WOAI-TV
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| WOAI-TV | |
|---|---|
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| San Antonio, Texas | |
| Branding | News 4 |
| Slogan | Breaking News. Breaking Weather. Investigations. |
| Channels | Analog: 4 (VHF) |
| Affiliations | NBC NBC Weather Plus (DT2) |
| Owner | Newport Television, LLC (sale pending to High Plains Broadcasting, Inc.; Newport Television will continue to operate the station thereafter) |
| 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) KMOL-TV (1975-2002) |
| Former affiliations | All secondary: DuMont (1949-1950) CBS (1949-1950) ABC (1949-1950) UPN (1998-2000) |
| Transmitter Power | 100 kW (analog) 776 kW (digital) |
| Height | 451 m (analog) 457 m (digital) |
| Facility ID | 69618 |
| Transmitter Coordinates | |
| 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, ABC and DuMont to KEYL (now KENS-TV) in 1950.
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. The TV station 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 would pick 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 would go 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 San Antonio's Fox station, KABB as the San Antonio affiliation. 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 conglamerate. 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 from its downtown studios to this day 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] 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. 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 will continue to operate WOAI-TV after the sale is finalized.[4]
WOAI-TV debuted News 4 Weather Plus on its digital multiplex in 2005.
On December 17, 2007 WOAI debuted a new logo and new moniker.
[edit] Digital Television
| Channel | Programming |
|---|---|
| 4.1 / 58.1 | main WOAI-TV/NBC programming |
| 4.2 / 58.2 | News 4 Weather Plus |
[edit] Post-analog shutdown
After the analog television shutdown and digital conversion, which is tentatively scheduled to take place on February 17, 2009 [5], WOAI-TV will move its digital broadcasts to channel 48. [6] However, through the use of PSIP, digital television receivers will display WOAI-TV'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
- Leslie Bohl-Jones: Weekday Morning Anchor/"San Antonio Living" Host
- Delaine Mathieu: Weekday Evening Anchor
- Jacqueline Ortiz: Weekend Anchor/"Kitchen Cops" Feature Reporter/"Troubleshooter" Investigative Reporter
- WOAI Reporters
- Brian Collister: "Troubleshooter" Investigative Reporter
- Kristina Deleon: General Assignment Reporter
- Demond Fernandez: General Assignment Reporter
- Aubrey Chancellor: General Assignment Reporter
- Shelly Miles: Traffic Reporter/"San Antonio Living" Reporter
- Leila Walsh: General Assignment Reporter
- Kim Fischer: General Assignment Reporter
- Ryan O'Donnell:General Assignment Reporter/Fill in Sports Anchor
- Erik Runge:General Assignment Reporter
- 4x4 Weather Team
- Jennifer Broome (AMS Seal of Approval): Chief Meteorologist/"Jen's Kids" Reporter
- Maclovio Perez: Weekday Morning Meteorologist/"San Antonio Living" Reporter
- Steve Linscomb: Weekend Meteorologist/Reporter
- Siobhan Anders: Meteorologist
Meteorologist/
- Sports Anchors/Reporters
- Don Harris: Sports Director/Weeknight Sports Anchor
- David Chancellor: Weekend Sports Anchor/Sports Reporter
[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 WOAI (2002-2007)
- News 4 (2007-present)
[edit] Photos
The years are shown under the pictures.
 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. 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. Retrieved on 2007-04-20.
- ^ Fresno's KGPE has new owner
- ^ http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DA-06-1082A2.pdf
- ^ http://fjallfoss.fcc.gov/cgi-bin/ws.exe/prod/cdbs/forms/prod/cdbsmenu.hts?context=25&appn=101235109&formid=387&fac_num=69618
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