Jump to content

KNTV

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Truelilaznkid (talk | contribs) at 06:15, 11 July 2007 (→NBC11 5 o' Clock News). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

{{Infobox broadcast}} may refer to:

{{Template disambiguation}} should never be transcluded in the main namespace.

KNTV, (NBC11) is the NBC owned-and-operated television station in the San Francisco Bay Area market. The station is licensed to San Jose. Its transmitter is located on San Bruno Mountain, just north of San Francisco International Airport. It shares a studio in San Jose with NBC Universal sister station KSTS, the Telemundo station for the San Francisco Bay Area. All new digital facilities for both stations were constructed in San Jose by NBC in 2004. KNTV is also available to Dish Network subscribers via All American Direct to those who do not receive a local NBC affiliate in their area.

History

1950s and 1960s

KNTV signed on the air in 1955 as the first television station in the San Francisco Bay Area's "South Bay" area, founded by San Jose's Sunlite Bakery.

KNTV was originally an independent station, intended to cover the California coastal area from Monterey, north to San Francisco, from Loma Prieta Peak, some 60 miles south of San Francisco. It often aired CBS, ABC and NBC shows that were turned down by San Francisco's KPIX-TV, KGO-TV and KRON-TV. However, the station was not viable as an independent, and found the going even more difficult when Oakland's KTVU signed on in 1958. As a result, KNTV affiliated with ABC in 1960, though it continued to carry some CBS and NBC programs for a few more years.

To protect ABC-owned KGO-TV, located in San Francisco, KNTV's power was reduced to intentionally impair its reception in San Francisco, and it became the ABC affiliate serving the more southerly Monterey Bay area, (Monterey and Salinas), making it one of the few stations located outside the market it served.

It was then purchased by Gill Cable, the local cable operator for San Jose. Even as an ABC affiliate, KNTV preempted a few ABC programs occasionally, which KGO-TV, as an ABC Owned and Operated station, did not. This often gave San Jose and South Bay Area residents two choices for viewing preempted ABC programming as KGO was available over the air in that regional segment originally and on cable.

The end of the ABC era

To further ensure KGO-TV's exclusivity for ABC programming in the Bay Area, ABC agreed to pay Granite Broadcasting, KNTV's owner at the time, a substantial fee in return for discontinuing its ABC programming in 2000. On July 3, 2000, KNTV terminated its ABC affiliation, and temporarily simulcast WB programming (simulcast with then co-owned KBWB-TV, San Francisco). It cost the Monterey Bay area the ABC programming viewed through KNTV, so to compensate for the loss, KGO-TV was then added to cable systems in that market.

The NBC11 era begins

2001

In 2001, KNTV secured a deal with the NBC network to become its Bay Area affiliate. NBC had decided to end its 52-year affiliation with KRON-TV after its new owner, Young Broadcasting, objected to an NBC proposal to end carriage fees.

KNTV contacted NBC and offered to pay an average of $37 million annually for the rights to broadcast NBC programs. NBC accepted the deal and affiliated with KNTV on January 1, 2002. KNTV became the first major market affiliate to pay the network for programming.

In December 2001, NBC announced another deal with Granite Broadcasting to purchase the station for $230 million. The network already owned Telemundo station KSTS-TV in San Jose and wanted to create a duopoly with the two stations. The transaction was finalized in April 2002, and, in 2004, KNTV would move from its longtime studios on Park Avenue in downtown San Jose to a new state-of-the-art all-digital facility. KNTV would share the new facility with KSTS, on North First Street in San Jose. In this case since the network switch, KNTV is one of two major affiliates to have television studios based outside San Francisco alongside Oakland-based KTVU.

Had KGO-TV not negotiated with Granite Broadcasting to end KNTV's ABC affiliation, the Bay Area, always one of the top five or six Nielsen-defined media markets, could have ended up with the setback of not having an NBC affiliate.

