WUSA (TV)

W*USA-TV is a television station affiliated with the CBS network, broadcasting on channel 9 in the Washington, DC metropolitan area. W*USA's transmitter is located in the Tenleytown area of Washington, DC, and its digital television broadcasts are assigned to channel 34.

The station officially went on the air on January 16, 1949, as WOIC-TV. Its original owner was Bamberger Broadcasting Service, which also owned WOR-TV (now WWOR). Four days later, it broadcast the first televised American presidential inaugural address, given by President Harry S. Truman.

In June 1950, the Washington Post purchased WOIC-TV and changed the call sign to WTOP-TV; The Post also owned a radio station using the same call sign. In both instances, WTOP stood for "Top of the Dial"; channel 9 is the highest channel broadcasting on Washington's VHF dial, while WTOP radio broadcasts at the tops of both the AM and FM dials, 107.7 and 1500 respectively.

The Post exchanged WTOP-TV with Detroit's WDIV-TV, then owned by the Detroit News, in July 1978. WTOP-TV then became WDVM-TV. The new call letters represented the initials of the area it served: D for the District of Columbia, V for Virginia, and M for Maryland. Eight years later, Gannett, publisher of USA Today, acquired WDVM-TV and changed the call sign to W*USA-TV, which it remains today. While the station's current call sign is commonly printed as WUSA, the asterisk or star between the W and U is officially recognized as part of the call sign. In recent years, the star has been replaced on-air with the CBS eye.

W*USA-TV was the launchpad for several well-known news anchors. Walter Cronkite, Sam Donaldson and Warner Wolf are among W*USA-TV's most successful alumni. Jim Henson also began his career at the station.

On May 2nd, 2005 at 11:00PM EDT, W*USA-TV became the first station in the Washington D.C. Metropolitan area to broadcast their local newscasts in HDTV using the 1080i standard.

Slogans

• 1974-present: "The one and only!"

External Link

WUSA homepage