WOWT (channel 6) is a
television station
A television station is a set of equipment managed by a business, organisation or other entity, such as an amateur television (ATV) operator, that transmits video content and audio content via radio waves directly from a transmitter on the earth ...
in
Omaha, Nebraska
Omaha ( ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Nebraska and the county seat of Douglas County. Omaha is in the Midwestern United States on the Missouri River, about north of the mouth of the Platte River. The nation's 39th-largest cit ...
, United States, affiliated with
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an Television in the United States, American English-language Commercial broadcasting, commercial television network, broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Enterta ...
and owned by
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 ...
. The station's studios are located on Farnam Street near downtown Omaha, and its transmitter is located on a "
tower farm
Antenna farm or satellite dish farm or just dish farm are terms used to describe an area dedicated to television or radio telecommunications transmitting or receiving antenna equipment, such as C, Ku or Ka band satellite dish antennas, UHF/ ...
" near North 72nd Street and Crown Point Avenue in north-central Omaha.
WOWT is Gray's only Nebraska station not to be part of its Nebraska News & Weather Network (consisting of
sister station
In broadcasting, sister stations or sister channels are radio or television stations operated by the same company, either by direct ownership or through a management agreement.
Radio sister stations will often have different formats, and somet ...
s
KOLN/KGIN,
KSNB-TV
KSNB-TV (channel 4) is a television station licensed to York, Nebraska, United States, serving southeastern and central Nebraska as an affiliate of NBC. It is owned by Gray Television alongside Lincoln-licensed CBS affiliate KOLN, channel 10 ( ...
,
KNEP
KNEP (channel 4) is a television station in Sidney, Nebraska, United States, serving Scottsbluff and the Nebraska Panhandle as an affiliate of NBC. It is owned by Gray Television alongside Cheyenne, Wyoming–licensed dual CBS/ CW+ affiliate ...
, and
KNOP-TV
KNOP-TV (channel 2) is a television station in North Platte, Nebraska, United States, affiliated with NBC. It is owned by Gray Television alongside two low-power broadcasting#Television, low-power stations: CBS affiliate KNPL-LD (channel 10) and ...
).
History
The station signed on the air on August 29, 1949, at noon as WOW-TV; it was the first television station in
Nebraska
Nebraska () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. It is bordered by South Dakota to the north; Iowa to the east and Missouri to the southeast, both across the Missouri River; Kansas to the south; Colorado to the southwe ...
and is one of the oldest in the
Upper Midwest
The Upper Midwest is a region in the northern portion of the U.S. Census Bureau's Midwestern United States. It is largely a sub-region of the Midwest. Although the exact boundaries are not uniformly agreed-upon, the region is defined as referring ...
. It also claims to have gone on the air earlier than any station in four other Midwestern states—
Iowa
Iowa () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States, bordered by the Mississippi River to the east and the Missouri River and Big Sioux River to the west. It is bordered by six states: Wisconsin to the northeast, Illinois to the ...
,
Kansas
Kansas () is a state in the Midwestern United States. Its capital is Topeka, and its largest city is Wichita. Kansas is a landlocked state bordered by Nebraska to the north; Missouri to the east; Oklahoma to the south; and Colorado to the ...
,
North Dakota
North Dakota () is a U.S. state in the Upper Midwest, named after the Native Americans in the United States, indigenous Dakota people, Dakota Sioux. North Dakota is bordered by the Canadian provinces of Saskatchewan and Manitoba to the north a ...
and
South Dakota
South Dakota (; Sioux language, Sioux: , ) is a U.S. state in the West North Central states, North Central region of the United States. It is also part of the Great Plains. South Dakota is named after the Lakota people, Lakota and Dakota peo ...
. The station was owned by Radio Station WOW, Inc., alongside WOW radio (590 AM, now
KXSP
KXSP (590 AM) is a commercial radio station licensed to Omaha, Nebraska. The station is owned by SummitMedia and it airs a sports format. Most weekday afternoon and evening programming is from local hosts, while during mornings, late nights ...
