KTVU

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KTVU
Oakland, California / San Francisco, California
Branding	KTVU FOX2 (general) KTVU Channel 2 News HD (news)
Slogan	Complete Bay Area News Coverage
Channels	2 (VHF) analog, 56 (UHF) digital
Affiliations	FOX
Owner	Cox Enterprises
Founded	March 3, 1958
Call letters meaning	K TeleVision for YoU
Former affiliations	Independent (1958 - October 9, 1986)
Transmitter Power	100 kW / 479 m (analog) 1000 kW / 433 m (digital)
Website	www.ktvu.com

KTVU (Channel 2) is the San Francisco Bay Area's FOX affiliate. Its studio facilities are located in Oakland, California at Jack London Square, and its transmitter is located at Sutro Tower in San Francisco. It has been owned by Cox Enterprises since 1968, making it the largest FOX affiliate through market size that is not an O&O. KTVU is also co-owned with KICU which was bought out by Cox in 2000, and as such KICU moved from the original San Jose studios to Oakland where KTVU now shares its studio facilities with KICU. It is also the second largest Cox-owned station (with only Cox sister station WSB-TV in Atlanta in front of it).

KTVU signed on the air as an independent station on March 3, 1958. It was the third station in the Bay Area - after KQED and KNTV - since the FCC lifted the VHF permit freeze. Until the completion of the Mount Sutro television tower, KTVU transmitted from a tower on San Bruno Mountain.

Contents 1 Programming 1.1 As a superstation 1.2 Sports 2 As a FOX affiliate 2.1 Newscasts 2.2 Converting to HDTV 2.3 Departure of Leslie Griffith 2.4 FOX branding 3 On satellite 4 Newscasts 4.1 Lineup 4.2 Past & Present Personalities 5 References

[edit] Programming

The station has been well known in the Bay Area for its locally-produced news, public affairs and children's programming, especially The Ten O'Clock News, which for years had been the only television news broadcast in the Bay Area at that hour. Throughout the 1980s and 90s, The Ten O'Clock News was often referred to as the number one prime time newscast in the country, which was true based on the number of viewers at that hour. KTVU's 10 p.m. newscast was such a force to be reckoned with that KBWB cancelled its own 10 p.m. news in 2002 after having no luck competing with KTVU. When KRON-TV became an independent station, it also scheduled its new primetime newscast at 9 p.m. so as to not compete directly with KTVU. In the early 1990s, KRON, along with KPIX (throughout the 1990s), did have 10 p.m. newscasts, which have since been moved back up to the 11 p.m. time slot. During the period, KTVU branded its late newscast as The Original Ten O'Clock News. The retirement of KTVU's long-time news director Fred Zehnder brought changes to the newsroom which, along with shifting prime-time network entertainment ratings and improvements at competing stations, ended KTVU's long dominance of the late news.

The Ten O'Clock News is also one of the few syndicated local news shows in the United States. It also airs on co-owned KRXI-TV, the FOX affiliate in Reno, Nevada, and also airs on KRVU-LP, the MyNetworkTV affiliate for the Chico/Redding market, and KBVU, the FOX affiliate for the Eureka/Arcata market. KRVU and KBVU are not owned by KTVU parent company Cox. Some of the stations also carry KTVU's earlier newscasts and Mornings on 2.

For many years KTVU regularly ran reruns of classic, filmed television series from the 1950s and 1960s. An early favorite on the station was the syndicated Topper series with Leo J. Carroll and Lee Patrick.

KTVU frequently showed classic movies, especially week nights from 8 to 10 p.m. and on Sunday afternoons. In the early 1960s KTVU began televising Warner Brothers films, mostly from the 1950s and mostly in color, on Sunday evenings. They were the first Bay Area television station to present such films as A Star Is Born (1954) with Judy Garland and James Mason, East of Eden (1955) with James Dean and Julie Harris, and Rebel Without A Cause with James Dean and Natalie Wood. KTVU excercised discretion and limiting commercial interruptions during the movies, and often offered interesting comments, either by a studio host or via slides. The station even televised MGM's Hollywood Review (1929) with some of the original two-strip Technicolor sequences.

During the 1960's and 1970's the station aired an afternoon children's show called Captain Satellite. The show's host was Bob March.

Up until the 1980s, the station produced a series of classic children's public service shorts under the title Bits and Pieces. Bits and Pieces often featured a number of talking puppets, Charley and Humphrey, and were aimed at delivering positive messages to children. The shorts often aired during children's programming. Shots of KTVU children's programming appear in the movie Mrs. Doubtfire, portions of which were shot in the KTVU studios and film library. It was also the Bay Area origination of Romper Room, a children's television show which was franchised, instead of syndicated.

