KSBI (channel 52) 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's s ...
in
Oklahoma City
Oklahoma City (), officially the City of Oklahoma City, and often shortened to OKC, is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Oklahoma, most populous city of the U.S. state of Oklahoma. The county seat ...
, Oklahoma, United States, affiliated with
MyNetworkTV
MyNetworkTV (stylized as mynetworkTV; unofficially abbreviated MNT or MNTV) is an American commercial broadcast television syndication service and former television network owned by Fox Corporation, operated by its Fox Television Stations ...
. It is owned by locally based
Griffin Media
Griffin Media is an American media company based in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. The company began as a subsidiary of Muskogee-based Griffin Foods, which produces a line of pancake and waffle syrups and other foods.
It owns Oklahoma's two large CBS ...
alongside
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS (an abbreviation of its original name, Columbia Broadcasting System), is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainme ...
affiliate
KWTV-DT (channel 9). The two stations share studios on West Main Street in downtown Oklahoma City; KSBI's transmitter is located on the city's northeast side.
History
Locke Supply ownership
The
UHF
Ultra high frequency (UHF) is the ITU designation for radio frequencies in the range between 300 megahertz (MHz) and 3 gigahertz (GHz), also known as the decimetre band as the wavelengths range from one meter to one tenth of a meter ...
channel 52 allocation was contested between two groups that vied to hold the
construction permit
Planning permission or building permit refers to the approval needed for construction or expansion (including significant renovation), and sometimes for demolition, in some jurisdictions.
House building permits, for example, are subject to bu ...
to build a new station on the frequency. The first prospective permittee was Satellite Broadcasting Company – a religious
nonprofit corporation
A nonprofit corporation is any legal entity which has been incorporated under the law of its jurisdiction for purposes other than making profits for its owners or shareholders. Depending on the laws of the jurisdiction, a nonprofit corporation ma ...
headed by Donald J. Locke, owner of Oklahoma City-based regional hardware store chain Locke Supply Company, and his wife, Wanda McKenzie Locke – which petitioned the
Federal Communications Commission
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is an independent agency of the United States government that regulates communications by radio, television, wire, internet, wi-fi, satellite, and cable across the United States. The FCC maintains j ...
(FCC) allocate a ninth television frequency in the Oklahoma City market (originally to have been assigned to
Edmond) in the spring of 1979. The FCC Broadcast Bureau contended that, even though Edmond had no television channel assignments, Satellite Broadcasting failed to justify that such a need for one in the Oklahoma City suburb existed, but did allow the group to apply for use of the Oklahoma City-assigned allocation with Edmond as a designated
city of license
In U.S., Canadian, and Mexican broadcasting, a city of license or community of license is the community that a radio station or television station is officially licensed to serve by that country's broadcast regulator.
In North American broadcast ...
under the FCC's "15-mile" rule, which allowed licensees to assign a city of license located from the city to which the proposed station's broadcast assignment was designated. Satellite Broadcasting filed an application with the FCC for a
license
A license (American English) or licence (Commonwealth English) is an official permission or permit to do, use, or own something (as well as the document of that permission or permit).
A license is granted by a party (licensor) to another part ...
and construction permit on October 17, 1980, proposing to sign on a
religious
Religion is a range of social- cultural systems, including designated behaviors and practices, morals, beliefs, worldviews, texts, sanctified places, prophecies, ethics, or organizations, that generally relate humanity to supernatural ...
television station on the frequency. The second applicant, TV 52 Broadcasting, Inc., filed its own application on January 8, 1981.
The FCC granted the license to Satellite Broadcasting on April 15, 1982; two months later in August 1982, the group applied to use KSBI (standing for Satellite Broadcasting Co., Inc., in reference to the Locke-owned licensee) as the planned station's callsign. After six years of delays in getting KSBI operational, the station first signed on the air on October 3, 1988. KSBI's original studio facilities were housed out of Locke Supply's corporate offices on 82nd Street and Pole Road in southeast Oklahoma City.
