KBMT (channel 12) 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 ...

Beaumont, Texas Beaumont is a coastal city in the U.S. state of Texas. It is the county seat, seat of government of Jefferson County, Texas, Jefferson County, within the Beaumont–Port Arthur, Texas, Port Arthur Beaumont–Port Arthur metropolitan area, metropo ...

, United States, affiliated with

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 ...

and

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an Television in the United States, American English-language Commercial broadcasting, commercial television network, broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Enterta ...

. It is owned by

Tegna Inc. Tegna Inc. (stylized in all caps as TEGNA) is an American publicly traded broadcast, digital media and marketing services company headquartered in Tysons Corner, Virginia. It was created on June 29, 2015, when the Gannett Company split into tw ...

alongside low-power

MyNetworkTV MyNetworkTV (unofficially abbreviated MyTV, MyNet, MNT or MNTV, and sometimes referred to as My Network) is an American commercial broadcast television syndication service and former television network owned by Fox Corporation, operated by its ...

affiliate

KUIL-LD KUIL-LD (channel 12.5) is a low-power television station in Beaumont, Texas, United States, affiliated with MyNetworkTV. It is owned by Tegna Inc. alongside dual ABC/NBC affiliate KBMT (channel 12). Both stations share studios along I-10/US ...

(channel 12.5). Both stations share studios along

I-10 Interstate 10 (I-10) is the southernmost cross-country highway in the American Interstate Highway System. I-10 is the fourth-longest Interstate in the United States at , following I-90, I-80, and I-40. This freeway is part of the originally pl ...

US 69 U.S. Route 69 (US 69) is a major north–south United States highway. When it was first created, it was only long, but it has since been expanded into a Minnesota to Texas cross-country route. The highway's southern terminus (as well as ...

US 96 U.S. Highway 96 (US 96) is a north–south United States Numbered Highway that runs for about entirely in the U.S state of Texas. Its number is a violation of the standard numbering convention, as even-numbered two-digit highways are east– ...

US 287 U.S. Route 287 (US 287) is a north–south (physically northwest–southeast) United States highway. At long, it is the second longest three-digit U.S. Route, behind US 281. It serves as the major truck route between Fort Worth and Am ...

in Beaumont, while KBMT's transmitter is located in

Mauriceville, Texas Mauriceville is a census-designated place (CDP) in Orange County, Texas, United States. The population was 2,983 at the 2020 census. It is part of the Beaumont– Port Arthur Metropolitan Statistical Area. Geography Mauriceville is located at ...

History

The callsign KBMT originally transmitted on

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 31, beginning on May 9, 1954, as the first television station to broadcast in the Golden Triangle. The station was owned by Television Broadcasters, Inc. whose stockholders were H.D. Williams and R.C. Reed with Reed as president. It carried NBC,

DuMont Television Network The DuMont Television Network (also known as the DuMont Network, DuMont Television, simply DuMont/Du Mont, or (incorrectly) Dumont ) was one of America's pioneer commercial television networks, rivaling NBC and CBS for the distinction of being ...

and ABC as of November 1955; the station also carried

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainmen ...

programming before

KFDM-TV KFDM (channel 6) is a television station in Beaumont, Texas, United States, affiliated with CBS, The CW Plus, and Fox. It is owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group, which provides certain services to Port Arthur–licensed Dabl affiliate KBTV-TV (cha ...

went on the air in April 1955. Since the

FCC The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that regulates communications by radio, television, wire, satellite, and cable across the United States. The FCC maintains jurisdiction ...

did not mandate television sets to have UHF included until 1964, channel 31 went off the air on August 1, 1956. Its original tower still stands (though only instead of tall) west of

Vidor Vidor is a town and ''comune'' in the province of Treviso, Veneto, north-eastern Italy. Twin towns Vidor is twinned with: * Petritoli Petritoli is a '' comune'' (municipality) in the Province of Fermo in the Italian region Marche, located ab ...

south of

US 90 U.S. Route 90 or U.S. Highway 90 (US 90) is an east–west major United States highway in the Southern United States. Despite the "0" in its route number, US 90 never was a full coast-to-coast route. With the exception of a short-lived ...

. KBMT's owners subsequently applied for the later allocation on channel 12 and, after winning the allocation from the FCC, began broadcasting on its new assigned channel using the KBMT callsign on June 18, 1961. The new KBMT took over the ABC affiliation which it retains today, after being relegated to limited clearances on KPAC-TV (now

KBTV-TV KBTV-TV (channel 4) is a television station licensed to Port Arthur, Texas, United States, serving the Beaumont area as an affiliate of the digital multicast network Dabl. It is owned by Deerfield Media, which maintains joint sales and share ...

