WSAZ-TV - History

History

WSAZ-TV, the oldest television station in West Virginia, began broadcasting an analog signal on VHF channel 5 starting October 14, 1949. It was owned by the Huntington Herald-Dispatch along with WSAZ radio (930 AM, now WRVC). The station carried programming from all four networks at the time (NBC, CBS, ABC, and DuMont). However, it was a primary NBC affiliate due to WSAZ-AM's long affiliation with NBC Radio. When WCHS-TV signed-on from Charleston in 1954, it took over the CBS affiliation and the two television stations shared ABC programming until WHTN-TV (now WOWK-TV) signed-on from Huntington a year later. In 1955, WSAZ-TV dropped DuMont after the network shut down. It is the only commercial station in the market that has never changed its primary affiliation. However, WCHS and WOWK have swapped affiliations three times.

One story of how this channel's call letters originated dates from WSAZ-AM's origins in 1923. Radio engineer Glenn Chase applied to the Secretary of Commerce for a license to operate a small radio station in Pomeroy, Ohio (it moved across the Ohio River to Huntington in 1927). In the application, he reportedly claimed that since he was building most of the station's equipment himself, "it would probably be the worst station from A to Z." Chase asked that appropriate call letters be assigned. His request was promptly granted and the calls WSAZ were given to him meaning "Worst Station from A to Z." A more likely story was that the allocation of the call letters WSAZ were pure coincidence as they were assigned by the Department of Commerce in an alphabetical sequence just after WSAX in Chicago and WSAY in Port Chester, New York. However, the myth persists that the calls stand for "Worst Station from A to Z" which WSAZ radio itself helped spread by using it as a slogan for many years.

In 1950, WSAZ-TV received Federal Communications Commission (FCC) permission to build a private microwave link to Cincinnati allowing viewers to get NBC programming live. As the nation's first privately owned microwave system, it was a remarkable feat for one of the smallest cities in the country at the time to have a television station. The first live broadcast was scheduled for a Labor Day baseball game, but the system broke down for four hours and forced WSAZ to broadcast a fire at a nearby hotel. It ditched the Cincinnati link in favor of one from Columbus, Ohio in 1952. Also that year, the FCC released its Sixth Report and Order which included a realignment of VHF channel assignments. As a result, WSAZ-TV moved to channel 3 in order to alleviate interference with fellow NBC affiliate WLWT in Cincinnati. The channel move also created an opening for a new channel 5 station in Weston. This signal signed-on as WJPB-TV (now WDTV) in March 1954.

As part of the frequency switch, the FCC granted WSAZ a boost in broadcast power, which at the time, was the highest ever authorized for a television station. This allowed the station to penetrate more of its huge viewing area, most of which is a very rugged dissected plateau. However, as the regulation of domestic television stations were normalized, WSAZ's signal strength was reduced to the same levels as others in 1956. The station's transmission tower was the tallest in North America until WIS-TV in Columbia, South Carolina activated a taller tower in 1959. The Herald-Dispatch sold WSAZ-AM-TV to Goodwill Stations, owner of WJR radio in Detroit and WJRT-TV in Flint, Michigan, in 1961. Goodwill merged with Capital Cities Communications in 1964. Capital Cities sold the radio station to Stoner Broadcasting in 1970, but kept channel 3 until 1971 when it was sold to Lee Enterprises. Emmis Communications bought the station in 2000 after Lee decided to bow out of broadcasting. Emmis then sold WSAZ to Gray Television in 2005. The Gray purchase made WSAZ a sister station to fellow NBC affiliate WTAP-TV in Parkersburg.

Being based in Huntington, WSAZ is located fifty miles (80 km) away from West Virginia's state capital, Charleston. As such, the station opened a branch studio there in 1956. It also launched a low-powered repeater on UHF channel 23 to serve the Kanawha Valley soon after its signal was cut to standardized levels. While Charleston and its close-in suburbs receive the main WSAZ signal very well, it was marginal at best in much of the Kanawha Valley due to the area's rugged terrain. The translator was moved to channel 16 in 2003 after WSAZ began using channel 23 for its digital broadcasts.

Under federal must-carry rules, broadcasters can either allow cable TV systems in the market to carry their signals for free or charge a fee under retransmission consent provisions. On December 3, 2008, it was announced that Inter Mountain Cable (IMC), a cable provider serving parts of Eastern Kentucky, announced that it would drop WSAZ from its lineup unless an agreement was reached over retransmission consent. According to The Mountain Eagle of Whitesburg, Kentucky, this dispute caused concern among officials in the city of Fleming-Neon where IMC holds the cable franchise. The city council in Fleming-Neon stated that the removal of WSAZ would violate IMC's franchise agreement.

On September 5, 2006, WSAZ launched a new second digital subchannel to be the area's MyNetworkTV affiliate. Although it is a digital subchannel, many local cable companies air WSAZ-DT2 as a separate channel on their systems. It ended analog operations on February 17, 2009 as part of the DTV transition in the United States. The station remained on its pre-transition channel 23. Digital receivers display the station's virtual channel as 3 through the use of PSIP. On August 29, 2009, WSAZ-DT2 dropped its previous overnight lineup of infomercials and began a secondary affiliation with This TV carrying programming from that network usually overnights and on weekends.

W16CE does have a construction permit to move from analog channel 16 to a digital signal on channel 15.