Channel 6, Omaha

Through the Years

• 1944

  May 3, 1944- Radio Station WOW, Inc, Omaha, files application with the Federal Communications Commission for commercial television station construction permit.

• 1946

  May 23, 1946-  “Pending further study” of various phases of television, WOW, Inc, requests that its application be withdrawn.

  May 27, 1946- FCC grants the May 23rd request.

  December, 1946- Radio Station WOW and Creighton University begin an experimental closed circuit TV broadcasting at a studio set up in the Creighton Auditorium.

• 1947

  January 10, 1947- First exhibition of television in Omaha.  WOW and Creighton stage a closed circuit of the Creighton-Wichita State basketball game.

  May, 1947-  First night baseball game telecast, at American Legion Park in Council Bluffs.

  May 12, 1947- First surgical telecast in the Midwest, in an operating room at Creighton Memorial St. Joseph’s Hospital to members of the hospital staff gathered in a nearby auditorium.

  June, 1947- First series of television spot announcements ever made in Omaha were filmed by WOW-TV technicians for the Perfex Company.

  December 26, 1947- WOW Radio, Inc. files application with the FCC for commercial television station construction permit.

   

   

• 1948

  January 30, 1948-  Construction permit is granted by the FCC.

  June, 1948-  Nation’s first televised dental operation.  Televised before the Creighton University Summer Radio Institute.

  August, 1948-  Technicians send TV picture via microwave links from Creighton Studio to top of the Blackstone Hotel and relayed to WOW studios at WOW insurance building at 17th & Farnam.

  November 1, 1948- Construction is completed on a 527 foot tower at 35th & Farnam.

  December, 1948-  WOW-TV’s custom-built mobile unit is delivered.

• 1949

  July 1, 1949- Johnny Gillin, President & General Manager of  Radio Station WOW, Inc., turns on WOW-TV transmitter at 9:45 p.m. for the area’s first open-circuit experimental telecast.  Its the first time television could be viewed by Nebraska TV set owners on an open circuit.

  July 19, 1949-  First WOW-TV telecast of a program using the WOW-TV cameras.

  August 29th, 1949- “TV Day”!!  WOW-TV officially begins daily commercial telecasting, becoming the first TV station in five Midwestern states of Nebraska, Iowa, Kansas South Dakota and North Dakota.  WOW-TV’s first programming schedule includes operation from 11 a.m. till 1p.m.; from 2pm-4:45pm and from 5:45pm till 9pm….a total of eight hours daily.  Station begins broadcasting of NBC-TV Network programs on Kinescope delay.

  September 29, 1949- Boystown-Scottsbluff High School football game is telecast.

• 1950

  Johnny Gillin, President and General Manager of WOW, Inc., and broadcasting pioneer, dies while on Wisconsin vacation.  In recognition of his years of service to the industry, Mr. Gillin was named in 1954 to the “Broadcasting Hall of Fame,” the first practical broadcaster to be so honored.

  August 21, 1950-  Frank P. Fogerty, former Vice-President of Paxton Gallagher, Omaha is named General Manager of Radio Station WOW, Inc.

  September 1, 1950- WOW-TV joins the Dumont Television Network.

  September 30, 1950- WOW-TV was connected via microwave to Chicago and New York for Live NBC programming. Previously, network programs were carried on kinescope delay.

• 1951

  September 29, 1951- Meredith Corporation of Des Moines, IA buys WOW-TV and radio from WOW Radio, Inc.

• 1953

  February, 1953-  WOW-TV increases to Maximum power- 100,000 watts video, 50,000 watts audio, and is the first Midwestern station, and only the sixth in the nation to do so.

  December 20, 1953- First TV station in the area to broadcast in color.

• 1956

  January 1, 1956- Station changes network affiliation from NBC to CBS.

• 1957

  January, 2, 1957-  WOW-TV telecasts the first feature from 700-film MGM package and wins over 90% of the audience with “Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo.”

  April, 1957- WOW-TV wins a Peabody Award along with radio WOW for documentary on water conservations “Regimented Raindrops Two”.

• 1959

  February 19th, 1959- Station purchases Ampex Videotape machine and becomes the first commercial station in Nebraska with this new technology.

  July, 1, 1959-  Station installs a new transmitter.

  July 6, 1959-  Plans are announced for a new building addition to house WOW-TV, Radio WOW and WOW-FM under one roof.

