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.
144-631: KSTW (channel 11), branded on-air as Seattle 11 , is an independent television station licensed to Tacoma, Washington , United States, serving the Seattle area. Owned by the CBS News and Stations group, the station maintains studios on East Madison Street in Seattle's Cherry Hill neighborhood, and its transmitter is located on Capitol Hill east of downtown. As the first station to sign on in Tacoma (and second in
288-426: A Las Vegas lounge entertainer and singer, attempted to recreate a Tonight Show -style program. Don Wolfstone—the "Don" in "Blaidon"—brought in a Los Angeles producer/director to develop the show, which featured a live band on-set, and had hopes of flying in show-business guests from Los Angeles and later syndicating the program nationwide. After two months on-air, rising production costs forced Blaidon to relocate
432-661: A UPN affiliate via a three-way deal involving it and KIRO-TV, which led it to join The CW when UPN shut down in 2006, carrying the network's programming until 2023, when CBS withdrew its eight affiliates from the network after selling its ownership stake to Nexstar Media Group . KSTW is available on cable television to Canadian customers in southwestern British Columbia on numerous cable providers such as Shaw Cable and TELUS Optik TV in Vancouver , Victoria , Nanaimo , Kamloops , Penticton and Kelowna . The construction permit for
576-649: A "luxury". Meanwhile, portions of Clover Park High School were condemned, but voters rejected four separate bond initiatives that would have funded the reconstruction of the high school and taken students out of portable classrooms. The school board stated that annual losses from operating KCPQ reached $ 500,000. In late 1978, the Clover Park School District received a $ 6 million offer from two investors from Tucson, Arizona : Gene Adelstein and Edward Berger, owners of that city's independent KZAZ-TV . Adelstein and Berger were looking to expand; already in
720-454: A $ 350 million deal, with Fox citing KCPQ's status as the broadcaster of most Seahawks home games as the impetus for the transaction. The sale was completed on March 2, 2020. After its acquisition by Fox, KCPQ dropped the Q13 moniker and rebranded to "Fox 13" on September 26, 2021, conforming with the branding of other Fox-owned stations. The first local news service on channel 13 operated when
864-522: 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
1008-561: 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
1152-584: A content partnership with the Seattle Kraken hockey team which includes a weekly show on the team, titled What's Kraken? . The station's signal is multiplexed : KCPQ carries a subchannel belonging to KONG , one of Seattle's two ATSC 3.0 television stations. In exchange, KCPQ is carried in ATSC 3.0 on the KONG multiplex. KCPQ's main channel is also simulcast on KZJO's transmitter as channel 22.2, which together with
1296-468: A court-appointed trustee in charge of its affairs, ordered the station to go off the air at 5:30 upon that program completing its airing. By the end of January 1975, the bankruptcy court was entertaining two "very firm offers" for the station. In 1976, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission sued Blaidon, alleging that they had sold stock to non-Washington residents without SEC approval and issued misleading financial reports to prospective investors in
1440-539: 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 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
1584-485: A duopoly with WGN-TV in that city. On September 23, Tribune revealed that Fox had sent a notice terminating its affiliation with KCPQ effective January 17, 2015; in a statement, Tribune noted that discussions between the two companies were still ongoing. Days earlier, on September 19, Fox had struck a deal to buy KBCB , a station in Bellingham , for $ 10 million; the purchase, submitted for FCC approval on October 3,
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#17328515754021728-819: A fictional representation of the station with a news department for the Seattle-set iZombie (which aired from 2015 to 2019), though not with "CW 11" branding, but retaining the station's callsign font, and a completely different image from that of the real KSTW. The station's signal is multiplexed : KSTW shut down its analog signal, over VHF channel 11, on June 12, 2009, as part of the federally mandated transition from analog to digital television . The station's digital signal relocated from its pre-transition UHF channel 36 to VHF channel 11. KSTW no longer has any over-the-air translators. KSTW's last remaining translator, analog translator K62FS (channel 62) in Port Townsend ,
1872-541: 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,
2016-499: A half-hour from Sunday to Thursday nights; the broadcast debuted without its lead anchor, Leslie Miller, a Canadian who was still awaiting a work permit and wound up not debuting until April. The station benefited from the decision of Paramount Stations Group to drop KSTW's competing newscast after 21 years on air in December 1998. By early 1999, the station was beginning to contemplate an expansion into morning news. In January 2000,
2160-472: 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 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
2304-547: A local version of America's Most Wanted . KCPQ has two regular sports programs: the Sunday night Seattle Sports Live and the weeknight Washington Sports Wrap , the latter of which debuted in 2024. KCPQ became the local broadcast partner of the Seattle Seahawks in 2012 , airing preseason games and team features; KING-TV, which lost the partnership to KCPQ, regained it in 2022 . Beginning in 2014 , KCPQ and KZJO became
2448-653: A major network affiliation. However, in a broader sense, there are independent stations that focus on 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
2592-970: 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 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
2736-756: 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
2880-459: A newscast of its own. As a potential stopgap, KCPQ considered airing a 10 p.m. newscast from KIRO-TV, which at that time was preparing to switch back from UPN to CBS and was shopping the 10 p.m. hour to other local stations. While KCPQ reached an initial agreement to air the KIRO newscast for three years, minutes from signing the contract, an impasse was reached over a "deep philosophical issue":
