WUSA (channel 9) is a television station in Washington, D.C., affiliated with CBS. It is the

flagship A flagship is a vessel used by the commanding officer of a group of naval ships, characteristically a flag officer entitled by custom to fly a distinguishing flag. Used more loosely, it is the lead ship in a fleet of vessels, typically the fi ...

property of

Tegna Inc. Tegna Inc. (stylized in all caps as TEGNA) is an American publicly traded broadcast, digital media and marketing services company headquartered in Tysons Corner, Virginia. It was created on June 29, 2015, when the Gannett Company split into tw ...

(based in the nearby Virginia suburb of

McLean MacLean, also spelt Maclean and McLean, is a Goidelic languages, Gaelic surname Mac Gille Eathain, or, Mac Giolla Eóin in Irish language, Irish Gaelic), Eóin being a Gaelic form of Johannes (John (given name), John). The clan surname is an A ...

). WUSA's studios and transmitter are located at Broadcast House on Wisconsin Avenue in the

Tenleytown Tenleytown is a historic neighborhood in Northwest, Washington, D.C. History In 1790, locals began calling the neighborhood "Tennally's Town" after area tavern owner John Tennally. Over time, the spelling has evolved and by the 19th century th ...

neighborhood on the northwestern side of Washington. WUSA is the third-largest CBS affiliate by market size (sister station KHOU in Houston being the second-largest and

Gray Television Gray Television, Inc. is an American publicly traded television broadcasting company based in Atlanta, Georgia. Founded in 1946 by James Harrison Gray as Gray Communications Systems, the company owns or operates 180 stations across the United St ...

's WANF in Atlanta being the largest) that is not owned and operated by the network. The station's signal is relayed on a low-power digital translator station, W27EI-D, in Moorefield, West Virginia (which is owned by Valley TV Cooperative, Inc.). It also maintains a channel-sharing agreement with Silver Spring, Maryland-licensed

WJAL WJAL, virtual channel 68 ( VHF digital channel 9), is an NTD America– affiliated television station serving the American capital city of Washington, D.C., that is licensed to Silver Spring, Maryland. Owned by Santa Monica, California–based ...

(channel 68, owned by Entravision Communications).

History

Early years (1949–1978)

The station first went on the air on January 11, 1949, as WOIC, and began full-time operations on January 16. The fourth-oldest station in the nation's capital, channel 9 was originally owned by the Bamberger Broadcasting Service, a subsidiary of R. H. Macy and Company. Bamberger also owned

WOR-AM WOR (710 AM) is a 50,000-watt class A clear-channel AM radio station owned by iHeartMedia and licensed to New York, New York. The station airs a mix of local and syndicated talk radio shows, primarily from co-owned Premiere Networks, includi ...

- FM in New York City, and was working to put WOR-TV (channel 9, now WWOR-TV in

Secaucus, New Jersey Secaucus ( ) is a town in Hudson County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States census, the town's population was 16,264,President

Harry S. Truman Harry S. Truman (May 8, 1884December 26, 1972) was the 33rd president of the United States, serving from 1945 to 1953. A leader of the Democratic Party, he previously served as the 34th vice president from January to April 1945 under Franklin ...

. WOIC picked up the CBS affiliation upon signing on, replacing WMAL-TV (channel 7, now WJLA-TV) as the network's Washington outlet. WOIC/WTOP/WUSA has been a CBS affiliate since its inception, and is currently the network's longest-tenured affiliate. However, WOR was a shareholder in the

Mutual Radio Network The Mutual Broadcasting System (commonly referred to simply as Mutual; sometimes referred to as MBS, Mutual Radio or the Mutual Radio Network) was an American commercial radio network in operation from 1934 to 1999. In the golden age of U.S. rad ...

, which had plans to enter television with WOIC and WOR-TV as the flagship stations of its network; these plans never came to fruition. At the start of 1950, Bamberger Broadcasting changed its name to General Teleradio. In June 1950, a joint venture of CBS and '' The Washington Post'' purchased WOIC from Bamberger/Macy's for $1.4 million. The new owners, WTOP Incorporated (the ''Post'' owned 55%, with CBS holding the remaining 45% stake), changed the station's call sign to WTOP-TV, after its new sister station WTOP radio (then at

1500 AM The following radio stations broadcast on AM frequency 1500 kHz: The Federal Communications Commission categorizes 1500 AM as a U.S. clear-channel frequency. WFED Washington, D.C. and KSTP St. Paul are the dominant Class A stations on 1500 ...

