KTVT

KTVT

Fort Worth–Dallas, Texas
City of license	Fort Worth, Texas
Branding	CBS 11 (general) CBS 11 News (newscasts)
Slogan	Coverage You Can Count On (news) CBS 11 is Always On (general) Only CBS 11 (secondary)
Channels	Digital: 19 (UHF) Virtual: 11 (PSIP)
Affiliations	CBS
Owner	CBS Corporation (CBS Stations Group of Texas, LP)
Founded	September 11, 1955
Call letters' meaning	TeleVision for Texans
Sister station(s)	KTXA, KVIL, KRLD, KRLD-FM, KMVK, KJKK, KLUV
Former callsigns	KFJZ-TV (1955-1960)
Former channel number(s)	Analog: 11 (VHF, 1955-2009) Digital: 19 (UHF, 1999-2009) 11 (VHF, 2009-2012)
Former affiliations	Independent (1955–1995)
Transmitter power	1000 kW
Height	533.9 m
Facility ID	23422
Transmitter coordinates	32°32′36.00″N 96°57′32.00″W
Licensing authority	FCC
Public license information:	Profile CDBS
Website	www.cbsdfw.com

KTVT, channel 11, is a CBS owned-and-operated television station licensed to Fort Worth, Texas, and serving the Dallas-Fort Worth designated market area. The station is owned by the CBS Television Stations subsidiary of CBS Corporation, and is co-owned with independent station KTXA (channel 21). The two stations share facilities both in Dallas and Fort Worth; the Dallas studio is located on North Central Expressway north of NorthPark Mall, while the Fort Worth studio is located east of downtown off Interstate 30. KTVT's transmitter is located in Cedar Hill.

Digital television

Digital channel

Channel	Video	Aspect	PSIP Short Name	Programming
11.1	1080i	16:9	KTVT-DT	Main KTVT programming / CBS

Analog-to-digital transition

On June 12, 2009, KTVT moved its digital broadcasts from UHF channel 19 to VHF channel 11. Due to widespread reception problems and a resulting loss of 57% of its household viewership, the station was granted permission via special temporary authorization by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to move back to channel 19 on July 23, 2009. On the same day, sister station KTXA was given permission via an STA to move back to channel 18, its transition period digital channel. The channel change went into effect on August 4, 2009. Prior to that time, KTXA was simulcasting KTVT's programming on 21.2. KTVT broadcast on channel 11 and on channel 19 until November 2012 and both stations used the virtual channel "11.1" causing many digital TV receivers to show channel 11.1 twice when tuning sequentially.

On September 10, 2009, the FCC issued a Report & Order, approving KTVT's move from channel 11 to channel 19. On October 21, 2009, it filed a minor change application for its new allotment, for which the FCC granted a construction permit on November 19, 2009. On November 26, 2012, KTVT terminated operations on VHF channel 11 and moved to its new channel 19 transmitting facilities (shared with KTXA).

History

As an independent station

Channel 11 first went on the air on September 11, 1955 as KFJZ-TV, the first independent station in Texas. It was founded by the Texas State Network and was a sister station to KFJZ radio (1270 AM, now KFLC; unrelated to the present-day KFJZ at 870 AM), and later (in 1959) KFJZ-FM (97.1 MHz., now KEGL). During the late 1950s, the station was briefly affiliated with the NTA Film Network. In 1960, the station's original owners sold channel 11 to NAFI Telecasting Corporation (who also owned Chris-Craft Industries at the time), who changed the call letters to the current KTVT.

The Oklahoma City-based WKY Television System, a subsidiary of Oklahoma Publishing Company, purchased KTVT in 1971. Oklahoma Publishing later renamed its broadcasting arm Gaylord Broadcasting. Under Gaylord's watch, channel 11 (or "The Super Ones", as it were later referred to in continuity) became the leading independent station in the Southwest, carrying a broad range of cartoons, off-network sitcoms and westerns, drama shows, movies and public affairs programming. KTVT was further aided in its status as it was a VHF station, whereas its future competitors were UHF stations. KTVT's main competitor in the 1970s was KXTX-TV (channel 39), which was owned by the Christian Broadcasting Network and ran a number of religious shows. While the station gained three additional competitors in the 1980s, KTVT was the only independent station that was profitable.

