| ATSC 3.0 station | |
|---|---|
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| Channels | |
| Branding | Fox 11 Plus |
| Programming | |
| Affiliations |
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| Ownership | |
| Owner | Fox Television Stations, LLC |
| KTTV | |
| History | |
First air date | September 17, 1948 (77 years ago) (1948-09-17) |
Former call signs |
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Former channel numbers |
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Call sign meaning | Copley Press (former owners) |
| Technical information[1] | |
Licensing authority | FCC |
| Facility ID | 33742 |
| ERP | 120kW |
| HAAT | 905 m (2,969 ft) |
| Transmitter coordinates | 34°13′29″N118°3′51″W / 34.22472°N 118.06417°W /34.22472; -118.06417 |
| Translator(s) | see§ Translators |
| Links | |
Public license information | |
| Website | www |
KCOP-TV (channel 13), brandedFox 11 Plus, is atelevision station inLos Angeles, California, United States. It is theWest Coastflagship station of theMyNetworkTV programming service,owned and operated by theFox Television Stations group. Under common ownership withFox outletKTTV (channel 11), the two stations share studios at the Fox Television Center on South Bundy Drive inWest Los Angeles; KCOP-TV's transmitter is located atopMount Wilson.
Channel 13 first signed on the air on September 17, 1948, as KLAC-TV (standing for Los Angeles, California), and adopted the moniker "Lucky 13". It was originally co-owned with local radio stationKLAC (570 AM). Operating as anindependent station early on, it began running some programming from theDuMont Television Network[2] in 1949 afterKTLA (channel 5) ended its affiliation with the network after a one-year tenure. One of KLAC-TV's earlier stars was veteran actressBetty White, who starred inAl Jarvis's Make-Believe Ballroom (laterHollywood on Television) from 1949 to 1952, and then her own sitcom,Life with Elizabeth from 1952 to 1956. Television personalityRegis Philbin and actor/directorLeonard Nimoy once worked behind the scenes at channel 13, andOscar Levant had his own show on the station from 1958 to 1960.
On December 23, 1953, the now-defunctCopley Press (publishers of theSan Diego Union-Tribune) purchased KLAC-TV and changed its call letters to the current KCOP, which reflected their ownership.[3] ABing Crosby-led group purchased the station in June 1957.[4] In 1959, the NAFI Corporation, which would later merge with Chris-Craft Boats to becomeChris-Craft Industries, bought channel 13.[5] NAFI/Chris-Craft would be channel 13's longest-tenured owner, running it for over 40 years.[6]
For most of its first 46 years on the air, channel 13 was a typical general entertainment independent station. It was usually the third or fourth highest-rated independent inSouthern California, trading the No. 3 spot with KHJ-TV (channel 9, nowKCAL-TV).[citation needed] The station carriedOperation Prime Time programming at least in 1978.[7]
In the early 1980s, KCOP became one of the many stations in the U.S. to broadcastStar Fleet (akaX-Bomber), a science-fiction marionette series which originally debuted in Japan in 1980.
During the 1980s and early 1990s, it was the Los Angeles home ofStar Trek: The Next Generation (as well asThe Original Series before it, as early as 1970),The Arsenio Hall Show andBaywatch.[8] KCOP was the original Los Angeles home of the syndicated version ofWheel of Fortune (its longtime announcer until his death in 2010,Charlie O'Donnell, was a former staff announcer and news anchor at KCOP). The station had also picked upJeopardy! fromKCBS-TV (channel 2) in 1985. Both game shows moved to KCBS-TV in 1989, and later to current homeKABC-TV (channel 7) in 1992. Channel 13 aired select episodes of the Australian soap operaNeighbours from early June to late August 1991. The station tried airing movies six nights a week in 1992; however, they fared poorly.
KCOP partnered withWWOR-TV andMCA TV Entertainment on a two night programming block,Hollywood Premiere Network starting in October 1990.[9] KCOP carried thePrime Time Entertainment Network programming service from 1993 to 1995.[10] KCOP carriedSpelling Premiere Network at its launch in August 1994 on Thursday nights.[11]
On October 27, 1993, Chris-Craft and its broadcasting subsidiary,United Television, partnered withViacom's newly acquired subsidiaryParamount Pictures to form the United Paramount Network (UPN), making KCOP the network's Los Angeles affiliate. UPN debuted on January 16, 1995. In 1996, Viacom bought 50% of UPN from Chris-Craft. At the network's launch, which also served to launch Paramount'sStar Trek: Voyager, KCOP served as UPN's West Coast "flagship" station. During the late 1990s, the station began carrying a large amount of younger leaning talk shows (such asThe Ricki Lake Show,The Jenny Jones Show, andThe Montel Williams Show), reality series, some sitcoms during the evening, and syndicated cartoons (such asDouble Dragon) in the morning well as the popular anime seriesSailor Moon.
