KSWO-TV
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| KSWO-TV | |
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| Lawton, Oklahoma/Wichita Falls, Texas | |
| Branding | 7 News |
| Slogan | You Can Count on Us! |
| Channels | Analog: 7 (VHF) |
| Affiliations | ABC Telemundo (DT2) |
| Owner | Drewry Communications Group (KSWO Television Company, Inc.) |
| First air date | March 8, 1953 |
| Call letters’ meaning | South West Oklahoma |
| Transmitter Power | 316 kW (analog) 138 kW (digital) |
| Height | 320 m (analog) 327.3 m (digital) |
| Facility ID | 35645 |
| Transmitter Coordinates | |
| Website | www.kswo.com |
KSWO-TV (branded as "7 News") is the ABC affiliate located in Lawton, Oklahoma but also serves Wichita Falls, Texas. Its transmitter is located near Grandfield, Oklahoma. KSWO broadcasts its analog signal on VHF channel 7 and its digital signal on VHF channel 11. KSWO also offers Telemundo programming on digital channel 7.2.
KSWO-TV also serves as one of four default ABC affiliates for the Sherman-Ada market, which adjoins the Wichita Falls-Lawton market to the east (along with KOCO-TV, Oklahoma City; KTUL-TV, Tulsa and WFAA-TV, Dallas-Fort Worth) since that market currently lacks an ABC affiliate of its own, as the market's former ABC affiliate KTEN became an NBC affiliate in 1998. KSWO's role as the default ABC affiliate in the Sherman-Ada market is limited mostly to areas west of Interstate 35 in Carter County, Oklahoma where it is carried by cable operators in smaller communities such as Ratliff City, Healdton and Wilson.
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[edit] History
KSWO is owned by Drewry Communications Group, which started out with one radio property at Lawton, KSWO-AM, in 1941, followed by the addition of KRHD Radio in nearby Duncan, Oklahoma in 1947. The call letters of the Duncan station were named for the owner, Robert H. Drewry's, initials. The call letters KSWO are now exclusively used by the TV station and KRHD is now used as the call sign for an ABC affiliate in Bryan-College Station, Texas, which is also owned by Drewry.
KSWO-TV is the only television station in the Wichita Falls-Lawton market to have remained under the same ownership since its inception and to remain locally owned and operated to this day. It also one of the few TV stations in the country (not counting owned-and-operated stations) that has had the same call letters, channel number, and primary network affiliation throughout its history.
Drewry Communications Group also owns CBS affiliate KFDA-TV in Amarillo, Texas; ABC affiliate KXXV in Waco, Texas; NBC affiliates KWES-TV in Midland, Texas; and KWES repeater station KWAB-TV in Big Spring, Texas; and Disney Channel affiliate KSGH-TV in Fort Worth, Texas.
KSWO-TV has several long-time veterans who have been with the station for 20 years or longer. Jan Stratton has served as anchor continuously since 1981 and was news director until July 2006, while co-anchor and current news director, David Bradley has been with the station since 1986 first as sports director/anchor for 13 years and then as news anchor since 1999.
Tom Charles has been a familiar face to Channel 7 viewers since the early 1960s. He served as chief weathercaster/meteorologist from 1964 to 1996 and then as anchor of the 5:30 a.m. newscast and Good Morning Texoma co-anchor since 2000 following a four-year stint as chief meteorologist at CBS affiliate KAUZ-TV in Wichita Falls, Texas.
Larry Patton has served as general manager of KSWO-TV since 1976 and has been employed by the station since 1967.
In 1976, Lisa John was anchoring the 10 p.m. newscast one Sunday night when a skunk made its way into the studio causing her face to turn pale on live television before hundreds of thousands of viewers across Southwest Oklahoma and North Texas.
Due to electrical outages following a damaging windstorm that rolled through the Lawton area in late May, 1996, the early morning newscast "Good Morning Texoma" was broadcast virtually in the dark. The only power came from the portable generator in one of the stations live trucks, which they also used as a makeshift STL (studio-to-transmitter link) to get the signal to the transmitter. The show was done with one camera, one tape deck and one microphone (that was passed between the talent).
KSWO has broadcast the annual West Texas Rehabilitation Center telethon from Abilene, Texas each year since 1971. The telethon is broadcast one Saturday night each January over TV stations throughout the state.
The station's first transmitter was at the studios east of Lawton, which was a relatively low-power unit that could reach viewers within a limited 55-mile radius that included Altus, Oklahoma to the west, Wichita Falls to the south, Anadarko, Oklahoma to the north and Ringling, Oklahoma to the east. By the late 1950s, other ABC affiliates such as KOCO-TV in Oklahoma City and KTEN in Ada, Oklahoma were encroaching the northern and eastern fringes on KSWO's viewing area but wide gaps existed to the south and west of Wichita Falls and the only primary ABC affiliates in north and west Texas were WFAA-TV, Dallas-Fort Worth and KVII-TV in Amarillo as Lubbock and Abilene did not get their own primary ABC affiliates until 1969 and 1979, respectively.
