KYTX (channel 19) is a television station licensed to Nacogdoches, Texas, United States, serving East Texas as an affiliate of CBS and The CW Plus. 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 ...

, the station has studios near Loop 323 in the southeastern portion of

Tyler Tyler may refer to: People and fictional characters * Tyler (name), an English name; with lists of people with the surname or given name * Tyler, the Creator (born 1991), American rap artist and producer * John Tyler, 10th president of the United ...

, and its transmitter is located near State Highway 110 in rural east-central Cherokee County (northwest of Ponta).

History

The history of CBS in East Texas traces back to the sign-on of the market's first two television stations, Tyler-based KETX (channel 19) and Longview-based KTVE (channel 32) in 1953; the former station shut down due to financial problems in 1954 while the latter followed suit in 1955. After KLTV (channel 7) signed on in October 1954, it carried select CBS programming as part of a shared primary affiliation with ABC and NBC (eventually becoming a full-time ABC affiliate in 1984). CBS would not have a full-time affiliate in the Tyler–Longview market until September 1984, when KLMG-TV (channel 51, now KFXK-TV) signed on the air from Longview; KLMG disaffiliated from the network in April 1991 to become the market's

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''). Twelv ...

affiliate. For the thirteen years that followed, viewers in the portion of East Texas that KFXK-TV served had to rely on cable or satellite for CBS programming. Most area cable providers imported

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 ...

– Texarkana affiliate KSLA, while some cable systems in the western portion of the market carried the network's Dallas–

Fort Worth Fort Worth is the fifth-largest city in the U.S. state of Texas and the 13th-largest city in the United States. It is the county seat of Tarrant County, covering nearly into four other counties: Denton, Johnson, Parker, and Wise. According ...

affiliates ( KDFW was carried from 1991 until it switched to Fox in July 1995 while affiliate-turned- O&O KTVT was then carried from that point until early 2004); cable systems in Houston County carried

Bryan Bryan may refer to: Places United States * Bryan, Arkansas * Bryan, Kentucky * Bryan, Ohio * Bryan, Texas * Bryan, Wyoming, a ghost town in Sweetwater County in the U.S. state of Wyoming * Bryan Township (disambiguation) Facilities and structur ...

–

College Station College station or College Station may refer to: Transportation *College station (MetroLink), a St. Louis light rail station in Saint Clair County, Illinois, United States *College station (PNR), a Philippine National Railways station in Los Baño ...

affiliate KBTX-TV instead.

KYTX station history

The station first signed on the air on September 1, 1991 as KLSB-TV, operating as a satellite station of NBC affiliate KETK-TV (channel 56). KLSB-TV covered the southern portion of the market while KETK served the northern side. KETK and KLSB-TV were branded as "Region 56" and "Region 19," respectively.

Max Media Max Media is a company that owns radio stations throughout the United States. It is based in Virginia Beach, Virginia. History Max Media was founded in 2001. Prior to this, some of the company's management had run the TVX Broadcast Group from 1979 ...

(a company partially related to Max Media Properties, former owner of KETK) purchased the station in 2003. Upon acquiring the station, Max Media signed an affiliation agreement to become the market's CBS affiliate. The company also leased a building in southeast Tyler that formerly operated as a four-screen

movie theater A movie theater (American English), cinema (British English), or cinema hall ( Indian English), also known as a movie house, picture house, the movies, the pictures, picture theater, the silver screen, the big screen, or simply theater is a ...

to serve as the station's studio facilities. That winter, Max filed an application with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to change the station's callsign to KYTX. Channel 19 officially joined CBS on April 12, 2004, broadcasting from the KLSB transmitter; the following day, the FCC officially granted the call sign change to KYTX (the KLSB callsign ended up on a low-power station broadcasting on UHF channel 53, which became the sole repeater of KETK, until it shut down in 2012). The station relocated its transmitter facilities to new tower located south of New Summerfield on June 13, 2004. The new transmitter facilities provided an upgraded signal that allowed KYTX to cover both the Tyler–Longview and

Lufkin Lufkin is the largest city in Angelina County, Texas and the county seat. The city is situated in Deep East Texas and about 60 miles west of the Texas-Louisiana border. Its estimated population is 35,021 as of July 1, 2019. Lufkin was founded ...

–Nacogdoches areas. The city of license has remained Nacogdoches. On October 18, 2007, the station was sold to the Addison-based London Broadcasting Company (owned by former Gaylord Entertainment Company CEO Terry E. London, in association with private equity firm Sun TX Capital Partners) for $25 million. On May 14, 2014, the

Gannett Company Gannett Co., Inc. () is an American mass media holding company headquartered in McLean, Virginia, in the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area.Gracia Martore touted that the acquisition would give the company a presence in several fast-growing markets, and opportunities for local advertisers to leverage its digital marketing platform. Gannett also owns fellow Texas-based CBS affiliates KHOU in Houston and KENS in San Antonio, which the company had acquired in its 2013 purchase of the Belo Corporation. The sale was completed on July 8. London exempted

sister station In broadcasting, sister stations or sister channels are radio or television stations operated by the same company, either by direct ownership or through a management agreement. Radio sister stations will often have different formats, and somet ...

and MeTV affiliate KCEB (channel 54) from the deal (as well as company

flagship A flagship is a vessel used by the commanding officer of a group of naval ships, characteristically a flag officer entitled by custom to fly a distinguishing flag. Used more loosely, it is the lead ship in a fleet of vessels, typically the fi ...

