KBWB
Encyclopedia
KOFY-TV is an independent
television station
in San Francisco, California
broadcasting in digital on UHF channel 19. KOFY's virtual channel
remains ch. 20. The station is owned by Granite Broadcasting and offers a schedule of first-run talk shows, court shows, off-network sitcoms, reality shows, and movies. The station's transmitter is located atop the Sutro Tower
in San Francisco, and a translator, K29DF, broadcasts KOFY in Ukiah
and Mendocino County
. The station has been an independent station
for most of its existence, although it was the Bay Area's WB Network
affiliate during that network's existence (1995–2006).
Virtual channels>
Virtual
channel
Video
Format
Programming
20.1
1080i
16:9
Main KOFY-TV programming
20.2
480i
4:3
Me-TV
On July 1, 2007, KBWB launched a new digital subchannel on channel 20.4 featuring programming from the Spanish language network Azteca América
, currently broadcasting on KOFY-DT4. This digital service replaced KTNC-TV
, which switched to a Spanish-language independent station on that date. . On July 28, 2011 High Plains Broadcasting announced plans to sell Santa Rosa-based KFTY to Una Vez Más Holdings, LLC
, with the intent to affiliate that station with Azteca América
. On September 29, 2011, KFTY's affiliation with Me-TV was discontinued and became KEMO-TV, adopting the callsign once used by KOFY-TV. KEMO-TV briefly mirrored the Azteca América programming that was still seen on KOFY 20.4; this ended shortly afterward, when KOFY discontinued the Azteca América feed.
On October 17, 2011, KOFY announced that it signed an affiliation agreement with Weigel Broadcasting
's digital multicast network Me-TV and the station would carry the network on a new digital subchannel 20.2.
(later called the United Network); Overmyer used his initials as the last three letters of the Toledo, Ohio station (WDHO-TV, now WNWO-TV
), which was already on the air, and his children's initials for the remaining five stations in his network, whose licenses were not granted until December 12, 1967, after his network folded.
KEMO-TV signed on the air less than 4 months later, on April 1, 1968. It was seemingly off the air more than it was on. At the time, the station showed conventional independent fare, plus The Adults Only Movie, a series of art films, but no sex or nudity — it was named "Adults Only" merely due to the films' lack of appeal to children.
With a mixture of locally produced and syndicated programming, KEMO-TV remained on the air for three years to the day, powering down its transmitter at midnight March 31, 1971 to avoid paying the following month's PG&E electricity bill. Leon Crosby bought it later that year and it returned to the air in 1972 with an eclectic
type of programming - "Solesvida", "Amapola Presents Show" co-hosted by Amapola and Ness Aquino, to name a few. KEMO offered Japanese live-action and cartoons dubbed into English including Speed Racer
, Ultraman
, 8 Man
, Prince Planet
, Johnny Cypher in Dimension Zero
and The King Kong Show
.
From 1972 until 1980, it was telecasting stock market
programming in the mornings, religious programming in midday, Spanish
programming in the afternoons and evenings, and B-grade movies overnight, with carpet store owner Leon Heskett hosting the films. Leon Crosby's KEMO signed off on September 30, 1980.
The station was then sold to FM radio pioneer James Gabbert, who signed it back on October 6, 1980 as KTZO (which stood for Television 20, the Z being construed as a numeral 2), with a dramatically upgraded general entertainment format, featuring off-network drama shows, sitcoms, old movies, rejected CBS
and NBC
shows preempted by KPIX
and KRON
, music videos, and religious shows. But unlike its independent competitors in that time, KTVU
, KICU-TV
and KBHK (now KBCW), a majority of KTZO's programming lineup at most consisted of low-budget television programs, which continued into its early years as KOFY. Most memorable were the station identification breaks featuring pets, usually dogs, of Bay Area viewers that would look on cue at a television screen showing the station's logo. In fact, these proved to be popular enough that KTZO/KOFY would often work together with the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals
by displaying pets that could be adopted, along with a phone number to call with the pets name on screen.
Other popular programming during the early and mid 1980s included the TV-20 Dance Party (originally a "Top 40" music format featuring local high schools, hosted by Bay Area DJ Tony Kilbert; later a 1950s "retro" style show hosted by Gabbert), and a Sunday late-night movie program. The Sunday program included studio segments at the beginning and commercial breaks of the movie, hosted by Gabbert and set in the fictional "Sleazy Arms Hotel" bar. Viewers were invited to join Gabbert on the set and for a time, enjoy a sponsor's product (a malt liquor).
On March 1, 1986 the station changed its call letters to KOFY-TV . The change took place at the time owner James Gabbert purchased KOFY (AM). The original KOFY-AM 1050 was a Spanish language radio station before Gabbert changed the format to 1950s-60s oldies rock during the 1980s and 1990s before reverting back to the Spanish language format. Gabbert sold KOFY-AM to KNBR which changed the format from Spanish to Sports Talk with the call numbers KNBR 1050-AM. At one point, Gabbert made Bay Area broadcasting history by televising a 3-D movie that required special glasses, Gorilla at Large
. The station continued to run a general entertainment format, and added more cartoons in the late 1980s. In September 1987, for example, it aired Perry Mason, Cannon, Lou Grant and Combat from 7 to 11 p.m. weeknights.
