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| City | Tyler, Texas |
| Channels | |
| Branding |
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| Programming | |
| Affiliations |
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| Ownership | |
| Owner |
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| KTRE | |
| History | |
First air date | October 14, 1954 (71 years ago) (1954-10-14) |
Former channel numbers |
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Call sign meaning | Lucille Buford, a member of the station's founding family |
| Technical information[1] | |
Licensing authority | FCC |
| Facility ID | 68540 |
| ERP | 66kW |
| HAAT | 300 m (984 ft) |
| Transmitter coordinates | 32°32′24″N95°13′12″W / 32.54000°N 95.22000°W /32.54000; -95.22000 |
| Translator(s) | See§ Translators |
| Links | |
Public license information | |
| Website | |
KLTV (channel 7) is atelevision station licensed toTyler, Texas, United States, servingEast Texas as an affiliate ofABC andTelemundo. Owned byGray Media, the station maintains studios on West Ferguson Street in downtown Tyler (between theSmith County and United States courthouses), and its transmitter is located in rural northern Smith County (near theWood County line).
KTRE (channel 9) inLufkin operates as asemi-satellite of KLTV. As such, itsimulcasts all network andsyndicated programming as provided through KLTV but airs separate commercial inserts,legal identifications, weeknight newscasts and Sunday morningreligious programs, and has its own website. KLTV serves the northern half of the Tyler–Longview–Lufkin–Nacogdochesmarket while KTRE serves the southern portion. The two stations are counted as a single unit forratings purposes. Although KTRE maintains its own studios on TV Road (nearUS 69) in the unincorporated community ofPollok,master control and some internal operations are based at KLTV's facilities.
The station first signed on the air on October 14, 1954;[2] it was founded by the locally based company Buford Television, which was owned by Lucille Buford. KLTV has been an ABC affiliate since its debut; however, it initially carried the network as a secondary service, while it shared primary affiliation with bothCBS andNBC; the station also aired programming from theDuMont Television Network on a secondary basis until 1955. The station originally operated from studio facilities onTexas Loop 323 on the east side of Tyler. In 1964, theFederal Communications Commission (FCC) collapsed Lufkin and Nacogdoches into the Tyler market. Soon afterward, the Buford family bought KTRE and converted it into a semi-satellite of KLTV.
KLTV lost the CBS affiliation in September 1984, whenLongview-based KLMG-TV (channel 51, nowFox affiliateKFXK-TV) signed on. It retained a secondary affiliation with NBC untilKETK-TV (channel 56) signed on in March 1987, resulting in channel 7 becoming an exclusive ABC affiliate. Buford Television owned KLTV and KTRE until 1989, when it sold the stations toJackson, Mississippi–based Civic Communications. In 1996, KLTV relocated its operations from its longtime studios on Texas Loop 323 in eastern Tyler to a new facility downtown, located in a former savings & loan branch and office complex near theSmith County courthouse; the former studio facility was demolished in November 2007. Civic merged with Cosmos Broadcasting, a division of theLiberty Corporation in 2000. That same year, Liberty sold its insurance businesses to theRoyal Bank of Canada, resulting in the retirement of the "Cosmos Broadcasting" banner. Liberty sold itself toRaycom Media in 2006.
In October 2004, KLTV celebrated its 50th anniversary.[2]
At approximately 7:30 a.m. on February 3, 2006 (one day after Raycom officially took ownership of the station), KLTV's 1,078-foot (329 m) broadcast transmitter in Red Springs collapsed taking both its over-the-air analog and digital signals as well as radio stationKVNE (89.5 FM) off the air; no one was reported injured as a result.Cox Communications (which sold its East Texas systems to Suddenlink Communications in 2007) continued to carry KLTV'sstandard and high definition feeds via afiber optic connection; however,DirecTV andDish Network customers were not able to receive the station. KLTV re-established an analog signal at reduced power from its former studio and transmitter location in eastern Tyler within 13 hours of the collapse. No cause for the collapse has been disclosed to date.
A new Harris transmitter—on a tower slightly less than half the height of the one that collapsed—was installed the following day, allowing resumption of full-power broadcasts from the Tyler site, allowing over-the-air viewers to watchABC's broadcast ofSuper Bowl XL over its analog signal; the digital signal was restored several days later. KLTV restored its analog over-the-air signal from its original tower while also being restored on DirecTV, Dish Network and other area cable providers. Its analog transmitter equipment was not damaged and was supplemented at the original tower site with a newer transmitter. However, its over-the-air high definition and digital television transmission equipment was a total loss. In March and April 2007, KLTV ran a "Flip the Switch" promotion to promote the completion of the new Red Springs tower. Viewers were urged to submit 30-second videos to show why they should be selected to turn on the tower, with the winner being selected by popular vote on the station's website. On April 17, 2007, at approximately 6:58 p.m., contest winner Jeff Heimer officially flipped the switch to turn on the new transmitter and tower.
In January 2011, KLTV started "KLTV in Your Community", a section of its website serving as a branch for citizen journalism, or community blogging; the blog sites are separated into fifteen East Texas communities with Tyler divided into four quadrants by city section. It has since been shut down.
