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KTBS-TV (channel 3) 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
Shreveport, Louisiana Shreveport ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Louisiana. It is the List of municipalities in Louisiana, third-most populous city in Louisiana after New Orleans and Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Baton Rouge. The bulk of Shreveport is in Caddo Parish, Lo ...
, United States, affiliated with
ABC ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script. ABC or abc may also refer to: Arts, entertainment and media Broadcasting * Aliw Broadcasting Corporation, Philippine broadcast company * American Broadcasting Company, a commercial American ...
. The station is owned by the locally based KTBS,
LLC A limited liability company (LLC) is the United States-specific form of a private limited company. It is a business structure that can combine the pass-through taxation of a partnership or sole proprietorship with the limited liability of a ...
(owned by the Wray Properties Trust, which is managed by Betty Wray Anderson, John D. Wray, and Edwin N. Wray, Jr.), alongside
Minden Minden () is a middle-sized town in the very north-east of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, the largest town in population between Bielefeld and Hanover. It is the capital of the district () of Minden-Lübbecke, situated in the cultural region ...
-licensed CW affiliate KPXJ (channel 21). The two stations share studios on East Kings Highway on the eastern side of Shreveport; KTBS-TV's transmitter is located near St. Johns Baptist Church Road (southeast of Mooringsport and
Caddo Lake Caddo Lake () is a lake and bayou (wetland) on the border between Texas and Louisiana, in northern Harrison County and southern Marion County in Texas and western Caddo Parish in Louisiana. The lake is named after the Caddoans or Caddo, ...
) in rural northern
Caddo Parish Caddo Parish () () is a parish located in the northwestern corner of the U.S. state of Louisiana. According to the 2020 U.S. census, the parish had a population of 237,848. The parish seat and largest city is Shreveport, which developed al ...
. Currently, KTBS-TV is one of a handful of American television stations to have locally based ownership.


