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A television station is a set of equipment managed by a business, organisation or other entity such as an amateur television (ATV) operator, that transmits video content and audio content via radio waves directly from a transmitter on the earth's surface to any number of tuned receivers simultaneously.

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243-621: WFAA (channel 8) is a television station licensed to Dallas, Texas , United States, serving as the ABC affiliate for the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex . It is owned by Tegna Inc. alongside Decatur -licensed independent station KFAA-TV (channel 29), which provides a full-market high definition simulcast of WFAA's main channel on its UHF physical channel assigned to channel 8.8, due to long-term issues involving WFAA's digital VHF signal. WFAA maintains studio facilities and business offices at

486-497: A MyNetworkTV owned-and-operated station) under a local marketing agreement with its then-owner, Richardson -based Dallas Media Investors Corporation. The agreement – which resulted in KDFI integrating its operations into KDFW's downtown studios on North Griffin Street – allowed KDFW to provide advertising, promotional and master control services for KDFI, while Dallas Media Investors (which

729-516: A Top 40 format in 1973. On November 9 , 1976, the station made its final format change, adopting a news and talk -based schedule (as "Newstalk 570"). WFAA (AM) was initially based its operations in a 9×9-ft tent on the roof of the Dallas Morning News ' headquarters, before relocating to the newspaper's library. On October 1, 1925, it later moved to the 17th floor of the Baker Hotel at

972-507: A barter in some cases. KDFW KDFW (channel 4) is a television station licensed to Dallas, Texas , United States, serving as the Fox network outlet for the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex . It is owned and operated by the network's Fox Television Stations division alongside MyNetworkTV station KDFI (channel 27, also licensed to Dallas). The two stations share studios on North Griffin Street in downtown Dallas ; KDFW's transmitter

1215-467: A digital subchannel affiliated with the network on May 1, 2010. Despite this, WFAA remains available on some cable providers in the southern half of the market; Cable One , however, removed the station from its Sherman and Denison systems on February 26, 2015, due to a clause in its retransmission agreement with KTEN that precluded it from carrying any other ABC stations from nearby markets. On January 1 , 1999, Belo launched Texas Cable News (TXCN),

1458-588: A statewide cable news channel that initially featured rolling news, weather and sports content, as well as public affairs , sports-talk and entertainment news programs, using staff and resources from WFAA and sister stations KVUE, KHOU and KENS, and The Dallas Morning News . TXCN switched to a format primarily consisting of repackaged newscasts featuring segments seen on each of Belo's Texas-based stations, and in-house weather segments on January 1, 2005, citing limited cable distribution in Texas' largest television markets for

1701-491: A ticker that displayed local and national headlines. The subchannel was also used to air special programming; in particular, WFAA-DT2 was used to relay wall-to-wall coverage from its sister stations during hurricane season from New Orleans sister station WWL-TV for Hurricane Katrina in August 2005 and Hurricane Gustav in 2008; and Houston sister station KHOU for Hurricane Ike in 2008 and Hurricane Harvey in 2017. In addition to

1944-463: A 15-minute newscast at midnight four nights a week; the station also launched News 8 Etc. , a 90-minute morning news-talk show that replaced the children's program Mr. Peppermint in January 1970 and was originally hosted by Suzie Humphreys and Don Harris, who conducted the broadcast without the assistance of cue cards or a TelePrompTer ; following anchor Gene Thomas' death when a jet-powered dragster he

2187-472: A Fox affiliate as conflicting and incompatible courses (before New World started switching most of its stations to Fox in September 1994, Fox stations tended to focus predominately on first-run and off-network syndicated programs and movies, with limited to no local news programming; Miami affiliate WSVN's decision to adopt a news-intensive programming format after switching from NBC to Fox in January 1989 served as

2430-481: A Fox affiliate through the New World deal) to serve as anchor of its 10 p.m. newscast and conduct special assignment reports, the latter of which (through investigative reports and interviews on which she has been assigned) has earned her several journalism awards over her career with the station (including Associated Press , Emmy and Peabody Awards and a duPont-Columbia Citation for Excellence ); as of 2016 , she

2673-474: A Fox affiliate, the revamped programming schedule did not include sitcoms and, like New World's other Fox stations, ran children's programs only on weekend mornings. On July 17, 1996, News Corporation—which separated most of its entertainment holdings into 21st Century Fox in July 2013—announced that it would acquire New World in an all-stock transaction worth $ 2.48 billion; the merger deal also included rights to

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2916-427: A Fox owned-and-operated station in which the station maintains such an arrangement with a local NFL franchise, KDFW does not carry any team-produced analysis or magazine programming; channel 4 held the local rights to air various team-related programs and specials during the regular season until 1998 , when the local rights to these programs migrated to KTVT under a programming agreement reached between that station and

3159-485: A KRLD-TV field crew captured footage of Oswald's assassination by nightclub owner Jack Ruby as officers were transferring the former in handcuffs out of the Dallas Police Department's downtown precinct. CBS also maintained an arrangement with Channel 4 to use the station's remote unit to transmit live programming broadcast by the network during the 1960s and 1970s; in particular, the remote transmission truck

3402-495: A co-anchor to be named later, while Tim Ryan (who has anchored KDFW's morning newscast since joining the station shortly after the 1995 affiliation switch) and Lauren Przybyl (who joined KDFW in September 2009) being shifted to the 6–10 a.m. portion of the broadcast. The station's signal is multiplexed : KDFW began transmitting a digital signal on UHF channel 35 on September 10, 1998. The station shut down its analog signal, over VHF channel 4, on June 12, 2009, as part of

3645-406: A daily 30-minute wrap-up of the proceedings in the O. J. Simpson murder case for KDFI—which aired in place of the 10 p.m. news rebroadcast—during the summer and fall of 1994. On May 23, 1994, in an overall deal in which network parent News Corporation also acquired a 20% equity interest in the company, Atlanta -based New World Communications signed a long-term affiliation agreement with

3888-585: A default Fox station for portions of the adjacent Sherman - Ada market located south of the Oklahoma -Texas state line (including Gainesville , Durant and Hugo ) through its availability on area cable providers (cable subscribers residing on the Oklahoma side of the market primarily received Fox network programs via KOKH-TV in Oklahoma City ). Because the market lacked enough commercial television stations to allow

4131-827: A fifteen-minute ceremony inaugurating the launch of Channel 8 as its first broadcast; KBTV broadcast for one hour that evening, with the remainder of its initial schedule consisting of its first locally produced program, the variety series Dallas in Wonderland . Potter founded and operated the station through the Lacy-Potter TV Broadcasting Company, which he partially controlled. It was the third television station to sign on in Texas (behind WBAP-TV (channel 5, now KXAS-TV ) in nearby Fort Worth, which signed on almost one year earlier on September 29, 1948; and KLEE-TV (now KPRC-TV ) in Houston , which debuted on January 1, 1949),

4374-501: A founding reporter/producer at NPR 's All Things Considered and created several Washington-based television news services), and the late Don Harris (who, while working for NBC News at the time, was killed at the start of the Jonestown massacre and mass suicides in Guyana in 1978). Channel 8's approach to news during this period was characterized by an aggressive, all-out commitment to get

4617-461: A fourth duopoly ). On August 5, 2014, Gannett announced that it would split its broadcast and print media properties into separate publicly traded companies. Once the corporate separation was finalized on June 29, 2015, WFAA became part of Tegna , which was structured as the legal successor of the old Gannett and assumed ownership of the original company's non-publishing assets (including the broadcasting unit and most of its digital media properties);

4860-511: A half-hour delay as the station produces and broadcasts Inside Texas Politics during the first 30 minutes of This Week ' s usual Central Time airing, and also airs the Saturday edition of Good Morning America one hour earlier than most ABC stations (airing it at 6 a.m. via the live Eastern Time Zone feed rather than on tape delay). It also carries the Litton's Weekend Adventure block on

5103-418: A handful of markets where all of the "Big Four" networks maintained affiliations with VHF stations (along with New York City , Los Angeles, San Francisco , Washington, D.C. , Seattle , Tucson , Miami , Salt Lake City , Las Vegas , Albuquerque , Honolulu , Boise and Anchorage ; Reno joined this distinction in 1996, followed by Portland and Minneapolis–St. Paul in 2002; in both Boise and Honolulu,

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5346-712: A heavily wooded area near the Joe Pool Lake spillway (south of Camp Wisdom Road) in Grand Prairie , while it was making an emergency landing after the aircraft's engine lost power (which the National Transportation Safety Board determined was caused by the failure of one or more of the compressor blades for the fifth stage compressor) en route to a breaking news story in Fort Worth that morning. The out-of-control chopper skidded and rolled before stopping near

5589-492: A higher effective radiated power strong enough to adequately cover Dallas. WFAA lost its NBC affiliation on September 1, 1957, as the network had awarded WBAP-TV the exclusive affiliation for the Dallas–Fort Worth market as a byproduct of the transmitter relocation and signal boost; this left Channel 8 as an exclusive affiliate of the then-low-rated ABC. Channel 8 became known for its heavy schedule of local programs during

5832-508: A lead-in to ABC's college football telecasts). In January 2024, WFAA parent company Tegna Inc. announced an agreement to air 10 Dallas Mavericks games during the 2023–24 NBA season . Later in September, Tegna announced a new deal with the Mavericks beginning with the 2024-25 NBA season after they terminated their contract with Bally Sports. The bulk of the games would go on sister station KFAA-TV with WFAA simulcasting 15 games. Historically,

6075-522: A license by the FCC (along with WBAP-TV, KBTV and Houston's KLEE-TV [now KPRC-TV ]). Channel 4 originally carried programming from CBS , an affiliation that KRLD-TV inherited through the CBS Radio Network 's longtime relationship with KRLD (AM), which became the first radio station in Texas to affiliate with the television network's radio predecessor in 1927 (when the station was transmitting at 1040 AM); it

6318-421: A local morning newscast in 1987, when it launched the initially 60-minute traditional news program News 8 Daybreak (which evolved out of local news inserts that it aired during World News This Morning ). WFAA pioneered community outreach in 1977 with the "Wednesday's Child" series of feature segments, which profiled children in need of an adoptive family and was descended from a feature segment on News 8 Etc. ;

6561-408: A locally programmed format under the name "Xpress 8.2". The service, which was later renamed "News 8 Now" (which the station also used as the branding for promotional content and as an alternative program-specific title for the station's newscasts starting in 1996), featured weather radar imagery, regular news updates and occasional live programming (including content from ABC News Now ), as well as

6804-700: A long-term affiliation deal renewing its contract with KXAS and its NBC-affiliated sister stations in Austin , Norfolk and Grand Rapids ; WFAA was eliminated as an option as ABC reached a new long-term agreement with then-owner of the station, Belo, to extend affiliation contracts for WFAA and other Belo-owned stations that were affiliated with the network; that deal resulted in the company's station in Sacramento switching its affiliation from CBS to ABC in March 1995. This left independent station KTVT as CBS' only viable option among

7047-478: A message from an official at Parkland Hospital that Kennedy had succumbed from the gunshot wound as doctors conducted emergency surgery. Because of a local press pool arrangement that was put in place that morning to cover Kennedy's speech at the Trade Mart downtown, Barker's scoop appeared live simultaneously on CBS, which had sent correspondent Dan Rather to report from Dealey Plaza , and ABC . Two days later,

7290-570: A move by the company to concentrate on its newspapers and cable television system franchises, on March 29, 1993, Times-Mirror announced it would sell KDFW-TV and its three sister stations—fellow CBS affiliate KTBC (now a Fox owned-and-operated station) in Austin , ABC affiliate KTVI (now a Fox affiliate) in St. Louis and NBC affiliate WVTM-TV in Birmingham —to San Antonio –based Argyle Television Holdings for $ 335 million in cash and securities. Under

