please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources . unsourced material may be challenged and removed . november 2012 learn how and when to remove this template message wfaa dallas fort worth texas united states city dallas texas branding wfaa tv channel 8 channel 8 wfaa tv general news 8 news 8 hd newscasts slogan the spirit of texas channels digital 8 vhf virtual 8 psip subchannels 8.1 abc 8.2 the local accuweather channel 8.3 justice network affiliations abc the local accuweather channel dt2 justice network dt3 owner tegna media wfaa tv inc. first air date september 17 1949 ; 67 years ago 1949 09 17 call letters meaning working for all alike 1 former callsigns kbtv 1949 1950 former channel number s analog 8 vhf 1949 2009 digital 9 vhf 1998 2009 former affiliations primary dumont 1949 1950 nbc 1950 1957 secondary paramount television network 1949 dumont 1950 1955 abc 1950 1957 transmitter power 55 kw height 512 m facility id 72054 transmitter coordinates 32 35 6.00 n 96 58 41.00 w 32.5850000 n 96.9780556 w 32.5850000 ; 96.9780556 licensing authority fcc public license information profile cdbs website www.wfaa.com wfaa virtual channel and vhf digital channel 8 is an abc affiliated television station serving the dallas fort worth metroplex that is licensed to dallas texas united states . the station is owned by the tegna media subsidiary of tegna inc. wfaa maintains offices and primary studio facilities located at the wfaa communications center studios on 606 young street in downtown dallas 2 next to the offices of its former sister newspaper under the ownership of former parent company belo the dallas morning news and operates a secondary studio facility which is used for the production of wfaa s newscasts and also houses certain other business operations handled by the station located at the victory park development near olive and houston streets next to the american airlines center in central dallas ; the station maintains transmitter facilities located south of belt line road in cedar hill . wfaa is the largest abc affiliated station by market size that is not owned and operated by the network through its abc owned television stations subsidiary and the largest affiliate of any of the big four television networks abc nbc cbs and fox that is not owned by that respective network ; it is also one of only two television stations in the dallas fort worth market along with cw affiliate kdaf channel 33 which is owned by tribune broadcasting that is not owned by the corporate parent of its affiliated network . contents 1 history 1.1 early history 1.2 belo ownership and abc affiliation 1.3 gannett tegna ownership 2 digital television 2.1 digital channels 2.1.1 wfaa dt2 2.1.2 wfaa dt3 2.2 analog to digital conversion 3 programming 4 news operation 4.1 on air staff 4.1.1 notable current on air staff 4.1.2 notable former on air staff 5 radio 5.1 wfaa am 5.2 wfaa fm 6 references 7 external links history edit early history edit the initial application for the television station was filed on october 23 1944 when local businessman karl hoblitzelle owner of movie theater chain interstate circuit theatres applied with the federal communications commission fcc to obtain a construction permit and license to operate a television station on vhf channel 8 ; it was the first such license application for a television station in the southern united states . hoblitzelle planned to operate the station out of the republic bank building in downtown dallas and even conducted a closed circuit television broadcast of the opening of one of his properties the wilshire theatre . texas oil magnate tom potter filed a separate application for the channel 8 license and was ultimately awarded the permit over hoblitzelle . the station first signed on the air at 8 00 p.m. on september 17 1949 as kbtv with a fifteen minute ceremony inaugurating the launch of channel 8 as its first broadcast ; kbtv broadcast for one hour that evening with the remainder of its initial schedule consisting of its first locally produced program the variety series dallas in wonderland . potter founded and operated the station under the lacy potter tv broadcasting company which he partially controlled . it was the third television station to sign on in texas behind wbap tv channel 5 now kxas tv in nearby fort worth which signed on almost one year earlier on september 29 1948 ; and klee tv now kprc tv in houston which debuted in february 1949 the second station in the dallas fort worth metroplex and the first to be licensed to dallas . the station originally operated from studio facilities located at harry hines boulevard and wolf street north of downtown dallas . when the station commenced its full schedule on september 18 kbtv had broadcast for only four hours of programming per day . it originally operated as a primary affiliate of the dumont television network and a secondary affiliate of the short lived paramount television network ; under the arrangement through an agreement between lacy potter and paramount pictures the station agreed to air 4.75 hours of paramount television s programming each week during 1949 . 