History


Early history; as a primary NBC/secondary ABC affiliate

The VHF channel 3 allocation was contested between three groups that competed for approval by the FCC to be the holder of 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 and
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 ...
to operate a new television station on the first commercial VHF allocation to be assigned to Shreveport. On June 27, 1952, one week before the FCC released a Report and Order reallocation memorandum that lifted a four-year moratorium on new television broadcast license applications, Shreveport-based KTBS Inc. (a family-led group owned by George D. Wray Sr., Edwin N. Wray Sr., George D. Wray Jr., Charles W. Wray and John A. Hendrick) filed the initial application for the permit. Another Shreveport-based company, International Broadcasting Corp. (a consortium that owned local radio station
KWKH KWKH (1130 AM) is a sports radio station licensed to Shreveport, Louisiana. The 50-kilowatt station broadcasts at 1130 kHz. Formerly owned by Clear Channel Communications and Gap Central Broadcasting, it is now owned by Townsquare Media. KWKH ...
130 AM and 94.5 FM; the latter is now KRUF">KRUF.html" ;"title="130 AM and 94.5 FM; the latter is now KRUF">130 AM and 94.5 FM; the latter is now KRUFand was managed by William H. Bronson, Robert Ewing Jr., Wilson Ewing, Henry R. Clay and Toulmin Brown, the latter of whom was an assistant secretary principal to ''Shreveport Times'' parent Times Publishing Co.), filed its own application for the permit on July 3. A wrench in International Broadcasting's application was a concurring proposed merger between Shreveport's two major daily newspapers, the ''Shreveport Times'' and the ''
Shreveport Journal The ''Shreveport Journal'' was an American newspaper originally published by H. P. Benton in Shreveport and Bossier City in northwestern Louisiana. In operation from at least 1897, it ceased publication in 1991. History The name ''The Journal ...
''. On December 4, 1953, the FCC Broadcast Bureau reversed a hearing examiner's decision and approved KTBS Inc.'s request to subpoena International Broadcasting/KWKH for a "merger" agreement between the ''Times'' and the ''Journal'', contending that the testimony of KWKH president William H. Bronson in respect to the agreement alone was insufficient and that the agreement be submitted for review in judging the KWKH application. KTBS Inc. respesentatives contended the agreement was relevant "because the imes Publishing Company and the Journal Publishing Company, the newspapers' respective ownerspublish the only major newspapers in Shreveport" and because Times Publishing would be the business agent for both newspapers and exert control of KWKH. On June 16, 1954, FCC Hearing Examiner Basil Cooper issued an initial decision looking to grant the construction permit application for channel 3 to KTBS Inc. The FCC Broadcast Bureau granted exclusive rights to the permit to Shreveport Television Company on February 16, 1955, formally denying KRMD and Southland Television's respective bids, finding that KTBS Inc. was a more qualified permittee due to its local ownership, integration of ownership and management, and had more extensive participation by its ownership in local affairs. The KWKH application was denied due to critical deficiencies under FCC's diversification of media of communications policy, citing its ownership of two clear channel radio stations (KWKH-AM and KTHS ow KAAY">KAAY.html" ;"title="ow KAAY">ow KAAYin Little Rock, Arkansas">KAAY">ow_KAAY<_a>.html" ;"title="KAAY.html" ;"title="ow KAAY">ow KAAY">KAAY.html" ;"title="ow KAAY">ow KAAYin Little Rock, Arkansas) and its parent's ownership of three newspapers (the ''Times'', and the ''Monroe Morning World'' and ''The News-Star'' in Monroe, Louisiana">Monroe Monroe or Monroes may refer to: People and fictional characters * Monroe (surname) * Monroe (given name) * James Monroe, 5th President of the United States * Marilyn Monroe, actress and model Places United States * Monroe, Arkansas, an unincorp ...
) in neighboring states would produce a concentration of broadcast and newspaper facilities by a single company, but noted that the ''Times''s joint printing agreement with the ''Shreveport Journal'' produced "no disservice to the public interest" due to the lack of a forced combination in print advertising. (A petition by KWKH to reconsider the grant of the channel 3 permit to KTBS Inc. was denied in May 1955, with the FCC admonishing KWKH for "repetitious[...], reckless and unsupported" charges in its petition that a KTBS principal witness committed perjury, and its "assertions and insinuations" that the agency did not give "fair, impartial" consideration to the evidence submitted; a subsequent appeal by International Broadcasting/KWKH seeking to overturn the grant, was denied by the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Louisiana in March 1956.) The Wray-led group subsequently requested and received approval to assign KTBS-TV as the television station's call letters; the base KTBS callsign – standing for "Tri-State Broadcasting System," the moniker that the Wrays used for the other radio stations they owned in Louisiana, Texas and Arkansas – had been used by the Wray-owned namesake radio station on 710 AM (now
KEEL The keel is the bottom-most longitudinal structural element of a watercraft, important for stability. On some sailboats, it may have a fluid dynamics, hydrodynamic and counterbalancing purpose as well. The keel laying, laying of the keel is often ...
) since 1929, and applied to its FM sister on 96.5 (now
KVKI-FM KVKI-FM (96.5 MHz, "96.5 KVKI") is an American radio station licensed to Shreveport, Louisiana. The station is broadcasting an adult contemporary format, switching to Christmas music for much of November and December. KVKI-FM serves the Shrevepor ...
) upon its sign-on in 1953. (The calls can also be taken to reference the three cities in its service area, "
Texarkana The Texarkana metropolitan statistical area (MSA), as defined by the United States Office of Management and Budget, is a two-county region anchored by the Twin cities (geographical proximity), twin cities of Texarkana, Texas (population 37,33 ...
, Bossier, Shreveport".) KTBS-TV first signed on the air on September 3, 1955; it was the third television station to sign on in the present day Shreveport–Texarkana market and the second to be
licensed 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 ...
to Shreveport, after Shreveport-based
KSLA KSLA (channel 12) is a television station in Shreveport, Louisiana, United States, affiliated with CBS. It is owned by Gray Media alongside low-power, Class A Telemundo affiliate KTSH-CD (channel 19). The two stations share studios on Fairfie ...
(channel 12), which signed on the air on January 1, 1954; and Texarkana, Texas-licensed KCMC-TV (channel 6, now
KTAL-TV KTAL-TV (channel 6) is a television station licensed to Texarkana, Texas, United States, serving the Shreveport, Louisiana, area as an affiliate of NBC. It is owned by Nexstar Media Group alongside MyNetworkTV affiliate KSHV-TV (channel 45); Nex ...
), which debuted on August 16, 1953. The station originally operated as a primary
NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast. It is one of NBCUniversal's ...
affiliate, owing to KTBS radio's longtime relationship with the progenitor
NBC Red Network The National Broadcasting Company's NBC Radio Network (also known as the NBC Red Network from 1927 to 1942) was an American commercial radio network which was in continuous operation from 1926 through 1999. Along with the NBC Blue Network, it wa ...
. It also maintained a secondary affiliation with
ABC ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script. ABC or abc may also refer to: Arts, entertainment and media Broadcasting * Aliw Broadcasting Corporation, Philippine broadcast company * American Broadcasting Company, a commercial American ...
, the rights to which it shared with KSLA-TV, which had carried a secondary affiliation with that network since it signed on. The station has maintained studio facilities located at 312 East Kings Highway since its inception, sharing its facility with KTBS radio. The radio stations were sold off in the late 1950s, but the Wrays (who are also the owners of a car dealership franchise in Shreveport) have retained channel 3 to this day.


