KDEB 27 changes to KSFX

The station is now known as KSFX Ozarks Fox, a change Mark Gordon, KSFX vice president and general manager, said better reflects the station’s new image.

The station has stopped referring to itself by the local channel that it falls on – channel 27. “In this era, less than half of our audience watches us on channel 27,” Gordon said. “They watch us on cable on different channels and they watch us on satellite.”

The image makeover also includes a new graphics package, a new jingle by Nick Sibley, an updated news set and a new co-anchor for KSFX news.

Rachel Aram, a graduate of Kickapoo High School, Jan. 17 joined anchor Mark Miller, who has been with the station since 2000 and on the news program since 2004. The position, Gordon said, was due to be filled with or without the other changes at the station. Aram fills the vacancy left by Kelly Rostic, who chose not to renew her contract in December.

New identity

Polly Van Doren-Orr, news director for KOLR and KSFX, said that the time was right to adopt new call letters.

“We knew that we were going to be undergoing a transition, sort of a relaunch if you will, because we were creating a new anchor team and it was time to refresh,” she said. “In television, five years is about what you want to look at in terms of refreshing your look and we felt this was a perfect time to do that as well as change our call letters. Plus there’s just something catchier about KSFX.”

Since the KSFX call letters were already in use by a radio station in New Mexico, KDEB paid an undisclosed fee and signed an agreement giving the TV station permission to use the same letters. Gordon said that KDEB also paid an $85 fee to the Federal Communications Commission for paperwork associated with the change. KSFX radio remains on the air, and Gordon isn’t concerned about possible confusion since the two stations are in different markets.

Dori Allen, promotions producer for KSFX, said that other Fox stations around the country are dropping their channel number from their identities, including Fox Chicago and Fox Charlotte. “(Fox) basically encouraged us to use our call letters and instead of using the call letters we had, we were interested in changing them to something more marketable,” she said.

Aram and Miller have been promoting the station’s changes by visiting area radio stations, including stations owned by Clear Channel, Mid-West and Meyer Communi-cations. Other efforts to educate the public include billboards and in-house advertising.

Van Doren-Orr said that KSFX has 33 full-time and two part-time employees, and about half overlap with the staff of KOLR. Irving, Texas-based Nexstar Broadcasting Group owns KSFX and manages KOLR-10’s operations, while KOLR-10 is owned by Mission Broadcasting. The two stations operate from the same building at 2650 E. Division St.

History

The station first went on the air in 1968 as KMTC, owned by Ken Meyer of Meyer Communications. It was sold to Charles Woods in 1985 and renamed KDEB in honor of his daughter, Deborah Corbett. Corbett is office manager for Corbett Law Firm.

Gordon said that the station was assigned to Bank of America in September 1993, and sold to Petracomm in 1995. That company ran the station for three years, and in May 1998, it was sold to Quorum Broadcasting. Nexstar purchased the station and took possession Jan. 1, 2004.

[[In-content Ad]]