KIRO-TV

KIRO-TV

Seattle–Tacoma, Washington
City of license	Seattle, Washington
Branding	KIRO 7 (general) KIRO 7 Eyewitness News (newscasts) RTN Northwest (on DT2)
Slogan	The Spirit of the Northwest (general) Watch KIRO 7 (promos) Dedicated, Straightforward Seattle News Coverage (news)
Channels	Digital: 39 (UHF) Virtual: 7 (PSIP)
Subchannels	(see article)
Translators	(see article)
Affiliations	CBS (1958–1995, 1997–present)
Owner	Cox Media Group (KIRO-TV, Inc.)
First air date	February 8, 1958 (1958-02-08)
Call letters' meaning	Named after AM radio station KIRO; pronounced "Cairo"
Former channel number(s)	Analog: 7 (VHF, 1958–2009)
Former affiliations	UPN (1995–1997)
Transmitter power	1000 kW
Height	230 m
Facility ID	66781
Transmitter coordinates	47°37′58.8″N 122°21′23.8″W
Licensing authority	FCC
Public license information:	Profile CDBS
Website	www.kirotv.com

KIRO-TV, channel 7, is a CBS-affiliated television station located in Seattle, Washington, United States. The station is owned by the Cox Media Group subsidiary of Atlanta-based Cox Enterprises. The station's offices and studios are located near the Seattle Center in the city's Belltown neighborhood, and its transmitter is located on Queen Anne Hill, adjacent to the station's original studios.

KIRO-TV is one of five local Seattle television stations seen in Canada via Shaw Broadcast Services for the purposes of time-shifting and can be viewed from many eastern Canadian cities including Toronto and Montreal, and on satellite providers Bell TV and Shaw Direct. It can also been seen on local cable systems in British Columbia, as the "local" CBS affiliate.

Digital television

Digital channels

Digital channels

Channel	Video	Aspect	PSIP Short Name	Programming
7.1	1080i	16:9	KIRO-DT	Main KIRO-TV programming / CBS
7.2	480i	4:3	KIRO-SD	Retro Television Network

Analog-to-digital conversion

KIRO-TV became digital only and shut down its analog transmitter on June 12, 2009 as mandated by the FCC. After the analog television shutdown, KIRO-DT remained on its current UHF channel 39 using PSIP to display KIRO-TV's virtual channel as 7 on digital television receivers.

History

Early years

After KOMO-TV (channel 4) signed on in December 1953, Seattle's channel 7 was the last commercial VHF channel allocation available in the Puget Sound area, and its construction permit was heavily contested among several local broadcast interests. Three radio stations – KVI (570 AM), KXA (770 AM, now KTTH), and KIRO (710 AM) – were locked in a battle for the frequency over several years of comparative hearings at the Federal Communications Commission. Following an initial decision in 1955 and a reaffirmation in 1957, the ultimate victorious party was Queen City Broadcasting, owners of KIRO radio, and channel 7 signed on as KIRO-TV on February 8, 1958. Queen City was led by president and general manager Saul Haas, who purchased KIRO radio in 1933, and included U.S. Senator Warren Magnuson and CBS News correspondent Edward R. Murrow amongst its shareholders. The station's original studios were located on Queen Anne Avenue, adjacent to its broadcast tower and directly across the street from KIRO radio. The first program shown on channel 7 was the explosion of Ripple Rock, a hazard to navigation in Seymour Narrows, British Columbia.

KIRO radio had been a CBS Radio affiliate for over 20 years, and KIRO-TV subsequently became an affiliate of the CBS television network upon signing on. Channel 7 took the CBS affiliation from Tacoma-licensed KTNT-TV (channel 11, now KSTW), promping that station's owners at the time, the Tacoma News Tribune, to file an antitrust lawsuit accusing CBS of having a standing agreement with KIRO to affiliate with the network before Queen City's permit to build channel 7 was even approved. In May 1960, KIRO-TV was forced to share CBS with KTNT-TV as part of a settlement reached between the three parties. This arrangement lasted for the next two years, with KIRO-TV again becoming the market's exclusive CBS affiliate in September 1962.

