KDFW

For the airport serving Dallas and Fort Worth, Texas assigned the ICAO code KDFW, see Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport.

Not to be confused with KFWD.

KDFW

Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas
City of license	Dallas, Texas
Branding	Fox 4 (general) Fox 4 News (newscasts)
Slogan	The News Station (primary) Now You Know; So Fox 4 (secondary)
Channels	Digital: 35 (UHF) Virtual: 4 (PSIP)
Affiliations	Fox
Owner	Fox Television Stations, Inc. (NW Communications of Texas, Inc.)
First air date	December 3, 1949
Call letters' meaning	Dallas-Fort Worth (also ICAO code for Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport)
Sister station(s)	KDFI
Former callsigns	KRLD-TV (1949–1970)
Former channel number(s)	Analog: 4 (VHF, 1949–2009)
Former affiliations	CBS (1949–1995)
Transmitter power	857 kW
Height	510 meters (1,670 ft)
Facility ID	33770
Transmitter coordinates	32°35′6″N 96°58′41″W
Licensing authority	FCC
Public license information:	Profile CDBS
Website	www.myfoxdfw.com

KDFW is the Fox owned-and-operated television station licensed to Dallas, Texas, serving the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex. It broadcasts a high definition digital signal on UHF channel 35 (virtual channel 4.1 via PSIP) from a transmitter in Cedar Hill. Owned by the Fox Television Stations subsidiary of News Corporation, it is sister to MyNetworkTV affiliate KDFI. The two stations share studios on North Griffin Street in downtown Dallas.

Digital television

Digital channels

Channel	Video	Aspect	PSIP Short Name	Programming
4.1	720p	16:9	KDFW-HD	Main KDFW programming / Fox

Analog-to-digital conversion

After the analog television shutdown of June 12, 2009, KDFW-DT continued to broadcast its digital signal on its pre-transition UHF channel 35, though PSIP is used to display KDFW's virtual channel as 4 on digital television receivers. The station participated in the "Analog Nightlight" program until its analog signal was shut down permanently on July 12, 2009.

History

As a CBS affiliate

The station signed on the air as CBS affiliate KRLD-TV on December 3, 1949, owned by the now-defunct Dallas Times Herald newspaper, which also operated KRLD radio (1080 kHz.). Channel 4 was the third television station in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex area to sign-on, following Dallas-based KBTV (now WFAA-TV, channel 8), which launched three months earlier in September 1949, and Fort Worth-based WBAP-TV (now KXAS-TV, channel 5) in 1948.

KRLD-TV served as the home base for the CBS network's coverage of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, led by Dan Rather, on November 22, 1963. News director Eddie Barker was the first person to announce Kennedy's death on television, passing along word from a Parkland Hospital official (because of a local pool arrangement, Barker's scoop appeared live simultaneously on CBS and ABC).

Federal Communications Commission rules at the time prevented common ownership of newspapers and broadcast outlets in the same market, and the combination of KRLD-AM-TV and the Dallas Times-Herald was protected under a grandfather clause from forced divestiture. However, the newspaper and its broadcast holdings were sold to the Los Angeles-based Times-Mirror Company on May 15, 1970 for $30 million. As a result of the sale, Times-Mirror could not keep the Times-Herald's grandfathered protection for the radio and television stations, but was granted a waiver to keep the newspaper together with the television station, whose callsign became KDFW-TV on July 2, 1970. KRLD radio was sold to Metromedia soon thereafter; the newspaper was sold off in 1986, and was shut down five years later.

KRLD-TV's 1,521-foot-tall transmission tower in Cedar Hill (jointly owned by KDFW and WFAA), which was once considered the tallest television transmission tower in the world, was hit by a military jet doing training exercises in 1987. The two passengers survived, but the tower had to be reconstructed. KDFW's studio tower and original site had a similar meeting with a chopper in 1968.

In 1993, Times-Mirror announced its intention to divest itself of its television station properties, KDFW and the other Times-Mirror stations were sold to Argyle Television in a group deal. Early in 1994, KDFW began managing a struggling independent station, KDFI (channel 27), which was rebroadcasting KDFW's newscasts in different time slots.

