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Front Page
KTEN-TV signs award-winning news anchor
By media release
Apr 7, 2006
SHERMAN, TX – KTEN-TV and its parent, Lockwood Broadcasting Group of Hampton, Virginia, announced the signing of former WFAA, Dallas/Fort Worth TV news anchorman Scott Sams.
A multi-year agreement was reached on March 31 where Scott Sams will fill the main anchor role for KTEN’s Evening Newscasts. This agreement was finalized after several weeks of discussion between both parties where it became obvious that this was a perfect match of goals and objectives for both Sams and KTEN. In a signing ceremony at 10 o’clock on April 6, the agreement was executed and made official.
“KTEN-TV and the viewers of our area are very fortunate to have a news professional with the integrity, experience and talent leading our nightly newscasts,” remarked Asa Jessee, KTEN General Manager. “This is truly a once in a life time opportunity for a market of our size.” Jessee added.
Sams will assume the Main Anchor role for KTEN on April 10 where he will join veteran meteorologist, Alan Mitchell, also coming to KTEN in 1995 from a top market (Oklahoma City) in the area.
Many viewers will probably recognize Scott's name and face from his nearly 20 years anchoring news and weather at the ABC station, WFAA in Dallas.
“Scott brings decades of newsroom leadership to KTEN’s main anchor desk,” said KTEN’s news director, Steve Korioth. “North Texas TV viewers have depended on Scott Sams for their news and weather for over two decades.”
“I’ve always loved the North Texas area, and I’m sure I’ll enjoy serving the viewers of North Texas and southeastern Oklahoma,” said Sams. “I feel that the viewers in ‘small town’ Texas and Oklahoma depend on us even more than they do in the big cities.”
“It doesn’t take long after speaking with Scott to realize that he genuinely cares about the viewers of this area and considers it an honor to be a part of their lives,” comments Asa Jessee.
It’s rare when a media outlet generates media attention, but this is certainly one event where it has. There are several events and informational pieces that KTEN has planned to introduce Scott to the community and to give those interested an opportunity to meet him.
About Scott Sams:
Scott Sams has been involved in television all his life. Scott grew up in eastern Tennessee, where his father produced TV commercials and his mother starred in a locally produced version of Romper Room. In fact, Scott first appeared on Romper Room when he was just six weeks old.
In the early 1980's, Scott was Weekend Sports Anchor/Weekday Sports Reporter in Louisville, Kentucky. His time there included 10-hour long "live" shows from Churchill Downs for the Kentucky Derby.
Scott's next stop was back to his hometown of Knoxville, Tennessee, where he was the Main Weather Anchor, Sports Director/Anchor, backup News Anchor, PM Magazine co-host, Music video show host, and news reporter. Scott did it all!
But in June of 1985, Scott made it to the "big time" when he landed a top job in a Top 10 TV market. For almost 20 years, he anchored News, Weather, and Sports at WFAA-TV. Scott anchored every position, on every shift.
In addition, Scott co-created and hosted Good Morning Texas. He also hosted the Neiman Marcus Adolphus Christmas Parade (with coverage on over 300 stations), and hosted College Football Saturday on Southwest Sports Regional Network.
Scott has won three Emmy Awards, two Edward R Murrow awards, two D/FW Air Personality of the Year awards, and numerous other civic, charitable, and corporate awards during his time in Dallas.
About KTEN-TV:
KTEN (also referred to as K-TEN or KTEN News) is the NBC affiliate located in Sherman, Ada, Ardmore market. The station also serves Ardmore, Ada, Durant Oklahoma and Sherman, Denison, Grayson, Fannin, Lamar and Cooke Counties in Texas. KTEN has newsrooms in both Oklahoma and Texas, located respectively at Ardmore and Denison. The station also has the largest television tower in the state of Oklahoma, located in the town Bromide. Noted on the website Wikipedia.org as one of the tallest structures in the world.
History
KTEN, which signed on the air in 1954, is a rarity among small-market TV stations. Although they had an NBC affiliation since its sign-on, it has also served as a primary ABC affiliate for most of its 40-plus years and also had a Fox affiliation during the 1980s, and 1990s. Both ABC and Fox would be dropped by 1998 as they began to focus exclusively on its NBC schedule.
