WOWT

WOWT

Omaha, Nebraska Council Bluffs, Iowa United States
City	Omaha, Nebraska
Channels	Digital:22 (UHF) Virtual:6
Branding	WOWT 6 Omaha;6 News WOWT
Programming
Affiliations	6.1:NBC for others, see§ Subchannels
Ownership
Owner	Gray Television (Gray Television Licensee,LLC)
History
First air date	August 29, 1949(1949-08-29)
Former call signs	WOW-TV (1949–1975) WOWT-TV (1983–2012)
Former channel number(s)	Analog:6 (VHF,1949–2009)
Former affiliations	NBC (1949–1956) DuMont(secondary, 1949–1952) ABC(secondary, 1949–1953 and 1954–1957) CBS(secondary 1955–1956, primary 1956–1986)
Call signmeaning	Woodmen of the World(original owner of WOW radio) + Television
Technical information
Licensing authority	FCC
Facility ID	65528
ERP	1,000kW
HAAT	418 m (1,371 ft)
Transmitter coordinates	41°18′40″N96°1′38″W
Links
Public license information	Public file LMS
Website	www.wowt

WOWT(channel 6) is atelevision stationinOmaha, Nebraska,United States, affiliated withNBCand owned byGray Television.The station's studios are located at theKiewit Plazaon Farnam Street near downtown Omaha, and its transmitter is located on a "tower farm"near North 72nd Street and Crown Point Avenue in north-central Omaha.

WOWT is Gray's only Nebraska station not to be part of its Nebraska News & Weather Network (consisting ofsister stationsKOLN/KGIN,KSNB-TV,KNEP,andKNOP-TV).

History

The station signed on the air on August 29, 1949, at noon as WOW-TV; it was the first television station inNebraskaand is one of the oldest in theUpper Midwest.It also claims to have gone on the air earlier than any station in four other Midwestern states—Iowa,Kansas,North DakotaandSouth Dakota.The station was owned by Radio Station WOW, Inc., alongside WOW radio (590 AM, nowKXSP,and 92.3 FM, nowKEZO).The owners operated under aUnited States Supreme Courtruling which had forced theWoodmen of the World,who had founded WOW in 1923, to divest itself of the radio stations because they threatened the Woodmen's tax-exempt status.

The station was originally a primary NBC affiliate and secondaryABCaffiliate; it lost ABC programming in 1953, whenKFOR-TVsigned on fromLincolnas an ABC affiliate. However, in 1954, Lincoln was separated from the Omaha market, and WOW-TV resumed sharing ABC programming withKMTV(channel 3) until 1957, whenKETVsigned on as an ABC affiliate.Meredith Corporationbought WOW-AM-FM-TV in 1951. The station claims it was bought by formerSecretary of the NavyFrancis P. Matthewsin 1954, but this is false as Matthews had died two years earlier. On January 24, 1955, after the radio stations dropped their longtime affiliation with theNBC Red Networkin favor of theCBS Radio Network,WOW-TV became a secondaryCBStelevision affiliate. This was part of CBS' multi-year, five-station affiliation deal with Meredith Corporation, as a compensation for Phoenix sister stationKPHO's initial loss of the CBS affiliation toKOOL-TVbefore it reclaimed that affiliation in 1994 (KCMO-AM-FM-TValso switched to the network several months earlier).On January 1, 1956, WOW-TV officially became Omaha's CBS outlet, trading affiliations with KMTV.

WOWT's most famous former employee is formerTonight ShowhostJohnny Carson,who worked at WOW-TV in the early 1950s in his first television job as host of a program calledThe Squirrel's Nest,in which he told jokes. Another prominent former employee is former ABCGood Morning AmericareporterSteve Bell,who worked for Channel 6 during the early and mid-1960s. He was the only local reporter to go toDallasin November 1963 to cover the aftermath of theJohn F. Kennedyassassination.Bell left channel 6 in 1967 to joinABC News,where he remained until 1986.

In 1974, Meredith tried to sell WOW-TV toPulitzer Publishing Companyfor $8 million, but the deal collapsed and Pulitzer ended up buying KETV instead.

When Meredith sold channel 6 to theSan Francisco-basedChronicle Publishing Companyin 1975, it changed its call letters to WOWT on July 9, due toFederal Communications Commission(FCC) restrictions regarding the usage of the same call letters by different owners at the time. Normally, channel 6 would have had to adopt a callsign starting with "K" when it changed its call letters, since the WOW call letters had been assigned before the current K/W dividing line was moved to theMississippi River.However, Chronicle wanted to continue trading on the WOW calls, and got a waiver from the FCC to retain a "W" in its calls. To this day, WOWT is one of the westernmost stations with a callsign starting with "W". After negotiations with the network, Channel 6 reversed the 1956 swap and rejoined NBC on June 29, 1986.

Not surprisingly, channel 6 owns a lot of firsts in the market. It was the first Omaha station to broadcast local programming in color, starting in the mid-1950s; it was the first station to provide live reports during its daily newscasts; it was the first of the three local stations to broadcasts three live daily newscasts, at 5, 6, and 10 p.m.; and in 1993, WOWT was the first local television station to offer a website. During the analog era, WOWT-TV was relayed inClarinda, Iowa,on a UHF repeater, K58AE, which has since been shut down and deleted from the FCC database.

