KTXL

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KTXL, (Fox 40), is the Fox affiliate based in Sacramento, California. It is owned by the Tribune Company. Its transmitter is located near Walnut Grove, California, and studios are located on Fruitridge Road in South Sacramento between Highway 99 and Stockton Blvd.

History

The channel 40 frequency in Sacramento was first occupied in September of 1953 by KCCC, affiliated with all four television networks: ABC, CBS, NBC and the DuMont Television Network. KCCC's first broadcast was the 1953 World Series. The station became a primary ABC affiliate by 1955, after KCRA-TV and KBET-TV(now KXTV) signed on; and dropped DuMont after that network folded in 1956. [1] It was the Sacramento-Stockton-Modesto area's first television station. However, as a UHF station, it suffered in the ratings because TV sets were not required to have UHF tuning until 1964. Although its fate was sealed when the first VHF stations signed on in the area, it managed to hang on until 1957. The ABC affiliation moved to KOVR after KCCC signed off when an agreement was made between KCCC-TV and KOVR to merge operations and end KCCC programming.

KCCC (now off air) was then sold to a group of broadcasters who would return the station to the air in 1959 as KVUE, (K-VUE) broadcasting from studios near the old California state fairgrounds off of Stockton Blvd. The station operated for about six months before falling silent again. That was the end of the original channel 40 license. Eleven years later, KVUE would be the call letters of an ABC-affiliated station in Austin, Texas today.

A new group of broadcasters headed by Jack Matranga, former owner and co-founder of KGMS AM/FM radio in Sacramento applied for a license to operate channel 40. On October 26, 1968, KTXL signed on, operating as an independent station for nearly the first two decades of its existence. It was then known as TV40. The station gained a huge advantage early on when its original owner won the local syndicated rights to a massive number of movies, including classic and contemporary films. At one point, it had one of the largest film libraries in the Sacramento area. In addition, KTXL ventured into in-house productions, such as the children's program "Captain Mitch" and "Big Time Wrestling". The latter show aired until 1979, and was syndicated to several stations in California, Utah, Alaska and Hawaii. KTXL was one of the few stations to hold syndicated rights to the entire Merrie Melodies/Looney Tunes cartoon libraries (up until recently, different companies held different components of the cartoon output).

In 1974, KTXL became the first area station to air a 10pm newscast (originally only five days a week, and later seven days a week), and in 1977 began a summer tradition by showcasing some of the greatest films ever made in annual "Summer Film Festivals".

In 1981, KTXL made television history by showing the 1978 movie The Deer Hunter (and later many other movies) uncut and unedited, complete with objectionable material--this kind of policy has been tightened somewhat in succeeding years.

All of this made KTXL one of the leading independent stations in the West. It also attained regional-superstation status via land-microwave relay to nearly every cable system north of the Bay Area, as well as several cable systems in Oregon,Montana and Nevada.

KTXL has long been known for ending a program or movie before the closing credits, and viewers should know this is not the way these shows/films were intended to be seen.

KTXL started broadcasting from its new 2000-foot "Monster Tower" in October 1985, significantly increasing its signal strength and adding stereo capability. Initially, the station would only turn on the stereo signal during stereo programming. This sometimes resulted in the staff forgetting to turn it on right at the beginning of a stereo program.

In 1986, an era of local television broadcasting ended as KTXL decided to join the newly formed Fox Broadcasting Company. In 1987, Jack Matranga decided to sell KTXL to Renaissance Communications. Today, KTXL (now labeled FOX40) continues as such an affiliate. Its nightly newscasts follow a "hard-edged" format (with crime stories among its headlines), while following the lead of many ten o'clock newscasts by reserving its sportscasts for the final segment (in an attempt to lure many viewers to all-night cable sports channels such as ESPN and Fox Sports Net for further sports coverage). Most Fox affiliates, since the mid-1990's, would evolve their daytime programming lineup by leaning away from classic sitcoms and cartoons toward a talk show format. KTXL is among a few stations to be an exception to this: the daytime lineup is still filled with sitcoms to this day (though many air from the 80s and 90s currently), but a few talk shows and reality/court shows were known to fill the lineup. (Even KTXL is still holding syndication rights to The Andy Griffith Show for decades.) And it aired Fox Kids until the network eliminated the lineup in 2002.

KTXL, along with NBC-affiliate KCRA, are the only two stations in Sacramento to retain affiliation with the same network from the beginning, unaffected by network swaps in 1995 and 1998.

KTXL became a Tribune-owned station when the company purchased the station's owner, Renaissance Communications in 1997. When the station's new owners took over, they bulk-erased a lot of old locally-produced programming, and threw all the 16 mm film in the dumpster. Most of the film was rescued by collectors though.

Newscasts

File:KTXLFOX40Newsopen.jpg

KTXL FOX 40 News at 10 PM Open by Giant Octopus. The same opening is used at sister station KWGN although with a red/yellow color scheme instead of the blue/yellow scheme used in this open.