7533-415: A much shorter wavelength, and thus requires a shorter antenna, but also higher power. North American stations can go up to 5000 kW ERP for video and 500 kW audio, or 1000 kW digital. Low channels travel further than high ones at the same power, but UHF does not suffer from as much electromagnetic interference and background "noise" as VHF, making it much more desirable for TV. Despite this, in

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7776-675: A national network (becoming an affiliate of the NBC Red Network in 1927, four years after it agreed to join the network), co-founded the Texas Quality Network, and was the first Texas station to carry educational programs, to produce a serious radio drama series, to air a state championship football game and the first to broadcast an inaugural ceremony (that of Texas Governor Ross Sterling in 1931). The station's original on-air staff members and reporters consisted of columnists and editors employed with The Dallas Morning News . WFAA (AM)

8019-469: A news division—and by association, an affiliate news service—at the time KDFW joined the network (Fox News Channel and the Fox News Edge video service would not launch until August 1996), the station's news department initially relied on external video feeds from CNN Newsource for coverage of national and international news stories; the station also increased its news staff from 80 to 120 employees, through

8262-448: A one-hour delay from its "live feed" due to the Saturday edition of News 8 Daybreak , although midday college football games that ABC airs during the fall may subject programs normally aired on Saturdays in the 11 a.m. hour to be deferred to Sundays to fulfill educational programming obligations (during the 1990s, such deferrals were also caused by the local sports highlight program High School Football Roundup , which WFAA aired as

8505-433: A part of the deal, WFAA and KMPX, along with their Austin sister station KVUE and Houston sister stations KHOU and KTBU would be resold to Cox Media Group . The sale was cancelled on May 22, 2023. WFAA, which would eventually serve as the sister radio station to WFAA television, first signed on the air on June 26, 1922. The station had long participated in a time-sharing arrangement with Fort Worth radio station WBAP, which

8748-462: A part-time basis since its sign-on in 1956) disaffiliated from the network, WFAA began serving as a default ABC station for areas near and south of the Red River within the adjacent Sherman – Ada market—including Gainesville , and the southern Oklahoma cities of Ardmore, Durant and Hugo —through its existing availability on most cable providers in the region ( KOCO-TV in Oklahoma City served as

8991-657: A relative degree of talent turnover over the years (particularly during the 1980s and early 1990s), several anchors and reporters that have been part of Channel 4's news department staff have worked for the station for at least ten years (in addition to Tinsley, these have included Richard Ray, who joined KDFW as a reporter in 1983 and has also served as weekend evening anchor from 1995 until his retirement in 2019; Ron Jackson, who served as weekend meteorologist from 1982 until his retirement in 2014; and Becky Oliver, who served as its chief investigative reporter from 1991 until her retirement from broadcasting in 2015 ). On January 6, 1980,

9234-426: A second frequency, 570 kHz, which was formerly occupied by KGKO. Until WFAA (AM) began to transmit full-time on 570 kHz in 1970, WBAP and WFAA were engaged in the somewhat bizarre situation of having to switch back and forth between the 570 and 820 frequencies at various times of the day: WBAP broadcast on 820 AM from midnight to 6 a.m., with WFAA taking over the frequency space until noon; WBAP returned to

9477-479: A secondary affiliate of the short-lived Paramount Television Network ; under the arrangement, through an agreement between Lacy-Potter and Paramount Pictures , the station agreed to air 4.75 hours of Paramount Television's programming each week during 1949. KBTV, NBC affiliate WBAP-TV and CBS affiliate KRLD-TV (channel 4, now Fox owned-and-operated station KDFW )—the latter of which was also licensed to Dallas and signed on three months later on December 3—would be

9720-458: A seven-year tenure at the station) stated that Bailey could not have "accomplished a more reprehensible mass assassination of character with a machine gun or bomb". Although ratings for its newscasts declined in the first couple of months after it joined Fox due to viewer confusion over the switch (which Whitaker acknowledged had also resulted in ratings losses at its competitors at that time), KDFW began regaining some of its news audience starting in

9963-583: A short inaugural program featuring speeches from Gooch and KRLD-AM-TV managing director Clyde Rembert dedicating the station's launch, followed by a broadcast of the CBS game show It Pays to Be Ignorant . The first local program aired on the station that day was a college football game in which the Notre Dame Fighting Irish defeated the Southern Methodist Mustangs , 27–20. (The station

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10206-566: A single 90-minute block—although both programs were respectively structured as separate one-hour and half-hour broadcasts—filled timeslots vacated by the removals of CBS This Morning and the CBS Evening News from its schedule as Fox, unlike CBS, does not have daily national newscasts. Since Fox does not provide a third hour of network programming within its evening schedule, Channel 4 also added an hour-long prime time newscast at 9 p.m. to lead into its existing 10 p.m. newscast (KDFW

10449-459: A station that was founded by a newspaper, local news has always had a strong presence on Channel 4. For the better part of four decades, it was part of a spirited battle for first place among the market's news-producing stations with KXAS and WFAA. In November 1978, the station hired Clarice Tinsley (who joined KDFW from CBS affiliate and eventual sister station WITI in Milwaukee , which also became

10692-489: A temporary arrangement until it could affiliate with KDAF when Fox moved to channel 4. KDFW rebranded as "Fox 4 Texas" upon the affiliation switch, but with references to the Fox logo and name limited in most on-air imaging; although as with most of the other New World-owned stations affected by the agreement with Fox, channel 4 retained the news branding it had been using before it joined the network—in its case, News 4 Texas , which

10935-506: A time share arrangement with WBAP-TV to expand coverage of the network's programming to areas of central and eastern Dallas County that only received rimshot coverage of the Channel 5 signal. After ownership of Carter Publications transferred to his familial heirs after Carter suffered a fatal heart attack two years before, in early 1957, NBC threatened to strip WBAP-TV of its affiliation if it did not agree to move its transmitter eastward to reach

11178-497: A variety of puppet characters (performed by Vern Dailey) and presented various segments from educational content to cartoon shorts; five years after ending its original nine-year run on WFAA in 1970, the program was revived as the half-hour magazine-style educational series Peppermint Place in 1975, running for 21 additional years—expanding into syndication for its final seven—until the program ended its collective 30-year run in July 1996. Other notable WFAA local productions included

11421-425: A variety of ways to generate revenue from television commercials . They may be an independent station or part of a broadcasting network , or some other structure. They can produce some or all of their programs or buy some broadcast syndication programming for or all of it from other stations or independent production companies. Many stations have some sort of television studio , which on major-network stations

11664-408: A weeknight-only program on September 4, 2018, and replaced Sports Sunday as part of a reformatting into a six-night-a-week, Sunday-through-Friday program in March 2019—airs Sundays in that time slot). In advance of the switch, KDFW station management offered news department employees a one-month pay bonus as an incentive to agree to stay until or after the affiliation switch. Because Fox did not have

11907-431: A whole for adopting a syndicated programming lineup consisting largely of tabloid talk shows (such as The Maury Povich Show , Geraldo and Jerry Springer , following suit with other New World-owned Fox stations that acquired such programs to bulk up their syndication lineups after joining the network), referring to the station's decision to maintain its status as a "big, legitimate news operation" while operating as

12150-496: Is non-commercial educational (NCE) and considered public broadcasting . To avoid concentration of media ownership of television stations, government regulations in most countries generally limit the ownership of television stations by television networks or other media operators, but these regulations vary considerably. Some countries have set up nationwide television networks, in which individual television stations act as mere repeaters of nationwide programs . In those countries,

12393-470: Is broadcast via terrestrial radio waves. A group of television stations with common ownership or affiliation are known as a TV network and an individual station within the network is referred to as O&O or affiliate , respectively. Because television station signals use the electromagnetic spectrum, which in the past has been a common, scarce resource, governments often claim authority to regulate them. Broadcast television systems standards vary around

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12636-423: Is credited with leading the station's news department to ratings dominance and national prominence, as well as convincing the Dallas Morning News ownership to allow much greater spending on news at WFAA than ever seen before, far surpassing the budgets of other local rival stations. Haag was honored with a special Lifetime Achievement George Foster Peabody Award shortly before his death in 2004. The station resumed

12879-550: Is currently co-hosted by Erin Hunter and former KXAS-TV anchor Jane McGarry), served as the basis for other similarly formatted local late-morning talk shows that debuted on its sister stations under Belo ownership in subsequent years. Some of the topics that were shown on Good Morning Texas were also used during its morning newscasts known as News 8 Daybreak . In 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic , an extension version of Good Morning Texas

13122-629: Is currently the third longest-tenured overall and the second longest-tenured currently active television news personality in North Texas , and has had the longest tenure of any on-air staff member in KDFW's history (in the former category, Tinsley ranks behind Harold Taft , who served as chief meteorologist at KXAS-TV from its sign-on as WBAP-TV in 1948 until his retirement in 1991, and Bobbie Wygant , who served as an entertainment reporter for WBAP/KXAS from 1948 until her death in 2024). Although KDFW has experienced

13365-650: Is located in Cedar Hill, Texas . On August 20, 1945, the KRLD Radio Corp.—a subsidiary of the now-defunct Dallas Times Herald newspaper, which was headed at the time by Times Herald Printing Co. president Tom C. Gooch—filed an application with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) for a license and construction permit to operate a commercial television station on VHF channel 2. On August 22, 1946, one year and two days after it filed for

13608-533: Is not owned and operated by the network through its ABC Owned Television Stations subsidiary. This also makes Dallas the largest media market with a " Big Four " station (ABC, NBC , CBS , Fox ) that is not owned by that respective network. It is also the only station among the Big Four in the Dallas– Fort Worth market that is not network-owned and operated. The initial application for the television station

13851-792: Is often used for newscasts or other local programming . There is usually a news department , where journalists gather information. There is also a section where electronic news-gathering (ENG) operations are based, receiving remote broadcasts via remote pickup unit or satellite TV . Outside broadcasting vans, production trucks , or SUVs with electronic field production (EFP) equipment are sent out with reporters , who may also bring back news stories on video tape rather than sending them back live . To keep pace with technology United States television stations have been replacing operators with broadcast automation systems to increase profits in recent years. Some stations (known as repeaters or translators ) only simulcast another, usually

14094-484: Is one of several Fox stations that offer newscasts in both the final hour of prime time and the traditional late news time slot—Fox Television Stations started to push news expansion into the latter in 2006—and one of ten that continued its Big Three-era late-evening newscast after switching to Fox; in contrast, Austin sister station KTBC aired syndicated programming as a lead-in for its existing 10 p.m. newscast after it switched to Fox before it moved its late newscast to

14337-762: The Dallas Cowboys are scheduled to play. On January 20, 2020, the subchannel ended its affiliation with The Local AccuWeather Channel (it was one of the last full-power stations still known to be carrying the channel), and began broadcasting in-house weather programming under the name "WFAA Two". The programming consists of local weather outlooks, local and regional radars, local and regional conditions, airport conditions, traffic conditions, various tower cams around Dallas–Fort Worth, and some advertisements. It continues to simulcast audio from NOAA Weather Radio, as well as instrumental music. In February, WFAA Two expanded its content to also include local programming; it planned to carry

14580-553: The Fox Broadcasting Company . Under the initial agreement, nine television stations affiliated with either CBS, ABC or NBC—five of the seven that New World acquired through its 1992 purchase of SCI Television , and four others that it acquired on May 5 from Great American Communications (in a separate deal for $ 350 million in cash and $ 10 million in share warrants )—would become Fox affiliates once their existing respective affiliation contracts expired. The deal

14823-638: The Providence Journal Company . By 1999, when it purchased ABC affiliate KVUE in Austin from the Gannett Company, Belo owned television stations in Texas' four largest television markets (WFAA, KHOU, KVUE and CBS affiliate KENS in San Antonio ). In May 1984, WFAA unveiled one of the most successful station image campaigns in the United States with the launch of the "Spirit of Texas", which

