KCOP-TV: Difference between revisions

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KCOP-TV (Channel 13) is a UPN affiliated television station in Los Angeles. This station, owned by Fox Television Stations Group who also owns KTTV Channel 11, has a signal radius that covers the Southern California region.

Technical Information

Frequency: Channel 13
Name: UPN 13
Radius: 80 miles (Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino and Ventura counties)
Slogan: Get It On UPN 13
Start of Operation: September 17, 1948 as KMTR-TV.
Transmitter Location: Los Angeles, California (34° 13' 29.00" N Latitude, 118° 3' 48.00" W Longitude)
Transmitter Power: 161 kW

History

KCOP went on the air on September 17, 1948 as KMTR-TV. The station briefly changed its call letters to KLAC-TV, and adopted the moniker "Lucky 13."

One of Channel 13's earlier stars was veteran actress Betty White, who starred in her own live sitcom, "Life with Elizabeth." Television personality Regis Philbin and actor-director Leonard Nimoy once worked behind the scenes at Channel 13. In 1954, the Copley Press (owners of The San Diego Union-Tribune) purchased KLAC-TV, and changed its call letters to the present KCOP. Six years later, Chris-Craft Industries bought Channel 13, with an relationship that lasted over forty years.

Chris-Craft partnered up with various television studios over the years to produce first-run syndicated programming, which gave KCOP some of its best ratings and made Channel 13 one of America's leading local television stations. From the 1960s to the early 1990s, KCOP offered a broad range of programs ranging from cartoons to off-network sitcoms, older theatrical and made-for-TV movies, syndicated talk shows, game shows, and even local news. In the 1990s, the station began to focus more on first-run talk shows, court shows, reality shows, and newsmagazine shows as well as off-network drama shows.

In 1995, Chris-Craft and its subsidiary, United Television, partnered with Viacom to form the United Paramount Network. KCOP accordingly became the network's West Coast flagship station.

Chris-Craft/United sold all of its UPN-affiliated stations to Fox in 2002, and soon after that transaction, KCOP integrated its operations with KTTV. KCOP abandoned its Hollywood studios (once home to classic game shows The Joker's Wild and Tic Tac Dough) to move into KTTV's studios in West Los Angeles. Upon being sold to Fox in 2001, the weekday Fox Kids block moved to KCOP in the mid-afternoons, only for it to be dropped nationwide in January 2002. The station still runs a morning cartoon block (from the DIC Entertainment company) and is the last local station left running weekday morning kids shows.

Viacom bought out the other 50% stake of UPN from Chris-Craft, and Viacom became 100% owner of the upstart network. In a separate transaction in 2002, Viacom purchased KCOP's arch-rival, KCAL Channel 9, and the rumors persisted that Viacom would move UPN to Channel 9, thus making Channel 13 an independent station once again. However, Viacom said that it would continue to operate Channel 9 as an independent station (at least for the time being), and UPN would stay on KCOP. Fox recently renewed its affiliation agreement with UPN in a eight-year pact.

News operation

For many years, KCOP had run a newscast at 10pm. However, when the station was purchased by Fox and its operations were taken over by KTTV, it moved its newscast from 10pm to 11pm to avoid direct competition with KTTV (which also runs a 10pm newscast), and trimmed it from an hour in length down to 30 minutes. The station's news production and resources are now also handled by KTTV. KCOP's main anchors, Lauren Sanchez and Rick Garcia, often present news stories for KTTV, and Garcia had previously been the lead sports anchor and sports director at Channel 11 since 1987.

KCOP's late-evening news takes a more unconventional approach than its competition, Channels 2 (KCBS), 4 (KNBC), and 7 (KABC). To appeal to a younger audience, it mainly features its female news anchors in slightly more revealing, trendy, and tight clothing. Its news stories also tend to be much shorter in detail, in a faster-paced format.

KCOP's news ratings lag behind its main counterparts, Channels 2, 4, and 7. Its newscast continually places 4th in the ratings, as it did when the station was competing at 10pm against Channels 5, 9, and 11.

Programming

KCOP was once the home of the Los Angeles Marathon, carrying the race from its inception in 1986 until 1999, and also carried the National Basketball Association's Los Angeles Clippers from 1991 to 1996. They are currently the home of the Los Angeles Dodgers, once carried by now-sister station KTTV Channel 11. Those telecasts, however, will move to KCAL Channel 9 starting in 2006. Today, in addition to its UPN prime time schedule, KCOP offers first-run talk shows, reality shows, dramas, cartoons, off- network sitcoms, and a vast library of films (in comparision to other area television stations).

External links