WKEF
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| WKEF | |
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| Dayton, Ohio | |
| Branding | ABC 22 |
| Slogan | Dayton's News Source |
| Channels | Analog: 22 (UHF) |
| Affiliations | ABC |
| Owner | Sinclair Broadcast Group, Inc. (WKEF Licensee, LP) |
| First air date | September 27, 1964 |
| Call letters’ meaning | Kathrine Elizabeth Flynn |
| Sister station(s) | WRGT-TV |
| Former callsigns | WONE-TV (1964-1965) |
| Former affiliations | independent (1964-1965) ABC (1965-1980) NBC (1980-2004) |
| Transmitter Power | 2340 kW (analog) 138 kW (digital) |
| Height | 351 m (both) |
| Facility ID | 73155 |
| Transmitter Coordinates | (analog) (digital) |
| Website | www.daytonsnewssource.com |
WKEF is a broadcast television station in Dayton, Ohio, affiliated with the ABC network. It broadcasts on channel 22. WKEF is owned by the Sinclair Broadcast Group with its transmitter is located in Dayton. It is the sister station of Fox Broadcasting Company affiliate WRGT-TV.
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[edit] History
Channel 22 signed on August 22, 1964 as WONE-TV, owned by Brush-Moore Newspapers along with WONE-AM. Conventional wisdom suggested that it would take the ABC affiliation, since it was Dayton's third commercial station. Before 1964, ABC programming came to Dayton by way of selected carriage on NBC affiliate WLWD (channel 2, now WDTN) and CBS affiliate WHIO-TV. In addition, viewers could see the full ABC schedule on WKRC-TV in Cincinnati and WTVN-TV (now WSYX) in Columbus, both of which decently covered Dayton. Under these circumstances, ABC initially balked at giving an affiliation to WONE-TV, forcing the station to make a go of it as an independent for two years. Another consideration may have been that many Dayton viewers didn't have UHF-capable sets at the time. The FCC had just required television set manufacturers to include all-channel tuning months earlier.
In 1965, however, under new owner Group One Broadcasting, WONE-TV began running ABC prime time shows and sports, plus any daytime ABC shows that WKRC pre-empted. WONE-TV had no local newscasts at the time.
Soon after the station joined ABC, it was sold to Springfield Television Corporation (owner of WWLP in Springfield, Massachusetts), and renamed WKEF. By 1978, ABC had become the nation's most-watched network (with shows such as Happy Days), and was unhappy with the Cincinnati/Dayton arrangement. WKRC-TV and WTVN-TV were both preempting decent amounts of daytime programming, late night shows and some of the Saturday morning cartoons. ABC wanted a station in Dayton that could run its whole schedule and be able to reach Cincinnati and Columbus. It also wanted a station that had local news.
WKEF began a newscast in 1978, but this was not enough to save its affiliation with ABC. In late 1979, ABC began talks with WDTN, and agreed to move its Dayton affiliation there when its contract ran out at the end of the year. The change took affect on New Year's Day 1980. Almost by default, WKEF was then left to take the NBC affiliation. Unlike its ABC deal, WKEF now ran NBC's entire schedule. Even with the affiliation swap, WKEF remained in the ratings basement.
In 1984, the Springfield Television group (WKEF, WWLP and KSTU in Salt Lake City, Utah) was sold to Adams Communications. Adams broke up the group in the late 80s, selling WKEF to KT Communications in 1989. Neither owner was able to get WKEF out of last place. Even with NBC's powerhouse primetime lineup in the 1980s and early 1990s, WKEF was the third station in what was basically a two-station market. Part of the problem was a primitive on-air look.
KT sold WKEF to Max Television (later Max Media) in 1995. KT invested millions in new equipment, updated its on-air look and hired almost a completely new staff. Ratings improved, but WKEF remained a distant third in the ratings behind WHIO and WDTN.
In 1998, WKEF was sold to Sinclair in a group deal. Sinclair was already managing WRGT, owned by Sullivan, and Sinclair moved WRGT's operations to WKEF's studios. In 2001, Sinclair bought most of Sullivan's stations, but could not buy WRGT because the FCC does not allow common ownership of two of the four highest-rated stations in a market. Also, the Dayton market has only six full-power commercial stations — too few to permit duopolies. Accordingly, WRGT was sold to Glencairn, Ltd. However, this was a sale in name only, as Glencairn's stock was almost entirely owned by the Smith family, founders of Sinclair. This effectively gave Sinclair a duopoly in Dayton. Glencairn, now known as Cunningham Broadcasting, still owns WRGT today--one of several arrangements that has led to allegations of Cunningham being merely a shell corporation for Sinclair.
