Oklahoma's First Television Station Channel 4

Channel 4 grew out of a garage. Earl C. Hull and H. S. Richards began radio broadcasts behind Hull's house at 1911 West Ash in spring 1921 as experimental station 5XT, which became WKY on March 16, 1922. Edward K. Gaylord, owner of the Daily Oklahoman, bought it for five thousand dollars in 1928, and the station made money through the early Depression. In November 1939 WKY sponsored an RCA television demonstration in the new Municipal Auditorium, and Gaylord promised the city television as soon as possible. He sold the station in January 1976.

What the plaque says

Oklahoma's First Television Station Channel 4 Engineering pioneers launched the first television broadcast in Oklahoma on June 6, 1949. Prior to the premiere of WKY-TV (Channel 4) on this date, citizens were limited to newspapers and radio to stay informed. Sporadic entertainment programming and news updates filled the early broadcast days on WKY-TV. Images were black-and-white until 1954, when Channel 4 became the first locally owned television station in the nation to transmit its own programs in color. At one time, the station broadcast more hours of color programming than all national networks combined. Channel 4 became known for innovation. In 1950, the station was the first in the nation to use a mobile unit to produce live broadcasts from the field. In 1952, the weather department issued what is now considered the first live on-air tornado warning. The station continued to break new ground in 1999 by transmitting Oklahoma's first digital television signal. Channel 4 has operated under the call signs WKY-TV, KTVY, and KFOR. Since its inception, the station has been recognized nationally and honored for excellence in broadcasting.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Oklahoma City National Memorial & Museum — 6.3 mi
  The outdoor memorial and museum on the site of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building, where 168 people were killed at 9:02 a.m. on April 19, 1995, shaped by the families and survivors.
• First Americans Museum — 7.6 mi
  The museum of the 39 First American nations in Oklahoma today, on the Oklahoma River, with galleries shaped by each nation, Smithsonian objects brought home and a 90-foot mound.
• Oklahoma Territorial Museum and Carnegie Library — 22 mi
  The 1902 Carnegie Library in Guthrie where Oklahoma's statehood was proclaimed in 1907, saved from demolition in 1972 by adding a museum of the seventeen territorial years beside it.
• The Chisholm — 31 mi
  Kingfisher's farming and ranching museum on the Chisholm Trail's stage branch, with a heritage village and Horizon Hill, the mansion a territorial governor built for a capital that never came.

More markers nearby

• Joseph Bradfield Thoburn — 2.6 mi
• Central State College — 6.3 mi
• Delmar Garden — 7.2 mi
• Council Grove — 8.8 mi