KFOR-TV

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KFOR-TV, virtual channel 4 (UHF digital channel 27), is the NBC-affiliated television station located in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, United States. The station is owned by Local TV, as part of a duopoly with independent station KAUT-TV (channel 43). The two stations share studios on East Britton Road in the McCourry Heights section of Oklahoma City, and KFOR-TV's transmitter is located in The Oaks neighborhood.

History

As WKY-TV

The station signed on June 6, 1949 as WKY-TV. It was owned by the Oklahoma Publishing Company, publishers of the morning Daily Oklahoman and afternoon Oklahoma City Times newspapers, along with WKY radio (930 AM). The station was affiliated with all four major networks of the time, taking a primary affiliation with NBC due to WKY radio's association with the NBC Red Network along with secondary affiliations with CBS, ABC and DuMont. It is Oklahoma's first television station, having signed on five months before Tulsa's KOTV. The station's original studios were located at the Municipal Auditorium in downtown Oklahoma City, with local programming broadcast from the Little Theatre.

Due to a Federal Communications Commission-imposed freeze on station licenses that lasted for four years, WKY-TV was the only television station in the Oklahoma City market until KTVQ (channel 25, channel now occupied by KOKH-TV) signed on in 1953, taking the ABC affiliation from WKY-TV. Channel 4 lost CBS in December of that year, when KWTV (channel 9) debuted as a primary affiliate of the network. WKY-TV continued as a dual NBC/DuMont affiliate until the latter network shut down in 1956. Channel 4 picked up ABC programming once again that year, after KTVQ ceased operations. In 1958, Enid-based ABC station KGEO-TV (channel 5) relocated its operations and city of license to Oklahoma City, changing its callsign to KOCO-TV in the process, leaving WKY-TV as an exclusive NBC affiliate.

As NBC became the first television network to broadcast programming in color in 1954, WKY-TV followed suit as one of the first television stations in the United States to make this transition several years before many other stations started to broadcast color programming (with most not making that transition until the mid-1960s). That same year on September 8 (shortly before he left for rival KWTV), WKY-TV meteorologist Harry Volkman delivered the first television broadcast of a tornado warning for a twister that was impinging on the Oklahoma City area, using a bootlegged tornado forecast issued by staff at Tinker Air Force Base. Station management made the call to air the alert as they figured that giving advance warning of tornadoes would save lives (the FCC prohibited television and radio stations from warning of impending tornadoes during this period, at a time when significant losses of life in the range of 100 people or more resulted from many tornadic events); survivors sent letters of thanks following the storm to WKY-TV and to Volkman for the advance warning.

In 1966, WKY-TV became the originating studio for country music singer Buck Owens' half-hour syndicated program, The Buck Owens Ranch Show (the first season of which was produced by brothers and local businessmen Bud and Don Mathis, the former of whom played the "ranch foreman" that joked and bantered with Owens), it was seen in over 100 U.S. markets at its height and was perhaps the most successful program of its kind that was not produced in Nashville, where the majority of country music and country-related television programs has historically originated; regular acts that appeared included Owens' band, the Buckaroos, Kay Adams, the Hager Twins, Susan Raye and Owens' sons Buddy Alan and Mike (the show should not be confused with Owens' later series Hee Haw, whose producers forced Owens to discontinue production on Ranch in 1973, due to music duplication on both programs).

Over the years, Oklahoma Publishing acquired several other television and radio stations, including WSFA in Montgomery, Alabama (in 1955); WTVT in Tampa, Florida (in 1956); WVTV in Milwaukee (in 1966); KHTV in Houston (built and signed on by the company in 1967); and KTVT in Fort Worth (in 1971); WKY-TV was the company's flagship outlet, and Oklahoma Publishing called their television subsidiary, the WKY Television System. When the Federal Communications Commission disallowed same market co-ownership of newspapers and broadcast licenses in the early 1970s, the combination of the Daily Oklahoman, Oklahoma City Times and WKY-AM-TV was grandfathered under the new rule.