For its first 16 years on the air, channel 52 was largely run as a religious
independent station
An independent station is a broadcast station, usually a television station, not affiliated with a larger broadcast television network, network. As such, it only broadcasts broadcast syndication, syndicated programs it has purchased; brokered pr ...
; station management settled on the format after initially hedging on their original plans to institute a religious format, which had planned to lease free airtime to churches and televangelists. Atypical of most television stations on the air at that time, KSBI originally broadcast on a part-time basis, airing Monday through Fridays from 9 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. during a six-month test broadcasting stage.
Programming expanded to 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. by March 1, 1989.
The station was exclusively available over-the-air in the market until June 1993, when
must-carry
In cable television, many governments, including the ones of the United Kingdom, the United States, and Canada, apply a must-carry regulation stating that forces a cable TV provider to carry the public interest programming, like locally licensed te ...
rules passed by the FCC that allowed broadcast stations to request mandatory carriage on
cable
Cable may refer to:
Mechanical
* Nautical cable, an assembly of three or more ropes woven against the weave of the ropes, rendering it virtually waterproof
* Wire rope, a type of rope that consists of several strands of metal wire laid into a hel ...
providers went into effect.
Cox Cable—whose Oklahoma City system, at the time, only served the city proper and select inner-city suburbs—began offering KSBI on channel 40 (in 1995, Cox moved the station to channel 9, which suffered from co-channel interference from, ironically, the
VHF analog signal of
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS (an abbreviation of its original name, Columbia Broadcasting System), is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainme ...
affiliate and eventual sister station
KWTV, which continued until Cox moved KSBI's basic cable slot to channel 15 in 2007);
Multimedia Cablevision—which served outer suburbs including Edmond,
Midwest City,
Moore
Moore may refer to:
Language
* Mooré language, spoken in West Africa
People
* Moore (surname)
** List of people with surname Moore
* Moore Crosthwaite (1907–1989), a British diplomat and ambassador
* Moore Disney (1765–1846), a senior ...
and
Bethany
Bethany (,Murphy-O'Connor, 2008, p152/ref> Syriac language, Syriac: ܒܝܬ ܥܢܝܐ ''Bēṯ ʿAnyā''), locally called in Palestinian Arabic, Arabic Al-Eizariya or al-Aizariya (, "Arabic nouns and adjectives#Nisba, lace
Lace is a delicate fabric made of yarn or thread in an open weblike pattern, made by machine or by hand. Generally, lace is split into two main categories, needlelace and bobbin lace, although there are other types of lace, such as knitted o ...
of Lazarus (name), L ...
, all of which are now served by Cox—placed KSBI on channel 33 at that time. In preparation for the addition to Cox and Multimedia, channel 52 adopted an 18-hour daily schedule from 6 a.m. to 12 am; the station would begin broadcasting 24 hours a day by 1996. During most of the 1990s and early 2000s, in addition to airing local and nationally syndicated religious programs, KSBI also carried a limited amount of secular sitcoms,
Westerns and movies, some of which were cherry-picked from
INSP and
FamilyNet. Despite its format, KSBI did not accept or solicit financial support via monetary contributions from viewers.
Beginning in the 1990s, KSBI gradually signed on a network of
translator stations throughout the state. Eventually, because of this wide relay network, channel 52 claimed to have the largest
broadcast coverage area of any commercial television station in Oklahoma; at its peak, its signal was relayed over fourteen translators serving areas within the Oklahoma City
market
Market is a term used to describe concepts such as:
*Market (economics), system in which parties engage in transactions according to supply and demand
*Market economy
*Marketplace, a physical marketplace or public market
*Marketing, the act of sat ...
and in markets adjacent to it such as
Tulsa
Tulsa ( ) is the second-most-populous city in the state of Oklahoma, after Oklahoma City, and the 48th-most-populous city in the United States. The population was 413,066 as of the 2020 census. It is the principal municipality of the Tul ...
