KTXS-TV

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KTXS-TV
Sweetwater / Abilene, Texas
Branding	KTXS 12
Slogan	The News Leader
Channels	12 (VHF) analog, 20 (UHF) digital
Translators	KTXE-LP (38 UHF) San Angelo, Texas
Affiliations	ABC (secondary until 1979) The CW (DT2)
Owner	Bluestone Television
Founded	January 2, 1956
Call letters meaning	K Texas
Former callsigns	KPAR-TV (1956-66)
Former affiliations	CBS (1956-79)
Website	www.ktxs.com/

KTXS-TV is the ABC television affiliate service the Abilene/Sweetwater, Texas viewing area. The station is licensed to Sweetwater, and broadcasts its analog signal on VHF channel 12 (or channel 4 on Cable, Sattelite and Digital Cable) from a broadcasting tower near Trent, Texas.

KTXS also has a low powered repeater, KTXE-LP channel 38 in San Angelo, Texas.

Contents 1 History 2 The News Leader 3 The CW 4 News Staff 5 Weekdays 6 Weekends 7 External links

[edit] History

KTXS signed on as KPAR-TV on January 2, 1956. It was part of the West Texas Television Network, based at KDUB-TV (now KLBK-TV) in Lubbock, and was a primary CBS affiliate with a secondary ABC affiliation. The station's first studio was built in Sweetwater; broadcasts from this location included a six o'clock newscast. Ten years later, the station was moved to its current location in north Abilene and the call letters were changed to KTXS. The station became a sole ABC affiliate when KTAB-TV signed on in 1979 and took over as Abilene's CBS affiliate.

The first tower and studios were at the east edge of Sweetwater, Texas. In 1958 the antenna was moved to a hill mid way between Sweetwater and Abilene. The first tower was aproximately 500 feet tall, and the height above average terrain was 968 feet. The transmitter came from the first Sweetwater location, so was not full power for the channel (316kw). In fact power was 145 kilowatts Visual for many years. At some point in the sixties, a taller tower was built at the eastern most part of the ridge from the first tower. A new antenna and transmitter put the station up to 257 kilowatts at 1,400 feet.

In the late fifties or early sixties, auxiliary studios were built at a former auto dealer building in Abilene. In 1962 or later, the Abilene studios were moved to a new shopping mall (Westgate Shopping center)on the west edge of Abilene. These were used until 1966 when the studios were moved to the highway bypass at the north edge of town, straddling the city of abilene, the county, and a small village (founded to allow liquor in otherwise dry west Texas).

The earliest operators of the station either sold their inetersts to Dub Rogers (KDUB-TV Lubbock, half of KWAB Big Spring and KVER-TV Clovis) or he owned the oridginal plant and they held the license. Assets and license were transferred in 1961 to a new company called Grayson Enterprises, Inc. In 1964 one group of Dallas, Texas based shareholders bought out founder Sid Grayson (former owner of ch 6 and an AM station in Wichita Falls) and later a party to ch 31 in Sacramento.

Grayson changed the channel 12 name from KPAR-TV to KTXS-TV. The station was fined by the FCC in 1965 for using the Abilene studios to the exclusion of the Sweetwater "Main" ones. This would recur over the years.

The Grayson organization added other stations through the late sixties and early seventies, including KCCN (AM) Honolulu,HA KLBK-FM Lubbock, Texas and KVKM-TV Monahans, Texas.

The company ran into license renewal trouble in 1968, 1971, 1974, and 1977. KLBK-TV eventually had it's renewal defferred and a hearing ordered. The stations were accused of fraudulent billing, program and transmitter log fabrication, main studio violations, failure to make required technical tests, etc.

The case was settled in what was then described as a "distress sale" where the stations were sold to a minority controlled group (nowadays known as a historically underutilized group)at a reduced price. The company break up actually help define the parameters of such a sale. The Lubbock and Sweetwater stations were transferred to Prima, Inc. (African American Principals)and the Permian Basin stations KVKM & KWAB were sold to a Hispanic Controlled group.

KTXS new owners were granted a permanent waiver of the main studio rule to use only the Abilene studios while identifying as a Sweetwater-Abilene station..

[edit] The News Leader

"The News Leader" has been the station's longtime slogan.

According to Nielsen Media Research, KTXS has been a perennial ratings leader for morning and weekend newscasts. And for ratings-period February 2006, the station's ten o'clock news broadcast was top-rated for the first time in the program's history.

Those 10 pm ratings were short-lived, however. By November, 2006, KTXS had again dropped to #2 in the time-slot, several ratings points behind the CBS affiliate.

The KTXS news team is led by longtime 6 & 10 anchor Wayne McCormick.

[edit] The CW

Beginning in September of 2006, KTXS started broadcasting the shows of the new CW Television Network on its digital channel 20.

[edit] News Staff

KTXS News 12
News Director, Iain Munro
Assignments Editor, George Levesque
News Anchor, Wayne McCormick
News Anchor, Braid Sharp
News Anchor/Reporter, Lacie Lowry
Morning Anchor, Laura Madison
Weekend Anchor/Reporter,Melissa Newton
Weekend Anchor/Reporter, Cam Tran
Reporter, Gilbert Corsey
Reporter, Janet Kwak
Reporter KTES (Telemundo) Anchor, Gabriella Gonzales
Exec. Producer, Kristina Cooke
Reporter/Producer, Jessica Weber
Nightside Producer, Patricia Sauceda
Morning Producer, Johnathan Eaves
Chief Photographer, Scott Martin
Photographer, Joe Fry
Photographer, Bryan Clemmer
Production Manager, Susan Acuna
Head Director, John McCurdy
Weekend Director, Nathan Tucker

Storm Team 12
Chief Meteorologist, Damon Lane
Meteorologist, Andrew LaFavers
Meteorologist, Chad Garneau

Sports Department
Sports Director, Lesley Floyd
Sports Reporter, Ruben Gonzalez

[edit] Weekdays

• KTXS This Morning - 5:30-7:00am
  • Laura Madison - Anchor
  • Chad Garneau - Storm Team 12 Meteorologist
  • Matt Smith - Farm & Ranch Report

• KTXS Live at Five - 5:00-5:30pm
  • George Levesque and Braid Sharp - Anchors
  • Damon Lane - Storm Team 12 Chief Meteorologist

• KTXS News 12 at Six - 6:00-6:30pm
  • Wayne McCormick and Lacie Lowry - Anchors
  • Damon Lane - Storm Team 12 Chief Meteorologist
  • Lesley Floyd - Sports Director

• KTXS News 12 at Ten - 10:00-10:35pm
  • Wayne McCormick and Braid Sharp - Anchors
  • Damon Lane - Storm Team 12 Chief Meteorologist
  • Lesley Floyd - Sports Director

[edit] Weekends

• KTXS Live at Five - 5:00-5:30pm (Sunday)
• KTXS News 12 at Six - 6:00-6:30pm (Saturday)
• KTXS News 12 at Ten - 10:00-10:30pm (Saturday & Sunday)
  • Jessica Weber - Anchor/Reporter
  • Andrew Lafavers - Storm Team 12 Meteorologist
  • Ruben Gonzalez - Sports Anchor/Reporter

• KTXS Sports Sunday 10:30-11:00pm (Sunday)
  • Lesley Floyd - Sports Director
  • Ruben Gonzalez - Sports Anchor/Reporter

[edit] External links

• KTXS-TV Homepage
• Query the FCC's TV station database for KTXS
• Query the FCC's TV station database for KTXE