Our story began October 1949 in Huntington, WV, when radio was king and television was the new kid on the block. WSAZ broadcast its first programming, a test pattern and signal tone; to about 14 set distributors and a few individual owners. Originally found on Channel 5, WSAZ's first lineup was all local programming, including song and dance acts from local residents. Shows like Kukla, Fran and Ol
lie and Godfrey and Friends were later added. In 1950, the station applied for network feeds from Cincinnati and Columbus, Ohio, to give set owners live programming. The number of local television set owners grew beyond 4,000. The world's largest and most powerful transmitter license was granted to WSAZ in 1952. The station had to be more powerful in order to reach viewers living in the hills and hollows throughout the region. The power boost moved the signal to Channel 3, where it has remained up until the digital conversion in February 2009. There were reports that the station's signal could be received in Mexico and Canada. The station began broadcasting news as programming in 1951. For the first time, the station was no longer all entertainment, but was also informing the viewers of local and national news. Then, WSAZ pioneered the concept of a two-city newscast -- with one anchor in Huntington and the other in Charleston. The director would cut back between each feed. NBC modeled their nightly newscast The Huntley-Brinkley report on our Charleston-Huntington technique. We still do a two city newscast today, but to a greater capacity with a custom newscast only for Kanawha Valley viewers. Since the station first signed-on, WSAZ has dominated the Huntington-Charleston television market. The news department has been long credited with its regional approach to coverage of the entire region -- in West Virginia, Kentucky and Ohio. Today, WSAZ is still the most powerful broadcaster in the region, broadcasting a High definition digital signal seen on WSAZ 3.1. WSAZ’s owner, Gray Television also owns the local CW affiliate, WQCW The Tri-State’s CW seen on digital channel 30.1 in high definition and home of the WSAZ News at 10:00pm and popular CW prime time programming. WSAZ also operates a digital “sub-channel”, channel 3.2 home of myNetwork and MeTV programming. Channel 3.2 is available on most cable systems but not on satellite systems. Our dedication to the Kanawha Valley is seen with our one-of-a-kind split news broadcasting in Charleston. This hyper-local newscast is available over the air on channel 16 and to Suddenlink Cable system subscribers. WSAZ also offers one of the most viewer digital platforms in our region, WSAZ.com. We operate desktop, mobile, mobile app platforms that in 2016 delivered more than 201 million total page views (201,896,215) to nearly 16 million unique visitors. WSAZ offers advertising sales on all platforms and digital marketing services. Call 304-697-4780 and ask for Sales.
