29 see fox 29 disambiguation . kabb san antonio texas united states branding fox 29 fox san antonio general fox 29 news news slogan know more . know first . channels digital 30 uhf virtual 29 psip subchannels 29.1 fox 29.2 comet affiliations fox owner sinclair broadcast group kabb licensee llc first air date december 16 1987 call letters meaning alamo broadcasting sister station s woai tv kmys former channel number s analog 29 uhf 1987 2009 former affiliations independent 1987 1995 transmitter power 1 000 kw height 441 m facility id 56528 transmitter coordinates 29 17 28 n 98 16 12 w 29.29111 n 98.27000 w 29.29111 ; 98.27000 licensing authority fcc public license information profile cdbs website foxsanantonio.com kabb virtual channel 29 uhf digital channel 30 is a fox affiliated television station located in san antonio texas united states . the station is owned by the sinclair broadcast group as part of a duopoly with nbc affiliate woai tv channel 4 ; sinclair also operates cw affiliate kmys channel 35 through joint sales and shared services agreements with owner deerfield media . kabb maintains studio facilities located between babcock road and sovereign drive off loop 410 in northwest san antonio and its transmitter is located off of route 181 in northwest wilson county northeast of elmendorf . contents 1 history 2 digital television 2.1 digital channels 2.2 analog to digital conversion 3 programming 4 news operation 5 references 6 external links history edit the station first signed on the air on december 16 1987 ; originally operating as an independent station kabb was the first independent to sign on in the san antonio market since krrt channel 35 now cw affiliate kmys which by that point was the market s original fox affiliate debuted in november 1985 . channel 29 was originally owned by the alamo broadcasting corporation from which the station s call letters were taken . alamo broadcasting sold the station to river city broadcasting in 1989 . in 1994 paramount pictures then owners of krrt through its paramount stations group subsidiary entered into a partnership with chris craft industries which owned nbc affiliate kmol tv channel 4 now woai tv at the time to create the united paramount network upn with krrt serving as the network s san antonio affiliate . river city subsequently signed an affiliation agreement with fox for kabb to become the network s new area affiliate ; on january 16 1995 krrt dropped fox programming to become the market s original affiliate of upn with kabb assuming the fox affiliation ; shortly afterward krrt entered into a local marketing agreement with kabb after paramount sold channel 35 to jet broadcasting . in 1996 the sinclair broadcast group acquired river city broadcasting s television stations . the following year glencairn ltd. which evolved into cunningham broadcasting bought krrt ; the family of sinclair broadcast group founder julian sinclair smith owned 97 % of glencairn s stock glencairn was in turn to be paid with sinclair stock for the purchases effectively making kabb and krrt a duopoly in violation of fcc rules of the period . glencairn had owned eleven television stations nationwide that sinclair operated under lmas ; a later plan to sell five of its stations to sinclair outright prompted the rainbow push coalition headed by jesse jackson to file challenges citing concerns over a single company holding two broadcast licenses in one market and arguing that glencairn passed itself off as a minority owned company its president former sinclair executive edwin edwards is african american when it was really an arm of sinclair and used the lma to gain control of the station . 1 2 the fcc levied a 40 000 fine against sinclair in 2001 for illegally controlling glencairn . 3 sinclair purchased krrt outright in 2001 creating the market s first television duopoly with kabb . the station originally carried fox s children s program block fox kids when it switched to the network in january 1995 and also carried its successors foxbox and 4kids tv ; the network later discontinued the fox kids weekday blocks in 2002 4 with the saturday morning lineup remaining until september 2006 when kabb became the seventh fox station that was not involved in the switches resulting from the network s 1994 affiliation agreement with new world communications after wsvn in miami kmsp tv in minneapolis kptv in portland oregon kmsb tv in tucson kmph tv in fresno and kptm in omaha to stop carrying the network s children s program block ; fox kids successor 4kids tv block was moved to sister station kmys to accommodate a short lived weekend expansion of its morning newscast fox news first . the lineup remained on kmys until 4kids tv was discontinued by fox due to a dispute between the network and the block s lessee 4kids entertainment in december 2008 after which fox permanently discontinued providing network supplied children s programming . on may 15 2012 the sinclair broadcast group and fox agreed to a five year extension to the network s affiliation agreement with sinclair s 19 fox stations including kabb allowing them to continue to carry the network s programming through 2017 . 5 on july 19 2012 sinclair announced that it would acquire nbc affiliate woai tv channel 4 from high plains broadcasting as part of its purchase of six television stations along with the assumption of the operations of two others from newport television . 