branding fox 13 general fox 13 news newscasts slogan local coverage you can count on channels digital 13 vhf virtual 13 psip affiliations .1 fox .2 escape .3 decades owner cox media group cox media group northeast llc first air date september 27 1953 ; 63 years ago 1953 09 27 call letters meaning we have better quartets derived from whbq am former channel number s analog 13 vhf 1953 2009 digital 53 uhf 2002 2009 former affiliations cbs 1953 1956 abc 1953 1995 ; secondary until 1956 transmitter power 95 kw height 308 m 1 010 ft facility id 12521 transmitter coordinates 35 10 29 n 89 50 43 w 35.17472 n 89.84528 w 35.17472 ; 89.84528 licensing authority fcc public license information profile cdbs website www.fox13memphis.com whbq tv virtual and vhf digital channel 13 is a fox affiliated television station located in memphis tennessee united states . the station is owned by the cox media group subsidiary of cox enterprises . whbq maintains studio facilities located on south highland street near the campus of the university of memphis in southeastern memphis and its transmitter is located north of i 40 in eastern memphis . contents 1 history 1.1 under rko general 1.2 transition to fox 1.3 trade to cox media group 2 digital television 2.1 digital channels 2.2 analog to digital conversion 3 programming 3.1 local programming 4 news operation 4.1 notable former on air staff 5 out of market coverage 6 see also 7 references 8 external links history edit under rko general edit the station first signed on the air on september 27 1953 . it was owned by harding college along with whbq radio 560 am and 105.9 fm now wgkx . it originally operated as a primary cbs and secondary abc affiliate sharing the latter network s programming with nbc affiliate wmct channel 5 now wmc tv . channel 13 lost the cbs affiliation when wrec tv channel 3 now wreg tv signed on in january 1956 assuming the affiliation through the cbs radio network s longtime affiliation with radio station wrec 600 am ; whbq tv then became an exclusive abc affiliate . general teleradio the broadcasting arm of the general tire and rubber company purchased the whbq stations in march 1954 . 1 in 1955 general tire purchased rko radio pictures in order to give its television stations a programming source outside of network content and locally produced shows . rko was merged into general teleradio ; general tire s broadcasting and film divisions were later renamed rko general in 1957 . despite being one of abc s stronger affiliates during the 1960s and 1970s and as pointed out in a sales video made in 1964 was billed as the third most watched abc affiliate in the united states whbq tv often did not air some abc programs in pattern particularly those on the network s daytime lineup . many of these programs were preempted outright or aired on a delay during the overnight hours . in some cases the preemptions occurred because rko general was skeptical of airing subject matter deemed even mildly controversial presumably to keep from offending viewers in memphis more conservative suburbs and the surrounding rural areas . for example it was one of several abc affiliates that did not clear hot l baltimore which featured one of the first openly homosexual couples featured on american television . in september 1977 whbq tv was one of eight abc affiliates that refused to carry the controversial sitcom soap replacing it with repeats of my three sons . when soap proved to be a runaway hit for the network channel 13 acquiesced and allowed the series to be rerun in the late night hours during the summer . the following fall the station began carrying soap in its regular primetime slot . in many other cases however channel 13 opted to pre empt network shows in favor of local programs in hopes of earning more local advertising revenue . for instance in 1972 whbq tv whose am sister was a top 40 powerhouse at the time stunned viewers in the mid south by dropping american bandstand in favor of airing a 90 minute live professional wrestling program that was previously a fixture on late saturday afternoons when it first premiered in 1958 until it moved to the saturday morning 11 00 a.m. to 12 30 p.m. slot . while that program moved to wmc tv in 1977 channel 13 continued to pre empt bandstand until 1984 three years before abc canceled the long running series . the pre emption kept memphians from seeing homegrown talent perform on the show such as the sylvers al green isaac hayes anita ward the staples singers and rick dees who was hired by whbq radio as its new morning host during his disco duck days in late 1976 . at the time dees appeared on bandstand disco duck was never played on any of the radio stations in memphis including whbq am because dees was still employed at rival wmps then at 680 am at the time . channel 13 made up for the preemption by airing bandstand s syndicated rival soul train on saturday nights until independent station wpty tv channel 24 now watn tv purchased the local rights to that program in 1983 . it was one of the largest abc affiliates to decline to air good morning america when it debuted in 1975 ; the program would not air on the station until 1977 . other popular shows that whbq tv held out until later when they became major out of the box hits on abc included dark shadows which featured actor don briscoe who would later reside and died in memphis s.w.a.t. and the bionic woman . in 1980 the station was criticized for carrying paid religious programming instead of abc s coverage of the united states men s hockey