An independent station is a broadcast station, usually a television station , not affiliated with a larger broadcast network . As such, it only broadcasts syndicated programs it has purchased; brokered programming, for which a third party pays the station for airtime; and local programs that it produces itself.
107-638: KCAL-TV (channel 9) is an independent television station in Los Angeles, California , United States. It is owned by the CBS News and Stations group alongside CBS West Coast flagship KCBS-TV (channel 2). The two stations share studios at the Radford Studio Center on Radford Avenue in the Studio City section of Los Angeles; KCAL-TV's transmitter is located atop Mount Wilson . Channel 9 signed on
214-521: A block of animated series that UPN contracted Disney to produce. By 2000, children's programs that aired during the morning hours were dropped as well under the ownership of Young Broadcasting. As a result of massive debt the company accrued from its 2000 purchase of its San Francisco station, KRON-TV (which lost its NBC affiliation in January 2002 due to a dispute between Young and the network), Young Broadcasting put KCAL up for sale in 2002. The station
321-522: A burden not faced by network-affiliated stations – these factors made prospective owners skittish about signing on a television station as an independent. By the 1970s, however, cable television had gained enough penetration to make independent stations viable in smaller markets. This was especially true in markets that were either located in rugged terrain or covered large areas; in these regions, cable (and later satellite) are all but essential for acceptable television. Nearly 300 independent stations existed in
428-561: A complicated six-station affiliation switch in South Florida saw WSVN in Miami switch from NBC to Fox in 1989, the station adopted a news-intensive format unlike any independent station or Fox affiliate prior, a scheduling choice initially ridiculed in local media but which quickly attracted industry attention and saw ratings success. This model was copied by stations owned by New World Communications and SF Broadcasting that switched to Fox in
535-498: A condition of their contracts with General Tire. An administrative law judge found in favor of Fidelity, but RKO appealed. In 1972, the FCC allowed RKO to keep the license for KHJ-TV, but two years later conditioned future renewals on the renewal of sister station WNAC-TV in Boston . Six years later, the FCC stripped WNAC-TV of its license for numerous reasons, but largely because RKO had misled
642-541: A full-service variety format, while others are devoted primarily to classic television (such as MeTV ) and/or films, or carry mainly niche programming. Many stations that are affiliated with the larger post-1980s networks still behave much like independents, as they program far more hours a day than a station affiliated with one of the Big Three networks. This is especially the case with MyNetworkTV, whose efforts to offer first-run programming were largely unsuccessful. By 2009,
749-438: A general rebranding of its news department coinciding with the launch of new morning news blocks, KCAL changed its branding to KCAL News , which was adopted across KCBS-TV's newscasts on the same day. Although KCAL-TV is an independent station, it will occasionally air CBS programming due to extended breaking news coverage or special events that may result in programs being unable to air on KCBS-TV. For E/I programming, KCAL has
856-411: A limited schedule with six hours weekly, and formally began operations on October 6, 1948, with 3 + 1 ⁄ 2 hours that day. Though KFI had long been affiliated with NBC Radio , KFI-TV did not affiliate with the then-upstart NBC Television Network as NBC was building its own station, KNBH (channel 4, now KNBC ), which went on the air in January 1949. KFI general manager William B. Ryan indicated
963-756: A network programming style as much as possible; but in turn, Fox only carried a late-night talk show at its launch in October 1986, and beginning in April 1987, offered one night of prime time programming a week (on Sundays). The network only programmed two hours of prime time programming each night (and, beginning in the 1990s, some children's programming through Fox Kids ), but gradually expanded its prime time lineup to all seven nights until January 1993. Fox's owned-and-operated stations left INTV in March 1992. The lack of programming in other dayparts forced most Fox affiliates to maintain
1070-447: A result of the various network launches that have occurred since the 1986 launch of Fox, true independent stations have become a rarity. The smallest stations, which in the past would have been forced to adopt a locally originated independent program schedule, now have other options – 24-hour-a-day networks that require no local or syndicated programming for the station to carry; some of these networks, such as AMG TV or America One , follow
1177-551: A schedule dominated by shows held over from and an affiliate body primarily made up of stations previously aligned with its two predecessors. Some of the newly independent stations subsequently found a new network home through MyNetworkTV , itself created out of the prospect that the UPN affiliates of corporate sister Fox Television Stations would become independents due to The CW choosing to affiliate with CBS Television Stations and Tribune Broadcasting stations in overlapping markets. As
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#17328586357451284-563: A similar format. Meanwhile, a behind-the-scenes battle was underway with serious implications for the station's future—and that of its owner. In 1965, RKO General faced a threat to its license for KHJ-TV from a group called Fidelity Television. At first, Fidelity's claim focused on channel 9's programming quality. Later, Fidelity levied a more serious claim that KHJ-TV was involved in reciprocal trade practices. Fidelity alleged that RKO's parent company, General Tire, forced its retailers to purchase advertising on KHJ-TV and other RKO-owned stations as
1391-548: A specific genre of television programming. For instance, religious independent stations buy and schedule, or produce locally, evangelism and study programs, and ethnic independent stations purchase or produce programs in specific languages or catering to specific communities. During the 1950s and 1960s, independent stations filled their broadcast hours with movies, sports, cartoons, filmed travelogues , and some locally produced television programs, including in some instances newscasts and children's programs. Independents that were on
