WFAA


WFAA, virtual and VHF digital channel 8, is an ABC-affiliated television station licensed to Dallas, Texas, United States and serving the Dallas–Fort Worth Metroplex. The station is owned by Tegna Inc. WFAA maintains business offices and secondary studio facilities at the WFAA Communications Center Studios on Young Street in downtown Dallas, and operates a primary studio facility, which is used for the production of WFAA's newscasts and also houses certain other business operations handled by the station, in the Victory Park neighborhood in central Dallas. The station's transmitter is located south of Belt Line Road in Cedar Hill.
WFAA is the largest ABC-affiliated station by market size that is not owned and operated by the network through its ABC Owned Television Stations subsidiary, and the largest affiliate of any of the "Big Four" television networks that is not owned by that respective network. It is also one of only two television stations in the Dallas–Fort Worth market that is not owned by the corporate parent of its affiliated network.

History

Early history

The initial application for the television station 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 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 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.
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The station first signed on the air at 8 p.m. on September 17, 1949 as KBTV, with 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 in nearby Fort Worth, which signed on almost one year earlier on September 29, 1948; and KLEE-TV, 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 for only four hours of programming per day. It originally operated as a primary affiliate of the DuMont Television Network and 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 —the latter of which was also licensed to Dallas and signed on three months later on December 3—would be 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.

Belo ownership and ABC affiliation

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 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 in 1952, eventually chose to reassign the Channel 12 allocation to Waco. Complicating matters, 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 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. Four days later on March 21, Belo changed the station's call letters to WFAA-TV to match those of its new radio partner WFAA. The WFAA calls reportedly stood for "Working For All Alike," although the radio station later billed itself as 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 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 the start that Dallas and Fort Worth 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 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 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, which had earlier moved its transmitter to 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 candelabra tower that was already shared by WFAA and KRLD-TV, and operate it at 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 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 starred alongside a variety of puppet characters 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 the music series The Group And Chapman and its progenitor Sump'n Else, Dallas Bandstand, lifestyle and fashion talk program The Julie Bennell Show, the viewer Q&A series Let Me Speak to the Manager, 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 the series into regional syndication 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 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 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. The Communications Center complex housed three production studios, offices and sound recording studios for 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, 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 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 the Corinthian Broadcasting subsidiary of Dun & Bradstreet in December 1983, adding six additional stations—including CBS affiliate KHOU in Houston—to its portfolio ; and added ten additional stations through its 1997 merger acquisition of 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.
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 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 the TM Productions theme's seven-note musical signature. The "Spirit" image campaign and/or slogan was also adapted by some of its Belo-owned sister stations and by television stations owned by other companies, sometimes in conjunction with its accompanying theme. 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" ; however, 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 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 the aircraft and parachuted to the ground before it crashed. The tower consortium between the two stations decided to have a new -tall tower constructed a southwest of the original facility, which was completed in 1989. The candelabra mast that encompassed the upper of the former tower, meanwhile, was dismantled, with new transmitters installed to serve as auxiliary facilities for WFAA, KDFW and radio stations KJMZ, KMEZ, KQZY, KKDA-FM and KMGC.
In April 1998, when KTEN 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. However, residents in extreme North Texas could view most ABC programs that were pre-empted by KTEN via WFAA for several years beforehand, particularly after the former switched to a primary NBC affiliation in 1986. The market would regain an ABC station of its own when KTEN launched 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, 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, utilizing 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 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 the corner of Olive and Houston Streets. The facility, which opened in January 2007, incorporates a street-level studio where most of the station's news programming and the local talk show Good Morning Texas is produced, and houses news production staff and engineering operations; initially, 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.
On October 1, 2007, Belo announced plans to split off its broadcasting and newspaper interests into two independent companies. WFAA would remain with the broadcasting entity, which retained the Belo Corporation name and was structured as the legal successor to the previous company, while the newspaper division was spun off into the similarly named, shareholder-held entity A. H. Belo Corporation. The split – which 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 and KSCS. 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.

