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| City | Albuquerque, New Mexico |
| Channels | |
| Branding | KOB 4 |
| Programming | |
| Affiliations |
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| Ownership | |
| Owner |
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| History | |
First air date | November 29, 1948 (76 years ago) (1948-11-29) |
Former call signs | KOB-TV (1948–2009) |
Former channel numbers | Analog: 4 (VHF, 1948–2009) |
Call sign meaning | From former sister stationsKOB-AM–FM |
| Technical information[1] | |
Licensing authority | FCC |
| Facility ID | 35313 |
| ERP | 270kW |
| HAAT | 1,277 m (4,190 ft) |
| Transmitter coordinates | 35°12′42.1″N106°27′0.5″W / 35.211694°N 106.450139°W /35.211694; -106.450139 |
| Translator(s) | see§ Translators |
| Links | |
Public license information | |
| Website | www |
KOB (channel 4) is atelevision station inAlbuquerque, New Mexico, United States, affiliated withNBC and owned byHubbard Broadcasting. The station's studios are located on Broadcast Plaza just west of downtown, and its transmitter is located onSandia Crest, east of Albuquerque.
KOB was Albuquerque's and New Mexico's first television station, beginning broadcasting on November 29, 1948. It was set up by Albuquerque radio stationKOB (770 AM), which remained co-owned with it until 1986. It held affiliations with all four television networks of the period until 1953, when two other TV stations started in the city. KOB was sold twice in its first decade of operation, in 1952 toTime Inc. and formerFederal Communications Commission chairmanWayne Coy and again in 1957 to what today is Hubbard Broadcasting. Its newscasts led the ratings until the mid-1970s, whenKOAT-TV surpassed it for first. Despite attempts to compete, KOB's news has mostly remained in second place over its history.
Television-related activity by Albuquerque radio stationKOB (770 AM) predatedWorld War II. In December 1943, KOB applied for a permit for an experimental television station.[2] Seven months later, in July 1944, KOB applied for televisionchannel 1 on a fully commercial basis. Having already ordered equipment, KOB stated it was in position to bring television to Albuquerque once wartime prohibitions on equipment production were lifted.[3] The permit was granted on May 21, 1946, and the application was adjusted later that year to specify channel 4.[4] KOB reiterated its desire to provide television service when the equipment became available.[5] It was also announced that KOB's station would be on theNBC television network when it was extended to Albuquerque[6] and would operate from a site leased from theUniversity of New Mexico, using a tower left behind by a defunctFederal Communications Commission (FCC) monitoring station.[7]
In May 1948, KOB announced that KOB-TV would begin broadcasting in August. By that time, the station had taken delivery of the second commercial TV transmitter built byRCA.[8] KOB-TV started operations on November 29, 1948, to an audience of an estimated 100 television receivers. It was the first television station in New Mexico.[9] Programs from NBC and theDuMont Television Network[10] were shipped to Albuquerque on film for airing.[11] Affiliations withCBS andABC were added in January and July 1949, respectively.[12][13] The station broadcast a variety of local events, such as aBorder Conferencetrack and field meet andUniversity of New Mexico andhigh school football games.[14]
KOB radio and television, owned by an affiliate of theAlbuquerque Journal newspaper, were sold in 1952 to magazine publisherTime Inc. and former FCC chairmanWayne Coy.[15] It was Time's first investment in television.[16] That same year, the FCC lifted a freeze, lasting three and a half years, on new television station allocations.[17] Two additionalVHF channels, 7 and 13, were assigned to Albuquerque.[18] KOB entered into a joint venture with one of the new stations,KGGM-TV (channel 13), in May 1953 to developSandia Crest as a television transmitter site. The facility promised to provide television to previously unserved areas of New Mexico.[19] KGGM-TV, a CBS affiliate, andKOAT-TV (channel 7), an ABC affiliate, debuted days apart in October 1953.[20][21] KOB-TV continued to air DuMont programs until it was replaced by KOAT-TV in the network in June 1954.[22]
While they were competitors, KGGM and KOB also joined in the construction of studios. The stations purchased an entire city block at Fourteenth Street and Coal Avenue SW, divided it, and put up studios across the street from each other.[23][24] The KOB building, which the station occupied in April 1954,[25] was two stories tall and contained two studios.[26]
The end of the freeze also brought live network broadcasting to Albuquerque. By 1952, KOB-TV was the only television station in the United States not directly interconnected with a network.[27] Albuquerque was connected to live network programming in September 1954.[28][29]
