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KSLA (channel 12) is a
television station A television station is a set of equipment managed by a business, organisation or other entity, such as an amateur television (ATV) operator, that transmits video content and audio content via radio waves directly from a transmitter on the earth ...
in
Shreveport, Louisiana Shreveport ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Louisiana. It is the third most populous city in Louisiana after New Orleans and Baton Rouge, respectively. The Shreveport–Bossier City metropolitan area, with a population of 393,406 in 2020, is t ...
, United States, affiliated with
CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainm ...
. It is owned by
Gray Television Gray Television, Inc. is an American publicly traded television broadcasting company based in Atlanta, Georgia. Founded in 1946 by James Harrison Gray as Gray Communications Systems, the company owns or operates 180 stations across the United St ...
alongside low-power, Class A
Telemundo Telemundo (; formerly NetSpan) is an American Spanish-language Terrestrial television, terrestrial television network owned by NBCUniversal Television and Streaming#NBCUniversal Telemundo Enterprises, NBCUniversal Telemundo Enterprises, a divi ...
affiliate KTSH-CD (channel 19). The two stations share studios on Fairfield Avenue and Dashiel Street (southeast of I-20) in central Shreveport; KSLA's transmitter is located near St. Johns Baptist Church Road (southeast of Mooringsport and
Caddo Lake Caddo Lake (french: Lac Caddo) is a lake and bayou (wetland) on the border between Texas and Louisiana, in northern Harrison County and southern Marion County in Texas and western Caddo Parish in Louisiana. The lake is named after the Caddoans ...
) in rural northern Caddo Parish.


History


Early history

The VHF channel 12 allocation was contested between three groups that competed for approval by the
Federal Communications Commission The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that regulates communications by radio, television, wire, satellite, and cable across the United States. The FCC maintains jurisdiction ...
(FCC) to be granted a construction permit on one of Shreveport's two television channels. On June 27, 1952, one week before the FCC released a Report and Order reallocation memorandum that lifted a four-year moratorium on new television broadcast license applications, two Shreveport-based groups filed respective applications for the permit: Radio Station KRMD Inc. (then-parent of radio station KRMD (1340 AM) and principally owned by T. B. Lanford, who owned radio stations in Texas, Louisiana and
Mississippi Mississippi () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States, bordered to the north by Tennessee; to the east by Alabama; to the south by the Gulf of Mexico; to the southwest by Louisiana; and to the northwest by Arkansas. Miss ...
), and the Shreveport Television Co. (owned by movie theater operator Don George, Ben Beckham and William Carter Henderson, the latter being the son of KWKH founder William Kennon Henderson, Jr). The Southland Television Co.—a group led by Lester Kamin (owner of
Houston Houston (; ) is the most populous city in Texas, the most populous city in the Southern United States, the fourth-most populous city in the United States, and the sixth-most populous city in North America, with a population of 2,304,580 in ...
-based Kamin Advertising Agency), John H. Pace (general manager of Southland-owned radio station KCIJ (980 AM)), and Dallas-based attorneys Pat Coon and Billy B. Goldberg—became the third applicant for the license on July 10, 1952. Several Shreveport residents bought a majority share in Southland in early 1953. In hearing, Southland attacked the KRMD facilities proposal as inadequate. In August 1953, citing a desire to speed the arrival of television to Shreveport, Radio Station KRMD Inc., the Shreveport Television Co., and the Southland Television Co. submitted a joint application to the FCC to operate VHF channel 12 pending the outcome of the comparative hearings on their individual applications. The applicants held one-third interests in a new venture, Interim Television Corp., which would build operate the station until the FCC determined a grantee; at that time, the designated winner would buy out the others, with the permit becoming invalidated no longer than 10 days after the regular permit was issued to the winning applicant. The FCC granted the permit to the temporary corporation on September 18, and the construction permit took the call sign KSLA-TV, representing the station's location, Shreveport, Louisiana. The station first signed on the air on January 1, 1954, as the first station in Shreveport proper and the second in the market, after KCMC-TV, which had gone on the air from
Texarkana, Texas Texarkana is a city in Bowie County, Texas, United States, in the Ark-La-Tex region. Located approximately from Dallas, Texarkana is a twin city with neighboring Texarkana, Arkansas. The Texas city's population was 36,193 at the 2020 census. ...
, on August 16, 1953. Channel 12 has been a CBS television affiliate since its debut, inheriting those rights through KWKH radio's longtime relationship with the
CBS Radio Network CBS News Radio, formerly known as CBS Radio News and historically known as the CBS Radio Network, is a radio network that provides news to more than 1,000 radio stations throughout the United States. The network is owned by Paramount Global. It ...
; it also maintained a secondary affiliations with ABC, NBC and the DuMont Television Network. Channel 12 – which is one of two stations in the market to have never changed its primary network affiliation, along with
Fox Foxes are small to medium-sized, omnivorous mammals belonging to several genera of the family Canidae. They have a flattened skull, upright, triangular ears, a pointed, slightly upturned snout, and a long bushy tail (or ''brush''). Twelve sp ...
affiliate
KMSS-TV KMSS-TV (channel 33) is a television station in Shreveport, Louisiana, United States, affiliated with the Fox Broadcasting Company, Fox network. It is owned by Mission Broadcasting, which maintains a shared services agreement (SSA) with Nexstar M ...
(channel 33) – originally operated out of studio facilities housed inside the Washington Youree Hotel, located on Edwards and Travis Streets in downtown Shreveport. KSLA temporarily transmitted its signal from a broadcast tower located near the intersection of Lake and Market Streets in downtown Shreveport.