). Since WTOP took the callsign from the radio partners at the time, the callsign was a coincidence under ownership of the publisher, since they never stood for "Washington Post"; they instead stood for the fact that what was then known as WTOP was "at the top of

he city's He or HE may refer to: Language * He (pronoun), an English pronoun * He (kana), the romanization of the Japanese kana へ * He (letter), the fifth letter of many Semitic alphabets * He (Cyrillic), a letter of the Cyrillic script called ''He'' in ...

radio dial" (WTOP has been known as WFED since 2006, and is now owned by

Hubbard Broadcasting Hubbard Broadcasting, Inc. is an American television and radio broadcasting corporation based in St. Paul, Minnesota. It was founded by Stanley E. Hubbard. The corporation has broadcast outlets scattered across Minnesota, Wisconsin, Missouri, ...

, not by the ''Post''). In July 1950, WTOP-TV became the first television station in Washington authorized to broadcast

color television Color television or Colour television is a television transmission technology that includes color information for the picture, so the video image can be displayed in color on the television set. It improves on the monochrome or black-and-white t ...

in the 405-line field sequential color standard, which was incompatible with the black-and-white 525-line NTSC standard. Color broadcasts continued for nearly 30 months, when regulatory and commercial pressures forced the FCC to rescind its original color standard and begin the process of adopting the 525-line NTSC-3 standard, developed by RCA to be

backwards compatible Backward or Backwards is a relative direction. Backwards or Sdrawkcab (the word "backwards" with its letters reversed) may also refer to: * "Backwards" (''Red Dwarf''), episode of sci-fi TV sitcom ''Red Dwarf'' ** ''Backwards'' (novel), a nov ...

with the existing black-and-white televisions. In 1954, the WTOP stations moved into a new facility, known as "Broadcast House", at 40th and Brandywine Streets NW in Washington. The building was the first in the country designed as a unified radio and television facility. Its name was in honor of

Broadcasting House Broadcasting House is the headquarters of the BBC, in Portland Place and Langham Place, London. The first radio broadcast from the building was made on 15 March 1932, and the building was officially opened two months later, on 15 May. The main ...

, home of the BBC in London. The building was well known to WTOP's president, since he had spent much of World War II assigned to the BBC. Previous to the move to Broadcast House, the radio stations operated out of the Earle Building (now the Warner Building, home of the Warner Theatre), and WTOP-TV had operated out of the small WOIC studios at the same location. When Broadcast House was completed and the new television studios were inaugurated, the old studio became the garage for Broadcast House and the old master control room became both the master control and transmitter room for channel 9, since Broadcast House had been built around the station's original, four-sided tower. The building with the tower remains in the middle at the same location, although it is now an office building and retail store front. The WTOP-TV tower was known in Washington for two things. First, at Christmas time, the tower was strung with Christmas lights and glowed brightly on top of Mount Reno, the tallest point in the District of Columbia. Second, the tower tended to sway much more than three-sided towers. In a strong wind, the tower could be seen swaying back-and-forth, and during the winter ice from the tower fell quite often on the streets below. In October 1954, CBS sold its share of WTOP Inc. to the ''Washington Post'' to comply with the FCC's new seven-station-per-group ownership rule. CBS's partial ownership of WTOP radio, KQV radio in Pittsburgh and

WCCO radio WCCO (830 kHz) is a commercial AM radio station in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and owned by Audacy, Inc. Its studios and offices are located on Second Avenue South in Downtown Minneapolis. WCCO features a talk radio format, with frequent newscas ...

in Minneapolis exceeded the FCC's limit for AM radio stations. CBS opted to sell its share of WTOP, which it had purchased in whole in 1932 before selling controlling interest to the ''Post'' in 1949. After the sale closed, the ''Post'' merged the WTOP stations with its other broadcast property, WMBR- AM-TV in Jacksonville, Florida and changed the name of the licensee from "WTOP Inc." to "Post Stations, Inc." WMBR radio was sold off in 1958, and WMBR-TV became WJXT. The ''Post'' renamed its broadcasting group "

Post-Newsweek Stations Graham Media Group (formerly Post-Newsweek Stations) is the television broadcasting subsidiary of the Graham Holdings Company. It is now headquartered in Detroit, co-locating with its local NBC affiliate WDIV-TV, after spending 10 years in Chic ...