,
Elk City,
Ponca City and
Ardmore. It also gained cable (and eventually,
satellite
A satellite or an artificial satellite is an object, typically a spacecraft, placed into orbit around a celestial body. They have a variety of uses, including communication relay, weather forecasting, navigation ( GPS), broadcasting, scient ...
) coverage in the Tulsa,
Wichita,
Amarillo,
Lawton–
Wichita Falls and
Ada–
Sherman markets. In August 1999, the station upgraded its transmitter from an effective radiated power of 1,355
kW to a total power of three million watts, after installing a new transmitter antenna atop the broadcast tower on 122nd Street and Kelley Avenue in northeast Oklahoma City.
In June 2000, KSBI began including more family-oriented secular programming in themed evening blocks (consisting of western series and films on Mondays; sports on Tuesdays; music programs on Wednesdays; wildlife, outdoor and automotive series on Thursdays; family-focused series on Fridays; classic comedy series on Saturdays; and religious and gospel music programs on Sundays). The inclusion of more secular programs to the schedule was partially cited because of the decline in
Southern gospel music programming available on the syndication market. At that time, KSBI placed guidelines for its advertising and program content, prohibiting certain types of advertising (such as for alcoholic beverages or psychic hotlines),
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 di ...
s,
telethon
A telethon (a portmanteau of "television" and "marathon") is a televised fundraising event that lasts many hours or days, the purpose of which is to raise money for a charitable, political or other cause.
Most telethons feature heavy solicitatio ...
s or religious programs that solicited donations from viewers.
Sale to Family Broadcasting Group
Following Don Locke's death in February 2000, Locke Supply's board of directors—led by Locke's former wife, Wanda McKenzie, who took over as the company's chief executive officer—were approached by various station owners beginning in April 2001 for offers to acquire KSBI, its regional translator network and low-power sister station
KXOC-LP (channel 54, later on channel 41; now defunct). In the interim, KSBI and its sister properties were involuntarily transferred from Locke's estate to an employee stock ownership plan handled by Locke Supply, which received FCC approval on November 17 of that year. The company ultimately decided to sell off the stations to focus on operating the Locke Supply chain that Don Locke founded more than three decades earlier. On October 8, 2001, Locke Supply agreed to sell KSBI to Christian Media Group, a newly formed locally based company that was founded by former KWTV meteorologist Brady Brus; his sister and local media personality Brenda Bennett; John Benefiel, senior pastor of Church on the Rock; and media executive Jerry Mash.
However, Christian Media's agreement to buy the station would fall apart, after the upstart company failed to pay its $15 million bid to purchase KSBI from Locke. The company attempted to accrue the funds to buy the cluster, but were unable to obtain the needed cash, even after it was granted several extensions to come up with the money. Station management subsequently increased the estimated purchase value to $20 million, largely because of the station's then-recent launch of its digital television signal; KSBI was the first in Oklahoma to offer two
digital subchannel
In broadcasting, digital subchannels are a method of transmitting more than one independent program stream simultaneously from the same digital radio or television station on the same radio frequency channel. This is done by using data compress ...
s, including
HDNet
AXS TV () is an American specialty television, cable television channel majority-owned by Canadian broadcaster Anthem Sports & Entertainment. It is devoted primarily to Music television, music-related programming (such as concert films, Document ...
and a simulcast of its analog feed.
Brus and Bennett would get a second chance to acquire KSBI, KXOC and the former's translator network on July 8, 2003, when Locke sold the stations to Family Broadcasting Group of Oklahoma, Inc., a restructuring of the former Christian Media Group that the siblings co-founded with Brady's wife,
certified public accountant
Certified Public Accountant (CPA) is the title of qualified accountants in numerous countries in the English-speaking world. It is generally equivalent to the title of chartered accountant in other English-speaking countries. In the United Stat ...
and treasurer Angie Brus; and Joe Bowie, co-president/CEO of Retirement Investment Advisors Inc. and Seekfirst Media LLC. The deal included permissory rights for Family Broadcasting to take over the operations of KSBI and KXOC-LP under a
time-lease agreement effective July 21, which would continue until the acquisition received regulatory approval by the FCC (officially occurring on January 12, 2004); the sale was finalized on March 17, 2004.