3024-456: A number of off-network sitcoms, and initially only programmed two half-hour newscasts, at 6 and 11 p.m. Although it carried an 11 p.m. newscast throughout its run with the network, daytime newscasts aired in various timeslots during KSTW's third tenure with CBS, eventually settling at 6 a.m., 11 a.m. and 4 p.m. KSTW used the same vertically parallelogrammed "11" logo and on-air branding as its Dallas sister station KTVT during this time. The station
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#17328515754023168-405: A pay cut to come to channel 13 and helm public affairs programming. Harriott soon left when KIRO-TV offered him a job. KPEC-TV had turned a profit prior to the channel 13 move, a rarity among educational TV stations. Two simultaneous events in 1978 prompted the district to reconsider its ownership of a television station. The Washington State Legislature —which KPEC-TV and later KCPQ covered for
3312-528: A potential swap for KCPQ. Fox announced on October 17, 2014, that Tribune had agreed to extend its affiliation agreement for KCPQ through July 2018 and pay increased reverse compensation fees to Fox for the broadcasting of its programming beginning in January 2015. Shortly thereafter, Fox's purchase of KBCB was abandoned and was dismissed by the FCC on November 20, 2014. Tribune Media agreed to be sold to Sinclair Broadcast Group on May 8, 2017, for $ 3.9 billion and
3456-447: 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
3600-551: 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
3744-432: A shock to KSTW employees. The two Seattle stations retained their respective syndicated programming, but exchanged network affiliations once again, with KSTW becoming a UPN affiliate, and KIRO returning to CBS. The deal was finalized on June 2, 1997. KSTW began to air UPN programming on June 30, 1997, along with sitcoms, movies, cartoons, a few first-run syndicated shows, and the return of the 10 p.m. newscast it had prior to
3888-495: 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
4032-484: A threat from Fox to strip KCPQ of its affiliation if it did not commit to running Fox Kids in sequence beginning in 1992, as well as an antitrust lawsuit between Buena Vista and Fox, which Buena Vista alleged was coercing affiliates to air its children's programming in a restraint of trade . Fox ultimately relented on its pressure, but KCPQ dropped the Disney Afternoon block in the fall of 1993. The second half of
4176-486: A time, a full local newscast. When KSTW opted not to join the new Fox network in 1986, the affiliation went to KCPQ that June ahead of its launch on October 9; of the first 79 stations to affiliate with Fox, it was among the 13 on the VHF dial. In February 1990, KCPQ signed a three-year deal with Buena Vista Television to carry The Disney Afternoon , spurning Fox's own children's lineup which launched that fall. This led to
4320-586: A transmitter near Ruston . KMO-TV briefly carried NBC programs until Seattle's KOMO-TV began broadcasting on December 11. After that, KMO-TV's output primarily consisted of local and syndicated programs. Within a year of starting the TV station, owner Carl E. Haymond—who had built KMO radio in 1926—sought to exit the broadcasting business, having already sold stakes in radio stations in California and Arizona. He first attempted to sell KMO radio and television together to
4464-477: 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 ;
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4608-502: A walkout by employees in January and the appointment of a receiver in July, KTVW was ordered closed on December 12, 1974. The Clover Park School District in Lakewood purchased KTVW at bankruptcy auction in 1975. The station returned to the air on a non-commercial basis as KCPQ in January 1976, serving as an effective replacement for Clover Park's UHF station, KPEC-TV (channel 56). Changes to
4752-621: Is a television station licensed to Tacoma, Washington , United States, serving as the Fox network outlet for the Seattle area. It is owned and operated by the network's Fox Television Stations division alongside MyNetworkTV station KZJO (channel 22). The two stations share studios on Westlake Avenue in Seattle's Westlake neighborhood; KCPQ's main transmitter is located on Gold Mountain in Bremerton . The station signed on in August 1953 as KMO-TV,
4896-959: 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 KCPQ KCPQ (channel 13)
5040-560: The Late Show with David Letterman to midnight) in preparation for its return to the 10 p.m. timeslot, but those plans were retracted and the 11 p.m. newscast remained unchanged with no change to the Late Show start time. The late evening newscast reverted to the 10 p.m. timeslot after the switch to UPN on June 30. KSTW's news department was shut down on December 4, 1998, as a result of cost-cutting measures mandated by then-parent company Viacom;
5184-722: 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
5328-548: The MISL Tacoma Stars from 1984 to 1986. From 1954 to 1974, KTNT's local children's programs featured a personable host named "Brakeman Bill" McLain. From 1988 to 1994, the station carried Ranger Charlie's Kids Club , the last children's show in the region to be filmed before a live audience. The show featured a forest ranger accompanied by a puppet raccoon named Rosco; the show won an Emmy Award . Looney Tunes and Woody Woodpecker cartoons were incorporated into
5472-619: The Meredith Corporation , which immediately traded it to the Tribune Company in exchange for Tribune's Atlanta station, WGNX . The swap made sense for both companies; WGNX was the only CBS affiliate owned by Tribune, whose portfolio otherwise consisted of Fox and The WB affiliates, while Meredith owned several CBS outlets in top-25 markets. Following the purchase of channel 13, Tribune merged KCPQ's operations with those of KTWB-TV (channel 22, now KZJO ), which Tribune had acquired
5616-643: The Native Americans in the Northwest. In 2013, KSTW debuted a public affairs program on Sunday mornings called The Impact , produced by Washington state's public affairs channel TVW . All of these programs have since gone off the air. Local newscasts returned to KSTW after 17 years on July 18, 2022, with the debut of Seattle Now News at 10:00 on CW 11 . The newscast was produced through CBS News and Stations , and ended on August 31, 2023. The callsign and channel number for KSTW were co-opted by The CW to create