) and KFDM-TV. This gave the Golden Triangle full-time affiliations for all three networks on the VHF dial in six years. The original owners were N.D. "Doug" Williams and Randolph Reed. The original tower site for the transmitter and antenna was

Sabine Pass Sabine Pass is the natural outlet of Sabine Lake into the Gulf of Mexico. It borders Jefferson County, Texas, and Cameron Parish, Louisiana. History Civil War Two major battles occurred here during the American Civil War, known as the First and ...

, south of Port Arthur (this to prevent co-channel interference with

KSLA-TV KSLA (channel 12) is a television station in Shreveport, Louisiana, United States, affiliated with CBS. It is owned by Gray Television alongside low-power, Class A Telemundo affiliate KTSH-CD (channel 19). The two stations share studios on Fai ...

Shreveport Shreveport ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Louisiana. It is the third most populous city in Louisiana after New Orleans and Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Baton Rouge, respectively. The Shreveport–Bossier City metropolitan area, with a population o ...

). The transmitter and antenna were later moved to its current site near Mauriceville in the early 1960s with the antenna modified for a " directional" signal to prevent interference to KSLA's coverage area. The station was later sold to Cowles Broadcasting in 1965, the Channel 2 Television Company in 1970 and

McKinnon Broadcasting McKinnon Broadcasting Company (doing business as Texas Television, Inc.) is a privately owned television broadcasting company based in San Diego, California. Michael Dean McKinnon Sr. is the company's majority owner, president, chief executive o ...

in 1977. On January 1, 2009, KBMT added NBC programming on digital subchannel 12.2. This came after KBTV, which previously held the affiliation, switched to

Fox Foxes are small to medium-sized, omnivorous mammals belonging to several genera of the family Canidae. They have a flattened skull, upright, triangular ears, a pointed, slightly upturned snout, and a long bushy tail (or ''brush''). Twelve sp ...

. This in turn caused former Fox affiliate KUIL-LP (now

KBMT-LD KUIL-LD (channel 12.5) is a low-power television station in Beaumont, Texas, United States, affiliated with MyNetworkTV. It is owned by Tegna Inc. alongside dual ABC/NBC affiliate KBMT (channel 12). Both stations share studios along I-10/US ...

) to go

independent Independent or Independents may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups * Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in the New Hope, Pennsylvania, area of the United States during the early 1930s * Independ ...

, although they pursued the NBC affiliation. The NBC subchannel is branded as K-JAC NBC, a nod to channel 4's former calls from 1965 to 1999. In a ten-year deal with London Broadcasting, KBMT began to manage KUIL's programming as well. KBMT 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 12, 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 channel 50 to VHF channel 12 for post-transition operations. Texas Telecasting, Inc. sold the station to London Broadcasting in August 2009. That channel was dropped in early 2013 in favor of MundoFox (now

MundoMax MundoMax (; originally known as MundoFox from August 13, 2012 to July 28, 2015) was an American Spanish-language terrestrial television network that was owned by RCN Televisión. The network broadcast programs aimed at Hispanic and Latino America ...

). Due to a realignment, four digital channels are carried on the main 12 signal while the other two (12.5 and 12.6) are carried via the low-power stations, KBMT-LD on 43 SW of Beaumont and K36ID-D on 36 in

Orange Orange most often refers to: *Orange (fruit), the fruit of the tree species '' Citrus'' × ''sinensis'' ** Orange blossom, its fragrant flower *Orange (colour), from the color of an orange, occurs between red and yellow in the visible spectrum * ...

. In

Jasper Jasper, an aggregate of microgranular quartz and/or cryptocrystalline chalcedony and other mineral phases,Kostov, R. I. 2010. Review on the mineralogical systematics of jasper and related rocks. – Archaeometry Workshop, 7, 3, 209-213PDF/ref> ...

, KVHP-LD on 34 and in

Warren A warren is a network of wild rodent or lagomorph, typically rabbit burrows. Domestic warrens are artificial, enclosed establishment of animal husbandry dedicated to the raising of rabbits for meat and fur. The term evolved from the medieval Angl ...

