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KXAS-TV (channel 5) is a television station licensed to Fort Worth, Texas, United States, broadcasting NBC programming to the
Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex The Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, officially designated Dallas–Fort Worth–Arlington by the U.S. Office of Management and Budget, is a conurbated metropolitan statistical area in the U.S. state of Texas encompassing 11 counties and anchore ...
. It is owned and operated by the network's NBC Owned Television Stations division alongside Dallas-licensed Telemundo outlet KXTX-TV (channel 39). Both stations share studios at the CentrePort Business Park in eastern Fort Worth, while KXAS-TV's transmitter is located in Cedar Hill, Texas.


History


Early history under Carter Publications

Amon G. Carter, Sr.—the founding publisher of the '' Fort Worth Star-Telegram''—first submitted an application to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) for a
license A license (or licence) is an official permission or permit to do, use, or own something (as well as the document of that permission or permit). A license is granted by a party (licensor) to another party (licensee) as an element of an agreeme ...
to build and operate a television station on
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 5 in late October 1944, mere days after Karl Hoblitzelle, owner of Interstate Circuit Theatres, filed an application to operate a station on channel 8 on October 23, the first such license application for a television station in the Southern United States. When the FCC awarded the
construction permit Planning permission or developmental approval refers to the approval needed for construction or expansion (including significant renovation), and sometimes for demolition, in some jurisdictions. It is usually given in the form of a building perm ...
for Channel 5 to Carter on June 21, 1946, he originally requested to assign KCPN (for "Carter Publications News") as the station's call letters; three months before it signed on, however, Carter chose instead to assign the television station the calls that were used by the radio station that he also owned, WBAP (820 AM). The station began test broadcasts on June 20, 1948, originally transmitting over a
closed-circuit television Closed-circuit television (CCTV), also known as video surveillance, is the use of video cameras to transmit a signal to a specific place, on a limited set of monitors. It differs from broadcast television in that the signal is not openly t ...
system. Channel 5 informally signed on the air as WBAP-TV on September 27, to broadcast coverage of President
Harry S. Truman Harry S. Truman (May 8, 1884December 26, 1972) was the 33rd president of the United States, serving from 1945 to 1953. A leader of the Democratic Party, he previously served as the 34th vice president from January to April 1945 under Franklin ...
's re-election campaign speech at the Texas & Pacific terminal building in downtown Fort Worth. WBAP-TV officially commenced regular programming two days later on September 29, 1948, with two 10-minute specials at 7:00 p.m. that evening, respectively featuring speeches from Carter and general manager Harold Hough and a film from NBC dedicating the station's launch. Carter owned the television and radio properties through the ''Star-Telegram''s corporate parent, Carter Publications. It was the first television station to sign on in the state of Texas; the second to be located between Los Angeles, St. Louis and
Richmond, Virginia (Thus do we reach the stars) , image_map = , mapsize = 250 px , map_caption = Location within Virginia , pushpin_map = Virginia#USA , pushpin_label = Richmond , pushpin_m ...
(after NBC/ DuMont affiliate KDYL-TV – now
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 ...
affiliate KTVX – in Salt Lake City); and the 25th to sign on in the United States. When the station made its formal debut, its first night of regular broadcasts did not go smoothly. On the date of its sign-on, the station's studio facilities were in the latter stages of construction; at one point, Amon Carter accidentally stepped into an unmarked hole in the studio floor that led to the building's basement, narrowly saved from enduring potential injury by ''Star-Telegram''
cartoon A cartoon is a type of visual art that is typically drawn, frequently animated, in an unrealistic or semi-realistic style. The specific meaning has evolved over time, but the modern usage usually refers to either: an image or series of images ...
ist Johnny Hay. A power outage near the transmitter facility also knocked WBAP-TV off the air for 17 minutes around 8:00 p.m. Angry viewers subsequently called into the station, blaming engineers for an outage that was beyond their control; after the power problems were fixed, another viewer calling into the station complained to a receptionist about not being able to receive WBAP-TV's signal, not realizing that the television station could not be picked up through their radio receiver. Even still, '' Fort Worth Press'' reporter Jack Gordon wrote regarding the station's first night of programming that "part of Fort Worth's inaugural television show ..looked like our first roll of home movie film. But a good deal more of it was excellent – enough so to convince the stubbornest critic that television is here to stay." Channel 5 originally operated from studio facilities located at 3900 Barnett Street in eastern Fort Worth. The building—located in an area known as Broadcast Hill—was the first studio facility in the United States that was designed specifically for television broadcasting; the tower that transmitted its signal (supporting microwave and remote antennas) was also based on the studio grounds. The station originally broadcast for four hours each evening on Wednesday through Saturdays, with
test patterns A test card, also known as a test pattern or start-up/closedown test, is a television test signal, typically broadcast at times when the transmitter is active but no program is being broadcast (often at sign-on and sign-off). Used since the ear ...
airing during the late morning and late afternoon Monday through Saturdays; the station expanded its programming schedule to all seven days each week within six months, airing a cumulative total of between 35 and 40 hours of programming per week. Originally serving as an
affiliate Affiliation or affiliate may refer to: * Affiliate (commerce), a legal form of entity relationship used in Business Law * Affiliation (family law), a legal form of family relationship * Affiliate marketing * Affiliate network or affiliation pla ...
, Channel 5 has carried programming from NBC since its sign-on—having inherited the affiliation through WBAP radio's longtime relationship with the television network's radio predecessor, the NBC Blue Network, with which it had been affiliated since 1927; however, it also maintained a secondary affiliation with ABC by way of a secondary affiliation that WBAP radio had begun maintaining with the ABC Radio Network, the direct successor to NBC Blue, when it and timeshare partner WFAA assumed the 570 AM frequency (taking over the former KGKO) on an alternating basis in April 1947. The following year in 1949, WBAP-TV and WBAP (AM), were joined by a sister station on radio, WBAP-FM (96.3 FM, now KSCS). The WBAP calls reportedly stood for "We Bring a Program"; the call sign and their associated meaning were suggested by Herbert Hoover during his tenure as chairman of what was then the Federal Radio Commission prior to the radio station's sign-on in 1922; in reality, they were sequentially assigned with no meaning. Among the local programs that aired on Channel 5 in its early years included the Saturday night country music/dance program ''Barn Dance'', music series ''Bobby Peters Jamboree'' and the children's programs ''See-Saw Zoo'' and ''Kitty's Playhouse''. When Channel 5 signed on, it was apparent that Dallas and Fort Worth were going to be collapsed into a single
television market A media market, broadcast market, media region, designated market area (DMA), television market area, or simply market is a region where the population can receive the same (or similar) television and radio station offerings, and may also incl ...
