History
The station first signed on the air on May 15, 2002, as an affiliate of Pax TV (now Ion Television); the following year, Equity Broadcasting Corporation purchased the station (Equity subsequently sold KQOK [channel 30] to Oklahoma City-based Tyler Media Group, which converted that station into a Telemundo affiliate under the KTUZ-TV call letters). 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 (such as Cox Communications in the Oklahoma City and Tulsa markets), 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 (K69EK [channel 69, later KWDW-LP, KUOK-LP, KOCY-LP, and now KOCY-LD on channel 48] and KCHM-LP [channel 36, now KUOK-CD] in Oklahoma City; KUOK-CA [channel 11] in Norman; and KOKT-LP [channel 20] in Sulphur), originally relayed Univision programming across Oklahoma via a direct simulcast from then-sister station KLRA-LP (now KKYK-CD) 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 (the Oklahoma City repeaters were identified only through text-only IDs placed at the bottom of the screen each half-hour). 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 (now a Telemundo affiliate) 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 (owned by former Equity executive Henry Luken) 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.[2][3] That December, Equity Media Holdings filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection;[4] offers by Luken Communications to acquire Equity-owned stations in six markets were later withdrawn.[5] KUOK and its repeaters were sold at auction to Tyler Media on April 16, 2009,[6] which created a duopoly with KTUZ-TV (which became an affiliate of Univision competitor Telemundo in 2005);
