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KCEN-TV, virtual channel 6, is the NBC affiliate for Waco, Killeen and Temple, Texas. Licensed to Temple, it is owned by London Broadcasting. It was founded in 1953 by Frank W. Mayborn, publisher of the nearby Temple Daily Telegram newspaper. With studio and transmitter on a 25-acre (100,000 m) tract of land one mile (1.6 km) south of Eddy on I-35, KCEN-TV broadcasts locally on digital channel 9, which appears on tuners as channel 6.

KCEN is sister station to KAGS-LD in Bryan, which is reckoned as a semi-satellite of KCEN despite airing separate newscasts and commercials for the Brazos Valley. KCEN serves the western portion of the Waco/Temple/Bryan market while KAGS serves the Brazos Valley.

History

KCEN signed on for the first time on November 1, 1953. It was owned by Frank W. Mayborn, publisher of the Temple Daily Telegram and owner of KTEM radio. Early on, Mayborn realized that Temple/Killeen and Waco were going to be a single television market (although they are separate radio markets). To signify his goal to serve all of Central Texas, he decided to call his new station KCEN-TV (for CENtral Texas) rather than KTEM-TV (for TEMple). It was the first television station to serve the Waco/Temple/Killeen market, and the second television station in Central Texas behind KTBC in Austin by a year.

KCEN signed on with one of the tallest towers in the Southwest, at 830 feet (250 m). The station originally carried programming from all four major networks at the time, but was a primary NBC affiliate. It lost CBS to KWTX-TV in 1955; later that year DuMont halted operations. This left KCEN as an NBC affiliate with a secondary ABC affiliation.

In 1981, KCEN moved to a new 1,924-foot (586 m) tower, expanding its coverage area to almost 29,000 square miles (75,000 km)--one of the largest in the nation. The station now provides at least secondary coverage from the fringes of the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex to the fringes of Austin.

The station switched to a primary ABC affiliation in March 1984, while continuing to carry some NBC programs in off-hours. When KXXV signed on in March 1985, it took over the NBC affiliation. However, that fall, NBC returned to KCEN and KXXV picked up ABC programs.

The station was the first in Central Texas to broadcast closed captioning, in 1989.

KCEN, the Temple Daily Telegram and the Killeen Daily Herald remained under Mayborn family ownership after Frank's death in 1987. In January 2009, a sale of both KCEN and KMAY-LP to London Broadcasting Company of Dallas, Texas was announced, with a purchase price of $26 million. The sale was completed on April 30, 2009.

KCEN broadcasts on cable channel 3 in Waco, Killeen and Temple.

KCEN also maintains business offices at 111 West Central Ave. in Temple, as well as sales and news offices in Killeen and Waco.

KCEN operated a low-powered translator in the Brazos Valley on channel 63 for many years. In 2003, this translator was upgraded to a Class A repeater, KMAY-LP, which switched to digital in 2009 and changed its call letters to KAGS-LD in 2011. On July 3, 2011, London Broadcasting announced that in fall 2011 KAGS would be upgraded to a distinct NBC station for the Bryan/College Station area, with no shared content with KCEN. KAGS began airing separate newscasts in October 2011. On September 26, 2011, Azteca America on 6.3 was replaced with classic programming from Me-TV.

Digital television

The station ended its analog broadcasts on February 17, 2009 — the original date for the analog shutdown in the United States. KCEN's digital branding became KCEN 9. The branding was again changed, to simply KCEN-HD, on February 1, 2010; the station also resumed mapping to channel 6 via PSIP.

News operation

News team

Anchors

• Doug Currin - weeknights at 5, 6 and 10 p.m.
• Nikki Laurenzo - weeknights at 5, 6 and 10 p.m.
• Teal Jennings - weekday mornings KCEN-HD Texas Today
• Kris Radcliffe - weekday mornings KCEN-HD Texas Today
• Tiffany Lundberg weekends at 5, 6, and 10 p.m.; also reporter

Weather team

• Andy Andersen (AMS and NWA Seals of Approval) - chief meteorologist; weeknights at 5, 6 and 10 p.m.
• Miri Marshall - weather forecaster; weekday mornings KCEN-HD Texas Today
• Nick Piesco (AMS and NWA Seals of Approval) - meteorologist; Saturdays at 6, Sundays at 5 and weekends at 10 p.m.

Sports team

• Tyler Hedrick - sports director; weeknights at 6 and 10 p.m.
• Pierre Noujaim - weekends at 6 and 10 p.m.; also sports reporter

Reporters

• Shawn Hobbs - film critic
• Tania Ortega - general assignment reporter; also weekend evening newscast producer
• Rebecca Schleicher - general assignment reporter

References

1. "Eight stations, 5 VHF, 3 UHF, begin commercial operation." Broadcasting - Telecasting, November 2, 1953, pg. 64.
2. "Telecastings". Broadcasting. 106 (11): 74. March 12, 1984. {{cite journal}}: |access-date= requires |url= (help)
3. London Buys Waco NBC Affil for $26M, Harry A. Jessell, TVNEWSDAY, Jan 16 2009
4. Letters for July 3, Bryan/College Station Eagle, July 3 2011
5. Where to Watch Me-TV: KCEN-TV
6. http://www.kcentv.com/?p=3462
7. Meet Out People, KCENTV.com.

External links

• Official site
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• NBC affiliates
• Channel 9 digital TV stations in the United States
• Channel 6 virtual TV stations in the United States
• Television channels and stations established in 1953
• Television stations in Texas
• Me-TV affiliates