In 2000, Viacom boughtCBS and Chris-Craft's 50% ownership interest in UPN. On August 12, 2000, Chris-Craft agreed to sell its television stations to theFox Television Stations subsidiary ofNews Corporation for $5.5 billion;[12] a deal that was finalized on July 31, 2001, creating aduopoly with Fox O&O KTTV. Upon being sold to Fox, theFox Kids weekday block moved to KCOP in the mid-afternoons, only for it to be discontinued nationwide in January 2002.[13] KCOP still ran UPN'sDisney's One Too block during the morning until the network ended the block's run in 2003. Soon after, the station ran an hour-long morning cartoon block (supplied byDIC Entertainment), but dropped cartoons entirely in September 2006. Channel 13 was the last local television station to air cartoons on weekdays; like the other local stations, the cartoons were replaced withinfomercials. In a separate transaction from its purchase of UPN, Viacom purchased KCOP's rival, KCAL-TV, fromYoung Broadcasting on June 1, 2002. Rumors persisted that UPN would move to the higher-rated KCAL, reverting KCOP to independent station status. However, Viacom decided to continue operating KCAL as an independent, as Fox renewed affiliation agreements for its UPN-affiliated stations for four years, keeping the network's programming on KCOP.
With Fox's acquisition of KCOP, the station abandoned its longtimeHollywood studios at 915 North La Brea Avenue (once home to the classicBarry & Enright-produced game showsThe Joker's Wild andTic-Tac-Dough, and short-lived B&E entryPlay the Percentages) with KCOP's news and technical operations being moved into KTTV's facilities at the Fox Television Center in West Los Angeles in 2003.[14] The La Brea Avenue studio was put up for sale, with Fox electing to keep the facility, remodeling it to house the first two seasons of the reality seriesHell's Kitchen.[15] It was eventually abandoned with fixtures in place, and became a haven forsquatters who were evicted by police in May 2009.[16] The studio was eventually torn down, and currently the site is now aSprouts store, with a large apartment complex that opened November 2015.[17]
On January 24, 2006, theWarner Bros. unit ofTime Warner andCBS Corporation announced that the two companies would shut down UPN andThe WB and combine the networks' respective programming to create a new "fifth" network calledThe CW.[18][19] KTLA, which had been themarket's WB affiliate since the network's January 1995 launch, became The CW's Los Angeles affiliate as part of a 10-year affiliation deal between the new network and KTLA's owner,Tribune Broadcasting.
The CW's initial affiliate list did not include any of Fox's UPN stations, but even without the Tribune affiliation deal, it is unlikely that KCOP would have been picked over KTLA as The CW's management was on record as preferring The WB and UPN's "strongest" affiliates – KTLA had led KCOP in the ratings dating back to when they were both independent stations. The day after the announcement of The CW's pending launch, on January 25, 2006, Fox dropped all network references from its UPN stations' on-air branding, and stopped promoting UPN's programs altogether. Accordingly, KCOP changed its branding from "UPN 13" to "Channel 13", and amended the station's 2002 logo to omit the UPN logo and just feature the boxed "13". On February 22, 2006, News Corporation announced the launch of a new "sixth" network calledMyNetworkTV, which would have KCOP and the other Fox-owned UPN stations (plus independent stationKDFI inDallas–Fort Worth) as the core group of stations.[20][21]
UPN continued to broadcast on stations across the country until September 15, 2006. While some of the network's affiliates that switched to MyNetworkTV (which commenced operations on September 5, 2006) aired the final two weeks of UPN programs outside of its recommended prime time slot, the Fox-owned stations, including KCOP, dropped UPN entirely on August 31, 2006. In September 2006, the station began identifying itself as "MyNetworkTV, Channel 13"; the branding changed again in May 2007, simplified to "My13 Los Angeles".
