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KGTV

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KGTV, channel 10, is an ABC-affiliated television station located in San Diego, California, United States. KGTV is owned by the broadcasting division of the E. W. Scripps Company, and is a sister station to Azteca América affiliate KZSD-LP. The station's studios are located on Air Way in the Riverview-Webster section of San Diego, and its transmitter is based on Mount Soledad in La Jolla, California.

History

The San Diego area's third-oldest television station first went on the air on September 13, 1953 as NBC affiliate KFSD-TV.[1] The station's original owner was Airfan Radio Corporation, which also owned NBC Radio Network affiliate KFSD (600 AM, now KOGO). Under terms of the initial construction permit award, Airfan sold one-third ownership of the stations to two other firms who competed separately for channel 10.[2] In 1954 the KFSD stations were purchased by investment firm, Fox, Wells & Rogers.[3] The publishers of Newsweek magazine took a minority (about 46 percent) share of the stations in 1957,[4] four years before the periodical was itself sold to the Washington Post Company. In 1961, channel 10 changed its call letters to KOGO-TV; the radio stations also adopted the KOGO callsign.

The broadcasting division of Time-Life purchased KOGO-TV and its sister radio stations in 1962.[5][6] This deal was reached after failed attempts to sell the properties to Triangle Publications[7] and United Artists[8] among others; and after the Washington Post Company's Post-Newsweek Stations division disclosed it was not interested in acquiring full ownership.

As part of a sale announced in late 1970, KOGO-AM-FM-TV was sold to McGraw-Hill along with Time-Life's other radio/television combinations in Denver, Indianapolis and Grand Rapids, Michigan; and KERO-TV in upstate Bakersfield.[9] When the sale was concluded in June 1972, the purchase price for the entire group was just over $57 million. However, in order to comply with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC)'s new restrictions on concentration of media ownership, McGraw-Hill was required to sell the radio stations in San Diego, Indianapolis, Denver, and Grand Rapids. Time-Life would later take WOOD-TV in Grand Rapids out of the final deal.[10] KERO-TV, KLZ-TV (now KMGH-TV) in Denver, and WFBM-TV (now WRTV) in Indianapolis were retained by McGraw-Hill along with KOGO-TV, which changed to its current call letters KGTV as a result of the sale.[11]

Switch to ABC

The ABC affiliation in San Diego had belonged to XETV (channel 6), a station licensed across the international border to Tijuana, Mexico, since 1956 under special agreement between the FCC and Mexican authorities. In 1973 KCST-TV (channel 39), San Diego's UHF independent station, prevailed in a years-long attempt to secure ABC programming in the market; KCST claimed that an American television network should not be affiliated with a station located outside U.S. borders. At the time of the switch ABC was still the third-ranked network, behind second-rated NBC and perennial leader CBS.

Over the next several years, however, ABC began to experience ratings growth in their primetime programming and rose to first place during 1975–76, finishing the year with ten programs in Nielsen's top twenty. In San Diego, KCST-TV experienced a carryover effect and also rose to first place locally, knocking KGTV down to third behind CBS station KFMB-TV (channel 8).[12] But ABC was never happy with having been forced onto the UHF dial in San Diego, and the unprecedented success gave the network the impetus to actively upgrade its affiliate roster nationwide.

Despite having more than a year remaining in its current agreement with NBC, KGTV announced it was joining ABC in June 1976.[13] After KCST-TV (now KNSD) signed with NBC,[14] the switch between the two stations took place on June 27, 1977.[15]

On October 3, 2011, McGraw-Hill announced it was selling its entire television station group, including KGTV and Azteca America affiliate KZSD-LP, to the Cincinnati-based E. W. Scripps Company for $212 million.[16] The deal was completed on December 30, 2011, resulting in McGraw-Hill's exit from broadcasting after 39 years.[17]

Due to their current Scripps ownership, the station regularly has to disclaim, especially in its medical reporting, that it has no ties to the local Scripps Health system, a completely separate organization created in 1923 from a bequest from Ellen Browning Scripps, a sister to Scripps founder E. W. Scripps, as Scripps Health personnel are regularly asked to comment on medical stories in the San Diego area, including by KGTV.

Digital television

Digital channels

The station's digital channel is multiplexed:

Channel Video Aspect PSIP Short Name Programming[18]
10.1 720p 16:9 KGTV-DT Main KGTV programming / ABC
10.2 480i 4:3 LWN Laff
10.15 KZSD-DT Simulcast of KZSD-LP

Analog-to-digital conversion

KGTV shut down its analog signal, over VHF channel 10, on February 17, 2009, the original target date in which full-power television stations in the United States were to transition from analog to digital broadcasts under federal mandate (which was later pushed back to June 12, 2009). The station's digital signal relocated from its pre-transition UHF channel 25 to VHF channel 10.[19][20]

Programming

Syndicated programming on KGTV includes: Inside Edition, Rachael Ray, Right This Minute, and Live! with Kelly and Michael among others.

