When was the KHON-TV station established?
KHON-TV
KHON-TV first signed on the air on December 15, 1952 as a primary NBC affiliate, KONA-TV, occupying the channel 11 position. It also had a secondary affiliation with DuMont (which it later shared with KULA-TV, now KITV, after it signed on in 1954) until its demise in 1955. The station, which is Hawaii's second-oldest television station (behind KGMB, originally on channel 9, now on channel 5), was originally owned by Herbert Richards. Two years later in 1954, the "Honolulu Advertiser" purchased the station. On October 16, 1955, KONA changed channels from 11 to 2 due to the lower VHF positions (2 to 6) having the most powerful ERPs at the time. The channel 11 frequency now belongs to PBS member station KHET. In 1956, KONA was sold to Pacific and Southern Broadcasting, the forerunner of Combined Communications. KAII signed on in 1958, with KHAW following in 1961. In 1965, the station's call letters were changed to the current KHON-TV.
KAUT-TV
On July 25, 1986, in advance of the network's launch, News Corporation announced that it had reached an agreement with Rollins Communications, in which KAUT was named the Oklahoma City charter affiliate of the Fox Broadcasting Company. Even though KOKH-TV was the leading independent in the market, Reliance Capital Group – which assumed ownership of KOKH's parent company at the time, Blair Broadcasting, to stave off a hostile takeover by minority stockholders – had turned down Fox's offer to affiliate with channel 25, due to disagreements over scheduling of the network's inaugural program, late-night talk show "The Late Show Starring Joan Rivers", in concern of potential disruption to its movie lineup. KAUT-TV affiliated with Fox when the fledgling network inaugurated programming on October 9, 1986. Though it was technically a network affiliate, Channel 43 continued to be programmed as a de facto independent station. Even after the network's programming expanded with the launch of a three-hour Sunday night lineup in April 1987, Fox offered prime time programs exclusively on weekends until September 1989, when it began a five-year expansion towards a nightly prime time schedule (Fox would not air prime time programs on all seven nights of the week until January 1993, after KOKH assumed the local affiliation rights to the network). KAUT – which, in compliance with Fox's stricter branding requirements, began phasing out its original "TV-43" branding in favor of identifying as "KAUT Fox 43" in September 1989 – continued to air a movie at 7:00 p.m. on nights when the network did not offer any programming. Around that time, the station acquired more cartoons for its weekday afternoon lineup, and launched "Midnight Shopper", a home shopping program produced by locally based production company Snyder & Co. that aired weekend late nights.
KMOH-TV
Una Vez Más Holdings acquired the station in January 2004 and applied to move the transmitter location from Sun City to South Mountain in Phoenix. The permit was granted and the new facilities were licensed in October 2005. Meanwhile, Una Vez Más resurrected a set of call letters the company had used for its station in Tucson, and renamed the station KQBN-LP in March 2005. Telemundo programming was also replaced by the Spanish-language Christian network Almavision.
KION-TV
By 1993, San Jose's TCI cable opted to drop KMST. Later that year, Retlaw sold the station to a partnership between Harron Communications and Smith Broadcasting, with Smith Broadcasting having control of the joint venture). On October 4, the new owners changed Channel 46's call sign to KCCN-TV. The next year, Smith Broadcasting sold its share of the station to Harron, in order to purchase KSBW. At that time, KCBA (Fox 35), then owned by the Ackerley Group, signed a local marketing agreement with KCCN, with Ackerley taking over the operations of both stations. The beginning of the LMA came at a time when CBS' ratings were at one of the lowest points in the network's history, while Fox's ratings were on the rise. Although KCCN was longer-established, KCBA became the senior partner in the LMA. On February 23, 1997, KCCN changed its call letters again, this time to KION.
KCNS
Channel 38 first signed on the air on December 28, 1968 as KUDO-TV. The station initially broadcast financial programming during the morning and early afternoon hours, along with movies at night. The station went dark on April 15, 1971 due to financial difficulties. On October 4, 1974, Faith Center, managed by pastor Ray Schoch (1917–1977), acquired the station at a low price and returned it to the air as KVOF-TV, carrying Christian programming about 12 hours a day. Some shows were produced by Faith Center while others came from outside Christian groups. The station expanded to nearly 24 hours a day by 1975 when Dr. Gene Scott became pastor of Faith Center and assumed control of its television stations. By 1976, the station was only running programming from Scott's "University Network" 24 hours a day. However, the station lost its license, along with those of sister stations KHOF-FM (relicensed as KKLA) in Los Angeles and KHOF-TV (relicensed as KZKI-TV, now Ion Television O&O KPXN-TV) in San Bernardino, California, after Faith Center refused to disclose its private donor records to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC).
WPXE-TV
The station first signed on the air on June 1, 1988 as WHKE (for World Harvest Kenosha Evangelism), operating as a religious station; it was originally owned by LeSEA Broadcasting. The station's original transmitter was located in Kenosha, just north of the Illinois/Wisconsin state line (the tower is remains in use for the transmitter of radio station WWDV, 96.9 FM). Paxson Communications (now Ion Media Networks) purchased the station in 1995 and turned it into an all-infomercial format as part of the Infomail TV Network (inTV), though it also aired the daily greyhound racing recap program from Kenosha's Dairyland Greyhound Park for many years after WVTV (channel 18) stopped carrying that show in 1996, which met the station's local programming requirements.
In the late 1990s after its purchase by Paxson, the station moved its transmitter to a tower in northern Racine County (near Interstate 94) which was shared with WEZY (92.1 FM; now WVTY, which continues to use the tower). Despite the reason for the transmitter move being to serve more of the Milwaukee market, the southerly tower location from the traditional northeast side tower farm operated at a lower power, mainly to keep the channel 55 allocation open for an eventual new station in Wausau (which would eventually be given to Wittenberg-licensed WFXS in 1999), limited the station's coverage area in southeastern Wisconsin; this caused the station to not be available in Fond du Lac and Sheboygan counties, except through cable. The station became a charter affiliate of Pax TV (now Ion Television) when it launched on August 31, 1998, at which time it changed its call letters to WPXE-TV.
KLKN
Channel 8 was originally licensed to Albion, Nebraska, and began broadcasting December 3, 1964 as KHQL-TV, a satellite of KHOL-TV (channel 13, now KHGI-TV) in Kearney and the Nebraska Television Network (NTN, later known as NTV) owned by Bi-States Company. The station served as the ABC affiliate for much of the Nebraska side of the Sioux City, Iowa market. NTV Enterprises acquired the NTV stations in 1974; on June 4, the station's call letters were changed to KCNA-TV (for the largest towns in its service area, Columbus, Norfolk, and Albion).
KUHL
The station first signed on January 17, 1947 as KCOY at the 1400 kHz frequency. It was launched by News-Press Publishing Company, owner of KTMS in Santa Barbara and the Santa Barbara News-Press. On April 5, 1955, KCOY was sold to Arenze Broadcasters, headed by James H. Ranger, for $34,000. It moved to 1440 kHz in 1960. In its early years, KCOY was a full service station, broadcasting a variety of news, sports, and rock music programming.
KRCW-TV
The station was launched on May 8, 1989 under the call sign KUTF (standing for "Keep Up The Faith"), its original transmitter was located outside Molalla. The station's original programming format almost entirely consisted of religious programs. It was originally operated by Dove Broadcasting then sold to Eagle Broadcasting on July 17, 1991. On February 11, 1992, the station's callsign was changed to KEBN (standing for "Eagle Broadcasting Network"). The previous KUTF calls now reside on the Daystar owned-and-operated station in Logan, Utah. On April 26, 1992, it was announced that KEBN would adopt a general entertainment programming format as "Oregon's New Eagle 32". On October 1, the station went off the air but returned on September 5, 1994 airing a number of infomercials, public domain movies, and brokered shows for eight hours a day (it expanded to 24 hours by Labor Day of that year). James R. McDonald owned the station via Channel 32, Inc.
KEBN became a charter affiliate of The WB upon its launch on January 11, 1995 and changed its call letters to KWBP to reflect its new affiliation on October 2. By the fall of that year, bartered syndicated programming (including cartoons, and some older sitcoms and dramas) were added to the station's schedule. It also relayed the O. J. Simpson trial from future sister station KTLA in Los Angeles. After becoming a WB affiliate, KWBP significantly upgraded its on-air look and schedule. It acquired several first-run syndicated sitcoms and talk shows. It grew even further after being purchased by ACME Communications in 1997. At that point, a low-power relay, KWBP-LP (originally operating on channel 4, now on channel 5) was established in Downtown Portland to address signal issues in that area. By the start of the new millennium, KWBP had established itself as a solid competitor to established non-Big Three stations KPTV (channel 12) and KPDX (channel 49).
KHON-TV
KHON-TV, virtual channel 2 (VHF digital channel 8), is a primary Fox/subchannel-only CW-affiliated television station licensed to Honolulu, Hawaii, United States. The station is owned by the Nexstar Media Group, as part of a duopoly with MyNetworkTV affiliate KHII-TV (channel 9). The two stations share studios at the Haiwaiki Tower on Piikoi and Waimanu Streets in downtown Honolulu (between the Kaka'ako and Ala Moana districts); KHON's main transmitter is also located downtown at the Century Center condominium/business complex (near Kalakaua Avenue and Kapiolani Boulevard, just northwest of the Hawaii Convention Center).
KAYU-TV
The station was founded in 1982 by Spokane native Robert Hamacher and his company, Salmon River Communications. It was Spokane's first independent station, as well as the first new commercial station to sign on in the area since KREM-TV (channel 2) hit the airwaves 28 years earlier. It is also the oldest non-Big Three station in the eastern part of the state. It joined Fox as a charter affiliate in 1986.
