KWTV
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| KWTV | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Oklahoma City, Oklahoma | |
| Branding | KWTV 9 / News9 |
| Slogan | none |
| 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, commonly referred to as "NEWS9" 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 broadcasts its analog signal on VHF channel 9, and its digital signal on UHF channel 39. KWTV can be seen on cable channel 10 on Cox Oklahoma City, and on cable channel 9 on other Cox systems in Central Oklahoma. The station is also available to customers on DirecTV and Dish Network within the Oklahoma City market.
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 1976. 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.
KWTV is one of the few TV stations in the country (not counting owned-and-operated stations) that has had the same call letters, the same owner, the same channel number, and the same primary network affiliation throughout its history.
Contents |
[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 split into two separate 30 minute broadcasts at 5 p.m. and 6 p.m. in 1976, 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 Meteorologist 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 (replaced in 2006 by SkyNews9 HD, a Bell 407 helicopter), 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 dating back to the 1950s with the late Jack Ogle, 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 tenures of any of the station's news staff, both of which date back to the early 1980s. Only Chief Meteorologist Gary England has had a longer tenure as an on-air personality at KWTV, which began in 1972.
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] Sports
Since 2000, KWTV has broadcast three Oklahoma State Cowboys basketball games per season, usually airing on a Wednesday or Saturday, in addition to airing CBS' coverage of NCAA basketball.
[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 and 4PM Anchor/Reporter
- Amy McRee, Weekday Evening Anchor/Reporter
- Ed Murray, Weekday Morning and Midday Anchor/Reporter
- Kelly Ogle, Weekday Evening Anchor/Reporter
- Jennifer Pierce, Weekend Morning Anchor/Reporter
- Amanda Taylor, 5PM Anchor/Reporter/"Consumer Watch" Reporter
- Doug Warner, Weekday Morning Anchor/Fill-in Noon Anchor/Special Assignment Reporter
NEWS9 REPORTERS
- Charles Bassett, Reporter/Fill-in Anchor
- Mary Ann Baumann, Medical Contributor
- Irven Box, Legal Analyst
- Stacey Cameron, General Assignment Reporter
- Jim Craig, Fill-in Traffic Reporter
- Mason Dunn, SkyNews9 HD Pilot Reporter
- Rosa Flores, General Assignment Reporter
- Dave Jordan, General Assignment Reporter
- Mary Joseph, General Assignment Reporter
- Andrew Harris, Traffic Reporter
- Amy Lester, General Assignment Reporter
- Scott Mitchell, Political Analyst/"Your Vote Counts" Moderator
NEWS9 METEOROLOGISTS
- Gary England (AMS Certified), 4PM, 5PM, 6PM and 10PM Chief Meteorologist
- Michael Armstrong, Weekend Morning Meteorologist/Fill-in Meteorologist
- Jed Castles, Weekday Morning Meteorologist/Fill-in Meteorologist
- Zach Daniel, Weekend Evening Meteorologist/Fill-in Meteorologist
- Susan Ghere, Staff Meteorologist
- Carrie Rose, Weather Producer/Fill-in Meteorologist
- Val Castor, Storm Spotter
SPORTS ANCHORS/REPORTERS
- Dean Blevins, Sports Director/5PM, 6PM and 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] Former On-Air Talent
- Paul Bouchereau, Anchor/Reporter (1990s-2000)
- Brady Brus, Weekend Meteorologist (1995-2000; now at KSBI-TV)
- Angela Buckelew, Anchor/Reporter (1992-2006; now at OETA)
- Russ McCaskey, Reporter (1992-1995; now at KJRH-TV in Tulsa)
- Leroy Tatom, Ranger 9 Pilot Reporter (1994-2001; deceased)
- Bill Teegins, Sports Director/Sports Anchor (1986-2001; deceased)
[edit] News/Station Presentation
[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] Station Slogans
- The Spirit of Oklahoma (1984-2000)
- More Local, More Meaningful (2000-2003)
-
This film, television, or video-related list is incomplete; you can help by expanding it.
[edit] Logos
 Current logo used since March 1997. |
[edit] Office location
KWTV's studios and transmitter are located at 7401 North Kelly Avenue, just across the street from the studios of the Oklahoma Educational Television Authority.
[edit] See also
- News Now 53
- I-News
[edit] External links
| Broadcast television in the Metropolitan Oklahoma City market (Nielsen DMA #46) |
|---|
|
KFOR 4 (NBC) - KOCO 5 (ABC) - KOHC 7 (AZA) - KWTV 9 (CBS) - KETA 13 / KWET 12 (PBS / OETA) - KTBO 14 (TBN) - KLHO 17 (LFN) - KUOT 19 (Almavision) - 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) - KWDW-LP 48 (UNI) - KSBI 52 (Ind) - KOPX 62 (ION) |
| Local cable television channels
City Channel 20 - News Now 53 |
|
KOTV 6 (Tulsa) - KWTV 9 (Oklahoma City) |
|
| See also: ABC, CW, Fox, MyNetworkTV, NBC, PBS, Spanish, and Other English stations in Oklahoma | |
