WOAI-TV
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| WOAI-TV | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| San Antonio, Texas | |
| Branding | 4 WOAI (general) News 4 WOAI (newscasts) |
| Slogan | Dedicated. Determined. Dependable. |
| Channels | |
| Affiliations | NBC Mexicanal (DT2) |
| Owner | High Plains Broadcasting, Inc. (operated by Newport Television) |
| First air date | December 11, 1949 |
| Call letters’ meaning | None. It was sequentially assigned by the federal government to the AM sister station.[1] |
| Former callsigns | WOAI-TV (1949-1975, 2002-present) KMOL-TV (1975-2002) |
| Former channel number(s) | Analog: 4 (1949-2009) Digital: 58 |
| Former affiliations | All secondary: DuMont (1949-1950) CBS (1949-1950) ABC (1949-1957) UPN (1998-2000) |
| Transmitter Power | 905 kW (digital) |
| Height | 457 m (digital) |
| Facility ID | 69618 |
| Transmitter Coordinates | 29°16′11″N 98°15′55″W / 29.26972°N 98.26528°W |
| Website | www.woai.com |
WOAI-TV is the NBC affiliate serving the San Antonio, Texas metropolitan area. Its transmitter is located in Elmendorf, Texas, with its studios located in downtown San Antonio.
WOAI Radio and Television are among the few stations west of the Mississippi River whose call sign begins with "W." This designation was "grandfathered" when the federal government issued regulations requiring radio stations west of the Mississippi River to start with "K," and stations east of the Mississippi to begin with "W."
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[edit] History
The station signed on December 11, 1949 as the first television station in San Antonio. It was owned by Southland Industries along with WOAI radio (1200 AM and 102.3 FM, now KSAQ). It carried programming from CBS, NBC, ABC and DuMont, but was a primary NBC affiliate due to WOAI-AM's long affiliation with NBC Radio. It lost CBS, DuMont to KEYL (now KENS-TV) in 1950; the two continued to share ABC until KONO-TV (now KSAT-TV) signed on in 1957.
In 1965, WOAI-AM-FM-TV was bought by Crosley Broadcasting, which changed its name to Avco Broadcasting in 1968. Avco began to pull out of broadcasting in 1975. WOAI-TV was sold off to United Television (at the time a subsidiary of 20th Century Fox) in 1975, changing its call letters to KMOL-TV. Chris-Craft Industries gained majority ownership of United in 1981, merging the group with BHC Communications (the owners of KCOP in Los Angeles, California and KPTV in Portland, Oregon).
When KRRT (now KMYS) dropped UPN for The WB affiliation in 1998, KMOL picked up UPN and air it late at night, due in part to being owned at the time by Chris-Craft, a one-time part-owner of UPN. Eventually the UPN affiliation went to KBEJ (now KCWX), which went on the air in 2000.
In 2001, Chris-Craft sold its stations to Fox. Fox then traded KMOL and KTVX in Salt Lake City to Clear Channel for WFTC in the Twin Cities. This tradeoff protected KABB as San Antonio's Fox station. Not only did the purchase reunite KMOL-TV with WOAI-AM (which had been one of the original two stations in the Clear Channel chain), but WOAI-TV also became the television flagship of the San Antonio-based conglomerate. Speculation immediately began that Clear Channel would restore the WOAI-TV calls to channel 4, and this occurred on September 9, 2002. Although the local Clear Channel radio cluster is located in Northwest San Antonio off I-10, WOAI-TV is still based in its downtown studios near the Riverwalk.
On November 16, 2006, Clear Channel announced that it would be selling all of its television stations [2] after being bought by private equity firms. On April 20, 2007, Clear Channel sold its entire television group to Providence Equity Partners' Newport Television, with the group deal closing on March 14, 2008.[3] However, the station continued a news partnership with its former radio sister. The two stations still share a website.
In May of 2008, Newport Television agreed to sell WOAI-TV and five other stations to High Plains Broadcasting, Inc. because of an ownership conflict — Providence Equity Partners also holds a 19 percent ownership stake in the Spanish-language network Univision, the owner of KWEX-TV and Telefutura station KNIC-TV.[4] The sale closed on September 15, 2008.[5] However, as the sale to High Plains Broadcasting is in name only (effectively making High Plains Broadcasting a front company for Newport Television in a relationship similar to that between Mission Broadcasting and Nexstar Broadcasting Group), Newport Television continues to operate WOAI-TV under a shared services agreement.[4]
On December 17, 2007 WOAI debuted a new logo and new moniker.
