KTBS-TV

History
KTBS began broadcasting on September 3, 1955 as a primary NBC affiliate, sharing ABC with KSLA. In 1960, Shreveport and Texarkana were collapsed into a single television market and Texarkana's KTAL-TV (Channel 6) took over the NBC affiliation, leaving KTBS with ABC.

Over the years, KTBS has been one of the strongest ABC affiliates in the country airing the entire ABC schedule, with the exception of World News Sunday, which is pre-empted in favor of an hour-long newscast on Sundays at 5 p.m. Along with sister station KPXJ, it is one of the only locally owned and operated stations in the area.

KTBS was the home of the Louisiana Lottery drawings from its inception in 1993 to April 2009 when KTAL acquired the rights to the drawings.

The station was one of two de facto ABC affiliates (KLAX-TV (channel 31) in Alexandria being the other) for the Monroe area starting in 1994, when their ABC affiliate, KARD-TV (channel 14) switched its affiliation to Fox, until 1998, when ABC returned to the Monroe area on upstart KAQY (channel 11).

As of 2009, it is one of a few television stations still signing off at night. The station signs off on Friday nights/early Saturday mornings at 1:05-4 a.m. and on Saturday nights/early Sunday mornings at 1:45-5 a.m. But instead of a usual sign-off, its weather radar is displayed instead.

Digital television
A plaque with the 1996-2005 version of the station logo, outside the KTBS studios on East Kings Highway.The station's digital signal is UHF 28, multiplexed:

Digital channels On June 12, 2009, KTBS-TV left channel 3 and moved to channel 28 when the analog to digital conversion completed.[1]

Out-of-market cable coverage
KTBS is carried on various cable companies outside of the designated market. KTBS is carried as far as Longview to the west, Mt. Pleasant to the northwest, El Dorado to the northeast, Jonesboro, LA to the southeast, and Carthage to the southwest.

Syndicated programming on KTBS
Schedule

Mornings Late Nights Saturdays Sundays

News operation
In 2003, following the Wrays' purchase of KPXJ from Paxson Communications, KTBS began producing a nightly, half-hour 9 o'clock newscast (which has since been expanded to one-hour in length) on that station. The broadcast consists of the same format as the 10 o'clock news on KTBS but uses different graphics and titles. Additionally, KTBS produces a half-hour, weekday morning newscast at 7 a.m. on KPXJ. KTBS had aired rebroadcasts of its 5 and 10 p.m. newscasts on KPXJ before the station switched from i affiliation to UPN. As of the May 2008 ratings period, KTBS is rated number one in several time periods.

In addition to their main studios, KTBS operates two news bureaus. The Texarkana Bureau is located on Jefferson Avenue in Texarkana, Arkansas. On weeknights at 6 and 10 o'clock, the station airs news segments from the East Texas area. KTBS operates a 24-hour live signal of its "KTBS Mega 3 Radar" on its second digital subchannel, which, in addition to airing weather reports, also air Texas Rangers baseball games on Friday Nights. On its third digital subchannel, KTBS operates a 24-hour news rebroadcast channel known as KTBS 24 Hour News. It is also offered on Comcast basic channel 30 and digital channel 201.

On October 15, 2008, KTBS began broadcasting its newscasts in a 16:9 standard definition widescreen format; becoming the first station in the market to do so.

On June 28, 2010, KTBS expanded its 6 p.m. newscast to one hour, becoming the first station in the market to carry an hour-long 6 p.m. newscast (CBS affiliate KSLA began broadcasting an hour-long 6 p.m. newscast a short time later); As a result, KTAL is the only Big Three affiliate in the market to carry syndicated programming during the 6:30 half-hour.

In July 2010, KTBS also expanded the weekend edition of its 10 p.m. newscast to one hour. Again, KSLA quickly followed suit with an hour-long newscast at 10 p.m. on weekends.

On August 30, 2010, KTBS expanded its weekday morning newscasts to 2½ hours, by moving its start time to 4:30 a.m. (one of the few stations in a non-Top 50 Nielsen market to begin their weekday morning newscast at 4:30).

On October 14, 2010, KTBS became the first in the market to broadcast its local newscasts in high definition. Rival, KSLA, began producing news in high definition the next day.

KTBS airs a total of 31½ hours of local newscasts a week (five hours on weekdays, and three hours each on Saturdays and Sundays) on KTBS. In addition, KTBS produces morning and 9 p.m. newscasts for sister station; these programs add an additional 9 1/2 hours of newscasts that KTBS produces each week (1 1/2 hours on weekdays and one hour each on Saturdays and Sundays). In total, KTBS produces 41 hours of local newscasts each week. This amount of news greatly exceeds any other station in the area and many in the nation.

