KOCB
Encyclopedia
KOCB, virtual channel
Virtual channel
In telecommunications, a logical channel number , also known as virtual channel, is a channel designation which differs from that of the actual radio channel on which the signal travels....

 34 (digital channel 33), is the CW-affiliate
Affiliate
An affiliate is a commercial entity with a relationship with a peer or a larger entity.- Corporate structure :A corporation may be referred to as an affiliate of another when it is related to it but not strictly controlled by it, as with a subsidiary relationship, or when it is desired to avoid...

d television station in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
Oklahoma City is the capital and the largest city in the state of Oklahoma. The county seat of Oklahoma County, the city ranks 31st among United States cities in population. The city's population, from the 2010 census, was 579,999, with a metro-area population of 1,252,987 . In 2010, the Oklahoma...

. It is owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group of Maryland, LLC
Sinclair Broadcast Group
The Sinclair Broadcast Group is an American telecommunications company that operates the largest number of local television stations in the United States. Headquartered in Hunt Valley, Maryland, it owns a total of 57 stations across the country in 35 primarily small and medium markets, many of...

, in a duopoly
Duopoly (broadcasting)
In United States broadcast television and radio, duopoly is a term used to describe a single company which owns two or more stations in the same city or community....

 with Fox
Fox Broadcasting Company
Fox Broadcasting Company, commonly referred to as Fox Network or simply Fox , is an American commercial broadcasting television network owned by Fox Entertainment Group, part of Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation. Launched on October 9, 1986, Fox was the highest-rated broadcast network in the...

 affiliate KOKH-TV
KOKH-TV
KOKH-TV, virtual channel 25 , is the Fox-affiliated television station serving the Oklahoma City, Oklahoma television market...

 (channel 25). The station's studios and transmitter are co-located with sister station KOKH at 1228 East Wilshire Boulevard in northeast Oklahoma City.

The station broadcasts its digital signal on UHF channel 33, using its former analog assignment of UHF channel 34 as its virtual digital channel via PSIP, and is carried on channel 11 in standard definition and channel 711 in high definition on Cox
Cox Communications
Cox Communications is a privately owned subsidiary of Cox Enterprises providing digital cable television, telecommunications and wireless services in the United States...

 Oklahoma City and also on channel 11 on most other Central Oklahoma cable systems. The station is also available to DirecTV
DirecTV
DirecTV is an American direct broadcast satellite service provider and broadcaster based in El Segundo, California. Its satellite service, launched on June 17, 1994, transmits digital satellite television and audio to households in the United States, Latin America, and the Anglophone Caribbean. ...

 and Dish Network
Dish Network
Dish Network Corporation is the second largest pay TV provider in the United States, providing direct broadcast satellite service—including satellite television, audio programming, and interactive television services—to 14.337 million commercial and residential customers in the United States. Dish...

 customers within the Oklahoma City market.

KOCB-DT

KOCB's digital signal on UHF channel 33 is multiplexed:
Channel Video Aspect
Aspect ratio
The aspect ratio of a shape is the ratio of its longer dimension to its shorter dimension. It may be applied to two characteristic dimensions of a three-dimensional shape, such as the ratio of the longest and shortest axis, or for symmetrical objects that are described by just two measurements,...

Programming
34.1 1080i
1080i
1080i is the shorthand name for a high-definition television mode. The i means interlaced video; 1080i differs from 1080p, in which the p stands for progressive scan. The term 1080i assumes a widescreen aspect ratio of 16:9, implying a frame size of 1920×1080 pixels...

 
16:9
16:9
16:9 is an aspect ratio with a width of 16 units and height of 9. Since 2009, it has become the most common aspect ratio for sold televisions and computer monitors and is also the international standard format of HDTV, Full HD, non-HD digital television and analog widescreen television ...

 
Main KOCB programming / The CW HD
34.2 480i
480i
480i is the shorthand name for a video mode, namely the US NTSC television system or digital television systems with the same characteristics. The i, which is sometimes uppercase, stands for interlaced, the 480 for a vertical frame resolution of 480 lines containing picture information; while NTSC...