WYMT-TV
The station began broadcasting on analog UHF channel 57 as WKYH-TV (meaning KentuckY, Hazard) on October 20, 1969, as an NBC affiliate. Prior to its inception, some counties in southeastern Kentucky were among the last remaining parts of the country unable to clearly receive a commercial television signal over the air. Kentucky Educational Television had set up a transmitter there the year before. Although this area is considered part of the Lexington market, none of that city's television signals covered the area at the time. Lexington was an all-UHF market, and UHF stations don't get good reception in rugged terrain. This area has long been one of the poorest in the nation, and many people still couldn't afford to buy a television set. Such conditions made the Lexington stations unwilling to set up even low-powered satellites in this area. Instead, WKYH was founded by local businessman Bill Gorman, who, in addition to owning the Hazard-area Cable television company, also served as mayor of Hazard from 1978 until his October 2010 death. Martin Ogrosky served as News Director and in other posltions along with William "Bill" Helton, William "Bill" Gorman, Jr., and others.
KNHL
The Seaton family owned KHAS-TV until 1997, when it was sold to Dick Shively and Ulysses Carlini Sr., owners of North Platte TV stations KNOP-TV and K11TW, operating the three stations under the name Greater Nebraska Television. In 2005, Greater Nebraska Television sold the stations to Hoak Media.
The station's studio was located north of Hastings on U.S. 281. The transmitter tower was located next to the studio. KHAS-TV was formerly rebroadcast on translator station K14IY in Holdrege; this translator went dark in 2009. KHAS-TV was later also carried on K02HJ in Ord and K35AL analog channel 35 in Lexington, Nebraska. All three translators broadcast an analog signal. K35AL formerly carried programming from sister station KNOP-TV but Lexington is in the Lincoln–Hastings–Kearney market while North Platte is a separate market. Both local and national programming on KHAS was carried in high definition.
KDOC-TV
KDOC-TV first signed on the air on October 1, 1982; the station was initially owned by locally based Golden Orange Broadcasting, whose investors included entertainer Pat Boone. The station's original studio facilities were located at 1730 South Clementine Street in Anaheim, just blocks east of the Disneyland resort. At the time of its original sign-on it was the sixth independent station in the Los Angeles market, alongside KTLA (channel 5), KHJ-TV (channel 9, now KCAL-TV), KTTV (channel 11), KCOP (channel 13) and KSCI (channel 18). KDOC carried programs from conservative commentator Wally George and televangelist Dr. Gene Scott until their respective deaths in 2003 and 2005. During this period, the station was also popular for weekend broadcasts of Asian programming, which gained a significant non-Asian audience with the broadcast of the 1984–1985 (subtitled) Japanese "Miyamoto Musashi" television series.
KUBE-TV
The station first signed on the air on May 18, 1988 under the callsign KLTJ; it was founded by Eldred Thomas, who had earlier built radio station KVTT-FM (now KKXT) and television station KLTJ (now KSTR-TV) in Dallas. The station originally operated from studios located in Pasadena and a tower in Anahuac, and initially aired religious programs from a variety of sources, including the PTL Satellite Network, Christian Television Network and the Three Angels Broadcasting Network. The low-power signal and distance from Houston led to reception issues in the northern and western portions of the city; as a result, on May 18, 1989, Thomas moved the KLTJ programming and call letters to channel 22 on a tower based in Alvin. With the move of the KLTJ calls to channel 22, channel 57 changed its callsign to KRTW. It later changed its call letters to KVVV (a callsign formerly used on now-defunct channel 16 from 1968 to 1969) in 1994, when it switched to home shopping programming from Valuevision; it then became a FamilyNet affiliate as KAZH in 2000.
KTEN
On March 23, 1998, KTEN Television L.P. sold the station to Hampton, Virginia-based Lockwood Broadcast Group for $15.125 million. The acquisition, which was finalized in July of that year, was financed in part through proceeds from the company's December 1997 sale of religious independent station WJCB (now Ion Television owned-and-operated station WPXV-TV) in Norfolk/Hampton Roads, Virginia to Paxson Communications (now Ion Media Networks), a sale which occurred ten months after Lockwood had acquired that station from Tidewater Christian Communications. For most of its history under the group's ownership, KTEN was the only television station owned by Lockwood that was affiliated with one of the Big Four television networks; this status lasted until 2015, when Lockwood purchased ABC affiliate KAKE-TV in Wichita, Kansas and its satellites from Gray Television on October 1 of that year (as part of a $11.2-million trade deal involving Lockwood-owned independent station WBXX-TV in Knoxville, Tennessee).
KHNL
It was not until September 1993, after King Broadcasting was acquired by the Providence Journal Company, that KHNL adopted the "Fox 13" branding. On May 5 of that year, the station entered into a local marketing agreement with KFVE (then on channel 5), which merged its operations into KHNL's facility. In January 1994, all University of Hawaii sports telecasts were moved to KFVE. In August 1994, Burnham Broadcasting-owned KHON-TV (channel 2) was sold to SF Broadcasting, a joint venture between Savoy Pictures and Fox (the network owning a voting stock in Savoy), in a four-station group deal. As a result of the sale, KHON announced it would drop its affiliation with NBC to become the market's new Fox affiliate through a groupwide affiliation deal with the network. At first, NBC considered affiliating with ABC affiliate KITV. However, after Argyle purchased the station in 1995, KITV renewed its affiliation agreement with ABC instead. NBC later reached an affiliation deal with KHNL.
KCRA-TV
The station first signed on the air on September 3, 1955. It was founded by the Central Valley Broadcasting Company, a partnership of the Kelly and Hansen families of Sacramento. Central Valley Broadcasting also owned KCRA radio (1320 AM, now KIFM, and 96.1 FM, now KYMX); the AM station's call letters were intended to be KRCA, but the middle two letters were erroneously transposed by a typist at the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) when that station's original license was drafted in 1945 and was never corrected. By the time KCRA-TV went on the air, the "KRCA-TV" call letters had already been taken the previous year by NBC's owned-and-operated station in Los Angeles (originally KNBH, now KNBC). The station's longtime original studios were located at 310 10th Street in Sacramento. KCRA-TV inherited the NBC affiliation from KCCC-TV (channel 40, channel now occupied by Fox affiliate KTXL), which became the Sacramento market's first television station when it signed on in September 1953, which had also carried affiliations with ABC, CBS and DuMont until other stations debuted in the market. However, it in turn also received the affiliation as a result of KCRA-AM's decade-long affiliation with the NBC Red Network. KCRA was the third of Sacramento's VHF stations to sign on exactly within a year behind KXTV and KOVR—all signing on in six-month increments.
K38IZ-D
In June 1996, Polar Broadcasting sold the station to Paxson Communications (now ION Media Networks and the station became part of Infomall TV Network, or inTV. Paxson Communications sold the station in August 1999 to Spanish Independent Broadcasting Network, who changed the programming to Spanish-language independent, rebroadcasting station KWHY-TV channel 22 of Los Angeles, California. The next year, needing to vacate the upper-700 MHz band (channels 60 - 69), the station applied for and was granted a permit to move to channel 53. The station was licensed in June 2002 as K53GF. Since then, the station has dropped the KWHY-TV rebroadcast and operates as an independent station, airing mostly movies and infomercials for local car dealers.
In May 2005, K53GF received a request to vacate channel 53 from Aloha Partners, who were winners of the FCC auction for the spectrum now occupied by channel 54. However, with the DTV conversion still in process, there were no suitable in-core channels to which K53GF could move their analog operations. Instead, they requested to operate as a low-power digital TV station (LPDTV) on channel 38 and the FCC granted a construction permit in October 2005 to build LPDTV station K38IZ-D. In the meantime, Aloha Partners has not launched its proposed service to Public Safety, and K53GF remained on the air on analog channel 53 until May 2010. Aloha Partners and its channel 54/59 spectrum were acquired on February 4, 2008 by AT&T Mobility.
KHME
For the next several months, KOTA-TV had only PBS station KBHE-TV (channel 9) as a competitor. But when the new channel 7, KEVN-TV, opened on July 11, 1976, it took all ABC programming; KOTA-TV kept its NBC primary afiiliation and added a secondary affiliation with CBS. Meanwhile, in Scottsbluff, Nebraska, KSTF, along with its parent station KYCU-TV (now KGWN-TV) in Cheyenne, Wyoming, both had to switch their primary affiliations to ABC to make up for the loss of ABC programming on KDUH.
Kawish Television Network
KTN was established in 2002 and started with 6 hours of transmission. It has now grown from a small regional-language channel to the leading Satellite Channel of Pakistan, broadcasting 24 hours a day to areas of South Asia, Middle and Far East Asia.It also started the first ever music channel in sindhi language KASHISH TV, after that in October 2007 KTN News was also aired, covering news, current affair programs, talk show, documentaries and reports.
KHME
KHME debuted on the air as KOTA-TV, with test operations on June 1, 1955, with regular programming beginning one month later on July 1. It was the second television station in South Dakota, and the first in the western part of the state. The station was owned by Rapid City businesswoman Helen Duhamel, and was a sister station to CBS Radio Network affiliate KOTA (1380 AM). Duhamel bought a minority stake in the radio station in 1943 and gradually expanded her holdings until she bought full control in 1954. Channel 3 originally carried programming from all three networks, though it was a primary CBS television affiliate. Helen's son William (Bill) Duhamel would become KOTA-TV's president and general manager in 1976.
KWGN-TV
The station first signed on the air as KFEL-TV on July 18, 1952. It was owned by Colorado broadcasting pioneer Gene O'Fallon along with KFEL radio (AM 950, now KKSE), and was the first television station to sign on in the state of Colorado. It was also first station on the VHF band to sign on the air following the Federal Communications Commission's decision to lift its freeze on television station licenses that year. The station originally operated as a primary affiliate of the DuMont Television Network, sharing the affiliation with KBTV (channel 9, now NBC affiliate KUSA), but also cherry-picked programs from NBC, ABC and CBS. The station's original studio facilities were located in a remodeled brick warehouse at 550 Lincoln Street.
Joe Moore (television journalist)
Moore returned to Hawaii in 1969, joined KGMB as sports anchor under mentor and news director Bob Sevey. After nine years as part of the market-dominating news team at KGMB, Moore moved to KHON-TV which was then Hawaii's NBC affiliate (it joined Fox in 1995). Within a few years, KHON had passed KGMB as the top-rated station in Hawaii—a lead it continues to hold. In 2008, KHON-TV extended Moore's contract as lead news anchor for ten years.