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15066-577: The Texas School Book Depository ) shot his rifle at sniper range at the Presidential motorcade carrying Kennedy and Texas Governor John Connally as it had turned onto Elm Street. Eddie Barker , who was KRLD-TV's news director at the time and had been with the station since it signed on fourteen years earlier as one of the original members of its news department staff, was the first person to announce Kennedy's death on television, relaying

15309-496: The block significantly out of pattern. The station usually aired the block continuously via the network's "live" feed from 7 a.m. to noon until September 1998, when WFAA separated the lineup (by then, known under the Disney's One Saturday Morning banner) into two blocks bookending the newly launched Saturday edition of News 8 Daybreak , with the first two hours being switched to a one-week delayed broadcast from 5 to 7 a.m. and

15552-405: The broadcast range , or geographic area, that the station is limited to, allocates the broadcast frequency of the radio spectrum for that station's transmissions, sets limits on what types of television programs can be programmed for broadcast and requires a station to broadcast a minimum amount of certain programs types, such as public affairs messages . Another form of television station

15795-534: The electricity bill and emergency backup generators . In North America , full-power stations on band I (channels 2 to 6) are generally limited to 100 kW analog video ( VSB ) and 10 kW analog audio ( FM ), or 45 kW digital ( 8VSB ) ERP. Stations on band III (channels 7 to 13) can go up by 5 dB to 316 kW video, 31.6 kW audio, or 160 kW digital. Low-VHF stations are often subject to long-distance reception just as with FM. There are no stations on Channel 1 . UHF , by comparison, has

16038-412: The federally mandated transition from analog to digital television . The station's digital signal remained on its transition period UHF channel 35, using virtual channel 4. Through its participation as a SAFER Act "nightlight" broadcaster, KDFW kept its analog signal on the air until July 12 to inform viewers of the digital television transition through a loop of public service announcements from

16281-480: The paid programming block that replaced 4Kids TV, Weekend Marketplace , has aired on KDFI since then. Xploration Station , a live-action educational program block distributed by Steve Rotfeld Productions that is syndicated primarily to Fox stations (including those owned by Fox Television Stations), was similarly passed over to KDFI when that block debuted on September 13, 2014. In September 1994, KDFW began preempting The Price Is Right and The Bold and

16524-710: The wardrobe malfunction incident that occurred during Justin Timberlake and Janet Jackson 's Super Bowl XXXVIII halftime show performance that February. The station aired The Oprah Winfrey Show and the 1986 film Hoosiers in its place, although the FCC would eventually declare Saving Private Ryan ' s telecast as not being in violation of the agency's broadcast decency regulations after it aired. As of September 2020, WFAA broadcasts 36 + 1 ⁄ 2 hours of locally produced newscasts each week (with six hours each weekday, 3 + 1 ⁄ 2 hours on Saturdays and 2 + 1 ⁄ 2 hours on Sundays). In addition,

16767-461: The "News 8 Doppler Net", a network of National Weather Service radar sites throughout Texas). Other notable people who once worked at Channel 8 include Scott Pelley (who was recently anchorman of the CBS Evening News ), the late David Garcia (who went on to become a network reporter for ABC News), Mike Lee (who covered news in Europe for many years at ABC News' London bureau), Doug Terry (who became

17010-463: The "World's Finest Air Attraction". WFAA is one of a relatively limited number of broadcast television stations located west of the Mississippi River whose call letters begin with a "W"; the FCC normally assigns call signs prefixed with a "K" to television and radio stations with cities of license located west of the river and broadcast call signs prefixed with a "W" to stations located east of

17253-565: The 1984–1996 dual-outlined "8" logo on its underside. The station maintains bureaus in Collin County at Riders Field , and in Tarrant County near downtown Fort Worth ; both bureaus house a limited staff of reporters, but are rarely used for newscast production. WFAA is one of the few television stations that does not use the First Warning broadcast weather alert system; a text display of

17496-479: The 25- to 54-year-old demographic. WFAA was the first station to break the news of President John F. Kennedy 's assassination on November 22, 1963, which occurred about two blocks north of the station's studios near Dealey Plaza , outside the Texas School Book Depository (now known as the Dallas County Administration Building), and seriously injured then- Governor John Connally , who

17739-483: The 3 p.m. slot, from its schedule in the fall of 2005. Both series moved to KTVT, with the former being replaced by Entertainment Tonight , which prior to the change, Channel 8 had aired following Nightline since it acquired the rights to ET from KDFW in September 1984. WFAA carries the majority of the ABC network schedule; however, as an affiliate that is not owned by the network itself, WFAA may occasionally preempt some of

17982-436: The 820 signal for a few hours, before WFAA once again took over the frequency. WFAA had control over 820 during prime evening hours, when the 50,000-watt clear channel signal could often be heard as far west as California and as far east as New York (at the time, there were significantly fewer radio stations that were operating at night, reducing the likelihood of interference). WFAA was the first radio station in Texas to join

18225-469: The 9 a.m. hour, resulting in KDFW becoming the second-to-last remaining Fox-owned station to expand its weekday morning newscast into the slot (which, since the program—as Live with Regis and Kathie Lee —moved to KDFW from KTVT in September 1993, has long been ceded to Live with Kelly and Mark and its previous incarnations; that program was moved to 10 a.m. as a result; WJZY in Charlotte remains

18468-444: The 9 p.m. hour in August 2000, that station would restore a late newscast in the former slot in September 2014 ). On the date of the network switch, KDFW also debuted a daily local sports news program within its 9 p.m. newscast, Sports 4 Texas , which also served as a generalized branding for its sports segments until January 1997; the program—which ran for 20 minutes on Monday through Friday nights (as well as Saturdays, with

18711-458: The Beautiful , respectively replacing them with Donahue and the (short-lived) syndicated reality/court show Juvenile Justice in the respective network-designated time slots of the former two programs; KTVT began carrying the two CBS Daytime programs on a regular basis and also cleared select CBS prime time programs that channel 4 preempted to run locally produced specials. In September 1972,

18954-501: The Cedar Hill tower in early 1956, the original Griffin Street transmitter remained in use as an auxiliary facility until it was disassembled in 1984; the antenna on which it was installed was torn down in 1995, to reduce the load on the tower). KRLD-TV served as the home base for CBS' network coverage of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy on November 22, 1963, when suspect Lee Harvey Oswald (from an upper-floor window at

19197-710: The Channel 8 license and strip it of rights to operate WFAA; Wade's efforts, in which he also attempted to convince the FCC to award the television station's license to him, would prove unsuccessful as the agency chose to approve renewal of the existing license owned by Belo. Over time, Belo gradually expanded its television broadcasting unit. The company acquired its second television station in 1969, when it purchased KFDM-TV in Beaumont from Beaumont Broadcasting, later followed in 1980 by its purchase of WTVC in Chattanooga, Tennessee . Among its purchases in later years, Belo acquired

19440-733: The Corinthian Broadcasting subsidiary of Dun & Bradstreet in December 1983, adding six additional stations—including CBS affiliate KHOU in Houston—to its portfolio (forcing the respective sales of KFDM and WTVC to Freedom Communications , and of WISH-TV in Indianapolis and WANE-TV in Fort Wayne, Indiana , to LIN Broadcasting , to comply with FCC ownership limits); and added ten additional stations through its 1997 merger acquisition of

19683-600: The Cowboys compete in Super Bowl XXX (which aired locally on NBC affiliate KXAS-TV), in which they defeated the Pittsburgh Steelers , 27–17, to win the championship title. KDFW also provided local coverage of Super Bowl XLV which took place at AT&T Stadium . KDFW also airs the Cowboys' Thanksgiving Day home contests (as part of Fox's national coverage) in even-numbered seasons. Unlike in most other NFC markets with

19926-515: The Cowboys earlier that year, in advance of CBS's assumption of the broadcast rights to the rival American Football Conference (AFC). The KTVT arrangement exists even though, as a CBS station, its telecasts of Cowboys regular season games are limited to those involving an AFC opponent or, since 2014 , cross-flexed games declined by Fox that involve opponents in the NFC. Since Fox obtained the partial (now exclusive) over-the-air network television rights to

20169-600: The Dallas-based London Broadcasting Company, which based its portfolio of broadcasting properties exclusively within Texas (independent station KTXD-TV (channel 47) in nearby Greenville was one of two stations that London exempted from the deal, along with then- MeTV affiliate KCEB in Tyler, although FCC ownership regulations did not play a factor in the case of KTXD and WFAA as the Dallas–Fort Worth market had enough full-power television stations to allow

20412-401: The Fox affiliation switched from one VHF station to another). The remainder of CBS' programming moved on that date to KTVT, which consequently ceased distribution as a regional superstation on cable and satellite providers outside of its viewing area, as many of the markets where a pay television provider carried KTVT already had access to local or out-of-market CBS affiliates (KTBC joined Fox

20655-496: The Gannett Company announced that it would acquire Belo for $ 1.5 billion (the purchase price would increase to $ 2.2 billion by the merger's completion). The deal was granted FCC approval on December 20, and was finalized on December 23. Through the merger with Gannett, WFAA became the company's largest television station by market size (supplanting CBS-affiliated sister station WUSA in Washington, D.C., which has been owned by

20898-449: The Gannett Company, meanwhile, was re-established as a new company absolved of all existing debt that retained its predecessor's newspapers (including the company's flagship publication, USA Today ) and select digital assets not acquired by Tegna. On September 25, 2020, WFAA would gain a sister station when Tegna acquired KMPX (channel 29, now KFAA-TV ) from Estrella Media which airs its Estrella TV network over that station. The sale

21141-603: The LMA with KDFI. The purchase by News Corporation was finalized on January 22, 1997, folding New World's ten Fox affiliates into the former's Fox Television Stations subsidiary and making all twelve stations affected by the 1994 agreement owned-and-operated stations of the network. (The New World Communications name continues in use as a licensing purpose corporation—as "New World Communications of [state/city], Inc." or "NW Communications of [state/city], Inc."—for KDFW and its sister stations under Fox ownership, extending, from 2009 to 2011, to

21384-767: The Metroplex's VHF television stations, particularly as it was the only other English language station in the market that had a news department. (At the time, KTVT had been producing a prime time newscast—originally airing at 7 pm, before being shifted to 9 p.m. in January 1991 to reduce preemptions caused by the station's sports telecasts—since August 1990; however, the station had been producing short- and/or long-form newscasts in various formats since 1960.) On September 14, 1994, Gaylord Broadcasting reached an agreement to affiliate KTVT with CBS, in exchange for also switching its sister independent station in Tacoma, Washington , KSTW , to

21627-629: The New World stations led the network to change its carriage policies to allow Fox stations uninterested in carrying the block the right of first refusal to transfer the local rights to another station; by 2001, affiliates were no longer required to run the Fox Kids lineup even if Fox had not secured a substitute carrier). Fox Kids remained on KDAF after it became a WB affiliate in July 1995, before moving to KDFI in September 1997, where it and successor FoxBox/4Kids TV aired until Fox ceased supplying children's programming within its schedule on December 28, 2008;

21870-551: The November 2010 sweeps to a relatively distant second during the February 2011 sweeps period with total viewers and with adults 25-54 (its first fall from first place in that slot as well as at 6 p.m. in total viewers for the first time in at least three decades). WFAA's only No. 1 finish during the latter period was at 5 p.m. in total viewers (it lost to KDFW in the adult 25-54 demographic), aided by its Oprah lead-in. The station

22113-567: The Stars' first Stanley Cup Finals appearance as a Dallas-based franchise (the third overall, counting their 1981 and 1991 appearances that preceded the former Minnesota North Stars' relocation from Minneapolis in 1993), which saw the franchise defeat the Buffalo Sabres to win its first Stanley Cup (as Fox's NHL contract required it to split the Finals coverage rights with the league's cable partner,

