KTVX-TV, virtual channel 4, is the ABC-affiliated television station for the state of Utah that is licensed to Salt Lake City. It broadcasts a high definition digital signal on UHF channel 40 from a transmitter on Farnsworth Peak. The station can also be seen on Comcast channel 4 and in high definition on digital channel 652. Owned by Nexstar Broadcasting Group, KTVX is the sister station to CW affiliate KUCW. The two share studios on West 1700 South in Salt Lake City along I-215. Syndicated programming on the station includes: Two and a Half Men, The Doctors, and Ellen.
| |
| Salt Lake City, Utah | |
|---|---|
| Branding | ABC 4 (general)
ABC 4 News |
| Slogan | Taking Action 4 You |
| Channels | Digital: 40 (UHF)Virtual: 4 (PSIP) |
| Subchannels |
4.1 - ABC 4.2 - Me-TV |
| Owner | Newport Television, LLC |
| First air date | April 19, 1948 |
| Call letters' meaning | TeleVision EXellence |
| Sister station(s) | KUCW-TV |
| Former callsigns | KDYL-TV (1948-1953)
KTVT (1953-1959) KCPX-TV (1959-1975) |
| Former channel number(s) | 4 (VHF analog, 1948-2009) |
| Former affiliations | NBC (1948-1960) |
| Transmitter power | 475.7 kW |
| Height | 1,256 m |
| Facility ID | 68889 |
| Transmitter coordinates | 40°39′33″N112°12′7″W |
| Website | www.abc4.com |
History
KTVX logo of ABC's "You'll Love It" campaign from 1985
KTVX signed-on as Utah's first television station in November 1946 under the experimental call sign W6XIS. It began broadcasting regularly on April 19, 1948 [1] as KDYL-TV owned by Sid Fox and his Mountain Broadcasting Corporation along with KDYL radio (AM 1060 and FM 98.7 nowKBEE). The floor in the first studio was sloped and cameras would easily roll. The original analog transmitter sat on the top of the Walker Bank Building. The station was originally an NBCaffiliate owing to KDYL-AM's long relationship with NBC Radio and had been one of the network's original 26 affiliates when it premiered in 1926. This channel is the oldest station in the Mountain Time Zone and the third oldest west of the Mississippi River. It was the first independently-owned channel to sign-on in America. [1] The station changed its call letters to KTVT in 1953, KCPX-TV in 1959, and finally KTVX in 1975. The second call letters are now assigned to the CBSaffiliate in Dallas, Texas. The change of call letters to KCPX came with the sale to Screen GemsBroadcasting, a division of Screen Gems, then the television division of Columbia Pictures.
For a brief period during the mid-1950s, it was owned by Time Life Inc. The channel adopted its present-day call letters when United Television (then the broadcasting division of 20th Century Fox) acquired the station from Screen Gems. The channel swapped affiliations with KUTV in 1960 and became an ABC affiliate. Some of the memorable shows from the 1960s included Fireman Frank and Nightmare Theater which were both hosted by Ron Ross. At this time, the station was using a popular "Open 4" logo that was later implemented by WAPA-TV in San Juan, Puerto Rico. That station used several variations of the logo from the 1970s until implementing a new logo in 1990. [2] [3]
In 1975 when the station changed its call letters to KTVX, the title for the newscasts was NewsCenter 4. This was the first news title under the current call letters and lasted until 1981. The KTVX call letters were formerly used by KTUL-TV in Tulsa, Oklahoma which is also an ABC affiliate. In 1981, United Television merged with Chris-Craft Industries. After Chris-Craft's stations were sold to Fox (briefly bringing KTVX and KMOL back under common ownership with 20th Century Fox while a third ex-United station, then-UPN affiliate KMSP-TV in the Twin Cities, eventually became a Fox O&O outright when the network moved from WFTC in 2002), KTVX and KMOL (now WOAI-TV) in San Antonio were traded to Clear Channel Communications for WFTC.
