In a multi-year agreement, Randy Garsee will fill the main anchor role for KTEN’s Evening Newscasts, on its NBC affiliate, broadcast on analog channel 10 and digital channel 10.1.
“Randy brings with him decades of experience reporting and anchoring,” remarked Asa Jessee, KTEN General Manager. “Once again, KTEN has landed an outstanding on-air personality for a market of our size.”
In addition to assuming the Main Anchor role on June 20, Garsee will help manage the newsroom, in his role as Managing Editor of the news operations.
Garsee is a native Texan, who has also anchored and reported in a major Oklahoma market, Tulsa.
“Randy’s been all over… and has been very successful everywhere he’s anchored,” said KTEN’s news director, Steve Korioth. “Randy just finished nearly a decade in the Tucson, Arizona, TV market, where he took his station from third place to first. He won’t have that same challenge here, since KTEN News just recently (in May 2007 Nielsen Station Index) outpaced the market’s only competing news station in several key demographics, including Adults 18-34 at both 5pm & 10pm.”
“I love that I’ve been able to return to Texas,” said Garsee. “I grew up in southeast Texas and have always been an avid Dallas Cowboys fan.”
“I know our viewers will welcome Randy with open arms. He’s genuine, and I think our viewers will pick up on that right away,” comments Asa Jessee.
More About Randy Garsee
As a journalist, Garsee has traveled halfway around the world. He was in Kuwait for the first day of the war with Iraq. He's covered gangs in South Central L.A. and white supremacists in Oklahoma. He's covered hurricanes and flooding in Texas, wildfires and illegal immigration in Arizona. He's reported from Mexico and from nearly every state in the southwest and western United States. He recently covered the polygamous prophet, Warren Jeffs, from the prophet's Arizona and Texas compounds to his arrest in Las Vegas last year.
Garsee is a native Texan and former Oklahoma resident who describes his ethnic history this way: an Irish temperament mixed with a French background in a family tree that includes Cherokee and Choctaw branches. For more than two decades, Garsee, an award-winning broadcast journalist, has anchored newscasts in Arizona, Louisiana, Texas and Oklahoma, his hair becoming grayer with each passing year. A native of southeast Texas, Garsee started working in television news immediately following the premature death of disco.
As a broadcast journalist in the U.S. Navy, he traveled extensively aboard the USS Savannah (AOR-4) which was homeported in Norfolk, Virginia. His most memorable military assignment was flying over Beirut, Lebanon to shoot aerial photographs of the war-torn region, even as the helicopter crew evacuated state department personnel from the U.S. Embassy.
After the Navy, Garsee returned to Beaumont, Texas, to work in the production department of KBMT-TV 12. While attending Lamar University Randy worked his way from production to the newsroom to become a general assignments reporter.
In 1990, he was hired by KJRH-TV in Tulsa, Oklahoma. He was soon promoted to the position of featured nightcast reporter and, later, to weekend anchor.
In 1994, Garsee departed the Sooner State and took a plunge in the bayous of Louisiana, where he anchored the evening newscasts for KPLC-TV in Lake Charles.
After three years, Garsee left Lake Charles for a place with no lakes, much less bayous. In 1997, Garsee became the primary evening news anchor for KOLD-TV in Tucson, Arizona.
Garsee has now departed the desert and returned to his Texas-Oklahoma roots. Or, as Garsee says, "It was time to come home."
Through it all, Garsee keeps his philosophy as a news anchor a simple one: "When people watch KTEN, they will receive the most thorough coverage, no matter the story. Moreover, viewers will have fun! All they have to do is tune in to see what I mean."
About KTEN-TV:
"Broadcasting is described as capturing unforgettable moments in time. . . instances that define our history. We've been here, and we'll continue to be here for you. . . when news breaks, as stories unfold. Because the news is more than just stories, it's more than just information beamed over the airwaves, and broadcasting is more than a job. It's a privilege and a mighty responsibility. Television is a dynamic medium with the capability to reach and change millions of lives. With that power, it remains our duty to serve, as we have done and will do forever more."
KTEN- It all Began with a dream to bring television to the citizens of the area.
Beginning with a dream to bring television to people in southeastern Oklahoma in 1952, the Eastern Oklahoma Television Authority purchased land ten miles north of Ada, OK and using the call letters, KEO, applied for license with the FCC. The FCC responded by first assigning the call letters KEOK and the channel number 12. After re-negotiating, the FCC assigned the channel number 10, and Eastern Oklahoma Television applied for and was granted the call letters KTEN, the first time in television history, that channel numbers had been incorporated into a station’s call letters. On June 1, 1954 KTEN goes on the air and begins broadcasting from its studio in Ada.