2002

NBC assumed control of KNTV on April 30, 2002. After the switch to NBC affiliation, KNTV was rebranded as "NBC3" to reflect its position on cable channel 3 in the Bay Area. In the fall of 2002, the station rebranded itself as "NBC11" in order to avoid confusion with Sacramento's KCRA-TV, which is available over the air and on cable in the North Bay, but does not call itself "NBC 3". Even in the early years as the new NBC affiliate, KNTV aired NBC's soap lineup much later in the afternoon than most affiliates, as this dates back to when KRON, as a then-NBC affiliate, had done this. Soon enough by August 2004, KNTV fell in line with the network's recommended time slot and airs the soap lineup from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m.

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

2005

In the early years as an NBC station, KNTV was still transmitting from Loma Prieta Peak (located between San Jose and Santa Cruz), resulting in two disadvantages. First, the signal could not be seen over the air in much of the Bay Area north of San Mateo County. Second, by the time the station switched markets and networks, it was dropped from cable systems in the Monterey Bay under SyndEx guidelines; even so, the signal was still overlapping with KSBW. That all changed in September 2005, when KNTV finally moved its transmitter from Loma Prieta Peak to San Bruno Mountain. The move came after years of objection from KRON, which in its filings alleged that KNTV would cease to serve thousands of San Jose residents by moving closer to San Francisco. Most media analysts interpreted the claim to be merely a cover for business objections to the move, which would make KRON less relevant to the Bay Area market.

[1] Trivially, NBC is the only network in the Bay Area to switch from one local station to another.

Another view of KNTV NBC 11/Telemundo 48/CNBC Silicon Valley studios.

2006

In 2006, KNTV served as a core NBC outlet, with a signal that finally reached most of the San Francisco Bay Area, operating from a state-of-the-art digital broadcast facility. However, broadcast from Mt. Bruno south of San Francisco, there still remains a large shadow in reception of KNTV for residents of the Sunset and Richmond districts of San Francisco. This is due to the presence of the hills of Twin Peaks. This shadow blocks an unknown number of potential over-the-air viewers.

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 re-ignited after firefighters had left the scene, and destroyed the analog and digital transmitters, as well as a variety of other communications gear.

2007

In January, 2007 CNBC moved their Silicon Valley bureau, formerly located at the Wall Street Journal in Palo Alto, into the NBC11/T48 San Jose studios. Jim Goldman (a former reporter at the pre-NBC KNTV) is the bureau chief, and the main CNBC reporter for the area. Their set occupies a portion of the KNTV newsroom.

In May, 2007, Rich Cerussi, Executive Vice President of the NBC Station Group's national sales organization was named KNTV President and General Manager, succeeding Linda Sullivan, who was named President and General Manager of NBC Universal's KNBC in Los Angeles.

Newscasts

File:ShannonO'Donnell2007.JPG
Shannon O'Donnell's morning weather report on KNTV in January, 2007.

In the days as an ABC affiliate, KNTV billed itself as "The San Jose NewsChannel" because its news reports primarily catered to Silicon Valley viewers almost exclusively as the reports were South Bay eccentric. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, the KNTV news theme was based on the 1968 hit song Do You Know the Way to San Jose?

NBC11 5 o' Clock News

With new anchor Jessica Aguirre, the 5 o' clock news lets viewers answer questions called Fast Feedback where NBC11 ask questions and let viewers answer through email, website, and chatroom. People are also able to watch the 5 o' clock news on the website at nbc11.com.1

NBC 11 Weather Plus

File:NBC11WeatherPlusShannonODonnell.JPG
NBC 11 Weather Plus on Digital Sub-channel 11-2. Featuring Shannon O'Donnell
  • NBC 11 Weather Plus meteorologists provide 24/7 weather with
  • John Farley (Chief Meteorologist)
  • Shannon O'Donnell (Meteorologist)
  • Craig Herrera (Meteorologist)
  • Rob Mayeda
  • Available on Comcast Cable channel 186, KNTV channel 11-2 or on NBC11.com

Past & present personalities

Present

KNTV alumni

NBC 11 General Manager & Studio location

  • Rich Cerussi, President/General Manager, KNTV
  • Address:
  • San Jose main office: 2450 North First Street, San Jose, CA 95131
  • San Francisco sales/news bureau: 848 Battery Street, San Francisco, CA 94111

References

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=KNTV&oldid=143909103"