states branding fox 25 general fox 25 news newscasts channels digital 24 uhf virtual 25 psip subchannels 25.1 fox 25.2 grit 25.3 weathernation tv translators k16ir d sayre k42ag d strong city k44iw d hollis k49kk d elk city affiliations fox owner sinclair broadcast group kokh licensee llc first air date february 2 1959 1959 02 02 call letters meaning oklahoma sister station s kocb ktul tulsa former channel number s analog 25 uhf 1959 2009 former affiliations primary educational independent 1959 1979 independent general entertainment 1979 1990 dt2 zuus country 2010 2014 transmitter power 1000 kw height 475.8 m facility id 35388 transmitter coordinates 35 32 57.6 n 97 29 18.8 w 35.549333 n 97.488556 w 35.549333 ; 97.488556 licensing authority fcc public license information profile cdbs website okcfox.com kokh tv virtual channel 25 uhf digital channel 24 is a fox affiliated television station located in oklahoma city oklahoma united states . the station is owned by the sinclair broadcast group as part of a duopoly with cw affiliate kocb channel 34 . the two stations share studio and transmitter facilities located on east wilshire boulevard on the city s northeast side situated to the adjacent east of the respective studio facilities of cbs affiliate kwtv dt channel 9 and the oklahoma educational television authority pbs member network . contents 1 history 1.1 prior history of channel 25 1.2 kokh station history 1.2.1 as an independent station 1.2.2 as a fox affiliate 2 digital television 2.1 digital channels 2.2 analog to digital transition 3 programming 4 news operation 4.1 on air staff 4.1.1 notable current on air staff 4.1.2 notable former on air staff 5 references 6 external links history edit prior history of channel 25 edit the uhf channel 25 allocation in oklahoma city was originally occupied by ktvq which first signed on the air in 1953 ; it operated as an abc affiliate assuming the affiliation from primary nbc affiliate wky tv channel 4 later ktvy and now kfor tv . ktvq was hampered by low viewership as only a small percentage of television sets in the oklahoma city area were capable of receiving uhf stations since set manufacturers were not required to equip televisions with tuners to receive stations on that band until the federal communications commission passed the all channel receiver act in 1961 ; even with the passage of the law uhf tuners were not included on all newer sets until 1964 . the station shut down in 1956 with abc returning to wky tv as a secondary affiliation enid based abc affiliate kgeo tv channel 5 now koco tv displaced wky as the network s oklahoma city affiliate when it moved its operations and changed its city of license to oklahoma city in 1958 . kokh station history edit as an independent station edit kokh first signed on the air on february 2 1959 as a educational independent station . founded by oklahoma city public schools the school district sold the station to blair broadcasting in the summer of 1979 ; on october 1 of that year at 6 00 a.m. kokh switched to a general entertainment format becoming the first commercial independent station in oklahoma . it was a typical uhf independent featuring a mix of cartoons classic sitcoms and movies . kokh gained a competitor exactly one month later on november 1 when kgmc channel 34 now cw affiliated sister station kocb signed on with a similar format ; followed by kaut channel 43 on september 24 1980 which initially featured an all news format during the daytime hours and subscription service vue at night before transitioning to a general entertainment format almost a year later . by that point the oklahoma city market had three commercial independents that each competed for the best syndicated programming . in 1986 blair broadcasting restructured into reliance capital group lp in order to prevent a hostile takeover by some of the company s minority stockholders . 1 reliance capital sold the blair stations to gillett communications on december 31 1986 . 2 in 1988 pappas telecasting companies proposed a purchase deal for channel 25 in which it would acquire and then migrate kgmc and kaut s programming inventories as well as channel 43 s fox affiliation to kokh . under the proposal channel 34 then owned by seraphim media would become a home shopping network affiliate while heritage media would sell kaut to the oklahoma educational television authority which would convert it into an educational station . this agreement eventually fell apart and pappas shelved the proposal in 1989 3 with all three stations retaining general entertainment formats . gillett sold kokh to busse broadcasting in 1989 . as a fox affiliate edit in a deal similar to the earlier pappas proposal heritage media sold kaut to oeta and acquired kokh in 1991 resulting in channel 43 becoming the market s secondary pbs member station . heritage moved kaut s programming inventory fox affiliation and other aspects of its intellectual unit to kokh on august 15 of that year 4 channel 43 then ktlc later reverted to an entertainment format as upn affiliate kpsg in june 1998 after oeta sold it to the paramount stations group . in august 1996 heritage media began trading on the new york stock exchange . the following month it asked for stockholder approval of a 2 for 1 forward stock split which was later approved . that fall news corporation expressed an interest in purchasing outstanding stock belonging to heritage media at 20.50 per share with the sale being approved by heritage s stockholders in late spring 1997 . fcc approval was dependent upon heritage divesting most or all of its stations as new ownership would place news corporation over the fcc s station ownership limits of that time . news corporation s main interest in purchasing heritage media was the in store marketing subsidiary actmedia which would make it the world s largest in store marketing company . 