As a Fox affiliate

In late 1993, when Fox gained the contract from CBS to carry the NFC package of the National Football League, New World Communications reached an agreement to switch the network affiliations of its stations to the network. Afterwards, New World bought four Argyle stations – KDFW, KTVI (channel 2) in St. Louis, WVTM (channel 13) in Birmingham, Alabama, and KTBC (channel 7) in Austin. When that purchase was finalized on April 14, 1995 (although New World had begun operating the Argyle stations through time brokerage agreements on January 19), KDFW and KTBC switched their affiliations to Fox on July 1 of that year (and KTVI followed suit on August 7) – WVTM, meanwhile, remained an NBC affiliate because the Birmingham market's ABC affiliate WBRC (channel 6) was sold directly to Fox, though it would not affiliate with the network until its affiliation contract with ABC ended in 1996 (WVTM was subsequently sold to NBC before being purchased by current owner Media General). The market's CBS affiliation moved to independent station KTVT (channel 11), and former Fox O&O KDAF (channel 33; which Fox sold to Renaissance Broadcasting, and later to the Tribune Company) took The WB affiliation from KXTX (channel 39).

KDFW (briefly branded as "Fox 4 Texas" upon the 1995 affiliation switch) is not the only Fox owned-and-operated station to replace a previous Fox O&O; sister station WAGA (channel 5) in Atlanta replaced WATL (channel 36) during the Fox/New World agreement in 1994. With Fox switching from a UHF to a VHF position, Dallas-Fort Worth became one of a handful of markets where all "Big Four" affiliates were on the VHF dial, along with New York City, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Washington, D.C., Seattle, Miami, Salt Lake City, Las Vegas, Albuquerque, Honolulu, Boise and Anchorage. Reno joined this distinction in 1996, followed by Portland and Minneapolis-St. Paul in 2002 (in both Boise and Honolulu, the Fox affiliation switched from one VHF channel to another).

Upon the network switch, the Cowboys football games moved back to KDFW after a one year absence; KDFW as a CBS affiliate carried the Cowboys through 1993, after which the NFC package moved from CBS to Fox (the first season that the Cowboys returned to channel 4, the team won the 1996 Super Bowl championship). News Corporation purchased KDFW and the LMA for KDFI in a group deal in early 1997, officially making channel 4 a Fox owned-and-operated station. Like most New World-owned stations, KDFW did not pick up Fox Kids; it remained on KDAF until 1997, when Fox Kids moved to KDFI. News Corporation eventually bought KDFI outright in 2000, creating a legal duopoly with KDFW. KDFW and KDFI are among three network-owned duopolies based in Dallas (with KTVT and KTXA being owned by CBS; KXAS and KXTX being owned by NBC).

Programming

As a network-owned station, KDFW airs the entire Fox network schedule (primetime, Saturday late night and sports programming, and the political talk show Fox News Sunday). Syndicated programming includes talk shows (such as Live! with Kelly and Michael and The Wendy Williams Show), court shows (such as Judge Judy and Judge Joe Brown), newsmagazines (such as Access Hollywood and TMZ on TV), off-network dramas (such as Law & Order: Special Victims Unit) and weekend morning children's shows. The station began to broadcast a few off-network sitcoms such as Seinfeld, King of the Hill, 3rd Rock From the Sun and Malcolm in the Middle during the late 1990s and mid-2000s (since the 2008-2009 season, no off-network sitcoms are carried on its schedule – a rarity for a Fox station). Some of the syndicated court shows airing on the station air in both daytime and late night.

KDFW was also the alternate flagship station for Texas Rangers baseball; sister station KDFI (channel 27) was the official flagship (until it was moved to KTVT and KTXA), and Fox Sports Net also broadcasts some Rangers games.

In 1972, the station debuted 4 Country Reporter, hosted by Bob Phillips. In 1986, Phillips left KDFW and began selling the show in syndication, which was renamed Texas Country Reporter, and now airs in all 22 television markets in Texas. KDFW did not pick up the syndicated version, but rival station WFAA carried the show (calling it 8 Country Reporter).

News operation

KDFW newscast title card.

KDFW presently broadcasts 48½ hours of locally produced newscasts each week (eight hours on weekdays, four hours on Saturdays and 4½ hours on Sundays); in regards to the number of hours devoted to news programming, it is the largest local newscast output among the Dallas-Fort Worth market's broadcast television stations and the largest of any station (and Fox affiliate) in the state of Texas. In addition, the station produces a half-hour sports highlight program called Fox 4 Sports Sunday, which airs Sundays after the 9 p.m. newscast. As is standard with Fox stations that carry early evening weekend newscasts, KDFW's Sunday 5 p.m. newscast is subject to preemption and the Saturday 6 p.m. newscast is subject to delay due to sports coverage from Fox.

