The station first signed on the air on March 3, 1958, originally operating as anindependent station. The station was originally owned by San Francisco–Oakland Television, Inc., a local firm whose principals were William D. Pabst and Ward D. Ingrim, former executives at theDon Lee Network andKFRC (610 AM); andEdwin W. Pauley, a Bay Area businessman who had led a separate group which competed against Pabst and Ingrim for the station'sconstruction permit.[3] The call sign was originally ascribed to have no meaning at all,[4] but several engineers fromKTVU, an earlyUHF station inStockton, California, came to work for the new station, and purportedly suggested the calls.[5]
KTVU's operations were inaugurated with a special live telecast from its temporary studio facility at the former Paris Theatre in downtown Oakland. That June, the station moved into a permanent facility at Jack London Square in western Oakland, which was constructed using material gathered by thePort of Oakland and repurposed from a demolished pier.
Channel 2 was the fourth commercial television station to sign on in the Bay Area, and the first independent station in themarket. During its first 15 years on the air, KTVU's transmitter facilities were originally based on a tower onSan Bruno Mountain in northernSan Mateo County. KTVU moved its transmitter facilities to theSutro Tower after the structure was completed in 1973.
The Ingrim–Pabst–Pauley group attempted to sell KTVU toNBC in 1960, as the network sought to acquire a television station in the Bay Area to operate alongsideKNBC radio.[6] The sale was eventually canceled in October 1961, due to pre-existing concerns over the sale cited by theFederal Communications Commission (FCC) that were related to NBC's ownership of radio and television stations inPhiladelphia.[7] A second sale attempt proved successful in July 1963, when KTVU was sold to Miami Valley Broadcasting Company, precursor toCox Media Group, for $12.3 million.[8][9]
Over the station's history as an independent, KTVU's programming schedule consisted mainly ofsyndicated off-network series,movies, talk shows andreligious programs, as well as a sizeable amount of locally produced news, sports, talk andpublic affairs programming. In 1960, after acquiring camera, projection and slide equipment to transmit programming available in the format, the station began broadcasting its programming incolor; much of the programs that it broadcast in color consisted of movies and certain series acquired from the syndication market that were produced in the format, as well as locally producedspecials.
Under Cox's stewardship, channel 2 became the leading independent station in the San Francisco–Oakland market and one of the top-rated independents in the Western United States. KTVU retained this status even as competing independents on the UHF band signed on, includingKBHK-TV (channel 44) andKEMO-TV (channel 20) both in early 1968.
In the early 1960s, KTVU obtained the local broadcast rights to theWarner Bros. Pictures library; the films it broadcast from the studio primarily consisted of those released during the 1950s, most being presented in color, which aired at 7 p.m. on Sundays. Channel 2 was the first television station in the Bay Area to air such films asA Star Is Born,East of Eden andRebel Without a Cause. KTVU exercised discretion and limited the number of commercial break interruptions during the movie telecasts, often airing the films uncensored and with commentary, either by a studio host or via slides. The station even televised theMetro-Goldwyn-Mayer filmHollywood Revue of 1929 with some of the original two-stripTechnicolor sequences. During the early 1970s, the station began employing a different programming strategy to stand out from the other independents in the market, acquiring first-run syndicated sitcoms and drama series, several comedies and dramas from the United Kingdom (such asUpstairs, Downstairs andThe Benny Hill Show, the latter of which had some episodes re-edited by the station to remove scenes of frontal nudity accidentally left in the broadcast prints), and various nature series (includingNational Geographic specials) as alternative offerings.
