About WBBM CBS2
WBBM-TV began in 1940, when Balaban and Katz, a subsidiary of Paramount Pictures, signed on experimental station W9XBK, Chicago's first all-electronic television facility. Balaban and Katz were already well-known in the Chicago region for owning multiple movie houses. The business hired television pioneer William C. "Bill" Eddy away from RCA's experimental station W2XBS in New York City to build the station. When World War II broke out, Eddy utilized the W9XBK facilities as a test site for Navy electronics workers. Eddy continued to command W9XBK while running the Navy school and writing a book that defined commercial television for many years.On September 6, 1946, the station received a commercial license as WBKB (for Balaban and Katz Broadcasting) on VHF channel 4, becoming the first commercial station located outside the Eastern Time Zone; it was also the sixth commercial TV station in the United States behind WNBT (now WNBC), WCBW (now WCBS-TV), WABD (now WNYW) all in New York City; WRGB in Schenectady, New York; and WPTZ (now KYW-TV) in Philadelphia. WBKB carried some of the first CBS shows, including the 1947 premiere of Junior Jamboree (later renamed Kukla, Fran and Ollie after it moved to NBC in 1948). Channel 4 began as an independent station since it was unclear if it would become an affiliate of the CBS television network at the time. WTMJ-TV in Milwaukee was finally the first television station west of the Eastern Time Zone to be affiliated with a major network. On December 28, 1947, the station aired the National Football League championship game between the Chicago Cardinals and the Philadelphia Eagles, which was one of its early highlights.
WBKB began sharing the market's CBS affiliation with WGN-TV (channel 9) in April 1948, once that station signed on. Balaban and Katz became part of United Paramount Theatres in 1949, after Paramount Pictures was ordered by the United States Supreme Court to divest its chain of movie theaters.
WBKB was indirectly responsible for the downfall of the DuMont Television Network. The studio possessed an interest in DuMont at the time, but the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) regarded DuMont to be a corporation controlled by the studio. The FCC's judgment meant that neither Paramount nor DuMont could purchase any additional television stations, as they already controlled WABD (now WNYW) in New York City, WTTG in Washington, D.C., and WDTV (now sister station KDKA-TV) in Pittsburgh. In 1949, Paramount founded the Paramount Television Network (no link to today's cable-only Paramount Network), with KTLA and WBKB as flagship stations; however, the service never developed into a viable television network.