KOKH-TV
Encyclopedia
KOKH-TV, virtual channel
25 (digital channel 24), is the Fox
-affiliated television station serving the Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
television market. It is owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group
of Maryland, LLC in a duopoly with CW affiliate KOCB
(channel 34), and its studios and transmitter are located at 1228 East Wilshire Boulevard in northeast Oklahoma City.
The station broadcasts its digital signal on UHF channel 24, using its former analog channel assignment of 25 as its virtual channel via PSIP. On cable, KOKH-TV can be seen on channel 12 in standard definition and channel 712 in high definition on Cox
Oklahoma City and also on channel 12 on most Central Oklahoma cable systems. The station is also available to DirecTV
and Dish Network
customers within the Oklahoma City market.
KOKH is a typical Fox station with about 30 hours a week of news along with syndicated first run talk/court/reality shows, off-network sitcoms and dramas, Fox primetime network programming and Saturday morning children's programming, and sports.
This station's digital signal is multiplexed:>
Channel
Video
Aspect
Programming
25.1
720p
16:9
main KOKH programming / Fox HD
25.2
480i
4:3
The Country Network; country music videos
On November 4, 2010, KOKH began carrying The Country Network, a 24-hour digital country music network, on digital subchannel 25.2.
as 25.
affiliate in the Oklahoma City market as the short-lived KTVQ
from 1953 until its demise in 1956. Current ABC affiliate KOCO-TV
(channel 5) was then operating out of Enid, Oklahoma
using the call letters KGEO-TV but moved its operations to Oklahoma City in 1958 in a move similar to Tulsa's ABC affiliate, KTUL-TV (channel 8), which moved its operations from Muskogee, Oklahoma (under the call sign KTVX) to Tulsa in 1957.
The current incarnation of channel 25 dates from 1959, when the Oklahoma City Public Schools
signed on KOKH as an educational station. In the summer of 1979, KOKH was bought by Blair Broadcasting. At 6 a.m. on October 1, 1979, KOKH relaunched as Oklahoma's first independent station. It was a typical UHF general entertainment station featuring cartoons, classic sitcoms, and movies. This was shortly before KGMC (channel 34, now KOCB
) signed on with a similar format. KGMC actually signed on after November 1, 1979.
By 1983, Oklahoma City had three commercial independent stations and they all struggled for the best programming. In 1986, in order to prevent a hostile take over by some minor stock holders, Blair Broadcasting restructured into Reliance Capital Group LP. Reliance Capital sold all of Blair's domestic television stations to Gillett Communications, effective December 31, 1986. In 1988, Pappas Telecasting made a proposal to purchase KOKH. At the same time it would buy the schedules of KGMC and KAUT (channel 43) and merge them with KOKH's schedule. Fox
affiliation would also move from KAUT to KOKH. Channel 34 would switch to Home Shopping programming, while KAUT would become an educational station. In 1989, this sale was canceled. The three stations then continued on with their formats until 1991. In 1989, KOKH was sold to Busse Broadcasting.
In 1991, KAUT's owner, Heritage Broadcasting bought KOKH. Channel 43 was sold to Oklahoma Educational Television Authority
(OETA) and became KTLC (branded as "The Literacy Channel"). Heritage merged KAUT's programming onto KOKH, and moved its Fox affiliation over to KOKH. Seven years later, though, KTLC became a commercial station and owned by Paramount Stations Group (now CBS Television Stations Group
) and changed its calls to KPSG. It reverted to the KAUT calls in 1998, after the death of founder Gene Autry
. Today, that station is owned by Local TV
.
After the bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building
in downtown Oklahoma City, on April 19, 1995, Fox began to put pressure on the management and corporate owners of KOKH to develop a full fledged news department and broadcast a daily newscast. The creation of the news department and show began in the summer of 1995 and was completed with the first show going to air on May 1, 1996. The primetime newscast has aired in the 9 p.m. time slot, since its inception.
In August 1996, Heritage Media asked for, and received, a listing on the New York Stock Exchange
(NYSE). The following month, it asked for stockholder approval of a two-for-one forward stock split. The forward split was approved. This put Heritage Media in a very marketable position. At that time Heritage Media had two subsidiaries, five network affiliated TV stations and fifteen radio stations. The subsidiaries were ACTMEDIA and DIMAC. ACTMEDIA was an in-store products and marketing company and DIMAC was a marketing client education company. Marketing accounted for 84% of 1996 revenues, while broadcasting accounted for 16%.
In the fall of 1996, News Corporation
, the owner of Twentieth Century Fox, Fox Television and many other companies, expressed an interest in purchasing the outstanding stock of Heritage Media. After several months of negotiating, a sale price of $20.50/share was settled upon. The sale took place in late spring 1997, with the approval of Heritage Media stockholders, and with FCC approval pending. FCC approval was dependent upon News Corp immediately divesting itself of all or most of the TV stations, as new ownership would place them over the limit on percentage of market coverage. News Corp's main interest, in purchasing Heritage Media, was the subsidiary ACTMEDIA, as News Corp had already entered the in-store marketing arena. The ownership of ACTMEDIA would make them the largest in-store marketing company in the world.