As a full-time ABC affiliate

In March 1961, NBC reached an agreement with KCMC-TV to become the network's primary affiliate for the enlarged Shreveport–Texarkana market. KCMC owner Camden News Publishing Co. – which, in 1960, received permission to move the station's transmitter to a site south-southwest of Vivian, in a move that would consolidate Shreveport and Texarkana into a single television
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 ...
– was in the process of expanding its service area to encompass and its primary operations to serve the Shreveport area. KTBS's contract with NBC was not scheduled to expire until September 1962, though, with the planned relocation of KCMC to cover Shreveport, there had been speculation that KTBS and KTAL would swap primary affiliations before the contract was set to expire. On September 3, 1961, KTAL took over as the exclusive NBC affiliate for the Shreveport–Texarkana market; KTBS-TV concurrently became the market's exclusive ABC affiliate as well as the second full-time ABC affiliate in the state of Louisiana (after
WVUE-TV WVUE-DT (channel 8) is a television station in New Orleans, Louisiana, United States, affiliated with the Fox Broadcasting Company, Fox network. Owned by Gray Media, the station maintains primary studios on Howard Avenue in New Orleans, with a s ...
Fox Foxes are small-to-medium-sized omnivorous mammals belonging to several genera of the family Canidae. They have a flattened skull; upright, triangular ears; a pointed, slightly upturned snout; and a long, bushy tail ("brush"). Twelve species ...
affiliate] in New Orleans, which became a full-time ABC station in 1957). Over the years, KTBS has become one of the strongest ABC affiliates in the country. In an era where most broadcast television stations have become owned by larger chain broadcasting companies due to increased ownership consolidation in the broadcast television industry, KTBS is one of the few major network affiliates in the U.S. that has remained under local ownership. It became the first of the local " Big Three" affiliates in Shreveport and the second television station in the market to launch stereo broadcasting, doing so in May 1987. In January 1999, KTBS, LLC assumed partial operational responsibilities for
Pax TV Ion Television (referred to on-air as simply Ion) is an American terrestrial television, broadcast television network and Free ad-supported streaming television, FAST television channel owned by the Scripps Networks subsidiary of the E. W. Scri ...
owned-and-operated station In the broadcasting industry, an owned-and-operated station (frequently abbreviated as an O&O) usually refers to a television or radio station owned by the network with which it is associated. This distinguishes such a station from an network af ...
KPXJ (channel 21) under a
joint sales agreement In North American broadcasting, a local marketing agreement (LMA), or local management agreement, is a contract in which one corporation, company agrees to operate a radio station, radio or television station owned by another party. In essence, it ...
(JSA) with its owner at the time, Paxson Communications (now
Ion Media Networks Ion Media, LLC (formerly known as Paxson Communications Corporation and Ion Media Networks) is a subsidiary of the E.W. Scripps Company that operates the linear broadcast networks Ion Television, Ion Mystery, and Ion Plus. Prior to its acquisi ...
). Under the terms of the agreement, which was modeled similarly to other outsourcing agreements between Paxson and an owner of a local major network affiliate during that timeframe, KTBS also rebroadcast its 5 and 10 p.m. newscasts on channel 21. On June 17, 2003, Paxson announced it would sell KPXJ to KTBS, LLC for $10 million; the FCC rejected the application as agency ownership rules prohibited common ownership of two television stations in a single market if there are fewer than eight independent full-power station owners. As such, Paxson reached an agreement to sell the KPXJ license to Minden Television Company LLC (owned by Lauren Wray Ostendorff, daughter of Edwin N. Wray Jr., part-owner of KTBS), an indirect subsidiary of Wray Properties Trust, for $10 million. After the purchase was finalized, the Wrays converted KPXJ into the market's
UPN The United Paramount Network (UPN) was an American broadcast television network that operated from 1995 to 2006. It was originally a joint venture between Chris-Craft Industries (later sold to News Corporation)'s subsidiary, United Television, ...
affiliate. On December 30, 2008, KTBS, LLC (by way of Wray Properties Trust) filed an application with the FCC to purchase KPXJ from Minden Television for $10.3 million, which would create the market's first legal television duopoly. As the Shreveport–Texarkana market has only eight full-power television stations (the minimum required to create a duopoly under FCC rules), it is the first duopoly legally allowed in the market. KTBS, LLC included in its license transfer request a "failing station waiver," indicating that KPXJ was in an economically non-viable position—noting that the station had lost revenue for the previous three years, and had averaged only a 1 audience share point for all but two sweeps ratings books while never reaching over a 4% share—and that FCC should relax ownership limits that apply to the Shreveport–Texarkana market so that Channel 21 could stay on the air; that limit (found in CFR§73.3555(b)(2) of the FCC's rules) permits ownership duopolies in markets with at least eight full-power stations, whereas Shreveport–Texarkana has only seven. The transfer was completed on August 3 of that year, officially making KTBS-TV and KPXJ directly owned sister stations.