KOFY added more sitcoms in the early 1990s. KOFY also broadcast network daytime game shows and Saturday Morning cartoons not carried by NBC affiliate KRON and CBS affiliate KPIX such as NBC game shows Blockbusters
; Classic Concentration; the daytime version of Win, Lose, or Draw; the NBC cartoon series Alvin and the Chipmunks
; the CBS game show The Price Is Right
; the CBS cartoon series The Get Along Gang and Saturday Supercade
; and for a few weeks during the Oliver North
Iran-Contra hearings, Wordplay
. The CBS game show Tattletales
was picked up for the KEMO schedule during the mid-1970s among its foreign language-heavy programming when KPIX did not carry its CBS feed.
On Christmas Eve
, Gabbert would pre-empt normal programming during the entire evening and broadcast its own version of the Yule Log
, a concept borrowed from WPIX-TV in New York (which incidentally, would also later affiliate with The WB).
In the late 1980s through the mid 1990s the station ran an "oldies dance party" hosted by James Gabbert, and emceed by Sean King.
In 1996, KOFY-TV employees attempted to organize as a collective bargaining unit under the labor union for broadcast employees, NABET. Attempts by Gabbert and various KOFY-TV managers to interfere with the organizing effort resulted in a case before the National Labor Relations Board
.
The station became the WB affiliate for the Bay Area in early 1995, when the network launched. Eventually since then, KOFY began to upgrade its programming schedule from low-budget programs to more well-known syndicated programming to match its competitors and the growth of the station as a WB affiliate. In 1998, Gabbert sold KOFY to Granite Broadcasting for $170 million, who changed the calls to KBWB on September 14, 1998 to reflect its affiliation. In 1999, KBWB's operations were merged with that of then-sister station KNTV
in San Jose
, who contributed a 10:00 p.m. newscast, plus simulcasts of its morning news, and, in return, received a temporary WB affiliation for 18 months. This arrangement ended in April 2002 after KNTV, by then the NBC affiliate for the San Francisco market, was sold to that network.
As San Francisco was, at the time, the fifth largest media market in the country (now sixth), KBWB was the largest WB affiliate to not be owned by the Tribune Company
. Tribune owned a 25% stake in the network, while the majority owner is Time Warner
. So any WB affiliate owned and operated by Tribune was also considered network owned and operated by the network itself.
) in Detroit
to AM Media Holdings, Inc. (a unit of Acon Investments and several key Granite shareholders) for a price rated, on KBWB's end, to around $83 million . The low price, compared to the more than double Granite had purchased the station for, came out of Granite wanting to cut down its debt load while wanting to keep control of the stations. On February 15, 2006 Granite announced the restructuring of the sale considering the changing conditions of the station and that AM Media Holdings may not own the station (see below).
In May 2006, Granite announced that it had sold KBWB, along with WMYD, to DS Audible, a new group affiliated with Canyon Capital Advisors
, D.B. Zwirn & Co., Fortress Investment Group
and Ramius Capital Group, among others, for $150 million cash. (DS Audible San Francisco, LLC, one of the two groups created by the investment groups, would be acquiring KBWB for $65,750,000.) The previous agreement to sell the two stations to AM Media has been cancelled. On July 18, 2006 this sale also fell apart; Granite has announced it will try to find another company willing to buy KBWB. Granite filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization December 11, 2006 after missing an interest payment on its debt of more than $400 million.
On Tuesday, January 24, 2006 it was announced that CBS Corporation and Time Warner would close their respective UPN and WB networks and jointly launch the CW Network
in September 2006. The network is a 50/50 joint venture between the two companies. KBWB reverted to being an independent station on September 18, 2006, as KBHK (now KBCW) became the Bay Area's outlet for the CW network, while the other new network (MyNetworkTV
) ended up affiliating with KRON. Soon after the CW announcement, the station rebranded to TV20 (following the lead of Detroit's future MyNetworkTV affiliate and sister station WMYD
, formerly WDWB, which also branded as TV20). In September 2006, KBWB reverted to an independent station (one of three) under the new branding as Your TV20 (a parallel of sorts to "My TV20", the branding of sister station WMYD in Detroit, which affiliated with MyNetworkTV
). March 2008 saw the return of the dog station IDs that TV20 became so well-known for during the James Gabbert era of the station. The IDs have been updated to having the dogs sitting on a couch in front of several San Francisco backdrops.
KBWB has since added a secondary affiliation with ABC
, to carry that network's programming if its Bay Area station KGO-TV
needs to pre-empt regularly scheduled ABC network programming for local or national breaking news
, along with selected ESPN on ABC
programming either to allow KGO to fit in its own E/I
requirements or shift low-rated events from its schedule. In January 2007, KBWB began broadcasting a 9 p.m. version of KGO-TV's newscast (see below). Possibly in the future, KGO-TV may broadcast additional sets of news at 9 a.m. for an hour and at 4:30 p.m. for a half hour.
's newscasts under the NewsCenter 4 on KOFY brand. The KRON-produced 10 p.m. newscast first aired in March 1991 with Pete Wilson and Pam Moore as co-anchors, but ended a year later when KRON-TV adopted the "early prime time
" schedule and aired the 10 p.m. newscast on channel 4.
