KENS-TV

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KENS-TV
San Antonio, Texas
Branding	KENS 5 KENS 5 Eyewitness News (KENS pronounced as one word)
Slogan	Coverage You Can Count On San Antonio's News Leader
Channels	Analog: 5 (VHF) Digital: 39 (UHF)
Affiliations	CBS
Owner	Belo Corporation (KENS-TV, Inc.)
First air date	February 15, 1950
Call letters’ meaning	Express-News Service
Sister station(s)	KCWX
Former callsigns	KEYL (1950-1954)
Former affiliations	Both secondary: DuMont (1950-1955) ABC (1950-1957)
Transmitter Power	100 kW (analog) 825 kW (digital)
Height	424 m (analog) 445 m (digital)
Facility ID	26304
Transmitter Coordinates	29°16′11.5″N, 98°15′55.9″W
Website	www.mysanantonio.com

KENS-TV, "KENS 5" is the CBS television affiliate in San Antonio, Texas, owned by Belo Corporation. KENS also manages KCWX under a local marketing agreement (LMA). Its transmitter is located in Elmendorf, Texas.

[edit] History

KENS signed on the air on February 15, 1950, as KEYL, a CBS affiliate with secondary affiliations with ABC and DuMont. Four years later, KEYL changed its call letters to KENS after the San Antonio Express-News bought the station. KENS was the second station to begin broadcasting in San Antonio, three months behind WOAI-TV. DuMont ceased most network operations in 1955, but would honor network commitments until 1956; at that point, DuMont disappeared from the station's schedule. It lost ABC when KONO-TV (now KSAT-TV) signed on in 1957, leaving KENS as a full-time CBS affiliate.

In 1962, the Express-News and KENS-TV were purchased by Harte-Hanks Communications. Due to the Federal Communications Commission's tightening of cross-ownership rules, Harte-Hanks sold the newspaper in 1973 to Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation while keeping KENS-TV. In 1993, Harte-Hanks acquired what at the time became KENS-AM. In September 1997, Harte-Hanks sold its remaining media properties, including the KENS stations, to the E. W. Scripps Company in order to concentrate on direct marketing. At the same time, Belo announced that it would swap its stake in the Food Network to Scripps in exchange for the KENS stations. The Harte-Hanks/Scripps deal and the transfer of Belo's stake in the Food Network to Scripps were both completed on October 15 of that year. At that time, Belo took over the operation of the KENS stations under a time brokerage agreement. KENS-AM/TV officially became Belo-owned stations on December 4, 1997. KENS-AM was sold off to Disney/ABC in 2003, becoming Radio Disney station KRDY.

KENS is still closely associated with the Express-News, even though the station and newspaper have been under separate ownership for many years. The station shares its main website with the newspaper.

In the mid-1980s, KENS broadcast a short-lived second channel, exclusively on Rogers Cablevision channel 24, called KENS II.

KENS is one of the broadcast homes of the NBA San Antonio Spurs, and has also been the home of game shows Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy! for two decades.

Bob Rogers still is KENS most successful and longest running News Director. Rogers kept KENS in the number one ratings spot for over two decades. He was also responsible for hiring, coaching and helping the careers of many local and national news anchors, reporters and correspondents. He left KENS in the late 90's and retired.

[edit] Digital Television

[edit] Post-analog shutdown

After the analog television shutdown and digital conversion, which is tentatively scheduled to take place on February 17, 2009 ^[1], KENS-TV will move its digital broadcasts to channel 39. ^[2] However, through the use of PSIP, digital television receivers will display KENS- TV's virtual channel as 5.

[edit] Newscasts

As of the end of the February 2007 ratings period, KENS had taken first place for their 10 o'clock newscast. As of the November 2007 ratings period, KENS also took first place in the morning newscasts. KENS is in a spirited battle with KSAT-TV for first place at noon and 6 p.m. newscasts. Rival WOAI-TV is at third place in all time slots.

On January 7, 2008 - As the New Early Show debuted, KENS 5 took the chance and discontinued their Saturday Morning Newscast. Meaning January 5, 2008 was KENS 5's last Saturday Morning Newscast. Around the same time Itza Gutierrez decided to become a Stay-Home Mother and leave the station (whom was the Saturday Morning Newscast Anchor.) KENS also decided to cut their morning newscast from 5am-7am, originally it was 5am-8am.

[edit] Eyewitness Newsreel

A long-running, weeknight segment of the news is the "Eyewitness Newsreel" in which anchor Chris Marrou narrates a faux, old-style newsreel at the end of the 10 p.m. newscast. The Newsreel usually consists of humorous segments of local news juxtaposed with out-of-context snips of CBS news anchors, politicians or celebrities "commenting" on the situation. Marrou writes the segment each weeknight.

[edit] Personalities

[edit] Current On-Air Talent

KENS Anchors

KENS Reporters

KENS Meteorologists

• Bill Taylor: Chief Meteorologist, seen at 5, 6, and 10PM
• Paul Mireles: Morning Meteorologist
• Jared Silverman: Weekend Meteorologist (NWA/AMS)

Sports Anchors/Reporters

• Joe Reinagel: Sports Director
• Dyrol Joyner: Weekend Sports Anchor

[edit] Former On-Air Talent

[edit] News/Station Presentation

[edit] Newscast Titles

• Channel 5 Eyewitness News (1970-1998)
• KENS 5 Eyewitness News (1998-present)

[edit] Station Slogans

• Eyewitness News: San Antonio's Top-Rated (Satellite) Newscast (1980s)
• Coverage You Can Count On (1998-present)
• San Antonio's News Leader (2002-2007)

[edit] External links

• MySA.com
• Query the FCC's TV station database for KENS
• BIAfn's Media Web Database -- Information on KENS-TV