due to the close proximity of the two cities; despite the fact that Dallas and Tarrant counties bordered one another,
Arbitron Nielsen Audio (formerly Arbitron) is a consumer research company in the United States that collects listener data on radio broadcasting audiences. It was founded as the American Research Bureau by Jim Seiler in 1949 and became national by mergin ...
had initially designated their respective county seats as separate markets (the counties that surrounded Tarrant County on the western half of the Metroplex were part of the Fort Worth market, while those surrounding Dallas County in the eastern half of the metropolitan region were part of the Dallas market). However, Carter, who had long been a booster for the Fort Worth area, did not care whether Dallas residents could view Channel 5's broadcast signal, which provided rimshot coverage within most of central and eastern Dallas County, including Dallas proper. As a result, in 1950, NBC reached an agreement with
A.H. Belo Corporation DallasNews Corporation, formerly A. H. Belo Corporation (), is a Dallas-based media holding company of The Dallas Morning News and Belo + Company. The current corporation was formed when Belo Corporation separated its broadcasting and publi ...
to switch the primary affiliation of DuMont affiliate WFAA-TV (channel 8) to NBC to serve as its affiliate for the eastern half of the market. On July 1, 1952, WBAP-TV became among the first six television stations in the country (along with fellow NBC stations KPRC-TV in Houston, WOAI-TV in San Antonio, WKY-TV in Oklahoma City, KOTV in Tulsa and
WDSU-TV WDSU (channel 6) is a television station in New Orleans, Louisiana, United States, affiliated with NBC and owned by Hearst Television. The station's studios are located on Howard Avenue in the city's Central Business District, and its transmitt ...
in New Orleans) to begin transmitting network programming over a live microwave feed, inaugurated with a message by '' Today Show'' host Dave Garroway welcoming the stations in commencing live network telecasts. That decade, Channel 5 also became one of the first television stations to convert its local programming to color; the station's conversion to color broadcasts on May 15, 1954, was preceded by a dedication of its new production and master control facilities—which were upgraded specifically for color telecasting—from Carter and
David Sarnoff David Sarnoff (February 27, 1891 – December 12, 1971) was an American businessman and pioneer of American radio and television. Throughout most of his career, he led the Radio Corporation of America (RCA) in various capacities from shortly afte ...
, chairman of then-NBC parent RCA, that was broadcast on the station; this was followed by a three-hour block of programs produced in color, the longest broadcast of such programs ever attempted by a television station at that time. By 1955, WBAP-TV—which had earlier ordered RCA color television equipment in the fall of 1949, and became the first television station in Texas to broadcast NBC programs in color on April 9, 1954—had greatly increased the number of programs that it broadcast in color, televising the largest amount of programming produced in the format of any U.S. television station at the time. Ownership of ''Star-Telegram'' and the WBAP stations would transfer to Amon Carter Sr.'s heirs after he succumbed from the last of several heart attacks he had suffered over the previous two years on June 23, 1955. Meanwhile, NBC grew frustrated with having to maintain affiliations with two stations to carry its programming in an otherwise effectively consolidated market. In early 1957, a taller transmission tower was built at the west end of the Broadcast Hill studio property. However, NBC threatened to strip its affiliation from Channel 5 if it did not relocate its transmitter farther eastward to extend the station's signal deeper into the Dallas metropolitan area; reportedly, the network approached the owners of Fort Worth's other station, independent KFJZ-TV (channel 11, now KTVT), which had in 1962 moved its transmitter to the antenna farm in
Cedar Hill Cedar may refer to: Trees and plants *''Cedrus'', common English name cedar, an Old-World genus of coniferous trees in the plant family Pinaceae *Cedar (plant), a list of trees and plants known as cedar Places United States * Cedar, Arizona * ...
. Belo also made an attempt to make WFAA-TV the market's exclusive NBC affiliate. To prevent the network from defecting, Carter's heirs—who were reluctant to comply to NBC's demands at first, out of their desire to continue Amon Carter Sr.'s legacy of pro-Fort Worth civic boosterism—agreed to move WBAP-TV's transmitter facilities to Cedar Hill and boost its effective radiated power to adequately cover Dallas; in the summer of 1964, it installed a transmitter at the Hill Tower (owned by the Dallas Newspapers) to feed the channel 5 antenna on a
candelabra tower A candelabra (plural candelabras) or candelabrum (plural candelabra or candelabrums) is a candle holder with multiple arms. Although electricity has relegated candleholders to decorative use, interior designers continue to model light fixtures ...
that was already shared by WFAA-TV and KRLD-TV (channel 4, now
KDFW-TV KDFW (channel 4) is a television station licensed to Dallas, Texas, United States, broadcasting the Fox network to the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex. It is owned and operated by the network's Fox Television Stations division alongside MyNe ...
); sister station WBAP-FM also moved its transmitter to this location. The move to Cedar Hill allowed channel 5 to become the sole NBC affiliate for the entire Dallas–Fort Worth market on September 1, 1957, and subsequently, WFAA-TV became the area's exclusive ABC station. In October 1959, WBAP-TV installed the first color videotape recorder in Texas, allowing it the ability to record a 90-minute segment of programming and replay it in less than five minutes. During NBC's coverage of the
assassination Assassination is the murder of a prominent or important person, such as a head of state, head of government, politician, world leader, member of a royal family or CEO. The murder of a celebrity, activist, or artist, though they may not have ...
of President John F. Kennedy on November 22, 1963, WBAP-TV transmitted news reports conducted from its Broadcast Hill studios on the sniper-range shooting at the Presidential motorcade carrying Kennedy and Governor John Connally (who himself was injured in the shooting) in color; NBC broadcast the station's color feed during its coverage, which was otherwise transmitted in black and white from their New York studios. Charles Murphy, who served as an anchor at the station, relayed word of Kennedy's death during emergency surgery at
Parkland Hospital Parkland often refers to a park. Parkland or Parklands may also refer to: Geography * Aspen parkland, a biome transitional between prairie and boreal forest (taiga) * Landscaped parkland, a managed rural area associated with European country hous ...
that afternoon. Two days later on November 24, a remote unit that was loaned to WBAP-TV by KTVT management and set up at the Dallas Police Department's downtown headquarters, awaiting the transfer of suspect Lee Harvey Oswald (who shot both men from an upper-floor window at the Texas School Book Depository overlooking Elm Street) to the Dallas County Jail, fed live images of the accused Presidential assassin being gunned down by nightclub owner
Jack Ruby Jack Leon Ruby (born Jacob Leon Rubenstein; April 25, 1911January 3, 1967) was an American nightclub owner and alleged associate of the Chicago Outfit who murdered Lee Harvey Oswald on November 24, 1963, two days after Oswald was accused of th ...
to the NBC network; it marked the first time that a murder had been witnessed live on U.S. network television. The station's coverage of the Kennedy assassination and his visit to Texas during which it occurred earned WBAP-TV a national Sigma Delta Chi television news award and a bronze medallion, and honors by the Dallas Press Club and the Radio-Television News Directors Association (RTNDA) in 1964.


