KUOK

KUOK
Woodward, Oklahoma
United States
City Woodward, Oklahoma
Branding Univision 36
Channels Digital: 35 (UHF)
Virtual: 36 (PSIP)
Subchannels 36.1 Univision
Translators KUOK-CD 36 Oklahoma City
Affiliations Univision
Owner Tyler Media Group
(Oklahoma Land Company, LLC)
First air date 2002
Call letters' meaning Univision OKlahoma
Sister station(s) TV: KTUZ-TV, KOCY-LP
Radio: KEBC, KJKE, KMGL, KOKC, KOMA, KRXO-FM, KTUZ-FM
Former affiliations Pax (2002–2004)
Transmitter power 1,000 kW
Height 338.6 m
Facility ID 86532
Transmitter coordinates 36°16′6″N 99°26′56″W / 36.26833°N 99.44889°W / 36.26833; -99.44889
Licensing authority FCC
Public license information: Profile
CDBS
Website www.unidosok.com

KUOK, virtual channel 36 (UHF digital channel 35), is a Univision-affiliated television station located in Woodward, Oklahoma, United States. The station maintains transmitter facilities located near State Highway 34 in rural southwestern Woodward County.

KUOK-CD, virtual channel and UHF digital channel 36, is a low-power television station located in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma that rebroadcasts KUOK's signal across the central portion of the state. Its transmitter facility is located between Southeast 50th Street and Santa Fe Avenue (adjacent to the studios of KUOK) in southern Oklahoma City. Even though KUOK-CD maintains a digital signal of its own, the low-powered broadcasting radius does not reach the entire Oklahoma City metropolitan area. Therefore, the station is simulcast over Telemundo affiliate KTUZ-TV (channel 30)'s second digital subchannel in order to reach the entire market. This signal can be seen on virtual channel 36.1 (UHF digital channel 29.2) and operates from a transmitter facility near 86th Street and Ridgeway Road (south of Britton Road) in northeast Oklahoma City.

The two stations are owned by the Oklahoma City-based Tyler Media Group, and are sister stations to KTUZ-TV and Estrella TV affiliate KOCY-LP (channel 48). All four stations share studio facilities located near Southeast 51st Street and Shields Boulevard in south Oklahoma City. The Oklahoma City feed of KUOK can also be seen on Cox Communications channel 21 and AT&T U-verse channel 36.

History

The station first signed on the air in 2002 as an affiliate of Pax TV (now Ion Television); the following year, Equity Broadcasting Corporation purchased the station (Equity subsequently sold KQOK – channel 30, now KTUZ-TV – to Tyler Media Group as a result). The station became a Univision affiliate on May 8, 2004, serving as the full-power flagship of a six-station bi-state network known as "Univision Arkansas-Oklahoma"; Univision had previously been only receivable via local cable providers such as Cox Communications, which carried the Spanish language network's programming from its national feed; that feed was eventually replaced by a direct fiber optic feed of KUOK (whose schedule now mirrors the national feed outside of local advertising, news inserts and occasional paid programming substitutions, and provided improved reception of the station throughout the market than that receivable over-the-air prior to the digital transition) from the station's studios.

KUOK station ID from 2004.
Former KUOK logo, used from 2009 to 2012.

KUOK and the three low-power stations that also Equity acquired to become its translators (K69EK – channel 69, later KWDW-LP, KUOK-LP and now KOCY-LP on channel 48; KCHM-LP – channel 36, now KUOK-CD; KUOK-CA – channel 11 – in Norman; and Sulphur-based KOKT-LP – channel 20), originally relayed Univision programming across Oklahoma via a direct simulcast from then-sister station KLRA-LP (now KKYK-CD) in Little Rock, Arkansas (from late 2004 to 2005, the regional network was even branded as "Univision Arkansas-Oklahoma"), including local commercials from the Little Rock area that were inserted by that station during national commercial breaks and KLRA-LP's station identification bumpers (the Oklahoma City repeaters were identified only through text-only IDs placed at the bottom of the screen each half-hour). In March 2005, KUOK – though still programmed via satellite from Equity's headquarters in Little Rock – discontinued the KLRA-LP simulcast, and began carrying advertising for businesses within the Oklahoma City market and separate station promotions.

On June 25, 2008, Equity announced that it would sell KUOK and its low-power repeaters to Luken Communications (owned by former Equity executive Henry Luken).[1] That December, Equity Media Holdings filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection;[2] offers by Luken Communications to acquire Equity-owned stations in six markets were later withdrawn.[3] KUOK and its repeaters were sold at auction to the Oklahoma City-based Tyler Media Group on April 16, 2009,[4] which created a duopoly with KTUZ-TV (which became an affiliate of Univision competitor Telemundo in 2005);[5] this placed KUOK in the unique position of being the junior partner in a duopoly with a Telemundo affiliate, a rarity given that Univision is the longer established and higher rated nationally of the two networks.

Digital television

Digital channels

The station's digital channel is multiplexed:

KUOK[6] KUOK-CD[7] Video Aspect PSIP Short Name Programming
35.1 36.1 720p 16:9 KUOK-CD Main KUOK programming / Univision
-- 36.2 480i 4:3 KUOK-CD2 Simulcast of KTUZ-FM

Because it was granted an original construction permit after the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) finalized the DTV allotment plan on April 21, 1997,[8] the station did not receive a companion channel for its digital signal. Instead, at the end of the digital conversion period for full-service television stations, KUOK would have been required to turn off its analog signal and turn on its digital signal (called a "flash-cut").

