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KOCO-TV (channel 5) is a television station in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, United States, affiliated with ABC and owned by Hearst Television. Its studios and transmitter are located on East Britton Road (Historic Route 66)—between North Kelley and North Eastern Avenues—in the McCourry Heights neighborhood of northeast Oklahoma City.

Although KOCO-TV's call letters sound like "cocoa" if pronounced as a word, the station is never referred to in that manner; it is always mentioned on air as "K-O-C-O".

History

Early history in Enid

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) originally assigned the VHF channel 5 allocation in the Oklahoma City market to Enid. The initial application to broadcast over the frequency was filed in July 1952—shortly after the FCC had lifted a four-year moratorium on new television station license applications—when the Enid Radiophone Company, a subsidiary of '' Enid News & Eagle'' parent Enid Publishing Company and owner of radio station KCRC (1390 AM), applied with the FCC to obtain a construction permit and license to operate a television station on VHF channel 5. Enid businessman George Streets, owner of local electronics manufacturer Streets Electronics Inc., filed a separate license application for channel 5 in November of that year. When the FCC awarded the license and permit for channel 5 to Streets (who would serve as its original general manager), and his ownership group (which included local building contractor Philip R. Banta, who served as the station's president, and stockholder L.D. Banta, both of whom—like Streets—held similar 21.3% interests in the station) on February 11, 1954, he requested and received approval to assign KGEO-TV (for "Greater Enid, Oklahoma") as the call letters for his television station. As consolation for losing the application grant to Streets Electronics, the Streets group gave Enid Radiophone an option to acquire a 20% stake in the station.

The station began test broadcasts on July 6, 1954; KGEO—which originally intended to debut on June 15, three weeks before test telecasts commenced—officially signed on the air nine days later on July 15. Channel 5 was the fifth television station to sign on in the Oklahoma City market—behind WKY-TV (channel 4, now KFOR-TV), which signed on the air on June 6, 1949; KTVQ (channel 25, allocation now occupied by Fox affiliate KOKH-TV), which signed on October 28, 1953; KLPR-TV (channel 19, allocation now occupied by Cornerstone Television affiliate KUOT-CD), which signed on November 8, 1953; and KWTV (channel 9), which signed on December 20, 1953—the seventh television station to sign on in the state of Oklahoma, the first within the Oklahoma City market's present designated boundaries to be licensed outside of Oklahoma City proper, and the only full-power VHF station to have operated in northern Oklahoma. The station originally maintained studio facilities located at East Randolph Avenue and North 2nd Street in northeastern Enid, adjacent to a Streets-owned appliance store; KGEO based its transmission tower adjacent to the property.

Initially broadcasting nine hours of programming per day from 2:30 to 11:30 p.m., Channel 5 has operated as an ABC affiliate since its debut, In addition to carrying ABC programming, KGEO-TV also maintained a secondary affiliation with the NTA Film Network from October 15, 1956, until the programming service ceased operations in November 1961. The film anthology series ''NTA Film Spectacular'' was the service's only program to be cleared by KGEO/KOCO, as the majority of NTA's offerings were carried by either WKY-TV (which cleared several of NTA's drama, interview and variety series) or KWTV (which had carried most of the service's scripted programs). KGEO management charged that some provisions of National Telefilm Associates (NTA)'s contracts with NTA Film affiliates—particularly, a compulsory 11-hour "option" for affiliates to carry network programming—violated FCC rules for chain broadcasters; these accusations were rebutted in an FCC hearing on October 5, 1956, when NTA representatives claimed that the company did not abdicate license control over programs and that affiliation contracts, among other allowances, permitted stations to decline clearance of certain programs. Channel 5 became an exclusive ABC affiliate in November 1961, when National Telefilm Associates discontinued the NTA Film Network service.

