KUOK
KUOK, virtual channel 36, is a Univision-affiliated television station licensed to Woodward, Oklahoma, United States. The station is owned by the Oklahoma City-based Tyler Media Group. KUOK's transmitter is located near State Highway 34 in rural southwestern Woodward County.
KUOK-CD, virtual and UHF digital channel 36, is a low-powered, Class A television station licensed to Oklahoma City that rebroadcasts KUOK's signal across the Oklahoma City metropolitan area. This station's transmitter is located between Southeast 50th Street and Santa Fe Avenue in southern Oklahoma City. Even though KUOK and KUOK-CD maintain digital signals of their own, their combined broadcast range does not reach the entire Oklahoma City market. Therefore, KUOK is simulcast in high definition on the second digital subchannel of Shawnee-licensed sister station, Telemundo affiliate and Tyler Media flagship KTUZ-TV from its transmitter near 86th Street and Ridgeway Road in northeast Oklahoma City. On cable, KUOK is available on Cox Communications channel 21 and AT&T U-verse channel 36.
KUOK, KUOK-CD and KTUZ are also sisters to low-powered, Oklahoma City-licensed Estrella TV affiliate KOCY-LP. All four outlets share studios near Southeast 51st Street and Shields Boulevard in south Oklahoma City.
History
The station first signed on the air in 2002 as an affiliate of Pax TV ; the following year, Equity Broadcasting Corporation purchased the station. On May 8, 2004, KUOK became a Univision affiliate, the first affiliate of the Spanish language network in the state of Oklahoma; it also served as the full-power flagship of a six-station bi-state network collectively branded as "Univision Arkansas-Oklahoma". Prior to the affiliation switch, Univision had previously been only receivable via local cable providers within the state, which carried the Spanish language network's programming from its national feed; that feed was eventually replaced by a direct fiber optic feed of KUOK – whose schedule now mirrors the national feed outside of local advertising, news inserts and occasional paid programming substitutions, and provided improved reception of the station throughout the market than that receivable over-the-air prior to the digital transition – from the station's studios.KUOK and the three low-power stations that also Equity acquired to become its translators, originally relayed Univision programming across Oklahoma via a direct simulcast from then-sister station KLRA-LP in Little Rock, Arkansas, including local commercials from the Little Rock area that were inserted by that station during national commercial breaks and KLRA-LP's station identification bumpers. In March 2005, KUOK – though still programmed via satellite from Equity's headquarters in Little Rock – discontinued the KLRA-LP simulcast, and began carrying advertising for businesses within the Oklahoma City market and separate station promotions.
On June 25, 2008, Equity announced that it would sell KUOK and its low-power repeaters—along with Univision affiliates KEYU in Amarillo, Texas, KUTW-LP/KWKO-LP in Waco, Texas, WLZE-LP/WEVU-CA in Fort Myers, Florida; and WUMN-CA in Minneapolis–Saint Paul—to Luken Communications for $25 million, with a contingency to reduce the sale price to $17.5 million if Luken closed its purchase on all of the stations simultaneously. That December, Equity Media Holdings filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection; offers by Luken Communications to acquire Equity-owned stations in six markets were later withdrawn. KUOK and its repeaters were sold at auction to Tyler Media on April 16, 2009, which created a duopoly with KTUZ-TV ; this placed KUOK in the unique position of being the junior partner in a duopoly with a Telemundo affiliate, a rarity given that Univision is the longer established and higher rated nationally of the two networks.
Digital television
Digital channel
As the station's original construction permit was granted after the Federal Communications Commission finalized the DTV allotment plan on April 21, 1997, the station did not receive a companion channel for its digital signal. Instead, at the end of the digital conversion period for full-service television stations, KUOK would have been required to turn off its analog signal and turn on its digital signal.On December 8, 2008, KUOK's then-owner Equity Media Holdings filed a petition for bankruptcy relief under Chapter 11 of the federal bankruptcy code. As a result, the station was required to obtain post-petition financing and court approval before digital facilities were to be constructed, and had to cease its analog signal on February 17, 2009, regardless of whether digital facilities were operational by that date. The station filed an authority to remain silent if required by the FCC.
While the DTV Delay Act extended this deadline to June 12, 2009, Equity had applied for an extension of the digital construction permit in order to retain the broadcast license after the station went dark. The main KUOK signal was later added as a digital subchannel of Telemundo-affiliated sister station KTUZ-TV for viewers in Oklahoma City with an over-the-air digital receiver in 2011. In December 2011, KCHM-CA ended analog operations and flash-cut its signal to digital, allowing Oklahoma City viewers who previously lost access to the station following the digital transition to view the station over-the-air; the KUOK-CD signal covers a 32-mile radius that includes the entire Oklahoma City metropolitan area, although reception is spotty in some areas of the city.
Newscasts
From 2005 until May 2008, Equity Broadcasting produced Spanish-language newscasts for KUOK, titled Noticias Univision Oklahoma; the newscasts aired at 5:00 and 10:00 p.m. weeknights, consisting of a single broadcast that was repeated later in the evening. This replaced now-former sister station KLRA-LP's Little Rock-centered newscast Noticias Univision Arkansas, which ran in the 5:00 and 10:00 p.m. timeslots until KUOK discontinued the KLRA-LP station simulcast. While KUOK maintained its own locally based full-time reporters and photographers, most of the newscast segments were produced out of studios located at Equity's headquarters in Little Rock; as with the newscasts that Equity produced for its other Univision affiliates around the country, the program consisted of nine minutes of local news and weather segments, accompanied by pre-recorded national and international news and sports segments produced for inclusion in all of the broadcasts. As a result of corporate cutbacks spurred by the company's financial issues, Equity discontinued the newscasts it produced for all six of its Univision affiliates on June 6, 2008.Since becoming a sister station to KTUZ-TV, KUOK has continued not to offer any full-scale news programming of its own and does not simulcast KTUZ's 5 and 10 p.m. weeknight newscasts ; in lieu of local newscasts, KUOK currently airs half-hour comedy programs broadcast by Univision at 5:00 p.m., and the network's late night newsmagazine series Primer Impacto Extra at 10:00 p.m. In addition, it runs a station identification slide that features a seven-day weather forecast for Oklahoma City which runs at approximately the top and bottom of each hour during station breaks, along with news and weather updates on weekday mornings airing between 6:25 and 8:25 a.m. during Despierta América.
Translators
KUOK operates a translator, which is licensed to and serves the immediate Oklahoma City area:| Station | Channels | First air date | Callsign meaning | Former callsigns | Former affiliations | ERP | HAAT | Facility ID | Transmitter Coordinates |
| KUOK-CD | 36 | 1991 | Derived from parent station | K59EO KCHM-LP KCHM-CA KCHM-CD | unknown | 7.33 kW | 14885 |
KUOK operated KOKT-LP in Sulphur as a translator from 2004 until 2011, when that station ceased operations. Prior to affiliating with Univision, KOKT-LP operated as an independent station from 1994 to 1995, before becoming the UPN affiliate for the Ada, Oklahoma-Sherman, Texas television market between 1995 and 2004; however Oklahoma City area and North Texas editions of TV Guide claimed that the market's NBC affiliate KTEN ran select UPN programs as an additional affiliation from 1995 to 2002. Oklahoma City sister station KOCY-LD also operated as a KUOK translator from 2004 to 2012. Now-defunct KUOK-CA in Norman served as a translator of KUOK from 2004 to 2008, when it affiliated with LAT TV.