KOKI-TV
Encyclopedia
KOKI-TV, virtual channel
23 (digital channel 22), is the Fox
-affiliated television station in Tulsa, Oklahoma
. It is owned by Newport Television
, a subsidiary of private equity firm Providence Equity Partners
. The station's studios are located on South Memorial Drive in Tulsa, and its transmitter is located in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma
.
The station broadcasts its digital signal on UHF channel 22, using its former analog channel assignment of 23 as its virtual channel via PSIP. On cable, KOKI-TV can be seen on channel 5 in standard definition and on channel 705 in high definition on Cox
Tulsa.
KOKI is a typical Fox station with almost 40 hours a week of news along with syndicated first run court/reality shows, off-network sitcoms and dramas, Fox primetime and Saturday late night network programming, and sports. KOKI is a relative newcomer to the field of local newscasts in Tulsa. KOKI began offering local newscasts in 2002, but has made significant gains in news viewership.
, an affiliate of the DuMont Television Network
. That station signed off shortly after the failure of the DuMont network on December 10, 1954.
The current incarnation of channel 23 first hit the airwaves on October 23, 1980. KOKI, then branded as "Tulsa 23 - Oklahoma's Independent", was an independent station
, the first such station in the Tulsa market. It was also the first commercial television station to sign on in Tulsa in 26 years. The new FCC license had been won and KOKI-TV was created by a group of Tulsa's most prominent corporate executives and community leaders, known as "Tulsa 23, Ltd." The partnership was led by managing partner Benjamin F. Boddie and investors also included John H. Williams and Charles P. Williams, two former CEOs of the Williams Companies
who were also responsible for the redevelopment of over nine square blocks and one million square feet of new office and retail construction of downtown Tulsa including establishment of the Williams Center
and Bank of Oklahoma Tower, the state's tallest office tower at 52 stories and 660 feet (201.2 m), and the Tulsa Performing Arts Center
.
As reported in the Tulsa World
, the ownership team was a "who's who" of Tulsa leadership of the era that also included Robert E. Thomas, Walter H. Helmerich II, C.W. Flint, Robert V. Sellers and Jim Lavenstein, general manager. The station's studios were first located on 46th Place in southeast Tulsa and the initial programming featured a blend of old movies, westerns, many popular sitcoms of the era, drama shows, and cartoons; the station had fairly good ratings.
In 1983, Time-Life Inc. (now Time Warner
), the parent company of pay cable channel Cinemax
, filed a federal trademark infringement lawsuit against KOKI over the use of the slogan "We Are Your Movie Star" (which Cinemax had used at that time). That October, KOKI won its case in Tulsa Federal District Court.
The station affiliated with the fledgling Fox network in 1986, but it remained essentially an independent station since Fox only provided a couple of hours of network programming a day (not programming seven nights a week of programming until 1993), eventually becoming branded as Fox 23. On March 6, 1989 the announcement was made by managing partner Ben Boddie that Clear Channel Television, Inc.
, a Houston-based company had agreed to buy KOKI. In the late winter/early spring of 1990, KOKI was sold to Clear Channel; Clear Channel significantly upgraded channel 23's programming, adding more recent sitcoms, better movies, and some first-run talk shows.
In the 1990s, KOKI moved toward more talk, reality and court shows and away from the classic sitcoms during daytime. More recent sitcoms were added to the schedule during the evening hours. The station began a local marketing agreement
with then-independent station KTFO
(channel 41, now MyNetworkTV
affiliate KMYT) in 1994, shortly before that station affiliated with UPN
in 1995. As the children's shows disappeared from syndication, KOKI moved toward even more talk and reality syndicated shows.
In 2001, Clear Channel merged all of its holdings in Tulsa, including KOKI and KTFO, and its radio stations from South Yale to a newly converted state-of-the-art building located at 31st and South Memorial Drive, formerly home to a Burlington Coat Factory
store. On April 20, 2007, Clear Channel entered into an agreement to sell its entire television stations group to Providence Equity Partners
.