  August 29, 1959-  WOW-TV observes it’s 10th anniversary by breaking ground for the new building at 35th & Farnam.

• 1960

  WOW-TV’s expanded facilities and studios are completed at 35th & Farnam, allowing WOW radio to move into the new building as well.

  April 29, 1960-  Meredith Broadcasting Co. is formed.  Will locate in Omaha with Frank P., Fogarty as Executive Vice-President.

  May 9, 1960- New system of individual station managers are announced as C. A. “Al” Larson is named manager for WOW-TV and W.O. “Bill” Wiseman is manager for Radio WOW.

  October 17, 1960- First day’s operations in the new facilities.

• 1962

  January 17, 1962- Time Capsule is sealed.

• 1963

  February 25, 1963-  Bill McBride is appointed general manager of Meredith WOW, Inc.

  August 1, 1963-  Howard Stalnaker is appointed vice president of Meredith WOW, Inc.

• 1965

  April, 12, 1965-  Stalnaker is elected a vice president and member of the board of Meredith Broadcasting; Frank P. Fogarty is appointed president of Meredith Broadcasting Co.

  June, 1965- WOW-TV purchased and installed color film and slide projection equipment

  July 5, 1965- WOW-TV inaugurated its color telecasting with a “Color Movie Holiday,” an entire evening of color feature films from 6:30-Midnight.

• 1966

  February 18, 1966- Station received its first color television camera, an RCA TK-41C.  First test colorcast of a live program was the 10 pm “TV News Roundup” on March 2nd.  Regular colorcasting of live programs began on Sunday, March 6, 1966.

  April 27, 1966- Public announcement that the FCC had granted construction permits to three Omaha VHF stations for tall towers on the “tower farm” at 72nd & Crown Point.

  June 30, 1966-  William O. “Bill” Wiseman retired.

  November, 1966- A new 1,358-foot tower was completed on the new 55-acre tower farm with two other Omaha TV stations at 72nd and Crown Point Avenue.

• 1975

  July, 1975- WOW-TV is sold by Meredith Corporation to Chronicle Broadcasting Co. of San Francisco.  The call letters change from WOW to WOWT.  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.  However, Chronicle wanted to continue 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 call sign starting with “W.”

• 1976

  August, 1976-Electronic news gathering is introduced to the Omaha for the first time by WOWT as “Action Cam”.  WOWT is the first Omaha station capable of doing live news by microwave truck.

• 1980

  WOWT’s State News Bureau opens in Lincoln with a microwave link to Omaha.

  January 8, 1980- the 5pm newscast debuts.

• 1982

  September 13, 1982-  WOWT goes on the air 24 hours/day, the first Omaha TV station to do so.

• 1985

  June 13, 1985- WOWT becomes the first Omaha TV station to broadcast in stereo.

  Station becomes one of just 30 stations in the country to have a satellite news gathering system with a mobile satellite uplink vehicle called “Newstar Six” allowing live reports from anywhere in the country.

• 1986

  June 29, 1986- WOWT leaves CBS and rejoins the NBC Network.  CBS goes to KMTV, Channel 3.

• 1989

  January, 1989-  WOWT upgrades from 3/4 inch video cassettes and adds Mil stereo commercial cart machine and Mil news camera and playback.

  WOWT newsroom is computerized and robotic cameras are installed in the studio.

• 1991

  Closed captioning is now available in local WOWT newscasts for the hearing impaired.

• 1993

  Station launched WOWT.com and became the first TV station in Omaha with a website.

• 1996

  August, 1996-  WOWT launches 4pm newscast.

• 1997

  November, 1997- WOWT news starts shooting all news stories on DVC Pro digital video tape.

• 1998

  WOWT transitions from tape-to-tape editing to non-linear video editing for newscast content.

• 1999

  Benedek Broadcasting buys WOWT from Chronicle Publishing Company.

• 2002

  Gray Television purchases WOWT from Benedek Broadcasting.

  December, 2002- WOWT begins simulcasting on its’ new HDTV digital transmitter.

• 2005

  October, 2005- WOWT adds its first digital sub-channel as a UPN affiliate.

• 2009

  February 17, 2009-  After nearly 60 years of analog broadcasting, WOWT shuts down its analog transmitter and broadcast in Digital going forward.

• 2010

  Station launched Ross Overdrive automation in studio control room allowing one person to operate all aspects of the newscast production including audio, video, graphics and robotic cameras.