WAFB
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| Branding |
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| Programming | |
| Affiliations |
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| Ownership | |
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| WBXH-CD | |
| History | |
First air date | April 19, 1953 |
Former call signs | WAFB-TV (1953–1988) |
Former channel number(s) |
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Call signmeaning | derived from former radio sister stationsWAFBand WAFB-FM, meaning Always For Baton Rouge[1] |
| Technical information[2] | |
Licensing authority | FCC |
| Facility ID | 589 |
| ERP | 5.57kW |
| HAAT | 511 m (1,677 ft) |
| Transmitter coordinates | 30°21′59″N91°12′47″W/ 30.36639°N 91.21306°W |
| Links | |
Public license information | |
| Website | wafb |
WAFB(channel 9) is atelevision stationinBaton Rouge, Louisiana,affiliated withCBS.It is owned byGray Televisionalongsidelow-power,Class AMyNetworkTVaffiliateWBXH-CD(channel 39). The two stations share studios on Government Street in downtown Baton Rouge; WAFB's transmitter is located on River Road near the city's Riverbend section.
History
[edit]
The station began broadcasting on April 19, 1953, as the first television station in Baton Rouge, and the second television station in the state of Louisiana.[3]It launched as a television counterpart to local radio stationsWAFBand WAFB-FM, which both signed on in 1948 and were affiliated with theMutual Broadcasting System.Louis S. Prejean and associates (Modern Broadcasting of Baton Rouge) were the first owners of the station, and they sold it to Royal Street Corporation ofNew Orleansin 1956, which ownedWDSU-TV,the first television station in Louisiana. In 1957, they sold the radio stations, with the AM station changing its format to black music and the FM station going off the air; a newWAFB-FMwould sign on in 1968. Royal Street owned the station until 1964, when it sold the station to locally based Guaranty Corporation.[4]In 1965, the station moved its transmission tower fromZacharyto south ofLSU's campus, allowing viewers in a 90-mile (140 km) radius to receive its signal; it was also in that year that the station started broadcasting in color.
Originally broadcasting an analog signal onUHFchannel 28, WAFB moved to VHF channel 9 in 1960.WDAM-TVinHattiesburg, Mississippi,moved to channel 7 to accommodate this switch. The station has always been a CBS affiliate but carried someNBCprogramming untilWBRZ-TVsigned on in 1955. WAFB also carried someABCprogramming with WBRZ until WRBT (nowWVLA) signed on in 1971 and some programming fromDuMontuntil that network folded. The station also airedTime for Beanyduring its early years on the air from theParamount Television Networkand was briefly affiliated with theNTA Film Network,airing programsSheriff of Cochise,How to Marry a Millionaire,andThis is Alice.
In 1988, Guaranty sold the station toAFLAC.Coincidentally, the call letters of the station, WAFB, also spelled out their new owner: American Family Broadcasting (although the WAFB calls predate this ownership by 40 years when its former original sister radio station signed on in 1948 with the slogan "Always For Baton Rouge" ). Under new ownership, the station underwent many changes. During 1988, AFLAC invested $2 million in redesigning the studio, dropped the-TVsuffix from its call letters and began branding itself as "Louisiana's News Channel", a slogan the station still uses today. In addition, the new owners cancelled the station's beloved 33-year-old half-hour local weekday programStoryland,then the longest-running children's program, hosted byBuckskin Bill Black,and rechristened it asBuckskin and Friends,an hour-long show that aired on Saturday mornings until it was cancelled in September 1990. It was also in 1988 that the owners petitioned CBS to air the network's daytime programs in a different order—airing syndicated programming at 10 a.m.,The Price Is Rightat 11 a.m., andThe Young and the Restlessat 3 p.m. (later 4 p.m.) as a way to boost ratings as a lead-in to the noon and 5 p.m. newscasts. WAFB began broadcasting 24 hours a day on September 12, 1990.
In 1997, AFLAC sold its entire broadcasting division, including WAFB, toRaycom Media.In 2003, Raycom acquired formerThe BoxaffiliateWBXH-CA,which became a sister station to WAFB when the channel became Baton Rouge's thirdUPNaffiliate and laterMyNetworkTVaffiliate in 2006. It originally aired a digital signal on UHF channel 46 from a transmitter at its studios.
