KOB-TV

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KOB-TV
Albuquerque, New Mexico
Branding	KOB-TV 4 (general) Eyewitness News 4 (newscasts)
Slogan	Live, Local, Late-Breaking Coverage.
Channels	4 (VHF) analog, 26 (UHF) digital
Affiliations	NBC NBC Weather Plus (DT2)
Owner	Hubbard Broadcasting Corporation
Founded	September 13, 1948
Former affiliations	DuMont (1948-1956), ABC, CBS
Transmitter Power	30 kW/439 m (analog) 10.5 kW/270 m (digital)
Website	www.kobtv.com

"KOB" redirects here. For the animal, see Kob.

KOB-TV is a television station based in Albuquerque, New Mexico. It is an NBC network affiliate, and broadcasts on channel 4. KOB is owned by Hubbard Broadcasting, Inc.. Its transmitter is located on Sandia Crest, east of Albuquerque.

Contents 1 Station history 2 KOBR 3 Satellite stations 4 News 4.1 Newscast Lineup 4.2 Newcasters 5 Trivia 6 External links

[edit] Station history

KOB-TV started operations on September 13, 1948, after Albuquerque Journal owner and publisher Tom Pepperday won a television license on his second try. Pepperday, who also owned KOB-AM-FM, had previously applied for one in 1943. It is the oldest television station in New Mexico, the first television station between the Mississippi River and the West Coast, and the second oldest in the Mountain Time Zone (KDYL-TV in Salt Lake City, now KTVX, had signed on a month earlier). Initially KOB-TV ran programming from all four networks--NBC, ABC, CBS, and DuMont Television Network. However, it has always been a primary NBC affiliate.

Later, in May 1952, the station was purchased by Time Life (now Time Inc.) and former FCC chairman Wayne Coy. It was Time Life’s first television asset. In 1953 as each network gradually increased its schedule and as two new TV stations signed on within a week KOB-TV would drop programming of ABC and CBS. DuMont went out of business in 1956. CBS programming would move to KGGM (now KRQE) and ABC programming moved to KOAT.

Stanley E. Hubbard, founder of Hubbard Broadcasting, bought KOB-TV from Time Life in 1957. KOB's radio cousins were later sold off and are now known as KKOB-AM-FM, owned by Citadel Broadcasting; many people still confuse the television and radio stations today.

In 2005, KOB-TV entered into a news partnership with KKOB-AM.

In September 2006, KOB-TV began broadcasting NBC WeatherPlus on digital subchannel 4-2, at first inserting its Doppler radar during time reserved for local segments.

[edit] KOBR

In 1953, a new television station signed on Channel 8 in Roswell, New Mexico; KSWS-TV commenced transmissions that year with a 790 foot tower and studios on Comanche Peak east of Roswell. The station's effective radiated visual power was 107 kW, and its height above average terrain was 905 feet. The station, which was owned by John R. Barnett (an oil investor and petroleum engineer, affiliated with all four networks. The station moved to 1717 West 2nd Street in Roswell, which was purpose-built. A bigger 1610-foot tower was created near Caprock, New Mexico, 43 miles east of Roswell, in 1956. At that time, it was the world's tallest structure: the world's tallest tower of that type 50 years later (North Dakota's KVLY-TV mast) was 2063 feet in height. With the new transmitter, the effective radiated power was ramped up to 316 kW (the highest for a full-power VHF analog station); the antenna was a whopping 1786 feet above average terrain. The tower fell due to an ice storm in 1960, and a new 875 foot tower was constructed. New facilities at Caprock and Comanche Peak were built. A newer tower was built by 1962.

KSWS-TV grew out of the earlier steps of KSWS Radio which signed on at 1230khz with 250 watts day and nights in 1947. This station is mentioned in many of the "Roswell UFO Incident" as it's newsroom was contacted in the course of the events during and after that story. It is not known if Mr. Barnett put KSWS radio on the air from scratch or whether he bought it prior to putting channel 8 on the air.

The first transmitter (and likely the first antenna, package deals were very common in the early days of television) was/were built by Standard Electronics. This was installed at the Comanche Peak site east of Roswell. It was later moved to the Caprock, NM tower.In the early sixties an RCA TT-25-DH (25,000 watt visual output, fourth (D) series, High band VHF output channel)was installed at the new site. After the 1960 collapse of the first 1,610' tower, an 875' tower (formerly used by KFVS-TV in Cape Girardeau, MO) was installed a fraction of a mile from the fomer and future tall tower site. In the mid eighties a Harris Transmitter was installed and the TT-25DH was retired to standby duty, which it serves to this day.

The Caprock site was somewhat remarkable for it's extreme isolation. Three houses were built near the tower to house operaing engineers and their families. Electrical power was provided by the area power cooperative. When it proved difficult to keep the power flowing, the station invested in large diesel generators to bridge the gap. Water was provided by an extremely deep well, and mail was delivered to a rural box on a stand a few miles away at the crossroads.

