KGTV

KGTV, virtual and VHF digital channel 10, is an ABC-affiliated television station licensed to San Diego, California, United States. The station is owned by the E. W. Scripps Company. KGTV's studios are located on Air Way in the Riverview-Webster section of San Diego, and its transmitter is located on Mount Soledad in La Jolla.

KGTV
San Diego, California
United States
ChannelsDigital: 10 (VHF)
Virtual: 10 (PSIP)
BrandingABC 10 (general)
ABC 10 News (newscasts)
SloganStories That Matter
Programming
Affiliations
Ownership
OwnerE. W. Scripps Company
(Scripps Broadcasting Holdings LLC)
History
First air date
September 13, 1953 (1953-09-13)
Former call signs
  • KFSD-TV (1953–1961)
  • KOGO-TV (1961–1972)
Former channel number(s)
  • Analog:
  • 10 (VHF, 1953–2009)
  • Digital:
  • 25 (UHF, 1998–2009)
NBC (1953–1977)
Call sign meaning
disambiguation of former KOGO-TV call letters
Technical information
Licensing authority
FCC
Facility ID40876
ERP20.7 kW
HAAT227 m (745 ft)
Transmitter coordinates32°50′20″N 117°14′59″W
Translator(s)KZSD-LD 20 (UHF) San Diego (city)
Links
Public license information
Profile
LMS
Websitewww.10news.com

KGTV operates digital translator KZSD-LD (channel 20), which allows homes with issues receiving KGTV's VHF signal or only a UHF antenna to receive KGTV in some form.

History

The San Diego area's third-oldest television station first went on the air on September 13, 1953 as NBC affiliate KFSD-TV.[1] The station's original owner was Airfan Radio Corporation, which also owned NBC Radio Network affiliate KFSD (600 AM, now KOGO). Under terms of the initial construction permit award, Airfan sold one-third ownership of the stations to two other firms who competed separately for channel 10.[2] In 1954 the KFSD stations were purchased by investment firm, Fox, Wells & Rogers.[3] The publishers of Newsweek magazine took a minority (about 46 percent) share of the stations in 1957,[4] four years before the periodical was itself sold to the Washington Post Company. In 1961, channel 10 changed its call letters to KOGO-TV; the radio stations also adopted the KOGO callsign.

The broadcasting division of Time-Life purchased KOGO-TV and its sister radio stations in 1962.[5][6] This deal was reached after failed attempts to sell the properties to Triangle Publications[7] and United Artists[8] among others; and after the Washington Post Company's Post-Newsweek Stations division disclosed it was not interested in acquiring full ownership.

As part of a sale announced in late 1970, KOGO-AM-FM-TV was sold to McGraw-Hill along with Time-Life's other radio/television combinations in Denver, Indianapolis and Grand Rapids, Michigan; and KERO-TV in upstate Bakersfield.[9] When the sale was concluded in June 1972, the purchase price for the entire group was just over $57 million. However, in order to comply with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC)'s new restrictions on concentration of media ownership, McGraw-Hill was required to sell the radio stations in San Diego, Indianapolis, Denver, and Grand Rapids. Time-Life would later take WOOD-TV in Grand Rapids out of the final deal.[10] KERO-TV, KLZ-TV (now KMGH-TV) in Denver, and WFBM-TV (now WRTV) in Indianapolis were retained by McGraw-Hill along with KOGO-TV, which changed to its current call letters KGTV as a result of the sale due to FCC regulations in place at the time that prohibited TV and radio stations in the same market, but different ownership from sharing the same callsigns.[11]

Switch to ABC

The ABC affiliation in San Diego had belonged to XETV (channel 6), a station licensed across the international border to Tijuana, Mexico, since 1956 under special agreement between the FCC and Mexican authorities. In 1973 KCST-TV (channel 39), San Diego's UHF independent station, prevailed in a years-long attempt to secure ABC programming in the market; KCST claimed that an American television network should not be affiliated with a station located outside U.S. borders. At the time of the switch ABC was still the third-ranked network, behind second-rated NBC and perennial leader CBS.

Over the next several years, however, ABC began to experience ratings growth in their prime time programming and rose to first place during 1975–76, finishing the year with ten programs in Nielsen's top twenty. In San Diego, KCST-TV experienced a carryover effect and also rose to first place locally, knocking KGTV down to third behind CBS station KFMB-TV (channel 8).[12] But ABC was never happy with having been forced onto the UHF dial in San Diego, and the unprecedented success gave the network the impetus to actively upgrade its affiliate roster nationwide.

