KAUT-TV

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KAUT-TV
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
Branding	OK43
Slogan	An Oklahoma Original
Channels	43 (UHF) analog, 40 (UHF) digital
Affiliations	MyNetworkTV
Owner	The New York Times Company (sale to Oak Hill Capital Partners pending)
Founded	1980
Call letters meaning	K Gene AUTry
Former callsigns	KTLC (1991-98), KPSG (June-November 1998)
Former affiliations	Independent (1980-86) Fox (1986-90) PBS (1991-98) UPN (1998-2006)
Website	www.ok43.com

KAUT-TV (branded as simply OK43) is the affiliate for the Fox Entertainment Group owned My Network TV television network in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. KAUT is owned by The New York Times Company, which also owns Oklahoma City's NBC affiliate KFOR-TV (Oklahoma's News Channel 4).

The station broadcasts its analog signal on UHF channel 43, and its digital signal on UHF channel 40. On cable, KAUT-TV can be seen on cable channel 16 on Cox Oklahoma City, on cable channel 14 in Pauls Valley/Wynnewood and Chickasha, on cable channel 23 on Lindsay, and on channel 25 on Crescent. The station is also available to DirecTV and Dish Network customers within the Oklahoma City market.

Contents 1 History 1.1 From UPN to My Network TV 2 News operation 3 Sports 4 Newscasts 4.1 Weeknights 4.2 Sundays 5 Newscast Titles 6 Station Brandings 7 Movie Umbrella Titles 8 Logo Gallery 9 Office location 10 External link

[edit] History

Founded by actor Gene Autry, KAUT signed on in 1980. KAUT is the sixth television station and the fourth UHF television station in Oklahoma City after KOCB, KOKH and the short-lived KTVQ. The station was owned by his Golden West Broadcasters who also owned LA's legendary KTLA-TV. It was a groundbreaking station, airing an all local new format called "Newswatch 43" which ran initially from 9AM-5PM before expanding to 7pm. VUE, a scrambled subscription based service, signed on at 5pm initially and 7pm after expanding news programming.

In late 1981, the plug was pulled on "Newswatch" with the station temporarily running a format of old Western films, most of them starring Autry. Innovation continued in early 1982 with the launch of a two-hour local dance show called "TMC 43", which ran from 4-6pm. From 6-7pm, KAUT aired a live local country dance show from a local bar called "Oklahoma Country Live". Both shows were gone by fall 1982. By then, some dramas and sitcoms had been added.

The station dropped VUE in 1983. Initially it added programming from Financial News Network at night and Independent Network News. Later in the year, FNN was dropped and KAUT added more prime time movies and drama shows. In 1984 KAUT added morning cartoons as well as a few more sitcoms in the evening.

The station became a charter Fox affiliate in 1986, carrying The Late Show Starring Joan Rivers and later the fourth network's early original series, such as Married... with Children and 21 Jump Street In addition, more afternoon cartoons were added. In the mid 1980's, Heritage Broadcasting bought KAUT from Golden West. In 1987 Pappas Telecasting made a proposal to buy KOKH. In this deal it would also buy KGMC's (now KOCB) programming and merge it with KOKH's schedule, while KGMC would switch to a religious/home shopping format. Pappas also proposed to buy KAUT's programming and Heritage would agree to sell KAUT to the Oklahoma Educational Television Authority, the state's PBS network. KOKH would then take over as Oklahoma City's Fox affiliate. In 1988, the deal fell through. All three stations continued on with general entertainment schedules.

KOKH went on the market in 1990. Heritage bought KOKH and merged , which also became the Fox affiliate. Heritage then sold KAUT to the Oklahoma Educational Television Authority (OETA). In the Summer of 1991 it became KTLC, the city's second PBS station. It was known as "The Literacy Channel." Despite the name, however, its emphasis wasn't entirely on literacy.

Following the switch to a secondary PBS station, KTLC's schedule included fitness programs such as Body Electric, Homestretch and Sit and Be Fit on weekday mornings from 7 to 8:30am, instructional programming and select PBS series including The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer during the late evenings, with children's programming making up most of Channel 43's schedule. Unlike many PBS stations, KTLC aired children's programs from mid-morning to early evening. Most of the programs were rebroadcasts from KETA.

KTLC's schedule was trimmed back from its earlier lineup as it ended its programming day at midnight, like OETA. KTLC's weekend lineup had the same broadcast day period as it previously did on weekdays but in 1995, KTLC trimmed back its program hours on weekends to begin the day at 4:00pm and end the broadcast day at 12:00am.

