KOCO-TV

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KOCO-TV
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
Branding	KOCO-TV 5/Eyewitness News 5
Slogan	Live. Local. Latebreaking.
Channels	5 (VHF) analog, 7 (VHF) digital
Affiliations	ABC
Owner	Hearst-Argyle
Founded	July 2, 1954
Call letters meaning	K Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
Former callsigns	KGEO (1954-1958)
Former affiliations	None
Website	www.koco.com

KOCO-TV, commonly referred to as "KOCO 5" or "Eyewitness News 5" is the ABC affiliate in the Oklahoma City television market. The station is owned by Hearst-Argyle Corporation, but uses "Ohio/Oklahoma Hearst-Argyle Television, LLC." as their end tag during their newscasts.

The station's Eyewitness News 5 broadcasts are currently the top-rated programs (per Nielsen Media Research) at both 5:00 and 6:00 p.m. KOCO also features the market's highest-rated daytime programming and, as of November 2006, the most-watched network newscast in ABC's World News with Charles Gibson.

KOCO has the fastest revolving weather radar in the area, Advantage Doppler HD, and employes the largest fleet of live trucks in the state of Oklahoma.

Contents 1 History 2 Eyewitness News 3 5 Alive 4 Newscasts 4.1 Weekdays 4.2 Saturday 4.3 Sunday 5 Personalities 5.1 Current On-Air Talent 6 Office location 7 Logo Gallery 8 External links

[edit] History

The station signed on in July 1954 as KGEO, based in Enid. Its transmitter and studio location were moved to Oklahoma City in 1958. KOCO's original Oklahoma City studio was located at NW 63rd and Portland Avenue but moved to its present location near the transmitter site on East Britton Road in the early 1980s.

In January 1997, Gannett swapped KOCO-TV, along with WLWT in Cincinnati, Ohio, to Argyle Television in exchange for WZZM-TV in Grand Rapids, Michigan and WGRZ-TV in Buffalo, New York. Argyle merged with Hearst Broadcasting in August of that year, creating Hearst-Argyle Television.

[edit] Eyewitness News

KOCO 5 has used the Eyewitness News brand on two separate occasions during its history, 1974-1977 and from 1998-present. The first period was during a time when the format was very popular in TV markets throughout the nation. Local CBS affiliate KWTV 9 had previously used the Eyewitness News moniker from 1966 to 1971 but dropped it when the newscast was renamed Newsroom 9. Despite the use of the Eyewitness News concept and name, KOCO remained for many years a distant third place in local news ratings against dominant NBC affiliate WKY-TV Channel 4 (later KTVY and now KFOR-TV) and KWTV. KOCO aired its evening newscast at 5:30 p.m. rather than the 6 p.m. time slot used by KTVY and KWTV until the early 1980s when it introduced an early evening newscast at 5 p.m. and a 6 p.m. broadcast with ABC's World News Tonight in the 5:30 p.m. timeslot. All three programs were top-rated in the market in November 2006.

[edit] 5 Alive

In 1977 KOCO's parent company, Combined Communications, did a makeover of the station's image by adopting the "5 Alive" branding that was introduced at other Combined-owned stations. Although a number of Combined stations that adopted the practice of using the word "Alive" as part of their monikers ended the practice after Gannett purchased Combined in 1979, KOCO continued promoting itself as "5 Alive" until 1994. During the "5 Alive" era, KOCO's local newscasts were branded as "5 Alive NewsCenter" or "5 Alive News", and, thanks to Gannett's resources and investment in the station which included a new studio facility in the early 1980s along with news helicopters, KOCO improved its fortunes in local news ratings in the Oklahoma City market from 1980 to 1982 when the station briefly overtook KWTV for second place and even battled longtime powerhouse KTVY for first place. By 1983, KOCO settled into a solid second place as KWTV rose from a distant third all the way to first place, displacing KTVY from the top spot it held for decades. By the late 1980s, KOCO dropped back to third place, where it lingered for years.

In 1994 KOCO dropped the "5 Alive" branding in use since 1977 and the newscast was renamed "5 News." In 1998 after the station was purchased by current owner Hearst-Argyle Television, the newscast was renamed "Eyewitness News 5" - a moniker previously used during the mid-1970s. In recent years, the station boosted its commitment to news and weather coverage, adding newscasts and positioning itself as "live, local, latebreaking." The efforts helped propel the station's 5:00 newscast into first place in the market in 2004. In November 2006, KOCO also registered its first-ever outright win at 6:00 p.m.

