KOCY-LD (channel 48) is a low-power television station in

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, affiliated with the Spanish-language

Estrella TV Estrella TV () is an American Spanish-language broadcast television network owned by the Estrella Media subsidiary of HPS Investment Partners, LLC. The network primarily features programs, the vast majority of which are produced by the network ...

network. It is owned by locally based

Tyler Media Group Tyler Media Group, also known as Tyler Broadcasting Corporation or simply Tyler Media, is a family-owned Oklahoma business with Radio, TV and outdoor advertising assets in Tulsa and Oklahoma City. Tyler Media owns five television stations (consistin ...

alongside Woodward-licensed

Univision Univision () is an American Spanish-language free-to-air television network owned by TelevisaUnivision. It is the United States' largest provider of Spanish-language content. The network's programming is aimed at the Latino public and includes ...

affiliate

KUOK KUOK (channel 36) is a television station licensed to Woodward, Oklahoma, United States, affiliated with the Spanish-language Univision network. Owned by the Oklahoma City–based Tyler Media Group, the station maintains a transmitter near Stat ...

(channel 36) and

Shawnee The Shawnee are an Algonquian-speaking indigenous people of the Northeastern Woodlands. In the 17th century they lived in Pennsylvania, and in the 18th century they were in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana and Illinois, with some bands in Kentucky a ...

-licensed

Telemundo Telemundo (; formerly NetSpan) is an American Spanish-language Terrestrial television, terrestrial television network owned by NBCUniversal Television and Streaming#NBCUniversal Telemundo Enterprises, NBCUniversal Telemundo Enterprises, a divi ...

affiliate

KTUZ-TV KTUZ-TV (channel 30) is a television station licensed to Shawnee, Oklahoma, United States, serving the Oklahoma City area as an affiliate of the Spanish-language Telemundo network. It is the flagship station of locally based Tyler Media Group, ...

(channel 30). The three stations share studios near Southeast 51st Street and Shields Boulevard in southern Oklahoma City, where KOCY-LD's transmitter is also located. Even though KOCY-LD broadcasts a

digital Digital usually refers to something using discrete digits, often binary digits. Technology and computing Hardware *Digital electronics, electronic circuits which operate using digital signals **Digital camera, which captures and stores digital i ...

signal of its own, its broadcast radius only covers the immediate Oklahoma City area. Therefore, in order to extend its reach, KOCY-LD is

simulcast Simulcast (a portmanteau of simultaneous broadcast) is the broadcasting of programmes/programs or events across more than one resolution, bitrate or medium, or more than one service on the same medium, at exactly the same time (that is, simultane ...

in high definition on the third

digital subchannel In broadcasting, digital subchannels are a method of transmitting more than one independent program stream simultaneously from the same digital radio or television station on the same radio frequency channel. This is done by using data compress ...

of KTUZ-TV (UHF channel 29.5, mapped as virtual channel 48.1) from its transmitter near 86th Street and Ridgeway Road (south of Britton Road) in northeast Oklahoma City.

History

The station first signed on the air in 1989 as K69EK, broadcasting on UHF channel 69 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 ...

. In 1995, the station joined

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. ...

upon the network's launch until 1996. From the mid-1990s until 2000, the station carried programming from

LeSea Broadcasting Family Broadcasting Corporation, formerly known as LeSEA Broadcasting, is an American Christian television network. Founded by Lester Sumrall in 1972, Family Broadcasting Corporation is headquartered in South Bend, Indiana, and broadcasts Chris ...

-owned general entertainment/religious network World Harvest Television; for the next two years afterward, it ran religious programming from The Shepherd's Chapel Network. It then switched to a

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 ...

format as an affiliate of

MTV2 MTV2 (formerly M2) is an American pay television Cable television, channel owned by the Paramount Media Networks division of Paramount Global. The channel launched initially as an all-music video service, once the original MTV had started to sh ...

from 2002 to 2004. After being acquired by

Equity Broadcasting Corporation Equity Media Holdings Corporation was a broadcasting company based in Little Rock, Arkansas that owned and operated television stations across the United States. Prior to March 30, 2007, the company was known as Equity Broadcasting, a name later ...

, the station became a

affiliate on May 8, 2004, as one of three Oklahoma-licensed translator stations of the then six-station two-state network "Univision Arkansas-Oklahoma", with Woodward-based

(channel 35) as its Oklahoma

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 ...

. KUOK, K69EK and three low-power stations that Equity also acquired to become KUOK's translators (KCHM-LP channel 36, now KUOK-CD;

Sulphur Sulfur (or sulphur in British English) is a chemical element with the symbol S and atomic number 16. It is abundant, multivalent and nonmetallic. Under normal conditions, sulfur atoms form cyclic octatomic molecules with a chemical formula ...

