television station that currently uses the kmol call sign see kmol ld . woai tv san antonio texas united states branding news 4 san antonio channels digital 48 uhf virtual 4 psip subchannels 4.1 nbc 4.2 antenna tv affiliations nbc owner sinclair broadcast group woai licensee llc first air date december 11 1949 call letters meaning world of agriculture information taken from former sister station woai sister station s kabb kmys former callsigns kmol tv 1974 2002 former channel number s analog 4 vhf 1949 2009 digital 58 uhf 2002 2009 former affiliations all secondary dumont 1949 1950 cbs 1949 1950 abc 1949 1957 upn 1998 2000 transmitter power 905 kw height 457 m facility id 69618 transmitter coordinates 29 16 11 n 98 15 55 w 29.26972 n 98.26528 w 29.26972 ; 98.26528 licensing authority fcc public license information profile cdbs website news4sanantonio.com woai tv virtual channel 4 uhf digital channel 48 is an nbc 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 fox affiliate kabb channel 29 ; sinclair also operates cw affiliate kmys channel 35 under a shared services agreement with owner deerfield media . all three stations share studio facilities off loop 410 in northwest san antonio ; woai maintains transmitter facilities 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 11 1949 as woai tv ; it was the first television station to sign on in the san antonio market . it was owned by southland industries along with woai radio 1200 am and 102.3 fm frequency now occupied by ksaq . woai tv and woai radio are among the few broadcast stations located west of the mississippi river that utilize a call sign that begins with a w ; this designation was grandfathered when the federal communications commission issued regulations requiring radio stations west of the mississippi river to be assigned call letters starting with a k and stations east of the mississippi to calls beginning with a w. the station has been an nbc affiliate since its sign on due to woai am s longtime affiliation with the nbc red network ; however it originally also carried programming from the three other major networks of the time cbs abc and dumont . woai lost the cbs and dumont affiliations to keyl channel 5 now kens tv when that station signed on in february 1950 ; the two stations continued to share abc programming until kono tv channel 12 now ksat tv signed on in january 1957 . in 1965 woai am tv was bought by crosley broadcasting which changed its name to avco broadcasting in 1968 . avco began to exit from broadcasting in 1974 . woai tv was one of the first television stations that crosley owned to end up being sold as it was acquired by united television at the time a subsidiary of 20th century fox in 1974 . on december 11 1974 coinciding with the stations 25th anniversary woai tv changed its call letters to kmol tv ; at that time the am station which retained the woai call letters became one of the founding stations of its current owner iheartmedia then known as clear channel communications . chris craft industries gained majority ownership of united in 1981 merging the group with bhc communications the owners of kcop in los angeles and kptv in portland oregon . when krrt channel 35 now kmys dropped its affiliation with the united paramount network upn to join the wb in january 1998 kmol began carrying upn programming during the overnight hours ; at the time chris craft had owned a 50 % interest in upn . the upn affiliation later moved to fredericksburg licensed kbej channel 2 now mynetworktv affiliate kcwx which that station signed on the air in august 2000 . on august 12 2000 chris craft industries sold its television stations to the fox television stations subsidiary of news corporation for 5.5 billion ; 1 a deal that was finalized on july 31 2001 . news corporation then traded kmol and sister station ktvx in salt lake city to clear channel in exchange for wftc in minneapolis . this tradeoff protected future sister station kabb channel 29 from losing its fox affiliation . not only did the purchase reunite kmol tv with woai but channel 4 also became the television flagship of the san antonio based conglomerate . speculation immediately began that clear channel would restore the heritage woai tv callsign to channel 4 ; this officially occurred on september 9 2002 . although clear channel s san antonio radio cluster is located in northwest san antonio off of i 10 woai tv remained based in its downtown studios on navarro avenue . the woai studio building as seen from north st. mary s street . on november 16 2006 clear channel announced that it would sell all of its television stations 2 after being bought by private equity firms . on april 20 2007 clear channel sold its entire television group to providence equity partners controlled holding company newport television ; the group deal was finalized on march 14 2008 . 