KCPQ

KCPQ

Tacoma/Seattle, Washington
Branding	Q13 Fox (general) Q13 Fox News (newscasts)
Slogan	Now. Next.
Channels	Digital: 13 (VHF) Virtual: 13 (PSIP)
Subchannels	(see article)
Translators	(see article)
Affiliations	Fox
Owner	Tribune Company (Tribune Television Northwest, Inc.)
First air date	August 2, 1953
Call letters' meaning	Clover Park Quality
Sister station(s)	KZJO
Former callsigns	KMO-TV (1953-1954) KTVW (1954-1975)
Former channel number(s)	Analog: 13 (VHF, 1953-2009) Digital: 18 (UHF, 1998-2009)
Former affiliations	NBC (1953-1954) Independent (1954-1974 and 1980-1986) Off Air (1974-1975) PBS (1975-1980)
Transmitter power	30 kW
Height	610 m
Facility ID	33894
Transmitter coordinates	47°32′53″N 122°48′22″W
Website	q13fox.com

KCPQ, channel 13, is the Fox television affiliate licensed to Tacoma, Washington serving the Seattle/Tacoma television market, owned by the Tribune Company. KCPQ shares its studio and office facilities with sister station KZJO (channel 22, the area's MyNetworkTV affiliate) on the west shore of Lake Union in Seattle's Westlake neighborhood, and its transmitter is located on Gold Mountain in Bremerton, Washington.

KCPQ is one of five local Seattle TV stations seen in Canada on the Bell TV and Shaw Direct satellite providers. The station is also carried on several cable systems in British Columbia and southeastern Alaska.

History

As KMO-TV/KTVW

Channel 13 signed on air on August 2, 1953 as KMO-TV, co-owned with KMO radio (AM 1360, now KKMO) by Carl Haymond. It carried some NBC programming for its first year until Seattle's KOMO-TV took to the air on December 11. Hampered by a poor signal from north of Tacoma and no network material, Haymond was forced to declare bankruptcy and sell the station to J. Elroy McCaw, father of cellular phone magnate Craig McCaw.

Under McCaw's ownership, the station, renamed KTVW, closed its studio in Tacoma's Roxy Theater, relocated to its transmitter building, and limped along on a diet of a low-budget local programming, old network reruns and ancient B-movies. Its branding of the period featured a stylized black cat and the ironic tag line "Lucky 13." During much of the 1960s, an afternoon children's show, "Penny and Her Pals," was hosted by ventriloquist LaMoyne "Penny" Hreha.

In 1970, KTVW ran a weekday stock-market news program produced by Rockwell Hammond and hosted by Merrill Mael. Dick Stokke and, later, Joe McCusker read the news. Hammond leased six and a half hours a day from KTVW and originated the program, called "Business Action Line", live from the Northern Life Tower in Seattle from where it was microwaved to the station in Tacoma. Despite the poor over-the-air reception of KTVW in Seattle, the program had a following in the business community, if only for the 15-minute delayed stock ticker and the real time display of the Dow Jones Industrial Average. However, expenses quickly overcame the income from what proved to be a limited commercial base, and the venture failed.

Mael, a respected broadcaster for six decades, died in 2000. McCusker moved on to a career with the United Nations television operation, retiring in 2007.

In the mid to late 1960s, Stu Martin (also known as "Stu Baby" and "Stu Boo") was host of a locally produced in-studio KTVW program showing B movies called "Stu Martin's Double Date at the Movies." "Satin Doll" was theme song of the program. In addition to its host, it featured two women with beehive hairdos, "Miss Early Date" and "Miss Late Date." During breaks in the movie, in addition to commercials, the program featured a talent show. Viewers called Miss Early Date or Miss Late Date with their vote on the evening's top talent featuring local entertainers or those who thought they were entertaining.