6 since federal communications commission duopoly regulations forbid common ownership of more than two full power stations in a single market from being under the same ownership sinclair spun off kmys to deerfield media ; however sinclair retained control of kmys through a shared services agreement . in addition while fcc rules disallow ownership of two of the four highest rated stations in the same market which normally precludes duopolies involving two big four network affiliates sinclair cited in its fcc purchase application that woai ranked as the fourth highest rated station behind univision owned and operated station kwex dt channel 41 and kabb the fifth rated station in the san antonio market in total day viewership . the sinclair and deerfield media deals were consummated on december 3 2012 . the operations of kabb and kmys remain mostly separate from woai tv with the two stations retaining competing news operations . 7 however in october 2013 the san antonio express news reported that sinclair planned to move woai s sales promotions and executive offices from its downtown san antonio studios on navarro street to a new building adjacent to kabb and kmys shared babcock road facility ; the transition of woai employees to the kabb kmys complex is expected to be finalized by the summer of 2014 with the completion of a shared newsroom on the second floor of the building that will accommodate both woai and kabb s respective news staffs . 8 9 digital television edit digital channels edit channel video aspect psip short name programming 10 29.1 720p 16 9 kabb hd main kabb programming fox 29.2 480i 4 3 comet comet on august 24 2010 sinclair signed a groupwide affiliation deal with the country network which rebranded as zuus country in july 2013 a digital subchannel network featuring country music videos to the 28 of the company s stations . 11 on october 31 2015 the station switched its subchannel to the sinclair owned comet network . analog to digital conversion edit on february 2 2009 sinclair told cable and satellite television providers via e mail that regardless of the exact mandatory switchover date to digital only broadcasting for full power stations which congress rescheduled for june 12 days later the station would shut down its analog signal on the original transition date of february 17 12 making kabb and kmys the first stations in the market to convert to digital only broadcast transmissions . kabb discontinued regular programming on its analog signal over uhf channel 29 on february 17 2009 . the station s digital signal remained on its pre transition uhf channel 30 13 14 using psip to display the station s virtual channel as its former uhf analog channel 29 . programming edit kabb broadcasts the majority of the fox programming schedule however the station pre empts the network s xploration station e i block which airs sunday mornings on kcwx which replaced the weekend marketplace infomercial block which in return replaced 4kids tv in december 2008 and instead airs saturday mornings on sister station kmys . syndicated programs broadcast by kabb include dr. phil family feud the doctors the meredith vieira show and two and a half men among others . 15 news operation edit kabb presently broadcasts 27 hours 40 minutes of locally produced newscasts each week with 5 hours 20 minutes on weekdays and half hour each on saturdays and sundays ; in addition the station produces the sports highlight program maximum sports which airs on weeknights during the final ten minutes of the 9 00 p.m. newscast and as a standalone half hour program on saturdays and sundays at 9 30 p.m. as well as the lifestyle program daytime at nine which airs weekday mornings at 9 00 a.m. river city broadcasting started a news department for kabb shortly before the company s merger with the sinclair broadcast group . in 1995 the station began producing a half hour primetime newscast at 9 00 p.m. each weeknight originally titled the nine o clock news . the station expanded the weeknight broadcast of the nine o clock news to one hour in 1998 ; this was followed by the addition of hour long weekend editions of the 9 00 p.m. broadcast by 1999 . in 1999 the station began to produce a half hour late afternoon newscast at 5 30 p.m. for sister station krrt which utilized the same anchors meteorologist and sports staff as that seen on kabb s 9 00 p.m. newscast . the program was cancelled in 2001 due to low ratings . kabb programmed news outside its established 9 00 p.m. timeslot for the first time on channel 29 on january 2 2006 when it premiered fox news first a three hour morning newscast that aired weekdays from 6 00 to 9 00 a.m. replacing infomercials and children s programs that had previously aired that time period . on september 8 2008 the program was expanded to four hours with the addition of an hour long block from 5 00 to 6 00 a.m. kabb is one of the few local television newscasts in the united states to have syndicated its newscasts to other stations in nearby markets . its morning and primetime newscasts also aired on fox affiliates kidy in san angelo and kxva in abilene from september 2009 to september 2013 simulcasts of fox news first were added by both in october 2010 when the owner of those stations london broadcasting company launched half hour primetime newscasts during the 9 00 p.m. hour ; kxva s mynetworktv affiliated sister station kidz ld rebroadcast kabb s 9 00 p.m. newscast nightly on a one hour delay at 10 00 p.m. during the same timeframe . on august 3 2011 kabb became the fourth english language television station in the san antonio market to begin broadcasting its local newscasts in high definition . one month later on september 6 kabb launched an hour long lifestyle program daytime nine as a lead out of its weekday morning newscast . 16 references edit push pushing fcc over sinclair glencairn broadcasting & cable july 13 1998 . retrieved december 13 2013 from highbeam research . glencairn s dicey lmas broadcasting & cable march 29 1999 . retrieved december 13 2013 from highbeam research . fcc fines sinclair for glencairn control broadcasting & cable december 10 2001 . schneider michael november 7 2001 . fox outgrows kids programs . variety . retrieved