Since Fox already owned KSTU, it was forced to sell KTVX due to current Federal Communications Commission (FCC) regulations prohibiting one company from owning two of the four highest-ranked stations in a single market. KTVX was traded because it had a long-term ABC affiliation. Fox also wanted to offer an attractive package to Clear Channel for WFTC. KTVX was the only Chris-Craft owned station to have never been affiliated with UPN during the time Chris-Craft owned a partial stake in the network. In August 2005, President George W. Bush visited Salt Lake City to speak to the Veterans of Foreign Wars. Cindy Sheehan appeared in a paid political message protesting theIraq War and the ad was submitted to the top four stations in the market (KSL-TV, KSTU, KTVX, and KUTV). KTVX management declined the offer saying that "the content could very well be offensive to our community in Utah, which has contributed more than its fair share of fighting soldiers and suffered significant loss of life in this Iraq war." [4] KTVX aired "TheHive TV" on its second digital subchannel which featured locally-produced programs and sports by residents in the Salt Lake City area. The schedule resembled a cable public access but because the subchannel must conform to FCC content guidelines, externally-produced programs were approved by the station before they was aired. This service shut down in December 2008 and was replaced in January 2009 by Untamed Sports TV of which KTVX-DT2 is the flagship station. In April 2011 KTVX changed the DT2 to air TheCoolTV[5] .
4 Utah KTVX former logo from 1994 to 2007
On November 16, 2006, Clear Channel announced plans to sell all of its television stations, including KTVX, [6] after being bought by private equity firms. On April 20, 2007, Clear Channel entered into an agreement to sell its entire television stations group to Providence Equity Partners's Newport Television. [7] That company closed on the station group on March 14, 2008. In May, Newport Television agreed to sell KTVX and five other stations to High Plains Broadcasting because of an ownership conflict. Newport would have continued to operate KTVX through a joint sales agreement after the sale was finalized. [8] However on August 22, the channel was removed from the sale after Univision Communications, owner of KUTH and of which Providence Equity Partners holds a 19% stake, canceled its plans to purchase KUTF thus alleviating the need to sell KTVX (although sister station KUCW was eventually sold to High Plains Broadcasting but remains managed by Newport Television). [9] KUTF has since been sold to the Daystar Television Network. As a result, KTVX remains owned by Newport Television. On June 12, 2009, it ended analog broadcasts and began to transmit exclusively digitally. [10]
Digital programming
| Channel | Name | Programming |
|---|---|---|
| 4.1 | KTVX-DT1 | Main KTVX-TV Programming / ABC (HD) |
| 4.2 | KTVX-DT2 | Me-TV |
News operation
KTVX airs a local lifestyle/entertainment show called Good Things Utah weekday mornings at 10 a.m. There is also a Sunday morning public affairs program known as On the Record. On April 26, 2010, KTVX debuted its new high definition newscasts with a new HD news set and graphics. [11]
Starting in September 2010, there was an expansion of local newscasts offered by the station. Good Morning Utah expanded to four and a half hours from 4:30-9 a.m. with the last two seen on KUCW. KTVX added additional newscasts weekday afternoons at 4 p.m. on KTVX and weeknights at 9 p.m. on KUCW. In addition, KUCW began airing a local entertainment show called The Daily Dish on September 7.[12]
News/station presentation
Newscast titles
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Station slogans
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News team
Current on-air staff[13]
Anchors/local program hosts
- Robert Maxwell - weeknights at 4, 5, 6, and 10 p.m. (also 9 p.m. on KUCW)
- Karen Carlson - weeknights at 4, 5, 6, and 10 p.m. (also 9 p.m. on KUCW)
- Jon Du Pre - weekend evenings; also weeknight reporter and "Unsolved Cases" and "Crime Tracker" segments producer
- Don Hudson - weekday mornings
- Angie Larson - weekday mornings; also host of Good Things Utah
- Reagan Leadbetter - host of Good Things Utah and The Daily Dish; also reporter
- Nicea Degering - host of Good Things Utah and The Daily Dish
4WARN Weather First
- Roland Steadham (AMS and NWA Seals of Approval) - chief meteorologist; weekdays at 4, weeknights at 5, 6, 9 (on KUCW) and 10 p.m.
- Marti Skold - weather announcer; weekday mornings and Good Things Utah host
- Joe Chevalier - meteorologist; weekend evenings
ABC 4 Sports Zone and Red Zone
- Wesley Ruff - sports director; weeknights at 6 and 10 p.m.