During the late 1960s and early 1970s, the station featured an on-air movie host named Bob Corcoran, who hawked endless items from Tacoma's B & I Circus Store and Niagara recliners. Most likely, he was successor to Stu Martin in airing B movies. Corcoran later forged a fledgling political career from his television late-night talk show. One of his early forays into politics was to enthusiastically support the candidacy of Seattle Chrysler/Plymouth dealer Ralph Williams for Washington Attorney General. Not long after waging a losing campaign, Williams was indicted for tax evasion. Station owner McCaw died in 1969 and the station was purchased by Blaidon Mutual Investors Corporation in 1971 for $1.1 million.

Blaidon tried to turn KTVW around by acquiring first-run syndicated programming and color-capable broadcast equipment (the station telecast exclusively in black-and-white until 1972). Channel 13's poor over-the-air signal, along with the weak Puget Sound economy and Blaidon's undercapitalized operation, rendered the station a money-losing proposition. In an attempt to improve ratings, the station launched an afternoon cartoon show hosted by a "superhero" for whom viewers were asked to suggest a name. The winning entry was "Flash Blaidon" and the host frequently made his entrance "flying" onto the set by jumping off a ladder whose shadow was often visible on the back wall of the cramped studio. Interestingly, Blaidon president Donald Wolfstone attempted to sell the station to then-unknown televangelist broadcaster Pat Robertson, but a court-appointed trustee canceled the deal. Another sale to a Long Istelevision broadcast company also fell through. For a brief time under the court-appointed trusteeship, Len Sampson, a former KOMO-TV talk host and personality, served as station manager and revised the schedule with a variety of syndicated programs and old network reruns as well as hosting somebroadcasts himself. A bankruptcy judge then forced KTVW to cease operations in 1974.

As KCPQ

The station's remaining assets were bought in bankruptcy court bidding by the Clover Park School District in Lakewood, for $378,000. The call letters were changed to KCPQ, replacing Clover Park's UHF channel 56 transmitter which had operated under the name KPEC-TV, and the station went back on the air, carrying secondary PBS and educational programs. The Channel 56 license would return to the air in 2000 as KWDK.

By 1980, the Seattle-Tacoma market was strong enough that it could now sustain another VHF commercial television station. Sacramento, California-based Kelly Broadcasting, owners of KCRA-TV in its home city, purchased KCPQ from the Clover Park School District for $6.25 million, outbidding a New Mexico company that had initially stepped up to buy the station. The station went silent temporarily on February 28, 1980, during the ownership change. KCPQ's transmitter was relocated to Gold Mountain, a peak west of Bremerton, enabling better signal coverage throughout Western Washington.

When the station relaunched on November 4, 1980, KCPQ adopted its now-familiar Q13 branding, as well as another slogan: "The Northwest's Movie Channel". Channel 13 ran movies during middays, late nights and weekends, and chose to counter-program the networks during primetime with uncut versions of films. The station also ran CBS and NBC shows that KIRO-TV and KING-TV respectively pre-empted, including CBS Late Night and NBC's Saturday morning cartoons. For a short time after the relaunch, the station had an afternoon children's program, "Captain Sea-Tac", featuring a friendly boat captain who appeared to be in his 30s or so. But eventually, other than Saturdays, KCPQ did not run children's programming during the week. The station also didn't carry many off-network sitcoms, choosing instead to air first-run syndicated talk and game shows, off-network dramas, and some early morning religious programs. KCPQ also carried college sports for the majority of the 1980s and early 1990s, in particular Pacific-10 Conference football and basketball, and college football bowl games. The station held contracts with the University of Washington and Washington State University to televise football and basketball coaches shows during this period.

In 1986, KCPQ became one of the first affiliates of the Fox Broadcasting Company. In 1987, with the children's television business growing, KCPQ began running cartoons weekday mornings from 7:00 to 9:00 AM, and afternoons from 3:00 to 5:00 PM. Channel 13 added sitcoms as well, and continued airing first-run syndicated shows and movies. As the Fox network's viewership and ratings strengthened in the 1990s, KCPQ gained prominence as a major broadcaster in the local Seattle market.