KTXD-TV in the Dallas suburb of Greenville), which resulted in the first instance in which a duopoly was legally and operationally separated. The acquisition closed on July 8, 2014. Under Gannett ownership, the station is held under the same holding company that previously used to own KMOV-TV, which was sold to

Meredith Corporation Meredith Corporation was an American media conglomerate based in Des Moines, Iowa, that owned magazines, television stations, websites, and radio stations. Its publications had a readership of more than 120 million and paid circulation of more ...

after Gannett's purchase of Belo. On June 29, 2015, the Gannett Company split in two, with one side specializing in print media and the other side specializing in broadcast and digital media. KYTX was retained by the latter company, named Tegna.

''Anchorwoman'' reality show

KYTX was the center of a reality series on Fox titled '' Anchorwoman'', which filmed at the station's Tyler studios during the spring of 2007. The series starred

Lauren Jones ''For the Kentucky meteorologist Lauren Jones, see WAVE (TV).'' ''For the former Alabama meteorologist Lauren Jones, see WAFF (TV).'' Lauren Lorraine Jones (born August 27, 1982) is an American fashion designer, model, former Barker's Beauty on ...

(a former beauty pageant winner, '' The Price Is Right'' model and featured WWE Diva), who trained to become an anchor at the station. Billboards promoting the program, showing Jones posing provocatively alongside the caption "She's coming," caused controversy across East Texas. The station's participation in the program received attention from many national news outlets including Fox News and ''

Good Morning America ''Good Morning America'' (often abbreviated as ''GMA'') is an American morning television program that is broadcast on ABC. It debuted on November 3, 1975, and first expanded to weekends with the debut of a Sunday edition on January 3, 1993. Th ...

'', who did stories on the filming of the series. As the program aired on a competitor of CBS, KYTX temporarily removed CBS branding from most of its signage and equipment until filming of the program wrapped. The program premiered on Fox with back-to-back episodes on August 22, 2007; it was canceled the following day after the series premiere garnered a 2.0 household rating and 1.0 rating among adults between the ages of 18 to 49, according to Nielsen Media Research. In the Tyler–Longview market, local Fox affiliate KFXK-TV aired the program as scheduled, but the station did not sell any advertising during the program to local businesses, opting to use that time to air promotions for local newscasts on sister station KETK-TV as KFXK did not air a local newscast at that time.

Programming

Syndicated programming

Syndicated Syndication may refer to: * Broadcast syndication, where individual stations buy programs outside the network system * Print syndication, where individual newspapers or magazines license news articles, columns, or comic strips * Web syndication, ...

programs broadcast by KYTX include '' Family Feud'', ''

Sherri Sherri may refer to: *Sherri (name) * ''Sherri'' (2009 TV series), an American sitcom starring Sherri Shepherd * ''Sherri'' (talk show), a syndicated daytime show hosted by Sherri Shepherd that premiered in 2022 See also * Shari (disambiguation) * ...

'' and '' Judge Judy'' among others.

News operation

KYTX presently broadcasts 26 hours of locally produced newscasts each week (with 4½ hours each weekday, 1½ hours on Saturdays and two hours on Sundays); unlike most CBS affiliates, the station does not presently carry early evening newscasts on Sundays. On September 10, 2018, the station launched a noon newscast for the first time in station history, named ''The Noon Show''. Shortly after taking the CBS affiliation, Max Media invested in developing a news department for the station. In the interim, during the station's first few months as a CBS affiliate, KYTX resorted to simulcasting local newscasts from the network's Dallas owned-and-operated station KTVT. KYTX debuted its local newscasts on September 12, 2004 (under the original brand of ''CBS 19

Eyewitness News ''Eyewitness News'' is a style of television news presentation that emphasizes visual elements and action video, replacing the older "man-on-camera" newscast. History Pioneered by Westinghouse The earliest known use of the ''Eyewitness New ...