Shreveport Television Company and ''Shreveport Journal'' ownership

On June 8, 1954, FCC hearing examiner Fanney N. Litvin issued an initial decision looking to grant the Shreveport Television Company the construction permit application for channel 12, citing its lack of radio facilities and better television programming proposals, facilities and staffing commitments. The FCC Broadcast Bureau granted exclusive rights to the permit to Shreveport Television Company on May 19, 1955, formally denying KRMD and Southland Television's respective bids. Both competitors filed exception petitions to the FCC examiner's initial decision favoring Shreveport Television on the grounds Litvin cited in the 73-page order. The FCC reaffirmed its prior decision on November 17, 1955, denying the Southland petition for rehearing and reconsideration of the grant and formally dismissing the competing bids. On March 5, 1955,
Elvis Presley Elvis Aaron Presley (January 8, 1935 – August 16, 1977), or simply Elvis, was an American singer and actor. Dubbed the "Honorific nicknames in popular music, King of Rock and Roll", he is regarded as Cultural impact of Elvis Presley, one ...
made his television debut on KSLA on the local music program ''
Louisiana Hayride ''Louisiana Hayride'' was a radio and later television country music show broadcast from the Shreveport Municipal Memorial Auditorium in Shreveport, Louisiana, that during its heyday from 1948 to 1960 helped to launch the careers of some of the ...
'', which was produced from the Municipal Auditorium. That same year, D. L. Dykes, Jr., who launched a 30-year career as the pastor of the First
Methodist Methodism, also called the Methodist movement, is a group of historically related denominations of Protestant Christianity whose origins, doctrine and practice derive from the life and teachings of John Wesley. George Whitefield and John's b ...
Church at the Head of Texas Street in downtown Shreveport, began having his sermons televised on KSLA; over the years, other churches followed Dykes's lead. KSLA disaffiliated from NBC after
KTBS-TV KTBS-TV (channel 3) is a television station in Shreveport, Louisiana, United States, affiliated with ABC. The station is owned by the locally based KTBS, LLC (owned by the Wray Properties Trust, which is managed by Betty Wray Anderson, John D. ...
(channel 3) signed on as Shreveport's second television station on September 3, 1955. DuMont ceased operations in September 1955; KSLA remained a primary CBS affiliate with secondary ABC and DuMont affiliations until the latter network discontinued operations in August 1956, amid various issues that arose from DuMont's relations with
Paramount Pictures Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American film and television production company, production and Distribution (marketing), distribution company and the main namesake division of Paramount Global (formerly ViacomCBS). It is the fifth-oldes ...
that hamstrung it from expansion; that year, the station also added an additional affiliation with the
NTA Film Network The NTA Film Network was an early American television network founded by Ely Landau in 1956. The network was not a full-time television network like CBS, NBC, or ABC. Rather, it operated on a part-time basis, broadcasting films and several f ...
. KSLA activated its permanent transmission facility on November 24, 1955; at , the tower helped to significantly increase the station's reach from 177,100 viewers to 1.089 million viewers throughout northwestern Louisiana, northeastern Texas and southwestern Arkansas. It also marked the end of more than two years of interim operation. KSLA and KTBS-TV continued to share limited amounts of ABC programming until 1961, when Texarkana, Texas–licensed KTAL-TV (channel 6) assumed the local rights to the NBC affiliation after KTAL owner Palmer Newspapers received FCC permission to relocate that station's transmitter closer to Shreveport, effectively folding the Texarkana area into the Shreveport television market. As a consequence, KTBS-TV chose to become an exclusive ABC affiliate; this left KSLA affiliated with CBS and the NTA Film Network, the latter of which KSLA continued to provide select programs from until that network ceased operations in 1961. Another local program aired on KSLA during this time was ''Hallelujah Train'', a Sunday morning program many consider as a religious version of ''
Soul Train ''Soul Train'' is an American musical variety television show. It aired in syndication from October 2, 1971, to March 25, 2006. Across its 35-year history the show primarily featured performances by R&B, soul, and hip hop artists. The series w ...
''. In 1959, KSLA became the first television station in the Shreveport market to broadcast in
color Color (American English) or colour (British English) is the visual perceptual property deriving from the spectrum of light interacting with the photoreceptor cells of the eyes. Color categories and physical specifications of color are associ ...
. In January 1960, the Shreveport Television Company to KSLA-TV Inc.—a local group headed by the Journal Publishing Company (owned by Douglas F. Attaway, owner and publisher of the now-defunct ''
Shreveport Journal ''The Shreveport Journal'' was an American newspaper originally published by H. P. Benton in Shreveport and Bossier City in northwestern Louisiana. In operation from at least 1897, it ceased publication in 1991. History The name ''The Journal' ...
''), Eugenie B. George, Dolores George LaVigne and various additional stockholders that included Winston B. Linam (who remained KSLA's station manager)—for $3.396 million; the sale received FCC approval on May 25. Under Journal Publishing ownership, KSLA was referred to as "The Journal Station" in on-air and print promotions during the second half of the 1960s and the early 1970s. In January 1965, the Journal Publishing Company filed a petition asking to deny a construction permit application by Television Broadcasters Inc. to build a new -tall transmission tower for ABC affiliate
KBMT KBMT (channel 12) is a television station in Beaumont, Texas, United States, affiliated with ABC and NBC. It is owned by Tegna Inc. alongside low-power MyNetworkTV affiliate KUIL-LD (channel 12.5). Both stations share studios along I-10/US 6 ...
(which also transmitted on channel 12) in
Beaumont, Texas Beaumont is a coastal city in the U.S. state of Texas. It is the county seat, seat of government of Jefferson County, Texas, Jefferson County, within the Beaumont–Port Arthur, Texas, Port Arthur Beaumont–Port Arthur metropolitan area, metropo ...
, at a site west of Mauriceville. Journal Publishing charged that the new KBMT transmitter—which was proposed to be placed north of its existing transmitter location—would be short-spaced closer to the KSLA transmitter than permitted by standard mileage separation rules to prevent signal interference and that the FCC's order granting the application had not afforded KSLA "equivalent protection" that Television Broadcasters stated that it would in the original application. On October 29, 1966, the FCC granted construction permits to KSLA and KBMT to install precise frequency control systems to limit signal interference between the two stations. For one month, in May 1967, KSLA maintained a secondary affiliation with the United Network (also known as the Overmyer Network), a short-lived attempt to create a fourth national commercial television network; it was one of several stations nationwide to broadcast United/Overmyer's short-lived late night program, ''The Las Vegas Show''. In 1972, the station relocated its operations into its current studio facilities on Fairfield Avenue and Dashiel Street (near Schumpert Medical Center).


