KOTV
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| KOTV | |
|---|---|
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| Tulsa, Oklahoma | |
| Branding | KOTV 6 (general) The News on 6 (newscasts) |
| Channels | Analog: 6 (VHF) |
| Affiliations | CBS The CW (DT2, simulcast of KQCW) |
| Owner | Griffin Communications, LLC (Griffin Tulsa I Licensing, LLC) |
| First air date | October 22, 1949 |
| Call letters’ meaning | Oklahoma TeleVision |
| Sister station(s) | KQCW |
| Former affiliations | All secondary: NBC/ABC/DuMont (1949-1954) Paramount (1949-1953) |
| Transmitter Power | 100 kW (analog) 970 kW (digital) |
| Height | 573 m (analog) 490.4 m (digital) |
| Facility ID | 35434 |
| Transmitter Coordinates | |
| Website | www.newson6.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 studios in downtown Tulsa. KOTV's transmitter is located in Oneta. KOTV has yet to say when their local news broadcasts will be available in HD.
The station broadcasts its analog signal on VHF channel 6, and its digital signal on UHF channel 45. On cable, KOTV can be seen on channel 6 on Cox Tulsa. KOTV can also be heard on 87.7 FM in much of northeastern Oklahoma; the audio component of TV channel 6 is the same as 87.75 MHz FM.
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[edit] History
In 1946, the Griffin family, owners of KTUL-AM, assigned Helen Alvarez to make a study of television's chances of success in Tulsa. After two years of research, Alvarez suggested that the Griffins apply for a TV construction permit as quickly as possible. The radio executives decided TV was too risky a venture, and planned to wait a year before going to the FCC to apply for a TV license. Unfortunately, due to a freeze on television applications, the Griffins would face a much longer wait to get into television, but eventually did so when KTVX (now KTUL) signed on in 1954.
Alvarez immediately resigned and began casting about for investors willing to get a station on the air right away. At a party, she was introduced to Texas oilman George Cameron, who was looking to spend a monthly royalty checks totaling $50,000 he was banking. Along with crack salesman John Hill, who was working for a Tulsa wire maker, Cameron and Alvarez formed Cameron Television Corporation and applied to the FCC for channel 6 in Tulsa. With no other applications to consider, the FCC granted a construction permit to the Cameron Television Corporation in the spring of 1948.
It wasn't granted for KOTV, as Cameron had requested, but for KOVB. A typo on the application meant the request had to be re-filed, and in May 1948, the FCC approved the call sign 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 what was then the nation's largest television studio. The station still broadcasts from there today.
KOTV's transmitter, built in the backyard of Chief Engineer George Jacobs, was eventually hoisted to the top of the National Bank of Tulsa Building in downtown Tulsa. Alvarez had spent a year convincing bank officers that the tower would be both safe and in time, become a local landmark. While the tower was being installed, a workman's wrench fell and struck a woman passing below on the head. She died instantly.
Detractors jumped on the accident proclaiming KOTV was "jinxed" from the start. 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." However, Cameron Television continued on, and on October 22, 1949, KOTV signed on as the 90th television station in the United States and the second in Oklahoma. Alvarez was the station's first general manager, and along with Hill held a minority ownership stake in the station.
The station's first broadcast was of evangelist Billy Graham beginning his ministry with a crusade in Los Angeles. It was seen by a handful of viewers across Oklahoma, Kansas, Missouri and Arkansas. More than a month later, on November 23 KOTV broadcast its first local program, a live Chamber of Commerce meeting attended by many of the station's original critics.
A week later, 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, KOTV broadcast a two-hour sampling of the top programs from all five 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 began having a small, but growing, viewing audience in the Four States area.
KOTV originally carried programming from all four networks of the time--CBS, ABC, NBC and DuMont. It also briefly carried some programs produced by the "Paramount Television Network," a link between KTLA in Los Angeles and WBKB (now WBBM-TV) in Chicago. At first, network programming was aired about a week after being broadcast live on the East Coast; it would be 1952 before a microwave link with New York City made live network programming possible.
Three hours of programming were filled in the evening. With a broadcast schedule that began at 12:30pm, Channel 6 filled the rest of its schedule with local programming that was broadcast live. The cooking program "Lookin' At Cookin'" began a 32-year run that first year, broadcast from the nation's first "Telecast Kitchen."
KOTV had a live wrestling program, and when the station's 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.
