KNTV

This article is about the television station in America. For the British educational television program, see The KNTV Show.

KNTV

San Jose-San Francisco- Oakland, California
City of license	San Jose, California
Branding	NBC Bay Area (general) NBC Bay Area News (newscasts) Today in the Bay (morning newscasts) Bay Area Night Team (11 p.m. newscasts)
Slogan	We Investigate (news) Every Day is Full of Color (general) Locals Only (secondary)
Channels	Digital: 12 (VHF) Virtual: 11 (PSIP)
Subchannels	(see article)
Affiliations	NBC (2002-present; secondary, 1955-1963)
Owner	NBCUniversal (KNTV Television, LLC)
First air date	September 12, 1955
Call letters' meaning	None; assumed backronyms for NBC TeleVision and Northern California TeleVision
Sister station(s)	KSTS Comcast SportsNet Bay Area Comcast SportsNet California
Former channel number(s)	Analog: 11 (VHF, 1955-2009)
Former affiliations	Independent (1955-1960) ABC (1960-2000) The WB (2000-2001)
Transmitter power	103.1 kW
Height	376.6 m
Facility ID	35280
Transmitter coordinates	37°41′7″N 122°26′1″W
Licensing authority	FCC
Public license information:	Profile CDBS
Website	www.nbcbayarea.com

KNTV, channel 11 (branded on-air as NBC Bay Area), is an NBC owned-and-operated television station licensed to San Jose, California and serving the San Francisco Bay Area. The station is owned by the NBC Owned Television Stations subsidiary of NBCUniversal; KNTV's studios and main office are located in San Jose, which it shares with co-owned Telemundo station KSTS and CNBC's Silicon Valley bureau. The station's transmitter is located on San Bruno Mountain, just south of San Francisco.

On cable, KNTV is available on Comcast cable systems in the Bay Area on channel 3. In the few areas of the western United States where an NBC station is not receiveable over-the-air, KNTV is available as part of All American Direct's standard definition distant network package for Dish Network subscribers.

History

Early years

KNTV signed on the air on September 12, 1955, originally operating as an independent station, intended to cover the California coastal area from Monterey north to San Francisco. It was the first television station in the South Bay, and was originally owned by Sunlite Bakery, which was owned by the Gilliland family. The station's studios and offices were built in one of the unused bakery garages at 645 Park Avenue, and its transmitter was originally located on Loma Prieta Peak, some 60 miles (100 km) south of San Francisco. Channel 11 often aired shows from CBS, DuMont and NBC that were respectively turned down by San Francisco's KPIX and KRON-TV, as well as some ABC shows that also aired on KGO-TV. The station was not viable as an independent, and the going got even more difficult when Oakland-based KTVU signed on in 1958.

However, due to its transmitter location, its signal could be received fairly well in the nearby areas of Monterey and Salinas. Taking advantage of this, KNTV sought and was granted the ABC affiliation for the San Jose and Monterey Bay areas, on the condition that the station reduced its transmitter power so as not to overlap with KGO-TV's signal. Previously, all three networks had been shoehorned onto Salinas-based KSBW (channel 8). KNTV therefore became one of the few stations located outside the market it served.

Channel 11 was then purchased by Gill Cable, the local cable provider for San Jose, which was owned by Alan Gilliland. Even as an ABC affiliate, KNTV occasionally preempted a few ABC programs. ABC owned-and-operated station KGO-TV, meanwhile, cleared ABC's entire programming schedule, so this often gave San Jose and Silicon Valley Area residents a second choice for viewing preempted ABC programming. Gill Cable sold KNTV to Landmark Communications in 1978. Twelve years later, Landmark sold the station to a minority-owned firm, the Granite Broadcasting Corporation.

Switch from ABC to The WB

In 1999, KGO-TV agreed to pay Granite Broadcasting a substantial fee to stop channel 11 from running ABC programming once the station's affiliation contract expired. ABC's corporate parent, The Walt Disney Company, saw the need to expand KGO-TV's exclusive advertising market share into San Jose for this reason, and it felt that KNTV was taking away from the share. On July 3, 2000, KNTV terminated its ABC affiliation after 40 years with the network; it then temporarily carried programming from The WB Television Network in a part-time simulcast with then co-owned KBWB-TV (now KOFY-TV), which was the full-time WB affiliate for the San Francisco Bay Area. The move cost the Monterey Bay area an ABC affiliate, in order to compensate for the loss, KGO-TV was then added on cable providers in that market, with certain syndicated programs carried by the station replaced due to syndication exclusivity rules (nearly ten years after KNTV terminated its affiliation with ABC, KSBW began carrying ABC programming on the station's second digital subchannel on April 18, 2011).

