KCOP-TV

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KCOP-TV
200px
Los Angeles, California
United States
Branding My13
Slogan TV for All of Us
Channels Digital: 13 (VHF)
Virtual: 13 (PSIP)
Subchannels 13.1 Main programming / My Network TV
13.2 Buzzr
13.3 Movies!
13.4 Heroes and Icons
Translators (see section)
Affiliations MyNetworkTV
Owner Fox Television Stations
(Fox Television Stations, Inc.)
First air date September 17, 1948; 76 years ago (1948-09-17)
Call letters' meaning K COPley Press
(former owners)
Sister station(s) KTTV
Fox Sports West
Prime Ticket
Former callsigns KMTR-TV (1948)
KLAC-TV (1948–1954)
Former channel number(s) Analog:
13 (VHF, 1948–2009)
Digital: 66 (UHF, 200?–2009)
Former affiliations
Transmitter power 120 kW
Height 905 m
Facility ID 33742
Transmitter coordinates Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
Licensing authority FCC
Public license information: Profile
CDBS
Website my13la.com

KCOP-TV, channel 13, is a MyNetworkTV owned-and-operated television station located in Los Angeles, California, United States. The station is owned by the Fox Television Stations subsidiary of 21st Century Fox, as part of a duopoly with Fox owned-and-operated station KTTV (channel 11). The two stations share studio facilities at the Fox Television Center in West Los Angeles; KCOP's transmitter is located atop Mount Wilson.

History

Early history

Channel 13 first signed on the air on September 17, 1948 as KMTR-TV and then later the call letters changed into KLAC-TV (standing for Los Angeles, California), and adopted the moniker "Lucky 13". It was originally co-owned with local radio station KMTR (now KLAC). Operating as an independent station early on, it began running some programming from the DuMont Television Network[1] in 1949 after KTLA (channel 5) disaffiliated from the network after a one-year tenure. One of KLAC-TV's earlier stars was veteran actress Betty White, who starred in Al Jarvis's Make-Believe Ballroom (later Hollywood on Television) from 1949 to 1952, and then her own sitcom, Life with Elizabeth from 1952 to 1956. Television personality Regis Philbin and actor/director Leonard Nimoy once worked behind the scenes at channel 13, and Oscar Levant had his own show on the station from 1958 to 1960.

On December 23, 1953, the Copley Press (publishers of the San Diego Union-Tribune) purchased KLAC-TV and changed its call letters to the current KCOP.[2] A Bing Crosby-led group purchased the station shortly thereafter. In 1960, the NAFI Corporation, which would later merge with Chris-Craft Boats to become Chris-Craft Industries, bought channel 13. NAFI/Chris-Craft would be channel 13's longest-tenured owner, running it for over 40 years.[3]

For most of its first 46 years on the air, channel 13 was a typical general entertainment independent station. It was usually the third or fourth highest-rated independent in Southern California, trading the #3 spot with KHJ-TV (channel 9, now KCAL-TV).[citation needed] The station carried Operation Prime Time programming at least in 1978.[4]

During the 1980s and early 1990s, it was the Los Angeles home of Star Trek: The Next Generation (as well as the Original Series), The Arsenio Hall Show and Baywatch.[5] KCOP was the original Los Angeles home of the syndicated versions of Wheel of Fortune (its longtime announcer until his death in 2010, Charlie O'Donnell, was a former news anchor at KCOP) and Jeopardy!, both of which moved to KCBS-TV (channel 2) in 1989, and later to KABC-TV (channel 7) in 1992. The station tried airing movies six nights a week in 1992; however, it fared poorly. In 1993, KCOP added more first-run syndicated programs. Along with Chris-Craft's other stations, KCOP carried the Prime Time Entertainment Network programming service from 1993 to 1995.[6] KCOP carried Spelling Premiere Network at its launch in August 1994 on Thursday nights.[7]

UPN affiliation

In 1994, Chris-Craft and its broadcasting subsidiary, United Television, partnered with Viacom's newly acquired subsidiary Paramount Pictures to form the United Paramount Network. KCOP became the network's Los Angeles station, which debuted on January 16, 1995 (this made channel 13 a UPN owned-and-operated station through Chris-Craft's ownership of the network – later part-ownership once Viacom bought 50% of UPN from Chris-Craft in 1996). At the network's launch, KCOP served as UPN's West Coast "flagship" station. During the late 1990s, the station began carrying a large amount of younger leaning talk shows (such as The Ricki Lake Show, The Jenny Jones Show, and The Montel Williams Show), reality series, some sitcoms during the evening hours, and syndicated cartoons (such as Double Dragon) in the morning well as the popular anime series Sailor Moon.

