| Oak Hill/Beckley/ Bluefield, West Virginia |
|
|---|---|
| Branding | WOAY Television NewsWatch |
| Channels | Digital: 50 (UHF) |
| Subchannels | 50.1 ABC (HD) 50.2 ABC (SD) |
| Owner | Thomas Broadcasting Company |
| First air date | December 14, 1954 |
| Former channel number(s) | Analog: 4 (1954-2009) |
| Former affiliations | DuMont (1954-1956) CBS, UPN (all secondary) |
| Transmitter power | 1,000 kW |
| Height | 237.1 m |
| Class | DT |
| Facility ID | 66804 |
| Website | woay.com |
WOAY-TV is the ABC-affiliated television station for Southern West Virginia and Southwestern Virginia locally-owned by the Thomas Broadcasting Company. Licensed to Oak Hill, it broadcasts a high definition digital signal on UHF channel 50 from a transmitter at its studios on Legends Highway/WV 16/WV 61 in Scarbro (though the address says Oak Hill). The station can also be seen on Comcast channel 4 and Suddenlink channel 5. There is a high definition feed offered on Suddenlink digital channel 105 and Comcast digital channel 435. Syndicated programming on WOAY includes TMZ on TV, Family Feud, Scrubs, and The People's Court among others. The station signs-off during the overnight.
Contents |
On WOAY-DT2 is a standard definition simulcast of the main channel.
| Channel | Name | Video | Aspect | Programming |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 50.1 | WOAY-HD | 720p | 16:9 | main WOAY programming/ABC (HD) |
| 50.2 | WOAY-DT2 | 480i | 4:3 | WOAY programming/ABC (SD) |
The station signed-on December 14, 1954 as the area's first television station. It aired an analog signal on VHF channel 4 and originally planned to use "WOAK" as its call sign (standing for its city of license "OAK" Hill), but the handwritten application was misread by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). Early on, WOAY was primarily affiliated with ABC but also maintained secondary relations with CBS and DuMont.
During the late-1950s, the station was also briefly affiliated with the NTA Film Network. DuMont would be dropped at the network's closure in 1956 while it is unknown how long programming from CBS remained on the schedule. The market would not get a full-time affiliate until September 2001 through Lewisberg's WVSX (now WVNS-TV). Until that point, WDBJ in Roanoke, Virginia served as the default station on cable.
In previous decades, the station was known throughout the area for a very theatrical professional wrestling show that it produced with local "talent". However, this ended in 1979 when WOAY's main studio, control room, office, and transmitter building burned to the ground. These were relocated and rebuilt in the adjacent wrestling arena where they remain today. The station signed-off its analog signal at 11:35 in the evening on June 12, 2009 and remained on digital channel 50. On that date, WOAY dropped its longtime on-air moniker of "TV 4". Unlike most stations, it opted not to use PSIP to remap its digital signal to channel 4, choosing instead to show it as its physical digital channel.
It verbally identifies as "WOAY Television", although its logo identifies it as "TV 50". In 2009, WOAY-TV revamped its technical infrastructure to become the first HD broadcast station in West Virginia. It clears the majority of the ABC programming schedule.
WOAY-TV competes locally with WVVA and WVNS (the latter of which is part of a statewide network of stations), and also WDBJ which is still offered on area cable systems. The NewsWatch team airs live newscasts at 6am, Noon, 6pm and 11pm. WOAY-TV signs-off every night, resuming transmission at 6 in the morning, making it one of a few major network affiliates in the country to still sign-off every night. Former West Virginia Senator Shirley Love was a news anchor at the station. Local personality and 17 time award winner, Bob Brunner was the News Director.
|
|||||||||||
|
||||||||