KING-TV

KING-TV

Seattle – Tacoma, Washington
City of license	Seattle, Washington
Branding	KING 5 (general) KING 5 News (newscasts)
Slogan	The Home Team (general) Coverage You Can Count On (news)
Channels	Digital: 48 (UHF) Virtual: 5 (PSIP)
Translators	13 K13ER Cashmere/Leavenworth 57 K57AI Neah Bay
Affiliations	NBC
Owner	Belo Corp. (King Broadcasting Company)
First air date	November 25, 1948 (1948-11-25)
Call letters' meaning	King County and counterpart of KONG as in King Kong
Sister station(s)	KONG, NWCN
Former callsigns	KRSC-TV (1948–1949)
Former channel number(s)	Analog: 5 (VHF, 1948–2009)
Former affiliations	CBS (1948–1953) ABC (1953–1959) DuMont (secondary, 1948–1953)
Transmitter power	960 kW
Height	239 m
Facility ID	34847
Transmitter coordinates	47°37′54.6″N 122°21′3.9″W
Licensing authority	FCC
Public license information:	Profile CDBS
Website	www.king5.com

KING-TV, channel 5, is a television station located in Seattle, Washington, USA. Affiliated with the NBC Television Network and owned by the Dallas-based Belo Corp., KING-TV's offices and studios are located in Seattle's Denny Regrade district. The station's transmitter is located in the Queen Anne neighborhood of Seattle. The station is operated in a duopoly with independent station KONG (channel 16), which features syndicated programs and news programming some produced by KING-TV.

KING-TV is one of five Seattle television stations seen in Canada on the Bell TV and Shaw Direct satellite providers. KING-TV is also carried on several cable systems in southeastern Alaska and northwestern Oregon.

History

When channel 5 first took to the air as KRSC-TV on November 25, 1948, it was the first television station in the Pacific Northwest. The station was under the ownership of Palmer K. Leberman's Radio Sales Corporation, which also operated KRSC radio (1150 AM, now KKNW, and FM 98.1, now KING-FM). The first broadcast on channel 5 was a live remote of a Thanksgiving Day high school football game and was plagued with technical difficulties, but local viewers reported being impressed nonetheless. Channel 5 was originally a primary CBS affiliate and carried secondary affiliations with NBC, ABC and DuMont.

After eight months on the air, KRSC-TV and KRSC-FM were purchased by King Broadcasting Company, owners of KING radio (1090 AM, now KFNQ) and the original KING-FM (94.9, frequency now occupied by KUOW-FM). The station became KING-TV to match its radio sisters (according to legend, King Broadcasting president Dorothy Bullitt purchased the KING call letters while on a fishing boat)^{[citation needed]}. For many years, the stations' logo was "King Mike," an anthropomorphized microphone in ermine robes and a crown, drawn by the cartoonist Walt Disney. Sister stations KGW-AM-FM-TV in Portland, Oregon used a similar logo, called "Pioneer Mike."^{[citation needed]}

Once the Federal Communications Commission-imposed freeze on television station license awards ended in 1952, KING-TV lost its monopoly in the market. During 1953 the Seattle-Tacoma area received three new stations: KTNT-TV (channel 11, now KSTW) debuted in March as the market's CBS outlet; while NBC went to KMO-TV (channel 13, now KCPQ), which signed-on in August. NBC moved a few months later to KOMO-TV (channel 4), which went on the air in December. By the end of the year KING-TV was left with poor-performing ABC and DuMont, the latter of which ceased operations in 1956. Subsequently, Bullitt lobbied NBC for a group affiliation for her stations, and in October 1958 KING-TV and KGW-TV in Portland began carrying NBC programming. In Seattle, channel 5 shared NBC and ABC with KOMO-TV for most of the 1958–59 television season. On September 27, 1959, KING-TV became a primary NBC station and KOMO-TV took on ABC full-time.

In 1961, Dorothy Bullitt's son Stimson Bullitt became president of the King Broadcasting Company, while his mother remained chairwoman of the board. In 1966, he took the almost-unprecedented step of airing an anti-Vietnam war editorial, angering the Johnson Administration.^{[citation needed]} Stimson also expanded the company to include Seattle Magazine and a variety of other businesses, much to the dismay of his mother, who felt he was losing focus on the family's broadcast properties. Investigative reporter Don McGaffin gave significant coverage to growing racial tensions in the city as well as corruption in the Seattle Police Department.

