states branding koco 5 general koco 5 news newscasts metv oklahoma city koco dt2 subchannel slogan live . local . latebreaking . primary we ll give you the first alert weather channels digital 7 vhf virtual 5 psip subchannels 5.1 abc 5.2 metv translators k18hx d hollis k21it d weatherford k26ir d strong city k42ib d sayre k43kt d elk city affiliations abc owner hearst television ohio oklahoma hearst television inc. first air date july 2 1954 1 in enid oklahoma ; moved to oklahoma city in 1958 call letters meaning oklahoma city oklahoma former callsigns kgeo tv 1954 1958 former channel number s analog 5 vhf 1954 2009 former affiliations dt2 the local accuweather channel 2008 2011 this tv 2011 2012 transmitter power 65.7 kw height 451 m facility id 12508 transmitter coordinates 35 33 45.0 n 97 29 24.0 w 35.562500 n 97.490000 w 35.562500 ; 97.490000 licensing authority fcc public license information profile cdbs website www.koco.com koco tv virtual channel 5 vhf digital channel 7 is an abc affiliated television station located in oklahoma city oklahoma united states . the station is owned by the hearst television subsidiary of the hearst corporation . the station maintains studio and transmitter facilities located on east britton road u.s. 66 in the mccourry heights section of northeast oklahoma city located within two miles of competing stations kfor tv to its immediate west kwtv to its southwest and kokh tv to its southeast . contents 1 history 1.1 early history 1.2 gannett ownership 1.3 hearst television ownership 2 digital television 2.1 digital channels 2.2 koco dt2 2.3 analog to digital conversion 3 programming 4 news operation 4.1 notable former on air staff 5 references 6 external links history edit early history edit the station first signed on the air on july 2 1954 as kgeo tv . founded by george streets it was originally licensed to enid and was the only full power vhf station in northern oklahoma . channel 5 has been an abc affiliate since it signed on ; during the late 1950s the station also had a brief affiliation with the nta film network . 2 in 1957 the station built a new transmitter tower near crescent which helped increase its signal reach into oklahoma city . later that year the station was sold to cimarron television which included among its investors oilmen dean a. mcgee and john e. kirkpatrick and state senator robert s. kerr . the station moved its city of license and relocated its operations to oklahoma city in february 1958 similar to the transfer of the license and studio relocation of muskogee s ktvx now ktul to tulsa in 1957 after the federal communications commission absorbed the state s northern counties into the oklahoma city television market . channel 5 s move made it the third station in oklahoma city to affiliate with abc wky tv channel 4 now kfor tv served as a secondary affiliate from 1949 to 1953 when it began a full time affiliation with fledgling uhf outlet ktvq channel 25 frequency now used by fox affiliate kokh tv ; abc returned to secondary clearances on wky tv when ktvq ceased operations in 1956 . after moving to oklahoma city koco operated from a studio facility located on britton road inside a converted former kimberling s grocery store . in the early 1960s its operations moved to studios near northwest 63rd street and portland avenue ; however the station maintained a news bureau in enid which closed in the mid 1990s . combined communications acquired koco from cimarron television in 1970 . in 1974 koco adopted the eyewitness news format as it was growing in popularity in television markets throughout the nation kwtv channel 9 was the first in the market to adopt the format from 1966 to 1971 . despite using the eyewitness news concept koco s newscasts remained a distant third place in the ratings for many years against dominant wky tv ktvy kfor tv and kwtv . during this period koco ran its early evening newscast at 5 30 p.m. instead of the 6 00 p.m. timeslot exclusively used by most stations at the time until the early 1980s when it introduced a 5 00 p.m. newscast ; abc s world news tonight then moved to the 5 30 p.m. timeslot followed by another local newscast at 6 00 p.m. all three broadcasts were the market s most watched news programs in those time periods during the november 2006 sweeps period . in 1977 koco adopted the alive branding concept developed by peters productions and popularized on combined s atlanta station wxia tv and tribune broadcasting s wpix in new york city as the brand rolled out to most of combined s television stations . during the 5 alive era local newscasts on koco were titled 5 alive newscenter and later 5 alive news . gannett ownership edit combined communications merged its television properties with the gannett company in 1979 . koco continued to brand itself as 5 alive until 1994 even as many of its sister stations stopped using the alive moniker following the merger . gannett invested in the former combined stations constructing a new studio facility near koco s east britton road transmitter site in the early 1980s the original facility was then sold to the trinity broadcasting network to house the offices of the religious broadcast network s owned and operated station ktbo tv channel 14 and acquiring the market s first helicopter for aerial newsgathering . these investments helped koco to improve its ratings fortunes from 1980 to 1982 when its newscasts briefly overtook kwtv for second place and even battled longtime powerhouse ktvy for first . by 1983 koco settled into a solid second place as kwtv rose from a distant third all the way to first displacing ktvy from the 1 ratings position