After Family Broadcasting assumed full control of the station, KSBI was repositioned as a family-oriented general entertainment independent with syndicated secular programming that contained minimal to no sexual content, overt violence or strong
profanity
Profanity, also known as swearing, cursing, or cussing, is the usage of notionally word taboo, offensive words for a variety of purposes, including to demonstrate disrespect or negativity, to relieve pain, to express a strong emotion (such a ...
added to the schedule (programs that contained some degree of the aforementioned content were edited—usually through muting of profanity and occasional, abrupt commercial interruptions to omit scenes containing adult material—to fit the station's content standards). Most of the initial secular programs seen on KSBI under Brus' management consisted of sitcoms, drama series and westerns from the 1960s to the early 1990s.
The station also launched a weather department—which it heavily invested in—and aired local weather updates throughout the broadcast day (including five-minute midday, late afternoon and evening updates on weekdays presented by a two-person on-camera weather staff led by Brus, who also served as the station's chief meteorologist in addition to his duties as its owner and general manager), incorporating interactive touch screen technology for its weather presentation and installing a network of remote cameras throughout various cities across Oklahoma (branded as the "KSBI Statecam Network"). In February 2004, the station became the first television station in Oklahoma to provide severe weather watches and warnings in both English and Spanish. Channel 52 also eventually added sporting events to its schedule, consisting mainly of basketball and football games from state high school and
Southeastern Conference
The Southeastern Conference (SEC) is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference whose member institutions are located primarily in the South Central United States, South Central and Southeastern United States. Its 16 members in ...
collegiate teams.
While its syndicated inventory was fairly limited early on, KSBI eventually expanded its programming slate; this began in the fall of 2008 with the additions of ''
NurseTV'', ''
Lost'' and ''
American Chopper'', followed the next year by the acquisitions of ''
Deadliest Catch
''Deadliest Catch'' is an American reality television series that premiered on the Discovery Channel on April 12, 2005. The show follows crab fishermen aboard fishing vessels in the Bering Sea during the Alaskan king crab and snow crab fishing ...
'', ''
Cold Case Files'', ''
The Martha Stewart Show
''Martha'', also known as ''The Martha Stewart Show'', is an American cooking show hosted by Martha Stewart. The series premiered on September 12, 2005, in Broadcast syndication, syndication until it was picked up by the Hallmark Channel in Septe ...
'', ''
Judge Hatchett'', ''
My Wife and Kids'' and then the addition of ''
The King of Queens
''The King of Queens'' is an American television sitcom that ran on CBS from September 21, 1998, to May 14, 2007, with a total of 207 half-hour episodes spanning nine seasons. The series was created by Michael J. Weithorn and David Litt, who al ...
'' to the schedule in the spring of 2010.
Chesapeake Energy
Expand Energy Corporation, headquartered in Oklahoma City, is the largest independent natural gas producer in the U.S. based on net daily production. The company operates in the Appalachian Basin of the Marcellus Formation in Pennsylvania and ...
co-founders
Aubrey McClendon and
Tom L. Ward purchased a portion of Family Broadcasting stock in January 2007; this investment occurred after Family's equity was restructured to retire all long-term debt.
After reaching a deal with the
NBA
The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional basketball league in North America composed of 30 teams (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada). The NBA is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United States and Ca ...
's
Oklahoma City Thunder
The Oklahoma City Thunder are an American professional basketball team based in Oklahoma City. The Thunder compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the Northwest Division (NBA), Northwest Division of the Western Confer ...
to telecast select regular season game in 2008, KSBI rebranded as "Thunder TV".
That year, the station also began construction on a new state-of-the-art studio facility in
Yukon
Yukon () is a Provinces and territories of Canada, territory of Canada, bordering British Columbia to the south, the Northwest Territories to the east, the Beaufort Sea to the north, and the U.S. state of Alaska to the west. It is Canada’s we ...