Local ownership by KSLA-TV Inc.; Viacom ownership

After Attaway sold the ''Shreveport Journal'' to local businessman and philanthropist Charles T. Beaird, in February 1976, the Journal Publishing Company announced it would sell the station to KSLA-TV Inc. (a local consortium owned by Attaway, Delores La Vigne and Winston B. Linam) for $2.823 million; the transfer received FCC approval on May 27. During the early morning of October 8, 1977, the station's transmitter tower located east-southeast of Mooringsport collapsed. Speculation centered upon a failure in a guy wire cable attached to the tower at the level that swayed significantly in winds sustained at , with the rippling to be so great that it caused to the wire to snap and the tower broke at the aforementioned level and fell on the reinforced concrete transmitter building below, which was undamaged; however, no official cause was ever determined. The KSLA-TV signal was knocked off the air until the station set up temporary transmitter facilities that afternoon from a nearby auxiliary tower, although the shorter tower resulted in the station's coverage radius being significantly reduced from about to . In March 1978, KSLA constructed and activated a new tower on the site of the former transmitter facility. On January 19, 1983, KSLA-TV Inc. announced it would sell the station to the
Viacom International Paramount Global Distribution Group or Paramount Global Content Distribution is the international television distribution arm of American media conglomerate, Paramount Global, originally established in 1962 as the international distribution divis ...
subsidiary of
New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
–based
Viacom Viacom, an abbreviation of Video and Audio Communications, may refer to: * Viacom (1952–2006), a former American media conglomerate * Viacom (2005–2019), a former company spun off from the original Viacom * Viacom18, a joint venture between Par ...
in a tax-free stock swap valued at $29.9 million. Under the terms of the deal, KSLA-TV Inc.—which became a wholly owned subsidiary of Viacom International—exchanged its stock for one million shares in Viacom. The sale received FCC approval two months later on March 30. In 1984, KSLA-TV became the first television station in the Shreveport–Texarkana market to broadcast 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 ...
, initially broadcasting CBS network programs, local programs and certain syndicated shows that were transmitted in the audio format. In March 1989, the station began preempting ''
CBS Sunday Morning ''CBS News Sunday Morning'' (normally shortened to ''Sunday Morning'' on the program itself since 2009) is an American news magazine television program that has aired on CBS since January 28, 1979. Created by Robert Northshield and original host ...
with
Charles Kuralt Charles Bishop Kuralt (September 10, 1934 – July 4, 1997) was an American television, newspaper and radio journalist and author. He is most widely known for his long career with CBS, first for his "On the Road" segments on '' The CBS Eveni ...
'' in favor of running religious programming and
infomercial An infomercial is a form of television commercial that resembles regular TV programming yet is intended to promote or sell a product, service or idea. It generally includes a toll-free telephone number or website. Most often used as a form of dire ...
s in its timeslot. This sparked outrage from viewers, resulting in a letter-writing campaign to Viacom, CBS and local newspapers to push for ''Sunday Morning''s return to channel 12. The station was even subjected to picketing by upset viewers in an effort to get the show reinstated. Following a change in station management, KSLA reinstated ''Sunday Morning'' onto its schedule on August 27, 1989.


