscast on its WBAL Plus digital subchannel, which competes against an hour-long newscast on WBFF.<ref name="WBAL Plus"/>

On January 12, 2015, WBAL-TV expanded their morning newscast ''11 News Today'' to 4:30&nbsp;a.m.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.wbaltv.com/blob/view/-/30614086/data/1/-/39xdtwz/-/WBAL-TV-11-Expands-Weekday-Morning-News-To-4-30AM-Start.pdf |title=Archived copy |access-date=January 22, 2015 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150122140722/http://www.wbaltv.com/blob/view/-/30614086/data/1/-/39xdtwz/-/WBAL-TV-11-Expands-Weekday-Morning-News-To-4-30AM-Start.pdf |archive-date=January 22, 2015 }}</ref>

News anchor [[Rod Daniels]] retired from WBAL-TV in 2015 after more than 30 years with the station.<ref>{{cite news
 |title=WBAL anchorman Rod Daniels to retire after more than 30 years |date=May 8, 2015 |access-date=December 27, 2022 |last=Zurawik|first=David |url=https://www.baltimoresun.com/opinion/columnists/zurawik/bal-wbal-anchorman-rod-daniels-to-retire-after-more-than-30-years-20150508-story.html |work=[[Baltimore Sun]] |via=baltimoresun.com }}</ref>

====Awards and achievements====
[[File:Rob roblin.jpg|thumb|right|175px|Former WBAL-TV reporter Rob Roblin, April 27, 2011.]]
WBAL-TV became the first Baltimore television station to win a [[Peabody Award]] for local news coverage, specifically of their [[Chesapeake Bay]] pollution investigation (and the first Baltimore television station to win the award in any category in more than fifty years).<ref>[http://www.peabodyawards.com/award-profile/chesapeake-bay-pollution-investigation 64th Annual Peabody Awards], May 2005.</ref> WBAL's news department was also awarded as one of the top three Best Television Newscasts by the National Headliners Association, alongside [[WFAA]] in [[Dallas]], and WBAL's Boston sister station [[WCVB-TV]]. The station has also won regional [[Edward R. Murrow Award (Radio Television Digital News Association)|Edward R. Murrow Awards]], the [[George Polk Award]] and the [[American Bar Association]] Gavel Award for excellence in reporting and journalism; it has also been rated the most outstanding television news operation in Baltimore (by the [[Associated Press]] and [[United Press International]]).

====Notable current on-air staff====
* [[Gerry Sandusky]] — Sports anchor

====Notable former on-air staff====
* [[Curt Anderson]]<ref>{{cite web|title=House of Delegates - Curtis...Anderson|website=Maryland.gov|date=August 28, 2018|url=https://msa.maryland.gov/msa/mdmanual/06hse/html/msa13208.html}}</ref>
* [[Sade Baderinwa]]
* [[Campbell Brown (journalist)|Campbell Brown]]
* [[Ron Canada]] – newscaster (1970s–early 1980s)
* [[Spencer Christian]]
* [[Carol Costello]]
* [[Rod Daniels]] (1984–2015)
* [[Mike Hambrick]]
* [[Vicki Mabrey]]
* [[Royal Parker]] (1962–mid-1990s)
* [[Lisa Salters]]
* [[Sue Simmons]]
* [[Ron Smith (radio host)|Ron Smith]]<ref name="RonSmith">{{cite web| url = http://www.wbal.com/article/83881/2/template-story/Ron-Smith-1941-2011| title = Ron Smith 1941–2011| date = December 20, 2011| access-date = December 20, 2011| publisher = [[WBAL (AM)|WBAL]]/[[Hearst Television]]}}</ref>
* [[Julius Westheimer]] (1916–2005) – financial and business news/commentary