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KSWO-TV, virtual channel 7, is the ABC affiliated television station located in Lawton, Oklahoma. It also serves Wichita Falls, Texas. Its transmitter is located near Grandfield, Oklahoma. KSWO broadcasts its digital signal on VHF channel 11. KSWO also offers Telemundo programming on digital channel 7.2. Syndicated programming on the station includes: Live! with Kelly and Michael, The Doctors, Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, and The Jeff Probst Show.

A 2008 deal to sell the station along with group sister stations in Amarillo, Bryan, Midland, and Waco, Texas was approved by the FCC but was called off owing to uncertainties in the financial markets notice of non-consummation to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC).

Digital television

This station's digital signal is multiplexed:

KSWO-DT

KSWO-DT broadcasts on digital channel 11.

KSWO's broadcasts became digital-only, effective (as originally scheduled) on February 17, 2009.

History

KSWO is owned by Drewry Communications Group, which started out with one radio property at Lawton, KSWO-AM, in 1941, followed by the addition of KRHD Radio in nearby Duncan, Oklahoma in 1947. The call letters of the Duncan station were named for the owner, Ransom H. Drewry's, initials. The call letters KSWO are now exclusively used by the TV station and KRHD is now used as the call sign for an ABC affiliate in Bryan-College Station, Texas, which is also owned by Drewry Communications. Drewry Communications Group also owns CBS affiliate KFDA-TV in Amarillo, Texas; ABC affiliate KXXV in Waco, Texas; NBC affiliates KWES-TV in Midland, Texas; and KWES repeater station KWAB-TV in Big Spring, Texas. If not for the vision of these men, R.H. Drewry, J.R. Montgomery, T.R. Warkentin, Robert P. Scott and G.G. Downing, KSWO-TV would not be here today.

KSWO-TV is the only television station in the Wichita Falls-Lawton market to have remained under the same ownership since its inception and to remain locally owned and operated to this day. It also one of the few TV stations in the country (not counting owned-and-operated stations) that has had the same call letters, channel number, and primary network affiliation throughout its history.

KSWO-TV uses the Circle 7 logo that is also used by ABC's owned-and-operated stations along with many other ABC affiliates with Channel 7 frequencies. It is the oldest logo still in use among TV stations in the Wichita Falls/Lawton market, having been used continuously since 1979, though the "Circle 7" was previously used at KSWO from 1967 to 1970, and then succeeded by a TV-screen '7" logo from 1970 to 1977, followed by a "Circle 7" logo from 1977 to 1979 that was similar to one used in the 1980s and 1990s by Midland-Odessa station KOSA-TV. The ABC "Circle 7" symbol returned to KSWO in 1979 as part of a re-imaging that included a new news set and the introduction of the "Action 7 News" name and format to the Texoma area which would last for more than 15 years until the current "7 News" branding and newsroom/studio format began in the mid-1990s.

Due to electrical outages following a damaging windstorm that rolled through the Lawton area in late May 1996, the early morning newscast Good Morning Texoma was broadcast virtually in the dark. The only power came from the portable generator in one of the station's live trucks, which they also used as a makeshift STL (studio-to-transmitter link) to get the signal to the transmitter. The show was done with one camera, one tape deck and one microphone (that was passed between the announcers).

KSWO has broadcast the annual West Texas Rehabilitation Center telethon from Abilene, Texas each year since 1971. The telethon is broadcast one Saturday night each January over TV stations serving various markets in north, west and central Texas.

The station's first transmitter was at the studios east of Lawton, which was a relatively low-power unit that could reach viewers within a limited 55-mile radius that included Altus, Oklahoma to the west, Wichita Falls to the south, Anadarko, Oklahoma to the north and Ringling, Oklahoma to the east. By the late 1950s, other ABC affiliates such as KOCO-TV in Oklahoma City and KTEN in Ada, Oklahoma were encroaching the northern and eastern fringes on KSWO's viewing area, but wide gaps existed to the south and west of Wichita Falls, and the only primary ABC affiliates in north and west Texas were WFAA-TV, Dallas-Fort Worth and KVII-TV in Amarillo, as Lubbock and Abilene did not get their own primary ABC affiliates until 1969 and 1979, respectively.

