History
1955–1971: As an independent station
The allocation originally assigned to VHF channel 10 was contested between three groups that competed for approval by the1971–1993: Expansion into a regional superstation
KTVT's popularity also spread outside of the Metroplex beginning in the late 1970s, when the station began making its signal available to1994–1998: As a CBS affiliate
On May 23, 1994, as part of a broad deal that also saw News Corporation acquire a 20% equity interest in the company,1999–present: As a CBS O&O station
On April 12, 1999, Gaylord announced its formal exit from television when the company agreed to sell KTVT—which had become the company's lone remaining broadcast television property—to CBS Television Stations for $485 million; the sale received FCC approval on August 3, 1999. The purchase placed KTVT under common ownership with Infinity Broadcasting Corporation's six Metroplex radio properties, KRLD (AM), KRLD (1080 AM), KLUV (98.7 FM), KRBV (100.3 FM, now KJKK), KVIL (103.7 FM), KYNG (105.3 FM, now KRLD-FM) and KOAI (107.5 FM, now KMVK). Also in 1999, KTVT relocated its primary operations from its Stemmons Freeway facility into an existing office facility on North Central Expressway (near the Walnut Hill neighborhood) that had remained under Gaylord ownership. The move was speculated to have been coordinated between Gaylord and CBS to consolidate CBS's radio operations with KTVT to reduce overhead costs. On September 7, 1999, Viacom (1952–2006), Viacom announced its intent to merge with (the original) Westinghouse Electric (1886), CBS Corporation for $35.6 billion; the purchase was finalized on April 26, 2000, officially placing KTVT into a duopoly with then-UPN station KTXA as a result of the integration of CBS's group of owned-and-operated stations into Viacom's Paramount Stations Group subsidiary. (That transaction also effectively reunited KTVT with KSTW under common ownership.) Subsequently, KTXA relocated from its existing facilities at the Paramount Building in downtown Dallas and integrated its business operations with KTVT at its Bridge Street facility in Fort Worth. On January 3, 2006, the original Viacom Viacom (1971–2005)#2005 split and re-merger of CBS and Viacom, split into two companies, with the original Viacom being restructured as CBS Corporation and a new company that assumed the Viacom (2005–2019), Viacom name (which included, among other properties, Paramount Pictures and Viacom's cable television divisions, Viacom Media Networks, MTV Networks and BET Networks); KTVT/KTXA and the remainder of the Viacom Television Stations unit (renamed CBS Television Stations), Showtime Networks and Infinity Broadcasting (renamed CBS Radio) were spun off into CBS Corporation. On August 26, 2013, KTVT/KTXA moved its Dallas business operations to a redeveloped office building at 12001 North Central Expressway (twenty blocks north of the previous Dallas facility at 10111 North Central, near Presbyterian Hospital of Dallas, Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital, between Walnut Hill and Meadow Road). The office tower that the stations began occupying—where KTVT's Dallas newsroom and the advertising sales offices for the duopoly occupy the top floor—was renamed CBS Tower. The station's primary studio facilities, and other technical and business operations remain at the Bridge Street facility in east Fort Worth; the former Dallas offices on North Central were purchased by Avial Hotels (the real estate development subsidiary of North Carolina-based Blue Star Hospitality) in November 2015, which intended to redevelop the building as a hotel. On August 13, 2019, National Amusements announced that Viacom and CBS Corporation would 2019 merger of CBS and Viacom, recombine their assets into a singular entity to be named ViacomCBS in a deal valued at up to $15.4 billion. The acquisition was finalized on December 4, 2019, resulting in CBS Television Stations (and by association, KTVT/KTXA) becoming a ViacomCBS subsidiary. On February 16, 2022, ViacomCBS changed its name to Paramount Global.KTVT-DT2
On Memorial Day, May 25, 2015, KTVT launched a digital subchannel on virtual channel 11.2 to serve as a charter affiliate of Decades (TV network), Decades, a classic television network co-owned by CBS Television Stations and Weigel Broadcasting (the latter of which holds responsibility of affiliate distribution to stations not owned by CBS) that features programs from the CBS Television Distribution (now CBS Media Ventures) library, including archival footage fromProgramming