" in 1961 after the ''Post'' bought '' Newsweek'' magazine. Post-Newsweek acquired its third television station, WLBW-TV (now WPLG) in Miami in 1970 and in 1974 added WTIC-TV (now WFSB) in

Hartford, Connecticut Hartford is the capital city of the U.S. state of Connecticut. It was the seat of Hartford County until Connecticut disbanded county government in 1960. It is the core city in the Greater Hartford metropolitan area. Census estimates since the ...

to the group. In 1972, WTOP-TV joined with the Evening Star Broadcasting Company (owned by the ''Post's'' rival, the now-defunct '' Washington Star'' and licensee of WMAL-TV) to build the Joint Tower, a , three-sided tower across the alley from Broadcast House at 4010 Chesapeake Street NW. Transmission lines were extended from Broadcast House's transmitter area to the new tower for both WTOP-TV and WHUR-FM (the former WTOP-FM, which had been donated by Post-Newsweek to Howard University in 1971). The old tower continued to serve as the backup antenna for channel 9 until the station sold Broadcast House in 1996. In 1974, WTOP and the other Post-Newsweek stations adopted the slogan "The One and Only". The moniker was part of a trend toward group identification of stations, with each station being "The One and Only Channel (channel number)". Staff members from the "One and Only" period usually refer to themselves as "the one and onlies" as a source of pride. The slogan was dropped from active use in the late 1990s and has not been used as part of an image campaign since 1996. The slogan no longer appears on-air, but was revived in a sense when channel 9 adopted its slogan in the mid 2000s, ''First and Only with Local News in HDTV.''

Later years (1978–present)

On June 26, 1978, Post-Newsweek exchanged WTOP-TV with the

Evening News Association ''The Detroit News'' is one of the two major newspapers in the U.S. city of Detroit, Michigan. The paper began in 1873, when it rented space in the rival ''Detroit Free Press'' building. ''The News'' absorbed the '' Detroit Tribune'' on Februa ...

's WWJ-TV (now WDIV-TV) in Detroit. That same day, WTOP-TV changed its call letters to WDVM-TV, with the new call letters representing the initials of the areas which channel 9 serves: District of Columbia, Virginia and Maryland. Post-Newsweek parent the Washington Post Company, and the Evening News Association, which published the '' Detroit News'', decided to swap their stations for fear that the FCC would force them to sell the stations at unfavorable terms or revoke their very valuable licenses because the FCC at the time was considering forbidding ownership of newspapers and broadcast stations in the same market. The call letter was changed as per a now-repealed FCC rule stating that TV and radio stations in the same market, but with different ownership had to use different callsigns. In 1985, the

Gannett Company Gannett Co., Inc. () is an American mass media holding company headquartered in McLean, Virginia, in the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area.WHEC-TV in Rochester in 1979. On July 4, 1986, Gannett changed WDVM's call letters to WUSA both in honor of the station being located in the nation's capital and Gannett's ownership of '' USA Today''. The WUSA callsign had previously been used by Gannett's station (previously WTCN-TV) in Minneapolis for a year, which simultaneously changed its callsign to

KARE Kare or KARE may refer to: * Kare (Žitorađa), a village in Serbia * Kare language, several languages with the name * Kare (surname), a surname (including a list of people with the name) * Kare Kauks (born 1961), Estonian singer * Kåre or Kaare, ...

. The

WDVM-TV WDVM-TV (channel 25) is an independent television station licensed to Hagerstown, Maryland, United States, serving the Washington, D.C. television market. It is owned by Nexstar Media Group alongside CW owned-and-operated station WDCW (channel ...

callsign is now in use on an unrelated station in

Hagerstown, Maryland Hagerstown is a city in Washington County, Maryland, United States and the county seat of Washington County. The population of Hagerstown city proper at the 2020 census was 43,527, and the population of the Hagerstown metropolitan area (exten ...

. At the time, particularly in Gannett press releases, the station's callsign was commonly printed as "W★USA". However, the

asterisk The asterisk ( ), from Late Latin , from Ancient Greek , ''asteriskos'', "little star", is a typographical symbol. It is so called because it resembles a conventional image of a heraldic star. Computer scientists and mathematicians often voc ...

star A star is an astronomical object comprising a luminous spheroid of plasma (physics), plasma held together by its gravity. The List of nearest stars and brown dwarfs, nearest star to Earth is the Sun. Many other stars are visible to the naked ...

between the "W" and "U" is not part of the call sign. The star device was used to denote its connection to ''USA Today''. The star was replaced on-air with the CBS Eye Device, which is also not part of the call sign, in the late 1990s as CBS began to considerably relax their formerly strict branding guidelines for their affiliates (which had not allowed blending the logo into call letters), and to reduce confusion with the now-defunct Women's United Soccer Association, which was also visually represented as "W★USA" within their logo. WUSA moved to a new Broadcast House at 4100 Wisconsin Avenue NW in January 1992. WTOP-FM had left the old Broadcast House in 1971, but kept its transmitter there. WTOP radio departed in 1978; the ''Post'' had sold it a year earlier to the

Outlet Company The Outlet Company was a corporation based in Providence, Rhode Island, Providence, Rhode Island, which owned holdings in both retail and broadcasting. The centerpieces of the group was its flagship Providence store (''The Outlet'') and WJAR radio ...

