KAKE

Wichita–Hutchinson, Kansas United States
City	Wichita, Kansas
Channels	Digital: 10 (VHF) Virtual: 10
Branding	KAKE (pronounced "cake") MeTV Kansas (10.2)
Programming
Network	KAKEland Television Network
Affiliations	10.1:ABC for others, see§ Technical information and subchannels
Ownership
Owner	Lockwood Broadcast Group (Knoxville TVLLC)
History
First air date	October 19, 1954 (71 years ago) (1954-10-19)
Former call signs	KAKE-TV (1954–2010)
Former channel numbers	Analog: 10 (VHF, 1954–2009) Digital: 21 (UHF, 2000–2009)
Call sign meaning	The word "cake"(sic)
Technical information[1]
Licensing authority	FCC
Facility ID	65522
ERP	56.5 kW
HAAT	309.8 m (1,016 ft)
Transmitter coordinates	37°46′52.9″N97°31′9.1″W / 37.781361°N 97.519194°W /37.781361; -97.519194
Translator(s)	see§ Satellites and translators
Links
Public license information	Public file LMS
Website	www.kake.com

KAKE (channel 10) is atelevision station inWichita, Kansas, United States, affiliated withABC and owned byLockwood Broadcast Group. The station's studios are located on West Street in northwestern Wichita, and its transmitter is located in rural northwesternSedgwick County (on the town limits ofColwich).

KAKE serves as theflagship of theKAKEland Television Network (KTN), a regional network of eight stations (three full-power, twolow-power, twotranslators and one digital replacement translator) that relay ABC network shows and other programming provided by KAKE across central and western Kansas, as well as bordering counties inColorado andOklahoma. The station's distinctive call sign is pronounced as "cake", although it has been branded as "KAKEland"—after the aforementioned statewide relay network—since July 2011.

The station first signed on the air on October 19, 1954, as KAKE-TV (the "-TV" suffix was dropped in 2010). The television station was started up by KAKE Broadcasting Company, owner of AM radio station KAKE (AM 1240, nowKNSS at AM 1330). It has always been an ABC affiliate.

KAKE-TV and ABC programs were seen in the late 1950s and early 1960s on two additional stations in western Kansas:KTVC (channel 6) atEnsign,^[2] which signed on August 1, 1957, andKAYS-TV (channel 7) inHays, which took to the air in 1958. The stations branded as the "Golden K Network".^[3] However, KAKE would lose both stations when they defected toCBS in 1961 and 1962. On October 28, 1964, KAKE signed onKUPK-TV (channel 13) inGarden City to serve as asatellite station for southwestern Kansas.

In 1978, KAKE received a letter fromDennis Rader, the "BTK"serial killer. He asked for the police to send him a hidden message. During an evening newscast, asubliminal message was broadcast on KAKE to convince Rader to turn himself in; the effort was unsuccessful.^[4][5][6] In 2004 and 2005, the BTK killer once again sent letters to KAKE – one included a word puzzle, while another expressed concern about thecolds that anchorsSusan Peters and Jeff Herndon had suffered at the time. Rader was eventually arrested and convicted of the murders.

In 1979, the station was sold to the San Francisco-basedChronicle Publishing Company, run by the de Young family, who also ownedKRON-TV in San Francisco andWOWT inOmaha, Nebraska. In 1987, Chronicle purchasedKLBY (channel 4) inColby, anindependent station that had ceased broadcasting in December 1985, and converted it into a satellite of KAKE. In 1988, KAKE moved all of its translators on UHF channels 70 to 83 (which were being phased out from broadcasting use) to other, lower channel positions; in addition, a few the affected translators were shut down outright.

On June 16, 1999, the deYoung family announced that it decided to liquidate Chronicle Publishing's assets. KAKE, its satellites, and WOWT were sold toLIN TV (KRON was later sold toYoung Broadcasting, which became involved in a contract dispute withNBC, which had bid for the station, that led to KRON losing its NBC affiliation in January 2002). Almost as soon as the sale was finalized, LIN turned around and traded KAKE and WOWT toBenedek Broadcasting in a cash deal, in exchange for NBC affiliateWWLP inSpringfield, Massachusetts. The acquisition of KAKE and WOWT could be seen as the ultimate undoing for the financially challenged Benedek, which in 2002 declared forChapter 7 bankruptcy; the company then sold most of its stations, including KAKE and WOWT, toAtlanta-basedGray Television. Another translator shuffle occurred on August 15, 2003, as three of the station's low-power repeaters changed channel allocations: K20BU (channel 20) inRussell moved to channel 38 as K38GH, K22CP (channel 22, now KHDS-LD) inSalina moved to channel 51 as K51GC, and K69DQ (channel 69, now KGBD-LD) inGreat Bend moved to channel 30 as K30GD.