From the time KDFW became a Fox affiliate (and later owned-and-operated station) in 1995, the station has placed more emphasis on local news programming; maintaining a newscast schedule that is very similar to a CBS, ABC, or NBC affiliated station, along with the addition of a weeknight 5:30 p.m. newscast, an additional two hours of news on weekday mornings and the addition of an hour-long nightly newscast at 9 p.m. KDFW is one of several Fox stations with a newscast in the traditional late news time slot (with the majority of Texas being located in the Central Time Zone, at 10 p.m. in KDFW's case), in addition to the primetime (9 p.m.) newscast, along with one of the few to continue their Big Three-era 10 p.m. (or 11 p.m.) newscast after the affiliation switch. In 2006, Fox Television Stations Group started to push expansion into that time slot (sister station KTBC in Austin had a 10 p.m. newscast for years after switching to Fox, which was moved to 9 p.m. in 2000). After the switch, KDFW's 10 p.m. newscast was scaled back to weeknights only (Fox late night programming airs on Saturdays at 10 p.m., while the sports wrap-up show Fox 4 Sports Sunday airs Sundays in that timeslot).

Starting in 2006, the Fox-owned stations began revamping their sets and graphics to be more closely aligned with Fox News Channel. The stations now have standardized logos that resemble Fox News Channel's. KDFW debuted the new logo, set, graphics and news music on September 20, 2006 on its 9 p.m. newscast. The station also launched a new website, which features more news and video with the "myfox" name and interface. On February 18, 2009 at noon, KDFW became the fifth station in the Dallas-Fort Worth market to broadcast its local newscasts in high definition.

On April 5, 2010, the station expanded its morning newscast by a half-hour, now running from 4:30 to 9 a.m. KDFW is the only remaining Fox-owned station that does not run a newscast in the 9 a.m. hour; this is due to the fact that the station broadcasts Live! with Kelly and Michael in that timeslot, which KDFW has done for several years. On July 10, 2011, KDFW debuted a Sunday morning edition of its Good Day newscast (prior to then, the only weekend morning newscast on KDFW was a two-hour Saturday morning newscast from 8-10 a.m., which remains on the station).

News/station presentation

Newscast titles

• The Esso Reporter (1949–1963)
• KRLD Evening Edition/KRLD Final Edition (1960s)
• Big News (1960s)
• 4 News Report (?-1971)
• In-4-mation Central (1971-?)
• 24 Hours/NewsScene (1970s)
• Eyewitness News (1975–1978)
• Channel 4 News (1978–1980 and 1984–1990)
• News 4 Dallas-Fort Worth (1980–1984)
• News 4 Texas (1990–1996; KDFW kept this news title after switch to Fox in 1995)
• Fox 4 News (1996–present)

Station slogans

• "Eyewitness News: Dallas/Fort Worth's #1 News Team" (1975–1978)
• "Hello Dallas" (1984–1989; during period station used Frank Gari's Hello News)
• "Channel 4 News, Working For You" (news slogan) / "Believing in Texas" (general slogan; 1989)
• "Your 24-Hour News Source" (1990–1995)
• "Fox 4 Texas" (1995–1996)
• "Nobody Gets You Closer" (1996–1997)
• "Fox 4: The News Station" (1997–2012; primary slogan from 2009–2012)
• "Fox 4: The News Leader" (2012–Present) primary slogan
• "Have You Had a Good Day?" (2002–present; used in morning newscast promos)
• "Now You Know" (2009–present; secondary news slogan)

News team

Current on-air staff

Anchors

• Adrian Arambulo - Sunday mornings on Good Day; also weekday morning reporter
• Steve Eagar - weeknights at 5:30, 6 and 9 p.m.
• Dan Godwin - weekdays at noon, and Saturday mornings on Good Day; also weekday morning reporter
• Heather Hays - weeknights at 6 and 9 p.m.
• Lauren Przybyl - weekday mornings on Good Day (4:30–9 a.m.)
• Richard Ray - Saturdays at 6, Sundays at 5, and weekends at 9 p.m.; also weeknight reporter
• Tim Ryan - weekday mornings on Good Day (4:30–9 a.m.)
• Natalie Solis - Saturdays at 6, Sundays at 5, and weekends at 9 p.m.; also weeknight reporter
• Clarice Tinsley - weeknights at 5 and 10 p.m.