Since it joined the network in July 1995, KTVT has carried the entire CBS schedule (prime time, daytime, late night, Children's programming on CBS, Saturday morning, news and CBS Sports, sports programming), and as a CBS owned-and-operated station, it broadcasts the majority of its programs—other than those featured within its prime time lineup and network-televised sporting events—in pattern. However, it is one of the few CBS stations in the Central Time Zone (alongside those such as sister stations WBBM-TV in Chicago and KCBS-TV in Los Angeles, with other affiliates such as WTVF in Nashville, Tennessee, Nashville and KOLR in Springfield, Missouri) that airs ''The Young and the Restless'' at 11:30 a.m., having aired it on a half-hour delay since the cancellation of its noon newscast in early January 2004 (most CBS affiliates prefer to air the soap opera at 11:00 a.m. as a lead-in to their midday newscasts). Like many of its CBS-owned sister stations, prior to September 2022, it aired ''Let's Make a Deal'' at 9:00 a.m. weekdays, instead of the 2:00 p.m. time slot where the program is carried nationally (this scheduling, which originated when ''Guiding Light'' occupied the final hour of CBS' daytime lineup prior to that program's discontinuance in September 2009, is more common among the network's owned-and-operated stations as well as select affiliates in the Eastern Time Zone, where ''Let's Make a Deal'' would normally air in the 3:00 p.m. time slot). In September 2022, KTVT launched a 9:00 a.m. newscast, followed by ''The Drew Barrymore Show'' (which began a new half hour format after running one hour for its first two seasons) and ''LMAD'' moved to 2:00 p.m. Since it joined the network, KTVT has also aired CBS' children's program blocks over both Saturdays and Sundays (currently, it airs a half-hour of the ''CBS Dream Team'' on Sunday mornings before ''CBS News Sunday Morning'' on weeks when the network is scheduled to air sports events on Saturday late mornings).Syndicated programming
Broadcast syndication, Syndicated programs broadcast by KTVT () includes ''Dr. Phil (TV series), Dr. Phil'', ''The Drew Barrymore Show'' and ''Wheel of Fortune (American game show), Wheel of Fortune'' (currently, the Dallas–Fort Worth market is one of the few in which ''Wheel'' and ''Jeopardy!'' air on separate stations, as the latter program moved to sister station KTXA in September 2013, in order for channel 11 to launch a midday newscast).Sports programming
Texas Rangers
In 1985 Texas Rangers season, 1985, KTVT obtained the broadcast rights to the Texas Rangers under a ten-year agreement. The contract was included in Gaylord Broadcasting president Edward L. Gaylord's purchase of a 33% ownership stake in the Major League Baseball franchise from Eddie Chiles; the purchase initially failed to reach the two-thirds votes among American League team owners (it failed in a vote of 9–5) to reach a confirmation vote among all league owners on January 11 of that year. Many of the MLB team owners were concerned that Gaylord would utilize his interest in the Rangers to expand KTVT into a national superstation along the lines of WTBS (which carried the Atlanta Braves), WGN-TV (which aired the Chicago Cubs and Chicago White Sox, White Sox) and WWOR-TV (which held rights to the New York Mets). The sale and broadcast contract was approved by Commissioner of Baseball, Major League Baseball Commissioner Peter Ueberroth in an invocation of a "best interests of baseball" clause on February 8 of that year, the terms of the contract required Gaylord/KTVT to pay retransmission fees for any games televised outside its six-state cable footprint. Gaylord was similarly stymied in his attempt to acquire Chiles's 58% interest in and majority control of the team, which instead went to a group led by eventual Governor of Texas, Texas Governor and President of the United States, U.S. President George W. Bush in conjunction with real estate developer H. Bert Mack and investor Frank L. Morsani in a $86-million deal struck in April 1989. KTVT aired an average of 95 Rangers games per season over the first ten years of the contract, which consisted entirely of away games up through the 1989 Texas Rangers season, 1989 season; a limited schedule of home games (which had only been available locally on cable through regional sports network Fox Sports Southwest, Home Sports Entertainment) was added in 1990 Texas Rangers season, 1990, selected on the basis of whether the games were projected to have high ticket sales and attendance. After the station agreed to affiliate with CBS, KTVT and then-independent station KXTX-TV entered into a programming arrangement for the 1995 Texas Rangers season, 1995 season, in which the latter station would carry CBS programs pre-empted by KTVT on dates when Rangers game telecasts were scheduled to air, in addition to — due to network affiliation contracts that limit the number of programming preemptions on an annual basis — some Rangers broadcasts that were produced by and contracted to air on Channel 11. The team formally moved its local over-the-air game broadcasts to KXTX in the 1996 Texas Rangers season, 1996 season.Other sports
