KOB (TV)
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KOB-TV is a television station based in Albuquerque, New Mexico. It's an NBC network affiliate and broadcasts on channel 4. KOB is owned by Hubbard Broadcasting. Its transmitter is located on Sandia Crest, east of Albuquerque.
Station history
KOB-TV started operations on November 29, 1948, after Albuquerque Journal owner and publisher Tom Pepperday won a television license on his second try. Pepperday, who also owned KOB-AM and KOB-FM, had previously applied for one in 1943. It is the oldest television station in New Mexico, the first television station between the Mississippi River and the West Coast, and the second oldest in the Mountain Time Zone (KDYL-TV in Salt Lake City, now KTVX, had signed on a month earlier). Initially KOB-TV ran programming from all four networks--NBC, ABC, CBS and DuMont Television Network. However, it has always been a primary NBC affiliate.
Later, in May 1952, the station was purchased by Time Life (now Time Inc.) and former FCC chairman Wayne Coy. It was Time Life’s first television asset. In 1953 as each network gradually increased its schedule and as two new TV stations signed on within a week KOB-TV would drop programming of ABC and CBS. DuMont went out of business in 1956. CBS programming would move to KGGM (now KRQE) and ABC programming moved to KOAT.
Stanley E. Hubbard, founder of Hubbard Broadcasting, bought KOB-TV from Time Life in 1957. KOB's radio cousins were later sold off and are now known as KKOB-AM-FM, owned by Citadel Broadcasting; many people still confuse the television and radio stations today.
In 2005, KOB-TV entered into a news partnership with KKOB-AM.
In September 2006, KOB-TV began broadcasting NBC WeatherPlus on digital subchannel 4-2, at first inserting its Doppler weather radar during time reserved for local segments.
Satellite stations
Three stations rebroadcast KOB's signal and insert local content for other parts of the media market:
| Station | City of license | Channels (Analog/ Digital) |
First air date | Former callsigns | ERP (Analog/ Digital) |
HAAT (Analog/ Digital) |
Facility ID | Transmitter Coordinates |
| KOBF | Farmington | 12 (VHF) 17 (UHF) |
October 20, 1972 | KIVA-TV (1972-1983) | 316 kW 290 kW |
125 m 102 m |
35321 | 36°41′44″N 108°13′17″W / 36.69556°N 108.22139°W |
| KOBR | Roswell | 8 (VHF) 38 (UHF) |
June 24, 1953 | KSWS-TV (1953-1985) | 316 kW 820 kW |
533 m 499 m |
62272 | 33°22′31.3″N 103°46′14.3″W / 33.375361°N 103.770639°W |
| KOBG-TV | Silver City | 6 (VHF) | 2000 | 6 kW | 502 m | 85114 | 32°51′49″N 108°14′29.6″W / 32.86361°N 108.241556°W |
KOBF went on air in 1972 as KIVA-TV. It operated at about half of the class maximum (158 of 316 kW) from an antenna 410 feet (125 m) above average terrain. The station had always been an NBC affiliate.
Up until March 2007, KOBF had broadcast a fifteen minute Four Corners news, weather and sports segment, "Eyewitness News 12," during KOB news broadcasts every weekday at 6pm & 10pm. KOBF also produced four 5-minute news cut-ins every weekday morning during the Today show from 7am-9am with local news and weather information. KOBF also produced a local high school sports program called "Four Corners Gameday" every Friday night during the academic school year. Communities throughout the Four Corners region came to rely and depend on KOBF for local news, weather and sports information complimenting the statewide coverage from KOB in Albuquerque. On March 1, 2007, most of the extra news and all of the extra sports content was ended for viewers of KOBF. KOB management fired three of the four members of the news department, in addition to two technical directors and the news director, Scott Michlin, who had been with KOBF for seventeen years. A similar practice of providing local newscasts had been done at KOBR, but to a much smaller extent. Those local broadcasts also ceased on March 1, 2007.
KOBF and KOBR now serve as bureaus feeding a story or two each day for the statewide newscasts on KOB from Albuquerque. Each are staffed by one news reporter/photographer.
KOBG has a license to broadcast a digital signal on channel 8, but has not begun digital broadcasts.
KOBR has been a KOB satellite since 1983, after previously operating as as a free-standing local station with a primary NBC affiliation and later as a satellite of NBC affiliate KCBD-TV in Lubbock, Texas. A separate article about KOBR-TV includes more extensive details about the history of the Roswell station.
The last letter of the satellite station callsigns stands for the city or county where the station is located. KOBG is in Grant County.
In addition to KOB and its three satellite stations, there are dozens of low-powered repeaters that carry KOB's programming throughout New Mexico, as well as a handful in Colorado and Arizona. [1]
Newscasts
Ordinarily, KOB airs five and a half hours of local news each weekday, three hours each Saturday, and an hour each Sunday. During the school year, KOB broadcasts a weekly 15-minute sportscast, "New Mexico Gameday," dedicated to high school sports. Also, during the fall of 2006, KOB broadcasts the Lobo Coaches Show, a 30-minute sportscast dedicated to the University of New Mexico football team.
