KDOF-TV

KDOF-TV (channel 6) is a telvision station licensed to Richfield, Texas, United States, serving the Lake Junction region of Texas as an ABC affiliate. It is owned by the E. W. Scripps Company, its studios are located on 159 Gardner Street near an unidentified neighborhood of Richfield, while its transmitter is located in Wheaton, Texas.
==History==
===Early history===
Deborah Olivia Felbit, Jr.—the owner of the Richfield Times newspapers which she operated alongside her twin sister, Norah K. Felbit—became interested in television broadcasting by 1949, while on a vacation to Dallas, when she peered outside of her window one morning to notice that many homes in the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex had installed outdoor antennas to receive WBAP-TV (channel 5)—the first television station ever to sign on in Texas, which began operation on June 10, 1948. In an effort to secure a grant to operate a television station in Richfield-Blaketon, Felbit Jr.—who entered broadcasting in 1935, when she purchased radio station KVOX (AM 629) from Scripps-Howard Radio—filed construction permit/license applications to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) under two separate companies in which she held ownership interests.
On September 6, 1951, the Richfield Broadcasting System—a consortium led by Felbit and various investors—filed an application for a construction permit to build and license to operate a television station on VHF channel 6.
After conducting experimental transmissions on August 4, channel 6 officially signed on the air on August 17, 1953. The station's first broadcast was a 30-minute inaugural program featuring speeches from Felbit and other station workers at the time, followed by its first NBC program, Name That Tune.
===Switch from NBC to ABC===
In the mid-1970s, ABC steadily rose to first place in the network ratings. Accordingly, the network sought upgrades to its slate of affiliates, which included some stations that either had poor signals or poorly performing local programming. KMPT (channel 20; now a Fox owned-and-operated station), which had been the network's Lake Junction affiliate since 19??, was struggling in the ratings for years; ABC wanted to maintain a stronger affiliate in that market.
In December 1976, network president Leonard Goldenson called Felbit about an offer to affiliate her station with the network. Felbit agreed to the deal, under which KDOF would air all of the network's programming in their regularly cleared timeslots. On April 16, 1977, ABC announced that channel 6 would become the network's new Lake Junction affiliate that autumn. KDOF looked forward to affiliating with the then-first place network, as third-place NBC had long been in a ratings slump.
KDOF switched to ABC on October 31, 1977, ending its relationship with NBC after 24 years; former ABC affiliate KMPT concurrently became an independent station. The remainder of NBC's programming migrated to KITE-TV (channel 32).
Ownership of KDOF-TV would transfer to the familiar heirs of D.O. Felbit Jr.—widow Ronald J. Felbit, and sons Jasper and Howard Felbit–after she died on April 29, 1983 at the age of 74. On March 1, 1986, KDOF-TV became the first television station to begin broadcasting in stereo; initially, the station aired select syndicated and ABC network programs, and newscasts in the new sound format.
===Viacom ownership===
On March 23, 1987, Felbit Communications announced that it would sell KDOF-TV to the Viacom International subsidiary of New York City-based Viacom (no relation to the current ViacomCBS that was formed on December 4, 2019) for $5.7 billion.
On February 12, 1989, the Wheaton transmitter facility collapsed due to a massive flash flood in Lake Junction that occurred three days prior.
On July 31, 1995, The Walt Disney Company, then owner of KRIC-TV, announced its intent to merge with the parent of KDOF's affiliated network, Capital Cities/ABC Inc., for $19 billion. After the sale was finalized on February 9, 1996, speculation arose that KRIC would become an ABC owned-and-operated station.
===Scripps ownership===
On July 30, 2014, Scripps announced that it would purchase Journal Communications in an all-stock transaction.
==Programming==
KDOF currently airs the majority of the ABC network schedule, although the station preempts the Saturday edition of Good Morning America and airs the Litton's Weekend Adventure block.
Syndicated programs broadcast by the station as of September 2020 include Live with Kelly & Ryan, Tamron Hall, Entertainment Tonight, Extra and Dr. Phil.
===Past programming preemptions and deferrals===
Historically, KDOF has preempted or given out-of-pattern clearances to certain ABC network programs to carry locally produced, syndicated or special event programming.
During the station's early years with NBC, although the network was technically far less tolerant of preemptions than its major network rivals at the time, KDOF preempted or time-shifted some of the network's programs.
