It has been suggested that NBC Radio City Studios be merged into this article or section. (Discuss)

NBC Studios was also a previous name for NBC's production division, which is now Universal Media Studios, formerly NBC Universal Television Studio.

This article may require cleanup to meet Wikipedia's quality standards. Please improve this article if you can. (February 2009)

NBC Studios are the two television studio facilities belonging to the National Broadcasting Company, with one of them being located inside the GE Building at Rockefeller Center in New York City, and the other located in Burbank, California, just outside of Los Angeles.

A third NBC production facility, the NBC Tower, is located in Chicago, Illinois. NBC Studios was also the name of the network's production arm (previously NBC Productions), before it was incorporated into the television operations of Universal Pictures, forming the NBC Universal Television Studio, now known as Universal Media Studios.

[edit] The New York Studios

30 Rockefeller Center, also known as the GE Building, is the world headquarters of NBC.

Ground-level entrance to same building

Located at 30 Rockefeller Plaza (on 49th Street, between 5th and 6th Avenues) in Manhattan, the historic GE Building houses the headquarters of the NBC television network, its parent General Electric, and NBC's flagship station WNBC (Channel 4), as well as cable news channel MSNBC.

When NBC Universal relocated, 24 hour cable network MSNBC joined the network in New York on that day as well. The new studios/headquarters for NBC News and MSNBC are located in one area.

The first NBC Radio City Studios began operating in the early 1930s, and tours of the studios began in 1933. NBC offers guided tours of their New York studios at a cost to tourists.^[1]

Because of the preponderance of radio studios, that section of the Rockefeller Center complex became known as Radio City (and gave its name to Radio City Music Hall, a gigantic and renowned venue for theatre and films located in Radio City). Even into the present decade, tickets for shows based at 30 Rock bear the legend "Radio City."

[edit] Shows recorded

Among the shows originating at 30 Rockefeller Plaza:

[edit] Other locations

Some other New York originated programs were produced elsewhere in New York City, including:

• Colonial Theater, 1887 Broadway at 62nd Street (original version of The Price is Right hosted by Bill Cullen, 1953-1963; Colgate Comedy Hour) Demolished 1977.
• Hudson Theater, 141 W. 44th Street (Tonight hosted by Steve Allen, 1954-1957).
• Ziegfeld Theatre, 141 W. 54th Street at Sixth Avenue (The Perry Como Show, Concentration primetime 1961)). Demolished 1966.
• 67th Street Studios, 101 W. 67th Street (the Home show with Arlene Francis 1954-1957, Concentration primetime 1958), demolished 1995. The site is now 50-story Millennium Tower apartment building.
• Century Theater, 232 Seventh Avenue at 59th Street (Caesar's Hour with Sid Caesar, 1954-1957).
• Brooklyn Studios* (now JC Studios), 1268 E. 14th Street in Midwood, Brooklyn (many 1950s color "Spectaculars" such as The Esther Williams Aqua Special,Peter Pan; it is also where The Perry Como Show (1960's), Mitch Miller Show (1960's), The Sammy Davis Jr. Show (1960s), Hullabaloo (1965-1966), Kraft Musical Hall, The Cosby Show, and Another World were produced. It is the current home of CBS's soap opera As the World Turns).
• International Theater, 5 Columbus Circle (Admiral Broadway Review 1949). Demolished 1954.
• Ambassador Theater, 215 W. 49th Street. Now a theatre presenting Broadway shows.
• Center Theater, 1236 Sixth Avenue at 49th Street (Texaco Star Theater with Milton Berle; Your Show of Shows, 1950-1954). Demolished 1954.
• Uptown Studios (now Metropolis Studios), 105 E. 106th Street at Park Avenue.
• NBC Universal Network Organization Center, Sylvan Avenue U.S. 9W in Englewood Cliffs ,New Jersey (home of CNBC and CNBC World)
• New Amsterdam Roof Theater, 214 W. 42nd Street.

*Equipped for color production.

These facilities are no longer used by NBC.

[edit] The Burbank Studios

NBC's West Coast production center is located at 3000 West Alameda Avenue in the Los Angeles suburb of Burbank, just a few miles northeast of the Hollywood area.