On August 30, 2004 WDTN again took the opportunity to sign up with the more popular network, dropping ABC to switch back to NBC. Thus, as of August 2004, WKEF became an ABC affiliate again. WKEF now runs the entire ABC schedule. Only a few months after becoming an ABC affiliate again, the station, and all other Sinclair-owned ABC affiliates including sister WSYX in Columbus as well as two other ABC affiliates in Ohio, preempted the movie Saving Private Ryan. That decision was made due to the network's plan to air the R-rated film unedited, potentially exposing its affiliated stations to FCC scrutiny if viewers complained about the film's graphic violence and coarse language, even though some of Sinclair's stations had already shown the film unedited and uncensored a few months earlier. The incident landed Sinclair at the center of a mild controversy, fueling the debate over whether the context of such material should be considered in determining broadcast indecency violations.
[edit] News
Ratings wise, WKEF's newscasts have always been a distant third place behind WHIO-TV and WDTN. Throughout most of the 70s, WKEF decided against airing its own newscasts possibly owing to low ratings; they relied instead on brief audio-only news updates from newscasters at local radio station WING-AM. They ran these updates at selected times in the morning, afternoon and evening using a still slide on-screen with a picture of the newscaster. WKEF brought back their news programs in the late 70s under the moniker 22 Alive! News, with anchors Tom Miller and Jack Marschall.
On some nights (usually Sundays because of ABC programming) there are times that WKEF is runner-up to WHIO. On June 5, 2006, WKEF debuted a morning newscast, which will help them compete with WHIO and WDTN's news departments.
For many years, WKEF produced the daily children's program Clubhouse 22 hosted by Malcolm McLeod in the early 1970s, with Joe Smith taking over in the mid 1970s. Their cohorts included Duffy the Dog, Stan The Man and later Dr. Creep (Barry Hobart). Dr. Creep was also the host of WKEF's weekly horror movie show, Shock Theater. Nationally syndicated conservative talk-show host Mike Gallagher began his TV broadcasting career at WKEF as a weatherman, sportscaster and special events host.
[edit] The Tube
WKEF broadcasted The Tube on digital channel 22.2 and on Time Warner Cable's digital lineup on channel 723. WKEF and other Sinclair stations dropped The Tube on December 31, 2006.
[edit] Notable WKEF/WRGT Alumni
- Lori Webster, anchor/reporter then news director, now with Lexis Nexis
- Michelle Kingsfield, Lead Anchor 1999-2007( now at WDTN )
- Anita Brikmanis, anchor (now 'Anita Brikman' at WUSA-TV in Washington, D.C.)
- Carl Day, lead anchor, (now @ WDTN)
- Marsha Bonhart, lead anchor, (now @ WDTN)
- Janet McGill, lead weather specialist 1979-94, (married to WHIO-TV's Mike Hartsock)
- Don Brown, Sports Director, (now part-timer @ WHIO-TV)
- Natasha (King) Williams, reporter, (now @ WHIO-TV)
- Laurie Penco, Lead Anchor, 1995-99, now at KFSN/ABC Fresno
- Leif Pedersen-Diaz, Investigative Reporter, 1994-1996 (went to WFOR-TV Miami)
- Andy Banker, reporter/anchor
- Ray Crawford, Sports Director(now the lead anchor of the Columbus, OH Sports Network).
- Scott Arnold, reporter (went on to WDTN, now at WTVF )
- Guy Fogle, Sports
- Mario Barson, Sports
- Roscoe Shaw, Meteorologist
- Karen Jordan, anchor/reporter, now in Chicago WLS-TV
- Cornell Barnard, anchor/reporter
- Kristi Piehl, anchor/reporter(now at KSTP in Minneapolis-St. Paul)
- Gary Somerset, anchor/reporter
- Marc Cox, reporter (now @ KMOV)
- Tina Rezash, lead anchor, (went on to WDTN, now with Dayton Business Journal)
- Mike Bettes, meteorologist (now on The Weather Channel)
- Jo Corey "Miss Jo", 1960s local host of preschooler program "Romper Room."
- Toody the Clown (aka: "Toody Too"..as in "22")1960s children's show host
- Malcolm McLeod, early 1970s host of "Clubhouse 22"
- Joe Smith, staff announcer and late 1970s host of "Clubhouse 22"
- Barry Hobart, better known as "Dr. Creep", host of "Shock Theater" (aka "Saturday Night Dead.")
- Bernie Wulkotte aka: "B.W." a Dayton Daily News columnist and WAVI radio personality who hosted local evening movie program, died in 1980s
- Johnny Walker, staff announcer, public affairs director and host of local segments of the Jerry Lewis MDA Telethon, later president of Hara Arena, died in 2005
- Ed Krahling, first news anchor in 1965-66 (later moved to WHIO-TV in 1967...retired in 1993, died in 1998)
- Mary Costello, reporter
[edit] External links
- DaytonsNewsSource.com
- Query the FCC's TV station database for WKEF
- BIAfn's Media Web Database -- Information on WKEF-TV
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