KHON-TV
The stations' digital signals are multiplexed:
KHON-TV discontinued regular programming on its analog signal, over VHF channel 2, on January 15, 2009, the official date in which full-power television stations in the State of Hawaii transitioned from analog to digital broadcasts (six months before the June 12 transition date for full-power stations on the U.S. mainland). The station's digital signal remained on its pre-transition VHF channel 8, using PSIP to display the station's virtual channel as its former VHF analog channel 2.
KOKH-TV
KOKH's current news department launched on May 27, 1996, with the premiere of "The Nine O'Clock News" (retitled the "Fox 25 Primetime News at Nine" in November 2000), which originally aired for a half-hour Monday through Fridays. It was first anchored by former KOCO and KWTV anchor Jack Bowen and Burns Flat native Kirsten McIntyre (previously an anchor/reporter at KAUZ-TV in Wichita Falls), both of whom had earlier co-hosted "Ground Zero", a half-hour special (which aired on KOKH on February 27, 1996, four months prior to the newscast's launch) that showed previously restricted footage recorded by first responders during the Murrah Building bombing's aftermath. They were accompanied by chief meteorologist Tim Ross (who brought a quirky approach to his weather segments, even naming the extended forecast graphic, the "Fearless 5-Day Forecast") and sports director Mike Steely (a former colleague of McIntyre's while he was sports director at KAUZ, and who continued to work as a sports talk host at KEBC [1340 AM, now KGHM; the KEBC calls now reside on 1560 AM] after joining KOKH, before moving to WWLS [AM] [now KWPN] in 1998). Heritage Media and KOKH invested over $1 million into the new news operation. The station also converted its main "Studio 25" production studio at the Wilshire Boulevard facility into a "working newsroom" set similar in design to the "NewsPlex" set used by ABC affiliate KETV in Omaha from 1996 to 2015, and incorporated Avid nonlinear, Internet-based editing equipment, becoming one of the first stations in the United States to use the technology. (KOKH would move production of its newscasts to a renovated production stage within the building on April 13, 2014, with the debut of an HD-ready news set built by Devlin Design Group that features a dedicated weather center, several large widescreen monitors, and a multi-purpose area used for interviews, and the morning and "Sports Sunday" broadcasts).
KNHL
In 2014, Gray Television, owners of KOLN/KGIN and KSNB-TV, acquired Hoak Media; as it already owned the three aforementioned stations in the same market, it planned to sell KHAS to the shell company Excalibur Broadcasting and operate KHAS under a shared services agreement. As a result of growing FCC scrutiny towards "virtual duopolies", Gray instead let KHAS fall silent on June 13, 2014 and its programming and news operation were relocated to KSNB-TV, pending a sale of KHAS-TV to a minority owned broadcaster. In September 2018, Gray agreed to purchase KNHL, with the intention of operating it as a satellite of KSNB-TV.
KPHO-TV
CBS officially returned to KPHO on September 12, 1994, three days after New World's purchase of KSAZ-TV—which became an independent before affiliating with Fox three months later—was finalized. Initially, channel 5 continued to run a couple of cartoons and a moderate amount of sitcoms during non-network hours. By January 1995, the station began taking on the look of a major-network affiliate as the syndicated cartoons disappeared from the schedule; the station then gradually added more newscasts, talk and reality shows. The sitcoms were phased out and moved to KTVK, KUTP (channel 45), and upstart KASW (channel 61). KPHO has generally been one of CBS' weaker affiliates since the 1994 switch, due in large part to the station's lack of a strong syndicated programming inventory. However, its 10 p.m. newscast led among Phoenix's English-language stations in total households during the November 2009 sweeps period. In stark contrast, channel 10 had been one of CBS' strongest affiliates and was at a strong second place in total day viewership at the time of the switch.
Okayama Broadcasting
Okayama Broadcasting Co., Ltd. (岡山放送株式会社) is a TV station broadcast in Okayama and Kagawa Prefectures. The abbreviation, OHK stands for Okayama Hoso K. K., the corporate name in romaji. It is a network affiliate of Fuji News Network (FNN) and Fuji Network System (FNS). The callsign is JOOH-TV.
OHK as founded on March 26, 1968, and began broadcasting on April 1, 1969 as a primary FNN and secondary NET/ANN affiliate for the city of Okayama. KSB also began broadcasting on that same date as a primary NET/ANN affiliate for northern Kagawa Prefecture. On April 1, 1979, the Okayama and Kagawa television markets were merged with each other; OHK dropped its secondary affiliation with ANN as it was now able to serve both prefectures.
Hawaii News Now
KGMB's news department started shortly after it signed on the air in 1952, and had the highest-rated of the Honolulu market's newscasts for most of its first 25 years; after sports director Joe Moore joined KHON-TV (channel 2) in 1978, KHON overtook KGMB for the lead, with KGMB's newscasts placing either second or third in the ratings for the next three decades. KHNL had run newscasts intermittently since signing on as independent station KTRG in 1962, it formed its longest-running news department to date in April 1995 as a Fox affiliate with the launch of a 9 p.m. newscast (that was simulcast on KFVE until January 1996, when it became exclusive to the latter station); KHNL added newscasts at 5, 6 and 10 p.m. during the summer and fall of 1995, with the addition of a weekday morning newscast after it joined NBC on January 1, 1996.
KPHO-TV
The station first signed on the air on December 4, 1949 as the first television station in Arizona. It was originally owned by a group of entrepreneurs—one of whom, John Mullins, would later launch KBTV (now KUSA) in Denver. Majority interest was held by Phoenix Broadcasting, owners of KPHO radio (910 AM, now KFYI at 550 AM); the television station, which was originally assigned the call letters KTLX, had its callsign changed to KPHO-TV to match its radio sister shortly before its debut. It originally broadcast from studios at the Hotel Westward Ho in downtown Phoenix. The Meredith Corporation purchased the KPHO stations on June 25, 1952. In April 1950, the Lew King Ranger children's show broadcast live on KPHO with a young Wayne Newton as announcer. In 1954, it began airing "The Wallace and Ladmo Show", a children's program which aired weekday mornings until 1989—one of the longest-running locally produced children's shows in television history.
KENS
In 1951, Storer Broadcasting (which had good relations with CBS) bought KEYL and KABC. On February 1, 1954, channel 5 changed its call letters to KGBS-TV; KABC's calls were subsequently changed to match its television sister, as KGBS, on March 1. In November of that year, Storer was forced to sell KGBS-AM-TV to the "San Antonio Express-News", in order to complete the company's purchase of WXEL-TV (now WJW) in Cleveland, Ohio as keeping KGBS-TV would have put the company one station over the Federal Communications Commission's ownership regulations that went into effect that year which limited the number of television stations that can be owned by one company to seven, with no more than five of those allocated to the VHF band (at the time, newspapers could own television and/or radio stations in the same market provided that such ownership complied with the FCC-mandated ownership limits of each property in effect at the time). The "Express-News" then changed the call letters of the television and radio stations to KENS-TV and KENS (the "-TV" suffix was dropped from the callsign of the television station following the digital television transition on June 12, 2009, when several other Belo stations dropped the suffix from their legal call signs; Storer later re-used the KGBS calls on what is now KTNQ and KAMP-FM in Los Angeles).
KGMB
KGMB presently broadcasts 24.5 hours of locally produced newscasts each week (with 4.5 hours on weekdays, and one hour each on Saturdays and Sundays). For its first 25 years on the air, KGMB was the dominant news station in Hawaii. However, in 1978, rival KHON-TV persuaded sports director Joe Moore to join that station as its lead anchor. Within a few years, KHON had passed KGMB for the lead, and KGMB has placed either second or third in the ratings since then.
KHON-TV
On May 15, 2005, Emmis Communications announced that it would sell its 16 television stations in order to concentrate on its portfolio of radio stations. On September 15, Emmis sold KHON as well as CBS affiliate KOIN in Portland, Oregon, and NBC affiliates KSNW in Wichita and KSNT in Topeka, Kansas to the Montecito Broadcast Group (formerly SJL Broadcast Management) for $259 million; the sale closed on January 27, 2006. The acquisition resulted in one of the rare instances in which two stations operated in a duopoly were completely separated due to Emmis owning KHON and KGMB under a waiver.
KMGH-TV
The station first signed on the air on November 1, 1952 as KLZ-TV. It was founded by the Oklahoma City-based Oklahoma Publishing Company (operated by Edward K. Gaylord), which also owned KLZ radio (560 AM and 106.7 FM, now KWBL). KLZ-TV immediately took the CBS affiliation from KBTV (channel 9, now KUSA), owing to KLZ radio's longtime affiliation with the CBS Radio Network. In 1954, Gaylord sold the KLZ television and radio stations to Time-Life. The station's original studio facilities were housed in a renovated former auto dealership on the east side of the block at East 6th Avenue and Sherman Street.
During the 1950s, channel 7's staff included newscaster (later sports anchor and "Dialing for Dollars" host) Starr Yelland, who came to the station from KOA-TV (channel 4, now KCNC-TV); weatherman Warren Chandler, and Ed Scott, who hosted a children's program on the station as "Sheriff Scotty". In 1956, KLZ-TV presented the first remote television broadcast from a courtroom after general manager Hugh Terry won a court battle to allow cameras into the courtroom. In 1957, the station's weekly public affairs series "Panorama" (which was written and hosted by Gene Amole), became the first locally produced program in the Denver market to earn a Peabody Award (channel 7 has since won three more Peabody Awards for the investigative report "Honor and Betrayal: Scandal at the Air Force Academy" in 2003, reported by John Ferrugia and produced by Kurt Silver and current news director Jeff Harris, 2008's "Failing the Children: Deadly Mistakes", reported by Ferrugia and produced by Tom Burke and Arthur Kane, and 2012's "Investigating the Fire").
