KAUT-TV
Encyclopedia
KAUT-TV, virtual channel
43 (digital channel 40), is the MyNetworkTV
-affiliated television station
for Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
. Owned by Local TV
, KAUT is sister station to NBC
affiliate KFOR-TV
(channel 4). The two stations share studios at 444 East Britton Road, along U.S. 77
, east of the Britton section of Oklahoma City and broadcasts from a transmitter in the northern area of the city along the John Kilpatrick Turnpike
.
The station operates its digital signal on UHF channel 40, using its former analog channel assignment of 43 as its virtual channel via PSIP. The station can also be seen on Cox
cable channel 16 in standard definition and in high definition on digital channel 714 in Oklahoma City.
As of November 4, 2010, KAUT-DT is currently the only full-power digital over-the-air station in the Oklahoma City market that does not have multiplexed digital subchannels.
, KAUT signed-on September 24, 1980. It was the sixth television station and the fourth UHF outlet in Oklahoma City after KGMC (now KOCB
), KOKH-TV
, and the short-lived KTVQ
. The station was owned by his Golden West Broadcasters that also owned Los Angeles
' legendary KTLA
(channel 5, now a CW affiliate owned by Tribune Company
) and its original studios were located at 11901 N. Eastern Ave. in northern Oklahoma City. It was a groundbreaking station airing an all-local news format called Newswatch 43 which ran initially from 9 in the morning to 5 at night before expanding to 7 in the evening. VUE, a scrambled subscription-based service also owned by Golden West, initially signed on at 5 and then 7 after the expansion of news programming.
In late 1981, the plug was pulled on Newswatch and KAUT introduced a temporary format of old Western
films most of them starring Autry. Innovation continued in early 1982 with the launch of a two-hour local dance show called TMC 43 which ran from 4 to 6 p.m. From 6 to 7, KAUT aired a live local country dance show from a local bar called Oklahoma Country Live. Both shows were gone by the fall of 1982. By then, some dramas and sitcoms had been added. The station dropped VUE in 1983. Initially, it added programming from Financial News Network
at night and Independent Network News
. Later in the year, FNN was dropped and KAUT added more prime time movies and drama shows. In 1984, it added morning cartoons as well as a few more sitcoms in the evening.
On June 11, 1985, Golden West sold KAUT to Atlanta-based Rollins Communications, Inc. The station became a charter Fox
affiliate on October 6, 1986 carrying The Late Show Starring Joan Rivers and other early original series of the fourth network such as Married... with Children
and 21 Jump Street
. In addition, more afternoon cartoons were added, and the station also broadcast Midnight Shopper, a locally-produced late night home shopping program on weekends. Rollins Communications sold KAUT to Heritage Broadcasting on November 1, 1986. In 1987, Pappas Telecasting made a proposal to buy KOKH (channel 25). In the deal, it would also buy the programming of KAUT and KGMC (channel 34, now KOCB) and merge them into KOKH's schedule; KGMC would switch to a religious/home shopping format while Heritage would agree to sell KAUT to the Oklahoma Educational Television Authority
, the state's PBS
member network
. KOKH would then take over as Oklahoma City's Fox affiliate. In 1988, the deal fell through; with uncertainty over the station's future, sixteen of KAUT's employees chose to leave the station to work at other Heritage-owned stations and the station's sales department saw a reduction in advertising sales. All three stations continued on with general entertainment schedules.
. On August 15, 1991, channel 43 became the city's second PBS member station, and the following year, the station's callsign changed to KTLC. It was known as "The Literacy Channel"; however despite the name, its emphasis was not entirely on literacy. Following the switch to becoming a secondary PBS station, KTLC's schedule included fitness programs such as Body Electric
, Homestretch and Sit and Be Fit
on weekday mornings from 7 to 8:30, instructional programming and select PBS series (including The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer
) during late evenings and children's programming for much of the rest of the day.
Unlike many PBS stations, KTLC aired children's programs from mid-morning to early evening. Most of them were rebroadcasts from KETA. KTLC's schedule was trimmed back from its earlier lineup and ended its programming day at Midnight like OETA. KTLC's weekend lineup initially retained the same broadcast day period as it previously did on weekdays, but in 1995, KTLC trimmed back its program hours on weekends to begin the day at 4:00 in the afternoon and end the broadcast day at midnight. Cox Communications
filled non-programming hours with QVC
programming on cable channel 13. OETA eventually found it too hard to run two stations in Oklahoma City so it decided to put channel 43 up for sale.
After KOCB announced in January 1998 that it would drop its UPN
affiliation to become the Oklahoma City affiliate of The WB television network, Paramount Stations Group
agreed to buy KTLC for an estimated $23.5 million, with OETA using the proceeds from the sale to fund development of a high-definition digital broadcast signal. Channel 43 signed-off as a full-time educational station at midnight for the last time on June 19, 1998. It returned the next morning at 5 a.m. as KPSG, named after its new owner. The switch to a general entertainment schedule had originally been slated for June 1, 1998; which was then pushed back to June 13, but was delayed again due to technical difficulties unrelated to a tornado outbreak that occurred in the Oklahoma City area that evening. The station continued to air PBS educational shows from 7 a.m. to noon (as part of several conditions of the sale, which also included channel 43 agreeing simulcast OETA's March and August fund-raising drives in an eight hour block for the next five years), followed by a general entertainment format consisting of off-network classic sitcoms, cartoons, UPN first-run primetime shows and movies. That fall, the station became a full-time general entertainment station. When the station's founder Gene Autry
died that November, the station changed its calls back to "KAUT-TV" to honor him. Viacom, parent company of Paramount since 1994, acquired CBS
in 1999.