To fill the remaining time, Cox Communications aired QVC programming on cable channel 13. OETA found it too hard to run two stations in Oklahoma City, so it decided to sell channel 43. In January of 1998, KOCB announced it would drop its UPN affiliation to pick up The WB. Paramount Stations Group agreed to buy channel 43.

Channel 43 signed off as a full-time educational station at midnight for the last time on June 19. It returned at 5 am the next day as KPSG, named after its new owner. KPSG still aired educational shows from 7 am to noon, followed by a general entertainment format consisting of classic sitcoms, cartoons, UPN first run shows, and movies. That fall the station became a general entertainment station full time.

When the station's founder Gene Autry died in November 1998, the station changed its calls back to KAUT to honor him. Viacom, parent company of Paramount since 1994, acquired CBS in 1999. Gradually classic sitcoms were replaced with talk, reality, and court shows. Cartoons were also gradually phased out and gone by the fall of 2003.

At the end of 2005, Viacom's broadcasting assets and other "slow-growth" businesses became part of a new company called CBS Corporation. In the meantime, CBS sold KAUT to The New York Times Company, making it a sister station to NBC affiliate KFOR-TV.

KAUT now airs The Daily Buzz on Monday through Friday mornings, sitcoms and talk/reality shows in the late morning and afternoons, off-network sitcoms in the evenings and late nights, and dramas and movies on weekends along with some college and professional sports.

KAUT's recent sale to The New York Times Company has brought some changes to the station, including the additional of news to the KAUT lineup. The newscasts are produced by sister station KFOR-TV and broadcast at 9:00pm local time.

On September 12, 2006, less than one year after closing on its purchase of KAUT, The New York Times Company announced its intention to sell all of its television stations. [1] On January 4, 2007, the New York Times Company entered into an agreement to sell the stations to affiliates of the private equity group Oak Hill Capital Partners. KAUT will be operated as part of Local TV LLC.

[edit] From UPN to My Network TV

On January 24, 2006, CBS Corporation and Warner Bros. made the decision to merge UPN and The WB to form a new network, The CW.

On February 22, 2006, when the announcement of My Network TV's formation was made, a promotional video shown on the day of the network's announcement on New York affiliate WWOR-TV showed that the tentative branding of My Network stations would be My (channel number). However, with the switch to My Network TV, KAUT's on-air branding is instead be "OK43", making it one of three My Network TV affiliates not to use the "My" branding, logos or other trademarks on any elements of the channel (the others being KJZZ-TV and KPDX), going against the new network's slated branding conventions. However, KAUT's website does have a generic My Network TV logo. As of September 2006, the station has started a new marketing campaign with the slogan "OK43 An Oklahoma Original," focusing on the station's history and origins with Gene Autry.

On May 1, 2006, KAUT removed all references of UPN from its logos and promotions, adopting the name 43KAUT. The station also started using a new "bug" on off-network programming which omits the UPN logo and leaves the "43" with the station calls underneath, following suit with other UPN affiliates that did likewise after plans for The CW were announced. The station also announced that they would no longer promote any UPN programing.

For months, it was unclear whether KAUT would go independent or affiliate with or Fox's My Network TV beginning on September 5, 2006. On May 2, 2006, KOCB was announced as Oklahoma City's CW affiliate. Not long after the announcement, KAUT removed the UPN branding from its logo, becoming one of a few non-Fox O&O UPN stations to do so. It was then referred to as simply "43." (Ironically, KAUT was erroneously mentioned as a CW affiliate in the first press statements about the new network. What was not realized was that CBS Corporation had just sold the station to NYT.)

Finally, on August 22, 2006, the station was added to the roster of My Network TV's stations on their website as Oklahoma City's affiliate, while station personnel also confirmed the affiliation via email. The word came just two weeks before MNTV aired its first program.

KAUT may also take on the responsibility of airing NBC programs when KFOR is not able to such as in a news-related emergency.

[edit] News operation

Oklahoma's NewsChannel 4 at 9:00 on OK43 is a newscast which premiered on May 5, 2006, produced by KFOR, airing weeknights from 9:00-9:30 p.m. and anchored by Cherokee Ballard and Ernie Paulson. For the first seven and a half months of the newscast's run, the newscast had a format identical to KFOR's 10:00pm newscasts. Not surprisingly, the two newscasts came to mirror each other closely each night as the same local news reports that were seen on the 9:00pm newscast on channel 43 aired at 10:00pm on channel 4. On January 24, 2007, the newscast was revamped becoming more of a fast-paced, Fox News Channel-type newscast, with shorter report segments. The newscast is split in to multiple parts, which mainly are: Top Stories, KFOR.com Desk, 4Warn Forecast, Hot Topic, Big Screen Sports and 4 Things You Need to Know Before You Go to Bed.

