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KFOR history
KFOR company history timeline
As WKY had been an NBC Radio Network affiliate since December 1928, WKY-TV debuted with the market's NBC-TV affiliation along with supplemental CBS-TV and ABC-TV clearances.
His pledge soon manifest itself on an exhibitory basis in mid-November 1939 when OPUBCO sponsored a six-day demonstration of telecasts and broadcast equipment at the Oklahoma City Municipal Auditorium in downtown Oklahoma City, now the Civic Center Music Hall.
Gaylord submitted a permit application to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) on April 14, 1948 for a television station on VHF channel 4.
While assembling the TV transmitter antenna onto WKY's 968 feet (295 m) broadcast tower in April 1949, an accident occurred when the antenna fell 8 feet (2.4 m) while being hoisted upward; the antenna suffered minimal damage but added to delays earlier in the month due to inclement weather.
Before the FCC had even approved a color transmission standard, Gaylord ordered color equipment from RCA—including two TK-40 color cameras—in September 1949.
WKY-TV reached a deal to broadcast all ten Oklahoma Sooners football games for the 1949 season, with all home games airing live starting with the October 1 Texas A&M Aggies matchup at Owen Field.
Danny Williams joined WKY-TV in 1950 to host a daily talk show, announce professional wrestling telecasts, and appear as Spavinaw Spoofkin on Gismo Goodkin.
The milestone was inaugurated the morning of July 1, 1952, with Gaylord giving a short message and pressing a button to activate the network connections, joining NBC's Today live in progress.
WKY-TV also originated Bud Wilkinson's Football starting in September 1953.
OPUBCO had a special exhibition at the Municipal Auditorium's Home Show on April 4, 1954, where 30 patrons watched a color set displaying The Paul Winchell Show, one of three color programs NBC was regularly transmitting for testing purposes and the station's first color telecast.
The station became the first network affiliate to provide live color programming to a network on August 17, 1954, when a feed of the American Indian Exposition in Anadarko was sent to NBC; the ten-minute segments on Today and Home featured participants dressed in tribal "war dance" regalia.
On April 23, 1955, WKY-TV produced Square Dance Festival for NBC, showcasing the National Square Dance convention at Municipal Auditorium, the first full-length color program fed to a network by an affiliate.
WKY-TV served as the company's flagship station, and in October 1956, OPUBCO renamed its broadcast group the WKY Television System.
In 1958, WKY-TV became one of the first local television stations in the United States to acquire a videotape recorder, intended for the news department but also used for some show production.
Under varying titles to 1963, Wilkinson's shows on WKY-TV helped boost awareness of the Sooners' football program and encourage physical fitness, with Wilkinson rejecting most advertising in favor of National Guard PSAs.
Still in use as an auxiliary tower for KFOR-TV and WKY up to that point, the tower had been designed to withstand winds in excess of 125 mph (201 km/h). Channel 4 had already moved off the tower in April 1965 when a 1,602-foot (488 m) mast was constructed off of Britton Road.
Football was not the only college sport WKY-TV covered, a 1966 wrestling match between the Sooners and the Oklahoma State University Cowboys became the first of its kind to be televised live.
Danny Williams returned to channel 4 in 1967 to host the local midday talk-variety show Dannysday, which enjoyed a 17-year run.
After Edward K. Gaylord's death at the age of 101 on May 30, 1974, control of OPUBCO was transferred to son Edward L. Gaylord.
OPUBCO sold WKY-TV to the Evening News Association on July 16, 1975, for $22.697 million; this included $197,000 for upgrades to the studio building.
As OPUBCO/Gaylord retained the rights to the WKY call sign, WKY-TV was rechristened as KTVY on January 5, 1976.
Starting with the 1978 Oklahoma Sooners season, KTVY debuted The Oklahoma Playback, a next-day hour-long condensed recap of the most recent Sooners football game with wraparound segments co-hosted by then-head coach Barry Switzer.
Due to Gannett already owning KOCO-TV since their 1979 acquisition of Combined Communications, KTVY, along with WALA-TV in Mobile, Alabama, and KOLD-TV in Tucson, Arizona, were sold to Knight Ridder Broadcasting for $160 million; KTVY sold for a reported $80 million.
KTVY added Sooners college basketball coverage to the lineup in 1982.