, as well as a morning newscast. However, the 10 p.m. news failed to pose a significant threat to KTVU
's news (an issue which caused several other newscast competitors (notably KRON and KPIX
) to move their newscasts back to 11 p.m. in the 1990s), and both newscasts were cancelled after NBC purchased KNTV in 2002. In September 2005, the station began to air a syndicated
morning show, The Daily Buzz
, but it was subsequently dropped from KBWB's lineup.
and Winchester Mystery House
. It was hosted by Angela Murrow (sometimes known as Angela Bakke) for the segment's first two years of the run and by Lesley Nagy and Shane Tallant in subsequent years. An extended version, called The Mixx EP, aired on the fourth Wednesday or Thursday of each month. In January 2006, Shane Tallant left KBWB leaving Lesley Nagy as the lone correspondent of the station.
The hosts are No Name, a local radio personality, and Balrok, a demon, who claim to broadcast from caves under the KOFY studios. They have a snarky frat-boy style and have had many off-color guests, including frequent guest adult film actress Annie Cruz
. The broadcast features in-house band the Deadlies, a surf/punk band and the hosts are often flanked during the broadcast by a variety of bikini clad models/actresses/fans. As of the third season, the show added two regular go-go dancers known as the Cave Girls whom often perform with the Deadlies. The show began its fourth season on July 24, 2010 and was moved from 12:00 (midnight) to 11:00 pm.
that is known on-air as ABC7 News HD at 9 on Your TV20. http://www.freepress.net/news/19037. When KBWB reverted to KOFY, the news program's name changed accordingly -- ABC7 News HD at 9 on KOFY.
In addition, KOFY also re-broadcasts ABC 7's 11 a.m. Newscast at 11:30 a.m. weekdays and on Sundays, ABC 7 News @ 6 is re-aired at 7 p.m. with Assignment 7 following afterwards.
}
Independent station
An independent station is in the category of television terminology used to describe a television station broadcasting in the United States or Canada that is not affiliated with any television network....
television station
Television station
A television station is a business, organisation or other such as an amateur television operator that transmits content over terrestrial television. A television transmission can be by analog television signals or, more recently, by digital television. Broadcast television systems standards are...
in San Francisco, California
San Francisco, California
San Francisco , officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the financial, cultural, and transportation center of the San Francisco Bay Area, a region of 7.15 million people which includes San Jose and Oakland...
broadcasting in digital on UHF channel 19. KOFY's virtual channel
Virtual channel
In telecommunications, a logical channel number , also known as virtual channel, is a channel designation which differs from that of the actual radio channel on which the signal travels....
remains ch. 20. The station is owned by Granite Broadcasting and offers a schedule of first-run talk shows, court shows, off-network sitcoms, reality shows, and movies. The station's transmitter is located atop the Sutro Tower
Sutro Tower
Sutro Tower is a three-pronged antenna tower near Clarendon Heights in San Francisco, California. Rising from a hill between Twin Peaks and Mount Sutro, it is a prominent part of the city skyline and a landmark for city residents and visitors...
in San Francisco, and a translator, K29DF, broadcasts KOFY in Ukiah
Ukiah, California
The average high temperature is 73.5 °F . Average low temperature is 46.1 °F . Temperatures reach 90 °F on an average of 65.6 days annually and 100 °F on an average of 14.4 days annually. Due to frequent low humidity, summer temperatures normally drop into the fifties at night. Freezing...
and Mendocino County
Mendocino County, California
Mendocino County is a county located on the north coast of the U.S. state of California, north of the greater San Francisco Bay Area and west of the Central Valley. As of the 2010 census, the population was 87,841, up from 86,265 at the 2000 census...
. The station has been an independent station
Independent station
An independent station is in the category of television terminology used to describe a television station broadcasting in the United States or Canada that is not affiliated with any television network....
for most of its existence, although it was the Bay Area's WB Network
The WB Television Network
The WB Television Network is a former television network in the United States that was launched on January 11, 1995 as a joint venture between Warner Bros. and Tribune Broadcasting. On January 24, 2006, CBS Corporation and Warner Bros...
affiliate during that network's existence (1995–2006).
Digital television
channel
1080i
1080i is the shorthand name for a high-definition television mode. The i means interlaced video; 1080i differs from 1080p, in which the p stands for progressive scan. The term 1080i assumes a widescreen aspect ratio of 16:9, implying a frame size of 1920×1080 pixels...
16:9
16:9 is an aspect ratio with a width of 16 units and height of 9. Since 2009, it has become the most common aspect ratio for sold televisions and computer monitors and is also the international standard format of HDTV, Full HD, non-HD digital television and analog widescreen television ...
480i
480i is the shorthand name for a video mode, namely the US NTSC television system or digital television systems with the same characteristics. The i, which is sometimes uppercase, stands for interlaced, the 480 for a vertical frame resolution of 480 lines containing picture information; while NTSC...