The Sinclair Broadcasting group was interested in the purchase of the TV stations, but already owned stations in several of the markets, including KOCB, in Oklahoma City. By the end of the summer of 1997, Sinclair had purchased all the broadcasting property of Heritage Media and had immediately sold KOKH to Sullivan Broadcasting for $60 million dollars cash. In the Spring of 1998, Sinclair bought Sullivan Broadcasting and operated KOCB as owned and KOKH under a Local Management Agreement
. The Local Management Agreement ended in late 2003, after approval for KOKH and KOCB to be operated as a duopoly.
In the late 1990s, KOKH evolved and moved away from cartoons and classic sitcoms while still running some more recent sitcoms. The station moved toward more talk and reality shows as well as court shows. In the fall of 2002, after 12 years of being known on the air only as "Fox 25", station promos began identifying the station as "Fox Oklahoma City" (or "Oklahoma City's Fox") alternating back-and-forth between the two brandings. It then reverted back to the "Fox 25" branding in 2006.
Sinclair and Fox cut a six-year affiliation contract extension for Sinclair's 19 Fox affiliates; thus, Fox will remain on KOKH at least through March 2012.
). It ran the 4KidsTV Saturday morning block until 2009, when Fox discontinued it (it is unknown if Fox will resume children's programming in the future; the block has since been replaced with syndicated children's shows and infomercials). It is one of numerous Fox stations that carries Judge Judy
(which airs in the late afternoon) and TMZ on TV
(which airs after the 10 p.m. news). Other syndicated programming broadcast on KOKH includes Two and a Half Men
, The Big Bang Theory
, Whacked Out Sports
, American Dad!
, Bones
and It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia
.
Like most Fox stations, KOKH airs a large amount of daytime court shows with syndicated series from that genre dominating the lineup from 10 a.m.-5 p.m.; including Divorce Court
, Judge Mathis
, The People's Court
and Judge Joe Brown (Two and a Half Men and The Big Bang Theory, added in 2011, are the only non-court shows on the daytime lineup). During the 2006-2007 season, it was one of the only stations in the country to air all of the daytime court shows (this ended in 2007, when independent station KSBI acquired the Oklahoma City broadcast rights to the now-cancelled Judge David Young).
The station is also the 'official station' of the NFL's Dallas Cowboys
and the Big XII collegiate Oklahoma State Cowboys
for the Oklahoma City market, airing shows involving both teams, including the weekly shows of the head coaches of the NFL team and the university's basketball, baseball and football teams. CBS owned-and-operated station KTVT
(channel 11) in Dallas-Fort Worth is the overall 'official station' for the Dallas Cowboys, while fellow Fox station KOKI (channel 23) in Tulsa is the overall 'official station' for the Oklahoma State Cowboys.
KOKH aired live nightly lottery drawings from the Oklahoma Lottery
, with sister station KOCB simulcasting the drawings, after its 9 p.m. newscast from November 2005 until July 2009, when the lottery chose to do computerized drawings instead (a run-through of the Pick 3, Cash 5 and Hot Lotto winning numbers now air around 9:45 p.m., in between the newscast and the Fox 25 Sports Wrap). Powerball
drawings continue to air on both stations on Wednesday and Saturday nights at 9:59 p.m. CT; however although Oklahoma is a participant in the Mega Millions
multi-state lottery, the Mega Millions drawings are not carried by KOKH or KOCB (Oklahoma City viewers can, however, see the televised Mega Millions drawings via Chicago
-based cable superstation
WGN America).
From October 1, 1979 through July 1991, KOKH aired brief 90-second news capsules under the title Newstouch 25, every hour on the hour, from 6 a.m. through sign-off (sign-off was usually just after 1:30 a.m.). Some early and late updates were pre-recorded. Over the years there were several news directors. The most notable was Ronnie Kaye. The news department also produced several public service shows, including: Meet The Mayor, Woman to Woman and Sunday PM. The list of anchors included Mike Monday, Karie Ross, Felicia Ferguson (1985 Miss Oklahoma
), Kelly Ogle (currently evening anchor at KWTV) and Janis Walkingstick.
There was, also, from October 1, 1979 through the late 1980s, a 90-second weather brief called Weathertouch 25 that aired every hour on the half hour. The weather department was developed by Ross Dixon, DBA Weatherscan, and included the first satellite picture colorizer, in the State of Oklahoma and the first colorized radar scan converter, connected to the National Weather Service radar at Will Rogers World Airport
. This was a predecessor to Nexrad. Other weather persons were Danny Satterfield and Kevin Foreman.
The station launched its news department with the debut of The Nine O'Clock News, a weeknight half-hour local newscast that premiered on May 1996, originally anchored by Jack Bowen and Kirsten McIntyre. It became the first independently produced newscast in the Oklahoma City market outside of the major-network affiliates (NBC affiliate KFOR (channel 4); ABC affiliate KOCO (channel 5), and CBS affiliate KWTV (channel 9)), since KAUT briefly ran an all-local news format in the early 1980s. It was expanded to an hour in August 1998, and in September 1999, it began airing seven nights a week. It was re-branded the Fox Primetime News at Nine in 2001, and ran national news updates and weather forecasts from Sinclair's News Central
in March 2003; resulting in layoffs of meteorologists, sports reporters and other select staffers at Sinclair's local news operations including KOKH, and decreased the amount of time in the newscast devoted to local news stories, as was such the case on other Sinclair-owned stations.