, and 92.3 FM, now
KEZO). The owners operated under a
United States Supreme Court
The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that involve a point o ...
ruling which had forced the
Woodmen of the World
WoodmenLife (officially Woodmen of the World Life Insurance Society) is a not-for-profit fraternal benefit society founded in 1890, based in Omaha, Nebraska, United States, that operates a large privately held insurance company for its members.
...
, who had founded WOW in 1923, to divest itself of the radio stations because they threatened the Woodmen's tax-exempt status.
The station was originally a primary NBC affiliate and secondary
ABC
ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script known as the alphabet.
ABC or abc may also refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Broadcasting
* American Broadcasting Company, a commercial U.S. TV broadcaster
** Disney–ABC Television ...
affiliate; it lost ABC programming in 1953, when
KFOR-TV
KFOR-TV (channel 4) is a television station in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, United States, affiliated with NBC. It is owned by Nexstar Media Group alongside independent station KAUT-TV (channel 43). Both stations share studios in Oklahoma ...
signed on from
Lincoln
Lincoln most commonly refers to:
* Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865), the sixteenth president of the United States
* Lincoln, England, cathedral city and county town of Lincolnshire, England
* Lincoln, Nebraska, the capital of Nebraska, U.S.
* Lincoln ...
as an ABC affiliate. However, in 1954, Lincoln was separated from the Omaha market, and WOW-TV resumed sharing ABC programming with
KMTV
KMTV-TV (channel 3) is a television station in Omaha, Nebraska, United States, affiliated with CBS. Owned by the E. W. Scripps Company, the station has studios on Mockingbird Drive in southwest Omaha, and its transmitter is located on a "tower ...
(channel 3) until 1957, when
KETV
KETV (channel 7) is a television station in Omaha, Nebraska, United States, affiliated with ABC. The station is owned by Hearst Television, and has studios on 10th Street in the historic Burlington Station, which carries the address of 7 Burling ...
signed on as an ABC affiliate.
Meredith Corporation
Meredith Corporation was an American media conglomerate based in Des Moines, Iowa, that owned magazines, television stations, websites, and radio stations. Its publications had a readership of more than 120 million and paid circulation of more ...
bought WOW-AM-FM-TV in 1951. The station claims it was bought by former
Secretary of the Navy
The secretary of the Navy (or SECNAV) is a statutory officer () and the head (chief executive officer) of the Department of the Navy, a military department (component organization) within the United States Department of Defense.
By law, the se ...
Francis P. Matthews
Francis Patrick Matthews (March 15, 1887 – October 18, 1952) was an American who served as the 8th Supreme Knight of the Knights of Columbus from 1939 to 1945, the 50th United States Secretary of the Navy from 1949 to 1951, and United S ...
in 1954, but this is false as Matthews had died two years earlier. In 1956, after the radio stations dropped their longtime affiliation with the
NBC Red Network
The National Broadcasting Company's NBC Radio Network (known as the NBC Red Network prior to 1942) was an American commercial radio network which was in operation from 1926 through 2004. Along with the NBC Blue Network it was one of the first t ...
in favor of the
CBS Radio Network
CBS News Radio, formerly known as CBS Radio News and historically known as the CBS Radio Network, is a radio network that provides news to more than 1,000 radio stations throughout the United States. The network is owned by Paramount Global. It ...
, WOW-TV switched affiliations with KMTV and became Omaha's
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainmen ...
television affiliate. This was part of CBS' multi-year, five-station affiliation deal with Meredith Corporation, as a compensation for Phoenix sister station
KPHO
KPHO-TV (channel 5) is a television station in Phoenix, Arizona, United States, affiliated with CBS. It is owned by Gray Television alongside Independent station (North America), independent station KTVK (channel 3) and low-power broadcasting#T ...
