KTSM-TV
Encyclopedia
KTSM-TV, also known as NewsChannel 9, is an NBC
affiliated television station based in El Paso, Texas
. It broadcasts its digital signal on VHF channel 9. KTSM-TV is currently owned by ComCorp of El Paso, Inc.
In the El Paso area, the station is aired on Time Warner Cable
channel 10 and HD channel 860.
. The station shares its call letters with its former sister AM and FM stations, which are now owned by Clear Channel Communications
, separate from KTSM-TV. The "TSM" in the name stands for "Tri State Music", referring to KTSM-AM's original owner.
KTSM claims to have the tallest VHF transmission tower in Texas. It is located at Ranger Peak, one of the peaks of the Franklin Mountains
. It is 2,000 feet above downtown El Paso, and 5,990 feet above sea level.
KTSM was owned and operated for 60 years by Karl O. Wyler, a philanthropist and broadcast pioneer in El Paso. Mr. Wyler built the El Paso Aerial Tramway in the early 1960s to allow his staff to maintain the transmitters at Ranger Peak. The tramway was open to the public until the 1980s, when insurance laws in Texas prohibited its use by the general public. When Mr. Wyler died in 1990, he left controlling interest in Tri-State Broadcasting, Inc. (the radio and television stations) to the El Paso Community Foundation as a charitable gift.
In 1991, the Foundation hired Richard E. Pearson, a dynamic station manager at KVIA TV at the time, to run the operations. Under Mr. Pearson's leadership, the station flourished, and became a dominant force in the market, until the stations were sold to Communications Corporation of America (Comcorp El Paso, Inc.), the current owners, in 1998.
Among KTSM's most famous personalities was Ted Bender. Bender hosted numerous programs on KTSM including the El Paso version of Dialing for Dollars
, in which he gave four viewers a chance to win money, and halfway through the calls, Bender (who was a city councilman) would interview a key figure in the El Paso community. The program aired for 25 minutes, which followed a 5-minute newscast on KTSM at 10 AM.
Bender also was the lead weatherman for KTSM from its inception until his retirement in 1991, using weather symbols that the National Weather Service
utilizes on their weather charts.
Dialing for Dollars
and daytime soaps pre-empted NBC's regular daytime staple of game shows, later airing in the afternoon hours. Sesame Street, which normally airs on PBS, aired on KTSM, due to the lack of a public television station in the El Paso area, from 1969 until KCOS opened in 1978, and may have aired other PBS programs, besides.
On August 3, 2008, during its 5:00 p.m. newscast, KTSM became the first station in El Paso to produce their news in high definition
.
KTSM will affiliate with the Spanish-language network Estrella TV
on a digital subchannel in 2009. On August 31, 2009, KTSM launched Estrella TV.
On October 19, 2009 ComCorp, the parent company of KTSM, announced that KTSM will provide sales and other services for Titan Broadcast Management's KDBC under a new agreement.
Comcorp El Paso, which owns and operates KTSM, will provide advertising, sales, administrative services and some news programming for KDBC,While TTBC will continue to manage KDBC and both stations will retain separate newscasts for now.
KTSM-TV, XHIJ-TV
and XHCJE-TV
of Ciudad Juárez
, and KTDO
of Las Cruces share resources especially with violence in Juarez.
, KTSM-TV completed the analog television shutdown and digital conversion. Additionally, KTSM moved its digital broadcast tier from 16 to its former analog channel number, 9.
on July 31, 2009 KTSM was given Special Temporary Authority by the Federal Communications Commission
(FCC) to also operate on Digital Channel 16, because of reports of reception problems on digital channel 9. The station has since filed a petition to the FCC to remain on channel 16 permanently.
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
affiliated television station based in El Paso, Texas
El Paso, Texas
El Paso, is a city in and the county seat of El Paso County, Texas, United States, and lies in far West Texas. In the 2010 census, the city had a population of 649,121. It is the sixth largest city in Texas and the 19th largest city in the United States...
. It broadcasts its digital signal on VHF channel 9. KTSM-TV is currently owned by ComCorp of El Paso, Inc.
In the El Paso area, the station is aired on Time Warner Cable
Time Warner Cable
Time Warner Cable is an American cable television company that operates in 28 states and has 31 operating divisions...
channel 10 and HD channel 860.