As KTVY

In July 1975, Oklahoma Publishing Company sold WKY-TV to Universal Communications, a subsidiary of the Detroit-based Evening News Association. Universal changed channel 4's call letters to KTVY after the sale was finalized. Oklahoma Publishing retained WKY radio, and its television group was rechristened Gaylord Broadcasting, after the family which owned the company. During the KTVY years, the station aired hour-long edited replays of Oklahoma Sooners football games co-hosted by then-head coach Barry Switzer, which was syndicated to other stations (such as KDOC-TV in Anaheim, California); the University of Oklahoma challenged the NCAA's rules restricting the number of college football telecasts around this time, which were lifted under a ruling by the United States Supreme Court in 1984.

The Gannett Company bought the Evening News Association in September 1985. However, Gannett had owned KOCO-TV since its 1979 merger with Combined Communications; Gannett was forced to sell KTVY (along with KOLD-TV in Tucson, Arizona and WALA-TV in Mobile, Alabama) to Knight-Ridder Broadcasting after just one day of ownership as FCC rules of the time prohibited television station duopolies.

As KFOR-TV

File:KFOR4.png

KFOR logo used from 1996 to 2008; the "-DT" suffix was added in 1999. The usage of the "4" logo dates back to the April 1990 callsign switch to KFOR-TV.

In 1989, Knight-Ridder sold all of its broadcasting properties to separate buyers, with KTVY going to Palmer Communications, owner of fellow NBC affiliate WHO-TV in Des Moines, Iowa. Palmer changed the station's call letters to the current KFOR-TV in April 1990. The New York Times Company purchased the two stations in 1996. KFOR-TV eventually became the first station in the country to introduce colorized Doppler weather radar and in the 1990s, became the first television station to broadcast pictures and video of severe weather through cell phones.

The WKY-AM-TV transmitter tower between Kelly Avenue and the Broadway Extension (which was designed to withstand winds in excess of 125 mph (201 km/h)) collapsed on June 13, 1998 during a tornado outbreak that affected the city's northern sections, due to straight-line wind gusts up to 105 mph (169 km/h) (these winds caused minor damage to the nearby studios of KOCO-TV). The collapse of the tower, which had been used as an auxiliary tower for KFOR-TV and WKY radio at the time, was captured by a camera operated by KWTV located on that station's broadcast tower. On September 14, 2005, Paramount Stations Group sold KAUT to The New York Times Company, creating a duopoly with KFOR-TV upon its finalization on November 4. On September 12, 2006, less than a year after closing on its purchase of KAUT, The New York Times Company announced its intention to sell its nine television stations. It entered into an agreement with private equity group Oak Hill Capital Partners to sell the station group to the Oak Hill-operated holding company Local TV on January 4, 2007, with the sale finalized on May 7. On July 1, 2013, Local TV announced that its stations would be acquired by the Tribune Company for $2.75 billion.

Digital television

Digital channels

The station's digital signal is multiplexed:

Channel	Video	Aspect	PSIP Short Name	Programming
4.1	1080i	16:9	KFOR-DT	Main KFOR-TV programming / NBC
4.2	480i	4:3	Ant-Tv	Antenna TV

Since December 31, 2011, KFOR digital subchannel 4.2 has been the market's Antenna TV affiliate, the network originally ran on digital channel 4.3 from April 21, 2011 to January 15, 2012 (airing in simulcast with 4.2 from December 31, 2011 to January 15, 2012, when the 4.3 subchannel was removed). KAUT has simulcast select Antenna TV programs on a secondary basis since September 16, 2012 to compensate for current-day syndication rights, though 4.2 continues to run the network's complete schedule. From 2006 to December 30, 2011, the 4.2 subchannel operated as "4Warn 24/7" (originally affiliated with NBC Weather Plus until the network's December 1, 2008 shut down, then with its successor automated service NBC Plus until December 2011).

Analog-to-digital conversion

KFOR-TV signed on its digital signal in June 1999, becoming the first television station in Oklahoma City and the state of Oklahoma overall to begin operating a digital signal. As part of the analog television shutdown and digital conversion, KFOR-TV shut down its analog transmitter on June 12, 2009, its digital signal continued to broadcast on its pre-transition UHF digital channel 29. However, through the use of PSIP, digital television receivers display KFOR-TV's virtual channel as 4.

News operation

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KFOR's nightly 10 o'clock news open.