KTVT's popularity also spread outside of the Metroplex, as it attained superstation status along the lines of Atlanta's WTBS, Chicago's WGN-TV, and WOR-TV in New York City. KTVT broadcast its signal via satellite to C-band users and to 400 cable systems across the country, mostly in the southwestern United States, from the late 1970s through the early 1990s. This status would later hamper Oklahoma Publishing president Edward L. Gaylord's efforts to purchase a controlling interest in the Texas Rangers baseball team, whose games were carried on KTVT from 1985 (Gaylord purchased a minority share of the team that same year) until 1995.

Channel 11 was also the flagship station of Saturday Night Wrestling, a highly-popular Dallas pro wrestling show, and aired a two-hour Saturday night wrestling program titled Championship Sports.

Transition to CBS

In late 1993, Gaylord announced that KTVT – along with sister stations KHTV (now KIAH) in Houston, and KSTW in Tacoma, Washington – would become charter affiliates of the new WB Television Network, which was launched in January 1995. But not long after, longtime CBS affiliate KDFW (channel 4) announced it would be joining the Fox Broadcasting Company, as part of a longterm affiliation deal between Fox and KDFW's new owners, New World Communications. About to find itself without an affiliate in the Metroplex, CBS approached Gaylord, and the two parties came to an agreement – CBS picked up both KTVT and KSTW as affiliates (KSTW, which took the Seattle CBS affiliation from KIRO-TV, would switch affiliations with that station and join UPN after it was sold to Paramount Stations Group in February 1997). Upset by Gaylord's blindsided move, The WB later went to court in an effort to dissolve their arrangement; The WB later signed KXTX-TV as its Metroplex affiliate.

CBS' full schedule of programs moved from KDFW to KTVT on July 1, 1995. On that same day, The WB changed affiliates once again, moving from KXTX to former Fox-owned station KDAF (channel 33). Channel 11 had already been carrying some CBS shows for about a year prior to the affiliation switch; it had picked up The Price Is Right and The Bold and the Beautiful, when KDFW dropped them in favor of Donahue and an expanded midday newscast. By the time that the station transitioned from an independent to a network affiliate, KTVT's status as a superstation came to an end. It expanded its news department and began acquiring local rights to more first-run syndicated programs. KTVT also used the same "11" logo and on-air branding as its Seattle sister station KSTW during this time.

Gaylord sold KTVT to CBS in 1999. The following year, Viacom bought CBS, making KTVT a sister station to then-UPN station KTXA as CBS's owned-and-operated stations were integrated into Viacom's Paramount Stations Group. As part of the deal, KTXA moved its operations from its studios in Dallas to KTVT's facility in Fort Worth. On September 24, 2007, KTVT began broadcasting its newscasts in high-definition, becoming the third Dallas-Fort Worth television station to do so.

Programming

KTVT carries syndicated programs such as Inside Edition, Jeopardy! and Wheel of Fortune, all of which are distributed by corporate cousin CBS Television Distribution (formerly King World Productions).

KTVT is also the 'official station' of the Dallas Cowboys, airing shows involving the team, including the head coach's weekly show, the Dallas Cowboys post-game show and specials, such as the Making of the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders Calendar and post-season team reviews. In the regular season, however, KTVT will only air Cowboys games if the team is playing against an American Football Conference team in the afternoon, in accordance with the National Football League's contract with CBS. KTVT airs such a game every other year on Thanksgiving Day as part of the Thanksgiving Classic – with the Cowboys having played against the Miami Dolphins in the Classic in 2011.