5 sinclair broadcast group showed interest in the heritage media stations despite ownership conflicts that would arise between its own television stations and heritage s outlets in several cities including kocb in the oklahoma city market . sinclair purchased heritage s broadcasting properties in late summer 1997 ; because sinclair was legally prohibited from owning both kocb and kokh it sold channel 25 to sullivan broadcasting for 60 million . 6 in the spring of 1998 sinclair in turn began operating kokh under a local marketing agreement with kocb as the senior partner . 7 in 1999 glencairn ltd. announced that it would acquire kokh ; the family of sinclair broadcast group founder julian sinclair smith owned 97 % of glencairn s stock glencairn was to be paid with sinclair stock for the purchases effectively making kokh and kocb a duopoly in violation of fcc rules of the time . glencairn owned 11 stations nationwide that sinclair operated under lmas and subsequently announced plans to sell five of its stations to sinclair outright ; this prompted the rainbow push coalition headed by jesse jackson to file challenges against the sale citing concerns over a single company holding two broadcast licenses in one market and arguing that glencairn passed itself off as a minority owned company its president former sinclair executive edwin edwards is african american when it was really an arm of sinclair and used the lma to gain control of the station . 8 9 the fcc levied a 40 000 fine against sinclair in 2001 for illegally controlling glencairn . sinclair purchased kokh outright in 2003 three years after the fcc began permitting television duopolies in august 1999 creating the market s first duopoly with kocb . 10 during the late 1990s kokh lessened its reliance on running cartoons and classic sitcoms and began acquiring more talk shows reality series and court shows although more recent sitcoms remained as part of its schedule . by the early 2000s kokh s daytime schedule from 10 00 a.m. to 5 00 p.m. switched to a lineup of mainly court shows such as divorce court judge mathis and the people s court and during the 2006 07 season it broadcast every court show available in syndication at the time . in september 2002 kokh dropped the fox 25 branding from verbal usage though its channel 25 position continued to be incorporated into the station s logo alternatingly identifying itself in station promos as either fox oklahoma city or oklahoma city s fox before reverting to the fox 25 branding full time in 2006 . in november 2005 kokh became the flagship station for the oklahoma lottery whose pick 3 and cash 5 evening drawings were held at the station s wilshire boulevard studios and were simulcast on kocb ; 11 the oklahoma lottery commission discontinued the televised draws and began conducting the drawings at its offices using a random number generator in july 2009 kokh aired a rundown of winning numbers for both original games and hot lotto during the 9 00 p.m. newscast and continued to air powerball drawings until 2013 since wgn america dropped the powerball and mega millions drawings the latter s drawings were not carried by kokh or kocb after oklahoma became a mega millions participant in january 2011 the winning numbers for those drawings and other oklahoma lottery games are only shown on a ticker seen during kokh s morning newscast . on march 5 2012 kokh and kocb became the last stations in the oklahoma city market to begin carrying syndicated programs station promos and other commercials in high definition . on may 15 of that year fox extended its affiliation agreement with kokh and sinclair s 19 other fox affiliated stations for five years keeping kokh affiliated with the network until at least 2017 . 12 digital television edit digital channels edit the station s digital channel is multiplexed channel video aspect psip short name programming 13 25.1 720p 16 9 kokh hd main kokh tv programming fox 25.2 480i grittv grittv 25.3 weathernation weathernation tv in august 2010 sinclair signed a groupwide affiliation deal with country music oriented digital subchannel service the country network to the 28 of the company s stations . 14 kokh tv bean carrying the country network since renamed zuus country on newly launched digital subchannel 25.2 on november 4 2010 ; zuus country was replaced by grit on december 31 2014 as part of a multi station affiliation agreement between sinclair broadcast group and grit owner katz broadcasting . in december 2014 kokh launched a digital subchannel on virtual channel 25.3 which became an affiliate of weathernation tv . grit on cox digital channel 218 and weathernation on cox digital channel 219 . analog to digital transition edit kokh tv discontinued regular programming on its analog signal over uhf channel 25 on february 17 2009 as part of the federally mandated transition from analog to digital television which congress had moved the previous month to june 12 . 15 the station s digital signal remained on its pre transition uhf channel 24 using psip to display kokh tv s virtual channel as 25 on digital television receivers . as part of the safer act 16 kokh kept its analog signal on the air until march 3 to inform viewers of the digital television transition through a loop of public service announcements from the national association of broadcasters . programming edit in addition to carrying the entire fox network schedule syndicated programs broadcast by kokh tv as of september 2016 update include the wendy williams show judge judy hot bench the people s court and tmz . the station also produces living oklahoma an hour long talk and lifestyle program hosted by former kfor tv anchor meg alexander and shelby cashman who has also served as traffic reporter for the first four hours of the lead in fox 25 morning news since november 2015 which has aired weekday