1498-551: A standalone basis have become quite rare in the United States and, in turn, independents that are senior partners in duopolies are fairly uncommon. With the proliferation of duopolies and local marketing agreements since that point, most independent stations are operated alongside a major network affiliate (more commonly, one of either ABC, NBC, CBS or Fox), which may share syndicated programming with and/or produce newscasts in non-competitive timeslots for its unaffiliated sister. This
1605-561: A ticker, "street team" submissions of video and photos from viewers were featured, reporters ended stories with NewsCentral rather than the individual station brands, and microphone flags and news vehicles were branded to show both stations' logos at once (previously, the KCBS and KCAL logos were displayed on alternating sides). Under the NewsCentral format, the two stations claimed that they covered more local news than any other television station in
1712-582: A time, KHJ-TV's large slate of sports programming was virtually the only thing keeping the station afloat. On August 11, 1987, FCC administrative law judge Edward Kuhlmann found RKO General unfit to be a broadcast licensee due to numerous cases of dishonesty on both its part and that of parent company GenCorp (the renamed General Tire), including fraudulent billing and lying about its ratings. Kuhlman ordered that all of RKO General's broadcast licenses be revoked. This ruling notably excluded WOR-TV, which had already been divested to MCA Inc. nine months prior, and
1819-484: A training flight. On March 28, 1948 (Easter Sunday), Maria married Nat King Cole . The Coles were married in Harlem's Abyssinian Baptist Church by Adam Clayton Powell Jr. They had five children: Natalie (1950–2015), who had a successful career as a singer; an adopted daughter, Carole (1944–2009, the daughter of Maria's sister), who died of lung cancer at the age of 64; an adopted son, Nat Kelly Cole (1959–1995), who died at
1926-477: A very different program format from their predecessors. While sitcom reruns are still popular, expanded newscasts and other syndicated programs such as talk shows; courtroom shows; reruns of recent scripted comedy and drama series; and no-cost public domain programming are common. Another type of content being added to many independent station lineups in recent years has been brokered programming , including infomercials , home shopping and televangelist programs ;
2033-604: A very popular fixture in Los Angeles television. In fact, in his book about those days, Philbin credits the chemistry with Bohrman and the format of the program as forerunners of much of what would become the cable news format 20 years later. In the early 1970s, KHJ-TV sought a similar programming strategy to that of crosstown competitor KTLA (channel 5), which focused more on talk shows , game shows , sports, feature films and off-network drama series . The cartoons were phased out (some of them moving to KTTV and KCOP-TV ), and
2140-522: A week at 8 and 9 p.m. KCAL's newscasts are variable in tone, depending on the timeslot. Its 8 p.m. newscast is generally an update on the day's news, which largely features stories focusing on California and the Los Angeles area (and was previously branded as the California Report during the Prime 9 News era). Its 9 p.m. newscast is generally the most serious in format (and was branded in previous years as
2247-463: A willingness to affiliate with a network other than NBC or start a mutual regional network. Channel 9 has been an independent station for virtually its entire history, though it carried DuMont programming from 1954 up until that network's 1956 demise. At the 3rd Emmy Awards in January 1951, the station won in the best educational show category for KFI-TV University . Channel 9's engineers threatened to go on strike in 1951, leading Anthony to sell
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#17328586357452354-1011: Is because in most markets, independents tend to have lower viewership than that of a network affiliate, and usually fall within part of the FCC's duopoly criteria (which allows a company to own two stations in the same market if one is not among the four highest-rated at the time of an ownership transaction). 5.4 MyNetworkTV August 16, 1969 (2nd incarnation) July 5, 1976 (current incarnation) April 1, 1971 (2nd incarnation) 68.2 ABC November 1, 1964 (current incarnation) 23.2 ABC 19.2 MeTV/MyNetworkTV 19.2 Independent 55.2 MeTV 7.2 The CW June 1994 (current incarnation) April 30, 1997 (current incarnation) (now WGPX-TV) (now WMYA-TV) (now KSIX-TV) 13.2 Independent 13.3 CBS 13.2 Independent 13.3 Telemundo (now KHII-TV) (now KCVH-LD 6 ) (now KYAZ) 4.2/29.2 Independent (now WNDY-TV) (now WJAX-TV) 30.2 MyNetworkTV/MeTV 30.4 Telemundo 47.4 MyNetworkTV Maria Cole Maria Cole ( née Hawkins ; August 1, 1922 – July 10, 2012)
2461-594: Is co-owned by the team and Charter Communications . Channel 9 is best known as the longtime broadcast home of the NBA 's Los Angeles Lakers . The station carried Lakers games from 1961 to 1964 (as KHJ-TV), and again from 1977 to 2012 . The latter 35 years were the NBA's longest consecutive station-team broadcast partnership, and coincided with the Lakers' golden eras of the 1980s and early 2000s. For most of channel 9's second stint with
2568-498: Is suspended to cover a police chase, and programs that follow the newscast are sometimes preempted to show the chase's conclusion. In 2003, KCAL reported a quadrupling of ratings every time a police chase was shown, with up to 1.6 million viewers watching at a given time during such events. Between 2012 and 2020 (when he moved to KTTV), chases were often shown with the voice and in-air helicopter camera work of Stu Mundel; since 2021, former KNX pilot Desmond Shaw took over Mundel's role as
2675-600: Is used to refer to stations with general entertainment formats. Historically, these stations specialized in children's programming, syndicated reruns or first-run shows, and sports coverage. Some independent stations, mostly those once having been affiliated with a major network, produce substantial amounts of news and public affairs programming. The model for these stations was WSVN in Miami , an NBC affiliate that switched to Fox in January 1989 and dramatically expanded its news output. Further affiliation changes and news expansions from