Transfer to Oklahoma City

Beginning under the stewardship of the Streets group, the station's ownership made a concerted effort to migrate channel 5 into the larger Oklahoma City metropolitan area. On January 11, 1955, Streets Electronics filed a construction permit application to build a new -tall tower in a rural area west-northwest of Crescent ( south-southeast of Enid). The move came shortly before the FCC proposed rules to limit television transmission antennas from being located more than from the outskirts of a station's principal city of license. The KGEO transmitter proposal as well as a proposal by KSWS-TV (now NBC affiliate KOBR) in Roswell, New Mexico to build a transmission tower drew opposition from the United States Air Force and the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD), which were concerned that broadcast towers standing at heights above would create safety hazards for military and civil aircraft. On August 5, FCC Hearing Examiner Hugh B. Hutchison issued a recommendation for approval of the move of the KGEO transmitter to the Crescent site, citing that the existing tower near Enid (located within a proximity to Vance Air Force Base and Woodring Airport) was more of a hazard to airplanes than the proposed tower would have been, that the proposed tower would substantially place 678,439 residents within KGEO-TV's signal contour. Hutchinson also stated that KGEO was not guilty of charges made by KTVQ owner Republic Television and Radio Company that channel 5 wanted to "straddle" its transmitter between Enid and Oklahoma City to serve both cities, as between 75% and 85% of television set owners in the Enid area had oriented their home antennas to receive signals from Oklahoma City and the new tower would provide improved reception in Enid by allowing the signal to propagate into the area at the same direction that these home antennas were aimed.

On December 15, the Commission denied motions by Republic Television and Radio (which was concerned that KGEO's move to the Crescent site would create unfair competition that would result in the shutdown of the bankrupt station) to set aside the recommendation to grant of the transmitter application as well as a petition to reopen the record and call attention to the issues the move would cause. The FCC granted the permit change application by Streets Electronics in a 6–1 vote on May 4, 1956, subject to the group ensuring that the tower include sufficient lighting and hazard markings; the agency subsequently denied DoD petitions to deny KGEO's permit as well as one filed by WSLA (channel 8, now WAKA) in Selma, Alabama to increase its tower height from to based on the issues previously addressed. On October 9, 1956, the Enid broadcast tower collapsed as construction crews prepared to relocate the station's transmitter antenna to the newly built Crescent tower, causing an estimated $140,000 in damage. The crane boom and gin pole that was hoisting the antenna off its platform buckled along with the tower, and the antenna dug a furrow into the ground, folding into four large sections during the collapse. KGEO-TV's analog signal was briefly knocked off the air until it set up temporary transmitter facilities from an auxiliary tower in downtown Enid, where it continued to transmit until the new tower became operational.

On October 11, 1957, Streets Electronics sold KGEO-TV to the Caster-Robison Television Corporation (owned by broadcasting executives Louis E. Caster and Ashley Robison) for $950,000 plus the assumption of approximately $500,000 in debt; the sale to the Caster-Robison group received FCC approval two months later on December 11, with the then-recently deceased Caster's interest subsequently being transferred to his estate on March 5, 1958. On March 1, 1958, the station's call letters were changed to KOCO-TV (for "Oklahoma City, Oklahoma"), to reflect its new secondary city of service. Although it nominally remained an Enid station, KOCO had moved its studio operations to Oklahoma City, setting up temporary facilities inside a converted former Kimberling's grocery store on Britton Road. In October of that year, the station's operations moved to a permanent studio facility on a plot of land near Northwest 63rd Street and Portland Avenue, which included a terrace overlooking Lake Hefner for use during local programs produced outdoors within the studio grounds. The station later requested a waiver of FCC station identification rules to identify as an Enid–Oklahoma City station on-air and in license documents; however, the Commission denied the petition in May 1961. Following Caster's death on May 15, 1960, due to a heart attack, Ashley Robison and the inheritors of Caster's estate sought offers to sell off KOCO.