KOKI was seen in a fictional sense in the 2000 film Where the Heart Is
, starring Natalie Portman. This was rather unusual since KOKI at the time only broadcast news from a small studio on an hourly basis, as opposed to the more developed news operation that the station has now.
), climbed up to 150 feet (45.7 m) on the tower and moved between 75 and 100 feet (30.5 m) at various points during the standoff. The standoff lasted for more than 150 hours (breaking the record for the longest standoff in the history of the Tulsa Police Department
, originally set during a 32-hour standoff involving a murder suspect in 1993), ending at around 6:40 p.m. on August 16, after a retired police negotiator was sent up the tower on a crane to talk Sturdivant down.
programming, the Weekend Marketplace
informerical block on Saturday mornings, and the political talk show Fox News Sunday
). However, Fox News Sunday airs one hour later than on most affiliates airing at 10 a.m. due to a three-hour block of Degrassi: The Next Generation
on Sunday mornings in order to comply with their weekly E/I
programming requirements. KOKI, like most Fox stations, airs a mix of talk/court/reality shows in the daytime and sitcoms in the evening. KOKI is one of numerous Fox stations that carry Judge Judy
(which airs before the 5 p.m. newscast) and Seinfeld
(which airs in late night). The station also airs The Insider
and TMZ on TV
weeknights after the late airing of The King of Queens
, and airs weekend telecasts of the sitcoms it airs on weeknights.
The station is also the 'official station' of the Oklahoma State Cowboys
, airing shows involving the team, including the weekly shows of the head coach of the university's basketball, baseball and football teams, hosted by sports director Steve Layman. The shows are also syndicated on Oklahoma City's Fox affiliate KOKH (which is the 'official station' for the Cowboys for the Oklahoma City market). The station is also the Tulsa area home of The Jerry Lewis MDA Telethon airing each Labor Day on KOKI, it is one of a few stations not affiliated with NBC, CBS or ABC to air the telethon.
and ran until shortly before KOKI's newscasts debuted; airing nightly at 10 p.m., with minute-long updates at 10:35 and 11:05 p.m.
The station launched its news department with the debut of "FOX23 News at 9:00", a nightly hour-long local newscast that premiered on February 3, 2002 immediately following Fox's telecast of Super Bowl XXXVI
, becoming the first independently produced newscast in the Tulsa market outside of the major-network affiliates (NBC affiliate KJRH
(channel 2); CBS affiliate KOTV (channel 6); and ABC affiliate KTUL
(channel 8)), since now-sister station KMYT (then KGCT) dropped local news in the early 1980s. In June of the same year, KOKI added a daily early evening newscast at 5:30 p.m. Then a year later, a daily 5 p.m. newscast was added, creating an hour-long block of news weekdays from 5-6 p.m., allowing the station to compete with KJRH, KOTV and KTUL.
KOKI launched a four-hour weekday morning newscast ("FOX23 News This Morning") in April 2006, airing from 5-9 a.m.; it is currently the only four-hour local morning newscast in the Tulsa market (although KOTV did run a four-hour morning newscast until 2008, when the 8-9 a.m. hour of "Six in the Morning" was moved to sister station KQCW
, channel 19). Upon the morning newscast's launch, KOKI moved its syndicated children's program block to Sunday mornings. Two months later, it launched an hour-long noon newscast, which competes against only KOTV's noon newscast (KJRH's midday newscast airs an hour earlier at 11 a.m. while KTUL, like Oklahoma's other ABC affiliates, does not air local news at midday).
KOKI currently broadcasts 39½ hours of local news per week (7½ hours on weekdays and one hour each on weekends), more than any other individual television station in the Tulsa market or the state of Oklahoma. The station's current newscast schedule is very similar to that of the stations formerly owned by New World Communications
which have since been purchased by Fox, as well as those that Fox formerly owned and sold to Local TV, LLC. The main difference being that KOKI does not currently have weeknight 6 p.m. newscasts, or any weekend morning and/or early evening newscasts.