4WARN AccuWeather

In addition to providing forecasts on KDFW, the 4WARN Weather Team also provides forecasts for KLIF radio.

• Dan Henry (AMS Certified Broadcast Meteorologist Seal of Approval) - chief meteorologist; weeknights at 5, 5:30, 6, 9 and 10 p.m.
• Evan Andrews (AMS Seal of Approval) - meteorologist; weekday mornings on Good Day (4:30–9 a.m.)
• Ron Jackson (AMS Seal of Approval) - meteorologist; Saturdays at 6, Sundays at 5, and weekends at 9 p.m.
• Jennifer Myers - meteorologist; weekdays at noon, weekend mornings on Good Day

Sports team

• Mike Doocy - sports director; weeknights at 6, 9 and 10 p.m., also host of Sports Sunday
• Max Morgan - sports anchor; Saturdays at 6, Sundays at 5, and weekends at 9 p.m., also sports reporter

Team Traffic

• Chip Waggoner - traffic anchor; weekday mornings Good Day (4:30-9 a.m.), and weeknights at 5 p.m.
• Todd Carruth - fill-in traffic anchor

Reporters

• Fil Alvarado - general assignment reporter
• Dionne Anglin - general assignment reporter
• Lari Barager - general assignment reporter; also fill-in anchor
• Calvert Collins - general assignment reporter
• Melissa Cutler - general assignment reporter
• Saul Garza - general assignment and "What's Buggin' You" feature reporter
• Fiona Gorostiza - weekday morning feature reporter
• Matt Grubs - general assignment reporter
• Lynn Kawano - general assignment reporter
• Emily Lopez - general assignment reporter
• Doug Luzader - Fox News Washington D.C. correspondent
• Steve Noviello - "Fox 4 On Your Side" consumer reporter
• Becky Oliver - investigative reporter
• Shawn Rabb - general assignment reporter
• James Rose - general assignment and "Street Squad" feature reporter
• Latoya Silmon - weekday morning reporter
• Brandon Todd - general assignment reporter

Notable former on-air staff

• Rebecca Aguilar - reporter (1994-2008)
• Ashleigh Banfield - anchor (1995–2000; now with CNN)
• Katherine Creag - reporter (2002–2005; now at WNYW in New York City)
• Sam Donaldson - announcer (1959–1960; later with ABC News, retired)
• Wayne Freedman - reporter (1980–1981; now at KGO-TV in San Francisco)
• Frank Glieber - sports reporter/anchor (deceased)
• Cynthia Gouw - weekend anchor/reporter (1993–1994)
• Judd Hambrick - anchor (1972–1973)
• Dale Hansen - sports anchor (1980–1983; now at WFAA)
• Megan Henderson - Good Day anchor (2003–2009; now at KTLA in Los Angeles)
• Craig James - sports anchor (1992–1993; later with ABC Sports and ESPN)
• Dick Johnson - anchor (1976–1982; now at WMAQ-TV in Chicago)
• Bill Mercer - sportscaster/wrestling announcer (1953–1964)
• Bob Phillips - host of 4 Country Reporter (1972–1986; now host of Texas Country Reporter)
• Dick Risenhoover - sports anchor (1970–1973; deceased)
• James Spann - meteorologist (mid-1980s; now at WBMA-LP/WCFT/WJSU in Birmingham, AL)
• Casey Stegall - reporter (2005–2007; now with Fox News)
• Roger Twibell - sports reporter (1975–1976; now at Big Ten Network)

References

• Shannon, Mike (January, 2004). Dallas-Fort Worth TV Station History. The History of Dallas-Fort Worth Radio and Television.
• KDFW Fox 4 – 50 Years and Counting! (1999) KDFWFox4.com.

External links

• MyFoxDFW.com - Official website
• Query the FCC's TV station database for KDFW
• BIAfn's Media Web Database -- Information on KDFW-TV
• Program Information for KDFW at TitanTV.com
• Very old pictures from KRLD Radio and TV