In May 1961, Caster-Robison Television sold KOCO to the Cimarron Television Corporation—a subsidiary of Oklahoma City-based Capital City Investment Corporation that included among its investors, oilmen Dean A. McGee and John E. Kirkpatrick, Grayce Kerr (wife of state senator Robert S. Kerr, who also was a minority owner of KVOO-TV ow KJRH-TV">KJRH-TV.html" ;"title="ow KJRH-TV">ow KJRH-TVin Tulsa with McGee at the time) as well as longtime KOCO stockholders Philip and L. D. Banta—for $3 million. The sale received FCC approval on September 27 of that year. As that transaction was taking place, the FCC issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking to add a third commercial VHF allocation, under reduced mileage separation requirements, in eight U.S. markets. Under the plan, per an earlier filing by the Caster-Robison group, KGEO and its channel 5 allocation would be moved to Oklahoma City, but with its signal radiation suppressed to alleviate co-channel interference with KFSA-TV (now KFSM-TV) in Fort Smith, Arkansas, Fort Smith (located east of Oklahoma City, at a distance below the FCC's threshold for separation of adjacent broadcast signals transmitting on the same channel). Despite the full proposal receiving backing from ABC, the FCC voted twice against relocating short-spaced VHF channels into seven of the eight proposed markets during the spring of 1963, but granted permission for KOCO's channel allocation to be shifted to Oklahoma City both times, albeit with requirements that it observe standard mileage separation requirements to limit interference with KFSA-TV and that it maintain an auxiliary studio in Enid. The FCC granted KOCO a waiver of the mileage requirement in a 5–1 vote on July 25 of that year, after station representatives convinced the Commission that KOCO's would signal be impaired within Oklahoma City at a distance sufficient under the requirements, and that, if it were to comply with standard spacing rules and Civil Aeronautics Board tower height limitations, it would be difficult for the transmitter to provide a signal that would allow it to adequately serve both the state capital and Enid. (KOCO was the second Oklahoma television station to transfer its license and operations to a larger, nearby city: fellow ABC affiliate KTVX ow KTUL">KTUL.html" ;"title="ow KTUL">ow KTULhad moved from Muskogee, Oklahoma">Muskogee to Tulsa in August 1957.)

In March 1964, channel 5 moved its transmitter facilities to a tower on East Britton Road in northeast Oklahoma City, at an antenna farm housing the transmission towers of other local television and radio stations; the tower was dedicated with two days of ceremonies that included such notable guests as ABC News anchor Howard K. Smith and the husband-and-wife comedy team of Phil Ford (comedian), Phil Ford and Mimi Hines. KOCO's formal transfer to Oklahoma City made it the third station in the state's capital city to have been affiliated with ABC: WKY-TV had aired select ABC shows under a secondary basic affiliation from its sign-on in June 1949 until August 1956 and fledgling UHF outlet KTVQ maintained a full-time primary affiliation from its sign-on in November 1953 until that station ceased operations in December 1955, with WKY-TV continuing to carry some of the network's programs while KTVQ was operating. (Like other UHF stations of the period, television viewers were required to purchase a standalone UHF tuner in order to receive KTVQ's signal.)