KFOR-TV presently broadcasts 40½ hours of locally produced newscasts each week (with 6½ hours on weekdays, two hours on Saturdays and 3½ hours on Sundays); in regards to the number of hours devoted to news programming, it is the highest local newscast output among Oklahoma's broadcast television stations, locally beating CBS affiliate KWTV's weekly news total by four hours. In addition, the station produces a weekly political talk show focusing on state and national political issues called Flash Point (currently moderated by weeknight anchor Kevin Ogle with panelists Mike Turpin and ex-Oklahoma City mayor Kirk Humphreys), which debuted in 1993 and airs after the 8-9:30 block of the Sunday morning newscast.

It has long competed to the title of the most-watched newscast in the Oklahoma City market with KWTV for decades. It had placed second in local news behind KWTV in the morning and late evening timeslots, but Nielsen Media Research later found an error in KFOR's ratings in September 2008 in which ratings points were mistakenly assigned to KFOR's 4.1 digital multicast for three years from 2005 to 2008. The corrected ratings showed that it had placed #2 in all timeslots at that time, a rarity given the declined ratings for NBC's programming and their affiliates' local newscasts overall.

The station's Doppler weather radars are presented on-air as "4WARN StormTracker", "4WARN Storm Scanner" and "4WARN Doppler", the first two systems operate from a radar site at the Oklahoma City studios and the latter operates as a dual-Doppler system at a radiated power of 1 million watts from a site near Newcastle, all three utilize live data from several radars operated by regional National Weather Service forecast offices. KFOR also provides local weather updates for six radio stations owned by Clear Channel: KTOK, KGHM, KBRU, KXXY-FM, KTST and KJYO. The station operates a Bell 206L-4 helicopter for newsgathering called "Bob Moore Chopper 4", named through a brand licensing agreement with local car dealership franchise Bob Moore Auto Group in January 2010. On May 3, 1999, the helicopter caught footage of a F5 tornado that caused 44 fatalities as it tore a track from Amber to Midwest City (this video was used for 11 years afterward in promos for "Chopper 4"). The helicopter once again gained the station national attention on May 20, 2013 when it broadcast live footage of an EF5 tornado in Moore that was broadcast nationally on The Weather Channel. KFOR became the first station in Oklahoma to broadcast aerial helicopter footage in high definition on March 11, 2010.

The station is well known in the Oklahoma City market for the longevity of its anchors. Weeknight anchor Linda Cavanaugh is presently the longest-tenured member of KFOR-TV's on-air news staff, having been with the station since 1978. The Barry and Ogle families have been prominent faces at KFOR: two sons of the late Jack Ogle, former main news anchor during most of the WKY era and early KTVY years (whose tenure also featured prominent anchor/reporters George Tomek, Ernie Schultz and Jerry Adams), serve as anchors at the station (Kevin Ogle on the 6, 6:30 and 10 p.m. newscasts, Kent Ogle on the weekday morning and noon broadcasts; their brother Kelly ironically works at rival KWTV as its evening co-anchor). Bob Barry served as sports anchor from 1966 to 2008 (remaining as the radio announcer for University of Oklahoma basketball and football until shortly before his 2011 death); son Bob Barry, Jr. now serves as sports director for the weeknight newscasts. Mike Morgan has been with KFOR as its chief meteorologist since 1993 (Morgan previously worked at KOCO-TV and KJRH-TV in Tulsa before that, where ex-KFOR meteorologist Dan Threlkeld is now that station's chief meteorologist); one of Morgan's predecessors, Jim Williams was chief meteorlogist at channel 4 for 32 years from 1958 to 1990, one of the few on-air personalities to work at the station under the WKY, KTVY and KFOR callsigns.

The station is known for its In Your Corner series of investigative reports, helping area residents that have been ripped off by businesses, the segment was helmed by Brad Edwards from 1973 until a few months prior his 2006 death; Scott Hines, Lance West, Ali Meyer and former reporter Cherokee Ballard rotated handling duties for the segment until Hines was named as the permanent replacement in 2007. Is This a Great State or What? debuted as a regular feature segment in 1991, focusing on Oklahoma's most interesting stories and people; airing Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays at 5 p.m. (with brief stints during the 6 and 6:30 p.m. newscasts), it is hosted by Galen Culver (husband of weekend morning anchor Tara Blume) and began to be produced in high definition in January 2009, ahead of its newscasts' switch to the format. The Rant with Kevin Ogle (airing Monday-Thursdays during the 10 p.m. newscast) began in 2006, featuring viewer opinions on a particular story in the news, the Thursday edition serving an "open topic" forum featuring viewer comments on multiple subjects.