3 however channel 4 continued a news partnership with its former radio sister and the two stations continued to share a website for two years afterward . in may 2008 newport television agreed to sell woai tv and five other stations to high plains broadcasting because of ownership conflicts . providence equity partners also holds a 19 % ownership stake in univision communications the owner of univision owned and operated station kwex tv channel 41 and telefutura station knic tv channel 17 . 4 in the case of san antonio it would have given providence equity control of three stations in the market . even without knic in the picture both woai and kwex were among the four highest rated stations in the san antonio market at the time of the clear channel sale and remain so today ; the fcc normally does not allow two of the four highest rated stations to be owned by a single entity . the sale was finalized on september 15 2008 . 5 however the sale to high plains broadcasting was in name only ; newport continued to operate the station under a shared services agreement with high plains only holding the fcc assets of the station including the license . this effectively made high plains broadcasting a front company for newport television in a relationship similar to that between mission broadcasting and nexstar broadcasting group as well as between cunningham broadcasting and later deerfield media and the sinclair broadcast group . 4 on december 17 2007 woai debuted a slightly altered logo . on july 19 2012 newport television high plains broadcasting reached a deal to sell 22 of the company s 27 stations to sinclair nexstar and cox media group . woai tv was among the six that would be sold to sinclair making it a sister station to fox affiliate kabb channel 29 and cw affiliate kmys channel 35 . 6 since fcc 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 kwex dt 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 . ktvx which had been a sister station to woai tv since united television acquired both stations in 1975 was sold to nexstar resulting in the two stations coming under entirely separate ownership and management for the first time in over 37 years . the operations of kabb and kmys remain mostly separate from woai tv with the two stations retaining competing news operations . 7 on the morning on march 19 2013 a fire started in offices located on the second floor of woai s studios which resulted in the evacuation of the station s staff and forcing channel 4 to carry a broadcast from vatican city for about six hours ; with woai unable to broadcast from the building the station used a makeshift set in a nearby parking lot for that day s late afternoon newscasts before temporarily moving to kabb kmys s facility on babcock road . 8 station and san antonio fire department representatives cited an electrical short for causing the blaze . 9 woai moved back to the downtown facility on march 24 . 10 in october 2013 the san antonio express news reported that sinclair planned to move woai s sales promotions and executive offices from its navarro street studios to a new building adjacent to kabb and kmys shared 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 . 11 12 digital television edit digital channels edit the station s digital channel is multiplexed channel video aspect psip short name programming 13 4.1 1080i 16 9 woai dt main woai tv programming nbc 4.2 480i 4 3 lwn antenna tv analog to digital conversion edit woai tv discontinued regular programming on its analog signal over vhf channel 4 on june 12 2009 the official date in 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 58 which was among the high band uhf channels 52 69 that were removed from broadcasting use as a result of the transition to uhf channel 48 14 15 using psip to display the station s virtual channel as its former vhf analog channel 4 . programming edit woai tv carries the entire nbc programming schedule . however the station airs several of the network s programs out of pattern the final hour of today airs on a one hour delay from 11 00 to 12 00 p.m. late night with seth meyers airs on a half hour delay airing at 12 06 a.m. and last call with carson daly and the late night rebroadcast of today fourth hour air on a one hour delay starting at 1 37 a.m. ; syndicated programs as well as san antonio living and a late night rebroadcast of the 10 00 p.m. newscast fill those programs network designated timeslots . syndicated programs broadcast on woai tv include rachael ray steve harvey judge judy the dr. oz show and the insider among others . the station also produces the hour long daytime talk show san antonio living which airs weekday mornings at 10 00 a.m. 16 on august 22 2010 woai tv announced that it would replace live with regis and kelly with rachael ray on september 13 in an effort to boost ratings for san antonio living . the announcement sparked controversy with many loyal viewers as live had connections with san antonio as original co host regis philbin was a fan of the san antonio spurs nba franchise and san antonio was showcased during the fiesta event in a 1991 episode . what is now live with kelly and