KRLD-TV
KDFW, channel 4 (digital 35), is the Fox owned-and-operated television station in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex designated market area. The station is licensed to Dallas and its studios and business offices are located downtown. The station's transmitter is located in Cedar Hill. It is co-owned with MyNetworkTV affiliate KDFI, channel 27, as well as Fox Sports Southwest.
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History
As a CBS affiliate
The station signed on as CBS affiliate KRLD-TV on December 3, 1949, owned by the now-defunct Dallas Times Herald newspaper, which also operated KRLD radio (1080 kHz.). Channel 4 was the third television station in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex area to sign-on, following Dallas-based KBTV (now WFAA-TV, channel 8) earlier in 1949, and Fort Worth-based WBAP-TV (now KXAS-TV, channel 5) in 1948.
KRLD-TV served as the home base for the CBS network's coverage of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, led by Dan Rather, on November 22, 1963. News director Eddie Barker was the first person to announce Kennedy's death on television, passing along word from a Parkland Hospital official (because of a local pool arrangement, Barker's scoop appeared live simultaneously on CBS and ABC).
KRLD-TV's transmission tower in Cedar Hill, which was 586 feet tall and was considered the highest television transmission tower in the world, was hit by a military helicopter doing training exercises in 1968. The two passengers survived, but the tower had to be reconstructed.
Federal Communications Commission rules at the time prevented common ownership of newspapers and broadcast outlets in the same market, and the combination of KRLD-AM-TV and the Dallas Times-Herald was protected under a grandfather clause from forced divestiture. However, the newspaper and its broadcast holdings were sold to the Los Angeles-based Times-Mirror Company on May 15, 1970 for $30 million. As a result of the sale, Times-Mirror could not keep the Times-Herald's grandfathered protection for the radio and television stations, but was granted a waiver to keep the newspaper together with the television station, which was renamed KDFW-TV on July 2, 1970. KRLD radio was sold to Metromedia soon thereafter; the newspaper was sold off in 1986, and was shut down five years later.
In 1993, KDFW and the other Times-Mirror stations were sold to Argyle in a group deal. Early in 1994, KDFW began managing a struggling station, KDFI (channel 27), which was rebroadcasting KDFW's newscasts in different time slots.
As a Fox station
In late 1993, when Fox gained the contract from CBS to carry the NFC package of the National Football League, New World Communications reached an agreement for its stations to make the big switch to the network. Afterwards, New World bought out Argyle, which owned KDFW along with sister stations KTVI (channel 2) in St Louis, WVTM (channel 13) in Birmingham, Alabama, and KTBC (channel 7) in Austin. When that buyout was final, KDFW, along with KTBC and KTVI switched affiliations to Fox on July 1, 1995 -- while WVTM remained affiliated with NBC because former ABC affiliate WBRC (channel 6) in the same market was sold directly to Fox (WVTM was subsequently sold to NBC before being purchased by current owner Media General).
Upon the network switch, the Cowboys football games moved back to KDFW after a one year absence; KDFW as a CBS affiliate carried the Cowboys through 1993, after which the NFC package moved from CBS to Fox. The CBS affiliation moved to KTVT, and former Fox O&O station KDAF (channel 33; which Fox sold to Renaissance, later Tribune Company) took The WB affiliation from KXTX (channel 39). News Corporation purchased KDFW and its LMA with KDFI in a group deal in early 1997. Like most New World-owned stations, KDFW did not pick up Fox Kids; it stayed with KDAF until 1997 when Fox Kids moved to KDFI (Fox/NewsCorp eventually bought KDFI outright in 2000).
KDFW is not the only Fox owned-and-operated station to replace a previous Fox O&O; sister station WAGA (channel 5) in Atlanta replaced WATL (channel 36) during the Fox/New World agreement in 1994. KDFW and KDFI are one of three groups of network O&Os (albeit a duopoly) based in Dallas (with KTVT and KTXA being owned by CBS; KXAS and KXTX being owned by NBC). With Fox switching from a UHF to a VHF position, Dallas-Fort Worth became the first market at the time where all "Big Four" affiliates are on the VHF dial alongside New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Washington, DC, Miami, Las Vegas and Seattle. Portland and Minneapolis-St. Paul would not join suit until 2002.
