Jump to content

KOCO-TV

Edit links
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by 71.222.116.50 (talk) at 03:18, 16 June 2008. The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

{{Infobox broadcast}} may refer to:

{{Template disambiguation}} should never be transcluded in the main namespace.

KOCO-TV, commonly referred to as "KOCO 5" or "Eyewitness News 5" is the ABC affiliate in the Oklahoma City television market. The station is owned by Hearst-Argyle Television, Inc., but uses "Ohio/Oklahoma Hearst-Argyle Television, Inc." as their end tag during their newscasts, the same licensing purpose corporation as sister Cincinnati, Ohio station WLWT.

The station broadcasts its analog signal on VHF channel 5, and its digital signal on VHF channel 7. On cable, KOCO-TV can be seen on channel 8 on Cox Oklahoma City and on channel 5 on other Cox systems in Central Oklahoma. The station is also available to DirecTV and Dish Network customers within the Oklahoma City market.

History

The station signed on July 2, 1954 as KGEO-TV, based in Enid, and had been the only full-power VHF station in northern Oklahoma. Its transmitter and studio location were moved to Oklahoma City in 1958, becoming the third VHF television station to sign on in the Oklahoma City market, behind KFOR and KWTV. KOCO's original Oklahoma City studio was located at NW 63rd and Portland Avenue but moved to its present location near the transmitter site on East Britton Road in the early 1980s.

Prior to the move from Enid to Oklahoma City, ABC network programming was seen in Oklahoma City on WKY-TV (now KFOR-TV) as a secondary affiliation until KTVQ (now KOKH-TV) Channel 25 signed on in 1953 until it went dark in 1956, signing on the air again as the present-day KOKH-TV in 1959.

KOCO's move from Enid to Oklahoma City in 1958 was similar to that of Tulsa's ABC affiliate, KTUL-TV Channel 8, which the previous year had moved to Oklahoma's second largest city after originating in Muskogee, Oklahoma under the callsign KTVX.

KOCO had been the only local television station in Oklahoma that operated and maintained a bureau office elsewhere in the state. For several years after its move from Enid to Oklahoma City, KOCO also operated a second bureau in Enid; but it was closed by KOCO in the mid-1990s for unknown reasons.

In January 1997, Gannett swapped KOCO-TV, along with WLWT in Cincinnati, Ohio, to Argyle Television in exchange for WZZM-TV in Grand Rapids, Michigan and WGRZ-TV in Buffalo, New York. Argyle merged with Hearst Broadcasting in August of that year, creating Hearst-Argyle Television.

On June 13, 1998 around 8:00PM local time, Rick Mitchell, Mike LaPoint (who was weekend meteorologist at the time) and a photographer were in the station's garage when KOCO's studios were hit by a severe thunderstorm (either by a tornado or a damaging wind gust, though tornado touchdowns occurred in the area that evening), which rendered the station off the air for 24 hours. As the storm hit, LaPoint yelled "Rick, it's on the ground!" and they ran into the station to take shelter and the station went dark. The station's doppler radar dome was dented and a fence at the station was downed by the storm. The same storm also destroyed the old WKY-AM-TV tower not far from the studios of KFOR-TV.

Market Firsts

  • First Station in the country to offer an automated weather warning system. (Emmy Award)
  • First Station in the country to send pictures of a storm over cellular telephone. (Emmy Award)
  • First Station to have a helicopter for aerial newsgathering.
  • First Station to have mobile doppler weather radar.
  • First Station to send video over cellular telephone. (Emmy nomination)
  • First Station to have Full Screen video over cellular telephone.

Eyewitness News

KOCO 5 has used the Eyewitness News brand on two separate occasions during its history, 1974-1977 and from 1998-present. The first period was during a time when the format was very popular in TV markets throughout the nation. Local CBS affiliate KWTV 9 had previously used the Eyewitness News moniker from 1966 to 1971 but dropped it when the newscast was renamed Newsroom 9. Despite the use of the Eyewitness News concept and name, KOCO remained for many years a distant third place in local news ratings against dominant NBC affiliate WKY-TV Channel 4 (later KTVY and now KFOR-TV) and KWTV. KOCO aired its evening newscast at 5:30 p.m. rather than the 6 p.m. time slot used by KTVY and KWTV until the early 1980s when it introduced an early evening newscast at 5 p.m. and a 6 p.m. broadcast with ABC's World News Tonight in the 5:30 p.m. timeslot. All three programs were top-rated in the market in November 2006.

