KTXL

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KTXL, channel 40, is a Fox Broadcasting Company-affiliated television station in Sacramento, California, owned by the Tribune Company. KTXL's studio and offices are located in South Sacramento, and its transmitter is near Walnut Grove, California.

History

The channel 40 frequency in Sacramento was first occupied in September of 1953 by KCCC-TV, affiliated with all four television networks: ABC, CBS, NBC and the DuMont Television Network. KCCC's first broadcast was the 1953 World Series. The station became a primary ABC affiliate by 1955, after KCRA-TV and KBET-TV (now KXTV) signed on; and dropped DuMont after that network folded in 1956. [1] It was the Sacramento-Stockton-Modesto area's first television station. However, as a UHF station, it suffered in the ratings because TV sets were not required to have UHF tuning until 1964. Although its fate was sealed when the first VHF stations signed on in the area, it managed to hang on until 1957. The ABC affiliation moved to KOVR after KCCC signed off when an agreement was made between KCCC-TV and KOVR to merge operations and end KCCC programming.

KCCC (now off air) was then sold to a group of broadcasters who would return the station to the air in 1959 as KVUE, broadcasting from studios near the old California state fairgrounds off Stockton Boulevard. The station operated for about six months before falling silent again. That was the end of the original channel 40 license.

Camellia City Telecasters, a group headed by Jack Matranga, former owner and co-founder of KGMS radio in Sacramento applied for a license to operate channel 40. On October 26, 1968 KTXL signed on, operating as an independent station for nearly the first two decades of its existence. It was then known as TV 40. The station gained a huge advantage early on when its original owner won the local syndicated rights to a massive number of movies, including classic and contemporary films. At one point, it had one of the largest film libraries in the Sacramento area. In addition, KTXL ventured into in-house productions, such as the children's program "Captain Mitch" and "Big Time Wrestling". The latter show aired until 1979, and was syndicated to several stations in California, Utah, Alaska and Hawaii. Channel 40 was one of the few stations to hold syndicated rights to the entire Merrie Melodies/Looney Tunes cartoon libraries (up until recently, different companies held different components of the cartoon output).

In 1974, KTXL became the first area station to air a 10pm newscast (originally only five days a week, and later seven days a week--the station's news history is noted below under Newscasts), and in 1977 began a summer tradition by showcasing some of the greatest films ever made in annual "Summer Film Festivals".

In 1981, channel 40 made television history by showing the 1978 movie The Deer Hunter (and later many other movies) uncut and unedited, complete with objectionable material--this kind of policy has been tightened somewhat in succeeding years.

All of this made KTXL one of the leading independent stations in the West. It also attained regional-superstation status via land-microwave relay to nearly every cable system north of the Bay Area, as well as several cable systems in Oregon,Montana and Nevada.

KTXL has long been known for ending a program or movie before the closing credits, and viewers should know this is not the way these shows/films were intended to be seen.

KTXL started broadcasting from its new 2000-foot "Monster Tower" in October 1985, significantly increasing its signal strength and adding stereo capability. Initially, the station would only turn on the stereo signal during stereo programming. This sometimes resulted in the staff forgetting to turn it on right at the beginning of a stereo program.

In 1986, KTXL became a charter affiliate of the newly-formed Fox Broadcasting Company. In the following year, Camellia City Telecasters sold KTXL to Renaissance Broadcasting. Today, KTXL (now and currently known as Fox 40) continues as a Fox affiliate. Its nightly newscasts follow a "hard-edged" format (with crime stories among its headlines), while following the lead of many ten o'clock newscasts by reserving its sportscasts for the final segment (in an attempt to lure many viewers to all-night cable sports channels such as ESPN and Fox Sports Net for further sports coverage). Most Fox affiliates, since the mid-1990's, would evolve their daytime programming lineup by leaning away from classic sitcoms and cartoons toward a talk show format. KTXL is among a few stations to be an exception to this: the daytime lineup is still filled with sitcoms to this day (Even KTXL is still holding syndication rights to The Andy Griffith Show after many decades, though many shows from the 80s and 90s air currently), but a few talk shows and reality/court shows were known to fill the lineup. In place of 40's own children's lineup after Captain Mitch's retirement, the station aired Fox Kids until the network eliminated the lineup in 2002. KTXL is dropping The Andy Griffith Show as of September 5, 2008, with plans of expanding the Morning News from 2 Hours to 4 and a Half Hours. The New Morning News will be called FOX 40 LIVE.

