KCPQ

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KCPQ
Tacoma, Washington
Branding	Q13 Fox
Slogan	Now. Next.
Channels	Analog: 13 (VHF) Digital: 18 (UHF)
Translators	(see article)
Affiliations	Fox The AccuWeather Channel (DT2)
Owner	Tribune Company (Tribune Television Northwest, Inc.)
First air date	August 2, 1953
Call letters’ meaning	Clover Park Quality
Sister station(s)	KMYQ
Former callsigns	KMO-TV (1953-1954) KTVW (1954-1975)
Former affiliations	NBC (1953-1954) independent (1954-1974) silent (1974-1975) PBS (1975-1980) independent (1980-1986)
Transmitter Power	316 kW (analog) 600 kW (digital)
Height	610 m (analog) 585 m (digital)
Facility ID	33894
Transmitter Coordinates	47°32′52.4″N, 122°48′26.5″W
Website	q13.trb.com

KCPQ is the Fox television affiliate licensed to Tacoma, Washington serving the Seattle/Tacoma, Washington media market. It broadcasts its analog signal on VHF channel 13, and its digital signal on UHF channel 18. Its transmitter is located on Gold Mountain in Bremerton, Washington.

The station's offices and broadcasting center are located on the west shore of Lake Union in Seattle's Westlake neighborhood. KCPQ shares its facilities with sister station KMYQ, Seattle's MyNetwork TV affiliate. Both stations are owned by the Tribune Company.

KCPQ is one of five local Seattle TV stations seen in Canada on the Bell ExpressVu and Star Choice satellite providers. The station is also carried on several cable systems in southeastern Alaska.

[edit] History

[edit] As KMO-TV/KTVW

Channel 13 signed on air on August 2, 1953 as KMO-TV, co-owned with KMO radio by Carl Haymond. The station carried some NBC programming for its first year until Seattle's KOMO-TV took to the air on December 11, 1953. Hampered by a poor signal from north of Tacoma and no network material, Haymond was forced to declare bankruptcy and sell the station to J. Elroy McCaw, father of cellular phone magnate Craig McCaw.

Under McCaw's ownership, Channel 13, renamed KTVW, closed their studio in Tacoma's Roxy Theater, relocated to their transmitter building, and limped along on a diet of a low-budget local programming, old network reruns and ancient B-movies. Their advertising of the period pictured a stylized black cat and the ironic tag line "Lucky 13."

In 1970, the station ran a weekday stock-market news program produced by Rockwell Hammond and hosted by Merrill Mael. Dick Stokke and, later, Joe McCusker read the news. Hammond leased six and a half hours a day from KTVW and originated the program, called "Business Action Line", live from the Northern Life Tower in Seattle from where it was microwaved to KTVW in Tacoma. Despite the poor over-the-air reception of KTVW in Seattle, the program had a following in the business community, if only for the 15-minute delayed stock ticker and the real time display of the Dow Jones Industrial Average. However, expenses quickly overcame the income from what proved to be a limited commercial base, and the venture failed.

Mael, a respected broadcaster for six decades, died in 2000. McCusker moved on to a career with the United Nations television operation, retiring in 2007.

During the late 1960s and early 70s, the station featured an on-air movie host named Bob Corcoran, who hawked endless items from Tacoma's B & I Circus Store and Niagara recliners. Corcoran later forged a fledgling political career from his television late-night talk show. Station owner McCaw died in 1969 and the station was purchased by Blaidon Mutual Investors Corporation in 1971 for $1.1 million.

Blaidon tried to turn KTVW around by acquiring first-run syndicated programming and color-capable broadcast equipment (the station telecast exclusively in black-and-white until 1972). Channel 13's poor over-the-air signal, along with the weak Puget Sound economy and Blaidon's undercapitalized operation, rendered the station a money-losing proposition. In an attempt to improve ratings, the station launched an afternoon cartoon show hosted by a "superhero" for whom viewers were asked to suggest a name. The winning entry was "Flash Blaidon" and the host frequently made his entrance "flying" onto the set by jumping off a ladder whose shadow was often visible on the back wall of the cramped studio. Interestingly, Blaidon president Donald Wolfstone attempted to sell the station to then-unknown televangelist broadcaster Pat Robertson, but a court-appointed trustee canceled the deal. Another sale to a Long Island television broadcast company also fell through. A bankruptcy judge then forced KTVW to cease operations in 1974.

[edit] As KCPQ

The remaining Channel 13 assets were bought in bankruptcy court bidding by the Clover Park School District in Lakewood, a Tacoma suburb, for $378,000. The call letters were changed to KCPQ, replacing Clover Park's UHF channel 56 transmitter which had operated under the name KPEC-TV, and the station went back on the air, carrying secondary PBS and educational programs. The KTVW call letters now reside on a Phoenix TV station unrelated to the present-day KCPQ.