- Dana Greene - sports anchor; weeknights at 5 p.m. and sports reporter
- TBD - sports anchor; weeknights at 9 p.m. (on KUCW)
- Emerson Lotzia - sports anchor; weekend evenings; also sports reporter
Reporters
- Noah Bond - 10 p.m. reporter
- Brian Carlson - weekday morning reporter
- Emily Clark - general assignment reporter
- Annie Cutler - general assignment reporter
- Kimberly Houk - general assignment reporter
- Brent Hunsaker - general assignment reporter
- Dan Metcalf - film critic; also executive producer of online media
- Kelli O'Hara - investigative reporter
- Marcos Ortiz - general assignment reporter
- Barbara Smith - general assignment reporter
- Chris Vanocur - general assignment reporter; also host of On the Record
- Robert Walz - general assignment reporter
Former staff
- McKay Allen - reporter (now reporter for KXLY-TV in Spokane, WA)
- Ross Becker - anchor (now at KUSI in San Diego)
- Buddy Blankenfeld - anchor/reporter (2001-2008)
- Clayton Brough - climatologist (1980-2008, retired)
- Randall Carlisle - anchor (1991-2008)
- Reed Cowan - anchor/reporter (now at WSVN in Miami)
- Chris Jones - reporter (now at KUTV)
- Erika Edberg - anchor
- Dan Pope - chief meteorologist (1992-2007, currently with KSL-TV)
- Kimberly Perkins - anchor (retired)
- Phil Riesen - anchor (currently a Democratic member of the Utah State House of Representatives)
- Brek Bolton - meteorologist (now at KUTV)
- Bob Koop - anchor (later with WIVB in Buffalo, NY; deceased)
- Othello Richards - Reporter (now reporter at KREM-TV in Spokane, WA)
- Linda O’Bryon - reporter (was founding executive editor of PBS' Nightly Business Report; currently chief content Officer at KQED-TV San Francisco)
- Kevin Stanfield (a.k.a. Mike McKay) - anchor/traffic reporter (currently at KREX in Colorado Springs, CO)
- Ruth Todd - anchor
- Amy Troy - anchor (now at KGW in Portland)
- Susan Wood - anchor/reporter
- Terry Wood - anchor (2004-2008)
- Mark Zinni - anchor/reporter (now at WJW in Cleveland)
Translators
KTVX extends its coverage throughout the entire state of Utah plus parts of Arizona, Idaho, Nevada and Wyoming using a network of more than 100 community-owned translators listed below. As a result of the June 2009 transition to digital broadcasting, a few of these translators have made the change as well. However, only full powered television stations were required to make the switch.
List of translators [hide]{| style="font-size: 12px; "
! align="left"|City
! align="left"|Callsign
! align="left"|City
! align="left"|Callsign
! align="left"|City
! align="left"|Callsign
|-
|Alton, Utah
| style="width: 75px; "|K09NV
|Huntsville, Utah, etc.
| style="width: 75px; "|K10DT
|Preston, Idaho
|K31FR
|-
|Antimony, Utah
|K02FA
|Kanab, Utah
|K32DC
|Preston, Idaho
|K42GN
|-
|Apple Valley, Utah
|K34CX
|Kanarraville, Utah
|K10CK
|Price, Utah, etc.
|K45FW
|-
|Aurora, Utah, etc.
|K51BK-D
|Koosharem, Utah
|K10CU
|Randolph, Utah
|K11BF
|-
|Beaver, Utah, etc.
|K11CX
|Labarge & Big Piney, Wyoming
|K06FD
|Randolph & Woodruff, Utah
|K34FR
|-
|Bigelow Bench Area, Wyoming
|K40BX
|Laketown, Utah, etc.
|K10LM
|Richfield, Utah, etc.
|K06BQ
|-
|Blanding, Utah, etc.
|K44AG
|Leamington, Utah
|K08MC
|Richfield, Utah, etc.
|K33JF-D
|-
|Boulder, Utah
|K10JG
|Loa, Utah, Etc.
|K06BS
|Roosevelt, Utah, etc.
|K10DD
|-
|Brian Head & Parowan, Utah
|K49HC
|Logan, Utah
|K43GR
|Rural Beaver County, Utah
|K18FU-D
|-
|Caineville, Utah
|K11LZ
|Long Valley Junction, Utah
|K06FM
|Rural Garfield County, Utah
|K18FT
|-
|Capitol Reef National Park, Utah
|K10IV
|Lund & Preston, Nevada
|K08CB
|Rural Garfield County, Utah
|K51AH
|-
|Cedar Canyon, Utah
|K06JA
|Malad City, Idaho
|K54AS
|Rural Sevier County, Utah
|K45FT
|-
|Cedar City, Utah
|K11CQ
|Manti, Utah, etc.
|K11FP
|Ruth, Nevada
|K07DV
|-
|Circleville, Utah
|K09FX
|Manti, Utah, etc.
|K24HJ-D
|Saint George, Utah
|K25JS-D
|-
|Delta, Utah, etc.
