Content area
Full Text
KAUT-43 will become an affiliate of the new FOX television network MyNetworkTV, completing the reshuffling of the state's second-tier stations.
But in a look to its heritage, KAUT will not follow other national affiliates by branding the station "My Network" with the number 43 tacked on to the end. Louanne Stewart, creative services director for both KFOR NewsChannel 4 and KAUT, said the UHF station originally started by Hollywood cowboy Gene Autry would adopt a new trademarked logo, OK43.
"We think the brand is more valuable to us to be an Oklahoma station," she said.
To capitalize on that, KAUT has created a series of mini- teasers, "video postcards" and other transitional elements featuring a Western-styled voice and Oklahoma themes.
"We think we're establishing something that people will be comfortable with and they'll like," she said. "We have a built-in audience for that type of thing."
This caps a shakeup in the UHF bandwidths that could have imperiled some of the broadcasters.
The blending of the WB and UPN networks into CW - which will debut Sept. 20 on the former WB stations, KOCB-34 in Oklahoma City and KQCW-19 in Tulsa - promised to leave the old UPN affiliates without a source of fresh, polished programming vital for survival.
But Tulsa's KTFO-41, owned by Clear Channel Communications, soon gained affiliation with MyNetworkTV, an upstart network coming Sept. 5 from FOX. That left only the UPN station in Oklahoma...