KRON-TV

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KRON-TV

San Francisco, California
Branding	KRON 4 (general/news) My KRON 4 (MNTV promos)
Slogan	The Bay Area's News Station
Channels	4 (VHF) analog, 57 (UHF) digital
Affiliations	MyNetworkTV
Owner	Young Broadcasting
Founded	November 15, 1949
Call letters meaning	KRON sounds like "chron," for former owner (Chronicle)
Former affiliations	NBC (1949-2001) Independent (2002-2006)
Website	www.kron4.com

KRON-TV (Channel 4) is the MyNetworkTV affiliate for the San Francisco Bay Area. Licensed to San Francisco, the station broadcasts its analog signal on VHF channel 4, and its digital signal on UHF channel 57. The station's transmitter is located atop Sutro Tower in San Francisco. The station brands itself as "My KRON 4" -- keeping the station's previous branding while adding "My" to go with the network's naming conventions, only during MyNetworkTV Shows. It is changed again to "KRON 4" during other programming. KRON can also be seen in Ukiah on K41AF channel 41.

1 History
2 Newscasts and related programs
3 Known Slogans
4 Bubb Rubb
5 Past and present personalities
6 KRON-TV and Astrology
7 See also
8 References
9 External links

[edit] History

The station first signed on November 15, 1949. It was owned by the deYoung family, publishers of the San Francisco Chronicle.' The station's call letters come from a modification of the paper's nickname in the Bay Area, "The Chron." At the time, it took the NBC affiliation in the market, which had previously been a secondary affiliation on KPIX-TV. This came much to the consternation of NBC itself, then owners of KNBC AM 680 (now KNBR). NBC had bid for channel 4 and just barely lost to the deYoung family. KRON-TV originally broadcast from studios located at Fifth and Mission streets (929 Mission) in the same building that housed the newspaper. In the 1950s the Chronicle added an FM station, KRON-FM, at 96.5 on the FM dial (sold in 1975 to Bonneville International and renamed KOIT-FM). In the 1960s KRON-TV moved to its present location at 1001 Van Ness Avenue. KRON-TV originally broadcast from transmitter facilities on Mount San Bruno, moving to Sutro tower on July 4, 1973. In the 1950s and 1960s, local programs produced by KRON-TV included the award-winning documentary series Assignment Four, and a live children's program hosted by Art Finley in the role of Mayor Art. Bay Area kids (collectively known as the "City Council") joined Mayor Art in the studio each day. The show featured Popeye cartoons mixed with science demonstrations, a newsreel feature entitled "Mayor Art's Almanac", games, prizes, and a sock puppet named "Ring-A-Ding".

Until the late 1970s, KRON-TV was infamous for being very San Francisco-centric in its news coverage and audience targeting, an approach that would become costly to the station as growth in areas outside San Francisco soared. In realizing this, KRON-TV would soon become the somewhat dominant station in the market.

The "4" in KRON-TV's logo is based upon the Golden Gate Bridge. The vertical component is a bridge tower, the horizontal component is a portion of the bridge deck, and the curve is a portion of a suspension cable. In the 1980s, some station IDs and newscast openings included animations wherein the "4" logo was superimposed upon a section of the bridge.

KRON's Animated Golden Gate Bridge ID used from 1984-1989. This animated ID open is designed by Pacific Data Images of Palo Alto, CA.

[edit] Scheduling Oddities

Over the years, the station pre-empted some NBC shows, usually during daytime (most notably the soap opera Another World which would since re-air on the station in the early 1990s). Also, the station did not air NBC soap operas in the traditional pattern. For example, KRON-TV aired Days of Our Lives after Another World instead of the standard network programming -- at 2 p.m. or 3 p.m. depending on the season and time slot. KRON-TV also pre-empted some prime time programming on NBC. Like NBC counterpart KCRA-TV in Sacramento, KRON-TV stopped airing the T-NBC lineup on Saturday mornings in the early 1990s. NBC has been far less tolerant of preemptions than the other networks, and even had to buy stations to switch affiliates to in the mid-1990's because of this. However, despite losing valuable advertising in the nation's 5th largest market, NBC was very satisfied with KRON-TV, which was one of its strongest affiliates.

For the 1991-1992, KRON-TV participated in the "Early Prime" experiment in which prime time programs were aired an hour earlier, with the 30-minute late night newscast moved from 11 p.m. to 10 p.m. While KRON-TV moved prime time NBC programming back to its normal time, KPIX-TV continued its experiment with an hour-long newscast at 10 p.m. until 1998, when it moved its CBS newscast back to 11 p.m. for 35 minutes. KTVU has dominated the 10 p.m. newscast for decades.

KRON-TV was at one time the flagship station of the Oakland Athletics baseball team from 1993-1998.