22356-516: The TM Productions theme's seven-note musical signature (including the "WFAA 1992 News Theme" from 1992 to 1996; four packages composed by McKinney -based Stephen Arnold Music : "The Spirit" from 1996 to 2000, the "Custom WFAA-TV News Package" from 2000 to 2004, a variation of Arnold's "News Matrix" from 2004 to 2005 and "Evolution" from 2004 to 2007; and the 615 Music -composed "Propulsion" from 2006 to 2014). The "Spirit" image campaign and/or slogan

22599-624: The Times Mirror Company sold the Times Herald to Woodbury, New Jersey –based MediaNews Group for $ 110 million in cash and notes; Times Mirror retained ownership of KDFW, leaving the station as its sole remaining media property in the Metroplex. (The newspaper would cease publication five years later in December 1991, after it was purchased by the A.H. Belo Corporation , owners of rival newspaper The Dallas Morning News , for $ 55 million.) A helicopter-tower collision similar to

22842-552: The U.S., the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is taking another large portion of this band (channels 52 to 69) away, in contrast to the rest of the world, which has been taking VHF instead. This means that some stations left on VHF are harder to receive after the analog shutdown . Since at least 1974, there are no stations on channel 37 in North America for radio astronomy purposes. Most television stations are commercial broadcasting enterprises which are structured in

23085-528: The WFAA Communications Center Studios on Young Street in downtown Dallas (next to the offices of its former sister newspaper under the ownership of former parent company Belo , The Dallas Morning News ); sister station KFAA-TV maintains separate facilities on Gateway Drive in Irving . WFAA's transmitter is located in Cedar Hill, Texas . WFAA is the largest ABC affiliate by market size that

23328-498: The WFAA Communications Center Studios, a state-of-the-art broadcasting complex located at Young and Record Streets in downtown Dallas; the former studio facilities on Harry Hines Boulevard were subsequently purchased by North Texas Public Broadcasting for use as the broadcasting facilities for National Educational Television station KERA-TV (channel 13, now a PBS member station ). The Communications Center complex housed three production studios, offices and sound recording studios for

23571-447: The WFAA radio stations as well as The Dallas Morning News ' headquarters. The first live telecast to originate from the building was Young America Speaks , a 13-week intercollegiate debate tournament series (the first such program ever televised), which aired until June of that year. In 1974, Texas State Sen. Jim Wade filed a motion to the FCC, challenging Belo's renewal application for

23814-675: The advent of the music video) and Confessions (a series featuring interviews with incarcerated criminals from the Dallas County Jail revealing why they committed the crimes they were convicted of). The station initially operated from studio facilities located inside the Adolphus Hotel (between Commerce and Main Streets, north of the Times Herald Building) in downtown Dallas . The building—which also housed KRLD radio's facilities at

24057-460: The agency's freeze on new television station licensing applications in 1952, eventually chose to reassign the Channel 12 allocation to Waco (after the agency assigned that same channel to Ardmore, Oklahoma , where it would be licensed to KXII , the FCC would eventually move the VHF channel 12 allocation from Waco to Abilene , which became home to present-day ABC affiliate KTXS-TV ). Complicating matters,

24300-516: The agency's moratorium on new license applications, which the FCC instituted to sort out the backlog of prospective applicants that already filed to build such operations, left Belo with the sole recourse of acquiring a television station that was already on the air if it wanted to own one in the Dallas–Fort Worth area. In January 1950, Belo purchased KBTV from Lacy-Potter for $ 575,000; the sale received FCC approval on March 13, 1950, with Belo formally assuming control of Channel 8 on March 17. The station

24543-475: The agricultural news program Murray Cox RFD ; and later, 57 Nostalgia Place . Many of the early Dallas television pioneers began their careers at WFAA radio, including Ed Hogan, one of the most well-known personalities in Dallas during the early years of television. After maintaining an entertainment/variety format for many years, the station became a middle of the road (MOR) music station in 1970, before switching to

24786-416: The aircraft and parachuted to the ground before it crashed. (KDFW, KXAS and WFAA did not have their transmissions affected by the accident, although radio stations KZEW [97.9 FM, now KBFB ] and KSCS [96.3 FM] were knocked off the air and temporarily broadcast at reduced power from another tower as a result.) In 1989, KDFW relocated its transmitter onto a new 1,400-foot (427 m)-tall tower constructed at

25029-753: The aircraft and parachuted to the ground before it crashed. The tower consortium between the two stations decided to have a new 1,400-foot-tall (430 m) tower constructed a 1 ⁄ 4 mile (0.40 km) southwest of the original facility, which was completed in 1989. The candelabra mast that encompassed the upper 281 feet (86 m) of the former tower, meanwhile, was dismantled (reducing its height to 1,240 feet (378 m)), with new transmitters installed to serve as auxiliary facilities for WFAA, KDFW and radio stations KJMZ (100.3 FM, now KJKK ), KMEZ (107.5 FM, now KMVK ), KQZY (105.3 FM, now KRLD-FM ), KKDA-FM (104.5) and KMGC (102.9 FM, now KDMX ). In April 1998, when KTEN (which had been affiliated with ABC on

25272-433: The antenna farm in Cedar Hill . Carter's heirs—who initially did not want to move the transmitter closer to Dallas, in their aim to continue Carter's legacy of civic boosterism for Fort Worth—eventually agreed to NBC's demands that it move WBAP-TV's transmitter facilities to Cedar Hill, installing a transmitter antenna on a 1,500-foot (457 m) candelabra tower that was already shared by WFAA and KRLD-TV, and operate it at

25515-425: The basement of Dallas police headquarters, however, was not broadcast live (as it was on NBC ) or on tape (as on CBS one minute later) by WFAA and ABC as the former's live newsgathering truck was positioned elsewhere at the time. ABC was therefore only able to show delayed newsreel footage of the historic event. WFAA had purchased a fully equipped, live broadcast studio truck prior to the assassination of Kennedy, but

25758-450: The broadcast license, KRLD Radio Corp. amended its application to instead seek assignment on VHF channel 4. (The VHF channel 2 allocation was later reassigned to Denton as part of the FCC's "Sixth Report and Order" in November 1951; it would eventually be assigned to North Texas Public Broadcasting, which signed on KDTN —now a Daystar owned-and-operated station —over that allocation on September 1, 1988.) The FCC Broadcast Bureau granted

26001-511: The broadcasting entity, which retained the Belo Corporation name and was structured as the legal successor to the previous company, while the newspaper division (which in addition to The Dallas Morning News , included among other publications Al Día , Neighborsgo and Quick ) was spun off into the similarly named, shareholder-held entity A. H. Belo Corporation (the name used by the original company from 1865 to 2001). The split – which

26244-469: The building also housed certain operations run by Belo's other Dallas-based properties, including its publishing division. The WFAA Communications Center continues to house the station's newsroom and most other business operations (including its master control , traffic, advertising and programming departments). On October 1, 2007, Belo announced plans to split off its broadcasting and newspaper interests into two independent companies. WFAA would remain with

26487-513: The building, many of which were also strewn across the sidewalk and street adjacent to the building. The Dallas police temporarily evacuated most KDFW/KDFI employees – except for some who were placed in a secure part of the building to allow KDFW to provide coverage of the story – upon the discovery of a suspicious bag that was left behind, prompting bomb squad crews to investigate. Dallas police spokeswoman Senior Corporal Debra Webb said Fry's actions appeared not to be connected to any animosity toward

26730-486: The children's programming blocks that Fox carried prior to 2008, only having aired fall preview specials and network promotions for those blocks that aired within Fox's prime time lineup during that twelve-year period. KDFW opted not to run the Fox Kids weekday and Saturday blocks when it affiliated with the network, airing children's programs acquired via syndication on weekend mornings instead (the pre-emptions of Fox Kids by

26973-748: The company since 1986); it also marked channel 8's first ownership change in 63 years. This also marked Gannett's reentry in the Dallas–Fort Worth market since its ownership of radio station KOAI/KHKS (106.1) from 1989 to 1997. Additionally in July 2014, WFAA gained new sister stations in nearby markets—including NBC affiliate KCEN-TV in Waco and its Bryan semi-satellite KAGS-LD , CBS affiliate KYTX in Tyler and Fox affiliates KXVA in Abilene and KIDY in San Angelo —through Gannett's purchase of six television stations owned by

27216-486: The corner of Olive and Houston Streets (adjacent to the American Airlines Center ). The 5,000-square-foot (465 m) facility, which opened in January 2007, incorporates a street-level studio where most of the station's news programming (with the exception of the 10 p.m. newscast) and the local talk show Good Morning Texas is produced, and houses news production staff and engineering operations; initially,

27459-501: The creation of Times Mirror Broadcasting. To comply with an FCC rule in effect at the time that prohibited separately owned radio and television stations in the same market from sharing the same base call letters, as KRLD Corp. was allowed to keep the KRLD call letters for its new radio properties, the station's call letters were changed to KDFW-TV – in partial reference to its service area of Dallas and Fort Worth—on July 2. (The "-TV" suffix

27702-463: The current radio and television station using those call letters). It was the first FM radio station to sign on in Texas, although its roots can be traced back to two test stations that signed on years prior: an experimental trial that dated back to 1939, and experimental FM station W5X1C, which signed on October 15, 1945. By 1947, WFAA-FM had moved from its original frequency at 94.3 FM to a preferred location at 97.9. With FM broadcasting in its infancy,

27945-565: The current iteration was initially conducted by John Criswell during his stint as co-host of the retooled AM , before becoming a weekly feature on WFAA's 10 p.m. newscast in September 1980. In 1994, the station began conducting town hall meetings all over North Texas through its Family First (F1) initiative, which remains a significant part of the station's commitment to community service. Television station The Fernsehsender Paul Nipkow ( TV Station Paul Nipkow ) in Berlin , Germany ,

28188-452: The decisive Game 6 of that series aired instead on cable through ESPN ). As of September 2021 , KDFW presently broadcasts 57½ hours of locally produced newscasts each week (with 10 hours on weekdays, four hours on Saturdays and 3½ hours on Sundays); in regards to the number of hours devoted to news programming, it is the largest local newscast output among broadcast television stations in the Dallas–Fort Worth market. In addition, KDFW produces

28431-515: The direction of Ira Lipson, who brought in talent such as John LaBella and John Rody ("LaBella and Rody"), George Gimarc , Charley Jones, Dave Lee Austin, John B. Wells , Doc Morgan, Nancy Johnson, John Dew, John Dillon and Tempie Lindsey (Wells and Morgan would later serve as the respective primary and secondary announcers for WFAA television from the 1980s to the early 2000s; Wells primarily did news promos, while Morgan primarily did programming promos). The FM station shared facilities with WFAA-AM on

28674-466: The entire Dallas area. Belo had attempted to get an exclusive NBC affiliation first, and approached the network with an offer to make WFAA its exclusive affiliate for the entire market. The network also approached the Roosevelt family-owned Texas State Network about affiliating with independent station KFJZ-TV (channel 11, now CBS owned-and-operated station KTVT ), which had earlier moved its transmitter to

28917-573: The exception of the NFL season, when the prime time newscast was abbreviated by a half-hour to air the Cowboys magazine show The Aikman - Summerall Report ), and for a half-hour on Sundays—eventually evolved into its present weekly half-hour format as Fox 4 Sports Sunday in September 1997, when KDFW discontinued the weekend editions of its 10 p.m. newscast, relegating that newscast to Monday through Friday evenings (Fox late night programming airs on Saturdays at 10 pm, while Free 4 All —which launched as