KIAH
Not pleased with Gaylord's about-face, on August 18, WB majority owner Time Warner filed several lawsuits in attempts to block the Gaylord-CBS affiliation deal under breach of contract and bad faith negotiation complaints, and enforce an alleged contract with Gaylord to affiliate with The WB. CBS and Gaylord came to a deal on September 14, when the two parties signed a ten-year agreement with CBS to affiliate with KTVT and KSTW (which would replace KIRO-TV, which would later return to the network in June 1997 after a two-year run as a UPN affiliate, as the Seattle market's CBS outlet). Because of the dispute between Time Warner and Gaylord, for six months after the network launched on January 11, 1995, Houston was the only top-10 television market in the U.S. that did not have a WB charter affiliate. (Dating to the network's January 1995 launch, The WB had been available locally on Prime Cable, Phonoscope Communications, and other local cable and satellite providers through the superstation feed of Chicago affiliate and Tribune television flagship WGN-TV [now conventional basic cable channel WGN America].) This status came to an end in the fall of 1995; on September 18, Gaylord announced it would sell KHTV to Tribune Broadcasting, the Chicago-based broadcasting subsidiary of the Tribune Company, for $95 million. Under the transactional terms, KHTV also signed an agreement to affiliate with The WB.
Nebraska Educational Telecommunications
Meanwhile, broadcasting pioneer John Fetzer purchased Lincoln's two commercial TV stations, KOLN-TV (channel 12) in August 1953 and KFOR-TV (channel 10) in February 1954. In order to avoid running afoul of Federal Communications Commission ownership regulations and to create a commercial broadcast monopoly for himself in the Lincoln market, Fetzer moved KOLN from its sign-on channel 12 to KFOR's channel 10 and offered to donate the channel 12 license to UNL. Since this would allow UNL to use more signal at less cost, the school quickly jumped at this proposal. KUON-TV went on the air on November 1, 1954, from KOLN-TV's studios, where the stations had to take turns using studio space; when KOLN was live, KUON had to broadcast a film, and vice versa. It was operated in trust for UNL until 1956, when the FCC granted the channel 12 license to the school's Board of Regents. In 1957, KUON moved to its own studios in the Temple Building on the UNL campus. In 1960, the Nebraska Council for Educational Television was created by six school districts in Nebraska. By 1961, 5 VHF and 3 UHF channels were allocated for educational use in Nebraska—the largest set ever approved for educational use in a single state. In 1963, the state legislature, per a committee's recommendation, approved plans for a statewide educational television network under the control of the Nebraska Educational Television Commission. A deal was quickly reached in which Lincoln's KUON-TV would remain under NU's ownership, but serve as the new state network's flagship.
KUOK-CA
The station first signed on the air in 1997 as KDSA-LP, carrying programming from The Worship Network, which had already broadcast on KMNZ (channel 62, now KOPX-TV) before and after that station became the market's Pax TV (now Ion Television) owned-and-operated station. In 2000, KDSA affiliated with religious broadcaster Daystar. After the affiliation switch to Univision was announced, Daystar programming was moved to upstart O&O station KOCM (channel 46) in December 2003. In the summer of 2004, the station requested to the Federal Communications Commission to have its call letters changed to KUOK-CA, which was made official that fall.
KHON-TV
In 1979, KHON and Maui's KAII were sold to Western-Sun Broadcasting, a subsidiary of Cowles Communications; the Hilo satellite KHAW-TV was sold to Simpson Communications, but leased back to Cowles/Western-Sun. In 1985, KHON and KAII were sold to Burnham Broadcasting as part of the Cowles family's liquidation of most of its media assets; Burnham would acquire KHAW outright the next year, reuniting the stations.
KTVQ (Oklahoma City)
KTVQ was the first television station to sign on in Oklahoma City since the Federal Communications Commission-imposed freeze on television broadcast licenses was lifted in 1953. KTVQ was the first of three commercial television station to sign on in the Oklahoma City market during 1953: another UHF station, KLPR-TV (channel 19, later KMPT; allocation now occupied by Cornerstone Television affiliate KUOT-CD), debuted as a DuMont Television Network affiliate on November 8; KWTV (channel 9) launched as a CBS affiliate on December 20. As with many early UHF stations, reception of KTVQ required television set owners to purchase a standalone UHF tuning adapter. (Set manufacturers were not required to equip televisions with UHF tuners until the Congress passed the All-Channel Receiver Act in 1961, with UHF tuners not included on all newer sets until 1964.) The station conducted a series of promotions to encourage converter adoption including events indended for electronics dealers as well as radio and television commercials directed at the general public.
KOPX-TV
The station first signed on the air on March 16, 1996 as KMNZ; it originally operated as an affiliate of InTV, a network operated by Paxson Communications (the forerunner of Ion Media Networks) that specialized in paid programming. On August 31, 1998, KOPX became a charter station of the family-oriented Pax TV network (later formatted as a general entertainment service as i: Independent Television, now Ion Television), with programming from Christian television network The Worship Network airing during the overnight hours.
KRIS-TV
KRIS-TV began broadcasting on May 22, 1956 as the first VHF television station in the area beating former rival KZTV by four months. It aired an analog signal on VHF channel 6 and had studios on South Staples Street in Downtown Corpus Christi. The channel has always been an NBC affiliate but shared secondary ABC status with KZTV until KIII launched on May 4, 1964. In 1989 it was a secondary Fox affiliate carrying a few shows during syndicated hours on the weekends. This ended in 1991 due to other affiliates becoming available on cable via Foxnet. KRIS-TV was the first television station in the United States to air hard liquor ads after a self-imposed 1948 industry ban was lifted. A commercial for Crown Royal whiskey aired on the station in 1996 featuring a puppy with a diploma and another carrying a Crown Royal bag in its mouth. Cordillera Communications bought the station in 1998.
KHOU
The station first signed on the air on March 23, 1953 as KGUL-TV (either GULF of Mexico or seaGULL). It was founded by Paul Taft of the Taft Broadcasting Co. (no relation to the Cincinnati-based Taft Broadcasting Company). Originally licensed to Galveston, it was the second television station to debut in the Houston market (after KPRC-TV, channel 2), taking the secondary CBS affiliation from KPRC-TV as the network's new primary affiliate, and has stayed aligned with the network ever since. One of the original investors in the station was actor James Stewart, along with a small group of other Galveston investors. The studio was located at 2002 45th Street in Galveston.
KOTA-TV
Until 2016, the KOTA-TV call sign, along with the virtual channel 3 assignment and the ABC affiliation, were associated with the station now known as KHME (channel 23). KOTA-TV had gone on the air in 1955 as a CBS affiliate owned by Helen Duhamel along with KOTA radio (1380 AM). The station also had secondary affiliations with NBC (until 1958) and ABC; it took on a joint-primary affiliation with both CBS and ABC in 1965, dropped CBS for NBC in 1970, lost ABC in 1976, and carried a secondary CBS affiliation from 1976 until 1981. KOTA became an ABC affiliate in 1984, and also carried some Fox programming from 1994 to 1996. The KHSD-TV call letters and virtual channel 11 were previously associated with the station now known as KQME (channel 5), which had been a KOTA-TV satellite since 1966.
KUHT
The station was established by Dr. John C. Schwarzwalder, a professor in the Radio-Television Department at the University of Houston, and first signed on the air on May 25, 1953 as the first station to broadcast under an educational non-profit license in the United States, and one of the earliest member stations of National Educational Television, which eventually merged into PBS. KUHT, co-located with FM station KUHF, originally operated from the Ezekiel W. Cullen Building on the University of Houston campus. Its dedication ceremonies were broadcast on June 8 of that year. The station's initial cost was an investment of $350,000, and had an annual operating budget of about $110,000. Originally licensed to both the University of Houston (UH) and the Houston Independent School District, UH became its sole licensee in 1959.
KOKH-TV
Blair formally took over KOKH's operations on October 1, 1979, converting it into the first commercial independent station in Oklahoma, and leaving OETA flagship KETA-TV as Oklahoma City's sole educational television station. The station's first broadcast was a special 30-minute program inaugurating the station's new format at 6:00 a.m. that morning; this was followed by KOKH's first entertainment program, the syndicated children's show "New Zoo Revue". It adopted a general entertainment format typical of a UHF-based independent, initially carrying a mix of cartoons, classic sitcoms, religious programs, some sports programming, and certain network programs preempted by NBC affiliate KTVY (channel 4, now KFOR-TV), ABC affiliate KOCO-TV (channel 5) and CBS affiliate KWTV (channel 9) to carry local or syndicated programming (among them, the NBC soap opera "Search for Tomorrow", which KTVY preempted from 1982 to 1985, and "Nightline", which ABC contracted KOKH-TV to show live-to-air from September 1983 to February 1985, after KOCO attempted to push the newsmagazine to a post-midnight slot). The station also heavily incorporated feature films onto its schedule, to such an extent that it was promoted as "Oklahoma's Great[est] Movie Station" from 1979 to 1986; KOKH usually carried four films per day – two each in the afternoon, and one to two films per night in prime time – Monday through Friday, and five to six films per day each weekend.
KFOR-TV (defunct)
In February 1954, broadcasting pioneer John Fetzer -- who had purchased KOLN in August 1953 -- purchased KFOR-TV for $300,000. The purchase included the station license and equipment but not the studio building or KFOR radio. To avoid running afoul of Federal Communications Commission ownership regulations (and to create a commercial broadcast monopoly for himself in the Lincoln market), Fetzer moved KOLN from its sign-on channel 12 to KFOR's channel 10 and donated the channel 12 facilities and the KFOR license to the University of Nebraska for its educational station, KUON-TV. KFOR-TV was shut down on March 13, 1954; KOLN picked up KFOR's ABC affiliation until Fetzer successfully persuaded the FCC to split Lincoln from the Omaha market, after which time it switched its affiliation to CBS.
KHQ-TV
While KHQ and KXLY were both granted authorization by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to build television stations on July 12, 1952, KHQ was first to sign on the air, going live on Saturday, December 20, 1952 at 6 p.m. with the film "Texas Trouble Shooters". The first NBC program KHQ broadcast was an episode of "Your Hit Parade", which aired that evening at 7:30. In addition to being the oldest television station east of the Cascades, KHQ is also the second-oldest station in Washington state. It was co-owned by Cowles Publishing along with KHQ radio (AM 590, now KQNT; and FM 98.1, now KISC). The radio stations were both sold off in 1985.
