affiliated television station in kansas city missouri ; for its cw affiliated sister station in dallas fort worth texas see kdaf . wdaf tv kansas city st. joseph missouri kansas city kansas united states city kansas city missouri branding fox 4 kansas city general fox 4 news newscasts slogan working for you general news the calm during the storm weather channels digital 34 uhf virtual 4 psip affiliations .1 fox .2 antenna tv .3 this tv owner tribune broadcasting wdaf license inc. first air date october 16 1949 ; 66 years ago 1949 10 16 call letters meaning why dial any further sequentially assigned to former am radio sister now kcsp 1 former channel number s analog 4 vhf 1949 2009 former affiliations primary nbc 1949 1994 secondary cbs 1949 1952 dumont 1949 1952 abc 1949 1953 transmitter power 1 000 kw height 295 m facility id 11291 transmitter coordinates 39 4 21.2 n 94 35 46.4 w 39.072556 n 94.596222 w 39.072556 ; 94.596222 coordinates 39 4 21.2 n 94 35 46.4 w 39.072556 n 94.596222 w 39.072556 ; 94.596222 licensing authority fcc public license information profile cdbs website fox4kc.com wdaf tv virtual channel 4 uhf digital channel 34 is a fox affiliated television station serving kansas city missouri and kansas city kansas united states . the station is owned by the tribune broadcasting subsidiary of tribune media . wdaf tv maintains studio and transmitter facilities located on summit street in the signal hill section of kansas city missouri . on cable wdaf tv is available on time warner cable and surewest channel 6 and at & t u verse channel 4 . wdaf tv also serves as an alternate fox affiliate for the adjacent saint joseph market to the immediate north as the station s transmitter produces a city grade signal that reaches saint joseph proper . that market is primarily served by knpn ld channel 26 which displaced wdaf tv as the default fox affiliate on area cable and satellite providers when it signed on the air on june 2 2012 2 3 the situation with wdaf tv and knpn differs from that of saint joseph s abc affiliate kqtv channel 2 whose home market is alternately served by kansas city based abc affiliate kmbc tv channel 9 ; both of those stations are carried on pay television providers in that market . contents 1 history 1.1 as an nbc affiliate 1.2 as a fox station 2 digital television 2.1 digital channels 2.1.1 wdaf dt2 2.1.2 wdaf dt3 2.2 analog to digital conversion 3 programming 3.1 sports programming 4 news operation 4.1 on air staff 4.1.1 notable former on air staff 5 references 6 external links history edit as an nbc affiliate edit this section needs additional citations for verification . please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources . unsourced material may be challenged and removed . december 2013 learn how and when to remove this template message the station first signed on the air on october 16 1949 ; it was the second television station to sign on in missouri after ksdk in st. louis which debuted in february 1947 as ksd tv and the first to sign on in the kansas city market . wdaf tv was founded by the kansas city star which was also the founding owner of radio station wdaf 610 am now kcsp ; the wdaf calls on radio now reside on 106.5 fm through a september 2003 format change that also saw the former s country music format move from the am station which adopted a sports talk format . wdaf tv is among a handful of u.s. broadcast stations that is an exception to a rule imposed by the federal communications commission fcc which assigns call signs prefixed with a k to television and radio stations with cities of license located west of the mississippi river and broadcast call signs prefixed with a w to stations located east of the river . the anomaly in the case of the wdaf television and radio stations is due to the fact that kansas city was originally located east of the original k w border distinction defined by the fcc at the time that the wdaf call letters were assigned to both stations . channel 4 originally operated as a primary affiliate of nbc owing to wdaf radio s longtime relationship with the television network s direct predecessor the nbc red network which it had been affiliated with since 1925 when the station transmitted on 680 am as the network s westernmost affiliate but also maintained secondary affiliations with cbs abc and the dumont television network . randall jessee served as wdaf tv s first news anchor . other notable staffers in its early years included the station s first weathercaster shelby storck and future hollywood character actor owen bush who served as an on staff announcer during the early 1950s . for several years wdaf tv s daily sign on and sign off was accompanied by a recording of gordon macrae s rendition of the lord s prayer . the station would lose affiliations with three of the networks from which it cherry picked programs in the late summer of 1953 when wdaf gained its first commercial television competitors in the kansas city market . programming from cbs and dumont moved to whb tv and kmbc tv channel 9 ; kmbc became the sole occupant of that channel in june 1954 which shared the two networks when both stations signed on under a timesharing arrangement on august 2 of that year . channel 4 shared the abc affiliation with whb kmbc until september 27 when kcmo tv channel 5 now kctv signed on as the network s original full time kansas city affiliate kmbc and kcmo would swap affiliations two years later in september 1955 ; this left channel 4 exclusively affiliated with nbc . also in 1953 the united states government initiated an antitrust investigation against the star over its ownership of wdaf radio and wdaf tv ; the investigation