5760-691: The Nightmare! banner in the early 1960s on Saturday nights, airing around 10:30 p.m. before sign-off. Due to new newspaper-broadcast cross-ownership restrictions enacted by the FCC in the early 1970s, the Tacoma News Tribune ' s ownership of the KTNT stations were under threat of potential FCC divestiture. As a result, KTNT-TV was sold to the WKY Television System , forerunner of Gaylord Broadcasting (now Ryman Hospitality Properties ), in 1974;
5904-493: The Northern Life Tower . These shows, along with most of channel 13's local programming, were temporarily suspended at the end of March 1970 as part of cutbacks it attributed to "the economic slowdown ". The cutbacks left Bob Corcoran, a talk show host, as KTVW's sole on-air personality. KTVW was left airing, in the words of the television editor of The Seattle Times , "scratchy old movies and ... Neanderthal reruns from
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6048-478: The Seattle metropolitan area overall), KSTW initially signed on in March 1953 as KTNT-TV, the area's CBS affiliate under the ownership of the Tacoma News Tribune . The station lost the affiliation when Seattle-licensed KIRO-TV signed on in 1958; both stations shared the affiliation for two years after their owners agreed to settle an antitrust lawsuit over the switch. The station became KSTW in 1974 when it
6192-454: The spectrum incentive auction . According to an online posting by KSTW, there are no other channels on which this translator can broadcast in digital, resulting in the permanent shutdown of the transmitter. KSTW also had low-power translators serving certain areas of Seattle, all of which have been shut down. Independent station In North American and Japanese television, independent stations with general entertainment formats emerged as
6336-409: The $ 5.1 million (equivalent to $ 24.5 million in 2023 ) purchase price of channel 13 and asked for several time extensions to consummate the purchase. In July, MCA Television , among KTVW's largest creditors, successfully petitioned for the appointment of a receiver to manage the station's affairs. Despite a brief improvement in financial position when the receiver separated KTVW from Blaidon,
6480-491: The 10 p.m. newscast moved back to 11 p.m., and newscasts were added in various other timeslots: besides the 11 p.m. news, it initially only ran one other half-hour newscast, at 6 p.m. On July 31, 1995, the station debuted an hour-long 6 a.m. newscast; in early August, the 6 p.m. newscast was dropped due to low ratings in favor of an hour-long 5 p.m. newscast (the CBS Evening News , which originally aired at 5:30, then moved to
6624-457: The 1970s. From 1976 to 1979, John Lippman worked at KSTW, building a news department. During the late 1980s, KSTW branded on-air as "KSTWashington" and, as it did in the 1960s and 1970s, ran the traditional fare of cartoons , off-network sitcoms , westerns , old movies , and a local 10 p.m. newscast. It was also the over-the-air home of the Seattle Mariners and SuperSonics. Although it
6768-458: The 1990s was a time of major changes at channel 13. In 1995, Kelly Broadcasting bought a former candy factory on Westlake Avenue along Lake Union in Seattle which would be renovated and expanded to house KCPQ's operations. Even though Bob Kelly lived in Tacoma, the company made the decision to move out of the South Sound and into a space more than twice the size of the prior studio and closer to
6912-542: The 4.2 subchannel of KOMO-TV , then to KUNS-TV on January 1, 2024. The station was the on-air home for the NBA 's Seattle SuperSonics in the early 1970s, and again from the early 1990s until 1999 . It also aired Seattle Mariners games for most of the 1980s, 1990s and 2000s. The station also carried TVS ' World Football League telecasts in 1974. The station also carried the NASL Seattle Sounders from 1974 to 1981 and
7056-529: The 6 p.m. timeslot Seattle stations have traditionally scheduled the network newscasts). Both newscasts were removed on March 11, 1996, in favor of newscasts at 11 a.m. and 4 p.m. emphasizing health and consumer features. During this time, KSTW was among the first stations to use the 11 at 11 branding on its 11 p.m. newscast (as did Gaylord's station in Dallas–Fort Worth, KTVT, using a modified 11 on 11 branding on its 10 p.m. newscast); this format included
7200-524: The Beautiful , had already been shown on KSTW starting in the fall of 1994, which was already occurring with KTVT.) The WB ultimately signed with KTZZ-TV (channel 22, now KZJO ) weeks before its eventual January 1995 launch. With the CBS affiliation, KSTW was dropped from cable systems in areas of Eastern Washington and Northern Idaho, due to the presence of Spokane 's KREM-TV . Even as a CBS affiliate, KSTW still ran
7344-584: The CBN sale fell apart over its refusal to assume all of the television station's liabilities. The bankruptcy court approved a second offer from the Suburban Broadcasting Company, which owned WSNL in Patchogue, New York , but this deal collapsed, as Suburban also refused to assume the station's liabilities. On December 12, 1974, at 5:10 p.m., KTVW was airing a rerun of Batman when Bruce Clements,
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#17328515754027488-539: The CBS switch. The station canceled the 10 p.m. newscast in December 1998. Viacom acquired CBS (its former parent) in 2000, bringing CBS and KSTW under common ownership, and making KSTW and the aforementioned KTVT sister stations once again. The cartoons on KSTW had disappeared (as a result of UPN ending the Disney's One Too block in August 2003), and more first-run syndicated talk and reality shows moved to KSTW. In July 2001, KSTW moved their studios from Tacoma to Renton; despite
7632-484: 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,
7776-606: The Fragaria Access Road. Parts of the old transmitting equipment were loaned to Portland, Oregon 's KGW-TV , due to the damage from the Columbus Day Storm of 1962 . In February 1958, KIRO-TV (channel 7) took to the air as the Seattle–Tacoma market's exclusive CBS affiliate. After being informed by CBS that its affiliation would be discontinued, KTNT-TV filed an antitrust lawsuit against CBS and KIRO-TV, on claims