Under Kelly Broadcasting's ownership, KCPQ relocated its studio to Seattle in 1997 (moving to the shores of Lake Union in what was then the second fully digital television studio facility on the west coast).

KCPQ came in danger of losing its Fox affiliation in 1997, when Fox announced a deal to acquire then-UPN affiliate KIRO from Belo Corporation (the current owners of NBC affiliate KING, whose acquisition necessitated KIRO's sale) to make KIRO the market's Fox station. Fox was dissatisfied with KCPQ, as it was described in the announcement as being "recalcitrant" (at the time, it had no news department). The sale was canceled, and KCPQ retains its Fox affiliation to this day.

The Tribune Company acquired KCPQ in August 1998, as part of Kelly Broadcasting's exit from the television business. Following the purchase of channel 13, Tribune merged KCPQ's operations with those of KTWB-TV (channel 22, now KZJO), which Tribune had operated under a local marketing agreement with Emmis Communications. The two stations became co-owned in 1999, after the FCC approved same-market duopolies

In January 2007 KCPQ made headlines when, during a satellite interview with the station's morning show, Paula Abdul, who was promoting American Idol, began to sway in her chair and slur her speech. Abdul's publicist attributed this to fatigue and technical difficulties during the recording of the interview, which she was also doing with other Fox affiliates. It was revealed on the Bravo show Hey Paula, which had followed Abdul with a video camera prior to the interviews, that Abdul had not been sleeping, perhaps suffering from some mild form of insomnia.

Since the Seattle Seahawks move to the NFC from the AFC in 2002, KCPQ-TV airs the majority of Seahawks regular season games.

Digital television

KCPQ's digital signal broadcasts on VHF channel 13.

Subchannel	Programming
13.1	Main KCPQ programming / FOX
13.2	The Local AccuWeather Channel

KCPQ's signal is also retransmitted on KZJO-DT2 in a slightly reduced 720p form to serve antenna viewers better in the northern and eastern portion of the market.

KCPQ became digital only and shut down its analog transmitter on June 12, 2009 as mandated by the FCC, moving its digital broadcasts to its former analog channel number, 13.

News operation

KCPQ once ran several news updates between movies during the early 1980s, and briefly ran a half-hour 10 p.m. newscast in the middle of the decade. This operation couldn't compete with the more established 10 p.m. news on then-independent KSTW, and was eventually canceled. In June 1997, KCPQ announced a news share agreement that would have had CBS affiliate KIRO-TV produce a 10 p.m. newscast for the station; this came at the same time that KIRO was preparing to switch affiliations with KSTW, with KIRO becoming a CBS affiliate once again and KSTW becoming a UPN affiliate. This newscast, however, did not come to fruition. The current news operation began on January 18, 1998, when it launched a new 35-minute 10 p.m. newscast, which initially ran only on Sunday through Thursday nights.

Channel 13 also launched a morning newscast on January 17, 2000; the newscast originally ran for three hours before expanding to its current 5½ hour length. On March 31, 2008, the station launched a 9 p.m. newscast on KMYQ, now KZJO. In April 2009, KCPQ became the second station in Seattle to broadcast news in widescreen standard definition. As of 2010, KCPQ is the fourth Seattle station to broadcast news in high definition. In June 2011, KCPQ added a 5 p.m. newscast, making it the last Fox station owned by Tribune to debut an early evening newscast. It also airs a local version of America's Most Wanted called Washington's Most Wanted, hosted by weeknight anchor David Rose.