In 1959, the FCC permitted KSWO-TV to erect a 1,000 foot tall tower with 316,000 watts of power (maximum allowable for VHF channels 7-13) near Grandfield, Oklahoma, which was activated in early 1960 and permitted reception of Channel 7 over a much larger area of North Texas and Southwest Oklahoma - bringing complete ABC programming with viewable reception to many locations for the first time. Wichita Falls stations KFDX-TV and KSYD-TV (now KAUZ) opposed the application, and the FCC had to be convinced. The new site was about half way between the cities and from a Lawton perspective in the same direction as the Wichita Falls stations. Many years later when KJTL Fox 18 was activated in the mid-1980s, they chose a site near KSWO-TV's transmitter at Grandfield. Ironically, KJTL Fox 18 is now in common ownership with NBC affiliate KFDX Channel 3, which continues to operate its own transmitter from the original site in Wichita Falls as does CBS affiliate KAUZ Channel 6.
KSWO produces 20.5 hours of news programming a week.
[edit] Personalities
[edit] Current on-air talent
7 NEWS ANCHORS
- David Bradley, Weekday Evening Anchor/News Director
- Monte Brown, Weekend Evening Anchor/Reporter
- Tom Charles, 7 Wake-Up News/Good Morning Texoma Anchor
- Emily Jaster, The Nine 9PM Weekday Anchor
- Stacia Naquin, 7 Wake-Up News/Good Morning Texoma Anchor
- Jan Stratton, Weekday Evening Anchor
- Lindsay Vocht, Weekend Morning Anchor, Reporter
7 NEWS REPORTERS
- Terri Poahway, MedWatch Reporter
- Robert Richardson, General Assignment Reporter
- Elaina Rusk, General Assignment Reporter
- Kenny Scarle, General Assignment Reporter
SKYWARN 7 METEOROLOGISTS
- Pat Walker, Chief Meteorologist
- Justin Rudicel, Meteorologist
- Kim Truong, Meteorologist
- Dan Zarrow, Meteorologist
SPORTS ANCHORS/REPORTERS
- Dan Seed, Sports Director/Weekday Sports Anchor
- Chris Thomasson, Weekend Sports Anchor
[edit] Former on-air talent
- Eric Law, Weekend Meteorologist (2002-2003); Morning Meteorologist (2003-2004); now at WLBT-TV in Jackson, MS
- David A. Grady, news director/anchor, (1967-73)
- Tarra G. Haskins , Anchor/reporter/Talk Show Host(1980 - 1983)
- Lisa John, weekend news anchor/reporter, (1974-81)(Deceased)
- Arthur Johnson, news anchor, (1962-67)
- Hugh Johnson, news anchor, (1972-77)
- J Kendel Johnson,assistant news director/anchor/reporter/producer/assignments editor, (1981-84)
- Lew Johnson, sports anchor, (1965-81)
- Mike McDonald, news anchor, (1980-94)
- Patrick McKee, morning meteorologist (2001-03); chief meteorologist (2003-05)
- Bill McReynolds, news anchor (1953-?)
- Don Peeples, weathercaster (1953-?)
- Scott Perkins, sports director, (1979-86)
- Tom Reddell, weathercaster (late 1950s-early 1960s)
- Bill Riley, news director/co-anchor, (1973-79)
- Darrell Reed, staff meteorologist (1987-92)
- Dan Threlkeld, weathercaster, (1981-83; now at KJRH-TV in Tulsa)
- Andy Wallace, staff meteorologist (1992-93); chief meteorologist (1996-2003)
- Robert Burch, News Anchor/Reporter (1995/2003)
- Lynn Walker, news anchor (1996-99)
- Jennifer Tipton, news anchor (1997-2004)
- Winnifred Washington, reporter
- Nicole Jolly, News Anchor/Reporter (1994-2006; now at Southwestern Medical Center)
- Doug Wahl, Good Morning Texoma Anchor (1997-1999)
- Cecilia Mason, anchor/reporter(1987-1989)
- Paul Harrop, photojournalist/overnight reporter/weekend morning anchor (2006-2007;now at KOCO-5 in Oklahoma City)
- Dave Hunt, sports anchor(2006-2007)
- Marie Berberea, weekend morning anchor/overnight reporter(2005-2007)
- Courtney Coates, weekend morning anchor/reporter (200?-2006; now at KOKH-25 in Oklahoma City)
- Andrea Charles, reporter (2006-2008)
[edit] News/station presentation
[edit] Newscast Titles
- KSWO-TV Newsreel (1953-1963)
- TV-7 News (1963-1973)
- Channel 7 News (1973-1977)
- Newscene 7 (1977-1979)
- Action 7 News (1979-1996)
- 7 News (1996-present)
[edit] Station slogans
- 7's The Place
- Looking Out For You
- You Can Count on Us! (2000-present)
[edit] External links
- KSWO Homepage
- Query the FCC's TV station database for KSWO
- BIAfn's Media Web Database -- Information on KSWO-TV
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