KSWO-TV
Encyclopedia
KSWO-TV, virtual channel
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....

 7, is the ABC
American 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...

 affiliated television station located in Lawton
Lawton, Oklahoma
The city of Lawton is the county seat of Comanche County, in the U.S. state of Oklahoma. Located in the southwestern region of Oklahoma approximately southwest of Oklahoma City, it is the principal city of the Lawton Oklahoma Metropolitan Statistical Area...

, Oklahoma
Oklahoma
Oklahoma is a state located in the South Central region of the United States of America. With an estimated 3,751,351 residents as of the 2010 census and a land area of 68,667 square miles , Oklahoma is the 28th most populous and 20th-largest state...

. It also serves Wichita Falls
Wichita Falls, Texas
Wichita Falls is a city in and the county seat of Wichita County, Texas, United States, United States. Wichita Falls is the principal city of the Wichita Falls Metropolitan Statistical Area, which encompasses all of Archer, Clay and Wichita counties. According to the U.S. Census estimate of 2010,...

, Texas
Texas
Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...

. Its transmitter is located near Grandfield
Grandfield, Oklahoma
Grandfield is a city in Tillman County, Oklahoma, United States. The population was 1,038 at the 2010 census.-Geography:Grandfield is located at ....

, Oklahoma
Oklahoma
Oklahoma is a state located in the South Central region of the United States of America. With an estimated 3,751,351 residents as of the 2010 census and a land area of 68,667 square miles , Oklahoma is the 28th most populous and 20th-largest state...

. KSWO broadcasts its digital signal on VHF channel 11. KSWO also offers Telemundo
Telemundo
Telemundo is an American television network that broadcasts in Spanish. The network is the second-largest Spanish-language content producer in the world, and the second-largest Spanish-language network in the United States, behind Univision....

 programming on digital channel 7.2.

A 2008 deal to sell the station along with group sister stations in Amarillo, Bryan, Midland, and Waco, Texas was approved by the FCC but was called off owing to uncertainties in the financial markets notice of non-consummation to the Federal Communications Commission
Federal Communications Commission
The Federal Communications Commission is an independent agency of the United States government, created, Congressional statute , and with the majority of its commissioners appointed by the current President. The FCC works towards six goals in the areas of broadband, competition, the spectrum, the...

 (FCC).

KSWO-DT

KSWO-DT broadcasts on digital channel 11.
Virtual
channel
Physical
channel
Video Aspect
Aspect ratio
The aspect ratio of a shape is the ratio of its longer dimension to its shorter dimension. It may be applied to two characteristic dimensions of a three-dimensional shape, such as the ratio of the longest and shortest axis, or for symmetrical objects that are described by just two measurements,...

Name Programming
7.1 11.1 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 ...

 
KSWO-DT main KSWO / ABC HD programming
7.2 11.2 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  Telemundo
Telemundo
Telemundo is an American television network that broadcasts in Spanish. The network is the second-largest Spanish-language content producer in the world, and the second-largest Spanish-language network in the United States, behind Univision....

 
Spanish-language programming
7.3 11.3 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  The 24/7 Channel Local and national weather information


KSWO's broadcasts became digital-only, effective (as originally scheduled) on February 17, 2009.

History

KSWO is owned by Drewry Communications Group, which started out with one radio property at Lawton, KSWO-AM, in 1941, followed by the addition of KRHD Radio in nearby Duncan, Oklahoma in 1947. The call letters of the Duncan station were named for the owner, Ransom H. Drewry's, initials. The call letters KSWO are now exclusively used by the TV station and KRHD is now used as the call sign for an ABC affiliate in Bryan-College Station, Texas, which is also owned by Drewry. Drewry Communications Group also owns CBS affiliate KFDA-TV
KFDA-TV
-External links:*...

 in Amarillo, Texas; ABC affiliate KXXV
KXXV
KXXV ' is a full-power television station in Waco, Texas, serving Central Texas as an ABC affiliate. It is currently owned by the Drewry Communications Group . A planned late 2008 sale of the Drewry stations to London Broadcasting fell through due to the late 2000s credit crisis...

 in Waco, Texas; NBC affiliates KWES-TV
KWES-TV
KWES-TV, channel 9, commonly referred to as NewsWest 9, is the NBC affiliated television station in the Midland/Odessa area. The station is owned by the Drewry Communications Group. It also operates a satellite station, KWAB-TV , in Big Spring, Texas.-History:KWES began broadcasting in 1958 as...

 in Midland, Texas; and KWES repeater station KWAB-TV in Big Spring, Texas.

