KOKH-TV

Infobox_Broadcast
call_letters = KOKH-TV
city =
station_
station_slogan = "Get It First" (news)
station_branding = Fox 25
analog = 25 (UHF)
digital = 24 (UHF)
other_chs =
affiliations = Fox
network =
founded =
airdate = 1959 [The "Broadcasting and Cable Yearbook" says January 26, while the "Television and Cable Factbook" says February 2.]
location = Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
callsign_meaning = OKlaHoma
former_callsigns =
former_channel_numbers =
owner = Sinclair Broadcast Group, Inc.
licensee = KOKH Licensee, LLC
sister_stations = KOCB
former_affiliations = educational independent (1959-1979)
independent (1979-1990)
effective_radiated_power = 3470 kW (analog)
1000 kW (digital)
HAAT = 475.6 m (analog)
475.8 m (digital)
class =
facility_id = 35388
coordinates = coord|35|32|57.6|N|97|29|18.8|W|type:landmark_scale:2000
homepage = [http://www.kokh.com/ www.kokh.com]

KOKH-TV (known as Fox 25 or Fox Oklahoma City) is the Fox broadcasting affiliate for Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. It is owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group of Maryland, LLC in a duopoly with CW affiliate KOCB 34. The station broadcasts its analog signal on UHF channel 25, and its digital signal on UHF channel 24, and is carried on channel 12 on most Central Oklahoma cable systems including Cox Communications. The station is also available to DirecTV and Dish Network customers within the Oklahoma City market.

KOKH is a typical Fox station with about 30 hours a week of news along with syndicated first run talk/court/reality shows, off-network sitcoms and dramas, Fox primetime network programming and Saturday morning children's programming, and sports.

History

Prior to 1959, channel 25 operated as the ABC affiliate in the Oklahoma City market as the short-lived KTVQ from 1953 until its demise in 1956. Current ABC affiliate KOCO Channel 5 was then operating out of Enid, Oklahoma using the call letters KGEO-TV but moved its operations to Oklahoma City in 1958 in a move similar to Tulsa's ABC affiliate, KTUL-TV Channel 8, which moved its operations from Muskogee, Oklahoma (under the callsign KTVX) to Tulsa in 1957.

KOKH resumed operation of channel 25 as an independent educational station in 1959. In the fall of 1979, KOKH was bought by Blair Broadcasting. At that point it became a general entertainment independent station featuring cartoons, classic sitcoms, and a lot of movies. Shortly after KGMC Channel 34 (Now KOCB) signed on with a similar format.

By 1983 Oklahoma City had three commercial independent stations and they all struggled for the best programming. Blair Broadcasting restructured into Gillett Broadcasting by 1985. In 1987, Pappas Broadcasting made a proposal to purchase KOKH. At the same time they would buy programming inventories of KGMC and KAUT 43 and combine assets on KOKH making one strong station. Fox affiliation would also move from KAUT to KOKH. Channel 34 would switch to Home Shopping programming while KAUT would become an educational station. In 1988 this sale was canceled. The three stations then continued on until 1991. In 1989 KOKH was sold to Busse Broadcasting.

In 1991, KAUT 43's owner, Heritage Broadcasting bought KOKH. Channel 43 was sold to Oklahoma Educational Television Authority (OETA) and became KTLC The Literacy Channel. Heritage merged KAUT's programming onto KOKH as well as Fox affiliation. A few years later, though, KTLC became a commercial station and owned by Paramount and known as KPSG. They reverted to the KAUT calls in 1998 after the death of founder Gene Autry. Today that station is owned by Local TV.

In 1996, KOKH was sold to its current owner, Sinclair Broadcast Group. In the late 1990s, KOKH evolved and moved away from cartoons and classic sitcoms while still running some more recent sitcoms. The station moved toward more talk and reality shows as well as court shows. Also in 1996, KOKH also began a local marketing agreement with KOCB-TV, and a year later, the station began an independent local news operation.

In the fall of 2002, after 12 years of being known on the air only as Fox 25, station promos began identifying the station as Fox Oklahoma City (or Oklahoma City's Fox) alternating back-and-forth between the two brandings. Despite this, the Fox 25 logo still remains in use.

Sinclair and Fox cut a six-year affiliation contract extension for Sinclair's 19 Fox affiliates; thus, Fox will remain on KOKH at least through March 2012.