-based KOKT-LP channel 20; and KUTU-CA channel 25 in

Tulsa Tulsa () is the second-largest city in the U.S. state, state of Oklahoma and List of United States cities by population, 47th-most populous city in the United States. The population was 413,066 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. ...

), originally relayed Univision programming across portions of Oklahoma via a simulcast from then-sister station KLRA-LP (channel 58) in

Little Rock, Arkansas (The Little Rock, The "Little Rock") , government_type = council-manager government, Council-manager , leader_title = List of mayors of Little Rock, Arkansas, Mayor , leader_name = Frank Scott Jr. , leader_ ...

. Prior to this, Univision was only receivable via local cable providers such as

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 carried its programming from the Spanish language network's national feed; that feed was eventually replaced by a direct-from-studio

fiber optic An optical fiber, or optical fibre in Commonwealth English, is a flexible, transparent fiber made by drawing glass (silica) or plastic to a diameter slightly thicker than that of a human hair. Optical fibers are used most often as a means to ...

feed of KUOK (whose schedule now mirrors the national feed outside of local advertising, news inserts and occasional

paid programming Paid or PAID may refer to: * ''Paid'' (1930 film), an American film starring Joan Crawford * ''Paid'' (2006 film), a Dutch film *''Personality and Individual Differences'', a journal See also * Paide, the capital of Järva County, Estonia * P ...

substitutions, and provided improved reception of the station throughout the market than that receivable over-the-air prior to the digital transition). In the first months of operation, the Univision Oklahoma stations ran a direct simulcast from KLRA-LP including local commercials from the Little Rock area that were inserted by that station during national commercial breaks and its

station identification Station identification (ident, network ID or channel ID or bumper) is the practice of radio and television stations and broadcast network, networks identifying themselves on-air, typically by means of a call sign or brand name (sometimes known, ...

slides (the Oklahoma City repeaters identified through text-only IDs placed at the bottom of the screen during the top and bottom of each hour). In March 2005, K69EK, though still programmed via satellite from Equity's headquarters in Little Rock, ceased the KLRA-LP simulcast and became a direct simulcast of KUOK (which began operating its own separate feed), carrying advertising for businesses within the Oklahoma City market and separate station promotions. That same month on March 13, the station changed its callsign to KWDW-LP. On June 25, 2008, Equity announced that it would sell KUOK, its low-power repeaters and KUTU to

Luken Communications Get After It Media, formerly known as Luken Communications and Reach High Media Group, is a privately owned American broadcast holding company, based in Chattanooga, Tennessee, which owns or operates around 80 television stations in the United St ...

(owned by former Equity executive Henry Luken). That December, Equity Media Holdings filed for

Chapter 11 Chapter 11 of the United States Bankruptcy Code (Title 11 of the United States Code) permits reorganization under the bankruptcy laws of the United States. Such reorganization, known as Chapter 11 bankruptcy, is available to every business, wheth ...

bankruptcy protection; offers by Luken Communications to acquire Equity-owned stations in six markets were later withdrawn. KUOK and its translators were sold at auction to the

on April 16, 2009; this effectively created a

duopoly A duopoly (from Greek δύο, ''duo'' "two" and πωλεῖν, ''polein'' "to sell") is a type of oligopoly where two firms have dominant or exclusive control over a market. It is the most commonly studied form of oligopoly due to its simplicit ...

between KUOK and

affiliate

(channel 30). On November 22, 2011, the station changed its callsign to KUOK-LP (KUOK's translator on channel 36, changed its callsign to KUOK-LD around the same time), then on February 9, 2012, the call letters were changed again to KOCY-LP (the KOCY callsign had previously been used on Tyler-owned radio station

KEBC KEBC (1560 kHz) is a commercial AM radio station licensed to Del City, Oklahoma, and serving the Oklahoma City Metroplex. It is owned by the Tyler Media Group and airs a sports format. The station's studios are on East Britton Road in Northeas ...

(1560 AM) from 2003 to 2011, and on KGHM (1340 AM) from the 1940s until the early 1990s); it also replaced the KUOK simulcast with programming from

; as such, it became Tyler Media's third (separate) Spanish-language station in the Oklahoma City market. On April 15, 2022, the station was licensed for digital operation, changing its call sign to KOCY-LD.

Subchannel

References

External links

Tyler Media corporate website

Estrella TV official website
* {{Tyler Media Estrella TV affiliates OCY-LD Television channels and stations established in 1989 OCY-LD Equity Media Holdings