[edit] The End of the NBC Era

In 1999, the deYoung family, owners of the parent corporation Chronicle Publishing, decided to liquidate their assets.

NBC had lusted after KRON-TV since its inception, and finally saw a chance to get an owned and operated station in the Bay Area. It was seen as the frontrunner until it was outbid at the last second by New York City-based Young Broadcasting (then-owner of KCAL-TV in Los Angeles and several medium-small market stations). Young's purchase price for the station, $750 million (U.S.) at the outset which rose to $820 million by closing, a record price for a single station that stands to this day. For the down payment, Young was forced to sell WKBT in La Crosse, Wisconsin to Morgan Murphy Stations.

In a fit of pique over losing a station it had wanted for half a century, NBC then presented Young with a list of demands that basically would have mandated Young to run the station under O&O-style conventions even though it was only an affiliate. Instead of giving in to NBC's demands, Young decided not to renew its affiliation contract with NBC when it ran out in 2002. NBC later approached Granite Broadcasting's KNTV in San Jose with the affiliation and then purchased the station for a fraction of KRON's sale price -- $230 million in cash. That makes NBC the only network in the Bay Area to switch from one local station to another.

The purchase of KRON-TV has taken a severe financial toll on Young Broadcasting, leading to the sale of KOLO-TV in Reno, Nevada in 2001, the aforementioned KCAL-TV in 2002, and WTVO in Rockford, Illinois in 2004. In a coincidence, former Chronicle sister stations WOWT-TV in Omaha, Nebraska and KAKE-TV in Wichita, Kansas put a similar financial strain on their buyer, Benedek Broadcasting, which forced that company into bankruptcy. Also, after the purchase of KRON Young sought to save money by converting to cheaper "desktop" editing equipment, abolishing the "playback" room in favor of a pair of computer servers, and paring crews down to a skeletal staff. The results are often visible on TV as editing mistakes, video that drops out or freezes or doesn't cue up when it is supposed to, etc. Many observers have noted how the station's formerly high standards have dropped severely after Young's purchase.

Despite branding itself as "The Bay Area's News Station," news content has tailed off as the station fills more of its news time with non-scripted banter with sports anchor Gary Radnich and "features" such as "Speaking of Your Money" with financial writer Rob Black. This move has allowed management to lay off virtually all of the station's writers and producers, and hire less-experienced and less expensive staff for the remaining slots.

[edit] Adopting the VJ Model

KRON was one of the first major market stations in the U.S. to adopt the controversial videojournalist, or VJ, model. In smaller markets, this is called one-man banding, a cost-savings practice in which journalists shoot, report, and edit their stories themselves, instead of having a cameraperson/tape editor in the production van with the reporter^[1]. Most, if not all, tape editor positions have been eliminated and the union editors typically given the choice to become VJs or leave. Some media watchers have criticized the move as a shift towards "reality programming" such as MTV's The Real World^[2]. Many staff and critics have charged the move to "videojournalism" was done simply to cut costs, eliminate long-time staffers, and break the unions by pitting them against one another. Since KRON instituted the "VJ" scheme in 2005, scores of long-time employees have left -- including editors, producers, writers, reporters, photographers, and operations staff. However, some photographers and producers have welcomed the transition to telling the story themselves^[3].

[edit] MyNetworkTV

Main article: MyNetworkTV

KRON-TV is the largest MNTV station that did not lose a WB or UPN affiliation.

When KRON-TV began carrying MNTV programming, it eliminated the hour-long 9 p.m. newscast.^[4] However, KRON-TV is not following the standard practice of airing MNTV programming from 8 p.m. to 10 p.m. like most affiliates. Instead, it airs Dr. Phil at 8 p.m., and MNTV programming from 9pm to 11pm, one hour later than most affiliates. The MyNetworkTV affiliate in Sacramento, KQCA, also deviates from the standard My Network TV programming schedule, airing it from 7-9 p.m.

[edit] Newscasts and related programs

[edit] Weekdays

KRON 4 Morning News - 4:00 a.m. - 10:00 a.m.

Darya Folsom, Teo Torres, April Cummings, George Rask (traffic) Mark Danon and Mark Tamayo (weather)

KRON 4 News at 4 - 4:00 p.m. - 4:30 p.m.

Catherine Heenan, Chris Murphy, Michael Kelting (weather)

KRON 4 News at 5 - 5:00 p.m. - 6:00 p.m.

Catherine Heenan, Heather Donald, Michael Kelting (weather)

KRON 4 News at 6 - 6:00 p.m. - 7:00 p.m.

Pam Moore, Chris Murphy, Michael Kelting (weather), Gary Radnich (sports)

KRON 4 News at 11 - 11:00 p.m. - 11:30 p.m.

Pam Moore, Chris Murphy, Michael Kelting (weather), Gary Radnich (sports)