KCOY-TV

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KCOY-TV is the CBS-affiliated television station for the Central Coast of California that is licensed to Santa Maria. It broadcasts a high definition digital signal on UHF channel 19 from a transmitter on Tepusquet Peak in the Los Padres National Forest east of Santa Maria. Owned by the Cowles Publishing Company, KCOY is operated by News-Press & Gazette Company through a shared services agreement, making it sister stations to ABC affiliate KEYT-TV, and Class A Fox affiliate KKFX-CA. KCOY and KKFX share studios on West McCoy Lane in Santa Maria. Its signal can also be seen on analog repeater K44DN (on channel 44 from a transmitter northwest of Paso Robles) licensed to Paso Robles. Due to its Class A status, KKFX does not air a digital signal of its own so KCOY's second digital sub-channel serves as that purpose.

History

The station went on-the-air on March 16, 1964. KCOY would not have existed if it were not for the Federal Communications Commission's decision in 1959 to move KFRE-TV (now KFSN-TV) in Fresno from channel 12 to channel 30 under pressure from politicians in the Central Coast. This allowed channel 12 to be used in Santa Maria. The station signed on as Santa Barbara County's NBC affiliate, sharing CBS with ABC affiliate KEYT.

It was owned for more than a dozen years by Central Coast Broadcasters, who acquired the station from the near bankruptcy of the original owners on August 1, 1968. The consortium of local business people including Mili Acquistapace and Burns Rick, was headed by Helen Pedotti, who had previously not even owned a television set, but took personal interest in the operation of the station. The station took its current affiliation with CBS in 1969 with the consolidation of Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo Counties into a single market; KSBY in San Luis Obispo became the NBC affiliate for the enlarged market. It was owned by Stauffer Communications from the early-1980s until 1995 when the company merged with Morris Communications. However, the FCC did not allow Morris to keep the former Stauffer television stations due to the agency's rules in effect at the time against newspaper / broadcast station cross-ownership which affected several of the Stauffer markets where Morris already owned newspapers. KCOY was sold along with most of its sisters to Benedek Broadcasting in 1996. Three years later, Benedek traded KCOY to the Ackerley Group for that company's KKTV in Colorado Springs, Colorado. In 2002, Ackerley was bought out by Clear Channel Communications.

On April 20, 2007, Clear Channel entered into an agreement to sell its entire television stations group to Newport Television, a broadcasting holding company controlled by the private equity firm Providence Equity Partners. The sale was finalized on March 14, 2008. However, due to Providence Equity Partners' partial ownership of media properties which serve portions of the Santa Maria / San Luis Obispo market, KCOY and sister station KKFX-CA were resold to the Cowles Publishing Company with the group deal closing on May 7, 2008.

Even after being sold, Newport Television's website still listed KCOY and KKFX as two of its owned stations for several months afterward.

The station moved their studio to the current location back in the late-1980s. The previous location was at 1503 North McClelland Street. That building has now been converted into a church. KCOY was the hometown station in 2005 when it covered the trial of Michael Jackson since it was held at the Llewelyn Justice Center in Santa Maria.

For several years in the late-1970s and early-1980s, the KCOY Film Festival was a special event for most of Santa Maria media. Employees of the station would make creative videos many of them a parody of the regular broadcasts. Those videos and bloopers from that era have been saved and posted for on YouTube. These slices of history featuring many of the station's personalities show how the station looked in that era.

On September 20, 2013, News-Press & Gazette Company, owner of KEYT-TV in Santa Barbara, announced that it would take over some of KCOY's operations (including its news operation) under a shared services agreement. Sister station KKFX-CA, as well as Monterey sister stations KION-TV and KMUV-LP, will be sold to NPG directly. The sale was completed on December 13. Almost immediately following consummation, the KCOY web site was folded into the KEYT web site. On December 26, Cowles composed a deal to sell KCOY to VistaWest Media, a company based in St. Joseph, Missouri (where NPG is also based); the station will remain operated by NPG under a shared services agreement.

