KPIX-TV

Infobox_Broadcast
call_letters = KPIX-TV
city =
station_
station_slogan = Everywhere
station_branding = CBS 5 Bay Area (general)
CBS 5 Eyewitness News (newscasts)
analog = 5 (VHF)
digital = 29 (UHF)
subchannels = 5.1 HD
other_chs =
affiliations = CBS
network =
founded =
airdate = December 22, 1948
location = San Francisco, California
callsign_meaning = PIX is a shorthand term for "pictures"
former_callsigns =
former_channel_numbers =
owner = CBS Corporation
licensee = CBS Broadcasting, Inc.
sister_stations =
former_affiliations = All secondary:
DuMont (1948-1955)
NBC (1948-1949)
Paramount (1949-1953)
effective_radiated_power = 100 kW (analog)
1000 kW (digital)
HAAT = 506 m (analog)
401 m (digital)
class =
facility_id = 25452
coordinates = coord|37|45|18.8|N|122|27|10.4|W|type:landmark_scale:2000
homepage = [http://www.cbs5.com/ www.cbs5.com]

KPIX-TV (Channel 5) 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 (Channel 44).

The station transmits from the Sutro Tower and its signal covers the San Francisco Bay Area. Known on the air as "CBS 5 Bay Area," KPIX is home to one of the higher rated newscasts among CBS-owned stations. On January 28th, 2008, KPIX started to broadcast local news in HD, becoming the third station in the Bay area to do so, after KGO and KTVU. KPIX was also one of 2 Group W stations that became a CBS O&O, but had already been affiliated with CBS, the other being KDKA-TV in Pittsburgh.

History

KPIX signed on Christmas Eve 1948. It was the nation's 49th television station, the fourth in California and the first in California outside Los Angeles. It was owned by the Associated Broadcasters, owners of KSFO-AM 560.

KPIX immediately joined the CBS Television Network due to a deal KSFO's owners had worked out with CBS a year earlier. KSFO was CBS radio's Bay Area affiliate from 1937 to 1941, when Associated Broadcasters backed out of a deal for CBS to buy the station. When KSFO was still affiliated with CBS, it was originally slated to move to 740 AM, the dial spot of KQW in San Jose. That frequency was the last 50,000-watt frequency available in the Bay Area, and KSFO was to raise its power to 50,000 watts after moving to 740. However, after KSFO parted ways with CBS, CBS moved its Bay Area affiliation to KQW and wasn't about to give up the obvious advantage of owning the last available 50,000-watt station in the Bay Area. After lengthy FCC hearings, KSFO won the 740 frequency, but later decided to stay at 560 and concentrate its efforts on building a television station. It traded the 740 frequency to CBS in return for getting the CBS Television Network affiliation for the Bay Area. KQW remained at 740 and CBS changed its call sign to KCBS.

The station also carried programming from the now-defunct DuMont Television Network until that network folded in 1955. It even carried a few NBC programs until KRON-TV signed on in 1949, and programs for the short-lived "Paramount Television Network".cite book| last =King| first =G.H.| authorlink =| coauthors =King, Vance (eds.)| title =Production Encyclopedia| publisher =Hollywood Reporter| date =1952| location =Hollywood, CA| pages =716-717| url =| doi =| id = | isbn = ]

When KPIX's first competitor, KGO-TV, signed on in May 1949, KPIX produced programs to welcome it to the Bay Area.

In 1952, KPIX and KSFO moved into a new building at 2655 Van Ness Avenue, with KPIX staying there until about 1979, when they relocated to a refurbished building on the corner of Battery and Broadway streets where KPIX remains to this day. (KSFO moved to studios in the Fairmont Hotel, across the hall from the Tonga Room, later in the 1950s.) Westinghouse Electric Corporation bought KPIX in 1954 and ran it as part of Group W, its broadcasting unit. In early 1996, Westinghouse merged with CBS, making KPIX a CBS O&O station and bringing it into common ownership with KCBS.