News/station presentation

Newscast titles

• Q13 Reports (1998–2000)
• Q13 News (2000–2003)
• Mornings on Q (morning newscast; 2000–2006)
• Q13 Fox News (2003–present)

Station slogans

• "The Northwest's Movie Channel" (1980–1986)
• "Don't Let Q13 Weekends Pass You By" (1987–1988; localized version of Fox ad campaign)

• "Right on Q" (2006–2009)
• "Now. Next." (2009–present)
• "So Q13 Fox" (2011–present; localized version of Fox ad campaign)

News team

Anchors

• Kaci Aitchison - weekday mornings Q13 Fox News This Morning (6-10 a.m.); also reporter
• Maria Arcega-Dunn - Sunday-Thursdays at 9 (on KZJO) and 10 p.m.
• Brien Blakely - weekday mornings Q13 Fox News This Morning (4:30-6 a.m.)
• John Hopperstad - Saturdays at 9 (on KZJO) and 10 p.m. also weeknight reporter
• Marni Hughes - Monday-Thursdays at 5, and Fridays at 5, 9 (on KZJO) and 10 p.m.
• Kirsten Joyce - Saturdays at 9 (on KZJO) and 10 p.m. and Q13 Fox News This Morning (4:30-6 a.m.) filling in for Kaci Aitchison who moved to 6-10 a.m.; also weeknight reporter
• Matt Lorch - Monday-Thursdays at 5, and Fridays at 5, 9 (on KZJO) and 10 p.m.
• David Rose - Sunday-Thursdays at 9 p.m. (on KZJO) and 10 p.m.
• Bill Wixey - weekday mornings Q13 Fox News This Morning (6-10 a.m)

Q13 Fox First Forecast Team

• Tim Joyce - meteorologist; weekday mornings Q13 Fox News This Morning (4:30-6 a.m.)
• Walter Kelley (AMS Seal of Approval) - chief meteorologist; Sunday-Thursdays at 9 (on KZJO) and 10 p.m. Monday-Thursdays at 5 p.m.
• Parella Lewis - weather anchor; Friday-Saturdays at 9 p.m. (on KZJO) and 10 p.m. and Friday at 5 p.m.
• M.J. McDermott - meteorologist; weekday mornings Q13 Fox News This Morning (6-10 a.m.)

Sports team

• Aaron Levine - sports anchor; Sunday-Thursdays, 9 p.m. (on KZJO) and 10 p.m. Monday-Thursday at 5 p.m.; also sports reporter
• Erin Hawksworth - freelance sports reporter; also fill-in sports anchor

Reporters

• C.R. Douglas - political reporter
• Adam Gehrke - weekday morning traffic reporter
• Erin Hawksworth - general assignment reporter, also sports reporter
• Angela King - weekday morning reporter; also fill-in anchor
• Parella Lewis - "Washington's Most Wanted" reporter; also fill-in anchor
• James Lynch - general assignment reporter
• David Quinlan - general assignment reporter
• Dana Rebik - general assignment reporter
• Jake Riddell - general assignment reporter
• Jeff Van Sant - general assignment reporter

Former on-air staff

• Amy Moreno (Allen) (now at KING-TV)
• Christine Chen - launch anchor for Mornings Live on Q (rebranded Q13 Fox News This Morning), and later Q13 Fox News @ 10
• Ron Corning - anchor (later worked at ABC News, syndicated news program The Daily Buzz, and WNYW in New York City, now at WFAA-TV in Dallas)
• Stanley Kramer - movie host (1980s)
• Don Poier - sports play-by-play (1980s; later voice of Vancouver/Memphis Grizzlies of NBA; deceased)
• Mark Wright (now at KING-TV)
• Lily Jang (now at KHOU-TV in Houston)

Repeaters

All repeaters are owned by KCPQ and are within the Seattle-Tacoma market, unless specified.

• K14BF Channel 14 Wenatchee (owned by a third-party)
• K25CG Channel 25 Aberdeen
• K42CM Channel 42 Centralia / Chehalis
• K54DX Channel 54 Ellensburg (Moving to Ch. 7) (part of the Yakima / Tri-Cities Market)
• K64ES Channel 64 Chelan (Moving to Ch. 28)

External links

• Q13 Fox
• Query the FCC's TV station database for KCPQ
• Query TV Fool's coverage map for KCPQ
• BIAfn's Media Web Database -- Information on KCPQ-TV