WOAI (AM) - History

History

WOAI first signed on the air in 1922 on 1190 kHz in San Antonio with only 500 Watts. Over the next several years WOAI was issued permits by the FRC and, later, the FCC to move the transmitter site and increase its power from 500 to 1000, 2000, 5000, and finally 50,000 Watts in 1930. In the 1930s WOAI's programming evolved from musical performances to news and agricultural information breaks in between soap operas.

For historic documentation and photos, see http://www.ieeeghn.org/wiki/index.php/WOAI_San_Antonio_Texas

WOAI Radio and Television are among the few stations west of the Mississippi River whose call sign begins with "W." This designation was "grandfathered" when the federal government issued regulations requiring radio stations west of the Mississippi River to start with "K," and stations east of the Mississippi to begin with "W." WOAI Radio and Television are currently the westernmost stations to have "W" callsigns.

In 1941, WOAI was moved to clear channel 1200 kHz. This meant that WOAI was the only high power non-directional station that could be licensed on its frequency (1200 kHz) in the United States. In fact, from the 1950s through the 1980s, it was the only station licensed to 1200 kHz in the United States. This was part of an early federal emergency plan similar to today's Emergency Alert System.

Over the years WOAI's news operation developed into a well-respected institution with listeners and broadcasters.

In 1949, WOAI-TV came on the air on San Antonio's TV channel 4. Co-owned WOAI radio began a shift back to music programming as the soap operas transitioned to television.

In 1975, San Antonio businessmen L. Lowry Mays and BJ "Red" McCombs founded Clear Channel Communications by acquiring the WOAI radio from AVCO Broadcasting after already acquiring easy listening KEEZ 97.3 FM (now KAJA) in 1972. The TV station was sold to United Stations which later changed the call sign to KMOL-TV.

In the late 70's, 1200 WOAI phased out music programming. In 1979, KEEZ became WOAI-FM (not the original WOAI-FM) until the birth of Country Music station KAJA-FM "KJ*97" in 1981.

Through the 1980s, WOAI-AM relied more on its newsroom and focused on local and national news, local talk shows and agricultural reports. WOAI also began including sports telecasts especially after acquiring the radio contract for all San Antonio Spurs NBA games.

In 1998, San Antonio based Clear Channel Communications acquired the parent company of Premiere Radio Networks, syndicator of national talk shows such as Rush Limbaugh, Dr. Laura, Jim Rome Show and Coast to Coast AM. Rush and Laura had already been airing in San Antonio on market competitor, KTSA. These two shows were then moved to WOAI shortly after the acquisition. Dr. Laura has since been moved off of WOAI and the Jim Rome Show is now heard on WOAI sister station KTKR 760 kHz in San Antonio. WOAI news anchor Bob Guthrie celebrated 50 years on the radio station in 2006.

WOAI's daily national talk show programming is now effectively the Clear Channel slate of hosts: Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, Sean Hannity, and Coast to Coast AM. Joe Pagliarulo is the host of The Joe Pags Show, which runs weekdays during afternoon drive beginning at 5pm(CT).

In 2001, Clear Channel Communications acquired KMOL-TV San Antonio from Chris-Craft Industries. In December 2002, Clear Channel was granted a permit from the FCC to change the TV station's legal call sign back WOAI-TV. The TV station has since been sold twice—to Newport Television and then to current owner Sinclair Broadcast Group.

In May 2012, WOAI added an FM simulcast on 105.7 FM, K289BN. On Sept. 19th 2012 however, the 105.7 signal broke away from the simulcast to rebroadcast KRPT-FM.