2782-694: The Go Time syndicated block. KCAL was the Southern California home of the annual MDA Labor Day Telethon between 1997 and 2011. In June 1979, KHJ-TV aired "Thames on 9", a week-long prime time programming stunt that featured programs from Thames Television , then a member of the British ITV network. Shows that aired during that week included Man About the House (on which the American sitcom Three's Company
2889-640: The 2017 season . KCAL broadcast two NFL on CBS games during the 2017 regular season as part of an arrangement with the NFL that saw CBS get both a Rams and Chargers game on weeks when Fox had the doubleheader. Since its founding in 1994 until 2008, KCAL was the originating station of the annual John R. Wooden Classic college basketball game. KCAL-TV presently broadcasts a total of 72 + 3 ⁄ 4 hours of locally produced newscasts each week (with 12 + 3 ⁄ 4 hours each weekday and 4 + 1 ⁄ 2 hours each on Saturdays and Sundays); in regards to
2996-722: The Eastern and Pacific time zones, and 9:00 p.m. in the Central and Mountain time zones. Network stations aired their late newscasts an hour later. From the late 1970s through the mid-1980s, independent stations in several U.S. cities, particularly those that had yet to receive a cable franchise, carried a form of a network affiliation through subscription television networks (such as ON TV , Spectrum and SelecTV ); these services – which were formatted very similarly to their pay cable counterparts – ran sports, uncut and commercial-free movies (both mainstream and pornographic , broadcasts of
3103-563: The NHL team's inaugural season in 1993 (both the team and KCAL were Disney properties until 1996) until 2006 , when the Ducks moved their over-the-air broadcasts to Anaheim -based independent station KDOC-TV . Also, at the end of the 2013 season , the Dodgers would part ways with KCAL-TV (becoming cable-exclusive on SportsNet LA, although a few games per season have been seen on KTLA since 2016), thus ending
3210-556: The Prime 9 News World Report ), that newscast prominently features political, business and international news. The noon newscast, on the other hand, features lighter stories, including features on food, health and the entertainment industry. The 4 p.m. newscast was essentially a repurposed KCBS-TV newscast and was presented by former channel 2 anchors Harold Greene and Ann Martin , who did not appear recently elsewhere on KCAL. The 4 p.m. newscast moved to KCAL from KCBS-TV in 2002 to make room for Dr. Phil , which by contractual stipulations
3317-777: The Raiders (then based in Oakland) in 2006 (whose preseason games also aired on the station during the mid-1990s). Although Los Angeles returned to the NFL in the 2016 season via the Rams ' return after two decades in St. Louis, sister station KCBS is the Rams' preseason partner. After 2016, the Chargers relocated back to Los Angeles after 56 years in San Diego and KABC-TV picked up the Chargers preseason coverage starting in
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3424-456: The federally mandated transition from analog to digital television . The station's digital signal relocated from its pre-transition UHF channel 43 to VHF channel 9. Sister station KCBS-TV took over the channel 43 allocation as it moved its digital signal from channel 60 as a result of the phaseout of channels 52–69. On December 4, 2019, CBS Corporation and Viacom remerged into ViacomCBS (now Paramount Global ). On January 5, 2023, as part of
3531-569: The "K-CAL 9" branding. In 1996, The Walt Disney Company purchased Capital Cities/ABC , owners of ABC West Coast flagship KABC-TV (channel 7). Due to FCC regulations at the time that barred the ownership of two television stations in the same media market, Disney chose to retain KABC-TV and divest KCAL, which was purchased by Young Broadcasting (which Disney owned a stake in at the time) on May 14, 1996, for $ 385 million. The afternoon children's program block would remain until 1999, when KCOP began airing
3638-643: The 1990s onward have produced a number of additional stations, such as KTVK in Phoenix (an ABC affiliate until 1995); WJXT in Jacksonville, Florida (a CBS affiliate until 2002); and WHDH in Boston (an NBC affiliate until 2017), as well as stations such as WGN-TV in Chicago and KUSI-TV in San Diego that never held a major network affiliation. However, in a broader sense, there are independent stations that focus on
3745-633: The Angels briefly overlapped its stewardship of the station), and added more basketball coverage that same year with the Los Angeles Clippers , in addition to its Lakers telecasts. The station and the Clippers parted ways in 2001 as they eventually moved their over-the-air telecasts to KTLA, while the Angels left KCAL after the 2005 season , moving to KCOP the following year . In addition, KCAL had broadcast select weekend Mighty Ducks of Anaheim games from
3852-400: The FCC allowed Disney to acquire channel 9 for $ 324 million in a complicated settlement. RKO dropped its bid to renew the station's license, handing it to Fidelity Television. Disney then bought the channel 9 license from Fidelity for $ 105.4 million and KHJ-TV's non-license assets ( intellectual property , studios, etc.) from RKO for $ 218.6 million. According to FCC general counsel Diane Killory,
3959-432: The FCC erred when it tied channel 9's renewal to that of WNAC-TV and ordered new hearings for KHJ-TV and WOR-TV. The hearings dragged on for five years; as a result of this, the station was forced to air an unusually large amount of public-affairs programming; a combination of this and the station's cash reserves being drained by RKO's legal battles led to decreased ratings (and the station's perception as an "also-ran"). For
4066-484: The Federal Communications Commission did not allow infomercials to be broadcast on American television until 1984, but since then, it has proven to be a lucrative, if somewhat polarizing with viewers, way to fill airtime. During the 1990s when infomercials gained popularity, many stations began broadcasting 24 hours a day rather than signing off at night. By filling the overnight hours with infomercials,
4173-566: The KCBS-KCAL duopoly were rebranded as KCAL News , and the station changed its on-air branding from "KCAL 9" to "KCAL Los Angeles". Independent station In North American and Japanese television, independent stations with general entertainment formats emerged as a distinct class of station because their lack of network affiliation led to unique strategies in program content, scheduling, and promotion, as well as different economics compared to major network affiliates. The Big Three networks in