was reportedly opened at the behest of president harry s. truman who had been in a long standing feud with the newspaper over its opposition to the missouri native s presidency . the investigation culminated in the star being indicted on charges that it engaged in monopolistic practices in its sale of advertising for the newspaper and its television and radio stations ; when the case was taken to court in 1955 just prior to the close of the truman administration a federal grand jury found the star guilty at the end of the one month restraint of trade trial . after attempts to appeal the ruling failed the star signed a consent decree in 1957 that required it to stop combining advertising and subscription rates and sell off wdaf television and radio . on may 18 1958 the wdaf stations were sold to national missouri broadcasters the broadcasting division of national theaters . on july 13 1960 national missouri merged with buffalo new york based transcontinent broadcasting . under transcontinent ownership the two stations were joined by an additional sister radio station wdaf fm 102.1 now kckc . transcontinent merged with cincinnati ohio based taft broadcasting on february 19 1964 ; the transaction was finalized on april 1 1964 . during its first four decades with nbc wdaf tv pre empted moderate amounts of the network s programming usually consisting of some daytime shows and an occasional prime time program . among the notable programs that were pre empted by channel 4 include days of our lives which was pre empted by the station from its november 1965 debut until 1971 dragnet which was dropped by wdaf tv after the police procedural s first season before returning at the start of its third season in september 1969 airing on delay on saturday afternoons ; the station eventually aired the show in pattern on thursdays towards the end of its run and i dream of jeannie which the station began pre empting partway through its first season in 1966 before it resumed clearance of the show in the fall of 1968 . 4 although nbc had long been less tolerant of pre emptions of its programming than the other broadcast networks it usually did not raise objections to those made by wdaf tv ; between 1969 and 1971 most of the nbc shows that the station chose to pre empt aired instead on independent station kcit tv channel 50 now kpxe tv ; the kcit calls now reside on a fox affiliated television station in amarillo texas . on july 13 1984 wdaf tv became one of the first 20 nbc stations to receive the network s programs via satellite transmission . in 1986 it also became the first television station in kansas city to broadcast in stereo . on october 12 1987 taft broadcasting was restructured into great american communications following the completion of a hostile takeover of the group by taft investors . by that year wdaf tv had overtaken kmbc as the dominant station in kansas city as was the trend during this period at many nbc affiliated stations . in december 1993 great american communications underwent another financial restructuring following the company s filing for chapter 11 bankruptcy . great american then decided to put most of its television stations up for sale . as a fox station edit main articles 1994 united states broadcast tv realignment and repercussions of the 1994 united states broadcast tv realignment on may 5 1994 great american communications which would later be renamed citicasters following the completion of its restructuring agreed to sell wdaf tv and three other television stations cbs affiliate ksaz tv in phoenix and abc affiliates wbrc in birmingham and wghp in high point north carolina to new world communications for 350 million in cash and 10 million in share warrants ; 5 6 7 great american communications meanwhile retained ownership of wdaf radio and sister station kyys 102.1 fm now kckc until the renamed citicasters merged with jacor on february 13 1996 in a 770 million deal due to fcc rules at the time that restricted broadcasting companies from owning more than twelve television stations nationwide wbrc also due to the agency s prohibition of television station duopolies ; new world having purchased birmingham s nbc affiliate wvtm tv through the argyle deal and wghp were placed in a blind trust and then sold directly to fox s owned and operated station group fox television stations in january 1995 . 8 9 on may 23 1994 as part of an overall deal in which network parent news corporation also purchased a 20 % equity interest in the group new world signed a long term affiliation agreement with fox to switch thirteen television stations five that new world had already owned and eight that the company was in the process of acquiring through separate deals with great american and argyle television holdings which new world purchased one week later in a purchase option structured deal for 717 million including wdaf to the network . the stations involved in the agreement all of which were affiliated with one of the three major broadcast networks cbs abc and nbc would become fox affiliates once individual affiliation contracts with each of the stations existing network partners expired . 10 11 the deal was motivated by the national football league nfl s awarding of the rights to the national football conference nfc television package to fox on december 18 1993 in which the conference rights moved to the network effective with the 1994 nfl season ending a 38 year relationship with cbs . 12 at the time the agreement was signed the affiliation contracts of wdaf tv and cbs affiliate wjw in cleveland were up for renewal as they were set to expire on or shortly after september 1 1994 . as a result of channel 4