KWTV

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KWTV
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
Branding	KWTV 9 / News9
Slogan	The Spirit of Oklahoma
Channels	9 (VHF) analog, 39 (UHF) digital
Affiliations	CBS
Owner	Griffin Communications
Founded	1953
Call letters meaning	K World's Tallest Video
Former callsigns	none
Former affiliations	None
Website	www.newsok.com

KWTV, Channel 9 is the CBS affiliate in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. During the May 2006 sweeps period KWTV was the highest-rated late newscast in the United States. It has long been one of the strongest CBS affiliates in the country. KWTV is owned by Griffin Communications of Oklahoma City.

The station has a media partnership with The Oklahoman newspaper. Incidentally, The Oklahoma Publishing Company, owner of The Oklahoman put rival station KFOR-TV on the air in 1949 as WKY-TV and owned it until 1977. KWTV also partners with Tulsa station KOTV, also owned by Griffin. The two stations collaborate on Sunday night extended sports coverage branded as the "Oklahoma Sports Blitz."

Famous for its severe weather coverage with meteorologist Gary England, KWTV is known for having the top technology in the country for storm coverage. On May 3, 1999, Gary England went on the air to cover the F5 Tornado that damaged much of central Oklahoma from Chickasha to the southeastern portion of Oklahoma City, including the town of Moore. There were many other storms that day as well, the final death toll was 44, though it is believed that it would have been much higher without the advance warning provided by Gary and the rest of the KWTV weather staff.

KWTV was the first station to produce tornado documentaries of the June 13th, 1998 Oklahoma City tornadoes, the 1998 October Tornado Outbreak and the 1999 Oklahoma Tornado Outbreak.

On January 26, 2001, KWTV sports anchor Bill Teegins along with nine other members of the Oklahoma State University basketball team were killed when their plane went down in Colorado after a basketball game against the University of Colorado. A memorial has been erected at the crash site, along with a statue of a kneeling cowboy on the Stillwater OSU campus.

Contents 1 History 2 News Operation 3 Programming 4 Newscasts 4.1 Weekdays 4.2 Saturday 4.3 Sunday 5 Personalities 5.1 Current On-Air Talent 6 Newscast titles 7 Office location 8 See also 9 External links

[edit] History

KWTV went on the air December 20, 1953. The station has a series of both local and national firsts:

• In 1954, the KWTV Mast was built and was at the time the world's tallest structure at 481 meters. The Griffins also owned KOMA-AM at the time, but decided to call their station KWTV after the tower. The call letters stand for World's Tallest Video.
• In 1959, KWTV installed the first weather radar in the country for television.
• In 1971 after the FCC issued the Prime Time Access Rule that cut the three broadcast networks (CBS, NBC and ABC) prime time schedules by 30 minutes each night from 3.5 hours to 3 hours, KWTV's 6 p.m. broadcast of NEWSROOM 9 debuted as the first 60-minute newscast in the Oklahoma City market, broadcast from 6 p.m. to 7 p.m. The newscast was later split into two separate 30 minute broadcasts at 5 p.m. and 6 p.m., with the CBS Evening News sandwiched in between at 5:30 p.m. From 1966 to 1971, KWTV's newscast was titled Eyewitness News, a moniker later used by rival ABC affiliate KOCO. In recent years, the newscast has been known as Newsline 9 and the current moniker, NEWS 9.
• In 1981, the first commercial Doppler radar in the nation was used by KWTV along with WTSP-TV in St. Petersburg-Tampa, Florida. Shortly after KWTV introduced its first Doppler radar, a tornado located in Caddo County, Oklahoma near the town of Binger was indicated on Doppler radar during a live cut-in by Chief Meterologist Gary England and at the same time, a live shot of that tornado was broadcast during that cut-in from a cameraman stationed inside KWTV's news helicopter, RANGER 9, which was flown to the scene.
• In 1986 when a devastating tornado plunged through the Oklahoma City suburb of Edmond, Channel 9 and England were credited for their advanced warning efforts resulting in relatively few injuries and no casualties despite the millions of dollars in damage.
• England and the News 9 weather team present a series of programs each spring and summer season titled "Those Terrible Twisters" to local communities throughout Oklahoma in which they visit with viewers and provide lots of information regarding tornado safety precautions and promote the station's efforts in providing up-to-date severe weather coverage to Oklahoma.
• KWTV was the first Oklahoma television station to use a helicopter for daily news-gathering - RANGER 9, and the first to use one equipped with a High-Definition Video camera as of early 2006.
• KWTV introduced the first broadcast automated weather warning system in the country called First Warning and was the first station to gather video from cellular telephones.
• KWTV was among the first to introduce software for the PC that alerted the user to both severe weather alerts and breaking news in the form of I-News.
• From 1982 to 1990, KWTV General Manager Duane Harm was a frequent contributor to the station's newscast with regular commentaries concerning local and state issues and concerns. Per FCC regulations, the station provided equal time to parties with opposing viewpoints.
• In Early November 2006, KWTV began using a brand-new, state-of-the-art news set, specially designed for high-definition broadcasting. The set was designed and built by FX Group.