; completed in the spring of 2009, KSBI relocated to the new facility by that September. That year,
DirecTV
DirecTV, LLC is an American Multichannel television in the United States, multichannel video programming distributor based in El Segundo, California. Originally launched on June 17, 1994, its primary service is a digital Satellite television, s ...
began carrying KSBI's programming in the Tulsa area as an out-of-market station (the station was removed from the satellite provider in January 2012 following a
carriage dispute
A carriage dispute is a disagreement over the right to "carry", that is, retransmit, a broadcaster's signal. Carriage disputes first occurred between broadcasters and cable companies and now include direct broadcast satellite and other multichan ...
between Family Broadcasting Group and DirecTV).
Family Broadcasting appointed two former KOCO-TV veterans as lead executives on November 1, 2010: Vince Orza and Jerry Hart became KSBI's president/CEO and vice president/operations manager, respectively. Orza and Hart worked together at KOCO during the 1980s. The station also divested some of its translators; six were converted into repeaters of former sister station KXOC-LP, while two others based in
Enid and
Stillwater continued to rebroadcast KSBI's signal. The station updated its programming mix, shifting from classic series to newer syndicated programs while introducing a slate of new locally produced shows.
KSBI affiliated with
MyNetworkTV
MyNetworkTV (stylized as mynetworkTV; unofficially abbreviated MNT or MNTV) is an American commercial broadcast television syndication service and former television network owned by Fox Corporation, operated by its Fox Television Stations ...
on September 17, 2012, replacing
KAUT-TV
KAUT-TV (channel 43) is a television station in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, United States, serving as the local outlet for The CW. It is owned and operated by the network's majority owner, Nexstar Media Group, alongside NBC affiliate KFOR-TV ( ...
(channel 43), which reverted to independent status.
Griffin ownership
In September 2014, KSBI cancelled the majority of their local output, including talk show ''Oklahoma Live'' and game show ''Wild Card'', and laid off most of its employees.
One week later, Family Broadcasting agreed to sell KSBI to KWTV owner
Griffin Communications; Griffin previously sought to purchase KSBI in 2001, and was outbid by Christian Media Group.
Griffin executives touted the addition of KSBI as a new way to offer CBS network shows and syndicated programming that KWTV would preempt in the event of severe weather coverage or breaking news.
KSBI was rebranded as "News 9 Plus", a
brand extension
Brand extension or brand stretching is a marketing strategy in which a firm marketing a product with a well-developed image uses the same brand name in a different product category. The new product is called a spin-off.
Organizations use this ...
of KWTV, on March 1, 2017.
Griffin Communications purchased the Century Center business and retail complex in
downtown Oklahoma City for $26 million on July 12, 2021, for the company's new corporate headquarters, along with new facilities for KWTV and KSBI. The new studios were completed on November 12, 2022.
Programming
Local programming
Upon taking over the operations of Family Broadcasting Group in 2010, CEO Vince Orza and vice president Jerry Hart began developing local programming for KSBI that would serve as an alternative to the news-based local programs on other Oklahoma City area stations, featuring a mix of talk, lifestyle and entertainment programs.
Initial local programs produced under Orza and Hart's management of the station—neither of which gained much ratings momentum—included the lifestyle-oriented talk program ''All About You'' (which was cancelled in June 2012), local cooking show ''Oklahoma Cooks'' (which was cancelled in August 2012), movie review program ''Hollywood Spotlight'' (a revival of the program that originally aired on KOCO-TV until 1997, both incarnations were hosted by Dino Lalli; the revived program was cancelled in December 2012) and the sports discussion program ''OK Sports Wrap'' (which was cancelled in May 2013). Orza also provided a commentary segment that aired during certain commercial breaks titled ''Common Sense'', in which Orza gave his opinion on a particular national or local news story; these segments were discontinued in 2014.