 
4:3  The Cool TV; recent and classic music videos


On October 4, 2010, KOCB began carrying The Cool TV, a 24-hour digital music video network, on digital subchannel 34.2. KOCB digital subchannel 34.2 was the Oklahoma City affiliate of The Tube Music Network
The Tube (TV channel)
The Tube Music Network was a music video network carried on free-to-air satellite television, select digital television subchannels and digital cable systems. The network's president and founder was Les Garland, a veteran of MTV and VH1. The Tube was a wholly owned subsidiary of The Tube Media Corp...

, which ceased operations October 1, 2007.

Analog-to-digital conversion

KOCB discontinued regular analog programming and converted to a digital-only signal on February 17, 2009. The station remained on its pre-transition digital channel 33, using PSIP to display KOCB's virtual channel as 34.

History

KOCB went on the air on November 28, 1979 as independent station
Independent station
An independent station is in the category of television terminology used to describe a television station broadcasting in the United States or Canada that is not affiliated with any television network....

 KGMC-TV. The call letters came from its owner, General Media Corporation. It was the first new commercial station to sign on in Oklahoma City in 25 years. The station featured cartoons, classic sitcoms, westerns, dramas, religious shows and some old movies. By only a matter of months, KGMC was the second independent station in Oklahoma, having signed on shortly after competitor and now-sister station KOKH-TV. The station's studios were originally located at 1501 NE 85th, until the station's purchase of KOKH by Sinclair Broadcast Group.

In 1983, KGMC was sold to Seraphim Media, with the format remaining unchanged. In 1987, Pappas Telecasting Companies
Pappas Telecasting Companies
Pappas Telecasting Companies was a diversely organized broadcasting company headquartered in Visalia, California, United States. Founded in 1971, it was one of the largest privately held broadcasting companies in the country, with its stations reaching over 15% of all U.S. households and over 32%...

 sought to buy both KGMC and KOKH as well as then-Fox affiliate KAUT (channel 43). Pappas planned to merge the three stations' schedules on KOKH, which would take the Fox affiliation. KGMC was to be sold to the Oklahoma Educational Television Authority
Oklahoma Educational Television Authority
OETA , is a state network of Public Broadcasting Service member Non-commercial educational Public television stations covering the entire state of Oklahoma....

 (OETA) and become a second public television station. KAUT was to become a Home Shopping Network
Home Shopping Network
Home Shopping Network or HSN began in 1977 as a 24-hour/7 day a week home shopping television network televised via cable, satellite, and some terrestrial channels in the Philippines. HSN can also be shopped online at hsn.com...

 affiliate eighteen hours a day, along with six hours a day of religious shows. In 1988, the sale was canceled, but KGMC would be sold to Maddox Broadcasting in 1989. During the late 1980s and early 1990s, KOCB adopted a very slick on-air look by middle-market independent standards. It was known for using CGI graphics of near network-quality.

On February 9, 1989 KOCB's licensee Oklahoma City Broadcasting, Inc., which was controlled by the family of Ivan F. Boesky, a stock speculator sentenced to a three-year prison sentence in December 1987 for his involvement in an insider trading scandal, filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection; that May, KOCB co-founder Ted Baze, the station's general manager at the time, made an attempt to gain full percent ownership of station licensee Oklahoma City Broadcasting Co. In September 1990, the station's call letters became the current KOCB, named after its licensee (the KGMC call letters are now used by channel 43 in Clovis, California
Clovis, California
Clovis is a city in Fresno County, California, United States, northeast of Fresno. The population is estimated to be 97,218 as of September, 2011. Clovis is located northeast of downtown Fresno, at an elevation of 361 feet .-History:...

, an independent station). In 1991, U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Western District of Oklahoma approved a reorganization plan in which KOCB's licensee Oklahoma City Broadcasting, Inc. would pay most of its creditors in full with interest within 21 months.