KTVU occasionally aired movies originally assigned anR rating for their theatrical release (such asOne Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest andWalkabout) without editing for strongprofanity, nudity or violence, some of which aired during prime time. In 1992, KTVU ran a station-edited version of the 1984 science fiction filmDune, which combined footage from theAlan Smithee television cut with the original theatrical release (thereby restoring all the violence featured in the latter cut, while eliminating some of the objectionable edits that caused directorDavid Lynch to remove his name from the credits of the television print). KTVU also carried programming from theOperation Prime Time programming service (at least) in 1978.[13]
KTVU, along with Cox-ownedWKBD-TV in Detroit andKDNL-TV inSt. Louis, agreed to become charter affiliates ofFox upon their October 9, 1986, launch.[15] KTVU was a rarity among the new network's affiliate base as it broadcast on VHF and had an established news department; general manager Kevin O'Brien saw Fox's backing with the20th Century Fox studio as an advantage, providing the station access to major stars.[16] The network launched withThe Late Show with Joan Rivers in late night and did not begin programming in prime time until the following April.[16][17]
Cox Enterprises acquired KICU-TV on November 29, 1999, from a group led byBuffalo Bills ownerRalph Wilson;[18][19] KICU moved to KTVU's studios in Oakland, while their former studio became home to KTVU's South Bay news bureau.[20]
Reports emerged in August 2013 thatFox Television Stations, the owned-stations division for Fox, was seeking to buy stations in San Francisco andSeattle;Variety reported that Fox desired having owned-stations in markets withNFL teams in theNational Football Conference, and followed their purchase ofCW affiliateWJZY inCharlotte, North Carolina, which switched to Fox.[21] KTVU was the largest Fox affiliate in the country not owned by the network.[22] Fox's then-parent21st Century Fox made several offers to buy KTVU, and also considered buyingKIRO-TV in Seattle from Cox, but Cox turned down each of these proposals.[21]
Fox and Cox Media agreed to anasset swap on June 24, 2014, where Cox sold KTVU and KICU to Fox; in turn, Fox sold to Cox Media bothWFXT inBoston andWHBQ-TV inMemphis.[23][24][25] As part of the trade, WFXT general manager Gregg Kelly was reassigned to KTVU,[26] while KTVU general manager Tom Raponi moved to WFXT.[27][28]
The KTVU studios (left) overlooking the Oakland Estuary in Oakland's Jack London Square
From 1958 until the early 1970s, KTVU aired the space-themed afternoon children's programCaptain Satellite, which was hosted by Bob March and was set in a fictional spaceship known as the Starfinder II. The series—which was originally produced at Moose Hall in Oakland, before moving to the KTVU studios in 1959—showcased cartoons between segments (including among othersThe Space Explorers), as well as film clips provided byNASA and live in-studio visits from astronauts.[29][30]
Until the 1980s, the station produced a series of classicpublic serviceshorts titledBits and Pieces, often featuring two talkingpuppets, Charley and Humphrey, whichPat McCormick had brought over to KTVU from his tenure at KGO-TV. The shorts, which often aired during children's programs shown on the station, were aimed at delivering positive and educational messages to kids. In the late 1970s,Charley and Humphrey were spun off into a daily children's program on KTVU, which was hosted by McCormick.[31] Channel 2 also served as the Bay Area's originating station for the children's television program franchiseRomper Room; originally hosted by Nancy Besst, the half-hour program aired at 8:30 a.m. on weekday mornings for much of the 1980s.[32]
Other local programs that aired on KTVU during its run as an independent station included the film showcase/trivia game show franchiseDialing for Dollars, which was first hosted by Mel Venter and later by Pat McCormick, who later served as aweather anchor at the station;National All-Star Wrestling,[33] which aired on Friday nights during the early and mid-1960s from the KTVU studios or Daly City'sCow Palace and was hosted by Walt Harris; andRoller Derby, which Harris also hosted for many years and featuredSan Francisco Bay Bombers roller derby games until the demise of the International Roller Derby League in 1973.[32] During the early 2000s, KTVU broadcast the San FranciscoChinese New Year Parade.
KTVU began carrying San Francisco Giants games in 1961,[34] initially carrying road games against theLos Angeles Dodgers until 1965.[35] KTVU's relationship with the Giants extended to the franchise's ownership, as Cox Enterprises owned a 10 percent stake in the Giants during the latter years of their contract.[19] KTVU's rights were shared with NBC Sports Bay Area beginning in 1991;[36] the Giants moved to KNTV in 2008.[37] KTVU also carriedOakland Athletics games in 1973.[38]
KTVU carriedSan Francisco/Golden State Warriors games from 1962 to 1963, 1965 to 1968, 1969 to 1983, and from the late 1990s to 2001. The station currently airs ancillary programming for the 49ers, including theKTVUMercedes-Benz Sports Weekend on Saturdays, and49ers Total Access and49ers Pre Game Live on Sundays;[39][40] the latter airs in lieu ofFox NFL Kickoff, which airs instead on KICU.[41] Since 2015, KTVU has featuredSports Wrap on weekend evenings.[42]
KTVU's news department began operations along with the station on March 3, 1958, with the launch ofThe 10 O'Clock News. The program was originally anchored by KTVU managing editor Les Nichols and news director Al Helmso; Nichols and Helmso stepped down as main anchors in the early 1960s, replaced by Gary Park and Stan Atkinson. The program was reformatted in 1971 asThe Tuck-Fortner Report, withRon Fortner andMichael Tuck.[43] Later anchors included Marcia Brandwynne and George Reading in 1974, and Atkinson andJudd Hambrick.
