 | |
 WUSA's studios in Tenleytown, Washington, D.C. | |
| |
|---|---|
| Channels | |
| Branding | WUSA 9 |
| Programming | |
| Affiliations |
|
| Ownership | |
| Owner |
|
| History | |
First air date | January 16, 1949 (76 years ago) (1949-01-16) |
Former call signs |
|
Former channel numbers |
|
Call sign meaning |
|
| Technical information[3] | |
Licensing authority | FCC |
| Facility ID | 65593 |
| ERP | 52kW |
| HAAT | 235.6 m (773 ft) |
| Transmitter coordinates | 38°57′1″N77°4′47″W / 38.95028°N 77.07972°W /38.95028; -77.07972 (WUSA) |
| Links | |
Public license information | |
| Website | www |
WUSA (channel 9) is atelevision station inWashington, D.C., affiliated withCBS. It is theflagship property ofTegna Inc., which is based in suburbanMcLean, Virginia. WUSA's studios and transmitter are at Broadcast House onWisconsin Avenue innorthwest Washington'sTenleytown neighborhood.[4] Among CBS affiliates notowned and operated by the network, WUSA is the second-largest by market size (after Tegna'sKHOU inHouston).[5]
The station's signal is relayed on alow-power digitaltranslator station, W27EI-D, inMoorefield, West Virginia[6] (which is owned by Valley TV Cooperative). It has a channel-sharing agreement withSilver Spring, Maryland–licensedWJAL (channel 68, owned byEntravision Communications).
The station first went on the air on January 11, 1949, as WOIC. It began full-time operations on January 16.[7] The fourth-oldest station in the nation's capital, channel 9 was originally owned by the Bamberger Broadcasting Service, a subsidiary ofR. H. Macy and Company.[8] Bamberger also ownedWOR-AM-FM inNew York City, and was working to put WOR-TV (channel 9, nowWWOR-TV inSecaucus, New Jersey) on the air at the same time. Nine days later, WOIC broadcast the first televised American presidential inaugural address, given byPresidentHarry S. Truman. WOIC picked up theCBS affiliation upon signing on, replacing WMAL-TV (channel 7, nowWJLA-TV) as the network's Washington outlet. WOIC/WTOP/WUSA has been a CBS affiliate since its inception, and is currently the network's longest-tenured affiliate. However, WOR was a shareholder in theMutual Radio Network, which hadplans to enter television. Plans for the proposed Mutual-branded network advanced far enough that, at the annual meeting of Mutual stockholders in April 1950, network president Frank White made an official announcement of the planned creation of a limited five-station Mutual network (Boston, New York, Washington, D.C., Chicago, & Los Angeles).[9] At that same time Mutual radio stationKQV inPittsburgh, which was engaged in an ultimately unsuccessful attempt to get a television license, was reportedly hoping for their station to be a Mutual television affiliate.[10] "Mutual Television Network" ended up being the decided-on branding for the Mutual-branded network.[11] However, the 5-station Mutual network failed in short time. Also, at the start of 1950, Bamberger Broadcasting changed its name to General Teleradio.[12]
In June 1950, a joint venture of CBS andThe Washington Post purchased WOIC from Bamberger/Macy's for $1.4 million. The new owners, WTOP Incorporated (thePost owned 55%, with CBS holding the remaining 45% stake), changed the station'scall sign to WTOP-TV, after its new sister stationWTOP radio (then at1500 AM).[13][14] In July 1950, WTOP-TV became the first television station in Washington authorized to broadcastcolor television in the 405-line field sequential color standard, which was incompatible with the black-and-white 525-lineNTSC standard. Color broadcasts continued for nearly 30 months, when regulatory and commercial pressures forced the FCC to rescind its original color standard and begin the process of adopting the 525-line NTSC-3 standard, developed by RCA to bebackwards compatible with the existing black-and-white televisions.[citation needed]
In 1954, the WTOP stations moved into a new facility, known as "Broadcast House", at 40th and Brandywine Streets NW in Washington. The building was the first in the country designed as a unified radio and television facility. Its name was in honor ofBroadcasting House, home of theBBC inLondon. The building was well known to WTOP's president, since he had spent much ofWorld War II assigned to the BBC. Previous to the move to Broadcast House, the radio stations operated out of the Earle Building (now the Warner Building, home of theWarner Theatre), and WTOP-TV had operated out of the small WOIC studios at the same location. When Broadcast House was completed and the new television studios were inaugurated, the old studio became the garage for Broadcast House and the old master control room became both the master control and transmitter room for channel 9, since Broadcast House had been built around the station's original, four-sided tower. The building with the tower remains in the middle at the same location, although it is now an office building and retail store front.
