Waterman ownership
In 1978, Waterman Broadcasting Corporation, which at the time only owned two radio stations in San Antonio, Texas, began negotiating to buy WBBH-TV after the stockholders of Broadcasting-Telecasting Services opted to put the station on the market. A sale agreement was reached in April 1979.[13] Waterman activated a new tower in 1983; the station began broadcasting at the UHF maximum effective radiated power of five million watts and improved its signal in the northern part of its coverage area.[14] In 1987, an expansion was completed to the Central Avenue studio; the original, 7000 ft2 building was wrapped around a two-story building with an internal atrium.[15]
Waterman Broadcasting attempted to expand the station's presence in the early 1990s. It first thought it had an agreement with WNPL-TV (channel 46) to program the second station under a time brokerage agreement.[16] However, WNPL was in turmoil at the time. The agreement was reached during a period in which the station manager left; he then came back and ignored the agreement, with station officials calling the issue a misunderstanding.[17] Waterman then sued WNPL, which in turn filed for bankruptcy protection.[18]
On June 1, 1994, Ellis Communications, the owner of WEVU, entered into a local marketing agreement with WBBH-TV, which began providing the station's news programming.[19] Some WEVU staffers were not retained by WBBH;[20] in all, there were 20 staff firings, including WEVU's main news, weather and sports anchors.[21] That September, WBBH began branding as channel 2 after its position on local cable systems; WEVU did likewise with channel 7 and changed its call sign to WZVN-TV the next year.[22][23]
Ellis Communications merged with Raycom Media in 1996; under a deal previously made by Ellis, WZVN-TV's license was sold to Montclair Communications, which continued the LMA with WBBH. Montclair was founded by Lara Kunkler, station manager for WBBH and WZVN and the goddaughter of Bernie Waterman, owner of Waterman Broadcasting.[24] The deal allowed a once-money-losing station to become profitable.[25] In 2001, Waterman attempted to merge with Montclair by way of a stock swap.[26] However, instead of allowing the deal, the FCC let the application languish;[27] at one point, it ordered the LMA unwound by 2004.[28]