[edit] News Operation

KWTV currently broadcasts 35.5 hours of news per week, more than any station in the Oklahoma City market. KWTV has partnerships with both Tulsa sister station KOTV (also owned by Griffin Communications), along with The Oklahoman newspaper, sometimes showing news stories from KOTV during afternoon newscasts and also frequently advertising and involved in news articles in conjunction with The Oklahoman, including airing daily segments previewing stories to appear in the next day's edition of The Oklahoman during First @ 4:00.

In the 1990s, KWTV began a series of segments called The Investigators, similar in form to that of investigative reports on many CBS and FOX affiliates. Another segment highlighted unsafe conditions at Metro-area restaurants. A similar series of segments was done by rival KFOR-TV in the mid-2000s.

While the Ogle family is a staple of KFOR-TV, KWTV's co-anchor of the 5, 6 and 10pm newscasts is Kelly Ogle, whom since 2003 has also had his own opinion segment titled My Two Cents airing weeknights during the 10pm newscast.

Morning and noon anchor and former sports reporter/anchor Ed Murray and reporter Gan Matthews have had the longest tentures of any of the station's news staff.

KWTV's past news brandings have included Newsscope, Eyewitness News, Big 9 News and Newsline 9, however since 1997 the station has been branded as NEWS9, retaining the current logo branding despite numerous graphics package changes.

[edit] Programming

KWTV in the past has been the Oklahoma City home of The Oprah Winfrey Show (now on KOCO-TV), Jeopardy! (now on KFOR-TV) and The Montel Williams Show (now on KAUT-TV).

In the late 1990s, KWTV had aired The Young and the Restless at 3:00pm since 1995. Most CBS affiliates air it at 11:00am in the Pacific, Mountain and Central Time Zones, owing to newscasts that air at 12:00pm. The Price is Right also aired at 11:00am, instead of the recommended 10:00am timeslot for the show. This meant that The Bold and the Beautiful at 12:30pm was the first CBS soap to air each weekday. Talk shows usually aired following The Price is Right from 11am-12pm. However in 1998, KWTV did a minor overhaul of the station's lineup. The Young and the Restless moved back to 11:00am, The Price is Right moved back to 10:00am and the local programming that aired after The Price is Right moved to 3:00pm.

KWTV is currently the Oklahoma City home of syndicated shows Live with Regis and Kelly, Ebert & Roeper, Seinfeld, The Martha Stewart Show, Extra, Entertainment Tonight among others.

KWTV is one of the few (possibly the only) CBS affiliates that does not run the Saturday edition of The Early Show. Instead, they run two hours of local news from 6-8AM plus children's programming from 8-11AM without airing The Early Show on Saturday mornings.

KWTV also airs CBS' Saturday morning children's programming block (currently branded as the KOL Secret Slumber Party) seperately with all but one program on the lineup airing from 8AM to 10:30AM. The remaining half-hour of the block airs Saturday mornings at 5:30AM before NEWS9 This Morning. This is a bit of an oddity as most CBS affiliates that do seperate the Saturday children's program block tend to air one hour of the block on Sunday mornings (such as sister station KOTV in Tulsa), mainly because those affiliates air The Saturday Early Show after local morning news, leaving the remaining two hours of programming.

KWTV also airs local news from 5-7am and shows the weekday edition of The Early Show from 7-9 AM with select segments from the first hour of The Early Show being shown during the 7 AM hour.

[edit] Newscasts

[edit] Weekdays

• NEWS9 This Morning: 5 - 9 AM (7 - 9 AM shared with The Early Show)
  • anchored by Ed Murray and Robin Marsh with Jed Castles on weather
• NEWS9 @ Noon: 12 - 12:30 PM
  • anchored by Ed Murray and Melissa Maynarich with Jed Castles on weather
• NEWS9 First @ 4: 4 - 5 PM
  • anchored by Melissa Maynarich and Alex Cameron with Gary England on weather
• NEWS9 @ 5: 5 - 5:30 PM
  • anchored by Kelly Ogle and Amy McRee with Gary England on weather and Dean Blevins with sports
• NEWS9 @ 6: 6 - 6:30 PM
  • anchored by Kelly Ogle and Amy McRee with Gary England on weather and Dean Blevins with sports
• NEWS9 @ 10: 10 - 10:35 PM
  • anchored by Kelly Ogle and Amy McRee with Gary England on weather and Dean Blevins with sports

