13 Facts About WCAU

WCAU is a television station in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States, airing programming from the NBC network.

WCAU radio had been one of CBS' original 16 affiliates when the network launched in 1927.

In contrast, WCAU was a solid runner-up to ABC-owned station WPVI-TV .

In 1952, WCAU-AM-FM-TV moved to a new facility in the Main Line suburb of Bala Cynwyd, just north of the Philadelphia–Montgomery County line.

From 1965 to 1986, WCAU-TV was the only network-owned station in Philadelphia.

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Since Comcast acquired the station's parent NBCUniversal in 2011, WCAU has aired Philadelphia's major sports teams in many years.

WCAU struggled through the late 1970s while most of its CBS sister stations dominated the ratings, but has since recovered and has been a solid runner-up to longtime leader WPVI for over a quarter century.

WCAU managed to pass WPVI in the 5 p m time slot for a time in the early 1980s with its original Live at 5, anchored by Larry Kane and Deborah Knapp .

In 2001, WCAU made national news when its 11 p m newscast knocked WPVI from the top spot in the local news ratings for the first time in decades.

Since 2003, WCAU has had to fend off a spirited challenge from a resurgent KYW-TV for second place in the Philadelphia ratings; Channel 3's resurgence was fueled in part by luring Mendte away from channel 10.

Shortly after CBS agreed to sell the station to NBC in the fall of 1994, WCAU began to slowly remove CBS references from the station's branding; in January 1995, the longtime moniker of Channel 10 News was eliminated in favor of NewsCenter 10, which coincided with the debut of a reconstructed newsroom facility.

WCAU later announced in September 2012, that it would be leaving the Local News Service agreement with WTXF and KYW-TV and utilize its own helicopter.

WCAU is carried in central and southern New Jersey on certain cable systems that generally receive local channels from New York.