KAKE

KAKE (channel 10) is a television station in Wichita, Kansas, United States, affiliated with ABC and owned by Lockwood Broadcast Group. The station's studios are located on West Street in northwestern Wichita, and its transmitter is located in rural northwestern Sedgwick County (on the town limits of Colwich).

KAKE serves as the flagship of the KAKEland Television Network (KTN), a regional network of eight stations (three full-power, two low-power, two translators and one digital replacement translator) that relay ABC network shows and other programming 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 (the "-TV" suffix was dropped in 2010). The television station was started up by KAKE Broadcasting Company, owner of AM radio station KAKE (AM 1240, now KNSS at AM 1330). It has always been an ABC affiliate.

KAKE-TV and ABC programs were seen in the late 1950s and early 1960s on two additional stations in western Kansas: KTVC (channel 6) at Ensign,[1]

News operation

KAKE presently broadcasts 34 hours of locally produced newscasts each week (with 5 1/2 hours each weekday, 3 1/2 hours on Saturdays and three hours on Sundays). 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 second-place station in the Wichita–Hutchinson market.

In January 2011, KAKE expanded its weekday morning newscasts to 2 1/2 hours, with the addition of a half-hour at 4:30 am, becoming the first station in the Wichita–Hutchinson market to expand its morning newscast to a pre-5 a.m. timeslot.[10] On July 17, 2011, beginning with its 5:30 p.m. newscast, KAKE became the second television station in the Wichita–Hutchinson market (after KWCH) to begin broadcasting its local newscasts in high definition (KSNW remained the only station in the market whose newscasts were not produced in HD, broadcasting them in widescreen enhanced definition until January 27, 2014, with weather segments only broadcasting in high definition prior to that). With the change, the station introduced a new graphics package, a custom news music package (composed by Aircast Custom Music), and a new station logo that emphasizes the long used "KAKEland" sub-branding for its network of satellite and repeater stations.[11] When KAKE made the switch to HD, it also began using automated production for its newscasts. Like other Gray stations at the time, it used Ross OverDrive automation (still in use today). KAKE discontinued its half-hour 4 p.m. newscast in September 2011, due to a lack of a solid syndicated programming lead-out for the program.[10] A 4 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 to 9 am.[12]

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.

In October 2019, it was announced that KAKE would assume production of the 9 p.m. newscast for Fox-affiliated station KSAS-TV beginning on January 1, 2020, with Katie Taube assuming it as anchor; the newscast had been produced by KSNW.

Notable former on-air staff

Jonathan Coachman – sports anchor/reporter, 1997–1999[13]
Steve Doocy – host of PM Magazine[14]
Tony Laubach – meteorologist (2018–2021)
Susan Peters – anchor (1996–2016)

callsign	KAKE
location	Wichita–Hutchinson, Kansas
country	United States
city	Wichita, Kansas
digital	10 (VHF)
virtual	10
branding	KAKE (pronounced "cake") MeTV Kansas (10.2)
network	KAKEland Television Network
affiliations	10.1: ABC for others, see
owner	Lockwood Broadcast Group
licensee	Knoxville TV LLC
airdate	October 19, 1954
former callsigns	KAKE-TV (1954–2010)
former channel numbers	Analog: 10 (VHF, 1954–2009) Digital: 21 (UHF, 2000–2009)
callsign meaning	The word "cake" (sic)
translators	see
facility id	65522
erp	56.5 kW
haat	309.8 m
coordinates	37.78136°N, -97.51919°W
licensing authority	FCC
website	kake.com

History

News operation

Notable former on-air staff

Technical information and subchannels

Analog-to-digital conversion

Satellites and translators

External links

References