On June 25, 2018, Gray Television announced that it was merging with Raycom, under the Gray name. When the merger was approved by the FCC and theJustice Department, it made KLTV (and KTRE) asister station to adjacent market stationsKXII inSherman,KBTX inBryan andKWTX inWaco in addition to the current Raycom sister stations, while separating it fromKXXV.[3] The sale was approved on December 20[4] and was completed on January 2, 2019.[5]
KLTV presently broadcasts31+1⁄2 hours of locally produced newscasts each week (with5+1⁄2 hours each weekday and two hours each on Saturdays and Sundays); unlike most ABC affiliates, the stations do not broadcast an early evening newscast on Sundays. Lufkin semi-satellite KTRE simulcasts KLTV's weekday morning, midday, 4 p.m., 5 p.m. and weekend morning and evening newscasts. Channel 7 has been the dominant station in the market for most of its history and its newscasts routinely garner several times the number of viewers of its nearest competitor. KLTV and its staff have received several awards including seven Lone StarEmmy Awards.
The station's longtime slogan is "Proud of East Texas", which has been used since 1985. In a June 2006 article, theLongview News-Journal reported KLTV continued its dominance in the area with an estimated 70,000 households tuning into its weeknight 10 p.m. broadcast. KETK-TV was second with about 12,000 viewers andKYTX was watched by an estimated 9,000 viewers. The station was nominated in 2008 for eleven Lone Star Emmy Awards including: best morning and evening newscasts, weather, along with several news/sports specials and reporting. On June 21, 2010, KLTV became the third television station in the Tyler–Longview market to begin broadcasting its local newscasts inhigh definition. On September 10, 2012, KLTV debuted an hour-long weekday afternoon newscast at 4 p.m. The station's Telemundo-affiliated subchannel simulcasts newscasts from sister stationKEYU inAmarillo.
The stations' signals aremultiplexed:
| Channel | Res. | Aspect | Short name | Programming | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| KLTV | K31PR-D | KLTV | K31PR-D | |||
| 7.1 | 31.1 | 720p | 16:9 | KLTVDT | ABC | |
| 7.2 | 31.2 | 480i | KLTV365 | 365BLK | ||
| 7.3 | 31.3 | 1080i | KLTVDT3 | Telemundo | ||
| 7.4 | 31.4 | 480i | KLTVBNC | Bounce TV | ||
| 7.5 | 31.5 | KLTVDBL | Dabl | |||
| 7.6 | 31.6 | OXYGEN | Oxygen | |||
On digital subchannel 7.2, the station carries The365 television network; the subchannel is also carried onSuddenlink Communicationsdigital channel 247. The subchannel launched on December 14, 2005, as the "StormTracker 24/7 Weather Channel", a local weather service consisting of temperatures, weather conditions and a live feed of the station'sDoppler radar (branded as the "StormTracker 7 Live Doppler Network") on a rotating schedule; the subchannel affiliated withThis TV in December 2009, it later switched toBounce TV on January 1, 2012. On January 1, 2020, Circle debuted on 7.2, displacing Bounce TV to 7.4. Circle remained until the channel was shut down on December 31, 2023, being replaced by The365. On digital subchannel 7.3, the station carriesTelemundo; the subchannel is also carried on Suddenlink channel 22.
The station installed its digital transmitter tower on September 23, 2005; on December 14, KLTV became the second television station in East Texas to launch a digital signal, broadcasting onVHF channel 10. KLTV shut down its analog signal, over VHF channel 7, on June 12, 2009, the official date on which full-power television stations in the United Statestransitioned from analog to digital broadcasts under federal mandate. The station's digital signal relocated from its pre-transition VHF channel 10 to channel 7 for post-transition operations.[7]
| City of license | Callsign | Channel | ERP | HAAT | Facility ID | Transmitter coordinates |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tyler | K21PE-D | 21 | 15 kW | 240.1 m (788 ft) | 185722 | 32°32′24″N95°13′12″W / 32.54000°N 95.22000°W /32.54000; -95.22000 |
| K31PR-D | 31 | 182595 |
On July 27, 2021, Gray Television signed K31PR on the air as a full simulcast partner of the main KLTV signal. Both stations air an identical subchannel line-up, with K31PR's coverage area encompassed entirely by the larger KLTV signal.
On March 14, 2023, digital translator K21PE-D was tested at its upgraded site on the KLTV tower, with a license to cover the new signal filed the following day. Concurrently, Gray Television filed a silent notification for K31PR-D, as the translator discontinued broadcasting on March 4, 2023, indicating that the company was doing so in preparation for the channel 31 facility to further upgrade through an upcoming filing.
Oncable, KLTV is available on Suddenlink Communications channel 7 and in high definition on digital channel 720. Dish, DirecTV and several smaller cable providers also carry the station.
KLTV is available throughout much of East Texas, such as Tyler,Athens***,Canton***,Carthage*,Gilmer,Henderson,Jacksonville,Jefferson*,Kilgore,Lindale, Longview**,Marshall*,Mineola,Mount Pleasant,Mount Vernon,Palestine***,Pittsburg,Rusk, andSulphur Springs***.[8]
*– This city can receive KLTV over the air despite being in theShreveport market.
**– This city can receive KLTV over the air despite parts of the city being in the Shreveport market.
***– This city can receive KLTV over the air despite being in theDallas–Fort Worth market.
In other parts of the market, such asLufkin, Nacogdoches andCrockett, KLTV is unavailable over the air, but viewers can receive sister station KTRE.
Includes English-language stations in out-of-state TV markets, but reaching a portion of Texas | ||
| ABC | ||
| CBS | ||
| Fox | ||
| NBC | ||
| The CW | ||
| MyNetworkTV | ||
| Ion Television | ||
| PBS | ||
| Religious | ||
| Other | ||
| ATSC 3.0 | ||
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Includes Spanish-language stations in out-of-state TV markets, but reaching a portion of Texas | ||
| Telemundo | ||
| Estrella TV | ||
| UniMás | ||
| Univision | ||
| Latino-related | ||
| ATSC 3.0 | ||
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