Ellis and Raycom ownership

In 1994, following the completion of Viacom's acquisition of Paramount Pictures from
Gulf+Western Gulf and Western Industries, Inc. (stylized as Gulf+Western) was an American conglomerate. Originally, the company focused on manufacturing and resource extraction. Beginning in 1966, and continuing throughout the 1960s and 1970s, the company ...
, Viacom transferred its five television stations—KSLA; fellow CBS affiliate
KMOV KMOV (channel 4) is a television station in St. Louis, Missouri, United States, affiliated with CBS and MyNetworkTV. It is owned by Gray Television alongside low-power Circle owned-and-operated station KDTL-LD (channel 16). The two stations s ...
in
St. Louis St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the bi-state metropolitan area, which e ...
; and NBC affiliates
WHEC-TV WHEC-TV (channel 10) is a television station in Rochester, New York, United States, affiliated with NBC. Owned by Hubbard Broadcasting, the station maintains studios on East Avenue in Downtown Rochester and a transmitter on Pinnacle Hill in ...
in
Rochester, New York Rochester () is a City (New York), city in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York, the county seat, seat of Monroe County, New York, Monroe County, and the fourth-most populous in the state after New York City, Buffalo, New York, Buffalo, ...
; WNYT in
Albany, New York Albany ( ) is the capital of the U.S. state of New York, also the seat and largest city of Albany County. Albany is on the west bank of the Hudson River, about south of its confluence with the Mohawk River, and about north of New York City ...
; and
WVIT WVIT (channel 30) is a television station licensed to New Britain, Connecticut, United States, broadcasting NBC programming to the Hartford–New Haven market. It is owned and operated by the network's NBC Owned Television Stations divisio ...
in
New Britain, Connecticut New Britain is a city in Hartford County, Connecticut, United States. It is located approximately southwest of Hartford. According to 2020 Census, the population of the city is 74,135. Among the southernmost of the communities encompassed wit ...
—into Paramount's broadcasting arm, the
Paramount Stations Group Paramount Stations Group (sometimes abbreviated as PSG) was a company that controlled a group of American broadcast television stations. The company existed from 1991 until 2001. History Paramount Communications, the then-parent company of Par ...
. Not long after that, Paramount announced the formation of the United Paramount Network (
UPN The United Paramount Network (UPN) was an American broadcast television network that launched on January 16, 1995. It was originally owned by Chris-Craft Industries' United Television. Viacom (through its Paramount Television unit, which pr ...
), which started operating on January 16, 1995, with channel 12 as a charter
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 ...
; due to its CBS programming commitments, KSLA carried UPN's Monday and Tuesday prime time programming between 11:35 p.m. and 1:35 a.m. on both nights. This arrangement ended on August 22, 1995, six days before
KSHV-TV KSHV-TV (channel 45) is a television station in Shreveport, Louisiana, United States, affiliated with MyNetworkTV. It is owned by Nexstar Media Group alongside Texarkana, Texas–licensed NBC affiliate KTAL-TV (channel 6); Nexstar also provides c ...
(channel 45, now a
MyNetworkTV MyNetworkTV (unofficially abbreviated MyTV, MyNet, MNT or MNTV, and sometimes referred to as My Network) is an American commercial broadcast television syndication service and former television network owned by Fox Corporation, operated by its ...
affiliate)—through a programming revamp tied to a
shared services 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 time ...
(SSA) it reached with Associated Broadcasters Inc.-owned Fox affiliate KMSS-TV—took over as the UPN affiliate for the Shreveport–Texarkana market. Following the merger with Paramount, Viacom also announced it would sell off all of its non-UPN stations. On May 12, 1995, Viacom announced that it would sell KSLA to
Englewood, New Jersey Englewood is a city in Bergen County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey, which at the 2020 United States census had a population of 29,308. Englewood was incorporated as a city by an act of the New Jersey Legislature on March 17, 1899, from por ...
-based Hillside Broadcasting (owned by Mario and Della Baeza) for $30 million. Viacom had planned to sell channel 12 both as part of its sale of the company's non-UPN affiliated stations (with KSLA being the first such station to be divested) and to comply with FCC rules of the time that prohibited a single company from owning more than twelve television stations nationwide; the sale to Hillside hinged on the completion of Viacom's $27-million purchase of
Atlanta Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,715 ...
independent station
WVEU WUPA (channel 69) is a television station in Atlanta, Georgia, United States, affiliated with The CW. The station is owned by the CBS News and Stations group and maintains studios on Northeast Expressway (I-85) in unincorporated DeKalb County ( ...
from Broadcasting Corporation of Georgia. Hillside Broadcasting backed out of the deal on June 27; subsequently on July 1, Ellis Communications (owned by Atlanta-based businessman Bert Ellis)—which was formed two years earlier with the purchase of the original
New Vision Group The Vision Group of Companies, commonly known as the Vision Group, is a multimedia conglomerate in Uganda. It publishes the New Vision (newspaper), an English-language daily newspaper, that appears in print form and online, as well as newspa ...
stations, and was an investor in Hillside Broadcasting—announced it would acquire KSLA for $30 million. The transaction was approved by the FCC on August 24, and was completed eight days later on September 1, 1995. On May 16, 1996, Ellis Communications announced it would sell its fifteen television and two radio stations and sports production/syndication firm Raycom Sports to Atlanta-based Ellis Acquisitions Inc. (founded by
Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...
-based M&A lawyer Stephen Burr, with financing from
Montgomery, Alabama Montgomery is the capital city of the U.S. state of Alabama and the county seat of Montgomery County. Named for the Irish soldier Richard Montgomery, it stands beside the Alabama River, on the coastal Plain of the Gulf of Mexico. In the 202 ...
-based pension fund administrator
Retirement Systems of Alabama Retirement Systems of Alabama is the administrator of the pension fund for employees of the state of Alabama. It is headquartered in the state capital Montgomery, Alabama. David G. Bronner is the chief executive officer. Under Bronner's leader ...
) in an all-cash deal worth $732 million; the Ellis Communications stations as well as subsequent purchases of television stations owned by
AFLAC Aflac Inc. (American Family Life Assurance Company) is an American insurance company and is the largest provider of supplemental insurance in the United States. The company was founded in 1955 and is based in Columbus, Georgia. In the U.S., A ...
and
Detroit Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at th ...
-based Federal Enterprises Inc. served as the charter properties of
Raycom Media Raycom Media, Inc. was an American television broadcasting company based in Montgomery, Alabama. Raycom owned and/or provided services for 65 television stations and two radio stations across 44 markets in 20 states. Raycom, through its Commun ...
. The purchase of KSLA and the Ellis stations received FCC approval on July 26, 1996.


