KTVL (channel 10) is a
television station
A television station is a set of equipment managed by a business, organisation or other entity, such as an amateur television (ATV) operator, that transmits video content and audio content via radio waves directly from a transmitter on the earth ...
in
Medford, Oregon
Medford is a city in and the county seat of Jackson County, Oregon, in the United States. As of the 2020 United States Census on April 1, 2020, the city had a total population of 85,824 and a metropolitan area population of 223,259, making the Me ...
, United States, affiliated with
CBS and
The CW Plus
The CW Plus is a secondary national programming service feed of The CW that is fully controlled and 75% owned by Nexstar Media Group, with Paramount Global and Warner Bros. Discovery each owning a 12.5% stake in the network. It is intended primar ...
. Owned by
Sinclair Broadcast Group
Sinclair Broadcast Group, Inc. (SBG) is a publicly traded American telecommunications conglomerate that is controlled by the descendants of company founder Julian Sinclair Smith. Headquartered in the Baltimore suburb of Cockeysville, Maryland, t ...
, the station has studios on Rossanley Drive in northwest Medford, and its transmitter is located atop
Mount Ashland
Mount Ashland is the highest peak in the Siskiyou Mountains of southern Oregon. It was named for the city of Ashland, located north of the mountain. The Siskiyou Mountains are a subrange of the Klamath Mountains in northwestern California and ...
, south of the city.
History
Channel 10 signed on the air on October 3, 1961 as KMED-TV, owned by Ray Johnson and his company, Radio Medford, Inc., along with
KMED
KYVL (1440 AM) is a radio station
Radio broadcasting is transmission of audio (sound), sometimes with related metadata, by radio waves to radio receivers belonging to a public audience. In terrestrial radio broadcasting the radio wave ...
radio (1440 AM). Several groups contended for the second television station in the area, but Radio Medford received a substantial assist from Bill Smulin, owner of KTVM (channel 5, now
KOBI), who offered Radio Medford space on KTVM's tower. KMED-TV was an
NBC affiliate, since KMED had been an NBC radio affiliate since 1937. It also shared
ABC
ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script known as the alphabet.
ABC or abc may also refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Broadcasting
* American Broadcasting Company, a commercial U.S. TV broadcaster
** Disney–ABC Television ...
with KTVM.
In 1963, the station started a joint news department with its radio sister. KMED radio had set up the first full radio news department between
Portland
Portland most commonly refers to:
* Portland, Oregon, the largest city in the state of Oregon, in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States
* Portland, Maine, the largest city in the state of Maine, in the New England region of the northeas ...
and
San Francisco
San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...
in 1957.
In 1966, the station moved to a new tower on Mount Ashland, which added
Klamath Falls to its city-grade coverage. It is the highest transmitting tower in the
Pacific Northwest
The Pacific Northwest (sometimes Cascadia, or simply abbreviated as PNW) is a geographic region in western North America bounded by its coastal waters of the Pacific Ocean to the west and, loosely, by the Rocky Mountains to the east. Though ...
. To this day, channel 10 is the only Medford station that covers the entire market without a full-power satellite station.
KMED-TV bought the first color cameras in Southern Oregon in 1968, a year of many firsts for the station. That year also saw the area's first live remote broadcast, the first television editorials and the first use of live microwave technology.
In 1977, KMED was sold off, and KMED-TV became KTVL. A year later, the station picked up some CBS programs after KOBI switched its primary affiliation to ABC. In 1981, Johnson sold KTVL to
Freedom Communications
Freedom Communications, Inc., was an American media conglomerate that operated daily and weekly newspapers, websites and mobile applications, as well as ''Coast Magazine'' and other specialty publications. Headquartered at 625 N. Grand Avenue in ...
