KTXS-TV

KTXS-TV

Sweetwater/Abilene, Texas
Branding	KTXS 12 (general) KTXS News 12 (newscasts) (pronounced "K-Texas")
Slogan	Earning Your Trust
Channels	Digital: 20 (UHF)
Subchannels	12.1 ABC 12.2 CW 12.3 This TV
Translators	KTXE-LP 38 San Angelo
Affiliations	ABC The CW
Owner	Bonten Media Group, LLC (BlueStone License Holdings, Inc.)
First air date	January 30, 1956
Call letters' meaning	TeXaS
Former callsigns	KPAR-TV (1956-1966)
Former channel number(s)	Analog: 12 (VHF, 1956-2009)
Former affiliations	Primary: CBS (1956-1979) Secondary: ABC (1956-1979)
Transmitter power	26.44 kW
Height	351 m
Facility ID	308
Transmitter coordinates	32°24′49.5″N 100°6′24.9″W
Website	www.ktxs.com www.thecwabilene.com

KTXS-TV is the ABC television affiliate for the Abilene/Sweetwater/Brownwood market. The station is licensed to Sweetwater, and broadcasts its digital signal on UHF channel 20 (Suddenlink cable 4 in Abilene) from a broadcasting tower near Trent, Texas.

KTXS also has a low powered repeater, KTXE-LP channel 38 in San Angelo, Texas (called "KTXE 12", reflecting its cable slot on Suddenlink channel 12 in San Angelo).

History

KTXS signed on as KPAR-TV on January 2, 1956. It was part of the West Texas Television Network, based at KDUB-TV (now KLBK-TV, channel 13) in Lubbock, and was a primary CBS affiliate with a secondary ABC affiliation. During the late 1950s, the station was also briefly affiliated with the NTA Film Network. The station's first studio was built on the eastern edge of Sweetwater; broadcasts from this location included a 6pm newscast.

Grayson Enterprises bought the West Texas Television Network stations in 1961. Grayson opened a satellite studio in Abilene in the early 1960s, and soon moved most of KPAR's operations there. This resulted in the first of many fines from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) for violating "main studio" regulations. In 1966, the station moved most of its operations to a new studio in north Abilene and the call letters were changed to KTXS. The station became a sole ABC affiliate when KTAB-TV signed on in 1979 and took over as Abilene's CBS affiliate.

In the late fifties or early sixties, auxiliary studios were built at a former auto dealer building in Abilene. In 1962 or later, the Abilene studios were moved to a new shopping mall (Westgate Shopping center) on the west edge of Abilene. These were used until 1966 when the studios were moved to the highway bypass at the north edge of town, straddling the city of Abilene, the county, and a small town called Impact (founded to allow liquor in otherwise dry west Texas).

Grayson nearly lost its stations, including KTXS, four times between 1968 and 1971 due to licensing issues. In 1977, their renewals were deferred pending a hearing. Grayson was accused of fraudulent billing, program and transmitter log fabrication, main studio violations, failure to make required technical tests, and other problems.

The case was settled in what was then described as a "distress sale" where the stations were sold to a minority controlled group (nowadays known as a historically underutilized group) at a reduced price. The company breakup helped define the parameters of such a sale. KLBK and KTXS were sold to Prima, Inc., who was granted a permanent waiver of the main studio rule. It shut down the Sweetwater studio, but still identifies as "Sweetwater/Abilene."

In 1979, the station dropped CBS and became a full ABC affiliate after KTAB-TV signed on. In September 2006, KTXS started broadcasting the CW Television Network on digital subchannel 12.2. Bluestone Television sold KTXS to Bonten Media Group in 2007. Bonten Media also owns station WCYB in Bristol, Tennessee and manages several other stations. On December 31, 2008 KTXS began broadcasting in High Definition on Suddenlink cable. On June 12, 2009, KTXS Chief Engineer Leland Ohlhausen turned off the analog transmitter.

On Wednesday, August 10, 2011, KTXS began broadcasting the news in 720p high definition with a new set and new graphics.

Coverage area

• KTXS-TV serves as the ABC affiliate for 16 counties in West Central Texas that are part of the Abilene television market area.
• (Taylor, Nolan, Callahan, Coleman, Brown, Runnels, Stephens, Shackelford, Jones, Eastland, Fisher, Scurry, Mitchell, Haskell, Stonewall, & Knox)

• KTXS also provides coverage for 6 other counties that are on the fringe of the actual assigned viewing market.

• (Throckmorton Wichita Falls-Lawton DMA, Comanche Dallas-Fort Worth DMA, Tom Green San Angelo DMA, Coke San Angelo DMA, McCulloch San Angelo DMA, & Concho also assigned to the San Angelo area DMA)
• Throckmorton County was reassigned to the Wichita Falls/Lawton DMA from the Abilene DMA as of September 2008

On-air staff

Current on-air staff

Anchors

• George Levesque: news director/5 PM anchor
• Wayne McCormick: 6 pm and 10 pm anchor
• Braid Blanks: 6 pm and 10 pm anchor
• Mari Cockerell: KTXS This Morning anchor
• Cassandra Garcia: weekend anchor/Reporter
• Michele Frizalone: weekend anchor/Reporter

Reporters

• Jocelyn Tovar: crime and courts reporter
• Roger Mares: producer, Brownwood reporter
• Ashlei King: education reporter
• Casey James: reporter
• Brittany Molinar: reporter

Weather team

• Mark Rowlett: chief meteorologist
• TBD: KTXS This Morning meteorologist
• Julie Phillips: weekend meteorologist/reporter

Sports team

• Bryan Keating: sports director/anchor
• Mike Skow: anchor/reporter
• Brandon Ortega: sports reporter

Past on-air staff

• Brooke Hart: anchor/reporter (early 1990s, now with NBC Newschannel in Washington, DC)

External links

• KTXS-TV Homepage
• KTXE-LP Homepage
• This Tv Abilene
• Query the FCC's TV station database for KTXS
• Query the FCC's TV station database for KTXE
• BIAfn's Media Web Database -- Information on KTXS-TV