4280-459: The KCBS-KCAL duopoly. That week, the duopoly ultimately rescinded the NewsCentral branding, reverting to the "CBS2" and "KCAL9" news identities. The NewsCentral graphics, mic flags and logos remained in use during the interim, though on-air staff no longer used the NewsCentral identity. On January 14, 2012, KCAL debuted two-hour-long weekend morning newscasts (airing at 7 a.m. on Saturdays and on Sundays, which follow one-hour newscasts on KCBS);
4387-673: The Lakers, it aired road games only. In 2012, KCAL lost rights to the Lakers telecasts to the cable-exclusive regional sports network Spectrum SportsNet and Spectrum Deportes which was renamed in 2016 after the merger of Time Warner Cable and Charter Communications. From 1961 to 1963, KHJ-TV was the first television home of the Los Angeles Angels ; the baseball team's telecasts moved to KTLA in 1964, when then-Angels owner Gene Autry 's Golden West Broadcasters purchased that station. The television rights to Angels games returned to KCAL-TV in 1996 (The Walt Disney Company's ownership interest in
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4494-585: The Rich and Famous , Star Search , Independent Network News and Star Trek: The Next Generation (as well as canceled network series revived for first-run syndication such as Fame , Too Close for Comfort , Charles in Charge , It's a Living and Baywatch ), and made-for-television movies and miniseries like Sadat . This trend primarily benefited independent stations. Independents scheduled these first-run programs during prime time and on weekends. In
4601-633: The United Paramount Network ( UPN ). The WB, UPN and their affiliates used a very similar programming model to that initially used by Fox and its stations during their first four years of existence (although neither network would expand their prime time lineups to all seven nights); the launch of those networks resulted in PTEN's demise in 1997, as most stations that became affiliates of UPN and The WB (whose respective founding parents, Chris-Craft Industries and Time Warner , jointly owned PTEN) either dropped
4708-604: The United States by the mid-1980s, in markets of varying sizes, up from fewer than 100 in 1980. They could buy new shows without cash using barter syndication . Many stations belonged to the Association of Independent Television Stations (INTV), a group similar to the National Association of Broadcasters , and which lobbied the FCC on behalf of independents. In the 1980s, television syndicators began offering original, first-run series such as Solid Gold , Lifestyles of
4815-1023: The United States during the 1960s and 1970s, independent stations from large and mid-sized markets were imported by these systems via wire or microwave relay to smaller media markets , which often only had stations that were affiliated with the Big Three television networks ( ABC , NBC and CBS); these independents became the first " superstations ," which were distributed on a statewide or regional basis. In December 1976, Ted Turner decided to uplink his struggling Atlanta , Georgia station WTCG to satellite for national distribution. Soon, other companies decided to copy Turner's idea and applied for satellite uplinks to distribute other stations; WGN-TV in Chicago, KTVU in Oakland -San Francisco, and WPIX and WOR-TV in New York City would begin to be distributed nationally during
4922-450: The United States — ABC , CBS , and NBC — traditionally provided a substantial number of program hours per day to their affiliates, whereas later network startups— Fox , UPN , and The WB (the latter two were succeeded by The CW and, to a lesser extent, MyNetworkTV )—provided substantially fewer shows to their affiliates. Through the early 1990s, Fox affiliates were often considered independents. The term independent station most often
5029-778: The United States, many independent stations were commonly owned. Companies that operated three or more independents included: In 1986 several independent outlets, led by the Metromedia stations, formed the Fox Broadcasting Company , the first major venture at a fourth U.S. broadcast television network since the DuMont Television Network shut down in August 1956 (which resulted in some of its affiliates, including those owned by Metromedia, becoming independents). Fox made efforts, slowly at first, to have its affiliates emulate
5136-419: The United States; some mid-sized markets would not regain a general entertainment independent until the early 2000s, through sign-ons of unaffiliated stations and disaffiliations by existing stations from other commercial and noncommercial networks. In 2001, Univision Communications purchased several English language independents in larger markets (which mostly operated as Home Shopping Network affiliates until
5243-652: The Walt Disney animation library (including the syndicated series DuckTales and Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers , and later The Disney Afternoon ). The station also added a few more family-oriented off-network sitcoms and syndicated programs and then broadcast the popular anime series Dragon Ball Z , that lasted well into 1997. In the early 1990s, family sitcoms were gradually phased out and KCAL added more first-run syndicated talk, reality and court shows , as well as newsmagazine series. On March 30, 1992, Disney agreed to sell KCAL-TV's license to Pinelands, Inc., then
5350-506: The age of 36; and twin daughters, Casey and Timolin (born September 26, 1961), whose birth was announced in the "Milestones" column of Time magazine on October 6, 1961. Maria supported Nat during his final illness and stayed with him until his death. Five years after the death of Nat King Cole, Maria Cole bought a house in Tyringham, Massachusetts , known as South House, where she raised her five children, including singer Natalie Cole . Maria
5457-511: The air as commercial station KFI-TV on August 25, 1948, owned by Earle C. Anthony alongside KFI radio (640 AM). However, the station was originally licensed as experimental W6XEA about 1940, and in 1944 applied for the call letters KSEE (which are now used by the NBC affiliate in Fresno, California ). It is unknown whether any transmissions occurred under either call sign. The station initially broadcast