7920-405: The Q13 moniker (it was also called "The New 13" early on); on opening night, it counterprogrammed election returns on the network affiliates with the movie The Deer Hunter . Channel 13 represented a challenge that brought Bob Kelly, who with his brother had owned KCRA, out of semiretirement; disenchanted with network television, he had turned his attention to other Kelly family ventures. Among
8064-585: 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
8208-570: The Ruston transmitter from 100,000 to 214,000 watts in 1960. McCaw was regarded as frugal. Of his Denver station, it was remarked by Edwin James of Broadcasting that "McCaw's saving ways had been reflected in the station's programming"; in the 1950s, he owned WINS in New York and was an aggressive cost-cutter there. Local programs from KTVW during its 20-year run included a movie block hosted by Stu Martin;
8352-595: The Seattle market and its status as an NFL football city led Fox to covet owning a station there. By 1997, it had already made two rejected offers to buy KCPQ. KCPQ first came in danger of losing its Fox affiliation in February 1997, when Fox Television Stations was reported to be in negotiations to acquire then- UPN affiliate KIRO-TV from Belo Corporation . Belo had just acquired the Providence Journal Company and KING-TV , requiring it to dispose of KIRO. Fox
8496-633: 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
8640-604: 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
8784-1023: 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
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#17328515754028928-729: 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
9072-419: 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
9216-537: The afternoon children's show Penny and Her Pals , hosted by LeMoyne Hreha; and, for one year, coverage of the Seafair hydroplane races . In 1967, when an engineer's strike kept most of the other Seattle stations from broadcasting the event, KTVW stepped in to fill the void on short notice. In 1967, channel 13 began airing a six-hour stock market show, the first such program to broadcast on a VHF station. It originated, unlike KTVW's other programming, from Seattle in studios in
9360-432: 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
9504-445: The assumption of $ 2.9 billion in debt held by Tribune. As Sinclair already owned KOMO-TV and KUNS-TV , KCPQ was among 23 stations identified for divestment in order to meet regulatory compliance for the merger. Sinclair agreed to purchase KZJO and sell KCPQ to Fox Television Stations as part of a $ 910 million deal; Howard Stirk Holdings additionally agreed to purchase KUNS-TV. Lead FCC commissioner Ajit Pai publicly rejected
9648-492: The bank declared his estate insolvent , requiring the family to sell off his various holdings, including the family mansion and yachts. After nearly three years, on March 27, 1972, McCaw's estate sold KTVW to the Seattle-based Blaidon Mutual Investors Corporation, named for co-owners Blaine Sampson and Don Wolfstone, for $ 1.1 million (equivalent to $ 6.08 million in 2023 ). During
9792-547: The broadcast home for locally televised Seattle Sounders FC matches; while all the matches were carried on KZJO, KCPQ aired two specials on the team each year. In 2016, KCPQ and KZJO began broadcasting locally televised games of the Seattle Storm of the WNBA ; initially starting with 15 home games on channel 22 in 2016, KZJO was slated to carry 29 games in the 2023 season plus six more on KCPQ. In 2023 , KCPQ and KZJO entered into
9936-518: The bulk of market activity. On September 13, 1997, KCPQ moved its studios to the new, $ 30 million Seattle facility, retaining only a small sales office in the city of license of Tacoma. This marked the end of television broadcasting from the Clover Park studios after more than 20 years on channel 13 and more than 35 since the founding of KPEC-TV. There were also changes in ownership. In 1997, Kelly Broadcasting experienced an internal changing of
10080-470: The company's San Francisco duopoly of KPIX and KBCW . On October 3, 2022, Nexstar Media Group acquired majority ownership of The CW. Under the agreement, CBS was given the right to pull its affiliations from KSTW and its seven other CW stations. On May 5, 2023, CBS announced that it would exercise that right and KSTW would cease airing The CW's programming at the end of August and become an independent station. The CW affiliation in Seattle went first to
10224-483: The company. When the bankruptcy court revealed the identity of the winning bidder for channel 13's transmission site—the studio equipment having been sold at a sheriff's sale—the local television community was shocked to learn that the buyer would be the Clover Park School District . Clover Park had operated KPEC-TV , an educational station on ultra high frequency (UHF) channel 56, since April 1960; it
10368-421: The country". Blaidon tried to turn KTVW around by boosting the station's signal strength, acquiring first-run syndicated programming, and installing color-capable broadcast equipment (the station had broadcast exclusively in black-and-white until Blaidon bought it). Channel 13 premiered its new programming lineup with The Tony Visco Show , its flagship effort. This talk/entertainment show was hosted by Tony Visco,
10512-422: The deal in July 2018 after details of Sinclair's proposed divestitures came to light; weeks later, Tribune terminated the merger agreement with Sinclair, nullifying both transactions. Tribune Media agreed to be acquired by Nexstar Media Group for $ 6.9 billion in cash and debt on December 3, 2018. Following the merger's completion on September 19, 2019, Fox Television Stations purchased KCPQ and KZJO as part of
10656-531: 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
10800-548: The early stages of a bid to build a new station in Albuquerque, New Mexico , the pair saw the Seattle–Tacoma market as having recovered from the market conditions that claimed KTVW four years prior and as being overserved by educational stations. They also felt that the Tacoma area alone represented a market of similar size to Tucson. Channel 13 then attracted another buyer who topped the Adelstein–Berger bid. In January 1979,
10944-448: The erection of another TV tower in the area and to McCaw's proposal to create a "tower park" that would have required the demolition of 75 to 80 homes. This proposal had stalled by 1958, when it was reported that the owners of Los Angeles station KCOP-TV , including Bing Crosby , were negotiating to buy KTVW and another independent station McCaw owned, Denver's KTVR . Ultimately, the station increased its effective radiated power from