KCTV
In January 1955, Meredith signed a multi-year agreement with CBS to affiliate five of the television stations that the former owned at the time with the network. As part of the deal, Meredith agreed to affiliate KCMO-TV with CBS, as compensation for sister station KPHO-TV in Phoenix, Arizona losing its affiliation with the network (KPHO became an independent station after CBS moved its programming to KOOL-TV (now Fox owned-and-operated station KSAZ-TV), from which it would re-assume the network's Phoenix affiliation 39 years later in December 1994). CBS moved its Kansas City affiliation to channel 5 from KMBC-TV (channel 9) in September of that year; KMBC, meanwhile, would assume the local rights to the ABC affiliation.
KMPH-TV
The station first signed on the air on October 11, 1971; originally operating as an independent station, it was the first television station founded by the Pappas brothers, Mike, Pete and Harry, through their company, Pappas Television. The brothers already owned radio stations KGEN (1370 AM) and KBOS (94.9 FM) in Tulare, KMPH's original city of license. The station's original studios were located on Mooney Boulevard in Visalia. The funding for KMPH came from general manager Harry Pappas' plan of having hundreds of investors each investing a small amount of money that was needed to construct the station, rather than having one investor providing all the capital; as a result, the Pappas brothers had a combined ownership stake of only 30.5%, with the other 69.5% controlled by other investors.
KGET-TV
Founded by businessman Ed Urner, channel 17 first broadcast on November 8, 1959 as KLYD, an ABC affiliate. The station originally operated from studios located on Eye Street in Bakersfield. It was co-owned with KLYD-AM 1350 (now KLHC), and is one of very few TV stations to be started by a daytime-only radio station. The call letters changed to KJTV in 1969. In October of that year, Urner sold the station to Atlantic States Industries. On August 5, 1974, KJTV swapped affiliations with KBAK-TV (channel 29), becoming a CBS affiliate.
KTVH-DT
KTVH was the first television station in Helena, signing on the air on January 1, 1958 as KXLJ-TV, a semi-satellite of KXLF-TV in Butte. It has always been an NBC affiliate. In December 1962, Bob Magnus and two partners bought the station, weaned it from KXLF, and changed the call letters to KBLL-TV.
KAAH-TV
KAAH signed on the air December 23, 1982 under the call letters KSHO-TV, as Hawaii's first television station operating on the UHF band. Originally operating as a general entertainment independent station, the station offered a lineup of cartoons, sitcoms, drama series and movies during its early years. The station also aired Asian programming, primarily on weekends. In its early days, it carried business news programming from the Financial News Network, ethnic programming from the International Television Network, and carried ABC, CBS, and NBC programs that KITV (channel 4), KGMB (then on channel 9, now on channel 5) and KHON-TV (channel 2, now a Fox affiliate) chose to decline; programming from ABC's daytime lineup that was preempted by KITV was the most visible on KSHO's schedule.
KITV
Originally, the KHVH-TV calls belonged to a then-independent station that operated on VHF channel 13 in Honoulu when it began operations on May 5, 1957, but a year later on May 7, 1958, KHVH's parent company Kaiser Broadcasting would acquire KULA for $685,000. Since FCC rules prohibit a broadcaster from owning two TV stations in one market at the time, Kaiser returned the channel 13 license back to the FCC, allowing KHVH to merge with KULA on July 16, 1958 and change the channel 4 call letters to KHVH-TV in 1959. Kaiser then later sold the station to Western Telestations in December 1964 to help fund its new chain of independent stations on the U.S. mainland. Western Telestations became a wholly owned subsidiary of Lexington, Kentucky-based Starr Broadcasting Company in 1973 for $4 million. Around that time, the station adopted its present-day KITV call letters (standing for "Island TeleVision) to reflect its service of broadcasting to the Hawaiian Islands.
List of television stations in the San Francisco Bay Area
By the mid 1960s, more sets were being equipped to receive UHF signals and this led to additional UHF stations, beginning on January 2, 1968, with KBHK, operating on Channel 44, a station owned by Kaiser Broadcasting. In 1968, KSAN was acquired by Metromedia and renamed KNEW, then donated to KQED in 1970, which operated it as a secondary PBS channel under the call letters KQEC. The station changed hands again in 1988, becoming a foreign language station known as KMTP-TV.
KUHM-TV
The station was originally granted its construction permit on July 23, 1996; on September 16, it was assigned the call letters KAQR. On October 1, 1997, the station changed its call letters to KBCC; on March 27, 1998, channel 10 took on the KMTF call sign. On August 15, 1998, the station started broadcasting as the local Fox affiliate; KMTF also had a secondary affiliation with UPN. On July 1, 2001, due to low ratings and revenue, the station dropped the Fox affiliation and became an affiliate of Pax TV; area cable systems quickly added Foxnet to their lineups to continue carrying Fox programming. After KMTF's affiliation agreement with Pax TV expired in July 2005, the station switched to The WB; the switch made Helena the eighth market in which The WB 100+ Station Group (a predominantly cable-only service that brought WB programming to smaller markets) was seen on an over-the-air station. In September 2006, KMTF became the affiliate for The CW and become part of The CW Plus, the successor of The WB 100+ Station Group.
KHII-TV
On November 1, 2018, Irving, Texas-based Nexstar Media Group—which has owned Fox affiliate KHON-TV since January 2017—announced that it would acquire KFVE and the licenses of satellites KGMD-TV and KGMV from American Spirit Media for $6.5 million. Nexstar concurrently assumed the station's operations through a time brokerage agreement that took effect the day the transaction paperwork was filed with the FCC, under which Raycom forwarded the rights to certain managerial services involving KFVE – not counting certain other services to which Raycom would retain stewardship under the TBA – on a transitional basis. Under the deal, Nexstar also intends to integrate KFVE's operations into KHON's studio facilities at the Haiwaiki Tower on Piikoi and Waimanu Streets. However, Raycom will retain rights to the KFVE intellectual unit (call letters, syndicated and local programming), which will be shifted to a digital subchannel of either KHNL or KGMB as will KFVE-DT2's Bounce TV affiliation (which will be moved to KGMB-DT4); the KFVE calls will also be retained by Raycom for branding continuity. As such, Nexstar will likely assign new call letters to the channel 9 license as well as acquire programming to replace that being maintained by Raycom post-acquisition (which may include shifting the programming on KHON's CW-affiliated DT2 feed to the KFVE license, and/or the retention of the MyNetworkTV affiliation, which Raycom did not include in the KFVE intellectual property transaction.)
KCKN
KCKN signed on the air for the first time in December 1965 under the callsign KSWS. It was co-owned with KSWS-TV (now KOBR-TV). In 1987, the station changed call signs to KCKN. On November 13, 2000, the station changed its call sign to KXEM and on December 1st of that year to KINF. As KINF, the station aired a news/talk format. The station reverted back to the current KCKN calls on January 12 2006.
KFOR-TV
In 1953, OPUBCO – whose founder had long been an advocate for Oklahoma's educational system – donated $150,000 worth of existing WKY-TV broadcasting equipment to the Oklahoma Educational Television Authority (OETA) for its proposed station on channel 13 (flagship station KETA-TV, which would sign-on in April 1956). Because of the licensing freeze instituted by the FCC in September 1948, WKY-TV was the only television station in the Oklahoma City market until 1953; its initial two UHF-based competitors – KTVQ (channel 25, allocation now occupied by Fox affiliate KOKH-TV) and KLPR-TV (channel 19, allocation now occupied by Cornerstone Television affiliate KUOT-CD) – made their respective debuts on October 28 and November 8 of that year. Though KTVQ and KLPR respectively signed on as basic affiliates of ABC and DuMont, channel 4 continued to carry selected programs from the two networks, with ABC programming being retained through a secondary basic affiliation; in contrast, WKY disaffiliated from CBS one month prior to KWTV (channel 9) signing on as an affiliate of that network on December 20. WKY-TV remained a primary NBC and secondary DuMont affiliate until the latter network discontinued operations in August 1956. In 1958, Enid-based ABC affiliate KGEO-TV (channel 5) changed call letters to KOCO-TV, refocusing its coverage area to include Oklahoma City and assuming the local ABC programming rights; this left WKY-TV exclusively affiliated with NBC.
KIKU
KIKU reverted to being a full-time independent station after UPN shut down on September 17, 2006 (UPN and The WB's consolidation and shutdowns that month resulted in the creation of The CW Television Network). After the launch of The CW was announced, KIKU formally announced it would not seek to affiliate with the upstart network; The CW later signed an affiliation deal with KHON-TV, which carries the network on a digital subchannel.
KTVQ
The station began broadcasting on November 9, 1953, as KOOK-TV, Montana's second television station; Butte's KXLF-TV had begun in August. It was owned by Montana broadcasting pioneer Joe Sample and his Garryowen Corporation along with KOOK radio (AM 970, now KBUL). The station carried programming from all four major networks of the time—CBS, NBC, ABC and DuMont Television Network—but has always been a primary CBS affiliate. It lost DuMont when that network shut down in 1956 and lost NBC when KGHL-TV (channel 8, now KULR-TV) began in 1958; between 1956 and 1961, when it closed, the station was also a NTA Film Network affiliate. The station changed its callsign to KTVQ on September 5, 1972.
KSHB-TV
The station first signed on the air on August 10, 1970 as KBMA-TV (standing for Businessmen's Assurance Company of America, which provided the initial funding for the station at its founding). Founded by Wilson D. Grant, it originally operated as an independent station, with a programming format consisting of off-network sitcoms and drama series, some first-run syndicated programs and feature films. However, it had much stronger financing and a better inventory of programming than the first independent ever to operate in the Kansas City market, KCIT-TV (channel 50, now Ion Television owned-and-operated station KPXE-TV; the KCIT calls now reside on a Fox-affiliated television station in Amarillo, Texas), which ceased operations in July 1971, at which time, channel 41 became the only independent station in Kansas City for the next twelve years (channel 50 eventually returned to the air in December 1978 as a religious independent station).
