During the terrorist attacks of September 11 , 2001 , the transmitter facilities of WNBC , as well as eight other New York City area television stations and several radio stations , were destroyed when two hijacked airplanes crashed into and destroyed the World Trade Center . WNBC broadcast engineer Bill Steckman died in the tragedy , along with six other engineers from other television stations . In the immediate aftermath , the station temporarily fed its signal to three UHF stations that were still broadcasting ( PBS member station WLIW and independent stations WMBC and W26CE ) . After resuming over-the-air transmissions , the station broadcast from the former transmitter site of Channel 68 in West Orange , New Jersey . Since 2005 , WNBC has broadcast its signal from the Empire State Building in midtown Manhattan , returning to the original transmitter site used from the 1930s to the 1970s . On May 9 , 2017 , it was announced that WNBC would return broadcasting from lower Manhattan at One World Trade Center by the end of the year
terrorist attacks of September 11 , 2001
September 11 attacks
WNBC