In 1972, then-news director Ernie Schultz hired Pam Henry as the first female to become a reporter on Oklahoma television, later becoming the state's first female news anchor. Henry worked in television news for 30 years, despite walking on crutches due to contracting polio at 14 months old (Henry had served as the national poster child for the March of Dimes in 1959). From 1990 to 2004, the station ran minute-long hourly news updates near the top of each hour outside of regular newscasts; these updates were gradually reduced over time to daytime and late fringe periods only by 2004, and down to the current format of twice daily afternoon updates in 2006 (now largely serving as promos for the early evening newscasts). KFOR was the market's first station to offer weekend morning newscasts in 1992 (these have been anchored by Tara Blume since their debut, who now only anchors the Saturday morning newscast); it added a late afternoon newscast at 4:30 p.m. in 1994, followed in 1996 by an early evening 6:30 p.m. newscast on weeknights. During coverage of the April 19, 1995 Oklahoma City bombing, the station erroneously reported that a member of the Nation of Islam took credit for the bombing (actually orchestrated by Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols), repeating the claim throughout the day's coverage, even though it cautioned that the claim might have been a crank call.

On June 5, 2006, KFOR-TV began producing a half-hour primetime newscast at 9 p.m. on weeknights for KAUT-TV (competing against an hour-long in-house newscast on Fox affiliate KOKH-TV that debuted ten years prior); a two-hour extension of the station's weekday morning newscast debuted on KAUT on September 8, 2008. On July 11, 2009 starting with its 10 p.m. newscast, KFOR became Oklahoma's second television station, after fellow NBC affiliate KJRH-TV in Tulsa, and the Oklahoma City's first commercial station to broadcast its local newscasts in high definition (it also upgraded its severe weather ticker to be overlaid on high definition programming without having to downconvert HD programming to standard definition). On September 7, 2011, KFOR-TV launched a half-hour 4 p.m. newscast, that features a mix of traditional news, lifestyle and entertainment stories, trending stories on the internet and web videos, and has an emphasis on social media in which viewers can comment on stories (unlike the station's other newscasts, the 4 p.m. newscast utilizes a virtual set).

On August 27, 2012, KFOR expanded its morning newscast on weekdays to three hours, with the addition of an hour-long block at 4 a.m. In April 2013, KFOR partnered with veteran storm chaser Reed Timmer to help supplement the station's fleet of storm chasers, providing coverage of severe weather and tornadic events.

News/station presentation

This is a dynamic list and may never be able to satisfy particular standards for completeness. You can help by adding missing items with reliable sources.

Newscast titles

• News Room (1949–1956)
• The Esso Reporter (1956–1966)
• 24 Hours (1966–1973)
• Channel 4 News (1973–1974)
• NewsCenter 4 (1974–1979)
• Action 4 News (1979–1984)
• KTVY News 4 (1984-1987)
• News 4 Oklahoma (1984–1990)
• News Team 4 (1990–1993)

• NewsChannel 4 (1993–1997 and 2008–present; alternately called NewsChannel 4 HD since 2009)
• Oklahoma's NewsChannel 4 (1996–2008; used interchangeably on-air with NewsChannel 4 branding from 1996 to 1997; and since 2008, still often used in reporter identifications)
• Extra Edition (6:30-7:00 p.m. newscast; 2008–present)
• The 4 O'Clock News (4:00-4:30 p.m. newscast; 2011–present)
• 4 at Four AM (4:00-5:00 a.m. newscast; 2012–present)

Station slogans

• "We're 4 Oklahoma" (late 1970s–1980)
• "Oklahoma City's Leading News Station" (1979–1980; news slogan)
• "It's a New 4" (1980–1984)
• "4's the One" (1984–1987)
• "Going All Out 4 Oklahoma" (1987–1990)

• "4 Strong, The Strength of Oklahoma" (1990–1994)
• "Where The News Comes First (24 Hours a Day)" (1990–1997; used as primary slogan from 1994–1997)
• "Oklahoma's NewsChannel" (1994–present)
• "Expect The News First" (1997–2001)