On January 18, 2010, KOKI debuted a 10 p.m. newscast airing immediately following the existing 9 p.m. newscast, which will compete against the 10 p.m. newscasts on rivals KJRH, KTUL, and KOTV; this brought the station's weekdaily newscast output to 7½ hours. With the addition of the 10 p.m. newscast, as previously mentioned, the 6-6:30 p.m. time slot is now the only traditional local news time slot that KOKI does not program on weekdays. KOKI is the second Fox station in the state with both a 9 and 10 p.m. newscast; KOKH in Oklahoma City has had a 10 p.m. newscast that follows its hour-long 9 p.m. newscast since 2004.
On January 16, 2011, starting with the 9 p.m. newscast, KOKI became the second station in Tulsa (behind KJRH) to broadcast local news in high definition. With the switch to HD, KOKI introduced a new set, graphics and logos. The graphics and logo currently used is the typical style found on Fox owned-and-operated stations and some affiliates nationwide (although the Fox searchlights are noticeably absent from the station logo unlike other stations that use the Fox O&O graphics). The new FOX O&O graphics are the same as those used on KSWB
, WAWS
and WPMT
.
In late 2009, KOKI re-branded, removing the 'Solving Problems' mantra from their 'Breaking News, Breaking Weather, Solving Problems' slogan.
and KJRH
. KOKI-TV was named the number one Fox affiliate in the country, according to the November 2007 Nielsen ratings.
FOX23 Local Weather First
FOX23 Sports Buzz
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....
23 (digital channel 22), 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 in Tulsa, Oklahoma
Tulsa, Oklahoma
Tulsa is the second-largest city in the state of Oklahoma and 46th-largest city in the United States. With a population of 391,906 as of the 2010 census, it is the principal municipality of the Tulsa Metropolitan Area, a region with 937,478 residents in the MSA and 988,454 in the CSA. Tulsa's...
. It is owned by Newport Television
Newport Television
Newport Television, LLC is a television station holding company founded by Providence Equity Partners and Sandy DiPasquale in 2007 to acquire the television stations owned by Clear Channel Communications. In September 2007, Newport agreed to sell KFTY and KVOS-TV to LK Station Group LLC for $26.6...
, a subsidiary of private equity firm Providence Equity Partners
Providence Equity Partners
Providence Equity Partners is a global private equity investment firm focused on media, entertainment, communications and information investments...
. The station's studios are located on South Memorial Drive in Tulsa, and its transmitter is located in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma
Broken Arrow, Oklahoma
Broken Arrow is a city located in the northeastern part of the U.S. state of Oklahoma, primarily in Tulsa County but also with a small section of the city in western Wagoner County. It is the largest suburb of Tulsa. According to the 2010 US Census, Broken Arrow has a population of 98,850 residents...
.
The station broadcasts its digital signal on UHF channel 22, using its former analog channel assignment of 23 as its virtual channel via PSIP. On cable, KOKI-TV can be seen on channel 5 in standard definition and on channel 705 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...
Tulsa.
KOKI is a typical Fox station with almost 40 hours a week of news along with syndicated first run court/reality shows, off-network sitcoms and dramas, Fox primetime and Saturday late night network programming, and sports. KOKI is a relative newcomer to the field of local newscasts in Tulsa. KOKI began offering local newscasts in 2002, but has made significant gains in news viewership.
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,... |
Programming |
|---|---|---|---|
| 23.1 | 720p 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 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 ... |
Main KOKI-TV programming / FOX |
| 23.2 | 480i 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... |
4:3 | TheCoolTV TheCoolTV THECOOLTV is a United States over-the-air digital subchannel launched in March 2009. The network's current program schedule consists of an all-music video lineup that can be customized to meet an affiliate's preference, along with the three hours per week of E/I programming as required by the... |
Analog-to-digital conversion
On June 12, 2009, KOKI abandoned its previous analog channel assignment of channel 23, and moved its digital channel assignment to channel 22. However, digital television receivers will continue to display KOKI's virtual digital channel as 23.History
The channel 23 slot in Tulsa was first occupied by KCEBKCEB (Tulsa)
KCEB, channel 23, was the second television station to sign on in Tulsa, Oklahoma. It first broadcast in 1954.Tulsa's existing station retained the CBS and ABC affiliations initially, with the new station signing on March of 1954 as an affiliate of NBC and DuMont.Founded by Tulsan oilman Elfred...