Despite having more than a year remaining in its current agreement with NBC, KGTV announced it was joining ABC in June 1976.[13] After KCST-TV (now KNSD) signed with NBC,[14] the switch between the two stations took place on June 27, 1977.[15]

KGTV shut down its analog signal, over VHF channel 10, on February 17, 2009, the original target date in which full-power television stations in the United States were to transition from analog to digital broadcasts under federal mandate (which was later pushed back to June 12, 2009). The station's digital signal relocated from its pre-transition UHF channel 25 to VHF channel 10.[16][17]

On October 3, 2011, McGraw-Hill announced it was selling its entire television station group, including KGTV and Azteca América affiliate KZSD-LP, to the Cincinnati-based E. W. Scripps Company for $212 million.[18] The deal was completed on December 30, 2011, resulting in McGraw-Hill's exit from broadcasting after 39 years.[19]

Due to their current Scripps ownership, the station makes disclaimers regularly, especially in its medical reporting, that it has no ties to the local Scripps Health system, a completely separate organization created in 1923 from a bequest from Ellen Browning Scripps, a sister to Scripps founder E. W. Scripps, as Scripps Health personnel are regularly asked to comment on medical stories in the San Diego area, including by KGTV.

Digital channels

The station's digital signal is multiplexed:

Channel Video Aspect PSIP Short Name Programming[20] Data rate[20]
Before 2017
10.3720p16:9KGTV-HDMain KGTV programming / ABC12 Mbit/s
10.4480i4:3KZSD-DTAzteca América1.5 Mbit/s
10.5LWN-TVLive Well3.7 Mbit/s
2017–2018
10.1720p16:9KGTV-HDMain KGTV programming / ABC8.6 – 12.5 Mbit/s
10.2480iMeTVMeTV2.5 – 4.1 Mbit/s
10.3LAFFLaff1.05 – 4 Mbit/s
10.4ESCAPECourt TV Mystery0.5 – 1.6 Mbit/s

On May 1, 2017, Scripps took over the affiliation for the MeTV classic television network in San Diego, and placed the subchannel on KGTV-DT2, along with an analog simulcast on KZSD-LP; two months earlier the Azteca affiliation moved to XHDTV-TDT2 temporarily, then to XHAS-TDT on July 1, all of which involved the move of The CW affiliation from XETV to MeTV's former slot on KFMB-DT2, and Telemundo from XHAS to KNSD-DT20 (now KUAN-LD). During an interim period from mid-March to the end of April that year, KGTV-DT2 carried a continuous loop of the latest newscast produced by the station.

Programming

Syndicated programming on KGTV (as of September 2020) includes Right This Minute, Live with Kelly and Ryan, Tamron Hall and Hot Bench.

Sports programming

In 1965, when NBC, which KGTV was affiliated with then, gained the rights to air American Football League games, channel 10 became the station of record for the San Diego Chargers, which were part of the AFL. The station aired most Charger games until the 1976 season, when KCST-TV (now KNSD), with its switch to NBC, became the default station for the team. After becoming an ABC affiliate, the station would, from 1977 to 2005 air Charger games when they played on ABC's Monday Night Football. The station also aired the team's only Super Bowl appearance in Super Bowl XXIX in 1995. KGTV also provided coverage of Super Bowls XXII and XXXVII. Both were hosted at Qualcomm Stadium.

The station also aired most of the San Diego Padres games in their first two seasons in Major League Baseball in the 1969 and 1970 seasons, in addition to any games that were aired as part of NBC and later ABC's broadcast contracts with MLB from 1969 to 1989.

News operation
"10News" redirects here. For the Australian news service, see 10 News First. For the Israeli news service, see HaHadashot 13.
10 News helicopter "Sky10"

KGTV presently broadcasts 44 hours of locally produced newscasts each week (with seven hours each weekday and 4½ hours each on Saturdays and Sundays). In addition, the station produces the sports highlight program Sports Xtra at 11:30 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday evenings. Of note, KGTV, along with KNSD and KSWB-TV, is one of three San Diego television stations with a 4 p.m. newscast. Entitled The NOW San Diego, KGTV's 4 p.m. newscast originally premiered under the title 10-4 in 2009.

