KTVX
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| KTVX | |
|---|---|
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| Salt Lake City, Utah | |
| Branding | ABC 4 |
| Channels | Analog: 4 (VHF) |
| Affiliations | ABC TheHive TV (Community-produced programs) on DT2 |
| Owner | Newport Television, LLC (sale pending to High Plains Broadcasting, Inc.; Newport Television will continue to operate the station thereafter) |
| First air date | April 19, 1948 |
| Call letters’ meaning | TeleVision eXellence (1975) |
| Former callsigns | KDYL-TV (1948-1953) KTVT (1953-1959) KCPX-TV (1959-1975) |
| Former affiliations | NBC (1948-1960) |
| Transmitter Power | 32.4 kW (analog) 475.7 kW (digital) |
| Height | 1180 m (analog) 1256 m (digital) |
| Facility ID | 68889 |
| Transmitter Coordinates | (analog) (digital) |
| Website | www.abc4.com |
KTVX ("ABC4") is the ABC affiliate in Salt Lake City, Utah. It also operates a large network of over 100 translator stations that covers the entire state and parts of Arizona, Idaho, Nevada, and Wyoming. The station is co-owned with CW affiliate KUCW by Newport Television, pending a sale of both stations to High Plains Broadcasting, Inc. due to FCC ownership limits (see below). KTVX broadcasts from a transmitter located west of Salt Lake City, Utah, on a peak known as Farnsworth Peak.
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[edit] History
KTVX signed on the air as Utah's first TV station in 1947 under the experimental callsign W6SIX. It began broadcasting regularly on April 19, 1948[1], and signified its relationship with its corporate sibling KDYL-AM with the callsign KDYL-TV. The floor in the first studio was sloped and cameras would easily roll. The original transmitter sat on the top of the Walker Bank Building. The station was originally an NBC affiliate owing to KDYL-AM's long relationship with NBC Radio; KDYL-AM had been one of NBC's original 26 affiliates when the network premiered in 1926.
KTVX is the oldest TV station in the Mountain Time Zone and the third oldest west of the Mississippi. The station changed its call letters to KTVT in 1953, KCPX-TV in 1959, and finally KTVX in 1975. The KTVT call letters are now used by the CBS station in Dallas, Texas. The change of call letters to KCPX came with the sale to Screen Gems Broadcasting, a division of Screen Gems, then the television division of Columbia Pictures. For a brief period it was owned by Time Life, Inc. It adopted its present-day call letters when United Television (then a subsidiary of the 20th Century Fox Corporation) acquired the station.
Channel 4 swapped affiliations with KUTV in 1960 and became an ABC affiliate. It added KCPX-FM in 1961. KCPX had an early studio color camera that was mostly unusable, so KCPX killed the color on network feeds; this and poor management caused studio unrest. Several of the crew ended up at NBC's West Coast facility in Burbank, California, where they worked in color. Channel 4 did not convert to color broadcasting until 1969, while KSL-TV and KUTV had broadcast in color since the 1950s. Not surprisingly, it took a long time for channel 4's ratings to recover.
Some of the memorable shows from the 1960s include Fireman Frank and Nightmare Theater, both hosted by Ron Ross.
The KTVX call letters were formerly used by KTUL-TV in Tulsa, Oklahoma, also an ABC affiliate.
In 1975, when the station changed its call letters to KTVX, the title for the newscasts was NewsCenter 4. This was the first newscast title under the current call letters, which lasted until 1981.
In 1981, United Television merged with Chris-Craft Industries. After Chris-Craft's stations were sold to FOX, KTVX and KMOL (now WOAI-TV) in San Antonio were traded to Clear Channel for WFTC in the Twin Cities. Since Fox already owned KSTU, it was forced to sell KTVX due to current FCC regulations prohibiting one company from owning two of the four highest-ranked stations in a single market. KTVX was traded because it had a long-term ABC affiliation. FOX also wanted to offer an attractive package to Clear Channel for WFTC.
KTVX was the only Chris-Craft owned station to have never been affiliated with UPN during the time Chris-Craft owned a partial stake in the network.
The station airs TheHive TV on its DT2 digital subchannel, which features locally produced programs and sports produced by residents in the Salt Lake City area, and the schedule resembles cable public access, though since the channel must conform to FCC content guidelines, outside producers' programs must be approved by the station before they can air.
