KCAL-TV

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Revision as of 12:54, 2 July 2008

KCAL-TV (Channel 9) is an Anime National affiliate in Los Angeles, California. This station, owned by CBS Corporation (under LMA with Taylor Media Stations Group) who also owns KCBS-TV Channel 2, has a signal radius that covers the Southern California region. Its transmitter is located atop Mount Wilson.

History

Early years

Channel 9 went on the air as KFI-TV on August 25, 1948, owned by Earle C. Anthony along with KFI-AM 640. Since KFI-AM had long been affiliated with NBC, KFI-TV served for a brief period as L.A.'s NBC television affiliate, until KNBH (now KNBC) went on the air several months later in 1949. The station then went independent, a status it has retained to this day (though it carried some DuMont programming).

Channel 9's engineers made noises about going on strike in 1951, leading Anthony to sell the station to RKO General. It had bought KHJ-AM-FM a few months earlier, so it changed the TV station's calls to KHJ-TV. KHJ radio had been the flagship of the Don Lee Broadcasting System, a regional West Coast radio network. 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. Most of Don Lee's television experiments had been conducted on what is now KCBS-TV--ironically, current sister station to channel 9.

RKO ownership, the licensing scandal, and sale to Disney

In 1965, RKO faced a challenge to its license for KHJ from a group called Fidelity Television. At first, Fidelity's challenge focused on KHJ's programming quality. Later, and more seriously, Fidelity claimed that KHJ was involved in reciprocal trade practices. Fidelity alleged that RKO's parent company, General Tire, forced its retailers to purchase advertising on KHJ and other RKO stations as a condition of their contracts with General Tire. An administrative law judge found in favor of Fidelity, but KHJ appealed. In 1972, the FCC allowed RKO to keep the license for KHJ, but two years later conditioned future renewals on the renewal of sister station WNAC (now WHDH-TV) in Boston. Six years later, the FCC stripped WNAC of its license for numerous reasons, but largely because RKO had misled the FCC about corporate misconduct at General Tire. The decision meant KHJ and sister station WOR-TV (now WWOR-TV) in New York lost their licenses as well. However, an appeals court ruled that the FCC had erred when it tied KHJ's renewal to that of WNAC and ordered new hearings for KHJ and WOR.

The hearings dragged on until 1987. That year, an administrative law judge found RKO unfit to be a broadcast licensee due to numerous cases of dishonesty by RKO, including fraudulent billing and lying about its ratings. The FCC advised RKO that it would almost certainly deny any appeals, and persuaded RKO to sell its stations to avoid the indignity of having their licenses taken away. Finally, in 1989, RKO agreed to sell KHJ to Fidelity Television, the group that originally challenged the license in 1965. Fidelity then sold the license to Disney.

Even though Channel 9's longtime radio cousins had changed their calls to KRTH-AM-FM some years before, Disney wanted to make a clean start. Accordingly, it changed the calls to KCAL-TV, and briefly branded the station as "California 9" before settling on "K-CAL 9."

In 1995, Disney purchased Capital Cities/ABC, which owned ABC's West Coast flagship, KABC-TV. Due to FCC regulations at the time, Disney was not allowed to keep both KABC and KCAL. Disney chose to divest KCAL, which was purchased by Young Broadcasting.

Recent years: CBS purchase

As a result of massive debt acquired from purchasing the former NBC affiliate in San Francisco, KRON-TV (which went independent, and beginning in 2006, My Network TV), Young Broadcasting put KCAL up for sale in 2002, and the station was purchased by CBS Corporation. KCAL's operations were merged with those of KCBS, and KCAL moved from its longtime headquarters at the Paramount Studios (a Viacom property and former owner of rival KTLA) in Hollywood to the historic CBS Columbia Square, home to KCBS-FM-TV and KNX-AM, located one mile away. In 2004, CBS Corporation announced plans to relocate its Los Angeles television stations to a new office complex on the site of its CBS Studio Center in Studio City in 2006, located 5 miles away in the San Fernando Valley, for which groundbreaking took place on June 17, 2005.

"UPN 9?"

When CBS Corporation bought KCAL, many in the broadcasting industry have speculated that they would move its UPN network affiliation from Fox-owned KCOP-TV to KCAL, making KCAL a UPN O&O. KCOP's previous owners, Chris-Craft Industries, had until 2000 owned a stake in UPN, and KCOP was considered a UPN O&O, which ended with Fox's buyout of Chris-Craft's TV stations division, United Television. However, CBS Corporation decided to leave KCAL as an independent, as Fox renewed its affiliation agreement for its UPN-affiliated stations. Some said the reason is that Fox used KCOP for leverage to keep UPN on WWOR in New York and WPWR-TV in Chicago because CBS Corporation did not have duopolies in those cities.

This issue became moot in January 2006 due to the announcement of The CW, a broadcast network created from a merger of UPN and The WB. Both new networks launced in September 2006, with KTLA affiliating with The CW and KCOP with My Network TV, a new network created by Fox (which itself is owned by News Corp). KCAL was still independent, at least for now. And in markets where the Tribune Company owned a WB affiliate through a 25% stake in the defunct network, KCAL is now among a series of Anime TV affiliates owned by CBS as the original one. The other two stations include former UPN stations KTXA in Dallas-Fort Worth, and WSBK in Boston.

