KTBO-TV (channel 14) is a

religious Religion is usually defined as a social system, social-cultural system of designated religious behaviour, behaviors and practices, morality, morals, beliefs, worldviews, religious text, texts, sacred site, sanctified places, prophecy, prophecie ...

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 ...

Oklahoma City, Oklahoma Oklahoma City (), officially the City of Oklahoma City, and often shortened to OKC, is the capital and largest city of the U.S. state of Oklahoma. The county seat of Oklahoma County, it ranks 20th among United States cities in population, and ...

, United States,

owned and operated In the broadcasting industry, an owned-and-operated station (frequently abbreviated as an O&O) usually refers to a television or radio station owned by the network with which it is associated. This distinguishes such a station from an affiliate ...

by the

Trinity Broadcasting Network The Trinity Broadcasting Network (TBN) is an international Christian-based broadcast television network and the world's largest religious television network. TBN was headquartered in Costa Mesa, California, until March 3, 2017, when it sold its ...

(TBN). The station's transmitter is located near the

John Kilpatrick Turnpike The John Kilpatrick Turnpike is a toll road in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. The turnpike forms a partial loop that runs from State Highway 152 (SH-152) in the west to an interchange with Interstate 35 (I-35) and I-44 in the east. At the eastern term ...

Interstate 44 Interstate 44 (I-44) is a major Interstate Highway in the central United States. Although it is nominally an east–west road as it is even-numbered, it follows a more southwest–northeast alignment. Its western terminus is in Wichita Fal ...

, on Oklahoma City's northeast side.

History

The channel 14 allocation in Oklahoma City was first assigned to

KLPR-TV KLPR-TV, UHF analog channel 14, was a television station licensed to Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, United States. The station was owned by Big Chief Broadcasting Company alongside KLPR radio (1140 AM, now KRMP). KLPR-TV was the second television stat ...

, which operated from May 31, 1966 to December 1967 as an

independent station An independent station is an independent radio or terrestrial television station which is independent in some way from broadcast networks. The definition of "independence" varies from country to country, reflecting governmental regulations, market ...

. KTBO-TV first signed on the air on March 6, 1981, and was one of several partner stations that were built and signed on by TBN, instead of being acquired from another company. It was also the fourth TBN partner station to sign on (after

flagship station In broadcasting, a flagship (also known as a flagship station or key station) is the broadcast station which originates a television network, or a particular radio or television program that plays a key role in the branding of and consumer loyalt ...

KTBN-TV KTBN-TV (channel 40) is a religious television station licensed to Santa Ana, California, United States, serving the Los Angeles area as the flagship station of the locally based Trinity Broadcasting Network (TBN). The station's offices are l ...

Santa Ana, California Santa Ana () is the second most populous city and the county seat of Orange County, California. Located in the Greater Los Angeles region of Southern California, the city's population was 310,227 at the 2020 census, making Santa Ana the List of ...

, KPAZ-TV in

Phoenix, Arizona Phoenix ( ; nv, Hoozdo; es, Fénix or , yuf-x-wal, Banyà:nyuwá) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of cities and towns in Arizona#List of cities and towns, most populous city of the U.S. state of Arizona, with 1 ...

and

WHFT-TV WHFT-TV (channel 45) is a religious television station in Miami, Florida, United States, owned and operated by the Trinity Broadcasting Network (TBN). The station's studios and transmitter are located at the Lakeside Park (formerly Lake Trinity E ...

Miami, Florida Miami ( ), officially the City of Miami, known as "the 305", "The Magic City", and "Gateway to the Americas", is a East Coast of the United States, coastal metropolis and the County seat, county seat of Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade C ...

). The current channel 14 (as KTBO) operates under a different license and has never claimed KLPR-TV as part of its history. In September 1989, KTBO engaged in a campaign encouraging viewers to call local cable providers

Cox Communications Cox Communications, Inc. (also known as Cox Cable and formerly Cox Broadcasting Corporation, Dimension Cable Services and Times-Mirror Cable) is an American digital cable television provider, telecommunications and home automation services. It i ...

