branding koki fox 23 tulsa general fox 23 news newscasts slogan covering news that matters news accurate . dependable . weather channels digital 22 uhf virtual 23 psip subchannels 23.1 fox 23.2 metv 23.3 escape affiliations fox owner cox media group cox television tulsa llc first air date october 26 1980 call letters meaning okie nickname for an oklahoma native sister station s tv kmyt tv radio kjsr krav fm krmg am krmg fm kwen former channel number s analog 23 uhf 1980 2009 former affiliations independent 1980 1986 transmitter power 1000 kw height 400 m facility id 11910 transmitter coordinates 36 1 35.8 n 95 40 42.3 w 36.026611 n 95.678417 w 36.026611 ; 95.678417 licensing authority fcc public license information profile cdbs website www.fox23.com koki tv virtual channel 23 uhf digital channel 22 is a fox affiliated television station located in tulsa oklahoma . the station is owned by the cox media group subsidiary of cox enterprises as part of a duopoly with mynetworktv affiliate kmyt tv channel 41 . the two stations share studio facilities located on south memorial drive in southeastern tulsa ; koki maintains transmitter facilities located on south 273rd east avenue in southeastern tulsa county near broken arrow . on cable the station is available on cox communications channel 5 and at & t u verse channel 23 . there is a high definition feed available on cox communications digital channel 1005 and at & t u verse channel 1023 . contents 1 history 1.1 prior history of channel 23 in tulsa 1.2 koki 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 conversion 3 programming 4 references 5 external links history edit prior history of channel 23 in tulsa edit the uhf channel 23 allocation in tulsa was originally occupied by kceb which signed on the air on march 13 1954 as the second television station in tulsa after kotv channel 6 . founded by oilman elfred beck it originally operated as an abc affiliate but also carried programming from nbc and the dumont television network as secondary affiliations . however as electronics manufacturers were not required to include uhf tuners on television sets at the time abc and nbc allowed kotv channel 6 to continue cherry picking each network s stronger shows . the station operated from a studio facility located on the lookout mountain section of west tulsa . kceb lost the nbc affiliation to kvoo tv channel 2 now kjrh tv months before it signed on that december followed by the loss of the remaining abc programs that kotv was not already carrying to ktvx channel 8 now ktul when it debuted in september 1954 . this left the station exclusively with dumont a non viable fourth network that itself would soon fold in 1956 . the low viewership that kceb suffered due to the lack of wide availability led the station to cease operations on december 10 1954 . kceb s former lookout mountain studio facility was sold to original ktvx owner john toole griffin ; channel 8 moved its operations into that building the following year where it remains to this day . beck retained the construction permit and partnered with ernest moody and claude hill to bring kceb back on the air . in the spring of 1966 beck was advised by the federal communications commission to either re activate channel 23 by april 11 or surrender the construction permit . beck sought buyers for the station ; however several deals fell through . local jeweler ernest moody claude hill owner of radio station kocw fm 97.5 frequency now occupied by kmod fm and beck partnered for a planned relaunch of kceb in september 1967 which never materialized . koki station history edit as an independent station edit koki tv first signed on the air on october 23 1980 ; the station was founded by a group of prominent corporate executives and community leaders in the tulsa area known as tulsa 23 ltd which was awarded the new uhf channel 23 license by the federal communications commission . the partnership was led by managing partner benjamin f. boddie and investors that included former williams companies ceos john h. williams and charles p. williams who were also responsible for the redevelopment of over nine square blocks and one million square feet of new office and retail construction of downtown tulsa including the establishment of the williams center the bank of oklahoma tower the state s tallest office tower at the time at 52 stories and 660 feet 200 m and the tulsa performing arts center . citation needed as a fox affiliate edit koki became a charter affiliate of the fledgling fox network when the network on october 9 1986 ; however it essentially remained an independent station as fox only provided an hour of network programming a day at launch in the form of the late night talk show the late show starring joan rivers and would not even expand into primetime until april 1987 its primetime lineup meanwhile would not expand to seven nights a week until september 1993 ; the station eventually branded as fox 23 . on march 6 1989 houston based clear channel television inc. entered into an agreement to buy koki from tulsa 23 ltd. ; the sale was finalized in early 1990 . clear channel significantly upgraded channel 23 s programming adding more recent sitcoms higher quality movies and some first run talk shows . koki logo used from 2002 to 2011 . during the 1990s koki gradually eliminated classic sitcoms from its daytime schedule in favor of adding more talk reality and court shows . more recent sitcoms were added to the station s schedule during the evening hours . in 1994 clear channel began managing channel 41 whose call letters had changed to ktfo in 1991 under a local marketing agreement . as children s programs began to disappear from syndication koki increased its syndicated programming inventory with even more talk and reality shows . in 2001 clear channel moved the operations of koki and ktfo from its facility on south yale avenue into a newly converted state of the art building located at 2625 south memorial drive formerly constructed and owned by the oertle s family discount store and later rented by a burlington coat factory store merging both stations with clear channel s local radio station properties . 