On November 16, 2006, Clear Channel announced plans to sell all of its television stations, including KTVX,[1] after being bought by private equity firms. On April 20, 2007, Clear Channel entered into an agreement to sell its entire television stations group to Providence Equity Partners's Newport Television.[2] Newport closed on the station group on March 14, 2008. In May of 2008, Newport Television agreed to sell KTVX and five other stations to High Plains Broadcasting, Inc. because of an ownership conflict. However, Newport Television will continue to operate KTVX after the sale is finalized.[3]
[edit] Bush visit
In August 2005, President George W. Bush visited Salt Lake City to speak to the Veterans of Foreign Wars. Cindy Sheehan appeared in a paid political message protesting the Iraq War, and the ad was submitted to the top four stations in the market (KSL-TV, KSTU, KTVX and KUTV). KTVX management declined the offer, saying that the content "could very well be offensive to our community in Utah, which has contributed more than its fair share of fighting soldiers and suffered significant loss of life in this Iraq war."[4]
[edit] Newscasts
Randall Carlisle and Barbara Smith anchor the news at 5:30pm, and Ross Becker joins Carlisle for the news at 6:00pm. Becker anchors the news at 10:00pm with Smith.
The morning news program, A.M. Express, was recently re-imaged as Good Morning Utah with a new weather person and an on-set traffic person.
ABC4 also broadcasts a live show at 10 a.m. titled Good Things Utah with hosts Nicea DeGering, Reagan Leadbetter, Angie Larsen and Marti Skold.
The weekend newscasts are anchored by Terry Wood and Susan Wood.
[edit] On Air Personalities
[edit] ABC 4 News Anchors
- Ross Becker - 4pm, 6pm and 10pm
- Randall Carlisle - 5:30pm and 6pm
- Barbara Smith - 4pm, 5:30pm and 10pm
- Erika Edberg - Good Morning Utah (5-7am)
- Mike McKay - Good Morning Utah (5-7am)
- Terry Wood - Weekends (also reporter)
- Susan Wood - Weekends (also reporter)
[edit] ABC 4 Weather
- Marti Skold, Chief Meteorologist - 4pm, 5:30pm, 6pm & 10pm
- Todd Gross, Meteorologist - Good Morning Utah (5-7am)
- Clayton Brough, Climatologist - Weekend Editions of ABC4 News (Forecasting Weather on KTVX for 26 Years)
[edit] ABC 4 Sports Zone and Red Zone
- Wesley Ruff - Sports Director
- Dana Greene - Sports Anchor
- Kent Rupe - Sports Anchor
[edit] Translators
KTVX extends its coverage throughout the entire state of Utah, plus parts of Arizona, Idaho, Nevada and Wyoming, using a network of more than 100 community-owned translator television stations listed below.
[edit] News/Station Presentation
[edit] Newscast Titles
- Your Esso Reporter (1948-1953)
- Chevrolet News and Weather (1953-1959)
- The Pepsi-Cola News Report (1959-1961)
- The Big News (1961-1965, 6 P.M. newscast)
- Nightly News (1961-1965, 10 P.M. newscast)
- City Camera News (1965-1975, 6 P.M. newscast)
- 24 Hours (1965-1975, 10 P.M. newscast)
- NewsCenter 4 (1975-1981)
- Channel 4 News (1981-1986)
- KTVX News (1986-1992)
- News 4 Utah (1992-2002)
- ABC 4 News (2002-present)
[edit] Station Slogans
- KCPX Television, Channel 4 in Color (1967-1970)
- KCPX Television Channel 4, Utah's Own Station (1970-1975)
- NewsCenter 4: Utah's Choice for News (1975-1980)
- We're 4 You (1980-1982)
- That's What Friends Are 4 (1982-1985)
- You'll Love It on Channel 4 (1985-1986)
- KTVX News: Number One in Utah (1986-1992)
- We're 4 Utah (1992-2001)
- It's About all of us (2001-2002)
- ABC 4: Close To Home (2002-2007)
- This is where we live (2007-Present)
[edit] Trivia
- In 1968, KTVX was still known as KCPX-TV. At this time, the station was using a popular "Open 4" logo that was later implemented by WAPA-TV in San Juan, Puerto Rico. That station used several variations of the logo from the 1970s until implementing a new logo in 1990. [2] [3]
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- KTVX ABC4 Homepage
- TheHive TV Homepage
- ClearChannel
- ABC Homepage
- Query the FCC's TV station database for KTVX
- BIAfn's Media Web Database -- Information on KTVX-TV
[edit] References
- ^ "Clear Channel agrees to sale", The Cincinnati Enquirer, Gannett Company, 2006-11-16. Retrieved on 2006-11-17.
- ^ Clear Channel Communications (2007-04-20). "Clear Channel Agrees to Sell Television Station Group to Providence Equity Partners". Press release. Retrieved on 2007-04-20.
- ^ Fresno's KGPE has new owner
- ^ Associated Press. "TV station refuses to air anti-war ad days before Bush visit," USA Today, August 21, 2005.
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