5 Alive

In 1977 KOCO's parent company, Combined Communications, did a makeover of the station's image by adopting the "5 Alive" branding that was introduced at other Combined-owned stations. Although a number of Combined stations that adopted the practice of using the word "Alive" as part of their monikers ended the practice after Gannett purchased Combined in 1979, KOCO continued promoting itself as "5 Alive" until 1994. During the "5 Alive" era, KOCO's local newscasts were branded as "5 Alive NewsCenter" or "5 Alive News", and, thanks to Gannett's resources and investment in the station which included a new studio facility in the early 1980s along with news helicopters, KOCO improved its fortunes in local news ratings in the Oklahoma City market from 1980 to 1982 when the station briefly overtook KWTV for second place and even battled longtime powerhouse KTVY for first place. By 1983, KOCO settled into a solid second place as KWTV rose from a distant third all the way to first place, displacing KTVY from the top spot it held for decades. By the late 1980s, KOCO dropped back to third place, where it lingered for years.

In 1994 KOCO dropped the "5 Alive" branding in use since 1977 and the newscast was renamed "5 News." In 1998 after the station was purchased by current owner Hearst-Argyle Television, the newscast was renamed "Eyewitness News 5" - a moniker previously used during the mid-1970s. In recent years, the station boosted its commitment to news and weather coverage, adding newscasts and positioning itself as "live, local, latebreaking." The efforts helped propel the station's 5:00 newscast into first place in the market in 2004. In November 2006, KOCO also registered its first-ever outright win at 6:00 p.m.

Programming

KOCO-TV clears all of the ABC schedule, except for ABC Kids airings of Power Rangers: Operation Overdrive likely due to lack of E/I content, which is the same reason sister station WISN in Milwaukee preempts the program.

KOCO-TV also occasionally preempts a primetime ABC program due to special programming. Though, this practice is nothing new, for they also have preempted or delayed some ABC programs during the 1970s and 1980s.

The station airs most of the highest-rated programs in syndication, with The Ellen DeGeneres Show after Good Morning America, Dr. Phil and Oprah paired up in mid-afternoons together and Wheel of Fortune airing before primetime.

KOCO also makes the claim based on Nielsen Media Research numbers that it is the top-rated ABC affiliate in the nation, which is based on market size and household ratings percentages. In fact, the three highest-rated ABC affiliates in the nation are all Hearst-Argyle stations (KOCO, plus WISN in Milwaukee, Wisconsin and KMBC in Kansas City, Missouri).

Ratings

KOCO-TV designated the number one-rated ABC affiliate in the United States in the February 2007 sweeps period and is one of only two stations in the Oklahoma City market (#45, 2006-2007) to have the number one network station, owned-and-operated or affiliated, of the network they're affiliated with. The only other is KOCB-TV, which as a WB affiliate was the number one WB affiliate in the nation for the 2005-2006 season.

The station's newscasts are currently the top-rated programs (per Nielsen Media Research) at both 5:00 and 6:00 p.m. KOCO-TV also features the market's highest-rated daytime programming and, as of November 2006, the most-watched network newscast in ABC's World News with Charles Gibson.

News operations

Currently, KOCO-TV airs 26.5 hours of local news each week (with four hours on weekdays, three hours on Saturdays and 3½ hours on Sundays). KOCO-TV has the fastest revolving weather radar in the area, "Advantage Doppler HD", and employs the largest fleet of live trucks in the state of Oklahoma.

