WHO · Des Moines

WHO-TV’s history begins in 1924 as a 5,000 watt radio station. WHO was originally owned by the Bankers Life of Des Moines at a time when radio was considered “novel,” and when stations were broadcasting without individual identification. When it came time for the station to choose its own call letters, “WHO” was chosen by the company’s manager in response to inquiries of “Who is this?” and “Who are we listening to?”

It wasn’t until April 26, 1954, that WHO-TV was authorized to telecast on channel 13 with maximum power. Since its conception, the station has been affiliated with the NBC network. Viewers early on saw local live programming featuring many of their radio favorites: Slim Hayes, Jack Shelley, Bill Austin, the Buckaroos, and Herb Plambeck. “Romper Room” with Miss Nancy and Duane Ellett and Floppy kept the young viewers entertained.

WHO-TV had its first remote broadcast on August 10, 1954, from West Branch, Iowa, where former President Herbert Hoover celebrated his 80th birthday. Thanks to more sophisticated equipment, the program was fed through WHO equipment to the NBC network. As improvements came and went, extending the broadcast signal to a larger area became of goal of the station. In 1972, a new 2000-foot tower and transmitter were constructed in Alleman, Iowa. The new equipment projected WHO-TV’s coverage to a 90-mile radius of Des Moines in central Iowa.

Weather in the Midwest is often unpredictable, and WHO was the first station in the state with live color radar in the mid-80s. Today, the station boasts the most powerful Doppler radar in the state at one million watts and a team of four certified meteorologists. As part of WHO-TV's commitment to technology, the station was the first in central Iowa to use videotape for faster coverage of breaking news, and the first in the state with a "Live" microwave truck.

In 1996, The New York Times Company purchased WHO-TV from Palmer Communications Inc. On May 7, 2007, WHO-TV was acquired by Local TV LLC, a broadcast holding company created in 2007 to acquire nine heritage television stations in eight midsized markets.

— Information from www.whotv.com