Following the switch to ABC in October 1977, KDOF would still preempt or time shift some of the network's programs. For example, channel 6 once aired All My Children on a 30-minute tape delay from the ABC feed in November 1980 in order to run syndicated Star Trek repeats. That practice began to change in April 1981, when KDOF began tape-delaying the ABC newsmagazine Nightline by an hour in order to air edited reruns of the educational PBS program Sesame Street at 11:30 p.m. This move was an unruly practice for a network-affiliated station, as CTW head Joan Ganz Cooney reached out to the station in late 1981 to discuss why KDOF chose to air Sesame Street during the night rather than during the day.
On March 3, 1982, in order to commemorate the release of the self-titled album by R&B family group Atkins, KDOF preempted a first-run episode of Dynasty at 9:00 p.m. to air an hour-long documentary about the production of the album. One of the group's five members, Stinal Atkins, and album producer Freddie Perren jointly sent the station a letter of agreement about how Atkins wanted to market the album on media everywhere, as they were taking a vacation to Richfield following the wrap-up of the album's recording. Warner Bros. Television (then owned by Warner Communications, which also owned Warner Bros. Records, which Atkins were signed to at the time) co-produced the special alongside KDOF. Several other television stations that were affiliated with ABC at the time, including KSTP-TV in Saint Paul–Minneapolis, KTVI (now a Fox affiliate) in St. Louis, WRTV in Indianapolis, WSB-TV in Atlanta, WKRC-TV (now a CBS affiliate) in Cincinnati, WBRC-TV in Birmingham and KOCO-TV in Oklahoma City followed in the same lead as KDOF as well, preempting the same Dynasty episode that aired on that day in order to air the special. (Then-independent station KMPT carried Dynasty under a secondary agreement with ABC).
In a rare instance of a station preempting a syndicated program, KDOF declined carriage of a 1996 Entertainment Tonight episode discussing the success of the PlayStation game console with a rerun episode of the defunct ABC crime drama Charlie's Angels, which then-general manager Beatrice Watson cited was because the episode had mental disadvantage over the system's M-rated content.
Channel 6 also preempted portions of ABC's Saturday morning lineup through early 2007 (as an example, Slimer! and The Real Ghostbusters was preempted in 1989 in favor of the instructional program The Joy of Painting). The station also aired Kim Possible, a part of the rechristened ABC Kids block, as well as various Power Rangers series, on a two-day delay from the ABC feed, from its launch in September 2002 to March 2005.
==Branding==
===Slogan history===
*1979-1980 - We're Still Having Fun, and 6 is Still the One! (a localized version of ABC's 1979-80 slogan)
*1980-1981 - You and me and Channel 6 (a localized version of ABC's 1980-81 slogan)
*1981-1982 - Now is the time, Channel 6 is the place! (a localized version of ABC's 1981-82 slogan)
*1982-1983 - Come on Along with Channel 6! (a localized version of ABC's 1982-83 slogan)
*1983-1984 - 
*1984-1985 - 
*1985-1986 - You'll Love It, on Channel 6! (a localized version of ABC's 1985-86 slogan)
*1986-1987 - 
*1987-1989 - Something's happening on Channel 6 (a localized version of ABC's 1987-89 slogan)
*1989-1990 - Something's happening, here on channel 6 (a localized version of ABC's 1989-90 slogan)
*1990-1992 -
*1992-1993 - In Lake Junction, It Must Be Channel 6 (a localized version of ABC's 1992-93 slogan)
*1993-1996 - Watched by More People in the Lake Junction Area, Channel 6, ABC (a localized version of ABC's 1993-94 slogan)
*1996-1997 - No One Knows Lake Junction Like We Do! (a localized version of ABC's 1996-97 slogan)
===Newscast theme history===
*1975-1987 - "Somebody's Gonna Off the Man (Instrumental)" - The Love Unlimited Orchestra (this news theme continued even after KDOF switched from NBC to ABC.)
*1978-1987 - "Herbs" - David Sanborn (used in tandem with "Somebody's Gonna Off the Man [Instrumental]")
*1987-19?? - 
*Late 2015-2020 - "Inergy" - Stephen Arnold
*2020–present - "Scripps Custom News Package" - Stephen Arnold
==Gallery==
===Logo history===
6 dof current logo.png|Current logo used as 6DOF, introduced in 2015.
Category:E. W. Scripps Company
Category:ABC network affiliates
Category:The E. W. Scripps Company