Dissatisfied with Stimson Bullitt's management style, Dorothy Bullitt, and Mr. Bullitt's sisters, arranged for his voluntary resignation from King Broadcasting in 1972.^{[citation needed]} Stimson sold his company shares to his sisters, Harriet and Patsy. He then received control of the family's real estate interests. Ancil Payne, who had served as general manager of the company's Portland stations since 1965, became president and CEO. By the 1970s and 1980s, KING-TV was the flagship of a growing regional media empire which at various times included ventures in publishing, the film industry, cable television systems (under the name of King Videocable, the assets of which have by now been absorbed into Comcast) and even various timber assets in the Far East.^{[citation needed]}

Locally produced programming included: Seattle Today, a mid-morning talk show hosted by Cliff Lenz and Shirley Hudson and later by Susan Michaels and Colby Chester; Seattle Tonight, Tonite!, hosted by Ross McGowan and later Dick Klinger; Almost Live!, a Saturday night talk and sketch-comedy program originally starring Ross Shafer; and a local Evening Magazine franchise, first hosted by Penny LeGate and Brian Tracey. Of these, only Evening Magazine exists today. How Come?, a half-hour early Sunday evening family television program hosted by Al Wallace, won several awards during its run during the 1970s and early 1980s. The show covered topics on how things were made or done in the world. Dick Klinger hosted the show after Al Wallace died.

King Broadcasting stations included KGW radio and television in Portland, KREM-TV Spokane, KTVB-TV Boise, KHNL-TV and KFVE-TV Honolulu and KYA/KOIT radio San Francisco. Long-time station-owner Dorothy Bullitt died in June 1989. Dorothy Bullitt's daughters Harriet Bullitt and Priscilla "Patsy" Bullitt Collins decided to sell the King assets in 1992—eventually selling King Broadcasting (including KING, KREM, KGW, KTVB, KHNL/KFVE and the cable system assets) to the Providence Journal (ProJo) Company. KING-TV and other King Broadcasting stations later became Belo properties as a result of a merger with ProJo in 1997 (KHNL and KFVE were later sold to Raycom in 1999).^{[citation needed]}

Bonneville International Corporation purchased KING-AM in 1994. The 1990s saw the end of Almost Live!. During this decade, the show launched the career of Bill Nye the Science Guy, Joel McHale (of The Soup fame) and locally, Pat Cashman and John Keister (who replaced Ross Shafer as host). KING-TV was also the home for Watch This!, KING 5's Emmy Award-winning fast-paced show for teens and children.^{[citation needed]} The show lasted five years and was hosted by local anchors, Jim Dever and Mimi Gan.

On December 18, 1995, King Broadcasting launched Northwest Cable News, a 24-hour regional cable news operation available to cable television viewers primarily in Washington, Oregon, and Idaho with lesser viewership in Alaska, Montana and California. In the Seattle area NWCN is located on Comcast Channel 2 or WAVE Broadband Channel 54. King Mike, the original logo, was brought back for KING's 50th anniversary in 1998 and still appears in promotional announcements.

KING opted not to carry NBC's telecasts of the 2006 Stanley Cup Finals,^{[citation needed]} the 2007 Stanley Cup Finals, and the 2008 Stanley Cup Finals when the games began at 5 p.m. Pacific time and CBC telecasts were available to most regional cable subscribers via CBUT in Vancouver. KING chose instead to air its regular lineup of newscasts and syndicated shows. KONG picked up the NBC telecasts of the games. For the 2007 and 2008 Stanley Cup Finals, however, KING aired NBC's Saturday night telecasts of the Stanley Cup Final while KONG aired the other NBC Stanley Cup Final telecasts. As for the 2009 Stanley Cup Finals, KING aired games 1, 2 and 5 while KONG aired games 6 and 7.

Channel	Video	Aspect	Programming
5.1	1080i	16:9	Main KING-TV programming / NBC
5.2	480i	4:3	Live Well Network

KING-TV began transmitting its scheduled programming in digital only on June 12, 2009 as mandated by the FCC. However KING-TV has continued its analog signal as part of the FCC's "Nightlight" program, running a DTV transition guide for two more weeks.