The Mormons enter the picture

In April 1963, the communications division of the Salt Lake City-based Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints began purchasing stock in Queen City Broadcasting, starting with a 10% share from several minority partners including Sen. Magnuson. Six months later, the Church purchased an additional 50%, giving them majority control of the KIRO stations. Saul Haas subsequently joined the board of the Church's broadcasting subdsidiary, which was renamed Bonneville International Corporation in 1964. Soon after the FCC approved the sale, Bonneville executives Lloyd Cooney and Kenneth L. Hatch arrived in Seattle to lead the KIRO Inc. division. Upon Cooney's departure to run for U.S. Senate in 1980, Hatch became president, CEO and chairman - a position he held until 1995. Under Hatch's three-decade leadership, KIRO Inc. (which later included KING radio and Third Avenue Productions) became one of the nation's premier regional broadcast groups. The KIRO stations also moved their offices and studios to "Broadcast House" at Third Avenue and Broad Street in Seattle's Belltown district in 1968, where KIRO-TV remains to this day. During this period, KIRO's corporate board included many notable leaders including Mary Gates (mother of Bill Gates), Pay 'N Save chairman M. Lamont Bean, Washington Mutual CEO Tony Eyring and Gordon B. Hinckley, former president of the LDS Church.

Throughout the late 1960s and early 1970s, KIRO-TV still faced competition in some parts of Western Washington from Bellingham's KVOS-TV (channel 12), which was also then a CBS affiliate. After years of legal challenges and negotiations with CBS and KIRO, KVOS phased out most of CBS's programs, but retained a nominal affiliation with the network until 1987, during which it would run all of the CBS shows that were preempted by KIRO.

From CBS to UPN

In 1994, CBS found itself without an affiliate in Dallas after KDFW left the network to become a Fox affiliate. Consequently, CBS began to negotiate with Gaylord Broadcasting to secure an affiliation agreement with the independent station it had long owned in Dallas, KTVT. As part of the deal, CBS would also affiliate with Gaylord-owned independent KSTW (which was about to affiliate with The WB). The deal was announced on September 15, 1994, and CBS programs that had been preempted by KIRO (such as The Bold and The Beautiful) moved to KSTW soon afterward. Other CBS programs such as The Late Late Show with Tom Snyder were shown on KSTW beginning in January 1995, although the show aired an hour later at 1:35 a.m., whereas other CBS affiliates aired the program directly after the Late Show with David Letterman at 12:35 a.m. Even when KSTW regained the CBS affiliation for the third time in its history in March 1995, the program continued to air at 1:35 a.m.

Two days before the affiliation switch was announced, Bonneville announced that it would sell KIRO-TV to the Belo Corporation, while retaining ownership of KIRO radio. In addition, in anticipation of the affiliation change, Belo stated that it would run KIRO as a news-intensive independent station; however, on December 6, the station reached an affiliation deal with UPN.

More changes descended upon KIRO after Belo took control of the station on January 31, 1995. The station began carrying UPN programming on January 16; however, until CBS moved to KSTW on March 13, 1995, UPN programs generally aired on weekend afternoons, though KIRO did preempt CBS programming so that it could air the series premiere of Star Trek: Voyager in primetime.

Local newscasts on channel 7 expanded during this time to nearly 40 hours each week, with expansions to its morning and early evening newscasts, to compensate for UPN not having national news programs. Outside of UPN, the rest of KIRO's schedule was filled with first-run syndicated talk shows, reality shows, off-network dramas, a couple of off-network sitcoms and movies. This format was unusual for a UPN affiliate (but was becoming standard for a Fox affiliate), as most UPN affiliates had a general entertainment format outside of network programming hours. In 1996, Belo acquired the Providence Journal Company, which owned Seattle's NBC affiliate KING-TV. Belo could not own both KING and KIRO under FCC rules at the time, and as a result, the company opted to sell KIRO.

Rejoining CBS

Though there was speculation that Belo would swap KIRO-TV to Fox Television Stations in exchange for Phoenix's KSAZ-TV and KTBC-TV in Austin, Texas (which would have made KIRO the market's Fox station); Belo announced on February 20, 1997, that it would swap KIRO to UPN co-owner Viacom's Paramount Stations Group subsidiary (now CBS Corporation-owned CBS Television Stations), in exchange for St. Louis CBS affiliate KMOV (formerly CBS-owned KMOX-TV), as Paramount Stations Group was in the process of selling off the CBS and NBC affiliates that it inherited from Viacom through its 1994 purchase of Paramount Pictures.