On December 8, 2008, KUOK's then-owner Equity Media Holdings filed a petition for bankruptcy relief under Chapter 11 of the federal bankruptcy code. As a result, the station was required to obtain post-petition financing and court approval before digital facilities were to be constructed, and had to cease its analog signal on February 17, 2009, regardless of whether digital facilities were operational by that date. The station filed an authority to remain silent if required by the FCC.[9]

While the DTV Delay Act extended this deadline to June 12, 2009, Equity had applied for an extension of the digital construction permit in order to retain the broadcast license after the station went dark. The main KUOK signal was later added as a digital subchannel of Telemundo-affiliated sister station KTUZ-TV for viewers in Oklahoma City with an over-the-air digital receiver in 2011. In December 2011, KCHM-CA ended analog operations and flash-cut its signal to digital (becoming KUOK-CD), allowing Oklahoma City viewers who previously lost access to the station following the digital transition to view the station over-the-air; the KUOK-CD signal covers a 32-mile radius that includes the entire Oklahoma City metropolitan area, although reception is spotty in some areas of the city.

Newscasts

From 2005 until May 2008, Equity Broadcasting produced Spanish-language newscasts for KUOK, titled Noticias Univision Oklahoma; the newscasts aired at 5 and 10 p.m. weeknights. This replaced now-former sister station KLRA-LP's Little Rock-centered newscast Noticias Univision Arkansas (later rebranded as Noticias Univision Arkansas-Oklahoma through a refocusing of the newscasts towards both states), which ran in the 5 and 10 p.m. timeslots until KUOK discontinued the KLRA-LP station simulcast. While KUOK maintained its own locally based reporters, most of the newscast segments were produced out of studios located at Equity's headquarters in Little Rock. As a result of corporate cutbacks due to the company's financial issues, Equity discontinued the newscasts it produced for all six of its Univision affiliates (including KUOK) on June 6, 2008.[10]

Since becoming a sister station to KTUZ-TV, KUOK has continued not to offer any full-scale news programming of its own (other than those provided by Univision) and does not simulcast KTUZ's 5 and 10 p.m. weeknight newscasts (however, those programs have aired on Univision-affiliated sister station KUTU-CD in Tulsa since August 2011); in lieu of local newscasts, KUOK currently airs half-hour comedy programs broadcast by Univision at 5 p.m., and the network's late night newsmagazine series Primer Impacto Extra at 10 p.m. In addition, it runs a station identification slide that features a seven-day weather forecast for Oklahoma City which runs at approximately the top and bottom of each hour during station breaks, along with news and weather updates on weekday mornings airing between 6:25 and 8:25 a.m. during ¡Despierta América!.

Translators

KUOK operates a translator, which is licensed to and serves the immediate Oklahoma City area:

Station Channels
(Analog/DT)		 First air date Callsign
meaning		 Former callsigns Former affiliations ERP HAAT Facility ID Transmitter Coordinates
KUOK-CD 36 (UHF, digital)
(formerly on UHF 59, 1991–1997)		 1991 Derived from parent station K59EO (1991–1997)
KCHM-LP (1997–2010)
KCHM-CA (2010–2011)
KCHM-CD (2011)		 unknown 20 kW 219 m 14885 35°22′10.0″N 97°27′41.0″W / 35.369444°N 97.461389°W / 35.369444; -97.461389

KUOK operated KOKT-LP (channel 20) in Sulphur as a translator from 2004 until 2011, when that station ceased operations. Prior to affiliating with Univision, KOKT-LP operated as an independent station from 1994 to 1995, before becoming the UPN affiliate for the Ada, Oklahoma-Sherman, Texas television market between 1995 and 2004; however Oklahoma City area and North Texas editions of TV Guide (during the magazine's local listings era) claimed that the market's NBC affiliate KTEN ran select UPN programs as an additional affiliation from 1995 to 2002. Oklahoma City sister station KOCY-LD (which remains in operation as an Estrella TV affiliate) also operated as a KUOK translator from 2004 to 2012. Now-defunct KUOK-CA (channel 11) in Norman served as a translator of KUOK from 2004 to 2008, when it affiliated with LAT TV.

See also

References

  1. ↑ Marich, Robert (2008-06-26). "Equity Media Sells RTN to Ease Crunch". Broadcasting & Cable. Retrieved 2008-06-28.
  2. ↑ Larson, Erik (December 8, 2008). "Equity Media, U.S. TV Station Owner, Seeks Bankruptcy". Bloomberg News. Retrieved December 9, 2008.
  3. ↑ Equity's Management Cause of Downfall, Former CEO Asserts, Mark Hengel, Arkansas Business, February 2, 2009
  4. ↑ "Takers found for 60 Equity stations". Television Business Report. April 18, 2009. Retrieved April 20, 2009.
  5. ↑ "OKC cluster expands". Television Business Report. May 19, 2009. Retrieved May 22, 2009.
  6. ↑ RabbitEars TV Query for KUOK
  7. ↑ RabbitEars TV Query for KUOK-CD
  8. ↑ http://www.transmitter.com/FCC97115/chanplan.html
  9. ↑ FCC DTV status report
  10. ↑ Equity Says Adios to Spanish-Language News, TVNewsCheck, June 10, 2008.

External links

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