. The move to the more modern building was tinged with sadness due to the death from a brain tumor of popular sportcaster

Glenn Brenner Glenn Brenner (January 2, 1948 – January 14, 1992) was a broadcast journalist and sports commentator in Washington, D.C., in the United States from 1977 to 1991. He was best known as the sports anchor for WUSA-TV from 1977 until 1991. At the tim ...

just days before the move. In 1998, WUSA launched its website, wusatv9.com, but later removed the "TV" reference in the domain name to become wusa9.com. Around the first week of October 2012, Gannett entered a

dispute Dispute may refer to: * an act of physical violence; combat * Controversy ** Lawsuit ** Dispute resolution * Dispute (credit card) * ''La Dispute'', a 1744 prose comedy by Pierre de Marivaux * La Dispute (band) La Dispute is an American pos ...

against

Dish Network DISH Network Corporation (DISH, an acronym for DIgital Sky Highway) is an American television provider and the owner of the direct-broadcast satellite provider Dish, commonly known as Dish Network, and the over-the-top IPTV service, Sling TV. A ...

regarding compensation fees and Dish's AutoHop commercial-skip feature on its Hopper

digital video recorder A digital video recorder (DVR) is an electronic device that records video in a digital format to a disk drive, USB flash drive, SD memory card, SSD or other local or networked mass storage device. The term includes set-top boxes with direct to d ...

s. Gannett ordered that Dish discontinue AutoHop on the account that it is having a negative effect on advertising revenues for WUSA. Gannett threatened to pull all of its stations (such as WUSA) should the skirmish continue beyond October 7 and Dish and Gannett fail to reach an agreement. The two parties eventually reached an agreement after extending the deadline for a few hours. On June 29, 2015, the Gannett Company split in two, with one side specializing in print media and the other side specializing in broadcast and digital media. WUSA was retained by the latter company, named Tegna.

Websites

In July 2007, WUSA launched a second website a
DVMmoms.com
. The site focused on topics relating to young mothers in the Washington, D.C. area. Gannett also rolled out similar sites targeted at moms in other select markets where it owns a television and/or newspaper properties. In February 2008, WUSA launched a third website a
DVMOurTime.com
The site is fronted by noon anchor J. C. Hayward and provides local restaurant and business discounts as well as news and events targeted towards baby boomers. In 2008, Gannett and the Tribune Company partnered to expand the Metromix brand that has been successful for many years in Chicago at the '' Chicago Tribune''. WUSA's local Metromix.com site launched in July 2008. There are 35 other Gannett and/or Tribune properties that have a Metromix site. In August 2008, Gannett revamped its moms sites, and DVMmoms.com was renamed MomsLikeMe.com. Like the previous versions, the site features topics related to young moms and includes technology from Ripple 6, which was recently acquired by Gannett. There were MomsLikeMe.com sites in 85 other markets throughout the country. MomsLikeMe was phased out in 2012. In September 2008, WUSA's fifth website was launched, calle
HighSchoolSports.net
The site features, among other things, high school sports rankings, schedules, and scores for high school

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

soccer Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...

, basketball and baseball games around the United States. The site is also a Gannett-owned property that was launched in many markets throughout the country. In June 2010, Gannett Broadcasting and DataSphere Technologies announced a partnership to create community-focused websites in 10 of their television station markets. WUSA was one of the first to launch these sites in August 2010. The sites are integrated within the existing website and feature hyperlocal news and user-generated content about area happenings and events. In addition to powering the community websites, DataSphere provides enhanced functionality, including market-leading site search, coupons, a business directory and ad targeting. WUSA created 53 different neighborhood sites in the Metro D.C. area.

Programming

Syndicated programs broadcast by WUSA include ''

Entertainment Tonight ''Entertainment Tonight'' (or simply ''ET'') is an American Broadcast syndication, first-run syndicated news broadcasting news magazine, newsmagazine program that is distributed by CBS Media Ventures throughout the United States and owned by Para ...

'', '' Inside Edition'', and ''

Dr. Phil Phillip Calvin McGraw (born September 1, 1950), better known as Dr. Phil, is an American television personality and author best known for hosting the talk show '' Dr. Phil''. He holds a doctorate in clinical psychology, though he ceased rene ...