Gradually, classic sitcoms were replaced with talk, reality and court shows. Cartoons were also phased out and gone by the Fall of 2003. At the end of 2005, Viacom's broadcasting assets and other "slow-growth" businesses became part of a new company called the CBS Corporation
. In the meantime, CBS sold KAUT to The New York Times Company
making it a sister station to KFOR-TV
. On September 12, 2006, less than a year after closing on its purchase of KAUT, The New York Times Company announced its intention to sell all of its television stations.
made the decision to merge UPN and The WB to form a new network called The CW
. On February 22, News Corporation
announced a new competing network, MyNetworkTV. On May 1, KAUT removed UPN branding from its logo becoming one of a few non-Fox owned-and-operated UPN stations to do so. It was then referred to as "43". The station also announced that it would no longer promote any network programing.
Ironically, KAUT was erroneously mentioned as a CW affiliate in the first press statements about the new network. What was not realized then was the sale of the station from CBS to The New York Times Company. On May 2, KOCB
was announced as Oklahoma City's CW affiliate. For months, it was unclear whether KAUT would go independent
or affiliate with MyNetworkTV. Finally on August 22, the station was added to the roster of MyNetworkTV's stations on their website as Oklahoma City's affiliate while station personnel also confirmed the affiliation via email. The word came just two weeks before the new network aired its first program.
When the announcement of MyNetworkTV's formation was made, a promotional video shown on the day of the network's announcement on New York City
flagship WWOR-TV
(channel 9) showed that the branding of their affiliated stations would be "My (channel number)". However, KAUT opted instead to brand itself as "OK 43" making it one of eight MyNetworkTV affiliates (the others being Portland, Oregon
's KPDX
, Little Rock, Arkansas
's KARZ-TV
, Portland, Maine
's WPME-TV, Cincinnati
's WSTR-TV
, Seattle
's KZJO, Philadelphia
's WPHL-TV
and a digital subchannel of WISC-TV
in Madison, Wisconsin
) not to use the "My" branding, logos, trademarks, or any other elements of the channel. The new branding was accompanied by a new marketing campaign with the slogan "OK43: An Oklahoma Original" focusing on the station's history and origins with Gene Autry. KAUT is one of a few stations in the country to have been affiliated with both News Corporation-owned networks, Fox and MyNetworkTV.
On January 4, 2007, The New York Times Company entered into an agreement to sell the stations to affiliates of the private equity group Oak Hill Capital Partners. KAUT officially became part of Local TV
, a subsidiary of Oak Hill Capital, on May 7. The station now airs sitcoms and talk/reality shows in the late morning and afternoons, off-network sitcoms in the evenings and late nights, and dramas and movies on weekends along with some college and professional sports. It may also take on the responsibility of airing NBC programs when KFOR is not able to as in a news-related emergency.
On April 11, 2011, KAUT rebranded once again, dropping the "OK43" identity in favor of "Freedom 43 TV," an approach made to cater to, in the words of KFOR/KAUT President-GM Jim Boyer, "all Oklahomans who believe in faith, freedom and patriotism," specifically the large military population in the Oklahoma City market. The news content on "Freedom 43 TV" was tweaked to include stories and profiles on those of interest to conservatives and the military community.
programming on the station includes: Maury
, E! True Hollywood Story
, Friends
, George Lopez, Star Trek: The Next Generation
, The Real Housewives, Everybody Hates Chris
, Everybody Loves Raymond
, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit
, South Park
, Reno 911!
, Cops, The Wild, Wild West
, Bonanza
, Little House on the Prairie
, The 700 Club
, How I Met Your Mother
, M*A*S*H*, and The Office
with weekend telecasts of Criminal Minds
, Stargate Universe
, Ugly Betty
, Stargate Atlantis
, The Unit
, Cold Case, Heartland
and NUMB3RS
. In addition to airing local newscasts produced by KFOR-TV, it also will take on the responsibility of preempting regular programming and simulcasting severe weather information from KFOR in the event a tornado warning is in effect for any part of its main over-the-air viewing area.
KAUT also produces and airs comedic wraparound segments during the station's Saturday primetime movie, called 2 Movie Guys, hosted by Lucas Ross and Ryan Bellgardt (Bellgardt also serves as the station's announcer). Ross and Bellgardt are also seen on the Friday morning edition of Rise and Shine Oklahoma, reviewing movies that are being released that week. The station also rebroadcasts KFOR-TV's Sunday morning political talk show Flash Point on Sundays at 11:30 a.m.
sports including basketball games (mostly women). In addition, it also airs Sooners-related basketball and football shows. The station aired the Oklahoma High School Sports Express, a weekly high school sports program hosted by former KFOR sports reporter Van Shea Iven, from January 2006 through May 2008 (since August 2008, the series has aired on KOKH). It had also been the Oklahoma City broadcast home of Texas Rangers
major league baseball since April 6, 2007. These games are simulcasted from fellow MyNetworkTV affiliate KDFI
in Dallas which is the official over-the-air broadcast flagship station for the team (before moving to independent KTXA
). This deal ended after the 2007 season.
In total, KFOR produces 12.5 hours of local newscasts each week for KAUT; there are no weekend newscast on the station, at the time being. In July 2009, KFOR became the first in the market to broadcast their local news in high definition. In order to make the change, it upgraded its studios. The KAUT broadcasts were included in the switch.
In addition, from July 2004 to September 2010, the station also ran the nationally syndicated
morning show The Daily Buzz
; it initially aired on the station from 5 to 8 a.m., though the third hour of the program was dropped after KAUT debuted the Rise and Shine Oklahoma newscast (as of September 2010, KAUT has replaced the program with classic westerns; The Daily Buzz moved to area independent station KSBI
in February 2011).
Rise and Shine
(weekday mornings 7-9 a.m.)
Freedom 43 News
(weeknights 9-9:30 p.m.)
KAUT features additional news personnel from KFOR. See that article
for a complete listing.
Virtual channel
In telecommunications, a logical channel number , also known as virtual channel, is a channel designation which differs from that of the actual radio channel on which the signal travels....
43 (digital channel 40), is the MyNetworkTV
MyNetworkTV
MyNetworkTV is a television broadcast syndication service in the United States, owned by the Fox Entertainment Group, a division of News Corporation...
