KOFY-TV

Infobox_Broadcast
call_letters = KOFY-TV
city =
station_
station_slogan = Local Just Like You
station_branding = KOFY TV20
analog = 20 (UHF)
digital = 19 (UHF)
other_chs =
subchannels = 20.1 KOFY 20.4 Azteca América
affiliations = Independent
ABC (secondary, if KGO-TV pre-empts shows for news/sports)
founded =
airdate = April 1, 1968
location = San Francisco, California
callsign_meaning = KOFY is pronounced as "Coffee"
former_callsigns = KEMO-TV (1968-1980)
KTZO (1980-1986)
KBWB (1998-2008)
former_channel_numbers =
owner = Granite Broadcasting Corporation
licensee = KBWB License, Inc.
sister_stations =
former_affiliations = independent (1968-1995)
bilingual English and Spanish (circa mid-1970s)
The WB (1995-2006)
effective_radiated_power = 3470 kW (analog)
383 kW (digital)
HAAT = 472 m (analog)
418 m (digital)
class =
facility_id = 51189
coordinates = coord|37|45|18.8|N|122|27|10.4|W|type:landmark_scale:2000
homepage = [http://www.kofytv.com/ www.kofytv.com]
:"For the cycling body, see Royal Belgian Cycling League (Koninklijke Belgische Wielrijdersbond)"KOFY-TV is an independent television station in San Francisco, California. It is owned by Granite Broadcasting. The station offers a schedule of first-run talk shows, court shows, off-network sitcoms, reality shows, and movies. Its transmitter is located atop the Sutro Tower in San Francisco, and a translator, K29DF, broadcasts KOFY in Ukiah and Mendocino County.

Prior to 1995 KOFY was an independent station. From January 1995 until September 2006, the station was a WB affiliate, after which time it once again became independent. From 1998 to 2008, the station used KBWB as its callsign.

History

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 the nascent Overmeyer Network. The Founder, Daniel H. Overmeyer, used his initials as the last three letters of the Toledo, Ohio station (WDHO-TV) and his childrens' initials for the remaining five stations in his network.When the network ceased operation in 1967, U.S. Communications applied to the FCC for the licenses which were granted on December 12, 1967. 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.Fact|date=June 2008 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 because kids would be bored to sleep. 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 back to the air in 1972 with an eclectic type of programming - "Solesvida", "Amapola Presents Show" 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 "King Kong".

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.

KTZO era

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 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. 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 SPCA 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, 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

On March 1, 1986 the station changed its call letters to KOFY-TV (pronounced "coffee"). The change took place at the time owner James Gabbert purchased KOFY (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. It also added more sitcoms in the early 1990s.

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. [http://www.nlrb.gov/shared_files/Board%20Decisions/332/332-67.pdf]

KBWB era

As a WB affiliate

The station became the WB affiliate for the Bay Area in early 1995, when the network launched. 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 their 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.

Sale of KBWB

In September 2005, Granite announced the sale of KBWB and sister station WDWB (now WMYD) 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 [http://www.radio-info.com/mods/board?Post=659257&Board=tv-california] . The low price, compared to the more than double Granite had purchased the station for, came out of Granite wanting to cut down their 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) [http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/02-15-2006/0004282523&EDATE=] .

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 they will try to find another company willing to buy KBWB. [http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/07-18-2006/0004398783&EDATE=] Granite filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization December 11, 2006 after missing an interest payment on its debt of more than $400 million. [http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6399167.html]

The WB's end

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 back to an independent station 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 their own E/I requirements or shift low-rated events from their 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.

Azteca América on digital subchannel

Beginning July 1, 2007, KBWB launched a new digital subchannel featuring programming from the Spanish language network Azteca América. This digital service replaces KTNC-TV, which switched to a Spanish-language independent station on that date. [http://broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6456676.html]

The channel is available on Comcast cable channels 196 and 620, DirecTV channel 42 and Digital 20.4.

KOFY returns

On October 8, 2008, at 10:00 p.m., KBWB reverted back to its original 1986 call letters as KOFY-TV as they 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".

Newscasts

KOFY days

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 KRON'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 KBWB

"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 KNTV, 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.

"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 Boardwalk 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.

"Your Green Report"

When KBWB went independent, "The Daily Mixx" was canceled and was replaced by "Your Green Report", which is devoted to environmental issues and is still reported by Lesley Nagy.

"ABC7 News HD at 9 on Your TV20"

On January 8, 2007, KBWB began airing a 9:00 p.m. Monday-Friday newscast produced by KGO-TV that is known on-air as "ABC7 News HD at 9 on Your TV20". [http://www.freepress.net/news/19037]

Known slogans

* "We've got what you're looking for" - Early 80s — 1991
* "Welcome to your place" - 1991 — 1998
* "The Bay Area's WB" - during WB affiliation
* "Completely Independent" - Used after rebrand as TV20 after the announcement of The CW
* "Your TV20" - Used until October 8, 2008 when the KOFY name was revived.
* "KOFY TV20/Cable 13" - Current branding.

Trivia

*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.

*James Gabbert is now a fill in talk radio host for KGO (AM). And for a time, the former owner of TV 20 was once again connected with his old station—KGO was owned by ABC before its sale to Citadel Communications.

External links

* [http://www.kofytv.com/ KOFY Homepage]
* [http://www.aztecaamericasf.com/ Azteca America San Francisco]
*TVQ|KOFY-TV
**TVQ|K29DF
*BIA|KOFY|TV|TV
* [http://www.uhfnocturne.com/20KEMO_index.html UHF Nocturne: A look at the old KEMO]
* [http://www.corporate-ir.net/ireye/ir_site.zhtml?ticker=GBTVK&script=412&layout=-6&item_id=754253|San Francisco and Detroit WB affiliates Sold to AM Media Holdings, October 2005]