29160-425: The existing local morning program The AM Show ( GMA ' s short-lived predecessor AM America was also not cleared throughout its run from January to November 1975). Because of its hour-long midday newscast—which aired at noon—WFAA has aired programming scheduled during that hour nationally on a day-behind basis at 11 am: the soap opera All My Children aired in that slot until September 27, 2011, when it

29403-465: The fall of 1995; it has since often beat its English-language competitors in the demographic of adults between 25 and 54 years old in certain time slots, particularly in the morning and at 9 p.m. Starting in 2006, the Fox-owned stations began revamping their sets and graphics to be more closely aligned visually with Fox News Channel, along with the adoption of standardized "kitebox" logos. KDFW debuted

29646-427: The fifth television station in the Dallas–Fort Worth market to begin broadcasting its local newscasts in high definition . On April 5, 2010, the station expanded its weekday morning newscast to 4½ hours, with the addition of a half-hour at 4:30 a.m. Good Day was eventually expanded to 4 a.m. on May 9, 2018, extending it into a five-hour broadcast; subsequently on September 4, the station expanded Good Day to

29889-452: The final four years of its run, co-hosted by Belo vice president Myron "Mike" Shapiro), and local versions of the Dialing for Dollars and PM Magazine franchises. Channel 8 also served as the original Dallas–Fort Worth home of the magazine series Texas Country Reporter , after host Bob Phillips , who originated it on KDFW in September 1972 as the locally produced 4 Country Reporter , sold

30132-551: The final three hours continuing to air off the "live" network feed from 9 a.m. to noon. Following its September 2002 rebranding as ABC Kids , WFAA began timeshifting some programs featured on the block. Until ABC dropped the program on August 28, 2010, a double run of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers (both the iterations that aired on ABC and Toon Disney prior to the 2010 transfer of franchise rights from Disney to original distributor Saban Entertainment , as well as repeats of

30375-425: The first African American news anchor in Dallas in 1978, serving as a lead anchor with Rowlett), Bob Gooding, Murphy Martin, Judi Hanna, John Criswell, Chip Moody, John McCaa , Gloria Campos, Lisa McRee , Verne Lundquist , Dale Hansen and Troy Dungan (who, as chief weather anchor from 1976 to 2007, developed modern-day chroma key techniques for televised weather forecasts, the five-day forecast concept and created

30618-405: The first television station in Dallas–Fort Worth to launch a weekend morning newscast, with the debut of a two-hour Saturday broadcast from 8 to 10 a.m. (the program—which, uniformly with the weekday morning newscasts and formerly titled News 4 Texas Morning Edition , was re-titled Good Day Dallas [now Fox 4 Good Day ] in January 1997—would later move to 7 to 9 a.m. on April 4, 2010, and

30861-401: The first television stations in the U.S. to convert its news footage to videotape in the 1970s. During the 1958–59 television season, WFAA served as the taping location for Jack Wyatt's ABC true crime reality series , Confession , in which assorted criminals explained why they chose to reject the mores of society and turn to crime. On April 2, 1961, the station's operations were relocated to

31104-422: The first to convert to a computerized newsroom; and the first station in the market to deploy a helicopter and live trucks for field newsgathering, to use microwave transmission for live broadcast and the use of satellite uplink trucks for broadcasts from around Texas and the nation. WFAA was the first U.S. television station to make use of international satellite capacity, broadcasting a live program (anchored by

31347-485: The five-year agreement to sell the station to Estrella is carried out in full, Estrella would purchase the license and transmitter assets of WFAA, and the two stations would swap physical channels, with WFAA then taking KMPX's FCC facility ID and in technicality, KMPX moving to the channel 8 facility ID established in 1949. In September 2024, Tegna announced that it had signed a deal with the Dallas Mavericks to move

31590-536: The format change that resulted in the layoffs of 45 of the channel's employees. Following its acquisition of Belo, Gannett shut down Texas Cable News on May 1, 2015. On July 20, 2005, Belo announced that it had reached an agreement with real estate developer Hillwood Capital to build a secondary studio facility in the eastern tower of the Plaza Towers complex then under construction in the Victory Park development at

31833-485: The former New World stations that Fox sold to Local TV in 2007.) At that time, Channel 4 became the second English language network-owned commercial station in the Dallas–Fort Worth market ( Viacom , then-owner of that network's Dallas station KTXA [channel 21, now an independent station], acquired part-ownership of UPN in 1996). It was also one of two stations that switched to Fox under the New World agreement that replaced an existing Fox O&O, only to later be sold to

32076-566: The gunshots being fired at Kennedy) intimated that the film was to be developed in the station's film lab; however, WFAA did not possess the ability to process the Kodachrome II 8 mm safety film from Zapruder's camera. WFAA and its live remote unit with reporter Ed Hogan fed much of the coverage of the assassination and its aftermath to ABC over the next four days. The shooting of accused assassin Lee Harvey Oswald by Jack Ruby in

32319-418: The half-hour sports highlight, opinion and interview program Free 4 All , hosted by sports director Mike Doocy and co-host Sam Gannon, which airs Sundays after the 9 p.m. newscast and weeknights after the 10 p.m. newscast. The station's Sunday 5 p.m. newscast is subject to preemption and the Saturday 6 p.m. newscast is subject to delay due to overruns by Fox Sports telecasts. Appropriate for

32562-420: The highest point available in the transmission area, such as on a summit , the top of a high skyscraper , or on a tall radio tower . To get a signal from the master control room to the transmitter, a studio/transmitter link (STL) is used. The link can be either by radio or T1 / E1 . A transmitter/studio link (TSL) may also send telemetry back to the station, but this may be embedded in subcarriers of

32805-503: The hiring of 40 additional employees in both on-air and behind-the-scenes roles. The expansion of the news department as well as other programming changes that occurred when Channel 4 switched to Fox were the subject of a scathing article by writer Brad Bailey in the October 1995 issue of D Magazine , criticizing the news department for a perceived incorporation of sensationalistic reports to fill time within its expanded newscasts and KDFW as

33048-439: The home baseball games of Dallas Baptist University in 2020 before the COVID-19 pandemic canceled the college baseball season. WFAA produces the talk, entertainment and lifestyle program Good Morning Texas , which airs weekdays at 9 a.m. and is produced independently of WFAA's news department; the hour-long program, which debuted on September 12, 1994, under original hosts Scott Sams and Deborah Duncan (as of June 2016, it

33291-407: The host station for the 2020 World Series , which was played entirely at Globe Life Field . Additionally, from 1998 to 2009 , KDFW also served as an alternate carrier of Rangers baseball games produced by co-owned regional sports network Fox Sports Southwest for broadcast on sister station KDFI, which served as the team's official flagship station during that period; KTXA (channel 21) assumed

33534-535: The junction of Belt Line and Mansfield Roads in Cedar Hill, 1 ⁄ 4 mile (0.40 km) to the southwest. (The former tower – which had its height reduced to 1,240 feet [378 m] due to the removal of the candelabra mast that encompassed the upper 281 feet [86 m] of the structure – was converted into an auxiliary transmitter facility for KDFW, WFAA and radio stations KJMZ [100.3 FM, now KJKK ], KMEZ [107.5 FM, now KMVK ], KQZY [105.3 FM, now KRLD-FM ], KKDA-FM [104.5] and KMGC [102.9 FM, now KDMX ].) In

33777-508: The last station to end its morning newscast at 9 am). To accommodate the expansion (which placed Good Day in direct competition with WFAA's news/talk program Good Morning Texas ), Hanna Battah (who joined KDFW from CBS affiliate KBAK-TV and Fox affiliate KBFX-CD in Bakersfield in June to serve as weekend anchor of Good Day ) was added as co-anchor of the first two hours of the program with

34020-515: The late Murphy Martin) from Paris, France, in 1969, consisting of interviews with wives of American POWs in Vietnam. It was perhaps the first in the nation to broadcast videotaped field reports (film was used almost exclusively in local news until the late 1970s and early 1980s), televising the arrival of President Richard Nixon at Dallas Love Field within 30 minutes of his plane's touchdown in 1969 (a Sony reel-to-reel video recorder made for home use

34263-519: The league in 1996, KDFW has carried certain Major League Baseball (MLB) games featuring the Texas Rangers that have been regionally televised (and, since 2013 , select national telecasts scheduled during prime time) by the network during the league's regular season and postseason , including the team's first-ever World Series win in 2023 and appearances in 2010 and 2011 . It served as

34506-501: The license to the Times Herald on September 13, 1946. The newspaper chose to assign KRLD-TV for use as the television station's call letters ; the base KRLD callsign had been used by the Times Herald -owned radio station on 1080 AM— a combined reference to both Edwin J. Kiest, an original investor and one-time owner of the Times Herald , and KRLD (AM), and the radio station's founding owner, Radio Laboratories of Dallas (which changed its name from Dallas Radio Laboratories as it sought

34749-625: The local over-the-air television rights to the Rangers in 2010 . From 1995 until Fox lost the broadcast television rights to the National Hockey League (NHL) to ABC in 1999 , KDFW carried certain regular season and playoff games featuring the Dallas Stars that Fox televised on a regional basis. Notably, in 1999 (Fox's last year with the NHL over-the-air broadcast contract), the station aired

34992-492: The local rights to the syndicated version, which was instead carried by rival ABC affiliate WFAA (under the title 8 Country Reporter ). KDFW broadcast Dr. Red Duke 's syndicated medical reports to viewers in North Texas throughout much of the 1980s and 1990s. KDFW began serving as the primary television station for the Dallas Cowboys as a CBS affiliate in 1960 upon the team's enfranchisement, through CBS' television rights to

35235-400: The local television station has no station identification and, from a consumer's point of view, there is no practical distinction between a network and a station, with only small regional changes in programming, such as local television news . To broadcast its programs, a television station requires operators to operate equipment, a transmitter or radio antenna , which is often located at

35478-419: The main broadcast. Stations which retransmit or simulcast another may simply pick-up that station over-the-air , or via STL or satellite. The license usually specifies which other station it is allowed to carry. VHF stations often have very tall antennas due to their long wavelength , but require much less effective radiated power (ERP), and therefore use much less transmitter power output , also saving on

35721-492: The market's most-watched late evening newscast, and its 5 and 6 p.m. newscasts are typically the area's most-watched early evening local newscasts. However, the station's ratings have suffered in recent years, particularly among adults between the ages of 25 and 54 due to competition from Fox owned-and-operated station KDFW as well as improving viewership since the late 2000s for CBS owned-and-operated station KTVT's newscasts; WFAA's 10 p.m. newscast slid from first place for

35964-531: The media, noting that he was apparently upset over a 2012 officer-involved shooting in a neighboring county (he was noted to have referenced the Denton County Sheriff's Department). Fry (whose criminal record includes arrests for assault, disorderly conduct, public intoxication and burglary) was taken to a hospital for a medical evaluation – police reported that he was in an agitated mental state and indicated "people were trying to kill him" – and subsequently

36207-487: The mid-1970s—having overtaken WBAP-TV/KXAS' once-dominant The Texas News —through the late 1990s. The station strengthened its on-air news staff with top-tier talent, led by anchors including Tracy Rowlett (one of three reporters—along with Doug Fox and Byron Harris—whom news director Marty Haag brought over to WFAA from his previous job as news department head at KWTV in Oklahoma City in 1973), Iola Johnson (who became

36450-572: The mid-2000s—such as Seinfeld (which later moved to KDAF), King of the Hill (which later moved to KTXA), 3rd Rock From the Sun and Malcolm in the Middle —mainly as part of its late-night schedule. After sister station KDFI assumed rights to most of the sitcoms KDFW had previously aired in the 2008–09 season, no off-network comedies aired on KDFW's schedule (a rarity for a Fox station) until September 2013, when

