KOTV

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KOTV
Tulsa, Oklahoma
Branding	KOTV 6 (general) The News on 6 (newscasts)
Slogan	Spirit of Oklahoma
Channels	6 (VHF) analog, 55 (UHF) digital
Affiliations	CBS
Owner	Griffin Communications
Founded	1949
Call letters meaning	K Oklahoma Television
Former affiliations	NBC, ABC, DuMont and Paramount (secondary, 1949-54)
Website	http://www.kotv.com

KOTV, commonly referred to as "KOTV 6" or "The News On 6" is the CBS affiliate in Tulsa, Oklahoma, in the United States. KOTV broadcasts from its studios in downtown Tulsa. KOTV's transmitter is located in Oneta, Oklahoma.

The station broadcasts its analog signal on VHF channel 6, and its digital signal on UHF channel 55. On cable, KOTV can be seen on channel 6 on Cox Tulsa. KOTV can also be heard on 87.7 FM on the radio due to the frequency overlap between FM and TV.

Contents 1 History 2 Programming 3 Personalities 3.1 Current On-Air Talent 3.2 Past Personalities 4 News/Station Presentation 4.1 Newscast titles 4.2 Station slogans 5 See also 6 External links

[edit] History

Channel 6 signed on in October of 1949 and is Oklahoma's second oldest television station, having signed on a few months after NBC affiliate WKY-TV in Oklahoma City (later KTVY and now KFOR-TV). KOTV carried programs from CBS, ABC, NBC, DuMont and Paramount until 1954.

When now-defunct KCEB Channel 23 signed in March 1954, it took DuMont, which, like KCEB, folded for lack of revenue. In 1953, Paramount and ABC merged, and in September 1954, KOTV relinquished ABC to KTVX in Muskogee {now KTUL-TV in Tulsa}. And in December 1954, KOTV relinquished NBC to KVOO-TV {later KTEW and now KJRH}.

On Wednesday, October 15, 1949, President Truman was into his second term, Communist China in its first year and a gallon of gasoline in Tulsa cost 27 cents.

If you could find one, a new television set cost $600. And on the day evangelist Billy Graham began his ministry with a crusade in Los Angeles, KOTV sent out its first wobbly signal from a tower atop the National Bank of Tulsa building in downtown Tulsa. That test pattern, seen by a handful of viewers in four states, was the beginning of television in northeastern Oklahoma.

But the race to be first had begun a few years before. In 1946, KTUL Radio assigned Helen Alvarez to make a study of television's chances of success in Tulsa. After two years of research, Alvarez suggested KTUL Radio apply for a TV construction permit as quickly as possible. The radio executives decided TV was too risky a venture, and planned to wait another year before applying for a TV license.

That's when Alvarez made her move. At a party, she was introduced to Texas oilman George Cameron, who was looking to spend the $50,000 monthly royalty checks he was banking. Joined by salesman John Hill, who was working for a Tulsa wire maker, the trio applied to the Federal Communications Commission for a television station license.

It was granted not for KOTV, as Cameron had requested, but for KOVB. A typographical error on the application meant the request had to be re-filed, and in May, 1948, the FCC approved the call-letter change to KOTV.

Alvarez negotiated the lease of the International Harvester dealership and repair shop at Third Street and Frankfort Avenue, and it was converted into the nation's largest and most elaborate television studio.

A broadcast transmitting tower, built in the backyard of Chief Engineer George Jacobs, was soon hoisted to the top of the National Bank of Tulsa Building. Alvarez had spent a year convincing bank officers that the tower would not only be safe, but would become a local landmark. While the tower was being installed, a workman's wrench fell and struck a woman passing below on the head, killing her.

Detractors jumped on the accident to proclaim KOTV was "jinxed." They took to calling it "Cameron's Folly," and speaking at a Tulsa Chamber of Commerce luncheon, a Tulsa radio executive said anyone investing in KOTV or buying a television set was "foolish."