Digital television

Digital channels

The station's digital signal is multiplexed:

Channel	Video	Aspect	PSIP Short Name	Programming
12.1	1080i	16:9	KCOY-HD	Main KCOY-TV programming / CBS
12.2	480i	4:3	FOX-DT	KKFX programming / Fox

Analog-to-digital conversion

KCOY-TV shut down its analog signal, over VHF channel 12, on February 17, 2009, the original 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 remained on its pre-transition UHF channel 19. Through the use of PSIP, digital television receivers display the station's virtual channel as its former VHF analog channel 12.

Availability

KCOY is also the first in the Santa Maria / Santa Barbara/San Luis Obispo market to broadcast a high definition signal. In addition to being offered for free over-the-air, it can be found on digital cable systems including Comcast channel 212, Cox channel 712, and Charter channel 782. In addition to over-the-air, KCOY's signal is rebroadcast on K44DN analog channel 44 in Paso Robles.

Programming

KCOY airs syndicated programming in addition to network programming, with The Doctors after CBS This Morning, Dr. Phil and Judge Judy during the mid-afternoons, Family Feud after the 6 p.m. newscast, and Entertainment Tonight and omg! Insider before primetime.

News operation

Their studios at the corner of Skyway Drive and McCoy Lane in Santa Maria.

KCOY produces its local newscasts both for the station itself and for sister station KKFX, totaling 30½ hours, with 5½ hours on weekdays and 90 minutes on weekends. On weekdays, a one-hour morning newscast is shown at 6 a.m., with an additional hour over on KKFX since CBS This Morning is carried on KCOY. Half-hour blocks are broadcast at 5, 6, 7, and 10 p.m., as well as a 35-minute wrap at 11 p.m. On weekends, like sister stations KION and KCBA, there are half-hour newscasts at 10 and 11 p.m. Like rival KSBY, KCOY does not produce a midday newscast nor a weekend morning newscast.

Central Coast News This Morning, which airs weekdays from 6 to 7 a.m. on KCOY and on KKFX from 7 to 8 a.m., is by far the largest on the entire Central Coast. The stations are the only ones to have weekday morning live reporters. Unlike most CBS affiliates in the Pacific Time Zone, KCOY does not air midday news during the week. There is a nightly 10 o'clock newscast seen on KKFX called Central Coast News at 10. KCOY and KKFX share the Central Coast News branding with sister stations KION and KCBA in Salinas. In addition to the main studios, the station operates bureaus in San Luis Obispo (on Pacific Street) and Santa Barbera (on Chapala Street). On September 21, 2009, KKFX launched the area's only weeknight 7 o'clock newscast known as Central Coast News at 7.

KCOY and KKFX broadcast their news in high definition starting in July 2011, New flatscreens were also added similar to KION and KCBA.

On January 6, 2012, the station announced that in an effort to cut costs, a round of layoffs was announced that includes the elimination of the sports department, cutting its morning show to only one hour on weekdays, and having the evening newscasts to be based at the KION/KCBA studios. Layoffs include chief meteorologist Jim Byrne and sports anchor Kevin Roose, although weeknight anchor Arturo Santiago and sports anchor Dave Alley will shift to reporting duties. On May 5, 2014, KCOY resumed Live Newscasts.

Former notable on-air staff

• Lori Brown formerly Lori Aufdemorte (San Luis Obispo County reporter and sub anchor on KCOY CBS 12 Sunrise and Noon) now reporter at WMC 5 Memphis, TN
• Lee Cowan Reporter for NBC News, July 2007–present
• Roger Hernandez (Former Weekend Weather anchor and currently Head Weather anchor at KTAS 33 Telemundo in Santa Maria, CA)
• David Kerley (11 p.m. News and 6 p.m. Sports Anchor in the 1970s, now a Correspondent for ABC News)
• David Lee (sports anchor 1990–1991)
• Lon McEachern (Sports Anchor and Reporter in the early 1980s, now Poker Analyst for ESPN's World Series of Poker)
• Scott Reiss (Sports Anchor 1997-2000; Currently at Comcast Sports Bay Area)

External links

• Official website
• KKFX's Official Website
• Man on the Couch's Website
• Central Coast Deals
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