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| City | Medford, Oregon |
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| History | |
First air date | October 3, 1961 (1961-10-03) |
Former call signs | KMED-TV (1961–1977) |
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Call sign meaning | The "TV" refers to the fact that it is a television station; the "L" does not stand for anything. |
| Technical information[3] | |
Licensing authority | FCC |
| Facility ID | 22570 |
| ERP | |
| HAAT | 1,001 m (3,284 ft) |
| Transmitter coordinates | 42°4′51.5″N122°43′13″W / 42.080972°N 122.72028°W /42.080972; -122.72028 |
| Translator(s) | see§ Translators |
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Public license information | |
| Website | |
KTVL (channel 10) is atelevision station inMedford, Oregon, United States, affiliated withCBS andThe CW Plus. Owned bySinclair Broadcast Group, the station has studios on North Fir Street in downtown Medford, and its transmitter is located atopMount Ashland, 15 miles (24 km) south of the city.
Channel 10 signed on the air on October 3, 1961, as KMED-TV, owned by Ray Johnson and his company, Radio Medford, Inc., along withKMED radio (1440 AM). Several groups contended for the second television station in the area, but Radio Medford received a substantial assist from Bill Smulin, owner of KTVM (channel 5, nowKOBI), who offered Radio Medford space on KTVM's tower. KMED-TV was anNBC affiliate, since KMED had been anNBC radio affiliate since 1937. It also sharedABC with KTVM.
In 1963, the station started a joint news department with its radio sister. KMED radio had set up the first full radio news department betweenPortland andSan Francisco in 1957.
In 1966, the station moved to a new tower on Mount Ashland, which addedKlamath Falls to its city-grade coverage. It is the highest transmitting tower in thePacific Northwest. To this day, channel 10 is the only Medford station that covers the entire market without a full-power satellite station.
KMED-TV bought the first color cameras in Southern Oregon in 1968, a year of many firsts for the station. That year also saw the area's first live remote broadcast, the first television editorials and the first use of live microwave technology.
In 1977, KMED was sold off, and KMED-TV became KTVL. A year later, the station picked up some CBS programs after KOBI switched its primary affiliation to ABC. In 1981, Johnson sold KTVL toFreedom Communications, marking Freedom's entry into television. Under Freedom's ownership, KTVL aired the first color weather forecast in Southern Oregon. In the meantime Johnson was working on another station, which would becomeKTVZ inBend, Oregon.
In 1983, KTVL became a CBS affiliate, and KOBI switched to NBC. ABC programming would not return to the market untilKDRV (channel 12) signed on a year later.
Freedom announced on November 2, 2011, that it would bow out of television and sell its stations, including KTVL, toSinclair Broadcast Group.[4] On April 2, 2012, Sinclair took over official ownership of the station as shown at their website.[5]
In late 2022, KTVL moved its news operations from its original Rossanley Drive location northwest of Medford to its current location in the oldMedford Mail Tribune building at 111 North Fir Street in downtown Medford. The entire office would soon follow a few months later.
KTVL had broadcast 22 hours of locally production news each week. It was known asNewsCenter 10 in the late 1970s back when they were an NBC affiliate.[6] The nameNewsCenter was used by many NBC-owned and/or affiliated stations to identify their newscasts. After KTVL switched to CBS, the name of the newscast was changed toChannel 10 News, then again toNews 10.
The news department featured well-known news personalities such as Terry Miller, Hank Henry, George Warren, Leon Hunsaker (also previously of KOBI andtheDove TV), Marvin Rhodes, Pete Belcastro, Fred Inglis (formerly of KTVU), Milt Radford (also previously ofKDRV) and, most notably,Ann Curry (who went on to become host of NBC'sToday Show in 2011). The last news director was Chad Hypes.
The newscasts were last anchored by Carmine Gemei and Tyler Myerly at 5, 6 and 11 p.m. The chief meteorologist was Holden LeCroy. Myerly previously anchored the 5 a.m. newscastNews 10 Good Morning. Mollie Smith and weather-caster Tiffany Olin anchored the region's only noon newscast previously anchored by such talent as Libby Dowsett, April Warneke and later-main anchor Trish Glose. It was considered the "usual amount of news for a CBS affiliate."[7]
KTVL did not have a full-time local sportscast after 2009 as it was dropped by previous management. However, in 2012 the news team began covering local high school football and basketball highlights calledFriday Night Fastbreaks (KDRV is now the only station in the market to continue airing a local sportscast and KOBI does not have a sports department.)