's initial loss of the CBS affiliation to KOOL-TV (now
KSAZ) before it reclaimed that affiliation in 1994 (
KCMO-AM-
FM-
TV also switched to the network several months earlier).
WOWT's most famous former employee is former ''
Tonight Show
''The Tonight Show'' is an American late-night talk show that has aired on NBC since 1954. The show has been hosted by six comedians: Steve Allen (1954–1957), Jack Paar (1957–1962), Johnny Carson (1962–1992), Jay Leno (1992–2009 and 2010â ...
'' host
Johnny Carson
John William Carson (October 23, 1925 – January 23, 2005) was an American television host, comedian, writer and producer. He is best known as the host of ''The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson'' (1962–1992). Carson received six Pr ...
, who worked at WOW-TV in the early 1950s in his first television job as host of a program called ''
The Squirrel's Nest'', in which he told jokes. Another prominent former employee is former ABC ''
Good Morning America
''Good Morning America'' (often abbreviated as ''GMA'') is an American morning television program that is broadcast on ABC. It debuted on November 3, 1975, and first expanded to weekends with the debut of a Sunday edition on January 3, 1993. Th ...
'' reporter
Steve Bell, who worked for Channel 6 during the early and mid-1960s. He was the only local reporter to go to
Dallas
Dallas () is the List of municipalities in Texas, third largest city in Texas and the largest city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the List of metropolitan statistical areas, fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States at 7.5 ...
in November 1963 to cover the aftermath of the
John F. Kennedy
John Fitzgerald Kennedy (May 29, 1917 – November 22, 1963), often referred to by his initials JFK and the nickname Jack, was an American politician who served as the 35th president of the United States from 1961 until his assassination ...
assassination
Assassination is the murder of a prominent or important person, such as a head of state, head of government, politician, world leader, member of a royal family or CEO. The murder of a celebrity, activist, or artist, though they may not have ...
. Bell left channel 6 in 1967 to join
ABC News
ABC News is the news division of the American broadcast network ABC. Its flagship program is the daily evening newscast ''ABC World News Tonight, ABC World News Tonight with David Muir''; other programs include Breakfast television, morning ...
, where he remained until 1986.
In 1974, Meredith tried to sell WOW-TV to
Pulitzer Publishing Company
Pulitzer, Inc. was an American media company who owned newspapers, television stations and radio stations across the United States. Founded by Joseph Pulitzer (who also funded the Pulitzer Prizes, which are not affiliated with the company), its p ...
for $8 million, but the deal collapsed and Pulitzer ended up buying KETV instead.
When Meredith sold channel 6 to the
San Francisco
San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...
-based
Chronicle Publishing Company
The Chronicle Publishing Company was a print and broadcast media corporation headquartered in San Francisco, California that was in operation from 1865 until 2000. Owned for the whole of its existence by the de Young family, CPC was most notable ...
in 1975, it changed its call letters to WOWT on July 9, due to
Federal Communications Commission
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that regulates communications by radio, television, wire, satellite, and cable across the United States. The FCC maintains jurisdiction ...
(FCC) restrictions regarding the usage of the same call letters by different owners at the time. Normally, channel 6 would have had to adopt a callsign starting with "K" when it changed its call letters, since the WOW call letters had been assigned before the current K/W dividing line was moved to the
Mississippi River
The Mississippi River is the second-longest river and chief river of the second-largest drainage system in North America, second only to the Hudson Bay drainage system. From its traditional source of Lake Itasca in northern Minnesota, it f ...
. However, Chronicle wanted to continue trading on the WOW calls, and got a waiver from the FCC to retain a "W" in its calls. To this day, WOWT is one of the westernmost stations with a callsign starting with "W." After negotiations with the network, Channel 6 reversed the 1956 swap and rejoined NBC on June 29, 1986.