'') with the launch of a weeknight-only 6:00 p.m. newscast. In addition to the 6:00 p.m. program, the station initially offered an hour-long 6:00 a.m. newscast on weekday mornings, and a half-hour late evening newscast at 10:00 p.m. seven nights a week. The following year, KYTX launched a half-hour 5:00 p.m. newscast (originally titled ''Eye @ 5''), which was followed in 2007 by the addition of a 6:30 p.m. newscast that focused on news stories in the Longview and Kilgore areas (similar to a previously attempt at a Longview-centric local newscast that aired on KFXK during its days as a CBS affiliate). The 5:00 p.m. newscast was rebranded as ''Primetime at 5'' that year, while the 10:00 p.m. newscast adopted the ''Ten @ 10'' format in January 2008, focusing on faster delivery of news and weather in the first ten minutes of the newscast. Later in 2008, the station launched a half-hour newscast on Sunday mornings. In 2009, KYTX dropped the ''Eyewitness News'' title for its newscasts in favor of ''KYTX CBS 19 News''. On April 23, 2009, beginning with its weekday morning newscast, KYTX became the first television station in the Tyler–Longview market to begin broadcasting its local newscasts in

high definition High definition or HD may refer to: Visual technologies *HD DVD, discontinued optical disc format *HD Photo, former name for the JPEG XR image file format *HDV, format for recording high-definition video onto magnetic tape * HiDef, 24 frames-pe ...

. Later that year, the station entered into a content partnership with the '' Tyler Morning Telegraph'' to collaborate on news stories as well as to provide weather forecasts for the newspaper. On March 16, 2015, KYTX debuted the Gannett graphics with an updated on-air branding as simply ''CBS 19 News'' (dropping the KYTX portion of the branding). CBS 19 currently produces a 2-hour weekday morning show called ''The Morning Loop'', a 30-minute newscast at noon called ''The Noon Show'', a 30-minute newscast at 5 p.m., an hour-long newscast at 6 p.m., and a 35-minute newscast at 10 p.m. These all air during the week. On weekends, CBS 19 produces an hour-long 10 p.m. newscast Saturday and Sunday, an hour-long morning news program (not branded as ''The Morning Loop'') at 7 a.m. on Sundays, and a half-hour pre-recorded weekend newscast at 6 p.m. on Saturdays.

Stormy, the Weather Dog

Stormy, a dog adopted from the Humane Society of Smith County in 2005, served as the station's ''de facto'' mascot, "assisting" former chief meteorologist Doc Deason (who later was its weeknight 5:00 p.m. meteorologist) with his weather forecasts during the weeknight newscasts. The idea was inspired by a similar mascot used by Houston NBC affiliate KPRC-TV. Viewers named the dog in a poll; Stormy made his first on-air appearance on November 3, 2005. Sales of "Stormy's Dog-gone Goodwill Dog Cookies" featuring the dog benefitted area humane societies and Goodwill Industries chapters. Stormy no longer appears on KYTX's newscasts.

Technical information

Subchannels

The station's digital signal is multiplexed: On January 1, 2006, the station launched digital subchannel 19.2 as a UPN affiliate (assuming the network's affiliation in the market from KCEB). Shortly after receiving the affiliation, on January 24, the Warner Bros. unit of Time Warner and CBS Corporation announced that the two companies would shut down The WB and UPN and combine the networks' respective programming to create a new "fifth" network called The CW, which would be aimed at young adults between the ages of 18 and 34. KCEB assumed the CW affiliation, while KYTX-DT2 became 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 ...

branded as "MYTX" on September 18 after the network ceased operations; "MYTX" eventually became a Retro Television Network affiliate until it affiliated with MeTV on September 19, 2011; the subchannel then switched to The CW in May 2012 (assuming the affiliation with the network's CW Plus service from KCEB, which took the MeTV affiliation). In 2009, KYTX added Azteca América on digital subchannel 19.3, becoming the first Spanish language network affiliate in East Texas. The subchannel became a This TV affiliate in March 2012. In March 2013, digital channel 19.3 switched its affiliation to Cozi TV (with This TV programming later moving to KCEB on its third digital subchannel). As of 2014, 19.3 switched to MeTV, returning the network to KYTX since 19.2 switched to The CW two years prior.

Analog-to-digital conversion

KYTX signed on its digital signal 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 18 from a new transmitter tower in Ponta, becoming the first station in the Tyler–Longview market to transmit a full-power digital signal, and the first to offer network programming in high definition on June 12, 2004. The station shut down its analog signal, over UHF channel 19, at 11:59 p.m. on February 17, 2009, the original target date for full-power television stations in the United States to transition from analog to digital broadcasts under federal mandate (which Congress had moved the previous month to June 12). The station's digital signal remained on its pre-transition UHF channel 18, using PSIP to display the station's virtual channel as its former UHF analog channel 19. As part of the SAFER Act, KYTX kept its analog signal on the air until March 19 to inform viewers of the digital television transition through a loop of public service announcements from the

National Association of Broadcasters The National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) is a trade association and lobby group representing the interests of commercial and non-commercial over-the-air radio and television broadcasters in the United States. The NAB represents more than ...

References

External links

KYTX ("CBS 19") official website

KYTX ("MYTX / East Texas CW 19.2") website
{{Tegna CBS network affiliates The CW affiliates MeTV affiliates Twist (TV network) affiliates Court TV affiliates Defy TV affiliates True Crime Network affiliates Quest (American TV network) affiliates YTX Television channels and stations established in 1991 1991 establishments in Texas Nacogdoches, Texas Tegna Inc. Former Gannett subsidiaries