-affiliated television station
Television station
A television station is a business, organisation or other such as an amateur television operator that transmits content over terrestrial television. A television transmission can be by analog television signals or, more recently, by digital television. Broadcast television systems standards are...
for Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
Oklahoma City is the capital and the largest city in the state of Oklahoma. The county seat of Oklahoma County, the city ranks 31st among United States cities in population. The city's population, from the 2010 census, was 579,999, with a metro-area population of 1,252,987 . In 2010, the Oklahoma...
. Owned by Local TV
Local TV
Local TV LLC is a limited liability corporation, owned by Oak Hill Capital Partners , which operates 18 local network-affiliated television stations in the United States.-History:...
, KAUT is sister station to NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
affiliate KFOR-TV
KFOR-TV
KFOR-TV, virtual channel 4 , is the NBC-affiliated television station in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. KFOR-TV is owned by Local TV, a subsidiary of the private equity group Oak Hill Capital Partners, in a duopoly with MyNetworkTV affiliate KAUT-TV ; its studios are located at 444 East Britton Road in...
(channel 4). The two stations share studios at 444 East Britton Road, along U.S. 77
U.S. Route 77 in Oklahoma
In Oklahoma, U.S. Highway 77 runs north–south, paralleling Interstate 35, connecting Texas to Kansas and running for 268 miles through the central part of the state. It passes through many major cities, including Ardmore, Oklahoma City and its suburbs, Guthrie, and Ponca City...
, east of the Britton section of Oklahoma City and broadcasts from a transmitter in the northern area of the city along the John Kilpatrick Turnpike
John Kilpatrick Turnpike
The John Kilpatrick Turnpike is a toll road in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma that runs from Interstate 40 on its west side to I-35, where it then merges into the Turner Turnpike...
.
The station operates its digital signal on UHF channel 40, using its former analog channel assignment of 43 as its virtual channel via PSIP. The station can also be seen on Cox
Cox Communications
Cox Communications is a privately owned subsidiary of Cox Enterprises providing digital cable television, telecommunications and wireless services in the United States...
cable channel 16 in standard definition and in high definition on digital channel 714 in Oklahoma City.
Digital programming
| Channel | Video | Aspect Aspect ratio The aspect ratio of a shape is the ratio of its longer dimension to its shorter dimension. It may be applied to two characteristic dimensions of a three-dimensional shape, such as the ratio of the longest and shortest axis, or for symmetrical objects that are described by just two measurements,... |
Name | Programming |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 43.1 | 1080i 1080i 1080i is the shorthand name for a high-definition television mode. The i means interlaced video; 1080i differs from 1080p, in which the p stands for progressive scan. The term 1080i assumes a widescreen aspect ratio of 16:9, implying a frame size of 1920×1080 pixels... |
16:9 16:9 16:9 is an aspect ratio with a width of 16 units and height of 9. Since 2009, it has become the most common aspect ratio for sold televisions and computer monitors and is also the international standard format of HDTV, Full HD, non-HD digital television and analog widescreen television ... |
KAUT-DT | Main KAUT programming / MyNetworkTV |
As of November 4, 2010, KAUT-DT is currently the only full-power digital over-the-air station in the Oklahoma City market that does not have multiplexed digital subchannels.
Analog-to-digital conversion
KAUT-TV discontinued regular analog programming and converted to a digital-only signal on June 12, 2009. The station remained on its pre-transition digital channel 40, using PSIP to display KAUT-TV's virtual channel as 43.Early history
Founded by actor Gene AutryGene Autry
Orvon Grover Autry , better known as Gene Autry, was an American performer who gained fame as The Singing Cowboy on the radio, in movies and on television for more than three decades beginning in the 1930s...
, KAUT signed-on September 24, 1980. It was the sixth television station and the fourth UHF outlet in Oklahoma City after KGMC (now KOCB
KOCB
KOCB, virtual channel 34 , is the CW-affiliated television station in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. It is owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group of Maryland, LLC, in a duopoly with Fox affiliate KOKH-TV...
), KOKH-TV
KOKH-TV
KOKH-TV, virtual channel 25 , is the Fox-affiliated television station serving the Oklahoma City, Oklahoma television market...
, and the short-lived KTVQ
KTVQ (Oklahoma City)
KTVQ, channel 25, is a now-defunct television station, that served as an affiliate for the ABC television network. The station was licensed to Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, and operated in its original form from 1953 to 1956...
. The station was owned by his Golden West Broadcasters that also owned Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
' legendary KTLA
KTLA
KTLA, virtual channel 5, is a television station in Los Angeles, California, USA. Owned by the Tribune Company, KTLA is an affiliate of the CW Television Network. KTLA's studios are on Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood, and its transmitter is located atop Mount Wilson...
(channel 5, now a CW affiliate owned by Tribune Company
Tribune Company
The Tribune Company is a large American multimedia corporation based in Chicago, Illinois. It is the nation's second-largest newspaper publisher, with ten daily newspapers and commuter tabloids including Chicago Tribune, Los Angeles Times, Hartford Courant, Orlando Sentinel, South Florida...
) and its original studios were located at 11901 N. Eastern Ave. in northern Oklahoma City. It was a groundbreaking station airing an all-local news format called Newswatch 43 which ran initially from 9 in the morning to 5 at night before expanding to 7 in the evening. VUE, a scrambled subscription-based service also owned by Golden West, initially signed on at 5 and then 7 after the expansion of news programming.