Concurrently, Paramount/Viacom traded KIRO to Cox Broadcasting in exchange for KSTW, just one month after Cox announced it would acquire that station from Gaylord Broadcasting. The trades were completed on June 2, 1997. The two stations retained their respective syndicated programming, but swapped network affiliations once again, with KSTW becoming a UPN owned-and-operated station, and KIRO regaining its CBS affiliation on June 30, 1997.

Programming

JP and Gertrude in 2008 tribute.

Syndicated programms broadcast on KIRO-TV presently include Right This Minute, Rachael Ray, Entertainment Tonight, omg! Insider and Judge Judy. KIRO runs the entire CBS programming lineup with minimal pre-emptions, generally only for KIRO's award-winning special, InColor.

One of the most famous and longest-running regional children's television programs in the United States, The J.P. Patches Show was produced in-house by KIRO-TV and broadcast steadily from 1958 to 1981. The program starred Chris Wedes as Julius Pierpont Patches, a shabby clown and self-professed mayor of the City Dump, and Bob Newman as J.P.'s "girlfriend" Gertrude, in addition to a number of other characters. Nightmare Theatre was KIRO-TV's weekly horror movie series, seen from 1964 to 1978, and hosted by "The Count" (Joe Towey) from 1968 to 1975. Towey, who also directed the J.P. Patches Show died in 1989.

During the 1970s, KIRO preempted the first half hour of Captain Kangaroo each morning in order to air J.P. Patches. Many parents protested by writing letters to the station because they preferred more educational value from Captain Kangaroo than with "J.P.", while children preferred J.P. Patches. From 1987 to 1995, under Bonneville ownership, KIRO refused to air The Bold and the Beautiful, which normally aired at 12:30 p.m.; the station aired a hour-long local newscast from noon to 1 p.m. instead. As a result, the station received many protest letters from fans of the show during that period, and even one from the show's creator himself, William J. Bell. During that time, the show was seen instead on KTZZ-TV (now KZJO), KVOS-TV and KSTW.

In 1990, KIRO tape-delayed the Daytona 500 by six hours to show a Seattle SuperSonics game, as KIRO was the flagship station of the team. The race was won by Derrike Cope, who is a native of nearby Spanaway, Washington, in an upset over Dale Earnhardt in the final lap after a cut tire. Prior to joining UPN in 1995, KIRO ran the CBS Evening News at 6 p.m. between local newscasts at 5 and 6:30 p.m. (the program now airs at 6:30, the recommended Pacific Time Zone slot for the newscast).

Sports programming

KIRO was also the flagship station for pre-season game broadcasts of the Seattle Seahawks from 1976 to 1980. Play-by-play announcers were Ron Barr (1975–76), Pete Gross (1976–78) and Wayne Cody (1978–85), who was also the station's sports anchor. For years, KIRO also was the flagship station for Seattle SuperSonics broadcasts, coinciding with the NBA's deal with CBS. KIRO also carried the Seattle Mariners from 1986 to 1988 as well as in 1992 and again from 1995 to 1998 as well as from 2000 to 2002. KIRO also carried the Tacoma Stars (MISL) from 1986 to 1988.

News operation

KIRO 7 Eyewitness News opening animation, circa 1998.

KIRO-TV presently broadcasts 33 hours of locally produced newscasts each week (with 5½ hours on weekdays, 3½ hours on Saturdays and two hours on Sundays); in regards to the number of hours devoted to news programming, it is the second-highest local newscast output among the Seattle market's television stations (KCPQ broadcasts 44½ hours of weekly newscasts).

In 1969, KIRO made major upgrades to its news programming, implementing the now-commonplace "Eyewitness News" format with chief correspondent Clif Kirk, sportscaster Ron Forsell, and assistant anchor Sandy Hill, who later left KIRO to become a co-host of Good Morning America. Throughout the 1970s, KIRO was known in Seattle for hiring women in the roles of "assistant anchors" and "weather presenters", including Sandy Hill, Ann Martin, Mikki Flowers and Ann Busch. Throughout the decades, KIRO placed a high emphasis on news programming and investigative stories. During the late 1970s and early 1980s, the Eyewitness News team of anchors John Marler and Gary Justice, meteorologist Harry Wappler and Wayne Cody (and later joined by Susan Hutchison) overtook KING-TV for supremacy in local news.