By 1980, the Seattle market could sustain another commercial television station, and Kelly Broadcasting of Sacramento purchased KCPQ from the Clover Park School District for $6.25 million, outbidding a New Mexico company that had initially stepped up to buy the station. The station went silent temporarily February 28, 1980 during the ownership change. KCPQ's transmitter was relocated to Gold Mountain, a peak west of Bremerton, enabling better signal coverage throughout Western Washington. The station relanuched November 4, 1980. KCPQ became "The Northwest's Movie Channel," counterprogramming network prime-time with uncut versions of recent films. The station also ran NBC shows that KING-TV pre-empted (including NBC's Saturday morning cartoons). Other than Saturdays, KCPQ did not run children's programming during the week. KCPQ ran mostly first-run syndicated talk and game shows, off-network dramas, lots of movies, and some early morning religious programs. KCPQ also carried college sports for the majority of the 1980s and early 1990s including Pacific Ten Conference Football and Men's Basketball as well as college football bowl games from syndicators such as Mizlou, Katz Sports and Raycom Sports.

In 1986, KCPQ became one of the first affiliates of the Fox network. In 1987, with the children's television business growing, KCPQ began running cartoons weekday mornings 7-9 AM and afternoons 3-5 PM. KCPQ aired some sitcoms as well, and continued airing first-run syndicated shows and movies. As the Fox network's viewership and ratings strengthened in the 1990s, KCPQ gained prominence as a major broadcaster in the local Seattle market.

Tribune Broadcasting, which also owns KMYQ, acquired KCPQ in August of 1998 as part of a three-way deal with Kelly Broadcasting and Meredith Corporation. (Kelly pulled out of broadcasting by selling most of its stations to Hearst-Argyle, while Meredith acquired Atlanta's WGNX from Tribune.) Tribune Broadcasting's status is uncertain as of 2007 while the parent Tribune Co. searches for a buyer.

[edit] News

KCPQ once ran several news updates between movies during the early 1980s, and briefly ran a full half-hour 10pm newscast. This operation couldn't compete with the more established 10pm news on then-independent KSTW, and was eventually cancelled. The current news operation began on January 18, 1998, when it launched a new 10pm newscast. It also launched a morning newscast in 2000 following Tribune's purchase.

On March 31, 2008, the station will begin producing a 9 P.M. newscast airing on KMYQ.[1]

[edit] Current personalities

• Maria Arcega-Dunn - Morning Co-Anchor
• Jennifer Cabala - Weekend Anchor/Reporter
• Brian Callanan - Reporter
• Darren Dedo - Reporter/Backup Anchor
• Dan Devone - Weeknight Sports Anchor
• Adam Gehrke - Traffic Reporter
• Lily Jang - Morning Co-Anchor
• Walter Kelley - Chief Meteorologist
• Angela King - Reporter
• Aaron Levine - Weekend Sports Anchor/Reporter
• Parella Lewis - Weekend Meteorologist
• James Lynch - Reporter
• M.J. McDermott - Morning Meteorologist
• David Rose - Weekend Co-Anchor
• Roxanne Vainuku - Reporter
• Susan West - Reporter
• Bill Wixey - Morning Co-Anchor
• Mark Wright - Weeknight Co-Anchor & IQ Weekly Anchor
• Lara Yamada - Weeknight Co-Anchor

[edit] News/Station Presentation

[edit] Newscast Titles

• Q 13 Reports @ Ten (1998-200?)
• Q 13 News @ Ten (200?-2003)
• Q 13 FOX News This Morning (2003-Present)
• Q 13 FOX News @ Ten (2003-Present)

[edit] Notes

During the 1980s and early 1990s, KCPQ used a ship bell ring, for the station ID.

In January 2007 KCPQ made headlines when, during a satellite interview with the station's morning show, Paula Abdul, who was promoting American Idol, began to sway in her chair and slur her speech.^[1] Abdul's publicist attributed this to fatigue and technical difficulties during the recording of the interview, which she was also doing with other Fox affiliates.^[1] It was revealed on the Bravo show Hey Paula, which had followed Abdul with a video camera prior to the interviews, that Abdul had not been sleeping, perhaps suffering from some mild form of insomnia.

[edit] Digital Television

The station's digital channel is multiplexed:

Digital channels

In 2009, KCPQ will remain on channel 13 when the analog to digital conversion is complete.^[2]

[edit] Repeaters

All repeaters are owned by KCPQ and are within the Seattle market, unless specified.

• K14BF Channel 14 Wenatchee (owned by a third-party)
• K25CG Channel 25 Aberdeen
• K42CM Channel 42 Centralia
• K54DX Channel 54 Ellensburg (Moving to Ch. 7) (part of the Yakima / Tri-Cities Market)
• K64ES Channel 64 Chelan (Moving to Ch. 28)

[edit] External links

• Official Q13 Website
• Query the FCC's TV station database for KCPQ
• BIAfn's Media Web Database -- Information on KCPQ-TV

[edit] References