During the 1970s and 1980s, KTVT served the flagship station of the highly-popular local professional wrestling, pro wrestling program ''World Class Championship Wrestling#Monday and Saturday night matches, Saturday Night Wrestling'', and aired the two-hour wrestling program ''Championship Sports'' on Saturday nights. It has also broadcast college football and college basketball, basketball events involving programs based around Texas; from 1984 until the conference folded after the 1995–96 season, the station aired football and men's basketball games from the now-defunct Southwestern Conference that were syndicated by Raycom Sports, including those involving the University of Texas at Austin, University of Texas Texas Longhorns, Longhorns (it shared the broadcast rights to some of the game telecasts with KTXA). KTVT formerly served as the television flagship for the Dallas Mavericks from 1982–83 Dallas Mavericks season, 1982 to 1997–98 Dallas Mavericks season, 1998; it initially shared the rights to the National Basketball Association, NBA team's game broadcasts with WFAA, with KTVT running about 30 Dallas Mavericks games per season. KTXA became the sharing partner in the team's local broadcasting contract after it assumed WFAA's end of the contract beginning with the 1986–87 Dallas Mavericks season, 1986–87 season. After KTVT joined CBS in 1995, the station continued to air a significantly reduced schedule of Mavericks telecasts, at which time KTXA took over the primary over-the-air rights; KTXA would acquire the remaining telecast rights held by Channel 11 starting with the 1998–99 Dallas Mavericks season, 1998–99 season. Following the relocation of the former Minnesota North Stars from Minneapolis that year, Channel 11 also held the local rights to televise National Hockey League (NHL) games featuring the Dallas Stars during the 1993–94 Dallas Stars season, 1993–94 season (the team's first season in Dallas). Since September 1998 Dallas Cowboys season, 1998, KTVT has served as the official television partner of the Dallas Cowboys, holding rights to air various team-related programs during the regular season (including the ''Cowboys Postgame Show'', ''Special Edition with Jerry Jones'' and the head coach's weekly analysis program, along with television special, specials such as the ''Making of the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders Calendar'' and postseason team reviews) as well as preseason games that are not televised nationally on broadcast or cable television. Through CBS' contract with the National Football League (NFL), under which it holds primary broadcast rights to the American Football Conference, Cowboys game telecasts on KTVT during the regular season are limited to interconference games against AFC teams played at AT&T Stadium (including those held in odd-numbered years on NFL on Thanksgiving Day, Thanksgiving Day) and, since 2014 Dallas Cowboys season, 2014, cross-flexed games originally scheduled to air on NFL on Fox, Fox against its fellow teams in the National Football Conference (NFC). Most other regular season games televised over-the-air locally air on KDFW, which has served as the Cowboys' primary local broadcaster since 1962 (with the exception of a one-season absence due to the transfer of NFC television rights to Fox in 1994 Dallas Cowboys season, 1994, in the precursor to the affiliation switch), through Fox's rights to the NFC; KXAS-TV also carries certain regular season Cowboys games in which the team is a participant via NBC's rights to the ''NBC Sunday Night Football, Sunday Night Football'' package.News operation
, KTVT presently broadcasts 33 hours of locally produced newscasts each week (with 5 hours each weekday, 3 hours on Saturdays, and 2 hours on Sundays). In addition, the station produces two sports programs that it airs on Sunday nights after the 10:00 p.m. newscast: the sports highlight show ''The Score'' and the football highlight program ''The Blitz: The Dallas Cowboys Report'', which are both co-hosted by sports reporter and fill-in sports anchor Bill Jones (the latter program formerly produced a spin-off focusing on the Dallas Desperados, which was discontinued after the Arena Football League franchise folded in 2009).News department history