, an affiliate of the DuMont Television Network
DuMont Television Network
The DuMont Television Network, also known as the DuMont Network, DuMont, Du Mont, or Dumont was one of the world's pioneer commercial television networks, rivalling NBC for the distinction of being first overall. It began operation in the United States in 1946. It was owned by DuMont...
. That station signed off shortly after the failure of the DuMont network on December 10, 1954.
The current incarnation of channel 23 first hit the airwaves on October 23, 1980. KOKI, then branded as "Tulsa 23 - Oklahoma's Independent", was an independent station
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....
, the first such station in the Tulsa market. It was also the first commercial television station to sign on in Tulsa in 26 years. The new FCC license had been won and KOKI-TV was created by a group of Tulsa's most prominent corporate executives and community leaders, known as "Tulsa 23, Ltd." The partnership was led by managing partner Benjamin F. Boddie and investors also included John H. Williams and Charles P. Williams, two former CEOs of the Williams Companies
Williams Companies
The Williams Companies, Inc. is an energy company based in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Its core business is natural gas exploration, production, processing, and transportation, with additional petroleum and electricity generation assets...
who were also responsible for the redevelopment of over nine square blocks and one million square feet of new office and retail construction of downtown Tulsa including establishment of the Williams Center
Williams Center
The Williams Center is the facility for all intramural and recreational sports for the University of Wisconsin–Whitewater, located in Whitewater, Wisconsin.-Uses:...
and Bank of Oklahoma Tower, the state's tallest office tower at 52 stories and 660 feet (201.2 m), and the Tulsa Performing Arts Center
Tulsa Performing Arts Center
The Tulsa Performing Arts Center is a performing arts venue in the city of Tulsa, Oklahoma. It houses four theaters, including the 2,365-seat Chapman Music Hall. The building occupies half a city block in downtown Tulsa. The center hosts regular performances by the Tulsa Opera, Tulsa Ballet, and...
.
As reported in the Tulsa World
Tulsa World
Tulsa World is the daily newspaper for the city of Tulsa, Oklahoma, is the primary newspaper for the northeastern and eastern portions of Oklahoma, and is the second-most widely circulated newspaper in the state, after The Oklahoman. It was founded in 1905 and remains an independent newspaper,...
, the ownership team was a "who's who" of Tulsa leadership of the era that also included Robert E. Thomas, Walter H. Helmerich II, C.W. Flint, Robert V. Sellers and Jim Lavenstein, general manager. The station's studios were first located on 46th Place in southeast Tulsa and the initial programming featured a blend of old movies, westerns, many popular sitcoms of the era, drama shows, and cartoons; the station had fairly good ratings.
In 1983, Time-Life Inc. (now Time Warner
Time Warner
Time Warner is one of the world's largest media companies, headquartered in the Time Warner Center in New York City. Formerly two separate companies, Warner Communications, Inc...
), the parent company of pay cable channel Cinemax
Cinemax
Cinemax, sometimes abbreviated as simply "Max", is a collection of premium television networks that broadcasts primarily feature films, along with softcore erotica, original action series, documentaries and special behind-the-scenes features. Cinemax is operated by Home Box Office, Inc., a...
, filed a federal trademark infringement lawsuit against KOKI over the use of the slogan "We Are Your Movie Star" (which Cinemax had used at that time). That October, KOKI won its case in Tulsa Federal District Court.
The station affiliated with the fledgling Fox network in 1986, but it remained essentially an independent station since Fox only provided a couple of hours of network programming a day (not programming seven nights a week of programming until 1993), eventually becoming branded as Fox 23. On March 6, 1989 the announcement was made by managing partner Ben Boddie that Clear Channel Television, Inc.
Clear Channel Communications
Clear Channel Communications, Inc. is an American media conglomerate company headquartered in San Antonio, Texas. It was founded in 1972 by Lowry Mays and Red McCombs, and was taken private by Bain Capital LLC and Thomas H. Lee Partners LP in a leveraged buyout in 2008...