Other programs included:

• Creature Features, hosted by Bob Wilkins from 1971 to 1979 and was replaced by John Stanley from 1979 until 1984
• Dialing for Dollars, hosted by Pat McCormick, later the station's weatherman

Over the years, KTVU aired a schedule of cartoons, off-network sitcoms, old movies, drama shows, talk shows, local news, and religious shows. It was the leading independent station in the San Francisco television market for years. It retained this status when more independents (on UHF) signed on the air over the years by reinventing the station's own image with its former longtime slogan: "There's Only One 2." As a VHF station competitor, KTVU broadcasted The 8 O'Clock Movie as an independent alternative to network prime time programming by KRON, KPIX and KGO-TV.

[edit] As a superstation

For a brief time in the early-1980s, KTVU was a nationwide superstation, seen mostly on parent Cox's cable systems. However, unable to compete with WTBS, WGN and WOR, KTVU left the national scene and merely became a regional superstation, seen on cable systems in northern California, Nevada and Oregon.

[edit] Sports

KTVU has been the over-the-air home of the San Francisco Giants since they moved from New York for the 1958 season, and has also been the home of most San Francisco 49ers games since 1994 when FOX won the contract to carry the NFC football division games. Since 1996, some Giants Saturday afternoon games have been carried via the FOX Network, which won broadcast rights to the MLB in 1996.

[edit] As a FOX affiliate

On October 9, 1986, the station became a charter FOX affiliate serving the Bay Area. It launched a morning newscast called Mornings on 2 in 1990 (and, as such, became the fourth FOX station to air weekday morning newscasts). It began to air an afternoon cartoon block known as Fox Kids by 1991. It also added more syndicated talk shows, court shows, and reality shows over the years. It still runs some off-network sitcoms. The station continued to run the Fox Kids block on weekdays until FOX ended weekday kids programming in early 2002, but still retained the Saturday lineup, of which is now 4Kids TV.

[edit] Newscasts

Today, the station has newscasts at noon, 5 p.m. and 6 p.m. as well, in addition its morning and 10 p.m. broadcasts. Before its current station status, Channel 2 had only the 10 o'clock newscast; this was common of most independenden-turned Fox affiliates back then to have more syndicated programming and children's programming than it did news. That changed when the station decided to go head-to-head with competitors KRON, KPIX, KGO-TV and KNTV by leaning more towards a news-intensive format which took years to take effect. The noon newscast, originally called 2 at Noon, was added in 1986, displacing syndicated game shows. The original morning newscast, Mornings on 2, debuted in January 1991 in the 7 a.m. to 9 a.m. slot. An additional morning newscast was added in 1996, which would later expand to two hours from one hour, then a 6:00 p.m. newscast would be added in 2000, and finally in 2005, an hour-long 5:00 p.m. newscast. As a result, KTVU now airs 40 hours of local news a week -- the most local news coverage of any counterpart Fox station in the West Coast since KTTV in Los Angeles only has a morning and 10:00 newscast despite being the larger market station. In this practice the station has followed the lead of a growing number of affiliates and Fox O&O's that expanded their newscast hours under the motivation of Fox to do this because the network itself has no early evening news itself. KTVU ranks as one of the top rated Fox affiliates.

[edit] Converting to HDTV

On October 10th, 2006 KTVU debuted a new state-of-the-art high definition (HD) studio for production of their newscasts in HD. This follows sister stations WSB in Atlanta, Georgia and WFTV in Orlando, Florida which were already airing their newscasts in HD.

[edit] Departure of Leslie Griffith

On November 17th, 2006, longtime anchor Leslie Griffith decided to leave KTVU after nearly 20 years of anchoring KTVU's weekend news, as well as anchoring the 10 O'clock News with Dennis Richmond, after her departure on August 22nd. Many anchors would say that "Leslie Griffith is off tonight" when in fact after 3 months of speculation, she announced her departure at KTVU due to unsatisfactory treatment with the news staff. Recently, KTVU anchors have "confirmed" Leslie Griffith leaving the station, and stop say that "Leslie Griffith is off tonight" when the newscast begins. Julie Haener is currently filling in most of Leslie Griffith's anchor duties on Mondays through Thursdays, while the weekend anchor Sara Sidner anchoring on Friday 5pm and 10 O'Clock News.[1] [2]

[edit] FOX branding

In the early years as a FOX station, KTVU still referenced itself as Channel 2 and rarely called itself FOX2 as other Fox affiliates did and still do, but it has done Fox promos as Fox Channel 2. In recent years since the late 1990's, the FOX logo was encrypted into the longtime Circle Laser 2 logo (used since 1975), and finally fell in line with Fox's station standardization as KTVU FOX2 today.

[edit] On satellite

Until the late 1990s, KTVU was seen nationally on PrimeStar and C-Band satellite systems.

