KFOR-TV
Fascinated with the medium since the late 1930s, Edward K. Gaylord's April 13, 1936, dedication to new studios at the Skirvin Tower Hotel for his radio station, WKY, ended with a public pledge to bring television to Oklahoma when it and other related inventions had been perfected.[13] OPUBCO executive Edgar T. Bell downplayed the immediate outlook for local television as "distant" despite well-received attendance for the exhibition; estimates had as many as 25,000 attendees on Thursday, taxing the auditorium's capacity.[15] The tour was attended by a total of 50,000 bond buyers with crowd size regarded as large throughout,[16] several cities even saw encore performances due to overwhelming demand.[35] Gaylord boasted during his on-air address that WKY-TV had both the finest television studio in the country and the tallest transmission tower outside of NBC's transmitter for WNBT atop the Empire State Building.[47] Danny Williams joined WKY-TV in 1950 to host a daily talk show, announce professional wrestling telecasts, and appear as Spavinaw Spoofkin on Gismo Goodkin.[48] Williams later fronted children's program The Adventures of 3-D Danny as "Supreme Galaxy Chief Dan D. Dynamo", incorporating science fiction and time travel elements derived from Flash Gordon with cartoon short subjects.[49][50] Airing on WKY-TV from 1953 to 1959, the ratings for 3-D Danny often beat those of ABC's The Mickey Mouse Club,[51] making it the first local television program in the country to achieve that feat.[69] The milestone was inaugurated the morning of July 1, 1952, with Gaylord giving a short message and pressing a button to activate the network connections, joining NBC's Today live in progress.[73] The FCC rescinded the frequency change request in April 1952, noting WKY-TV would have enough feasible co-channel assignment separation from Dallas's KRLD-TV; the channel 7 allocation was reassigned to Lawton for use by KSWO-TV.[112][113] As the result of a renegotiated contract, Yongestreet Productions forced Owens to discontinue the Ranch Show due to heavy music and content duplication with Hee Haw.[124] While Oklahoma City was not one of 16 markets the FCC had planned to strictly enforce this rule, the sale happened under the possibility, with OPUBCO preferring Evening News as the buyer since it also was a newspaper publisher-turned-broadcaster.[120] WKY, the Oklahoman, and the Times were all retained by OPUBCO, which planned to purchase additional TV and radio stations with the sale proceeds[124] under the newly renamed Gaylord Broadcasting division.[127] This program—which was also syndicated throughout the Southwest and on cable—ended in 1984 after a successful legal challenge to the U.S. Supreme Court by the University of Oklahoma and then-Oklahoma City mayor Andy Coats against the NCAA restrictions over the number of games that could be televised live in a single season.[135] That September, the station debuted another local talk show in the vein of Dannysday, which had ended its run the previous year:[136] AM Oklahoma, hosted by brothers Ben and Butch McCain, who were also KTVY's morning news and weather anchors, respectively.A local version of PM Magazine had much better success, airing on KTVY from 1980 to 1988 with hosts Stan Miller, Karen Carney,[138] Dan Slocumb,[139] Dave Hood,[140] Kelly Robinson[141] and Becky Corbin.[186] Completed in August 2017, the new building both boasted a floorplan improving workflow and employee collaboration, and was built with reinforced steel, concrete and protective glass that could withstand a direct hit from severe weather and enable unlimited broadcasting.[193] Howard Stirk Holdings also agreed to purchase KAUT for $750,000 in a deal that included shared services and joint sales agreements with Sinclair, which planned to retain KFOR-TV and KOCB.[194] All three transactions were nullified on August 9, 2018, after Tribune Media terminated the merger and filed a breach of contract lawsuit;[195] this came several weeks after the FCC voted to bring the deal up for a formal review and lead commissioner Ajit Pai publicly rejected it.[210] The station is also purported to be the first in the U.S. to have been allowed access to film a court proceeding on December 13, 1953, while covering Billy Eugene Manley's murder trial at the Oklahoma County Courthouse.[211] Led by Frank McGee,[212] a WKY-TV news crew was placed in a custom-built enclosed booth near the courtroom's rear, with a discreet microphone[213] and a small button that Judge A. P. Van Meter could use to stop recording at any point.Best known for a friendly, "good-ol'-boy" on-air delivery,[230] Ogle became the station's news director in 1970 and served in that capacity until leaving in 1977 to join Oklahoma State's athletic department.[254] Cavanaugh would produce and host Tapestry, a 1996 documentary on the lives of survivors of the bombing[255] honored with four regional Emmys, a Gabriel Award, and accolades by the Oklahoma Association of Broadcasters, the National Press Club and the Society of Professional Journalists.Until her retirement in 2017, Cavanaugh's co-anchors included George Tomek, Brad Edwards, Gary Essex, Jerry Adams,[258] Jane Jayroe,[259] Dan Slocum,[260] Bob Bruce,[261] Devin Scillian[253] and Kevin Ogle.Sugg and Oklahoma Senator Mike Monroney had actively lobbied the federal government to overturn a ban on disseminating tornado alerts to the public, believing the high fatality risk and urgency for residents to take safety precautions outweighed concerns that they could incite panic.[275] It was on May 1, 1954,[d] that Frank McGee intercepted another AWS weather bulletin meant for Tinker Base regarding a tornadic thunderstorm approaching Meeker, relaying it over the phone to Volkman."[278] The federal ban on broadcasting tornado watches/warnings was eventually repealed in part due to the efforts of Volkman and Kinnan, and WKY-TV became the first station to hold a contract with the National Weather Service.[297] KWTV meteorologist Gary England then stated on-air that other stations—not specifically citing KFOR-TV or Mike Morgan—should not take a "chicken little" approach by excessively covering tornadoes that don't immediately threaten life and property, and compared it to "yelling 'fire' in a crowded auditorium".[300] David Payne, a KFOR-TV meteorologist from 1993 to 2013, also performed storm chasing for the station during severe weather coverage,[298] most notably capturing footage of a rare anticyclonic tornado that damaged the El Reno Regional Airport on April 24, 2006.[303][304] Visuals from the scene, and particularly from KFOR-TV's helicopter,[305] were aired live on CNN[306] leading to increased coverage by other national news outlets and pleas to donate to the American Red Cross on social media.Since 1993, KFOR-TV has aired the Sunday morning talk show Flash Point, hosted by weeknight anchor Kevin Ogle with Mike Turpen and Todd Lamb as liberal and conservative panelists, respectively.
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