On July 1, 2007, KBWB launched a new digital subchannel on channel 20.4 featuring programming from the Spanish language network Azteca América
Azteca América
Azteca América is a broadcast television network marketed toward Spanish-speaking families residing in the United States. As a rapidly-growing Spanish language network, Azteca América now reaches 89% of the Hispanic households in the U.S., operating in sixty-two markets nationwide. Wholly owned by...
, currently broadcasting on KOFY-DT4. This digital service replaced KTNC-TV
KTNC-TV
KTNC-TV, digital channel 14, is the Estrella TV affiliate in Concord, California, serving both Bay Area and Sacramento areas. KTNC is owned by New World TV Group and broadcasts at 40 kilowatts.-Station history:...
, which switched to a Spanish-language independent station on that date. . On July 28, 2011 High Plains Broadcasting announced plans to sell Santa Rosa-based KFTY to Una Vez Más Holdings, LLC
Una Vez Mas Holdings, LLC
Una Vez Mas Holdings, LLC is the owner of a group of low-power television stations, mostly in the Southwest, and is the largest Azteca América affiliate group in the United States...
, with the intent to affiliate that station with Azteca América
Azteca América
Azteca América is a broadcast television network marketed toward Spanish-speaking families residing in the United States. As a rapidly-growing Spanish language network, Azteca América now reaches 89% of the Hispanic households in the U.S., operating in sixty-two markets nationwide. Wholly owned by...
. On September 29, 2011, KFTY's affiliation with Me-TV was discontinued and became KEMO-TV, adopting the callsign once used by KOFY-TV. KEMO-TV briefly mirrored the Azteca América programming that was still seen on KOFY 20.4; this ended shortly afterward, when KOFY discontinued the Azteca América feed.
On October 17, 2011, KOFY announced that it signed an affiliation agreement with Weigel Broadcasting
Weigel Broadcasting
Weigel Broadcasting is an American locally based television broadcasting company. The company is based in downtown Chicago, Illinois, alongside its flagship station WCIU-TV , at the apt address of 26 North Halsted Street in the Greektown neighborhood.- History :The company was founded by Chicago...
's digital multicast network Me-TV and the station would carry the network on a new digital subchannel 20.2.
KEMO era
Originally designated as KBAY-TV, the construction permit for the station went through many owners from the 1950s on. The KEMO call letters were originally assigned to U.S. Communications, a broadcaster owned by Daniel H. Overmyer, owner of the short-lived Overmyer NetworkOvermyer Network
The Overmyer Network was a short-lived television network. It was intended to be a fourth national network in the United States, competing with the Big Three television networks. The network was founded by self-made millionaire Daniel H. Overmyer, who built five UHF stations from 1965-67...
(later called the United Network); Overmyer used his initials as the last three letters of the Toledo, Ohio station (WDHO-TV, now WNWO-TV
WNWO-TV
WNWO-TV is the NBC-affiliated television station in Northwest Ohio that is licensed to Toledo. It broadcasts a high definition digital signal on UHF channel 49 from a transmitter northeast of Oregon. Owned by Barrington Broadcasting, the station has studios on South Byrne Road...
), which was already on the air, and his children's initials for the remaining five stations in his network, whose licenses were not granted until December 12, 1967, after his network folded.
KEMO-TV signed on the air less than 4 months later, on April 1, 1968. It was seemingly off the air more than it was on. At the time, the station showed conventional independent fare, plus The Adults Only Movie, a series of art films, but no sex or nudity — it was named "Adults Only" merely due to the films' lack of appeal to children.
With a mixture of locally produced and syndicated programming, KEMO-TV remained on the air for three years to the day, powering down its transmitter at midnight March 31, 1971 to avoid paying the following month's PG&E electricity bill. Leon Crosby bought it later that year and it returned to the air in 1972 with an eclectic
Eclecticism in music
Eclecticism is used to describe a composer's conscious use of styles alien to his nature, or from one or more historical styles. The term is also used pejoratively to describe music whose composer, thought to be lacking originality, appears to have freely drawn on other models .-Sources:* Kennedy,...
type of programming - "Solesvida", "Amapola Presents Show" co-hosted by Amapola and Ness Aquino, to name a few. KEMO offered Japanese live-action and cartoons dubbed into English including Speed Racer
Speed Racer
Speed Racer is an English adaptation name of the Japanese manga and anime, which centered on automobile racing. Mach GoGoGo was originally serialized in print form in Shueisha's 1958 Shōnen Book, and was released in tankōbon book form by Sun Wide Comics, re-released in Japan by Fusosha...
, Ultraman
Ultraman
is Japanese television series that first aired in 1966. Ultraman, the first and best-known of the "Ultra-Crusaders," made his debut in the tokusatsu SF/kaiju/superhero TV series, , a follow-up to the television series Ultra Q...
, 8 Man
8 Man
or is a fictional manga and anime superhero created in 1963 by science fiction writer Kazumasa Hirai and manga artist Jiro Kuwata. He is considered Japan's earliest cyborg superhero, predating even Kamen Rider , and was supposedly the inspiration for RoboCop.The manga was published in Weekly...
, Prince Planet
Prince Planet
Prince Planet is the English name given to one of the earliest Japanese TV anime series, , when it was televised in America in the mid-1960s...
