KOLD-TV

Infobox_Broadcast
call_letters = KOLD-TV
city =
station_
station_slogan = Live, Local, Latebreaking
station_branding = KOLD News 13
analog = 13 (VHF)
digital = 32 (UHF)
other_chs =
affiliations = CBS
network =
founded =
airdate = January 13, 1953
location = Tucson, Arizona
callsign_meaning = disambiguation from then-sister station KOOL-TV in Phoenix
former_callsigns = KOPO-TV (1953-1957)
former_channel_numbers =
owner = Raycom Media, Inc.
licensee = KOLD License Subsidiary, LLC
sister_stations =
former_affiliations = Secondary:
DuMont (1953-1956)
effective_radiated_power = 302 kW (analog)
108 kW (digital)
HAAT = 622 m (analog)
1123 m (digital)
class =
facility_id = 48663
coordinates = coord|32|14|56.2|N|111|7|1.2|W|type:landmark_scale:2000 (analog)
coord|32|24|55.8|N|110|42|51.9|W|type:landmark_scale:2000 (digital)
homepage = [http://www.kold.com/ www.kold.com]

KOLD-TV is a full-service television station in Tucson, Arizona. It is the CBS affiliate in Tucson, Arizona, and is owned by Raycom Media. The station broadcasts in analog on VHF channel 13 and in digital on UHF channel 32.

History

On November 13 1952, the FCC granted a construction permit for a television station to broadcast on VHF channel 13. Two months later, on January 13 1953, Tucson's first television station went on the air with the call letters KOPO-TV. Known as "Lucky 13", KOPO played up the "13" angle, coming on the air at 1:13:13 PM, the 13th second of the 13th minute of the 13th hour of the 13th day of the year. [citation |title=KOPO-TV Airs First Telecast With No. 13 In Starring Role |newspaper=Tucson Daily Citizen |page=p. 20 |date=1953-01-14] It was sister station to KOPO AM in Tucson, and like its radio partner, a CBS affiliate. KOPO-TV also had a secondary DuMont affiliation. [citation |title=Cable Will Mean More Shows |newspaper=Tucson Daily Citizen |page=p. 24 |date=1953-09-26] It was initially owned by country singer Gene Autry, who also owned Phoenix station KOOL-TV. In 1957, the station changed its call letters to KOLD-TV, playing off its sister television station in Phoenix. KOOL and KOLD remained sister stations until Autry sold off KOLD in 1969.

KOLD's eventual buyer, Universal Communications (a subsidiary of the Detroit Evening News Association), merged with Gannett in 1986. However, due to its ownership of the "Tucson Citizen", a newspaper in Pensacola and a competing television station in Oklahoma City, Gannett spun off KOLD along with Oklahoma City's KTVY (now KFOR-TV) and Mobile's WALA-TV to Knight Ridder Broadcasting after just one day of ownership. The News-Press & Gazette Company acquired KOLD in 1989, when Knight Ridder bowed out of broadcasting.

In 1993, New Vision Television (the first one; the company restructured with smaller-market stations after the Ellis deal) bought KOLD from NPG. Two years later, New Vision I sold all of its stations to Ellis Communications, which in turn was sold in 1996 to a media group funded by the Retirement Systems of Alabama, who merged the Ellis group with Aflac's broadcasting unit to form Raycom Media. Raycom continues to own the station today.

Digital television

On April 3 1997, the FCC released its initial digital television companion channel assignments. They assigned UHF channel 32 to KOLD-TV to build its DTV facilities. KOLD received a construction permit to build the new facilities on May 12 2000, and on September 11 2003, began broadcasting in digital. The digital station was licensed January 6 2004. KOLD has elected channel 32 as its final digital channel, meaning that on February 17 2009, at the end of the digital transition, KOLD will surrender its license for channel 13 and continue broadcasting in digital on channel 32, although, per FCC regulations, it will continued to be identified as channel 13 on television set tuners.

While KOLD's analog station originates from the electronics site in the Tucson Mountains west of downtown, KOLD's digital transmitter is at the Mount Bigelow electronics site to the northeast of the city.

The station's digital channel is multiplexed: [ [http://tvlistings.zap2it.com/tvlistings/ZCGrid.do Zap2It channel lineup] ]

News Department

On-Air Talent

News Anchors
*Jenny Anchondo - weekday mornings
*Mindy Blake - weekdays noon and 5pm
*Barbara Grijalva - weekdays noon
*Scott Kilbury - weekday mornings
*Teresa Jun - Saturday and Sunday 5:30pm and 10pm
*Dan Marries - weekdays 5pm, 6pm, and 10pm
*Heather Rowe - weekdays 6pm and 10pm
*Mark Stine - Sunday 5:30pm and 10pm

Reporters
*Suleika Acosta
*Lauren Burgoyne
*Jim Becker
*Dee Cortez - traffic
*Bud Foster - politics
*Barbara Grijalva
*Teresa Jun
*Som Lisaius - crime
*Mark Stine
*J.D. Wallace

Weather
*Chuck George - chief meteorologist; weekdays 5pm, 6pm, and 10pm
*Erin Jordan - weekday mornings and noon
*Aaron Pickering - weekends 5:30pm and 10pm

Sports
*Damien Alameda - sports director
*Dave Cooney - weekend sports anchor/reporter
*Eric Villalobos - part-time sports anchor/reporter

KOLD in fiction

Two Nickelodeon shows have used the KOLD call letters for fictional radio stations. A Bikini Bottom version of KOLD is heard in the SpongeBob SquarePants episode Mid-Life Crustacean, and on the first-season Rugrats episodes "Baseball" and "No Bones About It", Grandpa Lou listens to KOLD, "Music for the old and the old-at-heart".

In Tom Clancy's 1991 book The Sum Of All Fears, KOLD-TV is an independent superstation in Denver, Colorado that breaks the first video footage of a terrorist nuclear detonation at the Super Bowl, after the sitting President orders FBI agents to muzzle the major network news operations.

References

External links

* [http://www.kold.com/ News 13 KOLD-TV Home]
*TVQ|KOLD
*BIA|KOLD|TV|TV
*TitanTV|KOLD