36693-663: The midday newscast's expansion into an hour-long broadcast in September 1992, WFAA aired Loving —which many ABC stations in the Central Time Zone normally aired at 12:30 p.m.—on a day-behind basis until the soap opera (which by that time, was reformatted as The City ) was cancelled in 1996; for similar reasons, it also carried Port Charles on Tuesday through Saturday early mornings throughout that soap's run from 1997 to 2004. The station traditionally aired syndicated programs following its 10 p.m. newscast for many years, resulting in certain ABC late night programs that

36936-491: The music series The Group And Chapman and its progenitor Sump'n Else (both of which were hosted by Ralph Baker Jr. and Ron Chapman ), Dallas Bandstand (also hosted by Haynes), lifestyle and fashion talk program The Julie Bennell Show (hosted by Dallas Morning News food editor Julie Bennell), the viewer Q&A series Let Me Speak to the Manager (originally titled Ask the Manager and later named Inside Television for

37179-626: The network itself (in Atlanta, sister station WAGA had earlier replaced WATL as that market's Fox station in December 1994), making Dallas one of a handful of markets more than one station has served as an O&O of the same network. In November 1996, two months before the completion of the Fox–New World merger and at a time when other network-owned stations around the United States began adopting similar network-driven branding, KDFW-TV shortened its branding from " Fox 4 Texas " to simply " Fox 4 " under

37422-399: The network recommended its stations air immediately after their late local newscasts being delayed to accommodate them. From its debut in 1980 until September 1983, WFAA delayed Nightline in favor of late night movie presentations; the newsmagazine aired in its then-recommended 10:30 slot from September 1983 until September 1984, when it settled into a half-hour tape delayed airing after

37665-410: The network to maintain an exclusive affiliation, Fox would not regain an affiliate within the market until CBS affiliate KXII launched a Fox-affiliated digital subchannel in September 2006. In an effort to expand beyond the talk and court shows that KDFW had based its syndicated programming slate around since the July 1995 switch, the station added a few off-network sitcoms between the late 1990s and

37908-423: The network's branding conventions (with its newscasts concurrently rebranding as Fox 4 News , and its weather and sports segments rebranded as Fox 4 Weather and Fox 4 Sports , respectively). In April 1998, when NBC affiliate KTEN (which added an additional primary affiliation with Fox in September 1994, partly to carry its NFL telecasts) began terminating its affiliations with Fox and ABC, KDFW began serving as

38151-499: The network's prime time shows to run locally produced specials. ABC programs that were preempted or otherwise interrupted by breaking news or severe weather coverage are tape delayed to air in overnight timeslots or in rare times, on WFAA's DT2 channel space; although station personnel gives viewers the option to watch the affected shows the following day on ABC's desktop and mobile streaming platforms or its cable/satellite video-on-demand service. WFAA currently airs This Week on

38394-420: The network. ( WB network majority owner Time Warner would later file an injunction attempting to dissolve a previous agreement with Gaylord to turn KTVT, KSTW and KHTV in Houston [now CW affiliate KIAH , which became a sister station to KDAF when Tribune Broadcasting acquired the latter from Renaissance in 1996] into charter affiliates of The WB at that network's launch in January 1995.) New World took over

38637-546: The new logo, set, graphics and theme music on September 20, 2006, beginning with its 9 p.m. newscast. The station also relaunched its website under the "myfox" branding and interface developed by Fox Interactive Media , incorporating more news and video content (the Fox O&;O sites have since been migrated to the WorldNow web platform). On July 30, 2007, a Bell JetRanger helicopter leased by KDFW from CBS Radio crash-landed in

38880-580: The one that occurred 19 years earlier happened on January 14, 1987, when KDFW's Cedar Hill broadcast tower (which was jointly owned by KDFW and WFAA, via the Hill Tower, Inc. consortium involving their respective corporate parents) was hit by a Navy F-4 Phantom that was performing training exercises as it was on approach to the Dallas Naval Air Station , clipping several guy-wires . The jet's two occupants survived as they had ejected themselves from

39123-401: The only television stations in the Dallas–Fort Worth area to sign on for the next six years as the FCC had instituted a freeze on new applications for television station licenses in November 1948, a moratorium that would last for four years. Lacy-Potter Television Broadcasting lost $ 128,020 in net revenue during its four-month stewardship of KBTV, leading Tom Potter to make the decision to put

39366-501: The operations of the Argyle stations through time brokerage agreements on January 19, 1995; the group's purchase of the four Argyle stations received approval on April 14, 1995, and was finalized four days later on April 18. The last CBS network program to air on KDFW was a repeat of Walker, Texas Ranger at 9 p.m. Central Time on July 1; this led into a message by then-station president and general manager David Whitaker shortly before

39609-514: The original TM-composed theme from 1986 to 1989, with the themes it used until 2014 also incorporating the "Spirit" signature including the custom John Hegner-composed "American Spirit", which was used from 1994 to 2000). WFAA discontinued the signature after three decades on August 27, 2014, when it switched to Gari Media Group 's standardized package for Gannett's stations, "This is Home" (the station's news graphics and imaging were also overhauled to match Gannett's mandated look at that time); however,

39852-412: The period from the 1950s through the 1980s. The most popular was a show aimed at younger audiences; Jerry Haynes hosted a local children's program on the station on-and-off from 1961 to 1996. Originally debuting in March 1961 as Mr. Peppermint , Haynes (who donned a red- and white-striped jacket and straw hat in his portrayal of the titular character, accompanied by a candy-striped cane) starred alongside

40095-577: The pre- AFL merger National Football League. The station carried most regional or national Cowboys game telecasts aired by CBS, including the team's victories in Super Bowl VI and Super Bowl XII , (after 1970, the only games channel 4 did not air were home interconference contests) until its contractual rights to the National Football Conference concluded in 1993 . To date, the one-year interruption in game coverage after that season, due to

40338-591: The primary default affiliate for the northern counties of the DMA in south-central Oklahoma). However, residents in extreme North Texas could view most ABC programs that were preempted by KTEN via WFAA for several years beforehand, particularly after the former switched to a primary NBC affiliation in 1986 (steadily reducing ABC-provided content on its schedule to select daytime and prime time programs by 1994, when it added an additional primary affiliation with Fox). The market would regain an ABC station of its own when KTEN launched

40581-476: The programmes seen on its owner's flagship station, and have no television studio or production facilities of their own. This is common in developing countries . Low-power stations typically also fall into this category worldwide. Most stations which are not simulcast produce their own station identifications . TV stations may also advertise on or provide weather (or news) services to local radio stations , particularly co-owned sister stations . This may be

40824-469: The radio permit upon discovering that the KDRL calls had already been assigned for maritime use) – since it signed on its original 1040 AM frequency in October 1926, and applied to its FM sister on 92.5 (now KZPS ) upon its March 1948 sign-on. The station began test broadcasts on November 21, 1949. Channel 4 officially signed on the air, as KRLD-TV, two weeks later on December 3, 1949, at 12:30 p.m., with

41067-510: The remainder of its run; the Emmy Award-winning Sunday morning program ended its 29-year run on June 21, 2009. On May 12, 1986, to inaugurate the rollout of its new satellite news-gathering units, KDFW kicked off an ambitious three-week tour across Texas, in which the station conducted live remotes at different locations around the state each day for its early evening newscasts. As it was returning from Van Horn (the first site of

41310-471: The remaining two hours in pattern from the ABC off-air feed. In the past, WFAA has also chosen to preempt certain ABC programs because of content deemed inappropriate by station management, in some cases due to concerns over possible FCC-imposed fines. Under the stewardship of general manager Mike Shapiro during the 1960s and 1970s, WFAA preempted certain theatrical and made-for-television films aired by ABC which management deemed too risque for broadcast. WFAA

41553-510: The river. The anomaly in the case of the WFAA television and radio stations is due to the fact the policy predates the launch of the former, as Dallas was originally located east of the original "K"/"W" border distinction defined by the FCC. In 1950, WFAA switched its primary affiliation to NBC, and also affiliated with ABC on a secondary basis. DuMont shut down in 1955, amid various issues that arose from its relations with Paramount that hamstrung it from expansion. Although it had been apparent from

41796-557: The sale, which closed on March 20, 2019, excluded KDFW and sister station KDFI as well as the Fox network, the MyNetworkTV programming service, Fox News , Fox Sports 1 and the Fox Television Stations unit, which were all transferred to the newly formed Fox Corporation . On September 5, 2018, a 34-year-old Michael Chadwick Fry crashed a silver Dodge Ram into KDFW–KDFI's Griffin Street studios around 6:12 am, while KDFW

42039-437: The same day, while KTVI followed suit on August 7). On that date, KDAF – whose sale to Renaissance Broadcasting was finalized the following day on July 3—became an affiliate of The WB; Christian Broadcasting Network -owned KXTX-TV (channel 39, now a Telemundo owned-and-operated station), which reverted into an independent station, served as the market's original WB outlet during the network's first six months of operation under

42282-441: The same market , Times Mirror received approval to maintain the existing combination of the Times Herald and KRLD-TV under a cross-ownership waiver . However, to comply with FCC rules of the time that prohibited a single company from owning full-power broadcast television and radio outlets in the same market, Times Mirror sold KRLD-AM-FM to KRLD Corp. (owned principally by Philip R. Jonsson, Kenneth A. Jonsson and George V. Charlton,

42525-637: The same time, giving the networks that were already affiliated with the three former Argyle stations slated to switch to Fox a longer grace period to find new affiliates than CBS, NBC and/or ABC were given in most of the other markets affected by the Fox-New World deal (ABC's affiliation contracts with WGHP and WBRC ended even later, respectively expiring in September 1995 and September 1996). CBS first approached longtime NBC affiliate KXAS-TV about negotiating an affiliation deal, ultimately to be turned down by its then-owner LIN Broadcasting , which subsequently signed

42768-544: The second floor of the Communications Center building. Belo sold both KRQX and KZEW-FM on January 1, 1987; the FM station has since changed its calls to KBFB and maintains an urban contemporary format. WFAA-DT2 is the second digital subchannel of WFAA, broadcasting in-house weather and local programming in widescreen standard definition on channel 8.2. WFAA launched a digital subchannel on virtual channel 8.2 in 2004, as

43011-500: The second station in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, and the first to be licensed to Dallas. The station originally operated from studio facilities located at Harry Hines Boulevard and Wolf Street, north of downtown Dallas. When the station commenced its full schedule on September 18, KBTV had broadcast only four hours of programming per day. It originally operated as a primary affiliate of the DuMont Television Network and

43254-413: The series into regional syndication (airing on WFAA under the title 8 Country Reporter ) in 1986. In 1958, WFAA became the first television station in the market to use a videotape recorder for broadcasting purposes; the station would gradually shift much of its locally produced programming from a live to a pre-recorded format, outside of newscasts, sports and special events, and eventually became one of

43497-478: The show's first season that ABC aired during the 2009–10 season) aired on a one-week delay from 5 to 6 am, instead of the network's "live"-fed slot of 11 a.m. to noon. In addition, the ABC Kids programs that were recommended to air during the 8 a.m. hour (including later entries The Emperor's New School and The Replacements ) aired instead on a three-hour delay during the 11 a.m. hour; WFAA aired

43740-400: The site. By 1954, KRLD-TV expanded its broadcast day to an 18-hour daily schedule (running from 6 a.m. to midnight). In May 1955, the station began construction of a new 1,521-foot (464 m)-tall tower in Cedar Hill . At the time of its completion in October 1955, the structure was considered to be the tallest television broadcast tower in the world (once KRLD-TV moved its transmitter to

43983-557: The sons and daughter of Dallas mayor and former Texas Instruments chairman J. Erik Jonsson ) for $ 6.75 million. The transaction was approved by the FCC on May 15, 1970, and was finalized 1½ months later on July 1. The purchase marked Times Mirror's re-entry into broadcasting (it owned KTTV in Los Angeles, a present-day sister station of KDFW, from its sign-on in 1949 until 1963, when it sold that station to Metromedia for $ 10.5 million in cash and promissory notes), resulting in