After the analog television shutdown, KING-DT remained on channel 48 using PSIP to display KING-TV's virtual channels as 5 on digital television receivers.

On December 6, 2011, Belo announced it signed affiliation agreements with KING-TV and Spokane sister station KSKN to add Live Well Network to their digital subchannels; Live Well Network replaced Universal Sports on digital subchannel 5.2 effective January 1, 2012, as Universal Sports transitioned into a cable and satellite channel during the first quarter of 2012.

Slogans

• "First in the Great Northwest" (1950s–1960s & 1970s)
• "News Headquarters for the Great Northwest" (1970s)
• "Part of Your Life" (1975–1978)
• "The Home Team" (1978–1979, 1986–present; general slogan)
• "We Give You The Extras" (1979–1981)
• "There's ONLY One News KING" (1981; news slogan)
• "Our Pride is Showing" (1981–1982; localized version of NBC ad campaign)
• "News You Can Rely On From People You Trust" (1982; news slogan)
• "Just Watch Us Now" (1982–1983; localized version of NBC ad campaign)
• "All the News for Western Washington" (1990–1999)
• "Coverage You Can Count On" (1994–present; news slogan)
• "Community, Context, Commitment." (Used for it's Up Front program which aired from 2001–2012)
• "Issues That Matter" (Used for its Up Front program from 2004 until cancellation in 2012)

News operation

A morning news interview with the Secretary of the United States Navy Ray Mabus.

For most of the last quarter-century, KING has battled for first place in the Seattle news race with KOMO. However, for the past couple of years, KING has been in first place in virtually every local newscast. Some of its newscasts rank higher than all the other newscasts combined.^{[citation needed]}

From the beginning KING was deeply committed to the Seattle area. Bullitt believed that a television station should serve the local public while remaining commercially viable. KING set up one of the first local news departments in the country and quickly gained national attention for its high quality and thorough approach. In 1952, KING kept Senator Joseph McCarthy from delivering a potentially libelous attack on the air. McCarthy threatened to have the station's license pulled citing undue bias (the Bullitts were staunch Democrats) but was forced to back down. Reporters such as Charles Herring, Ted Bryant, Mike James, Bob Faw and Seattle's first female news anchor, Jean Enersen, set high standards for television journalism in Seattle. KING-TV continues to be the leading station in the area.^{[citation needed]}

After Alaska was hit by a major earthquake in March 1964, KING-TV worked with NBC News to get the footage of the quake's aftermath broadcast on the network. This was prior to the launch of a trans-Pacific television broadcast satellite and footage from Anchorage was flown to Seattle and driven to KING to be fed into the NBC network. NBC was the first network to show footage of the quake's aftermath preceding ABC and CBS by several hours.

KING-TV was a pioneer of diversity in the newsroom. In 1972, KING-TV broke new ground by appointing Jean Enersen as an evening news anchor. According to the Washington Post, Enersen was the first permanent female evening news anchor in the country and is considered to be the longest-running female local evening news anchor. Additionally, KING-TV appointed Seattle's first African-American evening news anchor, John Raye, who co-anchored with Enersen for several years in the mid-1970s. During this time the KING-TV news department also groomed several network news reporters, including CNN's Aaron Brown and Lou Dobbs, former CBS Early Show contributor Hattie Kauffman, former CBS correspondent Linda Taira, NBC correspondent James Hattori, and NBC Dateline correspondent Dennis Murphy. Future meteorologist and author Jeff Renner joined KING-TV in 1977. Also during this era, KING's staff of photojournalists, led for many years by Phil Sturholm and Ken Jones, were among the best in the nation. The National Press Photographers Association named KING the Television News Photography Station of the Year for 1979, 1981, 1982 and 2011.