, Johnny Cypher in Dimension Zero
Johnny Cypher in Dimension Zero
Johnny Cypher in Dimension Zero was a cartoon series that debuted in 1967. It told the story of Johnny Cypher, a scientist who had the power to travel through space and time into different dimensions, and his companions Zena and Rhom...
and The King Kong Show
The King Kong Show
The King Kong Show is an American/Japanese children's animated television series produced in 1966 by Videocraft of the USA, and Japan's Toei Animation and is the first anime series produced in Japan for an American company...
.
From 1972 until 1980, it was telecasting stock market
Stock market
A stock market or equity market is a public entity for the trading of company stock and derivatives at an agreed price; these are securities listed on a stock exchange as well as those only traded privately.The size of the world stock market was estimated at about $36.6 trillion...
programming in the mornings, religious programming in midday, Spanish
Spanish language
Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...
programming in the afternoons and evenings, and B-grade movies overnight, with carpet store owner Leon Heskett hosting the films. Leon Crosby's KEMO signed off on September 30, 1980.
KTZO era
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...
and NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
shows preempted by KPIX
KPIX-TV
KPIX-TV is the CBS owned and operated television station in San Francisco, California. Through its parent company CBS Corporation, KPIX is co-owned with The CW affiliate KBCW-TV ....
and KRON
KRON-TV
KRON-TV, virtual channel 4 , is a television station in San Francisco, California, serving as the Bay Area affiliate of the MyNetworkTV programming service; the station is owned by Young Broadcasting...
, music videos, and religious shows. But unlike its independent competitors in that time, KTVU
KTVU
KTVU, virtual channel 2 , is the Fox-affiliated television station serving the San Francisco Bay Area. Licensed to Oakland, California, the station has been owned by Atlanta-based Cox Enterprises since 1964, making it the largest Fox affiliate by market size that is not owned and operated by the...
, KICU-TV
KICU-TV
KICU-TV, known as TV36, is an independent television station in the San Francisco Bay Area market. It shares its broadcast facility with sister station KTVU in Oakland but it is licensed to San Jose, where KICU was formerly located. It is owned by Cox Enterprises. It runs an independent schedule...
and KBHK (now KBCW), a majority of KTZO's programming lineup at most consisted of low-budget television programs, which continued into its early years as KOFY. Most memorable were the station identification breaks featuring pets, usually dogs, of Bay Area viewers that would look on cue at a television screen showing the station's logo. In fact, these proved to be popular enough that KTZO/KOFY would often work together with the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals
Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals
The Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals is a non-profit animal welfare organization originally founded in England in 1824 to pass laws protecting carriage horses from abuse. SPCA groups are now found in many nations, where they campaign for animal welfare, assist in cruelty to animals...
by displaying pets that could be adopted, along with a phone number to call with the pets name on screen.
Other popular programming during the early and mid 1980s included the TV-20 Dance Party (originally a "Top 40" music format featuring local high schools, hosted by Bay Area DJ Tony Kilbert; later a 1950s "retro" style show hosted by Gabbert), and a Sunday late-night movie program. The Sunday program included studio segments at the beginning and commercial breaks of the movie, hosted by Gabbert and set in the fictional "Sleazy Arms Hotel" bar. Viewers were invited to join Gabbert on the set and for a time, enjoy a sponsor's product (a malt liquor).
First KOFY era
Gorilla at Large
Gorilla at Large is a 1954 horror mystery B-movie made in 3-D. The film stars Cameron Mitchell, Anne Bancroft, Lee J. Cobb, Charlotte Austin, and Raymond Burr. Lee Marvin and Warren Stevens have supporting roles. The film was made by Panoramic Productions, and distributed through 20th Century Fox...
. The station continued to run a general entertainment format, and added more cartoons in the late 1980s. In September 1987, for example, it aired Perry Mason, Cannon, Lou Grant and Combat from 7 to 11 p.m. weeknights.
KOFY added more sitcoms in the early 1990s. KOFY also broadcast network daytime game shows and Saturday Morning cartoons not carried by NBC affiliate KRON and CBS affiliate KPIX such as NBC game shows Blockbusters
Blockbusters (US game show)
Blockbusters is an American game show which had two separate runs in the 1980s. Created by Steve Ryan for Mark Goodson Productions, the first series debuted on NBC on October 27, 1980 and aired until April 23, 1982. In the first series, a team of two family members competed against a solo contestant...
; Classic Concentration; the daytime version of Win, Lose, or Draw; the NBC cartoon series Alvin and the Chipmunks
Alvin and the Chipmunks
Alvin and the Chipmunks is an American animated music group created by Ross Bagdasarian, Sr. in 1958. The group consists of three singing animated anthropomorphic chipmunks: Alvin, the mischievous troublemaker, who quickly became the star of the group; Simon, the tall, bespectacled intellectual;...
; the CBS game show The Price Is Right
The Price Is Right
The Price Is Right is a television game show franchise originally produced by Mark Goodson and Bill Todman, and created by Bob Stewart, and is currently produced and owned by FremantleMedia. The franchise centers on television game shows, but also includes merchandise such as video games, printed...
; the CBS cartoon series The Get Along Gang and Saturday Supercade
Saturday Supercade
Saturday Supercade is an animated television series produced for Saturday mornings by Ruby-Spears Productions. It ran for two seasons on CBS beginning in 1983...
