KABB

About KABB

KABB is a television station in San Antonio, Texas, broadcasting on channel 29 and affiliated with the Fox network. Owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group alongside NBC and CW affiliate WOAI-TV and co-managed with Kerrville-licensed KMYS, the station is branded as Fox 29, though on air it is known as Fox San Antonio. KABB began broadcasting December 16, 1987, as San Antonio's second independent station, built by the Alamo Broadcasting Company, from which its call letters derive. It assumed the Fox affiliation from KRRT in January 1995 and debuted a 9 p.m. local newscast two months later. The three stations share studios between Babcock Road and Sovereign Drive off Loop 410 in northwest San Antonio, with KABB's transmitter near Elmendorf.

Signing on in 1987

KABB began broadcasting on December 16, 1987, as San Antonio's second independent station after KRRT, which was then the market's original Fox affiliate. Built by the Alamo Broadcasting Company, the station's call letters reflect its San Antonio heritage. Alamo sold the station to River City Broadcasting in 1989.

Under River City, KABB outrated KRRT even though the latter was the Fox affiliate, demonstrating the strength of its independent programming lineup.

Joining Fox

In January 1995, after KRRT gave up the Fox affiliation for UPN, KABB picked up the Fox affiliation and has been a Fox station ever since. River City had entered an affiliation agreement with Fox in 1994, and the switch positioned channel 29 as San Antonio's Fox outlet. Two months later, the station debuted a 9 p.m. local newscast, establishing its news presence.

River City merged with Sinclair Broadcast Group in 1996, bringing KABB into what would become one of the country's largest station groups. In 2001, Sinclair acquired KRRT, now KMYS, creating San Antonio's first television duopoly.

Fox News First

KABB programmed news outside its established 9 p.m. timeslot for the first time on January 2, 2006, when it premiered Fox News First, a three-hour morning newscast airing weekdays from 6 to 9 a.m., replacing infomercials and children's programs. The expansion reflected the station's growing commitment to local news.

The station brands itself as "San Antonio's Prime Time News Leader," with its 9 p.m. newscast serving viewers seeking late-evening news at an earlier hour than the traditional 10 p.m. newscasts.

The Sinclair cluster

KABB is owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group alongside WOAI-TV, channel 4, the market's NBC and CW affiliate, and is co-managed with KMYS, channel 35. In 2012, Sinclair acquired WOAI-TV, bringing the city's NBC and Fox affiliates under common operation and a shared newsroom based at what had been KABB's studios on Loop 410.

To acquire WOAI while complying with FCC ownership restrictions, Sinclair spun off KMYS to Deerfield Media but continued to operate it under shared services agreements. In the summer of 2014, WOAI moved into the combined facility with KABB and KMYS off Loop 410.

Programming

As San Antonio's Fox affiliate, KABB carries the network's primetime entertainment, sports, and news programming, including NFL football and Major League Baseball. Its syndicated lineup has included talk shows, court programming, and off-network sitcoms complementing the Fox schedule.

The station's subchannels include Comet and TBD, Sinclair and partner diginets offering science fiction and entertainment programming.

Sports

Fox's sports programming gives KABB some of television's biggest events, from the Super Bowl and World Series to NASCAR racing and college football. The station's sports department covers San Antonio's teams, including the Spurs, whose championship runs have been among the defining sports stories in the market.

The combination of network sports and local coverage has made Fox San Antonio a destination for sports viewers.

Technical operations

KABB broadcasts on digital UHF channel 30, displayed as virtual channel 29, with an effective radiated power of 1,000 kW from its transmitter near Elmendorf, Texas. The station discontinued analog programming on UHF channel 29 in 2009 as part of the digital television transition.

The Elmendorf transmitter site serves the San Antonio metropolitan area and surrounding South Texas communities.

Digital presence

KABB's digital home is foxsanantonio.com, offering live streaming, on-demand video, and coverage of San Antonio news, weather, and sports. The station maintains mobile apps and active social media accounts under the Fox San Antonio brand.

As part of Sinclair, the station's digital operations are integrated with the company's digital media platforms. Its official website is https://foxsanantonio.com.

The Fox switch of 1995

KABB was launched as an independent station on December 16, 1987, the same year that now-sister KMYS, then KRRT, became a charter Fox affiliate. Initially owned by the Alamo Broadcasting Corporation, from which its call letters derive, the station was sold to River City Broadcasting in 1989. In late 1994, the concept of KABB assuming KRRT's operations under a local marketing agreement surfaced, this time with the Fox affiliation moving from channel 35 to channel 29. Because of objections placed by KENS and KSAT, no sale had yet been approved by the FCC when Fox announced on January 4, 1995, that its affiliation would move to KABB on January 16. KABB had higher ratings, an impending 9 p.m. newscast slated to launch that March, and a better tower position at Elmendorf with the other San Antonio stations, unlike KRRT. That same day, UPN programming launched on KRRT instead of KABB. The deal was approved by the FCC and closed in midsummer, allowing KABB to immediately expand the new 30-minute newscast to an hour, among other improvements. KRRT assumed broadcasts of San Antonio Spurs games from KABB in the 1996-97 season, freeing up channel 29 to preempt fewer Fox network programs.

The Glencairn controversy

River City sold its assets to Sinclair Broadcast Group in 1996. As Sinclair planned the various applications to conduct the River City merger, the assets of KRRT were sold to Sinclair and the license to Glencairn, Ltd., 97 percent of which was owned by Carolyn Smith, the mother of the controllers of Sinclair. The use of Glencairn as a licensee for stations to be managed by Sinclair in San Antonio, Columbus, Ohio, and Anderson, South Carolina, generated scrutiny and concerns as to whether a then-illegal duopoly was being constituted. The Rainbow/PUSH Coalition, headed by Jesse Jackson, announced in 1998 its plans to study the KABB-KRRT relationship in San Antonio, wanting to examine whether the latter station had any meaningful corporate personality of its own. In March 1999, the FCC responded by asking Glencairn to amend its local marketing agreements so as to strip Sinclair of final decision-making authority as to programming.

NextGen TV and the San Antonio cluster

Logowise, the station is known as Fox 29, but on-air it identifies as "Fox San Antonio." Its studios are located at 4335 NW Loop 410 in Northwest San Antonio, with its transmitter in Elmendorf, Texas; it broadcasts digitally on UHF channel 30 with an effective radiated power of 1,000 kilowatts. In late 2006, 4Kids TV programming moved to sister station KMYS to accommodate an expansion of the morning newscast Fox News First, continuing a 12-year trend of Fox affiliates pre-empting network children's programming. KABB is co-owned with CW affiliate KMYS and NBC affiliate WOAI-TV under Sinclair Broadcast Group. On June 16, KABB joined WOAI-TV, KMYS, and KCWX in launching NextGen TV broadcasts in San Antonio, with KMYS converting to ATSC 3.0 transmissions and broadcasting the participating stations' programming in the new format while all programming continued to be available in the existing DTV format.