11088-454: The fledgling Trinity Broadcasting Network , and a commercial group headed by Stan Naccarato, manager of the Tacoma Twins , also bid. Clover Park won the station for a final cost of $ 378,000 (equivalent to $ 1.58 million in 2023 ), with KSTW (the former KTNT-TV) owner Gaylord Broadcasting providing $ 250,000 of that total in what was viewed as a move to make KSTW the only independent in
11232-451: The guard, as Bob Kelly and his son Chris sold their stakes in Kelly to family members Jon and Greg Kelly and KCPQ general manager Roger Ottenbach. Not long after, the family company decided to exit an increasingly consolidated television business. In August 1998, Kelly Broadcasting announced the sale of its Sacramento television business to Hearst-Argyle Television ; the next day, it sold KCPQ to
11376-673: 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
11520-453: The idea of producing a 10 p.m. newscast for the station; channel 13 "wasn't ready" for the venture, per KIRO-TV news director John Lippman , and KTZZ aired it instead, lasting until 1993. By 1997—as the Fox network had added a national news service and more of its affiliated stations were adding newscasts, and after KCPQ had relocated to the larger Seattle studios—KCPQ began planning to start up
11664-575: The late 1960s, the station also occasionally carried NBC prime time programs preempted by Seattle SuperSonics games on KING-TV (channel 5). For one month, in May 1967, the station was also an affiliate of the United Network (also known as the Overmyer Network ), a short-lived attempt to create a fourth commercial television network nationally. During the decade, KTNT also presented horror movies under
11808-527: 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
11952-457: 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
12096-486: 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
12240-462: The length of the contract, because KCPQ wanted a term of no more than 18 months before it would start up its own newscast. After no agreement could be reached with KIRO, Kelly decided to re-launch the station's news division (and newscast) independently and hired Todd Mokhtari, producer of KCRA-TV's morning and evening newscasts, to be the news director for a new 10 p.m. newscast. Q13 Reports began airing on January 18, 1998, initially running as
12384-515: The market. Transmitter testing took place in November 1975, with channel 13 repeating the KPEC-TV signal; eventually, a new microwave link would be used to feed programming from channel 56's existing studios to the channel 13 transmitter near Ruston. The call letters were changed to KCPQ-TV and the license modified to noncommercial before channel 13 returned to the air on January 4, 1976; the microwave link
12528-559: 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
12672-410: The morning show debuted, with Christine Chen —a former KSTW anchor who worked at KCPQ on a freelance basis for nearly a year—selected as its first anchor. After adding a 9 p.m. newscast on KMYQ (now KZJO) in 2008, KCPQ expanded into early evening news in the 2010s with 4 and 5 p.m. programs added. A half-hour 11 p.m. newscast followed in 2014 when the revival of The Arsenio Hall Show
12816-515: The move came after the company canceled newscasts on its UPN stations in Tampa–St. Petersburg and Boston . News returned to the station in March 2003, as it began to carry a 10 p.m. newscast produced by KIRO-TV under a news share agreement. The newscast was dropped on December 19, 2003, but returned on June 28, 2004, before being canceled again, this time permanently, in June 2005; from then on until July 2022,
12960-409: The move, KSTW remains licensed to Tacoma to this day. On January 24, 2006, Time Warner and KSTW parent CBS Corporation (which split from Viacom the previous month; the two would remerge in December 2019) announced they would shut down The WB and UPN, and launch The CW Television Network , which would largely feature programming from both networks; KSTW was announced as the Seattle station for
13104-451: The network had a pre-existing agreement to affiliate with KIRO-TV when and if it ever went on the air. CBS agreed to settle the suit in 1960 by taking on both KIRO-TV and KTNT-TV as primary affiliates. This arrangement lasted until September 1962, when channel 7 became the sole CBS station for western Washington. Channel 11 was left to once again become an independent station, the second in the market after KTVW (channel 13, now KCPQ ). During
13248-541: 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
13392-485: The new WB Television Network , at that time projected to launch late in the summer of 1994. However, delays in the network's launch led to Gaylord suing to void the affiliation agreements in July 1994, which was followed a month later by a breach of contract countersuit by The WB. In the meantime, CBS found itself without an affiliate in Dallas–Fort Worth when its longtime affiliate there, KDFW , switched to Fox (it
13536-504: The new KCPQ's launch programs were a nightly 8 p.m. movie, game shows, and a local children's show, Captain Sea-Tac . John Komen, a political reporter, was the only holdover from the public station's programming. KCPQ grew quickly in its first five years. What started as a station heavy on movies and branded as "The Northwest Movie Channel" expanded to include college sports (including Washington and Washington State football ) and, for
13680-406: The new network; the station rebranded as "CW 11" on August 11, ahead of the network's launch on September 18, 2006. Tribune Company -owned WB station KTWB-TV (later KMYQ, now KZJO) became an affiliate of MyNetworkTV . In November 2006, after cost-cutting measures were put in place by CBS, it was announced that KSTW would become a "hosting station", with master control located at the facilities of
13824-717: The new ownership changed the station's call letters to KSTW (standing for Seattle–Tacoma, Washington) on March 1. With the new ownership and call letters came a new slogan, "Good Lookin' 11", as well as a new logo—a stylized "circle 11" with the circle modified to accommodate the "11". Later in the decade, KSTW became a regional superstation . At its height, it was available on nearly every cable system in Washington, as well as parts of Oregon , northern Idaho , and much of British Columbia . The station also carried many daytime CBS programs preempted by KIRO-TV (including game shows such as The Joker's Wild and The Price Is Right ) during
