KDFW, virtual channel 4 (digital channel 35), is the Fox owned-and-operated television station in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex designated market area.
It is owned by Fox Television Stations, Inc. in a duopoly with MyNetworkTV affiliate KDFI (channel 27), and is also co-owned with Fox Sports Southwest, through parent company News Corporation. The station is licensed to Dallas and its studios and business offices are located downtown, with the station's transmitter located in Cedar Hill.
History
As a CBS affiliate
The station signed on as
CBS affiliate
KRLD-TV on December 3, 1949, owned by the now-defunct
Dallas Times Herald newspaper, which also operated
KRLD radio (1080 kHz.). Channel 4 was the third television station in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex area to sign-on, following Dallas-based KBTV (now
WFAA-TV, channel 8) earlier in 1949, and Fort Worth-based WBAP-TV (now
KXAS-TV, channel 5) in 1948.
KRLD-TV served as the home base for the CBS network's coverage of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, led by Dan Rather, on November 22, 1963. News director Eddie Barker was the first person to announce Kennedy's death on television, passing along word from a Parkland Hospital official (because of a local pool arrangement, Barker's scoop appeared live simultaneously on CBS and ABC).
KRLD-TV's transmission tower in Cedar Hill, which was 586 feet tall and was considered the highest television transmission tower in the world, was hit by a military helicopter doing training exercises in 1968. The two passengers survived, but the tower had to be reconstructed.
Federal Communications Commission rules at the time prevented common ownership of newspapers and broadcast outlets in the same market, and the combination of KRLD-AM-TV and the Dallas Times-Herald was protected under a grandfather clause from forced divestiture. However, the newspaper and its broadcast holdings were sold to the Los Angeles-based Times-Mirror Company on May 15, 1970 for $30 million. As a result of the sale, Times-Mirror could not keep the Times-Heralds grandfathered protection for the radio and television stations, but was granted a waiver to keep the newspaper together with the television station, which was renamed KDFW-TV' on July 2, 1970. KRLD radio was sold to Metromedia soon thereafter; the newspaper was sold off in 1986, and was shut down five years later.
In 1993, KDFW and the other Times-Mirror stations were sold to Argyle in a group deal. Early in 1994, KDFW began managing a struggling station, KDFI (channel 27), which was rebroadcasting KDFW's newscasts in different time slots.
As a Fox affiliate
In late 1993, when Fox gained the contract from CBS to carry the NFC package of the
National Football League,
New World Communications reached an agreement for its stations to make the big switch to the network. Afterwards, New World bought out Argyle, which owned KDFW along with sister stations
KTVI (channel 2) in
St Louis,
WVTM (channel 13) in
Birmingham, Alabama, and
KTBC (channel 7) in
Austin. When that buyout became final on April 14, 1995, KDFW and KTBC switched affiliations to Fox on July 1 of that year (and KTVI followed suit on August 7)—while WVTM remained affiliated with
NBC because former ABC affiliate
WBRC (channel 6) in the same market was sold directly to Fox (WVTM was subsequently sold to NBC before being purchased by current owner
Media General).
Upon the network switch, the Cowboys football games moved back to KDFW after a one year absence; KDFW as a CBS affiliate carried the Cowboys through 1993, after which the NFC package moved from CBS to Fox. The CBS affiliation moved to KTVT (channel 11), and former Fox O&O; station KDAF (channel 33; which Fox sold to Renaissance, later Tribune Company) took The WB affiliation from KXTX (channel 39). News Corporation purchased KDFW and its LMA with KDFI in a group deal in early 1997. Like most New World-owned stations, KDFW did not pick up Fox Kids; it stayed with KDAF until 1997 when Fox Kids moved to KDFI (Fox/NewsCorp eventually bought KDFI outright in 2000).
KDFW is not the only Fox owned-and-operated station to replace a previous Fox O&O; sister station WAGA (channel 5) in Atlanta replaced WATL (channel 36) during the Fox/New World agreement in 1994. KDFW and KDFI are one of three groups of network O&Os; (albeit a duopoly) based in Dallas (with KTVT and KTXA being owned by CBS; KXAS and KXTX being owned by NBC). With Fox switching from a UHF to a VHF position, Dallas-Fort Worth became the first market at the time where all "Big Four" affiliates are on the VHF dial alongside New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Washington, DC, Miami, Las Vegas and Seattle. Portland and Minneapolis-St. Paul would not join suit until 2002.
On the morning of July 30, 2007 around 7 a.m., a traffic helicopter used by KDFW crash-landed near Joe Pool Lake after the engine suddenly lost power. Helicopter pilot Curtis Crump was able to make a hard emergency landing, with the aircraft skidding and then tipping over before coming to a stop near a lake dam. All three people in the helicopter survived.
