KSWO-TV

Infobox_Broadcast
call_letters = KSWO-TV
city =
station_
station_slogan = You Can Count on Us!
station_branding = 7 News
analog = 7 (VHF)
digital = 11 (VHF)
other_chs =
affiliations = ABC
Telemundo (DT2)
network =
founded =
airdate = March 8, 1953
location = Lawton, Oklahoma/Wichita Falls, Texas
callsign_meaning = South
West
Oklahoma
former_callsigns =
former_channel_numbers =
owner = Drewry Communications Group
(sale pending to London Broadcasting)
licensee = KSWO Television Company, Inc.
sister_stations =
former_affiliations =
effective_radiated_power = 316 kW (analog)
138 kW (digital)
HAAT = 320 m (analog)
327.3 m (digital)
class =
facility_id = 35645
coordinates = coord|34|12|56.5|N|98|43|18.2|W|type:landmark_scale:2000
homepage = [http://www.kswo.com/ www.kswo.com]

KSWO-TV (branded as "7 News") is the ABC affiliate located in Lawton, Oklahoma but also serves Wichita Falls, Texas. Its transmitter is located near Grandfield, Oklahoma. KSWO broadcasts its analog signal on VHF channel 7 and its digital signal on VHF channel 11. KSWO also offers Telemundo programming on digital channel 7.2.

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, Robert 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.

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.

Drewry Communications Group also owns CBS affiliate KFDA-TV in Amarillo, Texas; ABC affiliate KXXV in Waco, Texas; NBC affiliates KWES-TV in Midland, Texas; and KWES repeater station KWAB-TV in Big Spring, Texas.

KSWO, along with the other Drewry stations, is being sold to London Broadcasting, a sale that is expected to be finalized by the end of 2008. [http://www.wacotrib.com/news/content/news/stories/2008/07/01/07012008wacKXXVsale.html]

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 has been a familiar face to Channel 7 viewers since the early 1960s. 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 since 2000 following a four-year stint as chief meteorologist at CBS affiliate KAUZ-TV 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 1976, Lisa John was anchoring the 10 p.m. newscast one Sunday night when a skunk made its way into the studio causing her face to turn pale on live television before hundreds of thousands of viewers across Southwest Oklahoma and North Texas.

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 stations 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 talent).

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 throughout the state.

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, Oklahoma to the west, Wichita Falls to the south, Anadarko, Oklahoma to the north and Ringling, Oklahoma to the east. By the late 1950s, other ABC affiliates such as KOCO-TV in Oklahoma City and KTEN 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, Dallas-Fort Worth and KVII-TV 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 1,000 foot tall 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 half way between the cities and from a Lawton perspective in the same direction as the Wichita Falls stations. Many years later when KJTL Fox 18 was activated in the mid-1980s, they chose a site near KSWO-TV's transmitter at Grandfield. Ironically, KJTL Fox 18 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.

KSWO produces 20.5 hours of news programming a week.

KSWO 7 Notable Personalities

Current On-Air Talent (as of August 26, 2008)

Current Anchors
*David Bradley: weeknights on 7 News at 5, 6 and 10PM (also news director, former sports director)
*Monte Brown: weekends on 7 News at 5:30 (Sun.), 6 (Sat.), and 10PM (also reporter)
*Tom Charles: weekdays on 7 Wake-Up News and "Good Morning Texoma"
*Emily Jaster: weeknights on 7 News at 5PM and The Nine on The 24/7 Channel
*Jan Stratton: weeknights on 7 News at 6 and 7 News Tonight (also evening Executive Producer)
*Lindsay Vocht: weekdays on 7 Wake-Up News and Good Morning Texoma (also morning Executive Producer)

Reporters
*Sylvia Corkill: General Assignment Reporter
*Terri Poahway: MedWatch Reporter
*Robert Richardson: Nightside Reporter
*Kenny Scarle: General Assignment Reporter
*Laura Demaria: General Assignment Reporter

