KXII

Infobox_Broadcast
call_letters = KXII
city =
station_
station_slogan = Coverage You Can Count On
station_branding = KXII 12
First News
MyTexoma (DT2)
Fox Texoma (DT3)
analog = 12 (VHF)
digital = 20 (UHF)
other_chs =
affiliations = CBS
MyNetworkTV (DT2)
Fox (DT3)
network =
founded =
airdate = 1956 [The "Broadcasting and Cable Yearbook" says July (no date given), while the "Television and Cable Factbook" says August 12.]
location = Sherman, Texas/Ada, Oklahoma
callsign_meaning = XII = Roman numeral 12
former_callsigns = KVSO-TV (1956-1958)
former_channel_numbers =
owner = Gray Television, Inc.
licensee = Gray Television Licensee, Inc.
sister_stations =
former_affiliations = Primary:
NBC (1956-1977)
Secondary:
CBS (1960-1977)
NBC (1977-1985)
effective_radiated_power = 224 kW (analog)
425 kW (digital)
HAAT = 543 m (analog)
503.5 m (digital)
class =
facility_id = 35954
coordinates = coord|34|1|57.8|N|96|48|0.3|W|type:landmark_scale:2000
homepage = [http://www.kxii.com/ www.kxii.com]

KXII is an English-language television station serving the Sherman, Texas – Ada, Oklahoma television market. Known on-air as "KXII 12", it is an affiliate of CBS. Licensed to Sherman, the station broadcasts its analog signal on VHF channel 12, and its digital signal on UHF channel 20. Its transmitter is located near Madill, Oklahoma. In addition to being a CBS affiliate, KXII serves as the MyNetworkTV and Fox affiliate for Sherman - Ada television market. The MyNetworkTV affiliate, known as "MyTexoma", operates on KXII's DT2 digital sunchannel and digital cable. The Fox affiliate, known as "Fox Texoma", operates on KXII's DT3 digital subchannel and digital cable.

History

KXII began August 12, 1956 at Ardmore, Oklahoma as KVSO-TV, in common ownership with local radio station KVSO and a local newspaper, The Daily Ardmoreite. In its early years, Channel 12 was an NBC affiliate. Unable to afford a network feed, station engineers switched to and from the signal of WKY-TV (now KFOR-TV) in Oklahoma City whenever NBC programming was shown. The station often carried some of WKY-TV's non-network programming as well. It broadcast its own local newscast and advertising from its Ardmore studio to its viewing audience across Southern Oklahoma and North Texas.

In late 1958, the station was sold to Texoma Broadcasting and call letters changed to KXII (signifying the Roman numeral 12). In 1959, the transmitter was moved from its original location north of Ardmore to a point near Madill, Oklahoma about 25 miles southeast of Ardmore in order to provide better reception to viewers in Durant, Oklahoma and across the Red River to the Sherman-Denison, Texas area. In 1960, KXII-TV opened a new studio facility along U.S. Highway 75 halfway between Sherman and Denison, which later became the station's main studio. In 1977, KXII relocated and opened its new Ardmore studio, which is still in use today, in conjunction with the Sherman-Denison facility.

During the 1960s and into the 1970s, KXII-TV was a primary NBC affiliate but also held a secondary affiliation with CBS which began in 1960 and CBS fare on Channel 12 consisted mainly of daytime programs and sports coverage such as NFL football. During the 1960s and early 1970s, most CBS programming to Texoma area viewers with was fed to cable subscribers via affiliates in surrounding markets including KWTV, Oklahoma City; KAUZ-TV, Wichita Falls; and KRLD-TV (now KDFW-TV and currently a Fox affiliate), Dallas-Fort Worth. KXII's direct competitor, KTEN Channel 10 in Ada, Oklahoma was a primary ABC affiliate but also claimed NBC as a secondary affiliate. Though KXII and KTEN were considered direct competitors, the fact is that both stations had considerable differences in fringe coverage for many years due to the 75-mile distances between the two stations transmitters at Madill and Ada. This meant that viewers within the a 25-mile radius of KXII's transmitter at Madill including Ardmore and Durant were actually in the southern fringe of KTEN's transmitting range, resulting in poorer over-the-air reception on channel 10 than channel 12, and channel 10 did not even reach viewers in the Sherman-Denison area or other portions of North Texas served by KXII-TV. Similarly, KTEN's city of licensee, Ada, was in the northern fringe of KXII's transmitting range resulting in poor over-the-air reception of channel 12. To better compete with KXII, KTEN moved its transmitter in 1984 from Ada to a location near Bromide, Oklahoma which enabled better over-the-air reception to locations in far Southern Oklahoma near the Red River and now expanded to serve Sherman-Denison as well as other cities in North Texas. KTEN would also adopt KXII's mode of operating more than one studio by adding operations in Ardmore and Denison and later relocating the main studio from Ada to Denison.