LIN Broadcasting ownership

Channel 5 remained under the ownership of trusts held by the Carter family until 1974 when the FCC passed a measure prohibiting the common ownership of newspapers and broadcast outlets in the same market. Among the combinations that were granted grandfathered protection by the agency were A.H. Belo's combination of '' The Dallas Morning News'' and WFAA- AM- FM-TV; and the Times Mirror Company's combination of KDFW-TV and the ''
Dallas Times Herald The ''Dallas Times Herald'', founded in 1888 by a merger of the ''Dallas Times'' and the ''Dallas Herald'', was once one of two major daily newspapers serving the Dallas, Texas (USA) area. It won three Pulitzer Prizes, all for photography, and t ...
''. The Commission, however, declined the same for the ''Star-Telegram'', WBAP-AM-TV, and KSCS (the former WBAP-FM), leaving the Carters with little choice but to break up their media empire. In January 1973, Carter Publications announced it would sell WBAP-TV to
LIN Broadcasting LIN Media was an American holding company founded in 1994 that operated 43 television stations. All except one were affiliates of the six major U.S. television networks. One of the remaining stations was a low powered weather station in Ind ...
for $35 million; the ''Star-Telegram'', WBAP and KSCS, meanwhile, were sold to Capital Cities Communications. The sales were finalized in early May 1974; due to FCC rules in place then that prohibited separately owned broadcast properties based in the same market from using the same callsign, channel 5's call letters were subsequently changed to the current KXAS-TV on May 16 of that year. In 1985, KXAS became the first television station in the Dallas–Fort Worth market to broadcast programming in
stereo Stereophonic sound, or more commonly stereo, is a method of sound reproduction that recreates a multi-directional, 3-dimensional audible perspective. This is usually achieved by using two independent audio channels through a configuration ...
, when NBC began transmission in the format. On January 14, 1987, the broadcast tower at the station's transmitter in Cedar Hill was struck by a Navy F-4 Phantom that was performing training exercises as it was on approach to the Dallas Naval Air Station, clipping several guy-wires; KXAS, WFAA, and KDFW were all briefly knocked off the air for a few seconds immediately following the incident. The jet's two occupants survived as they had ejected themselves from the aircraft and parachuted to the ground before it crashed. KXAS improvised auxiliary transmission facilities at the nearby tower belonging to KXTX-TV (channel 39)—a tower that itself would collapse while undergoing maintenance in October 1996. Rather than continue sharing transmitter facilities shared with KDFW and WFAA (which co-owned the tower site), station management opted to build a new -tall facility to house its transmitter (the first such broadcast transmitter in Texas to utilize the improved circular, polarized dish to transmit its signal) a to the east of the old tower, on acres of land that had been owned by the station since the 1960s; the tower, which also houses transmitters for former sister radio stations KSCS and KBFB, was completed in 1989. KXAS-TV had claimed themselves as "The Pioneer Television Station of the Great Southwest" (or "The Pioneer Station of the Great Southwest") in its sign-on and sign-off announcements during its four decades, but admitted to its true roots with WBAP with its 30th anniversary in 1978. In 1993, LIN Broadcasting assumed operational responsibilities for independent station KXTX-TV through a
local marketing agreement In North American broadcasting, a local marketing agreement (LMA), or local management agreement, is a contract in which one company agrees to operate a radio or television station owned by another party. In essence, it is a sort of lease or tim ...
with the station's owner at the time, the Christian Broadcasting Network (CBN). Through the consolidation of that station's operations with Channel 5, KXTX began airing rebroadcasts of its 6:00 and 10:00 p.m. newscasts each weeknight as well as select first-run syndicated programs seen on KXAS. On May 23, 1994, in an overall deal in which News Corporation also acquired a 20% equity interest in the company,
New World Communications New World Pictures (also known as New World Entertainment and New World Communications Group, Inc.) was an American independent production, distribution, and (in its final years as an autonomous entity) multimedia company. It was founded in 197 ...
signed a long-term affiliation agreement with Fox, as part of the network's strategy to strengthen its affiliate portfolio (then composed mostly of
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 ...
outlets with limited to no prior history as major network affiliates) after the National Football League (NFL) awarded it the
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to the
National Football Conference The National Football Conference (NFC) is one of the two conferences of the National Football League (NFL), the highest professional level of American football in the United States. The NFC and its counterpart, the American Football Conference ...
(NFC), a four-year contract that began with the
1994 NFL season The 1994 NFL season was the 75th regular season of the National Football League. To honor the NFL's 75th season, a special anniversary logo was designed and each player wore a patch on their jerseys with this logo throughout the season. Also, a ...
, on December 18, 1993. One of the twelve television stations affiliated with either CBS, ABC or NBC that were involved in the deal was KDFW, which had been affiliated with CBS since it signed on in December 1949 and—along with CBS affiliate KTBC in
Austin Austin is the capital city of the U.S. state of Texas, as well as the seat and largest city of Travis County, with portions extending into Hays and Williamson counties. Incorporated on December 27, 1839, it is the 11th-most-populous city ...
and ABC affiliate KTVI in St. Louis—was added to the agreement as a byproduct of New World's $717 million purchase of four stations owned by Argyle Television Holdings on May 26. With thirteen months left until CBS's contract with KDFW—which, as a result of the agreement with New World, would replace existing
owned-and-operated station 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 ...
KDAF KDAF (channel 33) is a television station licensed to Dallas, Texas, United States, serving the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex with programming from The CW. It is owned and operated by network majority owner Nexstar Media Group (based in nearb ...
(channel 33, now a CW affiliate) as the market's Fox station, resulting in Fox Television Stations selling KDAF to
Renaissance Broadcasting Renaissance Broadcasting, founded in 1982 by Michael Finkelstein, was a company that owned several UHF television stations, it was sold to Tribune Broadcasting in 1997. The company was headquartered in Greenwich, Connecticut. History Renaissan ...
—was set to expire on July 1, 1995, KXAS was the first station that the network had approached to become its new Dallas-Fort Worth affiliate. LIN Broadcasting turned down the offer, in favor of signing a long-term deal that renewed its affiliation agreements with KXAS and NBC-affiliated sisters KXAN-TV in Austin, WAVY-TV in Norfolk and WOOD-TV in
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; however as WFAA was already under contract with ABC through a multi-station agreement with Belo, this later prompted CBS to sign a deal with KTVT through an agreement it signed with Gaylord Broadcasting on September 14, 1994, in exchange for also switching its sister independent station in Tacoma, Washington, KSTW (now a CW owned-and-operated station), to the network. To this day, KXAS-TV remains the only station in the market to never change its primary affiliation. In June of that year, following the $12.6-billion acquisition of majority owner
McCaw Cellular Communications McCaw Cellular Communications was a cellular telephone pioneer in the United States. Savvy licensing of cellular spectrum in the early 1980s put McCaw Cellular in an extremely strong position, quickly outpacing the growth of the "Baby Bells" in ...
(which acquired a 52% interest in LIN in 1990 for $3.4 billion) by the AT&T Corporation in 1994, LIN Broadcasting announced that it would spin off seven of its eight television stations (including KXAS-TV) into a separate
publicly traded A public company is a company whose ownership is organized via shares of stock which are intended to be freely traded on a stock exchange or in over-the-counter markets. A public (publicly traded) company can be listed on a stock exchange (list ...
corporate entity, the LIN Television Corporation. The following year in 1995, KXAS became the first commercial television station in Texas to launch a website, which provided news reports and information on the station's community initiatives and on-air staff members; the station expanded its Internet offerings in 1997, when it became the first television station in the
Southwestern United States The Southwestern United States, also known as the American Southwest or simply the Southwest, is a geographic and cultural region of the United States that generally includes Arizona, New Mexico, and adjacent portions of California, Colorado, Ne ...
to deliver news alerts via e-mail. In 1997, KXAS became the first television station in the Dallas–Fort Worth market to commit to launching a digital television signal; the station aired its first high-definition telecast on March 31 of that year, when it aired a Major League Baseball game between the Texas Rangers and the Chicago White Sox. Regular digital television transmissions commenced on November 1, 1998, when KXAS began full-time operation of its digital signal on UHF channel 41.