Sale to Gray Television
[edit]On June 25, 2018,Atlanta-basedGray Televisionannounced it had reached an agreement with Raycom to merge their respective broadcasting assets (consisting of Raycom's 63 existing owned-and/or-operated television stations, including WAFB, and Gray's 93 television stations) under Gray's corporate umbrella. The cash-and-stock merger transaction valued at $3.6 billion – in which Gray shareholders would acquire preferred stock currently held by Raycom – resulted in WAFB gaining newsister stationsin nearby markets, including CBS/ABC affiliateKNOE-TVinMonroeand NBC/CBS affiliateKALB-TVinAlexandria,in addition to its current Raycom sister stations. The combined company thereby gained a presence in every Louisiana market except for Lafayette as a result.[5][6][7]The sale was approved on December 20,[8]and was completed on January 2, 2019.[9]
Programming
[edit]WAFB was one of a handful of stations that shifts the air times of various CBS programming. From 1988 until 2019,The Price Is Rightaired at 11 a.m. instead of 10 a.m., andThe Young and the Restlessaired at 4 p.m. instead of 11 a.m. The station made this change to give its noon and 5 p.m. newscasts a strong lead-in.[10]However, on September 9, 2019, WAFB resumed airing both programs at their respective network-recommended times of 10 a.m. and 11 a.m.[11]The station airedJeopardy!andWheel of Fortuneuntil 1995 when the shows moved to WBRZ.Live with Regis and KellyandThe Oprah Winfrey Showwere seen until the late 1990s.Oprahmoved to WBRZ but since then aired on WVLA until the show ended its run in 2011.Regis and Kelly(nowLive with Kelly and Mark) continues to air on WBRZ.The People's Courtalso once aired on WAFB before going to WBRZ and later WGMB. The station aired the syndicated version ofFamily Feudhosted bySteve Harveyuntil 2020 and aired the versions hosted byLouie Anderson,Richard Karn,andJohn O'Hurley,with the exception of Karn's first season, which aired onKZUP-CD,and Harvey's second through fifth seasons, which aired on WVLA. Until 2015, WAFB aired the syndicated version ofWho Wants to Be a Millionaire;the show aired on sister station WBXH until its cancellation in 2019. WAFB also airs the Sunday services from the First United Methodist Church in the city.
One locally produced show that brought years of enjoyment to children was hosted by "Buckskin Bill" Black (William Black) that ran in different formats from 1955 until 1990. There were several characters that were regulars on the show including "Señor Puppet" (amarionettevoiced by Sid Crocker) and "Whatsyourname" (another puppet voiced by Mary Hillen). The show had a way of educating young children while making it fun to learn. Two games many adults can remember Buckskin playing were called "Hully Gully" which helped to teach counting numbers and the "Monday Morning March". The two shows he hosted were calledStoryland(for younger children during morning broadcasting) andThe Buckskin Bill Show(for older children during the afternoons, which ended September 1977).Buckskinwas also one of the first shows in the United States to have asign-languageinterpreter for hearing-impaired viewers prior to closed-captioning. Through two gracious campaigns from his show, Buckskin Bill helped to start theBaton Rouge Zoo.During this campaign, he asked children to bring in their pennies to buy anelephant.The penny campaign was successful enough to purchase two. Upon being taken over by AFLAC, station management canceled the dailyStorylandon September 30, 1988, and converted it to a Saturday morning hour-long program calledBuckskin Bill and Friendsthat began airing on November 5, 1988. Said program ended in late 1990 after Black resigned from WAFB. Bill Black later became involved with theEast Baton Rouge Parish Public SchoolsBoard and other civic organizations until his death on January 10, 2018.
On December 30, 2023, WAFB parent company Gray Television announced it had reached an agreement with theNew Orleans Pelicansto air 10 games on the station during the2023–24 season.[12]
News operation
[edit]WAFB's newscasts have had the second-highest ratings at 10 p.m. in any of the country's biggest televisionmarketsaccording toThe Des Moines RegisterinIowa.Nielsen Media Researchratings showed that 16.2% of all households in the Baton Rouge area watched the show. The only station to get a bigger share of the local audience wasKCCI,the CBS affiliate inDes Moines,which was watched by 17.9% of area households.
For most of its history, WAFB was a distant second to WBRZ in the ratings given WBRZ's consistent history on the VHF band and former roots in theBaton Rouge Advocate.In the mid-1990s, WBRZ experienced significant staff turnover and several news format changes while AFLAC and Raycom invested heavily in improving WAFB's news product by maintaining low turnover in its news staff and presentation (WAFB used the "Newschannel" theme by Gari Media from 1990 until Raycom switched its news music client to Stephen Arnold Music in late 2014), leading WAFB to overtake WBRZ's news ratings in 1994. In the recent ratings period, it beat the others stations' combined weeknights at 5, 6, and 10. In total, the station's news department produces 25 hours of news programming each week. This includes two newscasts on sister station WBXH-CD (weeknights at 9, which began on January 8, 2007, and Saturday mornings). WAFB's weekday morning news is repeated on that station. WAFB also has a Cox cable channel devoted to airing simulcasts and rebroadcasts of its news broadcasts.