, marking Freedom's entry into television. Under Freedom's ownership, KTVL aired the first color weather forecast in Southern Oregon. In the meantime Johnson was working on another station, which would become
KTVZ
KTVZ (channel 21) is a television station in Bend, Oregon, United States, serving Central Oregon as an affiliate of NBC and The CW Plus. It is owned by the News-Press & Gazette Company (NPG) alongside two low-power stations: Class A Fox affilia ...
in
Bend, Oregon
Bend is a city in and the county seat of Deschutes County, Oregon, United States. It is the principal city of the Bend Metropolitan Statistical Area. Bend is Central Oregon's largest city, with a population of 99,178 at the time of the 2020 U.S ...
.
In 1983, KTVL became a CBS affiliate, and KOBI switched to NBC. ABC programming would not return to the market until
KDRV (channel 12) signed on a year later. Kingsley Kelley currently serves as the station's general manager.
Freedom announced on November 2, 2011 that it would bow out of television and sell its stations, including KTVL, to
Sinclair Broadcast Group
Sinclair Broadcast Group, Inc. (SBG) is a publicly traded American telecommunications conglomerate that is controlled by the descendants of company founder Julian Sinclair Smith. Headquartered in the Baltimore suburb of Cockeysville, Maryland, t ...
.
On April 2, 2012, Sinclair took over official ownership of the station as shown at their website.
Southern Oregon CW 11
On September 18, 2006,
The WB
The WB Television Network (for Warner Bros., or the "Frog Network", for its former mascot, Michigan J. Frog) was an American television network launched on broadcast television on January 11, 1995, as a joint venture between the Warner Bros. ...
and
UPN
The United Paramount Network (UPN) was an American broadcast television network that launched on January 16, 1995. It was originally owned by Chris-Craft Industries' United Television. Viacom (through its Paramount Television unit, which prod ...
merged to form the new
CW Television Network
CW may stand for:
Science and technology
* centiwatt (cW), one hundredth of a watt
* Cω, a programming language
* CW complex, a type of topological space
* Carrier wave, in radio communications
* CodeWarrior, an integrated development environme ...
. KTVL has picked up the affiliation to The CW, and is broadcasting its programming on a digital subchannel. KMFD, Medford's former WB "cable-only" station is the new CW affiliate and has been renamed "Southern Oregon's CW 11". KTVL-DT2 is part of
The CW Plus
The CW Plus is a secondary national programming service feed of The CW that is fully controlled and 75% owned by Nexstar Media Group, with Paramount Global and Warner Bros. Discovery each owning a 12.5% stake in the network. It is intended primar ...
.
Local programming
''News 10 Good Morning''
On January 24, 2011, KTVL added an additional hour to their morning news program. Originally, it was ''News 10 at 6 a.m.'' but they changed the start time to 4:55 a.m. dubbing it ''News 10 Good Morning'' going head-to-head with competitor KDRV's early morning newscast. The show switched up its format, differing from its competitors to include faster-paced headline style news with more morning weather hits than any other station in Southern Oregon and Northern California. In addition to showcasing the station's strong social media content, with the only station to have smart phone and iPad applications.
''Jerry Lewis MDA Telethon'' (1970–2010) / ''MDA Labor Day Telethon'' (2011)
KTVL was also the only southern Oregon and northern California television station that has continuously broadcast the ''
Jerry Lewis MDA Telethon'', benefiting the
Muscular Dystrophy Association
The Muscular Dystrophy Association (MDA) is an American 501(c)(3) umbrella organization that works to support people with neuromuscular diseases. Founded in 1950 by Paul Cohen, who lived with muscular dystrophy, it works to combat neuromuscular di ...
every
Labor Day
Labor Day is a federal holiday in the United States celebrated on the first Monday in September to honor and recognize the American labor movement and the works and contributions of laborers to the development and achievements of the United St ...
weekend from 1970 to 2011. (Fellow CBS affiliate
KHSL-TV
KHSL-TV (channel 12) is a television station licensed to Chico, California, United States, serving the Chico– Redding market as an affiliate of CBS and The CW Plus. It is owned by Allen Media Broadcasting, which provides certain services to ...