3 kbtv nbc affiliate wbap tv and cbs affiliate krld tv channel 4 now fox owned and operated station kdfw the latter of which was also licensed to dallas and signed on three months later on december 3 would be the only television stations in the dallas fort worth area to sign on for the next six years as the fcc had instituted a four year freeze on any new applications for television station licenses in november 1948 . belo ownership and abc affiliation edit the wfaa telecruiser in use during its affiliation with dumont . lacy potter television broadcasting lost a net revenue of 128 020 during its four month stewardship of kbtv leading tom potter to decide to put the station up for sale . the a.h. belo corporation owner of the dallas morning news had attempted to launch a new television station in dallas on vhf channel 12 two years earlier when it applied for a construction permit to build transmitter and broadcasting facilities for its proposed station ; the fcc rejected belo s application and eventually chose to reassign the channel 12 allocation to waco . complicating matters in november 1948 the agency instituted a moratorium on any new license applications by prospective television station owners in order to sort out the backlog of applicants that already filed to build such operations ; the recourse belo was left with if it wanted to own a television station in the dallas fort worth area was to acquire one that was already on the air . in january 1950 belo purchased kbtv from lacy potter for 575 000 ; 4 the sale received fcc approval on march 13 1950 with belo formally assuming control of channel 8 on march 17 . the station was the first television property to be owned by the dallas based company and also served as the flagship station of its broadcasting division until belo merged with the gannett company in 2013 . four days later on march 21 belo changed the station s call letters to wfaa tv to match those of its new radio partner wfaa 570 am now klif . the wfaa calls reportedly stood for working for all alike although the radio station later billed itself as the world s finest air attraction the kbtv call letters were later used from 1953 to 1983 by what is now present day sister station kusa in denver colorado and are currently used by a fox affiliated television station in beaumont . wfaa is one of a relatively limited number of broadcast television stations located west of the mississippi river whose call letters begin with a w ; the fcc normally assigns call signs prefixed with a k to television and radio stations with cities of license located west of the river and broadcast call signs prefixed with a w to stations located east of the river . the anomaly in the case of the wfaa television and radio stations is due to the fact the policy predates the launch of the former as dallas was originally located east of the original k w border distinction defined by the fcc . in 1950 wfaa switched its primary affiliation to nbc and also affiliated with abc on a secondary basis . dumont shut down in 1955 after various issues that arose from its relations with paramount . 5 although it had been apparent from the start that dallas and fort worth which arbitron originally designated as separate media markets were going to be collapsed into a single television market due to their close proximity fort worth star telegram owner amon g. carter who founded wbap tv through his company carter publications did not care whether residents in dallas could view that station ; wfaa affiliated with nbc under a time share arrangement with wbap tv to expand coverage of the network s programming to areas of central and eastern dallas county that only received rimshot coverage of the channel 5 signal . in early 1957 nbc threatened to strip wbap tv of its affiliation if it did not agree to move its transmitter eastward to reach the entire dallas area . belo had attempted to get an exclusive nbc affiliation first approached the network with an offer to make wfaa its exclusive affiliate for the entire market . the network also approached nafi telecasting corporation about affiliating with independent station kfjz tv channel 11 now cbs owned and operated station ktvt which had earlier moved its transmitter to the antenna farm in cedar hill . carter eventually agreed to nbc s demands that it move wbap tv s transmitter facilities to cedar hill installing a transmitter antenna on a 1 500 foot 460 m candelabra tower that was already shared by wfaa and krld tv and operate it at a higher effective radiated power powerful enough to adequately cover dallas . wfaa lost its nbc affiliation on september 1 1957 as the network had awarded wbap tv the exclusive affiliation for the dallas fort worth market as a byproduct of the transmitter relocation and signal boost ; this left channel 8 as an exclusive affiliate of abc . channel 8 became known for its heavy schedule of local programs during the 1950s through the 1980s . the most popular was a show aimed at younger audiences ; jerry haynes hosted a local children s program on the station on and off from 1961 to 1996 . originally debuting in march 1961 as mr. peppermint haynes who donned a red and white striped jacket and straw hat in his portrayal of the titular character accompanied by a candy striped cane starred alongside a variety of puppet characters performed by vern dailey and presented various segments from educational content to cartoon shorts ; five years after ending its original nine year run on wfaa in 1970 the program was revived as the half hour magazine style educational series peppermint place in 1975 running for 21 additional years expanding into syndication for its final seven until the program ended its collective 30 year run in july 1996 . 6 other notable wfaa local productions included the music series the group and chapman and its progenitor sump n else both of which were hosted by ralph baker jr. and ron chapman dallas bandstand also hosted by haynes lifestyle and fashion talk program the julie bennell show hosted by dallas morning news food editor julie bunnell the viewer q & a series let me speak to the manager originally titled ask the manager and later named inside television for the final four years of its run co hosted by belo vice president myron mike shapiro and local versions of the dialing for dollars and pm magazine franchises . channel