In March 2001, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) ruled that KNTV was officially part of the San Jose-San Francisco-Oakland designated market area. Nielsen Media Research had reclassified KNTV as part of the then fifth-largest market in September 2000, and KNTV had fulfilled FCC regulatory requirements to be considered part of the market by doubling its signal power to better cover the Bay Area.

NBC affiliation and purchase

In 2000, the deYoung family, owners of longtime NBC affiliate KRON-TV (channel 4) and the San Francisco Chronicle, had put all of its media properties up for sale. NBC, which had been in the midst of renewing its affiliation agreement with KRON, jumped into the bidding as it had sought to purchase channel 4 – then the network's largest affiliate by market size – for several years due to its status as one of the network's highest-rated affiliates. After NBC narrowly lost the acquisition to Young Broadcasting in November 1999, the network responded by threatening to yank its programming from KRON unless Young agreed to run it under the conventions of an NBC O&O, including disallowing the station from preempting NBC programs outside of breaking news coverage. The network also made the unprecedented demand that Young pay NBC $10 million annually to carry the network's programming. Young refused, and announced that it would end KRON's 52-year affiliation with NBC once its affiliation contract ended in December 2001.

Soon afterward, Granite contacted NBC to negotiate an affiliation deal and offered to pay an average of $37 million annually (totaling roughly $362 million over 10 years) for the rights to broadcast NBC programs on KNTV. This agreement was groundbreaking and notable, as KNTV became the first major market affiliate to pay a network for programming, reversing a long-standing model where networks paid affiliates to carry their programming. NBC accepted the deal, which was due to take effect in January 2002. Local news coverage for the San Jose area was cut and refocused to target the larger Bay Area audience. For Granite Broadcasting, the deal was expensive; the company showed a net loss of $44 million for the first three quarters of 2001, more than double its losses during the same period the previous year. In an attempt to reduce debts, Granite started looking for a buyer for Detroit WB affiliate WDWB in October 2001.

On December 17, 2001, NBC announced another twist on the deal: this time to purchase the station from cash-strapped Granite for $230 million. The network already owned San Jose-based Telemundo station KSTS-TV, and wanted to create a duopoly in the Bay Area. KNTV officially joined NBC at midnight PT on January 1, 2002. Jay Leno officially welcomed NBC's newest station in a ceremony on The Tonight Show, followed later that morning by a segment on the Today show where Al Roker introduced the anchors of KNTV at its former studios. With KRON's loss of the affiliation to channel 11, NBC became the only major network in the Bay Area to switch from one station to another (KNTV is the third Bay Area station to affiliate with NBC, as primary CBS affiliate KPIX-TV had carried the network as a secondary affiliation upon its sign-on in 1948 until KRON debuted the following year). NBC formally took control of KNTV in April 2002.

KNTV's logo from September 2002 to July 2008.

After the affiliation switch to NBC, KNTV's branding was changed to "NBC3" to reflect its position on cable channel 3 on nearly every cable provider in the Bay Area. The "NBC3" branding was conceived by Granite, but backfired due to confusion with Sacramento's longtime NBC affiliate KCRA-TV, which is viewable over-the-air and on cable television in parts of the North Bay and East Bay as channel 3. NBC was moreover unimpressed with the "virtual channel" approach, and rebranded the station as "NBC11" in September 2002. While KNTV is the only VHF station in the region not to have a cable channel match its analog frequency, the station contracted with cable provider AT&T Broadband (now Comcast) for the cable 3 allocation, previously unused by any other local station. The station has always been carried on cable channel 3 in San Jose, dating back to its early years; the marketing mishap meant that cities that carried KNTV on cable channel 11 had to move it down to channel 3 within months of the switch. During the 2004 Summer Olympics, the station heavily promoted channel 11 through its "i11uminating" marketing campaign (with the number "11" used in place of the "L" letters). Even in its early years as the new NBC affiliate, KNTV aired NBC's soap opera lineup much later in the afternoon than most affiliates; KRON had done this for years as an NBC affiliate. Soon enough by August 2004, KNTV fell in line with the network's recommended time slot and now airs Days of our Lives (NBC's remaining afternoon daytime drama) at the recommended 1 p.m. timeslot.

New studios and transmitter

KNTV/KSTS/CNBC Silicon Valley's studios located 2450 N. First St. in San Jose.

