WAVE 3 News history

On May 7, 1949, WAVE-TV became the first television station in the United States to present a live telecast of the Kentucky Derby.

The national coaxial cable did not reach Louisville until 1950, so prior to that, NBC programs were shown on film, as was national and foreign news.

In 1953, WAVE-TV moved to VHF channel 3, due to signal interference issues with fellow NBC affiliate WLWT in Cincinnati.

In July 1959, having long since outgrown its original studio facility on East Broadway (which now houses the Louisville offices for Metro United Way), WAVE-TV moved into its current downtown facility at 725 South Floyd Street.

Channel 3 continued to share ABC programming with WHAS-TV until WLKY (channel 32) signed on as a full-time affiliate in September 1961.

Three years later, in 1962, channel 3 became the first station in the region to transmit live, locally produced programming in color.

News bureaus were set up in Frankfort, Kentucky, and Washington, D.C. As a result, WAVE-TV-AM won a number of national awards, including a Peabody in 1978.

Orion merged with Liberty Corporation in 1981.

As the radio station promptly changed its call sign to WAVG, Cosmos dropped the "-TV" suffix from the WAVE callsign in 1987.

The sale was approved on December 20, and was completed on January 2, 2019.