KOKH is currently the only known television station who uses different names for each of its newscasts. KOKH's naming conventions for its newscasts are similar to that of CBS-owned KYW-TV
in Philadelphia
, which used the titles "Newsday", "Newsbeat" and "The News Tonight" for its morning and noon newscast, 6 p.m. newscast and 11 p.m. newscast, respectively from 1991 to 1994.
In early 2004, KOKH launched a half-hour weeknight 10 p.m. newscast, the Fox 25 Late Edition (ironically KWTV now has a Saturday 10:30 p.m. newscast called the News 9 Late Edition). It is one of a growing number of Fox stations to have a newscast in the traditional late news timeslot (10 p.m. in the Central and Mountain time zones), and one of the only Fox stations with such a newscast without early evening or midday newscasts. In 2006, News Central was acknowledged as a failure and the station resumed an entirely local newscast. In December of that year, KOKH launched a 15-minute sportscast called Fox 25 Sports Sunday. it was then expanded to a half-hour and moved to 10 p.m. three months later. On April 9, 2007, KOKH launched the Fox 25 Morning News, initially running for three hours from 6-9 a.m. (other area stations start their morning newscasts at 5 a.m.). On January 4, 2010, the morning newscast was expanded to four hours, now running from 5-9 a.m.
The station does not often air breaking news cut-ins between newscasts unlike most stations, including several Fox stations, though severe weather cut-ins will run when conditions warrant (though during Tornado Warning
s, these cut-ins may be of shorter length, unless they are issued for Oklahoma City or the surrounding area). KOKH is one of the only television stations in the country in which the chief meteorologist does not work the evening shift, as Jeff George was transferred to weekday mornings in May 2009.
On October 11, 2010, KOKH became the first station in the Oklahoma City market to live stream its morning, 9 and 10 p.m. newscasts, breaking news and severe weather coverage on mobile phone devices, specifically formatted for the I-Phone, Android, and select BlackBerry
and Palm
platforms. On January 31, 2011, KOKH added an additional hour to the morning newscast, branded as "Good Day Oklahoma", from 9-10 a.m. weekdays; the extra hour features more interviews and community event information, with news and weather updates at the top and bottom of the hour.
(one of several local versions of AMW), "Oklahoma's Most Wanted", airing during the Saturday 9 p.m. newscast, profiling wanted fugitives in Oklahoma. According to the station, more than 80% of the criminals profiled on "Oklahoma's Most Wanted" have been captured as of December 2010.
NOTE: Although the newscasts are each currently known under individual names ("Morning News", "Primetime News at Nine" and "Late Edition"), reporters identify the newscast at the end of reports as "Fox 25 News".
Fox 25 StormWatch Weather
In addition to providing forecasts on KOKH, the StormWatch Weather Team also provides forecasts for KJKE
, KKNG, KTUZ
, KEBC
, and KTLR
radio.
Sports team
Reporters
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....
25 (digital channel 24), is the 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...
-affiliated television station serving the 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...
television market. It is owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group
Sinclair Broadcast Group
The Sinclair Broadcast Group is an American telecommunications company that operates the largest number of local television stations in the United States. Headquartered in Hunt Valley, Maryland, it owns a total of 57 stations across the country in 35 primarily small and medium markets, many of...
of Maryland, LLC in a duopoly with CW affiliate 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...
(channel 34), and its studios and transmitter are located at 1228 East Wilshire Boulevard in northeast Oklahoma City.
The station broadcasts its digital signal on UHF channel 24, using its former analog channel assignment of 25 as its virtual channel via PSIP. On cable, KOKH-TV can be seen on channel 12 in standard definition and channel 712 in high definition 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...
Oklahoma City and also on channel 12 on most Central Oklahoma cable systems. The station is also available to DirecTV
DirecTV
DirecTV is an American direct broadcast satellite service provider and broadcaster based in El Segundo, California. Its satellite service, launched on June 17, 1994, transmits digital satellite television and audio to households in the United States, Latin America, and the Anglophone Caribbean. ...
and Dish Network
Dish Network
Dish Network Corporation is the second largest pay TV provider in the United States, providing direct broadcast satellite service—including satellite television, audio programming, and interactive television services—to 14.337 million commercial and residential customers in the United States. Dish...
customers within the Oklahoma City market.
KOKH is a typical Fox station with about 30 hours a week of news along with syndicated first run talk/court/reality shows, off-network sitcoms and dramas, Fox primetime network programming and Saturday morning children's programming, and sports.
Digital programming
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,...
720p
720p is the shorthand name for 1280x720, a category of High-definition television video modes having a resolution of 1080 or 720p and a progressive scan...
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 ...
480i
480i is the shorthand name for a video mode, namely the US NTSC television system or digital television systems with the same characteristics. The i, which is sometimes uppercase, stands for interlaced, the 480 for a vertical frame resolution of 480 lines containing picture information; while NTSC...
