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|---|---|
| City | Seattle, Washington |
| Channels | |
| Branding | KING 5 |
| Programming | |
| Affiliations |
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| Ownership | |
| Owner |
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| KONG | |
| History | |
First air date | November 25, 1948 (76 years ago) (1948-11-25) |
Former call signs | KRSC-TV (1948–1949) |
Former channel numbers |
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Call sign meaning | King Broadcasting Company |
| Technical information[2] | |
Licensing authority | FCC |
| Facility ID | 34847 |
| ERP | 715kW |
| HAAT | 232.1 m (761 ft) |
| Transmitter coordinates | 47°37′54″N122°21′3″W / 47.63167°N 122.35083°W /47.63167; -122.35083 |
| Links | |
Public license information | |
| Website | www |
KING-TV (channel 5) is atelevision station inSeattle, Washington, United States, affiliated withNBC. It is owned byTegna Inc. alongsideEverett-licensedKONG (channel 16), anindependent station. The two stations share studios at the Home Plate Center in theSoDo district of Seattle; KING-TV's transmitter is located in the city'sQueen Anne neighborhood.
Debuting as the first television station in thePacific Northwest, channel 5 was purchased by and became the flagship station ofDorothy Bullitt'sKing Broadcasting Company eight months into broadcasting; the company still exists as a license holder for its properties under Tegna ownership. The station became an NBC affiliate in 1959 and has generally led the Seattle television market since.
Channel 5 first took to the air as KRSC-TV on November 25, 1948,[3] becoming the first television station in thePacific Northwest (within six years, it became the Pacific Northwest's firstcolor broadcaster on July 1, 1954[4]). The station was originally owned by Palmer K. Leberman's Radio Sales Corporation, which also operated KRSC radio (1150 AM, nowKKNW, and FM 98.1, nowKING-FM); the original callsign was derived from Leberman's company.[5] The first broadcast on channel 5 was a live remote of aThanksgiving Dayhigh school football game – the telecast was plagued with technical difficulties, but local viewers reported being impressed nonetheless.[6][7] Channel 5 was originally a primaryCBS affiliate,[8] and carried secondary affiliations with NBC,ABC andDuMont.[9]
Eight months after the television station debuted, KRSC-TV and KRSC-FM were purchased byKing Broadcasting Company, owners of KING radio (1090 AM, nowKPTR) and the original KING-FM (94.9, frequency now occupied byKUOW-FM), for $375,000 in May 1949.[10] The station changed its callsign to KING-TV to match its radio sisters[11] (according to legend, King Broadcasting presidentDorothy Bullitt purchased the KING call letters while on a fishing boat).[citation needed] For many years, the stations' logo was "King Mike", ananthropomorphizedmicrophone inermine robes and acrown, drawn by cartoonistWalt Disney[12][13][14] (its sister stations inPortland, Oregon, KGW-AM-FM-TV, used a similar logo, called "Pioneer Mike";[citation needed] the King Mike logo was later brought back for KING's 50th anniversary in 1998 and still appears in promotional announcements to this day).
Once theFederal Communications Commission (FCC)-imposedfreeze on television station license awards ended in 1952, KING-TV lost its monopoly in the market. During 1953, the Seattle–Tacoma area received three new stations: KTNT-TV (channel 11, nowKSTW) debuted in March as the market's CBS outlet; while NBC went to KMO-TV (channel 13, nowKCPQ), which signed on in August. NBC moved a few months later toKOMO-TV (channel 4), which went on the air in December. By the end of the year, KING-TV was left with poor-performing ABC and DuMont, the latter of which ceased operations in 1956. Subsequently, Bullitt lobbied NBC for a group affiliation for her stations, and in October 1958, KING-TV and KGW-TV in Portland began carrying NBC programming.[15] In Seattle, channel 5 shared NBC and ABC with KOMO-TV for most of the1958–59 television season. On September 27, 1959, KING-TV became an exclusive NBC station and KOMO-TV affiliated with ABC full-time. KING-TV is one of a few handful of stations in the country to have held a primary affiliation with all of the "Big Three" networks.[16][17][18]
Dissatisfied with Stimson Bullitt's management style, Dorothy Bullitt, and Mr. Bullitt's sisters, arranged for his voluntary resignation from King Broadcasting in 1972.[citation needed] Stimson sold his company shares to his sisters, Harriet and Patsy. He then received control of the family's real estate interests. Ancil Payne, who had served as general manager of the company's Portland stations since 1965, became president and CEO. By the 1970s and 1980s, KING-TV was theflagship of a growing regional media empire which at various times included ventures in publishing, the film industry, cable television systems (under the name ofKing Videocable, the assets of which have by now been absorbed intoComcast) and even various timber assets in theFar East.[citation needed]
Locally produced programs that debuted on the station during the 1970s and 1980s includedSeattle Today/Good Company, a mid-morning talk show hosted by Cliff Lenz and Shirley Hudson and later by Susan Michaels and Colby Chester;Seattle Tonight, Tonite!, hosted by Ross McGowan and later Dick Klinger;Almost Live!, originally a Sunday night talk and comedy show hosted byRoss Shafer, that later became an ensemble sketch comedy show (that eventually moved to Saturday nights) after Shafer left to become host ofThe Late Show onFox; and a localEvening Magazine franchise, first hosted by Penny LeGate and Brian Tracey. Of these, onlyEvening Magazine (now entitled simplyEvening) exists today.How Come?, a half-hour early Sunday evening family television program hosted by Al Wallace, won several awards during its run during the 1970s and early 1980s. The show covered topics on how things were made or done in the world. Dick Klinger hosted the show after Al Wallace died.