In May, 2006, KPIX moved its San Jose news bureau to the Fairmont Tower at 50 W. San Fernando St., San Jose. This was the original site of Charles Herrold's experimental broadcasts which were the precursor of KCBS. Although CBS was not aware of the significance of the San Fernando St. address when the move was planned, it quickly recognized and embraced its significance when informed, giving long-overdue credit to one of the inventors of radio broadcasting during the bureau's opening celebration.fact|date=November 2007

In 2007, KPIX began broadcasting "Eye on the Bay" in High Definition. On January 28, 2008, KPIX began broadcasting its newscasts in 1080i high definition, becoming the third station in the Bay Area to broadcast its newscasts in HD. KTVU became the first in 2006, and KGO followed in 2007.

Digital television

The station's digital channel is multiplexed:

Analog-to-digital conversion

After the analog television shutdown and digital conversion, which is scheduled to take place on February 17, 2009 http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DA-06-1082A2.pdf] , KPIX will continue digital broadcasts on its current pre-transition channel number, 29. [http://fjallfoss.fcc.gov/cgi-bin/ws.exe/prod/cdbs/forms/prod/cdbsmenu.hts?context=25&appn=101234653&formid=387&fac_num=25452 CDBS Print ] ] However, through the use of PSIP, digital television receivers will display KPIX's virtual channel as 5.

Programs

News

KPIX was a pioneer in local television news coverage in the Bay Area. Like most television stations, it presented a 15-minute evening news program until 1963, when the networks began expanding their evening newscasts to 30 minutes. One of KPIX's innovating program directors, Ray Hubbard, created "The Noon News." The anchors were John Weston, "Channel 5's Guy on the Go," and Wanda Ramey, "Channel 5's Gal on the Go." Ramey was one of the first women news anchors in the country.

The station also launched a 10:00 p.m. hour-long newscast in the 1990s when they experimented with moving the prime time programming block back one hour. Then-NBC affiliate KRON also experimented with a 7:00-10:00 prime-time block and news at 10:00P, but their newscast was only 30 minutes and they quickly reverted back to the standard 8:00-11:00 primetime block after only a year. KPIX did not revert to 8:00-11:00 prime time programming until 1998 after making no dent in KTVU's 10:00 pm news ratings, which has dominated the time slot for years in the Bay Area.

KPIX was also home to "30 Minutes Bay Area", a 30 minute news magazine created by 60 Minutes creator Don Hewitt after he retired from the national show. The "30 Minutes" concept was originally planned to air on many CBS O&O stations, but KPIX was the only station to implement the concept. "30 Minutes Bay Area" was discontinued in early 2007.

On March 3, 2008, KPIX launched a nightly 10 p.m. newscast on KBCW. It is broadcast in high definition. [http://www.tvnewsday.com/articles/2008/02/23/daily.1/]

Childrens

During the 1950s, KPIX produced a local children's program, "Captain Fortune", on weekday afternoons and Saturday mornings. In addition to a number of live segments with an in-studio children's audience, the program featured the pioneering animated television episodes of "Crusader Rabbit".

Dick Stewart Television Show

From 1956 to 1959, Davenport, Iowa native Dick Stewart (born 1927) hosted a weekday variety program at KPIX. Due to the popularity of the film "Gidget" in 1959, the station decided to run a "Miss Gidget" contest on Dick Stewart's television program. The contest was won by Barbara Bouchet, who would become one of the "Regulars" on the "Dance Party". She would later go on to be a famous star in her own right. From 1959 to 1963, KPIX presented "Dance Party", hosted by Stewart. The program invited local teenagers to come and dance to recorded music in the KPIX studios. Besides playing current recordings, Stewart sometimes welcomed popular recording stars to the program. Following the custom of "American Bandstand", the singers would lip-synch to their recordings.

