KAKE (TV)


KAKE, virtual and VHF digital channel 10, is an ABC-affiliated television station licensed to Wichita, Kansas, United States. The station is owned by Lockwood Broadcast Group. KAKE's studios are located on West Street in northwestern Wichita, and its transmitter is located in rural northwestern Sedgwick County. On cable, the station is available in standard definition on Cox Communications and AT&T U-verse channel 10, and in high definition on Cox digital channel 2010 and U-verse channel 1010.
On cable, the station is available on Cox Communications channel 10 in both standard and high definition, and on AT&T U-verse channels 10 and 1010.
KAKE also serves as the flagship of the KAKEland Television Network, a regional network of eight stations that relay ABC network programming and other programs provided by KAKE across central and western Kansas, as well as bordering counties in Colorado and Oklahoma. 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.

History

The station first signed on the air on October 19, 1954 as KAKE-TV. It originally operated as a primary NBC and secondary ABC affiliate, taking both networks from KTVH. Channel 10 lost the NBC affiliation after KEDD signed-off on April 30, 1956 and KARD-TV assumed the full-time affiliation, leaving it exclusively affiliated with ABC. KEDD's shut down and the consequent move of NBC to KARD-TV, coupled with the loss of the NBC affiliation from KAKE resulted in Wichita becoming one of the smallest U.S. cities to have three television stations that each maintained exclusive affiliations with one of the major networks.
KAKE-TV and ABC programs were seen in the late 1950s and early 1960s on two additional stations in western Kansas: KTVC at Ensign, which signed on August 1, 1957, and KAYS-TV in Hays, which took to the air in 1958. The stations branded as the "Golden K Network". However, KAKE would lose both stations when they defected to CBS in 1961 and 1962. On October 28, 1964, KAKE signed on KUPK-TV in Garden City to serve as a satellite station for southwestern Kansas.
During the 1970s, KAKE received letters, poems and packages from the "BTK" serial killer. One claimed responsibility for several of the BTK murders; another contained clues about an intended victim. During an interview with Wichita's police chief in the late 1970s, subliminal messages were broadcast on KAKE to convince the BTK killer to turn himself in; the effort was unsuccessful. In 2004 and 2005, the BTK killer once again sent letters to KAKE – one included a word puzzle, while another expressed concern about the colds that anchors Susan Peters and Jeff Herndon had suffered at the time. Park City resident Dennis Rader was eventually arrested and convicted of the murders.
In 1979, the station was sold to the San Francisco-based Chronicle Publishing Company, run by the de Young family, who also owned KRON-TV in San Francisco and WOWT-TV in Omaha, Nebraska; KRON, WOWT and KAKE and its translators all have facility IDs in the same range. In 1987, Chronicle purchased KLBY in Colby, an independent 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 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 to LIN TV. Almost as soon as the sale was finalized, LIN turned around and traded KAKE and WOWT to Benedek Broadcasting in a cash deal, in exchange for NBC affiliate WWLP in Springfield, Massachusetts. The acquisition of KAKE and WOWT could be seen as the ultimate undoing for the financially challenged Benedek, which in 2002 declared for Chapter 7 bankruptcy; the company then sold most of its stations, including KAKE and WOWT, to Atlanta-based Gray Television. Another translator shuffle occurred on August 15, 2003, as three of the station's low-power repeaters changed channel allocations: K20BU in Russell moved to channel 38 as K38GH, K22CP in Salina moved to channel 51 as K51GC, and K69DQ in Great 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 of Schurz Communications, including rival KWCH, a station that Gray intends to retain. On October 1, Gray announced that it would sell KAKE to Lockwood Broadcast Group, and in return receive WBXX-TV in Knoxville and $11.2 million. On January 1, 2016, Lockwood took the operations of the stations via Local Marketing Agreement. The sale was completed on February 1.

Satellite stations and translators

To reach viewers throughout the 69 counties comprising the Wichita-Hutchinson Plus Designated Market Area, KAKE extends its over-the-air coverage area through a network of eight full-power, low-power and translator stations encompassing much of the western two-thirds of Kansas, branded as the KAKEland Television Network. Nielsen Media Research treats KAKE and its satellites as one station in local ratings books, using the identifier name KAKE+.
Garden City satellite KUPK maintains a separate studio facility, which houses its Western Kansas newsroom, and produces a local news insert that airs nightly during simulcasts of KAKE's Wichita-based newscasts on KUPK and KLBY.
The KAKEland WeatherPlex, which is based in the main news set at KAKE's West Street studio in Wichita, can provide live continuous severe weather coverage to any combination of its five broadcast zones.
  1. KAKE and its DTV Replacement translator - south-central Kansas, including Wichita and Hutchinson
  2. KUPK - southwest Kansas, including Dodge City and Garden City
  3. KLBY - northwest Kansas, including Goodland and Colby
  4. KHDS - north-central Kansas, including Salina
  5. KGBD-LD and its K25CV-D/K33NP-D translators - North Central Kansas, including Great Bend, Hays, and Russell
As an example, if a tornado is in progress near Colby, live continuous storm coverage will be carried exclusively on KLBY, while regularly scheduled programming is carried on KAKE and each of its other repeaters.