KOKH airs lottery drawings from the Oklahoma Lottery nightly after their 9PM newscast. KOKH's sister station KOCB 34 simulcasts the drawings.

News Operation

Prior to its full-scale newscasts, KOKH aired brief news capsules under the title Newstouch 25 during the 1980s. Ronnie Kaye anchored the updates.

The station launched its news department with the debut of The Nine O'Clock News, a weeknight half-hour local newscast that premiered on May 1996, originally anchored by Jack Bowen and Kirsten McIntyre. It became the first independently produced newscast in the Oklahoma City market outside of the major-network affiliates (NBC affiliate KFOR (Channel 4); ABC affiliate KOCO (Channel 5); and CBS affiliate KWTV (Channel 9)), since KAUT briefly ran an all-local news format in the early 1980s. It was expanded to an hour in August 1998, and in September 1999, it began airing seven nights a week. It was rebranded the Fox Primetime News at 9:00 in 2001, and ran national news updates and weather forecasts from Sinclair's News Central in March 2003; resulting in layoffs of meteorologists, sports reporters and other select staffers at Sinclair's local news operations including KOKH, and decreased the amount of time in the newscast devoted to local news stories, as was such the case on other Sinclair-owned stations.

In early 2004, KOKH launched a half-hour weeknight 10PM newscast, the FOX25 Late Edition (ironically KWTV now has a Saturday 10:30PM newscast called the NEWS9 Late Edition). It is one of a few Fox stations to have a newscast in the traditional late news timeslot (10PM in the Central and Mountain time zones), and one of the only Fox stations with such a newscast without early evening or midday newscasts. In 2006, News Central was acknowledged as a failure and the station resumed an entirely local newscast. In December of that year, KOKH launched a 15-minute sportscast called FOX25 Sports Sunday. it was then expanded to a half-hour and moved to 10PM three months later. On April 9th, 2007, KOKH launched the FOX25 Morning News [http://www.kokh25.com/newsroom/morning/index.shtml] , running from 6-9AM (other area stations start their morning newscasts at 5AM).

There is no word yet on whether KOKH will in the future offer midday or early evening newscasts. KOKH currently broadcasts a total of 29.5 hours of local news per week. It is one of a few Fox stations (with an independent news operation) not regularly run investigative reports and their newscasts have somewhat less of a tabloid feel compared to certain other Fox stations. The station usually does not air breaking news cut-ins between newscasts unlike most stations, including several Fox stations, though severe weather cut-ins will run when conditions warrant (though during Tornado Warnings, these cut-ins may be of shorter length, unless they are issued for Oklahoma City or the surrounding area).

Oklahoma's Most Wanted

In 2005, KOKH began running a local equivalent of "America's Most Wanted" (one of several local versions of "AMW"), "Oklahoma's Most Wanted", airing during the Saturday 9PM newscast, profiling wanted fugitives in Oklahoma. According to the station, 70% of the criminals profiled on Oklahoma's Most Wanted have been captured as of 2008.

FOX25 Notable Personalities

Current On-Air Talent (as of July 22, 2008)

Current Anchors
*Matt Austin: weekends on FOX25 Primetime News at Nine (also fill-in weeknight anchor/reporter)
*Jaime Cerreta: weeknights on FOX25 Primetime News at Nine and Late Edition (also reporter)
*Britten Follett: Sundays on FOX25 Primetime News at Nine (also fill-in anchor/reporter)
*Angie Mock: weekdays on FOX25 Morning News
*Abby Ross: Saturdays on FOX25 Primetime News at Nine
*Andrew Speno: weeknights on FOX25 Primetime News at Nine and Late Edition (also reporter)
*Brent Weber: weekdays on FOX25 Morning News

Reporters
*Ron Black: Political Analyst
*Courtney Coates: Special Assignment Reporter/Producer
*Phil Cross: General Assignment Reporter/Producer
*Katie Delaune: General Assignment Reporter
*Terre Gables: Traffic Reporter
*Lisa Monahan: Freelance Reporter (also news producer and fill-in anchor)
*Lauren Richardson: General Assignment Reporter, seen weekday mornings
*Craig W. Sanger: Film Critic, seen Friday mornings
*Phyllis Williams: Crime Reporter

Sinclair Washington Bureau
*Morris Jones: Washington D.C. Bureau Reporter
*Megan McCorkell: Washington D.C. Bureau Reporter