News operation

10 News helicopter "Sky10"

KGTV presently broadcasts 39 hours of locally produced newscasts each week (with six hours on weekdays and 4½ hours each on Saturdays and Sundays). In addition, the station produces the sports highlight program Sports Xtra at 11:30 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday evenings. Of note, KGTV, along with XETV, KNSD and KSWB-TV, is one of four San Diego television stations with a 4 p.m. newscast. Entitled The NOW San Diego, KGTV's 4 p.m. newscast originally premiered under the title 10-4 in 2009.

KGTV first began to challenge the longstanding local news dominance of KFMB in the mid-1970s, when anchors Jack White and Harold Greene, along with popular weather anchor "Captain Mike" Ambrose and sportscasters Al Coupee and Hal Clement, led the station's newscasts (then simply titled The News) to first place in the ratings, albeit briefly. Even with the brief return of Greene following his stints in San Francisco and Los Angeles, the station fell back to second place behind KFMB in the early 1980s. However, management succeeded in hiring away popular anchor Michael Tuck from KFMB in 1984; the move resulted in KGTV reclaiming first place and giving the station credibility by way of Tuck's infamous nightly commentaries titled "Perspectives".

KGTV also made history by being the first station in San Diego with a female anchor team on its 11:00 p.m. newscast, featuring Carol LeBeau and Bree Walker. After Walker left in 1987, Kimberly Hunt would team with LeBeau and form the city's longest-running anchor duo at 15 years. During that time, LeBeau and Hunt would anchor alongside Tuck (who left for Los Angeles in 1990, only to return to San Diego on KFMB), Stephen Clark (now at sister station WXYZ-TV in Detroit), Steve Wolford, and a returning Hal Clement (who had switched from sports to news duties in 1983 while working at KFMB).

Eventually, KGTV would decline after Hunt left for an anchor position at KUSI-TV (channel 51) alongside Tuck; at one point, the station fell to third place as KNSD's news viewership rose to first place in the 11:00 p.m. timeslot. The Hunt-Lebeau team were reunited in early 2008, before LeBeau retired from the station the following year. On August 30, 2008, KGTV became the third television station in the San Diego market (after KFMB-TV and Fox affiliate KSWB-TV (channel 69)) to being broadcasting its local newscasts in high definition. Since the Scripps purchase of KGTV was completed at the end of 2011, the station has entered into a news partnership with its former AM radio sister KOGO (now owned by Clear Channel Communications). In May 2010, KGTV had the top-rated early evening newscast in the San Diego market in the coveted demographic of adults between 25 and 54 years old.

Notable current on-air staff

Notable former on-air staff

See also

References

  1. ^ "4 UHFs, 3 VHFs start commercial." Broadcasting – Telecasting, September 21, 1953, pg. 66.
  2. ^ "Merged San Diego, Las Vegas bids are approved by FCC." Broadcasting – Telecasting, March 23, 1953, pg. 62.
  3. ^ "Fox, Wells buys KFSD-AM-TV control." Broadcasting – Telecasting, August 23, 1954, pg. 52.
  4. ^ "'Newsweek' buys 46% of KFSD-AM-FM-TV." Broadcasting – Telecasting, July 29, 1957, pg. 74.
  5. ^ "KOGO-AM-FM-TV to Time-Life." Broadcasting, December 4, 1961, pg. 5.
  6. ^ "FCC okays $13 million in sales." Broadcasting, March 26, 1962, pg. 140.
  7. ^ "Triangle's quota." Broadcasting, April 11, 1960, pg. 5
  8. ^ "Dead end again." Broadcasting, December 12, 1960, pg. 5
  9. ^ "McGraw-Hill buys into TV in a big way." Broadcasting, November 2, 1970, pg. 9.
  10. ^ "McGraw-Hill sets record for concessions to minorities." Broadcasting, May 15, 1972, pp. 25–26. [1] [2]
  11. ^ "It's all theirs." Broadcasting, June 5, 1972, pg. 43
  12. ^ "ABC's gains are turning television upside down." Broadcasting, March 29, 1976, pp. 19–20. [3] [4]
  13. ^ "In Brief." Broadcasting, June 7, 1976, pg. 24
  14. ^ "In Brief: Changing partners." Broadcasting, March 7, 1977, pg. 26
  15. ^ KGTV/McGraw-Hill Broadcasting advertisement. Broadcasting, June 26, 1977, pp. 8–9. [5] [6]
  16. ^ McGraw-Hill Sells TV Group To Scripps, TVNewsCheck, October 3, 2011.
  17. ^ "Scripps completes McGraw-Hill Stations Buy". TVNewsCheck. December 30, 2011. Retrieved December 31, 2011.
  18. ^ RabbitEars TV Query for KGTV
  19. ^ "DTV Tentative Channel Designations for the First and the Second Rounds" (PDF). Retrieved March 24, 2012.
  20. ^ CDBS Print
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