The same interest in extreme facilities went into other ventures. The studios and offices built at 1717 West 2nd in Roswell. The plant was more than 50,000 square feet, had two large studios, with overhead control rooms and separate audience areas complete with bleachers. The plant was inspired by the then recent CBS "Television City" facility in the LA area. The small AM station was sold to other interests (which became KRSY(AM)) when Mr. Barnett won a permit for a new station on 1020khz. The new KSWS Radio (which went on in 1965) was 50,000 watts by day and 10,000 watts by night. That station is today's KCKN(AM).

In 1956, KAVE-TV Channel 6 signed on in Carlsbad as the CBS affiliate for southeastern New Mexico. It had inadequate facilities and broadcast on low power and height from its facilities on Church Street in the western portion of Carlsbad. It moved to a 1200 foot tower near Artesia in the mid-1960s, resulting in a switch to ABC, rebroadcasting KMOM Channel 9 from Monahans, which is now NBC affiliate KWES in Midland-Odessa, Texas. KAVE's network switch from CBS to ABC came in early 1966 when KBIM-TV Channel 10 signed on in Roswell as the area's CBS affiliate, broadcasting from a studio in downtown Roswell and over a 1900-foot tower that was just 163 feet short of the tallest mast, the KVLY mast in North Dakota.

As KSWS stayed with the NBC network in the 1960s, economic problems were happening in eastern New Mexico: the potash mines near Carlsbad downscaled activity or closed and the Roswell Air Force base was closed. KSWS now faced major competition from KAVE and KBIM, new radio stations, and an expanding cable television system. Barnett died in 1968, resulting in the station's first sale: Bryant radio and TV in Lubbock acquired KSWS for $490,000. Logically, the station became a KCBD-TV rebroadcaster, as Bryant owned KCBD. Joe Bryant died in 1970, and State Telecasting Company from Columbia, South Carolina became the new owners.

A private microwave system was installed between Lubbock and Roswell, though the year is uncertain. Joe Bryant took over the station in 1968 and made it a setellite of KCBD-TV almost immediately, so there would have been a need for the system. State Telecasting came along in 1971, and may have made this as a general improvement. What is known is that the system was of very high reliability, with good locations, sturdy towers, clear paths, and backup power (large lead acid batteries). The four hops went from the KCBD-TV studio/transmitter tower at 5600 Avenue "A" in Lubbock to a tower at the south edge of Levelland, Texas, to a site near Lehman, Texas (not too far from Morton, Texas) to a site near Crossroads, NM to the actual tower at Caprock. Collins Radio provided the equipment and the system was considered "Network Grade" meaning that it was comparable to AT&T hops of the day.

When KCBD aired on KSWS, the former produced a nightly newscast in Lubbock for airing on the latter. The New Mexico Report was taped between the early and late news and consisted largely of items off of the New Mexico wire services. The program aired after Tom Snyder's Tomorrow and before sign off on both KSWS-TV and KCBD. Often as not, the same program was repeated at sign-on the next day.

State Telecasting decided to sell KSWS in 1983. The owners of Roswell's KBIM-TV made the best bid for KCBD at $10.75 million, but due to KBIM itself, had to divest KSWS; if they did not, it would break Federal Communications Commission rules and the same company would own 66% of Roswell's media. The station was transferred to KCBD Associates which was headed by W. Robert McKinsey (the long time general manager of KCBD and KSWS). A planned sale to the Hubbard interests at KOB-TV had to wait until the KSWS license was renewed. The license had been challenged.

In May 1983, the sale of KCBD-TV to the KBIM-TV owners closed. KSWS-TV began to operate independently of KCBD, by way of an agreement with New Mexico Public TV station KENW-TV in Portales, NM. Where KCBD-TV operated on a UTC -6 basis unsuitable for broadcast in a UTC -7 market, KSWS began to use an NBC feed that came from KOB and was fed over NMPTV microwave to Portales master control, and from there to the Caprock tower.

New studios and offices were eventually setup for the renamed KOBR-TV at 214 East 2nd in Roswell.

[edit] Satellite stations

Three stations rebroadcast KOB's signal and insert local content for other parts of the media market:

• KOBF, Farmington, New Mexico (analog channel 12, digital channel 17)
• KOBR, Roswell, New Mexico (analog channel 8, digital channel 38)
• KOBG, Silver City, New Mexico (analog channel 6)

KOBF went on air in 1972 as KIVA-TV. It operated at about half of the class maximum (158 of 316kw) from an antenna 410 feet above average terrain. The station was primarily (perhaps solely) an NBC affiliate.

Up until March 2007, KOBF had broadcast a short Four Corners news, weather and sports segment, "Eyewitness News 12," during some KOB news broadcasts. On March 1, 2007, KOB management fired three of the four members of the news department, including the news director and two technical directors. A similar practice of providing local newscasts had been done at KOBR, but to a much smaller extent. Those local broadcasts also ceased on March 1, 2007

KOBG has a license to broadcast a digital signal on channel 8, but has not begun digital broadcasts.

The last letter of the satellite station callsigns stands for the city or county where the station is located. KOBG is in Grant County.