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On July 12, 2021, KCOP-TV changed its on-air branding to KCOP 13, dropping the MyNetworkTV branding. The change of branding was accompanied by a move of MyNetworkTV programming to late night (see below) and carrying Decades (nowCatchy Comedy) programming on weekdays from 10 a.m. to 2 pm, simulcasting the programming on sister KTTV's 11.4 subchannel.[22]
As of September 14, 2015, the station began airing other programming in MyNetworkTV's traditional 8–10 p.m. timeslot, includingTMZ Live andHollywood Today Live; MyNetworkTV's schedule was thus carried out of prime time in late night from 11:30 p.m. to 1:30 a.m. on weeknights. This made KCOP the most high-profile station carrying MyNetworkTV to move it out of prime time, along with the first Fox-owned station to do so (Chicago-basedWPWR-TV, licensed toGary, Indiana, moved MyNetworkTV programming to 10 p.m.–midnight on September 1, 2016, after assuming that market's CW affiliation from Tribune-ownedWGN-TV, taking The CW as its primary affiliation; WPWR would later move MyNetworkTV programming to 9–11 p.m. CT).
A year later, with the failure ofHollywood Today Live and KCOP's other alternate programming, KCOP returned MyNetworkTV back to the 8–10 p.m. slot. On July 12, 2021, MyNetworkTV's programming was again moved to late-nights (midnight to 2 am), with off-network sitcoms filling prime time. As part of this, the station rebranded itself from "My13" to "KCOP 13".[23] In January 2023, KCOP rebranded as "Fox 11 Plus", a branding scheme used by other Fox-owned MyNetworkTV stations that aligns them as a companion to their parent Fox station.[23] On July 3, 2023, KCOP replaced the simulcast of Catchy Comedy programming with airings ofLaw & Order: Special Victims Unit from 10 a.m. to noon, followed by the syndicatedDateline andTMZ Live. The schedule change also eliminated airings ofFox Soul'sBlack Report and theFox Weather programming segments. At some point between then and September, the MyNetworkTV schedule was moved to earlier in the day, from 2 p.m. to 4 pm. However, starting the week of December 11, it was moved back to the traditional 8 p.m. to 10 p.m. slot.
KCOP-TV may air Fox network programming should it be preempted by KTTV for long-form breaking news or severe weather coverage or other special programming.
Channel 13 served as the broadcast home of theLos Angeles Marathon from its inception in 1986 until 2001, theNBA'sLos Angeles Clippers from 1991 to 1996,[24]MLB'sLos Angeles Dodgers from 2002 to 2005, MLB'sLos Angeles Angels from 2006 to 2019 and since 2021, MLS'sLos Angeles FC from 2021 to 2022 and theNHL'sAnaheim Ducks since 2024.
Like many local stations in the earlier years of television, KCOP hosted its own weeklyStudio Wrestling show for many years during the 1970s. Stars such asFreddie Blassie,John Tolos,Rocky Johnson,André the Giant andThe Sheik headlined the shows, with longtime local announcerDick Lane behind the microphone calling the action.[25] In later years, pro wrestling returned to KCOP by way ofWWE's secondary flagship television programSmackdown!, which aired on the station from 1999 to 2006 (as a UPN affiliate) and again from 2008 to 2010 (as a MyNetworkTV O&O). In the past, Channel 13 also aired other wrestling programs, includingWorld Class Championship Wrestling and theNWA. Channel 13 also televised live boxing matches, originating from theGrand Olympic Auditorium indowntown Los Angeles, on and off from the late 1960s until as recently as the mid-1990s, with legendary Los Angeles sportscasterJim Healy calling the action in the early years.[26]
From 2005 to 2007, KCOP carriedSt. Louis Rams preseason games produced by now-former corporate siblingsFox Sports Midwest andKTVI. Back in the 1950s during the team's early years in Los Angeles, the station broadcast many Rams regular season games before NFL games became more exclusive to the major broadcast networks (such asCBS,NBC and DuMont). However, in July 2008, the NFL's broadcast committee decided to no longer allow teams to broadcast preseason games beyond even their secondary markets. This was done more so to protect the league's broadcast partners, including KCBS-TV and KTLA, the respective local broadcasters ofSan Diego Chargers andOakland Raiders preseason games.[27]
From 2006 to 2011, KCOP held the broadcast television rights toLos Angeles Angels of Anaheim baseball; the team and Fox Sports West (nowFanDuel Sports Network West) signed a 20-year broadcast deal beginning with the 2012 season, making 150 annual Angels telecasts exclusive to Fox Sports West, with select games airing on Prime Ticket (nowFanDuel Sports Network SoCal), although KCOP still serves as an occasional overflow outlet. In the2021 MLB season, KCOP was scheduled to air at least four Angels games due to delays in the NBA and NHL seasons caused by theCOVID-19 pandemic.[28] In 2022, 2023 and 2024, KCOP carried onespring training game between theAngels and the Dodgers featuring the Angels broadcasters.[29][30][31] In 2025, KCOP and the Angels announced that 12 Sunday games would be simulcast on KCOP and FanDuel Sports Network West. That package would be the largest amount of Angels games to air on the station since 2011.[32] One additional Thursday game in May aired exclusively on KCOP due to conflicts on FanDuel Sports Network West.[33]