On the morning of July 30, 2007 around 7 a.m., a traffic helicopter used by KDFW crash-landed near Joe Pool Lake after the engine suddenly lost power. Helicopter pilot Curtis Crump was able to make a hard emergency landing, with the aircraft skidding and then tipping over before coming to a stop near a lake dam. All three people in the helicopter survived.
Digital television
After the analog television shutdown of June 12, 2009 [1], KDFW-DT remains on channel 35 [2] PSIP is used to display KDFW's virtual channel as 4 on digital television receivers. Its analog signal was nightlighting until July 12, 2009.[3]
Programming
Being a network O&O, KDFW airs the entire Fox network schedule (primetime, Saturday late night and sports programming, and the political talk show Fox News Sunday). Syndicated programming includes talk shows (such as Live with Regis and Kelly and The Wendy Williams Show), court shows (such as Judge Judy, Judge Joe Brown and Judge Jeanine Pirro), newsmagazines (such as Access Hollywood and TMZ on TV), off-network dramas (such as Law & Order: Special Victims Unit) and weekend morning children's shows. The station began to broadcast a few off-network sitcoms by the late 1990s (though for a brief period during the mid-2000s and also as of the 2008-2009 season, no off-network sitcoms were on its schedule -- a rarity for a Fox station). Some of the syndicated court shows airing on the station air in both daytime and late night.
By the very late 1990s, the station began to broadcast a few off-network sitcoms. KDFW is also the alternate flagship station for Texas Rangers baseball; sister station KDFI (channel 27) is the official flagship, and Fox Sports Net also broadcasts some Rangers games.
In 1972, the station debuted 4 Country Reporter, hosted by Bob Phillips. In 1986, Phillips left KDFW and began selling the show in syndication, which was renamed Texas Country Reporter, and now airs in all 22 television markets in Texas. KDFW did not pick up the syndicated version, but rival station WFAA carried the show (calling it 8 Country Reporter).
News operation
KDFW broadcasts a total of 46½ hours of local news a week (eight hours on weekdays, four hours on Saturdays and 2½ hours on Sundays), more than any other station in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex and the most of any television station in Texas; however as is standard with Fox stations that carry early evening weekend newscasts, KDFW's Sunday 5 p.m. newscast is subject to preemption and the Saturday 6 p.m. newscast is subject to delay due to sports coverage. From the time KDFW became a Fox affiliate (and later owned-and-operated station) in 1995, the station has placed more emphasis on local news; maintaining a newscast schedule that is very similar to a CBS, ABC, or NBC affiliated station, along with the added weeknight 5:30 and nightly 9 p.m. newscasts and the additional two hours of news on weekday mornings.
KDFW is one of a steadily growing number of Fox stations with a newscast in the traditional late news timeslot (with Texas being located in the Central time zone, at 10 p.m. in KDFW's case), in addition to the primetime (9 p.m.) newscast, along with one of the few to continue their Big Three-era 10 p.m. (or 11 p.m.) newscast after the affiliation switch. In 2006, Fox Television Stations Group started to push expansion into that time slot (sister station KTBC in Austin had a 10 p.m. newscast for years after switching to Fox, which was moved to 9 p.m. in 2000). After the switch, KDFW's 10 p.m. newscast was scaled back to weeknights only (Fox late night programming airs on Saturdays at 10 p.m., while the sports wrap-up show "FOX4 Sports Sunday" airs Sundays in that timeslot). It is likely that Fox will have all of its owned-and-operated stations add these later newscasts within the next few years (at least half of the Fox O&Os already have added newscasts at 11 p.m. (ET/PT)/10 p.m. (CT/MT)).
Starting in 2006, the Fox-owned stations began revamping their sets and graphics to be more closely aligned with Fox News Channel. The stations now have standardized logos that resemble Fox News Channel's. KDFW debuted the new logo, set, graphics and news music (OSI Music's Fox Affiliate News Package, formerly WTVT NewsEdge Theme) on September 20, 2006 on its 9 p.m. newscast. The station also launched a new website, which features more news and video with the "myfox" name and interface (the "My" in the "myfox" name may be a reference to MySpace, which Fox's parent News Corporation owns).