In 1956, Time Inc. acquired three television stations from Consolidated Television and Radio Broadcasters ofIndianapolis.[30] Time already owned three TV stations including KOB-TV, and at six stations, it surpassed the FCC ownership limit of five. It decided to sell the KOB stations.[31] They were purchased by KSTP, Inc., owner ofKSTP radio andKSTP-TV inSt. Paul, Minnesota, for $1.5 million.[32][33]
KSTP, Inc.—renamedHubbard Broadcasting in 1962[34]—invested in upgrades to the station's technical facility. In 1957, it purchased a new, more powerful transmitter and donated the old one to Albuquerque's new educational television station,KNME-TV (channel 5).[35] The studio facility was expanded in 1960.[36] In August 1967,KOB-FM 93.3 debuted.[37] The KOB radio stations were sold by Hubbard toPrice Communications in 1986 and adopted the call signKKOB at the start of 1987.[38][39]
KOB-TV expanded its regional footprint in the 1980s, as part of an attempt to add viewers and improve its news ratings. In 1983, it acquired KIVA-TV, the NBC affiliate inFarmington, New Mexico.[40] Hubbard renamed the stationKOBF and built new studios in Farmington.[41] KOB acquired the NBC affiliate inRoswell, KSWS-TV (channel 8), in a deal announced in 1983.[42] The purchase was completed in 1985 after opposition from KGGM-TV was resolved;[43] the station then becameKOBR, and KOB set out to expand the station's local news offerings and build a studio.[44] In 1986, KOB applied for a channel to be added toGrand Junction, Colorado, for the establishment of another semi-satellite station.[45]
KOBF debuted an expanded news service in 1989,[46] which included news inserts into KOB's newscasts that covered theFour Corners region. By 1996, KOBF aired a 16-minute insert into KOB's 6 p.m. newscast and a 22-minute insert into its 10 p.m. program.[47] Local news inserts at KOBF and KOBR were discontinued in 2007.[48]
KOB broadcasts32+1⁄2 hours of locally produced newscasts each week (with5+1⁄2 hours each weekday, three hours on Saturdays, and two hours on Sundays). During the school year, KOB broadcasts a weekly 15-minute sportscast,New Mexico Gameday, dedicated to high school sports.
For most of the 1960s and early 1970s, KOB and KOAT waged a spirited battle for the ratings lead, though as late as 1971 KOB held a 14-point lead over KOAT.[49] Between 1974 and 1976, on the advice of broadcast consultantFrank Magid and his firm, anchor Johnny Morris quit (later to work at KOAT); weathercasterGeorge Fischbeck quit; and sportscasterMike Roberts was fired. Channel 7 surged ahead in early 1976, pushing KOB to second. KOB spent much of the late 1970s seeking to fight back against KOAT, led by top-rated anchormanDick Knipfing, whom KOB attempted to lure away in 1976.[49] In April 1979, Knipfing announced he would move to KOB, even though he had a contract with KOAT that ran through August 1980.[50] Station management and Magid believed Knipfing's success at KOAT was the main obstacle to improving ratings for KOB's newscasts and predicted they would soon rise to first place.[51] Even though KOAT fired Knipfing in June 1979, it sued to keep Knipfing off the air until his contract with that station lapsed;[52] an opinion from theUnited States District Court allowed him to proceed with his plans to begin anchoring at channel 4 on August 1.[53]
The Knipfing hiring was not the success station management hoped it would be. Ed Otte, city editor forThe Santa Fe New Mexican, noted that KOB had added Knipfing to its newscast without improving its other on-air personalities or reporting team, which he felt were inferior to KOAT's.[54] KOAT still led in most news ratings surveys between 1979 and 1981, when Knipfing received the added title of news director;[55] he was one of three news directors in five years.[56] In 1983, the station switched its newscasts to a co-anchor format. In March 1986, the station dismissed Knipfing.[57]
A common complaint of KOB's newscasts in the 1970s and 1980s was the reliance on Magid to determine by research the station's newscast format and elements. Magid and the Hubbard family were close personal friends.[58] Johnny Morris, a former KOB weathercaster who—after being dismissed from channel 4 in 1974, reportedly at Magid's suggestion—later worked at KOAT. Other local news employees believed Magid had a poor grasp of the Albuquerque market.[59] Months after being ousted, Knipfing wrote an editorial inThe Albuquerque Tribune heavily critical of KOB. He wrote, "The problem was Magid ... It was very difficult assembling a consistent news team with consultants looking over our shoulders all the time." He noted inconsistency and turnover in everything from production to management and sports talent.[56] Former KOB news director Mark Slimp blamed Magid for his dismissal.[60]
