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KWCH-DT
KWCH-DT (channel 12) is a television station licensed to Hutchinson, Kansas, United States, serving the Wichita area as an affiliate of CBS. It is owned by Gray Media alongside CW affiliate KSCW-DT (channel 33) and maintains studios on 37th Street North in northeast Wichita and a transmitter facility located east of Hutchinson in rural northeastern Reno County. KWCH-DT serves as the flagship of the Kansas Broadcasting System (KBS), a network of four full-power stations that relay CBS network and other programming provided by KWCH across central and western Kansas, as well as bordering counties in Colorado, Nebraska, and Oklahoma.
The station was established as KTVH in Hutchinson on July 1, 1953, and was the first television station built within the state. Though based in Hutchinson until 1978, when the main studio was officially moved to Wichita, it has had a presence in that city since 1954. The KBS network took its present form in the early 1960s. KTVH was the third-rated news outlet in the area until the owners of two of the other three KBS stations purchased it, changed the call letters to KWCH in 1983, and successfully led it to first place in the local ratings.
On June 30, 1952, Wichita-Hutchinson Company, Inc., filed an application for a construction permit to build channel 12 in Hutchinson, which the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) granted on January 7, 1953. The company was composed of several shareholders from Hutchinson and other Kansas cities, including Ray Dillon of the Dillons grocery store family; local car dealer J. C. Child; W. D. P. Carey, whose family owned salt mines; the publisher of The Hutchinson News-Herald; and the owner of radio station KWBW. The call letters KTVH were selected; a tract of land on Plum Street was purchased for studio facilities; and a tower site was acquired selected east of town. The first test pattern went out on June 24, 1953, ahead of July 1, when the station launched as the first commercial television station based in Kansas.
KTVH was the first television station to open that covered Wichita, the state's largest city. In August 1954, channel 12 opened a satellite studio in Wichita's Lassen Hotel. Its attempts to identify as a station serving both Hutchinson and Wichita, in what would become a running theme in the first three decades of station history, rankled the stations licensed there. KAKE radio and television petitioned the FCC in November 1954 to order KTVH to stop identifying as a "Wichita station"; it declined to do so.
In 1955, Wichita-Hutchinson Company sold 80 percent of KTVH to the Des Moines-based Minneapolis Star & Tribune Company, owned by the Cowles family, for $1.07 million. The Star & Tribune Company expanded channel 12's Wichita presence in 1956 by purchasing the former studios of KEDD, the first station to be built in that city, which had just closed. A power increase from 240,000 watts to the class-maximum 316,000 watts followed in 1957. The new owners also made a second effort at seeking permission to identify more closely with Wichita in 1958; the station's president, Joyce Swan, cited confusion from national advertisers, who thought the dual designation of Wichita and Hutchinson signified separate markets, and stated that "it is obvious that an advertising media that covers a large area must cater to the largest metropolitan market". The FCC allowed it to identify as "Hutchinson–Wichita" in 1959 and further tossed out petitions for reconsideration from the two Wichita commercial stations.
As KTVH grew, other television stations were set up in western and central Kansas. KTVC at Ensign, serving communities in southwestern Kansas including Dodge City and Garden City, launched in 1957; in 1958, television stations were established at Goodland (KWGB-TV) and Hays (KAYS-TV) in the northwestern part of the state. KWGB-TV aired CBS and NBC programs, while KTVC and KAYS-TV were ABC affiliates engaged in a regional hookup with KAKE-TV known as the "Golden K Network". In 1961, KTVC switched affiliations from ABC to CBS. The owners of KAYS-TV purchased the Goodland station, by then known as KWHT-TV. Both stations underwent changes: KAYS-TV announced it would join CBS on September 1, 1962, and KWHT-TV changed its call letters in October to KLOE-TV, matching co-owned KLOE radio. KTVC, KLOE, and KAYS then joined KTVH to form the Kansas Broadcasting System (KBS), with KTVH as the flagship. KBS claimed coverage of 66 Kansas counties as well as portions of Oklahoma and Colorado. In 1963, KTVH activated a new transmitter located northwest of Burrton and east of Hutchinson, operating from the tallest broadcast tower in the state at 1,504 ft (458 m).
The Star & Tribune Company announced the sale of KTVH to the WKY Television System of Oklahoma City, owned by the Gaylord family, for $4.4 million in December 1968. However, much to both parties' surprise, the FCC voted 4–2 to designate the transaction for hearing in August 1969. The decision was met with dissension even from FCC chairman Rosel H. Hyde, who complained that the majority's conclusions that the acquisition of the Hutchinson station would give the Gaylord interests too much media power and that it might downgrade program service were prejudicial. Hearings were set for November, but this was near the expiration date of the sale contract on December 31, and the Star & Tribune Company refused to extend it beyond that date. During that time, the FCC also got a new chair, Dean Burch, who chided the commission for taking nine months to designate the proposed sale for hearing; when the two parties asked for approval without such a hearing, the commission refused, preventing the sale from moving forward.
After the WKY sale bid collapsed, the Star & Tribune Company retained KTVH for another 14 years. In 1976, the FCC granted permission for KTVH to shift its main studio from Hutchinson to Wichita as long as it retained current staffing and service levels at its Hutchinson site. In response, channel 12 purchased the Wichita studio site outright after having leased it for 20 years; it also bought an adjacent tract of land and embarked on an expansion of the facility that more than doubled its size. In 1978, KTVH originated 45 percent of its local programming from Hutchinson and 55 percent from Wichita.