KFOR.com Desk (unlike the so-named segment seen on KFOR's 6:30 newscast) shows the most downloaded news story and most downloaded news video on the Internet, Hot Topic is a segment featuring a specific topic with interviews of people giving their opinion on the topic and 4 Things You Need to Know Before You Go to Bed is a 2-minute news/weather segment which features three news topics ending with tomorrow morning's forecast. The revamped newscast is somewhat similar to that of NewsEdge @ 11:00, a late newscast airing on two Fox O&O stations: WTVT in Tampa and WTTG in Washington D.C., which are used as test markets for a possible late newscast to air on all the network's O&Os that do not currently have a late newscast in competition with the big three networks' (ABC, CBS and NBC) local news.

[edit] Sports

Since 2004, KAUT-TV broadcasts Oklahoma Sooners sports including basketball games (mostly women's games) and occasional baseball games. In addition to those they also air Sooners-related basketball and football shows. The station also produces and broadcasts Oklahoma High School Sports Express, a weekly high school sports program hosted by former KFOR sports reporter Van Shea Iven, which airs usually only during the high school basketball and football seasons.

In 2007, a Blazers hockey game was shown on KAUT-TV for the first time on Oklahoma City broadcast television, though it was produced by Cheyenne, Wyoming CBS affiliate KGWN-TV (neither one of Oklahoma City's three professional sports teams, that existed in 2005 or earlier, the Blazers, Yard Dawgz or the Redhawks have to anyone's knowledge ever had one of their games shown on broadcast television in Oklahoma City, though the Yard Dawgz and Blazers have had their games air on Cox Cable and the Redhawks have never had any games broadcast on television at all).

KAUT-TV will become the broadcast home of Texas Rangers major league baseball effective April 6, 2007. These games will most likely be simulcast by MyNetworkTV sister station KDFI in Dallas, who is the official over-the-air broadcast flagship station for the team's games in the Dallas/Ft. Worth Metroplex (Fox Sports Net also broadcasts some games as well).

[edit] Newscasts

[edit] Weeknights

• Oklahoma's NewsChannel 4 at 9:00 on OK43 - 9-9:30PM
  • anchored by Cherokee Ballard and Ernie Paulson with Mike Morgan on weather and Bob Barry, Jr. on sports

[edit] Sundays

• Flash Point (public affairs) - 11:30-12:00AM (replay of 9:30AM broadcast on KFOR)
  • moderated by Kevin Ogle with Burns Hargis and Mike Turpin as commentators

[edit] Newscast Titles

• Oklahoma's NewsChannel 4 at 9 on 43 (May-September 2006)
• Oklahoma's NewsChannel 4 at 9 on OK43 (September 2006-present)

[edit] Station Brandings

• KTLC, The Literacy Channel 43 (1991-June 1998)
• KPSG UPN43 (June-November 1998)
• KAUT UPN43 (November 1998-May 2006)
• 43KAUT (May-September 2006)
• OK43: An Oklahoma Original (September 2006-present)

[edit] Movie Umbrella Titles

• Paramount Teleplex/Prime/Matinee Movie (1998-2000)
• UPN43 Matinee/Prime/Late Movie (2000-2006)
• Channel 43 Matinee/Prime/Late Movie (May-September 2006)
• OK43 Matinee/Late Movie (September 2006-present)

[edit] Logo Gallery

"Newswatch 43" logo used during 1981.	UPN43 logo used from September 2001 to September 2002.	Logo used from September 2002 to May 2006.	Logo used from May 2006 to September 2006.
OK43 logo, used since September 2006.

[edit] Office location

KAUT-TV's studios and transmitter are located at 11901 North Eastern Avenue.

[edit] External link

• KAUT: 43 Homepage
• Query the FCC's TV station database for KAUT-TV

Broadcast television in the Metropolitan Oklahoma City market  (Nielsen DMA #46)
KFOR 4 (NBC) - KOCO 5 (ABC) - KOHC 7 (AZA) - KWTV 9 (CBS) - KETA 13 / KWET 12 (PBS / OETA) - KTBO 14 (TBN) - KLHO 17 (LFN) - KUOT 19 (Almavision) - KTOU 21 (HSN) - KOKH 25 (Fox) - KGBN 27 (A1) - KTUZ 30 (TMD) - KWEM 31 (A1) - KXOK 32 (A1) - KOCB 34 (The CW) - KUOK 35 (UNI) - KCHM-LP 36 (UNI) - KOHC 38 (AZA) - KXOC 41 (A1) - KAUT 43 (MNTV) - KOCM 46 (DS) - KWDW-LP 48 (UNI) - KSBI 52 (Ind) - KOPX 62 (ION)
Local cable television channels City Channel 20 -  News Now 53