In late 1981, the plug was pulled on Newswatch and KAUT introduced a temporary format of old Western
Western (genre)
The Western is a genre of various visual arts, such as film, television, radio, literature, painting and others. Westerns are devoted to telling stories set primarily in the latter half of the 19th century in the American Old West, hence the name. Some Westerns are set as early as the Battle of...
films most of them starring Autry. Innovation continued in early 1982 with the launch of a two-hour local dance show called TMC 43 which ran from 4 to 6 p.m. From 6 to 7, KAUT aired a live local country dance show from a local bar called Oklahoma Country Live. Both shows were gone by the fall of 1982. By then, some dramas and sitcoms had been added. The station dropped VUE in 1983. Initially, it added programming from Financial News Network
Financial News Network
The Financial News Network was a television network that operated throughout the United States during the 1980s.-Founding:Financial News Network was founded in 1981 by two men: Rodney Buchser, who had been general manager of KWHY, Channel 22 in Los Angeles and Glenn Taylor. The concept originated...
at night and Independent Network News
Independent Network News
The name Independent Network News can represent:* Independent Network News : Nationwide news service for independent radio stations in the Republic of Ireland...
. Later in the year, FNN was dropped and KAUT added more prime time movies and drama shows. In 1984, it added morning cartoons as well as a few more sitcoms in the evening.
On June 11, 1985, Golden West sold KAUT to Atlanta-based Rollins Communications, Inc. The station became a charter Fox
Fox Broadcasting Company
Fox Broadcasting Company, commonly referred to as Fox Network or simply Fox , is an American commercial broadcasting television network owned by Fox Entertainment Group, part of Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation. Launched on October 9, 1986, Fox was the highest-rated broadcast network in the...
affiliate on October 6, 1986 carrying The Late Show Starring Joan Rivers and other early original series of the fourth network such as Married... with Children
Married... with Children
Married... with Children is an American surrealistic sitcom that aired for 11 seasons that featured a dysfunctional family living in Chicago, Illinois. The show, notable for being the first prime time television series to air on Fox, ran from April 5, 1987, to June 9, 1997. The series was created...
and 21 Jump Street
21 Jump Street
21 Jump Street is an American police procedural crime drama television series that aired on the Fox Network from April 12, 1987, to April 27, 1991, with a total of 103 episodes. The series focused on a squad of youthful-looking undercover police officers investigating crimes in high schools,...
. In addition, more afternoon cartoons were added, and the station also broadcast Midnight Shopper, a locally-produced late night home shopping program on weekends. Rollins Communications sold KAUT to Heritage Broadcasting on November 1, 1986. In 1987, Pappas Telecasting made a proposal to buy KOKH (channel 25). In the deal, it would also buy the programming of KAUT and KGMC (channel 34, now KOCB) and merge them into KOKH's schedule; KGMC would switch to a religious/home shopping format while Heritage would agree to sell KAUT to the Oklahoma Educational Television Authority
Oklahoma Educational Television Authority
OETA , is a state network of Public Broadcasting Service member Non-commercial educational Public television stations covering the entire state of Oklahoma....
, the state's PBS
Public Broadcasting Service
The Public Broadcasting Service is an American non-profit public broadcasting television network with 354 member TV stations in the United States which hold collective ownership. Its headquarters is in Arlington, Virginia....
member network
State network
A State Network in the United States broadcasting industry is a term which refers to a miniature television network serving an entire state or multiple states...
. KOKH would then take over as Oklahoma City's Fox affiliate. In 1988, the deal fell through; with uncertainty over the station's future, sixteen of KAUT's employees chose to leave the station to work at other Heritage-owned stations and the station's sales department saw a reduction in advertising sales. All three stations continued on with general entertainment schedules.
As a PBS member station, then back to a general entertainment station
KOKH went on the market in 1991 and was purchased by Heritage which was completed in August 1991. At that time, the Fox affiliation and syndicated programming, as well as thirty KAUT station staff members, production equipment, operating files and records, were moved to that station; Heritage then sold KAUT to OETAOklahoma Educational Television Authority
OETA , is a state network of Public Broadcasting Service member Non-commercial educational Public television stations covering the entire state of Oklahoma....
. On August 15, 1991, channel 43 became the city's second PBS member station, and the following year, the station's callsign changed to KTLC. It was known as "The Literacy Channel"; however despite the name, its emphasis was not entirely on literacy. Following the switch to becoming a secondary PBS station, KTLC's schedule included fitness programs such as Body Electric
Body Electric
Body Electric may refer to these artworks, all named after I Sing the Body Electric , an 1855 poem from Leaves of Grass by the American poet Walt Whitman:- Books :* The Body Electric a 1979 book on Kirlian photography by Thelma Moss...
, Homestretch and Sit and Be Fit
Sit and Be Fit
Sit and Be Fit is an award-winning exercise program for senior citizens and individuals with limited physical motion, that is available on video tapes and is distributed to public television stations ....
on weekday mornings from 7 to 8:30, instructional programming and select PBS series (including The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer
The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer
PBS NewsHour is an evening television news program broadcast weeknights on the Public Broadcasting Service in the United States. The show is produced by MacNeil/Lehrer Productions, a company co-owned by former anchors Jim Lehrer and Robert MacNeil, and Liberty Media, which owns a 65% stake in the...
) during late evenings and children's programming for much of the rest of the day.
Unlike many PBS stations, KTLC aired children's programs from mid-morning to early evening. Most of them were rebroadcasts from KETA. KTLC's schedule was trimmed back from its earlier lineup and ended its programming day at Midnight like OETA. KTLC's weekend lineup initially retained the same broadcast day period as it previously did on weekdays, but in 1995, KTLC trimmed back its program hours on weekends to begin the day at 4:00 in the afternoon and end the broadcast day at midnight. Cox Communications
Cox Communications
Cox Communications is a privately owned subsidiary of Cox Enterprises providing digital cable television, telecommunications and wireless services in the United States...
filled non-programming hours with QVC
QVC
QVC is a multinational corporation specializing in televised home shopping. Founded in 1986 by Joseph Segel in West Goshen Township, Pennsylvania, United States, QVC broadcasts in five countries as QVC US, QVC UK, QVC Germany, QVC Japan and – QVC Italy to 200 million households...
programming on cable channel 13. OETA eventually found it too hard to run two stations in Oklahoma City so it decided to put channel 43 up for sale.
