![nbc chicago nbc chicago](https://www.newscaststudio.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/nbc-chicago-2012-set.jpg)
On October 1, 1989, after 40 years at the Merchandise Mart, the station officially relocated its operations and began broadcasting from the NBC Tower, located on 455 North Columbus Drive, six blocks east of the Mart. Under the plans for the project, NBC was given the option of acquiring an approximately 25% interest in the building. On December 3, 1985, NBC signed a $100 million+ agreement to lease office space in a three-story annex to the north of a planned 34-story, 1,000,000-square-foot (92,903 m 2) skyscraper-a project developed by the Equitable Life Assurance Society and Tishman-Speyer Properties-that would be constructed as part of the Cityfront Center development on the northwest corner of Columbus Drive and North Water Street, in which WMAQ-TV's operations would occupy 251,000 square feet (23,319 m 2) of the building. Although the station's role as a program provider to NBC diminished in the 1960s, WMAQ-TV gathered and distributed more than 200 news footage feeds per month from overseas and the Central United States to NBC News. The call letters of its sister radio station were initially assigned by the government but were used to form the phrase "We Must Ask Questions", which the radio station took as its motto in the 1920s. The '5' in this logo, set in Helvetica, was also used from 1976 to 1985.Īlthough NBC had long owned the WMAQ radio stations, the television station continued to maintain call letters separate from those used by its co-owned radio outlets this changed on August 31, 1964, when the network changed the station's calls to WMAQ-TV. Television critics referred to the broadcasts-often low-budget with few celebrity guests but a good deal of inventiveness-as examples of the "Chicago School of Television". WMAQ-TV originated several programs for the NBC television network from its original studio facilities-a 170,000-square-foot (15,794 m 2) studio on the 19th floor of the Merchandise Mart on the city's Near North Side-during the 1950s, including Kukla, Fran, and Ollie, featuring Burr Tillstrom and Fran Allison Garroway at Large, starring Dave Garroway and Studs' Place, hosted by Studs Terkel. The half-hour program was recorded via kinescope and rebroadcast on WNBQ at 8:30 p.m.
![nbc chicago nbc chicago](http://www.asavingswow.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/NBC-Chicago-1024x576.jpg)
![nbc chicago nbc chicago](https://i1.ytimg.com/vi/MpPgB1KZ3gY/maxresdefault.jpg)
The station's first mid-week broadcast came the month following its sign-on when Paul Winchell and Joseph Dunninger were featured on the NBC variety series, The Floor Show. NBC officials cited the need to avoid possible confusion with WMBI (1110 AM) and to obtain a callsign that was closer to co-owned NBC Red Network radio station WMAQ (670 AM, frequency now occupied by WSCR and 101.1 FM, now WKQX) as the reasons for the change. At NBC's request, however, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) approved an application filed by the network to change the station's calls to WNBQ, a move that was announced on March 3, 1948. The station originally proposed WNBY as its call letters.
![nbc chicago nbc chicago](https://tvseriesfinale.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/chicago-pd-nbc-season-5-viewer-voting-episode-ratings-canceled-renewed.jpg)
Singer-actress Connie Russell from Garroway at Large and her daughter are pictured.