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KCEN-TV

KCEN-TV, virtual channel 6, is the NBC affiliate for Waco, Killeen and Temple, Texas. Licensed to nearby Temple, it is owned by London Broadcasting. It was founded in 1953 by Frank W. Mayborn, publisher of the nearby Temple Daily Telegram newspaper. With studio and transmitter on a 25 acre tract of land one mile (1.6 km) south of Eddy on I-35, KCEN-TV broadcasts locally on digital channel 9, which appears on tuners as channel 6. KCEN-TV also has a low-power satellite rebroadcaster, KMAY-LP on channel 23 in Bryan, which serves the Brazos Valley area. KMAY-LP began rebroadcasting KCEN in 2003. Previously, KCEN maintained a low-power channel 62 for the Bryan/College Station area for a number of years.

Contents

History

KCEN's Temple offices are located across the street from former sister newspaper, the Temple Daily Telegram.

KCEN signed on for the first time on November 1, 1953 on analog channel 6. It was owned along with KTEM-AM 1400, which Frank W. Mayborn, who published the Temple Daily Telegram, established in 1936. Mayborn, however, realized that Temple/Killeen and Waco were going to be a single television market (although they are separate radio markets). To signify his goal to serve all of Central Texas, he decided to call his new station KCEN-TV (for CENtral Texas) rather than KTEM-TV (for TEMple). It was the first television station to serve the Waco/Temple/Killeen market, and the second television station in Central Texas behind KTBC in Austin by a year.

KCEN signed on with one of the tallest towers in the Southwest, at 830 feet (253 m). The station originally carried programming from all four major networks at the time, but was a primary NBC affiliate. It lost CBS to KWTX-TV in 1955; later that year DuMont halted operations. This left KCEN as an NBC affiliate with a primary ABC affiliation. When KXXV signed on in March 1985, it took over the NBC affiliation, leaving KCEN with ABC. However, that fall, KXXV and KCEN switched affiliations and KCEN returned to NBC.

In 1981, KCEN moved to a new 1,924-foot (586.5 m) tower, expanding its coverage area to almost 29,000 square miles--one of the largest in the nation. The station now provides at least secondary coverage from the fringes of the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex to the fringes of Austin.

The station was the first in Central Texas to broadcast in closed captioning, in 1989.

KCEN's "NBC 6" logo and last logo to carry the channel 6 branding, used until rebranding as channel 9 on February 17, 2009.

KCEN, the Temple Daily Telegram and the Killeen Daily Herald remained under Mayborn family ownership after Frank's death in 1987. In January 2009, a sale of both KCEN and KMAY-LP to London Broadcasting Company of Dallas, Texas was announced, with a purchase price of $26 million.[1] The sale was completed on April 30, 2009.

KCEN broadcasts on cable channel 3 in Waco, Killeen and Temple, while KMAY broadcasts on cable channel 6 in Bryan/College Station.

KCEN also maintains business offices at 111 West Central Ave. in Temple, as well as sales and news offices in Killeen and Waco.

Digital television

The station ended its analog broadcasts on February 17, 2009 — the original date for the analog shutdown in the United States. KCEN's digital branding became KCEN 9.[2] The branding was again changed, to simply KCEN-HD, on February 1, 2010; the station also resumed mapping to channel 6 via PSIP.

KCEN also carries This TV on its second digital subchannel; the station brands it as "MY TX", a branding also used by a subchannel of sister station KYTX (though they are largely programmed independently). KCEN-DT2 preempts some This TV programming in favor of either syndicated programming or sports.

News/station presentation

Logo as "KCEN 9", used from February 17, 2009 until February 1, 2010.

Newscast titles

Station slogans

Areas Served

References

  1. ^ London Buys Waco NBC Affil for $26M, Harry A. Jessell, TVNEWSDAY, Jan 16 2009
  2. ^ http://www.kcentv.com/?p=3462

External links

v • d • Television stations in the Brazos Valley
Waco/Temple/Killeen

KCEN (6.1 NBC) • KWTX (10.1 CBS, 10.2 The CW) • KXXV (25.1 ABC, 25.2 TMD, 25.3 Weather Now) • KPLE 31 (TBN) • KWBU1 (34.1/.2Create, 34.3 V-me) • KWKO 38 (Ind.) • KWKT (44.1 Fox/MNTV) • KNCT (46.1 PBS) • KAKW (62.1 UNI) 1KWBU-TV to close by July 31, 2010.
Bryan/College Station

KBTX (3.1 CBS, 3.2 The CW) • KAMU (15.1 PBS) • KSCM 18 (A1) • KMAY 23 (NBC) • KYLE (28.1 Fox/MNTV) • KRHD 40 (ABC)
Defunct

K47ED 47 (TBN)
Other stations

Reception may vary by geographical location Houston: KUHT (8.1 PBS) Dallas: WFAA (8.1 ABC) • KERA (13.1 PBS)
Texas Broadcast television areas by city:

Abilene/Sweetwater • Amarillo (Texas Panhandle) • Austin • Beaumont/Port Arthur • Corpus Christi • Dallas-Fort Worth • Del Rio, TX • El Paso • Houston • Laredo • Lubbock • Midland-Odessa (Permian Basin) • Rio Grande Valley • San Angelo • San Antonio • Sherman/Ada, OK • Texarkana/Shreveport, LA • Tyler/Longview (East Texas) • Victoria • Waco/Bryan (Brazos Valley) • Wichita Falls/Lawton, OK
v • d • NBC Network Affiliates in the state of Texas

KPRC 2 (Houston) • KFDX 3 (Lawton / Wichita Falls) • KSAN 3 (San Angelo) • KAMR 4 (Amarillo) • WOAI 4 (San Antonio) • KXAS 5 (Fort Worth / Dallas) • KCEN 6 / KMAY-LP 23 (Temple / Bryan) • KRIS 6 (Corpus Christi) • KTAL 6 (Texarkana) • KGNS 8 (Laredo) • KRBC 9 (Abilene) • KTSM 9 (El Paso) • KWES 9 / KWAB 4 (Midland / Big Spring) • KCBD 11 (Lubbock) • KBMT-DT 12.2 (Beaumont) • KMOL-LP 17 (Victoria) • KVEO 23 (Brownsville) • KXAN 36 (Austin) • KETK 56 / KETK-LP 53 (Tyler / Jacksonville)
See also: ABC, CBS, CW, Fox, ION, MyNetworkTV, NBC, PBS and Other stations in Texas

Categories: NBC network affiliates | Channel 9 digital TV stations in the United States | Television channels and stations established in 1953 | Television stations in Texas

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