Question about WOWT Omaha

[Rob Jason]

Des Moines has the odd distinction of a non-commercial AM-FM sharing heritage call letters with a commercial broadcaster. WOI-AM-FM are NPR affiliates, owned I believe by the state university. But somewhere along the way, the university gave up its TV station, which is still WOI-TV, now an ABC affiliate. Des Moines may be the only TV market well west of the Mississippi with two W stations, WOI-TV and WHO-TV.

WOI-TV has been operated as a commercial ABC affiliate for MANY years. I'm pretty sure it was a commercial station from the beginning.

It would not be the only case of a public university operating a commercial TV station. KOMU in Columbia, Missouri would be another example.

WNDU in Notre Dame is another (the university just sold it)...And Cornell University operated commercial WHCU AM-FM for decades in Ithaca, selling it in the eighties. Rumor has it that Cornell and WHCU had the opportunity to receive the channel 9 allocation that eventually went to Syracuse and ABC. They would, however, had to have given up their long relationship with CBS, and allegedly they did not want to do that.

 

[mleach]

Des Moines has the odd distinction of a non-commercial AM-FM sharing heritage call letters with a commercial broadcaster. WOI-AM-FM are NPR affiliates, owned I believe by the state university. But somewhere along the way, the university gave up its TV station, which is still WOI-TV, now an ABC affiliate. Des Moines may be the only TV market well west of the Mississippi with two W stations, WOI-TV and WHO-TV.

WOI-TV has been operated as a commercial ABC affiliate for MANY years. I'm pretty sure it was a commercial station from the beginning.

It would not be the only case of a public university operating a commercial TV station. KOMU in Columbia, Missouri would be another example.

WNDU in Notre Dame is another (the university just sold it)...And Cornell University operated commercial WHCU AM-FM for decades in Ithaca, selling it in the eighties. Rumor has it that Cornell and WHCU had the opportunity to receive the channel 9 allocation that eventually went to Syracuse and ABC. They would, however, had to have given up their long relationship with CBS, and allegedly they did not want to do that.

Somewhat could be the case with Gray's WHSV-DT 49.3 in Winchester, Virginia ( www.tv3winchester.com ) which is on the campus of Shenandoah University. While Gray spent quite a bit of money for launching the ABC affiliate and currently pays the upkeep and salaries of the staff including of course the anchors ( even though a number of other websites have said in the past that Comcast pays that which is totally not true ), Gray pays NO rent on the building nor for some unknown reason they paid nothing for the station vehicles and for the rarely used station chopper either which at one time belonged to Kohls Department Store, as all of these things belong to Shenandoah University.

 

[pqgeorge]

Des Moines has the odd distinction of a non-commercial AM-FM sharing heritage call letters with a commercial broadcaster. WOI-AM-FM are NPR affiliates, owned I believe by the state university. But somewhere along the way, the university gave up its TV station, which is still WOI-TV, now an ABC affiliate. Des Moines may be the only TV market well west of the Mississippi with two W stations, WOI-TV and WHO-TV.

WOI-TV has been operated as a commercial ABC affiliate for MANY years. I'm pretty sure it was a commercial station from the beginning.

It would not be the only case of a public university operating a commercial TV station. KOMU in Columbia, Missouri would be another example.

WOI-TV (Channel 5, Ames, IA) has been commercial (with ABC) from the beginning, in spite of it being owned by the State University for so many years. I actually had a chance to watch WOI-TV during an e-skip opening in 1972, while vacationing in East Wakefield, NH. WOI-TV was running ABC programming (with epic novel movie, "War and Peace" which ran on ABC for many nights). It was coming in like a local for nearly an hour with a perfect picture. I saw an promo for "Popeye" cartoons with a legal ID voiced by announcer who sounded somewhat "collegiate" (rather green in the gills, but very good). Ames, IA, what an unusual place to put up an ABC affiliate (who happens to be owned by the local University).

 

[Ultimajock]

What is now KXAS NBC 5 in Dallas/Fort Worth was WBAP-TV. As for radio for many years both WFAA and WBAP I believe shared time on AM 570 in that region but I am not sure since I know little about that radio market.

...both WFAA and WBAP split 570 and 820 due to a 1930s three-way signal-sharing arrangement with KGKO -- 570 always carried Blue/ABC, regardless of whichever station was on it, and 820 always carried Red/NBC. That's why you hear WBAP and WFAA switching between announced frequencies and networks on their 22 November 1963 airchecks...

 

[pqgeorge]

What is now KXAS NBC 5 in Dallas/Fort Worth was WBAP-TV. As for radio for many years both WFAA and WBAP I believe shared time on AM 570 in that region but I am not sure since I know little about that radio market.

...both WFAA and WBAP split 570 and 820 due to a 1930s three-way signal-sharing arrangement with KGKO -- 570 always carried Blue/ABC, regardless of whichever station was on it, and 820 always carried Red/NBC. That's why you hear WBAP and WFAA switching between announced frequencies and networks on their 22 November 1963 airchecks...

Is it true that the sound of a "cowbell" was the cue for the engineers to the change transmitters (or feeds) between WFAA and WBAP? I noticed during the JFK Coverage that the sound of the cowbell was absent that day (for obvious reasons, out of respect for the slain President). Did WBAP and WFAA had a definite schedule that allowed both stations to get some nighttime skywave coverage? I'm curious!