On November 4, 2010, KOKH began carrying The Country Network, a 24-hour digital country music network, on digital subchannel 25.2.
Analog-to-digital conversion
KOKH-TV discontinued regular analog programming on February 17, 2009. The station remained on its pre-transition channel 24 using PSIP to display KOKH-TV's virtual channelVirtual 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....
as 25.
History
Prior to 1959, channel 25 operated as the ABCAmerican Broadcasting Company
The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...
affiliate in the Oklahoma City market as 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...
from 1953 until its demise in 1956. Current ABC affiliate KOCO-TV
KOCO-TV
KOCO-TV, virtual channel 5 , is the ABC affiliate in the Oklahoma City television market. The station is owned by Hearst Television, Inc., but uses "Ohio/Oklahoma Hearst Television, Inc." as their end tag during their newscasts, the same licensing purpose corporation as sister Cincinnati, Ohio...
(channel 5) was then operating out of Enid, Oklahoma
Enid, Oklahoma
Enid is a city in Garfield County, Oklahoma, United States. In 2010, the population was 49,379, making it the ninth largest city in Oklahoma. It is the county seat of Garfield County. Enid was founded during the opening of the Cherokee Outlet in the Land Run of 1893, and is named after Enid, a...
using the call letters KGEO-TV but moved its operations to Oklahoma City in 1958 in a move similar to Tulsa's ABC affiliate, KTUL-TV (channel 8), which moved its operations from Muskogee, Oklahoma (under the call sign KTVX) to Tulsa in 1957.
The current incarnation of channel 25 dates from 1959, when the Oklahoma City Public Schools
Oklahoma City Public Schools
The Oklahoma City Public Schools is an urban inner-city public school district located in Oklahoma City. It is the largest primary and secondary education district in the Oklahoma City Metropolitan Area, as well as the largest in the state of Oklahoma with over 42,750 enrolled students in 2009...
signed on KOKH as an educational station. In the summer of 1979, KOKH was bought by Blair Broadcasting. At 6 a.m. on October 1, 1979, KOKH relaunched as Oklahoma's first independent station. It was a typical UHF general entertainment station featuring cartoons, classic sitcoms, and movies. This was shortly before KGMC (channel 34, 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...
) signed on with a similar format. KGMC actually signed on after November 1, 1979.
By 1983, Oklahoma City had three commercial independent stations and they all struggled for the best programming. In 1986, in order to prevent a hostile take over by some minor stock holders, Blair Broadcasting restructured into Reliance Capital Group LP. Reliance Capital sold all of Blair's domestic television stations to Gillett Communications, effective December 31, 1986. In 1988, Pappas Telecasting made a proposal to purchase KOKH. At the same time it would buy the schedules of KGMC and KAUT (channel 43) and merge them with KOKH's schedule. 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...
affiliation would also move from KAUT to KOKH. Channel 34 would switch to Home Shopping programming, while KAUT would become an educational station. In 1989, this sale was canceled. The three stations then continued on with their formats until 1991. In 1989, KOKH was sold to Busse Broadcasting.
In 1991, KAUT's owner, Heritage Broadcasting bought KOKH. Channel 43 was sold to 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....
(OETA) and became KTLC (branded as "The Literacy Channel"). Heritage merged KAUT's programming onto KOKH, and moved its Fox affiliation over to KOKH. Seven years later, though, KTLC became a commercial station and owned by Paramount Stations Group (now CBS Television Stations Group
CBS Television Stations
The CBS Television Stations are a group of television stations owned by CBS Corporation. As of 2009, CBS Corporation owns 28 stations, broken down as follows: 14 are the key stations of the CBS Television Network ; nine are aligned with the CW Television Network, which is co-owned by CBS with Time...
) and changed its calls to KPSG. It reverted to the KAUT calls in 1998, after the death of 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...
. Today, that station is 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:...
.
After the bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building
Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building
The Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building was a United States Federal Government complex located at 200 N.W. 5th Street in downtown Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, United States. The building was the target of the Oklahoma City bombing on April 19, 1995, which killed 168 people, including 19 children...
in downtown Oklahoma City, on April 19, 1995, Fox began to put pressure on the management and corporate owners of KOKH to develop a full fledged news department and broadcast a daily newscast. The creation of the news department and show began in the summer of 1995 and was completed with the first show going to air on May 1, 1996. The primetime newscast has aired in the 9 p.m. time slot, since its inception.
In August 1996, Heritage Media asked for, and received, a listing on the New York Stock Exchange
New York Stock Exchange
The New York Stock Exchange is a stock exchange located at 11 Wall Street in Lower Manhattan, New York City, USA. It is by far the world's largest stock exchange by market capitalization of its listed companies at 13.39 trillion as of Dec 2010...
(NYSE). The following month, it asked for stockholder approval of a two-for-one forward stock split. The forward split was approved. This put Heritage Media in a very marketable position. At that time Heritage Media had two subsidiaries, five network affiliated TV stations and fifteen radio stations. The subsidiaries were ACTMEDIA and DIMAC. ACTMEDIA was an in-store products and marketing company and DIMAC was a marketing client education company. Marketing accounted for 84% of 1996 revenues, while broadcasting accounted for 16%.