Digital television
After the
analog television shutdown of June 12, 2009 , KDFW-DT remains on channel 35
PSIP is used to display KDFW's
virtual channel as 4 on digital television receivers. Its analog signal was nightlighting until July 12, 2009.
Programming
Being a network O&O;, KDFW airs the entire Fox network schedule (primetime, Saturday late night and sports programming, and the political talk show
Fox News Sunday). Syndicated programming includes talk shows (such as
Live with Regis and Kelly and
The Wendy Williams Show), court shows (such as
Judge Judy,
Judge Joe Brown and
Judge Jeanine Pirro), newsmagazines (such as
Access Hollywood and
TMZ on TV), off-network dramas (such as
) and weekend morning children's shows. The station began to broadcast a few off-network sitcoms by the late 1990s (though for a brief period during the mid-2000s and also as of the 2008-2009 season, no off-network sitcoms were on its schedule—a rarity for a Fox station). Some of the syndicated court shows airing on the station air in both daytime and late night.
By the very late 1990s, the station began to broadcast a few off-network sitcoms. KDFW is also the alternate flagship station for Texas Rangers baseball; sister station KDFI (channel 27) is the official flagship, and Fox Sports Net also broadcasts some Rangers games.
In 1972, the station debuted 4 Country Reporter, hosted by Bob Phillips. In 1986, Phillips left KDFW and began selling the show in syndication, which was renamed Texas Country Reporter, and now airs in all 22 television markets in Texas. KDFW did not pick up the syndicated version, but rival station WFAA carried the show (calling it 8 Country Reporter).
News operation
KDFW broadcasts a total of 46½ hours of local news a week (eight hours on weekdays, four hours on Saturdays and 2½ hours on Sundays), more than any other station in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex and the most of any television station in Texas; however as is standard with Fox stations that carry early evening weekend newscasts, KDFW's Sunday 5 p.m. newscast is subject to preemption and the Saturday 6 p.m. newscast is subject to delay due to sports coverage from Fox. From the time KDFW became a Fox affiliate (and later owned-and-operated station) in 1995, the station has placed more emphasis on local news; maintaining a newscast schedule that is very similar to a CBS, ABC, or NBC affiliated station, along with the added weeknight 5:30 and nightly 9 p.m. newscasts and the additional two hours of news on weekday mornings.
KDFW is one of a steadily growing number of Fox stations with a newscast in the traditional late news timeslot (with the majority of Texas being located in the Central time zone, at 10 p.m. in KDFW's case), in addition to the primetime (9 p.m.) newscast, along with one of the few to continue their Big Three-era 10 p.m. (or 11 p.m.) newscast after the affiliation switch. In 2006, Fox Television Stations Group started to push expansion into that time slot (sister station KTBC in Austin had a 10 p.m. newscast for years after switching to Fox, which was moved to 9 p.m. in 2000). After the switch, KDFW's 10 p.m. newscast was scaled back to weeknights only (Fox late night programming airs on Saturdays at 10 p.m., while the sports wrap-up show "FOX4 Sports Sunday" airs Sundays in that timeslot). It is likely that Fox will have all of its owned-and-operated stations add these later newscasts within the next few years (at least half of the Fox O&Os; already have added newscasts at 11 p.m. (ET/PT)/10 p.m. (CT/MT)).
Starting in 2006, the Fox-owned stations began revamping their sets and graphics to be more closely aligned with Fox News Channel. The stations now have standardized logos that resemble Fox News Channel's. KDFW debuted the new logo, set, graphics and news music (OSI Music's Fox Affiliate News Package, formerly WTVT NewsEdge Theme) on September 20, 2006 on its 9 p.m. newscast. The station also launched a new website, which features more news and video with the "myfox" name and interface (the "My" in the "myfox" name may be a reference to MySpace, which Fox's parent News Corporation owns).
On February 18, 2009 at noon, KDFW became the fifth station in the Dallas-Fort Worth market to broadcast its local newscasts in high definition, thus leaving KDAF (channel 33, a CW affiliate [and the Metroplex's original Fox O&O;] owned by Tribune Company) as the only local English-language television station not to broadcast its newscasts in HD for another 15 months. On April 5, 2010 the station expanded its morning newscast by a half-hour, now running from 4:30 to 9 a.m.