Channel 11 first established a news department as an independent station in 1960, when it debuted a half-hour local newscast at noon and a 15-minute newscast at 10:00 p.m.—the latter airing as an intermission within its late prime time movie presentations, which began at 9:00 p.m., and resumed until conclusion after the newscast—each weekday; the program featured anchors based in both Dallas and Fort Worth. In August 1960, the station premiered ''Reveille'', a half-hour weekday morning newscast that was anchored by Bill Camfield (who also played Icky Twerp as host of the children's program ''Slam Bang Theater'' from September 1959 to March 1972 and as Gargon in his role as host of the horror film showcase ''Nightmare'' from 1963 to 1966, and later served as the station's program director until 1972); the program ran until 1963. In 1981, the station began producing 60-second live news updates under the title ''Headline News'' (not to be confused with the cable channel now known as HLN (TV network), HLN, which debuted the following year), that aired during commercial breaks within the station's daytime and evening programming. Gaylord Broadcasting management eventually decided to make investments to expand the station's news operations. On August 20, 1990, KTVT began producing a long-form, hour-long prime time newscast at 7:00 p.m., airing only on Monday through Friday nights, which was designed to appeal to viewers whose work schedule and evening commute prevented them from watching local early evening newscasts on KDFW, KXAS and WFAA. Debuting under the umbrella title ''Newswatch 11'', the newscasts were initially anchored by Mike Hambrick (whose brother, Judd Hambrick, Judd, had previously served as anchor at KDFW from 1972 to 1973) and Midge Hill (who joined KTVT after a five-year stint as an anchor/reporter at WFAA), alongside chief meteorologist Bob Goosmann and sports director Bobby Estill. It was the first attempt in the Metroplex at a local newscast in the 7:00 p.m. timeslot since KRLD-TV/KDAF produced a one-hour news program at 7:00 from July 1984 until that station's initial news department was shut down by then-general manager Ray Schonbak in May 1986, following the completion of its purchase by News Corporation, after it struggled against prime time network programs on KDFW, KXAS and WFAA throughout that program's run. The newscast was moved to 9:00 p.m. five months later on January 7, 1991, with then-general manager Ed Trimble citing frequent preemptions caused by KTVT's Texas Rangers and Dallas Mavericks game telecasts. (The move also allowed KTVT to accommodate earlier airings caused by Texas Rangers, Dallas Stars and Dallas Mavericks evening games that the station was scheduled to air between 7:30 and 9:00 p.m., rather than delaying it until after the game concluded.) The timeslot shift made it the first such newscast to be offered by a commercial television station in the Metroplex in the 9:00 time slot (predating rival KDFW's addition of its own late evening newscast in that hour when it switched from CBS to Fox in July 1995, and the formation of KDAF's news department with the debut of its own 9:00 p.m. newscast in 1999; PBS member station KERA-TV [channel 13] previously carried a newscast at 9:00 p.m. from 1970 to 1976). The weeknight editions of the 9:00 newscast were expanded to one hour on February 1, 1993, at which time the late newscast was retitled ''The Nine O'Clock News'' (subtitled ''The Nine O'Clock News: Special Edition'' for editions aired in advance due to sports events). (The logo and imaging package introduced with the rebrand would be used by certain independent stations and minor network affiliates, such as KOCB [now a CW affiliate] in Oklahoma City, during the mid-1990s.) By this time, Estill had left his position as sports director in 1992 and was replaced by Curt Menefee; Ken Malloy would take over as Hill's co-anchor following Hambrick's departure a few months after the program's title change. Hour-long Saturday and Sunday editions of the newscast were added on March 12, 1994, with co-anchors Beth McKay and Jerry Jenkins (who had been reporters at the station since the launch of the prime time newscast), meteorologist Brad Barton (a veteran news and weather anchor at KRLD radio since 1978, who continued his duties at that station after joining KTVT) and sports anchor Timm Matthews (who would later replace Menefee as sports director following his departure for Fox Sports (United States), Fox Sports) initially helming the weekend broadcasts. Matthews also hosted the half-hour sports highlight program, ''First Sports'', which debuted the following