13968-462: The news department at KSTW and make it more competitive with the other stations in the market. However, rival KIRO-TV had been put up for sale just weeks before KSTW, as the Belo Corporation 's merger with the Providence Journal Company gave it ownership of KING-TV (Belo could not hold on to both KING-TV and KIRO per FCC ownership rules at the time). Paramount Stations Group , meanwhile, was in
14112-422: The newscast to continue to air in the Seattle market until KIRO-TV could sign on as the market's CBS station (which it would do on February 8, 1958), arranged for the network hookup to bring the program to KTVW on an interim basis. In 1957, McCaw filed to move the transmitter from Tacoma to Queen Anne Hill in Seattle, which would have come with an upgrade to the maximum 316,000 watts; local residents objected to
14256-405: The next day, and work progressed rapidly. The original studios and transmitter house were located at South 11th Street and South Grant Avenue. The station tested with a 30,000- watt signal and received reports of reception from up to 150 miles (240 km) away. The station began broadcasting March 1, 1953, in Tacoma as KTNT-TV, named after its founder, the Tacoma News Tribune . At the time, it
14400-471: The next day, but employees remained skeptical of Blaidon's financial condition. By the end of January, Blaidon had pleaded with the FCC to expedite approval of the CBN transfer; Wolfstone expected the Internal Revenue Service to lock up his Seattle office for failing to pay withholding taxes in the second half of 1973. The FCC approved the CBN transaction, but the buyer had second thoughts about
14544-413: 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
14688-401: The owners of Seattle radio station KAYO (1150 AM) for $ 350,000 (equivalent to $ 3.15 million in 2023 ); the unusually low purchase price was attributed to the station's lack of network affiliation and its financial losses. The FCC indicated the necessity of a hearing to approve the sale due to the then-impermissible overlap of the Seattle and Tacoma radio stations' coverage areas; the deal
14832-493: The process of selling off the non- UPN stations it had inherited from Viacom , including KMOV in St. Louis —Paramount and Chris-Craft Industries launched UPN in January 1995, the same month The WB went on the air. As a result, on February 20, 1997, a three-way station trade was arranged, in which Paramount/Viacom would swap KMOV to Belo for KIRO-TV, which would then be dealt to Cox in exchange for KSTW and $ 70 million—a deal that came as
14976-523: The program from a Tacoma restaurant to the station's studios; channel 13 canceled The Tony Visco Show before the year ended. Another new program launched under Blaidon was an afternoon cartoon show hosted by local actor Mike Lynch, playing a "superhero" character for whom viewers were asked to suggest a name; the winning entry was "Flash Blaidon". Despite KTVW's improved programming and ratings that at times were competitive with KTNT-TV, national advertisers failed to materialize. The News Tribune described
15120-447: The proposed changes as heralding the end of "the funny station way over at the end of your television dial ... with the fuzzy picture and the funny, fuzzy programs and the fuzzy, old, awful movies". However, any hopes of an upgrade were dashed when McCaw died of a stroke that August. His indebted businesses struggled after his death; creditors made more than $ 12 million (equivalent to $ 72.7 million in 2023 ) in claims, after which
15264-469: The sale process, the stock market program—which had returned in 1971 after it reorganized under a new production company —stopped airing after channel 13 asked for more money for its air time in contract negotiations. Wolfstone recognized that the station needed help if it were to become viable, telling a writer for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer that "there's not much of a worse [station] in
15408-463: 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
15552-534: The school board accepted an offer from Kelly Broadcasting , owners of KCRA-TV in Sacramento, California , to buy KCPQ from the Clover Park School District for $ 6.25 million (equivalent to $ 21.2 million in 2023 ). This purchase price was financed by Kelly Broadcasting's sale, earlier that year, of two radio stations in Sacramento. The sale was met with stiff protests and a petition to deny led by members of
15696-546: 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
15840-447: The show. KTNT/KSTW has offered local newscasts throughout most of its history. Its news department began when the station signed on in 1953 as a CBS affiliate. In 1976, KSTW moved its 11 p.m. newscast to a prime time slot at 10 p.m. In May 1990, the station debuted an 11:30 a.m. newscast, which was ended on July 23, 1991, due to low ratings. After KSTW rejoined CBS in March 1995, the station made extensive changes to its news schedule:
15984-443: The state's public television stations—approved plans to fully fund basic education at the state level, which would change channel 13 into a financial drain on the school system. For instance, Clover Park would stop receiving $ 3.5 million a year in federal funds for educating military dependents; this money would instead go to the state, making the $ 600,000 in annual station maintenance costs (equivalent to $ 2.2 million in 2023 )
16128-484: The station became a Fox affiliate, relocated its studios from Lakewood to Seattle, and established its present local news department. KCPQ was sold to Tribune Broadcasting in 1999 as part of Kelly's exit from the broadcasting industry. As Tribune expanded the station's news output, it also had to fend off overtures by Fox, which had sought to own KCPQ on several occasions since the 1990s and at one point threatened to buy another station to broadcast Fox programming. Tribune
16272-471: The station relocated its Tacoma facility, all of channel 13's live shows temporarily originated from Seattle. McCaw tried to make several moves to improve channel 13's positioning in the late 1950s. In an unusual arrangement, the station briefly aired the CBS network news in late 1957 when Tacoma's then-CBS affiliate, KTNT-TV (channel 11), dropped the CBS Evening News with Douglas Edwards to make way for an expanded local news program. CBS, which wanted