, K27JJ-D on 27 carries the main RF12 signal with ABC, NBC, COZI and MeTV. In May 2010, London Broadcasting revealed that the company was developing a state network, MYTX, using subchannels like KUIL's .2 (now KBMT-LD2) operated by KBMT. MYTX would share Texas news and sports and productions from 41 Entertainment, which is owned by London. On May 14, 2014,

Gannett Gannett Co., Inc. () is an American mass media holding company headquartered in McLean, Virginia, in the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area.Tegna Tegna Inc. (stylized in all caps as TEGNA) is an American publicly traded broadcast, digital media and marketing services company headquartered in Tysons Corner, Virginia. It was created on June 29, 2015, when the Gannett Company split into tw ...

Newscasts

KBMT launched its news operation in 1962. On September 16, 2009, several changes occurred in the newscast lineup. The weekday morning show, ''Good Morning Southeast Texas'', began simulcasting on both the ABC and NBC channels while becoming a full two-hour broadcast. There began to be a half-hour newscast weekday mornings at 11:30 on KBMT-DT2. The NBC channel also launched a weeknight show at 6:30 and begin to simulcast the main channel's weeknight 10 o'clock news. Originally, there was only a separate short news and weather update at that time. KBMT-DT2 does not offer local newscasts on weekends unlike the main channel. On April 28, 2010, KBMT became the first in the market to air local news in high definition.http://www.tvnewscheck.com/articles/2010/04/26/daily.7/

Notable former staff

John Hambrick John James Hambrick (June 21, 1940 – September 10, 2013) was an American broadcast journalist, reporter, actor, voice over announcer and TV documentary producer. Career Broadcast journalist Hambrick began his television career in 1963 at KR ...

Bill Macatee Bill Macatee (born November 17, 1955) is an American sports broadcaster for CBS Sports and Tennis Channel. Early life and career Macatee was born in Rome, New York, and grew up in El Paso, Texas. He graduated from Burges High School in El Paso. ...

(now

sportscaster for the

NFL The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the major ...

and

golf Golf is a club-and-ball sport in which players use various clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a course in as few strokes as possible. Golf, unlike most ball games, cannot and does not use a standardized playing area, and coping wi ...

) *

Ben McCain Ben McCain (born 25 June 1955) is an American actor, broadcaster, producer and one half of The McCain Brothers, a singing-songwriting duo. McCain appeared as news anchor Aries West in MGM's comedy Bio-Dome, the character, Travis, in Roger Corman ...

(now an actor/producer and reporter for

Spectrum A spectrum (plural ''spectra'' or ''spectrums'') is a condition that is not limited to a specific set of values but can vary, without gaps, across a continuum. The word was first used scientifically in optics to describe the rainbow of colors i ...

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

) *

Van Earl Wright Van Earl Wright (born January 27, 1962) is an American television sportscaster, news anchor and journalist with over 30 years of national and local experience. A graduate of the University of South Carolina, Wright is known for a homespun del ...

– sports anchor *

John Ireland John Benjamin Ireland (January 30, 1914 – March 21, 1992) was a Canadian actor. He was nominated for an Academy Award for his performance in ''All the King's Men'' (1949), making him the first Vancouver-born actor to receive an Oscar nomina ...

(now co-host of ''Mason and Ireland'' on KSPN Los Angeles) * Tom Terry (now chief meteorologist at

WFTV WFTV (channel 9) is a television station in Orlando, Florida, United States, affiliated with ABC. It is owned by Cox Media Group alongside independent station WRDQ (channel 27). Both stations share studios on East South Street (SR 15) in downto ...

WRDQ WRDQ (channel 27) is an independent television station in Orlando, Florida, United States. It is owned Cox Media Group alongside ABC affiliate WFTV (channel 9). Both stations share studios on East South Street in downtown Orlando, while WRDQ's tr ...

Orlando, FL Orlando () is a city in the U.S. state of Florida and is the county seat of Orange County. In Central Florida, it is the center of the Orlando metropolitan area, which had a population of 2,509,831, according to U.S. Census Bureau figures relea ...

)

Technical information

Subchannels

The station's digital signal is

multiplexed In telecommunications and computer networking, multiplexing (sometimes contracted to muxing) is a method by which multiple analog or digital signals are combined into one signal over a shared medium. The aim is to share a scarce resource - a ...

Translator

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Kbmt Television channels and stations established in 1961 ABC network affiliates MeTV affiliates Cozi TV affiliates True Crime Network affiliates Quest (American TV network) affiliates Twist (TV network) affiliates Tegna Inc. BMT 1961 establishments in Texas Former Gannett subsidiaries