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In the summer of 2005, KTXL debuted the FOX40 Morning News, which runs from 6:00-8am opposite other local morning entities such as the second & third hour of KMAX's Good Day Sacramento, and the first hour of KQCA's morning newscast. As the station introduced the first primetime newscast for Sacramento, its main competitor for years was KRBK (now-KMAX). Fox 40 now competes at 10pm with KOVR CBS 13. Fox 40 tops the ratings in "demos", and often comes in first or second in overall viewership at 10pm.

Current Personalities/ Joined Date

Anchors

• Thomas Drayton, Weeknight 10pm Anchor (2003)
• Donna Cordova, Weeknight 10pm Anchor (1994)
• Joe Orlando, Weekend 10pm Anchor/ Weekday Reporter (2002)
• Teri Cox, Weekend 10pm Anchor/ Weekday Reporter (1989)
• Natalie Bomke, Morning Anchor/ Reporter (2007)

Weather

• Kristina Werner, Weeknight 10pm Chief Meteorologist (1999)
• J.D Maher, Fill-in Meteorologist (2005)
• Louisa Hodge, Weekend Meteorologist/Reporter (2005)
• Rosemary Orozco, Morning Weather Anchor (2008)

Sports

• Mark Demsky, Weekend Sports Anchor
• Jim Crandell, Sports Director weeknight anchor (1987)

Reporters

• Mike Bond, General Assignment Reporter (2007)
• Grant Rampy, Washington D.C Bureau
• Rowena Shaddox, Freelance Reporter
• Lonnie Wong, General Assignment Reporter
• Melissa Remick, Friday Reporter
• Michelle Liu, General Assignment Reporter
• Bethany Crouch, General Assignment Reporter
• Jamie Soriano, Morning Reporter (2007)
• Reggie Kumar, General Assignment Reporter (2008)
• Darsha Phillips, General Assignment Reporter (2008)

Former News personalities

• Jay Alan Former evening co-anchor with Donna Cordova 2002-2003
• Lisa Amin, Now at KGO-TV in San Francisco, 2004-2007
• Warren Armstrong (Former evening anchor with Donna Cordova 1997; now weeknight anchor at KFSN in Fresno)
• Andy Asher,anchor (1980s)) Now at NBC 5 Dallas/Fort Worth, TX
• Scott Babashak- Married to Liz Keptner residing in Philadelphia, Fill-in anchor/ reporter until 2005.
• David Brown Weeknight Meteorologist now at WCVB in Boston Morning Anchor/Reporter
• Jonathan Carlson, Reporter/Fill-In Anchor (2004-2007, Now a weekday reporter/anchor at WSPA-TV in South Carolina)
• Gorgette Copes, (Now in San Diego, Ca) 2005-2007
• Shana Franklin General Assignment Reporter (2003-2005, now at KDAF in Dallas/Fort Worth Texas.)
• Michelle Franzen now with NBC NEWSCHANNEL in New York
• Darla Givens, Meteorologist, (1996-1999; now at KXTV News10 in Sacramento.)
• Pat Hambright, Meteorologist (1999-2005; Now at KOLO in Reno, NV)
• Adam Housley, General Assignment Reporter (Now at FOX News Los Angeles)
• Stormin' Norman Jacobs,Meteorologist, (1980s)
• Michelle Kennedy, General Assignment Reporter (Now at KRON in San Francisco)
• Mia Lee (1992-1998; Now at KCAL in L.A.)
• Liz Keptner- Fill-in Anchor for Donna while on Maternity leave now at KYW in Philadelphia.
• David Lloyd, Sports Anchor/Reporter (now at ESPN in Bristol, Connecticut)
• Kye Martin, Now in Chicago as traffic reporter for WGN-TV/CLTV, 2005-2008, Morning Reporter
• Terry McSwenny now on KGO-TV ABC 7 in San Francisco
• Nina Melhaf, Now at KTVZ in Oregon as Anchor/ Reporter, 2005-2007
• Evan Michael, June 2007- June 2008, Morning Anchor
• Ted Mullins (Anchor, deceased)
• Jennifer Parker, Morning Anchor (2005-2007; Switched careers, now runs a family business)
• Gary Radnich (Now at KRON in San Francisco and at KNBR radio)
• Matt Robinson (City of Tracy Public Affairs Officer)
• Tim Robinson (Now in Seattle, KING5) Former weekend co-anchor with Teri Cox; Married to former KXTV anchor Jane McCarthy
• Tim Sakahara, General Assignment Reporter, 2005-2007, now at KGMB-TV in Hawaii
• Stuart Satow,sports anchor late 1970s,later with KXTV.
• Mike Stevens - Original Co-Anchor with Donna Cordova 1993 - 1996 (now 5,6 and 11pm Anchor at WEYI-TV Flint Michigan)
• Pete Wilson (Reporter in the 70s, 80s. Died of heart attack in July 2007 recent job at KGO-TV)
• Monica Woods, Weeknight Meteorologist (1995-1999; Now at KXTV News 10

Official homepage

• Official Website
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