KTXL, along with NBC-affiliate KCRA-TV, are the only two stations in Sacramento to retain affiliation with the same network from the beginning, unaffected by network swaps in 1995 and 1998.

KTXL became a Tribune-owned station when the company purchased Renaissance Broadcasting in 1997. When the station's new owners took over, they bulk-erased a lot of old locally-produced programming, and threw all the 16 mm film in the dumpster. Most of the film was rescued by collectors though.

Newscasts

In 1974, KTXL initiated the Sacramento area's first Ten O'Clock News, with Dave Preston (news), Jan Jeffries (weather and news), and Ken Gimblin (sports). When Preston left for unknown reasons, Jeffries was left to do the news with substitute weather anchors. Other news and sports anchors continued the format until 1979, when the news was revived by Pete Wilson as NewsPlus, in a format that went beyond regular newscasts (hence the Plus in the show's title). Such anchors as Ted Mullins and Andy Asher helmed the now-hour-long newscast until KTXL began its Fox affiliation, and evolved into the current format of what is now known as Fox 40 News at 10.

In the summer of 2005, KTXL debuted the Fox 40 Morning News, which runs from 6:00 a.m. to 8:00 a.m. opposite KMAX's Good Day Sacramento, and the first hour of KQCA's morning newscast. On September 8, 2008, KTXL reformatted Fox 40 Morning News to Fox 40 Live; expanded the broadcast to 4.5 hours (4:30-9am); hired well-known former Sacramento morning radio personality Paul Robins as presenter; and introduced a new news set adorned with flat-screens and an accompanying kitchen set. KTXL joins KCRA and KMAX with 4:30am newscasts.

KTXL now competes at 10:00 p.m. with KOVR and the KCRA-produced half-hour news program on KQCA. Channel 40 tops the ratings in "demos", and often comes in first or second in overall viewership at 10pm. On September 8, 2008, longtime KCAL-KCBS Los Angeles anchor-reporter Jaime Garza joined Donna Cordova as co-anchor of the weeknight "Fox 40 News At Ten."

Gallery

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• File:KTXLFOX40Newsopen.jpg
• File:KTXL Logo.png

Current Personalities/ Joined Date

Anchors

• Donna Cordova, Weeknight 10pm Anchor (1994)
• Joe Orlando, Weekend 10pm Anchor/ Weekday Reporter (2002)
• Teri Cox, Weekend 10pm Anchor/ Weekday Reporter (1989)
• Natalie Bomke, Morning Anchor/ Reporter (2007)
• Paul Robins, Morning Anchor (Begins Sept 2008)

Weather

• Kristina Werner, Weeknight 10pm Chief Meteorologist (1999)
• J.D Maher, Fill-in Meteorologist (2005)
• Louisa Hodge, Weekend Meteorologist/Reporter (2005)
• Rosemary Orozco, Morning Weather Anchor (2008)

Sports

• Mark Demsky, Weekend Sports Anchor
• Jim Crandell, Sports Director weeknight anchor (1984)

Reporters

• Mike Bond, General Assignment Reporter (2007)
• Grant Rampy, Washington D.C Bureau
• Rowena Shaddox, Freelance Reporter (2002, on-air job 2006)
• Lonnie Wong, General Assignment Reporter
• Bethany Crouch, General Assignment Reporter (2007)
• Jamie Soriano, Morning Reporter (2007)
• Reggie Kumar, General Assignment Reporter (2008)
• Darsha Phillips, General Assignment Reporter (2008)
• Dennis Shanahan, General Assignment Reporter (2008)