Gannett/Tegna ownership

On June 13, 2013, the Gannett Company announced that it would acquire Belo for $1.5 billion. 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 ; it also marked channel 8's first ownership change in 63 years. 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 the Dallas-based London Broadcasting Company, which based its portfolio of broadcasting properties exclusively within Texas.
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 ; the Gannett Company, meanwhile, was re-established as a new company absolved of all existing debt that retained its predecessor's newspapers and select digital assets not acquired by Tegna.

Subchannel history

WFAA-DT2

WFAA-DT2 is the second digital subchannel of WFAA, broadcasting in-house weather and local programming in widescreen standard definition on virtual and VHF digital channel 8.2.
WFAA launched a digital subchannel on virtual channel 8.2 in 2004, as a locally programmed format under the name "Xpress 8.2". The service, which was later renamed "News 8 Now", featured weather radar imagery, regular news updates and occasional live programming, as well as 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 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 the Dallas Cowboys are scheduled to play.. On January 20, 2020, the subchannel ended its affiliation with The Local AccuWeather 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, starting with all 30 home games of Dallas Baptist University's 2020 baseball season.

WFAA-DT3

WFAA-DT3 is the True Crime Network-affiliated third digital subchannel of WFAA, broadcasting in widescreen standard definition on virtual and VHF digital channel 8.3.
WFAA launched a tertiary digital subchannel on virtual channel 8.3 on November 1, 2008 as a charter affiliate of This TV. WFAA-DT3 disaffiliated from the film-focused network on November 8, 2010, when the subchannel became an affiliate of the lifestyle-formatted Live Well Network as a result of a group affiliation agreement between Belo and network parent Disney-ABC Television Group. On January 20, 2015, the subchannel became a charter affiliate of the Justice Network, which replaced Live Well on many of the Gannett Company's television stations after Disney-ABC chose to shut down affiliate relations and relegate distribution of Live Well exclusively to ABC's eight owned-and-operated stations, such as KTRK-TV in Houston.

WFAA-DT4

WFAA-DT4 is the Quest-affiliated fourth digital subchannel of WFAA, broadcasting in widescreen standard definition on virtual and VHF digital channel 8.4.
On January 29, 2018, WFAA launched a digital subchannel on virtual channel 8.4, to serve as a charter affiliate of Quest, a travel/science/history/adventure-focused network owned by Tegna in conjunction with Cooper Media.

Digital television

Digital channels

The station's digital signal is multiplexed:
ChannelVideoAspectPSIP Short NameProgramming
8.11080iWFAAMain WFAA programming / ABC
8.2480iAccuWXWFAA Two
8.3480iCrimeTrue Crime Network
8.4480iQuestQuest

WFAA operated a Mobile DTV feed that relayed the station's primary channel on virtual channel 8.1, which transmitted at 1.83 Mbit/s.
The station is one of a handful of ABC affiliates that transmits its main channel in the 1080i high definition resolution format; most of ABC's other owned-and-operated stations and affiliates transmit the digital feed assigned to carry the network's programming in 720p, the resolution designated by network parent The Walt Disney Company as the HD format for ABC and its other U.S. television properties.

Analog-to-digital conversion

WFAA became the first television station in the United States to broadcast their digital television signal on a VHF channel on February 27, 1998 at 2:17 p.m., when it began test broadcasts on VHF channel 9; the following day on February 28, it became the nation's first television station to broadcast a local news program in high definition. When the transmission tests began, the digital feed's Channel 9 assignment was already in use by Dallas area hospitals; this would result in Baylor University Medical Center and Methodist Dallas Medical Center having to reconfigure their telemetry systems to different frequencies before WFAA began full-time digital transmissions on March 16 as the station's assigned digital channel corresponded to a portion of the broadcast spectrum utilized by the hospitals for their wireless medical equipment, creating RF interference issues that notably disrupted several wireless heart monitors at both facilities.
WFAA shut down its analog signal, over VHF channel 8, at 12:03 p.m. on June 12, 2009, as part of the federally mandated transition from analog to digital television. The station's digital signal relocated from VHF channel 9 to channel 8. Immediately before WFAA ceased transmission of its analog signal, the station aired a retrospective of its history that was narrated by meteorologist Pete Delkus, which was followed by a video of the sign-off that the station had aired at the conclusion of its broadcast day during the 1970s.
On December 23, 2009, WFAA filed an application to the FCC to obtain permission to increase its transmitter's effective radiated power from 45 kW through an omni-directional antenna to 55 kW, through the installation of a directional antenna. The reasoning behind its proposal for the power increase was due to difficulties experienced by some viewers in portions of the Dallas–Fort Worth market who tried to maintain adequate over-the-air reception of the channel 8 digital signal.