NBC ownership

On October 23, 1997, LIN Television was acquired by Hicks, Muse, Tate & Furst (now
HM Capital Partners HM Capital Partners was a private equity firm in the United States that specialized in leveraged buyouts. The firm was previously known as Hicks, Muse, Tate & Furst. It was founded in 1989 by Tom Hicks and John Muse as Hicks, Muse & Co. and was ch ...
) for $1.9 billion. In conjunction with the Dallas-based investment firm's submitted bid for the company on September 12, LIN contributed KXAS-TV to a joint venture with NBC Inc., in which the former sold a 76% majority equity interest in the station to NBC, which in turn would contribute a 24% share of San Diego owned-and-operated station KNSD (which NBC had purchased from New World Communications on May 22, 1996, in a $425 million deal that also included full ownership of existing affiliate WVTM-TV in Birmingham) to Hicks Muse, predicated on the firm acquiring and closing on its deal with LIN. The takeover and joint venture deals were completed on March 2, 1998, when NBC and LIN formally established Station Venture Holdings, LP to serve as the licensee of KXAS and KNSD. As it held 79.62% controlling equity in the partnership, NBC assumed control of KXAS' operations by way of its NBC Television Stations subsidiary, which continued to control KNSD through its continued majority ownership of that station. Although not a traditional arrangement, NBC's assumption of majority control over KXAS made it a ''de facto'' owned-and-operated station; however as a consequence, the purchase of majority interest in Channel 5 resulted in the termination of its LMA with KXTX. In May 1998, the station changed its on-air branding to "NBC 5" and its newscast branding to ''NBC 5 Texas News'' (later simplified to ''NBC 5 News'' in November 1999) in compliance with the branding conventions that the network had adopted for its O&Os, as had been done with sister station WMAQ-TV's rebranding to "NBC 5 Chicago" in September 1995. On October 11, 2001, NBC Inc. purchased the Telemundo Communications Group from a consortium of
Sony Pictures Entertainment Sony Pictures Entertainment Inc. (commonly known as Sony Pictures or SPE, and formerly known as Columbia Pictures Entertainment, Inc.) is an American diversified multinational mass media and entertainment studio conglomerate that produces, ac ...
,
Liberty Media Liberty Media Corporation (commonly referred to as Liberty Media or just Liberty) is an American mass media company controlled by chairman John C. Malone. The company has three divisions, reflecting the company's ownership stakes in Formula One ...
, and private equity firms BV Capital, Bastion Capital and Council Tree Communications for $1.98 billion (increasing to $2.68 billion prior to the sale's closure) and the assumption of $700 million in debt. The acquisition included rights to an existing purchase agreement for KXTX, which Telemundo had bought from Southwest Sports Television for $65 million on June 27. The integration of the Telemundo O&Os into NBC Television Stations caused KXTX and KXAS to become sister stations for the second time, although now under joint ownership as the third television station duopoly in the Dallas–Fort Worth market (after CBS owned-and-operated station KTVT and then- UPN affiliate
KTXA KTXA (channel 21) is an independent television station in Fort Worth, Texas, United States, serving the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex. It is owned by the CBS News and Stations group alongside Fort Worth–based CBS station KTVT (channel 11). Bo ...
(channel 21, now an independent station), and Univision owned-and-operated station KUVN (channel 23) and
KSTR-TV KSTR-DT (channel 49) is a television station licensed to Irving, Texas, United States, broadcasting the Spanish-language UniMás network to the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex. It is owned and operated by TelevisaUnivision alongside Garland-licens ...
(channel 49), the latter of which became a charter affiliate of TeleFutura on January 14, 2002). As a byproduct of the purchase, NBC converted KXTX—which subsequently integrated its operations into KXAS's Broadcast Hill facilities—into a Telemundo owned-and-operated station on January 1, 2002, taking over the local affiliation rights from
KFWD KFWD, virtual channel 52 (VHF digital channel 9), is a ShopHQ- affiliated television station licensed to Fort Worth, Texas, United States and serving the Dallas–Fort Worth Metroplex. The station is owned by Rye Brook, New York-based WRNN-TV ...
(channel 52, now a SonLife Broadcasting Network affiliate), which had been affiliated with the network since its sign-on in September 1988. KXAS-TV launched a
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 ...
on virtual channel 5.2 in February 2005, which originally served as a charter affiliate of
NBC Weather Plus NBC Weather Plus was an American weather-oriented digital broadcast and cable television network owned as a joint venture between NBC Universal and the local affiliates of the NBC television network. The service, which was broadcast in standard d ...
(known as "NBC 5 Weather Plus"), a co-owned 24-hour weather-focused network featuring a mix of local and national current weather observations and forecasts as well as pre-recorded local weather updates conducted by the station's meteorologists. On December 23, 2008, three weeks after the network ceased operations on December 1, the subchannel was reformatted as part of the network's successor service NBC Plus, an automated service featuring local weather information powered using the Weather Plus graphics platform, alongside audio from
NOAA Weather Radio NOAA Weather Radio NWR; also known as NOAA Weather Radio All Hazards is an automated 24-hour network of VHF FM weather radio stations in the United States (U.S.) that broadcast weather information directly from a nearby National Weather Serv ...
station
KEC55 The National Weather Service Fort Worth, Texas (NWS Fort Worth) is a local weather forecast office of the National Weather Service responsible for monitoring weather conditions for 46 counties in north central Texas, including the Dallas-Fort Wort ...
in Fort Worth, and alternately from
KEC56 The National Weather Service Fort Worth, Texas (NWS Fort Worth) is a local weather forecast office of the National Weather Service responsible for monitoring weather conditions for 46 counties in north central Texas, including the Dallas-Fort Wort ...
in Dallas. On January 1, 2009, KXAS launched a tertiary subchannel on virtual channel 5.3, which served as a charter over-the-air affiliate of Universal Sports. Universal Sports converted to a cable- and satellite-exclusive service on December 31, 2011, dropping its over-the-air subchannel affiliations and resulting in KXAS removing the 5.3 subchannel from its signal. The station would later re-activate the subchannel as an affiliate of Lx in May 2020. KXAS-TV shut down its analog signal, over VHF channel 5, on June 12, 2009, as part of the federally mandated transition from analog to digital television. The station's digital signal remained on its transition period UHF channel 41, using PSIP to display KXAS-TV's virtual channel as 5 on digital television receivers. Through its participation as a
SAFER Act In cryptography, SAFER (Secure And Fast Encryption Routine) is the name of a family of block ciphers designed primarily by James Massey (one of the designers of IDEA) on behalf of Cylink Corporation. The early SAFER K and SAFER SK designs share ...
"nightlight" broadcaster, KXAS kept its analog signal on the air starting with a brief test pattern at 12:00 p.m. that day, followed by 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 ...
(NAB) to inform viewers of the digital transition. The analog signal remained in lame-duck operation until June 26. On November 19, 2009, a fire in the electrical room of the station's Broadcast Hill studios knocked both stations off the air. Fire alarms were activated throughout the facility at 9:30 p.m. that evening, which resulted in staff members being evacuated from the studio; this resulted in the disruption of that evening's scheduled broadcasts of the 10:00 p.m. newscasts seen respectively on KXAS and KXTX. On February 12, 2013, LIN Media chose to withdraw its interest in the Station Venture Operations joint venture as part of a corporate reorganization. Through the dissolution of the arrangement, NBC gained full ownership of KXAS and regained exclusive ownership in KNSD. On May 4, 2011, KXAS-DT2 became an affiliate of NBC Nonstop (under the branding "NBC DFW Nonstop"), a programming format exclusive to the subchannels of NBC's O&Os that featured a mix of originally-produced news and lifestyle programming and rebroadcasts of KXAS's newscasts; NBC Nonstop was relaunched as the classic television network Cozi TV on December 20, 2012. In June 2012, NBCUniversal announced plans to construct a new facility in Fort Worth (located at the CentrePort Business Park on the former site of
Amon Carter Field Greater Southwest International Airport , originally Amon Carter Field, was the commercial airport serving Fort Worth, Texas, from 1953 until 1974. Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport opened in 1974 a few miles north to replace Greater South ...
) to house KXAS, KXTX and NBCUniversal's other Dallas-based operations (including the Dallas news bureau operated by NBC News). Construction of the facility began that month, and was completed in September 2013, with the building formally opening on September 30. The facility incorporates four production studios; three control rooms that relay high definition content; an combined media asset management center and newsroom production suite for managing and editing content; and an expanded weather center within the production studio housing KXAS' main news set that contains upgraded software systems, an expert desk and two touchscreen monitors; the station's traffic and sales departments, which were previously in separate areas of the Broadcast Hill studios, were also placed adjacent to the newsroom. The sales and marketing departments of the television stations, and NBC's ArtWorks graphics firm began migrating their operations to the facility in early October of that year; all other operations—including the news departments of KXAS and KXTX—moved to the Carter Boulevard studio by November 1, ending KXAS's 65-year tenure at Broadcast Hill. Three of the conference rooms at the station are each themed to honor pioneers at Channel 5: one for station founder Amon Carter, one for original chief meteorologist Harold Taft, the other for remaining original station employee and on-air talent,
Bobbie Wygant Bobbie Wygant (born Roberta Connolly; November 22, 1926) is an American television news reporter, film critic, talk show host, and interviewer who has worked for Fort Worth, Texas television station KXAS-TV (originally known as WBAP-TV) for over ...
. On March 14, 2018, it was announced that the station's parent NBC Owned Television Stations and telecommunications giant T-Mobile US have entered into an agreement to accelerate of relocating their 600 MHz spectrum of the station to its new frequency at the end of May, instead of the original FCC deadline of June 21, 2019; a year ahead of its original deadline. The station reallocated to UHF channel 24 in phase zero of the repack, rather than the originally scheduled phase three of the repack. KXAS-TV was one of nearly 1,000 television stations that changed their digital signal allocation in the spectrum repack that was finished on July 3, 2020. The station completed its move to UHF channel 24 in the morning of May 30, 2018.