FOX25 StormWatch Weather
*Jeff George: Chief Meteorologist, weeknights on FOX25 Primetime News at Nine and Late Edition
*Jon Slater (AMS Seal of Approval): weekdays on FOX25 Morning News
*Greg Whitworth: weekends on FOX25 Primetime News at Nine

FOX25 Sports
*Liam McHugh: Sports Director, weeknights on FOX25 Primetime News at Nine and Late Edition (also fill-in weekend anchor/FOX25 Sports Sunday co-host)
*Myron Patton: weekends on FOX25 Primetime News at Nine (also fill-in weeknight anchor/FOX25 Sports Sunday co-host; formerly weekend sports anchor from 2000 to 2001)
*Shawn Clynch: Sports Reporter

Former On-Air Talent

*Chuck Bell: Chief Meteorologist (1999-2002 and 2004-2005; now at WTTG in Washington)
*Jack Bowen: Weeknight Anchor/Reporter (1996-2000)
*Ross Dixon: Meteorologist (1997-1999; worked simultaneously at OETA)
*Ronnie Kaye: "Newstouch 25" Anchor (1980s)
*Zach Klein: Sports Director/Sports Anchor (1999-2001; now at WFTV in Orlando)
*Kirsten MacIntyre: Weeknight Anchor (1996-2001; now at KWTV)
*Melissa Newton: Saturday Evening Anchor/Reporter (July-October 2007; now at KXAS in Fort Worth/Dallas)
*Brooke Osburn: Weeknight Anchor/Reporter (2001-2003)
*Kris Roberts: Anchor/Reporter (1996-1999 and 2001-2006)
*Tim Ross: Chief Meteorologist (1996-1999; now at WSMV in Nashville)
*Brent Skarky: Sports Anchor/Weekend News Anchor/Reporter (1999-2001 and 2006)
*Mike Steely: Sports Director/Sports Anchor (1996-1999; now at WWLS Radio and host of The Locker Room)
*Sana Syed: Saturday Evening Anchor/Reporter (2006-2008; now at KDFW in Dallas-Fort Worth)
*Scott Padgett: Chief Meteorologist (2006-2008; now at WPLG in Miami, FL)

News/Station Presentation

Newscast Titles

*"Newstouch 25" (1980s)
*"FOX25 News" (1996-present)
**"The Nine O'Clock News" (1996-2000)
**"FOX25 Primetime News at Nine" (2000-present)
**"FOX25 Late Edition" (2004-present; 10PM newscast)
**"FOX25 Morning News" (2007-present) NOTE: Although the newscasts are currently known individually as "FOX25 Morning News", "FOX25 Primetime News at Nine" and "FOX25 Late Edition", reporters identify the newscast at the end of reports as "FOX25 News".

tation Slogans

*"Your Great Movie Station" (1979-1982)
*"Oklahoma's Greatest Movie Station" (1982-1986)
*"Oklahoma's Own" (1987-early 1990s)
*"We're Your Fox in Oklahoma City, FOX25" (1996-2000)
*"Where Local News Is First" (2001-2003)
*"All the News You Need, One Hour Earlier" (2004-2007)
*"We Love TV" (2005-2007; also used as a slogan for ABC in the late 1990s)
*"First When It Matters" (2006-2008; weather slogan)
*"Get It First"' (2007-present)

Trivia

*As of 2006, KOKH-TV currently airs all eight syndicated courtroom shows and is the only television station in the market airing court shows.
*KOKH is currently the only known television station who uses different names for each of its newscasts. KOKH's naming conventions for its newscasts are similar to that of CBS O&O KYW in Philadelphia did at one point in the early 1990s. That station abandoned their longstanding Eyewitness News name in 1991 (restoring it in 1998) and experimented with giving each newscast different names. The morning and noon news became "Newsday," the 6 p.m. news became "Newsbeat" and the 11 p.m. news became "The News Tonight." Unlike KOKH, however, KYW's experiment with different newscast names ended three years later.

Office location

KOKH-TV's studios and transmitter are located at 1228 East Wilshire Boulevard, which also serves as the studios of sister station KOCB-TV.

References

External links

* [http://www.okcfox.com/ KOKH Homepage]
*TVQ|KOKH-TV
*BIA|KOKH|TV|TV