[edit] Newscasts

[edit] Weekdays

• Eyewitness News 5 in the Morning: 5 - 7 AM
  • anchored by John Flick and Tierney Cook with Frank Johnson on weather
• Eyewitness News 5 @ Noon: 12 - 12:30 PM
  • anchored by John Flick or Tierney Cook with Frank Johnson on weather
• Eyewitness News 5 @ 5: 5 - 5:30 PM
  • anchored by Tyler Suiters and Jessica Schambach with Rick Mitchell on weather
• Eyewitness News 5 @ 6: 6 - 6:30 PM
  • anchored by Tyler Suiters and Maggie Carlo with Rick Mitchell on weather and Mark Rodgers with sports
• Eyewitness News 5 @ 10: 10 - 10:35 PM
  • anchored by Tyler Suiters and Jessica Schambach with Rick Mitchell on weather and Mark Rodgers with sports

[edit] Saturday

• Eyewitness News 5 Saturday Morning: 10 AM - 12 PM
  • anchored by Kimberly Lohman with Steve Carano on weather

(During college football season, ABC Sports coverage may shorten newscast to one hour from 10 - 11 AM)

• Eyewitness News 5 @ 6: 6 - 6:30 PM
  • anchored by Kate Godwin with Aaron Tuttle on weather and Chris Callahan with sports

(During college football season, ABC Sports coverage may cause newscast to be pre-empted or abbreviated)

• Eyewitness News 5 @ 10: 10 - 10:35 PM
  • anchored by Kate Godwin with Aaron Tuttle on weather and Chris Callahan with sports

[edit] Sunday

• Eyewitness News 5 Sunday Morning: 7 - 9 AM
  • anchored by Mark Opgrande with Steve Carano on weather
• Eyewitness News 5 @ 5:30: 5 - 5:30 PM
  • anchored by Maggie Carlo with Aaron Tuttle on weather and Chris Callahan with sports
• Eyewitness News 5 @ 10: 10 - 11:05 PM
  • anchored by Tyler Suiters, Jessica Schambach and Maggie Carlo with Aaron Tuttle on weather and Chris Callahan with sports

[edit] Personalities

[edit] Current On-Air Talent

EYEWITNESS NEWS 5 ANCHORS

• Maggie Carlo, 6PM Co-Anchor (Weeknights)/10PM Anchor (Sunday)/Fill-in Anchor/Reporter
• Tierney Cook, Morning Anchor/Fill-in 12PM Anchor/Reporter
• John Flick, Morning, 12PM Anchor/Reporter
• Kate Godwin, Saturday Evening Anchor/Reporter (currently on maternity leave)
• Kimberly Lohman, Saturday Morning Anchor/Fill-in Anchor/Reporter
• Mark Opgrande, Sunday Morning Anchor/Reporter
• Jessica Schambach, 5PM Anchor (Weeknights)/10PM Anchor (Sunday-Friday)/Reporter
• Tyler Suiters, 5PM, 6PM Anchor (Weeknights)/10PM Anchor (Sunday-Friday)/Reporter

EYEWITNESS NEWS 5 REPORTERS

• Constance Jones, General Assignment Reporter
• Chris Lee, Photojournalist
• Sophia Reza, General Assignment Reporter
• Adam Slinger, General Assignment Reporter
• Kevin Sims, General Assignment Reporter/Fill-in Anchor
• Terri Watkins, General Assignment Reporter/Consumer Reporter

HEARST-ARGYLE WASHINGTON BUREAU

• Sally Kidd, General Assignment Reporter
• Laurie Kinney, General Assignment Reporter
• Traci Mitchell, General Assignment Reporter

FIRST ALERT WEATHER METEOROLOGISTS

• Rick Mitchell (AMS Certified), 5, 6, 10PM Chief Meteorologist
• Frank Johnson (AMS Certified), Weekday Morning, Midday Meteorologist/Fill-in Meteorologist
• Aaron Tuttle, Weekend Evening Meteorologist/Fill-in Meteorologist
• Steve Carano, Weekend Morning Meteorologist/Fill-in Morning, Midday Meteorologist

SPORTS XTRA ANCHORS/REPORTERS

• Chris Callahan, Weekend Sports Anchor/"Sunday Sports Xtra" Co-Host
• Mark Rodgers, Sports Director/6PM, 10PM Sports Anchor/"Sunday Sports Xtra" Co-Host

[edit] Office location

KOCO's studios and transmitter are located at 1300 East Britton Road, within driving distance of the studios of KFOR-TV.

[edit] Logo Gallery

Kinescope shot from 1960

KOCO "Circle 5" logo used since 1998

[edit] External links

• KOCO.com
• Query the FCC's TV station database for KOCO

Broadcast television in the Oklahoma City market  (Nielsen DMA #46)
KFOR 4 (NBC) - KOCO 5 (ABC) - KOHC 7 (AZA) - KWTV 9 (CBS) - KUOK-CA 11 (UNI) - KETA 13 / KWET 12 (PBS / OETA) - KTBO 14 (TBN) - KLHO 17 (LFN) - KUOT 19 (LFN) - KTOU 21 (HSN) - KOKH 25 (Fox) - KGBN 27 (A1) - KTUZ 30 (TMD) - KWEM 31 (A1) - KXOK 32 (A1) - KOCB 34 (The CW) - KUOK 35 (UNI) - KCHM-LP 36 (UNI) - KOHC 38 (AZA) - KXOC 41 (A1) - KAUT 43 (MNTV) - KOCM 46 (DS) - KSBI 52 (Ind) - KOPX 62 (i)
Local cable television channels City Channel 20 -  News Now 53