; and for a few weeks during the Oliver North
Oliver North
Oliver Laurence North is a retired U.S. Marine Corps officer, political commentator, host of War Stories with Oliver North on Fox News Channel, a military historian, and a New York Times best-selling author....
Iran-Contra hearings, Wordplay
Wordplay (game show)
Wordplay is an American game show which ran on NBC from December 29, 1986 to September 4, 1987. It was hosted by Tom Kennedy and announced by Charlie O'Donnell...
. The CBS game show Tattletales
Tattletales
Tattletales is a game show which first aired on the CBS daytime schedule on February 18, 1974. It was hosted by Bert Convy, with several announcers, including Jack Clark, Gene Wood, Johnny Olson and John Harlan, providing the voiceover at various times...
was picked up for the KEMO schedule during the mid-1970s among its foreign language-heavy programming when KPIX did not carry its CBS feed.
Christmas Eve
Christmas Eve refers to the evening or entire day preceding Christmas Day, a widely celebrated festival commemorating the birth of Jesus of Nazareth that takes place on December 25...
, Gabbert would pre-empt normal programming during the entire evening and broadcast its own version of the Yule Log
Yule Log (TV program)
The Yule Log is a television program which is broadcast traditionally on Christmas Eve or Christmas morning , originally by New York City television station WPIX but now by many other Tribune Company-owned television stations, including WGN America, and by Antenna TV starting in 2011...
, a concept borrowed from WPIX-TV in New York (which incidentally, would also later affiliate with The WB).
In the late 1980s through the mid 1990s the station ran an "oldies dance party" hosted by James Gabbert, and emceed by Sean King.
In 1996, KOFY-TV employees attempted to organize as a collective bargaining unit under the labor union for broadcast employees, NABET. Attempts by Gabbert and various KOFY-TV managers to interfere with the organizing effort resulted in a case before the National Labor Relations Board
National Labor Relations Board
The National Labor Relations Board is an independent agency of the United States government charged with conducting elections for labor union representation and with investigating and remedying unfair labor practices. Unfair labor practices may involve union-related situations or instances of...
.
As a WB affiliate
KNTV
KNTV, channel 11, is the NBC owned-and-operated television station in the Bay Area market. It is licensed to San Jose, with its transmitter located on San Bruno Mountain, just south of San Francisco. It shares facilities in San Jose with NBC Universal sister station KSTS and CNBC's Silicon...
in San Jose
San Jose, California
San Jose is the third-largest city in California, the tenth-largest in the U.S., and the county seat of Santa Clara County which is located at the southern end of San Francisco Bay...
, who contributed a 10:00 p.m. newscast, plus simulcasts of its morning news, and, in return, received a temporary WB affiliation for 18 months. This arrangement ended in April 2002 after KNTV, by then the NBC affiliate for the San Francisco market, was sold to that network.
As San Francisco was, at the time, the fifth largest media market in the country (now sixth), KBWB was the largest WB affiliate to not be owned by the Tribune Company
Tribune Company
The Tribune Company is a large American multimedia corporation based in Chicago, Illinois. It is the nation's second-largest newspaper publisher, with ten daily newspapers and commuter tabloids including Chicago Tribune, Los Angeles Times, Hartford Courant, Orlando Sentinel, South Florida...
. Tribune owned a 25% stake in the network, while the majority owner is Time Warner
Time Warner
Time Warner is one of the world's largest media companies, headquartered in the Time Warner Center in New York City. Formerly two separate companies, Warner Communications, Inc...
. So any WB affiliate owned and operated by Tribune was also considered network owned and operated by the network itself.
Sale of KBWB
In September 2005, Granite announced the sale of KBWB and sister station WDWB (now WMYDWMYD
WMYD is the MyNetworkTV-affiliated television station for Southeast Michigan licensed to Detroit. It broadcasts a high definition digital signal on UHF channel 21 from a transmitter on Eight Mile Road in Oak Park along the Oakland and Wayne County line. The station can also be seen on Comcast...
) in Detroit
Detroit, Michigan
Detroit is the major city among the primary cultural, financial, and transportation centers in the Metro Detroit area, a region of 5.2 million people. As the seat of Wayne County, the city of Detroit is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan and serves as a major port on the Detroit River...
to AM Media Holdings, Inc. (a unit of Acon Investments and several key Granite shareholders) for a price rated, on KBWB's end, to around $83 million . The low price, compared to the more than double Granite had purchased the station for, came out of Granite wanting to cut down its debt load while wanting to keep control of the stations. On February 15, 2006 Granite announced the restructuring of the sale considering the changing conditions of the station and that AM Media Holdings may not own the station (see below).
In May 2006, Granite announced that it had sold KBWB, along with WMYD, to DS Audible, a new group affiliated with Canyon Capital Advisors
Canyon Capital Advisors
Canyon Partners is an employee-owned hedge fund founded by Joshua S.Friedman and Mitchell R. Julis in 1990 located in Los Angeles, California....