In the Fall of 2006, KTEN-DT one of KTEN’s digital subcarriers, will start airing programming from The CW Television Network.
Newscasts
Weekdays
KTEN News Today - 5:30-7:00AM
KTEN News at Five - 5:00-5:30PM
KTEN News at Six - 6:00-6:30PM
KTEN News at Ten - 10:00-10:35PM
Saturdays and Sundays
KTEN News at Ten - 10:00-10:30PM Saturday, 10:00-10:35PM Sunday
History of KTEN:
KTEN- It all Began with a dream to bring television to the citizens of the area.
Beginning with a dream to bring television to people in southeastern Oklahoma in 1952, the Eastern Oklahoma Television Authority purchased land ten miles north of Ada, OK and using the call letters, KEO, applied for license with the FCC. The FCC responded by first assigning the call letters KEOK and the channel number 12. After re-negotiating, the FCC assigned the channel number 10, and Eastern Oklahoma Television applied for and was granted the call letters KTEN, the first time in television history, that channel numbers had been incorporated into a station’s call letters. On June 1, 1954 KTEN goes on the air and begins broadcasting from its studio in Ada.
Plans for a new studio and production facility began on June 1, 1964, and later that year, the new facilities located at 1600 Arlington in Ada, OK, were dedicated in ceremonies featuring Clint Walker, who at the time, was starring in the ABC western series, “Cheyenne” and Paul Harvey, a well-known journalist and television/radio personality. KTEN also began using videotape in the “sixties” and could offer expanded coverage of high school sports and community interest events, which included “Ardmore Action Month."
The 1970’s brought about restructuring inside and outside of the facility in Ada, OK and plans began for the construction of a new and taller tower. KTEN’s news department expanded to include a remote unit and was able to offer more localized events and information to an even more expansive audience. This decade also established ABC-TV and KTEN-TV in sports and feature programming as the first to bring coverage of the Olympic games and to create a trend in television with the first mini-series “Rich Man, Poor Man.”
In March of 1985, KTEN was purchased by a group on investors from Durant. In October of 1985, KTEN opened offices and studio facilities in Ardmore. Two full time news staff and sales operated out of the studio located in the Ardmore Energy Center. A news bureau and offices were opened in Denison, Texas at the historic Katy Depot in January of 1986 providing KTEN a base of operation in the Sherman-Denison area. With two news reporters, a production photographer and sales, KTEN established itself in this northern Texas area.
In 1984, a new 1800 foot tower was completed and coverage expanded to include the entire Texoma viewing area. KTEN could additionally broadcast to the entire counties of Carter, Marshall, Bryan, Atoka and to over half of Choctaw County in Oklahoma. In Texas, KTEN’s signal covers Cooke, Grayson and Fannin Counties.
In July of 1998, KTEN was purchased by the Lockwood Broadcast Group. Lockwood pledged new beginnings and years of growth and expansion for KTEN as they enter the next century and an exciting new future for the television industry. From that point to the present date, Lockwood has moved KTEN to a position that it has enjoyed throughout its rich history - to the role as the Leader in this market in news, Internet, broadcast, community support and ventures yet known.
On August 1, 2002, KTEN-TV broke ground on its new, 16,000 square foot, state of the art facility and on November 18, 2002, KTEN began broadcasting from its new home at 10 Highpoint Circle in Denison, Texas. (Just off of Highway 75). Leaving behind its former home of 18 years, the historic Katy Depot in Downtown Denison. This move signifies KTEN's continued commitment to the Texoma Area as it enters its next 50 years of service.
On June 1, 2004, KTEN began a year long celebration commemorating its 50 years of broadcasting to the area. Although KTEN has seen several different owners over the past 50 years, it has remained committed to the original goal of its founders - serving the viewers of this area. Over the past 50 years, KTEN has expanded and grown to serve those needs and has kept a steady pace of continued and never ending improvement that has yet to cease. As KTEN enters its next 50 years of service, we re-affirm our founders vision to protect, serve and enhance the lives of those in the area that rely on us for its weather, news, information and entertainment needs and desires.
Once again, KTEN demonstrates its commitment to its viewers with the announcement of plans to expand the services it provides. In July 2006, KTEN will provide full DTV, HDTV and Multiplexing services to the viewers of this area. For the past three years, KTEN has been providing limited DTV services to selected cities in our service area on a test basis.