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#17328586357455564-432: The air during this period would sign-on at times later than that of stations affiliated with a television network, some not doing so until the early or mid-afternoon hours. Another source of programming became available to independent stations by the mid-1960s: reruns of network programs which, after completing their initial runs, were sold into syndication . As cable television franchises began to be incorporated around
5671-458: The call letters as standing for "kindness, happiness and joy", although the call sign was likely randomly assigned. The Don Lee name was so well respected in California broadcasting that KHJ-TV called itself "Don Lee Television" for a few years in the early 1950s, even though it had never been affiliated with KHJ radio until the 1951 deal. In 1955, General Tire purchased RKO Radio Pictures to give
5778-749: The commission about corporate misconduct at General Tire. The decision was affirmed after the Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal in April 1982. The FCC awarded a replacement license for channel 7 in Boston to New England Television, a merger of two competing groups for a new channel 7. RKO General sold off WNAC-TV's non-license assets to New England Television, who used them to launch WNEV-TV (now WHDH ) in place of WNAC-TV that May 21. The WNAC-TV decision also meant KHJ-TV and sister station WOR-TV in New York City had lost their licenses, but an appeals court ruled that
5885-523: The company's television station group access to RKO's film library. In 1959, General Tire's broadcasting and film divisions were merged as RKO General . By the mid-1960s, channel 9 offered a standard independent schedule of movies , off-network reruns, children's shows like The Pancake Man hosted by Hal Smith (who showed educational shorts like The Space Explorers ), first-run syndicated programs , and locally produced programs including local newscasts, sports events and public affairs programs. In
5992-402: The concept of a prime time news block, with the three-hour long Prime 9 News airing from 8 to 11 p.m. A few years later in the early 1990s, KCAL added a short-lived half-hour newscast at 6:30 p.m. called First 9 News , which focused primarily on local news and competed against the national network newscasts aired on KCBS-TV, KNBC and KABC-TV (KCBS also aired a 6:30 p.m. newscast during
6099-609: The country (with reporters in Ventura County , the Inland Empire and Orange County ), and the only Los Angeles television station with two helicopters (subcontracted to Angel City Air, owned by reporter Larry Welk). Ed Asner was used to introduce the new newscast. CBS denies this move was made in response to other stations pooling newsgathering resources. On December 10, 2009, CBS Television Stations hired Steve Mauldin to replace Patrick McClenahan as president and general manager of
6206-560: The duopoly's chief helicopter reporter. In the 1970s, KHJ-TV aired a prime time newscast at 10 p.m., which was moved to 9 p.m. during the 1980s; the station subsequently added a half-hour 8 p.m. newscast during the late 1980s, and also carried afternoon newscasts throughout this time. Some of its most notable personalities included anchors George Putnam , Chris Harris, Stan Bohrman, Tom Lawrence, Nathan Roberts, Lonnie Lardner, Linda Edwards and weather personality Andrew Amador . Shortly after taking over, Disney invested $ 30 million on upgrading
6313-531: The early evening, and movies during prime time and late night hours. In some areas, independent stations carried network programs that were not aired by a local affiliate. In larger markets such as New York City, Chicago and Los Angeles, independent stations benefited from a ruling by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) that barred network-affiliated stations within the top 50 television markets from airing network-originated programs in
6420-427: The first couple of years the hosts were Stan Bohrman and Maria Cole (the wife of Nat King Cole ). Guests ranged from William F. Buckley to Sammy Davis Jr. and the political movers and shakers in Southern California. At one point, Stan even quit the program after what he called censorship on the topic of Eldridge Cleaver . Bohrman came back to the program and was joined by a new co-host, Regis Philbin . They became
6527-463: The first-ever weekday morning newscast in the station's history; the new KCAL News Mornings launched on January 5, 2023. At this time, KCBS replaced its existing morning newscast with a broadcast of the live Eastern edition of the network's national morning show CBS Mornings , followed by a simulcast of the 6 a.m. hour of KCAL News Mornings . In addition, to emphasize the station's history and reputation for local news programming, all newscasts across
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#17328586357456634-619: The hour preceding prime time. This legislation, known as the Prime Time Access Rule , was in effect from 1971 to 1995, and as a result independents faced less competition for syndicated reruns. Some stations in larger markets (such as WGN-TV in Chicago; KTLA , KCOP-TV and KHJ-TV in Los Angeles; KWGN-TV in Denver ; and (W)WOR-TV, WPIX and WNEW-TV in New York City) ventured into local news broadcasts, usually airing at 10:00 p.m. in
6741-412: The late 1960s, KHJ embarked on a novel, groundbreaking (and inexpensive) experiment, called Tempo , which heavily borrowed from the talk radio craze on local radio stations. Daytime programming was divided into three blocks running three hours in length, called Tempo I , Tempo II and Tempo III . The second of the three programs, Tempo II was perhaps the most active, controversial and innovative. For
6848-527: The late 1970s and early 1980s (in the case of KTVU, it would revert to being a regional superstation by the early part of the latter decade). By the start of the 1970s, independent stations typically aired children's programming in the morning and afternoon hours, and movies and other adult-oriented shows (some stations aired paid religious programs ) during the midday hours. They counterprogrammed local network-affiliated stations' news programs with syndicated reruns – usually sitcoms and hour-long dramas – in
6955-457: The late 1990s) from USA Broadcasting to form the nuclei of the upstart Spanish language network Telefutura (now UniMás ), which launched in January 2002. Several stations affiliated with The WB and UPN became independent again when the respective parent companies of those networks (Time Warner and CBS Corporation ) decided to shut them down to form The CW , which launched in September 2006 with
