WKYC (channel 3) is a television station in Cleveland, Ohio, United States, affiliated with NBC. It is owned by the Tegna subsidiary of Nexstar Media Group; Nexstar also owns Fox affiliate WJW (channel 8) and CW station WBNX-TV (channel 55). WKYC's studios are located on Tom Beres Way (a section of Lakeside Avenue in Downtown Cleveland named after the station's longtime political reporter who retired in 2016),WKYC on TwitterTom Beres to retire - Cleveland Scene and its transmitter is located in suburban Parma, Ohio.
History Early years The station first signed on the air on October 31, 1948, as WNBK, broadcasting on VHF channel 4. It was the second television station in Cleveland to debut, ten months after WEWS-TV (channel 5), and was the fourth of NBC's five original owned-and-operated stations to sign on, three weeks after WNBQ (now WMAQ-TV) in Chicago. WNBK was a sister station to WTAM radio (1100 AM), which had been owned by NBC since 1930. Although there was then no coaxial cable connection to New York City, AT&T had just installed a cable connection between WNBK, WNBQ, WSPD-TV (now WTVG) in Toledo, KSTP-TV in St. Paul, Minnesota, and KSD-TV (now KSDK) in St. Louis, creating NBC's Midwest Network. WNBK became one of the originators of programming for the regional network, along with WNBQ. Two days after signing on, on November 2, WNBK transmitted its coverage of the Truman/Dewey election results to the NBC Midwest Network. On January 11, 1949, WNBK began carrying NBC's New York-originated programming live via a cable connection to Philadelphia.WKYC history - WKYC.com
As a result of frequency reallocations resulting from the Federal Communications Commission's 1952 Sixth Report and Order,"TV coverage; RTMA predicts expansion." Broadcasting - Telecasting, May 19, 1952, pg. 78. WNBK was moved to channel 3, swapping frequencies with fellow NBC affiliate WLWC (now WCMH-TV) in Columbus to alleviate same-channel interference with another NBC station, WWJ-TV (now WDIV-TV) across Lake Erie in Detroit. After construction was completed on the station's new transmitter in Parma,"WNBK (TV) constructing $1 million transmitter." Broadcasting - Telecasting, June 15, 1953, pg. 68. the channel switch took place on April 25, 1954."WNBK (TV) goes to ch. 3; using new Parma plant." Broadcasting - Telecasting, April 19, 1954, pp. 84, 86. WNBK advertisement. Broadcasting - Telecasting, April 26, 1954, pg. 45.
The Westinghouse years
In May 1955, NBC traded WNBK and WTAM-AM-FM to Westinghouse Electric Corporation in return for KYW radio and WPTZ television in Philadelphia."NBC, WBC trade properties in Cleveland, Philadelphia." Broadcasting, May 23, 1955, pp. 65-66, 68. Although Cleveland was a top-10 television and radio market at the time, NBC had long wanted to "trade up" its holdings to a larger market. Also, Philadelphia was the largest market in which it did not own a station. The swap became official on January 22, 1956, as NBC moved its operations (including much of its Cleveland staff) to Philadelphia, with WPTZ becoming WRCV-TV."NBC, Westinghouse complete exchange." Broadcasting, January 30, 1956, pg. 59. Westinghouse took over the WNBK/WTAM operation and changed its call letters to KYW-AM-FM-TV on February 13, 1956."NBC, WBC outlets change calls today." Broadcasting, February 13, 1956, pp. 98. Westinghouse received a cross-station waiver from the FCC to own channel 3 since it has overlapping signals with Group W flagship KDKA-TV in Pittsburgh.
Despite its success in Cleveland, Westinghouse was not happy with how the 1956 trade with NBC played out. Almost as soon as the ink dried on the trade, the FCC and the U.S. Department of Justice launched an investigation, claiming NBC extorted and coerced them into agreeing to the deal."NBC-Westinghouse swap approved; FCC stirs Justice Dept. interest." Broadcasting, January 2, 1956, pg. 58."Justice Dept. hauls NBC into court." Broadcasting - Telecasting, December 10, 1956, pp. 27-32. The investigators discovered that Group W had only agreed to the deal after NBC threatened to remove its affiliation from WPTZ (the present-day KYW-TV) and Westinghouse's other NBC affiliate, WBZ-TV in Boston, and to withhold a primary affiliation with newly purchased KDKA-TV, which ultimately affiliated with CBS despite its strong radio ties to NBC. In 1964, after an investigation that lasted eight years, the FCC ordered the swap to be reversed."Philadelphia circle is complete," and "Nine-year history of that trade in Philadelphia." Broadcasting, August 3, 1964, pp. 23-25. NBC tried to appeal the decision, delaying the swap for one more year, but ultimately to no avail. Ironically, during the ordeal NBC was actually trying to sell its Philadelphia cluster it acquired from Westinghouse to RKO General in exchange for Boston cluster WNAC-AM-TV;"NBC swap with RKO taking shape." Broadcasting, January 25, 1960, pg. 52."NBC–RKO General trades." Broadcasting, March 21, 1960, pg. 52. NBC wouldn't own a station in Boston until purchasing WBTS-LD in 2016.