Programming


Sports programming

From
1970 Events January * January 1 – Unix time epoch reached at 00:00:00 UTC. * January 5 – The 7.1 Tonghai earthquake shakes Tonghai County, Yunnan province, China, with a maximum Mercalli intensity scale, Mercalli intensity of X (''Extrem ...
to
1997 File:1997 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The movie set of ''Titanic'', the highest-grossing movie in history at the time; ''Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone'', is published; Comet Hale-Bopp passes by Earth and becomes one of t ...
(with the AFL–NFL merger), KXAS aired Dallas Cowboys games in which they played host to an AFC opponent at Texas Stadium (two games each year for the station ncluding their Thanksgiving games in some years prior to 1970, all Cowboys games were exclusively broadcast on KDFW
hen KRLD-TV Hen commonly refers to a female animal: a female chicken, other gallinaceous bird, any type of bird in general, or a lobster. It is also a slang term for a woman. Hen or Hens may also refer to: Places Norway *Hen, Buskerud, a village in Ringe ...
; during this time, they aired five of the Cowboys'
Super Bowl The Super Bowl is the annual final playoff game of the National Football League (NFL) to determine the league champion. It has served as the final game of every NFL season since 1966, replacing the NFL Championship Game. Since 2022, the game ...
appearances ( Super Bowls V, XIII,
XXVII 27 (twenty-seven; Roman numeral XXVII) is the natural number following 26 and preceding 28. In mathematics * Twenty-seven is a cube of 3: 3^3=3\times 3\times 3. 27 is also 23 (see tetration). There are exactly 27 straight lines on a smooth c ...
, XXVIII, and
XXX XXX may refer to: Codes and symbols * 30 (number), Roman numeral XXX * XXX, designating pornography ** XXX, an X rating#United_States, X rating ** .xxx, an internet top-level domain intended for pornographic sites * XXX, a symbol of the straight ...
he latter three were won by the Cowboys. Since
2006 File:2006 Events Collage V1.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2006 Winter Olympics open in Turin; Twitter is founded and launched by Jack Dorsey; The Nintendo Wii is released; Montenegro 2006 Montenegrin independence referendum, votes to declare ...
, the station airs Cowboys games when they play on NBC's ''
Sunday Night Football Sunday Night Football may refer to: * ''NBC Sunday Night Football'', the Sunday night broadcast of American NFL games by NBC since 2006 * ''ESPN Sunday Night Football'', the Sunday night broadcast of American NFL games from 1987 to 2005 by ESPN * ...
''. The station also aired any Dallas Stars games as part of NBC's NHL broadcast contract from
2006 File:2006 Events Collage V1.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2006 Winter Olympics open in Turin; Twitter is founded and launched by Jack Dorsey; The Nintendo Wii is released; Montenegro 2006 Montenegrin independence referendum, votes to declare ...
to
2021 File:2021 collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: the James Webb Space Telescope was launched in 2021; Protesters in Yangon, Myanmar following the 2021 Myanmar coup d'état, coup d'état; A civil demonstration against the October–November 2021 ...
; this included the team's appearance in the
2020 Stanley Cup Final The 2020 Stanley Cup Final was the championship series of the National Hockey League's (NHL) 2019–20 season and the culmination of the 2020 Stanley Cup playoffs. This series was between the Eastern Conference champion Tampa Bay Lightning and ...
. Channel 5 also aired Texas Rangers games as part of NBC's broadcast contract with Major League Baseball from their arrival in
1972 Within the context of Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) it was the longest year ever, as two leap seconds were added during this 366-day year, an event which has not since been repeated. (If its start and end are defined using Solar time, me ...
until
1989 File:1989 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The Cypress Street Viaduct, Cypress structure collapses as a result of the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, killing motorists below; The proposal document for the World Wide Web is submitted; The Exxo ...
, and again for the postseason only from 1994 to 2000. The station also carried any
Dallas Mavericks The Dallas Mavericks (often referred to as the Mavs) are an American professional basketball team based in Dallas. The Mavericks compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the Western Conference (NBA), Western Conferenc ...
games as part of NBC's broadcast contract with the NBA from
1990 File:1990 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1990 FIFA World Cup is played in Italy; The Human Genome Project is launched; Voyager I takes the famous Pale Blue Dot image- speaking on the fragility of Humankind, humanity on Earth, Astroph ...
to
2002 File:2002 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 2002 Winter Olympics are held in Salt Lake City; Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother and her daughter Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon die; East Timor gains East Timor independence, indepe ...
.