team s gold medal victory over finland in the 1980 winter olympics . locally the station had a rivalry with wrec wreg tv over bragging rights for the largest movie library in the market . through its ownership by rko general channel 13 had rights to the entire rko pictures film catalog . the station s reliance on classic and public domain films during the 1960s and 1970s was evidenced in its daily noon to 2 00 p.m. airing of the million dollar movie and later the 9 00 to 11 00 a.m. airing of dialing for dollars which the station ran instead of popular daytime soap operas all my children and ryan s hope or in some cases reruns of abc prime time sitcoms that aired in the late morning hours . in september 1978 channel 13 finally began clearing the full abc daytime lineup . however for many years after that its noon newscast resulted in all my children being aired in a morning timeslot on a one day delay . rko general was under nearly continuous investigation from the 1960s onward due to a long history of lying to advertisers and regulators . for example it was nearly forced out of broadcasting in 1980 after misleading the federal communications commission fcc about corporate misconduct at parent general tire . under longtime general manager alex bonner whbq am fm tv was never accused of any wrongdoing . the regulatory pressure on rko general continued unabated until 1987 when an fcc administrative law judge ruled the company unfit to be a broadcast licensee due to its rampant dishonesty . after the fcc advised rko that appealing the decision was not worth the effort rko began unwinding its broadcast operations . the whbq stations were the next to last to be sold shortly after bonner retired in 1990 . the new owner adams communications sold off whbq radio whbq fm had been sold off several years earlier . transition to fox edit adams was in severe financial straits by 1994 and sold the station to the communications corporation of america ; the sale was finalized on august 17 of that year . only a short time later comcorp sold whbq tv to the news corporation then owner of the fox network which spun off the majority of its entertainment holdings to 21st century fox in july 2013 ; the sale closed on july 5 1995 . after the sale was closed news corporation had to run the station for over five months as an abc affiliate as wpty s affiliation contract with fox did not expire until november 30 . fox had signed a deal with new world communications the year prior to switch the network affiliations of most of its big three affiliated stations to the network . news corporation s purchase of channel 13 built on this and was in part positioning to have a station in a market that was at the time in contention for landing an nfl team 2 fox had just gained the broadcast rights to the league s national football conference division in 1994 . when the station s affiliation agreement with abc ended on december 1 1995 fox programming moved to whbq tv becoming the third memphis station to affiliate with the network wmkw tv channel 30 now wlmt had been the area s original fox affiliate from the network s october 1986 launch until it moved to wpty in 1990 ; outgoing fox station wpty became the market s abc affiliate . upon the network switch channel 13 replaced abc s soap opera lineup with children s programs from fox kids later 4kids tv unlike most of the other stations that switched to fox between 1994 and 1996 . whbq is the only television station in the memphis market that has never changed its call letters or channel allocation and the only one to have been an owned and operated station of any major network . it was also the smallest fox o & o by market size if wogx in gainesville florida market 163 is not counted due to its status as a semi satellite of wofl in orlando . on june 13 2007 news corporation placed whbq tv and eight other stations up for sale . local tv a broadcast holding company controlled by private equity firm oak hill capital partners purchased the other eight stations 3 on december 22 . whbq tv was not included in the sale as local tv already owned cbs affiliate wreg tv fcc rules prohibit duopolies between two of the four highest rated television stations in a media market . on january 16 2009 fox television stations withdrew whbq tv from the market as the only interested buyers other than local tv that were willing to pay anywhere close to the asking price were groups that already owned stations in memphis newport television then owner of wpty and wlmt which have since been divested to the nexstar broadcasting group and raycom media owner of wmc tv . in december 2008 fox discontinued children s programming as a result of its removal of the 4kids tv block replacing it with the infomercial block weekend marketplace . on june 6 2012 whbq tv became the last fox owned station outside of its mynetworktv sister stations to switch from the endplay cms platform spun off from fox interactive media to a new worldnow hosted platform now used by all of the other fox owned stations . trade to cox media group edit on june 24 2014 fox television stations announced that it would trade whbq tv and boston sister station wfxt to the cox media group in exchange for acquiring cox s san francisco duopoly of fox affiliate ktvu which has been the network s largest affiliate for several years and independent station kicu tv . whbq remains a fox affiliate through a long term affiliation agreement with the network . 4 the trade was completed on october 8 2014 . 5 digital television edit digital