10 Years Later, KTEN expands
Plans for a new studio and production facility began on June 1, 1964, and later that year, the new facilities located at 1600 Arlington in Ada, OK, were dedicated in ceremonies featuring Clint Walker, who at the time, was starring in the ABC western series, “Cheyenne” and Paul Harvey, a well-known journalist and television/radio personality. KTEN also began using videotape in the “sixties” and could offer expanded coverage of high school sports and community interest events, which included “Ardmore Action Month."
In the 70's KTEN continued to evolve and grow
The 1970’s brought about restructuring inside and outside of the facility in Ada, OK and plans began for the construction of a new and taller tower. KTEN’s news department expanded to include a remote unit and was able to offer more localized events and information to an even more expansive audience. This decade also established ABC-TV and KTEN-TV in sports and feature programming as the first to bring coverage of the Olympic games and to create a trend in television with the first mini-series “Rich Man, Poor Man.”
KTEN's Growth Marches On, with Expanded Coverage and New Studios in Ardmore, OK and Denison, TX
In March of 1985, KTEN was purchased by a group on investors from Durant. In October of 1985, KTEN opened offices and studio facilities in Ardmore. Two full time news staff and sales operated out of the studio located in the Ardmore Energy Center. A news bureau and offices were opened in Denison, Texas at the historic Katy Depot in January of 1986 providing KTEN a base of operation in the Sherman-Denison area. With two news reporters, a production photographer and sales, KTEN established itself in this northern Texas area.
A New Tower is Constructed to Cover KTEN's Expanded Viewing Area in North Texas
In 1984, a new 1800 foot tower was completed and coverage expanded to include the entire Texoma viewing area. KTEN could additionally broadcast to the entire counties of Carter, Marshall, Bryan, Atoka and to over half of Choctaw County in Oklahoma. In Texas, KTEN’s signal covers Cooke, Grayson and Fannin Counties.
In the Late 90's KTEN sees a Re-Birth and a New Era of Expansion and Growth
In July of 1998, KTEN was purchased by the Lockwood Broadcast Group. Lockwood pledged new beginnings and years of growth and expansion for KTEN as they enter the next century and an exciting new future for the television industry. From that point to the present date, Lockwood has moved KTEN to a position that it has enjoyed throughout its rich history - to the role as the Leader in this market in news, Internet, broadcast, community support and ventures yet known.
In The Early Years of 2000, KTEN Expands To Prepare For the Future
On August 1, 2002, KTEN-TV broke ground on its new, 16,000 square foot, state of the art facility and on November 18, 2002, KTEN began broadcasting from its new home at 10 Highpoint Circle in Denison, Texas. (Just off of Highway 75). Leaving behind its former home of 18 years, the historic Katy Depot in Downtown Denison. This move signifies KTEN's continued commitment to the Texoma Area as it enters its next 50 years of service.
KTEN Celebrates 50 Years of Broadcasting To the Viewers of Southern Oklahoma and North Texas
On June 1, 2004, KTEN began a year long celebration commemorating its 50 years of broadcasting to the area. Although KTEN has seen several different owners over the past 50 years, it has remained committed to the original goal of its founders - serving the viewers of this area. Over the past 50 years, KTEN has expanded and grown to serve those needs and has kept a steady pace of continued and never ending improvement that has yet to cease. As KTEN enters its next 50 years of service, we re-affirm our founders vision to protect, serve and enhance the lives of those in the area that rely on us for its weather, news, information and entertainment needs and desires.
KTEN Announces the Launch of DTV, HDTV and Multiplexing Services
Once again, KTEN demonstrates its commitment to its viewers with the launch into the next era of broadcasting - digital! In July 2006, KTEN began providing full DTV, HDTV and Multiplexing services to the viewers of this area. Now offering NBC programming in standard analog broadcast, digital broadcast and High Definition broadcast! (For the past three years, KTEN has been providing limited DTV services to selected cities in our service area on a test basis.)
KTEN adds a new channel and a brand new broadcast network to the Sherman - Ada market
On September 18th, 2006, KTEN gave birth to a brand new channel and a brand new broadcast network for the Sherman - Ada market. On this day, KTEN, with its new digital broadcast offerings, began broadcasting on digital channel 10.2 (26.2) the CW Television Network. The CW Television Network is combination of the former WB Network and UPN Network, both of which ceased operations the day the CW Network launched. KTEN proudly offers this new channel to the viewers of Texoma via over the air broadcast and through nearly 30 cable head-ends throughout the market.