icao code ktul see tulsa international airport . ktul tulsa oklahoma united states branding tulsa s channel 8 general and newscasts slogan we re tulsa s channel 8 channels digital 10 vhf virtual 8 psip subchannels 8.1 abc 8.2 comet 8.3 antenna tv translators 24 uhf mcalester affiliations abc owner sinclair broadcast group ktul licensee llc first air date september 18 1954 1954 09 18 call letters meaning tulsa also the iata code for tulsa international airport sister station s oklahoma city kokh tv kocb former callsigns ktvx 1954 1960 former channel number s analog 8 vhf 1954 2009 transmitter power 6.9 kw height 542.3 m facility id 35685 transmitter coordinates 35 58 8 n 95 36 55 w 35.96889 n 95.61528 w 35.96889 ; 95.61528 main translator 34 59 13 n 95 42 10 w 34.98694 n 95.70278 w 34.98694 ; 95.70278 fill in translator licensing authority fcc public license information profile cdbs website ktul.com ktul virtual channel 8 vhf digital channel 10 is an abc affiliated television station located in tulsa oklahoma . the station is owned by sinclair broadcast group . ktul maintains studio facilities located at lookout mountain near south 29th west avenue in southwestern tulsa and its transmitter is located between south 305th street east and the muskogee turnpike in southeastern tulsa county near coweta . on cable the station is available on cox communications and at & t u verse channel 8 . there is a high definition feed available on cox communications digital channel 708 and at & t u verse channel 1008 . contents 1 history 2 digital television 2.1 digital channels 2.2 analog to digital conversion 3 programming 4 news operation 4.1 notable current on air staff 4.2 notable former on air staff 5 references 6 external links history edit the station first signed on the air on september 18 1954 as ktvx . it was founded by the tulsa broadcasting company which was majority owned by oklahoma grocery magnate and broadcast pioneer john toole griffin who also owned radio station ktul 1430 am now ktbz . the first program to be broadcast on channel 8 was a college football game in which the university of oklahoma defeated the university of california . the station was originally licensed to muskogee roughly 25 miles 40 km due south of tulsa ; this was because the third vhf frequency originally allocated to the tulsa market channel 11 had been reserved for use by a non commercial educational license the vhf channel 11 frequency is now occupied by pbs member station koed part of the oklahoma educational television authority state network . griffin therefore decided to seek the channel 8 allocation in muskogee the nearest city in the tulsa market with an assigned vhf channel allocation ; the uhf band was not considered viable at the time as most television sets on the retail market then were not equipped with uhf tuners this would not change until after the federal communications commission passed the all channel receiver act in 1961 . the ktvx call letters were assigned to the station after griffin discovered that the u.s. treasury department s customs bureau had assigned them as the signal code to a retired ocean vessel the william s. clark until january 1947 . the station s original studio facilities were based inside a converted grocery store on eastside boulevard in muskogee with its transmitter located atop concharty mountain in the wagoner county town of stonebluff . ktvx took the abc affiliation from kceb channel 23 channel now occupied by koki tv a uhf station that signed on the previous year . the first two personalities at ktvx were news anchor jack morris and meteorologist don woods with sports director hal o halloran joining the station later on . the current studio facility on lookout mountain had originally been built for kceb in 1954 ; the second television station in tulsa after kotv channel 6 kceb briefly carried nbc programming before switching its affiliation to abc earlier in 1954 . ktvx acquired the abc affiliation from kceb leaving that station as an affiliate of the dumont television network a non viable fourth network that itself would soon fold in august 1956 . in 1955 kceb sold its lookout mountain studios to griffin ; former owner james c. leake moved ktvx s operations to tulsa from muskogee soon after kceb ceased operations . ktul radio had moved into the facility in april of that year while ktvx moved into the building eight months later in november . the lookout mountain facility was used as an auxiliary studio until 1957 when the station received permission from the fcc to move all operations as well as the station s city of license to tulsa although fcc regulations had been changed a few years earlier so that the station could have remained licensed to muskogee while operating solely in tulsa . in 1955 john chick joined the station and served as host of two popular afternoon children s shows cartoon zoo and mr. zing and tuffy as well as hosting the john chick show a live morning music program that featured local country music talent and square dancing . the program which aired weekday mornings at 7 00 a.m. proved to be a more popular alternative to network morning shows today on kvoo and the cbs morning news on kotv . the john chick show pre empted am america when the program debuted on abc in 1975 ; when abc president elton rule and other executives with the network demanded to know why ktul did not give clearance to the fast growing good morning america in the late 1970s network management backed off after owner james c. jimmy leake informed rule about the john chick shows s high local ratings . ktul would not air gma until 1979 after john chick departed the station . incorrect good morning america was on ktul in 1978 if not earlier . on