KTXL
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| KTXL | |
|---|---|
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 Sacramento / Stockton / Modesto, California |
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| Branding | FOX40 |
| Channels | 40 (UHF) analog, 55 (UHF) digital |
| Affiliations | Fox
The Tube on DT2 signal |
| Owner | Tribune Broadcasting |
| Founded | October 26, 1968 |
| Call letters meaning | Television XL = Roman numeral for "40" |
| Former affiliations | Independent (1968-86) |
| Website | www.fox40.com |
KTXL, (FOX40), is the Fox affiliate based in Sacramento, California. It is owned by Tribune Broadcasting. Its transmitter is located near Walnut Grove, California.
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[edit] History
The channel 40 frequency in Sacramento was first occupied in September of 1953 by KCCC, 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, (K-VUE) broadcasting from studios near the old California state fairgrounds off of Stockton Blvd. The station operated for about six months before falling silent again. That was the end of the original channel 40 license. Eleven years later, KVUE would be the call letters of an ABC-affiliated station in Austin, Texas today.
A new group of broadcasters headed by Jack Matranga, former owner and co-founder of KGMS AM/FM 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 TV40. 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. KTXL 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), and in 1977 began a summer tradition by showcasing some of the greatest films ever made in annual "Summer Film Festivals".
In 1981, KTXL 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 near-superstation status via land-microwave relay to nearly every cable system north of the Bay Area, as well as several cable systems in Oregon 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, an era of local television broadcasting ended as KTXL decided to join the newly formed Fox Broadcasting Company. Today, KTXL (now labeled FOX40) continues as such an 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 (though many air from the 80s and 90s currently), but a few talk shows and reality/court shows were known to fill the lineup. (Even KTXL is still holding syndication rights to The Andy Griffith Show for decades.) And it aired Fox Kids until the network eliminated the lineup in 2002.
KTXL, along with NBC-affiliate KCRA, 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 the station's owner, Renaissance Communications 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.
[edit] Newscasts
For years, KTXL was one of a few Fox-affiliated stations not to have a local morning newscast, but in the summer of 2005, KTXL debuted the FOX40 Morning News, which runs from 6:00-8am opposite other local morning entities such as the second & third hour of KMAX's Good Day Sacramento, and the first hour of KQCA's morning newscast. As the station introduced the first primetime newscast for Sacramento, its main competitor for years was KRBK (now-KMAX). However, since 1995, KTXL has suffered the setback of settling for second to third place when KOVR (which flipped from ABC to CBS that time) moved its newscast from 11 PM to 10 PM, putting it in direct competition.
- FOX40 Morning News - 6:00AM-8AM weekdays
- anchored by Nina Mehlhaf and Natalie Bomke
- FOX40 News at Ten - 10PM-11PM every night
- anchored by Thomas Drayton and Donna Cordova Monday-Friday, Teri Cox and Joe Orlando on weekends
- Weather: Kristina Werner (M-F), Louisa Hodge (weekend)
- Sports: Jim Crandell (M-F), Mark Demsky (weekend)
- FOX40 In Focus (newsmagazine) - 11-11:30 AM or 11:30AM-NOON Saturdays
- hosted by Lonnie Wong
[edit] News Personalities
- Thomas Drayton
- Donna Cordova
- Kristina Werner
- Jim Crandell
- Joe Orlando
- Teri Cox
- Louisa Hodge
- Mark Demsky
- Johnathan Carlson
- Lonnie Wong (FOX 40 In Focus host)
- Georgette Copes
- Kye Martin
- Nina Mehlhaf
- Tim Sakahara
- Grant Rampy
- Natalie Bomke
[edit] Former News personalities
- Pat Hambright (Now in Reno, NV)
- Adam Housley (Now at FOX News)
- Michelle Kennedy
- Mia Lee (Now at KCAL in L.A.
- Jennifer Parker (Switched careers, now runs a family business)
- Gary Radnich (Now at KRON in San Francisco and at KNBR radio)
- Tim Robinson (Now in Seattle, KING5)
[edit] Official homepage
| Broadcast television in the Sacramento / Stockton / Modesto market (Nielsen DMA #20) | |
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KCRA 3 (NBC, WX Plus on DT2) - KVIE 6 (PBS) - KBTV-CA 8 (Ind.) - KXTV 10 (ABC, AccuWX TV on DT2) - KOVR 13 (CBS) - KMMK-LP 14/KMUM-CA 15/KMMW-LP 47 (MMA/MTV3) - KAZV-LP 14 (AmericanLife, A1) - KUVS 19 (UNI) - KBSV 23 (Ind.) - K27EU 27 (3ABN) - KSPX 29 (ION, qubo on DT2, Worship on DT4) - KMAX 31 (The CW) - KCSO 33 (TMD) - KTXL 40 (FOX, The Tube on DT2) - KTNC 42 (AZA) - KRJR-CA 47/KDTS-CA 52/KACA-LP 61 (DS) - KSAO-LP 49/KSTV-LP 60 (Jewelry TV) - KQCA 58 (MNTV) - KTFK 64 (TFU) |
| Fox Network Affiliates in the state of California | |
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KTVU 2 (Oakland / San Francisco) - XETV 6 (Tijuana / San Diego) - KECY 9 (El Centro) - KTTV 11 (Los Angeles) - KKFX 24 / KSSB 17 (Santa Maria / Santa Barbara) - KMPH 26 / 17 (Visalia / Merced) - KBVU 29 (Eureka) - KCVU 30 (Chico) - KDFX 33 / KESQ-DT 51.2 (Indio / Palm Springs) - KCBA 35 (Salinas) - KTXL 40 (Sacramento) - KBFX 58 (Bakersfield) |
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| See also: ABC, CBS, CW, MyNetworkTV, NBC, PBS, Telefutura, Telemundo, Univision, Independent, Other Spanish Network, Religious, Home Shopping and Other stations in California | |
Categories: Television stations in Sacramento / Stockton / Modesto | Television stations in California | Fox network affiliates | Tribune Broadcasting | Channel 40 TV stations in the United States | Television channels and stations established in 1953 | Television channels and stations established in 1968