In 1993, KOCB was sold again, this time to Superior Broadcasting. They continued with a general entertainment format while becoming a UPN
UPN
United Paramount Network was a television network that was broadcast in over 200 markets in the United States from 1995 to 2006. UPN was originally owned by Viacom/Paramount and Chris-Craft Industries, the former of which, through the Paramount Television Group, produced most of the network's...

 affiliate on January 16, 1995, retaining the name "TV 34". Being that UPN initially only had a few nights of shows per week, KOCB (along with other UPN stations) was basically independent. In 1996, KOCB was purchased by current owner Sinclair Broadcast Group. After three years as a UPN station, KOCB became a WB affiliate on January 25, 1998, as part of an affiliation agreement between The WB and Sinclair that saw five of the company's stations drop their UPN affiliates and switch to the fledgling WB network. This left Oklahoma City without a UPN affiliate until June 1998, when channel 43, then a secondary PBS
Public Broadcasting Service
The Public Broadcasting Service is an American non-profit public broadcasting television network with 354 member TV stations in the United States which hold collective ownership. Its headquarters is in Arlington, Virginia....

 member station under the calls KTLC, was bought by Paramount Stations Group
Paramount Stations Group
Paramount Stations Group was a television broadcasting company that was renamed from the TVX Broadcast Group in 1991 after Paramount Pictures gained full ownership of the group. At the time, it owned several Fox affiliates and independent stations...

 and picked up the UPN affiliation under the calls KPSG; it reverted back to its old KAUT calls later that year.

Starting in 1998, Sinclair began a Local Management Agreement with Sullivan Broadcasting-owned KOKH, until late in 2003 when the duopoly ownership was approved by the FCC. After the KOKH-KOCB duopoly was approved, KOCB left its studios at 1501 N.E. 85th St. and moved into KOKH's studios at 1228 E. Wilshire Boulevard. KOCB and KOKH cross-promote each other. In the fall of 2002, after four years of being known on the air as "WB34", the station rebranded itself as "The WB Oklahoma City" because many Central Oklahomans watch KOCB via cable (channel 11 on most area cable systems). Eventually the station forwent the use of the over-the-air channel allocation in the station logo.

From The WB to The CW

It was confirmed on May 2, 2006 that KOCB would affiliate with The CW, probably because it was ranked as one of the highest-rated WB affiliates in the nation at the time. The affiliation switch took place on September 18, 2006. A few months before that, KOCB rebranded as "The CW Oklahoma City". In August 2007, KOCB rebranded as "CW34".

Since the CW does not air programming on Saturday or Sunday nights, KOCB usually airs movies between 7 and 9 p.m. on Saturdays and Sundays. KOCB had simulcast KOKH's official drawings for the Oklahoma Lottery
Oklahoma Lottery
The Oklahoma Lottery, which began on October 12, 2005, is operated by the government of Oklahoma. The Oklahoma Lottery is a member of the Multi-State Lottery Association .As with most US lotteries, the minimum age to purchase a ticket is 18.-History:...

 nightly during the 9 p.m. newscast, starting with the introduction of the online game Pick 3 in October 2006, but discontinued the simulcast after September 19, 2009, when the Oklahoma Lottery dropped all televised drawings in favor of doing computerized drawings. The station however still simulcasts the Powerball
Powerball
Powerball is an American lottery game sold in 44 jurisdictions as a shared jackpot game. It is coordinated by the Multi-State Lottery Association , a non-profit organization formed by an agreement with lotteries. Powerball is a game whose advertised jackpot starts at $20 million and can roll into...

 drawings on Wednesday and Saturday evenings from KOKH.

Late in the evening on August 28, 2007, the transmission line to KOCB's antenna failed, while KOCB was airing a Dallas Cowboys
Dallas Cowboys
The Dallas Cowboys are a professional American football franchise which plays in the Eastern Division of the National Football Conference of the National Football League . They are headquartered in Valley Ranch in Irving, Texas, a suburb of Dallas...

 exhibition football game. Due to the failure, those people receiving an over-the-air signal, both analog and digital, were not able to see the rest of the game or any other station programming that aired afterwards. KOCB's analog and digital signal briefly returned to the air around 3 p.m. the following afternoon only for the transmission line to fail again around midnight early Saturday, August 30. KOCB's studio signal was interrupted only a short time on Cox Communications' Oklahoma City systems due to a direct fiber-optic feed from the KOCB studios to Cox. KOCB's over-the-air signal returned a little less than two weeks later, just in time for those without the ability to receive KOCB via cable or satellite to be able to see The CW's 2007–2008 prime-time lineup.

