or ksas tv . this article needs additional citations for verification . please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources . unsourced material may be challenged and removed . november 2012 learn how and when to remove this template message kxas tv fort worth dallas texas united states city fort worth texas branding nbc 5 general nbc 5 news newscasts slogan texas connects us channels digital 41 uhf virtual 5 psip subchannels 5.1 nbc 5.2 cozi tv affiliations nbc o & o owner nbcuniversal station venture operations lp first air date september 29 1948 1948 09 29 call letters meaning texas sister station s kxtx tv former callsigns wbap tv 1948 1974 former channel number s analog 5 vhf 1948 2009 former affiliations secondary abc 1948 1957 transmitter power 891 kw height 506 meters 1 660 ft facility id 49330 transmitter coordinates 32 35 7 n 96 58 6 w 32.58528 n 96.96833 w 32.58528 ; 96.96833 licensing authority fcc public license information profile cdbs website www.nbcdfw.com kxas tv virtual channel 5 uhf digital channel 41 is an nbc owned and operated television station serving the dallas fort worth metroplex that is licensed to fort worth texas united states . the station is owned by the nbcuniversal owned television stations subsidiary of nbcuniversal and is part of a duopoly with telemundo owned and operated station kxtx tv channel 39 . the two stations share studio facilities located at the studios at dfw at the centreport business park on amon carter boulevard near the dallas fort worth international airport in fort worth ; kxas maintain transmitter facilities located south of belt line road in cedar hill . contents 1 history 1.1 early history under carter publications 1.2 lin broadcasting ownership 1.3 acquisition by nbc 2 digital television 2.1 digital channels 2.1.1 kxas dt2 2.1.2 kxas dt3 2.2 analog to digital conversion 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 early history under carter publications edit amon g. carter sr. the founding publisher of the fort worth star telegram first submitted an application to the federal communications commission fcc for a license to build and operate a television station on vhf channel 5 in late october 1944 mere days after karl hoblitzelle owner of interstate circuit theatres filed an application to operate a station on channel 8 on october 23 the first such license application for a television station in the southern united states . when the fcc awarded the construction permit for channel 5 to carter on june 21 1946 he originally requested to assign kcpn for carter publications news as the station s call letters ; three months before it signed on however carter chose instead to assign the television station the calls that were used by the radio station that he also owned wbap 820 am . the station began test broadcasts on june 20 1948 originally transmitting over a closed circuit television system . channel 5 informally signed on the air as wbap tv on september 27 to broadcast coverage of president harry s. truman s re election campaign speech at the texas & pacific terminal building in downtown fort worth . wbap tv officially commenced regular programming two days later on september 29 1948 with two 10 minute specials at 7 00 p.m. that evening respectively featuring speeches from carter and general manager harold hough and a film from nbc dedicating the station s launch . that first night of regular broadcasts did not go smoothly ; at the time of its formal debut the station s studios were in the latter stages of construction ; at one point amon carter accidentally stepped into an unmarked hole in the studio floor that led to the building s basement to be saved from enduring potential injury just in time by star telegram cartoonist johnny hay . a power outage near the transmitter facility also knocked wbap tv off the air for 17 minutes around 8 00 p.m. angry viewers subsequently called into the station blaming engineers for an outage that was beyond their control ; after the power problems were fixed another viewer calling into the station complained to a receptionist about not being able to receive wbap tv s signal not realizing that the television station could not be picked up through their radio receiver . even still fort worth press reporter jack gordon wrote regarding the station s first night of programming that part of fort worth s inaugural television show ... looked like our first roll of home movie film . but a good deal more of it was excellent enough so to convince the stubbornest critic that television is here to stay . channel 5 originally operated from studio facilities located at 3900 barnett street in eastern fort worth . the building located in an area known as broadcast hill was the first studio facility in the united states that was designed specifically for television broadcasting ; the 400 foot 120 m tower that transmitted its signal supporting microwave and remote antennas was also based on the studio grounds . the station originally broadcast for four hours each evening on wednesday through saturdays with test patterns airing during the late morning and late afternoon monday through saturdays ; within six months the station expanded its programming schedule to between 35 and 40 hours weekly on all seven days each week . carter owned the television and radio properties through the star telegram s corporate parent carter publications . it was the first television station to sign on in the state of texas ; the second to be located between los angeles st. louis and richmond virginia after nbc dumont affiliate kdyl tv now abc affiliate ktvx in salt lake city ; and the 25th to sign on in the united states . originally serving as an affiliate channel 5 has carried programming