History
Channel 10 signed on the air October 3, 1961 as KMED-TV, owned by Ray Johnson and his company, Radio Medford, Inc., along with KMED-AM 1440. Several groups contended for the second television station in the area, but Radio Medford received a substantial assist from Bill Smulin, owner of KTVM (now KOBI), who offered Radio Medford space on KTVM's tower. KMED-TV was an NBC affiliate, since KMED-AM had been an NBC radio affiliate since 1937. It also shared ABC with KTVM.
In 1963, the station started a joint news department with its radio sister. KMED-AM had set up the first full radio news department between Portland and San Francisco in 1957.
In 1966, the station moved to a new tower on Mount Ashland, which added Klamath Falls to its city-grade coverage. It is the highest transmitting tower in the Pacific Northwest, with over 132,000 watts of power. 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. In 1981, Johnson sold KTVL to Freedom 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 become KTVZ in Bend, Oregon.
In 1983, KTVL traded affiliations with KOBI and became a CBS affiliate, though it continued to carry some ABC programming until KDRV signed on a year later. Kingsley Kelley currently serves as the station's general manager.
Freedom announced on November 2, 2011 that it would bow out of television and sell its stations, including KTVL, to Sinclair Broadcast Group. On April 2, 2012, Sinclair took over official ownership of the station as shown at their website.
Read more about this topic: KTVL
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