''. The latter three are distributed by CBS' corporate cousin CBS Media Ventures. WTOP was one of the few CBS stations that declined to carry the popular game show '' The Price Is Right'' during the early years of the program's run (although Washington, D.C. ABC station WMAL-TV/WJLA-TV (channel 7) did carry ''The Price Is Right'' and some other CBS daytime game shows uncleared by WTOP during the mid 1970s). During the September 11 attacks in 2001, WUSA made the decision to preempt CBS' national coverage of the attacks on The Pentagon and the World Trade Center with its own local coverage; this decision proved controversial. As a local affiliate, WUSA did not possess the resources to cover the attacks as extensively as the national network, and its decision to institute a "CBS blackout" prevented its audience from viewing much of the national reporting anchored by Dan Rather. ''The Washington Post'' criticized this decision, writing, "The city was subjected to a CBS blackout by the local affiliate, Gannett-owned Channel 9. The station chose to view this, incredibly enough, as a local story and reported it initially as if it were a winter snow day and school closings were of the utmost importance." From May 2008 until the end of its original run in 2016, WUSA served as the production studio for the program '' The McLaughlin Group'' which was also broadcast on some select CBS stations (including its New York City owned-and-operated station WCBS-TV) beginning in May 2007 and on some PBS member stations (locally via WETA-TV and

WHUT-TV WHUT-TV, virtual channel 32 ( UHF digital channel 33), is the secondary Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) member television station licensed to the American capital city of Washington, D.C. The station is owned by Howard University, a historical ...

); the show was distributed by

WTTW WTTW (channel 11) is a PBS member television station in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Owned by not-for-profit broadcaster Window to the World Communications, Inc., it is sister to commercial classical music radio station WFMT (98.7 FM). The ...

out of Chicago, with the production facilities moved over from NBC owned-and-operated station WRC-TV, where the show had been based since its premiere in 1982.

Sports programming

Then-WTOP-TV was the first television partner of the Washington Capitals, signing a three-year contract to broadcast 15 road games per year at the team's debut in the

1974–75 NHL season The 1974–75 NHL season was the 58th season of the National Hockey League. Two new teams, the Washington Capitals and Kansas City Scouts were added, increasing the number of teams to 18. To accommodate the new teams, the NHL re-organized its div ...

Warner Wolf Warner William Wolf (born November 11, 1937) is an American television and radio sports broadcaster, perhaps best known as a local news sports anchor in Washington, D.C. and New York City, and for his catchphrase "Let's go to the videotape!" He wa ...

commentated for the first season before being replaced by a simulcast of Ron Weber's call for WTOP radio. WTOP-TV treated the games as an afterthought and often relegated them to joins-in-progress or tape-delays to late night. Although '' Washington Post'' beat reporter Robert Fachet called the team's state of television affairs "revolting" by the contract's end, station management openly stated they received far more complaints about the preempted CBS shows than from Capitals fans. The Capitals moved to WDCA (channel 20) for 1977. The then- Washington Bullets also signed their first television deal with WTOP-TV when they moved to the city in

1973 Events January * January 1 - The United Kingdom, the Republic of Ireland and Denmark enter the European Economic Community, which later becomes the European Union. * January 15 – Vietnam War: Citing progress in peace negotiations, U.S. ...

, concurrent with the start of national broadcasts of the league on CBS. The Bullets moved their local games to WDCA as well in 1977. Additionally, the station aired select weekend Washington Nationals games produced by MASN from

2013 File:2013 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: Edward Snowden becomes internationally famous for leaking classified NSA wiretapping information; Typhoon Haiyan kills over 6,000 in the Philippines and Southeast Asia; The Dhaka garment fact ...

until

2017 File:2017 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The War Against ISIS at the Battle of Mosul (2016-2017); aftermath of the Manchester Arena bombing; The Solar eclipse of August 21, 2017 ("Great American Eclipse"); North Korea tests a ser ...

News operation

WUSA presently broadcasts 33 hours, 15 minutes of locally produced newscasts each week (with 5 hours, 35 minutes each weekday; 2 hours, 5 minutes on Saturday; and 3 hours, 5 minutes on Sunday); in addition, the station produces a sports highlight program called ''Game On!'', which airs Sunday evenings after the 11 p.m. newscast. WUSA was the launchpad for several well-known news anchors.

Sam Donaldson Samuel Andrew Donaldson Jr. (born March 11, 1934) is an American former reporter and news anchor, serving with ABC News from 1967 to 2009. He is best known as the network's White House Correspondent (1977–1989 and 1998–99) and as a panelist ...

and Warner Wolf are among WUSA's most successful alumni. Max Robinson was co-anchor of ''

Eyewitness News ''Eyewitness News'' is a style of television news presentation that emphasizes visual elements and action video, replacing the older "man-on-camera" newscast. History Pioneered by Westinghouse The earliest known use of the ''Eyewitness New ...