In 1959, the FCC permitted KSWO-TV to erect a 1,000-foot-tall (300 m) tower with 316,000 watts of power (maximum allowable for VHF channels 7-13) near Grandfield, Oklahoma, which was activated in early 1960 and permitted reception of Channel 7 over a much larger area of North Texas and Southwest Oklahoma - bringing complete ABC programming with viewable reception to many locations for the first time. Wichita Falls stations KFDX-TV and KSYD-TV (now KAUZ) opposed the application, and the FCC had to be convinced. The new site was about halfway between the cities and from a Lawton perspective in the same direction as the Wichita Falls stations. Many years later when KJTL (channel 18) was activated in the mid-1980s, it chose a site near KSWO-TV's transmitter at Grandfield. Ironically, KJTL is now in common ownership with NBC affiliate KFDX (channel 3), which continues to operate its own transmitter from the original site in Wichita Falls as does CBS affiliate KAUZ (channel 6).

On July 31, 2009 Drewry Communications initiated a joint sales/shared operational services agreement between KSWO and CBS affiliate KAUZ-TV (channel 6). This will combine oversight of sales and promotion with those of KSWO-TV. In time, it could streamline operation of the two stations (shared people, shared equipment, shared location) along the lines of separately owned but cooperatively operated competitor stations KFDX-TV and KJTL-TV. With each station office more than an hours drive from the other, it is not as easy as combining stations that are around the corner from each other. With the agreement, KAUZ-TV General Manager Mike deLier, News Director Dan Garcia, and a videographer were released. These tasks were assumed by their KSWO-TV counterparts.

News operation

KSWO produces 20.5 hours of news programming a week.

KSWO pioneered new developments to the local area in weather forecasting throughout its history, particularly with severe weather coverage across its nearly 30-county viewing area in Southwest Oklahoma and North Texas. Channel 7 was first with its own on-site (black and white image) radar in the late 1950s or early 1960s, introduced the market's first color radar in 1976 (Accu-scan 7) and introduced the area's first Doppler radar in 1984 more than 10 years ahead of arch-rivals KFDX and KAUZ.

KSWO-TV has several long-time veterans who have been with the station for 20 years or longer. Jan Stratton has served as anchor continuously since 1981 and was news director until July 2006, while co-anchor and current news director, David Bradley has been with the station since 1986 first as sports director/anchor for 13 years and then as news anchor since 1999.

Tom Charles, a familiar face to Channel 7 viewers since the early 1960s, officially retired from KSWO-TV after 45 years of service on December 31, 2010. He served as chief weathercaster/meteorologist from 1964 to 1996 and then as anchor of the 5:30 a.m. newscast and Good Morning Texoma co-anchor from 2000 to 2010 following a four-year stint as chief meteorologist at CBS affiliate KAUZ-TV in Wichita Falls, Texas. Larry Patton has served as general manager of KSWO-TV since 1976 and has been employed by the station since 1967. In June 2011, KSWO began broadcasting its local newscasts in high definition, becoming the first station in the Wichita Falls-Lawton market to make the upgrade.

Ratings

KSWO has a stronghold on the Oklahoma market, while KAUZ and KFDX primarily compete for the Texas audience.

For the May 2009 ratings period, KSWO ranks for first on weekdays for the morning show, as well as 6 p.m. and 10 p.m. newscasts, according to Nielsen Media Research. KSWO, however, has showed a slight drop in ratings ever since acquisition of newsroom assets of Wichita Falls station, KAUZ. Drewry management decided to purchase only newsroom assets in fall of 2009 and moved long-time station manager, Mike Taylor, to general manager at KAUZ. Ironically, KFDX (Nexstar Broadcasting), the other news station in the Lawton-Wichita Falls TV market, has showed improvement in ratings rather than an increase either for KAUZ or KSWO.