In the 1980s and 1990s, KOB expanded its newscast offerings beyond two evening newscasts. A half-hour 6:30 a.m. newscast debuted in 1985[61] and was expanded to an hour in 1989.[62] A second evening newscast at 5:30 p.m. was added in 1994.[63] KOB posed a ratings challenge to KOAT at the start of the 1990s, posting wins in some surveys and narrowing the gap with KOAT,[64][65] but by 1994, it had slipped to a much more distant second.[66]
Brad Remington became KOB's news director in 1996 and retooled the newscast to emphasize breaking news, investigative reporting, and weather, including an investment in new equipment.[67] By 2001, KOB's 10 p.m. news had tied KOAT in total households while having larger concentrations of younger viewers.[68] After channel 13, nowKRQE, completed a turnaround in the 2000s, KOB slipped to third in late news, though its morning newscast continued to lead its competitors.[69] By 2022, KOB was second in late news ratings among total households.[70]
In November 2000, KOB began producing a 9 p.m. newscast,Fox 2 News at Nine, for Albuquerque's Fox affiliate,KASA-TV (channel 2).[71] The newscast ended in 2006 when KRQE's parent company,LIN TV, purchased KASA and replaced the KOB-produced newscast with its own.[72] KOB resumed producing news for KASA-TV—this time as aTelemundo station—in 2021, afterNBCUniversal acquired KASA.[73][74]
KOB's transmitter is located onSandia Crest.[1] The station's signal ismultiplexed:
| Channel | Res. | Aspect | Short name | Programming |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4.1 | 1080i | 16:9 | KOBDT1 | NBC |
| 4.2 | 480i | KOB-DT2 | Heroes & Icons | |
| 4.3 | KOBDT3 | MeTV | ||
| 4.4 | KOBDT4 | Catchy Comedy | ||
| 4.5 | KOBDT5 | Ion Plus | ||
| 4.6 | KOBDT6 | Ion Television | ||
| 4.7 | KOBDT7 | Start TV |
KOB-TV began providing a digital signal onUHF channel 26 on August 2, 2002.[79] It ceased analog broadcasting on June 12, 2009, thedigital television transition date.[80] The station's digital signal remained on its pre-transition UHF channel 26, usingvirtual channel 4.[81]
Two stations rebroadcast KOB's signal and insert local content for other parts of themedia market:
| Station | City of license | Channels | First air date | Formercall signs | ERP | HAAT | Facility ID | Transmitter coordinates | Public license information |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| KOBF | Farmington | 12 12 (VHF) | October 20, 1972 (53 years ago) (1972-10-20) | KIVA-TV (1972–1983) | 30 kW | 125 m (410 ft) | 35321 | 36°41′43″N108°13′16″W / 36.69528°N 108.22111°W /36.69528; -108.22111 (KOBF) | |
| KOBR | Roswell | 8 8 (VHF) | June 24, 1953 (72 years ago) (1953-06-24) | KSWS-TV (1953–1985) | 40 kW | 533 m (1,749 ft) | 62272 | 33°22′31.3″N103°46′14.3″W / 33.375361°N 103.770639°W /33.375361; -103.770639 (KOBR) |
KOBF and KOBR each have histories before their acquisition by KOB. KSWS-TV in Roswell went on the air on June 24, 1953,[82] and in 1957, it began broadcasting from a tower atCaprock that at the time was the world's tallest structure. at 1,610 feet (490 m).[83] The tower fell due to anice storm in December 1960,[84] and a new 875-foot (267 m) tower was constructed by 1962.[85] It was sold toKCBD-TV ofLubbock, Texas, in 1968 and became a satellite of that station.[86] It became KOBR on September 1, 1985.[44] Farmington's KIVA-TV started broadcasting on October 20, 1972;[87] it received NBC programs fromKOA-TV, then the NBC affiliate inDenver, because KOB-TV did not grant permission for the new station to use its feed.[88] It was acquired by KOB in 1983 and became KOBF.[40][89]
KOB formerly operated a third satellite station,KOBG-TV (channel 6) inSilver City, which signed on in 2000. Its transmitter was located at32°51′49″N108°14′29.6″W / 32.86361°N 108.241556°W /32.86361; -108.241556 (KOBG-TV). KOBG had a permit to construct a digital station on channel 8, but these facilities were never built. After the digital transition on June 12, 2009, KOBG began operating with facilities on channel 12 identical to that oflow-powertranslator stations underspecial temporary authority,[90] and was formally replaced with a translator (K12QW-D) on April 26, 2011,[91] though its license was not canceled until August 3.[92]
In addition, there are several low-power repeaters that carry KOB's programming throughout New Mexico, including the following:[93]
Includes English-language stations in out-of-state TV markets, but reaching a portion of New Mexico | ||
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| The CW | ||
| Ion Television | ||
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| Other | ||
| ATSC 3.0 | ||
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Includes English-language stations in out-of-state TV markets, but reaching a portion of Arizona | ||
| ABC | ||
| CBS | ||
| Fox | ||
| NBC | ||
| The CW | ||
| Ion Television | ||
| Independent | ||
| PBS | ||
| Religious | ||
| Other | ||
| ATSC 3.0 | ||
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