'' with

Gordon Peterson Gordon Peterson (born 1938) is an American broadcast journalist and Washington, D.C.-based television news anchor. He was most recently the 6 p.m. co-anchor for ABC affiliate WJLA-TV and from 1988 to 2013 was also moderator and producer of ' ...

from 1969 to 1978 before he became the first black anchorman on network television and one of the original anchors of ''

ABC World News Tonight ''ABC World News Tonight'' (titled ''ABC World News Tonight with David Muir'' for its weeknight broadcasts since September 2014) is the flagship daily evening news broadcasting#television, television news program of ABC News, the news division ...

''.

James Brown James Joseph Brown (May 3, 1933 – December 25, 2006) was an American singer, dancer, musician, record producer and bandleader. The central progenitor of funk music and a major figure of 20th century music, he is often referred to by the honor ...

of CBS Sports was a sports anchor at the station in the 1980s. In 1989, WUSA debuted an hour-long newscast at 4 p.m. (replacing '' The Oprah Winfrey Show'', which the station chose not to continue carrying due to the program's licensing fees, it then moved to WJLA-TV), which created a three-hour local news block from 4 to 7 p.m., resulting in a half-hour delay of the '' CBS Evening News'' to 7 p.m. The 4 p.m. newscast was dropped in 2000, with WUSA also cutting a half-hour off the end of its 4–7 p.m. news block, moving the ''CBS Evening News'' to 6:30 p.m., the recommended timeslot for the network newscast for CBS stations located in the Eastern Time Zone. As of August 2020, WUSA is the only major station in the Washington market that does not carry a 4:00 p.m. newscast. On May 2, 2005, WUSA became the first television station in the Washington market to begin broadcasting its local newscasts in

high definition High definition or HD may refer to: Visual technologies *HD DVD, discontinued optical disc format *HD Photo, former name for the JPEG XR image file format *HDV, format for recording high-definition video onto magnetic tape * HiDef, 24 frames-pe ...

. In February 2012, WUSA launched its investigative unit with Chief Investigative Reporter Russ Ptacek. Ptacek's investigations led to reform after uncovering millions in unreported government bonuses, a utility allowed to charge customers during disconnections caused by storms, taxis refusing passengers based upon race, and potentially deadly restaurant food safety risks. Ptacek and WUSA9 parted ways in 2016 when the station announced changes to its investigative direction. Anchor and consumer correspondent Lesli Foster reported on a petition filed by the Center For Auto Safety asking government safety regulators to recall millions of older model Jeep Grand Cherokees. The consumer group believes the placement of the plastic gas tanks in those vehicles can lead to fires and deaths when they are struck from behind. The gas tank is located behind the rear axle—literally in the crush zone of the vehicle.

Chrysler Stellantis North America (officially FCA US and formerly Chrysler ()) is one of the " Big Three" automobile manufacturers in the United States, headquartered in Auburn Hills, Michigan. It is the American subsidiary of the multinational automoti ...

says the vehicles are safe and not defective. The automaker points out that in the 26 fatal accidents cited by NHTSA where they can calculate kinetic energy, the deaths in all those vehicles involved speeds that exceed today's crash test requirements. But the company agreed to recall over 1 million of the remaining 1993–1998 models, along with 2002–2007 Jeep Liberty's back in June of last year. Lesli Foster was acknowledged for her hard hitting investigative report in 2013 with a NCCB-NATAS

Emmy Award The Emmy Awards, or Emmys, are an extensive range of awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international television industry. A number of annual Emmy Award ceremonies are held throughout the calendar year, each with the ...

. Beginning with the noon newscast on January 17, 2013, WUSA unveiled a new graphics package for the station's newscasts designed for Gannett's news-producing stations by design firm The Mill; the new graphics are designed to reduce on-screen clutter, which viewers complained about prior to the change to the new standardized graphics. With the change, WUSA began using the AFD #10 broadcast flag to present their newscasts in letterboxed widescreen for viewers watching on cable television through 4:3 television sets. Additionally, the station unveiled its new logo, which was stylized as "wusa⋆9", in lower-case lettering. Beginning with ''Wake Up Washington'' on April 26, 2018, WUSA unveiled a new set to replace the previous one used since the May 2, 2005 HD launch, along with a new station logo which ended the use of any stars and/or asterisks in WUSA's branding. It also rolled out a new standardized graphics and music package for the station's newscasts designed for Tegna's news-producing stations.

Notable current on-air staff

Kristen Berset The Miss Florida USA competition is the pageant that selects the representative for the state of Florida in the Miss USA pageant. Up until the 2017 pageant, both Miss and Teen state pageants were held separately in different months. In recent ...

– anchor, sports reporter *

Darren M. Haynes Darren M. Haynes is an eleven-time Emmy Award-winning sports anchor who joined CBS affiliate WUSA in Washington, D.C., in August 2017 as a sports director for that station. He was previously a sports anchor for ESPN's ''SportsCenter''. Broadc ...