Stewart also hosted a number of "High School Salute" programs on Saturdays that spotlighted area high schools with interviews with students and faculty, as well as filmed segments from each school. [ [http://www.kpixdanceparty.org/ KPIX Dance Party - Home Page ] ]

Entertainment

KPIX was the station that came up with the concept for a local entertainment and lifestyles program, "Evening Magazine". Evening Magazine began on KPIX-TV in August 1976, and within a year, the concept expanded to the other Group W stations. By Fall 1978, the Evening Magazine format was syndicated to non-Group W markets across the country as PM Magazine. The entire Evening/PM Magazine format was cancelled by the late 1980s. KPIX resurrected "Evening Magazine" in 1998. In 2005, "Evening Magazine" was retitled "Eye On The Bay", to focus further on the San Francisco Bay Area. KBCW also aired "Evening Magazine" and "Eye on the Bay" in the early 2000s as reruns of the previous night's episode.

Until 1994, it was standard KPIX practice to pre-empt "The Price Is Right" as well as other CBS morning daytime shows as well. Despite the pre-emptions, CBS was mostly satisfied with KPIX as it was among its highest rated affiliates in the country. In 1995, when CBS signed a long term deal with every Westinghouse station (just before the two companies merged), KPIX began broadcasting the entire CBS schedule.

For a time from 1992 until 1998, KPIX ran CBS primetime programming an hour earlier than typical for the Pacific Time Zone (i.e. from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. instead of 8 p.m. to 11 p.m.), a practice which KOVR, its sister station in Sacramento, continues to this day.

Talk Shows

KPIX was also known for the locally produced morning talk show, "People are Talking", which began in 1978, and ran until 1991 (the other Group W stations also used the "People are Talking" format during these years). On KPIX, this show pre-empted "The Price Is Right" for a few years, and CBS had to schedule the popular game show on other Bay Area independent stations such as KOFY (now KBWB).

ports

During the 1980s, KPIX broadcast the Oakland A's baseball team (at times pre-empting or delaying CBS network shows to do so) before the A's broadcasts moved to KRON. KPIX was at one time the home of the Golden State Warriors basketball team during the 1990s. KPIX-TV was also the exclusive home of the Bay to Breakers before it moved to KRON.

Newscasts

KPIX uses the Action News format adopted by sister station KYW-TV in Philadelphia. KGO-TV also uses a similar type format, but KPIX had the Action News name first; KGO adopted its version from WABC-TV in New York City. For most of the last 30 years, KPIX has been runner-up to KGO.

KPIX hopes that the return and "coming back home" of Wendy Tokuda, who anchored "Action News" from 1978 to 1992, will give viewership a boost. As of 2008 Wendy anchors CBS 5 Action News at 5 with Allen Martin. In 1992, Wendy left KPIX to anchor evening newscasts on KNBC-TV in Los Angeles. In 1997 she returned to the Bay Area, and for the past decade, Wendy appeared on KRON 4 as evening anchor and reporter for her Students Rising Above student scholarship program that she founded in 1998. Wendy will continue to work on her Students Rising Above program and air her stories on CBS 5 newscasts.

KPIX Branding

KPIX's "5" logo dates from the days as a Westinghouse station, when the "Group W font" was standard on KPIX and its sister stations. When Westinghouse merged with CBS, most of the former Group W stations eventually retired the font. KPIX and WJZ-TV would become the only two CBS-owned television stations to continue using this logo font. KPIX was the only CBS-owned station on the West Coast to not follow the CBS Mandate for years after the merger, referencing itself as "KPIX-TV Channel 5." Finally in 2005, KPIX fell in line with the mandate and called itself "CBS 5," later "CBS 5 Bay Area" (although some references to "CBS 5" were heard in commercials as early as 2003). But it was briefly branded simply as "KPIX 5" between 1993 and 1996, even dropping the Action News name and called itself "KPIX News 5" at the same time before reverting.

