KOAT-TV

KOAT-TV

Albuquerque/Santa Fe, New Mexico United States
City	Albuquerque/Santa Fe
Branding	KOAT 7 (general) Action 7 News (newscasts)
Slogan	Coverage You Can Count On
Channels	Digital: 7 (VHF) Virtual: 7 (PSIP)
Subchannels	7.1 ABC 7.2 Estrella TV
Owner	Hearst Television, Inc. (KOAT Hearst Television, Inc.)
First air date	September 28, 1953 (1953-09-28)
Call letters' meaning	COAT or KO Albuquerque Television
Former channel number(s)	Analog: 7 (VHF, 1953–2009) Digital: 21 (UHF, 2002–2009)
Former affiliations	Secondary: DuMont (1953–1955)
Transmitter power	26.5 kW
Height	1292 m
Facility ID	53928
Transmitter coordinates	35°12′53.3″N 106°27′2.7″W / 35.214806°N 106.450750°W / 35.214806; -106.450750
Licensing authority	FCC
Public license information:	Profile CDBS
Website	www.koat.com

KOAT-TV, channel 7, is an ABC network affiliated television station serving Albuquerque, New Mexico. Its transmitter is located on Sandia Crest, northeast of Albuquerque, and has studios located on Carlisle Boulevard in Northeast Albuquerque.

History

Television

KOAT signed on September 28, 1953, less than a week before KGGM-TV (now KRQE). It was locally owned by Albert M Cadwell & Walter Stiles. The station signed on as an ABC affiliate. In 1957 KOAT was sold to Alvarado Television (the owner of KVOA in Tucson, Arizona),^[1] and in 1962 both stations were sold to Steinman Stations, who owned WGAL-TV in Lancaster, Pennsylvania and later acquired WTEV (now WLNE-TV) in New Bedford, Massachusetts.

Steinman sold both KOAT and KVOA to Pulitzer, the then-owner of KSD-TV (now KSDK) in St. Louis, in 1969.^{[2] [3]} This made KOAT Pulitzer's second television station acquisition outside of its home city of St. Louis; the KOAT acquisition was consummated a year after Pulitzer closed on its purchase of KVOA. A decade later, the other two Steinman stations were sold to Pulitzer as well, reuniting them with KOAT (KVOA was spun off in 1972).

In 1999, Pulitzer sold its entire broadcasting division, including KOAT and WGAL, to Hearst-Argyle. In mid-2009 the Hearst Corporation, already majority owner of what was Hearst-Argyle Television, bought out all of the then-publicly traded shares and changed the broadcasting group's name to Hearst Television.

KOAT uses a version of the Circle 7 logo used by many other ABC stations, both owned-and-operated stations and affiliates. The "Circle 7" logo has been used at KOAT since 1971 and the Action News title since 1974.^[4]

Radio

KOAT AM went on the air in 1946 at 1450 kHz on the ABC network.^[5][6]

A KOAT radio remote appears frequently in the 1951 Billy Wilder film, Ace in the Hole.^[7]

1450 kHz in Albuquerque is now KRZY.

Digital television

Digital channels

The station's digital signal is multiplexed:

Analog-to-digital conversion

KOAT-TV shut down its analog signal, over VHF channel 7, on June 12, 2009, the official date in which full-power television stations in the United States transitioned from analog to digital broadcasts under federal mandate. The station's digital signal relocated from its pre-transition UHF channel 21 to VHF channel 7.^[9]

Satellite stations

KOAT-TV formerly operated three satellite stations, which rebroadcast its signal and add local content for other parts of the broadcast market:

Notes:

• 1. KOFT never operated its analog signal; its digital station was operated via Special Temporary Authorization.
• 2. The Broadcasting and Cable Yearbook says KOVT signed on September 9, while the Television and Cable Factbook says it signed on September 10.

KOCT, formerly KAVE-TV and KVIO-TV, became part of the KOAT-TV operation in 1993 after previously serving as a satellite of El Paso ABC affiliate KVIA-TV.^[10] The Carlsbad station began in 1956 as KAVE-TV, a CBS/NTA Film Network^[11] affiliate with studio and transmitter facilities on Church Street in Carlsbad. In 1966, when Roswell, New Mexico station KBIM-TV became the CBS affiliate for southeastern New Mexico, KAVE became a satellite station of then-ABC affiliate KMOM-TV in Monahans, Texas (now NBC affiliate KWES-TV, Midland-Odessa, Texas) and then of KVIA-TV in El Paso in 1976.

Hearst-Argyle surrendered the license of KOFT to the FCC on November 13, 2007,^[12] though its license was not canceled until May 5, 2010.^[13] Hearst then informed the FCC on July 18, 2012 that it would discontinue the operations of KOCT and KOVT; their licenses were canceled on August 1.^[14][15] The move was made to eliminate the need to maintain the KOCT and KOVT public files in their respective cities due to FCC regulations which went into effect on that date; both stations were promptly replaced with KOAT translator stations on the same channels to continue providing service to both cities.^[16]

In addition, there are several low-powered repeaters that carry KOAT's programming throughout New Mexico, northeastern Arizona and southern Colorado.

Programming

Syndicated programming on KOAT includes: Entertainment Tonight, Ellen, The Dr. Oz Show, and Live! with Kelly and Michael.

News operation

Ordinarily, KOAT produces just over four hours of local news each weekday, and 4½ hours each on Saturdays and Sundays. The station's newscasts, known as Action 7 News, have led the ratings in New Mexico for over 30 years. Weather forecaster Howard Morgan worked at KOAT for 28 years before retiring in 1999.

KOAT is also one of six ABC affiliates and one of three Hearst-owned ABC stations to have an hour-long 10 p.m. newscast, along with KITV in Honolulu and WISN in Milwaukee; as well as KRGV in Weslaco, Texas, KSTP in Saint Paul, Minnesota, KIFI in Idaho Falls, Idaho and WEAR in Pensacola, Florida.

References

External links

• Official website
• Query the FCC's TV station database for KOAT
• BIAfn's Media Web Database -- Information on KOAT-TV