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KWCH-DT
KWCH-DT (channel 12) is a television station licensed to Hutchinson, Kansas, United States, serving the Wichita area as an affiliate of CBS. It is owned by Gray Media alongside CW affiliate KSCW-DT (channel 33) and maintains studios on 37th Street North in northeast Wichita and a transmitter facility located east of Hutchinson in rural northeastern Reno County. KWCH-DT serves as the flagship of the Kansas Broadcasting System (KBS), a network of four full-power stations that relay CBS network and other programming provided by KWCH across central and western Kansas, as well as bordering counties in Colorado, Nebraska, and Oklahoma.
The station was established as KTVH in Hutchinson on July 1, 1953, and was the first television station built within the state. Though based in Hutchinson until 1978, when the main studio was officially moved to Wichita, it has had a presence in that city since 1954. The KBS network took its present form in the early 1960s. KTVH was the third-rated news outlet in the area until the owners of two of the other three KBS stations purchased it, changed the call letters to KWCH in 1983, and successfully led it to first place in the local ratings.
On June 30, 1952, Wichita-Hutchinson Company, Inc., filed an application for a construction permit to build channel 12 in Hutchinson, which the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) granted on January 7, 1953. The company was composed of several shareholders from Hutchinson and other Kansas cities, including Ray Dillon of the Dillons grocery store family; local car dealer J. C. Child; W. D. P. Carey, whose family owned salt mines; the publisher of The Hutchinson News-Herald; and the owner of radio station KWBW. The call letters KTVH were selected; a tract of land on Plum Street was purchased for studio facilities; and a tower site was acquired selected east of town. The first test pattern went out on June 24, 1953, ahead of July 1, when the station launched as the first commercial television station based in Kansas.
KTVH was the first television station to open that covered Wichita, the state's largest city. In August 1954, channel 12 opened a satellite studio in Wichita's Lassen Hotel. Its attempts to identify as a station serving both Hutchinson and Wichita, in what would become a running theme in the first three decades of station history, rankled the stations licensed there. KAKE radio and television petitioned the FCC in November 1954 to order KTVH to stop identifying as a "Wichita station"; it declined to do so.
In 1955, Wichita-Hutchinson Company sold 80 percent of KTVH to the Des Moines-based Minneapolis Star & Tribune Company, owned by the Cowles family, for $1.07 million. The Star & Tribune Company expanded channel 12's Wichita presence in 1956 by purchasing the former studios of KEDD, the first station to be built in that city, which had just closed. A power increase from 240,000 watts to the class-maximum 316,000 watts followed in 1957. The new owners also made a second effort at seeking permission to identify more closely with Wichita in 1958; the station's president, Joyce Swan, cited confusion from national advertisers, who thought the dual designation of Wichita and Hutchinson signified separate markets, and stated that "it is obvious that an advertising media that covers a large area must cater to the largest metropolitan market". The FCC allowed it to identify as "Hutchinson–Wichita" in 1959 and further tossed out petitions for reconsideration from the two Wichita commercial stations.
As KTVH grew, other television stations were set up in western and central Kansas. KTVC at Ensign, serving communities in southwestern Kansas including Dodge City and Garden City, launched in 1957; in 1958, television stations were established at Goodland (KWGB-TV) and Hays (KAYS-TV) in the northwestern part of the state. KWGB-TV aired CBS and NBC programs, while KTVC and KAYS-TV were ABC affiliates engaged in a regional hookup with KAKE-TV known as the "Golden K Network". In 1961, KTVC switched affiliations from ABC to CBS. The owners of KAYS-TV purchased the Goodland station, by then known as KWHT-TV. Both stations underwent changes: KAYS-TV announced it would join CBS on September 1, 1962, and KWHT-TV changed its call letters in October to KLOE-TV, matching co-owned KLOE radio. KTVC, KLOE, and KAYS then joined KTVH to form the Kansas Broadcasting System (KBS), with KTVH as the flagship. KBS claimed coverage of 66 Kansas counties as well as portions of Oklahoma and Colorado. In 1963, KTVH activated a new transmitter located northwest of Burrton and east of Hutchinson, operating from the tallest broadcast tower in the state at 1,504 ft (458 m).
The Star & Tribune Company announced the sale of KTVH to the WKY Television System of Oklahoma City, owned by the Gaylord family, for $4.4 million in December 1968. However, much to both parties' surprise, the FCC voted 4–2 to designate the transaction for hearing in August 1969. The decision was met with dissension even from FCC chairman Rosel H. Hyde, who complained that the majority's conclusions that the acquisition of the Hutchinson station would give the Gaylord interests too much media power and that it might downgrade program service were prejudicial. Hearings were set for November, but this was near the expiration date of the sale contract on December 31, and the Star & Tribune Company refused to extend it beyond that date. During that time, the FCC also got a new chair, Dean Burch, who chided the commission for taking nine months to designate the proposed sale for hearing; when the two parties asked for approval without such a hearing, the commission refused, preventing the sale from moving forward.
After the WKY sale bid collapsed, the Star & Tribune Company retained KTVH for another 14 years. In 1976, the FCC granted permission for KTVH to shift its main studio from Hutchinson to Wichita as long as it retained current staffing and service levels at its Hutchinson site. In response, channel 12 purchased the Wichita studio site outright after having leased it for 20 years; it also bought an adjacent tract of land and embarked on an expansion of the facility that more than doubled its size. In 1978, KTVH originated 45 percent of its local programming from Hutchinson and 55 percent from Wichita.