KTVT is one of the few CBS affiliates in the Central Time Zone to carry The Young and the Restless at 11:30 a.m.; most prefer to air it at 11 a.m. as a lead-in to their local noon newscasts. Others that follow the same scheduling for the soap opera as KTVT include Chicago sister station WBBM-TV, Nashville's WTVF, Springfield, Missouri's KOLR and Davenport, Iowa's WHBF-TV (in the Pacific Time Zone, which follows the Central Time daytime pattern of 10 a.m.-3 p.m., The Young and the Restless airs at 11:30 a.m. on CBS-owned KCBS in Los Angeles).

News operation

KTVT newscast title card

KTVT presently broadcasts 28 hours of locally produced newscasts each week (five hours each weekday, one hour on Saturdays and two hours on Sundays). In addition, the station produces two sports programs on Sunday nights after the 10 p.m. newscast: the sports highlight show The Score and the football highlight program Blitz: Cowboys/Desperados Report, which are both hosted by sports director Babe Laufenberg. For most of the time since joining CBS, KTVT has been one of the network's weaker stations in terms of viewership. However in the February 2011 sweeps period, the station's 6 and 10 p.m. timeslots placed first in total viewers for the first time in the station's history. That May, KTVT overall had ran second in both total viewership and adults 25-54 by small margins for the first time in station history; this is in comparison to the May sweeps period a year before, in which Channel 11 won in both total viewers and 25-to-54-year-olds. The 5, 6 and 10 p.m. newscast all saw increases in both demographics placing second.

During its years as an independent station, KTVT established a news department in the 1970s, with newscasts at noon and 10 p.m. On August 20, 1990, KTVT became the first station in Dallas to offer a primetime newscast at 9 p.m. (predating KDFW's addition of a 9 p.m. newscast when it switched from CBS to Fox in July 1995, and the formation of KDAF's news department with the debut of its own 9 p.m. newscast in 1999). After becoming a CBS affiliate on July 1, 1995, KTVT debuted an hour-long morning newscast at 6 a.m. and a half-hour early evening newscast at 6 p.m., while the 9 p.m. newscast was moved to 10 p.m. During the first few years of its CBS affiliation, KTVT used the "11 on Eleven" title for its 10 p.m. newscast (as did Gaylord's station in Seattle, KSTW, which used a modified 11 at 11 branding on its 11 p.m. newscast), used to emphasize that the day's top headlines and the first weather forecast would be aired in the first 11 minutes of the newscast, before the first commercial break. In March 1996, the station added noon and 5 p.m. newscasts to their lineup.

The station's noon newscasts were eventually cut in 2002. In 2000, the station debuted a half-hour 4 p.m. newscast, this program was dropped in 2002, but returned as an hour-long newscast two years later, and was trimmed to a half-hour in 2005. In 2006, the station discontinued its weekend morning newscasts, due to budget cuts imposed by CBS Corporation (as such, KTVT is the only one of the Big Four stations in the market without a weekend morning newscast). On January 11, 2010, KTVT expanded its 4 p.m. newscast once again, now to one hour leading into the 5 p.m. newscast.

In 2010, KTVT switched to the new CBS O&O standardized graphics package (originally used by WCBS-TV in New York City and KCBS-TV in Los Angeles), and began using the CBS Enforcer News Music Collection by Gari Media Group as its news theme. In June 2011, a thunderstorm knocked KTVT off the air during the 5 p.m. newscast, resulting in meteorologist Larry Mowry deciding to tweet his forecast instead.