[edit] Newscasts

[edit] Lineup

Monday-Friday

• KTVU News Early Edition HD - 5 a.m. to 6 a.m.

Mark Curtis, Pam Cook, Steve Paulson (weather)

• KTVU Morning News HD- 6 a.m. to 7 a.m.

Mark Curtis, Pam Cook, Steve Paulson (weather)

• Mornings on Two HD- 7 a.m. to 9 a.m.

Ross McGowan, Frank Somerville, Tori Campbell, Steve Paulson (weather), Sal Castaneda (traffic)

• KTVU Channel 2 News at Noon HD- 12 p.m. to 12:30 p.m.

Tori Campbell, Steve Paulson (weather)

• KTVU Channel 2 News at Five HD- 5 p.m. to 6 p.m.

Julie Haener (on Mondays-Thursdays), Sara Sidner (on Fridays), Frank Somerville, Bill Martin (weather)

• KTVU Channel 2 News at Six HD- 6 p.m. to 6:30 p.m.

Dennis Richmond, Julie Haener, Bill Martin (weather), Mark Ibanez (sports)

• The 10 O'Clock News on KTVU Channel 2 HD- 10 p.m. to 11 p.m.

Dennis Richmond, Julie Haener (on Mondays-Thursdays), Sara Sidner (on Fridays), Bill Martin (weather), Mark Ibanez (sports)

Saturday

• KTVU Channel 2 News at Six HD- 6 p.m. to 6:30 p.m.

Ken Wayne, Sara Sidner, Julia Sandstrom (weather), Joe Fonzi (sports)

• The 10 O'Clock News on KTVU Channel 2 HD- 10 p.m. to 10:45 p.m.

Ken Wayne, Sara Sidner, Julia Sandstrom (weather), Joe Fonzi (sports)

• Sports Wrap HD- 10:45 p.m. to 11 p.m.

Sunday

• KTVU Channel 2 News at Five HD- 5 p.m. to 6 p.m.

Ken Wayne, Sara Sidner, Julia Sandstrom (weather), Joe Fonzi (sports)

• The 10 O'Clock News on KTVU Channel 2 HD - 10 p.m. to 10:45 p.m.

Ken Wayne, Sara Sidner, Julia Sandstrom (weather), Joe Fonzi (sports)

• Sports Wrap HD- 10:45 p.m. to 11 p.m.

[edit] Past & Present Personalities

• Larry Beil
• Tori Campbell
• Sal Castaneda
• Rosy Chu
• Pam Cook
• Brian Copeland
• Elaine Corral
• Mark Curtis (Reporter)
• Priya David
• Kraig Debro
• Diane Dwyer
• Faith Fancher
• Joe Fonzi
• John Fowler (Reporter)
• Eric Greene
• Leslie Griffith (announced on 11/17/2006 that she left KTVU to pursue writing a book in Steamboat Springs, CO)
• Julie Haener
• Robert Handa
• Walt Harris (staff announcer and host of live Friday night wrestling from KTVU's studios)
• Craig Heaps
• Greg Higgins
• Mark Ibanez
• Fred Inglis (Reporter)
• Lloyd LaCuesta (Reporter)
• Amber Lee
• Bob MacKenzie (Reporter)
• Bill Martin (Weatherman)
• Pat McCormick (television personality)
• Ross McGowan
• Mike Mibach
• Gasia Mikaelian
• Steve Paulson
• Dennis Richmond
• Rob Roth
• Ted Rowlands (Reporter)
• Julia Sandstrom
• John Sasaki
• Don Sherwood (talk show host)
• Sara Sidner
• Randy Shandobil
• Bob Shaw (Reporter)
• John Stanley (final host of Creature Features)
• Frank Somerville
• Dan Springer
• Tom Vacar
• Thuy Vu
• Ken Wayne
• Bob Wilkins (original host of Creature Features)
• Rita Williams
• Claudine Wong

[edit] References

• KTVU Website
• Station History KTVU.com
• KTVU Mention at TVParty.com
• Query the FCC's TV station database for KTVU

Fox Network Affiliates in the state of California
KTVU 2 (Oakland / San Francisco) - XETV 6 (Tijuana / San Diego) - KECY 9 (El Centro) - KTTV 11 (Los Angeles) - KKFX 24 / KSSB 17 (Santa Maria / Santa Barbara) - KMPH 26 / 17 (Visalia / Merced) - KBVU 29 (Eureka) - KCVU 30 (Chico) - KDFX 33 / KESQ-DT 51.2 (Indio / Palm Springs) - KCBA 35 (Salinas) - KTXL 40 (Sacramento) - KBFX 58 (Bakersfield)
See also: ABC, CBS, CW, MyNetworkTV, NBC, PBS, Telefutura, Telemundo, Univision, Independent, Other Spanish Network, Religious, Home Shopping and Other stations in California