KAKE

KAKE


Wichita, Kansas
Branding KAKEland (general)
KAKE News (newscasts)
Slogan The Breaking News and Weather Authority
Channels Digital: 10 (VHF)
Subchannels (see article)
Translators (see article)
Affiliations ABC
Owner Gray Television, Inc.
(Gray Television Licensee, LLC)
First air date October 19, 1954
Call letters' meaning sounds like cake
Former callsigns KAKE-TV (1954-2010)
Former channel number(s) Analog:
10 (VHF, 1954-2009)
Digital:
21 (UHF, 1999-2009)
Former affiliations NBC/ABC (1954-1955)
Transmitter power 56.5 kW
Height 309.8 m
Facility ID 65522
Website www.kake.com/

KAKE, channel 10, is an ABC-affiliated television station based in Wichita, Kansas. The station is owned by Atlanta, Georgia-based Gray Television. KAKE is also the flagship station of the KAKEland Television Network, a statewide network of full-power stations, low-power stations, and translators relaying ABC network programming across central and western Kansas.

The station's studios are located on West Street in Wichita, and its transmitter is located near Colwich, Kansas. Its distinctive call sign is pronounced "cake", however the station has been branded as "KAKEland", after the aforementioned statewide relay network, since July 2011.

Contents

Digital TV

Channel Video Aspect Name Programming
10.1 720p 16:9 KAKE-DT Main KAKE programming / ABC
10.2? 480i 4:3 KAKE-DT2? MeTV
(To be announced)

Analog-to-digital conversion

On February 17, 2009, KAKE turned off its analog signal on channel 10 and moved its digital signal from UHF channel 21 to its pre-transition analog channel assignment of VHF channel 10.[1]

KAKEland Television Network

To reach the 69-county audience of the Wichita/Hutchinson-Plus DMA, KAKE extends its over-the-air coverage area through a network of eight full-power, low-power, and translator stations encompassing the majority of Kansas, the KAKEland Television Network.

KUPK, in Garden City, houses the Western Kansas newsroom and studio, originating one segment of the nightly newscasts seen on KUPK and KLBY. The rest of the broadcast is live from the Wichita studio.

The KAKEland WeatherPlex, inside KAKE's Wichita studio, can provide live continuous severe weather coverage to any combination of its five broadcast zones.

  1. KAKE and its DTV Replacement translator - South Central Kansas, including Wichita
  2. KUPK - Southwest Kansas, including Dodge City and Garden City
  3. KLBY - Northwest Kansas, including Goodland and Colby
  4. KHDS - North Central Kansas, including Salina
  5. KGBD and its K25CV/K38GH translators - North Central Kansas, including Great Bend, Hays, and Russell

For example: If a tornado is in progress near Colby, live continuous coverage will be seen only on KLBY, while normal programming will appear on the rest of the network.[2]

Full-power stations

These stations mostly rebroadcast KAKE. However, their full-power license allows them to broadcast different programming and commercial content, when desired.

Station City of license RF
channel
Virtual
channel
First air date Call letters’
meaning
ERP
(Digital)
HAAT
(Digital)
Facility ID Transmitter Coordinates
KUPK1 2
Garden City 13 (VHF) 13 (VHF) October 28, 1964 KUP-KAKE
"cupcake"
63kW 262.4m 65535
KLBY3 4 5
Colby 17 (UHF) 4 (VHF) July 4, 1983 KoLBY
"Colby"
625kW 223m 65523

Notes:

"DTV Replacement" digital translator station

The FCC determined that after the digital transition some full-service stations would not be able to cover their pre-transition analog service areas. It created the “Replacement Digital Television Translator Service” to assist qualifying full-service stations. These are associated with, given the same call letters, cannot be transferred, and are renewed/assigned along with the station’s main license.[4]

On February 9, 2010, KAKE filed an application to the FCC for a digital fill-in translator on its pre-transition digital allotment, UHF Channel 21.[5] The translator serves the city of Wichita and the surrounding areas north and west of the city. Some viewers using indoor "set-top antennas", which by the nature of their compact design perform better with UHF signals, had difficulty receiving the station's digital signal after it "moved" to VHF channel 10. It started broadcasting March 4, 2010.

This station can ONLY rebroadcast KAKE, due to its translator classification.

Station City of license RF
channel
Virtual
channel
First air date Call letters’
meaning
ERP
(Digital)
HAAT
(Digital)
Facility ID Transmitter Coordinates
KAKE Wichita 21 (UHF) 10 (VHF) 4 March 2010 sounds like
"cake"
15kW 309.8m 65522
Analog low-power & translator stations

The following stations will perform a flash-cut when converting to digital. The translators on channels 70 to 83 moved in 1988 and many moved again on 15 August 2003.

Low-power stations

These stations mostly rebroadcast KAKE. However, their low-power license allows them to broadcast different programming and commercial content, when desired.

Station City of license Channel First air date Call letters’
meaning
ERP
(Analog)
HAAT
(Analog)
Facility ID Transmitter Coordinates
KHDS-LP6 7
Salina 51 (UHF) 16 August 1998 8.5kW 68m 65527
KGBD-LP8 9
Great Bend 30 (UHF) 31 May 1998 K-Great BenD
"Great Bend"
8.4kW 121m 65534

Notes:

KGBD-LP translator stations

These stations can only rebroadcast KGBD-LP, due to their translator classification.