16416-512: The station to broadcast in color, and its syndicated programming inventory was considered meager. McCaw died in August 1969; three years later, his estate sold the station to the Blaidon Mutual Investors Corporation. While Blaidon tried several new programs and began color telecasting, the station continued to underperform financially. Two attempts to sell KTVW to out-of-state buyers failed because of its high liabilities. After
16560-456: The station was KMO-TV in 1953; the next time channel 13 attempted a regular local newscast was in 1981, when the station aired regular news updates, expanding briefly by running a half-hour 10 p.m. newscast by the mid-1980s. This news operation could not compete with the more established 10 p.m. news on then-independent KSTW and was axed in June 1986 as part of economic cutbacks by the station. In 1991, KIRO-TV pitched KCPQ management on
16704-450: The station was issued by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) on December 10, 1952. Chief Engineer Max Bice immediately ordered equipment through General Electric , and the equipment was delivered within 45 days. The antenna was in Milan , Italy and it was shipped by rail car to Tacoma. The transmitter arrived in Tacoma from Syracuse, New York , on February 9, 1953. It was installed on
16848-544: 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
16992-468: The station's advisory board, organized as "Save our Station 13". After the approval of a settlement between this group and Kelly that included a $ 450,000 gift (equivalent to $ 1.4 million in 2023 ) from the buyer for public television and the donation of the Ruston tower to KTPS, KCPQ ceased educational broadcasting on February 29, 1980, and the station went silent for a major technical overhaul. While KCPQ would continue to use Clover Park's studio space,
17136-552: The station, in retrospect, as "a down-at-the-heels purveyor of old movies and used-car commercials". [KTVW] used to be worse than no TV at all, so we pretended it wasn't there. By Fish, in a 1974 column in The Seattle Times At the end of 1973, Blaidon filed to sell channel 13 to the Christian Broadcasting Network (CBN) of Portsmouth, Virginia ; the filing alone signaled trouble, given that at
17280-415: The structure of school financing in Washington and the refusal of voters to approve bonds to rebuild Clover Park High School forced the school district to sell KCPQ back into commercial use. After being off the air for most of 1980 to relocate its transmitter, KCPQ returned under new owner Kelly Broadcasting , who rebuilt it as a more competitive independent station. During Kelly's 19-year ownership of KCPQ,
17424-605: 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
17568-444: The television outgrowth of Tacoma radio station KMO . It was briefly an NBC network affiliate until another Seattle station signed on; the next year, KMO radio and television were sold to separate owners. The Seattle broadcaster J. Elroy McCaw bought channel 13, changed the call letters to KTVW, and ran it as an independent station . While KTVW produced a number of local programs, McCaw, a famously parsimonious owner, never converted
17712-413: The time slot was filled with syndicated programming. After dropping traditional newscasts, KSTW aired two specially focused news programs on Sunday mornings: the business-focused program, South Sound Business Report (produced by Business Examiner and also broadcast by Tacoma PBS member station KBTC-TV ), as well as Northwest Indian News (produced by local cable channel KANU TV-99), which focuses on
17856-510: The time, the FCC barred selling a station in less than three years of ownership unless the buyer demonstrated it was facing financial hardship. The station's remaining live programming, such as Flash Blaidon , was canceled. Over the course of 1974, KTVW's financial position deteriorated. On January 15, 40 employees staged a walk-out, forcing the station to go off the air, complaining about not having been paid in nearly four weeks. After they were paid by cashier's check, channel 13 resumed operations
18000-419: The top stories and a weather forecast in an 11-minute first segment, with the next segment serving as an in-depth "Northwest News Extra" report. After being sold to Paramount Stations Group, the station's 11 a.m. and 4 p.m. newscasts were immediately cut. Initial plans for June 9, 1997, included expanding the 11 p.m. newscast (the only newscast to have remained largely unchanged from March 1995) to an hour (pushing
18144-401: The transmitter was relocated to Gold Mountain , a peak located west of Bremerton , where the station erected a new tower; this enabled channel 13 to increase its signal footprint across western Washington. After more than eight months and several delays, KCPQ returned to the air—and to commercial operation as the Seattle market's second independent station—on November 4, 1980, when it adopted
18288-543: The violence-action era of television". The business news programming briefly left the air that April before closing for good at the end of October 1970 along with the Northern Life Tower studio in Seattle. In early 1969, plans were floated to convert KTVW to color, move the transmitter to Port Orchard , and relocate the studios to Seattle. The television editor of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer hailed
18432-481: The year prior; the two stations became co-owned in 1999, after the FCC began to allow same-market duopolies . On August 1, 2001, KCPQ began digital broadcasting on channel 18. KCPQ shut down its analog signal, over VHF channel 13, on June 12, 2009, as part of the federally mandated transition from analog to digital television . The station's digital signal relocated from its pre-transition UHF channel 18 to VHF channel 13 for post-transition operations. The size of
18576-492: Was a primary CBS affiliate and sister station to KTNT radio (AM 1400, now KITZ , and FM 97.3, now KIRO-FM ). During the late 1950s, the station was briefly affiliated with the NTA Film Network . On February 21, 1954, KTNT received permission from the FCC to increase the transmitter's power to 316,000 watts, and to move the transmitter to a new 1,000-foot (300 m) tower near View Park, Washington just south of Harper on