Not surprisingly, channel 6 owns a lot of firsts in the market. It was the first Omaha station to broadcast local programming in color, starting in the mid-1950s; it was the first station to provide live reports during its daily newscasts; it was the first of the three local stations to broadcasts three live daily newscasts, at 5, 6, and 10 p.m.; and in 1993, WOWT was the first local television station to offer a website. During the analog era, WOWT-TV was relayed in
Clarinda, Iowa
Clarinda is a city in and the county seat of Page County, Iowa, Page County, Iowa. It is located in Nodaway Township, Page County, Iowa, Nodaway Township. The population was 5,369 at the time of the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census.
Histor ...
on a UHF repeater, K58AE, which has since been shut down and deleted from the FCC database.
In 1999, Chronicle sold its media holdings (including its newspapers and four television stations) to separate buyers; WOWT was sold to
Benedek Broadcasting
Benedek Broadcasting was a television broadcasting company, who owned and operated 22 network-affiliated television stations throughout the United States, all affiliated with major television networks, serving mainly small and medium-size markets. ...
via
LIN TV Corporation in a three-way deal for
WWLP
WWLP (channel 22) is a television station in Springfield, Massachusetts, United States, affiliated with NBC and The CW Plus. Owned by Nexstar Media Group, the station has studios at Broadcast Center in the Sandy Hill section of Chicopee at the ...
in
Springfield, Massachusetts
Springfield is a city in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, United States, and the seat of Hampden County. Springfield sits on the eastern bank of the Connecticut River near its confluence with three rivers: the western Westfield River, the ...
; three years later, Benedek Broadcasting was bought out by current owner
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 ...
. WOWT would later reunite with some former sister stations after being separated for 46 years when former owner Meredith was acquired by Gray in 2021.
Until 2014, WOWT was also reckoned as the default NBC affiliate for the
state capital
Below is an index of pages containing lists of capital cities.
National capitals
*List of national capitals
*List of national capitals by latitude
*List of national capitals by population
*List of national capitals by area
*List of capital citie ...
, Lincoln, located from Omaha. Even though Lincoln is located in a different
market
Market is a term used to describe concepts such as:
*Market (economics), system in which parties engage in transactions according to supply and demand
*Market economy
*Marketplace, a physical marketplace or public market
Geography
*Märket, an ...
, most Lincoln-area cable systems carried WOWT, and channel 6's analog signal decently covered Lincoln. It even went as far as to include Lincoln in its legal IDs. When
direct broadcast satellite
Satellite television is a service that delivers television programming to viewers by relaying it from a communications satellite orbiting the Earth directly to the viewer's location. The signals are received via an outdoor parabolic antenna comm ...
gained more penetration
KHAS-TV (now KNHL) in
Hastings
Hastings () is a large seaside town and borough in East Sussex on the south coast of England,
east to the county town of Lewes and south east of London. The town gives its name to the Battle of Hastings, which took place to the north-west ...
, long the NBC affiliate for the western half of the Lincoln market, was offered as the local NBC affiliate. However, most Lincoln cable systems opted to continue carrying WOWT. With the acquisition of
KSNB-TV
KSNB-TV (channel 4) is a television station licensed to York, Nebraska, United States, serving southeastern and central Nebraska as an affiliate of NBC. It is owned by Gray Television alongside Lincoln-licensed CBS affiliate KOLN, channel 10 ( ...
in
Superior by Gray, that station took over the primary local NBC affiliation and WOWT's place on the Lincoln
Time Warner Cable
Time Warner Cable, Inc. (TWC) was an American cable television company. Before it was acquired by Charter Communications on May 18, 2016, it was ranked the second largest cable company in the United States by revenue behind only Comcast, operat ...
(now
Charter Spectrum
Spectrum is a trade name of Charter Communications, used to market consumer and commercial cable television, internet, telephone, and wireless services provided by the company.
The brand was first introduced in 2014; prior to that, these serv ...
) system. Until 2016, WOWT was carried in standard definition on digital channel 83 in Lincoln and surrounding Spectrum systems. As of today, it is no longer available in Lincoln.