In the fall of 1996, 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...
, the owner of Twentieth Century Fox, Fox Television and many other companies, expressed an interest in purchasing the outstanding stock of Heritage Media. After several months of negotiating, a sale price of $20.50/share was settled upon. The sale took place in late spring 1997, with the approval of Heritage Media stockholders, and with FCC approval pending. FCC approval was dependent upon News Corp immediately divesting itself of all or most of the TV stations, as new ownership would place them over the limit on percentage of market coverage. News Corp's main interest, in purchasing Heritage Media, was the subsidiary ACTMEDIA, as News Corp had already entered the in-store marketing arena. The ownership of ACTMEDIA would make them the largest in-store marketing company in the world.
The Sinclair Broadcasting group was interested in the purchase of the TV stations, but already owned stations in several of the markets, including KOCB, in Oklahoma City. By the end of the summer of 1997, Sinclair had purchased all the broadcasting property of Heritage Media and had immediately sold KOKH to Sullivan Broadcasting for $60 million dollars cash. In the Spring of 1998, Sinclair bought Sullivan Broadcasting and operated KOCB as owned and KOKH under a Local Management Agreement
Local marketing agreement
In U.S. and Canadian broadcasting, a local marketing agreement is an agreement in which one company agrees to operate a radio or television station owned by another licensee...
. The Local Management Agreement ended in late 2003, after approval for KOKH and KOCB to be operated as a duopoly.
In the late 1990s, KOKH evolved and moved away from cartoons and classic sitcoms while still running some more recent sitcoms. The station moved toward more talk and reality shows as well as court shows. In the fall of 2002, after 12 years of being known on the air only as "Fox 25", station promos began identifying the station as "Fox Oklahoma City" (or "Oklahoma City's Fox") alternating back-and-forth between the two brandings. It then reverted back to the "Fox 25" branding in 2006.
Sinclair and Fox cut a six-year affiliation contract extension for Sinclair's 19 Fox affiliates; thus, Fox will remain on KOKH at least through March 2012.
Programming
KOKH clears the entire Fox network schedule (nightly primetime, Saturday late night, and Fox Sports programming, and the political talk show Fox News SundayFox News Sunday
Fox News Sunday with Chris Wallace is a public affairs program on the Fox network, hosted by Chris Wallace and airing on Sunday mornings. The show began on April 28, 1996, which predated the launch of Fox News Channel, and usually talks about items similar to Sunday morning talk shows...
). It ran the 4KidsTV Saturday morning block until 2009, when Fox discontinued it (it is unknown if Fox will resume children's programming in the future; the block has since been replaced with syndicated children's shows and infomercials). It is one of numerous Fox stations that carries Judge Judy
Judge Judy
Judge Judy is an American court show featuring former family court judge Judith Sheindlin arbitrating over small claims cases in small claims court...
(which airs in the late afternoon) and TMZ on TV
TMZ on TV
TMZ on TV, or simply TMZ and TMZTV, is an American syndicated entertainment and gossip news television show that premiered on September 10, 2007. The program is generally aired on Fox, The CW and MyNetworkTV affiliates, though a majority of the stations that carry the series are Fox affiliates...
(which airs after the 10 p.m. news). Other syndicated programming broadcast on KOKH includes Two and a Half Men
Two and a Half Men
Two and a Half Men is an American television sitcom that premiered on CBS on September 22, 2003. Starring Charlie Sheen, Jon Cryer, and Angus T. Jones, the show was originally about a hedonistic jingle writer, Charlie Harper; his uptight brother, Alan; and Alan's growing son, Jake...
, The Big Bang Theory
The Big Bang Theory
The Big Bang Theory is an American sitcom created by Chuck Lorre and Bill Prady, both of whom serve as executive producers on the show, along with Steven Molaro. All three also serve as head writers...
, Whacked Out Sports
Whacked Out Sports
Whacked Out Sports is an American syndicated reality television series which features professional and amateur videos of sports-related mishaps and accidents, usually involving people being injured. The show has a comedic theme and uses a narrative voiceover to highlight aspects of the clips...
, American Dad!
American Dad!
American Dad! is an American animated television series created by Seth MacFarlane and owned by Underdog Productions and Fuzzy Door Productions. It is produced in association with 20th Century Fox Television...
, Bones
Bones (TV series)
Bones is an American crime drama television series that premiered on the Fox Network on September 13, 2005. The show is based on forensic anthropology and forensic archaeology, with each episode focusing on an FBI case file concerning the mystery behind human remains brought by FBI Special Agent...
and It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia
It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia
It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia is an American television sitcom that premiered on FX on August 4, 2005. New episodes continue to air on FX, with reruns playing on Comedy Central, general broadcast syndication, and WGN America—the first-ever cable-to-cable syndication deal for a sitcom...
.
Like most Fox stations, KOKH airs a large amount of daytime court shows with syndicated series from that genre dominating the lineup from 10 a.m.-5 p.m.; including Divorce Court
Divorce Court
Divorce Court is a judge show about cases which only involve divorcing couples. Out of the shows currently airing in the court-themed genre, Divorce Court is the oldest...
