WKEF

From Freepedia

WKEF (ABC)
Slogan: Your Local News Source
Dayton, Ohio
Channel 22 Digital channel - 51
Owner	Sinclair Broadcasting Group
Founded	1964
Signal Radius	Dayton, Ohio
Transmitter location	Dayton
Callsign Meaning	WKEF was originally a sister station of WKET (Channel 16, now WPTD), whose call sign came from the name of the city of KETtering
Address	1731 Soldiers Home-West Carrollton Rd. Dayton, Ohio 45418
Website:	www.wkef22.com

WKEF is a broadcast television station in Dayton, Ohio, affiliated with the ABC network. It broadcasts on channel 22. WKEF is owned by the Sinclair Broadcast Group with its transmitter is located in Dayton. It is the sister station of Fox 45 WRGT in Dayton.

Channel 22 signed on in 1964 as WONE TV. They had an independent general entertainment schedule. ABC though wanted some of their shows to air locally in Dayton though an ABC affiliate out of Cincinnati 45 miles south and Columbus 60 miles east reached Dayton. So in the late 60's WONE TV took ABC prime time shows and sports and whatever ABC shows that WKRC TV in Cincinnati did not run. 22 WONE had no local newscasts at the time.

In 1975 the station was sold to Springfield TV and renamed WKEF. By 1978 ABC was unhappy with the Cincinnati/Dayton arrangement. ABC affiliates in Cincinnati and Columbus were preempting decent amounts of daytime programming, late night shows, and some of the weekend kids shows. ABC wanted a station in Dayton that could run all of the ABC preempted shows and be able to reach Cincinnati and Columbus. Plus they wanted a station that had local news.

So in 1978, when WDTN's affiliation contract with NBC expired, WDTN (Channel 2) took the opportunity to take ABC affiliation to take advantage of the network's popularity at the time (with shows such as Happy Days). WKEF was then left to sign on with NBC, WDTN's former network. WDTN agreed to run ABC's entire schedule except for the 2 & 3 PM weekday soaps which run in both Columbus and Cincinnati. NBC went to WKEF and unlike its ABC deal WKEF 22 now ran NBC's entire schedule.

In 1989 WKEF 22 was sold to Adams TV. In 1998 it was sold again to Sinclair in a group deal. Sinclair was already managing Fox 45 WRGT owned by Sullivan. In 2001 Sinclair also bought Fox 45 WRGT.

In 2004, WDTN again took the opportunity to sign up with the more popular network, dropping ABC to switch back to NBC. Thus, as of August 2004, WKEF became an ABC affiliate again. WKEF now runs the entire ABC schedule.

Broadcast television in the Dayton market
WDTN 2 (NBC) - WHIO 7 (CBS) - WPTD 16 (PBS) - WKEF 22 (ABC) - WBDT 26 (i/The WB) - WRGT 45 (Fox)