september 12 1957 the day the move to tulsa took effect the station changed its call letters to ktul tv to match its radio sister the ktvx call sign is currently used by another abc affiliated television station in salt lake city utah . griffin sold off ktul radio in 1961 . in 1965 the station built a new 1 909 feet 582 m transmitter tower in coweta which became the second tallest broadcast tower in the united states at that time and would enable the station to carry abc programming in color which was activated on july 24 of that year . another popular ktul personality was betty boyd whom ktul lured away from competitor kotv in 1965 to host the betty boyd show a local daytime program that featured a mix of interviews with tulsa area newsmakers community affairs and women s topics ; the program helped ktul reach first place among female viewers . abc had long placed third in the national network ratings ; it was not until the late 1970s that abc would improve its viewership to become america s most watched broadcast network . ktul s local programming had made it one of the network s strongest stations and the tulsa market s leading television station for the next 35 years . in 1968 griffin sold ktul tv and little rock arkansas sister station katv to his brother in law jimmy leake ; griffin retained control of kwtv in oklahoma city griffin s company which eventually became griffin communications would re enter the tulsa market when it purchased kotv in october 2000 1 . ktul continued its popular children s programming in the 1970s with uncle zeb s cartoon camp which replaced mr. zing and tuffy in 1970 hosted by carl bartholemew as the gruff uncle zeb . following uncle zeb were sitcoms that appealed to children such as the flintstones the lucy show gilligan s island the beverly hillbillies and gomer pyle u.s.m.c. . griffin and leake had shared ownership of the stations for many years . leake kept ktul and katv until selling them to allbritton communications in 1982 . in 1987 ktul s broadcast tower collapsed due to heavy freezing rain accumulations from an ice storm ; a new 582 m 1 909 ft tower located near coweta was completed the following year . in 1999 ktul built new broadcast facilities on lookout mountain to accommodate station growth . in 1996 then meteorologist frank mitchell made a surprise wedding proposal to his co host teri bowers during a live broadcast of the station s morning newscast good morning oklahoma ; the proposal made national news and was featured on programs such as american journal geraldo and maury . on may 1 2013 reports surfaced that allbritton was planning to sell its television stations in order to focus on running its political news website politico . 2 on july 29 the company announced that it would sell its entire television group including ktul to the sinclair broadcast group for 985 million . 3 digital television edit digital channels edit the station s digital signal is multiplexed channel video aspect psip short name programming 4 8.1 720p 16 9 ktul dt main ktul programming abc 8.2 480i 4 3 ktul d2 comet 8.3 ktul d3 antenna tv ktul operates a 24 hour local weather channel called first alert weather 24 7 on digital subchannel 8.2 and cox communications digital channel 247 the service launched in 2005 . the retro television network classic television programming service is carried on digital subchannel 8.3 and cox digital channel 131 it began to be carried on the station in january 2009 . analog to digital conversion edit ktul shut down its analog signal over vhf channel 8 on june 12 2009 the official date in which full power television stations transitioned from analog to digital broadcasts under federal mandate . the station s digital signal remained on its pre transition vhf channel 10 . 5 through the use of psip digital television receivers display the station s virtual channel as its former vhf analog channel 8 . ktul also operates a digital fill in translator on uhf channel 24 which serves the southern part of the viewing area including mcalester . the station has also filed an application with the federal communications commission to operate a second fill in translator in caney kansas which will also broadcast on uhf channel 24 to serve northern portions of the market including bartlesville and portions of southeastern kansas that receive a weaker signal or had completely lost access to ktul s main signal following the digital transition . programming edit ktul runs the entire abc programming lineup with minimal pre emptions outside of extended breaking news and severe weather coverage . however it airs jimmy kimmel live and nightline on a one hour delay in favor of running syndicated sitcoms after the 10 00 p.m. newscast and airs the litton s weekend adventure block on saturdays one hour ahead of the live feed airing from 8 00 to 11 00 a.m. instead of 9 00 a.m. to noon . syndicated programs broadcast on ktul include jeopardy wheel of fortune steve harvey rachael ray . news operation edit ktul presently broadcasts 24 hours of locally produced newscasts each week with 4 hours on weekdays and one hour each on saturdays and sundays ; in addition the station also produces a weekly program featuring sports related questions submitted by viewers called ford sports xtra airing sundays after the 10 00 p.m. newscast competing with the oklahoma sports blitz airing on rival kotv ; as well as an hour long lifestyle program called good day tulsa which debuted in 2004 and airs at 9 00 a.m. on weekday mornings . unlike most abc affiliates ktul does not carry a local newscast during the weekday midday timeslot although none of oklahoma s standalone abc affiliates carry a midday newscast the abc affiliated digital subchannel of ada