KLTV to air ‘Star Spangled Banner’ at end of broadcast day

TYLER, Texas (KLTV) - If you’re old enough to remember when stations “signed off” the air at the end of the day, you probably remember the tradition of playing the National Anthem at sign off. It’s a tradition that waned as most stations moved to 24 hour programming.

KLTV 7 is proud of our country, and of the men and women who serve or have served, so today, KLTV joins our sister Gray Television stations in 93 markets across the nation to end each broadcast day by playing our nation’s anthem, The Star-Spangled Banner. Gray Media Group's Executive Chairman and CEO, Hilton Howell, announced the initiative last week at the broadcast company's annual meeting of news directors.

Reina Özbay, nine, of South Florida has been inspiring crowds with her performances since she was four. Her angelic soprano voice is classically trained, and she studies opera and musical theater. A gifted film and theatre actress with uncanny comedic timing, she made her professional stage debut at the age of seven at South Florida’s Stage Door Theatre.

She landed her first guest starring role at the age of nine as Abigail in “The Chosen,” the number one crowdfunded film/TV project in history. When not performing, Reina enjoys tennis, swimming, bike riding and drawing.

Also, her mother told us a story that “her birthday is July 3 and the evening she was born there was a massive fireworks display outside of the hospital window at the Milwaukee lakefront because they always did the big one on the 3rd - so it’s fun that she’s singing this song.”

You can hear the Star Spangled Banner seven days a week during the traditional overnight/signoff hours. The tune will play in the early morning hours before Good Morning East Texas. And on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday it will play after the repeat of KLTV 7 News at 10 in the 12:00am hour.

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