In 2000, Viacom bought Chris-Craft's 50% ownership interest in UPN; the deal effectively stripped KCOP of its status as one of the network's O&Os in the process (and making UPN the first major broadcast network to not have an O&O in the Los Angeles market, unless one counts KTLA's designation as an O&O by the Federal Communications Commission – ironically due to that station's founding owner Paramount's relations with DuMont – in the early 1950s after having already disaffiliated from the network). On August 12, 2000, Chris-Craft sold its UPN stations to the Fox Television Stations subsidiary of News Corporation for $5.5 billion;[8] a deal that was finalized on July 31, 2001, creating a duopoly with Fox O&O KTTV. Upon being sold to Fox, the Fox Kids weekday block moved to KCOP in the mid-afternoons, only for it to be discontinued nationwide in January 2002.[9] Soon after, the station ran an hour-long morning cartoon block (supplied by DIC Entertainment), but dropped cartoons entirely in September 2006. Channel 13 was the last local television station to air cartoons on weekdays; like the other local stations, the cartoons were replaced with informercials. In a separate transaction from its purchase of UPN, Viacom purchased KCOP's rival, KCAL-TV, from Young Broadcasting on June 1, 2002. Rumors persisted that UPN would move to the higher-rated KCAL, reverting KCOP to independent station status. However, Viacom decided to continue operating KCAL as an independent, as Fox renewed affiliation agreements for its UPN-affiliated stations for four years, keeping the network's programming on KCOP.

With Fox's acquisition of KCOP, the station abandoned its longtime Hollywood studios at 915 North La Brea Avenue (once home to the classic Barry & Enright-produced game shows The Joker's Wild and Tic-Tac-Dough) with KCOP's news and technical operations being moved into KTTV's facilities at the Fox Television Center in West Los Angeles in 2003.[10] The La Brea Avenue studio was put up for sale, with Fox electing to keep the facility, remodeling it to house the first two seasons of the reality series Hell's Kitchen.[11] It was eventually abandoned with fixtures in place, and become a haven for squatters who were evicted by police in May 2009.[12] The studio was eventually torn down, and currently the site is under construction, with a large apartment complex expected to open on the site around November 2015.[13]

MyNetworkTV affiliation

On January 24, 2006, the Warner Bros. unit of Time Warner and CBS Corporation announced that the two companies would shut down UPN and The WB and combine the networks' respective programming to create a new "fifth" network called The CW.[14][15] KTLA, which had been the market's WB affiliate since the network's January 1995 launch, became The CW's Los Angeles affiliate as part of a 10-year affiliation deal between the new network and KTLA's owner, Tribune Broadcasting.

The CW's initial affiliate list did not include any of Fox's UPN stations, but even without the Tribune affiliation deal, it is unlikely that KCOP would have been picked over KTLA as The CW's management was on record as preferring The WB and UPN's "strongest" affiliates – KTLA had led KCOP in the ratings dating back to when they were both independent stations. The day after the announcement of The CW's pending launch, on January 25, 2006, Fox dropped all network references from its UPN stations' on-air branding, and stopped promoting UPN's programs altogether. Accordingly, KCOP changed its branding from "UPN 13" to "Channel 13", and amended the station's 2002 logo to omit the UPN logo and just feature the boxed "13". On February 22, 2006, News Corporation announced the launch of a new "sixth" network called MyNetworkTV, which would have KCOP and the other Fox-owned UPN stations (plus an independent station in Dallas–Fort Worth) serve as the nuclei.[16][17]

UPN continued to broadcast on stations across the country until September 15, 2006. While some of the network's affiliates that switched to MyNetworkTV (which commenced operations on September 5, 2006) aired the final two weeks of UPN programs outside of its recommended primetime slot, the Fox-owned stations, including KCOP, dropped UPN entirely on August 31, 2006. In September 2006, the station began identifying itself as "MyNetworkTV, Channel 13"; the branding changed again in May 2007, simplified to "My13 Los Angeles".