News/station presentation

Newscast titles

• Channel 7 Newsreel (1953–1963)
• TV-7 News (1963–1973)
• Channel 7 News (1973–1977)
• Newscene 7 (1977–1979)
• Action 7 News (1979–1996)
• 7 News (1996–present)

Station slogans

• The TV-7 News Team - Putting Southwest Oklahoma and North Texas First Gives You the Winning Team (1970–1973)
• Channel 7 News, Most Watched News Source in Southwest Oklahoma and North Texas (1974–1977)
• Newscene 7, The Most Comprehensive News in Texoma (1977–1979)
• 7's The Place (1982–1985; local campaign similar to Tulsa's KTUL "8's The Place" campaign)
• KSWO: 7's The Place, Looking Out For You! (1985–1990)
• Action 7 News, The Most Complete Newscast in Texoma (1989–1992)
• You Can Count on Us! (2000–present)

This list related to film, television, or video is incomplete; you can help by adding missing items.

News team

Current on-air staff

Source:

Anchors

• David Bradley - weeknights at 6 and 10 p.m.; also news director
• Jan Stratton - weeknights at 4 and 5 p.m.; also evening executive producer; former news director (Also Jan is in the Oklahoma Broadcasting Hall of Fame)
• Dara Jones - weekday mornings on Good Morning Texoma

SkyWarn 7 Weather Team

• Austin Bowling - meteorologist
• Matthew DiPirro - meteorologist
• Joseph Belanger - meteorologist

7 Sports Team

• Kyle Weatherly - sports director; weeknights at 6 and 10 p.m.

Reporters

• Terri Armstrong - MedWatch 7 Reporter
• Jonathan Rozelle - general assignment reporter
• Nicole Osei - general assignment reporter
• Katherine Gisi - general assignment reporter
• Caroline Kimbrell - general assignment reporter

FORMER ON AIR STAFF

Laura Hagen- Lawton-Ft. Sill Chamber of Commerce

David Baxley- former chief meteorologist from 2008-2011

Lindsay Vocht- Former Good Morning Texoma Anchor- Now Communications Specialist for Goodyear

Laura Demaria- Former nightside reporter. 2008-2011 Out of business

Garret Krier- General Assignments Reporter from 2008-2011.

Keisha Courtney- General Assignments Reporter 2008-2010. Now at KBAK in Bakersfield, California

Robert Richardson - Former Reporter. 2008-2009. Now at WHNT-TV in Huntsville, AL

Dan Seed- Former sports anchor

Dan Zarrow- Former Morning Meteorologist. 2006-2008. Working in New Jersey

Andy Wallace- Former Meteorologist. Now at KJRH in Tulsa, Oklahoma

Patrick McKee - Former Meteorologist. 2001-2005. Now at WSLS in Roanoke, Virginia

Nicole Jolly- Former Anchor Now Communications Specialist for Southwestern Medical Center

Chris Kilmer- Former Reporter- Now Public Information Officer for Comanche County

Kenny Scarle- Former Reporter- Now Public Information Officer for Altus Air Force Base

Neely Tsoodle- Former Reporter- 1995-2008- Now works for Muscogee (Creek) Nation

Eric Law- Former Meteorologist- 2002-2004- Now at WLBT in Jackson, Mississippi

Elaina Rusk- Former Reporter- now at KERO in Bakersfield

Silva Harapetian- WDIV in Detroit

Dan Threlkeld- now at KJRH in Tulsa

Tom Charles- Retired

Stephanie Harris - now at Now at WAVY 10 in Norfolk VA

Ken Lamb (while in US Army)- Now staff announcer at ABC TV New York

References

1. http://www.kswo.com/Global/story.asp?S=9803807
2. "KSWO-TV Goes On Air Today From New 1,059 foot transmitter": Lawton Constitution and Morning Press (Lawton, OK), Feb. 28, 1960 pg. 33
3. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=apXSAIadsew
4. http://www.kswo.com/Global/category.asp?C=85090

External links

• KSWO Homepage
• Template:TVQ
• Template:TVQ
• Template:BIA

Template:Oklahoma Spanish Stations

• ABC network affiliates
• Telemundo network affiliates
• Television stations in Oklahoma
• Channel 11 digital TV stations in the United States
• Channel 7 virtual TV stations in the United States
• Television channels and stations established in 1953