The WTOP-TV tower was known in Washington for two things. First, atChristmas time, the tower was strung with Christmas lights and glowed brightly on top of Mount Reno, the tallest point in the District of Columbia. Second, the tower tended to sway much more than three-sided towers. In a strong wind, the tower could be seen swaying back-and-forth, and during the winter ice from the tower fell quite often on the streets below.
In October 1954, CBS sold its share of WTOP Inc. to theWashington Post to comply with the FCC's new seven-station-per-group ownership rule. CBS's partial ownership of WTOP radio,KQV radio inPittsburgh andWCCO radio inMinneapolis exceeded the FCC's limit for AM radio stations.[15] CBS opted to sell its share of WTOP, which it had purchased in whole in 1932 before selling controlling interest to thePost in 1949.
After the sale closed, thePost merged the WTOP stations with its other broadcast property, WMBR-AM-TV inJacksonville, Florida, and changed the name of the licensee from "WTOP Inc." to "Post Stations, Inc." WMBR radio was sold off in 1958, and WMBR-TV becameWJXT. ThePost renamed its broadcasting group "Post-Newsweek Stations" in 1961 after thePost boughtNewsweek magazine. Post-Newsweek acquired its third television station, WLBW-TV (nowWPLG) in Miami in 1970 and in 1974 added WTIC-TV (nowWFSB) inHartford, Connecticut, to the group. In 1972, WTOP-TV joined with the Evening Star Broadcasting Company (owned by thePost's rival, the now-defunctWashington Star and licensee of WMAL-TV) to build the Joint Tower, a 1,040-foot (320 m), three-sided tower across the alley from Broadcast House at 4010 Chesapeake Street NW. Transmission lines were extended from Broadcast House's transmitter area to the new tower for both WTOP-TV andWHUR-FM (the former WTOP-FM, which had been donated by Post-Newsweek toHoward University in 1971). The old tower continued to serve as the backup antenna for channel 9 until the station sold Broadcast House in 1996.
In 1974, WTOP and the other Post-Newsweek stations adopted the slogan "The One and Only". The moniker was part of a trend toward group identification of stations, with each station being "The One and Only Channel (channel number)". Staff members from the "One and Only" period usually refer to themselves as "the one and onlies" as a source of pride. The slogan was dropped from active use in the late 1990s and has not been used as part of an image campaign since 1996. The slogan no longer appears on-air, but was revived in a sense when channel 9 adopted its slogan in the mid-2000s,First and Only with Local News in HDTV.
On June 26, 1978,[16] Post-Newsweek exchanged WTOP-TV with theEvening News Association's WWJ-TV (nowWDIV-TV) inDetroit. Post-Newsweek parentthe Washington Post Company, and the Evening News Association, which published theDetroit News, decided to swap their stations for fear that the FCC would force them to sell the stations at unfavorable terms or revoke their very valuable licenses because the FCC at the time was considering forbiddingownership of newspapers and broadcast stations in the same market. As Post-Newsweek retained WTOP radio and FCC rules in effect at the time disallowed two separately owned stations from sharing the same base call letters, the station changed to WDVM-TV, representing the initials of the areas which it serves: the District of Columbia,Virginia andMaryland.[17][18]
In 1985, theGannett Company purchased the Evening News Association.[19][a] The WUSA callsign had been in use by Gannett's station inMinneapolis (previously WTCN-TV) for a year, and Gannett offered it to WDVM's management upon taking control of the station.Post television columnist John Carmody noted that the "rather clumsy" WDVM callsign was not often used in promotions.[16] Both stations agreed to the swap; the Minneapolis station becameKARE on June 11, 1986, while WDVM became WUSA onIndependence Day.[21] TheWDVM-TV callsign is now in use on an unrelated station inHagerstown, Maryland.