Due to its previous common ownership with Fox Sports West and Prime Ticket, KCOP served as an overflow channel for Bally Sports West and Bally Sports SoCal.[34][35] During the2011–12 season, KCOP aired Game 6 of the Clippers playoff series versus theMemphis Grizzlies on May 11.[36] Over-the-air coverage of the Clippers moved toKTLA prior to the2022–23 season;[37] Kings over-the-air coverage moved to KCAL-TV prior to the2023–24 season.[38]
During the2017 NFL season, KCOP aired two Los Angeles Chargers home games as an overflow for theNFL on Fox during weeks when CBS had the doubleheader, but the Los Angeles Rams were on KTTV.[39]
In2021, KCOP announced an agreement withLos Angeles FC ofMajor League Soccer to broadcast select matches alongsideBally Sports SoCal.[40] In 2022, KCOP expanded its agreement to air games previously aired by Bally Sports.[41] LAFC games moved exclusively toMLS Season Pass prior to the 2023 season. However, in February 2025, KCOP aired LAFC,LA Galaxy andAngel City FC matches from theCoachella Valley Invitational preseason tournament.[42] In April 2025, KCOP announced a new agreement with LAFC to air encore matches on Tuesday nights.[43]
On August 27, 2024, the Ducks announced that they would not renew their contract with Bally Sports, and would partner with both KCOP-TV and theDallas Stars'free ad-supported streaming television (FAST) platformVictory+ to air all of its regional games, beginning in the2024–25 NHL season. Selected games will air on KTTV.[44][45][46]
For many years, KCOP aired a prime time newscast at 10 p.m., as well as a weekday afternoon newscast at 2 p.m. during the late 1970s and early 1980s. During the 1980s, the station paired its local 10 p.m. program with the syndicatedIndependent Network News (which was produced by New York City'sWPIX). Channel 13's news programs generally were the lowest-rated evening newscasts of the seven VHF television stations in the Los Angeles market. The newscast's length varied from 30 minutes to an hour depending on the station's budget. An ambitious attempt to relaunch KCOP's news operation came in January 1993, when the 10 p.m. newscast was renamedReal News and introduced a new format that featured anchors moving around the station's newsroom (similar to the format pioneered byCITY-TV in Toronto), in-depth reports, andnewsmagazine elements.[47][48] However, the new format, which accompanied technological improvements and an expansion of the news staff,[47][48] did not pay off in the ratings, andReal News was scaled back to a half-hour on weeknights in May 1994, with the anchors now seated at a desk, with weekend newscasts being cut entirely.[49][50] Shortly after this, the newscast was rebranded asUPN News 13. For a brief period of time during the late 1990s, KCOP tried airing a half-hour newscast at 3:30 p.m. weekdays, later airing it at 7:30 p.m. weeknights. However, when the station was purchased by Fox and its operations were merged with KTTV, channel 13's newscast was moved to 11 p.m. to avoid direct competition with channel 11 (which runs an hour-long 10 p.m. newscast), and trimmed it from an hour in length down to 30 minutes. The station's news production and resources also began to be handled by KTTV.
After Fox purchased the station, KCOP's late-evening newscast took a more unconventional approach than its network-owned competition, KCBS-TV, KABC-TV andKNBC (channel 4). To appeal to a younger audience, it mainly featured its female news anchors in slightly more revealing, trendy clothing. Its news stories also tend to be much shorter in detail, in a faster-paced format. In addition, it became the first station to emphasize entertainment and trend-setting feature stories as a major part of its format, an idea that attracted a large young demographic. Nevertheless, channel 13's newscasts continually placed fourth in the ratings, as it did when the station was competing at 10 p.m. against KTTV, KTLA and KCAL-TV. However, KCOP's news drew substantially higher ratings among younger viewers, especially young Latinos.
On April 10, 2006, KCOP's newscast was expanded from 30 minutes to one hour, which made it the only Los Angeles station with an hour-long newscast at 11 pm. On August 14, 2006, the newscast was rebranded asMy13 News to reflect the station's pending MyNetworkTV affiliation. With the purchase by Fox, many of KCOP's former staff either left the station or were released, reporter Hal Eisner was one of the remaining staffers who had been with KCOP since the Chris-Craft era, beginning there in the early 1990s. Before that, however, he had worked at KTTV for a time from 1987 to 1988. Today, Eisner files reports for KTTV.