KFOR-TV
The Oklahoma Publishing Company, through its WKY Radiophone Company subsidiary, eventually acquired or launched other television and radio stations during and after its stewardship of WKY-TV, including: WSFA (TV) and WSFA (AM) (now WLWI [AM]) in Montgomery, Alabama (in 1955); WTVT in Tampa, Florida (in 1956); WUHF-TV (now WVTV) in Milwaukee (in 1966); KTVT in Fort Worth (in 1962); KHTV (now KIAH) in Houston (built and signed on by the company in 1967); and KTNT-TV (now KSTW) in Seattle (in 1973). WKY-TV served as the company's flagship station, and in October 1956, OPUBCO renamed its broadcast group, the WKY Television System. In December 1954, a half-hour WKY-TV special, "Gift of God", which outlined the medical and legal aspects of corneal transplants and included a film of a transplant operation project, led to the development of a statewide eye bank through a partnership with the Lions Clubs of Oklahoma and Lions Sight Conservation Foundation; by 1957, more than 16,400 donor cards (700 of which were received within 1½ hours after the special's initial airing, including one signed by then-Oklahoma Governor Raymond Gary) were signed to permit donation of participants' eyes to the bank after their deaths and 346 Oklahomans (including two who had underwent transplant surgery within 48 hours of the broadcast) had received corneal transplants to restore their sight.
KHON-TV
On October 23, 2006, KHON-TV was announced as the Honolulu affiliate of The CW, carrying the network on its second digital subchannel. Beginning in March 2006 (two months after the network's launch was announced), The CW had struggled to find an affiliate in Honolulu after the market's then-WB affiliate KFVE, which was seen by many as the likeliest candidate to join The CW, signed with competing network MyNetworkTV, and former UPN affiliate KIKU (which aired the network's programming in the afternoons) declined to take the CW affiliation.
KHON-TV
For most of its first 30 years on the air, KHON aired the NBC schedule on one-week tape delay, with some shows airing out of pattern. For instance, it aired "NBC Nightly News" after 12 midnight or 6 a.m. the following morning via air mail. The Saturday morning schedule aired on Sunday morning, and "Meet the Press" aired on Saturday morning on a one-week delay. It would not be until 1985 when KHON would start airing NBC programming the same day as the U.S. mainland thanks to advances in satellite technology.
Since its switch from NBC in 1996, KHON clears the entire Fox network schedule (nightly primetime, Saturday late night, and Fox Sports programming, along with the network's Saturday morning infomercial block, "Weekend Marketplace" and the political talk show "Fox News Sunday"). However, the station presently airs Fox's Sunday night programming one hour later than other affiliates, from 7 to 10 p.m. Hawaii Time (instead of the 6–9 p.m. slot common with other network affiliates in Hawaii), and the network's "Animation Domination HD" late night lineup on Saturdays airs a half-hour later airing at 10:30 p.m., due to its nightly 10 p.m. newscast. In 2014, KHON launched a half-hour primetime newscast at 9 p.m. on weekdays, followed by a second-run syndicated program, while network programs air in that hour on Sundays (syndicated programs may air in place of network shows if Fox airs a sporting event that is scheduled for primetime on the U.S. mainland, but due to the time differences between Hawaii and the continental United States, airs on KHON earlier that day).
KXAN-TV
The station first signed on the air on February 12, 1965, as KHFI-TV, broadcasting on UHF channel 42. It was owned by the Kingsbury family, along with KHFI radio (970 AM, now KTSN at 1490; and 98.3 FM, now KVET-FM at 98.1). KHFI was the second television station in Austin, signing on a little more than twelve years after KTBC-TV (channel 7). Although Austin was big enough to support three television stations as early as the 1950s, KTBC was the only VHF license in the area. Until 1964, UHF stations could only be seen with an expensive converter, and even then picture quality left much to be desired. Additionally, UHF signals usually do not travel very far over long distances or over rugged terrain. This made several potential owners skittish about the prospects for UHF in a market that stretched from Mason in the west to La Grange in the east, and also included much of the Hill Country.
KPHO-TV
KPHO-TV was the sole English-language independent station in Phoenix until 1979, when KNXV-TV (channel 15) signed on with a general entertainment format during the day and subscription-based service ONTV at night (KNXV became a full-time general entertainment station by 1983). Even though channel 5 was the leading independent in the market, the upstart Fox Broadcasting Company opted to affiliate with channel 15 in 1986 after the E. W. Scripps Company purchased the station, promising to upgrade its syndicated programming and to launch a newscast (KPHO's other sister stations, KVVU-TV in Las Vegas and WOFL in Orlando landed affiliations with Fox upon its October 1986 launch, with the latter now owned by the network outright). Although it never did begin a newscast until the final months of its tenure with Fox in 1994, landing the Fox affiliation made KNXV a very strong competitor against KPHO. Early in 1994, KPHO signed a verbal agreement—but not a contractual one—with The WB, which was set to launch the following year in January 1995.
KAUT-TV
On September 8, 2008, KFOR began producing a two-hour morning newscast for the station (separate from the traditional morning newscast seen on channel 4), under the title "Rise and Shine Oklahoma" (later shortened to simply "Rise and Shine" in April 2012). In addition to airing opposite "Today" on KFOR-TV, the program – which airs weekdays from 7:00 to 9:00 a.m. – competes against the third and fourth hours of KOKH's four-hour in-house morning newscast, which premiered in April 2007 as a three-hour broadcast; over time, "Rise and Shine" evolved into a more irreverent format, infusing more serious news content with light-hearted and humorous news stories and features (formatted similarly to that of Chicago sister station WGN-TV's morning newscast).
KNHL
KNHL was founded in 1956 as KHAS-TV by a group of local investors headed by Fred A. Seaton, publisher of the "Hastings Tribune" newspaper and Secretary of the Interior during the Eisenhower Administration. It took its calls from KHAS radio, which Seaton had founded in 1940. In 1967, it was one of the first stations in the area to acquire color broadcasting equipment.
KUHF
KUHF first began airing programs on November 6, 1950, at the 91.3 Megahertz frequency. The studios were located in the Ezekiel W. Cullen Building on the University of Houston campus. KUHT co-located with KUHF when the television station debuted in 1953. Broadcasting at 9,600 watts, the station was operated by student volunteers. In 1964, KUHF and KUHT moved to the former KNUZ-TV studios that were vacated by KTRK-TV a few years earlier. This studio would host both stations for the next 35 years, until the move across campus to the current Melcher Center for Public Broadcasting in 2000. The station increased its signal strength to 12,000 watts in 1969.
KLFY-TV
The station signed on June 3, 1955. Owned by Camellia Broadcasting at the time alongside KLFY radio (AM 1420, now KPEL), it was intended to share time on channel 10 with KVOL-TV, owned at the time by the Morgan Murphy Stations along with KVOL, KVOL-FM (96.1, off-air and moved to Lake Charles by 1976), and "The Daily Advertiser". However, prior to the station's launch, KVOL's owners decided to yield the channel's operations to Camellia Broadcasting; Morgan Murphy later filed an interest to broadcast on channel 3, but this was denied. Its original studio facilities were located on Jefferson Street in downtown Lafayette. It has always been a CBS affiliate, though it aired some ABC programming until KATC signed on in 1962. During the late 1950s, the station was also briefly affiliated with the NTA Film Network. In 1965, Camellia Broadcasting sold KLFY to Texoma Broadcasters, which owned Waco, TX station KWTX, and was partially owned by Lyndon B. Johnson along with businessman Milford N. "Buddy" Bostick. The station currently operates out of newer, larger purpose-built studio facilities on Eraste Landry Road, on the city's south side. KLFY was the first station in Lafayette and one of the earliest in Louisiana to broadcast in stereo, launching stereo broadcasting in mid-1986.
Young Broadcasting acquired the station from Texoma Broadcasters in 1988. Young, and KLFY with it, was sold to Media General in 2013. This marked Media General's return to Louisiana after selling Alexandria NBC affiliate KALB to Hoak Media in 2008.
KX Television
The network consists of four stations:
The group was formed in 1958 when John Boler, owner of KBMB-TV in Bismarck (founded in 1955), sold a half-interest in his station to Minot businessman Chester Reiten. Boler and Reiten then teamed up to buy North Dakota's oldest station, KCJB-TV in Minot (founded in 1953), and changed its call letters to KXMC-TV. The two stations formed a mini-network, with KXMC as the flagship station even though KBMB was the larger station. A year later, KBMB changed its calls to KXMB.
Montana Television Network
MTN can be traced back to 1955, when Montana broadcasting pioneer Joe Sample, owner of KOOK-TV (now KTVQ) in Billings, began sharing programs with KXLF-TV in Butte. KXLF had signed on three months before KOOK in 1953. KFBB-TV in Great Falls and KMSO-TV in Missoula (now KECI-TV) then began sharing programs with KOOK and KXLF in 1958. KXLJ-TV in Helena (now KTVH) signed on as a satellite of KXLF in 1958.
KHON-TV
The sale was controversial due to Montecito's plan to replace 35 of KHON's 111 employees with automation. KHON employees first learned of the plan on January 12, when general manager Rick Blangiardi notified the staff of his intent to resign once the sale was finalized. At a station staff meeting that afternoon, SJL announced the layoffs, which would take place in two phases over the course of two months. Anchor Joe Moore announced the plan at the end of that evening's 6:00 p.m. newscast, and stated his concern that the change would impact the station's ability to serve its viewers. Montecito responded on January 15, assuring the public that no reporters or anchors would be affected, and the 6:00 p.m. newscast would be largely unchanged from the viewer's perspective.
KTVG-TV
KTVG and KSNB-TV dropped the secondary UPN affiliation in January 1998; however, the network's programming returned in late 2000, and would remain until KOLN (channel 10) and KGIN (channel 11) launched a UPN-affiliated subchannel on September 1, 2005. The network shut down a year later in favor of The CW, which was seen on KCWL-TV (channel 51) until June 2009, when it became KFXL-TV and started simulcasting KSNB/KTVG. Also in 2000, KSNB and KTVG added a secondary affiliation with Pax TV, renamed i: Independent Television on July 1, 2005 and Ion Television on January 29, 2007. The Ion affiliation was later discontinued.