Beginning in the 1970s, KIRO's newscasts also included op-ed segments prepared by Lloyd R. Cooney. After Cooney left the station in 1980 to pursue an unsuccessful U.S. Senate campaign, the station editorials were handled by a series of commentators: KIRO Inc. CEO and chairman Ken Hatch, followed by former Seattle City Council member John Miller (later elected as Congressman from Washington's First District) and then by former Seattle Post-Intelligencer editor Louis R. Guzzo. In 1986, KIRO debuted Point Counterpoint featuring conservative John Carlson and liberal Walt Crowley; the segment aired on what was then KIRO's most popular newscast, The Sunday Newshour, with Crowley and Carlson becoming well known for their pointed and bombastic debates.

By the early 1990s, the well-worn, "happy talk" format faltered and KING's newscasts had overtaken KIRO in the local news ratings. As a result, KIRO reformatted its newscasts in January 1993, with an approach unofficially known as "News Outside the Box," which was an attempt to synergize both the KIRO radio and television staffs (the "KIRO News Network") in an open newsroom that also doubled as a set for the station's broadcasts. The Seattle Symphony was commissioned to record the station's news theme, and ballet instructors coached KIRO-TV anchors in the art of walking toward a moving camera while simultaneously delivering the news. The result was an unmitigated disaster: viewers quickly complained they were distracted by the moving anchors, constant buzz of assignment editors in the background of newscasts and periodic "visits" into the KIRO radio studios; television reporters' primary assets were lost on radio listeners, and many of the radio reporters were clearly uncomfortable on camera. The original concept also called for live airing of unedited field tape, which only called attention to the importance of proper news editing. In addition, KOMO-TV and KING-TV were fighting for first place in the Seattle market. By September, the concept was scrapped for a fixed anchor desk and a rebranding to "KIRO NewsChannel 7" before ultimately returning to Eyewitness News when Cox purchased the station in 1997.

After the 1995 affiliation switch to UPN, KIRO's focus on news and investigative programming increased. It expanded its weekday morning newscast from two hours to four (from 5-9 a.m.), with the last two hours as 7 Live, a local alternative to the national morning shows; early evening newscasts expanded from two separate 5 and 6:30 p.m. newscasts into a 90-minute block starting at 5 p.m.; and an hour-long primetime newscast at 10 p.m. joined the existing 11 p.m. newscast/ its existing hour-long noon newscast was also retained.

In March 2003, KIRO (as a CBS affiliate once again) began producing a 10 p.m. newscast for KSTW, which was cancelled in June 2005. Around July 1, 2007, KIRO converted their newscasts to 16:9 widescreen, making KIRO the third station in the Seattle market to produce its newscast in the widescreen format (following the lead of KING and KOMO, and other Cox Television stations). [16] On March 16, 2008, KIRO upgraded its newscasts to high definition. Field reports, however, are broadcast in 480i standard definition, but are taped in the 16:9 aspect ratio and upconverted to 1080i. Rebecca Stevenson, who came from KING-TV and NWCN, became KIRO's first female chief meteorologist around this time (succeeding Andy Wappler, who took a job at Puget Sound Energy). Stevenson stayed with the station until she was laid off in October 2012.

News/station presentation

Newscast titles

• KIRO-TV News (1960s)
• KIRO/Channel 7 Eyewitness News (1970s–late 1980s)
• KIRO 7 24-Hour News (1990–1993)
• KIRO News (1988–1993)
• KIRO NewsChannel 7 (1993–1997)
• KIRO 7 News (1997)
• KIRO 7 Eyewitness News (1997–present)

Station slogans

• "Look What You've Been Missing" (1975–1976)
• "You Won't Get News Like This Anywhere Else" (1980; news slogan)
• "The News Specialists" (1981–1986, 1994–1995; also used by former sister-station KSL-TV in Salt Lake City)
• "We've Got the Touch on KIRO-TV" (1983–1986; localized version of CBS ad campaign)
• "We're Working Together" (1984-1989)
• "The Spirit of the Northwest" (1986–present; general slogan)
• "Western Washington's News Leader" (1986–1990; news slogan)
• "Get Ready For KIRO-TV" (1989–1990; localized version of CBS ad campaign)
• "Your 24-Hour News Source" (1990–1993; news slogan)
• "The Look of Seattle is KIRO-TV" (1991–1992; localized version of CBS ad campaign)
• "KIRO Means News" (1995–1997; news slogan)
• "The Address is KIRO 7" (1997–2000; localized version of CBS ad campaign)
• "Complete Northwest News Coverage" (1997–2004; news slogan)
• "Committed to Complete Northwest News Coverage" (2004–2010; news slogan)
• "Dedicated, Straightforward Seattle News Coverage" (2010–present; news slogan)

This film, television or video-related list is incomplete; you can help by expanding it with reliably sourced additions.