On December 1, 2008, KCOP shortened its 11 p.m. newscast to a half-hour, which became anchored by KTTV's 10 p.m. anchors Christine Devine and Carlos Amezcua, as it was considered an extension of the earlier newscast; the newscast's retitling toFox News at 11 marked the end of a KCOP-branded and produced newscast. On September 10, 2012, KCOP launched a half-hour 7 p.m. newscast on weeknights that also used the Fox News branding; the newscast was also anchored by Amezcua and Devine.[51] On August 9, 2013, KCOP announced the cancellation of its 7 and 11 p.m. newscasts, ending a five-decade run of news programming on the station; its final newscast aired on September 22, 2013.[52]
In2018 and2022, KCOP airedGood Day L.A. from 7 to 9 a.m. due to KTTV airing selectFIFA World Cup matches in the morning. This marked a temporary return to news programming on KCOP since the cancellation of KTTV-produced newscasts in 2013. On March 3, 2025, KTTV launchedLA Live News Tonight, a weeknight prime time newscast from 8 to 10 p.m., which directly competes withKCAL-TV. KTTV's 11 p.m. newscast,Good Nite LA, is simulcast on KCOP.
The station's ATSC 1.0 channels are carried on themultiplexed signals of other Los Angeles television stations:
| Channel | Res. | Aspect | Short name | Programming | ATSC 1.0 host |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 13.1 | 720p | 16:9 | KCOP DT | MyNetworkTV | KTLA |
| 13.2 | 480i | BUZZR | Buzzr | KCBS-TV | |
| 13.3 | MOVIES! | Movies![55][56][57] | KNBC | ||
| 13.4 | HEROES | Heroes & Icons | KTTV |
On November 4, 2011, Fox Television Stations signed an affiliation agreement withBounce TV for KCOP and its New York City-area sister station WWOR-TV.[58] KCOP began carrying Bounce TV on digital subchannel 13.2 on March 8, 2012 (WWOR added the network on its 9.3 subchannel two weeks earlier on February 24). The network has also been added to the subchannels of Fox-owned MyNetworkTV stations in five other markets:WUTB inBaltimore,KUTP inPhoenix,WRBW inOrlando, KDFI in Dallas–Fort Worth andWFTC inMinneapolis–Saint Paul; the Baltimore affiliation had since moved to a subchannel of ABC affiliateWMAR-TV, soon after Fox sold-off MyNetworkTV outlet WUTB toDeerfield Media. In three other markets where Fox owns MyNetworkTV stations (WPWR-TV in Chicago,KTXH inHouston andWDCA in Washington, D.C.), Bounce TV is carried on the subchannel space of other competing stations in those markets.
As a result of Bounce TV signing a new carriage agreement withUnivision Communications in 2014, the network moved to the third subchannel of Univision owned-and-operated stationKMEX (channel 34) on March 9, 2015.Buzzr, a new digital multicast network focusing on classic game shows, which is a joint venture ofFremantleMedia (most notably, the owners of theMark Goodson andReg Grundy libraries among others) and KCOP's parent company, Fox Television Stations, debuted on channel 13.2 on June 1, 2015.
On September 18, 2015,Weigel Broadcasting and Fox Television Stations announced an affiliation agreement to carry diginetHeroes & Icons on subchannels of Fox-owned stations in New York City, Los Angeles, Dallas, San Francisco, Washington, D.C., Phoenix, Detroit,Tampa, Orlando andCharlotte beginning October 1, 2015.
KCOP-TV shut down its analog signal, overVHF channel 13, on June 12, 2009, as part of thefederally mandated transition from analog to digital television.[59] The station's digital signal relocated from its transition periodUHF channel 66, which was among the high band UHF channels (52–69) that were removed from broadcasting use as a result of the transition, to its analog-era VHF channel 13.[60]
| Channel | Res. | Aspect | Short name | Programming |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2.1 | 1080p | 16:9 | KCBS NX | CBS (KCBS-TV) |
| 4.1 | KNBC NX | NBC (KNBC) | ||
| 5.1 | KTLA HD | The CW (KTLA) | ||
| 11.1 | KTTV NX | Fox (KTTV) | ||
| 13.1 | KCOP NX | MyNetworkTV |
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