KING was a pioneer with new types of newscasts. In 1979, KING debuted the first early morning newscast in Western Washington at 6:30 a.m., anchored by Don Madsen with Larry Schick as weather anchor; Don Madsen was known for coming in at 11:30 p.m. and working all night to prepare for his early morning newscast.^{[citation needed]} The KING 5 Morning News became very popular with Western Washington viewers as well as viewers throughout British Columbia. In 1984, KING pioneered Top Story, hosted by Mike James and Lori Matsukawa, which aired at 6:30 p.m. weeknights; Top Story was a local version of Nightline focusing primarily on the top news story of the day with in-depth reporting and interviews. Despite efforts to produce a high-quality newscast, Top Story never became popular and was canceled in 1988.

In the late 1970s, KING-TV and its sister stations in Spokane, Boise, and Portland formed the KING Northwest Network. They often shared news reports during and jointly covered significant stories such as the eruption of Mount St. Helens in 1980. The mid-morning talk show, Seattle Today, was renamed Northwest Today and expanded to 90 minutes. While the majority of the show was produced in Seattle, each member station had a local host who would provide short local segments.

In 1999, to compete against KOMO, KING began providing high definition newscasts; at the time it only had one studio camera that was HD-capable. In April 2007, KING upgraded all of its studio cameras, graphics and weather system to high definition, and began broadcasting its public affairs programming in the format as well."HDTV". king5.com.  Field reports are still standard-definition (480i converted to 1080i HD for air) but are taped in a 16x9 aspect ratio, giving the appearance of high-definition. According to KING, it is "Seattle's First HD Newscast". On April 16, 2007, KING 5 also started using the tagline "KING 5 HD" when referring to the station.

In 2008, chief newscaster Jean Enersen celebrated her 40th year at KING with a one-hour special which aired August 1; 36 of those years as primary evening anchor, setting the record for the longest serving female evening anchor in the country.^{[citation needed]}

Sports

KING was the official home of Seattle Seahawks preseason games from 1981–2000 & again from 2005–2011, except those shown on national television. The only time that the Seahawks are on KING is when they are on NBC, in which case KING does carry the game, but does not produce it, deferring the duties to the network. KING's sister-station KONG carried the Seahawks pre-season games during 2003 & 2004. Both, KING & KONG are they official home of Seattle Sounders FC in which KONG airs a weekly magazine show titled Sounders FC Weekly, which airs on Sunday Nights during the season. The same show also airs Monday Nights on KING's cable channel NWCN.

News/station presentation

Newscast titles

• The Pacific Northwest News Report (1948–1949)
• KING-TV News (1949–1960)
• KING-TV Night Report (1960–1965)
• KING News Final (1965–1970)
• KING News (1965–1971)
• KING Newservice (1971–1978)
• KING 5 News (1978?–present)
• NewsCenter 5 (early to mid-1980s; used in conjunction with KING 5 News)

News team

The news team consists of the following:

Anchors

KING-TV newscast title card

• Dennis Bounds – weeknights at 5:00, 6:30, 10:00 (KONG) and 11:00 p.m.
• Jean Enersen – weeknights at 5:00 and 6:30 p.m.; "HealthLink" reporter
• Lori Matsukawa – weeknights at 10:00 (KONG) and 11:00 p.m.
• Joyce Taylor – weekday mornings (4:30–7:00 on KING and 7:00–9:00 a.m. on KONG)
• Mark Wright – weekday mornings (4:30–7:00 on KING and 7:00–9:00 a.m. on KONG)
• Mimi Jung – weekdays at noon; general assignment reporter
• Greg Copeland – weekdays at noon
• Allen Schauffler – weekends at 5:00, 6:30, 10:00 (KONG) and 11:00 p.m.; general assignment reporter
• Meg Coyle – weekend mornings (6:00–10:00 Saturdays and 7:00–9:30 a.m. Sundays); general assignment reporter
• Cam Johnson – fill-in anchor
• Shaniqua Manning – Sunday at 5:00 p.m. as well as NWCN
• Rob Piercy – Saturday at 5:00 p.m. as well as NWCN

