WAOE
WAOE, virtual channel 59, is a MyNetworkTV-affiliated television station licensed to Peoria, Illinois, United States. The station is owned by Venture Technologies Group. WAOE's transmitter is located in Deer Park Township near Starved Rock State Park.
Due to WAOE's VHF signal and transmitter location, the station only provides rimshot coverage of Peoria and Bloomington–Normal, but its broadcast range extends into parts of the Chicago, Rockford and Quad Cities markets. WAOE is simulcast in widescreen standard definition on the second digital subchannel of Sinclair Broadcast Group-owned WHOI from its transmitter on Springfield Road in East Peoria, a section of Groveland Township, Tazewell County. Instead of channel 19.2, WHOI-DT2 maps to channel 59.1.
History
The station signed on the air on July 5, 1999 as a UPN affiliate and aired an analog signal on UHF channel 59. Originally, it was broadcast from studios on Fulton Street in Downtown Peoria. In its early months, the station broadcast at a low power; WAOE's signal would be upgraded in early 2000, allowing AT&T Cable to add the station to its lineup on February 22. Before WAOE's launch, then-ABC affiliate WHOI had a secondary affiliation with UPN.On January 24, 2006, The WB and UPN announced the two networks would end broadcasting and merge to form The CW. On February 22, News Corporation announced it would start up another new network called MyNetworkTV.
Quincy Newspapers announced on February 11, 2014 that it would acquire WEEK-TV from Granite Broadcasting. Quincy planned on continuing to provide services to WAOE,
Digital channels
The station's digital signal is multiplexed:| Channel | Video | Aspect | PSIP short name | Programming |
| 59.1 | 720p | WAOE-HD | Main WAOE programming / MyNetworkTV | |
| 59.2 | 480i | WAOE-AT | Antenna TV | |
| 59.3 | 480i | WAOE-LT | Light TV |
Newscasts
On June 5, 2006, WEEK-TV established a news share agreement with WAOE and began producing a weeknight-only prime time newscast for the then-UPN affiliate. Known as Primetime News at Nine, the newscast lasted for thirty minutes and competed with another half-hour production airing at the same time on Fox outlet WYZZ-TV. WYZZ once aired a weekend edition of its newscast but this was dropped. WAOE also provided a simulcast of the 5-7 a.m. portion of WEEK-TV's weekday morning show. In September 2006, the name was altered to News 25 at Nine on My59 to reflect WAOE's affiliation change to MyNetworkTV.At some point in time after combining operations, WEEK-TV and WHOI became the first news department in the market to upgrade local newscast production to enhanced definition widescreen. That's how the two stations produced newscasts until 2016. Although not truly high definition, the shows matched the aspect ratio of HD television screens. It is unknown if the WAOE broadcasts were included in the upgrade, however. After the JSA expired at the end of 2014, all WEEK-TV newscasts were dropped from WAOE.
Programming
programming on WAOE includes Family Guy, American Dad!, How I Met Your Mother, The Office, Judge Judy, and The Doctors among others.Sports programming
From 2015 to 2019, WAOE carried Chicago Bulls, Blackhawks, and White Sox games produced by WGN Sports. The Cubs broadcasts were produced by Chicago's ABC O&O station WLS-TV. This was due to the fact that Cubs and White Sox games are no longer available on a national basis on cable and satellite providers via WGN America. For a number of years, WAOE also aired live telecasts of the St. Louis Cardinals when that team's games were carried locally by St. Louis' WB/CW affiliate KPLR-TV.WAOE was also the longtime television home to the Illinois High School Association boys' basketball state finals and football championship games. These events moved to CW+ affiliate WEEK-DT3 in the 2019–20 season.