Weather coverage
KTBS is one of two stations in the Arklatex that have their own radar. But the KTBS doppler radar system, "Mega 3", operates on 1 million watts of power, much stronger than the "StormTracker 12 Live Doppler" radar used by rival KSLA-TV. On a side note, KTBS was the first in the nation to have a doppler radar operating at 1 million watts of power.

[edit] Newscast titles

 * News Final (1955–1959)
 * The Night Report (1959–1967)
 * Eyewitness News (1967–1971)
 * Action 3 News (1971–1982)
 * The News on 3 (1982–1985)
 * Channel 3 News (1985–1993)
 * Nightcast (10 p.m. newscast; 1986–1993)
 * KTBS 3 News (1993–present)

[edit] Station slogans

 * On Your Side (1988–present)
 * The Calm During the Storm (2008–present; weather slogan)
 * Local Lives Here (2010–present; 6 p.m. newscast slogan)

[edit] Current on-air staff
Anchors Storm Team 3 Sports team Reporters
 * Sonja Bailes - weekday mornings and 11:30 a.m.; also consumer and investigative reporter
 * Chrissi Coile - Weeknights at 10; weeknights at 9 (on KPXJ) and 10; also reporter and health reporter
 * Bob Griffin - weekend mornings "FirstNews"
 * Gerry May - weeknights at 5, 6, and 10 p.m.; also reporter
 * Sherri Talley - weeknights at 5 and 6 p.m.; also reporter
 * Ed Walsh - weekday mornings "FirstNews"; also reporter
 * Joe Haynes (AMS Seal of Approval) - Chief Meteorologist; weeknights at 5, 6, 9 (on KPXJ) and 10 p.m.
 * Jennifer Gray (AMS Seal of Approval) - meteorologist; weekday mornings "FirstNews"
 * Marcy Novak (AMS Member) - meteorologist; "Midday News", weekend mornings "FirstNews", Saturdays at 5:30, Sundays at 5 and weekends at 10 p.m. and weeknight fill-in
 * Tim Fletcher - Sports Director; weeknights at 6, 9 (on KPXJ) and 10 p.m.
 * Leslie Spoon - sports anchor; Saturdays at 5:30, Sundays at 5 and weekends at 10 p.m.; also sports reporter and host of Saturday and Sunday Overtime
 * Casey Ferrand - education and weekend reporter
 * Julie Parr - Texarkana bureau reporter
 * Chris Redford - Crime Team reporter
 * Rick Rowe - morning reporter (also "Live and On the Scene" segment producer)

Former on-air staff

 * Ed Baswell - sports anchor (1970s-1997; now with the Bossier Parish Sheriff's Office)
 * Ed Borne - reporter (1970s; later at KALB-TV in Alexandria, LA)
 * Paul Butler - sports reporter
 * Gwen Campbell - reporter (now works for Shreveport mayor Cedric B. Glover)
 * Clif Cotton - sports (2003–2007)
 * Janine D'Adamo - chief meteorologist
 * Paul Devlin - sports (1997–1998)
 * Ed Durancyk - reporter/meteorologist (later with KSLA)
 * Eric Greene - weekend anchor/government reporter (1970s)
 * Charles Hadlock - anchor (now with NBC News)
 * Dan Harrison - reporter (1970s; later KSTP-TV in Minneapolis/St. Paul, MN)
 * Brenda Hodge - reporter (1970s)
 * Jody Lowery - health reporter (2000–2008; now at Bay News 9 in Tampa, FL)
 * Ted Madden - sports (2000–2003; now with WFAA-TV in Dallas)
 * Will Moses - education reporter
 * Knox Nunnally - sports (1970s)
 * Mike Pass - chief meteorologist (1998–2000)
 * Emily Pearce - producer/reporter (1970s; later at WDSU-TV in New Orleans)
 * Al Pierce - anchor (1970s-1980s)
 * John Rasmussen - weather (1970s)
 * Fred Rhodes - anchor (1970s; later KHOU-TV in Houston, KTVI-TV in St. Louis, and Editor Houston City Magazine, now an attorney in Houston)
 * David Rothman - sports (1998–2000)
 * Mark Rowlett - meteorologist
 * Liz Swaine - reporter (1980s-1998; executive assistant to the mayor of Shreveport, 1998–2006; candidate for mayor of Shreveport, 2006)
 * Steve Weiss - reporter (1984–85)
 * Harry Wadsworth - reporter (1970s)
 * Mary Walker - reporter (1970s; later with KSAT-TV in San Antonio)
 * Todd Warren - reporter/meteorologist (now with KTAL-TV)
 * Laura Wibbenmeyer - reporter/meteorologist (now with KFVS in Cape Girardeau, MO)

Trivia

 * A clip from KTBS' newscast was featured in the movie Meet Joe Black.