News operation

As of September 2020, KXAS presently broadcasts 37½ hours of locally produced newscasts each week (with six hours each weekday, four hours on Saturdays, and 3½ hours on Sundays). In addition, the station also produces the half-hour political discussion program ''Lone Star Politics'', which debuted in 2014 and airs at 8:30 a.m. after its Sunday morning newscast. Before the move to its current studio and offices on Amon Carter Boulevard, KXAS maintained a Dallas news bureau located on McKinnon Street in central Dallas.


News department history

Channel 5's news department launched with the station on September 29, 1948. Originally titled ''The Texas News'' (a title that was used in varied forms for four decades, later as ''Area Five Texas News'' from 1974 to 1978 and as ''Texas News 5'' from 1991 to 1998), the program maintained a newsreel format for the news department's first 21 years of operation, continuing long after most television stations had switched to a primarily studio-based production structure for their newscasts. ''The Texas News'' was the highest-rated local television program in the United States during the station's early years and earned the first of what would be six RTNDA national awards for "Best Local Newscast" during its first year on the air; however, ratings for the program began to decline in the late 1960s amid competition from Dallas-based KRLD-TV and WFAA, which utilized a live-on-tape format that mixed filed reports with anchored segments presented in-studio. The station's news broadcasts – which originally aired only in the evening until the launch of a midday newscast in 1972 – began implementing a hosted format in 1967, when
Bob Schieffer Bob Lloyd Schieffer (born February 25, 1937) is an American television journalist. He is known for his moderation of presidential debates, where he has been praised for his capability. Schieffer is one of the few journalists to have covered all f ...
and Russ Bloxom joined the station as anchors for ''The Texas News'', appearing on camera ahead of and after the newsreel segments. The program officially converted to a live-on-tape broadcast on August 1, 1969. Concurrent with the station's move to The Studios at DFW, KXAS donated its collection of news footage shot for ''The Texas News'' from the 1950s through the 1970s to the University of North Texas Libraries in Denton in November 2013; the film reels and accompanying script images were digitized by the university for availability to the public via the library's digital preservation network. The station has long been well known in the Dallas–Fort Worth market for the longevity of its anchors and reporters, with many having worked at Channel 5 for at least ten years. Among them Roberta "Bobbie" Wygant (the longest-tenured television personality in Texas and the first broadcaster in the Southwestern United States to present theater and movie reviews on television, who joined the station in 1948 as an entertainment reporter and later hosted various local programs, including ''Entertainment and the Arts'' and the newsmagazine ''Inside Area 5''), Phil Wygant (who worked as an anchor/reporter from 1948 until he was
laid off A layoff or downsizing is the temporary suspension or permanent termination of employment of an employee or, more commonly, a group of employees (collective layoff) for business reasons, such as personnel management or downsizing (reducing the ...
following LIN Broadcasting's acquisition of the station in 1974), Jack Brown (who served as a reporter from 1958 to 1980), Russ Bloxom (who served a lead news anchor from 1967 to 1979) and Jane McGarry (who served as an anchor and reporter from 1982 until she stepped down in July 2012, following her arrest on a misdemeanor DWI charge). KXAS is known within the Dallas–Fort Worth market for its weather coverage; it claims to be the first television station to have hired only full-time meteorologists, when it hired American Airlines staff meteorologists Harold Taft, Bob Denney and Walter Porter as hosts of ''Weather Telefacts'', a 15-minute nightly series that debuted on October 31, 1949, as the first televised weather forecast program in the United States, which in addition to providing forecasts, explained to viewers complicated aspects of meteorological concepts. Taft—the first television meteorologist west of the Mississippi River, who concurrently served as an overnight weathercaster for WBAP (AM), where he was coined as "The World's Greatest Weatherman" by overnight personality
Bill Mack William or Bill Mack may refer to: * William Mack (Ontario politician) (1828–1897), Ontario businessman and political figure * William L. Mack (1924–2009), provincial level politician from Alberta, Canada * William Mack (judge) (1904–1979), ...
—became the most prominent of the three initial meteorologists. He was known for using self-hand-drawn weather maps incorporating isobars and upper-level atmospheric diagrams to illustrate his forecasts, which were eventually replaced by computerized graphics in November 1982, and developed the concept of trained "weather watchers," volunteer observationalists from surrounding counties who gathered up-to-date weather data. His popularity among viewers led to a successful grassroots campaign (which included threats of advertising boycotts by area businesses) urging KXAS station management to retain Taft after plans to replace him became public in 1983. Taft held the record as the state's longest-serving television meteorologist, having served as chief meteorologist at WBAP-TV/KXAS for 41 years until his retirement on August 30, 1991, one month prior to his death from
stomach cancer Stomach cancer, also known as gastric cancer, is a cancer that develops from the lining of the stomach. Most cases of stomach cancers are gastric carcinomas, which can be divided into a number of subtypes, including gastric adenocarcinomas. Lymph ...
. Harold Taft's memorial service was carried live by Channel 5. David Finfrock, who first joined KXAS in 1976 as a meteorologist for its weekend evening newscasts, subsequently took over as chief weather anchor. Finfrock has since eclipsed the length of Taft's tenure as an on-air meteorologist. In 1993, KXAS became the first television station in the United States to implement a Local Weather Station structure, a network of sensors that relayed real-time weather observations. On June 16, 1966, Channel 5 became the first television station in Texas to present all of its news film footage in color. In 1967, Fort Worth native Bob Schieffer began his broadcast career at WBAP-TV as a reporter and anchor of the station's 10:00 p.m. newscast. After leaving the station in 1971, Schieffer went on to Washington, D.C. to work as a reporter for independent station WTTG (now a Fox owned-and-operated station) and the now-defunct Metromedia news service, then embarked on a long career with
CBS News CBS News is the news division of the American television and radio service CBS. CBS News television programs include the ''CBS Evening News'', ''CBS Mornings'', news magazine programs '' CBS News Sunday Morning'', '' 60 Minutes'', and '' 48 H ...
that lasted until his retirement from full-time broadcasting in August 2015 and continued thereafter in a contributing role. In February 1970, WBAP-TV debuted the first locally produced television newsmagazine, ''Texas '70s'', a monthly half-hour program showcasing feature reports focusing on the culture of Texas. On January 25, 1986, a KXAS news crew was assigned to cover a standoff started by 40-year-old Thomas E. Stephens, when he barricaded himself inside an Arlington
7-Eleven 7-Eleven, Inc., stylized as 7-ELEVE, is a multinational chain of retail convenience stores, headquartered in Dallas, Texas. The chain was founded in 1927 as an ice house storefront in Dallas. It was named Tote'm Stores between 1928 and 1946. A ...
