WMBD-TV is the CBS affiliate in Peoria, Illinois. It's the first Peoria station to broadcast local color television, the last to broadcast digital television, and the only commercial television station with its studio and offices still in the city itself.
WMBD-TV has been co-owned with WCIA in Champaign, Illinois for decades. Along with WCFN in Springfield, Illinois, they are now owned by Nexstar Broadcasting Group. WMBD-TV also operates WYZZ-TV....
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WMBD-TV is the CBS affiliate in Peoria, Illinois. It's the first Peoria station to broadcast local color television, the last to broadcast digital television, and the only commercial television station with its studio and offices still in the city itself.
WMBD-TV has been co-owned with WCIA in Champaign, Illinois for decades. Along with WCFN in Springfield, Illinois, they are now owned by Nexstar Broadcasting Group. WMBD-TV also operates WYZZ-TV.
When Theodore Roosevelt visited Peoria on October 10, 1910, he called Peoria's Grandview Drive the "World's Most Beautiful Drive" and thus the call letters WMBD were chosen for the radio station and carried over to the TV station. WMBD-TV first signed on the air on January 1, 1958. The original owners were Charles Caley and John Fetzer of WMBD, Inc., and it was co-owned with WMBD radio (AM 1470 and 93.3 FM, now WPBG). The stations were sold to Midwest Television Inc. of Champaign, Illinois; owners of WCIA in 1960 for $1.85 million.
In 1999,...
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