2011 and 2012 saw the debuts of four new programs: the daytime interview show ''Oklahoma Live!'', country music showcase ''Oklahoma Centennial Rodeo Opry'' (a co-production with the Opry Heritage Foundation of Oklahoma, which was taped at the Oklahoma Opry in Oklahoma City's
Capitol Hill
Capitol Hill is a neighborhoods in Washington, D.C., neighborhood in Washington, D.C., located in both the Northeast, Washington, D.C., Northeast and Southeast, Washington, D.C., Southeast quadrants. It is bounded by 14th Street SE & NE, F S ...
district, and hosted by local radio DJ Owen Pickard; the program was distributed nationally on
Pursuit Channel from September 2012 until its cancellation), ''Dog Talk'' (a program aimed at dog owners, hosted by Pat Becker) and ''
College Bowl
''College Bowl'' (which has carried a naming rights sponsor, initially General Electric and later Capital One) is a radio, television, and student quiz show. ''College Bowl'' first aired on the NBC Radio Network in 1953 as ''College Quiz Bowl'' ...
''-style quiz show ''Mind Games'' (the program, featuring teams from colleges and universities across Oklahoma, was retitled ''Mind Games: College Edition'' in 2012, when a spinoff called ''Mind Games: High School Edition'' featuring contestants from Oklahoma high schools debuted). In November 2013, KSBI debuted the trivia game show ''Wild Card'' (hosted by former KWTV sports/news anchor and ''Mind Games'' host Ed Murray) and ''Night Music'', a weekly music series hosted by Allison Gappa that featured repurposed music performances from ''Oklahoma Live!'' (which was cancelled in February 2014). ''Oklahoma Live'' and ''Wild Card'' were cancelled shortly before the sale to Griffin was announced in September 2014;
the remaining local shows were dropped once Griffin took over KSBI that December (of these programs, only ''Dog Talk'' continues in production, as KAUT-TV assumed the rights to the program in May 2015).
Sports programming
Under Family Broadcasting ownership, KSBI carried high school sports, mainly
football
Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...
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 (appro ...
post-season tournaments, via the
Oklahoma Secondary School Activities Association
The Oklahoma Secondary School Activities Association (OSSAA) is an organization which organizes secondary school athletics and activities competitions at the state level. David Jackson is the Executive Director. The OSSAA is a member of the Natio ...
(OSSAA) from 2005 through 2010. In April 2008, KSBI televised select
Oklahoma City Yard Dawgz games from the
Arena Football League
The Arena Football League (AFL) was a professional arena football league in the United States. It was founded in 1986, but played its first official games in the 1987 Arena Football League season, 1987 season, making it the third longest-runnin ...
.
The station was the over-the-air home of
Oklahoma City Thunder
The Oklahoma City Thunder are an American professional basketball team based in Oklahoma City. The Thunder compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the Northwest Division (NBA), Northwest Division of the Western Confer ...
games and ancillary team programming starting with the team's
2008–09 inaugural season, sharing broadcast rights with
Fox Sports Oklahoma.
This deal ended in 2010, when the Thunder gave Fox Sports Oklahoma broadcast exclusivity.
KSBI also carried
Texas Rangers games on Friday evenings via
KTXA
KTXA (channel 21), branded as TXA 21, is an independent television station in Fort Worth, Texas, United States, serving the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex. It is owned by the CBS News and Stations group alongside CBS outlet KTVT (channel 11). ...
's over-the-air network during the 2012 season. In 2024, the Thunder returned to KSBI as part of an 8 game agreement for Friday night games.
High school football coverage returned to KSBI beginning in 2015 through a new agreement with the OSSAA, with game coverage on Friday nights and select Thursday nights in addition to Class 5A and 6A football championships. This agreement was expanded to include Class 5A and 6A high school basketball championship games in 2017.
KBSI carried all
OKC Energy FC
Oklahoma City Energy Football Club, or simply Energy FC, is an American professional Association football, soccer club based in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. The club is a member of the USL Championship, the second division of the American soccer lea ...
home games from 2016 to 2018, when the
United Soccer League
The United Soccer League (USL) is an organizer of various professional and amateur soccer leagues in the United States league system. It currently organizes its Championship, League One, and League Two for men, its Super League and W Leag ...
signed an exclusive league-wide streaming deal with
ESPN+
ESPN+ is an American over-the-top subscription video streaming service available in the United States, owned by ESPN Inc., which is a joint venture between the Walt Disney Company (which owns a controlling 80% stake) and Hearst Communicati ...