On January 7, 2015, Gray Television stations WOWT,
WIBW (
Topeka, Kansas
Topeka ( ; Kansa language, Kansa: ; iow, Dópikˀe, script=Latn or ) is the Capital (political), capital city of the U.S. state of Kansas and the County seat, seat of Shawnee County, Kansas, Shawnee County. It is along the Kansas River in the ...
), and
KAKE
KAKE (channel 10) is a television station in Wichita, Kansas, United States, affiliated with American Broadcasting Company, ABC and owned by Lockwood Broadcast Group. The station's studios are located on West Street in northwestern Wichita, and ...
(
Wichita, Kansas
Wichita ( ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Kansas and the county seat of Sedgwick County, Kansas, Sedgwick County. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the population of the city was 397,532. The Wichita metro area had ...
; no longer owned by them) were dropped from Cox cable lineups as a retransmission deal expired.
The previous agreement expired on December 31, but a one-week extension was agreed upon before the current blackout. After a dispute lasting several days, a new agreement was reached on January 11, 2015 and the three Gray Television stations returned to Cox cable lineups.
62O
In October 2005, WOWT launched a second
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 ...
operating as a
UPN
The United Paramount Network (UPN) was an American broadcast television network that launched on January 16, 1995. It was originally owned by Chris-Craft Industries' United Television. Viacom (through its Paramount Television unit, which prod ...
affiliate, and branded as "UPN Omaha". The subchannel became an
independent station
An independent station is an independent radio or terrestrial television station which is independent in some way from broadcast networks. The definition of "independence" varies from country to country, reflecting governmental regulations, market ...
branded as "6
2O", when
The WB
The WB Television Network (for Warner Bros., or the "Frog Network", for its former mascot, Michigan J. Frog) was an American television network launched on broadcast television on January 11, 1995, as a joint venture between the Warner Bros. ...
and UPN shut down in September 2006 (former WB affiliate
KXVO
KXVO (channel 15) is a television station in Omaha, Nebraska, United States, airing programming from the digital multicast network TBD. It is owned by Mitts Telecasting Company LLC, which maintains a local marketing agreement (LMA) with the Sinc ...
(channel 15) now carries WB and UPN successor
The CW
''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the m ...
, while
Fox
Foxes are small to medium-sized, omnivorous mammals belonging to several genera of the family Canidae. They have a flattened skull, upright, triangular ears, a pointed, slightly upturned snout, and a long bushy tail (or ''brush'').
Twelve sp ...
affiliate
KPTM
KPTM (channel 42) is a television station in Omaha, Nebraska, United States, affiliated with Fox and The CW. It is owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group, which provides certain services to TBD outlet KXVO (channel 15) under a local marketing agreeme ...
(channel 42) carries
MyNetworkTV
MyNetworkTV (unofficially abbreviated MyTV, MyNet, MNT or MNTV, and sometimes referred to as My Network) is an American commercial broadcast television syndication service and former television network owned by Fox Corporation, operated by its ...
on its second digital subchannel). After that, 6.2 affiliated with
Universal Sports
Universal Sports was an American sports-oriented digital cable and satellite television network. It was owned as a joint venture between InterMedia Partners (which owned a controlling 92% interest) and NBCUniversal (which owned the remaining 8%).
...
; in advance of that network switching exclusively to a cable and satellite channel, WOWT dropped Universal Sports on October 1, 2011, replacing it with a local weather service known as "The Weather Authority Channel", an affiliate of
The Local AccuWeather Channel
AccuWeather Inc. is an American media company that provides commercial weather forecasting services worldwide.
AccuWeather was founded in 1962 by Joel N. Myers, then a Pennsylvania State University graduate student working on a master's degree ...
. KETV (channel 7) dropped The Local AccuWeather Channel one month before when it switched its second subchannel to
MeTV
MeTV, an acronym for Memorable Entertainment Television, is an American broadcast television network owned by Weigel Broadcasting. Marketed as "The Definitive Destination for Classic TV", the network airs a variety of classic television program ...