Move of MyNetworkTV programming to late night

As of September 14, 2015, the station now airs other programming in MyNetworkTV's traditional 8 p.m.-10 p.m. timeslot, including TMZ Live and Hollywood Today Live; MyNetworkTV's schedule is now carried out of primetime in late night from 11:00 p.m. to 1:00 a.m. on weeknights. This makes KCOP the most high-profile station carrying MyNetworkTV to move it out of primetime, along with the only Fox-owned station to do so.

Digital television

Digital channels

The station's digital channel is multiplexed:

Channel Video Aspect PSIP Short Name Programming[18]
13.1 720p 16:9 KCOP-DT Main KCOP-TV programming / MyNetworkTV
13.2 480i 4:3 BUZZR Buzzr
13.3 16:9 MOVIES! Movies![19][20][21]
13.4 480i 4:3 HEROES Heroes and Icons

On November 4, 2011, Fox Television Stations signed an affiliation agreement with Bounce TV for KCOP and its New York City-area sister station WWOR-TV.[22] KCOP began carrying Bounce TV on digital subchannel 13.2 on March 8, 2012 (WWOR added the network on its 9.3 subchannel two weeks earlier on February 24). The network has also been added to the subchannels of Fox-owned MyNetworkTV stations in five other markets: Baltimore, Phoenix, Orlando, Dallas and Minneapolis; the Baltimore affiliation had since moved to a subchannel of ABC affiliate WMAR-TV, soon after Fox sold-off MyNetworkTV outlet WUTB to Deerfield Media. In three other markets where Fox owns MyNetworkTV stations (Chicago, Houston and Washington, D.C.), Bounce TV is carried on the subchannel space of other competing stations in those markets.

As a result of Bounce TV signing a new carriage agreement with Univision Communications in 2014, the network moved to the third subchannel of Univision owned & operated station KMEX (channel 34) on March 9, 2015. Buzzr, a new digital multicast network focusing on classic game shows, which is a joint venture of Fremantle Media (most notably, the owners of the Mark Goodson and Reg Grundy libraries among others) and KCOP's parent company, Fox Television Stations, debuted on channel 13.2 on June 1, 2015.

On September 18, 2015, Weigel Broadcasting and Fox Television Stations announced an affiliation agreement to carry diginet Heroes and Icons on subchannels of Fox-owned stations in New York City, Los Angeles, Dallas, San Francisco, Washington D.C., Phoenix, Detroit, Tampa, Orlando and Charlotte beginning October 1, 2015.

Analog-to-digital conversion

KCOP-TV shut down its analog signal, over VHF channel 13, on June 12, 2009, as part of the federally mandated transition from analog to digital television.[23] The station's digital signal relocated from its pre-transition UHF channel 66, which was among the high band UHF channels (52-69) that were removed from broadcasting use as a result of the transition, to its analog-era VHF channel 13.[24]

Programming

KCOP may air Fox network programming should it be preempted by KTTV for long-form breaking news coverage or special programming.

Sports coverage

Channel 13 served as the broadcast home of the Los Angeles Marathon 1986 to 2001, the NBA's Los Angeles Clippers from 1991 to 1996,[25] and the Los Angeles Dodgers from 2002 to 2005.

