Construction and early years
Ten groups made applications by 1978 to operate UHF channel 29 in San Antonio.[1] The first group to file was Family Television, Inc., which proposed a family-oriented independent station.[2] By the time the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) designated the channel for comparative hearing in September 1981, seven parties remained in contention: Alamo Broadcasting Corporation, Christian Tele-Communications, Hubbard Broadcasting of San Antonio, Las Misiones de Béjar Television Company, Lee Enterprises, Tejas Broadcasting Company, and United Television Broadcasting Corporation.[3]
In August 1982, FCC administrative law judge Joseph Stirmer selected Alamo for the permit. Of the seven groups, Hubbard, Lee, and Tejas were disqualified early on the basis of owning stations elsewhere. United Television was disadvantaged because of its majority ownership by United Cable, in spite of the involvement of Bob Roth, a longtime San Antonio broadcaster. Alamo, owned by Paris and Sherry Schindler, was owned by a family with a background in broadcasting, including construction permits for other stations in Texas and ownership of radio and TV stations in Texas and Arkansas.[4] The ruling favoring Alamo was upheld by the FCC's review board in February 1983[5] and the full commission in March 1984, to the dismay of Misiones de Béjar and Christian Tele-Communications, who had appealed.[6] With this ruling, the only recourse these companies had was to file a lawsuit in federal appeals court.[7]
The final appeals were settled in late 1985, allowing work to proceed. By that time, the San Antonio market already had an English-language independent, KRRT (channel 35) in Kerrville.[8] It leased land near Loop 1604 in Elmendorf for a tower[9] as well as studio space at 520 N. Medina.[10] KABB began broadcasting on December 16, 1987.[11]
In April 1989, River City Television Partners of St. Louis agreed to purchase KABB. It was the second station purchase for the group, which under the name Atlantic Broadcasting had purchased KDNL-TV in St. Louis.[12] That September, Alamo announced that the sale would not proceed, with a spokesman citing irreconcilable "material differences" between the parties.[13] River City claimed that representatives for Alamo's parent, Schindler, refused to consummate the deal on time.[14] River City moved to sue Alamo in federal court in Missouri on the grounds that Alamo's actions had resulted in "published untrue statements" disparaging River City and unfair use of contracts that River City had negotiated for programming.[15] Two months later, the companies agreed on an $11 million sale of KABB to River City.[16] By 1990, KABB had taken the total-day ratings lead over KRRT, even though the latter was San Antonio's Fox affiliate, with an average audience share of 8% compared to KRRT's 6%.[17]
KABB became one of the television homes of the San Antonio Spurs basketball team beginning in the 1993–94 season. As part of an overhaul of the team's television rights, KABB aired about 60 percent of the team's road games, with the remainder on KSAT-TV (channel 12).[18] For the 1994–95 season, KSAT had 25 games and KABB 16.[19]
Becoming a Fox affiliate
In November 1993, Broadcasting & Cable magazine reported that River City was close to buying KRRT, then owned by Paramount Stations Group, even though River City had owned KABB since 1989.[20][21] Reports circulated that such a deal would include affiliation with the new UPN network, then in the early formative stages, for its non-Fox independent stations.[22] Though KABB secured the UPN affiliation as part of a group deal with River City,[23] and Baker had told Variety that River City had been interested in a second San Antonio station since 1992,[24] nothing came of this, in part because River City realized that changes to media ownership rules would come too late to permit River City to exercise its option to purchase KRRT in a timely manner.[25]
Common operation with WOAI-TV
On July 19, 2012, Sinclair announced that it would acquire NBC affiliate WOAI-TV (channel 4) from High Plains Broadcasting as part of its purchase of six television stations, along with the assumption of the operations of two others, from Newport Television. Since FCC duopoly regulations forbid common ownership of more than two full-power stations in a single market, Sinclair spun off KMYS to Deerfield Media; however, Sinclair retained control of KMYS through a shared services agreement (SSA).[36]
The operations of KABB and KMYS initially remained separate from WOAI-TV, with the two stations retaining competing news operations.[37] After a March 2013 fire, WOAI business offices moved out of that station studios and to KABB; Sinclair then began devising plans to move the remaining news functions to the KABB facility[38] and business offices to a new, adjacent two-story building. This freed up the second floor of the KABB building for the enlarged news operation.[39]