Programming

Syndicated and non-news local programming

programs broadcast by WFAA include Inside Edition and Entertainment Tonight, as well as the Tegna-distributed syndicated shows Daily Blast Live and Sister Circle. The station also 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, 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. In 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic, an extension version of Good Morning Texas was added to the 2 p.m. schedule called Good Morning Texas Extra which contains the same content as their morning show, which replaced Sister Circle.
Channel 8 held the local syndication rights to the game shows Jeopardy! and Wheel of Fortune for several years starting in the early 1980s. After spending eighteen years in the 6:30 p.m. slot, WFAA dropped Wheel, as well as Jeopardy!, 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 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. The station currently airs This Week on a half-hour delay as its Sunday morning newscast runs for 90 minutes, and airs the Saturday edition of Good Morning America one hour earlier than most ABC stations. It also carries the Litton's Weekend Adventure block on 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.

Past program preemptions and deferrals

Historically, 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 the existing local morning program The AM Show. 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 a.m.: the soap opera All My Children aired in that slot until September 27, 2011, when it was replaced by The Chew. On September 10, 2018, WFAA moved its midday newscast to 11 a.m. in order to carry GMA Day at noon. From the mid-1970s until that soap concluded in December 1984, WFAA aired The Edge of Night on a day-behind basis prior to ABC's morning sitcom rerun block, in order to air feature films after General Hospital. Following 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 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 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 the station acquired the local syndication rights to Entertainment Tonight. As a byproduct of WFAA's swap of Nightline and ETs respective timeslots in September 1989, Channel 8 aired Politically Incorrect with Bill Maher a half-hour later than its then-recommended 11:05 p.m. Central time slot from its ABC debut in September 1995 until its cancellation in December 2002; the talk show that replaced it, Jimmy Kimmel Live!, also aired in this manner starting with its January 2003 premiere.
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 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 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 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 aired on a one-week delay from 5 to 6 a.m., 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 aired instead on a three-hour delay during the 11 a.m. hour; WFAA aired 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 pre-empted certain theatrical and made-for-television films aired by ABC which management deemed too risque for broadcast. WFAA was the largest ABC affiliate to preempt NYPD Blue 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 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 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 Ryans telecast as not being in violation of the agency's broadcast decency regulations after it aired.

News operation

As of July 2020, WFAA presently broadcasts 36 hours and 30 minutes of locally produced newscasts each week with a main focus on lifetime. In addition, the station produces two Sunday evening sports programs: the highlight program Dale Hansen's Sports Special, and High School Sports Special. WFAA also previously operated a news helicopter, HD Chopper 8, which featured the 1984 to 1996 dual-outlined "8" logo on its underside. The station maintains bureaus in Collin County at Dr Pepper Ballpark, and in Tarrant County near downtown Fort Worth; both bureaus house a limited staff of reporters, but are rarely used for newscast production. Mainly WFAA doesn't carry the chopper all of the time. WFAA is one of the few television stations that does not use the First Warning broadcast weather alert system; a text display of 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. It is replaced with a red scroll at the bottom, with a few technical problems.