44226-646: The southeast corner of Commerce and Akard Streets in downtown Dallas (which would be demolished in 1980), and then moved to facilities atop the Santa Fe Railroad Warehouse on Jackson Street on June 20, 1941 (the building still has the "WFAA" calls clearly painted along a panel on the top floor). On April 4, 1961, it moved to the WFAA Communications Center at Young and Record Streets. On July 2, 1983, its call letters were changed to KRQX. WFAA-FM signed on October 5, 1946, as KERA-FM (no relation to

44469-403: The spillway, shearing off the tail rotor from the main body of the helicopter. Chopper pilot Curtis Crump, KDFW traffic reporter Chip Waggoner and KRLD and KVIL (103.7 FM) radio traffic reporter Julie DeHarty survived the accident, with the latter two transported by ambulance to Methodist Dallas Medical Center for treatment. On February 18, 2009, beginning with its noon newscast, KDFW became

44712-444: The start of its late-evening newscast (which was renamed from News 4 Texas Nightbeat to News 4 Texas at 10:00 that evening, with the implementation of a new graphics package centered partly on imagery of the Texas state flag ), informing viewers about the pending network changes. KDFW switched to Fox on July 2, 1995, ending its relationship with CBS after 45½ years; with Fox switching from UHF to VHF, Dallas–Fort Worth became one of

44955-403: The start of its third season in September 1995. It was also among the more than 20 ABC-affiliated stations that declined to air the network's telecast of Saving Private Ryan in November 2004, due to concerns over possible fines over the intense war violence and strong profanity in the film that ABC opted against editing out of the broadcast amid the FCC's crackdown on indecent material following

45198-404: The start that Dallas and Fort Worth (which Arbitron originally designated as separate media markets ) were going to be collapsed into a single television market due to their close proximity, Fort Worth Star-Telegram owner Amon G. Carter —who founded WBAP-TV through his company, Carter Publications—did not care whether residents in Dallas could view that station; WFAA affiliated with NBC under

45441-441: The station acquired the local syndication rights to Entertainment Tonight . As a byproduct of WFAA's swap of Nightline and ET ' s respective timeslots in September 1989 (placing the former back in its network "live" slot), Channel 8 aired Politically Incorrect with Bill Maher a half-hour later than its then-recommended 11:05 pm. Central time slot from its ABC debut in January 1997 until its cancellation in July 2002;

45684-645: The station adopted in November 1990 as a CBS affiliate. (Even before the switch to Fox, the "4 Texas" motif was adopted as a universal brand, extending to weather and sports content produced by KDFW's news department, titled respectively as Weather 4 Texas and Sports 4 Texas .) In addition to expanding its local news programming at the time it joined Fox, the station replaced CBS daytime and late night programs that migrated to KTVT with an expanded slate of syndicated talk shows as well as some documentary-based reality series, and also acquired some movies and off-network drama series for broadcast on weekends; however, unusual for

45927-618: The station began airing reruns of Modern Family . In December 1999, Fox Television Stations purchased KDFI from Dallas Media Investors for $ 6.2 million, creating a legal duopoly with KDFW; as a result, the combination became the first television duopoly in the Metroplex and the first duopoly that Fox operated (predating the group's acquisition of Chris-Craft/United Television 's UPN-affiliated stations later that year). On December 14, 2017, The Walt Disney Company , owner of WFAA's affiliated network ABC, announced its intent to buy KDFW's parent company, 21st Century Fox, for $ 66.1 billion;

46170-462: The station continues to use its longtime "Spirit of Texas" slogan, which is still used sparingly in some on-air promotions. On January 14, 1987, the Hill Tower transmitter facility in Cedar Hill (which was jointly owned by WFAA and KDFW) was struck by a Navy F-4 Phantom as it was performing training exercises while on approach to the Dallas Naval Air Station . The jet clipped several guy-wires ; however, its two occupants had ejected themselves from

46413-495: The station debuted Insights , a weekly public affairs program featuring topical discussions and feature stories focusing on the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex's ethnic community, focusing primarily on issues affecting African Americans. The program was originally hosted by Rochelle Brown until 2002, when she relegated herself to an executive producer role and was succeeded by longtime general assignment reporter Shaun Rabb (who also served as weekend evening anchor from 1993 to 1994) for

46656-471: The station has either preempted or aired out of pattern certain ABC network programs to make room for other local or syndicated programs or because of internal concerns over a program's content. Beginning in 1970, it was one of a handful of ABC stations that did not carry American Bandstand , opting to air public service programming instead. It also preempted Good Morning America for the first five months of its run from November 1975 to March 1976, in favor of

46899-417: The station out of the Republic Bank building in downtown Dallas, and even conducted a closed-circuit television broadcast of the opening of one of his properties, the Wilshire Theatre. Texas oil magnate Tom Potter filed a separate application for the Channel 8 license and was ultimately awarded the permit over Hoblitzelle. The station first signed on the air at 8 p.m. on September 17, 1949, as KBTV, with

47142-522: The station premiered 4 Country Reporter , a weekly program hosted by Bob Phillips focusing on feature stories about noted points of interest and interesting people from around the state of Texas. After Phillips left KDFW in 1986, he bought the rights to the concept and began selling the show in regional syndication, accordingly retitling it as Texas Country Reporter ; the program now airs on stations in all of Texas' 22 television markets, and nationally on cable and satellite on RFD-TV . KDFW did not acquire

47385-437: The station produces two Sunday evening sports programs: the highlight program Dale Hansen's Sports Special (hosted by longtime sports director Dale Hansen , who joined the station from KDFW in March 1983), and High School Sports Special (hosted by weekend sports anchor Joe Trahan and airing during the school year). WFAA also previously operated a news helicopter, HD Chopper 8 (formerly known as Telecopter 8 ), which featured

47628-411: The station ran on weekdays from 5:30 to 9 a.m., noon to 12:30 p.m. and 6 to 6:30 p.m., Saturday mornings, and nightly from 5 to 6 p.m. and 9 to 10:30 p.m. The weekday morning newscast's expansion from 1 + 1 ⁄ 2 to three hours – with the addition of a two-hour extension from 7 to 9 a.m.—and the consolidation of its half-hour weeknight 5 and 6 p.m. newscasts into

47871-458: The station signed on and off the air for months—and even going silent for two years—at a time, before settling on a permanent broadcast schedule by 1965. Initially acting as a simulcast of the AM station, WFAA-FM programmed a MOR and beautiful music format until 1973, when it changed to album oriented rock (AOR) under the call letters KZEW-FM (branded as "The Zoo") on September 16, 1973. The station's concept and programming were initially under

48114-436: The station up for sale. The A.H. Belo Corporation , owner of The Dallas Morning News , had attempted to launch a new television station in Dallas two years earlier, when it applied for a construction permit to build transmitter and broadcasting facilities for a proposed station that would have transmitted on VHF channel 12. The FCC rejected Belo's application and, following the issuance of the Sixth Report and Order that lifted

48357-402: The story and to present it in graphic, visual detail. The station was rewarded with some of the highest ratings of any local station in a major media market. A standard practice was to have each reporter cover only one beat, such as Dallas City Hall or the Dallas County Commission, making the reporter an expert on the subject that he or she was covering. Former news director H. Martin "Marty" Haag

48600-409: The talk show that replaced it, Jimmy Kimmel Live! , also aired in this manner starting with its January 2003 premiere (WFAA would begin airing Kimmel directly following Nightline , as intended by ABC, on September 12, 2011). WFAA has traditionally run ABC's Saturday morning children's program lineup in its entirety; however, from September 1998 to September 2011, WFAA aired several programs within

48843-457: The team's local broadcasts to its television stations. Most Mavericks games will air on KFAA-TV, which became an independent station and concurrently changed its call letters from KMPX; the Estrella TV programming moved to its second digital subchannel. In addition, around 15 games will be simulcast on WFAA. On February 22, 2022, Tegna announced that it would be acquired by Standard General and Apollo Global Management for $ 5.4 billion. As

49086-433: The template for the New World and SF Broadcasting stations that switched to Fox between 1994 and 1996, a format that was gradually adopted by many heritage Fox stations that had existing or launched upstart news departments in subsequent years). The article was criticized by KDFW president/general manager David Whitaker, and main evening anchors Clarice Tinsley and John Criswell, the latter of whom (who left KDFW in 1997, after

49329-433: The terms, New World included KDFW, KTBC and KTVI in the group's affiliation agreement with Fox (WVTM, now owned by Hearst Television, remained an NBC affiliate as New World chose to transfer Birmingham ABC affiliate WBRC into a trust company for later sale to Fox Television Stations —an arrangement that was part of a deal also involving ABC affiliate WGHP in High Point, North Carolina , to comply with FCC restrictions at

49572-466: The time that prohibited broadcasting companies from owning more than twelve television stations nationwide and, in the case of Birmingham, barred television station duopolies —and was subsequently sold to NBC before being purchased by Media General in 2006). Although the network already owned KDAF, Fox sought the opportunity to align with KDFW because of its stronger market position (the station placed second, behind WFAA, in total day and news viewership at

49815-431: The time) and its operation of a news department; as a result, Fox Television Stations decided to sell KDAF, which would ultimately trade it to Renaissance Broadcasting in exchange for existing Fox affiliate KDVR in Denver . CBS had a thirteen-month leeway to find a new Dallas–Fort Worth affiliate, as its contract with KDFW did not expire until July 1, 1995; the affiliation contracts for KTBC and KTVI expired around

50058-438: The time—was used on a temporary basis until a permanent broadcast facility then under construction within the Times Herald ' s Herald Square building (at 1101 Patterson Street, which has since been demolished and converted into a parking lot) was completed. The tower that transmitted its signal (supporting microwave and remote antennas) was also based on the studio grounds. The station's 586-foot (179 m) transmission tower

50301-455: The tour) that evening, a Bell JetRanger used by the station as its newsgathering helicopter crashed after takeoff at Guadalupe Mountains National Park while pilot Irving Patrick attempted to navigate the chopper in strong wind speeds. Patrick and news operations manager Scott "Buster" McGregor were killed on board; however in the midst of the tragedy, KDFW's news staff chose to continue the cross-state tour as scheduled. In May 1993, KDFW became

50544-512: The transaction's two-part purchase option structure, Argyle acquired WVTM and KTVI from Times Mirror in an initial transactional (for $ 45 million and $ 35 million, respectively), and subsequently acquired KDFW and KTBC in a secondary transaction following FCC approval of their license renewals. The purchase of KDFW and KTBC was finalized on January 3, 1994. In February 1994, Argyle Television took over management responsibilities for struggling independent station KDFI (channel 27, now

50787-411: The transfer of NFC telecast rights from CBS to Fox, is the only break in network coverage of the team by the station since 1962; for the 1994 season , most of the team's over-the-air game telecasts aired instead on lame-duck Fox O&O KDAF. Channel 4 resumed its status as the Cowboys' primary local broadcaster two months after it joined Fox, in September 1995 ; incidentally, that year's NFL season saw

51030-450: The truck was not rolled out for the parade through downtown Dallas. In the aftermath of the murder, the staff was told the cost would have been too great for the news department to compensate the production facility for its use. As local television news evolved into a more polished presentation, WFAA became known for groundbreaking achievements and reporting in broadcast journalism as well as for many technological advancements including being

51273-448: The warning type and the affected counties is instead shown at the top of the screen when severe weather alerts are in effect for the viewing area. Channel 8 had been the ratings leader among the television newscasts in the Dallas–Fort Worth market for much of its history, having overtaken WBAP-TV/KXAS-TV in the position during the mid-1970s. WFAA's 10 p.m. newscast, known as The News 8 Update from 1980 to 2012, has typically placed as