KOB produced an hourlong newscast for Albuquerque's Fox affiliate, KASA-TV, through September 14, 2006. The next day, CBS affiliate KRQE took over production of that newscast as that station's parent company, LIN TV, began taking over KASA's operations as it purchased the station.
KOB's newscasts identify themselves as "Eyewitness News 4".
Newscasters
KOB-TV has a history of strong news talent, although it is a fixture at second place in market ratings.
The station's hiring of Dick Knipfing in 1980 from KOAT-TV, a local competitor, created the Albuquerque's first, big-dollar anchor, and stood out in the industry as the "anchorman wars" moved to relatively smaller markets. Knipfing's 1980 salary was approximately $90,000. Despite his hiring, the station was never able to overtake KOAT in the news ratings, largely due to the staying power of anchor Johnny Morris and a folksy weatherman Howard Morgan. Knipfing, now with KRQE-TV, his third time around, remains a fixture in the local TV news scene.
Today, KOB-TV's anchor team features Carla Aragon, who used to co-host PM Magazine with Gary Doll for KOB-TV in the early 1980s, before station management rejected her audition for a news anchor position, only to see her hired away by KNBC-TV in Los Angeles. Aragon, a native New Mexican, spent eleven years at KNBC as the morning co-anchor of the top-rated weekday morning newscast, Today In LA and as a general assignment reporter. She returned to KOB-TV in 1994 replacing Mari Bennett and is teamed with anchor Tom Joles, who followed Knipfing and Nathan Roberts in the anchor chair. Mari Bennett left the anchor desk to pursue other interests, including theatre and was seen co-hosting an educational promo for Cox Cable in Denver. Both Aragon and Joles are Emmy Award winners. With the retirement of his colleague Robin Marshment in 2006, Chief Meteorologist Larry Rice, recruited to come to KOB-TV from KIRO-TV in Seattle in 1995, now holds the distinction of having the longest continuous tenure of any of the present evening weather-casters in New Mexico. Morning show weatherman Steve Stucker has been with KOB-TV non-stop since May 1990 for the longest tenure of any present NM forecaster. KOAT-TV's Joe Diaz may have as many total years, but he left for more than a decade before returning in 1997 to resume his career as Chief Meteorologist in 1997 at KOAT-TV. Rice is the only forecaster in NM to win an Emmy. Other KOB-TV alums include intern-reporter Jane Wells, formerly with the Geraldo show and now with CNBC; and Jeff Schwartz, formerly of Flint, Michigan's WJRT-TV, who accepted a Fellowship with Los Alamos National Laboratory and would become its Public Affairs Officer.
Also in the 1980s, long time weekend anchor Greg Gurule, replaced by Joe Vigil, moved from KOB-TV to KOA-TV (now KCNC-TV) in Denver, Colorado, KGO-TV in San Francisco, California, and KNTV in San Jose, California, before returning to his home state to join KRQE.
Notable Personalities
Current On-Air Talent
KOB ANCHORS
- Antoinette Antonio: Weekend Anchor & General Assignment Reporter
- Nicole Brady: Co-Weeknight Anchor
- Tom Joles: Co-Weeknight Anchor
- Eric Kahnert: 4PM Anchor & General Assignment Reporter
- Steve Stucker: Weekday Morning & Noon Anchor/Weathercaster
- Marla Tellez: Weekday Morning & Noon Anchor
- Joe Vigil: Weekend Anchor & General Assignment Reporter
KOB REPORTERS
- Shelton Dodson: General Assignment Reporter & Weekend Morning Anchor
- Stuart Dyson: General Assignment Reporter
- Jeremy Jojola: Investigative Reporter
- Valerie Castro: General Assignment Reporter
- Jeff Maher: General Assignment Reporter
- Cris Ornelas: General Assignment Reporter
- Gadi Schwartz: General Assignment Reporter
PINPOINT 4 WEATHERPLUS TEAM
- Larry Rice:(NWA & AMS Seal of Approval): Chief Meteorologist
- Ty Shesky:(NWA & AMS Seal of Approval): Weekend Meteorologist
- Shar Spalding: 4pm Weathercaster
SPORTS ANCHORS/REPORTERS
- J.P. Murrieta: Sports Director/Anchor, seen weeknights
- Lee Faria: Weekend Sports Anchor/Sports Reporter/Assistant Sports Director
News/Station Presentation
Newscast Titles
- Eyewitness News 4 (1970s-1980s)
- Eyewitness News Network (1980s)
- News 4 New Mexico & News 4 (1980s-1990s)
- Channel 4 Eyewitness News (1990s)
- Eyewitness News 4 (1996-present)
Station Slogans
- Superstation KOB & Great Southwest Superstation (1980s)
- We're There 4 You (1980s)
- When News Happens, You'll See it Happen on News 4 (1990s)
- Working 4 You (2000s)
- Live, Local, Late-Breaking Coverage. (2005-present)
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Trivia
- Many "Today in History" websites ([2][3][4]) say KOB-TV ceased transmission on October 28, 1986 - the same day the KOB radio stations changed callsigns to KKOB. KOB did not stop broadcasting on that date.