– sports director * Tony Perkins – anchor *

Topper Shutt Charles "Topper" Shutt is Chief Meteorologist at WUSA (TV), WUSA Channel 9 in Washington, D.C. and forecaster for WHUR-FM. Career In 1981, Shutt began his television weather career with CNN in Atlanta, Georgia, working as a weather producer and ...

(

AMS AMS or Ams may refer to: Organizations Companies * Alenia Marconi Systems * American Management Systems * AMS (Advanced Music Systems) * ams AG, semiconductor manufacturer * AMS Pictures * Auxiliary Medical Services Educational institutions * A ...

Seal of Approval) – chief meteorologist * Reese Waters – anchor

Notable former on-air staff

Martin Agronsky Martin Zama Agronsky ( ; January 12, 1915 – July 25, 1999), also known as Martin Agronski, was an American journalist, political analyst, and television host. He began his career in 1936 working under his uncle, Gershon Agron, at the ''Palest ...

– journalist/host of ''Agronsky and Company'' 1969–1988; now deceased * Jess Atkinson – sports anchor (2000–2002, now back at his ''alma mater'', the University of Maryland) *

Ellison Barber Ellison Litton Barber is an American journalist and correspondent for NBC News based in New York. She contributes to NBC News, MSNBC and NBC News Now. Barber was reporting outside of the United States Capitol as a mob attacked and overtook the ...

– reporter (2015–2017); now at

Fox News Channel The Fox News Channel, abbreviated FNC, commonly known as Fox News, and stylized in all caps, is an American multinational conservative cable news television channel based in New York City. It is owned by Fox News Media, which itself is owne ...

– sports anchor and later sports director (1977–1992); now deceased * Anita Brikman – anchor/health reporter (2007–2013; now Senior Vice President of Strategic Communications for the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization in Alexandria, Virginia) *

– sports anchor (1984–1990; now at CBS Sports) *

Maureen Bunyan Maureen Bunyan (born 1946 in Aruba) is an Aruban-American Washington, D.C.-based television journalist. She was the lead co-anchor at WUSA for 22 years from 1973-1995. In 1999 she returned to television when she co-anchored WJLA-TV, helping t ...

– anchor/reporter (1973–1995; last at WJLA-TV) * Walter Cronkite – Channel 9's first anchorman (1950–1954); later at CBS News, now deceased *

Chet Curtis Chet Curtis (born Chester Kukiewicz; April 15, 1939 – January 22, 2014) was an American newscaster who co-anchored with his then-wife, newscaster Natalie Jacobson. He was born in Amsterdam, New York and raised in Schenectady, New York.

– reporter (later at WCVB-TV, and NECN, died in January 2014) *

– anchor/reporter (1961–1967; now retired) *

Kristin Fisher Kristin Anne Fisher (born July 29, 1983) is an American journalist. She was a television news presenter and White House correspondent for Fox News from 2015 to 2020, and in 2021 joined CNN as its Space & Defense correspondent. Early life Krist ...

– reporter (2009–2013); now at sister station

KING-TV KING-TV (channel 5) is a television station in Seattle, Washington, United States, affiliated with NBC. It is owned by Tegna Inc. alongside Everett-licensed independent station KONG (channel 16). Both stations share studios at the Home Plate ...

in Seattle *

Angie Goff Angie Goff (born March 17, 1980 in Seoul, South Korea) is a Korean-born American broadcast journalist currently at WTTG (locally known as "FOX5") in Washington D.C. Goff also writes the popular blogbr>OhMyGoffknown for showcasing viewer generat ...

– traffic/entertainment reporter (2001–2007); moved to WRC-TV (2011–2018); joined WTTG in June 2019 * Erica Grow – meteorologist (2012–2015; now at

WPIX WPIX (channel 11) is a television station in New York City. Owned by Mission Broadcasting, it is operated under a local marketing agreement (LMA) by Nexstar Media Group, making it a ''de facto'' owned-and-operated station and flagship (broadcas ...

in New York City) *

Brett Haber Brett Haber is an American sportscaster. He is a host for the Tennis Channel and several other national and regional sports outlets. Sportscasting career In the mid-1990s Haber was an anchor on ESPN's flagship news program ''SportsCenter''. I ...

– sports director (2004–2011; now editor-at-large at '' Washingtonian'' magazine and Tennis Channel play-by-play commentator) *

J. C. Hayward J. C. Hayward (born October 23, 1945), also known as Jacqueline Hayward Wilson, is an American news anchor who worked for WUSA9 in Washington, D.C. She is best known for being the first female news anchor in Washington, D.C. and the first Afric ...