Starting with the 1974-1975 fall season, KXII-TV's program schedule included a larger proportion of CBS programming including most daytime shows, many prime-time programs and most sports programming, making Channel 12 sort of a hybrid station with almost half the programming of both NBC and CBS for a few years. Also with this change, KXII switched its network evening newscast from NBC Nightly News to the CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite in the 5:30 p.m. time slot followed by the 6 p.m. local newscast, a move that brought "Uncle Walter" into virtually all Texoma living rooms over a "local" station for the first time.

As KXII-TV shifted its programming emphasis from NBC to CBS in the mid-1970s, KTEN added a larger proportion of NBC programming to its daytime and primetime schedule to become a similar hybrid ABC/NBC station in the process. For the fall 1977-1978 season, Channel 12 shifted its primary network affiliation to CBS and became an exclusive CBS affiliate in 1985 when the last NBC program on KXII's schedule, the Today show, was replaced by CBS This Morning and Today moved to KTEN, which shifted NBC to a primary and later an exclusive affiliation. Since the late 1990s, the two-station Sherman-Ada market has been represented entirely by one-network stations (not including digital subchannels).

Throughout 2006, the station celebrated being on the air for 50 years. In September, KXII debuted an all-new set for its "First News" broadcast with new colors and graphics to replace the previous set which had been in use since 1995.

In the summer of 2006, the station added programming from UPN on digital subcarrier 12.2 and cable. This programming flipped to My Network TV when UPN ceased operation on September 15, 2006. It has also added programming from the Fox Network on digital subcarrier 12.3 and cable.

Although KTEN broadcasts The CW on its digital subchannel and KXII broadcasts FOX and MyNetworkTV on both of its digital subchannels, the Ada-Sherman television market is one of the few TV markets in the country with affiliates of NBC, CBS, FOX, The CW and MyNetworkTV, with the setback of not having a local ABC affiliate. ABC programming for the Sherman-Ada market is provided by WFAA in Dallas-Ft. Worth.

Personalities

Current On-Air Talent

*FIRST NEWS ANCHORS

*SPORTS ANCHORS/REPORTERS

Former On-Air Talent

News Presentation

Newscast Titles

*"KVSO-TV News" (1956-1958)
*"The Nescafé News" (1958-1965)
*"24 Hours" (1965-1970)
*"Action News" (1970-1973)
*"12 News Service" (1973-1977)
*"NewsCenter 12" (1977-1986)
*"Channel 12 News" (1986-1992)
*"12 News" (1992-1998)
*"First News" (1998-present)

tation Slogans

*"We've Got The Touch, You and Channel 12" (1983-1985, local version of CBS campaign)
*"We've Got The Touch on Channel 12" (1985-1986, local version of CBS campaign)
*"Share the Spirit of Channel 12" (1986-1987, local version of CBS campaign)
*"Channel 12 Spirit - Oh Yeah!" (1987-1988, local version of CBS campaign)
*"You Can Feel It On Channel 12" (1988-1989, local version of CBS campaign)
*"Get Ready for Channel 12" (1989-1990 and 1990-1991, local version of CBS campaign)
*"Coverage You Can Count On" (1998-2007)
*"Texoma's News Leader" (2007-present)

External links

* [http://www.kxii.com/ KXII Website]
* [http://www.kxii.com/mntv KXII DT2 "MyTexoma" Website]
* [http://www.kxii.com/fox KXII DT3 "Fox Texoma" Website]
*TVQ|KXII
*BIA|KXII|TV|TV

References