(which served Oklahoma City proper) and Multimedia Cablevision (which served most of the city's suburbs before its Oklahoma systems were acquired by Cox in 1999) and tell them to protest premium cable channel

Cinemax Cinemax is an American pay television, cable, and satellite television network owned by the Home Box Office, Inc. subsidiary of Warner Bros. Discovery. Developed as a companion "maxi-pay" service complementing the offerings shown on parent net ...

's broadcast of

Martin Scorsese Martin Charles Scorsese ( , ; born November 17, 1942) is an American film director, producer, screenwriter and actor. Scorsese emerged as one of the major figures of the New Hollywood era. He is the recipient of List of awards and nominatio ...

's '' The Last Temptation of Christ'', which had garnered controversy among the religious community a year before for its depiction of

Jesus Christ Jesus, likely from he, יֵשׁוּעַ, translit=Yēšūaʿ, label=Hebrew/Aramaic ( AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ or Jesus of Nazareth (among other names and titles), was a first-century Jewish preacher and religious ...

in an alternate reality after being tempted by what he later discovers to be Satan in the form of a beautiful child (particularly for depicting Christ imagining himself engaged in sexual activities). Although Multimedia responded by blacking out all of Cinemax's broadcasts of the film, Cox refused to preempt the broadcasts and briefly dropped KTBO from its lineup. On October 27, 2020, KTBO's transmission tower, as well as a radio transmitter owned and operated by TBN, collapsed due to significant

freezing rain Freezing rain is rain maintained at temperatures below freezing by the ambient air mass that causes freezing on contact with surfaces. Unlike a mixture of rain and snow or ice pellets, freezing rain is made entirely of liquid droplets. The raind ...

accumulation created by a severe early-season

ice storm An ice storm, also known as a glaze event or a silver storm is a type of winter storm characterized by freezing rain. The U.S. National Weather Service defines an ice storm as a storm which results in the accumulation of at least of ice on ex ...

that crippled much of

Central Oklahoma Central Oklahoma is the geographical name for the central region of the U.S. state of Oklahoma. It is also known by the Oklahoma Department of Tourism designation, Frontier Country, defined as the twelve-county region including Canadian, Grady, ...

; ice accumulations on the tower contributing to the collapse were observed to be around . TBN filed a

special temporary authority Special Temporary Authority (STA) in U.S. broadcast law is a type of broadcast license which temporarily allows a broadcast station to operate outside of its normal technical or legal parameters. In the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) stat ...

request on November 5, asking to be allowed to remain dark for 180 days while it seeks a temporary transmitter facility from which it can resume broadcasts until the Hefner Road tower is rebuilt. In January 2021, KTBO resumed over-the-air transmission of its TBN programming under a temporary leasing agreement with The Edge Spectrum, Inc., relayed in

standard definition Standard-definition television (SDTV, SD, often shortened to standard definition) is a television system which uses a resolution that is not considered to be either high or enhanced definition. "Standard" refers to it being the prevailing sp ...

over the second digital subchannel of

KUOT-CD KUOT-CD, virtual and UHF digital channel 21 is a low-powered, Class A 3ABN- affiliated television station licensed to Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, United States. Founded March 7, 1995, the station is owned by The Edge Spectrum, Inc. Digital tel ...

(channel 21). KTBO resumed over-the-air broadcasts via its new transmission tower on September 18, 2021.

Technical information

Subchannels

KTBO-TV began transmitting a

digital television Digital television (DTV) is the transmission of television signals using digital encoding, in contrast to the earlier analog television technology which used analog signals. At the time of its development it was considered an innovative advanc ...

signal on UHF channel 15 on December 1, 2002.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Ktbo-Tv Trinity Broadcasting Network affiliates Television channels and stations established in 1981 1981 establishments in Oklahoma TBO-TV