In 1999, Chronicle sold its media holdings (including its newspapers and four television stations) to separate buyers; WOWT was sold toBenedek BroadcastingviaLIN TV Corporationin a three-way deal forWWLPinSpringfield, Massachusetts;three years later, Benedek Broadcasting was bought out by current ownerGray Television.WOWT would later reunite with some former sister stations after being separated for 46 years when former owner Meredith was acquired by Gray in 2021.

Until 2014, WOWT was also reckoned as the default NBC affiliate for thestate capital,Lincoln, located 52 miles (84 km) from Omaha. Even though Lincoln is located in a differentmarket,most Lincoln-area cable systems carried WOWT, and channel 6's analog signal decently covered Lincoln. It even went as far as to include Lincoln in its legal IDs. Whendirect broadcast satellitegained more penetrationKHAS-TV(now KNHL) inHastings,long the NBC affiliate for the western half of the Lincoln market, was offered as the local NBC affiliate. However, most Lincoln cable systems opted to continue carrying WOWT. With the acquisition ofKSNB-TVinSuperiorby Gray, that station took over the primary local NBC affiliation and WOWT's place on the LincolnTime Warner Cable(nowCharter Spectrum) system. Until 2016, WOWT was carried in standard definition on digital channel 83 in Lincoln and surrounding Spectrum systems. As of today, it is no longer available in Lincoln.

On January 7, 2015, Gray Television stations WOWT,WIBW(Topeka, Kansas), andKAKE(Wichita, Kansas;no longer owned by them) were dropped from Cox cable lineups as a retransmission deal expired.The previous agreement expired on December 31, but a one-week extension was agreed upon before the current blackout. After a dispute lasting several days, a new agreement was reached on January 11, 2015, and the three Gray Television stations returned to Cox cable lineups.

6₂O

In October 2005, WOWT launched a seconddigital subchanneloperating as aUPNaffiliate, and branded as "UPN Omaha". The subchannel became anindependent stationbranded as "6₂O ", whenThe WBand UPN shut down in September 2006 (former WB affiliateKXVO(channel 15) now carries WB and UPN successorThe CW,whileFoxaffiliateKPTM(channel 42) carriesMyNetworkTVon its second digital subchannel). After that, 6.2 affiliated withUniversal Sports;in advance of that network switching exclusively to a cable and satellite channel, WOWT dropped Universal Sports on October 1, 2011, replacing it with a local weather service known as "The Weather Authority Channel", an affiliate ofThe Local AccuWeather Channel.KETV (channel 7) dropped The Local AccuWeather Channel one month before when it switched its second subchannel toMeTV.

News operation

WOWT presently broadcasts 40 hours of locally produced newscasts each week (with seven hours each weekday and2+1⁄2hours each on Saturdays and Sundays); in regards to the number of hours devoted to news programming, it is the highest local newscast output among the Omaha market's broadcast television stations.

In 1991, WOWT rebranded its newscasts fromAction News6toChannel 6 News.In 1995, WOWT launched a cable news channel called "NEWS on ONE", which featured live simulcasts and taped rebroadcasts of the station's newscasts onCox Communicationschannel 1; the channel was eventually rebranded as "News 4 You", concurrent with its move to Cox channel 4 in 2009. Also in 1995, WOWT's sports department launched a weekly half-hour sports news program titledChannel 6 Sunday Sports Extra,which aired after the station's 10 p.m. newscast on Sunday evening. It was the only program of its kind in Omaha, and was hosted from its inception by sports producer (now sports director) Ross Jernstrom. In 2006, WOWT lost its longtime spot in first place in most timeslots to KETV, who remains there as of 2020. And in October 2013 the news products were re-brandedWOWT 6 News.On July 16, 2018, WOWT re-added a 4 p.m. newscast on weekdays, competing with KMTV's newscast at that time slot. WOWT had been the first Omaha station to have a 4 p.m. newscast, launching it in 1994. Its current moniker is "6 On Your Side".

Technical information

Subchannels

The station's signal ismultiplexed:

Subchannels of WOWT

Channel	Res.	Aspect	Short name	Programming
6.1	1080i	16:9	WOWT	NBC
6.2	480i		COZI	Cozi TV
6.3			HandI	Heroes & Icons
6.4			ION TV	Ion Television
6.5			StartTV	Start TV
6.6			The 365	The365
6.7				Outlaw

Analog-to-digital conversion

WOWT ended regular programming on its analog signal, overVHFchannel 6, on February 17, 2009, as part of thefederally mandated transition from analog to digital television(which Congress had moved the previous month to June 12).The station's digital signal remained on its pre-transitionUHFchannel 22,usingvirtual channel6. WOWT andPBSmember station KYNE (part of theNebraska Public MediaTV network) were the only two stations in the Omaha market to end analog broadcasts on the original deadline.

Upon the switch to digital, WOWT aired a 60-second farewell video bookending the analog era from beginning to end. It began with the words "Welcome to the Future", followed with archived film footage of WOW-TV's transmitter being turned on 1949 as it was covered by then-sister station WOW radio (now KXSP), outdoor scenes set to the song "America the Beautiful",and concluded with the station logo and digital call sign" WOWT-DT Omaha "set to theNBC chimes.Voiceover artistCharlie Van Dykeprovided narration: "Sixty years ago,WOWT turned on its analog signal to be the first television station in Omaha. Now, join us for the digital age as we shut off our analog signal and transition to digital television. We look forward to the new journey ahead. This is WOWT, Channel 6. "

As part of theSAFER Act,WOWT kept its analog signal on the air temporarily to inform viewers of the digital television transition through a scrolling message.

External links

• Official website
• WOWT's analog farewell videoatYouTube