, D.B. Zwirn & Co., Fortress Investment Group
Fortress Investment Group
Fortress Investment Group LLC is an investment management firm based in New York, New York. The company went public on February 9, 2007.-History:...
and Ramius Capital Group, among others, for $150 million cash. (DS Audible San Francisco, LLC, one of the two groups created by the investment groups, would be acquiring KBWB for $65,750,000.) The previous agreement to sell the two stations to AM Media has been cancelled. On July 18, 2006 this sale also fell apart; Granite has announced it will try to find another company willing to buy KBWB. Granite filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization December 11, 2006 after missing an interest payment on its debt of more than $400 million.
The WB's end
The CW Television Network
The CW Television Network is a television network in the United States launched at the beginning of the 2006–2007 television season. It is a joint venture between CBS Corporation, the former owners of United Paramount Network , and Time Warner's Warner Bros., former majority owner of The WB...
in September 2006. The network is a 50/50 joint venture between the two companies. KBWB reverted to being an independent station on September 18, 2006, as KBHK (now KBCW) became the Bay Area's outlet for the CW network, while the other new network (MyNetworkTV
MyNetworkTV
MyNetworkTV is a television broadcast syndication service in the United States, owned by the Fox Entertainment Group, a division of News Corporation...
) ended up affiliating with KRON. Soon after the CW announcement, the station rebranded to TV20 (following the lead of Detroit's future MyNetworkTV affiliate and sister station WMYD
WMYD
WMYD is the MyNetworkTV-affiliated television station for Southeast Michigan licensed to Detroit. It broadcasts a high definition digital signal on UHF channel 21 from a transmitter on Eight Mile Road in Oak Park along the Oakland and Wayne County line. The station can also be seen on Comcast...
, formerly WDWB, which also branded as TV20). In September 2006, KBWB reverted to an independent station (one of three) under the new branding as Your TV20 (a parallel of sorts to "My TV20", the branding of sister station WMYD in Detroit, which affiliated with MyNetworkTV
MyNetworkTV
MyNetworkTV is a television broadcast syndication service in the United States, owned by the Fox Entertainment Group, a division of News Corporation...
). March 2008 saw the return of the dog station IDs that TV20 became so well-known for during the James Gabbert era of the station. The IDs have been updated to having the dogs sitting on a couch in front of several San Francisco backdrops.
KBWB has since added a secondary affiliation with ABC
American Broadcasting Company
The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...
, to carry that network's programming if its Bay Area station KGO-TV
KGO-TV
KGO-TV, channel 7, is an owned-and-operated television station of the Walt Disney Company-owned American Broadcasting Company, based in San Francisco, California...
needs to pre-empt regularly scheduled ABC network programming for local or national breaking news
Breaking news
Breaking news, also known as a special report or news bulletin, is a current event that broadcasters feel warrants the interruption of scheduled programming and/or current news in order to report its details. Many times, breaking news is used after the news network has already reported on this story...
, along with selected ESPN on ABC
ESPN on ABC
ESPN on ABC is the brand used for sports programming on the ABC television network. Officially the broadcast network retains its own sports division; however, for all practical purposes, ABC's sports division has been merged with ESPN, a sports cable network majority-owned by ABC's parent, The...
programming either to allow KGO to fit in its own E/I
E/I
E/I, which stands for "educational and informative," refers to a type of children's television programming shown in the United States. The Federal Communications Commission requires that every full-service Terrestrial television station in the U.S. show at least three hours of these television...
requirements or shift low-rated events from its schedule. In January 2007, KBWB began broadcasting a 9 p.m. version of KGO-TV's newscast (see below). Possibly in the future, KGO-TV may broadcast additional sets of news at 9 a.m. for an hour and at 4:30 p.m. for a half hour.
KOFY returns
On October 8, 2008, at 10:00 p.m., KBWB reverted to its 1986 call letters as KOFY-TV as it aired a 10 minute documentary on former owner James Gabbert and the station's history followed by a 2 hour Retro Night featuring classic episodes of Mork & Mindy.Assorted local news/shows
In its first period as KOFY-TV, the station had a newscast, which was cancelled by the early 1990s. Prior to this, in 1989, the station rebroadcast KRONKRON-TV
KRON-TV, virtual channel 4 , is a television station in San Francisco, California, serving as the Bay Area affiliate of the MyNetworkTV programming service; the station is owned by Young Broadcasting...
's newscasts under the NewsCenter 4 on KOFY brand. The KRON-produced 10 p.m. newscast first aired in March 1991 with Pete Wilson and Pam Moore as co-anchors, but ended a year later when KRON-TV adopted the "early prime time
Prime time
Prime time or primetime is the block of broadcast programming during the middle of the evening for television programing.The term prime time is often defined in terms of a fixed time period—for example, from 19:00 to 22:00 or 20:00 to 23:00 Prime time or primetime is the block of broadcast...
" schedule and aired the 10 p.m. newscast on channel 4.
WB20 News at 10/The WB Primetime News at 10
Under Granite's ownership as KBWB, the station reintroduced a 10 p.m. newscast titled WB20 News at 10, which debuted when KOFY's call letters changed to KBWB on September 14, 1998 and later, The WB Primetime News at 10 on July 3, 2000, which was produced by then-sister station KNTVKNTV
KNTV, channel 11, is the NBC owned-and-operated television station in the Bay Area market. It is licensed to San Jose, with its transmitter located on San Bruno Mountain, just south of San Francisco. It shares facilities in San Jose with NBC Universal sister station KSTS and CNBC's Silicon...