News/station presentation
Newscast titles
The Esso Reporter (1949–1963)
Big City News (5:30 p.m. newscast; 1963–1968)
Nightly News (10 p.m. newscast; 1963–1968)
NewsScene (5 p.m. newscast; 1968–1975)
24 Hours (10 p.m. newscast; 1968–1978)
Eyewitness News (1975–1978)
Channel 4 News (1978–1980 and 1984–1990)
News 4 Dallas-Fort Worth (1980–1984)
News 4 Texas (1990–1996; KDFW kept this news title after switch to Fox in 1995)
Fox 4 News (1996–present)
Station slogans
Eyewitness News: Dallas/Fort Worth's #1 News Team (1975–1978)
Reach for the Stars on Channel 4 (1981–1982; localized version of CBS campaign)
Great Moments on Channel 4 (1982–1983; localized version of CBS ad campaign)
Hello Dallas (1984–1989; during period station used Frank Gari's Hello News)
Share The Spirit on Channel 4 (1986–1989; localized version of CBS campaign)
Channel 4 News, Working For You (news slogan) /
Believing in Texas (general slogan; 1989)
Your 24-Hour News Source (1990–1995)
Fox 4 Texas (1995–1996)
Nobody Gets You Closer (1996–1997)
Fox 4: The News Station (1997–present; primary slogan from 2009–present)
Have You Had a Good Day? (2002–present; used in morning newscast promos)
Now You Know (2009–present; secondary news slogan)
So Fox 4 (2009–present; localized version of Fox ad campaign)
FOX4 News team
Current on-air staff (as of April 2010)
Current Anchors
Steve Eagar - weeknights at 5:30, 6 and 9 p.m.
Dan Godwin - weekdays at noon and Saturday mornings "Good Day"; also weekday morning reporter
Heather Hays - weeknights at 6 and 9 p.m.
Lauren Przybyl - weekday mornings "Good Day" (4:30-9 a.m.)
Richard Ray - Saturdays at 6, Sundays at 5, and weekends at 9 p.m.; also weeknight reporter
Tim Ryan - weekday mornings "Good Day" (4:30-9 a.m.)
Natalie Solis - Saturdays at 6, Sundays at 5, and weekends at 9 p.m.; also weeknight reporter
Clarice Tinsley - weeknights at 5 and 10 p.m.
4WARN Weather Team
In addition to providing forecasts on KDFW, the 4WARN Weather Team also provides forecasts for KLIF radio.
Dan Henry (AMS Certified Broadcast Meteorologist Seal of Approval) - Chief Meteorologist; weeknights at 5, 5:30, 6, 9 and 10 p.m.
Evan Andrews (AMS Seal of Approval) - Meteorologist; weekday mornings "Good Day" (4:30-9 a.m.)
Fiona Gorostiza - Weather Anchor; weekdays at noon
Ron Jackson (AMS Seal of Approval) - Meteorologist; Saturday mornings "Good Day", Saturdays at 6, Sundays at 5, and weekends at 9 p.m.
Sports team
Mike Doocy - Sports Director; weeknights at 6, 9 and 10 p.m.; also "Sports Sunday" host
Max Morgan - Sports Anchor; Saturdays at 6, Sundays at 5, and weekends at 9 p.m.; also sports reporter
Reporters
Fil Alvarado - general assignment reporter
Dionne Anglin - general assignment reporter
Adrian Arambulo - morning reporter
Lari Barager - general assignment reporter; also fill-in anchor
Todd Carruth - fill-in "Team Traffic" reporter
Melissa Cutler - general assignment reporter
Peter Daut - general assignment reporter
Saul Garza - general assignment and "What's Buggin' You" feature reporter
Matt Grubs - general assignment reporter
Krystle Gutierrez - general assignment reporter; also fill-in anchor
Lynn Kawano - general assignment reporter
Emily Lopez - general assignment reporter
Doug Luzader - Fox News Washington D.C. correspondent
Steve Noviello - "Fox 4 On Your Side" consumer reporter
Becky Oliver - investigative reporter
Shawn Rabb - general assignment reporter
Sophia Reza - general assignment reporter
James Rose - general assignment and "Street Squad" feature reporter
Brandon Todd - general assignment reporter
Chip Waggoner - morning and 5 p.m. traffic reporter
Former on-air staff
;A — I
Paul Adrian - investigative reporter (?-2008)
Rebecca Aguilar - reporter (1994–2008)
Howard Ballou - weekend anchor/reporter (1989–1991)
Ashleigh Banfield - anchor (1995–2000; now with TruTV)
Eddie Barker - newscaster (1949–1972)
Gary Bazner - weather anchor (1978–1982; deceased)
Steve Bosh - anchor (1984–1990)
Bill Brown - reporter (1970s)
Jack Brown - Jack Brown's Texas feature reporter (1980–1998; deceased)
Mike Burger - meteorologist (1989–1996; now at KTVT/KTXA)
Bill Ceverha - anchor/reporter (1962–1972)
Bill Clarke - consumer reporter (1974–1975)
Paul Crane - sports anchor (1983–1992)
Katherine Creag - reporter (2002–2005; now at WNYW in New York City)
Jeff Crilley - reporter (?-2008)
John Criswell - anchor (1990–1997)
Steve Crocker - anchor (1995–1998)
Warren Culbertson - meteorologist (1963–1984; deceased)
Ryan Davis - "Sky 4" aerial photojournalist (1996–2000)
Steve Dawson - anchor (1984–1986)
Ted Dawson - sports anchor (1987–1995)
John Discepolo - sports anchor (2000–2001)
Sam Donaldson - announcer (1959–1960; later with ABC News, retired)
Jack Dubberley - station announcer/weekend weather anchor (?-?)