WOAI-TV's newscasts have struggled for most of the last 30 years, and are currently in third place. Rivals KENS and KSAT have battled for first place during this time and continue to do so today.
[edit] Digital Television
The station's digital channel is multiplexed:
[edit] WOAI-DT
WOAI-DT broadcasts on digital channel 58.
| Channel | Name | Programming |
|---|---|---|
| 4.1 | WOAI-DT | main WOAI-TV/NBC programming |
| 4.2 | WOAI-DT2 | Mexicanal |
[edit] Analog-to-Digital Conversion
After the analog television shutdown occurred on June 12, 2009 [6], WOAI-DT remained on channel 48 [7] using PSIP to display WOAI-DT's virtual channel as 4.
[edit] On-Air Talent
Current
- WOAI Anchors
- Jaie Avila: Weekday Morning Anchor/"Troubleshooter" Investigative Reporter
- Randy Beamer: Weekday Evening Anchor 5,6 and 10PM
- Leslie Bohl-Jones: Weekday Morning Anchor/
- Delaine Mathieu: Weeknight Evening Anchor 5PM
- Jacqueline Ortiz: Weekend Anchor/"Kitchen Cops" Feature Reporter/"Troubleshooter" Investigative Reporter
- Elsa Ramon: weekday evening anchor 6 and 10pm
- Shelly Miles: host "San Antonio Living" 10-11am and reporter
- WOAI Reporters
- Brian Collister: "Troubleshooter" Investigative Reporter
- Kristina Deleon: General Assignment Reporter
- Demond Fernandez: General Assignment Reporter
- Aubrey Chancellor: General Assignment Reporter
- Leila Walsh: General Assignment Reporter
- Kim Fischer: General Assignment Reporter
- Ryan O'Donnell: General Assignment Reporter
- Erik Runge: General Assignment Reporter
- StormTracker 4 Meteorologists
- Jennifer Broome (AMS Seal of Approval): Chief Meteorologist/"Jen's Kids" Reporter
- David Mazza (AMS Seal of Approval): Morning Meteorologist/"San Antonio Living"
- Steve Linscomb: Weekend Meteorologist/Reporter
- Siobhan Anders: Meteorologist
- Sports Anchors/Reporters
- Don Harris: Sports Director/Weeknight Sports Anchor
- David Chancellor: Weekend Sports Anchor/Sports Reporter
- Humberto Cervera: Sports Reporter/Fill in Sports Anchor
[edit] News/Station Presentation
[edit] Newscast Titles
- 4 Big News (1970s)
- NewsCenter 4 (1970s-1984)
- News 4 San Antonio (1984-1989, 1997-2002)
- KMOL News 4 (1989-1997)
- News 4 (2007-2008)
- News 4 WOAI (2002-2007, 2008-present)
[edit] Station Slogans
- The Spirit of San Antonio
- Breaking News. Breaking Weather. Investigations. (2006-2009)
- Dedicated, Determined, Dependable (2009-present)
[edit] Photos
 1973 |
 1980 |
 2002-2007 logo. |
Logo used since December 17, 2007. |
[edit] External links
- WOAI Homepage
- Query the FCC's TV station database for WOAI-TV
- BIAfn's Media Web Database -- Information on WOAI-TV
[edit] References
- ^ United States Callsign Policies, United States Early Radio History.
- ^ "Clear Channel agrees to sale". The Cincinnati Enquirer (Gannett Company). 2006-11-16. http://news.cincinnati.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061116/BIZ01/311160018/-1/CINCI. Retrieved on 2006-11-17.
- ^ Clear Channel Communications (2007-04-20). Clear Channel Agrees to Sell Television Station Group to Providence Equity Partners. Press release. http://www.clearchannel.com/Corporate/PressRelease.aspx?PressReleaseID=1943. Retrieved on 2007-04-20.
- ^ a b "Newport stations drift to High Plains". Television Business Report. 2008-05-21. http://www.rbr.com/tv-cable/tv_deals/7670.html. Retrieved on 2008-09-28.
- ^ "Application Search Details". CDBS Public Access. Federal Communications Commission. http://fjallfoss.fcc.gov/cgi-bin/ws.exe/prod/cdbs/pubacc/prod/app_det.pl?Application_id=1264514. Retrieved on 2008-09-28.
- ^ http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DA-06-1082A2.pdf
- ^ CDBS Print
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