Those same critics were in the audience when, on the afternoon of Wednesday, November 23, 1949, KOTV broadcast its first program, a Chamber of Commerce meeting live from our studio. A week later, November 30, at 6pm, the station presented a "Special Dedication Program" featuring Oklahoma Governor Roy Turner, Tulsa Mayor Roy Lundy, singer Patti Page, Leon McAuliffe and his western swing band and Miss Oklahoma Louise O'Brien. The next day, December 1, 1949, KOTV broadcast a two-hour sampling of the top programs from all the networks. Over 3,000 television sets were placed throughout the city for public viewing, some of them set on sidewalks outside appliance stores. After several days of this sampling, the public began to buy TV sets and KOTV soon had a tiny, but growing, viewing audience in four states.

KOTV was the nation's 90th television station, and the Tulsa World reported "KOTV, the first television station in Tulsa, will be your key to this new wonderland of sight and sound." For the next five years, while the FCC froze TV station applications, KOTV would be northeast Oklahoma's only television station.

KOTV could choose programming from five networks... CBS, NBC, ABC, Paramount and DuMont. The programs arrived in Tulsa on film, up to a week after their original broadcast in New York or Los Angeles. That filled three hours of programming in the evening. With a broadcasting day that began at 12:30pm, Channel 6 filled the rest of its schedule with live, local, programming.

On any given day, you would find "The Woman's Page," "Drawing For Fun," "Cooking For Fun," "How About Fishing?", "Your Dog And Mine," "The Singing Peddler," "Coffee Break," and "Two Maids Of Music."

The cooking program "Lookin' At Cookin'" began a 32-year run that first year, broadcast from the nation's first "Telecast Kitchen."

We had a live wrestling program, of course, and when staff announcer Bob Hower ended his shift as host of the game show "Wishing Well," he became Tulsa's first news anchorman, reading Associated Press and United Press wire copy headlines for 15 minutes, four times a week.

For many years KOTV was owned by Corinthian Television. In December of 1983 in a corporate deal Belo acquired KOTV along with other Corinthian stations.

In 2001, Oklahoma-based Griffin Communications purchased KOTV. Teamed with co-owned KWTV/News 9 in Oklahoma City, Channel 6 is now part of the state's largest TV newsgathering network.

Griffin has invested millions of dollars to upgrade KOTV's facilities and broadcast signal to accommodate high-definition and digital broadcasting, including a new transmitter, control and master control rooms and outfitting its photojournalists with the first digital cameras in Tulsa. We've also added Tulsa's most-advanced news helicopter, SkyNews 6, which teams with News 9's SkyNews 9HD to form the state's only newsgathering chopper team. Griffin continues to be an industry leader in converting KOTV to non-linear broadcasting and technological superiority.

At the same time, KOTV continues its tradition of community service and partnership, each year supporting countless community and charitable groups as only Tulsa's leading television station can.

With the 2005 purchase of Tulsa's KQCW-TV, Griffin charts another milestone with "The News On Six at 9," the market's newest newscast each weeknight at 9pm on Cox Cable 12/Channel 19.

That newscast joins NewsNow 53 on Cox Cable, which provides News On 6 newscasts 24 hours a day, along with Griffin New Media which supplies News On 6 weather and newscasts to cell phone users. In addition, the Radio Oklahoma Network provides News On 6 weather and news broadcasts to 32 radio stations across the region.

Because KOTV and KJRH's digital channels are currently on a band of UHF which will be no longer in use after the February 17, 2009 cutoff date for analog television broadcasting (channels 52 to 69), it is most likely that both stations will move their digital signals to their current analog channel assignments.

[edit] Programming

On Monday, September 18, 2006, KOTV's sister station KQCW 12/19 in Tulsa began airing The Bold and the Beautiful in its regular network timeslot at 12:30pm. This finally brings the show back to daytime in Tulsa after KOTV dropped the show in the 1990s to expand its noon newscast to an hour. On September 18^th KOTV began broadcasting a half hour news cast on KQCW with Omar Villafranca, Jennifer Loren, Ashli Sims and Meteorologist Katie Green

KOTV also airs local news from 5-9am and shows CBS's "Early Show" from 9-10am.