.
Programming
Syndicated programs broadcast on WOWT include ''
Jeopardy!
''Jeopardy!'' is an American game show created by Merv Griffin. The show is a quiz competition that reverses the traditional question-and-answer format of many quiz shows. Rather than being given questions, contestants are instead given genera ...
'', ''
Dr. Phil'', and ''
Inside Edition
''Inside Edition'' is an American news broadcasting newsmagazine program that is distributed in first-run syndication by CBS Media Ventures. Having premiered on January 9, 1989, it is the longest-running syndicated-newsmagazine program that is n ...
''. Between 2016 and 2019 with Antenna TV on its third subchannel, it aired nightly repeats of ''The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson''; as mentioned above, Carson grew up in
Norfolk, Nebraska
Norfolk ( or ) is a city in Madison County, Nebraska, United States, 113 miles northwest of Omaha and 83 miles west of Sioux City at the intersection of U.S. Routes 81 and 275. The population was 24,210 at the 2010 census, making it the nint ...
and started his career with WOWT.
Omaha is one of the few markets in the United States where ''Jeopardy!'' and its sister show ''
Wheel of Fortune The Wheel of Fortune or ''Rota Fortunae'' has been a concept and metaphor since ancient times referring to the capricious nature of Fate. Wheel of Fortune may also refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Art
* ''The Wheel of Fortune'' (Burne-Jo ...
'' are telecast on separate stations (the latter airs on ABC-affiliated KETV).
News operation
WOWT presently broadcasts 40 hours of locally produced newscasts each week (with seven hours each weekday and 2½ hours each on Saturdays and Sundays); in regards to the number of hours devoted to news programming, it is the highest local newscast output among the Omaha market's broadcast television stations.
In 1991, WOWT rebranded its newscasts from ''
Action News
''Action News'' is a local television newscast format originating in the United States. First conceived in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, it is characterized by a tight format with strict time limits on set packages, a focus on surrounding suburbs, ...
6'' to ''Channel 6 News''. In 1995, WOWT launched a cable news channel called "NEWS on ONE", which featured live simulcasts and taped rebroadcasts of the station's newscasts on
Cox Communications
Cox Communications, Inc. (also known as Cox Cable and formerly Cox Broadcasting Corporation, Dimension Cable Services and Times-Mirror Cable) is an American digital cable television provider, telecommunications and home automation services. It i ...
channel 1; the channel was eventually rebranded as "News 4 You", concurrent with its move to Cox channel 4 in 2009. Also in 1995, WOWT's sports department launched a weekly half-hour sports news program titled ''Channel 6 Sunday Sports Extra'', which aired after the station's 10 p.m. newscast on Sunday evening. It was the only program of its kind in Omaha, and was hosted from its inception by sports producer (now
sports director
The title of sports director can refer to the director of a live sports broadcast. It can also refer to an individual at a television or radio station who is in charge of the sports department.
Director
Director may refer to:
Literature
* ...
) Ross Jernstrom. In 2006, WOWT lost its longtime spot in first place in most timeslots to KETV, who remains there as of 2020. And in October 2013 the news products were re-branded ''WOWT 6 News''. On July 16, 2018, WOWT re-added a 4 p.m. newscast on weekdays, competing with KMTV's newscast at that time slot. WOWT had been the first Omaha station to have a 4 p.m. newscast, launching it in 1994. Its current moniker is "6 On Your Side".
Technical information
Subchannels
The station's digital signal is
multiplexed
In telecommunications and computer networking, multiplexing (sometimes contracted to muxing) is a method by which multiple analog or digital signals are combined into one signal over a shared medium. The aim is to share a scarce resource - a ...
:
Mobile DTV channels
WOWT shut down its
Mobile DTV
Mobile television is television watched on a small handheld or mobile device. It includes service delivered via mobile phone networks, received free-to-air via terrestrial television stations, or via satellite broadcast. Regular broadcast stand ...
signals at the end of 2015 in favor of offering an additional subchannel, Antenna TV, over-the-air. Antenna TV went live on 6.3 on January 18, 2016.