Similarly, fellow Sinclair-owned station KDNL in St. Louis (that city's ABC affiliate) also suffered a transmitter failure in the spring of 2001 that left KDNL off the air for a number of days (or at least was broadcasting at lower power than it did), which both affected over-the-air and cable broadcasts. What little audience there was for KDNL's news switched to other sources and never returned, causing the shutdown of its news division (it still does not have an in-house news operation today although it now airs outsourced newscasts on weeknights), and KDNL is one of the lowest-rated ABC stations in the country. However, KOCB was not negatively affected by its transmission line failure due to its direct studio feed to area cable systems, also the fact that KOCB did not have a news division as sister station KOKH does.

On July 19, 2011, Sinclair Broadcast Group and The CW cut a five-year affiliation contract extension for Sinclair's 10 CW affiliates; thus, The CW's programming will remain with KOCB at least through August 2016.

Programming

Syndicated
Television syndication
In broadcasting, syndication is the sale of the right to broadcast radio shows and television shows by multiple radio stations and television stations, without going through a broadcast network, though the process of syndication may conjure up structures like those of a network itself, by its very...

 programming on the station includes: The Andy Griffith Show
The Andy Griffith Show
The Andy Griffith Show is an American sitcom first televised by CBS between October 3, 1960, and April 1, 1968. Andy Griffith portrays a widowed sheriff in the fictional small community of Mayberry, North Carolina...

, Jerry Springer
The Jerry Springer Show
The Jerry Springer Show is a syndicated television tabloid talk show hosted by Jerry Springer, a former politician, broadcast in the United States and other countries...

, The Steve Wilkos Show
The Steve Wilkos Show
The Steve Wilkos Show is a syndicated American tabloid talk show hosted by Steve Wilkos. The show debuted on September 10, 2007, two months after Wilkos' departure as director of security on The Jerry Springer Show.-History:...

, Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader, The Tyra Show, Two and a Half Men
Two and a Half Men
Two and a Half Men is an American television sitcom that premiered on CBS on September 22, 2003. Starring Charlie Sheen, Jon Cryer, and Angus T. Jones, the show was originally about a hedonistic jingle writer, Charlie Harper; his uptight brother, Alan; and Alan's growing son, Jake...

, The New Adventures of Old Christine
The New Adventures of Old Christine
The New Adventures of Old Christine is an American comedy series starring Julia Louis-Dreyfus which ran for five seasons on CBS from March 13, 2006, to May 12, 2010...

, That '70s Show
That '70s Show
That '70s Show is an American television period sitcom that centers on the lives of a group of teenage friends living in the fictional suburban town of Point Place, Wisconsin, from May 17, 1976, to December 31, 1979...

, My Name is Earl
My Name Is Earl
My Name Is Earl is an American television comedy series created by Greg Garcia that was originally broadcast on the NBC television network from September 20, 2005, to May 14, 2009, in the United States...

, Don't Forget The Lyrics, Scrubs
Scrubs (TV series)
Scrubs is an American medical comedy-drama television series created in 2001 by Bill Lawrence and produced by ABC Studios. The show follows the lives of several employees of the fictional Sacred Heart, a teaching hospital. It features fast-paced screenplay, slapstick, and surreal vignettes...

, Family Feud
Family Feud
Family Feud is an American television game show created by Mark Goodson and Bill Todman. Two families compete against each other in a contest to name the most popular responses to a survey question posed to 100 people...

, According to Jim
According to Jim
According to Jim is an American sitcom television series starring Jim Belushi in the title role as a suburban father of three children. It originally ran on ABC from October 3, 2001 to June 2, 2009.-Synopsis:Jim is an abrasive but lovable suburban father...

, Frasier
Frasier
Frasier is an American sitcom that was broadcast on NBC for eleven seasons, from September 16, 1993, to May 13, 2004. The program was created and produced by David Angell, Peter Casey, and David Lee in association with Grammnet and Paramount Network Television.A spin-off of Cheers, Frasier stars...

, Tyler Perry's Meet the Browns, and America's Funniest Home Videos
America's Funniest Home Videos
America's Funniest Home Videos is an American reality television program on ABC in which viewers are able to send in humorous homemade videotapes. The most common videos usually feature slapstick physical comedy arising from incidents, accidents and mishaps...

with latenight and weekend telecasts of Cheaters
Cheaters
Cheaters is a weekly syndicated hidden camera reality television series that documents people who are suspected of committing adultery, or cheating, on their partners. Investigations are headed by the "Cheaters Detective Agency". The show is hosted by Joey Greco, the show airs on Saturday nights...