, a Houston-based company had agreed to buy KOKI. In the late winter/early spring of 1990, KOKI was sold to Clear Channel; Clear Channel significantly upgraded channel 23's programming, adding more recent sitcoms, better movies, and some first-run talk shows.
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...
with then-independent station KTFO
KMYT-TV
KMYT-TV, virtual channel 41, is the MyNetworkTV-affiliated television station in the Tulsa, Oklahoma Designated Market Area. The station is owned by Newport Television, a subsidiary of private equity firm Providence Equity Partners, in a duopoly with Fox affiliate KOKI...
(channel 41, now MyNetworkTV
MyNetworkTV
MyNetworkTV is a television broadcast syndication service in the United States, owned by the Fox Entertainment Group, a division of News Corporation...
affiliate KMYT) in 1994, shortly before that station affiliated with 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...
in 1995. As the children's shows disappeared from syndication, KOKI moved toward even more talk and reality syndicated shows.
In 2001, Clear Channel merged all of its holdings in Tulsa, including KOKI and KTFO, and its radio stations from South Yale to a newly converted state-of-the-art building located at 31st and South Memorial Drive, formerly home to a Burlington Coat Factory
Burlington Coat Factory
Burlington Coat Factory Warehouse Corporation is a national department store retailer focusing on clothing and shoes, with over 450 stores in 45 states and Puerto Rico.. In 2006, it was acquired by Bain Capital, LLC in a take-private transaction...
store. On April 20, 2007, Clear Channel entered into an agreement to sell its entire television stations group to Providence Equity Partners
Providence Equity Partners
Providence Equity Partners is a global private equity investment firm focused on media, entertainment, communications and information investments...
.
KOKI was seen in a fictional sense in the 2000 film Where the Heart Is
Where the Heart Is (2000 film)
Where the Heart Is is a 2000 drama/romance film directed by Matt Williams and produced by Susan Cartsonis, David McFadzean, Patricia Whitcher and Matt Williams. Filmed in Austin, Texas, and Waco, Texas at Baylor University. The movie stars Natalie Portman and Ashley Judd...
, starring Natalie Portman. This was rather unusual since KOKI at the time only broadcast news from a small studio on an hourly basis, as opposed to the more developed news operation that the station has now.
Man climbs transmission tower
On August 11, 2011, a 25-year-old man with a history of mental issues and a criminal history including burglary and drug arrests, was found wandering around outside the South Memorial Drive studios shared by KOKI, KMYT and several radio stations owned by former station owner Clear Channel Communications. He was chased off onto the roof of the station, where he climbed the 300 feet (91.4 m) transmission tower; the man, later identified as William Boyd Sturdivant II (who had also reportedly once walked 250 miles (402.3 km) from Tulsa to DallasDallas, Texas
Dallas is the third-largest city in Texas and the ninth-largest in the United States. The Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex is the largest metropolitan area in the South and fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States...
), climbed up to 150 feet (45.7 m) on the tower and moved between 75 and 100 feet (30.5 m) at various points during the standoff. The standoff lasted for more than 150 hours (breaking the record for the longest standoff in the history of the Tulsa Police Department
Tulsa Police Department
The Tulsa Police Department is the principal law enforcement agency of the city of Tulsa, Oklahoma. It is nationally accredited by the Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies It is the second largest municipal law enforcement agency in the state.The TPD was officially organized in...
, originally set during a 32-hour standoff involving a murder suspect in 1993), ending at around 6:40 p.m. on August 16, after a retired police negotiator was sent up the tower on a crane to talk Sturdivant down.
Programming
KOKI clears the entire Fox network schedule (nightly primetime, Saturday late night, and Fox SportsFox Sports (USA)
Fox Sports is a division of the Fox Broadcasting Company . It was formed in 1994 with Fox's acquisition of broadcast rights to National Football League games...
programming, the Weekend Marketplace
Weekend Marketplace
Weekend Marketplace is a two hour Saturday morning block of paid programming airing on Fox that began airing on January 3, 2009, replacing the 4Kids TV Saturday morning cartoon block that aired using time leased by 4Kids from Fox from 2002 until the last Saturday of 2008...
informerical block on Saturday mornings, and the political talk show Fox News Sunday
Fox 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...
