KLTV

Infobox_Broadcast
call_letters = KLTV
city =
station_
station_slogan = Caring. Committed. Proud of East Texas. (general)
Your East Texas News Leader (news)
station_branding = KLTV 7
analog = 7 (VHF)
digital = 10 (VHF)
other_chs =
affiliations = ABC
network =
founded =
airdate = October 14, 1954
location = Tyler/Longview, Texas
callsign_meaning = "L" stands for Lucille Buford, a member of the station's founding family.
former_callsigns =
former_channel_numbers =
owner = Raycom Media, Inc.
licensee = KLTV/KTRE License Subsidiary, LLC
sister_stations =
former_affiliations = Joint primary:
ABC/CBS/NBC (1954-1984)
Secondary:
DuMont (1954-1955)
NBC (1984-1987)
effective_radiated_power = 316 kW (analog)
15 kW (digital)
HAAT = 302 m (both)
class =
facility_id = 68540
coordinates = coord|32|32|23.1|N|95|13|13.3|W|type:landmark_scale:2000
homepage = [http://www.kltv.com/ www.kltv.com]

KLTV is a television station in Tyler, Texas, USA. It is an ABC network affiliate, and it broadcasts its analog signal on VHF channel 7 and digital signal on channel 10.

The station's most well known slogan is "Proud of East Texas", a slogan it has carried since 1985. The slogan is also used by its sister station KTRE, a satellite station in Lufkin.

Its northeast Texas coverage area includes Tyler, Longview, Jacksonville, Palestine, Carthage and Henderson, Texas. Owned by Raycom Media, the station also operates and produces morning newscasts for KTRE.

It has been the dominant station in the market for most of its history, and news broadcasts on the station routinely garner several times the number of viewers of its nearest competitor. KLTV and its staff have received several awards, including 4 Lone Star EMMY awards. The station is currently nominated for 11 Lone Star EMMY Awards including: Best Morning and Evening Newscasts, Weather, several news and sports specials and reporting.

The station's studios were located near SH 31 and Loop 323 on the east side of Tyler, until the late 1990s, when they moved their studio facilities to downtown Tyler. The old studios were demolished on Tyler's East side in November 2007. KLTV's current studios are located in a former savings and loan branch and office complex near the Smith County Courthouse.

History

KLTV went on the air on October 14, 1954 [ [http://www.kltv.com/Global/story.asp?S=2762635&nav=menu117_7 KLTV 7 News Tyler, Longview, Jacksonville |KLTV Celebrates 50th Anniversary ] ] and shared affiliation time with ABC, CBS and NBC until the early 1980s. It was owned originally by Buford Television, which was owned by Lucille Buford. Buford Television owned the station until the early 1990s, when it was sold to Civic Communications of Jackson, Mississippi. Civic merged with The Liberty Corporation in 2002. In 2006, Liberty merged with the station's current owner, Raycom Media.

KLTV installed their digital tower on September 23, 2005 and started broadcasting a high-definition signal on channel 7.1 over-the-air (ch. 10) and on SuddenLink cable channel 720 on December 14, 2005. KLTV is the second East Texas station to broadcast in HD. They also started airing the "StormTracker 24/7 Weather Channel," on digital channel 7.2, running 24-hour temperatures, weather conditions, and the StormTracker 7 Live Doppler Network, available on SuddenLink cable channel 247 in East Texas. Both digital channels 7.1 and 7.2 are also available on Longview Cable Television channels 246 and 247 respectively.

In the first round of DTV channel elections [ [http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DA-05-2649A2.pdf 52162.xls ] ] , KLTV has elected to return their digital channel assignment back to channel 7 after the 2009 analog cutoff date.

Tower Collapse

At approximately 7:30 am on Friday February 3, 2006, KLTV's 1078 foot broadcast transmitter tower at Red Springs, about ten miles north of Tyler, near the city of Hawkins, collapsed, taking both KLTV's analog and digital over-the-air signals off the air, leaving cable customers of Cox Cable Communications as the only customers who could receive the station. The outage also affected the feed of the station to DirecTV and Dish Network. Interestingly, the collapse occurred the day after new owners Raycom Media officially took ownership of the station.

Within 13 hours of the collapse, KLTV re-established analog broadcasts at reduced power from its former station and transmitter location in eastern Tyler. A new Harris transmitter was brought in the day after the collapse, allowing resumption of high-power broadcasts from the Tyler site, though from a tower slightly less than half the height of the destroyed tower. This allowed the viewing area to see Super Bowl XL on analog channel 7.

Digital broadcasts resumed from the Tyler site several days later.

In addition, Tyler Christian radio station KVNE-FM was also knocked off as a result of the collapse. The station is broadcasting at 500 watts from a temporary location. On February 7, KVNE held a one-day fundraiser to raise a goal of $70,000 to put the station back on at high-power. The station raised more than $80,000 in their 15-hour campaign.

No injuries were reported. No cause for the collapse has been disclosed to date.

Recovery After the Collapse

KLTV has restored their analog OTA signal from their original tower at Highway 31 and Loop 323 in Tyler, near their original studio site, along with their signals to DirecTV and Dish Network and the feeds to all Tyler-Longview area cable companies. Their analog transmitter equipment was undamaged, and was supplemented at the original tower site with a newer transmitter, however their Over-the-Air High Definition and Digital TV transmission equipment was a total loss.