In 2004, NBC converted a vacant office space in North San Jose into a state-of-the-art, all-digital facility for KNTV and KSTS. On December 13 of that year, KNTV moved from its original studios on Park Avenue in downtown San Jose to the new location. As part of a corporate-wide environmental initiative (known today as "Green is Universal"), the facility is entirely powered by wind energy. Following its acquisition by NBC, KNTV continued to broadcast from its longtime transmitter location on Loma Prieta Peak (located between San Jose and Santa Cruz), but did not increase its power to improve signal coverage in San Francisco and Oakland; as a result, the signal could not be seen over the air in much of the Bay Area north of San Mateo County, including much of San Francisco itself. The affiliation and market switches also resulted in many cable providers in the Monterey Bay area either dropping KNTV entirely or blocking its NBC programming under syndication exclusivity guidelines; even so, the signal still overlapped with KSBW.

That all changed on September 12, 2005, when KNTV was able to finally move its transmitter to San Bruno Mountain, giving it a signal comparable to the Bay Area's other major stations. The move came after years of objection from KRON's owner Young Broadcasting, which in its filings with the FCC alleged that KNTV would cease to serve thousands of San Jose residents by moving closer to San Francisco.

Some San Francisco residents, especially in the Sunset and Richmond districts of the city, still found it difficult to receive an adequate over-the-air signal because they are shielded by San Bruno Mountain. Most of the other Bay Area stations operate from the Sutro Tower, which has a better overall view of San Francisco proper, although at the expense of those in northern San Mateo County, where San Bruno Mountain acts as a shield. However, most of the Bay Area is covered with a strong signal from all of the stations. The year closed, however, with a devastating fire at the retired transmitting facility on Loma Prieta Peak. The fire was quickly extinguished on the afternoon of December 31; however, the fire reignited after firefighters had left the scene, and destroyed the former primary analog and digital transmitters, which had only been retired a few months earlier and were in backup status, as well as a variety of other communications equipment.

In January 2007, CNBC moved its Silicon Valley bureau – formerly located at the Wall Street Journal's bureau in Palo Alto – into KNTV/KSTS's San Jose studios. Former KNTV and KRON reporter Jim Goldman is the bureau chief, and the main CNBC reporter covering business stories concerning the Silicon Valley; the set used for daily broadcasts on CNBC occupies part of KNTV's newsroom. In 2009, KNTV changed its on-air branding from "NBC11" to "NBC Bay Area"; additionally the station's website was relaunched on October 16 of that year, as part of a larger revamp of the websites of NBC's entire O&O station group.

In April 2010, KNTV entered into an arrangement with former NBC affiliate KRON-TV to broadcast network programs during instances in which KNTV has to preempts them for special programming such as telecasts of San Francisco Giants games. Incidentally, KRON's owner, Young Broadcasting discussed entering KRON into a shared services agreement with KNTV's owner NBCUniversal, which ultimately never materialized (KRON's default carriage of preempted NBC shows ended in 2012, when KICU reassumed those duties). On April 13, 2010, KNTV became the subject of Stephen Colbert's program, The Colbert Report, where Colbert played a clip read by weekend anchor Diane Dwyer on the issue of "unpaid internships". Colbert would eventually use that given clip to set the stage for laughs based on unpaid interns.

Digital television

The station's digital signal is multiplexed:

Channel	Video	Aspect	PSIP Short Name	Programming
11.1	KNTV-TV	1080i	16:9	Main KNTV programming / NBC
11.2	KNTV-DT2	480i		Cozi TV

KNTV also has a Mobile DTV feed of subchannel 11.1, broadcasting at 1.83 Mbit/s.

Cozi TV

On December 20, 2012, KNTV began broadcasting Cozi TV, a digital subchannel network that airs a mix of movies, first-run lifestyle programming, and classic television series from the 1950s through the 1980s. The service is a retooling of NBC Nonstop (which operated a regional service called NBC California Nonstop that debuted in January 2011 on KNTV, and sister stations KNBC/Los Angeles and KNSD/San Diego), which carried news and lifestyle-oriented programs, some of which have been carried over to Cozi.

Analog-to-digital conversion

KNTV shut down its analog signal on June 12, 2009 as part of the digital television transition, it remained on channel 12 PSIP is used to display KNTV's virtual channel as 11 on digital television receivers. KNTV is now the largest NBC affiliate on the VHF band – and the only NBC O&O to broadcast on VHF.

Programming

Syndicated programming on KNTV currently includes Access Hollywood, Access Hollywood Live, Steve Harvey, The Jeff Probst Show, The Ellen DeGeneres Show and Extra.

