KLDT

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KLDT
Lake Dallas, Texas
Channels	55 (UHF) (soon to be defunct) analog, 54 (UHF) digital
Affiliations	Independent (1997-2000) (2005-Present)
Owner	Johnson Broadcasting
Founded	December 25, 1990
Call letters meaning	K Lake Dallas, Texas or K Lake Dallas Television
Former callsigns	KAVB (1997)
Former affiliations	ACN (1996-2000) HTVN (2000-2003) ShopNBC (2003-2005)
Transmitter Power	3240 kW (analog) 75 kW (digital)

KLDT is a television station in Lake Dallas, Texas, broadcasting locally on channel 55 as an an Independent. Founded December 25, 1990, the station is owned by Johnson Broadcasting. The station currently broadcasts from a tower site in Lewisville, Texas, at a location near the Vista Ridge Mall, although they currently hold a construction permit to move the transmitter to a location on Cedar Hill, the broadcast site for nearly all Dallas-Fort Worth area stations. It is currently in the process of converting to an ATSC signal only on channel 54, as of 17 November 2006, in which it will be the first station in Texas to do so.

[edit] History

The station was initially licensed in 1990 as KLDT, and its programming consists of christian videos and later, religious programming. Doug Johnson's previous co-owner, Opal Thornton attempted to take in embattled Dallas-based preacher Robert Tilton and the station was to become the flagship for his "Word of Faith" ministry. "Success-n-Life" (one of Tilton's programs) was aired regularly on this station; however Tilton has a poor record with the FCC, thus the request was denied prior to ABC's expose on Tilton. In 1995, the station was fined a hefty $15,500 by the FCC for failing to adequately staff its studio.

In early 1997, the station changed its call letters to KAVB, but quickly changed back their original call sign. Originally an affiliate of ACN, the station soon relegated shopping programming to the nighttime hours, and began broadcasting syndicated classic programming and movies, as well as news from Bloomberg TV, college sports from ESPN Plus, Lone Star Park Horseracing, and Houston Astros MLB games simulcast from sister station KNWS-TV in Houston. During this time, the station adopted the slogan TV55 Has The Shows You Know.

By 2000, the station had dropped most of its entertainment programming in favor of infomercials, or shopping from ACN. That year, however, the station received a much-needed shot in the arm: it became the flagship station for the Hispanic Television Network. HTVN aired programming targeted towards Hispanic viewers from Mexico. Due to numerous missteps, the network folded in 2003, and the station began airing shopping programs again, this time from ShopNBC.

By this time, most of the station's sports programming had moved to former Telemundo affiliate KFWD. In 2005, the station became the temporary home for the FC Dallas soccer team, but that too eventually moved to KFWD. The station eventually dropped its ShopNBC affiliation and began to fill its empty time slots with infomercials, as well as religious programming — a lineup that continues to this day.

On May 22, 2006, KLDT signed on their digital broadcasts on channel 54.[1] This would be key, as Qualcomm, who was launching MediaFLO service over channel 55's bandwidth, would request them to go all-digital. On 17 November 2006, the Federal Communications Commission allowed KLDT to do said "flash-cut". The transition, however, has not occurred yet. [2]

[edit] See also

• KNWS-TV (Houston, TX)

[edit] External links

• Query the FCC's TV station database for KLDT