News/station presentation

Newscast titles

• Metroplex News at Noon/Metroplex Newsreel (1970s)
• 11 News Magazine (1980s)
• Newswatch Eleven (1990–1992)
• The Nine O'Clock News (1992–1995)
• 11 News (1995–2000; after switch to CBS affiliation)
• 11 on Eleven at Ten (1995–1998; 10 p.m. newscast)
• CBS 11 News (2000–present)

Station slogans

• "KTVT, The Super Ones" (1980s–1995)
• "The Eye of Texas" (1995–2004; used as secondary slogan from 2002–2004)
• "Looking Out For You" (1997–2000; news slogan)
• "Reporting the News" (2002–2003; news slogan)
• "Coverage You Can Count On" (2003–present; primary news slogan)
• "CBS 11 is Always On" (2008–present; general slogan)
• "People You Can Count On" (2009–present; secondary news slogan)

This film, television or video-related list is incomplete; you can help by expanding it with reliably sourced additions.

News team

Current on-air staff

Anchors

• Adrienne Bankert - weekday mornings on CBS 11 News This Morning
• Karen Borta - weeknights at 5, 6 and 10 p.m.; also reporter
• Doug Dunbar - weeknights at 5, 6 and 10 p.m.; also reporter
• Brendan Higgins - weekday mornings on CBS 11 News This Morning
• Tracy Kornet - weekdays at 4 p.m.
• Sharrie Williams - Saturdays at 6, Sundays at 5:30, and weekends at 10 p.m.; also weeknight reporter

CBS 11 Storm Team

• Larry Mowry (AMS Certified Broadcast Meteorologist Seal of Approval; member, NWA) - chief meteorologist; weeknights at 5, 6, and 10 p.m.
• Jeff Jamison (AMS Certified Broadcast Meteorologist Seal of Approval) - meteorologist; weekdays at 4 p.m.
• Jeff Ray (AMS Seal of Approval) - meteorologist; Saturdays at 6, Sundays at 5:30, and weekends at 10 p.m.
• Garry Seith - meteorologist; weekday mornings on CBS 11 News This Morning

Sports team (shared with KTXA)

• Babe Laufenberg - sports director; weeknights at 6 and 10 p.m., also "The Score" and "Blitz: Cowboys/Desperados Report" host
• Bill Jones - sports anchor; Saturdays at 6, Sundays at 5:30, and weekends at 10 p.m.
• Gina Miller - sports anchor; weeknights on The Fan Sports Show (6:30-7:30 p.m.; on KTXA); also sports reporter
• Steve Dennis - sports reporter

Reporters

• Ginger Allen - investigative reporter
• Carol Cavazos - general assignment reporter
• Arezow Doost - general assignment reporter
• Whitney Drolen - weekday morning traffic reporter
• Jack Fink - general assignment reporter
• Teresa Frosini - entertainment reporter
• Bud Gillett - senior reporter
• Jay Gormley - general assignment reporter
• Susy Solis - general assignment reporter
• Stephanie Lucero - general assignment reporter
• J.D. Miles - general assignment reporter
• Melissa Newton - general assignment reporter
• Robbie Owens - weekday morning reporter
• Steve Pickett - general assignment reporter
• Joel Thomas - general assignment reporter

Notable former on-air staff

• Julie Bologna - meteorologist (2004–2008; WPXI-TV in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, now at WFAA)
• Candice Crawford - reporter/co-host of Dallas Cowboys focused show The Blitz (?-?)
• Iola Johnson - anchor/host of Positively Texas (2000–2008)
• Curt Menefee - sports anchor (now co-host of Fox NFL Sunday)
• Betty Nguyen - morning anchor (now morning anchor/correspondent for CBS News)
• Uma Pemmaraju - reporter (now Fox News Channel anchor)
• Tracy Rowlett - anchor/reporter/managing editor (1999–2008; left to anchor at now defunct www.Shale.tv, now a co-host of The Texas Daily on KTXD-TV)
• Rene Syler - anchor/reporter (?-?; later cohosted The Early Show on CBS)

References

• Shannon, Mike (January 2004). Dallas-Fort Worth TV Station History. The History of Dallas-Fort Worth Radio and Television.

External links

• CBSDFW.com - Official website
• Query the FCC's TV station database for KTVT
• BIAfn's Media Web Database -- Information on KTVT-TV
• Program Information for KTVT at TitanTV.com