King Broadcasting's stations included KGW radio and television in Portland,KREM-TV inSpokane,KTVB-TV inBoise,KHNL-TV andKFVE inHonolulu andKYA radio inSan Francisco. Long-time station-owner Dorothy Bullitt died in June 1989. Dorothy Bullitt's daughters Harriet Bullitt andPriscilla "Patsy" Bullitt Collins decided to sell the King assets in 1992—eventually selling King Broadcasting (including KING, KREM, KGW, KTVB, KHNL/KFVE and the cable provider assets) to The Providence Journal Company. KING-TV and other King Broadcasting stations later becameBelo properties as a result of that company's merger with The Providence Journal Company in 1997.[19] As a result, Belo was forced to divestKIRO-TV toCox Enterprises in order to keep the higher rated KING-TV.
Bonneville International Corporation purchased KING (AM) in 1994. During the 1990s,Almost Live!, as it became a pure comedy show, launched the careers ofBill Nye the Science Guy,Joel McHale (ofThe Soup fame) nationally and locally,Pat Cashman andJohn Keister (who replaced Ross Shafer as host of that show in 1988). KING-TV was also the home forWatch This!, a fast-pacedEmmy Award-winning show aimed at children and teenagers;[citation needed] the show lasted five years and was hosted by local anchors, Jim Dever and Mimi Gan. On December 18, 1995, King Broadcasting launchedNorthwest Cable News (NWCN), which was a24-hour regionalcable news channel available primarily tocable providers in Washington, Oregon, andIdaho with lesser cable coverage inAlaska,Montana andCalifornia.Almost Live! ended after 15 years in 1999.
On June 13, 2013, theGannett Company announced that it would acquire Belo.[20] The sale was completed on December 23.[21] On June 29, 2015, Gannett's newspaper business was spun out, with KING-TV and Gannett's former TV properties renamedTegna.[22][23]
In April 2014, KING-TV announced plans to sell itsSouth Lake Union headquarters and re-locate, taking advantage of a boomingreal estate market in the South Union Lake area. In September 2014, it was reported that the station was planning to lease multiple floors at the Home Plate Center, a complex in theSoDo area of Seattle, and located across the street fromT-Mobile Park (formerly Safeco Field). In March 2015, Gannett confirmed that KING, KONG, and NWCN would move to the lower three floors of the Home Plate Center, and announced plans for KING-TV to utilize the lower floor for the market's first street-side studio.[19][24] The former facilities were sold to Kilroy Realty for nearly $50 million, and were demolished during the summer of 2016, and would be replaced by mixed-use developments.[25][26]
The choice of a smaller location was in response to concerns that the large size of its previous facility inhibited collaboration. The ground floor contains two studios: a street-side studio for KING-TV's news programming, and the other for local productions such asNew Day Northwest. The newsroom is located on the second floor, and contained NWCN's main set. The new facility was equipped with newGrass Valley master control, graphics, and playout hardware, andSonyautomation equipment.[27] After broadcasting its final newscast from the North Dexter Avenue studio on February 12, 2016, KING quietly transitioned its master control to Home Plate Center during that night's broadcast ofLate Night with Seth Meyers, and began broadcasting newscasts from the new facility the following morning.[27][28]
On January 6, 2017, NWCN was shut down due to declining viewership, the free online streaming of KING and KONG's newscasts, and the reluctance of local cable systems to pay more for the channel to keep it operating.[29]
KING-TV relies less on syndicated programming and more on the station's newscasts and local programming. As of December 2023, KING-TV broadcasts only twosyndicated programs during its weekday schedule,Extra andInside Edition. Despite this, KING-TV was airing3+1⁄2 hours of syndicated programming prior to September 2013.[30]
OnNew Year's Eve, KING-TV broadcasts coverage of the fireworks show on theSpace Needle.[31]
KING-TV opted not to carryNBC's telecasts of theStanley Cup Finals in2006,[citation needed]2007,2008 and2013, when the games began at 5 p.m.Pacific time, choosing to instead air its regular lineup of local newscasts and syndicated shows. KONG picked up the NBC telecasts of the games, andCBC Television's broadcasts of the games were available to most cable providers in the region through the network'sVancouverowned-and-operated stationCBUT. For the 2007 and 2008 Stanley Cup Finals, however, KING-TV aired NBC's Saturday night telecasts, while KONG aired the other NBC telecasts. As for the2009 Stanley Cup Finals, KING-TV aired games 1, 2 and 5 while KONG aired games 6 and 7.