On February 18, 2009 at noon, KDFW became the fifth station in the Dallas-Fort Worth area to broadcast local news in High Definition, thus leaving KDAF (channel 33, a CW affiliate [and the Metroplex's original Fox O&O] owned by Tribune Company) as the only local English-language television station not to broadcast its newscasts in HD for another 15 months. On April 5, 2010 the station expanded its morning newscast by a half-hour, now running from 4:30 to 9 a.m.
News/station presentation
Newscast titles
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Station slogans
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FOX4 News team
Current on-air staff
(as of April 2010) Current Anchors
- Steve Eagar - weeknights at 5:30, 6 and 9 p.m.
- Dan Godwin - weekdays at noon and Saturday mornings "Good Day"
- Heather Hays - weeknights at 6 and 9 p.m.
- Lauren Przybyl - weekday mornings "Good Day" (4:30-9 a.m.)
- Richard Ray - Saturdays at 6, Sundays at 5, and weekends at 9 p.m.
- Tim Ryan - weekday mornings "Good Day" (4:30-9 a.m.)
- Natalie Solis - Saturdays at 6, Sundays at 5, and weekends at 9 p.m.
- Clarice Tinsley - weeknights at 5 and 10 p.m.
4WARN Weather Team In addition to providing forecasts on KDFW, the 4WARN Weather Team also provides forecasts for KLIF radio.
- Dan Henry (AMS Certified Broadcast Meteorologist Seal of Approval) - Chief Meteorologist; weeknights at 5, 5:30, 6, 9 and 10 p.m.
- Evan Andrews (AMS Seal of Approval) - Meteorologist; weekday mornings "Good Day" (4:30-9 a.m.)
- Fiona Gorostiza - Weather Anchor; weekdays at noon
- Ron Jackson (AMS Seal of Approval) - Meteorologist; Saturday mornings "Good Day", Saturdays at 6, Sundays at 5, and weekends at 9 p.m.
Sports team
- Mike Doocy - Sports Anchor; weeknights at 6, 9 and 10 p.m.; also "Sports Sunday" host
- Max Morgan - Sports Anchor; Saturdays at 6, Sundays at 5, and weekends at 9 p.m.; also sports reporter
Reporters
- Fil Alvarado - general assignment reporter
- Dionne Anglin - general assignment reporter
- Adrian Arambulo - morning reporter
- Lari Barager - general assignment reporter; also fill-in anchor
- Todd Carruth - fill-in "Team Traffic" reporter
- Melissa Cutler - general assignment reporter
- Peter Daut - general assignment reporter
- Saul Garza - general assignment and "What's Buggin' You" feature reporter
- Matt Grubs - general assignment reporter
- Krystle Gutierrez - general assignment reporter; also fill-in anchor
- Lynn Kawano - general assignment reporter
- Emily Lopez - general assignment reporter
- Doug Luzader - Fox News Washington D.C. correspondent
- Steve Noviello - "FOX4 On Your Side" consumer reporter
- Becky Oliver - investigative reporter
- Shawn Rabb - general assignment reporter
- Sophia Reza - general assignment reporter
- James Rose - general assignment and "Street Squad" feature reporter
- Brandon Todd - general assignment reporter
- Chip Waggoner - traffic reporter; seen weekdays 5-9 a.m. and 5-6 p.m.
Former on-air staff
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See also
- Arrow 4 logo
References
- ^ http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DA-06-1082A2.pdf
- ^ CDBS Print
- ^ List of Participants in the Analog Nightlight Program - FCC (accessed June 14, 2009)
- Shannon, Mike (January, 2004). Dallas-Fort Worth TV Station History. The History of Dallas-Fort Worth Radio and Television.
- KDFW Fox 4 -- 50 Years and Counting! (1999) KDFWFox4.com.
External links
| Dallas-Fort Worth portal |
- Official site
- Query the FCC's TV station database for KDFW
- BIAfn's Media Web Database -- Information on KDFW-TV
- Program Information for KDFW at TitanTV.com
- Very old pictures from KRLD Radio and TV
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Categories: Fox network affiliates | Fox Television Stations Group | Channel 35 digital TV stations in the United States | Television channels and stations established in 1949 | Television stations in Texas | Television stations in the Dallas • Fort Worth Metroplex
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