Programming

KTBS-TV currently broadcasts the complete ABC network schedule (it did not begin clearing the entire network lineup until April 2018, when it reduced its Sunday 5 p.m. newscast to a half-hour in order to start carrying the Sunday edition of ''
ABC World News Tonight ''ABC World News Tonight'' (titled ''ABC World News Tonight with David Muir'' for its weeknight broadcasts since September 2014) is the flagship daily evening television news program of ABC News, the news division of the American Broadcasting ...
'', which had been preempted by KTBS since the mid-1990s). The station may preempt some ABC programs in order to air long-form
breaking news Breaking news, also called late-breaking news, a special report, special coverage, or a news flash, is a current issue that warrants the interruption of a scheduled broadcast in order to report its details. News broadcasters also use the term ...
or
severe weather Severe weather is any dangerous meteorological phenomenon with the potential to cause damage, serious social disruption, or loss of human life. These vary depending on the latitude, altitude, topography, and atmospheric conditions. High ...
coverage, or occasional specials produced by KTBS' news department. ABC shows preempted or otherwise interrupted by such content may either be rebroadcast on tape delay over KTBS' main channel in place of regular overnight programs. Station personnel also gives viewers who subscribe to
AT&T U-verse U-verse TV is an internet protocol television (IPTV) service operated by DirecTV. Launched on June 26, 2006, U-verse was originally a triple play package that included broadband Internet (now AT&T Internet or AT&T Fiber), IP telephone (now AT& ...
,
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 ...
,
Dish Network DISH Network L.L.C., often referred to as DISH, an abbreviation for Digital Sky Highway, is an American provider of satellite television and IPTV services and wholly owned subsidiary of EchoStar Corporation. The company was originally establ ...
and other pay television providers within the KTBS viewing area that do not carry KTBS-DT2 the option of watching the affected shows on ABC's desktop and mobile streaming platforms or its cable/satellite
video-on-demand Video on demand (VOD) is a media distribution system that allows users to access videos, television shows and films digitally on request. These multimedia are accessed without a traditional video playback device and a typical static broadcasting ...
service the day after their initial airing. For many years, one of the most watched Sunday programs on KTBS has been ''The First Word'', broadcasts of the morning worship services at the large First Baptist Church of Bossier City that began airing on channel 3 in June 1983. KTBS was the market's broadcaster of the Louisiana Lottery's televised drawings from the lottery's inception in 1993 until April 2009, when the rights to the midday and evening drawings were acquired by KTAL; KTBS re-acquired the rights to the drawings in 2012, and now air on
sister station In broadcasting, sister stations or sister channels are radio or television stations operated by the same company, either by direct ownership or through a management agreement. Radio sister stations will often have different formats, and somet ...
KPXJ at 9:59 p.m., with a replay being carried on channel 3 during ''KTBS 3 News at 10:00''. KTBS aired the ''
Jerry Lewis Jerry Lewis (born Joseph Levitch; March 16, 1926 – August 20, 2017) was an American comedian, actor, singer, filmmaker and humanitarian, with a career spanning seven decades in film, stage, television and radio. Famously nicknamed as "Th ...
MDA Labor Day Telethon The ''MDA Labor Day Telethon'' was an annual telethon held on (starting the night before and throughout) Labor Day in the United States to raise money for the Muscular Dystrophy Association (MDA). The Muscular Dystrophy Association was founded in ...
'' for several decades leading up to 2015, when the
Muscular Dystrophy Association Muscular Dystrophy Association (MDA) is an American nonprofit organization dedicated to supporting people living with muscular dystrophy, ALS, and related Neuromuscular disease, neuromuscular diseases. Founded in 1950 by Paul Cohen, who lived wi ...
(MDA) discontinued the telethon; nearly all of its tenure carrying the telethon was spent as the
Ark-La-Tex The Ark-La-Tex (a portmanteau of Arkansas, Louisiana, and Texas; also stylized as Arklatex or ArkLaTex) is a socio-economic region where the Southern United States, Southern U.S. states of Arkansas, Oklahoma, Louisiana, and Texas join together. ...
region's "Love Network" affiliate, having raised hundreds of thousands of dollars to benefit the organization. KTBS was, due to the long-time ABC affiliation, one of the few "Love Network" affiliates to still air the telethon during its last two years (as the ''MDA Show of Strength''), during which time it was aired as part of the ABC network schedule (on September 1, 2013, and again on its last telecast, August 31, 2014). Other fundraisers held by the station include the KTBS M*A*S*H B*A*S*H Blood Drive, and the
St. Jude Jude the Apostle (Ancient Greek: Ἰούδας Ἰακώβου translit. Ioúdas Iakóbou Syriac/Aramaic: ܝܗܘܕܐ translit. Yahwada) was one of the Twelve Apostles of Jesus according to the New Testament. He is generally identified as Tha ...
Dream Home Giveaway (its participation in the latter was notable for being the giveaway's first television broadcast partner in the U.S.).