KSWO-TV is the only television station in the Wichita Falls-Lawton market to have remained under the same ownership since its inception and to remain locally owned and operated to this day. It also one of the few TV stations in the country (not counting owned-and-operated stations) that has had the same call letters, channel number, and primary network affiliation throughout its history.

KSWO-TV uses the Circle 7 logo that is also used by ABC's owned-and-operated stations along with many other ABC affiliates with Channel 7 frequencies. It is the oldest logo still in use among TV stations in the Wichita Falls/Lawton market, having been used continuously since 1979, though the "Circle 7" was previously used at KSWO from 1967 to 1970, and then succeeded by a TV-screen '7" logo from 1970 to 1977, followed by a "Circle 7" logo from 1977 to 1979 that was similar to one used in the 1980s and 1990s by Midland-Odessa station KOSA-TV. The ABC "Circle 7" symbol returned to KSWO in 1979 as part of a re-imaging that included a new news set and the introduction of the "Action 7 News" name and format to the Texoma area which would last for more than 15 years until the current "7 News" branding and newsroom/studio format began in the mid-1990s.

Due to electrical outages following a damaging windstorm that rolled through the Lawton area in late May 1996, the early morning newscast Good Morning Texoma was broadcast virtually in the dark. The only power came from the portable generator in one of the station's live trucks, which they also used as a makeshift STL (studio-to-transmitter link) to get the signal to the transmitter. The show was done with one camera, one tape deck and one microphone (that was passed between the announcers).

KSWO has broadcast the annual West Texas Rehabilitation Center telethon from Abilene, Texas each year since 1971. The telethon is broadcast one Saturday night each January over TV stations serving various markets in north, west and central Texas.

The station's first transmitter was at the studios east of Lawton, which was a relatively low-power unit that could reach viewers within a limited 55-mile radius that included Altus
Altus, Oklahoma
Altus is a city in Jackson County, Oklahoma, United States. The population was 19,813 at the 2010 census. It is the county seat of Jackson County....

, Oklahoma
Oklahoma
Oklahoma is a state located in the South Central region of the United States of America. With an estimated 3,751,351 residents as of the 2010 census and a land area of 68,667 square miles , Oklahoma is the 28th most populous and 20th-largest state...

 to the west, Wichita Falls
Wichita Falls, Texas
Wichita Falls is a city in and the county seat of Wichita County, Texas, United States, United States. Wichita Falls is the principal city of the Wichita Falls Metropolitan Statistical Area, which encompasses all of Archer, Clay and Wichita counties. According to the U.S. Census estimate of 2010,...

 to the south, Anadarko
Anadarko, Oklahoma
Anadarko is a city in Caddo County, Oklahoma, United States. The population was 6,645 at the 2000 census. It is the county seat of Caddo County.-Early History:Anadarko got its name when its post office was established in 1873...

, Oklahoma
Oklahoma
Oklahoma is a state located in the South Central region of the United States of America. With an estimated 3,751,351 residents as of the 2010 census and a land area of 68,667 square miles , Oklahoma is the 28th most populous and 20th-largest state...

 to the north and Ringling
Ringling, Oklahoma
Ringling is a town in Jefferson County, Oklahoma, United States. The population was 1,135 at the 2000 census.-Geography:Ringling is located at ....

, Oklahoma
Oklahoma
Oklahoma is a state located in the South Central region of the United States of America. With an estimated 3,751,351 residents as of the 2010 census and a land area of 68,667 square miles , Oklahoma is the 28th most populous and 20th-largest state...

 to the east. By the late 1950s, other ABC affiliates such as 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...

 in Oklahoma City and KTEN
KTEN
KTEN is the NBC-affiliated television station for Southeastern Oklahoma and North Texas that is licensed to Ada, Oklahoma. It broadcasts a high definition digital signal on UHF channel 26 from a transmitter north of Milburn, Oklahoma along OK 7. Owned by the Lockwood Broadcasting Group, the station...

 in Ada, Oklahoma were encroaching the northern and eastern fringes on KSWO's viewing area, but wide gaps existed to the south and west of Wichita Falls, and the only primary ABC affiliates in north and west Texas were WFAA-TV
WFAA-TV
WFAA, channel 8, is an ABC-affiliated television station serving the Dallas–Fort Worth Metroplex, one of the top ten media markets in North America. The station is the flagship of Belo Corporation and the largest ABC affiliate not owned and operated by the network...

