| San Jose, California | |
|---|---|
| City of license | San Jose |
| Branding | TV36 |
| Slogan | Fun For You |
| Channels | Digital: 36 (UHF) |
| Subchannels | 36.1 KICU 36.2 Korean Broadcasting System 36.3 CCTV News |
| Translators | K29AB Monterey area K31GK Ukiah K33CH Lakeport K64AZ Lakeport |
| Affiliations | Independent Fox (secondary since 2000) NBC (secondary, 2008-2009) |
| Owner | Cox Enterprises (KTVU Partnership) |
| First air date | October 9, 1967 |
| Call letters' meaning | ICU = "I See You" |
| Sister station(s) | KTVU |
| Former callsigns | KGSC-TV (1967-1981) |
| Former channel number(s) | Analog: 36 (UHF, 1967-2009) Digital: 52 (UHF) |
| Transmitter power | 550 kW |
| Height | 668 m |
| Facility ID | 34564 |
| Website | www.kicu.com |
KICU-TV, known as TV36, is an independent television station in the San Francisco Bay Area market. It shares its broadcast facility with sister station KTVU in Oakland but it is licensed to San Jose, where KICU was formerly located. It is owned by Cox Enterprises. It runs an independent schedule of classic sitcoms, talk shows, reality shows, movies, and some kids shows on weekends. KICU broadcasts from a transmitter site on Mission Peak in nearby Fremont; its signal covers most of the entire Bay Area with some difficulty covering the North Bay over the air.
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The channel 36 allocation was originally based in Stockton, California with the callsign KTVU (not related to the Oakland station) in the mid-1950s as a short-lived UHF station. It has since been reallocated to the Bay Area television market, and Stockton became part of the Sacramento television market.
On the current incarnation of channel 36, the station began as KGSC-TV in early October 1967. It is the Bay Area's longest continuously running commercial UHF television station. In the 1970s the station promoted itself as "The Perfect 36" and employed as spokesmodel busty San Francisco stripper–entertainer Carol Doda. In addition to breathing the station IDs, Doda would also do the station's editorials, which like the IDs were laced with double entendres. The first take was always broadcast, mistakes and all [1]. KGSC was also notable for the all-night movies, hosted for a long time by the Old Sourdough and Wachikanoka [2]. While there were several sets of hosts for the all-night movies, most versions were known as Movies 'Til Dawn, and sponsored by a local carpet retailer. KGSC was purchased by Ralph Wilson in the early 1980s changing the call letters to KICU.
KICU produced a half-hour 10 p.m. newscast in the 1980s and 1990s. Jan Hutchins, formerly a sportscaster at KPIX, was a longtime anchor. In the late 1980s, KICU ran INN News at 10:30 p.m. INN News, also known as Independent Network News, was produced by WPIX-TV in New York City. Previously, from 1995 to 2000, KICU broadcast several Golden State Warriors basketball games each season. The station also was a longtime broadcaster of San Jose Sharks games. Over the years, the station ran a number of drama shows and older movies. It added more classic sitcoms and children's shows by the mid-1990s. However, the station gradually phased out children's programming between 1998 and 2002.
In 2000, the station was sold to Cox, meaning that the station moved from its original studios in San Jose to KTVU's Jack London Square facilities in Oakland, becoming the first Bay Area television duopoly. The station aired a rebroadcast of KTVU's Ten O'Clock News at 11 pm from January 2000 until September 14, 2001 under the titling The Eleven O'Clock Edition of the Original Ten O'Clock News (the "Original" branding used to stand out from 10 pm newscasts airing on KRON and KPIX at the time, which pushed their network primetime schedules back an hour for viewership concerns and to compete with KTVU). KICU also simulcast the 7 am–9 am block of Mornings on 2 in the early 2000s (decade) with a South Bay traffic–weather ticker and news briefs and breaking news specific to that area. On April 5, 2010, KICU has once again rebroadcast KTVU's 10 o'clock news at 11:30 PM Monday thru Friday.
The station resumed airing a newscast from KTVU on January 21, 2008 with the weeknight Bay Area News at 7 on TV 36, which is anchored by Gasia Mikaelian; the station had previously aired a newscast at 7 pm called Action 36 Prime News from 1992 to 1994.
Due to being co-owned with KTVU, KICU airs any prime-time programming from Fox in lieu of KTVU if that station is preempting the network for local programming, or in the past, San Francisco Giants baseball until 2007. With NBC O&O KNTV becoming the broadcast home of the Giants in 2008, KICU also has taken the role of airing preempted NBC programming in lieu of KNTV. As of 2010, KRON-TV -- originally NBC's primary Bay Area affiliate until the network bought KNTV in December 2001—has taken the duties of a secondary NBC affiliation as it airs NBC programs in case KNTV cannot air them.
KICU was the broadcast television flagship for Oakland Athletics games until 2009, when the A's signed an exclusive TV deal with CSN California. Since KTVU had the Giants, the Cox duopoly essentially had exclusive control of the local broadcast television rights for a short while until the end of the 2007 season. The station aired High School Sports Focus on Friday nights at 11 pm with a 4 pm Sunday rebroadcast; the show also won regional Emmy awards. It was canceled in 2008.
KICU also offers Korean language programming from Korean Broadcasting System, 24 hours a day on digital subchannel 36-2.
In 2009 fans of Cinema Insomnia began rallying to bring horror movie TV host Mr. Lobo to KICU to host a Saturday Night Horror show on KICU to compete against the successful Creepy KOFY Movietime on KOFY TV 20 and bring back a quality hosted horror show to the Bay Area. Unfortunately it was unsuccessful.
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