| Jacksonville/Tyler/Longview, Texas | |
|---|---|
| Branding | KETK NBC (general) KETK News (news) |
| Slogan | News You Won't See Anywhere Else |
| Channels | Digital: 22 (UHF) Virtual: 56 (PSIP) |
| Affiliations | 56.1 NBC 56.2 Estrella TV |
| Owner | Communications Corporation of America (Comcorp of Tyler License Corporation) |
| First air date | March 9, 1987 |
| Call letters' meaning | East Texas |
| Sister station(s) | KFXK, KFXL-LP, KLPN-LP |
| Former channel number(s) | Analog: 56 (UHF, 1987-2009) |
| Transmitter power | 1000 kW |
| Height | 458.8 meters (1,505 ft) |
| Facility ID | 55643 |
| Website | www.ketknbc.com |
KETK-TV, virtual channel 56, is the NBC television affiliate serving the East Texas viewing area. It is owned by Communications Corporation of America, under licensee of "ComCorp of Tyler", which also operates Fox network affiliates KFXK and KFXL-LP, and MyNetworkTV affiliate KLPN-LP through a local marketing agreement with White Knight Broadcasting. KETK-TV's main offices and studios are located in Tyler at 4300 Richmond Road.
The station operates a low-power translator, KETK-LP (channel 53), which is owned by KM Communications and controlled by ComCorp and serves the Lufkin-Nacogdoches portion of the market, which is carried on Suddenlink Communications in that part of East Texas.
KETK can be seen on the Dish Network and DirecTV networks on channel 56 (local channels) and is also available on Tyler area cable systems, including SuddenLink Communications and Communicom. KETK-DT has been available on SuddenLink Digital Cable channel 222 since February 2006 (in time for the Winter Olympics) and on Longview Cable Television digital channel 248 since February 1, 2008.
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Originally, channel 56 was to have the call letters, KTRG, the initials of the original owner and license applicant. Unfortunately, that owner had to file for bankruptcy prior to launching the station. The new buyers put channel 56 on the air with the new call letters KETK, amid a few hurdles. The station started on March 9, 1987, from studios in Jacksonville, Texas, with its tower near Mt. Selman (between Jacksonville and Tyler). KETK moved to its current building in Tyler in 1993.
At one point KETK was owned by the Sinclair Broadcast Group, who acquired the station as part of its purchase of most of the Max Media Properties station group in 1998. In early 1999, Sinclair sold the station to its current owner, ComCorp.[1]
In June 2006, KETK owner ComCorp filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. Rival CBS affiliate KYTX (channel 19) sparked controversy by publicly announcing the ComCorp bankruptcy on its newscasts, for an entire week. ComCorp said in a press release viewers and staff would see no changes at the station. The company emerged from bankruptcy in late 2007.
In deleted scenes from the 2009 film Brüno, the title character (played by Sacha Baron Cohen) visits the KETK studios and meets with news director Neal Barton and sports director Danny Elzner. They signed releases and expected to be talking about small-town news in the United States. Instead, the interviews conducted by the flamboyant Brüno character drifted towards the topic of homosexuality. The scene culminated with an interview Brüno did with a local white supremacist who threatened to call the police on him when his behavior became too overtly homosexual.
Television of East Texas is the branding name used for the Communications Corporation of America and White Knight Broadcasting group of stations, in the East Texas market. These stations include:
| Station | Affiliation |
|---|---|
| KETK 56 | NBC network affiliate |
| KETK-LP 53 | NBC network affiliate |
| KFXK 51 | Fox network affiliate |
| KFXL 30 | Fox network affiliate |
| KTPN 48/KLPN 58 | MyNetworkTV affiliates |
KETK-TV began operating a full power digital television signal on UHF channel 22 on June 17, 2006. The station began High Definition (HDTV) testing on Friday, September 1, and began broadcasting a full HDTV service in 1080i from NBC on Tuesday, September 5. On September 8, 2006, KETK-DT had launched digital subchannel 22.2 to carry NBC Weather Plus; NBC ceased operating the national Weather Plus feed on December 1, 2008. Since January 1, 2009, KETK has ceased carrying the local version of Weather Plus and replaced the service with Estrella TV.
KETK's analog channel, 56, was the highest channel allocation of any NBC affiliate. This changed, however, when the high-band UHF channels (52-69) was eliminated during the transition from analog to digital TV on June 12, 2009. There was speculation that between the original DTV transition deadline on February 17, 2009, and the new deadline on June 12, 2009, KETK change its on-air station and news branding to channel 22, to reflect its digital channel. However, KETK is still using the channel 56 designation.
KETK had planned to shut off its channel 56 analog signal on June 12, 2009. However, in the early hours of March 27, 2009, a failure in the cooling system of the analog transmitter caused the transmitter to fail. Due to the cost and time frame involved to repair the analog transmitter, KETK has filed a Notice of Suspension of Operations and has permanently terminated analog service on channel 56 as of March 27, 2009.
| Channel | Video | Aspect | Programming |
|---|---|---|---|
| 56.1/22.1 | 1080i | 16:9 | KETK-HD - NBC-HD DD5.1 |
| 56.2/22.2 | 480i | 4:3 | Estrella TV |
| 56.3/22.3 | 480i | 4:3 | KETK-NS - Blank |
KETK broadcasts more news than any other station in the Tyler-Longview market. Newscasts are broadcast weekdays from 5-7 a.m., 11 a.m.-noon, and at 5, 6 and 10 p.m., as well as weekends from 8-9 a.m., and at 5 and 10 p.m. It also produces a popular Friday night sports show called Friday Football Fever, featuring East Texas football teams and sports director Danny Elzner.
The station promotes its weather team as having the "Most Powerful Radar in East Texas", referred to as "KETK Live Doppler Skywatch". Also, KETK is the only station in the area to have four college degreed meteorologists on its weather team, but that still does not help KETK in its ratings. From July 2008 to October 2009, KETK was the solid #2 news product in the East Texas market. KLTV leads the local news ratings by far, with over 70,000 households, while KYTX (CBS19) was a distant #3. However, since November 2009, KETK has been a distant #3 behind both KLTV and KYTX although KETK's ratings are expected to recover after NBC pulled The Jay Leno Show off of prime-time.
On April 23, 2010 KETK began producing its newscasts in high definition, becoming the second station in the Tyler-Longview television market (after KYTX) to do so.
KETK is one of only three ComCorp stations that produce their newscasts in-house (the others being fellow NBC affiliate KTSM in El Paso, Texas and WVLA in Baton Rouge, Louisiana). Due to insufficient funds for most ComCorp stations to produce their own newscasts, KETK serves as a hub for the news operations for most of ComCorp's television stations, it produces pre-recorded newscasts for most of its Fox affiliates including KFXK in Longview, Texas, KWKT/KYLE in Waco and College Station, Texas, and KMSS in Shreveport, Louisiana. Previously, the station also provided pre-recorded newscasts for WGMB in Baton Rouge and weekday evening newscasts for WVLA also in Baton Rouge (it produced in-studio news segments for WVLA's evening newscasts from 2009 to 2010, when that station began began producing its evening newscasts locally once again following the Deepwater Horizon oil spill). Weekend newscasts for WVLA in Baton Rouge are still pre-recorded at the KETK station.
(as of May 9, 2009)
Anchors
KETK Live Doppler SkyWatch Weather Team
Sports team
Reporters
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