Former News personalities

• Jay Alan Former evening co-anchor with Donna Cordova 2002-2003
• Lisa Amin, Now at KGO-TV in San Francisco, 2004-2007
• Warren Armstrong (Former evening anchor with Donna Cordova 1997; now weeknight anchor at KFSN in Fresno)
• Andy Asher,anchor (1980s)) Now at NBC 5 Dallas/Fort Worth, TX
• Scott Babashak- Married to Liz Keptner residing in Philadelphia, Fill-in anchor/ reporter until 2005.
• David Brown Weeknight Meteorologist 1990-1994 now at WCVB in Boston Morning Anchor/Reporter
• Jonathan Carlson, Reporter/Fill-In Anchor (2005-2007, Now a weekday reporter/fill-in anchor at WSPA-TV in the Carolinas)
• Thomas Drayton, Anchor 2002- Sept. 2008)
• Joe Conway (weather 1977-83)
• Gorgette Copes, (Now in San Diego, Ca) 2005-2007
• Shana Franklin General Assignment Reporter (2003-2005, now at KDAF in Dallas/Fort Worth Texas.)
• Michelle Franzen now with NBC NEWSCHANNEL in New York
• Ken Gimblin, original sports anchor, 1974-76, later worked for News 10 in Sacramento).
• Darla Givens, Meteorologist, (1996-1999; now at KXTV News10 in Sacramento.)
• Pat Hambright, Meteorologist (1999-2005; Now at KOLO in Reno, NV)
• Adam Housley, General Assignment Reporter (Now at FOX News Los Angeles)
• Stormin' Norman Jacobs,Meteorologist, (1980s)
• Jan Jeffries, KTXL's first news co-anchor and weather reporter, 1974-77
• Michelle Kennedy, General Assignment Reporter (Now at KRON in San Francisco)
• Mia Lee (1992-1998; Now at KCAL in L.A.)
• Michelle Liu, Reporter (2007-2008)
• Liz Keptner- Fill-in Anchor for Donna while on Maternity leave now at KYW in Philadelphia.
• David Lloyd, Sports Anchor/Reporter (now at ESPN in Bristol, Connecticut)
• Kye Martin, Now in Chicago as traffic reporter for WGN-TV/CLTV, 2005-2008, Morning Reporter
• Terry McSwenny now on KGO-TV ABC 7 in San Francisco
• Nina Melhaf, Now at KTVZ in Oregon as Anchor/ Reporter, 2005-2007
• Evan Michael, June 2007- June 2008, Morning Anchor
• Ted Mullins (Anchor, deceased)
• Jennifer Parker, Morning Anchor (2005-2007; Switched careers, now runs a family business)
• Dave Preston, KTXL's first news co-anchor, 1974-76, left for unknown reasons
• Gary Radnich (Now at KRON in San Francisco and at KNBR radio)
• Melissa Remick, Reporter (1999-2008) Continues to home school her children
• Matt Robinson (City of Tracy Public Affairs Officer)
• Tim Robinson (1998-2003, Now in Seattle, KING5) Former weekend co-anchor with Teri Cox; Married to former KXTV anchor Jane McCarthy
• Tim Sakahara, General Assignment Reporter, 2005-2007, now at KGMB-TV in Hawaii
• Stuart Satow, sports anchor late 1970s, later with KXTV.
• Matt Skryja, Freelance Reporter Jan-Jun 2008, now at AAA in San Francisco public relations.
• Mike Stevens - Original Fox 40 News at 10 Co-Anchor with Donna Cordova 1993 - 1996 (now 5,6 and 11pm Anchor at WEYI-TV Flint Michigan)
• Pete Wilson (NewsPlus creator/co-anchor 1979-83 Died of heart attack in July 2007 recent job at KGO-TV)
• Monica Woods, Weeknight Meteorologist (1995-1999; Now at KXTV News10)
• Lorraine Woodward, Weeknight anchor (1988-1993)

Official homepage

• Official Website
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