KCPQ

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KCPQ
Tacoma / Seattle, Washington
Branding	Q13 FOX
Slogan	Right on Q
Channels	13 (VHF) analog, 18 (UHF) digital
Translators	(see article)
Affiliations	Fox
Owner	Tribune Broadcasting
Founded	August 2, 1953
Call letters meaning	K Clover Park Quality
Former affiliations	NBC (1953–1954; secondary in 1980s), PBS (1975–1981)
Transmitter Power	316kW ch.13 (analog) 600kW ch.18 (digital)
Height	610.0 m (analog) 585.0 m (digital
Website	www.q13.com

KCPQ is the FOX television affiliate 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.

Though licensed to Tacoma, 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 My Network 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 south-eastern Alaska.

Contents 1 History 1.1 As KMO-TV/KTVW 1.2 As KCPQ 2 Repeaters 3 News 3.1 Newscasts 3.2 Current personalities 4 Notes 5 Logos 6 External links

[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, limped along on a diet of a low-budget local programming, old network reruns and ancient B-movies.

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 orignated 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 30-year career with the United Nations television operation.

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. 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 just under $700,000. 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 began to carry 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. KCPQ's transmitter was relocated to Gold Mountain, a peak west of Bremerton, enabling better signal coverage throughout Western Washington. 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 1980's and early 1990's including Pacific Ten Confrence 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 March of 1999 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.)

[edit] Repeaters

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

• K14BF Wenatchee (owned by a third-party)
• K25CG Aberdeen
• K42CM Centralia
• K54DX Ellensburg (part of the Yakima / Tri-Cities Market)
• K64ES Chelan

[edit] News

KCPQ did not begin to produce newscasts until the late 1990s, when it launched a 10pm newscast. It also launched a morning newscast in 2000 following Tribune's purchase.

[edit] Newscasts

The station currently runs news programming at the following hours, with a total of 23.5 hours a week:

• Q13 FOX News This Morning (5-9am weekdays)
• Q13 FOX News at Ten (10-11pm Monday-Thursday, 10-10:30pm Friday/Saturday/Sunday)
• Q It Up Sports (10:30-11pm Sundays)
• IQ Weekly (10:30-11pm Fridays)

[edit] Current personalities

• Carmen Ainsworth - Morning Co-Anchor
• Mark Coleman - Weekend Meteorologist
• Darren Dedo - Reporter
• Dan Devone - Weeknight Sports Anchor
• Adam Gehrke - Traffic Reporter
• Lily Jang - Morning Co-Anchor
• Walter Kelley - Chief Meteorologist
• Angela King - Reporter
• James Lynch - Reporter
• Keli McAlister - Reporter
• M.J. McDermott - Morning Meteorologist
• Nicole Sanchez - Reporter
• Derek Wing - Weekend Co-Anchor
• Bill Wixey - Morning Co-Anchor
• Mark Wright - Weeknight Co-Anchor & IQ Weekly Anchor
• Lara Yamada - Weeknight Co-Anchor

[edit] Notes

During the 1970's and 1980's. KCPQ used a ship bell ring, for the station ID.

[edit] Logos

Logo used during the 1960's	Logo used during the 1970's	KTVW live broadcast	Logo used during the 1980's and early 1990's
Logo used from 1990 to 1998	KCPQ's Logo from the late 90s and early 2000s. The multi-colored background with the Q silhouette has been used off and on since the late 80s	KCPQ's current logo.

[edit] External links

• Official Q13 Website
• Query the FCC's TV station database for KCPQ
• Query the FCC's TV station database for K14BF
• Query the FCC's TV station database for K25CG
• Query the FCC's TV station database for K42CM
• Query the FCC's TV station database for K54DX
• Query the FCC's TV station database for K64ES