18720-401: Was acquired by a forerunner of Gaylord Broadcasting ; it subsequently became one of the strongest independent stations in the country over two decades, reaching regional superstation status with widespread carriage on cable television systems in Washington and neighboring states/provinces. KSTW rejoined CBS in 1995 during a nationwide affiliation shuffle ; two years later, the station became
18864-644: Was also reportedly considering a deal to acquire KIRO, which would have displaced the Fox affiliation from KCPQ. In 2013, Fox had made a similar move in Charlotte, North Carolina (home market of the Carolina Panthers ), exercising an option to buy WJZY and move its affiliation there. In September 2014, the New York Post reported that Fox was planning to acquire KCPQ from Tribune in exchange for its Chicago MyNetworkTV station WPWR-TV —which would have created
19008-610: Was canceled. By 2021, KCPQ was producing 54 hours of locally produced newscasts weekly, with 11 hours each weekday. This was further expanded by the addition of a 6 p.m. news hour in January 2022. In April 2022, KCPQ relaunched its morning show as Good Day Seattle , adopting the Good Day title used by other Fox-owned stations. The station produces a local program on law enforcement and crime news, The Spotlight with David Rose , which airs every Friday at 11:00 p.m. The program began production in 2008 as Washington's Most Wanted ,
19152-459: Was connected to KTVW in several ways. For two months, KTVW's general manager served as the team's president; when he resigned for a television job in Los Angeles, McCaw became the team's sole owner. At this time, the Americans were the only professional hockey club to televise all their home games. Between 1955 and 1958, the station operated Seattle studios at 230 8th Avenue North; at one point, while
19296-541: Was described as a "strategic option" for Fox by an insider. Naming KBCB as Fox's Seattle affiliate would have had immediate complications for Fox's distribution in the market, as the Bellingham station provides a marginal signal to Seattle proper. By the time the KBCB purchase was disclosed, talks between Tribune and Fox had deteriorated; a Wall Street Journal report on October 7 stated that Fox no longer planned to include WPWR in
19440-494: Was later purchased outright by that network). CBS approached Gaylord for an affiliation with KTVT. Gaylord agreed, on condition that KSTW be included as part of the deal. CBS agreed, partly because at the time, KSTW was the only non- Big Three station in Seattle with a fully functioning news department. As a result, CBS returned to channel 11 on March 13, 1995, in what was to have been a ten-year affiliation agreement. (Some CBS shows that were preempted by KIRO, such as The Bold and
19584-447: Was not ready, so KPEC-TV remained in service until it was. The new KCPQ also aired some programming produced by KTPS. Programming in the Clover Park era, which included PBS material, represented a continuation of KPEC-TV's former service and originated from its existing Lakewood studios. The transmitter upgrade also attracted a high-profile name: Jim Harriott, who had been the highest-paid anchor in local TV news at KING-TV and who took
19728-464: 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 –
19872-435: Was one of the South Sound's two educational TV stations, alongside KTPS-TV (channel 62), owned by Tacoma Public Schools . By 1975, KPEC-TV's UHF equipment, which had been in service for more than a decade, was aging and needed replacement. It was more cost-effective to replace the channel 56 physical plant with KTVW, a high-power VHF station that could reach more western Washington homes and schools. A booster group for KTPS,
20016-733: Was one of the strongest independent stations in the country, it passed on the Fox affiliation when that network launched in 1986; that affiliation was picked up by KCPQ. This was mainly because most of the smaller markets in KSTW's cable footprint had enough stations to provide a local Fox affiliate, making the prospect of KSTW as a multi-market Fox affiliate unattractive to Gaylord. In 1993, Gaylord agreed to affiliate KSTW, and its sister stations KTVT in Fort Worth , WVTV in Milwaukee and KHTV in Houston , with
20160-446: Was permanently shut down on December 29, 2011. The FCC required that all television transmitters occupying channels 52 to 69 to vacate those channels by December 31 , 2011. KSTW had already applied to change the broadcast channel and to broadcast in digital so as to use channel 51; however, on August 21, 2011, the FCC issued a freeze on processing applications to use channel 51; that channel would eventually be removed for TV use as part of
20304-458: Was purchased by Nexstar Media Group in 2019; Nexstar then traded KCPQ to Fox as part of an exchange of Fox affiliates in three cities. In December 1952, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) simultaneously granted applications to broadcast on very high frequency (VHF) channels 11 and 13 in Tacoma; channel 13 was awarded to radio station KMO (1360 AM) . The station began broadcasting as KMO-TV on August 2, 1953, from studios in Tacoma and
20448-415: Was put up for sale in October 1996, with Gaylord stating in its earnings report that "its financial results have not met expectations." On January 20, 1997, Gaylord announced that KSTW would be purchased by Cox Broadcasting , a subsidiary of Cox Enterprises , for $ 160 million. The deal was finalized on May 30, 1997 (Gaylord held on to KTVT until 1999, when it was sold to CBS outright). Cox had plans to expand
20592-727: Was reportedly dissatisfied with KCPQ, which was described by one observer as being "recalcitrant". The trade with Belo never materialized; KIRO was ultimately sold to Cox Broadcasting . The Seattle Seahawks moved in 2002 from the American Football Conference to the National Football Conference , to which Fox holds the rights for most games. In June 2014, Fox reached a deal with Cox to trade its stations in Boston and Memphis for Cox's Fox affiliate, KTVU , and associated independent KICU in San Francisco ; Fox
20736-430: Was then scrapped several weeks later. In July, Haymond sold KMO-TV for $ 300,000 (equivalent to $ 2.7 million in 2023 ) to J. Elroy McCaw , a Seattle-based radio station owner. With KMO-TV separated from KMO radio, the television station changed its call sign to KTVW in October 1954 and announced plans to open auxiliary offices in Seattle. The station also began airing Seattle Americans minor-league hockey, which
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