On March 3, 2008, WAFB became the first in Baton Rouge and the third in Louisiana to broadcast its local broadcasts in high definition. The WBXH broadcasts were included in the upgrade. On September 12, 2011, WAFB became the first station in the market (and, to date, the only station) to begin its morning newscasts at 4:30 a.m. instead of 5 a.m. On March 26, 2020, WAFB became the second station in the Baton Rouge market to launch a 4 p.m. newscast in the midst of theCOVID-19 pandemic,and on August 3, 2020, WAFB became the first station in Baton Rouge to expand its 6 p.m. newscast to a full hour.[13]On June 26, 2023, WAFB launched a 9 a.m. weekday newscast.[14]
Despite becoming rarer among other television news operations, WAFB occasionally broadcast aneditorialthat was usually delivered by the station manager. This practice ended shortly after Gray assumed ownership of the station.
Notable former on-air staff
[edit]- Donna Britt– anchor (deceased)[15]
- Tim Brando– sports (now broadcasts for various sports outlets includingFox Sports)
- Isiah Carey(now atKRIVinHouston)
- Jay Young– former 6 and 10 p.m. news anchor in the late 1970s, later served as one of the first anchors ofCNNand atWBRZ
Technical information
[edit]Subchannels
[edit]The station's signal ismultiplexed:
| Channel | Res. | Aspect | Short name | Programming |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 9.1 | 1080i | 16:9 | WAFB HD | CBS |
| 9.2 | 480i | Bounce | Bounce TV | |
| 9.3 | The365 | The365 | ||
| 9.4 | WBXH DT | MyNetworkTV(WBXH-CD) | ||
| 9.5 | DABL | Dabl | ||
| 9.6 | DEFY | Ion Plus[17] | ||
| 9.7 | Oxygen | Oxygen |
Analog-to-digital conversion
[edit]WAFB shut down its analog signal, overVHFchannel 9, on June 12, 2009, the official date on which full-power television stations in the United Statestransitioned from analog to digital broadcastsunder federal mandate. The station's digital signal relocated from its pre-transition UHF channel 46 to VHF channel 9.[18]With the new digital channel, WAFB rebroadcasts WBXH on channel 9.4 and, before the launch ofBounce TVaffiliate September 2011, weather on channel 9.2.
References
[edit]- ^"WAFB Official Says NBR to get Super Service from Station," North Baton Rouge Journal, April 29, 1948, Page 1
- ^"Facility Technical Data for WAFB".Licensing and Management System.Federal Communications Commission.
- ^"About Us"WAFB TV Linked-Inhttps://www.linkedin.com/company/wafb-tv/
- ^1967 Radio and Television Yearbook
- ^"GRAY AND RAYCOM TO COMBINE IN A $3.6 BILLION TRANSACTION".Raycom Media(Press release). June 25, 2018.
- ^Eggerton, John (June 25, 2018)."Gray Buying Raycom for $3.6B".Broadcasting & Cable.NewBay Media.
- ^Hayes, Dade (June 25, 2018)."Gray Acquiring Raycom For $3.65B, Forming No. 3 Local TV Group".Deadline Hollywood.Penske Media Corporation.
- ^"FCC OK with Gray/Raycom Merger",Broadcasting & Cable,December 20, 2018, Retrieved December 20, 2018.
- ^"Gray Closes On $3.6 Billion Raycom Merger".TVNewsCheck.NewsCheckMedia. January 2, 2019.RetrievedJanuary 3,2019.
- ^":: Baton Rouge Business Report:: Ron Winders heads back to Savannah".www.businessreport.com.Archived fromthe originalon July 28, 2011.
- ^"CBS Fall Lineup".WAFB.RetrievedSeptember 15,2019.
- ^"WAFB will televise 10 of this season's Pelicans games"(Press release). WAFB. December 30, 2023.RetrievedDecember 30,2023.
- ^"WAFB to launch 4 p.m. Newscast".
- ^https://www.wafb.com/2023/06/26/join-us-9news-9-am/
- ^"Longtime WAFB anchor Donna Britt dies following battle with ALS".KATC.January 21, 2021.RetrievedJanuary 21,2021.
- ^RabbitEars TV Query for WAFB
- ^Keys, Matthew (June 28, 2024)."Scripps replacing Defy TV with Ion Plus on broadcast TV".TheDesk.net.RetrievedJune 28,2024.
- ^"DTV Tentative Channel Designations for the First and the Second Rounds"(PDF).Archived fromthe original(PDF)on August 29, 2013.RetrievedMarch 24,2012.
