| Salt Lake City, Utah | |
|---|---|
| Branding | ABC 4 (general) ABC 4 News |
| Slogan | Taking Action 4 You |
| Channels | Digital: 40 (UHF) Virtual: 4 (PSIP) |
| Subchannels | 4.1 ABC 4.2 TheCoolTV |
| Owner | Newport Television, LLC |
| First air date | April 19, 1948 |
| Call letters' meaning | TeleVision EXellence |
| Sister station(s) | KUCW |
| Former callsigns | KDYL-TV (1948-1953) KTVT (1953-1959) KCPX-TV (1959-1975) |
| Former channel number(s) | 4 (VHF analog, 1948-2009) |
| Former affiliations | NBC (1948-1960) |
| Transmitter power | 475.7 kW |
| Height | 1,256 m |
| Facility ID | 68889 |
| Website | abc4.com |
KTVX, virtual channel 4, is the ABC-affiliated television station for the state of Utah that is licensed to Salt Lake City. It broadcasts a high definition digital signal on UHF channel 40 from a transmitter on Farnsworth Peak. The station can also be seen on Comcast channel 4 and in high definition on digital channel 652. Owned by Newport Television, KTVX operates CW affiliate KUCW (owned by High Plains Broadcasting Inc.) through joint sales and shared services agreements. The two share studios on West 1700 South in Salt Lake City along I-215. Syndicated programming on the station includes: Two and a Half Men, The Doctors, and Ellen.
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KTVX signed-on as Utah's first television station in November 1946 under the experimental call sign W6XIS. It began broadcasting regularly on April 19, 1948 [1] as KDYL-TV owned by Sid Fox and his Mountain Broadcasting Corporation along with KDYL radio (AM 1320, now KFNZ, and FM 98.7, now KBEE). The floor in the first studio was sloped and cameras would easily roll. The original analog 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 and had been one of the network's original 26 affiliates when it premiered in 1926. This channel is the oldest station in the Mountain Time Zone and the third oldest west of the Mississippi River. It was the first independently-owned channel to sign-on in America. [1] The station changed its call letters to KTVT in 1953, KCPX-TV in 1959, and finally KTVX in 1975. The second call letters are now assigned to the CBS affiliate 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 during the mid-1950s, it was owned by Time Life Inc. The channel adopted its present-day call letters when United Television (then the broadcasting division of 20th Century Fox) acquired the station from Screen Gems. The channel swapped affiliations with KUTV in 1960 and became an ABC affiliate. Some of the memorable shows from the 1960s included Fireman Frank and Nightmare Theater which were both hosted by Ron Ross. 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]
In 1975 when the station changed its call letters to KTVX, the title for the newscasts was NewsCenter 4. This was the first news title under the current call letters and lasted until 1981. The KTVX call letters were formerly used by KTUL-TV in Tulsa, Oklahoma which is also an ABC affiliate. In 1981, United Television merged with Chris-Craft Industries. After Chris-Craft's stations were sold to Fox (briefly bringing KTVX and KMOL back under common ownership with 20th Century Fox while a third ex-United station, then-UPN affiliate KMSP-TV in the Twin Cities, eventually became a Fox O&O outright when the network moved from WFTC in 2002), KTVX and KMOL (now WOAI-TV) in San Antonio were traded to Clear Channel Communications for WFTC.
Since Fox already owned KSTU, it was forced to sell KTVX due to current Federal Communications Commission (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. 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] KTVX aired "TheHive TV" on its second digital subchannel which featured locally-produced programs and sports by residents in the Salt Lake City area. The schedule resembled a cable public access but because the subchannel must conform to FCC content guidelines, externally-produced programs were approved by the station before they was aired. This service shut down in December 2008 and was replaced in January 2009 by Untamed Sports TV of which KTVX-DT2 is the flagship station. In April 2011 KTVX changed the DT2 to air TheCoolTV[5] .
On November 16, 2006, Clear Channel announced plans to sell all of its television stations, including KTVX, [6] 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. [7] That company closed on the station group on March 14, 2008. In May, Newport Television agreed to sell KTVX and five other stations to High Plains Broadcasting because of an ownership conflict. Newport would have continued to operate KTVX through a joint sales agreement after the sale was finalized. [8] However on August 22, the channel was removed from the sale after Univision Communications, owner of KUTH and of which Providence Equity Partners holds a 19% stake, canceled its plans to purchase KUTF thus alleviating the need to sell KTVX (although sister station KUCW was eventually sold to High Plains Broadcasting but remains managed by Newport Television). [9] KUTF has since been sold to the Daystar Television Network. As a result, KTVX remains owned by Newport Television. On June 12, 2009, it ended analog broadcasts and began to transmit exclusively digitally. [10] In 2010, Live with Regis and Kelly moved to KSTU.
On KTVX-DT2 and Comcast digital channel 104 is TheCoolTV.
| Channel | Video | Aspect | Programming |
|---|---|---|---|
| 4.1 | 720p | 16:9 | Main KTVX programming / ABC |
| 4.2 | 480i | 4:3 | TheCoolTV |
KTVX airs a local lifestyle/entertainment show called Good Things Utah weekday mornings at 10 a.m. There is also a Sunday morning public affairs program known as On the Record. On April 26, 2010, KTVX debuted its new high definition newscasts with a new HD news set and graphics. [11]
Starting in September 2010, there was an expansion of local newscasts offered by the station. Good Morning Utah expanded to four and a half hours from 4:30-9 a.m. with the last two seen on KUCW. KTVX added additional newscasts weekday afternoons at 4 p.m. on KTVX and weeknights at 9 p.m. on KUCW. In addition, KUCW began airing a local entertainment show called The Daily Dish on September 7.[12] KUCW's 9 p.m. newscast ended on December 9, 2011 due to low ratings; the move is concurrent with other changes at KTVX, including the expansion of the 4 p.m. newscast to an hour on January 9, 2012.[13]
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Anchors/local program hosts
4WARN Weather First
ABC 4 Sports Zone and Red Zone
Reporters
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 translators listed below. As a result of the June 2009 transition to digital broadcasting, a few of these translators have made the change as well. However, only full powered television stations were required to make the switch.
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