KABC-TV
Channel 7 first signed on the air under the callsign KECA-TV on September 16, 1949. At the same time, it was the last television station licensed to Los Angeles operating on the VHF band to sign on, and the last of ABC's five original owned-and-operated stations to make its debut (after San Francisco's KGO-TV, which signed on four months earlier). It was also the last of the Los Angeles "classic seven" TV stations to sign on (all of them were originally on the VHF dial, prior to the 2009 digital conversions). In addition, it was the last new Los Angeles TV station to sign on from 1949 until 1962 when the first two UHF Los Angeles stations launched (they were KIIX [now KWHY-TV] and KMEX-TV, channels 22 and 34, respectively).
KNOX-TV
KNOX broadcast on channel 10 as an ABC affiliate. The station later signed on Winnipeg-targeted border blaster KCND-TV, which was a semi-satellite of KNOX, on November 7, 1960. While KNOX was a primary ABC affiliate, the station also carried programming from NBC.
In 1962, KNOX and KCND, along with KEND-TV (now KVLY-TV) in Fargo, North Dakota, were purchased for $675,200 by the Pembina Broadcasting Company, a group led by Ferris Traylor, the part-owner of an Indiana TV station. KNOX merged with KEND, and KNOX shut down in 1964 after KEND (known as KTHI-TV at this time) began transmitting from a tower in Blanchard, between Fargo and Grand Forks. After KNOX-TV's shutdown, the Grand Forks area did not have a local television station until NBC affiliate WDAZ-TV signed on in 1967.
KHON-TV
The network premiered on KHON's main channel on October 24 and 25 with airings of the regular CW schedule before moving to digital channel 2.2 on October 30; this was possible due to Fox's World Series coverage airing live at 2 p.m. Honolulu time, freeing up prime time. On December 11, 2006, Oceanic Time Warner Cable began offering KHON-TV's CW subchannel on digital cable channel 93; until the fall of 2011, the subchannel used its cable channel position within its branding. The channel is currently available only on cable on Kauai, since KHON's Lihue translator only operates an analog signal.
KHON-TV
In 1999, KHON relocated from its longtime studios on Auahi Street and moved to their current studios on Piikoi Street. Also on April 1 of that year, USA sold all four of its Fox stations to Indianapolis-based Emmis Communications for $307 million in cash and stock, as part of a sale of its major network affiliates in order to concentrate on its formerly HSN-affiliated independent stations.
KIAH
The station first signed on the air on January 6, 1967 as an independent station under the callsign KHTV (standing for "Houston TeleVision"). Prior to its debut, the channel 39 allocation in Houston belonged to the now-defunct DuMont affiliate KNUZ-TV, which existed during the mid-1950s. Channel 39 was originally owned by the WKY Television System, a subsidiary of the Oklahoma Publishing Company, publishers of Oklahoma City's major daily newspaper, "The Daily Oklahoman". After the company's namesake station, WKY-TV, was sold in 1976, the WKY Television System became Gaylord Broadcasting, named for the family that owned Oklahoma Publishing.
As Houston's first general entertainment independent station, KHTV ran a schedule of programs including children's shows, syndicated programs, movies, religious programs and some sporting events. One of its best known locally produced programs was "Houston Wrestling", hosted by local promoter Paul Boesch, which aired on Saturday evenings (having been taped the night before at the weekly live shows in the Sam Houston Coliseum). From 1983 to 1985, the station was branded on-air as "KHTV 39 Gold". It was the leading independent station in Houston, even as competitors entered the market (including KVRL/KDOG (channel 26, now KRIV), when it launched in 1971). During this time, KHTV was distributed to cable providers as a regional superstation of sorts, with carriage on systems as far east as Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
KOLN
KOLN-TV signed on for the first time on February 18, 1953, on channel 12 as Nebraska's third television station and the first outside Omaha. It was owned by Cornhusker Radio and Television Corporation along with KOLN radio (1400 AM; now KLIN). In August 1953, it was purchased by broadcasting pioneer John Fetzer. In February 1954, Fetzer purchased Lincoln's other TV station, KFOR-TV, channel 10, which had launched a few months after KOLN. To avoid running afoul of FCC ownership regulations (and to create a commercial broadcast monopoly for himself in the Lincoln market), Fetzer moved KOLN to channel 10 and donated the channel 12 facilities and the KFOR license to the University of Nebraska for its educational station, KUON-TV. At the same time, Fetzer obtained FCC permission to boost KOLN's visual effective radiated power to the then-maximum 316 kW, to be broadcast from a new tower west of Lincoln. (At sign-on, KOLN was broadcasting at 26.9 kW visual ERP from a tower next to its studio.)
KWTX-TV
Long plagued by financial difficulties due to being the only UHF station in the market at a time when UHF tuners were rare, KANG, owned by Texas Broadcasting Company, shut down at the end of 1955. KWTX bought KANG's assets in exchange for a 29% share in the combined operation. KWTX picked up the CBS affiliation as a result of the merger with KANG, and has been a primary CBS affiliate ever since. It shared a secondary ABC affiliation with KCEN-TV (channel 6) until 1983. KCEN later briefly switched to being a full-time ABC affiliate.
KEVN-LD
Until 2016, the KEVN call sign, Fox affiliation, and virtual channel 7 assignment were used on the broadcast license presently associated with KOTA-TV. KEVN-TV had launched in 1976 as an ABC affiliate, replacing KRSD-TV, which had signed on in 1958 as an NBC affiliate with a secondary ABC affiliation, switched to CBS in 1970, and was denied license renewal in 1971; KRSD shut down several months before KEVN began operations. KEVN switched to NBC in 1984 and Fox in 1996. The original KEVN was also seen on a satellite station in Lead, KIVV-TV (channel 5), which operated on the license now used by KHSD-TV; virtual channel 5 is presently used by KQME, a satellite of MeTV affiliate KHME (channel 23).
KTFN
The station first signed on the air on June 22, 1991 as KJLF-TV; it originally served as an English-language outlet, formatted as religious independent station. The station was founded by Pete E. Meryl Warren III—who had signed on KCIK-TV (channel 14, now KFOX-TV) in August 1979—and was run by the Warren family, with John Warren serving as the station manager. Initially, KJLF-TV ran mostly Christian-oriented programs mixed with several hours of secular programs such as sporting and hunting shows, westerns, some older sitcoms, public domain movies and low-budget barter cartoons. Gradually, the religious programming decreased and was replaced with more classic sitcoms and cartoons, causing the station to evolve into a more traditional independent.
KNUZ-TV
KNUZ-TV, UHF analog channel 39, was a DuMont-affiliated television station licensed to Houston, Texas, United States. It signed on the air on October 23, 1953, as Houston's fourth television station and first UHF station. KNUZ-TV's studios were located at 4343 Cullen Boulevard in the Texas Television Center on the University of Houston campus. The station went dark on June 25, 1954; its studio facility and equipment were acquired by upstart ABC affiliate (now owned-and-operated station) KTRK-TV (channel 13) in order to expedite its debut. KTRK began broadcasting with the acquired assets a few months later, on November 20, 1954.
The studios were used by KTRK-TV until they moved to their current studio on Bissonnet Street in 1961. Then the studios were occupied by KUHT in 1964 and remained there for 35 years. Eventually, they departed across campus to the current LeRoy and Lucile Melcher Center for Public Broadcasting facility in 2000.
KITV
The station signed on the air on April 16, 1954, as KULA-TV, launching at 10:30 a.m. with a test pattern, followed by its inaugural sign-on premiere party at 6 p.m., and two movies from 7 p.m. to 9:45 p.m. Prior to its launch, it had planned to use the call letters KABS-TV before settling on the KULA calls, which came from its then sister AM station under the ownership of Pacific Frontier Broadcasting Company, whose owner Jack A. Burnett had applied for a TV license to operate KULA on channel 2 as the channel 4 allocation was being sought after by rival radio stations KGU and KPOA, but after the application by the two stations fell through the FCC awarded the channel 4 allocation to Burnett instead. The station has been an ABC affiliate since its sign-on, making KITV one of the two major television stations in Honolulu that has never changed its network affiliation; local CBS outlet KGMB (originally on channel 9, now on channel 5) is the other. They are also the only station in Hawaii to broadcast in the same channel position since its sign-on. It also shared programming from Dumont with KONA (then at channel 11, now KHON-TV on channel 2), until its demise in 1955.
KNAZ-TV
The station was founded by Wendell Elliott, Sr. as KOAI-TV and began operations on May 2, 1970. Elliott had managed a television station in Dodge City, Kansas in the 1950s, had founded a station in Ensign, Kansas, and was a founder of the Kansas Association of Broadcasters in 1951. Elliott died in 1974, and control of the station passed to a group headed by his son, Wendell Elliott, Jr. For most of the earlier part of its history, the station was unable to afford microwave feeds for network or syndicated programming. Instead, it operated with what was called a "dirty feed," where station engineers switched to and from the signal of KTAR-TV (now KPNX) in Phoenix and had to cover up KTAR-TV's local content (including commercials and news) with its own programming. Programming included a daily live one hour program immediately following the "Today" show, evening "rip and read" newscasts with a single talent and locked-down cameras, plus a weekly program of news from the Navajo Nation, spoken in Navajo. Little more is known about the early operations of the station, but Northern Arizona University maintains an archive of KOAI-TV material from 1975 and later.
KFOR-TV (defunct)
KFOR-TV signed on May 31, 1953, three months after the launch of the first Lincoln station, KOLN. It was founded by Lincoln-based Cornbelt Broadcasting, which also operated KFOR radio. New studios were built for the station at 48th and Vine streets. The station's transmitter was located on the KFOR radio tower a few blocks away from the studio. It was the ABC affiliate for the Omaha-Lincoln market. However, according to longtime KOLN personality Leta Powell Drake, Omaha stations KMTV and WOW-TV (now WOWT), both of which had a secondary ABC affiliation, had first choice on ABC programming and blocked KFOR from airing ABC's most popular shows during prime time.