After KOCB announced in January 1998 that it would drop its UPN
UPN
United Paramount Network was a television network that was broadcast in over 200 markets in the United States from 1995 to 2006. UPN was originally owned by Viacom/Paramount and Chris-Craft Industries, the former of which, through the Paramount Television Group, produced most of the network's...
affiliation to become the Oklahoma City affiliate of The WB television network, Paramount Stations Group
Paramount Stations Group
Paramount Stations Group was a television broadcasting company that was renamed from the TVX Broadcast Group in 1991 after Paramount Pictures gained full ownership of the group. At the time, it owned several Fox affiliates and independent stations...
agreed to buy KTLC for an estimated $23.5 million, with OETA using the proceeds from the sale to fund development of a high-definition digital broadcast signal. Channel 43 signed-off as a full-time educational station at midnight for the last time on June 19, 1998. It returned the next morning at 5 a.m. as KPSG, named after its new owner. The switch to a general entertainment schedule had originally been slated for June 1, 1998; which was then pushed back to June 13, but was delayed again due to technical difficulties unrelated to a tornado outbreak that occurred in the Oklahoma City area that evening. The station continued to air PBS educational shows from 7 a.m. to noon (as part of several conditions of the sale, which also included channel 43 agreeing simulcast OETA's March and August fund-raising drives in an eight hour block for the next five years), followed by a general entertainment format consisting of off-network classic sitcoms, cartoons, UPN first-run primetime shows and movies. That fall, the station became a full-time general entertainment station. When the station's founder Gene Autry
Gene Autry
Orvon Grover Autry , better known as Gene Autry, was an American performer who gained fame as The Singing Cowboy on the radio, in movies and on television for more than three decades beginning in the 1930s...
died that November, the station changed its calls back to "KAUT-TV" to honor him. Viacom, parent company of Paramount since 1994, acquired CBS
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...
in 1999.
Gradually, classic sitcoms were replaced with talk, reality and court shows. Cartoons were also phased out and gone by the Fall of 2003. At the end of 2005, Viacom's broadcasting assets and other "slow-growth" businesses became part of a new company called the CBS Corporation
CBS Corporation
CBS Corporation is an American media conglomerate focused on commercial broadcasting, publishing, billboards and television production, with most of its operations in the United States. The President and CEO of the company is Leslie Moonves. Sumner Redstone, owner of National Amusements, is CBS's...
. In the meantime, CBS sold KAUT to The New York Times Company
The New York Times Company
The New York Times Company is an American media company best known as the publisher of its namesake, The New York Times. Arthur Ochs Sulzberger, Jr. has served as Chairman of the Board since 1997. It is headquartered in Midtown Manhattan, New York City....
making it a sister station to KFOR-TV
KFOR-TV
KFOR-TV, virtual channel 4 , is the NBC-affiliated television station in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. KFOR-TV is owned by Local TV, a subsidiary of the private equity group Oak Hill Capital Partners, in a duopoly with MyNetworkTV affiliate KAUT-TV ; its studios are located at 444 East Britton Road in...
. On September 12, 2006, less than a year after closing on its purchase of KAUT, The New York Times Company announced its intention to sell all of its television stations.
As a MyNetworkTV affiliate
On January 24, 2006, the CBS Corporation and Warner Bros.Warner Bros.
Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc., also known as Warner Bros. Pictures or simply Warner Bros. , is an American producer of film and television entertainment.One of the major film studios, it is a subsidiary of Time Warner, with its headquarters in Burbank,...
made the decision to merge UPN and The WB to form a new network called The CW
The CW Television Network
The CW Television Network is a television network in the United States launched at the beginning of the 2006–2007 television season. It is a joint venture between CBS Corporation, the former owners of United Paramount Network , and Time Warner's Warner Bros., former majority owner of The WB...
. On February 22, News Corporation
News Corporation
News Corporation or News Corp. is an American multinational media conglomerate. It is the world's second-largest media conglomerate as of 2011 in terms of revenue, and the world's third largest in entertainment as of 2009, although the BBC remains the world's largest broadcaster...
announced a new competing network, MyNetworkTV. On May 1, KAUT removed UPN branding from its logo becoming one of a few non-Fox owned-and-operated UPN stations to do so. It was then referred to as "43". The station also announced that it would no longer promote any network programing.
Ironically, KAUT was erroneously mentioned as a CW affiliate in the first press statements about the new network. What was not realized then was the sale of the station from CBS to The New York Times Company. On May 2, KOCB
KOCB
KOCB, virtual channel 34 , is the CW-affiliated television station in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. It is owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group of Maryland, LLC, in a duopoly with Fox affiliate KOKH-TV...
was announced as Oklahoma City's CW affiliate. For months, it was unclear whether KAUT would go independent
Independent station
An independent station is in the category of television terminology used to describe a television station broadcasting in the United States or Canada that is not affiliated with any television network....
or affiliate with MyNetworkTV. Finally on August 22, the station was added to the roster of MyNetworkTV's stations on their website as Oklahoma City's affiliate while station personnel also confirmed the affiliation via email. The word came just two weeks before the new network aired its first program.
When the announcement of MyNetworkTV's formation was made, a promotional video shown on the day of the network's announcement on New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
flagship WWOR-TV
WWOR-TV
WWOR-TV, virtual channel 9 , is the flagship station of the MyNetworkTV programming service, licensed to Secaucus, New Jersey and serving the Tri-State metropolitan area. WWOR is owned by Fox Television Stations, a division of the News Corporation, and is a sister station to Fox network flagship...
(channel 9) showed that the branding of their affiliated stations would be "My (channel number)". However, KAUT opted instead to brand itself as "OK 43" making it one of eight MyNetworkTV affiliates (the others being Portland, Oregon
Portland, Oregon
Portland is a city located in the Pacific Northwest, near the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers in the U.S. state of Oregon. As of the 2010 Census, it had a population of 583,776, making it the 29th most populous city in the United States...