day on March 13 as a lead-out for the abbreviated half-hour Sunday edition of the newscast. ''The Nine O'Clock News'' grew to become a strong ratings performer in the 9:00 p.m. timeslot, holding its own in the midst of competition from network drama series and newsmagazines that aired against it on the market's "Big Three" affiliates. As CBS was seeking a station to replace KDFW as its Metroplex outlet, the fact that KTVT was the only American English, English-language station in the Metroplex not affiliated with either of the "Big Three" networks that had a functioning news department played a major factor in the network's decision to approach Gaylord about negotiating a deal to move its programming to the station. Upon becoming a CBS affiliate on July 1, 1995, KTVT relaunched its news department under the ''11 News'' brand (later retitled ''CBS 11 News'' in January 2000), and made extensive changes to its news schedule with the debut of an hour-long morning newscast at 6:00 a.m. and an early-evening newscast at 6:00 p.m. on Monday through Fridays. The existing late-evening newscast concurrently moved one hour later to 10:00 p.m., while the late edition of that newscast on Saturdays and Sundays was accompanied by early-evening newscasts on both days; until July 1999, the late newscast maintained the ''11 on 11'' format, which emphasized a nonstop rundown of the day's top local and national headlines and a "Forecast First" weather segment prior to the first commercial break in an 11-minute-long "A"-block, with an in-depth "11 News Extra" report and a sports segment filling the remaining segments of the newscast. (Seattle sister station KSTW also adopted the ''Eleven @ 11:00'' format for its 11:00 p.m. newscast from March 1995 to June 1997, using the primarily numeric ''11 at 11'' as the title.) In turn, the station also increased its on-air and behind-the-scenes news staff from 40 to 80 employees, hiring among others Cameron Harper (who replaced Malloy, who was moved to the daytime newscasts, as weeknight co-anchor); Hill, Goosmann, McKay (who would shift to weekend sports anchor in 1997), Jenkins and Matthews were among a handful of on-air staffers that stayed with the news department following the CBS switch (Hill was fired by the station in November 1996 and was replaced as weeknight co-anchor by Karen Borta, who remained in that role until February 2015, when Borta was moved to the weekday morning newscast; Goosmann remained chief meteorologist until he left KTVT in 2001). On that date, the station also adopted the on-air imaging that Seattle sister station KSTW implemented when that station joined CBS four months earlier on March 13, which, in addition to the aforementioned parallelogram "11" logo design, was accompanied by that station's graphics package, set design and newscast theme music ("Millennium 3", a syndicated package composed by Shelly Palmer that was originally commissioned by Gaylord for KTVT and KSTW, which the former used until 1999). During the station's first decade with CBS, newscasts were added and dropped from KTVT's schedule. Channel 11 would first expand news programming with the debut of half-hour weekday newscasts at noon and 5:00 p.m. in February 1996. In January 1999, it added a 6:30 p.m. newscast on weeknights as a replacement for ''Hard Copy'' (which had been airing on KTVT since September 1997, when the program moved to the station from KDFW); the newscast was later replaced in September 2000 by ''Hollywood Squares'' (which had previously aired on WFAA from the revival series' September 1998 premiere until June 2000). Concurrent with the discontinuance of ''Hard Copy'' following its cancellation, the station debuted an hour-long 4:00 p.m. newscast on September 11 of that year; after the program's initial cancellation in September 2002, KTVT restored that newscast in January 2004 (later reducing it to a half-hour broadcast in September 2005, before expanding it to an hour once more on January 11, 2010). The noon newscast returned in September 2005, but was subsequently cancelled the following month after it moved ''Jeopardy!'' from its previous 4:30 p.m. timeslot to 11:00 a.m. (KTVT would eventually restore a midday news program, with the debut of a half-hour 11:00 a.m. newscast on August 12, 2013, which replaced ''Jeopardy!'' after the game show was moved to KTXA). In September 2006, due to budget cuts imposed by CBS Corporation, KTVT discontinued its morning newscasts on Saturdays and Sundays, making it the only "Big Four" network station in the Dallas-Fort Worth market that did not have a weekend morning newscast for the next eight years until KTVT launched