ABC and its other U.S. television properties. Analog-to-digital conversion WFAA became the first television station in the United States to broadcast their digital television signal on a VHF channel on February 27, 1998, at 2:17 p.m., when it began test broadcasts on VHF channel 9; the following day on February 28, it became the nation's first television station to broadcast a local news program in high definition. When the transmission tests began, the digital feed's Channel 9 assignment was already in use by Dallas area hospitals; this would result in Baylor University Medical Center and Methodist Dallas Medical Center having to reconfigure their telemetry systems to different frequencies before WFAA began full-time digital transmissions on March 16 (when it became the country's first commercial station to begin regular digital broadcasts on the VHF band) as the station's assigned digital channel corresponded to a portion of the broadcast spectrum utilized by the hospitals for their wireless medical equipment, creating RF interference issues that notably disrupted several wireless heart monitors at both facilities. WFAA shut down its analog signal, over VHF channel 8, at 12:03 p.m. on June 12, 2009, as part of the federally mandated transition from analog to digital television. The station's digital signal relocated from VHF channel 9 to channel 8. Immediately before WFAA ceased transmission of its analog signal, the station aired a retrospective of its history that was narrated by meteorologist Pete Delkus, which was followed by a video of the sign-off that the station had aired at the conclusion of its broadcast day during the 1970s. On December 23, 2009, WFAA filed an application to the FCC to obtain permission to increase its transmitter's effective radiated power (ERP) from 45 kW through an omni-directional antenna to 55 kW, through the installation of a directional antenna. The reasoning behind its proposal for the power increase was due to difficulties experienced by some viewers in portions of the Dallas–Fort Worth market who tried to maintain adequate over-the-air reception of the channel 8 digital signal. References External links FCC Public Inspection File: WFAA Technical and ownership information for WFAA at RabbitEars Renovation of KBTV/WFAA Telecruiser vehicle DFW Radio/TV History ABC network affiliates Local AccuWeather Channel affiliates Tegna Inc. Television channels and stations established in 1949 Television stations in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex Peabody Award winners 1949 establishments in Texas True Crime Network affiliates Quest (American TV network) affiliates Former