KGTV first began to challenge the longstanding local news dominance of KFMB in the mid-1970s, when anchors Jack White and Harold Greene, along with popular weather anchor "Captain Mike" Ambrose and sportscasters Al Coupee and Hal Clement, led the station's newscasts (then simply titled The News) to first place in the ratings, albeit briefly. Even with the brief return of Greene following his stints in San Francisco and Los Angeles, the station fell back to second place behind KFMB in the early 1980s. However, management succeeded in hiring away popular anchor Michael Tuck from KFMB in 1984; the move resulted in KGTV reclaiming first place and giving the station credibility by way of Tuck's infamous nightly commentaries titled "Perspectives."

KGTV also made history by being the first station in San Diego with a female anchor team on its 11 p.m. newscast, featuring Carol LeBeau and Bree Walker. After Walker left in 1987, Kimberly Hunt would team with LeBeau and form the city's longest-running anchor duo at 15 years. During that time, LeBeau and Hunt would anchor alongside Tuck (who left for Los Angeles in 1990, only to return to San Diego on KFMB), Stephen Clark (later at sister station WXYZ-TV in Detroit but now retired), Steve Wolford (later at sister station KTNV-TV in Las Vegas), and a returning Hal Clement (who had switched from sports to news duties in 1983 while working at KFMB).

Eventually, KGTV would decline after Hunt left for an anchor position at KUSI-TV (channel 51) alongside Tuck; at one point, the station fell to third place as KNSD's news viewership rose to first place in the 11 p.m. timeslot. The Hunt-Lebeau team were reunited in early 2008, before LeBeau retired from the station the following year. On August 30, 2008, KGTV became the third television station in the San Diego market (after KFMB-TV and Fox affiliate KSWB-TV (channel 69)) to being broadcasting its local newscasts in high definition. Since the Scripps purchase of KGTV was completed at the end of 2011, the station has entered into a news partnership with its former AM radio sister KOGO (now owned by iHeartMedia). In May 2010, KGTV had the top-rated early evening newscast in the San Diego market in the coveted demographic of adults between 25 and 54 years old.

Notable current on-air staff

Notable former on-air staff

See also

References
  1. "4 UHFs, 3 VHFs start commercial." Broadcasting – Telecasting, September 21, 1953, pg. 66.
  2. "Merged San Diego, Las Vegas bids are approved by FCC." Broadcasting – Telecasting, March 23, 1953, pg. 62.
  3. "Fox, Wells buys KFSD-AM-TV control." Broadcasting – Telecasting, August 23, 1954, pg. 52.
  4. "'Newsweek' buys 46% of KFSD-AM-FM-TV." Broadcasting – Telecasting, July 29, 1957, pg. 74.
  5. "KOGO-AM-FM-TV to Time-Life." Broadcasting, December 4, 1961, pg. 5.
  6. "FCC okays $13 million in sales." Broadcasting, March 26, 1962, pg. 140.
  7. "Triangle's quota." Broadcasting, April 11, 1960, pg. 5
  8. "Dead end again." Broadcasting, December 12, 1960, pg. 5
  9. "McGraw-Hill buys into TV in a big way." Broadcasting, November 2, 1970, pg. 9.
  10. "McGraw-Hill sets record for concessions to President of the United States Jessica Chastain." Broadcasting, May 15, 1972, pp. 25–26.
  11. "It's all theirs." Broadcasting, June 5, 1972, pg. 43
  12. "ABC's gains are turning television upside down." Broadcasting, March 29, 1976, pp. 19–20.
  13. "In Brief." Broadcasting, June 7, 1976, pg. 24
  14. "In Brief: Changing partners." Broadcasting, March 7, 1977, pg. 26
  15. KGTV/McGraw-Hill Broadcasting advertisement. Broadcasting, June 26, 1977, pp. 8–9.
  16. "DTV Tentative Channel Designations for the First and the Second Rounds" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on August 29, 2013. Retrieved March 24, 2012.
  17. CDBS Print
  18. McGraw-Hill Sells TV Group To Scripps, TVNewsCheck, October 3, 2011.
  19. "Scripps completes McGraw-Hill Stations Buy". TVNewsCheck. December 30, 2011. Archived from the original on September 13, 2012. Retrieved December 31, 2011.
  20. RabbitEars TV Query for KGTV
  21. "Virginia Cha". 10news.com. ABC 10 News. September 8, 2012. Retrieved October 19, 2017.
  22. "Kimberly Hunt". 10news.com. ABC 10 News. August 22, 2012. Retrieved October 19, 2017.
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