Carrying over a practice started by the Minneapolis station, the callsign was depicted in print and on logos as "W★USA" during this time.[16] However, theasterisk orstar between the "W" and "U" is not part of the call sign. The star was replaced on-air with the CBSEye Device, which is also not part of the call sign, by 1998 as CBS began to considerably relax their formerly strict branding guidelines for their affiliates, which had not allowed blending the logo into call letters.[22]
WUSA moved to a new Broadcast House at 4100 Wisconsin Avenue NW in January 1992. WTOP-FM had left the old Broadcast House in 1971, but kept its transmitter there. WTOP radio departed in 1978; thePost had sold it a year earlier to theOutlet Company. The move to the more modern building was tinged with sadness due to the death from a brain tumor of popular sportscasterGlenn Brenner just days beforehand. In 1998, WUSA launched its website, wusatv9.com, but later removed the "TV" reference in the domain name to become wusa9.com.
In 2001, WUSA made the decision to preempt CBS' national coverage of theSeptember 11 attacks with its own local coverage.[23] At 9:41 a.m., just four minutes after the impact, WUSA broke into the CBS national coverage anchored byDan Rather and showed smoke billowing fromthe Pentagon. National coverage remained available on multipleViacom-owned cable networks, includingMTV andVH1. Their local coverage, like that of other Washington-area affiliates, included reporters on the phone and on camera, eyewitness accounts, and analysis. WUSA continuously stayed on the air, covering the exodus of the District, school closures, and traffic issues until 12:42 p.m. Throughout the rest of the afternoon, WUSA provided local news updates and press conferences, alternating between their local coverage and the national feed.Washington Post television criticTom Shales took issue with this decision, writing that "the city was subjected to a CBS blackout by the local affiliate, Gannett-owned Channel 9. The station chose to view this, incredibly enough, as a local story and reported it initially as if it were a winter snow day and school closings were of the utmost importance."[24]
Around the first week of October 2012, Gannett entered adispute againstDish Network regardingcompensation fees and Dish's AutoHop commercial-skip feature on its Hopperdigital video recorders. Gannett ordered that Dish discontinue AutoHop on the account that it is having a negative effect on advertising revenues for WUSA. Gannett threatened to pull all of its stations (such as WUSA) should the skirmish continue beyond October 7 and Dish and Gannett fail to reach an agreement.[25][26] The two parties eventually reached an agreement after extending the deadline for a few hours.[27]
On June 29, 2015, the Gannett Company split in two, with one side specializing in print media and the other side specializing in broadcast and digital media. WUSA was retained by the latter company, namedTegna.[28]
In July 2007, WUSA launched a second website atDVMmoms.comArchived July 4, 2008, at theWayback Machine. The site focused on topics relating to young mothers in the Washington, D.C. area. Gannett also rolled out similar sites targeted at moms in other select markets where it owns a television and/or newspaper properties. In February 2008, WUSA launched a third website atDVMOurTime.com. The site is fronted by noon anchor J. C. Hayward and provides local restaurant and business discounts as well as news and events targeted towardsbaby boomers.
In 2008, Gannett and theTribune Company partnered to expand theMetromix brand that has been successful for many years in Chicago at theChicago Tribune. WUSA's local Metromix.com site launched in July 2008.[29] There are 35 other Gannett and/or Tribune properties that have a Metromix site. In August 2008, Gannett revamped its moms sites, and DVMmoms.com was renamed MomsLikeMe.com. Like the previous versions, the site features topics related to young moms and includes technology from Ripple 6, which was recently acquired by Gannett. There were MomsLikeMe.com sites in 85 other markets throughout the country. MomsLikeMe was phased out in 2012.