Like many local stations in the earlier years of television, KCOP hosted its own weekly Studio Wrestling show for many years during the 1970s. Stars such as Freddie Blassie, John Tolos, Rocky Johnson, André the Giant and The Sheik headlined the shows, with longtime local announcer Dick Lane behind the microphone calling the action.[26][27] In later years, pro wrestling returned to KCOP by way of the World Wrestling Entertainment program Smackdown, which aired on the station from 1999 to 2006 (as a UPN affiliate) and again from 2008 to 2010 (as a MyNetworkTV affiliate). In the past, Channel 13 also aired other wrestling programs, including World Class Championship Wrestling and the NWA. Channel 13 also televised live boxing matches, originating from the Grand Olympic Auditorium in downtown Los Angeles, on and off from the late 1960s until as recently as the mid-1990s, with legendary Los Angeles sportscaster Jim Healy calling the action in the early years.[28]

From 2005 to 2007, KCOP carried St. Louis Rams preseason games produced by corporate sibling Fox Sports Midwest and now-former sister station KTVI. Back in the 1950s during the team's early years in Los Angeles, the station broadcast many Rams regular season games before NFL games became more exclusive to the major broadcast networks (such as CBS, NBC and DuMont). However, in July 2008, the NFL's broadcast committee decided to no longer allow teams to broadcast preseason games beyond even their secondary markets. This was done more so to protect the league's broadcast partners, including KCBS-TV and KTLA, the respective local broadcasters of San Diego Chargers and Oakland Raiders preseason games.[29]

From 2006 to 2011, KCOP held the broadcast television rights to Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim baseball; the team and Fox Sports West signed a 20-year broadcast deal beginning with the 2012 season, making 150 annual Angels telecasts exclusive to Fox Sports West, with a selected portion of that schedule airing on Prime Ticket, although KCOP aired a game between the Angels and the Minnesota Twins on May 9, 2012 due to scheduling conflicts with other sports events on Fox Sports West and Prime Ticket. Due to its relationship with corporate sibling regional sports networks, KCOP has served as an overflow channel for the networks, as it aired five Los Angeles Kings hockey games during the 2010–11 season,[30] as well as televising selected late-season games from the 2011-12 season, plus the first two games of the Kings' first-round playoff series against the Vancouver Canucks.

On April 8, 2011, KCOP televised its first Clippers game since 1996 (a road game versus the Dallas Mavericks), as a last-minute scheduling addition to the team's television schedule. During the 2011-12 season, also as a last-minute addition, the station televised two Clipper games; a road contest versus the Denver Nuggets on April 18, and game six of their playoff series versus the Memphis Grizzlies on May 11.[31]

News operation

For many years, KCOP aired a primetime newscast at 10 p.m., as well as a weekday afternoon newscast at 2 p.m. during the late 1970s and early 1980s. During the 1980s, the station paired its local 10:00 program with the syndicated Independent Network News (which was produced by New York City's WPIX). The INN newscast later moved to KTLA, when Tribune Broadcasting (the distributor of INN, and owner of WPIX) purchased that station in 1985. Channel 13's news programs generally were the lowest-rated evening newscasts of the seven VHF television stations in the Los Angeles market. The newscast's length varied from 30 minutes to an hour depending on the station's budget. An ambitious attempt to relaunch KCOP's news operation came in January 1993, when the 10 p.m. newscast was renamed Real News and introduced a new format that featured anchors moving around the station's newsroom (similar to the format pioneered by CITY-TV in Toronto), in-depth reports, and newsmagazine elements.[32][33] However, the new format, which accompanied technological improvements and an expansion of the news staff,[32][33] did not pay off in the ratings, and Real News was scaled back to a half-hour on weeknights in May 1994, with the anchors now seated at a desk, with weekend newscasts being cut entirely.[34][35] Shortly after this, the newscast was rebranded as UPN News 13. For a brief period of time during the late 1990s, KCOP tried airing a half-hour newscast at 3:30 p.m. weekdays, later airing it at 7:30 p.m. weeknights. However, when the station was purchased by Fox and its operations were merged with KTTV, channel 13's newscast was moved to 11 p.m. to avoid direct competition with channel 11 (which runs an hour-long 10 p.m. newscast), and trimmed it from an hour in length down to 30 minutes. The station's news production and resources also began to be handled by KTTV.

