WNBT (now known as WNBC) in New York City, the oldest continuously operating commercial television station in the United States, first came on the air on July 1, 1941.
[5] NBC then established four other owned-and-operated stations: WNBW (now WRC-TV) in Washington, D.C. in 1947, WNBQ (now WMAQ-TV) in Chicago and WNBK (now WKYC) in Cleveland in 1948, and KNBH (now KNBC) in Los Angeles in 1949.
In May 1955, NBC agreed to trade WNBK and WTAM-AM-FM to Westinghouse in return for KYW radio and WPTZ television in Philadelphia.
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.
With the FCC encouraging the networks to expand their owned-and-operated holdings to include UHF stations, NBC purchased WBUF in Buffalo, New York, in 1955 and WKNB (now WVIT) in New Britain, Connecticut, in 1956.
However, Sunbeam balked because they did not want to lose NBC's strong lineup of sports programming that year, including the 1988 Summer Olympics.
The swap in Philadelphia was delayed when CBS discovered it would face a massive capital gains tax bill if it sold WCAU to NBC outright.
[24] In 1996, NBC bought the broadcasting holdings of The Outlet Company, bringing WCMH in Columbus, Ohio, WJAR in Providence, Rhode Island, and WNCN in Goldsboro, North Carolina into the fold.
NBC also made a 1996 deal with New World to acquire KNSD in San Diego and WVTM-TV in Birmingham, Alabama.
In 1999, the deYoung family announced the liquidation of their assets,[26] and thus the network jumped into the bidding war for KRON.
[31] Rather than give in to NBC's demands, Young decided not to renew KRON's affiliation contract, which was set to expire at the beginning of 2002.
In 2006, NBC Universal sold four of its smaller-market owned-and-operated stations (WVTM, WNCN, WCMH, and WJAR) to Media General.
In March 2008, Local Media decided to focus on growing websites and the top ten market stations, placing WTVJ in Miami and WVIT in Hartford up for sale.
With the lack of FCC approval and the poor economic conditions at the time, the WTVJ sale was canceled.
[46] In February 2010, the NBC stations launched a new website, theFeast.com, a restaurant news, blog and aggregate critic feature.
[48] In late 2010 and early 2011, eight more NBC O&O stations adopted the Nonstop digital subchannel format including the three California as one network.
[52] With Comcast purchasing controlling interest from GE of NBCUniversal in 2011, NBC stations were required by the Federal Communications Commission to develop partnership agreements with nonprofit news organizations.
[53] In December, four NBC stations indicated their non-profit news partners with the partnership modeled after KNSD and Voice of San Diego's preexisting one.
[25] In February 2013, LIN pulled out of the joint venture with NBCUniversal as part of a corporate reorganization, giving NBC full ownership of KXAS and KNSD.