– anchor (1972–2015); retired *

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(Statter) – meteorologist (2000–2004; now at WTOP-FM) * Jan Jeffcoat – morning anchor (2013–2018; now at rival WJLA-TV and lead anchor of Sinclair Broadcast Group's ''

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'') * Bruce Johnson – anchor/reporter (1976–2020); now deceased * Susan King – anchor/reporter (1975–1979); now a dean at the UNC Hussman School of Journalism and Media *

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Davey Marlin-Jones Davey Marlin-Jones (May 8, 1932 – March 2, 2004) was an American stage director, as well as a local television personality. He was born in Winchester, Indiana, and was known as a tireless advocate for the local stage and theatrical scene in the m ...

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– anchor/reporter/investigative reporter (1992–1995 and 2009–2018) *

Todd McDermott Todd McDermott (b April 6, 1966) is a multi-Emmy Award winning television journalist who has worked in several top television markets . McDermott is a Buffalo, New York native, and has a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science from Canisius C ...

– anchor (2004–2008, now at WPBF in West Palm Beach) * Derek McGinty – anchor (2003–2015) * Andrea Mitchell – reporter (1976–1978, now at NBC News) *

Warren Olney Warren Olney, Sr. (March 11, 1841 – June 2, 1921) was an American lawyer, conservationist, and politician, in California. He was a founding member, alongside John Muir and the young botany professor, Willis Linn Jepson of the University of ...

– reporter (1966–1969, later worked in Los Angeles) *

Ralph Penza Ralph Penza (November 22, 1932 – February 16, 2007) was a senior correspondent and substitute anchor for WNBC in New York City. He first joined WNBC in 1980, left the station in 1995 and rejoined it in October 1997. Among his many honors are six E ...

– reporter (1979–1980); now deceased *

– anchor/reporter (1969–2004, retired) * Russ Ptacek – investigative reporter (2012–2016) now president of VNI Television. * Levan Reid – sports reporter/weekend sports anchor (2003–2008; now in the same position at WBZ-TV in Boston) *

Andrea Roane Andrea Roane (born October 5, 1949) is a former American newscaster for WUSA (TV), WUSA Channel 9 television in Washington, D.C., Washington, DC. Early life and education Andrea Roane was born on October 5, 1949. in New Orleans, Louisiana. ...

– anchor/reporter (1981–2018); retired * Max Robinson – anchor/reporter (1969–1978); now deceased * Bill Shadel – reporter (1950); now deceased *

– sports anchor (1965–1976 and 1992–1996, was most recently at WABC (AM) in New York City until December 2016) * Eun Yang – reporter/anchor (1995–2001, now at WRC-TV)

Technical information

Subchannels

The station's digital signal is multiplexed: On November 1, 2011, WUSA signed an affiliation agreement to add

Bounce TV Bounce TV is an American digital multicast television network owned by Katz Broadcasting, a subsidiary of E. W. Scripps Company. Promoted as "the first 24/7 digital multicast broadcast network created to target African Americans", the channel fe ...

, which launched on WUSA

digital subchannel In broadcasting, digital subchannels are a method of transmitting more than one independent program stream simultaneously from the same digital radio or television station on the same radio frequency channel. This is done by using data compress ...

9.2, on December 16, 2011. In August 2017, WUSA temporarily stopped carrying its subchannels due to technical considerations involving their channel sharing arrangement with

(virtual channel 68), which moved its signal to WUSA's transmitter on October 1, 2017, and moved its city of license from Hagerstown, Maryland, to Silver Spring. In the interim, Bounce arranged a new affiliation agreement with Univision to be carried on WFDC-DT, and moved its Capital Region affiliation to WFDC-DT4. Justice Network returned later in the month on WUSA-DT2 once the move was completed.

Analog-to-digital conversion

WUSA stopped transmitting on its analog signal, over

VHF Very high frequency (VHF) is the ITU designation for the range of radio frequency electromagnetic waves (radio waves) from 30 to 300 megahertz (MHz), with corresponding wavelengths of ten meters to one meter. Frequencies immediately below VHF ...

channel 9, 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 Ultra high frequency (UHF) is the ITU designation for radio frequencies in the range between 300 megahertz (MHz) and 3 gigahertz (GHz), also known as the decimetre band as the wavelengths range from one meter to one tenth of a meter (on ...

channel 34 to VHF channel 9 for post-transition operations.

Translator

Notes

References

External links

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Wusa (Tv) CBS network affiliates True Crime Network affiliates Quest (American TV network) affiliates Tegna Inc. USA (TV) Television channels and stations established in 1949 National Football League primary television stations 1949 establishments in Washington, D.C. Former Gannett subsidiaries