News operation

, KTBS-TV broadcasts hours of locally produced newscasts each week (with hours each weekday and three hours each on Saturdays and Sundays); in regards to the number of hours devoted to news programming, it is the highest local newscast output among all broadcast television stations in the Shreveport–Texarkana market. In addition, KTBS-TV produces an additional 17 hours of locally produced newscasts each week for KPXJ (with three hours each on weekdays and one hour each on Saturday and Sundays), along with producing the hour-long
high school football High school football, also known as prep football, is gridiron football played by High school (North America), high school teams in the United States and Canada. It ranks among the most popular high school sports, interscholastic sports in both c ...
highlight show ''Friday Football Fever'', which airs on KPXJ on Friday nights during the fall months. In total, KTBS produces hours of local newscasts each week between the two stations. In addition to the station's main studios on Kings Highway, KTBS operates a news bureau located on Jefferson Avenue in
Texarkana, Arkansas Texarkana is a city in the U.S. state of Arkansas and the county seat of Miller County, on the southwest border of the state. As of the 2020 census, it had a population of 29,387. It is the twin city of Texarkana, Texas, located just acros ...
. During the weeknight 6 and 10 p.m. newscasts, the station airs news segments featuring stories from the
East Texas East Texas is a broadly defined cultural, geographic, and ecological region in the eastern part of the U.S. state of Texas that consists of approximately 38 counties. It is roughly divided into Northeast Texas, Northeast, Southeast Texas, Sout ...
area. KTBS may simulcast its long-form severe weather coverage on KTBS-DT2 and/or KPXJ in the event that a
tornado warning A tornado warning ( SAME code: TOR) is a public warning that is issued by weather forecasting agencies to an area in the direct path of a tornado, or a severe thunderstorm capable of producing one, and advises individuals in that area to take c ...
is issued for any county in its Ark-La-Tex viewing area.