7062-486: The latter often created legal issues that were eventually largely cleared up due to an FCC regulation that legally allowed the broadcast of programs featuring content that would otherwise be deemed indecent when broadcast "in the clear" if the encrypted signal was not visible or audible to nonsubscribers), and on some services, television specials. Independents usually ran the services during the evening and overnight hours in lieu of running movies and other programs acquired off
7169-502: The layoff list, but both decided to retire from television upon the June 2009 expiration of their contracts. On April 23, 2009, former KTTV anchor Rick Garcia joined KCAL, and was paired with Pat Harvey as co-anchor of the station's weeknight 8 and 10 p.m. newscasts (Garcia is now paired with Sharon Tay , as Harvey moved to sister station KCBS-TV to co-anchor that station's 5 and 11 p.m. newscasts). On September 19, 2009, KCBS and KCAL rebranded
7276-445: The local sports news program Sports Central . On April 1, 2008, CBS Television Stations ordered widespread budget cuts and staff layoffs from its stations. As a result of the budget cuts, roughly 10 to 15 staffers were released from KCBS-TV and KCAL-TV, including reporters Jennifer Sabih, Greg Phillips and Jennifer Davis. 4 p.m. co-anchors Greene and Martin, who were then also the 6 p.m. anchors on KCBS-TV, were also said to have been on
7383-461: The market, leading Disney to conclude that it needed a fresh start. Disney did, however, keep a fresco mural of RKO stars in the station lobby. The station also continued to overhaul its format in the wake of its ownership change, adding a three-hour prime time newscast on March 5, 1990, featuring veteran newscasters Jerry Dunphy , Pat Harvey , Larry Carroll and Jane Velez-Mitchell . KCAL also added many more children's programs, including cartoons from
7490-485: The mid to late 1990s, while the CBS Evening News aired at 5:30 p.m.). Under Disney ownership, more daytime newscasts were added to channel 9 weekdays at 2 and 3 p.m., and the 6:30 p.m. newscast was discontinued (a local newscast returned to that timeslot in the market in January 2009, when KTLA launched its own 6:30 p.m. newscast). KCAL is notable for airing newscasts during unconventional time periods;
7597-559: The mid-1990s , and to other news-producing Fox and minor network affiliates, and independent stations, by the 2000s. In September 1993, many independents began carrying the Prime Time Entertainment Network (PTEN), an ad-hoc programming service that emulated a network model, which featured drama series and made-for-TV movies intended for first-run syndication. In January 1995, many remaining independents, including those that carried PTEN, joined upstart networks The WB and
7704-478: The network before selling its stake in UPN to Viacom in 2000. Fox Television Stations purchased KCOP and most of Chris-Craft's UPN stations in 2001. However, CBS continued to operate channel 9 as an independent station, as Fox renewed its affiliation agreement for its UPN affiliates; it is widely believed that Fox used KCOP as leverage to keep UPN on Fox-owned stations in New York City (WWOR-TV, KCAL's former sister station) and Chicago ( WPWR-TV ), threatening to drop
7811-541: The network had abandoned its first-run programming efforts and became a "programming service", with its programming now focused upon off-network reruns of drama series. After this transition, many of MyNetworkTV's affiliates began to downplay their affiliation with the network and move the block to alternate timeslots (such as late-night); network owner Fox Television Stations rebranded most of its MyNetworkTV stations as offshoots of their parent Fox stations (such as " Fox 11 Plus" for KCOP-TV ) Current independents follow
7918-443: The network in those markets should Viacom move the UPN affiliation in Los Angeles to KCAL. This issue became moot with the January 2006 announcement of the merger of UPN and The WB into The CW Television Network . The new network launched on September 18, 2006, with former WB affiliate KTLA as its Los Angeles outlet, due to an affiliation agreement with owner Tribune Broadcasting that resulted in 16 of Tribune's WB affiliates joining
8025-620: The network. KCAL-TV remains an independent station, and is currently one of thirteen such stations owned by CBS as a result of the CBS-owned CW stations reverting to independent status in 2023. On April 21, 2007, KCBS-TV and KCAL-TV moved from Columbia Square to an all-digital facility at the CBS Studio Center in Studio City. The move allowed both stations to begin broadcasting all locally produced programs in high definition, and in addition,
8132-575: The newscasts on both stations to the unified NewsCentral branding (unrelated to Sinclair Broadcast Group 's now-defunct national news division of the same name ; CBS coincidentally owns former Sinclair station KOVR in Sacramento ). The newscasts were refocused to cover more community news, including stories from outlying communities. Local news headlines from the Los Angeles Newspaper Group and MediaNews Group newspapers were displayed on
8239-427: The number of hours devoted to news programming, it is the second-highest local newscast output of any television station in the Los Angeles market (behind KTLA, which runs 94 hours, 20 minutes of newscasts each week). Because of the amount of news programming on the station, channel 9 is known for showing the most police chases among the Los Angeles market's news-producing stations. Often regular news programming on KCAL
8346-413: The over-the-air subscription services had shuttered operations by the end of the 1980s. Until the late 1970s, independent stations were usually limited to the larger American television markets, due to several factors. Most smaller markets did not have a large enough population to support four commercial stations. Even in markets that were large enough to support a fourth station, the only available license
8453-467: The parent company of channel 9's former New York City sister station, now called WWOR-TV . Disney would have received a 45% ownership stake in Pinelands, allowing for increased original programming to be shared between the two reunited stations. The planned merger never materialized; Pineland would agree to sell WWOR-TV to Chris-Craft Industries , then-parent of KCOP (channel 13). In 1995, the station adopted