). However, Fox News Sunday airs one hour later than on most affiliates airing at 10 a.m. due to a three-hour block of Degrassi: The Next Generation
Degrassi: The Next Generation
Degrassi: The Next Generation is a Canadian teen drama television series set in the Degrassi universe, which was created by Linda Schuyler and Kit Hood in 1979. Degrassi is the fourth fictional series in the Degrassi franchise, and follows The Kids of Degrassi Street, Degrassi Junior High, and...
on Sunday mornings in order to comply with their weekly E/I
E/I
E/I, which stands for "educational and informative," refers to a type of children's television programming shown in the United States. The Federal Communications Commission requires that every full-service Terrestrial television station in the U.S. show at least three hours of these television...
programming requirements. KOKI, like most Fox stations, airs a mix of talk/court/reality shows in the daytime and sitcoms in the evening. KOKI is one of numerous Fox stations that carry 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 before the 5 p.m. newscast) and Seinfeld
Seinfeld
Seinfeld is an American television sitcom that originally aired on NBC from July 5, 1989, to May 14, 1998, lasting nine seasons, and is now in syndication. It was created by Larry David and Jerry Seinfeld, the latter starring as a fictionalized version of himself...
(which airs in late night). The station also airs The Insider
The Insider (TV series)
The Insider is an American tabloid television news program covering events and celebrities. It debuted on September 13, 2004 as a spinoff of Entertainment Tonight and started as a popular segment that took viewers "behind closed doors" and gave them "inside" information...
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...
weeknights after the late airing of The King of Queens
The King of Queens
The King of Queens is an American sitcom that originally ran on CBS from September 21, 1998, to May 14, 2007.This show was produced by Hanley Productions and CBS Productions , CBS Paramount Television ,and CBS Television Studios in association with Columbia TriStar Television , and Sony Pictures...
, and airs weekend telecasts of the sitcoms it airs on weeknights.
The station is also the 'official station' of the 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...
, airing shows involving the team, including the weekly shows of the head coach of the university's basketball, baseball and football teams, hosted by sports director Steve Layman. The shows are also syndicated on Oklahoma City's Fox affiliate KOKH (which is the 'official station' for the Cowboys for the Oklahoma City market). The station is also the Tulsa area home of The Jerry Lewis MDA Telethon airing each Labor Day on KOKI, it is one of a few stations not affiliated with NBC, CBS or ABC to air the telethon.
News operation
Prior to its full-scale newscasts in 2002, KOKI provided only daily, three-minute updates during daytime and Fox primetime programming from a small closet studio. At the time, it was one of only a few Fox stations not owned by the network with some local news presence, albeit KOKI's was a minor one. The station also produced "First Weather on FOX23", a five-minute weathercast that was launched on January 26, 1997 immediately following Fox's telecast of Super Bowl XXXISuper Bowl XXXI
Super Bowl XXXI was an American football game played on January 26, 1997, at the Louisiana Superdome in New Orleans, Louisiana to decide the National Football League champion following the 1996 regular season. The National Football Conference champion Green Bay Packers defeated the American...
and ran until shortly before KOKI's newscasts debuted; airing nightly at 10 p.m., with minute-long updates at 10:35 and 11:05 p.m.
The station launched its news department with the debut of "FOX23 News at 9:00", a nightly hour-long local newscast that premiered on February 3, 2002 immediately following Fox's telecast of Super Bowl XXXVI
Super Bowl XXXVI
Super Bowl XXXVI was an American football game played on February 3, 2002 at the Louisiana Superdome in New Orleans, Louisiana to decide the National Football League champion following the 2001 regular season. The American Football Conference champion New England Patriots won their first Super...
, becoming the first independently produced newscast in the Tulsa market outside of the major-network affiliates (NBC affiliate KJRH
KJRH
KJRH-TV, virtual channel 2, is the NBC-affiliated television station in Tulsa, Oklahoma. It is owned by The E.W. Scripps Company. KJRH broadcasts from its studios in the Brookside district in midtown Tulsa on South Peoria Avenue and its transmitter is located in Oneta, Oklahoma.The station...