Sale to Gray Television

On June 25, 2018, Atlanta-based
Gray Television Gray Television, Inc. is an American publicly traded television broadcasting company based in Atlanta, Georgia. Founded in 1946 by James Harrison Gray as Gray Communications Systems, the company owns or operates 180 stations across the United St ...
announced it had reached an agreement with Raycom to merge their respective broadcasting assets (consisting of Raycom's 63 existing owned-and/or-operated television stations, including KSLA, and Gray's 93 television stations) under Gray's corporate umbrella. The cash-and-stock merger transaction valued at $3.6 billion—in which Gray shareholders would acquire preferred stock currently held by Raycom—resulted in KSLA gaining new
sister station In broadcasting, sister stations or sister channels are radio or television stations operated by the same company, either by direct ownership or through a management agreement. Radio sister stations will often have different formats, and somet ...
s in nearby markets, including primary CBS/subchannel-only Fox and MyNetworkTV affiliate
KXII KXII (channel 12) is a television station licensed to Sherman, Texas, United States, serving the Sherman, Texas–Ada, Oklahoma market as an affiliate of CBS, MyNetworkTV, and Fox. Owned by Gray Television, the station maintains studios on Te ...
in
Sherman, Texas Sherman is a U.S. city in and the county seat of Grayson County, Texas. The city's population in 2020 was 43,645. It is one of the two principal cities in the Sherman–Denison metropolitan statistical area, and it is part of the Texoma region o ...
, primary CBS/subchannel-only ABC affiliate
KNOE-TV KNOE-TV (channel 8) is a television station licensed to Monroe, Louisiana, United States, serving the Monroe, Louisiana– El Dorado, Arkansas market as an affiliate of CBS and ABC. It is owned by Gray Television alongside low-power dual CW ...
in Monroe and primary NBC/subchannel-only CBS affiliate
KALB-TV KALB-TV (channel 5) is a television station in Alexandria, Louisiana, United States, affiliated with NBC, CBS and The CW Plus. Owned by Gray Television, the station maintains studios on Washington Street in downtown Alexandria, and its transmitt ...
in
Alexandria Alexandria ( or ; ar, ٱلْإِسْكَنْدَرِيَّةُ ; grc-gre, Αλεξάνδρεια, Alexándria) is the second largest city in Egypt, and the largest city on the Mediterranean coast. Founded in by Alexander the Great, Alexandria ...
, in addition to its current sister stations under Raycom ownership; as a result, the combined company will have broadcast properties in six of the seven television markets serving Louisiana (with
Lafayette Lafayette or La Fayette may refer to: People * Lafayette (name), a list of people with the surname Lafayette or La Fayette or the given name Lafayette * House of La Fayette, a French noble family ** Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette (1757 ...
as the lone exception). The sale was approved on December 20, and was completed on January 2, 2019.