In addition to KOB and its three satellite stations, there are dozens of low-powered repeaters that carry KOB's programming throughout New Mexico, as well as a handful in Colorado and Arizona. [1]

[edit] News

Ordinarily, KOB airs five hours of local news each weekday, three hours each Saturday, and an hour each Sunday. During the school year, KOB broadcasts a weekly 15-minute sportscast, "New Mexico Gameday," dedicated to high school sports. Also, during the fall of 2006, KOB broadcasts the Lobo Coaches Show, a 30-minute sportscast dedicated to the University of New Mexico football team.

KOB produced an hourlong newscast for Albuquerque's Fox affiliate, KASA-TV, through September 14, 2006. The next day, CBS affiliate KRQE took over production of that newscast as that station's parent company, LIN TV, began taking over KASA's operations as it purchased the station.

KOB's newscasts identify themselves as "Eyewitness News 4".

[edit] Newscast Lineup

• Eyewitness News 4 Today - 5 AM, 5:30 AM, 6 AM, 6:30 AM *Eyewitness News 4 Today (weekends) - 7 AM-9 AM weekends (often varies with NBC programming)
• Eyewitness News 4 Midday - Noon-12:30 PM, 12:30 PM-1 PM
• Eyewitness News 4 Live at Four - 4 PM-4:30 PM weekdays
• Eyewitness News 4 at Five - 5 PM-5:30 PM weekdays and Sunday
• Eyewitness News 4 at Six - 6 PM-6:30 PM weekdays and Saturday
• Eyewitness News 4 at Ten - 10 PM-10:35 PM seven nights a week
• Eyewitness News 4 at Ten (Rebroadcast)- 1:35AM-2:10AM seven nights a week
• New Mexico Gameday - 10:30-10:45 PM Fridays
• Lobo Coaches Show - 9:30-10 PM Sundays (filling timeslot between end of NBC Sunday Night Football and the 10 p.m. news broadcast)

[edit] Newcasters

KOB-TV has a history of strong news talent, although it is a fixture at No. 2 in market ratings. The station's hiring of Dick Knipfing in the 1980 timeframe from KOAT-TV, a local competitor created the Albuquerque's first, big-dollar anchor, and stood out in the industry as the "anchorman wars" moved to relatively smaller markets. Knipfing's 1980 salary was approximately $90,000. Despite his hiring, the station was never able to overtake KOAT-TV in the news ratings, largely due to the staying power of anchor Johnny Morris and a folksy weatherman Howard Morgan. Knipfing, now with KRQE-TV, however, remains a fixture in the local TV news scene. Today, KOB-TV's anchor team features Carla Aragon, who used to co-host PM Magazine for KOB-TV in the early 1980s, before station management rejected her audition for a news anchor position, only to see her hired away by KNBC-TV inLos Angeles. Aragon, a native New Mexican, spent eleven years at KNBC-TV as the morning co-anchor of the top-rated weekday morning newscast, "Today in L.A.," and as a general assignment reporter. She returned to KOB-TV in 1994 and is teamed with anchor Tom Joles, who followed Knipfing in the anchor chair. Both Aragon and Joles are Emmy Award winners. Other KOB-TV alums include intern-reporter Jane Wells, formerly with Geraldo and now with CNBC, and Jeff Schwartz, formerly of WJRT-TV, who accepted a Fellowship with Los Alamos National Laboratory and would become its Public Affairs Officer. Also in the 1980s, anchor-reporter Greg Gurule moved from KOB-TV to then KOA-TV nowKCNC-TV in Denver, Colorado, KGO-TV in San Francisco, California, and KNTV in San Jose, California, before returning to his home state to join KRQE News 13.

[edit] Trivia

• Many "Today in History" websites ([2][3][4]) say KOB-TV ceased transmission on October 28, 1986 - the same day the KOB radio stations changed callsigns to KKOB. KOB did not stop broadcasting on that date.

[edit] External links

• Query the FCC's TV station database for KOB
• Query the FCC's TV station database for KOBF
• Query the FCC's TV station database for KOBR
• Query the FCC's TV station database for KOBG

Broadcast television in the Albuquerque / Santa Fe market  (Nielsen DMA #45)
KASA 2 (Fox) (The Tube on DT2) - KOB 4 (NBC) - KNME 5 (PBS) - KOAT 7 (ABC) - KCHF 11 (Ind.) - KRQE 13 (CBS) - KTFQ 14 (TeleFutura) - KWBQ 19 (The CW) - KNAT 23 (TBN) - KQDF-LP 25 (AZA) - KYNM-LP 30 (Almavision) - KAZQ 32 (LeSea/3ABN) - KTVS-LP 36 (Ind.) - K38IM 38 (3ABN) - KLUZ 41 (Univision) - KTFA-LP 48 (HSN) - KASY 50 (MNTV) - KTEL-LP 53 (TEL) - K56FB 56 (JTV)
Local digital television channels
KNMD 9 (PBS) - KRMU 20 (PBS/RMPBS)
Out-of-market stations covering parts of the market and other over the air stations in New Mexico KENW 3 (PBS) - KVIH 12 (ABC) - KRWG 22 (PBS) - KRPV 27 (GLC) - KUPT 29 (MNTV) - K47DR 47 (TBN) - KTDO 48 (Telemundo)