(channel 2); CBS affiliate KOTV (channel 6); and ABC affiliate KTUL
KTUL
KTUL, virtual channel 8, is the ABC-affiliated television station in Tulsa, Oklahoma, owned by Allbritton Communications Company. KTUL broadcasts from its studios on Lookout Mountain in west Tulsa...
(channel 8)), since now-sister station KMYT (then KGCT) dropped local news in the early 1980s. In June of the same year, KOKI added a daily early evening newscast at 5:30 p.m. Then a year later, a daily 5 p.m. newscast was added, creating an hour-long block of news weekdays from 5-6 p.m., allowing the station to compete with KJRH, KOTV and KTUL.
KOKI launched a four-hour weekday morning newscast ("FOX23 News This Morning") in April 2006, airing from 5-9 a.m.; it is currently the only four-hour local morning newscast in the Tulsa market (although KOTV did run a four-hour morning newscast until 2008, when the 8-9 a.m. hour of "Six in the Morning" was moved to sister station KQCW
KQCW
KQCW-DT, virtual channel 19 , is The CW-affiliated television station in the Tulsa, Oklahoma DMA, licensed to Muskogee. The station is owned by Oklahoma City-based Griffin Communications, in a duopoly with CBS affiliate KOTV-DT...
, channel 19). Upon the morning newscast's launch, KOKI moved its syndicated children's program block to Sunday mornings. Two months later, it launched an hour-long noon newscast, which competes against only KOTV's noon newscast (KJRH's midday newscast airs an hour earlier at 11 a.m. while KTUL, like Oklahoma's other ABC affiliates, does not air local news at midday).
KOKI currently broadcasts 39½ hours of local news per week (7½ hours on weekdays and one hour each on weekends), more than any other individual television station in the Tulsa market or the state of Oklahoma. The station's current newscast schedule is very similar to that of the stations formerly owned by New World Communications
New World Communications
New World Pictures was an independent motion picture and television production company, and later television station owner in the United States from the late 1980s to the mid-1990s...
which have since been purchased by Fox, as well as those that Fox formerly owned and sold to Local TV, LLC. The main difference being that KOKI does not currently have weeknight 6 p.m. newscasts, or any weekend morning and/or early evening newscasts.
On January 18, 2010, KOKI debuted a 10 p.m. newscast airing immediately following the existing 9 p.m. newscast, which will compete against the 10 p.m. newscasts on rivals KJRH, KTUL, and KOTV; this brought the station's weekdaily newscast output to 7½ hours. With the addition of the 10 p.m. newscast, as previously mentioned, the 6-6:30 p.m. time slot is now the only traditional local news time slot that KOKI does not program on weekdays. KOKI is the second Fox station in the state with both a 9 and 10 p.m. newscast; KOKH in Oklahoma City has had a 10 p.m. newscast that follows its hour-long 9 p.m. newscast since 2004.
On January 16, 2011, starting with the 9 p.m. newscast, KOKI became the second station in Tulsa (behind KJRH) to broadcast local news in high definition. With the switch to HD, KOKI introduced a new set, graphics and logos. The graphics and logo currently used is the typical style found on Fox owned-and-operated stations and some affiliates nationwide (although the Fox searchlights are noticeably absent from the station logo unlike other stations that use the Fox O&O graphics). The new FOX O&O graphics are the same as those used on KSWB
KSWB-TV
KSWB-TV, virtual channel 69, is a Fox-affiliated television station in San Diego, California. It broadcasts a 720p high definition digital signal on UHF channel 19 from a transmitter southeast of Spring Valley...
, WAWS
WAWS
WAWS is the Fox-affiliated television station for Florida's First Coast licensed to Jacksonville. It broadcasts a high definition digital signal on UHF channel 32 from a transmitter on Hogan Road in the city's Southside section. The station can also be seen on Comcast channel 10 and in high...
and WPMT
WPMT
WPMT, also known as channel 43 or Fox 43, is a Fox-affiliated television station licensed to York, Pennsylvania. Owned by the Tribune Company, the station has studios in Spring Garden, Pennsylvania , and its transmitter is located in Hallam, Pennsylvania...