. Since 2016, the station has carried games from the Thunder's
NBA G League
The NBA G League, or simply the G League, is a professional basketball league in North America that serves as the Minor league#Basketball, developmental league of the National Basketball Association (NBA). The league comprises 31 teams; as of ...
affiliate, the
Oklahoma City Blue
The Oklahoma City Blue are an American professional basketball team based in Oklahoma City and are affiliated with the Oklahoma City Thunder. The Blue compete in the NBA G League as members of the Western Conference. The Blue play their home games ...
.
Newscasts
After being purchased by Family Broadcasting Group in early 2004, KSBI launched ''Hello Oklahoma'', a daily talk show with news updates and weather forecasts from Brady Bus. By 2008, the station aired a daily early-evening newscast, ''Oklahoma News Tonight'', and utilitzed satellite technology for newsgathering.
Following a studio move in August 2010, Bus announced intentions to launch late-evening newscasts on KSBI
but after a managerial change that November, the station dropped all local news programming and added ''
The Daily Buzz
''The Daily Buzz'' (occasionally abbreviated ''"theDBZ"'') is a nationally syndicated news and infotainment program. The show premiered as a 3-hour weekday morning television show on September 16, 2002, initially airing on 10 stations owned and ...
'' in early mornings; this was estimated to save the station up to $200,000 annually. Former anchor Kealey McIntire was reassigned to host a lifestyle program ''It's About You'',
and sports anchor Brian Birchell hosted ''OK Sports Wrap''.
Since February 3, 2015, KSBI has simulcast KWTV's noon newscast.
Technical information
Subchannels
The station's 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— ...
:
Analog-to-digital conversion
KSBI began transmitting a
digital television
Digital television (DTV) is the transmission of television signals using Digital signal, digital encoding, in contrast to the earlier analog television technology which used analog signals. At the time of its development it was considered an ...
signal on UHF channel 51 on February 1, 2003. The station chose to continue to simultaneously operate its analog and digital signals past the original February 17, 2009,
digital television transition
The digital television transition, also called the digital switchover (DSO), the analogue switch/sign-off (ASO), the digital migration, or the analogue shutdown, is the process in which older analogue television broadcasting technology is con ...
deadline; as KSBI operated a weather department at the time, this was done to enable viewers that were not prepared for the transition to continue receiving emergency weather information during the Spring 2009 severe weather season. The station ended regular programming on its analog signal, over UHF channel 52, on June 1, 2009.
The station's digital signal remained on its pre-transition UHF channel 51,
using PSIP to display KSBI'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 as digits on a receiver's ...
as 52 on digital television receivers, which was among the high band UHF channels (52-69) that were removed from broadcasting use as a result of the transition.
On July 18, 2014, the FCC granted an application to relocate KSBI's digital signal to UHF channel 23; the station continued to operate its existing UHF 51 signal under a
special temporary authority
Special Temporary Authority (STA) in U.S. broadcast law is a type of broadcast license which temporarily allows a broadcast station to operate outside of its normal technical or legal parameters. In the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) st ...
(STA), with an on-screen message directing viewers to rescan their digital tuners to receive the UHF 23 signal until KSBI ceased broadcasting on UHF channel 51 on August 1, 2014.
Translators
KSBI is additionally rebroadcast over a network of four low-power digital translator stations:
*
Elk City: K20NJ-D
*
Sayre: K21JN-D
*
Strong City: K23IZ-D
*
Weatherford: K35MQ-D
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ksbi
1988 establishments in Oklahoma
Bounce TV affiliates
Griffin Media
Grit (TV network) affiliates
Ion Mystery affiliates
Laff (TV network) affiliates
MyNetworkTV affiliates
Television channels and stations established in 1988
SBI