In March and April 2007, KLTV ran a "Flip The Switch" promotion to promote the completion of the new Red Springs tower. Viewers were urged to submit 30 second videos to show why they should be selected to Flip The Switch. Winners were selected by popular vote on kltv.com. The winner was Jeff Heimer, and on April 17, 2007, at approximately 6:58 PM, he officially flipped the switch to turn on the new transmitter and tower.

News Ratings

In a June 2006 article, the Longview News-Journal reported, "In the May ratings from Nielsen Media Research, KLTV continued its dominance of the area television market, with an estimated 70,000 East Texas households tuning in to its 10 p.m. newscast, "KLTV 7 News @ 10." KETK was second with about 12,000 viewers, and KYTX was watched by an estimated 9,000 viewers." [ [http://www.news-journal.com/money/content/business/stories/06252006doppler.html] Dead link|date=August 2008]

Personalities

Current On-Air Talent

KLTV Anchors
*Dana Hughey: Good Morning East Texas and Midday Anchor
*Christine Nelson: 5PM Anchor/Reporter
*Molly Reuter: Weekend Anchor/Reporter
*Gillian Sheridan: 6PM and 10PM Anchor "**2008 Lone Star EMMY Nominated**"
*Joe Terrell: 5PM, 6PM and 10PM Anchor/Managing Editor/"Does It Work?" Feature Reporter "**2008 Lone Star EMMY Nominated**"
*Clint Yeatts: Good Morning East Texas Anchor/Managing Editor "**2008 Lone Star EMMY Nominated**"

KLTV Reporters
*Danielle Capper: General Assignment Reporter
*Dr. Ed Dominguez: Medical Contributor
*Bob Hallmark: General Assignment Reporter
*Joan Hallmark: "Proud of East Texas"
*Barry Hanson: "East Texas Angler" Reporter
*Courtney Lane: General Assignment Reporter "**2008 Lone Star EMMY Nominated**"
*Layron Livingston: General Assignment Reporter
*LaKecia Shockley: General Assignment Reporter

StormTracker 7 Weather Team
*Mark Scirto: Chief Meteorologist "**2008 Lone Star EMMY Nominated**"
*Grant Dade: Good Morning East Texas/MidDay Meteorologist
*Michael Hetrick: Weekend Meteorologist

Sports Anchors/Reporters
*Maya Golden: Sports Director/Anchor "**2008 Lone Star EMMY Nominated**"
*Reid Kerr: Sports Reporter/Anchor

KLTV.com
*Cathryn Khalil: KLTV.com News Producer

Former On-Air Personalities

* Devin Scillian [http://www.devinscillian.com] : News anchor from 1986-1989, currently with WDIV, and also a children's author
* [http://www.nbc5i.com/station/14662394/detail.html Lindsay Wilcox] : reporter/anchor, currently with KXAS
* [http://www.nbc-2.com/AboutUs/Bios/morganpalmer.shtml Morgan Palmer] : meteorologist, currently with WBBH
* [http://sandrabrown.net/ Sandra Brown] : novelist
* [http://www.hilliard.ws/tv.htm Robert Hilliard] : cameraman, director, and news anchor
* Oralia Ortega: reporter/weekend anchor, currently with WSVN
* [http://www.lorriallen.com/about.html Lorri Vaughter] : reporter
* [http://www.wrex.com/Station/index.php#Eric%20Sorensen Eric Sorensen] : morning meteorologist from 2000-2003, currently with WREX
* [http://www.ksee24.com/about/newsteam/newsbios/8395142.html Jennifer Brice] : morning anchor from 2002-2005, currently with KSEE
* Paul Abrams: general assignments reporter from 1993-1996, currently a public relations director.
* [http://www.julietam.com Julie Tam] : news reporter from 2003-2005. WDRB
* Michelle Mortensen: news anchor from 2002-2005, currently with WPTZ
* Michael Coleman: sports director from 1997-2004, currently with News 12 Long Island
* [http://www.wfaa.com/cizaguirre/ Cynthia Izaguirre] : Anchor/Reporter, Currently with WFAA
* [http://www.ktul.com/pageloader.html?js=ktul&page=talent&pagename=tracy_watler.html Tracy Watler] : general assignment reporter, currently with KTUL

News/Station Presentation

Newscasts

*Good Morning East Texas: Monday - Friday, 5:00am - 7:00am "**2007 & 2008 Lone Star EMMY Nominated**"
*East Texas News MidDay: Monday - Friday, 11:30am - 12:00pm
*KLTV 7 News at 5pm: Monday - Friday, 5:00pm - 5:30pm "**2008 Lone Star EMMY Nominated**"
*KLTV 7 News at 6pm: Monday - Saturday, 6:00pm - 6:30pm
*KLTV 7 News at 10pm: Every Night at 10pm "**2007 Lone Star EMMY Award Winner-Best Evening Newscast/Small Market** **2008 Lone Star EMMY Nominated**

Newscast Titles

*"East Texas News 7" (1954-1998)
*"Channel 7 News" (1998-2003)
*"KLTV 7 News" (2003-present)

tation Slogans

*"Proud of East Texas" (1985-2003)
*"You'll Love it on Channel 7" (1985-1986, local version of ABC campaign)
*"Caring. Committed. Proud." (2003-present)
*"Your East Texas News Leader" (2006-present)

References

ee also

*Circle 7 logo

External links

* [http://www.kltv.com/ KLTV Homepage]
* [http://www.kltv.com/Global/story.asp?S=2762635&nav=menu117_7 KLTV celebrates 50th anniversary (2004)]
*TVQ|KLTV
*BIA|KLTV|TV|TV