.
FOX23 Solving Problems Unit
KOKI has also gained a reputation in the Tulsa area for its investigative team, the "Solving Problems" investigative unit. The station is one of several Fox stations carrying investigative reports. The team is assigned to help people with various problems, and has uncovered numerous scams. Originally called the "FOX23 Problem Solvers", the unit was rebranded to its current name in 2007, in order to avoid confusion with NBC affiliate KJRH's similarly named investigative unit, now known as the "2NEWS Problem Solvers".In late 2009, KOKI re-branded, removing the 'Solving Problems' mantra from their 'Breaking News, Breaking Weather, Solving Problems' slogan.
Ratings
In the February 2008 Nielsen ratings, KOKI's newscasts had significant growth in all newscasts. "Fox 23 News at 9:00" was ranked second overall in late news behind KOTV and ahead of KTULKTUL
KTUL, virtual channel 8, is the ABC-affiliated television station in Tulsa, Oklahoma, owned by Allbritton Communications Company. KTUL broadcasts from its studios on Lookout Mountain in west Tulsa...
and KJRH
KJRH
KJRH-TV, virtual channel 2, is the NBC-affiliated television station in Tulsa, Oklahoma. It is owned by The E.W. Scripps Company. KJRH broadcasts from its studios in the Brookside district in midtown Tulsa on South Peoria Avenue and its transmitter is located in Oneta, Oklahoma.The station...
. KOKI-TV was named the number one Fox affiliate in the country, according to the November 2007 Nielsen ratings.
Newscast titles
- Tulsa 23 Newscheck (1980–1986)
- First Weather on FOX23 (10 p.m. weathercast; 1997–2002)
- FOX23 News (2002–present)
Station slogans
- There's Only One, Tulsa 23 (1980–1983)
- We Are Your Movie Star (1981–1983; promotional slogan, also used as CinemaxCinemaxCinemax, sometimes abbreviated as simply "Max", is a collection of premium television networks that broadcasts primarily feature films, along with softcore erotica, original action series, documentaries and special behind-the-scenes features. Cinemax is operated by Home Box Office, Inc., a...
's first slogan around same time frame) - Where the Stars Are (1983–1985)
- Tulsa 23, Oklahoma's Independent (1985–1987)
- First. Complete. Local. (2002–2004)
- Breaking News. Breaking Weather. Solving Problems. (2004–2009)
- Breaking News. Breaking Weather. (2009–present)
- Accurate. Dependable. (2009–present; weather slogan)
Current on-air staff (as of August 19, 2011)
Anchors- Chera Kimiko - weeknights at 5, 5:30, 9 and 10 p.m.
- Michelle Linn - weekday mornings "FOX23 News This Morning"
- Clay Loney - weeknights at 5, 5:30, 9 and 10 p.m.; also "Solving Problems" investigative reporter
- Kristin Tallent - weekdays at noon; also weekday morning reporter
- Ron Terrell - weekday mornings "FOX23 News This Morning"
- Frank Wiley - weekends at 9 p.m.; also weeknight reporter
FOX23 Local Weather First
- James Aydelott (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) - chief meteorologist; weeknights at 5, 5:30, 9 and 10 p.m. - Michael Haynes (AMS Seal of Approval) - meteorologist; weekends at 9 p.m.
- Andrew Kozak (AMS Seal of Approval) - meteorologist; weekdays at noon
- Michael Seger - meteorologist; weekday mornings "FOX23 News This Morning"
FOX23 Sports Buzz
- Nathan Thompson - sports director; weeknights at 5:30, 9 and 10 p.m.
- James Tully - sports anchor; weekends at 9 p.m.; also general assignment and sports reporter
Reporters
- Abbie Alford - "Solving Problems" investigative reporter
- Janna Clark - general assignment reporter
- Brittany Jeffers - general assignment reporter
- Danica Lawrence - general assignment reporter
- Adam Paluka - general assignment reporter
- Sharon Phillips - general assignment reporter
- Ian Silver - general assignment reporter