News team

Current on-air staff

Anchors

• John Knicely - weekday mornings (4:30–7:00 a.m.) and weekdays at noon
• Monique Ming Laven - weekends at 5:00, 5:30, 6:30 and 11:00 p.m.; also weeknight reporter
• Michelle Millman - weekday mornings (4:30–7:00 a.m.)
• Steve Raible - weeknights at 5:00, 5:30, 6:00 and 11:00 p.m.
• Angela Russell - weeknights at 5:00, 5:30, 6:00 and 11:00 p.m.
• TBD - Saturday mornings (7:00–8:30 a.m.)

Weather team

• Sam Argier - chief meteorologist; weeknights at 5:00, 5:30, 6:00 and 11:00 p.m.
• Brian Monahan - meteorologist; weekday mornings (4:30–7:00 a.m.) and weekdays at noon
• Morgan Palmer - meteorologist; Saturday mornings (7:00–8:30 a.m.) and weekends at 5:00, 5:30, 6:30 and 11:00 p.m.
• Todd Johnson - meteorologist; fill-in

Sports team

• TBD - sports director; weeknights at 5:00, 5:30, 6:00 and 11:00 p.m.
• Chris Francis - sports anchor; weekends at 5:00, 5:30, 6:30 and 11:00 p.m.
• James Sido - freelance sports anchor; also sports reporter

Traffic

• TBD - traffic anchor; weekday mornings (4:30–7:00 a.m.)
• Clark Stahl - traffic reporter and "Chopper 7" pilot

Reporters

• Amy Clancy - consumer reporter
• Jeff Dubois - general assignment reporter
• Chris Francis - general assignment reporter
• Alison Grande - general assignment reporter
• David Ham - general assignment reporter
• Chris Halsne - investigative reporter
• Gary Horcher - general assignment reporter
• Deborah Horne - general assignment reporter; also host of In Color
• Graham Johnson - general assignment reporter
• Chris Legeros - general assignment reporter
• Alexandra Limon - general assignment reporter
• Kevin McCarty - Pierce County bureau chief/reporter
• Karen O'Leary - general assignment reporter
• Essex Porter - political reporter
• Rick Price - aviation reporter
• Lee Stoll - North Sound bureau chief/reporter
• Richard Thompson - South Sound bureau chief/reporter

Cox Media Group Washington, D.C. Bureau

• Alison Burns - Washington D.C. bureau reporter
• Carol Han - Washington D.C. bureau reporter
• Scott MacFarlane - Washington D.C. bureau reporter

Notable former on-air staff

• Aaron Brown (former ABC News and CNN anchor; currently anchoring at PBS and teaching journalism at Walter Cronkite School)
• Wayne Cody - sports anchor (deceased)
• Linda Cohn (now anchor for ESPN's SportsCenter)
• Susan Hutchison - weeknight anchor (1980s–1990s; currently executive director of the Charles Simonyi Fund for Arts and Sciences)
• David Kerley - anchor/reporter (now with ABC News, based in Washington D.C.)
• Ann Martin (1970s; moved to KCBS-KCAL-TV/Los Angeles; retired)
• Rob Mayeda - meteorologist (now at KNTV/San Jose-San Francisco)
• Alison Starling - anchor/reporter (now at WJLA-TV in Washington, D.C.)
• Brian Wood - anchor/reporter (currently an anchor at KATU/Portland, Oregon)
• Janet Wu - morning anchor (currently at WHDH/Boston)

Translators

KIRO is rebroadcast on the following translator stations:

Digital translators

Callsign	Channel	City of license
K17IZ-D	17	Everett
K26IC-D	26	Bremerton
KIRO	28	Mount Vernon
K29IA-D	29	Centralia
K30FL-D	30	Port Angeles
KIRO	34	Olympia
K47LG-D	47	Point Pulley
K49IX-D	49	Puyallup
KIRO	51	Issaquah

Low power analog translators in Bellevue, Edmonds, Olympia, Renton and Shelton have long since been discontinued.

External links

• KIRO 7
• Query the FCC's TV station database for KIRO-TV
• Query TV Fool's coverage map for KIRO
• BIAfn's Media Web Database -- Information on KIRO-TV