Current Personalities

Anchors

*Ken Bastida - 6, 10 (KBCW), and 11 p.m. weekdays
*Lisa Chan - weekend mornings
*Juliette Goodrich - noon
*John Kessler - weekday mornings and noon
*Dana King - 6, 10 (KBCW), and 11 p.m. weekdays
*Sydnie Kohara - weekday mornings
*Allen Martin - 5 p.m. weekdays
*Ann Notarangelo - weekend evenings
*Wendy Tokuda - 5 p.m. weekdays, Students Rising Above reporter
*Sherry Hu - weekend mornings
*Phil Matier - Sunday Mornings

Weather
*Roberta Gonzales - weeknights
*Tracy Humphrey - weekday mornings and noon
*Lawrence Karnow - weekday substitute and weekends (AMS Certified)
*Jim Bernard - weekend mornings (Also weather for KIEM-TV in Eureka)
*Kathy Trafton - fill-in

Sports
*Dennis O'Donnell - weeknights (KPIX), 10 p.m. Sundays (KBCW)
*Kim Coyle - weekend sports anchor
*Scott Reish - fill-in and reporter

Reporters
*Anna Duckworth ( mornings and noon)
*Brian Hackney - "Eye on the Bay" host/correspondent
*Sherry Hu - East Bay Bureau/Weekend sub-anchor
*Kate Kelly - feature reporter/Bay Area Jefferson Awards (occasional anchor)
*Sue Kwon - business/technology reporter
*Liam Mayclem - "Eye on the Bay" contributor
*Phil Matier - political commentator
*Dr. Kim Mulvihill - medical reporter
*Jeanette Pavini - consumer reporter
*Simon Perez - general assignment reporter
*Hank Plante - political editor
*Len Ramirez - South Bay correspondent
*Jeffrey Schaub - North Bay Bureau Chief
*Mike Sugerman - general assignment reporter
*Thuy Vu - San Jose Bureau
*Noelle Walker - reporter
*Anna Werner - investigative reporter
*Joe Vazquez - general assignment reporter