[edit] Saturday

• NEWS9 This Morning: 6 - 8 AM
  • anchored by Melissa Maynarich with Michael Armstrong on weather
• NEWS9 @ 6: 6 - 6:30 PM
  • anchored by Kirsten McIntyre and Scott Coppenbarger with Zach Daniel on weather and Curtis Fitzpatrick with sports
• NEWS9 @ 10: 10 - 10:35 PM
  • anchored by Kirsten McIntyre and Scott Coppenbarger with Zach Daniel on weather and Curtis Fitzpatrick with sports
• College Football Blitz: 10:20 - 10:35 PM (aired only during College Football season)
  • hosted by Dean Blevins and John Holcomb.

[edit] Sunday

• NEWS9 This Morning: 6 - 8 AM
  • anchored by Melissa Maynarich with Michael Armstrong on weather
• NEWS9 @ 5:30: 5:30 - 6 PM
  • anchored by Kirsten McIntyre and Scott Coppenbarger with Zach Daniel on weather and Curtis Fitzpatrick with sports
• NEWS9 @ 10: 10 - 10:20 PM
  • anchored by Kirsten McIntyre and Scott Coppenbarger with Zach Daniel on weather and Curtis Fitzpatrick with sports
• Oklahoma Sports Blitz: 10:20 - 11:00 PM
  • hosted by Dean Blevins

[edit] Personalities

[edit] Current On-Air Talent

NEWS9 ANCHORS

• Alex Cameron, 4PM Anchor/Fill-in Anchor/Reporter
• Scott Coppenbarger, Weekend Evening Anchor/Reporter
• Kirsten McIntyre, Weekend Evening Anchor/Reporter
• Robin Marsh, Weekday Morning Anchor/Reporter
• Melissa Maynarich, 12PM, 4PM, Weekend Morning Anchor/Reporter
• Amy McRee, Weekday Evening Anchor/Reporter
• Ed Murray, Weekday Morning, Midday Anchor/Reporter
• Kelly Ogle, Weekday Evening Anchor/Reporter

NEWS9 REPORTERS

• Charles Bassett, General Assignment Reporter
• Stacey Cameron, General Assignment Reporter
• Rosa Flores, General Assignment Reporter
• Dave Jordan, General Assignment Reporter
• Mary Joseph, General Assignment Reporter
• Amy Lester, General Assignment Reporter
• Amanda Taylor, General Assignment Reporter/Fill-in Anchor/Consumer Watch Reporter
• Doug Warner, General Assignment Reporter/Special Assignment Reporter/Fill-in Anchor

NEWS9 EXPERTS/ANALYSTS

• Mary Ann Baumann, Medical Contributor
• Irven Box, Legal Analyst
• Scott Mitchell, Your Vote Counts Moderator
• State Sen. Randy Terrill, Your Vote Counts Commentator
• State Sen. Richard Morrissette, Your Vote Counts Commentator

NEWS9 METEOROLOGISTS

• Gary England (AMS Certified), 4PM, 5PM, 6PM, 10PM Chief Meteorologist
• Michael Armstrong, Weekend Morning Meteorologist/Fill-in Meteorologist
• Jed Castles, Weekday Moring Meteorologist/Fill-in Meteorologist
• Zach Daniel, Weekend Evening Meteorologist/Fill-in Meteorologist

SPORTS ANCHORS/REPORTERS

• Dean Blevins, Sports Director/5PM, 6PM, 10PM Sports Anchor/Oklahoma Sports Blitz Co-Host
• Curtis Fitzpatrick, Saturday Evening Sports Anchor/Sports Reporter
• John Holcomb, Oklahoma Sports Blitz Co-Host/Sports Director & Anchor, KOTV Tulsa
• Toby Rowland, Weekend Sports Anchor/Friday Football Blitz Host/Sports Reporter

[edit] Newscast titles

• Four Star Report, Channel 9 Report, Newscope and KWTV News (1953-1966)
• Eyewitness News (1966-1971)
• Newsroom 9 (1971-1980)
• Big 9 News (1980-1981)
• Newsline 9 (1981-1997)
• News 9 (1997-present)

[edit] Office location

KWTV's studios and transmitter are located at 7401 North Kelly Avenue, within walking distance of the studios of OETA.

[edit] See also

• News Now 53
• I-News

[edit] External links

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

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