KTVY was occasionally granted exceptions to this rule, most notably with the 1983 Oklahoma-Texas rivalry game, which aired live on the station.
KTVY became the first television station in Oklahoma to broadcast in stereo on June 6, 1985; initially, the station broadcast NBC network programs, local programs and certain syndicated shows that were transmitted in the audio format.
The Gannett Company purchased the Evening News Association on September 5, 1985, for $717 million, thwarting a $566 million hostile takeover bid by L.P. Media Inc., owned by television producer Norman Lear and media executive A. Jerrold Perenchio.
Knight Ridder subsequently announced in October 1988 their intent to sell their station group to help reduce a $929 million debt load and finance a $353 million acquisition of online information provider Dialog Information Services.
Four months later, KTVY was sold to Palmer Communications, owner of WHO-TV in Des Moines and KWQC-TV in Davenport, Iowa, for $50 million on February 27, 1989.
After several weeks of on-air promotions that "TV reception in Oklahoma would get stronger," KTVY's call sign changed to KFOR-TV on April 22, 1990, at the start of their 10 p.m. newscast, coupled with an overhaul to the station's on-air presentation.
Palmer signed a letter of intent on November 7, 1991, to sell KFOR-TV and their Des Moines properties to Hughes Broadcasting Partners for $70.2 million; Hughes was formed earlier that year with their purchase of WOKR-TV in Rochester, New York.
Palmer terminated the sale agreement was on April 2, 1992, after rejecting the bid submitted by Hughes Broadcasting.
KFOR-TV and WHO-TV would ultimately be sold to The New York Times Company for $226 million on May 14, 1996; KFOR in particular sold for $155 million.
On June 13, 1998, the former transmitter tower for WKY and WKY-TV collapsed due to straight-line wind gusts near 105 mph (169 km/h) produced by a supercell thunderstorm that also spawned four tornadoes, a KWTV tower camera captured the collapse on-air.
Several weeks after Paxson dissolved the KOPX joint sales agreement, the Times Company purchased UPN station KAUT-TV (channel 43) from Viacom Television Stations Group on November 4, 2005, for an undisclosed price.
The Times Company left television broadcasting altogether with the $530 million sale of their nine station group to Local TV LLC the deal was finalized on May 7, 2007.
A new combined facility for KFOR-TV and KAUT was constructed adjacent to KFOR-TV's existing studios; groundbreaking occurred in January 2015.
Sinclair Broadcast Group agreed to acquire Tribune Media on May 8, 2017, for $3.9 billion, plus the assumption of $2.7 billion in debt held by Tribune.
Completed in August 2017, the new building both boasted a floorplan improving workflow and employee collaboration, and was built with reinforced steel, concrete and protective glass that could withstand a direct hit from severe weather and enable unlimited broadcasting.
Several conference rooms in the new facility were named after former on-air staff—including the "Barry Huddle Room" in honor of Bob Barry Sr. and Bob Barry Jr.—and the main studio was later named in honor of Linda Cavanaugh upon her December 15, 2017, retirement.
As Sinclair already owned KOKH-TV and KOCB, the company agreed on April 24, 2018, to divest KOKH-TV to Standard Media as part of a $441.1 million group deal.
Following the collapse of the Sinclair merger, Nexstar Media Group announced it would acquire Tribune Media in a $6.4 billion all-cash deal on December 3, 2018, which also included all outstanding Tribune debt.
Approved by the FCC on September 16, 2019, the merger was completed three days later.
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Zippia gives an in-depth look into the details of KFOR, including salaries, political affiliations, employee data, and more, in order to inform job seekers about KFOR. The employee data is based on information from people who have self-reported their past or current employments at KFOR. The data on this page is also based on data sources collected from public and open data sources on the Internet and other locations, as well as proprietary data we licensed from other companies. Sources of data may include, but are not limited to, the BLS, company filings, estimates based on those filings, H1B filings, and other public and private datasets. While we have made attempts to ensure that the information displayed are correct, Zippia is not responsible for any errors or omissions or for the results obtained from the use of this information. None of the information on this page has been provided or approved by KFOR. The data presented on this page does not represent the view of KFOR and its employees or that of Zippia.
KFOR may also be known as or be related to KFOR, KFOR-TV, Kfor TV & Who TV and Local TV Oklahoma, LLC.