it held for decades . however this did not last as koco s news ratings fell back to last place by the late 1980s where it lingered for years . from the 1970s to the 2000s koco was known for preempting or delaying abc programs all my children aired one hour early at 11 00 a.m. weekdays before moving to 12 00 p.m. on january 2 2008 after the cancellation of its noon newscast remaining there until the soap ended its run and was replaced by the chew in september 2011 . abc s saturday morning lineup was also affected the bugs bunny and tweety show and the ewoks were preempted in favor of the locally produced home showcase in 1987 ; 3 the station reduced its clearance of the then four hour lineup to 90 minutes between 1992 and 1996 in favor of a local newscast and other syndicated programming . power rangers aired in an early timeslot 5 00 a.m. where the station had regularly shifted an hour of the block since the fall of 1996 from 2003 to 2006 when koco and hearst s other abc stations dropped the program due to lack of e i content . jimmy kimmel live ran on a one hour delay at 12 07 a.m. from 2003 to 2011 due to the station s rebroadcast of oprah . during the 1990s koco developed the first automated weather warning system for television use and was the first in the country to send storm photographs over cellular telephone both earned the station a regional news emmy award and to have a mobile doppler radar system . later in the decade it would become the first station to send video over cellular telephone earning a regional emmy nomination and the first to distribute full screen video over cell phones . on july 24 1995 gannett company entered into a merger agreement with multimedia inc. ; the acquisition was finalized on december 4 of that year . 4 5 fcc rules at the time prohibited cross ownership of a television station and a cable provider in the same market so gannett was granted a temporary waiver to operate both koco tv and multimedia cablevision which served oklahoma city s surrounding suburbs that expired in december 1996 . 6 7 hearst television ownership edit koco logo used from 1998 to april 18 2013 . argyle television holdings ii acquired koco and cincinnati ohio sister station wlwt in january 1997 through a trade deal that sent fellow abc affiliate wzzm in grand rapids and nbc affiliate wgrz in buffalo new york to gannett . 7 8 argyle merged with hearst broadcasting in august of that year to form hearst argyle television which was renamed hearst television in may 2009 . the station brought back the eyewitness news format for its newscasts in 1998 under the news brand eyewitness news 5 which was used until april 2013 . former alternate logo for koco s newscasts . the britton road studios were struck by straight line winds to near 105 mph 169 km h 9 during a tornado outbreak that affected northern oklahoma city on june 13 1998 as a koco photojournalist positioned outside the channel 5 studios was shooting live video of the approaching storm during the station s severe weather coverage ; believing a tornado had struck then weekend meteorologist mike lapoint exclaimed on air to koco s chief meteorologist at the time rick mitchell rick it s on the ground as all three ran to take shelter in the station s main building . the studio and transmitter facility lost power knocking out koco s over the air signal for almost 24 hours though a direct fiber optic studio feed kept the station s programming available on local cable providers . the studio grounds suffered minor damage mainly limited to a toppled fence and dents that were sustained to its radar dome . 10 11 koco served as the default abc affiliate for the sherman ada market beginning in 1998 when kten dropped its secondary abc affiliation to maintain a full time affiliation with nbc ; this status lasted until kten launched an abc affiliated subchannel on may 9 2010 ; however koco remains available on cable and satellite providers within that market . through this former status it was the only oklahoma city television station to offer extensive live coverage of an ef4 tornado that killed eight people in lone grove on february 10 2009 . in december 2010 koco became the second television station in the oklahoma city market after kwtv dt and the sixth station in oklahoma to carry syndicated programming in high definition . digital television edit digital channels edit the station s digital channel is multiplexed channel video aspect psip short name programming 12 5.1 1080i 16 9 koco hd main koco tv programming abc 5.2 480i 4 3 koco sd me tv koco tv is one of several hearst owned stations that broadcasts its digital signal in the 1080i high definition format instead of abc s preferred 720p format . koco s hearst owned sister abc affiliates kmbc tv in kansas city wmur tv in manchester new hampshire wtae tv in pittsburgh wcvb tv in boston and ketv in omaha also broadcast hd programming in this format . koco dt2 edit from 2005 to april 2008 koco digital subchannel 5.2 ran a feed of the station s weather radar advantage doppler hd with an audio simulcast of noaa weather radio station wxk85 . from april 2008 to january 23 2011 the subchannel operated as first alert weather 24 7 affiliated with the local accuweather channel with some daily e i children s programming ; it simulcast new orleans sister station wdsu s coverage of hurricane gustav in september 2008 for louisiana residents who evacuated to oklahoma city . from january 24 2011 to september 30 2012 digital channel 5.2 served as the market s this tv affiliate sharing the affiliation with ksbi dt 52.2 from september 17 to 30 2012 due to the late start date of koco