[edit] Personalities

[edit] Current On-Air Talent

NEWS ON 6 ANCHORS

• Scott Thompson, 6PM & 10PM Weekday Anchor
• Terry Hood, 6PM & 10PM Weekday Anchor
• Lori Fullbright, 5PM Weekday Anchor/Crime Reporter
• Craig Day, 5PM Weekday Anchor
• Jennifer Loren, 9PM Anchor (KQCW)/Reporter
• Glenda Silvey, Weekday Noon Anchor
• Casey Norton, Weekday Morning Anchor
• LeAnne Taylor, Weekday Morning Anchor
• Omar Villafranca, 9PM Anchor (KQCW)/Reporter

NEWS ON 6 REPORTERS

• Steve Berg, General Assignment Reporter
• Joshua Brakhage, General Assignment Reporter
• Emory Bryan, General Assigment Reporter
• Heather Lewin, General Assignment Reporter
• Ashli Sims, General Assignment Reporter
• Carina Sonn, General Assignment Reporter
• Rick Wells, Feature Reporter
• Chris Wright, General Assignment Reporter

NEWS ON 6 METEOROLOGISTS

• Travis Meyer (AMS Certified), Chief Meteorologist
• Alan Crone (AMS Certified), Weekday Morning Meteorologist
• Dick Faurot (AMS Certified), Weekend Evening Meteorologist
• Katie Green (AMS Certified), Weekday Noon (KOTV) and 9PM (KQCW) Meteorologist

SPORTS ANCHORS/REPORTERS

• John Holcomb, Sports Director/Weekday Sports Anchor/"Friday Football Fever" Host/Oklahoma Sports Blitz Co-Host
• Mike Wolfe, Weekend Sports Anchor
• Scott Smith, Sports Reporter

[edit] Past Personalities

• Bob Hower, KOTV's First Anchor, Early 1950's, Later of KTUL, Now Retired
• Betty Boyd, Public Affairs Personality, Later of KTUL, Now Retired
• Cy Tuma, News Anchor, Later of KTUL, Now Deceased
• Jim Hartz, News Anchor, Later of NBC News
• Clayton Vaughn, News Anchor, Now Retired
• Jim Giles, Chief Meteorologist, Now Deceased
• Bill Pitcock, News Anchor, Now Deceased
• Lee Woodward, Meteorologist, Now Retired
• Mike Flynn,, News Anchor, Now A Retired Journalism Professor in Arkansas
• Mack Cregar, Sprots Director, Now Deceased
• Dale Hogg, Weekend News Anchor, Now Living in Washington, D.C.
• Ken Broo, Sports Director in the 1970's
• Bill Teegins, Sports Director, Killed in OSU Plane Crash in Colorado in 2001
• Bob Brown, Afternoon News Anchor, Now at ABC News' 20/20
• James Aydelott, Meteorologist, Now at NBC-5 in Dallas
• John Anderson,Sports, (Now with ESPN)

[edit] News/Station Presentation

[edit] Newscast titles

• Channel 6 News (1949-1978)
• Channel 6 Eyewitness News (1978-1985)
• KOTV Channel 6 News (1985-1987)
• The News on 6 (1987-present)

[edit] Station slogans

• First in Tulsa (1949-Mid 1970's)
• The First One You Turn To (Mid 1970's)
• Take A Look (1978-1980)
• Lookin' Good! (1980-1983, also a CBS slogan)
• We're Everything that Tulsa Means to You (1983-1984)
• The Spirit of Oklahoma (1984-1999; also used on now sister station KWTV)
• The News on 6 (1999-present)

[edit] See also

• News Now 53

[edit] External links

• Query the FCC's TV station database for KOTV