hour-long weekend editions of ''CBS 11 News This Morning'' on both days on September 20, 2014. For most of the time since it joined CBS, KTVT has been one of the network's weaker stations in terms of total day and local news viewership. However, it has made gains in viewership in some time periods since the late 2000s, even beating overall first place stalwart WFAA in some time periods. During the February 2011 sweeps period, the station's 6:00 and 10:00 p.m. newscasts placed first among total viewers for the first time in the station's history. That May, KTVT had placed second overall in both total viewership and in the demographic of adults ages 25–54 by small margins for the first time in its history; this is in comparison to the May sweeps period of the previous year, in which Channel 11 won in both total viewers and 25- to 54-year-olds. The 5:00, 6:00 and 10:00 p.m. newscasts all saw ratings increases in both demographics placing second. On September 24, 2007, KTVT became the third television station in the Dallas-Fort Worth market (after WFAA and KXAS) to begin broadcasting its local newscasts in High-definition television, high-definition. In May 2010, KTVT became among the first CBS O&Os to adopt the group's new standardized graphics package (which was first implemented that February by sister stations WCBS-TV in New York City and KCBS-TV in Los Angeles), and accordingly began using the "New Generation" series of ''The CBS Enforcer Music Collection'' by Frank Gari, Gari Media Group as the theme music for its newscasts. KTVT launched a streaming news service, CBSN Dallas–Ft. Worth (now CBS News Dallas–Ft. Worth) on May 18, 2020, as part of a rollout of similar services (each a localized version of the national CBSN service) across the CBS-owned stations.Notable current on-air staff
* Andy Adler – sports reporter/anchor * Steve Pickett – general assignment reporter/anchorNotable former on-air staff
* Jim Acosta – reporter (1998–2000; now White House correspondent for CNN) * Julie Bologna – meteorologist (2004–2008; later at WPXI in Pittsburgh andTechnical information
Subchannels
The station's digital signal is Multiplex (TV), multiplexed:Analog-to-digital conversion
KTVT began transmitting a digital television signal on UHF channel 19 on May 1, 1999; for its first year of operation, KTVT-DT transmitted only in standard-definition television, standard definition. The station shut down its analog signal, over VHF channel 11, on June 12, 2009, as part of the Digital television transition in the United States, federally mandated transition from analog to digital television. The station's digital signal relocated from its transition period allocation on UHF channel 19 to VHF channel 11. Due to widespread reception problems and a resultant 57% loss of its household viewership in the Dallas–Fort Worth Designated Market Area, on July 23, 2009, the FCC granted KTVT permission via special temporary authority, special temporary authorization to move its digital broadcast back to channel 19; concurrently, sister station KTXA was given permission via an STA to move back to channel 18, the assigned digital channel it used during the transition period. The channel change went into effect on August 4, 2009. Prior to that time, KTXA simulcast KTVT's programming on digital subchannel 21.2 (which would eventually be reinstated in December 2013 as an affiliate of MeTV). KTVT broadcast on UHF channel 19, in addition to operating its digital signal secondarily on its original analog and post-transition digital channel 11, until November 2012; both feeds were mapped to virtual channel 11.1, which caused many digital converter boxes and built-in tuners in digital-capable television sets to display that channel twice when tuning sequentially. On September 10, 2009, the FCC issued a Report & Order statement, approving KTVT's move from channel 11 to channel 19; On October 21, 2009, it filed a minor change application for its new allotment, for which the FCC granted a construction permit the following month on November 19. concurrently, the agency granted KTXA's application to move its digital allocation from UHF channel 18 to channel 29, with the FCC granting them a construction permit on the date that KTVT received approval of its modified digital channel transfer application. On November 26, 2012, KTVT terminated its original digital signal on VHF channel 11 and moved to its new channel 19 transmitting facilities (which operate from the same tower that KTXA's transmitter occupies).See also
* Channel 19 digital TV stations in the United States * Channel 11 virtual TV stations in the United StatesReferences
External links
*