History
KTSM-TV signed on air on January 4, 1953 as the second oldest television station in the market, behind KDBC-TVKDBC-TV
KDBC-TV is the CBS affiliate in El Paso, Texas. The station is owned by the Titan TV Broadcast Group. It broadcasts its digital signal on UHF channel 18. Its new digital subchannel carries My Network TV...
. The station shares its call letters with its former sister AM and FM stations, which are now owned by Clear Channel Communications
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...
, separate from KTSM-TV. The "TSM" in the name stands for "Tri State Music", referring to KTSM-AM's original owner.
KTSM claims to have the tallest VHF transmission tower in Texas. It is located at Ranger Peak, one of the peaks of the Franklin Mountains
Franklin Mountains (Texas)
The Franklin Mountains of Texas are a small range that extend from El Paso, Texas north into New Mexico. The Franklins were formed due to crustal extension related to the Cenozoic Rio Grande rift...
. It is 2,000 feet above downtown El Paso, and 5,990 feet above sea level.
KTSM was owned and operated for 60 years by Karl O. Wyler, a philanthropist and broadcast pioneer in El Paso. Mr. Wyler built the El Paso Aerial Tramway in the early 1960s to allow his staff to maintain the transmitters at Ranger Peak. The tramway was open to the public until the 1980s, when insurance laws in Texas prohibited its use by the general public. When Mr. Wyler died in 1990, he left controlling interest in Tri-State Broadcasting, Inc. (the radio and television stations) to the El Paso Community Foundation as a charitable gift.
In 1991, the Foundation hired Richard E. Pearson, a dynamic station manager at KVIA TV at the time, to run the operations. Under Mr. Pearson's leadership, the station flourished, and became a dominant force in the market, until the stations were sold to Communications Corporation of America (Comcorp El Paso, Inc.), the current owners, in 1998.
Among KTSM's most famous personalities was Ted Bender. Bender hosted numerous programs on KTSM including the El Paso version of Dialing for Dollars
Dialing for Dollars
Dialing for Dollars was a franchised format local television program in the United States and Canada, popular in the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s.-Format:...
, in which he gave four viewers a chance to win money, and halfway through the calls, Bender (who was a city councilman) would interview a key figure in the El Paso community. The program aired for 25 minutes, which followed a 5-minute newscast on KTSM at 10 AM.
Bender also was the lead weatherman for KTSM from its inception until his retirement in 1991, using weather symbols that the National Weather Service
National Weather Service
The National Weather Service , once known as the Weather Bureau, is one of the six scientific agencies that make up the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration of the United States government...
utilizes on their weather charts.
Dialing for Dollars
Dialing for Dollars
Dialing for Dollars was a franchised format local television program in the United States and Canada, popular in the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s.-Format:...
and daytime soaps pre-empted NBC's regular daytime staple of game shows, later airing in the afternoon hours. Sesame Street, which normally airs on PBS, aired on KTSM, due to the lack of a public television station in the El Paso area, from 1969 until KCOS opened in 1978, and may have aired other PBS programs, besides.
On August 3, 2008, during its 5:00 p.m. newscast, KTSM became the first station in El Paso to produce their news 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...
.
KTSM will affiliate with the Spanish-language network Estrella TV
Estrella TV
Estrella TV is a Spanish-language television network owned by Liberman Broadcasting. The network launched September 14, 2009.-Affiliates:-Former Affiliates:-Controversy:...
on a digital subchannel in 2009. On August 31, 2009, KTSM launched Estrella TV.
On October 19, 2009 ComCorp, the parent company of KTSM, announced that KTSM will provide sales and other services for Titan Broadcast Management's KDBC under a new agreement.
Comcorp El Paso, which owns and operates KTSM, will provide advertising, sales, administrative services and some news programming for KDBC,While TTBC will continue to manage KDBC and both stations will retain separate newscasts for now.