, Punk'd
Punk'd
Punk'd is an American hidden camera/practical joke reality television series that first aired on MTV in 2003 and was created by Ashton Kutcher and Jason Goldberg, produced and hosted by Ashton Kutcher. It bore a resemblance to both the classic hidden camera show Candid Camera and to TV's Bloopers...

, The Andy Griffith Show
The Andy Griffith Show
The Andy Griffith Show is an American sitcom first televised by CBS between October 3, 1960, and April 1, 1968. Andy Griffith portrays a widowed sheriff in the fictional small community of Mayberry, North Carolina...

, American Dad and the station's weekday sitcom offerings.

The station carries the minimum amount of educational and informational children's programming, as the The CW4Kids
The CW4Kids
The CW4Kids is a Saturday morning cartoon block on The CW Television Network that premiered on May 24, 2008 in the place of Kids' WB...

 lineup includes an hour of E/I shows, and the station airs a half-hour of E/I programming every weekday morning with Noonbory and the Super 7 on Mondays and Tuesdays, Wimzie's House
Wimzie's House
Wimzie's House is a Canadian children's television program which ran on YTV from 1995 to 1996, and in the United States on Public Broadcasting Service from October 1, 1997 to August 31, 2001. The show has also aired at least as early as 1995 and through the late-1990s on CBC Television, and on...

on Wednesdays, Missing
Missing (TV series)
Missing, hosted by Alex Paen, is a weekly syndicated TV series in the United States profiling real cases of missing persons. The series debuted in 2003....

on Thursdays and Made in Hollywood: Teen Edition on Fridays.

Sports

KOCB broadcasts Dallas Cowboys
Dallas Cowboys
The Dallas Cowboys are a professional American football franchise which plays in the Eastern Division of the National Football Conference of the National Football League . They are headquartered in Valley Ranch in Irving, Texas, a suburb of Dallas...

 preseason games airing three preseason games per year. KOCB also airs college basketball games from the Big 12 Conference
Big 12 Conference
The Big 12 Conference is a college athletic conference of ten schools located in the Central United States, with its headquarters located in Las Colinas, a community in the Dallas, Texas suburb of Irving...

 via ESPN Plus
ESPN Plus
ESPN Plus, the popular name of ESPN Regional Television, is an American television program syndicator. ERT is based along with sister network ESPNU in Charlotte, North Carolina...

, airing up to ten regular season games per year as well as the Big 12 Tournament.

Newscasts

For much of KOCB's history, it did not broadcast its own local newscasts, and was the only general-entertainment commercial station in the Oklahoma City market never to regularly air its own local newscasts. Since 2005, the station occasionally airs half-hour special editions of KOKH's 9 p.m. newscast live, in the event that Fox sports or other programming delays the newscast at its regular time on KOKH. On August 9, 2010, KOCB began airing a rebroadcast of sister station KOKH's 10 p.m. newscast at 12:30 a.m. weeknights.

Fox 25 Late Edition
(weeknights 12:30-1 a.m.)
  • Anchors:
    • Andrew Speno
    • Jamie Cerreta
  • Weather:
    • Jon Slater
  • Sports:
    • Myron Patton


KOCB's newscast features additional news personnel from KOKH. See that article
KOKH-TV
KOKH-TV, virtual channel 25 , is the Fox-affiliated television station serving the Oklahoma City, Oklahoma television market...

for a complete listing.

Station slogans

  • TV-34, Oklahoma's Home (1979–1981)
  • This is Oklahoma's 34 (1981–1982)
  • Oklahoma's 34, Your Movie Station (1982–1983)
  • Go For It! We're Oklahoma's 34 (1983–1984)
  • 34 Gives You More (1984–1988)
  • It's Your Station (1988–1991)
  • Oklahoma City's Best (1991–1998)
  • Free to Be OKC (2006–2009; unofficial slogan, localized version of CW slogan, never used on air)
  • TV to Talk About (2009–present; also CW network slogan)

Movie umbrella titles

  • The TV34 Movie (1979-January 1998)
  • The WB Movie (January 1998-September 2006)
  • The CW Movie (September 2006-August 2007)
  • The CW 34 Movie (August 2007 – present)

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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