Since being purchased by NBCUniversal, KNTV has produced its own programs for both local broadcast and for distribution nationally on the NBC television network and in syndication. Two of KNTV's national and regional programs that are distributed to NBC stations are Tech Now! (a weekly show that debuted on September 19, 1998 under Granite Broadcasting ownership that covers the latest in technology and gadgets, and is hosted by Scott Budman and produced by Scott McGrew and was at one time popular in Ghana) and In Wine Country (a weekly series focusing on the Napa Valley wine community). KNTV is one of three NBC O&O stations to distribute programs to other stations or to the network itself as of 2010, along with Los Angeles's KNBC and New York City's WNBC. The station is also the local broadcaster of the San Jose Holiday Parade each December.

On October 12, 2010, KNTV hosted its first debate since becoming owned by NBCUniversal. Its 5, 6, and 11 p.m. newscast was broadcast live at San Rafael's Dominican University of California, though the latter newscast were used as a wrap-up of the debate. The debate between California gubernatorial candidates Meg Whitman and Jerry Brown was moderated by NBC News special correspondent Tom Brokaw. This program was simulcast on several other NBC stations within California including fellow NBC O&Os KNBC and KNSD, as well as on Hearst Television-owned KCRA-TV and KSBW.

Sports programming

On November 1, 2007, KNTV entered into a three-year broadcast contract with the San Francisco Giants through 2010, replacing the team's longtime broadcaster KTVU (which had carried Giants games since 1961, three years after the team moved to the Bay Area and KTVU first began broadcasting); the team's first game broadcast on KNTV aired on April 1, 2008. KNTV broadcasts 20 to 40 San Francisco Giants baseball games a year, which are produced by Comcast SportsNet Bay Area. In addition, KNTV also airs Giants Clubhouse each weekend during the MLB season. All of the Giants broadcasts are carried in high definition. The station has preempted Giants telecasts during the Summer Olympics due to NBC currently holding the television rights to the Olympics. The Giants' contract with KNTV concluded at the end of the 2010 season, however, the broadcast rights were renewed prior to the 2011 season.

KNTV also occasionally runs special editions of its newscasts or Sports Sunday, to cover San Francisco 49ers and/or Oakland Raiders NFL games that are broadcast as part of NBC Sunday Night Football.

News operation

KNTV's newscast title card.

KNTV presently broadcasts 32½ hours of locally produced newscasts each week (with 5½ hours on weekdays and 3½ hours each on Saturdays and Sundays). The station also produces a local sports highlight and discussion program on Sunday nights called Sports Sunday, which is hosted by sports reporter Laurence Scott – who is usually joined by guest co-hosts in-studio; a secondary program, Xfinity Sports Sunday Primetime, is co-hosted by Jerry Rice and Nnamdi Asomugha during the fall, when NBC provides football coverage in primetime.

KNTV's news desk until December 21, 2010. After rebranding as "NBC Bay Area", the news desk and newsroom made a minor change to reflect the current branding.

For the first half of 2009, the recession forced NBC to cut costs at KNTV. Several rounds of layoffs occurred, forcing KNTV to shed some well-known personalities, including chief weather anchor John Farley, who left the station in March 2009; after Farley's departure, weekend weather segments originated from the studios of Los Angeles sister station KNBC. The station also closed news bureaus in Sacramento and Oakland. KNTV's news helicopter (which was purchased in 2006) was also suspended from use on April 30, 2009. On May 22, 2009, former NBC Weather Plus meteorologist Jeff Ranieri was named KNTV's new chief meteorologist. On June 29, 2009, layoffs continued with the firings of reporters Noelle Walker, Ethan Harp, Christien Kafton and San Jose reporter Daniel Garza, along with several behind-the-scenes jobs.

In December 2010, sports director Raj Mathai transitioned to weeknight news anchor, though he continued to host Sports Sunday for a short time after the change. On December 21, 2010, KNTV's newscasts moved to a temporary set while the main news set underwent renovations, traffic and sports reports were also done in the newsroom. Meteorologist Rob Mayeda also announced his move to the weekend evening newscast. The station added additional personnel including former KOB reporter Marla Tellez, meteorologist Nick O'Kelly, and freelance sports anchors Justin Allen and Christine Nubla (all of whom, except for Tellez, previously worked for KNTV).

On April 20, 2011, KNTV announced that Comcast SportsNer Bay Area would begin producing sports segments for the station starting on June 13, 2011, to be produced from a dedicated set at the cable channel's studios. This made KNTV the first NBC-owned station to have its sports segments produced by the regional sports network. On August 10, 2011, Janelle Wang replaced Jessica Aguirre as weeknight anchor of the 5 p.m. newscast. Wang and Raj Mathai are the only Asian American weekday anchor team outside of Hawaii.