In 1952, Cameron sold KOTV to another Texas oil magnate, Jack Wrather, for $2.5 million (by comparison, it had cost only $400,000 to build the station). Wrather knew little about television, and persuaded Alvarez to stay on as general manager. He also made her a full partner in what was named the Wrather-Alvarez Television Corporation, later renamed the General Television Corporation.
KOTV got a competitor in 1954, when KCEB-TV signed on channel 23 as an NBC primary/DuMont secondary affiliate. However, as television manufacturers were not required to include UHF tuning capability at the time, NBC made a secret agreement with KOTV that allowed channel 6 to continue "cherry-picking" NBC's stronger shows. A few months later, KVOO-TV (channel 2, now KJRH) signed on and took the remaining NBC programming. KCEB then moved to ABC, which agreed on condition that KOTV be allowed to cherry-pick its shows as well. When KTVX signed on in 1954, it took all remaining ABC programming, leaving KOTV as a sole CBS affiliate.
Soon after KOTV became a sole CBS affiliate, General Television sold KOTV to the Whitney Corporation of Indianapolis, which was renamed Corinthian Broadcasting Corporation in 1957. Corinthian merged with Dun & Bradstreet in 1971.
In December of 1983, Belo bought Dun and Bradstreet's entire television division, including KOTV. In late 2000, Oklahoma City-based Griffin Communications, longtime owners of CBS affiliate KWTV in Oklahoma City, purchased KOTV. Ironically, the Griffins had once owned KTUL-AM.
Griffin invested in KOTV upgrade the station'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 the market. In recent years, KOTV also added Tulsa's most-advanced news helicopter, SkyNews 6, which teamed up with Oklahoma City's News 9's SkyNews 9HD to form the state's only newsgathering chopper team.
When Griffin bought WB affiliate KWBT (now CW affiliate KQCW), KOTV hired new staff and built a new set for a newscast called The News On Six at 9.
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 seemed likely that both stations will move their digital signals to their current analog channel assignments. However, their current analog channel assignments are in the low band of VHF (channels 2 to 6), which are more prone to interference from atmospheric conditions than are higher channel numbers. For this reason, KOTV selected channel 45 for its post-transition operations and KJRH will operate on channel 8 after KTUL ceases analog operations.
[edit] Chopper Crash
On June 20, 2007, the station's helicopter, SkyNews 6, was shooting a station promotion when the chopper's rotors struck the dish of a KOTV satellite truck, sending the helicopter spinning out of control and crashing to the ground. Two people, including the chopper's pilot, survived with minor injuries. The Bell 206B helicopter was a total loss. [1][2]
A photo of SkyNews 6 is available at http://www.airliners.net/open.file/1154584/M
KOTV debuted a new helicopter on May 5, 2008. The new chopper is also called SkyNews 6. Improvements to the new helicopter include an additional camera on the craft's tail, that shows the side of the chopper in profile on the left side of the screen, while showing the scene on the right side.
The new cameras have been rebranded as "SteadiZoom 360".
[edit] Ratings
KOTV continues to dominate the Nielsen ratings 24 hours a day, and its news broadcasts continue to win all time periods by comfortable margins. In November 2007, KOTV's 10pm newscast was the 8th highest-ranked late newscast in the United States. Channel 6 also won in the Local Access time period (6:30pm weeknights) with Entertainment Tonight. [3]
[edit] Programming
On Monday, September 18, 2006, KOTV's sister station KQCW in Tulsa began airing The Bold and the Beautiful in its regular network timeslot at 12:30pm. KOTV previously dropped the show in the 1990s to expand its noon newscast to a full hour. On this day, KOTV also began producing a half hour newscast for KQCW. Jennifer Loren, Ashli Sims and meteorologist Katie Green currently make up the news team.
KOTV also airs local news from 5 a.m. to 8 a.m. and shows CBS's "Early Show" from 8 a.m. to 10 a.m. The fourth hour (8 a.m. to 9 a.m.) of KOTV's "Six in the Morning" show was moved to KQCW effective January 7, 2008, to accommodate the CBS mandate that all affiliates broadcast the full two hours of the "Early Show."