Programming history

For many years since the station's launch, the showing of motion pictures originally intended for theatrical release was a prime staple of KHJ's programming. Many of these movies were from RKO's film library; in fact, a major reason General Tire bought RKO in the first place was to give its stations a programming source. The quality of these showings was somewhat reduced by the necessity for editing in order to show paid advertising.

KHJ programmed a similar format as KTLA in the 1960s and 1970s. By the late 1960s, Channel 9 offered a blend of movies from the 1940s through '60s (and '70s by 1975). The station also ran a blend of drama shows, westerns, sitcoms, cartoons, professional sports, older movies, syndicated talk shows, game shows, public-affairs shows, locally produced talk shows, religious shows, and live local news.

By the mid 1970s, the cartoons were gone (moving to KTTV and KCOP), and the station ran far fewer off-network sitcoms. It focused more on talk shows, game shows, older movies, and dramas. It did have a weekday children's show called Froozles, which ran until the late 1980s. It also produced a local talk show called Mid Morning L.A., hosted over the years by Bob Hilton, Meredith MacRae, Geoff Edwards and Regis Philbin, which ran well into the 1980s. Edwards and MacRae won Emmy Awards for their hosting duties during the early-1980s.

The station abruptly changed formats in the late 1980s, in the wake of its ownership change to Disney. It added a number of cartoons, some of which were from the Walt Disney library. The station also ran other syndicated cartoons, as well as a lot of off-network family sitcoms. For a while it also aired a few first-run syndicated talk shows and movies, as well as dramas.

In the 1970s, KHJ had a 10 p.m. newscast. It was moved to 9 p.m. during the 1980s, and the station later added a half-hour 8 p.m. Newscast during the late 1980s. Some of its most notable personalities included Anchors George Putnam, Tom Lawrence, Nathan Roberts, Lonnie Lardner, Linda Edwards, and weathercaster Andrew Amador, who continues to work in Southern California television. Interestingly many of KHJ's former staff were let go by the time Disney purchased the station. By 1990, Disney implemented the concept of a prime time news block, with "Prime 9 News" between 8 and 11 p.m.. The 3-hour news block is still seen on KCAL to this day.

Cartoons continued to be a big part of KCAL's schedule in the 1990s, with blocks of children's programming on weekday mornings and afternoons, including the Disney Afternoon block, that lasted well into 1997. The afternoon kids block was gone by 1998, and the Disney kids block moved to UPN and KCOP in 1999. By 2000, the children's shows in the morning were gone as well. The family sitcoms, however, were gradually phased out, and KCAL added more first-run syndicated talk, reality, court, and newsmagazine shows, under the then-new ownership of Young Broadcasting, who bought KCAL in 1997. The station also added more weekday daytime newscasts at 2 and 3 p.m.

KCAL is notable for airing newscasts during unconventional time blocks. Along with newscasts at 10 p.m. (where it competes against KTLA and KTTV), noon, and 4 p.m., it also airs news at 2 p.m., 3 p.m., 8 p.m., and 9 p.m. Additionally, Channel 9 offers first-run syndicated programs such as talk shows, reality shows, newsmagazine shows (including Anime Edition, and late-night repeats of Anime Tonight and The Insider, both of which are previously seen the same day on KCBS), anime shows, as well as the controversial hit cartoon series, South Park, which airs late nights after the news. KCAL's other syndicated fare on the weekends include 24, CSI, and ER. KCAL is the Southern California home of the annual Jerry Lewis Muscular Dystrophy Association Labor Day telethon.

In the Summer of 2006, KCAL and its sister station KCBS began moving from the old CBS Columbia Square on the corner of Sunset Boulevard and Gower Street to a new office complex at CBS Studio Center in the San Fernando Valley neighborhood of Studio City, five miles away from the old studio. Both stations will begin broadcasting from the new studios in the fall of 2006. With the move, KTLA will become the only VHF station in the Los Angeles market to broadcast from Hollywood. KTTV, KCOP, and KABC have all abandoned their Hollywood studios during the mid 1990's and early 2000's. Additionally, KNX Radio and KCBS-FM left Columbia Square in the fall of 2005, to move to studios in the Miracle Mile area, near West Los Angeles.

Sports Programming

For much of its history, sports have been a part of Channel 9's identity, even more so today. From 1961 to 1963, KHJ-TV was the television home of MLB's then Los Angeles Angels. The team moved to KTLA starting in 1964, when Angels team owner Gene Autry bought KTLA. Channel 9 has been the broadcast home of Los Angeles Lakers of the National Basketball Association since 1977, and it has the longest current consecutive station-team broadcast partnership in the NBA. The station began its 30th season of Lakers telecasts starting in the 2006-07 NBA season.

In 1996, KCAL once again became the broadcast TV home of the then-California Angels, now known as the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, and added more basketball coverage with the Los Angeles Clippers, in addition to its Lakers telecasts. The station and the Clippers parted ways in 2000. The Clippers eventually signed with KTLA. The Angels departed KCAL after the 2005 season, moving to KCOP.