News team

Current on-air staff

Anchors

• Jessica Aguirre - weeknights at 6:00 and 11:00 p.m.; also host of NBC Class Action
• Ken Bastida - weeknights at 6:00 and 11:00 p.m. (joining July 2013)
• Laura Garcia-Cannon - weekday mornings on Today in the Bay (4:30-7:00 a.m.)
• Diane Dwyer - weekends at 5:00, 6:00 and 11:00 p.m.
• Jon Kelley - weekday mornings on Today in the Bay (4:30-7:00 a.m.) and weekdays at 11:00 a.m.
• Raj Mathai - weeknights at 5:00 p.m.
• Terry McSweeney - weekends at 5:00, 6:00 and 11:00 p.m.; also reporter
• Kris Sanchez - weekend mornings (7:00-8:00 a.m.)
• Marla Tellez - weekdays at 11:00 a.m.
• Janelle Wang - weeknights at 5:00 p.m.

Weather team

• Jeff Ranieri (AMS Seal of Approval) - chief meteorologist; weeknights at 5:00, 6:00 and 11:00 p.m.; also contributor to MSNBC and NBC's Today
• Rob Mayeda (AMS Seal of Approval) - meteorologist; weekend mornings on Today in the Bay (7:00-8:00 a.m.) and weekends at 5:00, 6:00 and 11:00 p.m.; also weekday fill-in and host of Of Thin Ice
• Christina Loren - meteorologist; weekday mornings on Today in the Bay (4:30-7:00 a.m.) and weekdays at 11:00 a.m.
• Anthony Slaughter - meteorologist; fill-in

Sports team

+ Indicates personalities based at Comcast SportsNet Bay Area.

• + Brodie Brazil - sports anchor, also sports reporter
• + Jim Kozimor - sports anchor
• + Scott Reiss - sports anchor, also sports reporter
• Laurence Scott - host of Sports Sunday; also sports reporter

Reporters

• Scott Budman - business and technology reporter; and host of Tech Now
• Jean Elle - general assignment reporter
• Marianne Favro - health and medical reporter
• Jodi Hernandez - general assignment reporter
• Cheryl Hurd - Oakland bureau reporter
• Mike Inouye - weekday morning traffic reporter
• George Kiriyama - general assignment reporter
• Tony Kovaleski - chief investigative reporter
• Scott McGrew - weekday morning business and technology reporter, Tech Now producer/reporter, "Press Here" host/moderator and weekday fill in anchor
• Vicky Nguyen - general assignment, investigative and "In Depth" reporter; also fill-in anchor and host of "NBC At Work"
• Bob Redell - weekday morning reporter
• Christie Smith - weekday morning reporter
• Stephen Stock - investigative reporter
• Jenna Susko - investigative reporter
• Garvin Thomas - "Bay Area Proud" reporter; also fill-in anchor
• Damian Trujillo - general assignment reporter; also host and producer of Comunidad Del Valle

Notable former on-air staff

• Chauncey Bailey - reporter (1970–1971; later Post editor, murdered in Oakland in 2007)
• Marc Brown (1985–1987; now at KABC in Los Angeles)
• Allen Denton - anchor (2000–2007; now at KUSI/San Diego)
• T. J. Holmes - 5 p.m. anchor (2003–2006; later at CNN; now with BET Networks)
• Lisa Kim - evening anchor (1999–2010)
• David Lee - sports anchor (1993–1998)
• Jess Marlow
• Shannon O'Donnell - weekend/morning meteorologist (2001–2007)
• Victoria Recaño - anchor/reporter (2002; now correspondent for Inside Edition)
• Ric Romero (1977–1978)
• Ted Rowlands - reporter (1997–1999; now at CNN)
• Catt Sadler - entertainment reporter (1998–2002; now correspondent for E!)

References

• Kearns, Jeff (December 6–12, 2001). The Story At 11. Metroactive. May 20, 2005.
• Allison Romano. Sullivan Flexes KNTV's Muscle. Broadcasting and Cable. February 21, 2005.
• Michael Malone (July 1, 2008). KNTV NBC 11 to fire 8 people from the station Broadcasting and Cable. July 1, 2008

External links

• NBCBayArea.com - Official website
• Query the FCC's TV station database for KNTV
• BIAfn's Media Web Database -- Information on KNTV-TV
• NBC Bay Area Studio Pictures