SkyWarn 7 Weather
*David Baxley: Chief Meteorologist, weeknights on 7 News at 5, 6 and 10PM
*Justin Rudicel: weekdays on 7 Wake-Up News and Good Morning Texoma
*Dan Zarrow: weekends on 7 News at 5:30 (Sun.), 6 (Sat.), and 10PM
*Chris Conan: weekends on 7 News at 5:30 (Sun.), 6 (Sat.), and 10PM

Sports
*Dan Seed: Sports Director, weeknights on 7 News at 5, 6 and 10PM
*Chris Thomasson: weekends on 7 News at 5:30 (Sun.), 6 (Sat.), and 10PM

Former On-Air Talent
*Marie Berberea: weekend morning anchor/overnight reporter (2005-2007)
*Andrea Charles: reporter (2006-2008)
*Courtney Coates: weekend morning anchor/reporter (200?-2006; now at KOKH in Oklahoma City)
*David A. Grady: news director/anchor (1967-1973)
*Paul Harrop: photojournalist/overnight reporter/weekend morning anchor (2006-2007; now at KOCO in Oklahoma City)
*Tarra G. Haskins: anchor/reporter/talk show host (1980-1983)
*Dave Hunt: sports anchor (2006-2007)
*Lisa John: weekend news anchor/reporter (1974-1981; deceased)
*Arthur Johnson: news anchor (1962-1967)
*Hugh Johnson: news anchor (1972-1977)
*J Kendel Johnson: assistant news director/anchor/reporter/producer/assignments editor (1981-1984)
*Lew Johnson: sports anchor (1965-1981)
*Nicole Jolly: anchor/reporter (1994-2006; now at Southwestern Medical Center)
*Eric Law: weekend meteorologist (2002-2003); Morning Meteorologist (2003-2004; now at WLBT in Jackson, MS)
*Cecilia Mason: anchor/reporter (1987-1989)
*Mike McDonald: news anchor (1980-1994)
*Patrick McKee: morning meteorologist (2001-2003); chief meteorologist (2003-2005)
*Bill McReynolds: news anchor (1953-19??)
*Stacia Naquin: Morning Anchor / EP (2001-2008; now in Colorado Springs)
*Don Peeples: weathercaster (1953-19??)
*Scott Perkins: sports director (1979-1986)
*Tom Reddell: weathercaster (late 1950s-early 1960s)
*Darrell Reed: staff meteorologist (1987-1992)
*Dave Wallace: meteorologist (1996-2000)
*Mike Francis: meteorologist (1998-2000)
*Jim Moore: meteorologist (1996-1998)
*Chad Nichols: meteorologist (2001-2003)
*Bill Riley: news director/co-anchor 1973-1979)
*Elaina Rusk: Reporter / Fill-in Anchor (2007-2008; now in Bakersfield, CA)
*Dan Threlkeld: weathercaster (1981-1983; later at KFOR-TV in Oklahoma City, now chief meteorologist at KJRH in Tulsa)
*Andy Wallace: staff meteorologist (1992-1993); chief meteorologist (1996-2003; now at KOCO in Oklahoma City)
*Robert Burch: anchor/reporter (1995-2003; now at OETA in Oklahoma City)
*Jennifer Tipton: anchor (1997-2004)
*Kim Truong: meteorologist (2006-2008)
*Winnifred Washington: reporter (?-?)
*Doug Wahl: "Good Morning Texoma" anchor (1997-1999)
*Lynn Walker: news anchor (1996-1999, now at Times Record News in Wichita Falls, TX)
*Pat Walker: chief meteorologist (2005-2008); now at Independent News Network in Davenport, IA)
*Nelly Tsoodle:news reporter (1992-2008)

News/station presentation

Newscast Titles

*"KSWO-TV 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)

tation slogans

*"7's The Place"
*"Looking Out For You"
*"You Can Count on Us!" (2000-present)

External links

* [http://www.kswo.com/ KSWO Homepage]
*TVQ|KSWO
*BIA|KSWO|TV|TV