KCBD

KCBD
Lubbock, Texas
United States
Branding KCBD 11 (general)
KCBD NewsChannel 11 (newscasts)
This TV Lubbock (on DT2)
Slogan Coverage You Can Count On
Channels Digital: 11 (VHF)
Virtual: 11 (PSIP)
Subchannels 11.1 NBC
11.2 This TV
11.3 Grit
Affiliations NBC (primary until 1969; exclusive 1969-present)
Owner Raycom Media
(KCBD License Subsidiary, LLC)
First air date May 10, 1953
Call letters' meaning Caprock BroaDcasting Company
(original owners of station)
Former callsigns KCBD-TV (x-2003)
Former channel number(s) Analog:
11 (VHF, 1953-2009)
Digital: 9 (VHF)
Former affiliations Secondary:
ABC (1953-1969)
Transmitter power 15 kW
Height 232 m
Facility ID 27507
Transmitter coordinates 33°32′32.1″N 101°50′15.3″W / 33.542250°N 101.837583°W
Licensing authority FCC
Public license information: Profile
CDBS
Website www.kcbd.com

KCBD is an NBC-affiliated television station serving the Lubbock, Texas metropolitan area. Owned by Raycom Media, its studios and transmitter are co-located in South Lubbock near the interchange of I-27 and Slaton Highway.

History

KCBD signed on in 1953 as the second television station in Lubbock, after KDUB-TV (now KLBK-TV). For a short time thereafter, Jim Reese was a broadcaster on KCBD.[1]KCBD was a primary NBC affiliate with a secondary ABC affiliation. KCBD became a sole NBC affiliate in 1969 when KSEL (now KAMC) signed on and took the ABC affiliation. KCBD was also the first station in Lubbock to broadcast in color.

KCBD was founded by a company controlled by Joe Bryant of Caprock Broadcasting Company (owner of 1590 KCBD (AM) in Lubbock, and new shareholders consisting of local business owners. KCBD was spun off in 1971, changing names to KEND (at the then "END" of the dial. It is now known as KDAV Radio.

From 1968 to 1983, KCBD-TV also operated KSWS-TV, Channel 8 in Roswell, New Mexico as a repeater or satellite station. The Roswell station now operates as KOBR-TV, owned by Albuquerque NBC affiliate, KOB-TV.

Former logo, used from 1994 to 2010; the current version of the logo is based on the original 1994 version.

Caprock Broadcasting was purchased by the Holsum bakery in 1983. Holsum sold KCBD to Cosmos Broadcasting, the broadcasting arm of South Carolina-based insurer The Liberty Corporation, in 2000. Liberty exited the insurance business later that year, bringing the Cosmos stations directly under the Liberty banner. Liberty merged with Raycom Media in 2006.

In May 2002, KCBD became the first station in the Lubbock market to begin broadcasting a digital signal. Later that year, the station became the first to broadcast network programming in true High-Definition. Today, KCBD is one of only three true HD broadcasts in the Lubbock market (including KJTV-TV and KTTZ-TV).

Since 2002, Jeopardy! and Wheel of Fortune have aired on KCBD. Prior to that, they both aired on KLBK, although in late 1999, Wheel moved to KAMC. Live with Regis & Kelly had also aired on KAMC before moving to KCBD in 2004, though that show has returned to KAMC.

2015 plane crash into transmitter

On the evening of February 4, 2015, a small plane crashed into KCBD's tower, damaging the structure and killing one passenger. There were no injuries at the station's nearby studios, but its power was taken out by the crash, disrupting its operations.[2] The station continued to transmit on local cable provider Suddenlink Communications, and that night's 10 p.m. newscast originated from the facilities of the Lubbock Independent School District's "LISD TV" educational channel. By February 5 the remnant of the tower had been deliberately dropped, power was restored and operations had returned to the building. KCBD arranged a feed to another station in Lubbock and is operating as a multicast of the other station. After rescanning receivers, virtually all viewers (including cable, Dish, DirecTV and off air can see the station in standard definition. [3]

Digital television

Digital channels

The station's digital channel is multiplexed:

Channel Video Aspect PSIP Short Name Programming[4]
11.1 1080i 16:9 KCBD-DT Main KCBD programming / NBC
11.2 480i 4:3 THIS TV This TV
11.3 GRIT GritTV

Analog-to-digital conversion

KCBD shut down its analog signal, over VHF channel 11, on June 12, 2009, the official date in which full-power television stations in the United States transitioned from analog to digital broadcasts under federal mandate. The station's digital signal relocated from its pre-transition VHF channel 9 to former VHF analog channel 11.[5][6]

News operation

On April 10, 2011, KCBD began broadcasting their newscasts in high-definition.

KCBD has the tenured anchor staff in Lubbock. Abner Euretsi has been at the station since the mid seventies when he anchored with Jane Prince. Euresti was paired with Karin McKay in 1980 under news director Carl Skip Watson (guiding light of the Lubbock food bank initiative) and have worked together since. Sharon Hibner Maines was the main anchor at cross town KLBK-TV in 1979 until she left for a public relations job at Furr's Supermarkets. She resurfaced at KAMC and later came to KCBD.

One time weather anchor Clyde Robert "Bob" Stephens was founder of 99.5 FM KWGN in Abernathy, Texas. It was later called KWGO and is nowadays Lubbock's KQBR. Former sports anchor Bob Howell was a co founder of a Texas oriented sports channel for cable that is now at the heart of the present day Fox Sports Southwest network.

References

  1. ↑ "Mayor Jim Reese of Odessa and the Republican Party in the Permian Basin", The West Texas Historical Association Year Book, Vol. LXXXVII (October 2011), p. 128
  2. ↑ Staff report (4 February 2015). "KCBD tower struck by small plane, power out at station". KCBD.com (Raycom Media). Retrieved 5 February 2015.
  3. ↑ "KCBD broadcasting from alternate location tonight at 10; available on Suddenlink". KCBD.com. Raycom Media. Retrieved 5 February 2015.
  4. ↑ RabbitEars TV Query for KCBD
  5. ↑ http://www.kcbd.com/Global/story.asp?S=9803356
  6. ↑ "DTV Tentative Channel Designations for the First and the Second Rounds" (PDF). Retrieved 2012-03-24.

External links