, Judge Mathis
Judge Mathis
Judge Mathis is a syndicated television legal reality show produced originally by Black Pearl Productions. In 2008, it entered its tenth season produced by AND Syndicated Productions and Telepictures. It is taped at NBC Tower in Chicago, but includes cases and litigants from other U.S....
, The People's Court
The People's Court
The People's Court is a US television court show in which small claims court cases are heard, though what is shown is actually a binding arbitration....
and Judge Joe Brown (Two and a Half Men and The Big Bang Theory, added in 2011, are the only non-court shows on the daytime lineup). During the 2006-2007 season, it was one of the only stations in the country to air all of the daytime court shows (this ended in 2007, when independent station KSBI acquired the Oklahoma City broadcast rights to the now-cancelled Judge David Young).
The station is also the 'official station' of the NFL's Dallas Cowboys
Dallas Cowboys
The Dallas Cowboys are a professional American football franchise which plays in the Eastern Division of the National Football Conference of the National Football League . They are headquartered in Valley Ranch in Irving, Texas, a suburb of Dallas...
and the Big XII collegiate Oklahoma State Cowboys
Oklahoma State Cowboys
Oklahoma State Cowboys are the athletic teams that represent Oklahoma State University. Their mascot is a cowboy named Pistol Pete. Oklahoma State participates in the NCAA's Division I-A and in the Big 12 Conference's South Division. The university's current athletic director is Mike Holder...
for the Oklahoma City market, airing shows involving both teams, including the weekly shows of the head coaches of the NFL team and the university's basketball, baseball and football teams. CBS owned-and-operated station KTVT
KTVT
KTVT, virtual channel 11, is a CBS owned-and-operated television station licensed to Fort Worth, Texas, and serving the Dallas-Fort Worth designated market area. The station is co-owned with independent station KTXA , and the two stations share facilities in Dallas and Fort Worth...
(channel 11) in Dallas-Fort Worth is the overall 'official station' for the Dallas Cowboys, while fellow Fox station KOKI (channel 23) in Tulsa is the overall 'official station' for the Oklahoma State Cowboys.
KOKH aired live nightly lottery drawings from the Oklahoma Lottery
Oklahoma Lottery
The Oklahoma Lottery, which began on October 12, 2005, is operated by the government of Oklahoma. The Oklahoma Lottery is a member of the Multi-State Lottery Association .As with most US lotteries, the minimum age to purchase a ticket is 18.-History:...
, with sister station KOCB simulcasting the drawings, after its 9 p.m. newscast from November 2005 until July 2009, when the lottery chose to do computerized drawings instead (a run-through of the Pick 3, Cash 5 and Hot Lotto winning numbers now air around 9:45 p.m., in between the newscast and the Fox 25 Sports Wrap). Powerball
Powerball
Powerball is an American lottery game sold in 44 jurisdictions as a shared jackpot game. It is coordinated by the Multi-State Lottery Association , a non-profit organization formed by an agreement with lotteries. Powerball is a game whose advertised jackpot starts at $20 million and can roll into...
drawings continue to air on both stations on Wednesday and Saturday nights at 9:59 p.m. CT; however although Oklahoma is a participant in the Mega Millions
Mega Millions
Mega Millions is a US multi-jurisdictional $1 lottery game. Since it replaced The Big Game in May 2002 , Mega Millions' advertised jackpots have started at $12 million, paid in 26 yearly installments , increasing when there is no jackpot winner...
multi-state lottery, the Mega Millions drawings are not carried by KOKH or KOCB (Oklahoma City viewers can, however, see the televised Mega Millions drawings via Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
-based cable superstation
Superstation
Superstation in United States television can have several meanings. In its most precise meaning, a superstation is defined by the Federal Communications Commission as "A television broadcast station, other than a network station, licensed by the FCC that is secondarily transmitted by a satellite...
WGN America).
News operation
KOKH currently broadcasts a total of 34½ hours of local news per week (6½ hours on weekdays, one hour on Saturdays and an hour-and-a-half on Sundays). There is no word yet on whether KOKH will in the future offer midday or early evening newscasts. It is one of a few Fox stations (with an independent news operation) to not regularly run investigative reports and its newscasts have somewhat less of a tabloid feel compared to certain other Fox stations. The station has a relatively significant rate of turnover with its on-air news staff with many staying with the station between one and four years before moving on to another station (weeknight anchor Andrew Speno is currently the longest-serving member of the station's news team, having been with KOKH since 2002).From October 1, 1979 through July 1991, KOKH aired brief 90-second news capsules under the title Newstouch 25, every hour on the hour, from 6 a.m. through sign-off (sign-off was usually just after 1:30 a.m.). Some early and late updates were pre-recorded. Over the years there were several news directors. The most notable was Ronnie Kaye. The news department also produced several public service shows, including: Meet The Mayor, Woman to Woman and Sunday PM. The list of anchors included Mike Monday, Karie Ross, Felicia Ferguson (1985 Miss Oklahoma
Miss Oklahoma
The Miss Oklahoma competition selects a winner to compete on behalf of Oklahoma in the Miss America pageant. Miss Oklahoma has won the crown on five occasions. Also, in the years when city representatives were common, Norma Smallwood won, competing as Miss Tulsa, giving the state of Oklahoma a...