, Dallas-Fort Worth and KVII-TV
KVII-TV
-External links:** — live pictures of downtown Amarillo and surroundings from KVII's Sky Cam...

 in Amarillo, as Lubbock and Abilene did not get their own primary ABC affiliates until 1969 and 1979, respectively.

In 1959, the FCC permitted KSWO-TV to erect a 1000 feet (304.8 m) tower with 316,000 watts of power (maximum allowable for VHF channels 7-13) near Grandfield, Oklahoma, which was activated in early 1960 and permitted reception of Channel 7 over a much larger area of North Texas and Southwest Oklahoma - bringing complete ABC programming with viewable reception to many locations for the first time. Wichita Falls stations KFDX-TV and KSYD-TV (now KAUZ) opposed the application, and the FCC had to be convinced. The new site was about halfway between the cities and from a Lawton perspective in the same direction as the Wichita Falls stations. Many years later when KJTL (channel 18) was activated in the mid-1980s, it chose a site near KSWO-TV's transmitter at Grandfield. Ironically, KJTL is now in common ownership with NBC affiliate KFDX (channel 3), which continues to operate its own transmitter from the original site in Wichita Falls as does CBS affiliate KAUZ (channel 6).

On July 31, 2009 Drewry Communications initiated a joint sales/shared operational services agreement between KSWO and CBS affiliate KAUZ-TV (channel 6). This will combine oversight of sales and promotion with those of KSWO-TV. In time, it could streamline operation of the two stations (shared people, shared equipment, shared location) along the lines of separately owned but cooperatively operated competitor stations KFDX-TV and KJTL-TV. With each station office more than an hours drive from the other, it is not as easy as combining stations that are around the corner from each other. With the agreement, KAUZ-TV General Manager Mike deLier, News Director Dan Garcia, and a videographer were released. These tasks were assumed by their KSWO-TV counterparts.

News operation

KSWO produces 20.5 hours of news programming a week.

KSWO pioneered new developments to the local area in weather forecasting throughout its history, particularly with severe weather coverage across its nearly 30-county viewing area in Southwest Oklahoma and North Texas. Channel 7 was first with its own on-site (black and white image) radar in the late 1950s or early 1960s, introduced the market's first color radar in 1976 (Accu-scan 7) and introduced the area's first Doppler radar in 1984 more than 10 years ahead of arch-rivals KFDX and KAUZ.

KSWO-TV has several long-time veterans who have been with the station for 20 years or longer. Jan Stratton has served as anchor continuously since 1981 and was news director until July 2006, while co-anchor and current news director, David Bradley has been with the station since 1986 first as sports director/anchor for 13 years and then as news anchor since 1999.

Tom Charles, a familiar face to Channel 7 viewers since the early 1960s, officially retired from KSWO-TV after 45 years of service on December 31, 2010. He served as chief weathercaster/meteorologist from 1964 to 1996 and then as anchor of the 5:30 a.m. newscast and Good Morning Texoma co-anchor from 2000 to 2010 following a four-year stint as chief meteorologist at CBS affiliate KAUZ-TV
KAUZ-TV
KAUZ-TV, digital channel 22 , is the CBS affiliate television station located in Wichita Falls, Texas. It also serves Lawton, Oklahoma. Its transmitter is located at the studio in Wichita Falls and has a low-power translator in Bowie...

 in Wichita Falls, Texas. Larry Patton has served as general manager of KSWO-TV since 1976 and has been employed by the station since 1967. In June 2011, KSWO began broadcasting its local newscasts in high definition
High-definition television
High-definition television is video that has resolution substantially higher than that of traditional television systems . HDTV has one or two million pixels per frame, roughly five times that of SD...

, becoming the first station in the Wichita Falls-Lawton market to make the upgrade.

Ratings

KSWO has a stronghold on the Oklahoma market, while KAUZ and KFDX primarily compete for the Texas audience.