NBC returns NBC re-assumed control of the Cleveland stations on June 19, 1965. Instead of restoring the previous WNBK and WTAM identities, the stations' new call letters became WKYC-AM-FM-TV, mostly as a nod to Westinghouse's stewardship of the stations."The great swap takes place June 19; Westinghouse, NBC return to original properties." Broadcasting, June 14, 1965, pg. 83. 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."First NBC radio properties go." Broadcasting, January 17, 1972, pg. 38. The AM station changed its calls to WWWE before restoring its historic WTAM calls in 1996, while the FM station became WWWM and then, in 1982, WMJI.
In a reverse of what took place in 1956, some radio and television staffers who worked for Westinghouse in Cleveland moved to Philadelphia along with the KYW call letters. This included news reporter Tom Snyder, news director Al Primo, and daytime talk show host Mike Douglas. Other Westinghouse employees—such as Linn Sheldon, Clay Conroy (who played Barnabys sidekick "Woodrow the Woodsman" before getting a spinoff show of his own), and staff announcer Jay Miltner (who had been with the station since its inception in 1948)—remained in Cleveland. NBC also relocated many of their top Philadelphia radio and television executives and some on-air personalities to Cleveland, such as meteorologist Wally Kinnan. Kinnan's arrival displaced Dick Goddard, who had been with channel 3 since 1961. Goddard moved to Philadelphia with Westinghouse but returned to Cleveland in early 1966 and joined WJW-TV (channel 8). Evening sports anchor Jim Graner, who had joined the station in 1957 while also serving as the color commentator for the Cleveland Browns radio network, remained through the transition; he stayed on until his death in 1976. To this day, the Philadelphia stations insist they "moved" to Cleveland in 1956 and "returned" to Philadelphia in 1965 after the trade was voided.
At the same time, channel 3 enjoyed several technical advances with NBC's parent company, RCA (and after 1986, General Electric). It was Cleveland's first television station to broadcast full-time in color on September 13, 1965 (almost immediately after NBC regained channel 3 from Group W), the first to broadcast in stereo in 1985, and the first VHF station to closed caption its local newscasts for the hearing-impaired in 1990.
NBC cedes control to Multimedia, and then Gannett 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."NBC selling 51% of WKYC-TV to Multimedia for $65 million." Broadcasting, March 19, 1990, pg. 28. Due to its long ownership by NBC, to this day channel 3 is the only major station in Cleveland to have never changed its primary affiliation. At that time, Multimedia's entertainment division (now part of NBC's syndication arm) produced a number of syndicated daytime talk shows, and as a result Multimedia productions such as Jerry Springer (who himself had come from then-sister station WLWT in Cincinnati), Sally Jessy Raphael and Donahue ended up on WKYC's daily schedule. In 1993, the NBC peacock was dropped from the primary station logo, which italicized the numeral 3, was put in a square, and took a red-white-blue color scheme, though WKYC was still (and continued to be up until 2019) identified as "Channel 3" (the previous logo was a plain Helvetica "3" [also used 1976–84, as per NBC's nationwide branding for its O&Os], and was modified to become the logo today, after replacing the logo used 1984–91, an abstract, rectangular 3).
The Gannett Company purchased Multimedia on December 4, 1995. Under a December 1998 put-call agreement with NBC, Gannett increased its stake in WKYC-TV to 58% in April 1999 and to 64% in December 2000; it acquired the remaining 36% of the station from NBC in 2001. WKYC accomplished another first in Cleveland television history by becoming the first station in Northeast Ohio to broadcast in high-definition in 1999. Soon after Gannett bought full control of the station, it moved from its longtime studios in the former East Ohio Gas building on East Sixth Street in downtown Cleveland to its state-of-the-art Lakeside Avenue studio on the shores of Lake Erie, which Channel 3 refers to as its "digital broadcast center".
Tegna era 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. WKYC was retained by the latter company, named Tegna.
On September 23, 2019, WKYC debuted a new logo ("circle 3" as seen above), began referring to their production operations as "WKYC Studios"—an umbrella brand encompassing their on-air and digital platforms, and began incorporating more lifestyle and human interest reports in their newscasts (under the branding of "3 News"); the station also now uses the "3" brand for general entertainment programming.The New 3 News - More of what you love - WKYC.com
In January 2020, WKYC began a 5 p.m. newscast, bringing in former ESPN personality and Sandusky, Ohio, native Jay Crawford as a co-anchor. In September 2022, channel 3 moved Crawford to its newly established 4 p.m. newscast, and signed former CNN anchor and Bellevue, Ohio, native Christi Paul as a co-anchor at 5 p.m.
Sale to Nexstar On August 19, 2025, Nexstar Media Group announced its purchase of Tegna Inc. for $6.2 billion. In Cleveland, Nexstar already owned WJW and WBNX-TV. The deal was completed on March 19, 2026, following approval by the FCC's Media Bureau for Nexstar to own more than two full-power station licenses in markets such as Cleveland. A temporary restraining order issued one week later by the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California, later escalated to a preliminary injunction, has prevented WKYC from being integrated into WJW and WBNX. Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost reached a deal with Nexstar on April 30, 2026, under which, if the injunction were to be lifted, Nexstar would maintain the existing local program output and editorially independent news departments between WJW and WKYC through 2030.
Programming Local programming