WOAI-TV

WOAI-TV is the NBC affiliate television station 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."

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 aired 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 channel 4 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 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.

Digital television

The station's digital channel is multiplexed:

WOAI-DT

WOAI-DT broadcasts on digital channel 48.

Analog-to-digital conversion

WOAI-TV shut down its analog signal on June 12, 2009 ^[6], as part of the DTV transition in the United States. WOAI-TV remained on its current pre-transition channel number, 48 ^[7] using PSIP to display WOAI-TV's virtual channel as 4.

News operation

WOAI broadcasts a total of 25 hours of local news per week (with 4½ hours on weekdays, one hour on Saturdays and 1½ hours on Sundays).

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.

On September 16, 2009, WOAI introduced a new set and began broadcasting its newscasts in high definition. This made it the third San Antonio station to begin airing newscasts in widescreen and the second to begin airing them in true high definition. It kept the previous logo featuring the big number 4, but transitioned the theme to a red, white, and black logo. ^[8]

On-air staff

Current on-air staff

Anchors

• Jaie Avila - weekday mornings (also "Troubleshooter" investigative reporter)
• Randy Beamer - weeknights at 5, 6 and 10PM
• Leslie Bohl-Jones - weekday mornings
• Delaine Mathieu - weeknights at 5PM
• Jacqueline Ortiz - weekends at 5 and 10PM (also "Kitchen Cops" feature and "Troubleshooter" investigative reporter)
• Elsa Ramon - weeknights at 6 and 10PM
• Shelly Miles - "San Antonio Living" host (10-11AM) (also reporter)

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

StormTracker 4 Weather Team

• John Gerard (AMS Seal of Approval) - Chief Meteorologist; weeknights at 5, 6 and 10PM
• David Mazza (AMS Seal of Approval; NWA Member) - Meteorologist; weekday mornings (also "San Antonio Living" host)
• Steve Linscomb - Meteorologist; weekends at 5 and 10PM (also reporter)
• Siobhan Anders - Weather Anchor; fill-in

Sports team

• Don Harris - Sports Director; weeknights at 5, 6 and 10PM
• David Chancellor - Sports Anchor; weekends at 5 and 10PM (also sports reporter)
• Humberto Cervera - sports reporter (also fill-in sports anchor)

Former on-air staff

• Janice Carpio
• Jeff Coyle
• David Cruz
• Deborah Daniels
• Bill Denton
• Jerry Desmond (died in 2003)
• Kim Fischer
• Mike Hernandez
• Matari Jones
• Bruce Kates
• Gene Lively (made a cameo appearance in Sugarland Express)
• Joan Lucas
• Martha Martinez
• Ryan O'Donnell
• Tanji Patton
• Maclovio Perez
• Erik Runge
• Natalie Tejeda
• Jennifer Broome

News/station presentation

Newscast titles

• World at Large (6 p.m. newscast)/Deadline (10 p.m. newscast; 1950s)
• TV-4 News/TV-4 News Central (1960s)
• TV-4 Big News (1970s)
• NewsCenter 4 (1970s-1984)
• News 4 San Antonio (1984-1989 and 1997-2002)
• KMOL News 4 (1989-1997)
• News 4 (2007-2008)
• News 4 WOAI (2002-2007 and 2008-present)

Station slogans

• The Spirit of San Antonio (mid 1980s-1996)
• Come Home to the Best, Only on Channel 4 (1988-1990; local version of NBC ad campaign)
• Vuelva a casa al Mejor, Sólo en Canal 4 (1988-1990; Spanish version of NBC's 1988 campaign)
• Straight Talk. Straight Facts. Straight to You. (1993-1995; news slogan)
• Breaking News. Breaking Weather. Investigations. (2006-2009)
• Dedicated. Determined. Dependable. (2009-present; also slogan for WAGA-TV in Atlanta)

External links

• WOAI Homepage
• Query the FCC's TV station database for WOAI-TV
• BIAfn's Media Web Database -- Information on WOAI-TV

References

1. ^ United States Callsign Policies, United States Early Radio History.
2. ^ "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 2006-11-17.
3. ^ 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 2007-04-20.
4. ^ ^{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 2008-09-28.
5. ^ "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 2008-09-28.
6. ^ http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DA-06-1082A2.pdf
7. ^ CDBS Print
8. ^ "News 4 WOAI is now in high definition". WOAI.com. 2009-09-16. http://www.woai.com/content/dtv/story/News-4-WOAI-is-now-in-high-definition/Fl8beBkhKkmtiNubHKDljg.cspx?rss=68. Retrieved 2009-09-16.

Categories: NBC network affiliates | Channel 48 digital TV stations in the United States | Television channels and stations established in 1949 | Television stations in San Antonio, Texas | American Basketball Association flagship television stations