Personalities

Current On-Air Talent

EYEWITNESS NEWS 5 ANCHORS

  • Maggie Carlo: 5, 6 and 10PM Anchor - Sun-Thurs Fill-in Anchor/Reporter
  • John Flick: Morning Anchor/Reporter
  • Mark Opgrande: Sunday Morning Anchor/Reporter
  • Jessica Schambach: 5, 6 and 10PM Anchor - Weeknights
  • JiaoJiao Shen: Morning Anchor/Reporter
  • Darrielle Snipes: Weekend Evening Anchor/Reporter

EYEWITNESS NEWS 5 REPORTERS

  • Amanda Guerra: General Assignment Reporter
  • Erin Guy: General Assignment Reporter
  • Sophia Reza: General Assignment Reporter
  • Kevin Sims: General Assignment Reporter/Fill-in Anchor
  • Jesse Storm: "Traffic Watch" Reporter
  • Jordan Williams: General Assignment Reporter

HEARST-ARGYLE WASHINGTON BUREAU

  • Sally Kidd:’ General Assignment Reporter
  • Laurie Kinney: General Assignment Reporter
  • Tara Mergener: General Assignment Reporter
  • Traci Mitchell: General Assignment Reporter
  • Nikole Killion: General Assignment Reporter

FIRST ALERT METEOROLOGISTS

  • Rick Mitchell: 5, 6 and 10PM Chief Meteorologist
  • Steve Carano: Weekend Fill-In Meteorologist
  • Sarah Libby: Weekday Morning Meteorologist/Fill-in Meteorologist
  • Rusty McCranie: Weekend Meteorologist/Fill-in Meteorologist
  • Andy Wallace: Weekend Meteorologist/Fill-in Meteorologist

FIRST ALERT STORM TEAM SPOTTER UNIT

  • Jay Beauchamp: First Alert Storm Team Unit 13, also Sky5 Photographer
  • Chad Bradley: First Alert Storm Team Unit 51
  • Chris Caldwell: First Alert Storm Team Unit 55
  • Gary Clough: First Alert Storm Team Unit 56
  • Mark Fryklund: First Alert Storm Team Unit 5
  • Rob Hedrick: First Alert Storm Team Unit 11, also Photojournalist/Voice-Over Reporter
  • Mike Jantz: First Alert Storm Team Unit 64
  • Chad King: First Alert Storm Team Unit 57
  • Chris Lee: First Alert Storm Team Unit 2, also Photojournalist/Voice-Over Reporter
  • George McKinnis: First Alert Storm Team Unit 52
  • Jack Quirk: First Alert Storm Team Unit 54

SPORTS XTRA ANCHORS/REPORTERS

  • Mark Rodgers: Sports Director/6PM and 10PM Sports Anchor/"Sunday Sports Xtra" Co-Host
  • Daniel Holdge: Sports Reporter/Fill-in Sports Anchor

