KTRE

KTRE
(semi-satellite of KLTV/Tyler, Texas)

Lufkin/Nacogdoches, Texas
United States
Branding KTRE 9 (general)
East Texas News (newscasts)
Telemundo La Vida (on DT2)
Slogan Caring, Committed, Proud
Channels Digital: 9 (VHF)
Virtual: 9 (PSIP)
Subchannels 9.1 ABC
9.2 Telemundo
Owner Raycom Media
(sale to Gray Television pending[1])
(KLTV/KTRE License Subsidiary, LLC)
First air date August 31, 1955 (1955-08-31)
Call letters' meaning TREes, a reference to the heavily forested geography of the Lufkin area
Sister station(s) KLTV
Former channel number(s) Analog:
9 (VHF, 1955–2009)
Digital:
11 (VHF, until 2009)
Former affiliations NBC (primary, 1955–1964; joint primary with ABC and CBS, 1964–1984; secondary, 1984–1987)
CBS (secondary, 1955–1964; joint primary with ABC and NBC, 1964–1984)
Transmitter power 25 kW
Height 204 m (669 ft)
Facility ID 68541
Transmitter coordinates 31°25′9.3″N 94°48′4.2″W / 31.419250°N 94.801167°W / 31.419250; -94.801167
Licensing authority FCC
Public license information:
(semi-satellite of KLTV/Tyler, Texas) Profile

(semi-satellite of KLTV/Tyler, Texas) CDBS
Website www.ktre.com

KTRE, virtual and VHF digital channel 9, is an ABC-affiliated television station licensed to Lufkin, Texas, United States. Owned by Raycom Media, KTRE maintains studio and transmitter facilities on TV Road (near U.S. 69) in the unincorporated community of Pollok.

Although considered a separate station in its own right, it is a semi-satellite of KLTV (channel 7) in Tyler. It clears all of that station's syndicated programming but produces separate weeknight newscasts and airs its own commercials, station identifications and Sunday morning religious programs.[2][3] Master control and some internal operations for KTRE are based at the KLTV studios on West Ferguson Street in downtown Tyler. On cable, KTRE is available on Suddenlink, Consolidated Communications and independent providers in the area. On satellite, the station is carried on Dish Network, but not on DirecTV, which instead carries KLTV in the area.

History

The station first signed on the air on August 31, 1955; it was founded by the owners of now-defunct radio station KTRE-AM (1420), and originally operated as a satellite of Houston NBC affiliate KPRC-TV. However, it occasionally deviated from the KPRC schedule to air programming from ABC and CBS. In 1964, the Federal Communications Commission collapsed Lufkin and Nacogdoches into the Tyler-Longview market. Soon afterward, the Buford family, owners of KLTV, bought KTRE and converted it into a semi-satellite of that station.

Until 1984, the station had an unusual "joint primary" arrangement with all three networks, with a slight favor towards ABC programming. Both stations lost CBS programming when KLMG-TV (channel 51, now Fox affiliate KFXK-TV) signed on in September 1984, but retained a secondary affiliation with NBC until KETK-TV (channel 56) signed on in March 1987. KTRE and KLTV were sold to Civic Communications in 1989. Civic merged with Liberty Corporation in 2002, which in turn merged with Raycom Media in 2006.

For many years, the station operated at 26,000 watts from a tiny 540-foot (160 m) tower, which was short-spaced to prevent interference with CBS affiliate WAFB-TV in Baton Rouge, Louisiana and later PBS member station KETG-TV in Arkadelphia, Arkansas. In the early 1980s, KTRE installed a new antenna and transmitter, operating at an increased power of 131 kilowatts, but never reached full power because of the short-space interference it would cause to those other stations. On another front, the new transmitter antenna was directional to minimize overlap with KLTV to comply with FCC duopoly rules, which until 2000, prohibited one company from owning stations in adjacent markets that had significant signal overlap (constituting them as an illegal duopoly, even though they were licensed to different television markets).

Digital television

Digital channels

The station's digital channel is multiplexed:

Channel Video Aspect PSIP Short Name Programming[4]
9.1720p16:9KTREMain KTRE programming / ABC
9.2480i4:3Telemundo

KTRE carries Telemundo on digital subchannel 9.2; the subchannel is not carried on Suddenlink Communications.

Analog-to-digital conversion

KTRE shut down its analog signal, over VHF channel 9, on June 12, 2009, the official date in which full-power television stations in the United States transitioned from analog to digital broadcasts under federal mandate. The station's digital signal relocated from its pre-transition VHF channel 11 to channel 9 for post-transition operations.[5]

Programming

Syndicated programs broadcast by KTRE include Live with Kelly and Ryan, Jeopardy!, The Ellen DeGeneres Show, Wheel of Fortune, and Texas Country Reporter.

News operation

KTRE presently broadcasts five hours of locally produced newscasts each week (with one hour each on weekdays). In other common news timeslots where the station does not produce its own locally based newscasts, KTRE simulcasts the weekday morning, midday, 4:00 p.m., 5:00 p.m. and weekend morning and evening newscasts from KLTV. In addition to its main studios, the station operates a bureau on North Street (U.S. 59 Business) in Nacogdoches. The first news anchor at channel 9 was Murphy Martin, who later became a local television anchor in Dallas and eventually served as an anchor for ABC News.

See also

References

  1. ↑ Miller, Mark K. (June 25, 2018). "Gray To Buy Raycom For $3.6 Billion". TVNewsCheck. NewsCheckMedia. Retrieved June 25, 2018.
  2. ↑ Program Information for KLTV at TitanTV.com
  3. ↑ Program Information for KTRE at TitanTV.com
  4. ↑ RabbitEars TV Query for KTRE
  5. ↑ "DTV Tentative Channel Designations for the First and Second Rounds" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2013-08-29. Retrieved 2012-03-24.
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