| El Paso, Texas | |
|---|---|
| Branding | KDBC 4 Local 4 News |
| Slogan | We're Your Station! |
| Channels | Digital: 18 (UHF) |
| Affiliations | CBS MyNetworkTV/This TV (DT2) |
| Owner | Titan TV Broadcast Group (KDBC License, LLC) |
| First air date | December 14, 1952 |
| Call letters' meaning | Doubleday Broadcasting Company |
| Sister station(s) | KTSM-TV |
| Former callsigns | KROD-TV (1952-1973) |
| Former channel number(s) | Analog: 4 (VHF, 1952-2009) |
| Former affiliations | ABC DuMont |
| Transmitter power | 363 kW |
| Height | 577 m |
| Facility ID | 33764 |
| Website | http://www.kdbc.com |
KDBC-TV is the CBS affiliate in El Paso, Texas. The station is owned by the Titan TV Broadcast Group. It broadcasts its digital signal on UHF channel 18. Its new digital subchannel carries My Network TV. Syndicated programming on KDBC includes: Wheel of Fortune, Jeopardy!, Maury, and Judge Judy.
KDBC airs on Time Warner Cable channel 3 and HD channel 865 in the El Paso area.
The station is located at 2201 E. Wyoming Avenue in El Paso (ZIP code 79903). Its transmitter is also located in El Paso.
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The station went on air on December 14, 1952 as KROD-TV, the first television station in El Paso. The station was owned by Dorrance Roderick, along with KROD radio and the El Paso Times. Early programs on the station included children's shows Red Brown and Anna Lee and Bozo's Big Top, and wrestling show Mitchell's Mat Time. The station was affiliated with three networks (CBS, ABC, and DuMont) as late as 1955.[1] During the late 1950s, the station was also briefly affiliated with the NTA Film Network.[2]
The station changed its call letters to KDBC-TV in 1973 to reflect the change in station ownership, Doubleday Broadcasting Company.
The first transmitter site was south of Comanche Peak in El Paso. A road was built to the site, and a 288-foot (88 m) tower was constructed. A building was assembled from native rock chipped from the site. The station went on with a temporary transmitter (small RCA) and eventually added a 10 kW RCA TT-10AL transmitter and developed an effective radiated power of 61 kilowatts at 1,150 feet (350 m). The site is now used as a backup, and many FM stations transmit from this building.
In 1984 the station moved farther up the hill to Comanche Peak. A 440-foot (130 m) tower was built and a new transmitter was installed (one of the last of the RCA TT-25GLs). The station increased to 100 kW and a height of 1,540 feet (470 m). BTSC stereo also commenced with this new site.
By the mid-1980s, the station was owned by United Broadcasting, who at the time also owned KARK-TV in Little Rock, Arkansas and WTOK-TV in Meridian, Mississippi. Columbus, Mississippi-based Imes Broadcasting, owners of stations such as WCBI-TV and WMUR-TV, bought KDBC in 1988 after United Broadcasting was taken over by the investment firm Merrill Lynch. Imes Broadcasting exited the television business in the late 1990s, and put up all of its stations for sale. In 1999 Pappas Telecasting Companies acquired the station, with the intent to have the station join the new Azteca America network, a Spanish-language network co-owned at the time by TV Azteca and Pappas. Plans for the affiliation were canceled following outcry from viewers and the station's employees, and the station renewed its affiliation with CBS. Azteca America and Pappas ended their affiliation relationship in mid-2007. Since early December 2010, Azteca América has been available on KVIA-DT4.
In May 2004, KDBC launched a new set design, logo and graphics. On September 5, 2006 KDBC's new subchannel commenced operations, which includes programming from My Network TV. [1]
On January 16, 2009, it was announced that several Pappas stations, including KDBC, would be sold to New World TV Group (now the Titan TV Broadcast Group), after the sale received United States bankruptcy court approval.[3]
On October 19, 2009 ComCorp, the parent company of KTSM-TV, announced that that station will provide sales and other services for KDBC under a new agreement. ComCorp will provide advertising, sales, administrative services and some news programming for KDBC, while Titan will continue to manage KDBC and both stations will retain separate newscasts for now.[4]
On December 15, 2009, KDBC began broadcasting its news in high-definition, becoming the Third TV station in El Paso to do so.
In January 2010, Comcorp announced that it would close the news department of its sister station, KVEO-TV in Brownsville, Texas, other than a few reporters. The locally-produced newscast would originate from KDBC, using KDBC's staff (including Nichole Ayoub as anchor and Robert Bettes as meteorologist), with the remaining reporters in Brownsville filing reports. The new newscast, which debuted on KVEO on January 18, 2010, will be pre-recorded in advance.[5]
The station's digital channel is UHF 18, multiplexed:
| Subchannel | Programming |
|---|---|
| 4.1 | main KDBC-TV programming / CBS |
| 4.2 | My Network TV/This TV Secondary |
On June 2, 2009, KDBC announced it has terminated its analog signal because of technical difficulties[6][7] ten days before the scheduled analog television shutdown and digital conversion on June 12,[8] thus becoming the first television station in the El Paso area to transmit solely in digital. KDBC-TV remains on its transition period channel number, 18.[9] However, through the use of PSIP, digital television receivers will display KDBC-TV's virtual channel as 4.
Among the station's most famous broadcasters was weatherman Howell Eurich, who also worked as El Paso's version of Bozo the Clown during the 1960s and 1970s. Eurich committed suicide in 1982 following a divorce from his wife and fellow KDBC weather anchor Gail Gordon.
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