One of channel 5's most popular local programs was a show aimed at younger audiences; Ed Birchall hosted a local children's program on the station for 29 years from March 1959 until shortly before his death after a brief bout with advanced-stage cancer in July 1988. Originally debuting as ''Lunch With HoHo'' and airing under various titles (including ''HoHo's Cartoon Circus'', ''Good Morning HoHo'' and ''HoHo's Showplace''), Birchall—who donned a colored patchwork jacket and suspender pants, a small brown top hat and oversized tie in his portrayal of HoHo the Clown—starred alongside a sock puppet named Pokey (played by longtime KOCO stage manager Bill Howard), and presented various segments from educational content to light-hearted newspaper stories to cartoon shorts. A memorial service (the first of three held for Birchall) had to be moved to St. Charles Borromeo Catholic Church, one of Oklahoma City's largest churches, to accommodate a live KOCO broadcast (which was also carried by KTVY, KWTV and KOKH-TV) as well as a crowd of mourners that included an honor guard of professional clowns. Other notable past local programs produced by KGEO/KOCO included entertainment/lifestyle/fashion talk program ''The Ida B. Show'' (originally titled ''At Home with Ida B.'' and then ''Dateline Hollywood''), whose host, Ida Blackburn, had previously hosted a local version of '' Romper Room'' for the station from 1958 to 1960; and ''Captain Tom's Popeye Theatre'', hosted by Tom Gilmore as the titular character, who read storybooks on the program alongside the puppet version of the Alfred Lee Whittle character he developed for radio in 1948, and a local version of the '' Dialing for Dollars'' movie/trivia franchise.

Combined Communications ownership

In November 1969, Cimarron Television announced that it would sell KOCO-TV to the Phoenix, Arizona-based Combined Communications Corporation (CCC) for $6.5 million. It was the first broadcast property ever acquired by CCC, which was formed earlier that year through the merger of the KTAR Broadcasting Company (owner of company flagships KTAR-AM- TV in Phoenix) and Eller Outdoor Advertising (a company founded by CCC president Karl Eller). The sale received FCC approval on July 17, 1970. In February 1977, KOCO adopted "5 Alive" as its on-air branding, as part of Combined Communications' rollout of the "Alive" branding concept—which Peters Productions initially developed for Tribune Broadcasting-owned independent station WPIX (now a CW affiliate) in New York City in early 1976—on most of the group's television stations. It was accompanied by a logo similar to that used at the time by Atlanta sister station WXIA-TV, when it began identifying as "11 Alive" in September 1976 (, WXIA is the only station out of the four former CCC outlets that continues to use the "Alive" moniker, which had also been utilized by sister station WLKY in Louisville, Kentucky and former sister WPTA in Fort Wayne, Indiana).

On March 31, 1977, Washington Star Communications announced that it would sell its Washington, D.C. flagship station WMAL-TV (now WJLA-TV) to Combined Communications, in exchange for KOCO-TV and approximately $65 million of nonvoting preferred stock in CCC. The deal, which was considered to be the largest purchase price for a single television station up to that time, was done to comply with an FCC rulemaking to diversify print and broadcast media ownership, under which the agency required Star Communications to divest itself of all but one of its D.C.-area media properties by January 1979. The proceeds from the sale, as well as a total of $65 million that Star Communications would have received within 20 years through the repurchase of Combined stock, were to be used to offset the continuing monetary losses of '' The Washington Star'' newspaper. Although the sale initially received approval from the FCC in January 1978, it was never finalized: on February 3, 1978, three weeks before the sale contract with CCC was set to expire, Star Communications sold ''The Washington Star'' to Time Inc. for $20 million plus the assumption of $8 million in debt. The FCC subsequently rescinded its approval of the transfer pending an inquiry into Time's purchase of the ''Star'', given the basis of the trade on ensuring the newspaper's financial stability. In a meeting to reconsider its approval of the WJLA-KOCO trade in early March (which was rescheduled from its original February 24 hearing date), the FCC once again granted approval of the station trade after the commission determined that Star Communications president Joe Allbritton had not committed himself to retaining the ''Star'' and that reevaluating the approval order turned up no reason to overturn the original decision. Despite this, on March 24, Star Communications—which had twice extended its sale contract with CCC to accommodate the FCC's hearing docket following delays in the hearing date—terminated the sale, citing a court appeal filed by the Adams Morgan Organization, the District of Columbia chapter of the National Organization for Women, the D.C. Media Task Force and the National Black Media Coalition that accused Star Communications on reneging on efforts to help minority-owned groups obtain financing to acquire the company's broadcast properties.

Gannett ownership

On May 9, 1978, the then– Rochester, New York–based Gannett Company

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