Programming

As the Shreveport–Texarkana market did not have a PBS member station at the time, KSLA was among several commercial television stations in markets without a PBS station that carried programs from the service on a per-program basis. KSLA carried ''
Sesame Street ''Sesame Street'' is an American educational children's television series that combines live-action, sketch comedy, animation and puppetry. It is produced by Sesame Workshop (known as the Children's Television Workshop until June 2000) a ...
'' each weekday morning from February 7, 1972 until May 27, 1977, assuming the show from KTAL, which had carried it from 1970 until 1972. By the time KSLA removed the show from the airwaves,
Louisiana Public Broadcasting Louisiana Public Broadcasting (LPB) is a state network of Public Broadcasting Service ( PBS) member television stations serving the U.S. state of Louisiana. The stations are operated by the Louisiana Educational Television Authority, an agency c ...
(LPB) was in preparation for signing on KLTS-TV (channel 24) as a
satellite A satellite or artificial satellite is an object intentionally placed into orbit in outer space. Except for passive satellites, most satellites have an electricity generation system for equipment on board, such as solar panels or radioisotope ...
of the member network's
Baton Rouge Baton Rouge ( ; ) is a city in and the capital of the U.S. state of Louisiana Louisiana , group=pronunciation (French: ''La Louisiane'') is a state in the Deep South and South Central regions of the United States. It is the 20th-sma ...
flagship A flagship is a vessel used by the commanding officer of a group of naval ships, characteristically a flag officer entitled by custom to fly a distinguishing flag. Used more loosely, it is the lead ship in a fleet of vessels, typically the fi ...
, WLPB-TV, and other PBS member stations were carried on cable. KSLA was among the first fifty television stations in the country to air the hybrid local/national lifestyle newsmagazine concept ''
PM Magazine ''PM/Evening Magazine'' is a television series with a news and entertainment format. It was syndicated to stations throughout the United States. In most areas, ''Evening/PM Magazine'' was broadcast from the late 1970s into the late 1980s. Origi ...
'' (which was licensed by
Westinghouse Broadcasting The Westinghouse Broadcasting Company, also known as Group W, was the broadcasting division of Westinghouse Electric Corporation. It owned several radio and television stations across the United States and distributed television shows for syndicat ...
and was also titled ''
Evening Magazine ''Evening Magazine'' is the name of various news and entertainment-style local television shows in different markets. Concept On August 9, 1976, Westinghouse (Group W) Broadcasting-owned KPIX in San Francisco debuted a locally-produced magazin ...
'' when broadcast on Group W's television stations), it ran on the station from 1979 to 1984. The local version of the program was hosted by program producer Chuck Smith and Becky Strickland; it became one of the consistently highest-rated versions of ''PM'' in the country, beating syndicated programs (such as ''
M*A*S*H ''M*A*S*H'' (Mobile Army Surgical Hospital) is an American media franchise consisting of a series of novels, a film, several television series, plays, and other properties, and based on the semi-autobiographical fiction of Richard Hooker. Th ...
'', ''
The Newlywed Game ''The Newlywed Game'' is an American television game show that puts newly married couples against each other in a series of revealing question rounds to determine how well the spouses know or do not know each other. The program, originally create ...
'' and ''
The People's Court ''The People's Court'' is an American arbitration-based reality court show, featuring an arbitrator handling small claims disputes in a simulated courtroom set. Within the court show genre, it is the first of all arbitration-based reality sty ...
''), sometimes averaging audience shares higher than 30 percent throughout its five-year run on KSLA and had garnered a 25 rating/39 share by the end of the run of the program. Despite its local success, the KSLA edition of ''PM Magazine'' was canceled in early 1984 and was replaced by reruns of ''
Three's Company ''Three's Company'' is an American sitcom television series that aired for eight seasons on ABC from March 15, 1977, to September 18, 1984. It is based on the British sitcom '' Man About the House''. The story revolves around three single room ...
'' (which was distributed by Viacom at the time), resulting in an almost immediate decline in audience share to 1/10th of that ''PM'' had when it ran in the 6:30 p.m. timeslot.