In 1976, assignment reporterDennis Richmond became lead anchor, and became known among local viewers for his straightforward and interpersonal, but calm and unopinionated delivery in his reporting.[44][45][46] Richmond's co-anchors were Judd Hambrick (1976–1977), Andy Park (1977–1978),Barbara Simpson (1978–1986),[47] Elaine Corral (1986–1998),[48][49][50]Leslie Griffith (1998–2006)[51][52][53] and Julie Haener (2000–2008).[54] Richmond anchoredThe Ten O'Clock News for 32 of his 40 years at KTVU until his retirement in May 2008.[55][56][57] Replacing him wasFrank Somerville, who had been an anchor for the station starting in 1992.[58][59] Pat McCormick was a weathercaster for the station from 1969 until retiring in 1995 and was chief weathercaster from 1974 onward;[31][60] successor Bill Martin joined Channel 2 in 1996.[61][62] Bob MacKenzie was a fixture for many years as a feature reporter and commentator, winning 13 Bay AreaEmmy Awards during his tenure at the station from 1978 to 2006.[63] Fred Zehnder joined the station as assistant news director before being promoted to news director in 1978; Zehnder crafted a no-nonsense journalistic style forThe 10 o'clock News largely devoid of "happy talk".[64]
The station began morning news withMornings on 2 on January 2, 1991, which expanded to three hours on September 14, 2015.[65] An hour-long early-morning newscast launched in August 1996,[66] followed by 6 p.m. news in March 2000 (KTVU previously had a 6 p.m. newscast from 1989 until 1991).[67][68][69][70] After KRON and KPIX implementedearly prime scheduling in February 1992, KTVU bested both stations' late-evening newscasts, which were moved up to 10 p.m.; KRON ended early prime in September 1993, while KPIX ended it in September 1998.
Besides beating out its competition in the 10 p.m. time slot,The Ten O'Clock News has also placed ahead of KRON, KPIX and KGO's 11 p.m. newscasts in overall late news viewership for much of its history; however as its news programming expanded, KTVU's newscasts avidly competed for first overall with KRON-TV and KGO-TV during the 1990s. Its newscasts became the highest-rated in the Bay Area by the early 2000s. The May 1999 retirement of Zehnder brought changes to the newsroom; however, KTVU was ranked as the highest quality local newscast in the nation in 2000 by theProject for Excellence in Journalism under his immediate successor, Andrew Finlayson (who began his tenure at KTVU as a noon news producer in 1988 and left the station in 2003), while maintaining the top rating slot at 10 p.m. and throughout the noon and morning newscasts.[71][72][73] Varying prime time numbers and improvements at competitors (as well as audience erosion for local programming in general) have since led to a decline in the once-dominant news operation's ratings, although it retains the No. 1 spot, a rarity for a Fox station. For August 2010, KTVU's newscasts ranked No. 1 among adult viewers 25–54, beating KPIX, KGO, KNTV, and KRON.[74]
On October 10, 2006, KTVU became the first television station in the Bay Area to begin broadcasting its local newscasts inhigh definition.[75]
Former KTVUnews director Ed Chapuis at the 69th Annual Peabody Awards in 2010
KTVU launched a 7 p.m. newscast for KICU-TV on January 21, 2008.[76] In 2010, the KTVU news department was honored with aPeabody Award for its coverage of the January 2009shooting of unarmed African-American male Oscar Grant in aBay Area Rapid Transit (BART) terminal.[77] By January 2011, KTVU launched weekend morning newscasts[78][79] and extended the morning news to a start time of 4:30 a.m.[78] KTVU's newscasts were also simulcast in other television markets. By 2014, newscasts aired onKRXI-TV inReno, Nevada,KCBA inMonterey,[80]KRVU-LD inChico, andKEMY-LP inEureka. KRXI ended the morning and noon simulcasts on May 14, 2014, and the 10 p.m. simulcast on July 31, 2023;[81] KRVU/KEMY dropped the 10 p.m. simulcast on September 27, 2021, and KCBA dropped the morning and 10 p.m. simulcasts in January 2022.
