WOAY-TV is the ABC

American Broadcasting Company

The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...

-affiliated television station

Television station

A television station is a business, organisation or other such as an amateur television operator that transmits content over terrestrial television. A television transmission can be by analog television signals or, more recently, by digital television. Broadcast television systems standards are...

 for Southern West Virginia

Southern West Virginia

Southern West Virginia is a culturally and geographically distinct region in the U.S. state of West Virginia. Generally considered the heart of Appalachia, Southern West Virginia is known for its coal mining heritage and southern affinity...

 and Southwestern Virginia

Southwest Virginia

Southwest Virginia, often abbreviated as SWVA, is a mountainous region of Virginia in the westernmost part of the commonwealth. Southwest Virginia has been defined alternatively as all Virginia counties on the Appalachian Plateau, all Virginia counties west of the Eastern Continental Divide, or...

 locally-owned by the Thomas Broadcasting Company. Licensed to Oak Hill

Oak Hill, West Virginia

Oak Hill is a city in Fayette County, West Virginia, United States and is the primary city within the Oak Hill, WV Micropolitan Statistical Area. The micropolitan area is also included in the Beckley-Oak Hill, WV Combined Statistical Area. The population was 7,589 at the 2000 census...

, it broadcasts a high definition

High-definition television

High-definition television is video that has resolution substantially higher than that of traditional television systems . HDTV has one or two million pixels per frame, roughly five times that of SD...

 digital signal on UHF channel 50 from a transmitter at its studios on Legends Highway/WV 16/WV 61 in Scarbro

Scarbro, West Virginia

Scarbro is an unincorporated census-designated place in Fayette County, West Virginia, United States. Scarbro is southwest of Oak Hill. Scarbro has a post office with ZIP code 25917. As of the 2010 census, its population was 486....

 (though the address says Oak Hill). The station can also be seen on Comcast

Comcast

Comcast Corporation is the largest cable operator, home Internet service provider, and fourth largest home telephone service provider in the United States, providing cable television, broadband Internet, and telephone service to both residential and commercial customers in 39 states and the...

 channel 4 and Suddenlink

Suddenlink Communications

Suddenlink Communications, formerly Cebridge Connections, is a top-10 cable broadband services provider in the United States with approximately 1.4 million subscribers. Suddenlink operates in 18 states in primarily medium-sized communities. With its corporate headquarters in St. Louis, MO,...

 channel 5. There is a high definition feed offered on Suddenlink digital channel 105 and Comcast digital channel 435. Syndicated

Television syndication

In broadcasting, syndication is the sale of the right to broadcast radio shows and television shows by multiple radio stations and television stations, without going through a broadcast network, though the process of syndication may conjure up structures like those of a network itself, by its very...

 programming on WOAY includes TMZ on TV

TMZ on TV

TMZ on TV, or simply TMZ and TMZTV, is an American syndicated entertainment and gossip news television show that premiered on September 10, 2007. The program is generally aired on Fox, The CW and MyNetworkTV affiliates, though a majority of the stations that carry the series are Fox affiliates...

, Family Feud

Family Feud

Family Feud is an American television game show created by Mark Goodson and Bill Todman. Two families compete against each other in a contest to name the most popular responses to a survey question posed to 100 people...

, Scrubs

Scrubs (TV series)

Scrubs is an American medical comedy-drama television series created in 2001 by Bill Lawrence and produced by ABC Studios. The show follows the lives of several employees of the fictional Sacred Heart, a teaching hospital. It features fast-paced screenplay, slapstick, and surreal vignettes...

, and The People's Court

The People's Court

The People's Court is a US television court show in which small claims court cases are heard, though what is shown is actually a binding arbitration....

among others. The station signs-off during the overnight.

Digital programming

On WOAY-DT2 is a standard definition simulcast of the main channel.

Channel	Name	Video Display resolution The display resolution of a digital television or display device is the number of distinct pixels in each dimension that can be displayed. It can be an ambiguous term especially as the displayed resolution is controlled by all different factors in cathode ray tube , flat panel or projection...	Aspect Aspect ratio The aspect ratio of a shape is the ratio of its longer dimension to its shorter dimension. It may be applied to two characteristic dimensions of a three-dimensional shape, such as the ratio of the longest and shortest axis, or for symmetrical objects that are described by just two measurements,...	Programming
50.1	WOAY-HD	720p 720p 720p is the shorthand name for 1280x720, a category of High-definition television video modes having a resolution of 1080 or 720p and a progressive scan...	16:9 16:9 16:9 is an aspect ratio with a width of 16 units and height of 9. Since 2009, it has become the most common aspect ratio for sold televisions and computer monitors and is also the international standard format of HDTV, Full HD, non-HD digital television and analog widescreen television ...	main WOAY programming/ABC (HD)
50.2	WOAY-DT2	480i 480i 480i is the shorthand name for a video mode, namely the US NTSC television system or digital television systems with the same characteristics. The i, which is sometimes uppercase, stands for interlaced, the 480 for a vertical frame resolution of 480 lines containing picture information; while NTSC...	4:3	WOAY programming/ABC (SD)

History

The station signed-on December 14, 1954

1954 in television

The year 1954 in television involved some significant events.Below is a list of television-related events in 1954.-Events:*January 1 – NBC broadcasts the Rose Parade in NTSC color on 21 stations.*January 3 – RAI launched in Italy....

 as the area's first television station. It aired an analog signal on VHF channel 4 and originally planned to use "WOAK" as its call sign (standing for its city of license

City of license

A city of license or community of license, in American and Canadian broadcasting, is the community that a radio station or television station is officially licensed to serve by that country's broadcast regulator....