Past Personalities, Newscasters and Reporters

*Van Amburg - weekday news anchor (1962-1969)
*Jim Avila - weekend anchor/San Jose Bureau chief (1976-1980, now at ABC News)
*Ed Arnow - reporter (1970-1983)
*Jennifer Auther - reporter (1991-1992)
*Amalia Barreda - reporter (1974-1976, now at WCVB-TV in Boston)
*Joel Bartlett - chief meteorologist (1976-1989)
*Liza Batallones - traffic reporter (1995-2005, now reports traffic for 95.7 The Wolf in San Francisco and returned to CBS5 as a fill-in in 2007)
*Anna Chavez - anchor (1992-1997)
*Christopher Chow - first Chinese-American reporter in the market (1970-1973)
*Christine Craft - anchor/reporter (1975-1977, now a radio host at KSAC in Sacramento [http://www.1240talkcity.com/shows/christinecraft/] )
*David Cruz - anchor/reporter (1979-1985, now at KENS in San Antonio
*Belva Davis - anchor/reporter (1966-1977, now at KQED-TV)
*Sandra Dickson - reporter (early 1970s)
*Hal Eisner - Reporter (Late 1980s), now at KTTV/KCOP in Los Angeles
*Eric Elliott - weekday/weekend morning meteorologist (2004-2008), now at KHSL-TV in Chico
*Ysabel Duron - reporter (early 1970s, now at KRON-TV)
*Jean Enersen - anchor (1962-1967, currently main anchor at KING 5 in Seattle)
*Joe Fonzi - sports reporter/anchor (1982-1994, now at KTVU)
*Dan Fouts - sports anchor (1994-1997, now at NFL Network)
*Steve Fox - "Evening Magazine" co-host
*Tom Franklin - anchor (1950s)
*Ann Fraser - "People Are Talking" host/reporter (1966-1997)
*Wayne Freedman - reporter (1989-1991, now at KGO-TV)
*Roland Galvan - weather anchor (1989-1990, deceased)
*Cynthia Gouw - reporter
*Emil Guillermo - reporter (1977-1980)
*Bob Haulman - weather anchor (1990-1991)
*Mike Hegedus - reporter (1980-1991, now at CNBC)
*Robert Handa - reporter (1990-1998, now at KTVU)
*Joe Hoskinson - Traffic Reporter (2005-2006)
*Cheryl Hurd - reporter (1992-1998, now at KNTV)
*Jan Hutchins - sports anchor
*David Jackson- reporter
*Jonathan Karsh - "Evening Magazine" host/contributor (1998-2001, now a filmmaker [http://www.docurama.com/filmmakerdetail.html?filmmakerid=82] )also on CBS's Kid Nation
*Bill Lagattuta - reporter (1980-1982, now at CBS News)
*Mike Lee - reporter (1968-1975, now at ABC News in London)
*John Lobertini - reporter (1999-2008)
*Ron Magers - anchor/reporter (1968-1974, now at WLS-TV in Chicago)
*Janelle Marie - traffic reporter (1992-1994) now on KGO
*Bill Martin - meteorologist (1993-1995, now at KTVU)
*Dave McElhatton - longtime anchor (1976-2001)
*Ross McGowan - "People Are Talking" host/reporter (1978-1992, now at KTVU)
*Brendan McLaughlin - anchor/reporter (now at WFTS-TV in Tampa)
*Lee Mendelson - producer; better known for work on Peanuts TV specials
*Samantha Mohr - chief meteorologist (2001-2007, now at The Weather Channel)
*Doug Murphy - anchor/reporter (1982-2005, deceased)
*Christopher Nance - weather anchor (1983-1985)
*Dan Navarro - reporter (1974-1976)
*Malou Nubla - "Evening Magazine" co-host (2000-2006, now runs a communications company [http://www.malounubla.com/] )
*Joe Oliver - anchor/reporter (1996-1998, now at WESH-TV in Orlando)
*Rollin Post - reporter/commentator (1961-1973)
*Rick Quan - sports anchor
*Wanda Ramey - noon co-anchor/reporter; first female anchor in western U.S. (1957-1967)
*Manuel Ramos - reporter (1980-2008)
*Troy Roberts - reporter (1985-1987, now at CBS News)
*Barbara Rodgers - noon weekdays, Bay Sunday, Bay Area Jefferson Awards, retired
*Mike Rowe - "Evening Magazine" co-host (2001-2005) Now on Discovery Channel
*Tony Russomanno - reporter (1991-2008)
*Bill Schechner - reporter (1976-1981, 1992-2008)
*Dr. Nancy Snyderman - medical reporter (1988-2004, now at NBC News)
*Drew Soicher - sports anchor (1997-1999, now at KUSA-TV in Denver)
*Jim Steck - anchor (circa 1973)
*Dick Stewart - host of "Dance Party" and "High School Salute"
*Sandra Stricker - reporter (1985-1993)
*Mark Sugerman - reporter (1981-2005)
*Brian Sussman - meteorologist (1989-2000)
*Kaity Tong - reporter (1976-1979, now at WPIX-TV in New York)
*Wayne Walker - sports anchor (1974-1994)
*John Weston - anchor/reporter
*Ben Williams - reporter/anchor (1966-1991)
*Colleen Williams - anchor/reporter (1981-1983, now at KNBC in Los Angeles)
*Nola Woods - reporter (1999-2006)
*Jan Yanehiro - "Evening Magazine" co-host (1976-1989)

References

* [http://www.cbs5.com/info/local_story_019183023.html KPIX History]

External links

* [http://www.kpixdanceparty.org The KPIX Dance Party on the Dick Stewart Television Show]
* [http://www.cbs5.com/ CBS 5]
*TVQ|KPIX-TV
*BIA|KPIX|TV|TV
* [http://www.captainerniesshowboat.com/marshalj Legendary KPIX kids show host Marshal J Fan Page]