Owned by Nexstar Media Group, the station maintains studios and transmitter facilities on Summit Street in the Signal Hill section of Kansas City, Missouri.

Under The Star, the station developed its news department with national coverage of the Great Flood of 1951 and aired a series of popular local programs.

After the newspaper was investigated for monopolistic practices in advertising sales, it signed a consent decree in 1957 and sold the WDAF stations to National Theatres the next year.

Under National and subsequent owner Transcontinent Television Corporation, WDAF-TV largely coasted on the news image it had crafted and enjoyed a slight edge in local ratings.

WDAF was sold to Local TV LLC in 2007, Tribune Media in 2013, and Nexstar in 2019, becoming more competitive with second- and first-place ratings finishes in news.

By the end of 1948, it had purchased land at 31st and Summit streets in Kansas City, Missouri, for a facility to house WDAF television (and eventually radio) and poured the bases for a 724-foot (221 m) tower to broadcast WDAF-TV on the same site.

[6] The Star held a three-day television expo in the Memorial Auditorium from September 11–13, demonstrating the new medium, and began regular broadcasts of the test pattern at that time.

It was the September 29 testimonial dinner for William M. Boyle, live from the Arena in the Municipal Auditorium, an event at which president Harry S. Truman spoke and which five local radio stations covered.

The telecast, sponsored by Pabst Blue Ribbon beer and aired over CBS, was a milestone, as neither WDAF-TV, WDAF radio, nor The Star had ever accepted advertising from liquor companies.

[17] The Great Flood of 1951 devastated the Kansas City area, and WDAF-TV provided ample coverage and public service during the incident.

[9] The station's first mobile outside broadcasting van was a converted Packard hearse; its successor, nicknamed "Cosa Nostra", once turned up at a bank robbery before police.

[24] It broadened from a cooking program to include in-studio interviews and was renamed The Bette Hayes Show, remaining on the air until its host departed in 1970.

[26] WDAF-TV obtained its construction permit in January 1948, before the FCC that October imposed a freeze on new TV station grants to sort out possible changes to television broadcast standards.

[27] This freeze lasted until 1952,[28] setting the stage for four competitors on three channels to enter the Kansas City television market within a four-month span in 1953.

In January, the United States Department of Justice called for the revocation of the licenses of WDAF radio and television and filed a civil antitrust lawsuit against The Kansas City Star Company.

[29] The criminal portion of the anti-trust case proceeded to trial in January 1955,[36] and The Star and its advertising director were found guilty of monopoly charges.

To comply with the terms of the consent decree, on November 26, The Kansas City Star Company sold the WDAF stations to National Theatres, a movie theater chain with 320 cinemas, for $7.6 million.

The Los Angeles–based company had ties to Kansas City, as its president, Elmer C. Rhoden, had previously been the head of Fox Midwest Theatres and still had a home there.

The transaction was part of the largest set of sales in broadcasting history to that time, totaling more than $38.5 million for three buyers to acquire nearly all of the firm's radio and TV stations.

[49] In 1967, the existing tower on Signal Hill was replaced with a new, 1,164-foot (355 m) mast designed to house a new Kansas City independent station, KBMA-TV (channel 41),[50] which began broadcasting in 1970.

[55] In response, the station rebranded its newscasts Action News and hired two new on-air personalities, including Stacy Smith, who had previously anchored in Louisville, Kentucky.

[58][59][60][61] In 1980, WDAF-TV replaced KBMA-TV as the television home of Kansas City Royals baseball under a five-year contract; the team sought the move because WDAF's signal went further than KBMA's.

[76] In its last year, WDAF-TV had especially strained to juggle the Royals and NBC programming: Johnny Carson's final nights of The Tonight Show and several NBA playoff games in 1992 were seen on a tape-delayed basis to accommodate baseball telecasts.

[85] After emerging from bankruptcy, Great American Broadcasting (renamed Citicasters soon after[86]) put four of its stations (including WDAF-TV) up for sale, seeking to raise money to pay down debt and fund more acquisitions in radio.

[92][93] Fox parent News Corporation purchased a 20 percent equity stake in New World as part of the agreement, which came after the network outbid CBS for partial rights to the National Football League and sought to upgrade their affiliate base.

[97] The date of the switch was announced on August 10, 1994, to be September 12, three days after New World's purchase of WDAF was slated to close and initiating a month of programming changes between the stations.

[104] An attempt to create a competitor to the national network newscasts by relaunching the 5:30 p.m. half hour as Your World Tonight with Phil Witt lasted a year before being discontinued.

[154] The service was initially broadcast at low power from a lower-mounted antenna on the Signal Hill tower[155] until a new, high-power digital transmission facility was completed in 2005.