 "OAK" Hill), but the handwritten application was misread by the Federal Communications Commission

Federal Communications Commission

The Federal Communications Commission is an independent agency of the United States government, created, Congressional statute , and with the majority of its commissioners appointed by the current President. The FCC works towards six goals in the areas of broadband, competition, the spectrum, the...

 (FCC). Early on, WOAY was primarily affiliated with ABC but also maintained secondary relations with CBS

CBS

CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...

 and DuMont

DuMont Television Network

The DuMont Television Network, also known as the DuMont Network, DuMont, Du Mont, or Dumont was one of the world's pioneer commercial television networks, rivalling NBC for the distinction of being first overall. It began operation in the United States in 1946. It was owned by DuMont...

.

During the late-1950s, the station was also briefly affiliated with the NTA Film Network

NTA Film Network

The NTA Film Network was an early American television network founded by Ely Landau in 1956. The network was not a full-time television network like CBS, NBC, or ABC. Rather, it operated on a part-time basis, broadcasting films and several first-run television programs from major Hollywood studios...

. DuMont would be dropped at the network's closure in 1956 while it is unknown how long programming from CBS remained on the schedule. The market

Media market

A media market, broadcast market, media region, designated market area , Television Market Area , or simply market is a region where the population can receive the same television and radio station offerings, and may also include other types of media including newspapers and Internet content...

 would not get a full-time affiliate until September 2001 through Lewisberg

Lewisburg, West Virginia

Lewisburg is a city in Greenbrier County, West Virginia, United States. The population was 3,830 at the 2010 census. It is the county seat of Greenbrier County.-Geography:Lewisburg is located at ....

's WVSX (now WVNS-TV

WVNS-TV

WVNS-TV is the CBS affiliate for Southern West Virginia that is licensed to Lewisburg. It broadcasts a high definition digital signal on VHF channel 8 from a transmitter on Keeney's Knob between Alderson and I-64. Owned by West Virginia Media Holdings, the station has studios on Old Cline Road in...

). Until that point, WDBJ

WDBJ

WDBJ is the CBS television network affiliate station serving the Roanoke/Lynchburg television market. It transmits its digital signal on UHF channel 18. It is owned by Schurz Communications of South Bend, Indiana...

 in Roanoke, Virginia

Roanoke, Virginia

Roanoke is an independent city in the Mid-Atlantic U.S. state of Virginia and is the tenth-largest city in the Commonwealth. It is located in the Roanoke Valley of the Roanoke Region of Virginia. The population within the city limits was 97,032 as of 2010...

 served as the default station on cable

Cable television

Cable television is a system of providing television programs to consumers via radio frequency signals transmitted to televisions through coaxial cables or digital light pulses through fixed optical fibers located on the subscriber's property, much like the over-the-air method used in traditional...

.

In previous decades, the station was known throughout the area for a very theatrical professional wrestling

Professional wrestling

Professional wrestling is a mode of spectacle, combining athletics and theatrical performance.Roland Barthes, "The World of Wrestling", Mythologies, 1957 It takes the form of events, held by touring companies, which mimic a title match combat sport...

 show that it produced with local "talent". However, this ended in 1979 when WOAY's main studio, control room

Control room

A control room is a room serving as an operations centre where a facility or service can be monitored and controlled. Examples include:*in television production, the master control is the technical hub of a broadcast operation common among most over-the-air television stations, television networks...

, office, and transmitter building burned to the ground. These were relocated and rebuilt in the adjacent wrestling arena where they remain today. The station signed-off its analog signal at 11:35 in the evening on June 12, 2009 and remained on digital channel 50. On that date, WOAY dropped its longtime on-air moniker of "TV 4". Unlike most stations, it opted not to use PSIP to remap its digital signal to channel 4, choosing instead to show it as its physical digital channel.

It verbally identifies as "WOAY Television", although its logo identifies it as "TV 50". In 2009, WOAY-TV revamped its technical infrastructure to become the first HD broadcast station in West Virginia. It clears the majority of the ABC programming schedule.

Newscasts

WOAY-TV competes locally with WVVA and WVNS (the latter of which is part of a statewide network

West Virginia Media Holdings

West Virginia Media Holdings is a media chain in West Virginia. It owns television stations in each of the four main media markets in the state, as well as a weekly newspaper....

 of stations), and also WDBJ which is still offered on area cable systems. The NewsWatch team airs live newscasts at 6am, Noon, 6pm and 11pm. WOAY-TV signs-off every night, resuming transmission at 6 in the morning, making it one of a few major network affiliates in the country to still sign-off every night. Former West Virginia Senator

West Virginia Senate

The West Virginia Senate is the upper house of the West Virginia Legislature.There are 17 senatorial districts. Each district has two senators who serve staggered four-year terms....

 Shirley Love was a news anchor at the station. Local personality and 17 time award winner, Bob Brunner was the News Director.

News Team

• Scott Snider - News Director
• Shane Smith - Chief Meteorologist
• Mike Lichniak - Morning Meteorologist
• Nicole Papay - Weekend Meteorologist/Reporter
• Dan Toth - Sports Director
• Sara Machi - Evening Anchor
• Aaron Cheslock - Weekend Anchor/Reporter
• Lauren Haviland - Reporter
• Nadine Grimley - Reporter
• Courtney Rosemond - Morning Anchor/Reporter
• Stephanie Frerotte - Sports Reporter/Anchor
• Mike Pickett - Assignment Editor/Reporter