in
Chico, California, was the next closest station to do so before broadcasting the program was ceased after 1997 by new ownership.) The local portion of the telethon was hosted by Marvin Rhodes, who was the main host for 35 years, and Donna Hildebrand, who was co-host for over 25 years, until they ended their tenure as main telethon hosts in 2005. Members of the ''News 10'' team including Trish (Borucki) Glose, Kevin Lollis and Libby Dowsett had hosted the telethon at various times until the format was dissolved by MDA in 2012. It is believed to have been one of the most successful local telethon broadcasts in the country.
The most emotional moment came in 2002 when a devastated Rhodes announced that
Grants Pass, Oregon
Grants Pass is the county seat of Josephine County, Oregon, United States. The city is located on Interstate 5, northwest of Medford, along the Rogue River. The population was 39,189 at the 2020 census.
History
Early Hudson's Bay Company hunt ...
resident Ray Dimmick, who battled courageously against
ALS
Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also known as motor neuron disease (MND) or Lou Gehrig's disease, is a neurodegenerative disease that results in the progressive loss of motor neurons that control voluntary muscles. ALS is the most com ...
(Lou Gehrig's Disease), had died in December 2001. Dimmick, accompanied by his wife Debra, appeared on the show every year for 10 years despite his condition deteriorating. A tribute video was broadcast in his memory.
With
Jerry Lewis
Jerry Lewis (born Joseph Levitch; March 16, 1926 – August 20, 2017) was an American comedian, actor, singer, filmmaker and humanitarian. As his contributions to comedy and charity made him a global figure in popular culture, pop culture ...
' retirement as host of the national telethon and its move from 21½ hours to six hours in 2011, KTVL did air the telethon as usual. On February 10, 2012, MDA announced that the 2012 edition would be cut to three hours in length airing during prime time on Sunday, September 2, 2012. The 2012 edition, renamed the ''MDA Show of Strength'' (moving away from its heritage as a telethon), effectively ended KTVL's 41 years of telethon coverage. The special was since picked up by ABC for two years in 2013 and 2014, before being canceled altogether by MDA in early 2015.
''After 10''
On June 3, 2006, KTVL launched a new locally produced late night program for young adults called ''After 10'', hosted by Curtis Bartlett and Lindsey Matherly, every Saturday night at 11:30 p.m. It was dubbed as the only locally produced show that delivers news and information on the local music scene, video games, movie releases (in theaters and on video), graphic novels,
music video
A music video is a video of variable duration, that integrates a music song or a music album with imagery that is produced for promotion (marketing), promotional or musical artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a m ...
s,
viral video
A viral video is a video that becomes popular through a viral process of Internet sharing, typically through video sharing websites such as YouTube as well as social media and email.Lu Jiang, Yajie Miao, Yi Yang, ZhenZhong Lan, Alexander Haupt ...
s from the internet, and websites.
''After 10'' was KTVL's attempt to compete against NBC's ''
Saturday Night Live
''Saturday Night Live'' (often abbreviated to ''SNL'') is an American late-night live television sketch comedy and variety show created by Lorne Michaels and developed by Dick Ebersol that airs on NBC and Peacock. Michaels currently serves a ...
'' by producing a program for its target audience themselves, instead on relying on syndication. ''After 10'' was being retooled and was expected to be relaunched in the third quarter of 2007, but it never returned to the air.
After various syndicated programs and
infomercial
An infomercial is a form of television commercial that resembles regular TV programming yet is intended to promote or sell a product, service or idea. It generally includes a toll-free telephone number or website. Most often used as a form of dire ...
s aired in the 11:30 p.m. slot, the slot became the home of the weekly ''
Ring of Honor Wrestling'' show in April 2012 upon the acquisition of the station by Sinclair, which owned the ''RoH'' circuit until 2022.