), Kelly Ogle (currently evening anchor at KWTV) and Janis Walkingstick.
There was, also, from October 1, 1979 through the late 1980s, a 90-second weather brief called Weathertouch 25 that aired every hour on the half hour. The weather department was developed by Ross Dixon, DBA Weatherscan, and included the first satellite picture colorizer, in the State of Oklahoma and the first colorized radar scan converter, connected to the National Weather Service radar at Will Rogers World Airport
Will Rogers World Airport
Will Rogers World Airport , also known as Will Rogers Airport or simply Will Rogers, is located in southwestern Oklahoma City, Oklahoma 6 miles from downtown and is the principal commercial airport of the Oklahoma City Metropolitan Area...
. This was a predecessor to Nexrad. Other weather persons were Danny Satterfield and Kevin Foreman.
The station launched its news department with the debut of The Nine O'Clock News, a weeknight half-hour local newscast that premiered on May 1996, originally anchored by Jack Bowen and Kirsten McIntyre. It became the first independently produced newscast in the Oklahoma City market outside of the major-network affiliates (NBC affiliate KFOR (channel 4); ABC affiliate KOCO (channel 5), and CBS affiliate KWTV (channel 9)), since KAUT briefly ran an all-local news format in the early 1980s. It was expanded to an hour in August 1998, and in September 1999, it began airing seven nights a week. It was re-branded the Fox Primetime News at Nine in 2001, and ran national news updates and weather forecasts from Sinclair's News Central
News Central
News Central was a primetime newscast on Sinclair television stations in the United States, mixing locally produced news with nationally produced news and an opinion segment from Sinclair's Hunt Valley, Maryland studios...
in March 2003; resulting in layoffs of meteorologists, sports reporters and other select staffers at Sinclair's local news operations including KOKH, and decreased the amount of time in the newscast devoted to local news stories, as was such the case on other Sinclair-owned stations.
KOKH is currently the only known television station who uses different names for each of its newscasts. KOKH's naming conventions for its newscasts are similar to that of CBS-owned KYW-TV
KYW-TV
KYW-TV, virtual channel 3, is an owned and operated television station of the CBS Television Network, located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. KYW-TV shares a studio facility with its sister station, CW flagship WPSG just north of Center City Philadelphia...
in 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,...
, which used the titles "Newsday", "Newsbeat" and "The News Tonight" for its morning and noon newscast, 6 p.m. newscast and 11 p.m. newscast, respectively from 1991 to 1994.
In early 2004, KOKH launched a half-hour weeknight 10 p.m. newscast, the Fox 25 Late Edition (ironically KWTV now has a Saturday 10:30 p.m. newscast called the News 9 Late Edition). It is one of a growing number of Fox stations to have a newscast in the traditional late news timeslot (10 p.m. in the Central and Mountain time zones), and one of the only Fox stations with such a newscast without early evening or midday newscasts. In 2006, News Central was acknowledged as a failure and the station resumed an entirely local newscast. In December of that year, KOKH launched a 15-minute sportscast called Fox 25 Sports Sunday. it was then expanded to a half-hour and moved to 10 p.m. three months later. On April 9, 2007, KOKH launched the Fox 25 Morning News, initially running for three hours from 6-9 a.m. (other area stations start their morning newscasts at 5 a.m.). On January 4, 2010, the morning newscast was expanded to four hours, now running from 5-9 a.m.
The station does not often air breaking news cut-ins between newscasts unlike most stations, including several Fox stations, though severe weather cut-ins will run when conditions warrant (though during Tornado Warning
Tornado warning
A tornado warning is an alert issued by government weather services to warn that severe thunderstorms with tornadoes may be imminent. It can be issued after a tornado or funnel cloud has been spotted by eye, or more commonly if there are radar indications of tornado formation...
s, these cut-ins may be of shorter length, unless they are issued for Oklahoma City or the surrounding area). KOKH is one of the only television stations in the country in which the chief meteorologist does not work the evening shift, as Jeff George was transferred to weekday mornings in May 2009.
On October 11, 2010, KOKH became the first station in the Oklahoma City market to live stream its morning, 9 and 10 p.m. newscasts, breaking news and severe weather coverage on mobile phone devices, specifically formatted for the I-Phone, Android, and select BlackBerry
BlackBerry
BlackBerry is a line of mobile email and smartphone devices developed and designed by Canadian company Research In Motion since 1999.BlackBerry devices are smartphones, designed to function as personal digital assistants, portable media players, internet browsers, gaming devices, and much more...
and Palm
Palm (PDA)
Palm handhelds were Personal Digital Assistants which ran the Palm OS. Palm devices have evolved from handhelds to smartphones which run Palm OS, WebOS, and Windows Mobile...
platforms. On January 31, 2011, KOKH added an additional hour to the morning newscast, branded as "Good Day Oklahoma", from 9-10 a.m. weekdays; the extra hour features more interviews and community event information, with news and weather updates at the top and bottom of the hour.
Oklahoma's Most Wanted
In 2005, KOKH began running a local equivalent of America's Most WantedAmerica's Most Wanted
America's Most Wanted is an American television program produced by 20th Television, and was the longest-running program of any kind in the history of the Fox Television Network until it was announced on May 16, 2011 that the series was canceled after twenty-three years, with the final episode...