In September 2008, WUSA's fifth website was launched, calledHighSchoolSports.net. The site features, among other things, high school sports rankings, schedules, and scores for high schoolfootball,soccer,basketball andbaseball games around the United States. The site is also a Gannett-owned property that was launched in many markets throughout the country.
In June 2010, Gannett Broadcasting and DataSphere Technologies announced a partnership to create community-focused websites in 10 of their television station markets. WUSA was one of the first to launch these sites in August 2010. The sites are integrated within the existing website and feature hyperlocal news and user-generated content about area happenings and events. In addition to powering the community websites, DataSphere provides enhanced functionality, including market-leading site search, coupons, a business directory and ad targeting. WUSA created 53 different neighborhood sites in the Metro D.C. area.
WTOP was one of the few CBS stations that declined to carry the popular game showThe Price Is Right during the early years of the program's run (although Washington, D.C. ABC station WMAL-TV/WJLA-TV (channel 7) did carryThe Price Is Right and some other CBS daytime game shows uncleared by WTOP during the mid-1970s).
From May 2008 until the end of its original run in 2016, WUSA served as the production studio for the programThe McLaughlin Group which was also broadcast on some select CBS stations (including its New York City owned-and-operated stationWCBS-TV) beginning in May 2007 and on somePBS member stations (locally viaWETA-TV andWHUT-TV); the show was distributed byWTTW out ofChicago, with the production facilities moved over fromNBC owned-and-operated stationWRC-TV, where the show had been based since its premiere in 1982.
Then-WTOP-TV was the first television partner of theWashington Capitals, signing a three-year contract to broadcast 15 road games per year at the team's debut in the1974–75 NHL season.Warner Wolf commentated for the first season before being replaced by a simulcast ofRon Weber's call for WTOP radio.[30] WTOP-TV treated the games as an afterthought and often relegated them to joins-in-progress or tape-delays to late night. AlthoughWashington Post beat reporter Robert Fachet called the team's state of television affairs "revolting" by the contract's end, station management openly stated they received far more complaints about the preempted CBS shows than from Capitals fans. The Capitals moved toWDCA (channel 20) for 1977.[31] The then-Washington Bullets also signed their first television deal with WTOP-TV when they moved to the city in1973, concurrent with the start ofnational broadcasts of the league on CBS. The Bullets moved their local games to WDCA as well in 1977.[32] Additionally, the station aired select weekendWashington Nationals games produced byMASN from2013 until2017. In 2024, WUSA and theWashington Commanders announced a partnership, with the network holding exclusive rights to broadcast the team's non-national preseason games.[33]
WUSA presently broadcasts 40 hours, 35 minutes of locally produced newscasts each week (with 7 hours, 5 minutes each weekday; 2 hours, 5 minutes on Saturday; and 3 hours, 5 minutes on Sunday[34]); in addition, the station produces a sports highlight program calledGame On!, which airs Sunday evenings after the 11 p.m. newscast. WUSA was the launchpad for several well-known news anchors.Sam Donaldson and Warner Wolf are among WUSA's most successful alumni.Max Robinson was co-anchor ofEyewitness News withGordon Peterson from 1969 to 1978 before he became the first black anchorman on network television and one of the original anchors ofABC World News Tonight.James Brown ofCBS Sports was a sports anchor at the station in the 1980s.
In 1989, WUSA debuted an hour-long newscast at 4 p.m. (replacingThe Oprah Winfrey Show, which the station chose not to continue carrying due to the program's licensing fees, it then moved to WJLA-TV), which created a three-hour local news block from 4 to 7 p.m., resulting in ahalf-hour delay of theCBS Evening News to 7 p.m. The 4 p.m. newscast was dropped in 2000, with WUSA also cutting a half-hour off the end of its 4–7 p.m. news block, moving theCBS Evening News to 6:30 p.m., the recommended timeslot for the network newscast for CBS stations located in theEastern Time Zone. WUSA was the only major station in the Washington market that did not carry a 4 p.m. newscast until the station revived it in September 2023. As of that date, all four major stations—including WUSA—now air a 4 p.m. newscast.