8560-415: The programs are KCAL's first morning newscasts—ironically though, channel 9 was the only news-producing station in the market that did not have a news program on weekday mornings. On December 10, 2014, KCAL announced it would be dropping its hour long 2 p.m. and half hour 3 p.m. newscasts before the end of the year to be replaced by Judge Mathis and The People's Court . As a result, the 4 p.m. newscast
8667-400: The protracted legal issues delayed FCC action on the transfer and Westinghouse ultimately withdrew its offer. A short time later, RKO General agreed to sell the station to The Walt Disney Company ; however, this transfer was also held up for over a year for the same reasons. Fidelity Television, the group that originally challenged the license in 1965, also argued against the sale. In July 1988,
8774-617: The rights to select matches featuring Orange County SC of the USL Championship . KCAL-TV previously held the broadcast television rights to the Los Angeles Dodgers baseball team, carrying a slate of games from 2006 to 2013, televising at least 50 games each year, with all telecasts being broadcast in high definition . In 2014, KCAL lost rights to the Dodger telecasts to the cable-exclusive regional sports network SportsNet LA , which
8881-463: The same programming model as independent stations during non-prime time slots, and during its early years, on nights without prime time programming from the network. Fox coerced most of its affiliates to air prime time newscasts (there were some holdouts as late as 2013, while many others opted to run outsourced local newscasts from a competing network affiliate) as well as news programming in other dayparts common with other major network affiliates. When
8988-546: The service or moved its lineup out of prime time when those networks launched. Other stations banded together to become charter outlets of the Pax TV (now Ion Television ) network in August 1998, although some of the stations that aligned with Pax had earlier affiliated with its predecessor, the Infomall TV Network (inTV), two years before. The launches of these networks drastically reduced the number of independent stations in
9095-407: The settlement had the same effect as finding RKO unfit to be a broadcast licensee, and RKO thus had no choice but to "get out of the business of broadcasting" (though it would take another three years for RKO to unwind its broadcasting interests). Soon after taking over, Disney fired KHJ-TV's entire management team, including longtime general manager Charles Velona. In the following months, several of
9202-522: The show was renamed KCAL 9 Sports News and with the purchase by CBS and the formation of the duopoly between KCAL and KCBS-TV, was renamed Sports Central ; the show has since expanded to a half-hour broadcast on Friday through Sunday evenings. Channel 9 has aired preseason coverage of the NFL 's Chargers (then based in San Diego) from 2005 to 2016 , and aired games from the Chargers' AFC West Division rival,
9309-461: The station as "California 9", selected from a shortlist of three possible monikers. Channel 9's longtime radio sisters had changed their calls to KRTH some years before, so Disney was theoretically free to continue trading on the KHJ call letters' 66-year legacy in Southern California. However, newly hired station manager Blake Byrne said that market research revealed the station was seen as a "non-entity" in
9416-602: The station maintains the large amount of local newscasts that it presently does (which is far more than what is typical of most stations involved in a duopoly with a major network station) simply due to the fact that KCAL and KCBS-TV's newscasts air in timeslots that do not compete against one another, as a result, the station's newscast schedule remained unchanged after KCAL merged its operations with KCBS. Along with newscasts at noon (where it competes against KTLA), 4 p.m. (where it competes against KABC, KTLA and KNBC) and 10 p.m. (where it competes against KTLA and KTTV), and seven nights
9523-560: The station ran fewer off-network sitcoms. It did continue to have a weekday children's show called Froozles , which ran until the late 1980s. It also produced many half-hour public affairs programs, as well as a local talk show called Mid-Morning L.A. The first hosts were Kathy McKee and Sandy Baron on the Mid Day and Good Morning L.A. talk shows. Both were hired by KHJ's then-station manager Lional Schaen. Bob Hilton , Meredith MacRae , Geoff Edwards and Regis Philbin also hosted programs on
9630-632: The station to the General Tire and Rubber Company in August of that year. A few months earlier, General Tire had purchased the Don Lee Broadcasting System , a regional West Coast radio network (the original Don Lee television station, KTSL (channel 2), was sold separately to CBS; it evolved into future sister KCBS-TV ). Don Lee's flagship station was KHJ radio (930 AM), and General Tire changed its new television station's call letters to KHJ-TV in September 1951. One former employee referred to
9737-416: The station well into the 1980s. Edwards and MacRae won Emmy Awards for their hosting duties during the early 1980s. Some other locally produced public affairs programs included the investigative show Camera 9 and The Changing Family , a program about family and social issues during the 1980s. Despite this, KHJ-TV was perceived as an also ran while KTLA was the leading independent station, even though it had
9844-544: The station would be able to generate extra revenue where they had previously been off the air. Home shopping programs (mainly simulcasts of cable services that also have over-the-air distribution such as QVC and the Home Shopping Network) or syndicated programs fill overnight time periods on stations that do not run infomercials during that day part. Since the FCC revised its media ownership rules to permit station duopolies in August 1999, independents that operate on
9951-413: The station's 36-year run of local sports coverage. KCAL also carried select Los Angeles Galaxy Major League Soccer games until 2005 , when the games became cable-exclusive to Fox Sports West . In 1997, KCAL premiered the first fifteen-minute weekday sports report Final Quarter , the show was an expansion of the typical five-minute sports report seen towards the end of a newscast. Several years later,