store where his estranged wife, Patricia (who filed divorce papers that Thomas was served with the day before), had managed. Believing she had initiated the idea of the divorce to Patricia, Thomas fatally shot her roommate and store clerk, Terry Palmer, and wounded fellow employee Craig Talley; Patricia later snuck out of the store's front door as Thomas talked to a hostage negotiator over the phone. Around 6:40 p.m., during an update on the standoff within the extended 6:00 p.m. newscast as a live shot outside the store was being shown, the videographer on-scene captured Thomas coming out and killing himself with a .357-caliber pistol, ending the seven-hour standoff. Weekend anchor Mike Snyder, who joined KXAS in 1980 and served as the main anchor of the weeknight newscasts from 1992 until he retired from broadcasting in 2013, issued an on-air apology to viewers for the live broadcast of the suicide. In 1989, KXAS became the first television station in Texas to implement closed captioning for its newscasts. In 1993, KXAS-TV launched the "Public Defenders", an investigative reporting unit (consisting of reporters Sabrina Smith, Mike Androvett, and Marty Griffin) that conducted investigations into businesses that have ripped off local consumers and uncovered various consumer scams as an ongoing segment during the 10:00 p.m. newscast until 1999. On March 28, 2000, the tower camera based in
Sundance Square Sundance Square is the name of a 35-block commercial, residential, entertainment and retail district in downtown Fort Worth, Texas. Named after the Sundance Kid in western folklore, it is a popular place for nightlife and entertainment in Fort Wor ...
in Fort Worth caught footage of a multiple-vortex
F3 tornado The Fujita scale (F-Scale; ), or Fujita–Pearson scale (FPP scale), is a scale for rating tornado intensity, based primarily on the damage tornadoes inflict on human-built structures and vegetation. The official Fujita scale category is determ ...
that struck the city's downtown area. Master control operators cut to footage of that tornado as it tracked northeastward through central Fort Worth; after a tornado warning was issued for Tarrant County, chief meteorologist David Finfrock—who was in the middle of a weather segment during that evening's 6:00 p.m. newscast—warned viewers about the damaging tornado through on-air illustration via the live camera footage. The station also became notable for an impromptu moment on August 9, 2002, when during a wildlife segment featured on its late-morning newscast, then-anchor Michael Scott got spooked by a
gecko Geckos are small, mostly carnivorous lizards that have a wide distribution, found on every continent except Antarctica. Belonging to the infraorder Gekkota, geckos are found in warm climates throughout the world. They range from . Geckos ar ...
that was to be presented later in the segment, which jumped onto him from a nearby table; the clip eventually became one of the earliest viral videos, when it was circulated on YouTube and other video sharing websites later that decade. On September 7, 2007, KXAS-TV became the second television station in the Dallas–Fort Worth market (after WFAA) to begin broadcasting its local newscasts in high definition. Segments conducted in-studio were initially the only content that was broadcast in the format, with field video footage being transmitted in 16:9 widescreen standard definition, before upgrading to HD in concurrence with the move to The Studios at DFW in September 2013. On January 16, 2009, as part of a
Local News Service The name Local News Service refers to a variety of news resource share services all started in 2008 and 2009. It sometimes does not refer to a specific sharing service but to the category in general. Typically, these services include pooling video ...
agreement that had earlier been formed between NBC Owned Television Stations and Fox Television Stations, KXAS began sharing its news helicopter (branded as "Chopper 5") with Fox owned-and-operated station KDFW, with the two stations pooling footage from the helicopter during breaking news coverage. Historically since the 1970s, KXAS has placed second or third overall in local news viewership, behind longtime leader WFAA and KDFW. According to the local
Nielsen ratings Nielsen Media Research (NMR) is an American firm that measures media audiences, including television, radio, theatre, films (via the AMC Theatres MAP program), and newspapers. Headquartered in New York City, it is best known for the Nielsen rat ...
for the February 2011 sweeps period, KXAS placed second in the 6:00 a.m. time period among total viewers and adults age 25–54 years old; this in direct comparison to the same time period the year before, when it placed first in that timeslot, aided by NBC's coverage of the
2010 Winter Olympics )'' , nations = 82 , athletes = 2,626 , events = 86 in 7 sports (15 disciplines) , opening = February 12, 2010 , closing = February 28, 2010 , opened_by = Governor General Michaëlle Jean , cauldron = Catriona Le May DoanNancy GreeneWayne Gretz ...
in Vancouver. KXAS placed third at 5:00 p.m. among total viewers and adults 25–54, in last place at 6:00 p.m. among both total viewers and with adults 25–54, and placed third at 10:00 p.m. with total viewers and last with 25- to 54-year-olds. For the May 2011 sweeps period, the 10:00 p.m. newscast placed last among adults 25–54 and in third with total viewers (overall, all four stations showed year-to-year gains in total viewers while only KXAS was down slightly among 25-to-54-year-olds); the station's morning newscast had placed third in both demographics. In total viewers, the 5:00 and 6:00 p.m. newscasts also finished in last place among the Metroplex's late newscasts, though the 5:00 p.m. newscast was in third (behind KTVT) in the 25- to 54-year-old demographic (the 6:00 p.m. newscast placed last behind KTVT among adults 25–54). The morning newscast was the only local news program on KXAS to rank above third place in total viewership (though it, along with KTVT and WFAA's morning newscasts all lost viewers in both key demos to KDFW, which ranked first). On June 20, 2016, KXAS began to implement the "Look N" graphics package designed for NBC's owned-and-operated stations by NBC ArtWorks, placing the station under the graphical standardizations applied to its fellow O&Os for the first time since 2012 (the "Look G" package used by KXAS from 2012 to 2014 has since been used by
Nexstar Broadcasting Group Nexstar Media Group, Inc. is an American publicly traded media company with headquarter offices in Irving, Texas; Midtown Manhattan; and Chicago, Illinois. The company is the largest television station owner in the United States, owning 197 te ...
for its NBC affiliates, including those in nearby markets such as
KFDX-TV KFDX-TV (channel 3) is a television station licensed to Wichita Falls, Texas, United States, serving as the NBC affiliate for the western Texoma area. It is owned by Nexstar Media Group alongside low-power MyNetworkTV affiliate KJBO-LD (channe ...
in Wichita Falls and
KRBC KRBC-TV (channel 9) is a television station in Abilene, Texas, United States, affiliated with NBC. It is owned by Mission Broadcasting, which maintains joint sales and shared services agreements (JSA/SSA) with Nexstar Media Group, owner of du ...
in Abilene) and makes reference to the trademarking of the "Texas Connects Us" slogan that KXAS has used since 2012 (one of a handful of station slogans to have received trademark approval by the
U.S. Patent and Trademark Office The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) is an agency in the U.S. Department of Commerce that serves as the national patent office and trademark registration authority for the United States. The USPTO's headquarters are in Alexa ...
for exclusive and/or licensing use). On July 9, 2016, the station expanded its Saturday 6:00 p.m. newscast to an hour with a half-hour extension at 6:30 p.m. On May 13, 2017, KXAS-TV added an extra half-hour to its weekend morning newscast at 5:30 a.m. On June 29, 2021, beginning with the 4:00 p.m. newscast, KXAS officially switched to the new graphics package entitled "Look S", just two days after sister station
KNBC KNBC (channel 4) is a television station in Los Angeles, California, United States, serving as the West Coast flagship of the NBC network. It is owned and operated by the network's NBC Owned Television Stations division alongside Corona-licens ...
in Los Angeles switched to the new graphics package and a week after WMAQ-TV in Chicago debuting it. Meanwhile, the "Texas Connects Us" slogan appears in the opening sequence instead of the usual "NBC" text unlike to the former two.