Sports programming

KSLA was once the home of the
Shreveport Captains The Shreveport Captains (1971–2000) and Shreveport Swamp Dragons (2001–02) were a professional minor-league baseball team based in Shreveport, Louisiana. They were affiliated with the California Angels (1971–72), Milwaukee Brewers (1973–74 ...
, the defunct
Canadian Football League The Canadian Football League (CFL; french: Ligue canadienne de football—LCF) is a professional sports league in Canada. The CFL is the highest level of competition in Canadian football. The league consists of nine teams, each located in a ci ...
team, the
Shreveport Pirates The Shreveport Pirates were a Canadian Football League team, playing at Independence Stadium in Shreveport, Louisiana, United States, in 1994 and 1995. Despite a relatively strong fan base, they were one of the least successful of the CFL's A ...
, and
Southeastern Conference The Southeastern Conference (SEC) is an American college athletic conference whose member institutions are located primarily in the South Central and Southeastern United States. Its fourteen members include the flagship public universities of ...
sporting events, the latter of which they continue to air via the SEC's deal with
CBS Sports CBS Sports is the sports division of the American television network CBS. Its headquarters are in the CBS Building on W 52nd Street in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, with programs produced out of Studio 43 at the CBS Broadcast Center on W 5 ...
. From 1994 to 2009, KSLA was a charter outlet of Raycom Sports, an ''ad hoc'' syndication service that mainly carries
college football College football (french: Football universitaire) refers to gridiron football played by teams of student athletes. It was through college football play that American football rules first gained popularity in the United States. Unlike most ...
and
basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...
games not carried by
regional sports network In the United States and Canada, a regional sports network (RSN) is a cable television channel (many of which are also distributed on direct broadcast satellite services) that presents sports programming to a local market or geographical region. ...
s (such as
Fox Sports South Bally Sports South (BSSO) is an American regional sports network owned by Diamond Sports Group, and operates as an affiliate of Bally Sports Networks. The network carries regional coverage of professional and collegiate sports events from across ...
) and select national broadcast and cable networks (such as
ESPN ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). The ...
). The Raycom-produced game telecasts consisted of events involving teams in the SEC (including those involving the
Louisiana State University Tigers The LSU Tigers and Lady Tigers are the athletic teams representing Louisiana State University (LSU), a state university located in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. LSU competes in Division I of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) as a ...
, the
Texas A&M Aggies Texas A&M Aggies refers to the students, graduates, and sports teams of Texas A&M University. The nickname " Aggie" was once common at land-grant or "ag" (agriculture) schools in many states. The teams are also referred to as "A&M" or "Texas Agg ...
, the
Ole Miss Rebels The Ole Miss Rebels are the 18 men's and women's intercollegiate athletic teams that are funded by and represent the University of Mississippi, located in Oxford. The first was the football team, which began play in 1893. Originally known as th ...
and the
Mississippi State Bulldogs Mississippi State Bulldogs is the name given to the athletic teams of Mississippi State University, in Mississippi State, Mississippi. The university is a founding member of the Southeastern Conference and competes in NCAA Division I. Sports sp ...
), airing between ten and twelve regular season games from each sport per year, with most college football and basketball telecasts airing on Saturday afternoons. Some games resulted in the station preempting sports broadcasts from
CBS Sports CBS Sports is the sports division of the American television network CBS. Its headquarters are in the CBS Building on W 52nd Street in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, with programs produced out of Studio 43 at the CBS Broadcast Center on W 5 ...
and, occasionally, CBS prime time shows on its main channel; however, KSLA-DT2 served as an alternate feed of the service, carrying college basketball and football games that KSLA-DT1 could not carry due to CBS programming commitments. Since 2001, KSLA has also held the local broadcast rights to NFL preseason games from the
New Orleans Saints The New Orleans Saints are a professional American football team based in New Orleans. The Saints compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) South division. Since 1975, the te ...
; the station carries roughly between three and five prime time game telecasts annually due to the Saints preseason games being produced by sister station WVUE.


News operation

, KSLA presently broadcasts 33 hours of locally produced newscasts each week (with six hours each weekday and 1½ hours each on Saturdays and Sundays). In addition, KSLA-DT3 broadcasts eight hours of locally produced newscasts each week: consisting of an hour-long extension of ''KSLA News 12 This Morning'', and a simulcast of the hour-long 6:00 p.m. newscast carried on the station's main feed, both on weekdays.