|K35GC
|Marysvale, Utah
|K04BO
|Saint George, Utah
|K69CT
|-
|Duchesne, Utah
|K10DE
|Mayfield, Utah
|K09JH
|Samak, Utah
|K11SX
|-
|East Price, Utah
|K04IW
|Mink Creek, Idaho
|K10FF
|Scipio & Holden, Utah
|K10EB
|-
|Elko, Nevada
|K50CA
|Modena, Utah, etc.
|K17FF
|Scofield, Utah
|K10CL
|-
|Ely, Nevada
|K34CM
|Montpelier, Idaho
|K33DR
|Sigurd & Salina, Utah
|K10CT
|-
|Emery, Utah
|K39DV
|Morgan, Utah, etc.
|K10FW
|Sigurd & Salina, Utah
|K20JA-D
|-
|Enterprise, Utah
|K05BU
|Mount Pleasant, Utah
|K10CH
|Spring Glen, Utah, etc.
|K10AZ
|-
|Escalante, Utah
|K04FR
|Mountain View, Utah, etc.
|K25EE
|Steptoe & Ruby Valley, Nevada
|K10KL
|-
|Eureka, Utah
|K43DA
|Mountain View, Wyoming, etc.
|K11DN
|Summit County, Utah
|K51FY
|-
|Fillmore, Utah, Etc.
|K40GD
|Murray Canyon, Nevada, etc.
|K07DU
|Teasdale & Torrey, Utah
|K04BN
|-
|Fish Lake Resort, Utah
|K06FL
|Myton, Utah
|K19EY
|Ticaboo, Utah
|K04OJ
|-
|Fruitland, Utah
|K10KN
|Navajo Mountain School, Utah, etc.
|K04PP
|Toquerville, Utah
|K31IS-D
|-
|Garrison, Utah, etc.
|K11NP
|Oljeto, Utah
|K04OZ
|Tropic, Utah, etc.
|K04IN
|-
|Green River, Utah
|K04BR
|Orangeville, Utah
|K32FR
|Utahn, Utah
|K07VL
|-
|Green River, Utah
|K11DD
|Orderville, Utah
|K04EK
|Vernal, Utah, etc.
|K07CY
|-
|Hanksville, Utah
|K09LC
|Overton, Nevada, etc.
|K66CB
|Virgin, Utah
|K13QK
|-
|Hatch, Utah
|K11NA
|Panguitch, Utah
|K04AU
|Wanship, Utah
|K08JE
|-
|Heber & Midway, Utah
|K31FP
|Park City, Utah, etc.
|K31FQ
|Washington, Utah, etc.
|K28EA
|-
|Helper, Utah
|K13BZ
|Parowan, Utah
|K34AG
|Washington, Utah, etc.
|K52KG-D
|-
|Henefer, Utah, etc.
|K10AY
|Peoa & Oakley, Utah
|K10JB
|Wendover, Utah
|K10ES
|-
|Henrieville, Utah
|K09XF
|Pine Valley, Utah, Etc.
|K11OO
|Woodland & Kamas, Utah
|K50AC
|-
|Hildale, Utah, etc.
|K09SU
|}
References
- ^ a b KTVX history
- ^ http://www.mcsittel.com/html/tvg-uid.htm
- ^ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dukG29x7_2U
- ^ Associated Press. "TV station refuses to air anti-war ad days before Bush visit," USA Today, August 21, 2005.
- ^ http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/blogsburger/51665704-53/music-network-digital-tcn.html.csp
- ^ "Clear Channel agrees to sale". The Cincinnati Enquirer (Gannett Company). 2006-11-16. Retrieved 2006-11-17.[dead link]
- ^ Clear Channel Communications (2007-04-20). "Clear Channel Agrees to Sell Television Station Group to Providence Equity Partners". Press release. Retrieved 2007-04-20.
- ^ Fresno's KGPE has new owner
- ^ "APPLICATION FOR CONSENT TO ASSIGNMENT OF BROADCAST STATION CONSTRUCTION PERMIT OR LICENSE". CDBS Public Access. Federal Communications Commission. 2008-09-04. Retrieved 2008-09-28.
- ^ http://www.sltrib.com/news/ci_11665656
- ^ http://www.abc4.com/content/news/top%20stories/story/KTVX-TV-launches-high-definition-newscasts/kM9qMVqAYk2o2AUxNpeZyA.cspx
- ^ http://www.tvnewscheck.com/articles/2010/08/18/daily.4/
- ^ http://www.abc4.com/content/about_4/bios/default.aspx
External links
- KTVX-TV on the English Wikipedia
- ABC4.com - Official KTVX-TV Website
- MeTVUtah.com - Official Me-TV Utah Website
- CW30.com - Official KUCW-TV Website