from nbc since its sign on having inherited the affiliation through wbap radio s longtime relationship with the television network s radio predecessor the nbc blue network with which it had been affiliated since 1927 ; however it also maintained a secondary affiliation with abc by way of a secondary affiliation that wbap radio had begun maintaining with the abc radio network when it and timeshare partner wfaa assumed the 570 am frequency taking over the former kgko on an alternating basis in april 1947 . the following year in 1949 wbap tv and wbap am were joined by a sister station on radio wbap fm 96.3 fm now kscs . the wbap calls stood for we bring a program ; the call sign and their associated meaning were suggested by herbert hoover during his tenure as chairman of what was then the federal radio commission prior to the radio station s sign on in 1922 . among the local programs on channel 5 in its early years included the saturday night country music dance program barn dance music series bobby peters jamboree and the children s programs see saw zoo and kitty s playhouse . when channel 5 signed on it was apparent that dallas and fort worth were going to be collapsed into a single television market due to the close proximity of the two cities ; despite the fact that dallas and tarrant counties bordered one another arbitron had initially designated their respective county seats as separate markets the counties that surrounded tarrant county on the western half of the metroplex were part of the fort worth market while those surrounding dallas county in the eastern half of the metropolitan region were part of the dallas market . however carter who had long been a booster for the fort worth area did not care whether dallas residents could view channel 5 s broadcast signal which provided rimshot coverage within most of central and eastern dallas county including dallas proper . as a result in 1950 nbc reached an agreement with a.h. belo corporation to switch the primary affiliation of dumont affiliate wfaa channel 8 to nbc to serve as its affiliate for the eastern half of the market . on july 1 1952 wbap tv became among the first six television stations in the country along with fellow nbc stations kprc tv in houston woai tv in san antonio wky tv now kfor tv in oklahoma city kotv now a cbs affiliate in tulsa and wdsu in new orleans to begin transmitting network programming over a live microwave feed inaugurated with a message by today host dave garroway welcoming the stations in commencing live network telecasts . that decade channel 5 also became one of the first television stations to convert its local programming to color ; the station s conversion to color broadcasts on may 15 1954 was preceded by a dedication of its new production and master control facilities which were upgraded specifically for color telecasting from carter and david sarnoff chairman of then nbc parent rca that was broadcast on the station ; this was followed by a three hour block of programs produced in color the longest broadcast of such programs ever attempted by a television station at that time . by 1955 wbap tv which had earlier ordered rca color television equipment in the fall of 1949 and became the first television station in texas to broadcast nbc programs in color on april 9 1954 had greatly increased the number of programs that it broadcast in color televising the largest amount of programming produced in the format of any u.s. television station at the time . nbc grew frustrated with having to maintain affiliations with two stations to carry its programming in an otherwise effectively consolidated market . in early 1957 a taller transmission tower was built at the west end of the broadcast hill studio property . however nbc threatened to strip its affiliation from channel 5 if it did not relocate its transmitter farther eastward to extend the station s signal deeper into the dallas metropolitan area ; reportedly the network approached nafi telecasting corporation about affiliating with independent station kfjz tv channel 11 now cbs owned and operated station ktvt which had then recently moved its transmitter to the antenna farm in cedar hill . belo also made an attempt to make wfaa the market s exclusive nbc affiliate . to prevent the network from defecting carter agreed to move wbap tv s transmitter facilities to cedar hill and boost its effective radiated power to adequately cover dallas ; in the summer of 1957 it installed a transmitter antenna on a 1 500 foot 460 m candelabra tower that was already shared by wfaa and krld tv channel 4 now kdfw where sister station wbap fm also moved its transmitter . channel 5 became the sole nbc affiliate for the entire dallas fort worth market on september 1 1957 which left wfaa exclusively aligned with abc . in october 1959 wbap tv installed the first color videotape recorder in texas allowing it the ability to record a 90 minute segment of programming and replay it in less than five minutes . during nbc s coverage of the assassination of president john f. kennedy on november 22 1963 wbap tv broadcast news reports on the point blank shooting at the presidential motorcade carrying kennedy and governor john connally conducted from its broadcast hill studios were transmitted by the station in color with nbc broadcasting the station feed during its coverage which was otherwise based in new york city from a studio fitted with black and white camera and transmission equipment . charles murphy who served as an anchor at the station relayed word of kennedy s death during emergency surgery at parkland hospital that afternoon connally was also injured in the shooting . two days later on november 24 a remote unit that was loaned to wbap tv by