News department history

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 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 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 the November 2010 sweeps to a relatively distant second during the February 2011 sweeps period with total viewers and with adults 25-54. WFAA's only #1 finish during the latter period was at 5 p.m. in total viewers, aided by its Oprah lead-in. The station 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 #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 in total viewers and second in 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, and seriously injured then-Governor John Connally, who 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, 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 the basement of Dallas police headquarters, however, was not broadcast live or on tape 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 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 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 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, televising the arrival of President Richard Nixon at Dallas Love Field within 30 minutes of his plane's touchdown in 1969. 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 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 4½ hours per day, including an unprecedented one-hour program at 10 p.m. each weeknight as well as 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 was riding in for a story being produced for the show crashed at speeds of 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, before ending in January 1978.
Building its existing success, WFAA dominated the market's local news ratings from 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, Iola Johnson, Bob Gooding, Murphy Martin, Judi Hanna, John Criswell, Chip Moody, John McCaa, Gloria Campos, Lisa McRee, Verne Lundquist, Dale Hansen and Troy Dungan. Other notable people who once worked at Channel 8 include Scott Pelley, the late David Garcia, Mike Lee, Doug Terry, and the late Don Harris.
Channel 8's approach to news during this period was characterized by an aggressive, all-out commitment to get 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 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 a local morning newscast in 1987, when it launched the initially 60-minute traditional news program News 8 Daybreak. 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.; 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 10:00 p.m. newscast in September 1980. In 1994, the station began conducting town hall meetings all over North Texas through its Family First initiative, which remains a significant part of the station's commitment to community service.
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Since 1986, WFAA's news department has won six Peabody Awards, with a seventh awarded personally to Marty Haag, WFAA's executive news director from 1973 to 1989 and vice president of news operations for Belo Corporation afterward. WFAA was honored with Peabody Awards in 1986, 1995, 2002, 2004, 2007 and 2010. The station has also been recognized with several national Edward R. Murrow Awards and eight duPont-Columbia University Silver Batons.
Coinciding with the commencement of local programming production at the Plaza Towers studios in Victory Park, WFAA began broadcasting its newscasts and other local programs in high definition on February 2, 2007, becoming the first television station in the Dallas–Fort Worth market to begin broadcasting their newscasts in the format on a regular basis. Initially, all footage shot in-studio was broadcast in high definition, while all news video from on-remote locations was upconverted in standard definition.
In 2009, WFAA became the first local station to receive the Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Award's Gold Baton, for its commitment to investigative journalism; reporters Byron Harris and Brett Shipp were recognized for investigative reports about corruption and waste at the Export-Import Bank of the United States, grade changing for failing high school athletes and dangers posed by aging gas pipeline couplings. On September 12, 2013, WFAA debuted an hour-long weekday 4:00 p.m. newscast, which competes against existing hour-long newscasts in that slot on KXAS and KTVT.

On-air staff

Notable current on-air staff

WFAA (AM)

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 was maintained as the latter operated at various frequencies; it originally began in 1922, when WBAP 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 a second frequency, 570 kHz, which was formerly occupied by KGKO. Until WFAA 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 6:00 a.m., with WFAA taking over the frequency space until noon; WBAP returned to 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.
WFAA was the first radio station in Texas to join a national 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. The station's original on-air staff members and reporters consisted of columnists and editors employed with The Dallas Morning News. WFAA was home to the long-running morning program, The Early Birds, hosted by John Allen ; 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; 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 music station in 1970, before switching to a Top 40 format in 1973. On November 9, 1976, the station made its final format change, adopting a news and talk-based schedule.
WFAA 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 the southeast corner of Commerce and Akard Streets in downtown Dallas, and then moved to facilities atop the Santa Fe Railroad Warehouse on Jackson Street on June 20, 1941. 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

WFAA-FM signed on October 5, 1946 as KERA-FM. 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, 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 under the call letters KZEW-FM on September 16, 1973. The station's concept and programming were initially under the direction of Ira Lipson, who brought in talent such as John LaBella and John Rody, George Gimarc, Charley Jones, Dave Lee Austin, John B. Wells, Doc Morgan, Nancy Johnson, John Dew, John Dillon and Tempie Lindsey. The FM station shared facilities with WFAA-AM on 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.