Notable former on-air staff

*
Matt Barrie Matt Barrie may refer to: * Matt Barrie (businessman) (born 1973), Australian technology entrepreneur *Matt Barrie (sportscaster) Matt Barrie is a sportscaster for ESPN's ''SportsCenter''. He joined the show in March 2013. Prior to joining E ...
– sports anchor (now at ESPN) * Gretchen Carlson – anchor/reporter (formerly anchor at
Fox News Channel The Fox News Channel, abbreviated FNC, commonly known as Fox News, and stylized in all caps, is an American multinational conservative cable news television channel based in New York City. It is owned by Fox News Media, which itself is owne ...
) * Marc Fein – anchor (2011–2019) *
Calvin Hughes Calvin Hughes is a news anchor on WPLG Local 10, in Miami, Florida, United States.Calvin Hughes Bi ...
– anchor/reporter (1995–1999; now at WPLG in Miami) * Karen Hughes (then, Karen Parfitt) – reporter (now global vice-chair of
Burson-Marsteller Burson Cohn & Wolfe is a multinational public relations and communications firm, headquartered in New York City. In February 2018, parent WPP Group PLC announced that it had merged its subsidiaries Cohn & Wolfe with Burson-Marsteller. The comb ...
) * Jane Jayroe – anchor/reporter (1980–1984; later anchor at KFOR-TV and
KOCO-TV KOCO-TV (channel 5) is a television station in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, United States, affiliated with ABC and owned by Hearst Television. Its studios and transmitter are located on East Britton Road (Historic Route 66)—between North Kelley ...
in Oklahoma City, and director of the Oklahoma Travel and Tourism Board) *
Boyd Matson Boyd Matson (born April 26, 1947) is the former anchor of ''National Geographic Explorer'' and a former co-anchor of NBC's '' Sunday Today'' program. He was also an NBC News correspondent in the 1980s, working mostly on news features and earlier ...
– reporter (1970–late 1970s; later host of '' National Geographic Explorer''; now host of PBS' ''Wild Chronicles'') * Scott Pelley – reporter (now at
CBS News CBS News is the news division of the American television and radio service CBS. CBS News television programs include the ''CBS Evening News'', ''CBS Mornings'', news magazine programs '' CBS News Sunday Morning'', '' 60 Minutes'', and '' 48 H ...
as correspondent for ''
60 Minutes ''60 Minutes'' is an American television news magazine broadcast on the CBS television network. Debuting in 1968, the program was created by Don Hewitt and Bill Leonard, who chose to set it apart from other news programs by using a unique styl ...
'') *
Charlie Rose Charles Peete Rose Jr. (born January 5, 1942) is an American former television journalist and talk show host. From 1991 to 2017, he was the host and executive producer of the talk show '' Charlie Rose'' on PBS and Bloomberg LP. Rose also co-an ...
– host of ''The Charlie Rose Show'' and ''The Baxters'' (1979–1980; was recently host of '' CBS This Morning'' and ''
Charlie Rose Charles Peete Rose Jr. (born January 5, 1942) is an American former television journalist and talk show host. From 1991 to 2017, he was the host and executive producer of the talk show '' Charlie Rose'' on PBS and Bloomberg LP. Rose also co-an ...
'') * Charles Murphy – anchor/reporter (later with NBC News and ABC News as a featured correspondent on ''World News Tonight with Peter Jennings''. Charles Murphy served as WBAP TV's primary anchor for the station's coverage of President John F. Kennedy's assassination on November 22, 1963. He also provided extensive live reports of the assassination for the NBC network coverage of the tragedy.) *
Bob Schieffer Bob Lloyd Schieffer (born February 25, 1937) is an American television journalist. He is known for his moderation of presidential debates, where he has been praised for his capability. Schieffer is one of the few journalists to have covered all f ...
– anchor/reporter (later with CBS News as host of '' Face the Nation'', and now as a political contributor) * Harold Taft – meteorologist (1949–1991; deceased) * Joe Tessitore – sports anchor (now at ESPN)


Technical information


Subchannels

The station's digital signal is multiplexed: KXAS also operates a
Mobile DTV Mobile television is television watched on a small handheld or mobile device. It includes service delivered via mobile phone networks, received free-to-air via terrestrial television stations, or via satellite broadcast. Regular broadcast stand ...
feed that relays the station's primary channel on virtual channel 5.1, which transmits at 1.83 Mbit/s.


References


External links

*
FCC Public Inspection File: KXAS-TV

Technical and ownership information for KXAS-TV
at RabbitEars
DFW Radio/TV History

KXAS virtual tour
on Vimeo
Texas Storm Ranger video tour
on Facebook
WBAP historical marker
from Texas Historical Sites Atlas ( Texas Historical Commission)
Tour of Broadcast Hill site and facilities
at Fybush.com
Channel 5 history: Amon and the early years

WBAP promotional video for potential advertisers (early-mid 1960s)

WBAP/KXAS archive and collections
at University of North Texas {{DEFAULTSORT:Kxas-Tv NBC Owned Television Stations Cozi TV affiliates Television channels and stations established in 1948 Television stations in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex 1948 establishments in Texas Former General Electric subsidiaries