News operation
![KTVL NewsCenter 10 Logo 1981-1983](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/14/KTVL_NewsCenter_10_Logo_1981-1983.png)
KTVL broadcasts 22 hours of locally production news each week. It was known as ''NewsCenter 10'' in the late 1970s back when they were an NBC affiliate. The name ''NewsCenter'' was used by many NBC-owned and/or affiliated stations to identify their newscasts. After KTVL switched to CBS, the name of the newscast was changed to ''Channel 10 News''.
The news department featured well-known news personalities such as Terry Miller, Hank Henry, George Warren, Leon Hunsaker (also previously of KOBI and
theDove), Marvin Rhodes, Pete Belcastro, Fred Inglis (formerly of KTVU) and, most notably,
Ann Curry (who went on to become host of NBC's ''
Today Show'' in 2011). The current news director is Chad Hypes.
The newscasts are currently anchored by Carmine Gemei at 5:00 p.m., 6:00 p.m. and 11:00 p.m. The chief meteorologist is former KDRV meteorologist Milt Radford. Tyler Myerly anchor the 5 a.m. newscast ''News 10 Good Morning'' with the weather by meteorologist Ali Van Fleet. Myerly anchors the region's only noon newscast.
KTVL does not currently have a full-time local sportscast as it was dropped in 2009 by management. However, in 2012, hints of a possible return took place as the news team began covering local high school basketball highlights called ''Friday Night Fastbreaks'' (KDRV is the only station in the market to continue airing a local sportscast and KOBI does not have a sports department.)
Notable former news staff
*
Ann Curry (reporter/Telethon co-hostess, now with
NBC News
NBC News is the news division of the American broadcast television network NBC. The division operates under NBCUniversal Television and Streaming, a division of NBCUniversal, which is, in turn, a subsidiary of Comcast. The news division's var ...
and formerly of NBC's ''
Today'')
*Leon Hunsaker (meteorologist, died in 2022)
Technical information
Subchannels
The station's digital signal is
multiplexed:
Analog-to-digital conversion
KTVL shut down its analog signal, over
VHF
Very high frequency (VHF) is the ITU designation for the range of radio frequency electromagnetic waves (radio waves) from 30 to 300 megahertz (MHz), with corresponding wavelengths of ten meters to one meter.
Frequencies immediately below VHF ...
channel 10, on June 12, 2009, the official date in which full-power television stations in the United States
transitioned from analog to digital broadcasts under federal mandate. The station's digital signal relocated from its pre-transition
UHF
Ultra high frequency (UHF) is the ITU designation for radio frequencies in the range between 300 megahertz (MHz) and 3 gigahertz (GHz), also known as the decimetre band as the wavelengths range from one meter to one tenth of a meter (on ...
channel 35 to VHF channel 10 for post-transition operations.
[CDBS Print](_blank)
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Translators
See also
* Channel 10 digital TV stations in the United States
*Channel 10 virtual TV stations in the United States The following television stations operate on virtual channel 10 in the United States:
* K02NV-D in Sargents, Colorado
* K03AY-D in Ridgway, etc., Colorado
* K04JZ-D in Gold Hill, Oregon
* K04MG-D in Wedderburn, etc., Oregon
* K04QX-D in Townse ...
*Channel 11 branded TV stations in the United States The following television stations in the United States brand as channel 11 (though neither using virtual channel 11 nor broadcasting on physical RF channel 11):
* KDFX-CD in Indio/Palm Springs, California
* KKFX-CD in San Luis Obispo, California
* ...
References
External links
KTVL News 10 website
SouthernOregonCW.com
History of Television In Southern Oregon
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ktvl
CBS network affiliates
The CW affiliates
Comet (TV network) affiliates
TBD (TV network) affiliates
Charge! (TV network) affiliates
Sinclair Broadcast Group
Television channels and stations established in 1961
TVL
1961 establishments in Oregon