For the May 2009 ratings period, KSWO ranks for first on weekdays for the morning show, as well as 6 p.m. and 10 p.m. newscasts, according to Nielsen Media Research. KSWO ties for first with KFDX at 5 p.m. on weeknights. KSWO ranks first on Sundays at 10 p.m. and ties with KFDX for first on Saturdays at 10 p.m. KSWO does not produce a noon broadcast).

Newscast titles

  • Channel 7 Newsreel (1953–1963)
  • TV-7 News (1963–1973)
  • Channel 7 News (1973–1977)
  • Newscene 7 (1977–1979)
  • Action 7 News (1979–1996)
  • 7 News (1996–present)

Station slogans

  • The TV-7 News Team - Putting Southwest Oklahoma and North Texas First Gives You the Winning Team (1970–1973)
  • Channel 7 News, Most Watched News Source in Southwest Oklahoma and North Texas (1974–1977)
  • Newscene 7, The Most Comprehensive News in Texoma (1977–1979)
  • 7's The Place (1982–1985; local campaign similar to Tulsa's KTUL "8's The Place" campaign)
  • KSWO: 7's The Place, Looking Out For You! (1985–1990)
  • Action 7 News, The Most Complete Newscast in Texoma (1989–1992)
  • You Can Count on Us! (2000–present)


Current on-air staff

Anchors
  • David Bradley - weeknights at 6 and 10 p.m.; also news director
  • Jan Stratton - weeknights at 5 and 6 p.m.; also evening executive producer; former news director

(Also Jan is in the Oklahoma Broadcasting Hall of Fame)
  • Monte Brown - weekday mornings Good Morning Texoma;
  • Dara Jones - weekday mornings Good Morning Texoma

SkyWarn 7 Weather Team
  • Justin Rudicel - meteorologist
  • Austin Bowling - meteorologist
  • Matthew DiPirro - meteorologist
  • Joseph Belanger - meteorologist


Sports team
  • Kyle Weatherly - sports director; weeknights at 6 and 10 p.m.
  • Dan Moscaritolo Saturdays at 6, Sundays at 5:30, and weekends at 10 p.m.


Reporters
  • Terri Armstrong - MedWatch 7 Reporter
  • Laura Hagen - general assignment reporter
  • Jonathan Rozelle- general assignment reporter
  • Nicole Osei- General assignment reporter

FORMER ON AIR STAFF

--------------------

David Baxley- (AMS
American Meteorological Society
The 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...

 Member;
NWA
National Weather Association
The National Weather Association is an American professional association with a mission to support and promote excellence in operational meteorology and related activities...

 Seal of Approval) - former chief meteorologist from 2008-2011;

Emily Jaster- Former weeknight anchor. Destination unknown

Dan Seed- Former Sports Director. Destination unknown

Laura Demaria- Former nightside reporter. 2008-2011 Out of business

Garret Krier- General Assignments Reporter from 2008-2011. Now at KNWA in Fayetteville, Arkansas
Stephanie Harris. now at WAVY 10news
Keisha Courtney- General Assignments Reporter 2008-2010. Now at KBAK in Bakersfield, California

Chris Conoan- Former Weekend Meteorologist. 2008-2010. Now at WOI-TV in Des Moines, Iowa

Robert Richardson - Former Reporter. 2008-2009. Now at WHNT-TV in Huntsville, AL

Dan Zarrow- Former Morning Meteorologist. 2006-2008. Working in New Jersey

Andy Wallace- Former Meteorologist. Now at KJRH in Tulsa, Oklahoma

Patrick McKee - Former Meteorologist. 2001-2005. Now at WSLS in Roanoke, Virginia

Nicole Jolly- Former Anchor Now Communications Specialist for Southwestern Medical Center

Chris Kilmer- Former Reporter- Now Public Information Officer for Comanche County

Kenny Scarle- Former Reporter- Now Public Information Officer for Altus Air Force Base

Neely Tsoodle- Former Reporter- 1995-2008- Now works for Chickasaw Nation

Elaina Rusk- Former Reporter- now at KERO in Bakersfield

Silva Harapetian- WDIV in Detroit

Dan Threlkeld- now at KJRH in Tulsa

Tom Charles- Retired

Stephanie Harris- now at Now at WAVY 10 in Norfolk VA

Lindsay Vocht- Former Good Morning Texoma Anchor- Now Communications Specialist for Goodyear

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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