WKEF

WKEF-TV
Dayton, Ohio <tr><th style="vertical-align: top; text-align: right;">Branding</th><td style="text-align: left;">ABC 22</td></tr><tr><th style="vertical-align: top; text-align: right;">Slogan</th><td style="text-align: left;">Dayton's News Source</td></tr>
Channels	22 (VHF) analog, 51 (UHF) digital
Affiliations	ABC (1966-1980 & since 2004)
Owner	Sinclair Broadcasting Group
Founded	August 22, 1964 <tr><th style="vertical-align: top; text-align: right;">Former callsigns</th><td style="text-align: left;">WONE (1964-1965)</td></tr><tr><th style="vertical-align: top; text-align: right;">Former affiliations</th><td style="text-align: left;">Independent (1964-1966) NBC (1980-2004)</td></tr> <tr><th style="vertical-align: top; text-align: right;">Website</th><td style="text-align: left;">ABC 22 Website</td></tr>

WKEF is a broadcast television station in Dayton, Ohio, affiliated with the ABC network. It broadcasts on channel 22. WKEF is owned by the Sinclair Broadcast Group with its transmitter is located in Dayton. It is the sister station of Fox Broadcasting Company affiliate WRGT-TV.

History

Channel 22 signed on August 22, 1964 as WONE-TV. Conventional wisdom suggested that it would take the ABC affiliation, since it was Dayton's third commercial station. However, it started as an independent station since the Dayton market was decently covered by WKRC-TV in Cincinnati and WTVN-TV (now WSYX) in Columbus. However, ABC wanted its own affiliate in Dayton. As such, beginning in 1965, WONE began running ABC prime time shows and sports, plus any daytime ABC shows that WKRC pre-empted. WONE had no local newscasts at the time.

Soon after the station joined ABC, it was sold to Springfield Television Corporation (owner of WWLP in Springfield, Massachusetts), and renamed WKEF. By the end of the 1970s ABC had finally gained an equal footing with CBS and NBC (with shows such as Happy Days), and was unhappy with the Cincinnati/Dayton arrangement. ABC affiliates in Cincinnati and Columbus were preempting decent amounts of daytime programming, late night shows and some of the weekend kids shows. ABC wanted a station in Dayton that could run its whole schedule and be able to reach Cincinnati and Columbus. It also wanted a station that had local news. WKEF began a newscast in 1979, but this was not enough to save its affiliation with ABC.

So on January 1, 1980 when WDTN's affiliation contract with NBC expired, ABC quickly moved its affiliation there. WKEF was then left to take the NBC affiliation. Unlike its ABC deal, WKEF now ran NBC's entire schedule.

In 1984, the Springfield Television group (WKEF, WWLP and KSTU in Salt Lake City, Utah) was sold to Adams Communications. Adams broke up the group in the late 80s, selling WKEF to KT Communications in 1989. KT, in turn, sold WKEF to Max Television (later Max Media) in 1995.

In 1998, WKEF was sold to Sinclair in a group deal. Sinclair was already managing WRGT owned by Sullivan, and Sinclair moved WRGT's operations to WKEF's studio. In 2001, Sinclair bought most of Sullivan's stations, but could not buy WRGT because the FCC does not allow common ownership of two of the four highest-rated stations in a market. Also, the Dayton market has only six full-power commercial stations — too few to permit duopolies. Accordingly, WRGT was sold to Cunningham Broadcasting, whose stock is almost entirely owned by the Smith family, founders of Sinclair. This effectively gave Sinclair a duopoly in Dayton.

On August 30, 2004 WDTN again took the opportunity to sign up with the more popular network, dropping ABC to switch back to NBC. Thus, as of August 2004, WKEF became an ABC affiliate again. WKEF now runs the entire ABC schedule, though only a few months after becoming an ABC affiliate again, the station, and all other Sinclair-owned ABC affiliates including sister WSYX in Columbus as well as two other ABC affiliates in Ohio, preempted the movie Saving Private Ryan. Its newscast contains some elements of Sinclair's "News Central." In the 1980s, WKEF's news programs were known as 22 Alive! News.

Ratings wise, its newscasts have always been a distant third place behind WHIO-TV and WDTN. On some nights (usually Sundays because of ABC programming) there are times that WKEF is runner-up to WHIO. On June 5,2006, WKEF debuted a morning newscast, which will help them compete with WHIO and WDTN's news departments.

For many years, WKEF produced the daily children's program Clubhouse 22 with hosts Joe Smith, Duffy the Dog, and Dr. Creep (played by Barry Hobart. Dr. Creep was also the host of WKEF's weekly horror movie presentation, Shock Theater.

The Tube

WKEF airs The Tube on their digital substation and was added to Time Warner Cable digital lineup on channel 723.

Logos

WKEF in 1984 under the Adams ownership. The compass in the logo was used in the logos of all stations owned by Springfield Television.

WKEF during its late stages as an NBC affiliate -- used until 2004.

Currently as an ABC affiliate -- since August 2004.

Newscasts

• Weekdays

ABC 22 Good Morning! 5:00 a.m.-7:00 a.m. with updates during ABC's Good Morning America

ABC 22 Dayton's News Source at 6 6:00 p.m.-6:30 p.m.

ABC 22 Dayton's News Source at 11 11:00 p.m.-11:35 p.m.

• Weekends

ABC 22 Dayton's News Source at 6 6:00 p.m.-6:30 p.m.

ABC 22 Dayton's News Source at 11 11:00 p.m.-11:30 p.m.

External links

• DaytonsNewsSource.com
• Query the FCC's TV station database for WKEF

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