KTSM-TV, XHIJ-TV
XHIJ-TV
XHIJ-TV, Canal 44, is a Spanish-language affiliate of cadenatres serving the Ciudad Juárez-El Paso-Las Cruces metropolitan area. The station is licensed to Ciudád Juarez and was once a Telemundo station during the 1990s...
and XHCJE-TV
XHCJE-TV
XHCJE is the Ciudad Juárez television station that is owned and operated by TV Azteca. XHCJE is an affiliate of Azteca 13. Since 2005, XHCJE-TV is the first television station in broadcast in digital television formatfirst where? and since 2010, the first television station in broadcast HD...
of Ciudad Juárez
Ciudad Juárez
Ciudad Juárez , officially known today as Heroica Ciudad Juárez, but abbreviated Juárez and formerly known as El Paso del Norte, is a city and seat of the municipality of Juárez in the Mexican state of Chihuahua. Juárez's estimated population is 1.5 million people. The city lies on the Rio Grande...
, and KTDO
KTDO
KTDO, digital channel 47 , is a television station affiliated with Telemundo, serving the El Paso, Texas and Juarez Mexico television market. It is licensed to Las Cruces, New Mexico, it transmits in analog and digital...
of Las Cruces share resources especially with violence in Juarez.
Digital television
The station's digital channel is multiplexed:| Subchannel | Programming |
|---|---|
| 9.1 | main KTSM-TV/NBC programming |
| 9.2 | Estrella TV Estrella TV Estrella TV is a Spanish-language television network owned by Liberman Broadcasting. The network launched September 14, 2009.-Affiliates:-Former Affiliates:-Controversy:... |
Analog shutdown
On June 12, 2009, at 12:30 P.M. MDTMountain Time Zone
The Mountain Time Zone of North America keeps time by subtracting seven hours from Coordinated Universal Time, also known as Greenwich Mean Time, during the shortest days of autumn and winter , and by subtracting six hours during daylight saving time in the spring, summer, and early autumn...
, KTSM-TV completed the analog television shutdown and digital conversion. Additionally, KTSM moved its digital broadcast tier from 16 to its former analog channel number, 9.
on July 31, 2009 KTSM was given Special Temporary Authority by 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) to also operate on Digital Channel 16, because of reports of reception problems on digital channel 9. The station has since filed a petition to the FCC to remain on channel 16 permanently.
News team
- Oralia Ortega - Main Anchor: NewsChannel 9 @ 6:30pm
- Dan O' Rourke - News Anchor: News Channel 9 @ 5pm, 6pm, & 10pm
- Amber Downing- Morning news anchor: NewsChannel 9 Today
- Adrienne Alvarez - General assignment reporting
- Monique Griego - General assignment reporting
- Phillip Mena -General assignment reporting
- Anthony Garcia - General assignment reporting
- Nichole Gomez - General assignment reporting
- Stephania Jimenez - News Reporter/Anchor NewsChannel 9
- Alexa Helms - General assignment reporting/Anchor"
Sports team
- Fred Albers - Sports Director/anchor: NC9 @ 6pm & 10pm
- Beau Bagley - Weekend sports anchor: NewsChannel 9 Weekends
- Aaron Rich - Sports Reporter NewsChannel 9 Weekends
Weather team
- Chuck DeBroder - Chief Meteorologist: NC9 First @ 5pm, 6pm & 10pm
- Eric Reinholt - Meteorologist: NewsChannel 9 Today
- Chip Maxham - Meteorologist : News Channel 9 Weekends
Newscast titles
- El Paso Newsreel (1953–1959)
- Bill Thomas and the News (1959–1966)
- The Sixth Hour Report/The Eleventh Hour Report (1966–1972)
- Channel 9 News (1972–1975, 1988–1993)
- NewsCenter 9 (1975–1988)
- 9 News (1993–1995)
- TSM News (1995–1999)
- NewsChannel 9 (1999–present)
Station slogans
- El Paso's Number 1 News Team (1970s-1994)
- Channel 9 Is Where You Belong (early 1980s)
- NewsCenter 9 Is Everywhere (mid 1980s)
- The Heart of West Texas, Southern New Mexico, and Northern Mexico (1990–1995)
- Get Connected, Stay Connected (1995–2002)
- First, Live, and Local (2002–present)
KTSM Music
- Where You Belong By TM Productions (1980–1984)
- KPRC Custom Packages By Toby Arnold & Associates (1988–1990)
- USA News By 615 Music (1990–1997)
- Advantage By Gari Communications (1997–2006)
- The NBC Collection Includes : New Millenium V.1 And Flagship Gari Communications (2005–2009)
- Extreme By Stephen Arnold Music (2009-Pres.)