Station City of license Channel First air date ERP
(Analog)
HAAT
(Analog)
Facility ID Transmitter Coordinates
K25CV10 Hays 25 (UHF) 23 May 1988 8.9kW 72m 65533
K38GH11 Russell 38 (UHF) 12 January 1988 7.2kW 135m 65529
Channel 70+ translators no longer in service

History

The station signed on the air on 19 October 1954. During its first year on the air, it was Wichita's NBC affiliate with a secondary ABC affiliation. It became a sole ABC affiliate in 1955 after KARD-TV (now KSNW) signed on.

In 1979, the station was sold to the Chronicle Publishing Company of San Francisco, California, run by the de Young family, who also owned KRON-TV in San Francisco and WOWT-TV in Omaha, Nebraska – KRON, a KRON translator, WOWT, and KAKE and its translators all have Facility IDs in the same range (assigned by the FCC circa 1980). Chronicle then bought KLBY in 1987. KLBY had been a separate, independent station with its own programming inventory, but with Chronicle's purchase it was made a satellite of KAKE.

In 1988, KAKE moved all of its translators on channels 70 to 83 (which were being phased out) down to other channel positions; in addition, a select few of the affected translators were simply closed. Chronicle owned the stations until 1999, when KAKE, its satellites, and WOWT were sold to LIN TV in the midst of the de Young family's liquidation of its media holdings. Almost as soon as the sale was finalized, LIN turned around and traded KAKE and WOWT to Benedek Broadcasting for that company's WWLP in Springfield, Massachusetts and cash. The acquisition of KAKE and WOWT could be seen as the ultimate undoing for the financially challenged Benedek, which in 2002 declared bankruptcy and sold most of its stations, including KAKE and WOWT, to Gray Television (their current owner). In 2003, another translator shuffle occurred, and many translator channels in service moved on August 15 of that year.

KAKE and the BTK case

For a more thorough history on the BTK case, see Dennis Rader.

In the 1970s, KAKE received letters, poems and packages from the BTK serial killer. One claimed responsibility for several of the BTK murders; another contained clues about an intended victim (who was not murdered). During an interview with Wichita's police chief in the late 1970s, subliminal messages were broadcast on KAKE to convince BTK to turn himself in. The effort was unsuccessful.

In 2004 and 2005, BTK again sent letters to KAKE. One included a word puzzle—another expressed concern about the colds anchors Susan Peters and Jeff Herndon had at the time. Park City, Kansas resident Dennis Rader was eventually arrested and convicted of the murders.

News operation

In January 2011, KAKE expanded its weekday morning newscasts by a half-hour, moving the start time to 4:30 a.m., becoming the first station in the Wichita-Hutchinson market to broadcast a pre-5 a.m. newscast.[7] On July 17, 2011 beginning with its 5:30 p.m. newscast, KAKE began broadcasting its local newscasts in high definition; this leaves KSNW as the only remaining station in the Wichita-Hutchinson market not broadcasting its local newscasts in HD, KSNW broadcasts its newscasts in mostly enhanced definition widescreen (although the weather segments of that station's newscasts is broadcast in high definition). With the change, the station began using new on-air graphics for its newscasts, a custom news music package (composed by Aircast Custom Music) and introduced a new station logo that emphasizes the long used "KAKEland" sub-branding for KAKE's network of satellite and repeater stations.[8] KAKE will discontinue its half-hour 4 p.m. newscast in September 2011, due to a lack of a solid syndicated programming lead-out of the newscast.[7]

Ratings

For 30 years, KAKE was the highest-rated station in Wichita, even though it did not build an extensive translator/satellite network in central and western Kansas until the 1990s. For most of the last quarter-century, it has been runner-up to KWCH-TV which has been the dominant station in the market. KAKE is presently in second place, with NBC affiliate KSNW in third.

News/station presentation

Newscast titles

Station slogans

This film, television or video-related list is incomplete; you can help by expanding it with reliably sourced additions.

Newscasts and local programming

Monday-Friday

Saturday

Sunday

News staff

Current on-air staff[9]

KAKE News anchors

KAKEland WeatherPlex Meteorologists

KAKE Sports team

Reporters

Former staff

References

  1. ^ [1]
  2. ^ Email exchange with Jay Prater, Managing Meteorologist KAKE-TV
  3. ^ a b c d e f g FCC query program: each of the stations in this chain have Facility IDs with 655__. Changing that number brings up a number of KAKE translators, WOWT-TV, KRON and a KRON translator between 65521 and 65535.
  4. ^ http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/FCC-09-36A1.pdf
  5. ^ http://licensing.fcc.gov/cgi-bin/ws.exe/prod/cdbs/forms/prod/prefill_and_display.pl?Application_id=1356143&Service=LD&Form_id=346&Facility_id=65522
  6. ^ a b http://www.w9wi.com/articles/gt69.html
  7. ^ a b KAKE, Channel 10, to drop its 4 p.m. news; KWCH, Channel 12, to add 4 p.m. newscast on sister station, The Wichita Eagle, March 30, 2011. Retrieved July 19, 2011.
  8. ^ KAKE switches local newscasts to HD this weekend, Wichita Business Journal, July 15, 2011.
  9. ^ Gray Television, Inc.. "Inside KAKE". Clickability. http://www.kake.com/insidekake. Retrieved 2010-01-10. 
  10. ^ FOX News Network (2010-01-09). "FOX & Friends - FOXNews.com". FOX News Network. http://www.foxnews.com/foxfriends/index.html. Retrieved 2010-01-10. 

External links