KING-TV has been the official television partner of theSeattle Seahawks since2022, airing preseason games and team-focused shows; previous stints with the team were held from1981 to2000 and again from2004 to2011 (sister station KONG carried Seahawks preseason games in2003 and 2004).[32] The station also airs Seahawks games throughNBC's broadcast contract with theNFL (viaSunday Night Football; it has also served as the team's unofficial home station, carrying most games from1977 to1997 when the team played in theAFC, which NBC held the broadcast rights to in those years). Notably, this included the Seahawks' appearance inSuper Bowl XLIX. Both KING-TV and KONG served as official television broadcasters of the city'sMajor League Soccer clubSeattle Sounders FC from2009 to2013, in which KONG aired a weekly magazine program on Sunday nights during the season calledSounders FC Weekly, and was rebroadcast Mondays on sister cable channel Northwest Cable News.
KING-TV also broadcast allSeattle SuperSonics games covered throughNBC's NBA broadcast contract from1990 to2002, including the team's1996 NBA Finals appearance. It also aired selectSeattle Mariners games viaNBC's MLB broadcast contract from1977 to1989, and for thepostseason only from1995 to2000.
Beginning in the2024–25 season, KING airs selectSeattle Kraken NHL games as co-flagship of theKraken Hockey Network, with the majority of regional games being carried by KONG.[33][34] With the team's move to theBig Ten Conference in the2024 season, KING may also occasionally airWashington Huskies football games as part of NBC'scollege football coverage.[35]
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KING-TV presently broadcasts 46 hours of locally produced newscasts each week (with seven hours each weekday, six hours on Saturdays and five hours on Sundays).
In 1999, to compete against KOMO-TV, KING-TV began broadcasting its newscasts inhigh definition; at the time it only had one HD-capable studio camera. In April 2007, KING-TV upgraded all of its studio cameras, graphics and weather system to high definition and began broadcasting its public affairs programming in HD as well.[36] Field reports continued to be broadcast instandard definition (480i converted to1080i HD for telecast) but were taped in a16:9 aspect ratio, giving the appearance of high-definition. According to KING-TV, it is "Seattle's First HD Newscast".[37]
Following its sale to the company, KING-TV adopted Gannett's standardized newscast presentation (which used a color coding system modeled upon co-owned newspaperUSA Today.[38][39]
The station's signal ismultiplexed:
| Channel | Res. | Aspect | Short name | Programming |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5.1 | 1080i | 16:9 | KING-HD | NBC |
| 5.2 | 480i | Crime | True Crime Network | |
| 5.3 | Quest | Quest | ||
| 5.4 | THE-365 | The365 | ||
| 5.5 | QVC2 | QVC2 | ||
| 16.1 | 1080i | 16:9 | KONG-HD | KONG (Independent) |
On December 6, 2011, Belo signed an agreement with the Live Well Network to affiliate withdigital subchannels of KING-TV and Spokane sister stationKSKN; Live Well Network replacedUniversal Sports on digital subchannel 5.2 onJanuary 1, 2012, as Universal Sports transitioned into a cable and satellite channel during the first quarter of 2012.[52] Justice Network replaced Live Well Network on 5.2 in January 2015.
KING-TV ended regular programming over its analog signal, on June 12, 2009, as part of thefederally mandated transition from analog to digital television.[53] As the "analog nightlight" station for the Seattle–Tacoma market, it aired a loop reminding viewers to get a digital converter box on analog channel 5 until June 26, 2009.[54] The station's digital signal remained on its pre-transitionUHF channel 48, usingvirtual channel 5.[55][56]
KING-TV is one of five Seattle television stations that are available in Canada onsatellite providersBell Satellite TV andShaw Direct, and is available to most cable subscribers in the Vancouver–Victoria, British Columbia, area as the NBC affiliate. The station is also carried on several cable providers in southeastern Alaska and northwestern Oregon, as well as in theYakima DMA cities ofCle Elum[57] andEllensburg,[58] with NBC programming and some syndicated showsblacked out due to FCC regulations. KING-TV is also carried inThe Bahamas on REV TV.[59]
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Broadcast television stations by affiliation in the state ofWashington | ||
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Includes stations in out-of-state TV markets, but reaching a portion of Washington | ||
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| The CW | ||
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