After Fox purchased the station, KCOP's late-evening newscast took a more unconventional approach than its network-owned competition, KCBS-TV, KABC-TV and KNBC (channel 4). To appeal to a younger audience, it mainly featured its female news anchors in slightly more revealing, trendy clothing. Its news stories also tend to be much shorter in detail, in a faster-paced format. In addition, it became the first station to emphasize entertainment and trend-setting feature stories as a major part of its format, an idea that attracted a large young demographic. Nevertheless, channel 13's newscasts continually placed fourth in the ratings, as it did when the station was competing at 10 p.m. against KTTV, KTLA and KCAL-TV. However, KCOP's news drew substantially higher ratings among younger viewers, especially young Latinos.

On April 10, 2006, KCOP's newscast was expanded from 30 minutes to one hour, which made it the only Los Angeles station with an hour-long newscast at 11 p.m. On August 14, 2006, the newscast was rebranded as My13 News to reflect the station's pending MyNetworkTV affiliation. With the purchase by Fox, many of KCOP's former staff either left the station or were released, reporter Hal Eisner was one of the remaining staffers who had been with KCOP since the Chris-Craft era, beginning there in the early 1990s. Before that, however, he had worked at KTTV for a time from 1987 to 1988. Today, Eisner files reports for KTTV.

On December 1, 2008, KCOP shortened its 11 p.m. newscast to a half-hour, which became anchored by KTTV's 10 p.m. anchors Christine Devine and Carlos Amezcua, as it was considered an extension of the earlier newscast; the newscast's retitling to Fox News at 11 marked the end of a KCOP-branded and produced newscast. On September 10, 2012, KCOP launched a half-hour 7 p.m. newscast on weeknights that also used the Fox News branding; the newscast was also anchored by Amezcua and Devine.[36] On August 9, 2013, KCOP announced the cancellation of its 7 and 11 p.m. newscasts, ending a five-decade run of news programming on the station; its final newscast aired on September 22, 2013.[37]

Notable alumni

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Rebroadcasters

KCOP's signal is rebroadcast on the following translator stations:

K51AN in Victorville, California [38] from Quartzsite Mountain.

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List of translators
City Callsign
Lucerne Valley K43EE
Ridgecrest K13NF
K49AA-D

Notes

  1. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  2. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  3. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  4. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  5. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  6. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  7. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  8. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  9. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  10. ↑ Latzman, Darrell. Los Angeles Business Journal. June 30, 2003. "KCOP studio sale is latest chapter in duopoly shifting. (Up Front).(Fox Broadcasting puts television studio facility up for sale)".[1][dead link]
  11. ↑ Kaplan, Don. New York Post. June 29, 2005 (TV Wednesday section). "DRESSED TO GRILL ; 'HELL' ISN'T A REAL RESTAURANT".[2]
  12. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  13. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  14. ↑ 'Gilmore Girls' meet 'Smackdown'; CW Network to combine WB, UPN in CBS-Warner venture beginning in September, CNNMoney.com, January 24, 2006.
  15. ↑ UPN and WB to Combine, Forming New TV Network, The New York Times, January 24, 2006.
  16. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  17. ↑ News Corp. Unveils MyNetworkTV, Broadcasting & Cable, February 22, 2006.
  18. ↑ RabbitEars TV Query for KCOP
  19. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  20. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  21. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  22. ↑ Fox Stations to Carry Bounce TV in NY, L.A., Broadcasting & Cable, November 3, 2011.
  23. ↑ List of Digital Full-Power Stations
  24. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  25. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  26. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  27. ↑ http://www.wrestlingclothesline.com/PeterAnderson.htm
  28. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  29. ↑ NFL cancels Rams’ preseason TV in L.A., Sports Business Journal, July 14, 2008.
  30. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  31. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  32. ↑ 32.0 32.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  33. ↑ 33.0 33.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  34. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  35. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  36. ↑ KCOP in Los Angeles Launching 7 p.m. Newscast, TVSpy, September 5, 2012.
  37. ↑ KCOP Cutting News From Its Lineup, TVSpy, August 9, 2013.
  38. ↑ http://www.kj6ms.com/tvl-hdsb.html

External links

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