Analog-to-digital conversion
WOWT shut down 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 6, on February 17, 2009, as part of the
federally mandated transition from analog to digital television (which Congress had moved the previous month to June 12).
[List of Digital Full-Power Stations](_blank)
/ref> The station's digital signal remained on 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 22, using PSIP
The Program and System Information Protocol (PSIP) is the MPEG (a video and audio industry group) and privately defined program-specific information originally defined by General Instrument for the DigiCipher 2 system and later extended for the A ...
to display WOWT's virtual channel
In most telecommunications organizations, a virtual channel is a method of remapping the ''program number'' as used in H.222 Program Association Tables and Program Mapping Tables to a channel number that can be entered via digits on a receiver's ...
as 6 on digital television receivers. WOWT and PBS
The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcasting, public broadcaster and Non-commercial activity, non-commercial, Terrestrial television, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly fu ...
member station KYNE (part of the Nebraska Public Media
Nebraska Public Media, formerly Nebraska Educational Telecommunications (NET), is a state network of public radio and television stations in the U.S. state of Nebraska. It is operated by the Nebraska Educational Telecommunications Commission (NETC) ...
TV network) were the only two stations in the Omaha market to shut down their analog signals on the original deadline.
Upon the switch to digital, WOWT aired a 60-second farewell video bookending the analog era from beginning to end. It began with the words "Welcome to the Future", followed with archived film footage of WOW-TV's transmitter being turned on 1949 as it was covered by then-sister station WOW radio (now KXSP), outdoor scenes set to the song "America the Beautiful
"America the Beautiful" is a patriotic American song. Its lyrics were written by Katharine Lee Bates and its music was composed by church organist and choirmaster Samuel A. Ward at Grace Episcopal Church in Newark, New Jersey. The two never m ...
", and concluded with the station logo and digital call sign ''WOWT-DT Omaha'' set to the NBC chimes
The NBC chimes are a sequence of three tones played on National Broadcasting Company (NBC) broadcasts. Originally developed in 1927 as seven notes, they were standardized to the current three-note version by the early 1930s, and possibly as early ...
.["Goodbye", WOWT analog farewell video; archived on WOWT's ]YouTube
YouTube is a global online video platform, online video sharing and social media, social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by ...
page at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E2dmigeQI0U, retrieved 19 October 2009.
As part of the SAFER Act
In cryptography, SAFER (Secure And Fast Encryption Routine) is the name of a family of block ciphers designed primarily by James Massey (one of the designers of IDEA) on behalf of Cylink Corporation. The early SAFER K and SAFER SK designs share ...
, WOWT kept its analog signal on the air temporarily to inform viewers of the digital television transition through a scrolling message. Voiceover artist
Voice acting is the art of performing voice-overs to present a character or provide information to an audience. Performers are called voice actors/actresses, voice artists, dubbing artists, voice talent, voice-over artists, or voice-over talent ...
Charlie Van Dyke
Charlie Van Dyke (born Charles Leo Steinle; July 26, 1947) is a former radio disc jockey who is best known for his voice work on radio and television stations. He is recognized by his deep, booming voice.
Originally from Dallas, Van Dyke was wor ...
provided narration: " Sixty years ago, WOWT turned on its analog signal to be the first television station in Omaha. Now, join us for the digital age as we shut off our analog signal and transition to digital television. We look forward to the new journey ahead. This is WOWT, Channel 6."
References
External links
*
WOWT's analog farewell video
at YouTube
YouTube is a global online video platform, online video sharing and social media, social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by ...
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wowt
NBC network affiliates
Cozi TV affiliates
Heroes & Icons affiliates
Ion Television affiliates
Start TV affiliates
Circle (TV network) affiliates
Gray Television
Television channels and stations established in 1949
Television stations in Omaha, Nebraska
Woodmen of the World