[edit] Personnel
[edit] Current On-Air Talent
NEWS ON 6 ANCHORS
- Craig Day, 5PM Weekday Anchor/Reporter
- Lori Fullbright, 5PM Weekday Anchor/Crime Reporter
- Terry Hood, 6PM & 10PM Weekday Anchor
- Rich Lenz, Weekday Morning Anchor
- Jennifer Loren, 9PM Anchor (KQCW)/Medical Reporter
- Latoya Silmon, Weekend Anchor/Reporter
- Glenda Silvey, Weekday Noon Anchor
- LeAnne Taylor, Weekday Morning Anchor
- Scott Thompson, 6PM & 10PM Weekday Anchor
NEWS ON 6 REPORTERS
- Steve Berg, General Assignment/Business Reporter
- Dan Bewley, General Assignment Reporter/Field Producer
- Emory Bryan, General Assigment/Government Reporter
- Jeffrey Smith, General Assignment Reporter
- Ashli Sims, General Assignment/Education Reporter
- Carina Sonn, General Assignment Reporter - 6 In The Morning
- Rick Wells, Feature Reporter
- Nicole Wiseman, Newson6.com Reporter
- Chris Wright, General Assignment Reporter
NEWS ON 6 METEOROLOGISTS
- Travis Meyer, Chief Meteorologist
- Alan Crone, Weekday Morning Meteorologist
- Dick Faurot, Weekend Evening Meteorologist
- Katie Green, 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
- Scott Smith, Weekend Sports Anchor/Reporter
- J.B. Long, Sports Reporter/Photographer
NEWSON6.COM WEB EXCLUSIVES TEAM
- Margaret Stokes, Newson6.com Anchor
- Nicole Wiseman, Newson6.com Anchor/Reporter
- Kyle Dierking, Newson6.com Videojournalist
- Chris Howell, Newson6.com Videojournalist
NEWS ON 6 PHOTOJOURNALISTS
- Oscar Pea, Chief Photographer
- Michael Blair, Photojournalist
- Tim Carson, 6 In The Morning Photographer
- Martha Chambers, Photojournalist
- Sam Garforth, Photojournalist
- Jason Gear, Photojournalist
- KJ Kabrick, Photojournalist
- Gary Kruse, Overnight Photographer
- Ty Lewis, Photojournalist
- Patrick McCormick, Photojournalist
- Jeff Popkess, Photojournalist
- Todd Ruffin, Photojournalist
- Charlie Willsey, Photojournalist
- Steve Wolfe, Sports Photographer
- Michael Woods, Senior Photographer
[edit] Past Personalities
- John Anderson, Sports (now with ESPN)
- James Aydelott, Meteorologist (now at KXAS-TV in Dallas)
- Ken Broo, Sports Director in the 1970s (now sports director at WLWT-TV in Cincinnati)
- Bob Brown, Afternoon News Anchor (now at ABC News' 20/20)
- Betty Boyd, Public Affairs Personality, (later of KTUL, Now Retired)
- Mack Creager, Sports Director (deceased)
- Mike Flynn, News Anchor, now A Retired Journalism Professor in Arkansas
- David George, Meteorologist in late 1980s (now Chief Meteorologist at WMTV, Madison, WI)
- Jim Giles, Chief Meteorologist (1981-2006; deceased)
- Jim Hartz, News Anchor (later co-anchor of NBC's Today Show)
- Dale Hogg, Weekend News Anchor (now Living in Washington, D.C.)
- Bob Hower, KOTV's First Anchor, (Early 1950s; later of KTUL, Now Retired)
- Robert Joffe, News Anchor (fired from KOTV, then committed suicide)
- Lisa Jones, Co-Anchor (1993 until fired 1999, now at KJRH)
- Les Lampson, Announcer (later announcer for "The Untouchables" [1959-1963], deceased)
- Tami Marler, Weekend Anchor/Investigative Reporter (now with Tulsa Public Schools)
- Dari Nowkah, Sports Reporter (now with ESPN)
- Casey Norton, Morning Anchor (now weekend anchor at KOMO-TV in Seattle)
- Bill Pitcock, News Anchor, (deceased)
- Bill Teegins, Sports Director (killed in OSU Plane Crash in Colorado in 2001)
- Cy Tuma, News Anchor, (later of KTUL, deceased)
- Lee Woodward, Meteorologist (retired)
- Clayton Vaughn, News Anchor (retired)
- Omar Villafranca, KQCW Anchor/Reporter (now at KXAS-TV in Dallas)
- Mike Wolfe, Sports Anchor (now at Cox Communications)
[edit] News/Station Presentation
[edit] Newscast titles
- KOTV World News (October-December 1949)
- Channel 6 News (December 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 1970s)
- The First One You Turn To (Mid 1970s)
- 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
[edit] External links
- KOTV Homepage
- Query the FCC's TV station database for KOTV
- BIAfn's Media Web Database -- Information on KOTV-TV
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