's KPDX
KPDX
KPDX is the MyNetworkTV-affiliate serving the Portland, Oregon metropolitan area. It broadcasts its digital signal on UHF channel 30. In addition, it is seen on channel 13 on most local cable TV systems....
, Little Rock, Arkansas
Little Rock, Arkansas
Little Rock is the capital and the largest city of the U.S. state of Arkansas. The Metropolitan Statistical Area had a population of 699,757 people in the 2010 census...
's KARZ-TV
KARZ-TV
KARZ-TV is the MyNetworkTV-affiliated television station for Central Arkansas. It is licensed to Little Rock. It broadcasts a high definition digital signal on UHF channel 42 from a transmitter on Shinall Mountain near the Chenal Valley section of Little Rock...
, Portland, Maine
Portland, Maine
Portland is the largest city in Maine and is the county seat of Cumberland County. The 2010 city population was 66,194, growing 3 percent since the census of 2000...
's WPME-TV, Cincinnati
Cincinnati, Ohio
Cincinnati is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio. Cincinnati is the county seat of Hamilton County. Settled in 1788, the city is located to north of the Ohio River at the Ohio-Kentucky border, near Indiana. The population within city limits is 296,943 according to the 2010 census, making it Ohio's...
's WSTR-TV
WSTR-TV
WSTR-TV is the MyNetworkTV-affiliated television station for the Tri-State area of Southwestern Ohio, Southeastern Indiana, and Northern Kentucky. Licensed to Cincinnati, the station broadcasts a high definition digital signal on UHF channel 33 from a transmitter in the College Hill section of the...
, Seattle
Seattle, Washington
Seattle is the county seat of King County, Washington. With 608,660 residents as of the 2010 Census, Seattle is the largest city in the Northwestern United States. The Seattle metropolitan area of about 3.4 million inhabitants is the 15th largest metropolitan area in the country...
's KZJO, Philadelphia
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Philadelphia is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the county seat of Philadelphia County, with which it is coterminous. The city is located in the Northeastern United States along the Delaware and Schuylkill rivers. It is the fifth-most-populous city in the United States,...
's WPHL-TV
WPHL-TV
WPHL-TV, channel 17, is a television station in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, owned by the Tribune Company and currently affiliated with the News Corporation-owned MyNetworkTV television network. This makes it the largest non-O&O station of the network...
and a digital subchannel of WISC-TV
WISC-TV
WISC-TV is the CBS affiliate television station for Madison, Wisconsin. The station is the flagship of Madison-based Morgan Murphy Media, and has been affiliated with CBS since its launch on June 24, 1956...
in Madison, Wisconsin
Madison, Wisconsin
Madison is the capital of the U.S. state of Wisconsin and the county seat of Dane County. It is also home to the University of Wisconsin–Madison....
) not to use the "My" branding, logos, trademarks, or any other elements of the channel. The new branding was accompanied by a new marketing campaign with the slogan "OK43: An Oklahoma Original" focusing on the station's history and origins with Gene Autry. KAUT is one of a few stations in the country to have been affiliated with both News Corporation-owned networks, Fox and MyNetworkTV.
On January 4, 2007, The New York Times Company entered into an agreement to sell the stations to affiliates of the private equity group Oak Hill Capital Partners. KAUT officially became part of Local TV
Local TV
Local TV LLC is a limited liability corporation, owned by Oak Hill Capital Partners , which operates 18 local network-affiliated television stations in the United States.-History:...
, a subsidiary of Oak Hill Capital, on May 7. The station now airs sitcoms and talk/reality shows in the late morning and afternoons, off-network sitcoms in the evenings and late nights, and dramas and movies on weekends along with some college and professional sports. It may also take on the responsibility of airing NBC programs when KFOR is not able to as in a news-related emergency.
On April 11, 2011, KAUT rebranded once again, dropping the "OK43" identity in favor of "Freedom 43 TV," an approach made to cater to, in the words of KFOR/KAUT President-GM Jim Boyer, "all Oklahomans who believe in faith, freedom and patriotism," specifically the large military population in the Oklahoma City market. The news content on "Freedom 43 TV" was tweaked to include stories and profiles on those of interest to conservatives and the military community.
Programming
SyndicatedTelevision syndication
In broadcasting, syndication is the sale of the right to broadcast radio shows and television shows by multiple radio stations and television stations, without going through a broadcast network, though the process of syndication may conjure up structures like those of a network itself, by its very...
programming on the station includes: Maury
Maury (TV series)
Maury is a syndicated American tabloid talk show hosted by Maury Povich.When the series first aired in 1991, the show was called The Maury Povich Show and was produced by MoPo Productions in association with Paramount Domestic Television...
, E! True Hollywood Story
E! True Hollywood Story
E! True Hollywood Story is an American documentary series on E! that deals with famous Hollywood celebrities, movies, TV shows and well-known public figures...
, Friends
Friends
Friends is an American sitcom created by David Crane and Marta Kauffman, which aired on NBC from September 22, 1994 to May 6, 2004. The series revolves around a group of friends in Manhattan. The series was produced by Bright/Kauffman/Crane Productions, in association with Warner Bros. Television...
, George Lopez, Star Trek: The Next Generation
Star Trek: The Next Generation
Star Trek: The Next Generation is an American science fiction television series created by Gene Roddenberry as part of the Star Trek franchise. Roddenberry, Rick Berman, and Michael Piller served as executive producers at different times throughout the production...
, The Real Housewives, Everybody Hates Chris
Everybody Hates Chris
Everybody Hates Chris is an African American television period sitcom inspired by the teenage experiences of comedian Chris Rock , while growing up in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York . The show is set from 1982 to 1987; however, Rock himself was a teenager during years...
, Everybody Loves Raymond
Everybody Loves Raymond
Everybody Loves Raymond is an American television sitcom that originally ran on CBS from September 13, 1996, to May 16, 2005. Many of the situations from the show are based on the real-life experiences of lead actor Ray Romano, creator/producer Phil Rosenthal and the show's writing staff...
, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit
Law & Order: Special Victims Unit
Law & Order: Special Victims Unit is an American police procedural television drama series set in New York City, where it is also primarily produced...
, South Park
South Park
South Park is an American animated television series created by Trey Parker and Matt Stone for the Comedy Central television network. Intended for mature audiences, the show has become famous for its crude language, surreal, satirical, and dark humor that lampoons a wide range of topics...
, Reno 911!
Reno 911!
Reno 911! is an American comedy television series on Comedy Central that ran from 2003 to 2009. It is a mockumentary-style parody of law enforcement documentary shows, specifically COPS, with comic actors playing the police officers. Most of the material is improvised, using a broad outline, and...
, Cops, The Wild, Wild West
The Wild, Wild West
Wild Wild West or The Wild Wild West may refer to:In film and television:*The Wild Wild West , a 1921 film starring Hoot Gibson*The Wild Wild West, a CBS television show, 1965-1969...
, Bonanza
Bonanza
Bonanza is an American western television series that both ran on and was a production of NBC from September 12, 1959 to January 16, 1973. Lasting 14 seasons and 430 episodes, it ranks as the second longest running western series and still continues to air in syndication. It centers on the...
, Little House on the Prairie
Little House on the Prairie
Little House is a series of children's books by Laura Ingalls Wilder that was published originally between 1932 and 1943, with four additional books published posthumously, in 1962, 1971, 1974 and 2006.-History:...
, The 700 Club
The 700 Club
The 700 Club is the flagship news talk show of the Christian Broadcasting Network, airing in syndication throughout the United States and Canada. In production since 1966, it is currently hosted by Pat Robertson, Terry Meeuwsen, Kristi Watts, and Gordon P. Robertson, two of whom will host on any...
, How I Met Your Mother
How I Met Your Mother
How I Met Your Mother is an American sitcom that premiered on CBS on September 19, 2005, created by Craig Thomas and Carter Bays.As a framing device, the main character, Ted Mosby with narration by Bob Saget, in the year 2030 recounts to his son and daughter the events that led to his meeting...
, M*A*S*H*, and The Office
The Office (US TV series)
The Office is an American comedy television series broadcast by NBC. An adaptation of the original BBC series of the same name, it depicts the everyday lives of office employees in the Scranton, Pennsylvania, branch of the fictional Dunder Mifflin Paper Company...
with weekend telecasts of Criminal Minds
Criminal Minds
Criminal Minds is an American police procedural drama that premiered September 22, 2005, on CBS. The series follows a team of profilers from the FBI's Behavioral Analysis Unit based in Quantico, Virginia. The BAU is part of the FBI National Center for the Analysis of Violent Crime...
, Stargate Universe
Stargate Universe
Stargate Universe is a Canadian-American military science fiction television series and part of MGM's Stargate franchise. It follows the adventures of a present-day, multinational exploration team traveling on the Ancient spaceship Destiny many billions of light years distant from the Milky Way...
, Ugly Betty
Ugly Betty
Ugly Betty is an American comedy-drama television series developed by Silvio Horta, which premiered on ABC on September 28, 2006, and ended on April 14, 2010. The series revolves around the character Betty Suarez and is based on Fernando Gaitán's Colombian telenovela soap opera Yo soy Betty, la fea...
, Stargate Atlantis
Stargate Atlantis
Stargate Atlantis is a Canadian-American adventure and military science fiction television series and part of MGM's Stargate franchise. The show was created by Brad Wright and Robert C. Cooper as a spin-off series of Stargate SG-1, which was created by Wright and Jonathan Glassner and was itself...
, The Unit
The Unit
The Unit is an American action-drama television series that focuses on a top-secret military unit modeled after the real-life U.S. Army special operations unit commonly known as Delta Force...
, Cold Case, Heartland
Heartland (Canadian TV series)
Heartland is a Canadian television drama series which debuted on CBC Television on October 14, 2007. The series is loosely based on the Heartland books by Lauren Brooke....
and NUMB3RS
NUMB3RS
Numb3rs is an American television drama which premiered on CBS on January 23, 2005, and concluded on March 12, 2010. The series was created by Nicolas Falacci and Cheryl Heuton, and follows FBI Special Agent Don Eppes and his mathematical genius brother, Charlie Eppes , who helps Don solve crimes...
. In addition to airing local newscasts produced by KFOR-TV, it also will take on the responsibility of preempting regular programming and simulcasting severe weather information from KFOR in the event a tornado warning is in effect for any part of its main over-the-air viewing area.
KAUT also produces and airs comedic wraparound segments during the station's Saturday primetime movie, called 2 Movie Guys, hosted by Lucas Ross and Ryan Bellgardt (Bellgardt also serves as the station's announcer). Ross and Bellgardt are also seen on the Friday morning edition of Rise and Shine Oklahoma, reviewing movies that are being released that week. The station also rebroadcasts KFOR-TV's Sunday morning political talk show Flash Point on Sundays at 11:30 a.m.
Sports programming
Since 2004, KAUT had been broadcasting Oklahoma SoonersOklahoma Sooners
The University of Oklahoma features 19 varsity sports teams. Both men's and women's teams are called the Sooners, a nickname given to the early participants in the land rushes which initially opened the Oklahoma Indian Territory to non-native settlement. They participate in the NCAA's Division I-A,...
sports including basketball games (mostly women). In addition, it also airs Sooners-related basketball and football shows. The station aired the Oklahoma High School Sports Express, a weekly high school sports program hosted by former KFOR sports reporter Van Shea Iven, from January 2006 through May 2008 (since August 2008, the series has aired on KOKH). It had also been the Oklahoma City broadcast home of Texas Rangers
Texas Rangers (baseball)
The Texas Rangers are a professional baseball team in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex, based in Arlington, Texas. The Rangers are a member of the Western Division of Major League Baseball's American League, and are the reigning A.L. Western Division and A.L. Champions. Since , the Rangers have...
major league baseball since April 6, 2007. These games are simulcasted from fellow MyNetworkTV affiliate KDFI
KDFI
KDFI-TV, virtual channel 27, is a MyNetworkTV-affiliated station serving the Dallas/Fort Worth area. The station is licensed to Dallas and owned by Fox Television Stations, a division of the News Corporation, and is a sister station to Fox network outlet KDFW . Its transmitter is located in Cedar...
in Dallas which is the official over-the-air broadcast flagship station for the team (before moving to independent KTXA
KTXA
KTXA, virtual channel 21 , is an independent television station based in Fort Worth, Texas, and serving the Dallas/Fort Worth designated market area. With its transmitter in Cedar Hill, KTXA is owned by CBS Corporation and is the sister station of CBS outlet KTVT .KTXA was originally an...