51516-441: The weather radar feed, it also carried an audio simulcast of local NOAA Weather Radio station KEC56 , with fellow NOAA stations KEC55 in Fort Worth and KXI87 in Corsicana used as alternate feeds. On April 30, 2011, the subchannel became an affiliate of The Local AccuWeather Channel . In rare instances, this channel space is used to air preempted ABC programming due to live sporting events such as Monday Night Football when

51759-399: The world. Television stations broadcasting over an analog system were typically limited to one television channel , but digital television enables broadcasting via subchannels as well. Television stations usually require a broadcast license from a government agency which sets the requirements and limitations on the station. In the United States, for example, a television license defines

52002-422: Was added to the 2 p.m. schedule called Good Morning Texas Extra which contains the same content as their morning show, which replaced the Tegna-produced Sister Circle . Channel 8 held the local syndication rights to the game shows Jeopardy! and Wheel of Fortune for several years starting in 1987. After spending eighteen years in the 6:30 p.m. slot, WFAA dropped Wheel , as well as Jeopardy! in

52245-430: Was also adapted by some of its Belo-owned sister stations (such as KHOU in Houston, WVEC in Norfolk , WWL-TV in New Orleans and KXTV in Sacramento ) and by television stations owned by other companies such as future Tegna sister stations KIII in Corpus Christi and KTPX (now KWES-TV ) in Odessa . In addition, the "Spirit" image campaign was sometimes used in conjunction with its accompanying theme (KHOU used

52488-412: Was broadcasting that morning's edition of Good Day . (News and production employees conducting the morning newscast said that they did hear the crash.) After twice ramming the truck into the building, Fry exited the truck, shattered a window pane in the building and entered into a rant about treason ; he also placed numerous boxes filled with stacks of paper containing rambling notes next to a side door of

52731-427: Was co-owned with the Dallas Times-Herald —which ended publication after Belo acquired the newspaper in December 1991—from December 1949 until the Times Mirror Company sold the latter to the MediaNews Group in 1986). However, WFAA and The News continued to maintain a news content partnership through the end of 2013, at which time the newspaper entered into a collaborative agreement with KXAS-TV. On June 13, 2013,

52974-484: Was completed on February 8, 2008 – ended the joint ownership of WFAA television and The News after 59 years, becoming the last of the three newspaper/television broadcasting combinations in the Dallas–Fort Worth market to be separated into different companies (KXAS-TV was co-owned with the Star-Telegram from September 1948 until Carter Publications sold the former two properties and radio stations WBAP (820 AM) and KSCS (96.3 FM) to separate companies in 1974, while KDFW

53217-517: Was completed on November 20 with KMPX moving most of its internal operations days later into WFAA's Communications Center Studios on Young Street. While KMPX retained its Estrella TV affiliation, the signal is used to provide a full-market high definition simulcast of WFAA's main channel (which remains on VHF channel 8) for those who only have a UHF antenna. The deal also includes a five-year affiliation agreement between Estrella and Tegna, as well as an option for Estrella to purchase WFAA's VHF license. If

53460-443: Was created in commemoration of the forthcoming 1986 sesquicentennial of Texas' independence. The promotions that aired as part of the campaign focused on the region's cultural heritage, accompanied by an imaging theme written by James R. Kirk of TM Productions, who composed it as part of an associated music package that was used for the station's newscasts until 1991. All of the news themes that WFAA commissioned afterward had carried

53703-408: Was dropped from the KDFW callsign in July 1998; the KRLD-TV calls were later used by present-day CW affiliate KDAF [channel 33] from 1984 to 1986, when Metromedia co-owned that station and KRLD radio, the latter of which was also co-owned with present-day CBS owned-and-operated station KTVT [channel 11] from 1999 until CBS Corporation sold its radio division to Entercom in 2017.) In June 1986,

53946-417: Was filed on October 23, 1944, when local businessman Karl Hoblitzelle, owner of movie theater chain Interstate Circuit Theatres, applied with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to obtain a construction permit and license to operate a television station on VHF channel 8; it was the first such license application for a television station in the Southern United States . Hoblitzelle planned to operate

54189-415: Was home to the long-running morning program, The Early Birds , hosted by John Allen (and which was one of the early appearances by Dale Evans , who would later go on to star in several western films with actor husband Roy Rogers ); as well as programs such as the gospel music series Hymns We Love , hosted by Norvell Slater; music programs Saturday Night Shindig , The Big D Jamboree and Slo-and-Ezy ;

54432-451: Was in last place overall in among adults 25 to 54 for the first time in at least 30 years. During the May 2011 sweeps period, the 10 p.m. news regained its position as the market's No. 1 late newscast in total viewers and adults 25–54; its morning newscast placed third in both demographics, while the 5 and 6 p.m. newscasts placed first in the early evening slot (aided by the outgoing Oprah ) in total viewers and second (behind KDFW) in

54675-411: Was its existing Dallas outlet KDAF, which News Corporation purchased through its May 1985 merger with Metromedia and was among Fox's original group of six owned-and-operated stations when the network launched in October 1986. On May 26, New World bought the four Argyle Television stations for $ 717 million (including approximately $ 280 million in debt), in a purchase option-structured deal. Under

54918-505: Was joined by a Sunday edition in that same time period on July 10, 2011). When KDFW became a Fox affiliate on July 2, 1995, the station sharply expanded its emphasis on local news programming. It retained a news schedule similar to the one it had as a CBS affiliate, while increasing its news output from about 25 hours a week to nearly 40 hours (with its weekday news schedule expanding from 3 + 1 ⁄ 2 hours to seven hours per day). In its early years with Fox, local news programming on

55161-406: Was located on Griffin Street and San Jacinto Avenue; at the time it was incorrectly designated as the tallest free-standing television transmission tower in the world. While it was among the tallest, taller TV towers had already been erected in Columbus, Ohio ; Buffalo, New York and St. Paul, Minnesota . Nonetheless, the tower provided a signal that spanned approximately 90 miles (145 km) from

55404-432: Was maintained as the latter operated at various frequencies; it originally began in 1922, when WBAP (which first went on the air on May 2 of that year, nine weeks before WFAA began operations) transmitted at 630 kHz and continued until 1927, before resuming when that station moved to 800 kHz in 1929 and settling when WBAP moved its current frequency at 820 kHz in 1941. In 1947, WFAA and WBAP began time-sharing on

55647-400: Was originally scheduled to debut on October 1, later pushed back to November 15.) KRLD-TV was the third television station to sign on in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, following Dallas-based KBTV (channel 8, now WFAA ) and Fort Worth -licensed WBAP-TV (channel 5, now KXAS-TV ), all signing on within a 15-month timeframe. It was also the fourth Texas-based television station to be granted

55890-412: Was owned by former KDFW station manager John McKay) would retain responsibilities over channel 27's programming and production services. Through the consolidation of that station's operations with Channel 4, KDFI began airing late-night rebroadcasts of KDFW's 10 p.m. newscast each weeknight as well as select syndicated programs seen on that station; during the first months of the LMA, KDFW also produced

56133-441: Was part of a strategy by Fox to strengthen its affiliate portfolio after the National Football League (NFL) accepted the network's $ 1.58 billion bid for the television rights to the National Football Conference (NFC), a four-year contract that began with the 1994 NFL season , on December 18, 1993. At the time, Fox's stations were mostly UHF outlets that had limited to no prior history as major network affiliates; among them

56376-406: Was pressed into service for this broadcast presented on a regular, midnight newscast). WFAA uncovered significant stories in the 1980s including information of academic improprieties that would lead to the Southern Methodist University football team being given the " death penalty " in the mid-1980s, as well as the first major media investigation into the America's Savings & Loan scandal that

56619-439: Was replaced by The Chew . On September 10, 2018, WFAA moved its midday newscast to 11 a.m. to carry GMA Day (now GMA3: What You Need To Know ) at noon. From the mid-1970s until that soap concluded in December 1984, WFAA aired The Edge of Night (which the network recommended be aired at 3 pm) on a day-behind basis prior to ABC's morning sitcom rerun block, to air feature films after General Hospital . Following

56862-426: Was riding in for a story being produced for the show crashed at speeds of 286 miles per hour (460 km/h) at Dallas International Motor Speedway in October 1971, the program underwent several changes to its anchor team and was later retooled in May 1974 as The AM Show (later shortened to simply AM ), before ending in January 1978. Building its existing success, WFAA dominated the market's local news ratings from

57105-407: Was riding in the motorcade carrying Kennedy. The station conducted the first live television interview with Abraham Zapruder , who shot the famous film of the assassination. During the course of the interview with Zapruder, who came to the Communications Center studio by police escort, WFAA announcer and program director Jay Watson (who reported on the shooting with Jerry Haynes , both of whom heard

57348-561: Was rooted in Texas. WFAA-TV began its rise to news dominance in Dallas–Fort Worth during the late 1960s and early 1970s under the leadership of news manager Travis Linn, who had previously served as news director for WFAA radio. Linn later became Dallas bureau chief for CBS News before becoming professor and dean of the journalism program at the University of Nevada–Reno . Under Linn, the station expanded its news programming to 4 + 1 ⁄ 2 hours per day, including an unprecedented one-hour program at 10 p.m. each weeknight as well as

57591-458: Was struck by a helicopter, causing substantial damage to the tower. On September 22, 1969, the Los Angeles–based Times Mirror Company announced it would purchase the Times Herald and the KRLD radio and television from the Times Herald Printing Co. for $ 91 million in cash and stock. Although recently implemented FCC cross-ownership rules prohibited media companies from owning newspapers and full-power broadcast television and radio outlets in

57834-456: Was the first Metroplex-area television station to have maintained a singular network affiliation from its sign-on. The station originally broadcast for 4½ hours each weekday (from 7:30 a.m. to noon) and for four hours per day (from noon to 5 p.m.) on Saturdays and Saturdays. Among the local programs on channel 4 in its early years included O.Kay! Mr. Munn (hosted by an artist drawing visual interpretations of various song lyrics, predating

58077-626: Was the first regular television service in the world. It was on the air from 22 March 1935, until it was shut down in 1944. The station was named after Paul Gottlieb Nipkow , the inventor of the Nipkow disk . Most often the term "television station" refers to a station which broadcasts structured content to an audience or it refers to the organization that operates the station. A terrestrial television transmission can occur via analog television signals or, more recently, via digital television signals. Television stations are differentiated from cable television or other video providers as their content

58320-439: Was the first television property to be owned by the Dallas-based company, and also served as the flagship station of its broadcasting division until Belo merged with the Gannett Company in 2013. On May 21, Belo changed the station's call letters to WFAA-TV to match those of its new radio partner WFAA (570 AM, now KLIF ). The WFAA calls reportedly stood for "Working For All Alike", although the radio station later billed itself as

58563-510: Was the largest ABC affiliate to preempt NYPD Blue (which had its first two seasons air on independent station-turned- UPN affiliate KTXA instead) due to concerns over its violent content, and occasional strong profanity and partial nudity. Channel 8 substituted the police procedural in its Tuesday night timeslot with alternate programming, before launching Good Evening Texas —a weekly talk show serving as an extension of Good Morning Texas —in September 1994; WFAA began clearing NYPD Blue at

58806-406: Was transferred to the Denton County Jail on a criminal mischief charge. As with most of its sister stations under its former New World ownership (with the subverted exception of former sister station KTVI in St. Louis, which assumed rights to the network's children's programs in 1996 and carried the blocks until Fox stopped providing them within its schedule), Channel 4 declined carriage of

59049-427: Was used to relay color broadcasts of CBS' NFL and college football game telecasts held in Texas. In 1964, KRLD-TV moved its operations from the Times Herald ' s Patterson Street offices into the station's current, purpose-built studio facility at 400 North Griffin Street (across the street from the former building, at the intersection of Griffin and San Jacinto). In 1968, the station's Cedar Hill transmitter site

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