On January 24, 2011, KTVL added an additional hour to their morning news program. Originally, it wasNews 10 at 6 a.m. but they changed the start time to 4:55 a.m. dubbing itNews 10 Good Morning going head-to-head with competitor KDRV's early morning newscast. The show switched up its format, differing from its competitors to include faster-paced headline style news with more morning weather hits than any other station in Southern Oregon and Northern California. The program also showcased the station's strong social media content, with the only station to have smart phone and iPad applications.
On April 27, 2023, it was reported that KTVL would be discontinuing its local newscasts, effective May 12, with plans to lay off the entire news operation. The station now runsThe National Desk in lieu of locally produced newscasts.[8][9][7] On June 30, 2023, the branding of KTVL was changed fromNews 10 toKTVL 10.[10]
KTVL was also the only southern Oregon and northern California television station that has continuously broadcast theJerry Lewis MDA Telethon, benefiting theMuscular Dystrophy Association everyLabor Day weekend from 1970 to 2011. (Fellow CBS affiliateKHSL-TV inChico, California, was the next closest station to do so before broadcasting the program was ceased after 1997 by new ownership.) The local portion of the telethon was hosted by Marvin Rhodes, who was the main host for 35 years, and Donna Hildebrand, who was co-host for over 25 years, until they ended their tenure as main telethon hosts in 2005. Members of theNews 10 team including Trish (Borucki) Glose, Kevin Lollis and Libby Dowsett had hosted the telethon at various times until the format was dissolved by MDA in 2012. It is believed to have been one of the most successful local telethon broadcasts in the country.
The most emotional moment came in 2002 when a devastated Rhodes announced thatGrants Pass resident Ray Dimmick, who battled courageously againstALS (Lou Gehrig's Disease), had died in December 2001. Dimmick, accompanied by his wife Debra, appeared on the show every year for 10 years despite his condition deteriorating. A tribute video was broadcast in his memory.[citation needed]
WithJerry Lewis' retirement as host of the national telethon and its move from21+1⁄2 hours to six hours in 2011, KTVL did air the telethon as usual. On February 10, 2012, MDA announced that the 2012 edition would be cut to three hours in length airing during prime time on Sunday, September 2, 2012. The 2012 edition, renamed theMDA Show of Strength (moving away from its heritage as a telethon), effectively ended KTVL's 41 years of telethon coverage. The special was since picked up by ABC for two years in 2013 and 2014 airing onKDRV, before being canceled altogether by MDA in early 2015.
On June 3, 2006, KTVL launched a new locally produced late-night program for young adults calledAfter 10, hosted by Curtis Bartlett and Lindsey Matherly, every Saturday night at 11:30 p.m. It was dubbed as the only locally produced show that delivers news and information on the local music scene, video games, movie releases (in theaters and on video), graphic novels,music videos,viral videos from the internet, and websites.
After 10 was KTVL's attempt to compete against NBC'sSaturday Night Live by producing a program for its target audience themselves, instead on relying on syndication.After 10 was being retooled and was expected to be relaunched in the third quarter of 2007, but it never returned to the air.
After various syndicated programs andinfomercials aired in the 11:30 p.m. slot, the slot became the home of the weeklyRing of Honor Wrestling show in April 2012 upon the acquisition of the station by Sinclair, which owned theRoH circuit until 2022 when the promotion was acquired byAll Elite Wrestling.
The station's signal ismultiplexed:
| Channel | Res. | Aspect | Short name | Programming |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 10.1 | 1080i | 16:9 | NEWS10 | CBS |
| 10.2 | 720p | CW11 | The CW Plus | |
| 10.3 | 480i | ROAR | Roar /Rip City Television Network | |
| 10.3 | Comet | Comet TV | ||
| 10.5 | Charge! | Charge! | ||
| 10.6 | TheNest | The Nest |
On September 23, 2024, thePortland Trail Blazers announced an agreement with Sinclair to launch Rip City Television Network, which syndicates gamesover-the-air. Games in Medford air on KTVL's fourth subchannel.[12]
KTVL shut down its analog signal, overVHF channel 10, 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.[13] The station's digital signal relocated from its pre-transitionUHF channel 35 to VHF channel 10 for post-transition operations.[14][15]
Broadcast television stations by affiliation in the state ofOregon | ||
|---|---|---|
Includes stations in out-of-state TV markets, but reaching a portion of Oregon | ||
| ABC | ||
| CBS | ||
| Fox | ||
| NBC | ||
| The CW | ||
| Ion Television | ||
| Independent | ||
| PBS | ||
| Religious | ||
| Other | ||
| ATSC 3.0 | ||
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Includes English-language stations in out-of-state TV markets, but reaching a portion of California | ||
| ABC | ||
| CBS | ||
| Fox | ||
| NBC | ||
| The CW | ||
| Ion Television | ||
| Independent | ||
| PBS | ||
| Religious | ||
| Other | ||
| ATSC 3.0 | ||
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