Weather

• Jeff Renner (AMS Certified Broadcast Meteorologist) – chief meteorologist; weeknights at 5:00, 6:30, 10:00 (KONG) and 11:00 p.m.
• Rich Marriott (AMS Seal of Approval) – meteorologist; weekday mornings (4:30–7:00 on KING and 7:00–9:00 a.m. on KONG) and weekdays at noon
• Jim Guy (AMS Seal of Approval) – meteorologist; weekends at 5:00, 6:30, 10:00 (KONG) and 11:00 p.m.
• Lisa Van Cise – weather anchor; weekend mornings (6:00–10:00 Saturdays and 7:00–9:30 a.m. Sundays)
• Keisha Burns – weather anchor; fill-in
• Rick Van Cise (AMS Seal of Approval) – meteorologist; freelance weather anchor

Sports

• Paul Silvi – sports director; weeknights at 5:00, 6:30, 10:00 (KONG) and 11:00 p.m.
• Andrea Nakano – sports anchor; weekends at 5:00, 6:30, 10:00 (KONG) and 11:00 p.m.; also sports reporter
• Chris Egan – sports anchor; fill-in, also sports reporter

Traffic

• Tracy Taylor – weekday morning traffic reporter (4:30–7:00 on KING and 7:00–9:00 a.m. on KONG)

Reporters

• Zahid Arab – general assignment reporter
• Linda Brill – general assignment reporter
• Linda Byron – investigative reporter
• Gary Chittim – general assignment reporter and environmental specialist
• Chris Daniels – general assignment reporter
• Glenn Farley – general assignment reporter and aviation specialist
• Jim Forman – general assignment reporter
• Susannah Frame – investigative reporter
• Joe Fryer – general assignment reporter
• Heather Graf – general assignment reporter
• Elisa Hahn – general assignment reporter
• Chris Ingalls – general assignment reporter
• Christie Johnson – weekday morning feature reporter (4:30–7:00 on KING and 7:00–9:00 a.m. on KONG)
• Jesse Jones – consumer specialist and investigative reporter
• John Langler – general assignment reporter
• Drew Mikkelsen – South Bureau chief/reporter
• Roberta Romero – general assignment reporter
• Natasha Ryan – general assignment reporter
• Natalie Swaby – general assignment reporter
• Jake Whittenberg – North Bureau chief/reporter
• Eric Wilkinson – general assignment reporter
• Teresa Yuan – general assignment reporter

Local program hosts

Evening Magazine

• Meeghan Black – host
• Saint Bryan – reporter
• Josephine Cheng – reporter
• Jim Dever – reporter
• Kim Griffis – reporter
• Kim Holcomb – reporter
• Michael King – reporter
• Joe Micheals – announcer

New Day Northwest

• Margaret Larson – host

Driving Northwest

• Tom Voelk – reporter

Gardening with Ciscoe

• Meeghan Black – host
• Ciscoe Morris – host

Notable past on-air staff

• Aaron Brown (was at KIRO-TV, ABC News, and CNN; now anchoring at PBS and teaching at Walter Cronkite School of Journalism)
• Jim Compton – host of The Compton Report (1985–1999)
• Lou Dobbs – anchor (later at CNN)
• David Kerley (was at KIRO-TV; currently at ABC News)
• Mark Mullen (formerly with WNBC-TV and ABC News; currently at KNSD in San Diego)
• Shannon O'Donnell – weather anchor (1996–2000 and 2007–2009; now weekend weather anchor at KOMO-TV)
• Greg Palmer – reporter (deceased)
• Don Poier (later radio voice of Vancouver/Memphis Grizzlies; deceased)
• Don Porter- (former NBC News reporter, before becoming a full-time anchor. Briefly co-anchored with KSTW-TV news before returning to KING-TV.)
• Drew Soicher – sports anchor (now at KUSA-TV in Denver)

References

Specific citations:

General references:

• Dorothy Stimson Bullitt: An Uncommon Life by Delphine Haley, from Sasquatch Press; ISBN 1-57061-327-3
• King: The Bullitts of Seattle and Their Communications Empire by O. Casey Corr, from University of Washington Press; ISBN 0-295-97584-9
• On the Air: The King Broadcasting Story by Daniel Jack Chasan, from Island Publishers; ISBN 0-9615580-6-7

External links

• KING-TV website
• KING-TV's KING 5 News @ facebook
• Query the FCC's TV station database for KING-TV
• Query TV Fool's coverage map for KING
• BIAfn's Media Web Database -- Information on KING-TV
• Essay on Dorothy Bullitt from HistoryLink