10058-472: The station's news department, tripling the number of staff and investing on electronic news equipment, including expanding the stations' studio facility at Paramount Studios to house a new newsroom and studio; the station also hired veteran newscasters Jerry Dunphy, Pat Harvey, Larry Carroll and Jane Velez-Mitchell. After retaining, in the interim, the existing 8 p.m. and 9 p.m. newcasts, and a delay on its launch from January 15, in March 5, 1990, Disney implemented
10165-501: The station's newscasters were pushed out as well. During the RKO/Fidelity/Disney transition, KHJ-TV's city of license was changed to the Los Angeles suburb of Norwalk , also as part of the FCC settlement. For all intents and purposes, though, it remained a Los Angeles station; the license was moved back to Los Angeles proper on October 28, 1991. On December 2, 1989, Disney changed the station's callsign to KCAL-TV, and relaunched
10272-507: The station's two-decade licensing dispute, its large slate of sports programming was essentially the only thing that kept it as part of the Southern California television landscape. As of 2023, KCAL has the rights to six games a season from the NHL's Los Angeles Kings , produced by Bally Sports West . KCAL was also home to the Kings in the early 1980s and during the mid-to-late 1990s. Since 2024, KCAL has
10379-605: The syndication market by the station, although a few eventually began to carry these services for most of the broadcast day. The services required the use of decoder boxes to access the service's programming (some of which were fairly easy to unencrypt due to the transmission methods stations used to scramble the signal during the service's broadcast hours); some required the payment of an additional one-time fee to receive events and adult films. As cities added cable franchises, thus allowing people to subscribe to conventional premium television networks like HBO and Showtime , nearly all of
10486-538: The two stations operate in a completely tapeless newsroom. This newsroom is named in honor newscaster Jerry Dunphy, who worked at both stations during his career. With the move to Studio City and KCET 's later move to Burbank , KTLA is currently the only remaining station in Los Angeles (either in radio or television) whose studios are operated out of Hollywood. KCAL-TV shut down its analog signal, over VHF channel 9, at 1:10 p.m. on June 12, 2009, and converted its broadcasts exclusively to digital television as part of
10593-611: Was an American jazz singer and the wife of singer Nat King Cole ; mother of the singer Natalie Cole . Cole was born in Boston and was the niece of Charlotte Hawkins Brown . Her father Mingo Hawkins was a letter carrier. Her mother Carol died while giving birth to her sister. In 1943 she married Spurgeon Ellington, a member of the Tuskegee Airmen , the all-black unit of the Army Air Corps in World War II . He died during
10700-554: Was based) and The Benny Hill Show ; a similar stunt had aired on KHJ-TV's former New York City sister station WOR-TV two years earlier. From 1981 to 1985, KHJ-TV was home to Elvira's Movie Macabre . KHJ-TV was home to the live broadcast of the Strawberry Festival Parade in Garden Grove, California , from 1986 until 1989. For much of its history overall, sports have been a part of channel 9's identity. Indeed, during
10807-547: Was married to screenwriter Gary DeVore from 1969 until their divorce in 1978. She was a jazz singer who worked with Count Basie and Duke Ellington , under the name Marie Ellington. She met Nat "King" Cole while they were both singing at the Zanzibar club. She was co-host of a talk show, "Tempo," that aired on KHJ television in Los Angeles in the 1960s. Cole died in a nursing home in Boca Raton, Florida on July 10, 2012, at
10914-457: Was not allowed to air opposite The Oprah Winfrey Show (which aired in Los Angeles on KABC-TV at 3 p.m., until its syndication run ended in September 2011). Its 10 p.m. newscast is simply more of an update of the 8 p.m. news (and during the Prime 9 News era, was simply branded as the 10 O'Clock Report ), as it competes with KTTV and KTLA (and in the past, KCOP), though in recent years, it has been shortened to 30 minutes, in order to make way for
11021-464: Was on a UHF channel allocation. During the analog television era, the reception quality of UHF stations was not nearly as good as stations on the VHF band, especially in areas with rugged terrain (the reverse is true in the present day with the transmission of digital signals) or in markets that cover large geographic areas. Since independent stations had to buy an additional 16 hours of programming per day –
11128-584: Was purchased by CBS, then a subsidiary of Viacom , on February 14, 2002; the deal was finalized on June 1, 2002. KCAL's operations were merged with those of KCBS-TV, and channel 9 moved from its longtime headquarters at the Viacom-owned Paramount Studios on Melrose Avenue in Hollywood to CBS Columbia Square , located one mile (1.6 km) north of the studio lot; the Melrose Avenue facility
11235-507: Was renamed WWOR-TV . GenCorp initially filed an appeal, only to withdraw it after the FCC warned that any appeal would almost certainly be denied outright. The FCC strongly advised GenCorp to divest its remaining properties in order to avoid the indignity of additional license stripping without any compensation. In the midst of RKO's corporate issues, the company reached terms to sell KHJ-TV to Westinghouse Broadcasting in November 1985. However,
11342-746: Was subsequently occupied by then-sister station KRTH (which had previously been based out of the Columbia Square facility), and is currently used by the Paramount studio tour. The sale reunited the station with fellow former RKO General property KRTH-FM, which CBS acquired in 1997. The properties were split again when CBS spun off its radio division to Entercom (now Audacy, Inc. ) in 2017. When CBS/Viacom bought KCAL-TV, broadcasting industry observers speculated that UPN's programming would move to KCAL from KCOP-TV. KCOP's previous owners, Chris-Craft Industries, had co-founded UPN with Viacom in 1995, and owned 50% of
11449-442: Was truncated from an hour to 30 minutes, and Inside Edition moved from 3:30 p.m. to the 4:30 p.m. slot previously occupied by the other half of the 4 p.m. newscast. As of September 11, 2017, KCAL has reinstated the second half-hour of the 4 p.m. newscast and making the news a full hour. On July 12, 2022, KCAL announced that it would launch a seven-hour morning newscast from 4 to 11 a.m., replacing that of KCBS and marking
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