Full-power stations

These stations mostly rebroadcast KAKE. However, their full-power license allows them to broadcast different programming and commercial content, when desired.
StationCity of licenseRF
channel		Virtual
channel		First air dateCall letters'
meaning		ERPHAATFacility IDTransmitter coordinatesPublic license information
KUPK1 2
13 13 KUP-KAKE
63 kW65535
KLBY3 4 5
Colby17 4 KoLBY
625 kW65523

Notes:
The following stations performed a flash-cut when converting to digital. The translators on channels 70 to 83 moved in 1988, and many moved again on August 15, 2003.

Low-power stations

These stations mostly rebroadcast KAKE. However, their low-power license allows them to broadcast different programming and commercial content, when desired.
StationCity of licenseChannelCall letters'
meaning		ERP
''		HAAT
Facility IDTransmitter coordinatesPublic license information
KHDS-LD6 7
Salina29 15 kW65527
KGBD-LD8 9
Great Bend30 K-Great BenD15 kW65534

Notes:
These stations can only rebroadcast KGBD-LD, due to their translator classification.
StationCity of licenseChannelFirst air dateERPHAATFacility IDTransmitter coordinatesPublic license information
K25CV-D10Hays25 8.9 kW65533
K33NP-D11Russell33 7.2 kW65529

The FCC determined that after the digital transition, some full-power television stations would not be able to maintain the same signal coverage areas as their analog signals did, resulting in gaps in coverage. It created the "Replacement Digital Television Translator Service" to assist qualifying full-power stations. These are associated with, given the same call letters, cannot be transferred, and are renewed/assigned along with the station's main license.
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. Some viewers using indoor "set-top antennas", which by the nature of their compact design perform better with UHF signals, had difficulty receiving the station's digital signal after it "moved" to VHF channel 10. The translator signed on the air on March 4, 2010.
This station can ONLY rebroadcast KAKE, due to its translator classification.
StationCity of licenseRF
channel		Virtual
channel		First air dateCall letters’
meaning		ERP
HAAT
Facility IDTransmitter Coordinates
KAKEWichita21 10 sounds like
"cake"		15 kW65522

Channel 70+ translators no longer in service

Digital television

Digital channels

The station's digital signal is multiplexed:
ChannelVideoAspectPSIP Short NameProgramming
10.1720pKAKE-DTMain KAKE programming / ABC
10.2480iKAKE-DTMeTV

On September 8, 2012, KAKE began carrying the classic television network MeTV on its second digital subchannel.

Analog-to-digital conversion

KAKE shut down its analog signal, over VHF channel 10, on February 17, 2009, the original target date in which full-power television stations in the United States were to transition from analog to digital broadcasts under federal mandate. The station's digital signal relocated from its pre-transition UHF channel 21 to VHF channel 10 for post-transition operations.

Programming

KAKE broadcasts the entire ABC schedule, except for program preemptions for breaking news or severe weather coverage. Syndicated programs currently broadcast by KAKE include Dr. Oz, Rachael Ray, Modern Family and Entertainment Tonight.

News operation

KAKE presently broadcasts 34 hours of locally produced newscasts each week. 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 #2 station in the Wichita-Hutchinson Market.
In January 2011, KAKE expanded its weekday morning newscasts to 2½ hours, with the addition of a half-hour at 4:30 a.m., becoming the first station in the Wichita-Hutchinson market to expand its morning newscast to a pre-5:00 a.m. timeslot. On July 17, 2011, beginning with its 5:30 p.m. newscast, KAKE became the second television station in the Wichita-Hutchinson market to begin broadcasting its local newscasts in high definition. With the change, the station introduced a new graphics package, a custom news music package, and a new station logo that emphasizes the long used "KAKEland" sub-branding for its network of satellite and repeater stations. When KAKE made the switch to HD, it also began using automated production for its newscasts. Like other Gray station's at the time, it used Ross OverDrive automation. KAKE discontinued its half-hour 4:00 p.m. newscast in September 2011, due to a lack of a solid syndicated programming lead-out for the program. A 4:00 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 8:00 to 9:00 a.m.
In 2018, KAKE ended production of the political talk show This Week in Kansas and the Sunday night legal advice program Lawyer on the Line.

Notable current on-air staff