News department history

During the late 1980s and early 1990s, KTBS became engaged in very competitive race with CBS affiliate KSLA for first place in overall news viewership, occasionally trading places with one another in certain time periods. At present, channel 3 generally places second, behind KSLA, in the early and late evening time periods among total viewers. During the May 2008 ratings period, KTBS's newscasts placed number one in several time periods. In September 2000, in conjunction with the joint sales agreement that Paxson had signed with KTBS-TV, KPXJ began airing tape delayed rebroadcasts of that station's 5 and 10 p.m. newscasts Monday through Fridays at 5:30 and 10:30 p.m. (the latter beginning shortly before that program's live broadcast ended on channel 3). The rebroadcasts were discontinued on September 1, 2003, coinciding with the station's assumption of the UPN affiliation and the transfer of KPXJ to the Wray family's stewardship. On that date, KTBS began producing a nightly, half-hour prime time newscast at 9 p.m. for channel 21 (the first locally produced prime time newscast to be offered in the Shreveport–Texarkana market); that program, which utilizes the same format as the 10 p.m. newscast on KTBS, expanded to a full hour on August 3, 2009. On September 12, 2005, KTBS began producing a half-hour weekday 7 a.m. newscast for KPXJ, predating the debut of a two-hour-long 7 a.m. newscast on Fox affiliate
KMSS-TV KMSS-TV (channel 33) is a television station in Shreveport, Louisiana, United States, affiliated with the Fox network. It is owned by Mission Broadcasting, which maintains a shared services agreement (SSA) with Nexstar Media Group, owner of Texa ...
(channel 33) by two years. (That newscast was expanded to one hour in February 2012, and was later shifted to 9 a.m. in September 2013, placing it in direct competition with a half-hour newscast in that slot on KSLA). On October 15, 2008, KTBS began broadcasting its newscasts in 16:9 widescreen standard definition. On June 28, 2010, KTBS expanded its 6 p.m. newscast to one hour, becoming the first station in the market to carry an hour-long 6 p.m. newscast (CBS affiliate KSLA began broadcasting an hour-long 6 p.m. newscast a short time later); as a result, KTAL is the only Big Three affiliate in the market to carry syndicated programming during the 6:30 half-hour. In July 2010, KTBS expanded the weekend edition of its 10 p.m. newscast to one hour (again, KSLA quickly followed suit with an hour-long newscast at 10 p.m. on weekends). On August 30, 2010, KTBS expanded its weekday morning newscasts to hours, by moving its start time to 4:30 a.m. (one of the few stations in a non-Top 50 Nielsen market to begin their weekday morning newscast at 4:30). On October 14, 2010, beginning with the station's 5 p.m. newscast, KTBS became the first television station in the Shreveport–Texarkana market to begin broadcasting its local newscasts in
high definition High definition or HD may refer to: Visual technologies *Blu-ray Disc, the universal optical High Definition disc format *HD Photo, former name for the JPEG XR image file format *HDV, format for recording high-definition video onto magnetic tap ...
(rival KSLA began producing its news programming in high definition the next morning). In December 2012, KTBS became ensnared over the controversial firing of meteorologist Rhonda Lee. The station claims that she (and another newscaster) were fired for violating the station's policy on responding to
Facebook Facebook is a social media and social networking service owned by the American technology conglomerate Meta Platforms, Meta. Created in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with four other Harvard College students and roommates, Eduardo Saverin, Andre ...
comments, while supporters of Lee claim that she was fired for her decision to respond to a
racist Racism is the belief that groups of humans possess different behavioral traits corresponding to inherited attributes and can be divided based on the superiority of one Race (human categorization), race or ethnicity over another. It may also me ...
and
sexist Sexism is prejudice or discrimination based on one's sex or gender. Sexism can affect anyone, but primarily affects women and girls. It has been linked to gender roles and stereotypes, and may include the belief that one sex or gender is int ...
comment. On August 22, 2016, KTBS began producing an hour-long weekday afternoon newscast at 4 p.m. for KPXJ (titled ''KTBS 3 News at 4:00 on KPXJ 21''), making it the first television station in the market to offer a local newscast to air in that timeslot. (The program would soon gain a competitor when KSLA launched its own hour-long 4 p.m. newscast two weeks later on September 7.)