On September 14, 2015, KAKE and its satellites were put up for sale, as Gray entered into a deal to acquire the broadcasting assets ofSchurz Communications, including rivalKWCH, a station that Gray intends to retain.^[7] On October 1, Gray announced that it would sell KAKE toLockwood Broadcast Group, and in return receiveWBXX-TV inKnoxville and $11.2 million.^[8] On January 1, 2016, Lockwood (through Knoxville TV LLC) took the operations of the stations vialocal marketing agreement.^[9] The sale was completed on February 1.^[10]

This sectionneeds expansion with: include information on KAKE's news operation prior to 2011. You can help byadding to it.(July 2011)

KAKE presently broadcasts 34 hours of locally produced newscasts each week (with5+1⁄2 hours each weekday,3+1⁄2 hours on Saturdays and three hours on Sundays). For 30 years, KAKE was the highest-rated station in the Wichita–Hutchinson market, even though it did not build an extensive translator/satellite network in central and western Kansas until the 1980s. For most of the last quarter-century, it has been the second-place station in the Wichita–Hutchinson market.^{[citation needed]}

In January 2011, KAKE expanded its weekday morning newscasts to2+1⁄2 hours, with the addition of a half-hour at 4:30 am, becoming the first station in the Wichita–Hutchinson market to expand its morning newscast to a pre-5 a.m. timeslot.^[11] On July 17, 2011, beginning with its 5:30 p.m. newscast, KAKE became the second television station in the Wichita–Hutchinson market (after KWCH) to begin broadcasting its local newscasts inhigh definition (KSNW remained the only station in the market whose newscasts were not produced in HD, broadcasting them inwidescreenenhanced definition until January 27, 2014, with weather segments only broadcasting in high definition prior to that). With the change, the station introduced a new graphics package, a customnews music package (composed by Aircast Custom Music), and a new station logo that emphasizes the long used "KAKEland" sub-branding for its network of satellite and repeater stations.^[12] When KAKE made the switch to HD, it also began using automated production for its newscasts. Like other Gray stations at the time, it used Ross OverDrive automation (still in use today). KAKE discontinued its half-hour 4 p.m. newscast in September 2011, due to a lack of a solid syndicated programming lead-out for the program.^[11] A 4 p.m. newscast returned to the schedule on September 9, 2013; later that week on September 15, KAKE debuted an hour-long Sunday morning newscast from 8 to 9 am.^[13]

In 2018, KAKE ended production of thepolitical talk showThis Week in Kansas and the Sunday night legal advice programLawyer on the Line.

In October 2019, it was announced that KAKE would assume production of the 9 p.m. newscast forFox-affiliated stationKSAS-TV beginning on January 1, 2020, with Katie Taube assuming it as anchor; the newscast had been produced by KSNW.

• Jonathan Coachman – sports anchor/reporter
• Steve Doocy – host ofPM Magazine^[14]
• Tony Laubach – meteorologist (2018–2021)
• Susan Peters – anchor (1996–2016)

KAKE's transmitter is located in rural northwesternSedgwick County (on the town limits ofColwich).^[1] The station's signal ismultiplexed:

KAKE shut down its analog signal, overVHF channel 10, on February 17, 2009, the original target date on which full-power television stations in the United States were totransition from analog to digital broadcasts under federal mandate (which was later pushed back to June 12, 2009). The station's digital signal relocated from its pre-transitionUHF channel 21 to VHF channel 10.^[17][18]

On February 9, 2010, KAKE filed an application to the FCC to operate a digital fill-in translator on its pre-transition digital allotment, UHF channel 21, to serve Wichita proper and surrounding areas located north and west of the city.^[19]

• Official website

• 1954 establishments in Kansas
• American Broadcasting Company affiliates
• Bounce TV affiliates
• Ion Plus affiliates
• Lockwood Broadcast Group
• MeTV affiliates
• Television channels and stations established in 1954
• Television stations in Wichita, Kansas

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