WAFB

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WAFB

kW
HAAT511 m (1,677 ft)
Transmitter coordinates30°21′59″N 91°12′47″W / 30.36639°N 91.21306°W / 30.36639; -91.21306
Links
Public license information
Websitewafb.com

WAFB (channel 9) is a television station in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, affiliated with CBS. It is owned by Gray Television alongside low-power, Class A MyNetworkTV affiliate WBXH-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

WAFB logo used from 2004-2024, versions of the "boxed 9" logo were used from 1985-2024.

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.

LSU
'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 on

This is Alice
.

In 1988, Guaranty sold the station to

AFLAC. 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 -TV suffix 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 program Storyland, then the longest-running children's program, hosted by Buckskin Bill Black, and rechristened it as Buckskin 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 Right at 11 a.m., and The Young and the Restless
at 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, to

WBXH-CA, which became a sister station to WAFB when the channel became Baton Rouge's third UPN affiliate and later MyNetworkTV
affiliate in 2006. It originally aired a digital signal on UHF channel 46 from a transmitter at its studios.

Sale to Gray Television

On June 25, 2018, Atlanta-based Gray Television announced 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 new sister stations in nearby markets, including CBS/ABC affiliate KNOE-TV in Monroe and NBC/CBS affiliate KALB-TV in Alexandria, 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

WAFB was one of a handful of stations that shifts the air times of various CBS programming. From 1988 until 2019, The Price Is Right aired at 11 a.m. instead of 10 a.m., and The Young and the Restless aired 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 aired Jeopardy! and Wheel of Fortune until 1995 when the shows moved to WBRZ. Live with Regis and Kelly and The Oprah Winfrey Show were seen until the late 1990s. Oprah moved to WBRZ but since then aired on WVLA until the show ended its run in 2011. Regis and Kelly (now Live with Kelly and Mark) continues to air on WBRZ. The People's Court also once aired on WAFB before going to WBRZ and later WGMB. The station aired the syndicated version of Family Feud hosted by Steve Harvey until 2020 and aired the versions hosted by Louie Anderson, Richard Karn, and John O'Hurley, with the exception of Karn's first season, which aired on KZUP-CD, and Harvey's second through fifth seasons, which aired on WVLA. Until 2015, WAFB aired the syndicated version of Who 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" (a

East Baton Rouge Parish Public Schools
Board 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 the New Orleans Pelicans to air 10 games on the station during the 2023–24 season.[12]

News operation

WAFB's newscasts have had the second-highest ratings at 10 p.m. in any of the country's biggest television

Des 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 the

Baton 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 the COVID-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 an editorial that was usually delivered by the station manager. This practice ended shortly after Gray assumed ownership of the station.

Notable former on-air staff

Technical information

Subchannels

The station's signal is

multiplexed
:

Subchannels of WAFB[16]
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 Defy TV
9.7 Oxygen Oxygen
  Simulcast of subchannels of another station

Analog-to-digital conversion

WAFB shut down its analog signal, over

VHF channel 9, on June 12, 2009, the official date on which full-power television stations in the United States transitioned from analog to digital broadcasts under federal mandate. The station's digital signal relocated from its pre-transition UHF channel 46 to VHF channel 9.[17] With the new digital channel, WAFB rebroadcasts WBXH on channel 9.4 and, before the launch of Bounce TV
affiliate September 2011, weather on channel 9.2.

References

  1. ^ "WAFB Official Says NBR to get Super Service from Station," North Baton Rouge Journal, April 29, 1948, Page 1
  2. ^ "Facility Technical Data for WAFB". Licensing and Management System. Federal Communications Commission.
  3. ^ "About Us" WAFB TV Linked-In https://www.linkedin.com/company/wafb-tv/
  4. ^ 1967 Radio and Television Yearbook
  5. ^ "GRAY AND RAYCOM TO COMBINE IN A $3.6 BILLION TRANSACTION". Raycom Media (Press release). June 25, 2018.
  6. ^ Eggerton, John (June 25, 2018). "Gray Buying Raycom for $3.6B". Broadcasting & Cable. NewBay Media.
  7. ^ Hayes, Dade (June 25, 2018). "Gray Acquiring Raycom For $3.65B, Forming No. 3 Local TV Group". Deadline Hollywood. Penske Media Corporation.
  8. ^ "FCC OK with Gray/Raycom Merger", Broadcasting & Cable, December 20, 2018, Retrieved December 20, 2018.
  9. ^ "Gray Closes On $3.6 Billion Raycom Merger". TVNewsCheck. NewsCheckMedia. January 2, 2019. Retrieved January 3, 2019.
  10. ^ ":: Baton Rouge Business Report :: Ron Winders heads back to Savannah". www.businessreport.com. Archived from the original on July 28, 2011.
  11. ^ "CBS Fall Lineup". WAFB. Retrieved September 15, 2019.
  12. ^ "WAFB will televise 10 of this season's Pelicans games" (Press release). WAFB. December 30, 2023. Retrieved December 30, 2023.
  13. ^ "WAFB to launch 4 p.m. Newscast".
  14. ^ https://www.wafb.com/2023/06/26/join-us-9news-9-am/
  15. ^ "Longtime WAFB anchor Donna Britt dies following battle with ALS". KATC. January 21, 2021. Retrieved January 21, 2021.
  16. ^ RabbitEars TV Query for WAFB
  17. ^ "DTV Tentative Channel Designations for the First and the Second Rounds" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on August 29, 2013. Retrieved March 24, 2012.

External links

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