News department history

The station's first news anchor and
news director A news director is an individual at a broadcast station or network or a newspaper who is in charge of the news department. In local news, the news director is typically in charge of the entire news staff, including journalists, news presenters, ...
, Don Owen, established KSLA's news department. Initially serving as a weather anchor, Owen became a highly trusted figure among area viewers during his three-decade tenure at the station; a local columnist in the ''Shreveport Times'' once referred him "the
Walter Cronkite Walter Leland Cronkite Jr. (November 4, 1916 – July 17, 2009) was an American broadcast journalist who served as anchorman for the ''CBS Evening News'' for 19 years (1962–1981). During the 1960s and 1970s, he was often cited as "the mo ...
of the Shreveport media market," comparing him to the legendary
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 ...
anchor. Al Bolton served as the station's first
meteorologist A meteorologist is a scientist who studies and works in the field of meteorology aiming to understand or predict Earth's atmospheric phenomena including the weather. Those who study meteorological phenomena are meteorologists in research, while t ...
. Bolton also served as host of ''Al's Corral'', a western-themed children's program that was one of the station's most popular local programs. Bolton remained the meteorologist until May 1991, when he began a ten-year association with KRMD radio before retiring. Bolton received the "Seal of Certification" from the
National Weather Association The National Weather Association (NWA), founded in 1975, is an American professional association with a mission to support and promote excellence in operational meteorology and related activities. Background The National Weather Association is, ...
in 1982 for "performance well above the media and meteorological standards". In 1961, Bob Griffin joined KSLA as the station's sports editor. Griffin—who originally expected to stay in Shreveport for one or two years before deciding to embark on a 50-year-plus career in the Shreveport market—became personally acquainted with statistics of area athletes, some of whom reached national prominence. He also served as host of ''Bob & His Buddies'', a children's show that aired on channel 12 during the 1960s, and the short-lived ''What's News?'', a current events quiz program for high schoolers that ran from 1963 to 1965, which featured questions based on stories featured on KSLA's newscast and sports segments during the previous week. In October 1967, Nita Fran Hutcheson (later a
chamber of commerce A chamber of commerce, or board of trade, is a form of business network. For example, a local organization of businesses whose goal is to further the interests of businesses. Business owners in towns and cities form these local societies to ad ...
official in her hometown of Texarkana, Texas) was hired by Owen to serve as an assignment reporter; her appointment made history, with Hutcheson becoming the first female television reporter in the Shreveport–Texarkana market. Under Owen's stewardship, the station also hired Margaret Pelley (later of ''
Dateline NBC ''Dateline NBC'' is a weekly American television news magazine/reality legal show that is broadcast on NBC. It was previously the network's flagship general interest news magazine, but now focuses mainly on true crime stories with only occasion ...
'') and Roseanne Colletti (later at
WNBC WNBC (channel 4) is a television station in New York City, serving as the flagship of the NBC network. It is owned and operated by the network's NBC Owned Television Stations division alongside Linden, New Jersey–licensed Telemundo stati ...
in New York City) to serve as part of the station's reporting staff, along with local figures such as Wray Post, Tom and Barry Irwin, Carl Pendley, and Tony Taglavore. In the late 1970s, KSLA was the first television station in the Shreveport–Texarkana market to update transition from film to videotape. In 1983, KSLA also became the first to operate a live
satellite truck A satellite truck is a mobile communications satellite ground station mounted on a truck chassis as a platform. Employed in remote television broadcasts, satellite trucks transmit video signals back to studios or production facilities for editing ...
to assist in newsgathering purposes. In September 2008, KSLA became the first television station in Louisiana (and one of the first in the nation) to air a weekday morning newscast at 9:00 a.m. In September 2010, KSLA expanded its weeknight 6:00 p.m. newscast to one hour and expanded the weekend edition of its 10:00 p.m. newscast to one hour. On October 15, 2010, KSLA became the second television station in the Shreveport–Texarkana market to begin broadcasting its local newscasts in high definition. On September 7, 2016, KSLA launched a half-hour newscast at 4:00 p.m. on weekday afternoons. In recent years, the station's news department has won several Regional
Emmy Award The Emmy Awards, or Emmys, are an extensive range of awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international television industry. A number of annual Emmy Award ceremonies are held throughout the calendar year, each with the ...
s and four Regional Edward R. Murrow Awards for its news coverage. In 2019, the station was awarded a national Murrow Award for excellence in multimedia.


Notable former on-air staff

*
David Begnaud David Begnaud (born June 13, 1983) is an American journalist and news correspondent. Begnaud works for CBS News, and is currently based in New York City as the Lead National Correspondent for CBS Mornings. His reporting has been featured across CB ...
*
Dennis Bounds Dennis Bounds is a former weeknight news anchor for KING-TV, a television station in Seattle, Washington. Dennis started with KING-TV in March 1991 and accepted a retirement buy-out by Tegna, formerly Gannett, in April 2016. He will no longer be s ...
– anchor/reporter (1987–1991; later at
KING-TV KING-TV (channel 5) is a television station in Seattle, Washington, United States, affiliated with NBC. It is owned by Tegna Inc. alongside Everett-licensed independent station KONG (channel 16). Both stations share studios at the Home Plate ...
in
Seattle Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest regio ...
from 1991 to 2016, retired) * Christine Negroni – reporter (now an American aviation and travel writer) * Don Owen – anchor/reporter (1954–1983; deceased)


Technical information


Subchannels

The station's digital signal is
multiplexed In telecommunications and computer networking, multiplexing (sometimes contracted to muxing) is a method by which multiple analog or digital signals are combined into one signal over a shared medium. The aim is to share a scarce resource - a ...
:


Analog-to-digital conversion

KSLA discontinued regular programming on its analog signal, over VHF channel 12, on June 12, 2009, the official date in which full-power television stations in the United States transitioned from analog to digital broadcasts under federal mandate. The station's digital signal remained on its pre-transition UHF channel 17, using PSIP to display the station's
virtual channel In most telecommunications organizations, a virtual channel is a method of remapping the ''program number'' as used in H.222 Program Association Tables and Program Mapping Tables to a channel number that can be entered via digits on a receiver's ...
as its former VHF analog channel 12.


References


External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Ksla SLA CBS network affiliates Circle (TV network) affiliates Bounce TV affiliates Grit (TV network) affiliates Dabl affiliates Defy TV affiliates Television channels and stations established in 1954 Gray Television 1954 establishments in Louisiana Former Viacom subsidiaries