KJRH-TV (channel 2) is a television station in Tulsa, Oklahoma, United States, affiliated with NBC. It is owned by the E. W. Scripps Company alongside Okmulgee-licensed Ion Television outlet KTPX-TV (channel 44). KJRH-TV's studios are located on South Peoria Avenue and East 37th Street in midtown Tulsa, and its transmitter is located near South 273rd Avenue East near Broken Arrow.
History
Early history under Central Plains Enterprises
The VHF channel 2 allocation was contested between two groups, both led by prominent Oklahoma oilmen, that competed for approval by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to be the holder of the construction permit to build and license to operate a new television station on the third commercial VHF allocation to be assigned to Tulsa. The Southwestern Sales Corporation – owned by William G. Skelly, founder of Skelly Oil and the Mid-Continent Oil and Gas Association, and owner of local radio station KVOO (1170 AM, now KTSB) – filed the initial permit application on June 27, 1952, one week before the FCC released a Report and Order reallocation memorandum that lifted a four-year moratorium on new television broadcast license applications. KVOO had first proposed television broadcasts in 1939, when Skelly and then-general manager W. B. Way purchased $35,000 worth of television equipment for experimental purposes. The other early applicant was All-Oklahoma Broadcasting – a consortium that owned radio station KRMG (740 AM) and included, among other investors, Kerr-McGee co-founders Robert S. Kerr (whose wife, Grayce Kerr, owned the same 25.3% level of interest in All-Oklahoma as that held by her State Senator husband) and Dean A. McGee (who owned 12.6% of the company) – filed a separate license application four weeks later on July 25.
The two groups ultimately decided to merge their respective applications; the consolidated entity, Central Plains Enterprises – which was formed as a 50/50 venture between Southwestern Sales Corporation and All-Oklahoma Broadcasting – filed their new permit application for channel 2 into the FCC on February 20, 1953; in order to comply with FCC rules that barred common ownership of two or more radio stations operating on the same broadcast band and to allow the Kerrs and McGee to join Skelly in the venture, All-Oklahoma Broadcasting sold KRMG to the Western Broadcasting Company (then-owner of KWHW in Altus) for $305,000. Central Plains concurrently faced new competition for the channel 2 permit, when two new applicants filed for the frequency. The Fryer Television Company – majority owned by Standard-Fryer Drilling Company founder R. J. Fryer – which, as the UHF Television Company, had originally filed to operate a station on UHF channel 23 (allocation now occupied by Fox affiliate KOKI-TV), chose to modify its construction permit/license application to seek the VHF channel 2 allocation. (This effectively resulted in the channel 23 allocation being granted to Albec Oil Company founder/owner J. Elfred Beck, who launched KCEB on that frequency on March 13, 1954.)