Although the first phase of this project was completed in September 1952 and a few black-and-white programs were broadcast from there for two and a half years, the facility was officially dedicated on March 27, 1955. It was known back then as NBC Color City, since a recently-completed studio at the complex is said to be the first TV studio equipped exclusively for color broadcasting.

A next full phase of the project was finished in November 1962, which accommodated the move of the network's Los Angeles station, on Channel 4, from Hollywood to Burbank. Channel 4 changed its call letters from KRCA to KNBC upon the move.

In fact, it was the first major color television studio in the country to be built from the ground up. Today, besides being home to NBC's west coast flagship station KNBC, it also houses the network's West Coast broadcast operations, its Los Angeles news bureau, as well as the Telemundo network's local owned & operated station, KVEA (Channel 52), and Spanish independent station KWHY (Channel 22). It also houses the master controls for KNTV San Jose, KNSD San Diego, as well as the Telemundo owned-and-operated stations in San Jose, Fresno, Las Vegas, Phoenix, and Tucson.

The studios of Warner Bros. and The Walt Disney Company (includes rival network ABC) are located nearby in the same neighborhood.

This studio facility was responsible for producing some of the best remembered game and variety shows from the 1960s through the 1990s, including The Tonight Show from 1972, when Johnny Carson moved to show to California from New York, until 2009, when Jay Leno handed hosting duties to Conan O'Brien. NBC Studios rivals CBS Television City as the premier television production facility on the West Coast.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Move to Universal City

In mid-October 2007, the network announced that it intends to move most of its operations by 2011 from Burbank to a new complex across the street from Universal Studios in Universal City ^[2]. It would retain an office presence at the current Burbank site, though most of the studio complex will be sold. The park and ride lot for the Metro Red Line Universal City Station currently occupies the future site of NBC West Coast.

In preparation for the move Ellen has moved nearby to the Warner Brothers Studios in 2008, and The Tonight Show moved to an all-digital studio in the Universal Studios Backlot in 2009. However, The Jay Leno Show will continue to broadcast from the NBC Burbank studios, though moving to another soundstage from the titular host's Tonight Show tenure.

[edit] Program history

Today, the studio houses Last Call with Carson Daly, Days of our Lives, "The Jay Leno Show" and Access Hollywood. Programs produced here over the years include:

It is one of the few television-specific studio facilities in Hollywood that offers tours to the general public.

[edit] NBC Tower

NBC Tower in Chicago, Illinois

The network's Chicago-based studio center is located at 454 North Columbus Drive (455 North Cityfront Plaza is also used as a vanity address for the building) in downtown Chicago's Magnificent Mile area. This building opened in 1989, after the network moved its offices and its owned and operated station, WMAQ-TV (Channel 5) from the 20th floor of the Merchandise Mart, where it had been based since 1930.

WMAQ and NBC are the primary tenants of this building, along with Telemundo's Chicago-based owned & operated station WSNS (Channel 44), but there are other companies that conduct business here, including CBS Radio's WSCR-AM (670), which was WMAQ's sister station as WMAQ-AM (which had also been in the Tower from 1990-2000 before their conversion to WSCR; WSCR moved to the Tower and WMAQ's former studios in 2004).

In addition to housing these entities, the studios were/are home to the following shows:

• iVillage Live (2007)
• The Jenny Jones Show (1991-2003)
• The Jerry Springer Show (1991-present; originated from here from 1993 to 2009)
• Judge Jeanine Pirro
• Judge Mathis (1999-present)
• Kwik Witz (1996-1999)
• Merv Griffin's Crosswords (2007-present, pilot shows only)
• Sports Action Team (2006-present)
• The Steve Wilkos Show (2007-present, moved to Connecticut in 2009)

[edit] References

1. ^ NBC Tour: NBC Studio Tour - Official NBC Universal Store
2. ^ http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117973843.html?categoryid=14&cs=1

• NBC Television Network
• NBC Universal
• NBC Tower

Coordinates: 34°09′15″N 118°20′01″W / 34.15408°N 118.33348°W / 34.15408; -118.33348