KETK-TV
KETK-TV (channel 56) is a television station licensed to Jacksonville, Texas, United States, serving as the NBC affiliate for East Texas. It is owned by Nexstar Media Group alongside Tyler-licensed low-power MyNetworkTV affiliate KTPN-LD (channel 48); Nexstar also provides certain services to Longview-licensed Fox affiliate KFXK-TV (channel 51) under a shared services agreement (SSA) with White Knight Broadcasting. The three stations share studios on Richmond Road (at Loop 323) in Tyler; KETK-TV's transmitter is located near FM 855 in unincorporated northwestern Cherokee County.
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| City | Jacksonville, Texas |
| Channels |
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| Branding | KETK NBC; KETK News |
| Programming | |
| Subchannels |
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| Ownership | |
| Owner |
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Sister stations | KTPN-LD, KFXK-TV, KFXL-LD |
| History | |
First air date | March 9, 1987 |
Former channel number(s) | Analog: 56 (UHF, 1987–2009) |
Call sign meaning | "Keeping East Texas [K]overed" |
| Technical information | |
Licensing authority | FCC |
| Facility ID | 55643 |
| ERP | 1,000 kW |
| HAAT | 458.8 m (1,505 ft) |
| Transmitter coordinates | 32°3′41″N 95°18′51″W |
| Links | |
Public license information | |
| Website | www |
KETK-TV began broadcasting in March 1987. Its sign-on gave East Texas full affiliates of all of the Big Three television networks for the first time; several groups had attempted to start NBC affiliates in the market in the preceding years. Texas American Broadcasting, the founding owner, sold the station to Lone Star Broadcasting, a group headed by general manager Phil Hurley in 1989. That company launched KLSB in Nacogdoches, which at first served to rebroadcast most of the station's programming in the Nacogdoches–Lufkin area.
Lone Star Broadcasting sold KETK-TV to Max Media in 1997. Max Media sold its stations to Sinclair Broadcast Group the next year, but KETK-TV was small and geographically isolated from its other stations, so Sinclair leased and then sold it to regional broadcaster Communications Corporation of America (ComCorp). KETK continued to lease KLSB until it was sold in 2004 and relaunched as separate CBS affiliate KYTX. Nexstar acquired the ComCorp stations at the start of 2015. The station is generally the second-rated outlet for local news in the market, behind longtime market leader KLTV and KTRE.