On May 2, 2005, WUSA became the first television station in the Washington market to begin broadcasting its local newscasts inhigh definition.[35]
In February 2012, WUSA launched its investigative unit with Chief Investigative ReporterRuss Ptacek.[36] Ptacek's investigations led to reform after uncovering millions in unreported government bonuses, a utility allowed to charge customers during disconnections caused by storms, taxis refusing passengers based upon race, and potentially deadly restaurant food safety risks.[37] Ptacek and WUSA9 parted ways in 2016 when the station announced changes to its investigative direction.[38]
Anchor and consumer correspondent Lesli Foster reported on a petition filed by the Center For Auto Safety asking government safety regulators to recall millions of older modelJeep Grand Cherokees. The consumer group believes the placement of the plastic gas tanks in those vehicles can lead to fires and deaths when they are struck from behind. The gas tank is located behind the rear axle—literally in the crush zone of the vehicle.Chrysler says the vehicles are safe and not defective. The automaker points out that in the 26 fatal accidents cited byNHTSA where they can calculate kinetic energy, the deaths in all those vehicles involved speeds that exceed today's crash test requirements. But the company agreed to recall over 1 million of the remaining 1993–1998 models, along with 2002–2007 Jeep Liberty's back in June of last year. Lesli Foster was acknowledged for her hard hitting investigative report in 2013 with a NCCB-NATASEmmy Award.
Beginning with the noon newscast on January 17, 2013, WUSA unveiled a new graphics package for the station's newscasts designed for Gannett's news-producing stations by design firm The Mill; the new graphics are designed to reduce on-screen clutter, which viewers complained about prior to the change to the new standardized graphics. With the change, WUSA began using theAFD #10 broadcast flag to present their newscasts inletterboxedwidescreen for viewers watching oncable television through4:3 television sets. Additionally, the station unveiled its new logo, which was stylized as "wusa⋆9", in lower-case lettering.
Beginning withWake Up Washington on April 26, 2018, WUSA unveiled a new set to replace the previous one used since the May 2, 2005, HD launch, along with a new station logo which ended the use of any stars and/or asterisks in WUSA's branding. It also rolled out a new standardized graphics and music package for the station's newscasts designed for Tegna's news-producing stations.
| License | Channel | Res. | Aspect | Short name | Programming |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| WUSA | 9.1 | 1080i | 16:9 | WUSA-HD | CBS |
| 9.2 | 480i | Crime | True Crime Network | ||
| 9.3 | Quest | Quest | |||
| 9.4 | NEST | The Nest | |||
| 9.5 | QVC | QVC | |||
| WJAL | 68.1 | 720p | LATV | LATV | |
| 68.2 | 480i | DEFY | Defy |
On November 1, 2011, WUSA signed an affiliation agreement to addBounce TV,[40] which launched on WUSAdigital subchannel 9.2, on December 16, 2011.[41]
In August 2017, WUSA temporarily stopped carrying its subchannels due to technical considerations involving their channel sharing arrangement withWJAL (virtual channel 68), which moved its signal to WUSA's transmitter on October 1, 2017, and moved itscity of license from Hagerstown, Maryland, toSilver Spring. In the interim, Bounce arranged a new affiliation agreement withUnivision to be carried onWFDC-DT, and moved its Capital Region affiliation to WFDC-DT4. Justice Network (now True Crime Network) returned later in the month on WUSA-DT2 once the move was completed.
WUSA stopped transmitting on its analog signal, overVHF channel 9, on June 12, 2009, the official date on which full-power television stations in the United Statestransitioned from analog to digital broadcasts under federal mandate. The station's digital signal relocated from its pre-transitionUHF channel 34 to VHF channel 9 for post-transition operations.[42][43]
Television provided my first exposure to Notre Dame when I happened to watch an Irish football game in the 1950s on the Mutual Television Network (Washington [D.C.] being one of the few cities to have an outlet).
Articles and topics related to WUSA | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
