January 16th, 1949 was the day that Channel 9 signed on, becoming the fourth TV station to serve the Washington DC market. The station’s call letters for the first year were WOIC (Oh I See!). Big plans were made for the station, it was to be home of both CBS Washington operations as well as a key station for the soon to be launched Mutual Television Network. The station was under the ownership of the Bamberger Broadcasting Co. of New York, the licensee of WOR-TV in New York City, also on channel 9. The two stations were to be the linchpins of Mutual TV, but due to a variety of factors, the Mutual Television Network never got off the ground. Studios and transmitter were established in a one story building at 40th and Brandywine St NW, the highest point in the District of Columbia.
The station was sold in 1950 to a partnership of the Washington Post and CBS called WTOP Inc. The Washington Post held 55% ownership with CBS having the remaining 45%. The call letters were changed to WTOP-TV to match the existing radio operations. During the early 50s, the station played a major role in the TV color wars between CBS and NBC. In July of 1950, Channel 9 was authorized to broadcast in color using the CBS sequential system, and also conducted a number of color demonstrations for the FCC during the years leading up to the final FCC decision. After initially approving the CBS approach, the FCC reversed course and approved the electronic NBC compatible color system which began late in 1953.
In February of 1954, construction was completed on a new five story home for WTOP which was to be known as Broadcast House. It was the first building in Washington to be designed for radio and television broadcasting, boasting three new state of the art television studios on the first floor and new studios for WTOP Radio on the third floor. In October of 1954 CBS sold back it’s 45% share of ownership to the Washington Post.
From the start in 1949 until 1964, the CBS Washington bureau was located at WTOP, and the station’s staff produced many CBS network shows from its studios such as The Jimmy Dean Show, Person to Person, and Face The Nation. In the early 50s CBS also produced the local news, Walter Cronkite was the station’s first 11PM anchorman before moving up to New York in 1954. Deciding that more room was needed for expansion, CBS moved its operations to 2020 M St NW in 1964 and many WTOP employees were given the choice to move with the network or stay at Broadcast House.
In the 1970s the federal government began looking into the issue of media concentration, with the concern that combinations of newspaper and broadcast ownership by the same company created too much power in some markets. The Washington Post owning both AM and FM radio stations plus a dominant TV station was seen as a target for breakup. The Post gifted the FM outlet on 96.3 to Howard University to help alleviate this concern, but the company’s lawyers will still concerned about an eventual forced sale of either the newspaper or remaining broadcast stations. In 1978 a deal was struck between The Detroit News and The Washington Post to swap its TV stations, with the Post taking over WWJ-TV 4 in Detroit and the News took over control of WTOP-TV in Washington. Channel 9’s call letters were changed again to WDVM-TV, for the District, Maryland, and Virginia.
1986 would bring another sale of the station, as the Gannett Company acquired the Evening News Association, parent company of channel 9. The call letters were changed again to WUSA on July 4th 1986, in order to tie in with Gannett’s USA Today newspaper.
After 43 years of operations at 40th and Brandywine, WUSA9 moved to a new building at 4100 Wisconsin Avenue, with the transmitting towers remaining at the original location.