KJRH-TV
Three months before it signed on, Skelly chose instead to assign the television station the KVOO call letters (which stood for "Voice Of Oklahoma") that had been used by the companion radio station since it signed on in June 1926. (The station's initial slogan was an extension of the one originated by KVOO radio, "The Eyes of Oklahoma".) The station began test broadcasts on November 15, 1954, originally transmitting over a closed-circuit television system. KVOO-TV officially commenced regular programming three weeks later on December 5, with a 39-minute special presentation at 3:00 p.m. that afternoon, respectively featuring speeches from Skelly, Kerr and McGee and a film from NBC dedicating the station's launch; following that dedication program was the first NBC network program aired by channel 2, "Meet the Press". The station – which originally broadcast for 17 hours each day from 7:00 a.m. to midnight – originally operated from studio facilities located in the Akdar Building on South Denver Avenue (between West Third and West Fourth Streets) in downtown Tulsa. KVOO was also the third television station (behind CBS affiliate KOTV [channel 6], which debuted on October 22, 1949, and KCEB) and the second VHF television station to sign on in the Tulsa market. (ABC affiliate KTVX [channel 8, now KTUL] did not have its city of license reassigned from Muskogee to Tulsa until August 1957, although that station had been operating auxiliary studio facilities located at Lookout Mountain in southwest Tulsa from the time it began operations.)
KMTP-TV
In 1954, the station began commercially as "KSAN-TV" on UHF channel 32 as one of the first UHF TV stations in California. Owned by the Patterson family, operators of KSAN radio, the station was a small production studio and broadcast operation housed in the renovated Sutro Mansion in San Francisco and showed an amalgam of boxing and wrestling matches, medical conferences, and old movies. The station went off the air in 1958.
KHGI-TV
KHGI signed on December 24, 1953 as KHOL-TV, a CBS and DuMont affiliate based in Holdrege. The station was founded by the Bi-States Co., headed by Holdrege doctor F. Wayne Brewster. In 1954, the station also added secondary affiliations with ABC and NBC; however, KHOL nearly lost CBS that same year, before protests from viewers led the network to sign a two-year renewal of the station's affiliation. Channel 13 would lose NBC a year later in advance of the 1956 launch of KHAS-TV (channel 5, now KNHL). DuMont would end network operations in 1956, and KHOL-TV briefly affiliated with the NTA Film Network. That same year, on February 9, KHOL added a satellite in Hayes Center, KHPL-TV (channel 6).
WKHA
The station signed on the air at exactly 3:00 PM Eastern time on the afternoon of September 23, 1968, as one of the ten charter stations of the Kentucky Educational Television network, with Lexington's WKLE acting as the network flagship. WKHA, along with fellow KET satellites WKPI-TV in nearby Pikeville and WKSO-TV of Somerset, were the first television stations to sign on the air in service to the Eastern Kentucky Coalfield and Mountains region. All of the network's satellites were strategically located to serve as much of the state as possible, and by launching three satellites in the same region, it is almost guaranteed that a viewer in this area can receive, at the very least, a KET-aligned signal. Until the network signed on its ten charter satellites, the Eastern Kentucky mountains region was one of the last remaining areas of the United States without a television station, commercial or non-commercial, in the area. The area did not get its first commercial television station until NBC affiliate WKYH-TV signed on the air in Summer 1969. That station, which has since become CBS affiliate WYMT-TV (a semi-satellite of Lexington-based WKYT-TV) in 1985, is the only full-power commercial station based in this region. Cable or satellite television service is necessary to receive all other networks (e.g. ABC, Fox, NBC, and/or The CW) since Lexington's commercial stations do not operate any low-powered translators in the area. This area is highly penetrated with cable subscribers. Some areas southwest of Hazard, however, are close enough to the Knoxville, Tennessee area to pick up those signals over-the-air. The mountains pretty much curb the Bristol, Tennessee/Virginia television signals to come into the area.
KAAH-TV
KAAH operated KLEI in Kailua-Kona as a satellite station during the 1990s; that station is now a full-power standalone outlet serving as an affiliate of Telemundo. KAAH formerly operated a low-power repeater station, K34HC in Hilo. TBN took K34HC off-the-air on April 13, 2010 due to declining financial support, which has been attributed to the digital transition.
KNHL
On November 20, 2013, Gray Television announced it would purchase Hoak Media in a $335 million deal. As Gray already owned KOLN/KGIN, KHAS was to be sold to Excalibur Broadcasting and operated by Gray under a local marketing agreement. However, in the wake of heightened FCC scrutiny of local marketing agreements, on June 11, 2014, KHAS-TV announced it would leave the air at midnight on June 13 and NBC programming would be moved to KSNB-TV and the digital subcarrier of KOLN/KGIN. KHAS would then be sold off to minority interests, which under this arrangement would allow the station to return to the air on the conditions that the new owner operate the station independently (under minority, female and/or non-profit ownership) and not make any partnerships or sharing arrangements with other broadcasters.
KGWN-TV
KSTF signed-on August 7, 1955 as a semi-satellite of what was then KFBC-TV. In 1958, KOTA-TV in Rapid City, South Dakota put its own satellite station on-the-air in Scottsbluff, KDUH-TV (now KNEP). During the next twelve years, there was a great amount of confusion among Scottsbluff viewers especially when the two stations aired the same program simultaneously. Both had unusual "joint primary" affiliations with ABC and CBS from 1965 onwards. Although KFBC/KSTF slightly favored ABC and KOTA/KDUH slightly favored CBS, it did not help the duplication problem. However, in 1970, KDUH, along with KOTA, dropped CBS for NBC.
WKBN-TV
The station went on-the-air January 11, 1953 as the first UHF station in Ohio and the sixth in the nation, beating WFMJ-TV to the air by 56 days. It was owned by the Williamson family along with WKBN radio (AM 570 and FM 98.9, now WMXY) as part of the WKBN Broadcasting Corporation. The radio station was a CBS Radio affiliate, and out of loyalty, the television station has been a primary CBS affiliate from the beginning. It also had secondary affiliations with ABC and DuMont. Shortly afterward, WKST-TV in nearby New Castle, Pennsylvania (now WYTV) signed-on and took the ABC affiliation. With DuMont off-the-air three years later, WKBN was solely affiliated with CBS by the end of 1956.
KXLF-TV
In 1995, KXLF launched a low-power repeater in Helena, K25EJ (channel 25); on August 22, 2000, that station changed its call letters to KXLH-LP. In 2005, KXLH's operating responsibilities were transferred to sister station KRTV; it now operates as KXLH-LD (channel 9). During the early 2000s, KXLF-TV had a secondary affiliation with UPN; the network shut down in 2006 as part of the formation of The CW, which is seen on a digital subchannel of KXLF and KBZK. After the DTV conversion on June 12, 2009, KXLF was one of more than 10 stations asking for a power increase because of the problems with VHF digital signals, particularly VHF-LO frequencies.
KMOH-TV
In June 1998, Infante sold the station to Hispanic Television of Phoenix, who in turn sold it to Television Apogeo de Phoenix in October. In 1999, the FCC granted Fox owned-and-operated station KSAZ-TV (channel 10) permission to build its digital signal on channel 31; as a result, K31DI was forced to move to another channel. Television Apogeo took the station silent in March 2000, but returned it to the air in October, when the company was granted Special Temporary Authority to operate on channel 43. Television Apogeo licensed the station on channel 43 with new call letters, K43GV, in December 2001. By this time, it was simulcasting Telemundo programming from KDRX-CA (now KDPH-LP).
KWHY-TV
The UHF channel 22 allocation in Los Angeles was first used for KBIC in 1954 (however, that station had never aired any programming other than a test pattern). In 1962, the station's license changed hands and was relaunched as KIIX, airing a schedule of entirely African American-oriented programming, before it shut down on September 22, 1964. On March 21, 1965, the station returned to the air as general entertainment independent station KPOL-TV, which was co-owned alongside KPOL radio; the station carried a minimal schedule consisting of old movies and syndicated programming. It was sold again in 1966 to the family of Thomas S. Bunn, who changed the station's call letters to KWHY-TV, it became operated by Coast Television Corporation. Together with Quotron, who then provided all brokerage houses with real-time stock market information, launched the first business news service for television (at one time, it grew to a 12-station network, including affiliates in New York City and Chicago). The tickertape was delayed by 15 minutes and airtime was given away to stock brokers while newsreaders "ripped and read" from the newswires. Although KWHY was not profitable, it was a staple in thousands of offices, restaurants and homes each trading day.
KTEN
KTEN's history traces back to 1952, when Eastern Oklahoma Television Inc.—a locally based company owned by Bill Hoover, C. C. Morris and Brown Morris, who also owned radio stations KADA (1230 AM) in Ada and KWSH (1260 AM) in Wewoka through their Oklahoma Broadcasting Company subsidiary – applied with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) for a license to operate a television station on VHF channel 12 (the 1952 assignment of the frequency to the Sherman–Ada media market under the Sixth Report and Order consequently resulted in the FCC also moving the channel 12 allocation originally assigned to Waco, Texas westward to Abilene—where it would become occupied by present-day ABC affiliate KTXS-TV—to avoid interference with any Sherman-Ada station that would be assigned to that channel). Hoover's firm purchased a plot of land located north of Ada with the intention to build a studio and transmitter facility for the station, for which it originally filed to use KEO as its call letters. Shortly after the FCC granted the license application to the Hoover group (now given the call letters KEOK) in 1953, Eastern Oklahoma Television reached an agreement with the FCC to assign its proposed station to VHF channel 10, a second television frequency allocated to the Sherman–Ada market under the Report and Order memorandum; the group subsequently applied to use KTEN as its call sign, becoming the first applicant to incorporate their station's channel number into its call letters in an FCC license filing.
KPNX
The station first signed on the air on April 23, 1953, as KTYL-TV; it was originally owned by the Harkins Theatre Group, which also owned KTYL radio (1490 AM, now KIHP on 1310, and 104.7 FM, now KZZP). The station's original studios were located in the then-small town of Mesa. The station has been Phoenix's NBC affiliate since its sign-on. Previously, all four networks of the day were shoehorned on CBS primary affiliate KPHO-TV (channel 5). Channel 12 carried some programming from the DuMont Television Network (an affiliation that was shared with KPHO) until that network's demise in 1956.