). This deal ended after the 2007 season.
Newscasts
KAUT's sale to The New York Times Company brought local news to this station's lineup. On June 5, 2006, sister station KFOR-TV began producing a weeknight 9 o'clock newscast on KAUT to compete against KOKH's long-running 9 p.m. newscast, which began ten years earlier. On April 9, 2007, KOKH launched what at the time was a three-hour weekday morning newscast, running from 6 to 9 a.m.; it has since expanded to four hours from 5-9 a.m. To compete with this, KAUT launched a two-hour extension of KFOR's weekday morning newscast on September 8, 2008, called Rise and Shine Oklahoma.In total, KFOR produces 12.5 hours of local newscasts each week for KAUT; there are no weekend newscast on the station, at the time being. In July 2009, KFOR became the first in the market to broadcast their local news in high definition. In order to make the change, it upgraded its studios. The KAUT broadcasts were included in the switch.
In addition, from July 2004 to September 2010, the station also ran the nationally syndicated
Television syndication
In broadcasting, syndication is the sale of the right to broadcast radio shows and television shows by multiple radio stations and television stations, without going through a broadcast network, though the process of syndication may conjure up structures like those of a network itself, by its very...
morning show The Daily Buzz
The Daily Buzz
The Daily Buzz is a nationally syndicated breakfast television news and infotainment program. The show is produced by Fisher Communications and is owned and distributed by ACME Communications; it is broadcast every weekday morning from studios at Full Sail University in Winter Park, Florida...
; it initially aired on the station from 5 to 8 a.m., though the third hour of the program was dropped after KAUT debuted the Rise and Shine Oklahoma newscast (as of September 2010, KAUT has replaced the program with classic westerns; The Daily Buzz moved to area independent station KSBI
KSBI
KSBI, virtual channel 52, is an independent television station in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. It is locally owned and operated by Family Broadcasting Group of Oklahoma, an Oklahoma-based company, in a duopoly with Tuff TV affiliate KXOC-LP...
in February 2011).
Rise and Shine
(weekday mornings 7-9 a.m.)
- Anchors:
- Lance West
- Brittany Baldy
- Weather:
- David Payne
- Traffic:
- Shane Faulkner
- Reporter:
- Chellie Mills
- The 2 Movie Guys:
- Lucas Ross
- Ryan Bellgardt
- Game On!:
- Cody Crouch
- The Drop:
- Jerry Ramsey
Freedom 43 News
(weeknights 9-9:30 p.m.)
- Anchor:
- Sara Celi
- Ian Parker
- Weather:
- Mike MorganMike Morgan (meteorologist)Mike Morgan is a television meteorologist. Since January 1993, he has served as the evening chief meteorologist at KFOR-TV, the NBC-affiliated television station in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Morgan is a member of the American Meteorological Society and the National Weather Association...
- Mike Morgan
KAUT features additional news personnel from KFOR. See that article
KFOR-TV
KFOR-TV, virtual channel 4 , is the NBC-affiliated television station in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. KFOR-TV is owned by Local TV, a subsidiary of the private equity group Oak Hill Capital Partners, in a duopoly with MyNetworkTV affiliate KAUT-TV ; its studios are located at 444 East Britton Road in...
for a complete listing.
Newscast titles
- Newswatch 43 (1980–1981)
- Oklahoma's NewsChannel 4 at 9 on 43 (9 p.m. newscast; May–August 2006)
- Oklahoma's NewsChannel 4 at 9 on OK43 (9 p.m. newscast; 2006–2008)
- Rise and Shine Oklahoma (morning newscast; 2008–present, shortened to simply Rise and Shine since April 2011)
- NewsChannel 4 at 9 on OK43 (9 p.m. newscast; 2008–2011)
- Freedom 43 News (2011–present)
Station slogans
- TV-43, Your Newswatch Station (1980–1983)
- Central Oklahoma's Rising Star (1983–1990)
- Don't Let Fox 43 Weekends Pass You By (1987–1988; localized version of Fox ad campaign)
- KTLC, Public Television for Central Oklahoma (1991–1998)
- Oklahoma's Favorite (2001–2002)
- It's On! (2002–2003)
- It's U! (2003–2006; reference to its UPN affiliation at the time)
- An Oklahoma Original (2006–2009)
- Turn Us On! (2009–2011)
- Red, White and You (2011–present)
Station branding
- KTLC, The Literacy Channel 43 (1991–June 1998)
- KPSG UPN 43 (June–November 1998)
- KAUT UPN 43 (November 1998–May 2006)
- 43 KAUT (May–September 2006)
- OK 43 (September 2006–April 2011)
- Freedom 43 TV (April 2011–present)
Movie umbrella titles
- Paramount Teleplex / Prime / Matinee Movie (1998–2000)
- UPN 43 Matinee / Prime / Late Movie (2000–2006)
- Channel 43 Matinee / Prime / Late Movie (May–September 2006)
- OK 43 Matinee / Late Movie (September 2006–2011)
- Two Movie Guys (2007–present; Saturday primetime features)
- Freedom 43 Matinee Movie (2011–present)