WOAI-TV

WOAI-TV, virtual channel 4 (digital channel 48), 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.

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 ashared services agreement.[4] On December 17, 2007 WOAI debuted a new logo and new moniker.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.

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] usingPSIP to display WOAI-TV's virtual channel as 4.

Programming
<p style="margin-top: 0.4em; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 1.5em;">WOAI-TV broadcasts Rachael Ray, The Dr. Oz Show, The Doctors, and NBC programming. WOAI features its own daytime talk show SA Living.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-WOAI_Programming_7-0" style="line-height: 1em; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; ">[8]

WOAI drops Regis and Kelly
<p style="margin-top: 0.4em; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 1.5em;">The station announced on August 22, 2010 that it will replace Live with Regis and Kelly with Rachael Ray starting September 13 in hopes to boost ratings for their local lifestyle program San Antonio Living. The announcement spawned controversy with many loyal viewers as Live had connections with San Antonio as Philbin was a Spurs fan and that back in 1991, Live showcased the city during Fiesta.

<p style="margin-top: 0.4em; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 1.5em;">As of this time, no other station has picked up the show.

News operation
<p style="margin-top: 0.4em; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 1.5em;">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.WOAI broadcasts a total of 30 hours of local news per week (with 5½ hours on weekdays, one hour on Saturdays and 1½ hours on Sundays).

<p style="margin-top: 0.4em; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 1.5em;">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.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-woaihdupdate_8-0" style="line-height: 1em; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; ">[9]

<p style="margin-top: 0.4em; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 1.5em;">On September 6, 2010, WOAI extended its 6 p.m. newscast to one hour, with the addition of a half-hour extension of the newscast at 6:30 p.m.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-9" style="line-height: 1em; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; ">[10]

Newscast titles

 * World at Large (6 p.m. newscast)/Deadline (10 p.m. newscast; 1950s–19??)
 * Henry Guerra and the News
 * TV-4 News (19??–1970s)
 * TV-4 Big News (1970s)
 * NewsCenter 4 (1970s–1983)<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-10" style="line-height: 1em; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; ">[11]
 * News Four San Antonio (1983–19??)
 * KMOL News (19??–1994)
 * KMOL News 4 (1994–1996)
 * News 4 San Antonio (1996–2002 & 2013–present)<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-11" style="line-height: 1em; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; ">[12]
 * News 4 WOAI (2002–2007 & 2008–2013)<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-13" style="line-height: 1em; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; ">[14]
 * News 4 (2007–2008)

Station slogans

 * Channel 4, Proud As A Peacock! (1979-1980; local version of NBC ad campaign)
 * Channel 4, Our Pride Is Showing (1981-1982; local version of NBC ad campaign)
 * We're Channel 4, Just Watch Us Now (1982-1983; local version of NBC ad campaign)
 * The Spirit of San Antonio (mid 1980s-1996)<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-14" style="line-height: 1em; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; ">[15]
 * Come Home To The Best, Only on Channel 4 (1988–1990; local version of NBC ad campaign)
 * KMOL, The Place To Be! (1990-1992; local version of NBC ad campaign)
 * It's A Whole New Channel 4 (1992-1993; local version of NBC ad campaign)
 * The Stars Are Back on Channel 4 (1993-1994; local version of NBC ad campaign)
 * Straight Talk. Straight Facts. Straight to You. (1993–1995)
 * Breaking News. Breaking Weather. Investigations. (2006–2009)
 * Dedicated. Determined. Dependable. (2009–present;<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-15" style="line-height: 1em; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; ">[16] also slogan for WAGA-TV in Atlanta)

On-air staff
====Current on-air staff<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-16" style="line-height: 1em; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; ">[17] ==== <p style="margin-top: 0.4em; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 1.5em;">Anchors


 * Jaie Avila - weekday mornings; also "Troubleshooter" investigative reporter
 * Randy Beamer - weeknights at 5, 6 and 10 p.m.
 * Leslie Bohl-Jones - weekday mornings
 * Delaine Mathieu - weeknights at 5 p.m.
 * Jacqueline Ortiz - weekends at 5 and 10 p.m.; also "Kitchen Cops" feature and "Troubleshooter" investigative reporter
 * Elsa Ramon - weeknights at 6 and 10 p.m.

<p style="margin-top: 0.4em; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 1.5em;">StormTracker 4 Weather Team


 * John Gerard (AMS and NWA Seals of Approval) - Chief Meteorologist; weeknights at 5, 6 and 10 p.m.
 * David Mazza (AMS Seal of Approval; NWA Member) - meteorologist; weekday mornings, also "San Antonio Living" host
 * Steve Linscomb (NWA Seal of Approval) - meteorologist; weekends at 5 and 10 p.m., also reporter
 * Siobhan Anders - meteorologist; fill-in
 * Selena Garza - meteorologist; fill-in

<p style="margin-top: 0.4em; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 1.5em;">Sports team


 * Don Harris - Sports Director; weeknights at 5, 6 and 10 p.m.
 * David Chancellor - sports anchor; weekends at 5 and 10 p.m., also sports reporter
 * Humberto Cervera - sports reporter; also fill-in sports anchor

<p style="margin-top: 0.4em; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 1.5em;">Reporters


 * Brian Collister - "Troubleshooter" investigative reporter
 * Angel Covarrubias - general assignment reporter
 * Kristina DeLeon - general assignment reporter
 * Demond Fernandez - general assignment reporter
 * Melissa Garcia - general assignment reporter
 * Janet Kwak - general assignment reporter
 * Jozannah Quintanilla - general assignment reporter (who transferred from KSAT-12 to WOAI in 2010)
 * Mireya Villarreal - "Troubleshooter" investigative reporter
 * Leila Walsh - general assignment reporter

<p style="margin-top: 0.4em; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 1.5em;">San Antonio Living


 * David Mazza - co-host
 * Shelly Miles - co-host; also reporter

Former on-air staff

 * David Bacon
 * Janice Carpio
 * Don Colson (made a cameo appearance in Best Little Whorehouse in Texas)
 * Jeff Coyle
 * David Cruz
 * Deborah Daniels
 * Bill Denton
 * Jerry Desmond (died in 2003)
 * Kim Fischer (now at KXAS-TV in Dallas/Fort Worth)
 * Mike Hernandez
 * Larry Hightchew (died in 2011)
 * Matari Jones
 * Sharon Jones
 * Bruce Kates
 * Gene Lively (made a cameo appearance in Sugarland Express)
 * Joan Lucas
 * Martha Martinez
 * Ryan O'Donnell
 * Tanji Patton
 * Maclovio Perez
 * Lane Roberts
 * Erik Runge
 * Joe Sweeney (died in 2003)
 * Natalie Tejeda
 * Jennifer Broome

Photos
The years are shown under the pictures.