Jack Harrison - weather anchor (?-?)
Linda Edwards - anchor/reporter (1990–1997)
Bobby Estill - sports anchor (1992)
Walter Evans - anchor (1963–1993)
Wayne Freedman - reporter (1980–1981; now at KGO-TV in San Francisco)
Warren Fulks - reporter/anchor (1958–1968; deceased)
John Gilbert - Capitol Bureau reporter
Bud Gillett - reporter (1978–2000)
Eric Glasser - anchor (1995–2005)
Frank Glieber - sports reporter/anchor (deceased)
Sylvia Gomez - reporter/anchor (1990–1992)
Cynthia Gouw - weekend anchor/reporter (1993–1994)
Patricia Guillermo - reporter (1996–1998)
Judd Hambrick - anchor (1972–1973)
John Hammarley - medical reporter (1996–2008)
Dale Hansen - sports anchor (1980–1983; now at WFAA)
Barbara Harrison - anchor/reporter (1979–1980)
Tim Heller - chief meteorologist (1994–2002; now at KTRK-TV in Houston)
Megan Henderson - Good Day anchor (2003–2009; now at KTLA in Los Angeles)
;J —
Baron James - 5 and 10 p.m. anchor (1996?-2009)
Craig James - sports anchor (1992–1993; now with ABC Sports and ESPN)
Dick Johnson - anchor (1976–1982; now at WMAQ-TV in Chicago)
Judy Jordan Greene - anchor (1966–1980)
Kim Keelor - anchor (mid 1990s)
Su Keenan - reporter (1980s)
Kimberly Kennedy - anchor (1992)
Stephanie Lucero - reporter (?-?; now at KTVT)
Bill Mercer - sportscaster/wrestling announcer (1953–1964)
Kevin McCarthy - sports reporter (1981–1986)
Marlene McClinton - anchor/reporter (1980–1984)
Stan Miller - anchor/reporter (1985–1986; now at KWTV in Oklahoma City)
Chip Moody - anchor (1980–1984; deceased)
Jason Overstreet - Metro North Bureau (?-2008)
Bob Phillips - host of 4 Country Reporter (1972–1986; now host of Texas Country Reporter)
George Riba - sports reporter (1975–1977; now at WFAA)
Dick Risenhoover - sports anchor (1970–1973; deceased)
Erika Ruiz - reporter (1999–2004)
Cameron Sanders - reporter (?-1988)
Hosea Sanders - weekend anchor/reporter (1981–1986)
Scott Sayres - business news reporter (?-2008)
Dale Schornack - anchor/reporter (1991–1995; now at KXTV in Sacramento)
Wayne Shattuck - meteorologist (1981–1984; now at WFTS-TV in Tampa)
Brett Shipp - investigative reporter (1990–1992; now at WFAA)
Sara Sidner - reporter
James Spann - meteorologist (mid 1980s; now at WBMA-LP/WCFT/WJSU in Birmingham, AL)
Casey Stegall - reporter (2005–2007; now with Fox News)
Steve Stoler - reporter (1985–2002)
Maria Sotolongo - noon weather anchor (2003–2008)
Bill Swanbeck - sports anchor (1986–1987)
Julia Jackson-Somers - morning anchor/reporter (1992–2003)
Roger Twibell - sports reporter (1975–1976; now at Big Ten Network)
Scott Wapner - business news reporter
Phyllis Watson - anchor (1995–1998)
Ray Walker - anchor (1973–1978)
Barbara White - anchor/reporter (1981–2005)
Dick Wheeler - anchor/reporter
Charlie Wilson - reporter (1968–1991; deceased)
Wes Wise - sports anchor (1961–1968; former mayor of Dallas)
Bill Woods - station announcer (?-?)
Nita Wiggins - sports reporter (?-2008)
See also
Arrow 4 logo
References
Shannon, Mike (January, 2004). Dallas-Fort Worth TV Station History. ''The History of Dallas-Fort Worth Radio and Television.
KDFW Fox 4 -- 50 Years and Counting! (1999) KDFWFox4.com.
External links
Official site
Very old pictures from KRLD Radio and TV
Category:Fox network affiliates
Category:Fox Television Stations Group
Category:Channel 35 digital TV stations in the United States
Category:Television channels and stations established in 1949
Category:Television stations in Texas
Category:Television stations in the Dallas – Fort Worth Metroplex