During the station's coverage ofAsiana Airlines Flight 214, anchor Tori Campbell on July 12, 2013, read the names of four people purported to be the pilots, but were satirical names playing off Asian stereotypes—Captain Sum Ting Wong ("something wrong"), Wi Tu Lo ("way too low"), Ho Lee Fuk ("holy fuck"),[a] and Bang Ding Ow—inadvertently vetted by a summer intern at theNational Transportation Safety Board (NTSB).[82][83] The NTSB apologized for its role in the incident[84][85] several KTVU staff were terminated immediately, and a news producer resigned.[86] Asiana Airlines filed adefamation lawsuit against KTVU, but withdrew it a few days later.[87] KTVU filedDMCA requests to remove user-uploaded videos of the newscast[88] intended to lessen insensitivity towards the Asian community.[89]
KTVU debuted an hour-long 4 p.m. newscast in June 2015; this followed an extension ofMornings on 2 to a 4 a.m. start.[90][91] On April 17, 2017, KTVU debuted a half-hour newscast at 11 p.m.[92]
Frank Somerville was taken off the air after a May 2021 newscast when he struggled to read the teleprompter and slurred his words.[93] That September, he was suspended indefinitely after attempting to add personal commentary to a report on thedisappearance of Gabrielle Petito alluding to "missing white woman syndrome".[94] The station declined to renew his contract in January 2022, a month after he was arrested fordriving under the influence.[95]
^"San Francisco-Oakland gets FCC Ch. 2 grant".Broadcasting-Telecasting. Vol. 52, no. 20. May 20, 1957. p. 64.
^"KTVU".Oakland Tribune. Oakland, California. January 6, 1958. p. 19.Archived from the original on August 13, 2022. RetrievedAugust 13, 2022 – via Newspapers.com.
^Adams, Bruce J.; Heaton, Michael; Marine, Craig R. (November 10, 1985)."Station identification".The San Francisco Examiner. San Francisco, California. p. A-2.Archived from the original on August 13, 2022. RetrievedAugust 13, 2022 – via Newspapers.com.
^"NBC buys Bay Area KTVU (TV)".Broadcasting. Vol. 58, no. 9. February 29, 1960. pp. 52–53.
^"Big piece falls out of NBC-RKO deal".Broadcasting. Vol. 61, no. 18. October 30, 1961. p. 42, 44.
^"Cox group to pay $12 million for KTVU(TV)".Broadcasting. Vol. 65, no. 5. July 29, 1963. pp. 47–48.
^"The Media: KTVU(TV) sale to Cox gets FCC approval".Broadcasting. Vol. 65, no. 17. October 21, 1963. p. 61.ProQuest10144809000.
^"Up in the air in more ways than one".Broadcasting. Vol. 95, no. 25. December 18, 1978. pp. 70–71.
^"Fox network begins to take shape".Broadcasting. Vol. 111, no. 5. August 4, 1986. pp. 44–45.ProQuest963254490.
^abCarman, John (April 3, 1997)."Fox Grows Older, Not Up".San Francisco Chronicle.Archived from the original on October 7, 2016. RetrievedApril 1, 2016.
^"Who pays for America's pastime?"(PDF).Broadcasting. March 6, 1961. p. 34.Archived(PDF) from the original on October 24, 2023. RetrievedMay 2, 2016.The Giants also will break their self-imposed TV barrier with 11 telecasts – all away games with the Los Angeles Dodgers – on KTVU (TV) San Francisco-Oakland.
^"Price of baseball goes up, too"(PDF).Broadcasting. February 28, 1966. p. 41.Archived(PDF) from the original on October 24, 2023. RetrievedMay 2, 2016.The staple of the package is again the nine games played with the Dodgers in Los Angeles. One Sunday pickup from every other league city and two exhibition games complete the TV lineup.
^Rubin, Sylvia (September 13, 2010)."KTVU Anchor Stays on Top".San Francisco Chronicle.Archived from the original on October 8, 2008. RetrievedJuly 26, 2020.
^Hendricks, Tyche; Hatfield, Larry D. (March 19, 1998)."Elaine Corral quits as KTVU anchor".San Francisco Examiner.Archived from the original on January 25, 2017. RetrievedAugust 22, 2016.
^Barney, Chuck (November 19, 2006)."News anchor Griffith resigns".San Jose Times Herald.Archived from the original on August 25, 2016. RetrievedAugust 22, 2016.
1These stations are owned byMission Broadcasting but operated by Nexstar under anLMA. 2These stations are owned by Londen Media Group but operated by Nexstar under aTBA. 3Paramount Global andWarner Bros. Discovery still own a combined 25 percent stake inThe CW, however the network is operated entirely by Nexstar. 4These stations are owned byVaughan Media but operated by Nexstar under an LMA. 5TelevisaUnivision owns the licenses to these stations but the stations themselves are operated byEntravision Communications (of which the company owns a 10 percent stake) under an LMA.
.jpg)
.JPG)