On-air staff

Current on-air staff

Anchors

• Meg Alexander - weekdays at 4 and weeknights at 5 and 6:30 p.m.; also fill-in anchor and reporter
• Tara Blume - Saturday mornings; also reporter and producer
• Linda Cavanaugh - weekdays at 4:30 and weeknights at 6 and 10 p.m.; also reporter
• Joleen Chaney - weekday mornings from 4-5 on KFOR and 7-9 a.m. on KAUT; also weeknight reporter
• Sara Celi - weeknights at 9 p.m. on KAUT; also reporter
• Ed Doney - Sundays at 5 and 10 p.m.; also weeknight reporter and fill-in anchor
• La'Tasha Givens - Saturdays at 6 and 10 p.m.; also weeknight reporter
• Ali Meyer- weekday mornings from 5-7 a.m.; also weeknight investigative reporter)
• Chellie Mills - Sunday mornings; also weekday morning reporter
• Kent Ogle - weekday mornings from 5-7 a.m. and weekdays at noon; also reporter
• Kevin Ogle - weeknights at 6 and 10 p.m.; also reporter and 4:30 p.m. statewide newsreader
• Lance West - weeknights at 5 and 6:30 p.m.; also reporter and fill-in anchor

4WARN Storm Team

• Mike Morgan (non-active AMS member, member, NWA) - chief meteorologist ; weekdays at 4 and 4:30, and weeknights at 5, 6, 6:30, 9 (KAUT) and 10 p.m.
• Troy Christensen - meteorologist; Wednesday-Fridays at noon and weekend evenings; also fill-in meteorologist
• Emily Sutton - meteorologist; weekday mornings from 4-7 on KFOR and 7-9 a.m. on KAUT; also weeknight fill-in meteorologist
• Chase Thomason - meteorologist; weekend mornings and Mondays and Tuesdays at noon; also fill-in meteorologist
• Reed Timmer - storm chaser

Sports team

• Bob Barry, Jr. - sports director; weeknights at 5:00, 6:00 and 10:00 p.m., also "Friday Night Heroes" and "Friday Sports Overtime" host
• Brian Brinkley - sports anchor; Saturdays at 6:00, Sundays at 5:00 and weekends at 10:00 p.m.; also sports reporter
• Dylan Buckingham - sports reporter; also photojournalist
• Nate Feken - sports reporter; also photojournalist

Reporters

• Galen Culver - "Is This A Great State or What?" feature reporter; also photographer
• Ashton Edwards - feature reporter ("Frugal Fridays"; daughter of late investigative reporter Brad Edwards)
• Courtney Francisco - general assignment reporter
• Scott Hines - investigative reporter ("In Your Corner")
• Ashley Krigen - general assignment reporter
• Mike "Road King" Rogers - "Time Saver Traffic" reporter, seen weekday mornings (4:00-7:00 on KFOR and 7:00-9:00 a.m. on KAUT); heard on KTOK-AM
• Bree Steffen - general assignment reporter
• Sarah Stewart - freelance reporter (previously general assignment reporter from 2001–2006)
• Jesse Wells - general assignment reporter
• Jon Welsh - "Bob Moore Chopper 4" pilot reporter

Flash Point

• Kirk Humphreys - commentator
• Kevin Ogle - moderator
• Mike Turpen - commentator; also political analyst

2 Movie Guys (also seen on KAUT-TV)

• Ryan Bellgardt
• Lucas Ross

Notable former on-air staff

• Bob Barry, Sr. - sports anchor (1966–2008) ^[D]
• Brad Edwards - anchor/investigative reporter (1973–2006) ^[D]
• Mary Hart - co-host of Dannysday (1976–1980; most recently former anchor of syndicated entertainment program Entertainment Tonight)
• David Payne - meteorologist and Storm Chaser (1993–2012; now at KWTV-DT as Chief Meteorologist)
• Harry Volkman - meteorologist (1949–1954; later at WBBM-TV, WGN-TV and WFLD-TV in Chicago)

^[D] - Deceased

Out-of-market cable coverage

The station is carried on cable providers throughout much of the western and southern portions of the state including within the Lawton and Ada-Sherman markets (on Fidelity Communications and Cable One, respectively), which both have NBC affiliates serving their respective regions (KFDX-TV and KTEN). It is also available in areas as far away as Guymon, Oklahoma, which is located within the Amarillo market and Idabel, Oklahoma, which is located within the Shreveport-Texarkana market.

External links

• KFOR.com - Official website
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