(one of several local versions of AMW), "Oklahoma's Most Wanted", airing during the Saturday 9 p.m. newscast, profiling wanted fugitives in Oklahoma. According to the station, more than 80% of the criminals profiled on "Oklahoma's Most Wanted" have been captured as of December 2010.
Newscast titles
- Newstouch 25 (news updates; 1979–1991)
- Fox 25 News (1996–present)
- The Nine O'Clock News (1996–2000)
- Fox 25 Primetime News at Nine (2000–present)
- Fox 25 Late Edition (2004–present; 10 p.m. newscast)
- Fox 25 Morning News (2007–present; 5-9 a.m. newscast)
- Good Day Oklahoma (2011–present; 9-10 a.m. news/lifestyle program)
NOTE: Although the newscasts are each currently known under individual names ("Morning News", "Primetime News at Nine" and "Late Edition"), reporters identify the newscast at the end of reports as "Fox 25 News".
Station slogans
- "Your Great Movie Station" (1979–1982)
- "All-American 25" (early 1980s)
- "Oklahoma's Greatest Movie Station"/"KOKH-TV 25 Gives You the Stars" (1982–1986)
- "Oklahoma's Own" (1987–early 1990s; slogan also used by CBS affiliate KWTVKWTVKWTV-DT, virtual channel 9 , is the CBS-affiliated television station in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma; it is owned by Griffin Communications of Oklahoma City...
since 2010) - "We're Your Fox in Oklahoma City, Fox 25" (1996–2000)
- "Where Local News Is First" (2001–2003)
- "All the News You Need, One Hour Earlier" (2004–2007)
- "We Love TV" (2005–2007; also used as a slogan for ABCAmerican Broadcasting CompanyThe American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...
in the late 1990s) - "First When It Matters" (2006–2008; weather slogan)
- "Get It First" (2007–present)
Current on-air staff (as of November 23, 2011)
Current anchors- Jaime Cerreta - weeknights at 9 and 10 p.m.; also reporter
- Liz Dueweke - weekday mornings (5-9 a.m.); co-host of Good Day Oklahoma (9-10 a.m.)
- Joe Gumm - weekday mornings (5-9 a.m.); also Good Day Oklahoma fill-in co-host
- Jaclyn Schultz - weekends at 9 p.m.; also weeknight reporter
- Andrew Speno - weeknights at 9 and 10 p.m.; also reporter
- Mark Taylor - weekends at 9 p.m.; also weeknight reporter
Fox 25 StormWatch Weather
In addition to providing forecasts on KOKH, the StormWatch Weather Team also provides forecasts for KJKE
KJKE
KJKE-FM is a radio station broadcasting a new country music format. Licensed to Newcastle–Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, the station serves the Oklahoma City area. The station is owned by Tyler Media. Current on-air staff includes Crash Poteet , Kevin Christopher , and Becky Austin .-External links:...
, KKNG, KTUZ
KTUZ-FM
KTUZ-FM is a Regional Mexican radio station serving the Oklahoma City Metroplex area and is owned by Tyler Media. Tyler Media also owns KTUZ-TV , for which the television station was given the radio station's callsign.-History:...
, KEBC
KEBC
KGHM is a radio station located in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. It is among a cluster of stations in the market owned by Clear Channel Communications.-KGCB/KOCY:1340 started as KGCB, a church-owned station...
, and KTLR
KTLR
KTLR is a radio station serving the Oklahoma City metropolitan area with a News/Talk format. The station is currently under ownership of Tyler Broadcasting Corporation....
radio.
- Jeff George - chief meteorologist; weekday mornings (5-10 a.m.), also weeknight fill-in
- Michelle Apon - meteorologist; weekends at 9 p.m.
- Jon Slater (AMSAmerican Meteorological SocietyThe American Meteorological Society promotes the development and dissemination of information and education on the atmospheric and related oceanic and hydrologic sciences and the advancement of their professional applications. Founded in 1919, the American Meteorological Society has a membership...
Seal of Approval) - meteorologist; weeknights at 9 and 10 p.m.
Sports team
- Myron Patton - sports director; weeknights at 9 and 10 p.m.; also Fox 25 Sports Sunday co-host (formerly weekend sports anchor from 2000 to 2001)
- Curtis Fitzpatrick - sports anchor; weekends at 9 p.m.; also fill-in weeknight anchor and Fox 25 Sports Sunday co-host
- Shawn Clynch - sports reporter; also fill-in sports anchor
Reporters
- Christal Bennett - general assignment reporter
- Phil Cross - general assignment reporter; also photographer
- Terre Gables - weekday morning traffic and features reporter
- Kisha Henry - general assignment reporter
- Brittany Hlubek - weekday morning reporter
- Priscilla Luong - weekday morning reporter
- Marisa Mendelson - investigative reporter; also fill-in anchor
- Deeda Payton - general assignment reporter
- Craig W. Sanger - film critic, seen Friday mornings
- Tiffany Tatro - general assignment reporter
- Mark Van Paasschen - general assignment reporter; also news producer