Former On-Air Talent

  • Terese Arena, Reporter (1976-1982)
  • Cherokee Ballard, Weekend Anchor/Reporter (1985-2005; now at KFOR-TV)
  • Ed Birchall, Children's television personality (1960s-1988)
  • Gerry Bonds, "Oklahoma Pride" Feature Reporter (1989-1994; now at OETA)
  • Dean Blevins, Sports Anchor (1990-1993; now at KWTV)
  • Paul Bouchereau, Meteorologist (1979-1981; later at KWTV)
  • Jack Bowen, Anchor/Reporter (1976-1987 and 1990-1995)
  • Jeff Castle, Meteorologist (1999-2002; now at WAFF-TV in Huntsville, AL)
  • Ronda Chapman, Weekend Anchor/Reporter (Late 90's - Won Emmy for reports on Oklahoma City Bombing)
  • Tierney Cook, Morning Anchor/Reporter
  • Mick Cornett, Sports Anchor/Morning News Anchor/Reporter (1981-1999; Now Mayor of Oklahoma City)
  • Ross Dixon, meteorologist (1966-late 1980s; now at OETA)
  • Ed Doney, Reporter (1998-1999; now at KFOR-TV)
  • Jennifer Eve, Anchor/Reporter (1980s-2001)
  • Jane Jayroe, Anchor/Reporter (1985-1992), Miss America 1967
  • Frank Johnson, Meteorologist (2000-2006; now at WBTW-TV in Myrtle Beach, SC)
  • Sean Kimerling, Weekend Sports Anchor/Sports Reporter (1994-1997; deceased)
  • Mike LaPoint, Weekend Meteorologist (1997-2000; now at WPXI in Pittsburgh)
  • Kimberly Lohman, Saturday Morning Anchor/Fill-in Anchor/Reporter (1999-2008)
  • Gan Matthews, Anchor/Reporter (1970s-Early 1980s; now at KWTV)
  • Melissa Newton, fill-in anchor/reporter (1999-2007), now at KXAS in Fort Worth/Dallas
  • Jeff Mirasola, Anchor/Reporter (1980s-?)
  • Mike Morgan, Chief Meteorologist (1989-1992; Now at KFOR-TV)
  • Tom MacNamara, Anchor/Reporter (?-1992; now at KVOA in Tucson)
  • Fred Norman, chief meteorologist (1972-1983)
  • Mark Ockerbloom, Sports Anchor/Reporter (1994-2000; now at WFXT in Boston)
  • Jerry Park, Sports anchor (1974-1999)
  • Jim Patton, weekday anchor/reporter (1996-2006), now at XETV in San Diego
  • Milissa Rehberger, Anchor/Reporter (1996-1998; now at MSNBC)
  • Tony Sellars, News Reporter/Sports Anchor/Reporter (1976-1984; later at KWTV; now Comm. Director Feed The Children)
  • Wayne Shattuck, Chief Meteorologist (1983-1989; now at WFTS in Tampa)
  • Jon Slater, Meteorologist (1992-1994; now at KOKI-TV in Tulsa)
  • Ron Stahl, Reporter (1980-late 1990s; now reporter on "Discover Oklahoma")
  • Tyler Suiters, Weeknight anchor/reporter (1999-2008; now at cleanskies.tv)
  • Dean Swanson, Anchor (1973-1977)
  • Merrill Teller, meteorologist (late 1970s; now at KWCH-TV in Wichita)
  • Ron Terrell, Sports Director (2001-2003; now at KOKI-TV in Tulsa)
  • Aaron Tuttle, AM/Weekend Meteorologist (2001-2007; now at the FAA in OKC)
  • Cindy Wall-Morrison, Anchor (1989-1996; now at KTUL-TV in Tulsa)
  • Terri Watkins, Reporter (1982-2006)

News/Station Presentation

Newscast Titles

  • Channel 5 Eyewitness News (1974-1977; Eyewitness News branding previously used by KWTV-9, 1966-71)
  • 5 Alive NewsCenter (1977-1987)
  • 5 Alive News (1987-1994)
  • 5 News (1994-1998)
  • Eyewitness News 5 (1998-present)

Station Slogans

  • The One to Count On (1994-1998)
  • Live. Local. Latebreaking. (1998-present)
  • Stay with Eyewitness News 5, we'll keep you ahead of the storm. (weather slogan)

Trivia

  • Weekday evening anchor and reporter Tyler Suiters and Saturday morning anchor and reporter Kimberly Lohman are married. Although they worked at KOCO for nearly nine years, they were permitted to anchor newscasts together only on a fill-in basis, as Hearst-Argyle, the parent company, has an unwritten policy against married co-anchors.
  • KOCO-TV is one of a few ABC affiliates that does not air the entire ABC network's program schedule. The station preempts one hour of ABC Kids programming on Saturday mornings and has done so since the fall of 2006 (prior to this, said hour was shown six hours behind the network's recommended time slot of 11am). In addition, until recently it was one of several ABC stations to air All My Children weekdays at 11AM, instead of the network's recommended time of 12PM, due to their midday newscast airing at that time slot, a program move similar to some other ABC affiliates whose programming is seen in some sections of Oklahoma such as KVII-TV, Amarillo, Texas and WFAA-TV, Dallas-Fort Worth. However beginning Jan 2, 2008 "The Martha Stewart Show" airs at 11 a.m. and "All My Children" airs at noon replacing the noon newscast
  • In addition, KOCO also airs the ABC Kids children's programming block out of pattern compared to most other ABC stations. Currently, Hannah Montana and The Suite Life of Zack & Cody air on a same-day delay from 7-8am, instead of the recommended 10am-11am timeslot for both shows. The other two hours that KOCO does air are shown in pattern "live" from the ABC feed.

Office location

KOCO's studios and transmitter are located at 1300 East Britton Road, approximately a two minute drive from the studios of KFOR-TV.

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=KOCO-TV&oldid=219623270"