, as well as a morning newscast. However, the 10 p.m. news failed to pose a significant threat to KTVU
KTVU
KTVU, virtual channel 2 , is the Fox-affiliated television station serving the San Francisco Bay Area. Licensed to Oakland, California, the station has been owned by Atlanta-based Cox Enterprises since 1964, making it the largest Fox affiliate by market size that is not owned and operated by the...
's news (an issue which caused several other newscast competitors (notably KRON and KPIX
KPIX-TV
KPIX-TV is the CBS owned and operated television station in San Francisco, California. Through its parent company CBS Corporation, KPIX is co-owned with The CW affiliate KBCW-TV ....
) to move their newscasts back to 11 p.m. in the 1990s), and both newscasts were cancelled after NBC purchased KNTV in 2002. In September 2005, the station began to air a syndicated
Television syndication
In broadcasting, syndication is the sale of the right to broadcast radio shows and television shows by multiple radio stations and television stations, without going through a broadcast network, though the process of syndication may conjure up structures like those of a network itself, by its very...
morning show, The Daily Buzz
The Daily Buzz
The Daily Buzz is a nationally syndicated breakfast television news and infotainment program. The show is produced by Fisher Communications and is owned and distributed by ACME Communications; it is broadcast every weekday morning from studios at Full Sail University in Winter Park, Florida...
, but it was subsequently dropped from KBWB's lineup.
The Daily Mixx
From 2002 to 2006, KBWB had an entertainment segment called The Daily Mixx which aired at 5:56 p.m. and 10:00 p.m. The Mixx, as it was sometimes referred to, showed clips of interviews from celebrities as well as movie previews and giveaways such as tickets to the Santa Cruz Beach BoardwalkSanta Cruz Beach Boardwalk
The Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk is an oceanfront amusement park in Santa Cruz, California. Founded in 1907, it is California's oldest surviving amusement park and one of the few seaside parks on the West Coast of the United States.- Overview :...
and Winchester Mystery House
Winchester Mystery House
The Winchester Mystery House is a well-known mansion in California. It once was the personal residence of Sarah Winchester, the widow of gun magnate William Wirt Winchester. It was continuously under construction for 38 years and is reported to be haunted. It now serves as a tourist attraction...
. It was hosted by Angela Murrow (sometimes known as Angela Bakke) for the segment's first two years of the run and by Lesley Nagy and Shane Tallant in subsequent years. An extended version, called The Mixx EP, aired on the fourth Wednesday or Thursday of each month. In January 2006, Shane Tallant left KBWB leaving Lesley Nagy as the lone correspondent of the station.
Creepy KOFY Movie Time
Starting on late New Year's Eve (actually very early New Years Day), December 31, 2008 from midnight-2:00 a.m., KOFY broadcast a late night hosted horror movie show. Afterward, the show moved to its permanent location on late Saturday nights/very early Sunday mornings on January 3, 2009 from 11:00pm -1:00 a.m.The hosts are No Name, a local radio personality, and Balrok, a demon, who claim to broadcast from caves under the KOFY studios. They have a snarky frat-boy style and have had many off-color guests, including frequent guest adult film actress Annie Cruz
Annie Cruz
Annie Cruz is the stage name of Filipino American pornographic actress and nude model.-Early life:Cruz was born in Stockton, California, to Filipino immigrant parents. She graduated from Brookside Christian High School in Stockton, where she was a cheerleader, and claims to have graduated in the...
. The broadcast features in-house band the Deadlies, a surf/punk band and the hosts are often flanked during the broadcast by a variety of bikini clad models/actresses/fans. As of the third season, the show added two regular go-go dancers known as the Cave Girls whom often perform with the Deadlies. The show began its fourth season on July 24, 2010 and was moved from 12:00 (midnight) to 11:00 pm.
ABC7 News HD at 9 on KOFY
On January 8, 2007, KBWB began airing a 9:00 p.m. Monday-Friday newscast produced by KGO-TVKGO-TV
KGO-TV, channel 7, is an owned-and-operated television station of the Walt Disney Company-owned American Broadcasting Company, based in San Francisco, California...
that is known on-air as ABC7 News HD at 9 on Your TV20. http://www.freepress.net/news/19037. When KBWB reverted to KOFY, the news program's name changed accordingly -- ABC7 News HD at 9 on KOFY.
In addition, KOFY also re-broadcasts ABC 7's 11 a.m. Newscast at 11:30 a.m. weekdays and on Sundays, ABC 7 News @ 6 is re-aired at 7 p.m. with Assignment 7 following afterwards.
Station slogans
- We've Got What You're Looking For (1980–1991)
- Welcome to Your Place (1991–1998)
- The Bay Area's WB (1998–2006)
- Completely Independent (2006; Used after rebrand as TV20 after the announcement of The CW)
- Your TV20 (2006-October 8, 2008; when the KOFY name was revived)
- Local Just Like You (2008–present)
- The Dogs are Back (2009; used after a current "dog" promo)
External links
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