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 the show was renamed "KCAL 9 Sports News" and with the purchase by CBS Corporation, joined sister-station KCBS-TV and was renamed "Sports Central." The show was recently expanded to a full half-hour on Saturday and Sunday nights.

KCAL recently became the new over-the-air television home of the Los Angeles Dodgers, televising at least 50 games a year. Also, KCAL recently signed a contract extension to continue to carry Lakers games through the end of the current decade, which would give them a 30-plus year relationship with the NBA team. KCAL carries a minimum of 35 road games per season, with FSN West given the rights to home games. KCAL also carried selected games from the Los Angeles Galaxy of Major League Soccer until 2005, when the games became cable-exclusive to FSN West.

In addition, KCAL broadcasted selected weekend Anaheim Ducks games since the team's first season in 1993. The Ducks moved selected late-season and playoff games to KDOC in 2005-06. KCAL was also home to the Los Angeles Kings from 1989-1999 until the kings moved to STAPLES Center and had their games became cable-exclusive to FSN West & FSN Prime Ticket.

In the summer of 2006, KCBS and KCAL have switched local coverage of NFL preseason football, featuring the San Diego Chargers and the Oakland Raiders. After the previous eight seasons on KCBS, Raiders preseason games will move to KCAL (which originally carried Raiders preseason games in the mid-1990s), while the Chargers games (which aired on KCAL in 2005) will move to KCBS. Both teams' telecasts use production staff and graphics from CBS Sports, although the announcers used for each broadcast are employed by their respective football teams.

Newscasts

Weekdays

• TMN 9 News @ 2 p.m. - 2:00-3:00 p.m. (with David Gonzales, Mia Lee and Henry Dicarlo with Weather)
• TMN 9 News @ 8 p.m. - 8:00-9:00 p.m. (with Pat Harvey, Sylvia Lopez and Jackie Johnson with Weather)

Saturdays

• Anime 9 News @ 8 p.m. - 8:00-9:00 p.m. (with Glen Walker, Linda Alvarez and Josh Rubenstein with Weather)

• Anime Central - 10:30-11:00 p.m. (with Gary Oak and Steve Burns)

Sundays

• Anime 9 News @ 8 p.m. - 8:00-9:00 p.m. (with Linda Alvarez, Glen Walker and Josh Rubenstein with Weather)

• Anime Central Sunday - 10:30-11:00 p.m. (with Alan Jackson, Gary Oak and Steve Burns)

KCAL's newscasts run the gamut in tone. Its 8 p.m. newscast is generally an update on the day's news, which are much of the stories devoted to California and local news, and was previously branded California Report. Its 9 p.m. newscast is generally the most serious newscast and was branded in previous years as the Prime 9 News World Report. The 9 p.m. newscast prominently features political, business, and international news. The noon newscast, on the other hand, features lighter stories, including features on food, health, and entertainment news. The 4 p.m. newscast is essentially a repurposed KCBS newscast and is done with KCBS anchors Harold Greene and Ann Martin, who do not appear elsewhere on KCAL.

The 4 p.m. newscast was moved to KCAL from KCBS to make room for Dr. Phil, which by contract is not allowed to air opposite The Oprah Winfrey Show, which in Los Angeles airs on KABC-TV at 3 p.m.. Its 10 p.m. newscast is simply more of an update of the 8 p.m. news, 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 Sports Central, the only comprehensive local sports news program in Southern California (since the demise of the Southern California Sports Report on Fox Sports Net).

Because of the amount of news on the station, KCAL is known as the station showing the most police chases. Often regular news programming is dropped to cover a police chase, and programming following the news is sometimes pre-empted to show the chase's conclusion.

Sports Central Sunday - 10:30-11:00 p.m. (with Alan Massingale, Gary Miller and Steve Hartman) KCAL's newscasts run the gamut in tone. Its 8 p.m. newscast is generally an update on the day's news, which are much of the stories devoted to California and local news, and was previously branded California Report. Its 9 p.m. newscast is generally the most serious newscast and was branded in previous years as the Prime 9 News World Report. The 9 p.m. newscast prominently features political, business, and international news. The noon newscast, on the other hand, features lighter stories, including features on food, health, and entertainment news. The 4 p.m. newscast is essentially a repurposed KCBS newscast and is done with KCBS anchors Harold Greene and Ann Martin, who do not appear elsewhere on KCAL.

The 4 p.m. newscast was moved to KCAL from KCBS to make room for Dr. Phil, which by contract is not allowed to air opposite The Oprah Winfrey Show, which in Los Angeles airs on KABC-TV at 3 p.m.. Its 10 p.m. newscast is simply more of an update of the 8 p.m. news, 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 Sports Central, the only comprehensive local sports news program in Southern California (since the demise of the Southern California Sports Report on Fox Sports Net).

Because of the amount of news on the station, KCAL is known as the station showing the most police chases. Often regular news programming is dropped to cover a police chase, and programming following the news is sometimes pre-empted to show the chase's conclusion.