1 on april 20 2007 clear channel entered into an agreement to sell its television stations to private equity firm providence equity partners which placed the stations into a broadcast holding company called newport television . 2 on august 11 2011 25 year old william boyd sturdivant ii who had a history of mental issues and criminal activity including arrests for burglary and drug possession and also reportedly once walked 250 miles 400 km from tulsa to dallas was found wandering around outside the facility housing koki kmyt and the clear channel radio stations . sturdivant was chased onto the roof of the station after which he climbed up to 150 feet 46 m on the 300 foot 91 m transmission tower located outside the facility ; 3 sturdivant who was nicknamed tower man by local news outlets in tulsa and around oklahoma moved between 75 and 100 feet 30 m at various points during the 150 hour standoff which became the longest standoff in the history of the tulsa police department breaking a record originally set during a 1993 standoff involving a murder suspect that lasted 32 hours 4 . the standoff ended at around 6 40 p.m. on august 16 after a retired police negotiator was sent up the tower on a crane to talk sturdivant down . 5 horizontal version of koki logo used from 2011 to 2014 . on july 19 2012 newport television announced the sale of koki and kmyt along with the jacksonville florida virtual duopoly of waws and wtev tv to the cox media group . as cox media group is a subsidiary of atlanta based cox enterprises the purchase placed the station under common ownership with the area s major cable operator cox communications 6 creating the first instance in which a company owned a television station and a cable provider in the same market since the fcc repealed its ban on cross ownership between cable providers and broadcast television stations within the same market in 2003 . 7 the sale to cox also placed koki and kmyt under common ownership with cox s tulsa radio station cluster krmg 740 am and 102.3 fm krav fm 96.5 kwen 95.5 fm and kjsr 103.3 fm . the fcc approved the transaction to cox on october 23 2012 and the deal was finalized on december 3 . 8 9 despite being no longer associated with its former clear channel radio partners koki tv continues to be based from the same studio locations although its new cox radio partners are located separately in south tulsa . digital television edit digital channels edit the station s digital signal is multiplexed channel video aspect psip short name programming 10 23.1 720p 16 9 koki dt main koki tv programming fox 23.2 480i 4 3 metv metv 23.3 480i 16 9 escape escape analog to digital conversion edit koki tv shut down its analog signal over uhf channel 23 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 remained on its pre transition uhf channel 22 . 11 12 13 through the use of psip digital television receivers display the station s virtual channel as its former uhf analog channel 23 . programming edit koki tv currently carries the entire fox network schedule primetime saturday late night and sports programming the saturday morning infomercial block weekend marketplace and the political talk show fox news sunday with program preemptions only occurring due to extended breaking news and severe weather coverage . syndicated programs broadcast by koki include maury the doctors the wendy williams show family feud and judge judy . references edit clear channel communications moves into new tulsa okla. building tulsa world via highbeam research august 25 2002 . clear channel . clear channel . retrieved 2012 11 15 . man still on station tower koki tv august 12 2011 . record shattering standoff continues into a third day krmg august 13 2011 . ou defensive back s father used compassion to coax man down from tulsa tower newsok.com august 17 2011 . newport sells 22 stations for 1 billion tvnewscheck july 19 2012 . fcc repeals tv cable cross ownership rule davis wright tremaine llp february 27 2003 . federal communications commission pdf . retrieved 2012 11 15 . federal communications commission pdf . retrieved 2012 11 15 . rabbitears tv query for koki dtv tentative channel designations for the first and the second rounds pdf . retrieved 2012 03 24 . federal communications commission fcc 07 138 pdf . retrieved 2012 11 24 . cdbs print . tulsa tv memories koki tv external links edit www.fox23.com koki tv official website www.fox23.com s station my41tulsa kmyt tv official website query the fcc s tv station database for koki tv biafn s media web database information on koki tv v t e broadcast television in east central oklahoma including tulsa reception may vary by location and some stations may only be viewable with cable television local stations english kjrh tv 2.1 nbc 2.2 bounce 2.3 laff kotv 6.1 cbs 6.2 cw 6.3 news on 6 now ktul 8.1 abc 8.2 comet 8.3 retro tv koed koet 11.1 3.1 pbs oeta 11.2 3.2 okla 11.3 3.3 create 11.4 3.4 pbs kids k15da mynetworktv kqcw tv 19.1 the cw 19.2 this tv koki tv 23.1 fox 23.2 metv 23.3 escape kmyt tv 41.1