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— ...
: As part of the deployment of
ATSC 3.0 ATSC 3.0 is a major version of the ATSC standards for terrestrial television broadcasting created by the Advanced Television Systems Committee (ATSC). The standards are designed to offer support for newer technologies, including High Effici ...
(NextGen TV) in Shreveport on June 28, KPXJ was converted to 3.0 service, airing subchannels 3.1 through 3.3 and 21.1. In exchange, all four of KPXJ's subchannels moved to the KTBS-TV multiplex for continued ATSC 1.0 broadcast, for a total of eight.


Analog-to-digital conversion

KTBS-TV discontinued regular programming on its analog signal, over VHF channel 3, on June 12, 2009, the official date on which full-power television stations in the United States transitioned from analog to digital broadcasts under federal mandate. The station's digital signal remained on its pre-transition UHF channel 28, using virtual channel 3. As part of the SAFER Act, KTBS-TV kept its analog signal on the air until June 26 to inform viewers of the digital television transition through a loop of
public service announcement A public service announcement (PSA) is a message in the public interest disseminated by the media without charge to raise public awareness and change behavior. Oftentimes these messages feature unsettling imagery, ideas or behaviors that are des ...
s from the
National Association of Broadcasters The National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) is a Industry trade group, trade association and lobbying, lobby group representing the interests of commercial and non-commercial over-the-air radio and television broadcasting, broadcasters in th ...
.


Out-of-market cable coverage

KTBS is carried on various cable providers outside of the Shreveport–Texarkana market. The station is carried as far as
Longview, Texas Longview is a city in, and county seat of, Gregg County, Texas, United States. Longview is located in East Texas, where Interstate 20 and U.S. Highway system, U.S. highways U.S. Route 80, 80 and U.S. Route 259, 259 converge just north of the Sabi ...
, to the west,
Mount Pleasant, Texas Mount Pleasant is the county seat of and largest city in Titus County, in the U.S. state of Texas. As of the 2020 census, Mount Pleasant's population was 16,047; it is situated in Northeast Texas. History Mount Pleasant was founded May 11, ...
, to the northwest,
El Dorado, Arkansas El Dorado ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Union County, Arkansas, Union County, on the southern border of Arkansas, United States. According to the 2020 census, the population of the city is 17,755. El Dorado is headquarters of the Ark ...
, to the northeast,
Jonesboro, Louisiana Jonesboro () is a town in and the parish seat of Jackson Parish, Louisiana, Jackson Parish in the northern portion of the U.S. state of Louisiana. The population was 4,106 in 2020. History Founded on January 10, 1860, by Joseph Jones and hi ...
, to the southeast, and
Carthage, Texas Carthage is a city in and the county seat of Panola County, Texas, United States. The city is situated in deep East Texas, 20 miles west of the Louisiana state line. Its population was 6,569 at the 2020 census. History Carthage was founded in ...
, to the southwest. The station became one of two default ABC affiliates (alongside KLAX-TV in
Alexandria Alexandria ( ; ) is the List of cities and towns in Egypt#Largest cities, second largest city in Egypt and the List of coastal settlements of the Mediterranean Sea, largest city on the Mediterranean coast. It lies at the western edge of the Nile ...
) for the Monroe–El Dorado market after that market's ABC affiliate,
KARD-TV KARD (channel 14) is a television station licensed to West Monroe, Louisiana, United States, serving the Monroe, Louisiana–El Dorado, Arkansas market as an affiliate of the Fox network and an owned-and-operated station of The CW Plus. It is ...
, became a Fox affiliate in April 1994; the market would not receive an ABC affiliate of its own again until KAQY signed on the air in December 1998 (that station would go dark in 2014, and return to the air the next year as a
MeTV MeTV, an acronym for Memorable Entertainment Television, is an American broadcast television network owned by Weigel Broadcasting. Marketed as "The Definitive Destination for Classic TV", the network airs a variety of classic television progra ...
station; ABC is now carried in the market on KNOE's 8.2 subchannel identifying itself as KAQY).


See also

* Channel 28 digital TV stations in the United States * Channel 3 virtual TV stations in the United States


References


External links

* – KTBS/KPXJ-TV official website {{DEFAULTSORT:Ktbs-Tv 1955 establishments in Louisiana American Broadcasting Company affiliates Movies! affiliates Television channels and stations established in 1955 TBS-TV