Everything about Kabc-tv totally explained
KABC-TV, channel 7, is an
owned-and-operated television station of the
Walt Disney Company-owned
American Broadcasting Company, licensed to
Los Angeles, California. KABC-TV's studios are located in
Glendale, California, and its transmitter is located on
Mount Wilson.
In the few areas of the western United States where viewers can't receive ABC programs over-the-air, KABC-TV is available on satellite to subscribers of
Dish Network and
DirecTV.
History
Channel 7 first went on the air as
KECA-TV on
September 16,
1949. At the same time, it was the last of Los Angeles'
VHF television stations to sign-on, and the last of the five original ABC-owned stations to debut, after
KGO-TV in
San Francisco signed-on
four months earlier.
The station was named after Los Angeles broadcasting pioneer
Earle C. Anthony, whose initials were also present on channel 7's then-sister radio station, KECA (790 AM, now
KABC). KECA radio had been an affiliate of the
NBC Blue Network. Anthony's other Los Angeles radio station,
KFI, was aligned with the Red Network. The Red Network survived the
Federal Communications Commission-ordered split of the two NBC radio networks in
1943.
Edward J. Noble, who bought the Blue Network, purchased KECA radio
a year later when the FCC forced Anthony to divest one of his Los Angeles radio stations.
On
February 1,
1954, KECA-TV changed its call letters to the present
KABC-TV.
From the time of its initial sign-on in 1949, channel 7 was located at the ABC Television Center (now branded as the
Prospect Studios), located in the
Los Feliz neighborhood of Los Angeles, east of
Hollywood. In December
1999, KABC-TV moved from its longtime studios to a new state-of-the-art facility designed by
César Pelli in nearby
Glendale. The station is currently a short distance from ABC's West Coast headquarters, and from parent Walt Disney Company's headquarters in
Burbank.
KABC-TV has used the
Circle 7 logo since
1962 (the same year ABC created and implemented its current logo), and augmented its bottom left quadrant with the ABC network logo in
1997. The station's news anchors and reporters wear
Circle 7 lapel pins when they appear on camera, a practice that had once been standard at each of the original five ABC-owned stations.
On
February 4,
2006, KABC-TV became the first television station in California to broadcast its newscasts in
High-definition. Along with the in-house upgrades, the station debuted an upgraded news set and new theme music.
Digital television
The station's digital channel is multiplexed:
| Channel |
Programming |
| 7.1 / 53.1 |
main KABC-TV/ABC programming |
| 7.2 / 53.2 |
KABC Plus |
| 7.3 / 53.3 |
Local weather channel |
Post-analog shutdown
After the analog television shutdown and digital conversion, which is tentatively scheduled to take place on February 17, 2009, KABC-TV will move its digital broadcasts back to its present analog channel number, 7.
News Programming
KABC-TV first adopted the
Eyewitness News format in February of
1969, not long after it became a hit at sister station
WABC-TV in
New York City. Like the other ABC-owned stations, Channel 7 used the "Tar Sequence" cue from the soundtrack of the 1967 film
Cool Hand Luke as its theme music, and continued to do so even after the others adopted the
Frank Gari-composed
News Series 2000, an updated version of the theme. Later on, the original
Cool Hand Luke theme would only be used in the news open, a similar practice to what KGO-TV and WABC-TV did at the time. The station's newscasts used a synthesized version of the old theme, composed by Frank Becker, during the mid-1980s. KABC-TV would pick up the News Series 2000 package in
1990. In
1995 KABC began using Gari's "Eyewitness News" music package, which remains the station's news theme.
During the 1980s, KABC-TV was one of a few stations in the country to run a three-hour block of
local news during weekday afternoons and early evenings from 4:00 to 7:00 p.m. The station was the first in the region, if not the state, to introduce an hour long newscast at 4 p.m., first anchored by
Jerry Dunphy and
Tawny Little in September of 1980. Before this the station ran two hours of news from 5-7 p.m.
The station reduced this block by one half hour in
1990, when it moved
ABC World News Tonight (now
World News with Charles Gibson) from 7:00 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. For a time in the late 1980s, its 6:30 p.m. newscast was branded "Eyewitness Update" and served as a final recap of the day's news, similar in nature to an 11 p.m. newscast.
KABC-TV is currently the only ABC station on the West Coast to air
World News at 6:30 p.m.; most other Western ABC stations run this broadcast at 5:30 or 6:00 p.m.. When the network soap opera
Port Charles ended its run in
2004, channel 7 expanded its midday newscast to a full hour. KABC-TV currently airs over 40 hours of live news programming each week, more than any other individual television station in Los Angeles.
KABC-TV is one of two Los Angeles television stations with a full-time presence in California's state capital,
Sacramento. Since late
2003, the station has
shared resources with sister stations KGO-TV in San Francisco and
KFSN-TV in
Fresno to staff a Sacramento bureau following
Arnold Schwarzenegger's election to the office of
Governor, during the
2003 California recall.
Notable on-air personalities who have worked for the station's news department in the past include
Bill Bonds,
Jerry Dunphy,
Christine Lund,
Lisa McRee,
Harold Greene,
Tawny Little,
Laura Diaz,
Paul Moyer,
Chuck Henry,
Dr. George Fischbeck,
Judd Rose, and
Bill Weir. Former channel 7 sports reporters and anchors include former
NFL players
Lynn Swann,
Gene Washington,
Jim Hill and
Bob Chandler, and former
Major League Baseball player (and current
Los Angeles Dodgers radio analyst and
play-by-play announcer)
Rick Monday.
During the 1970s and 1980s the station's newscasts often included spirited mini debates and commentaries reflecting various political viewpoints. Several notable politicians and
political pundits appeared on these segments including
Proposition 13 backer
Howard Jarvis, former
U.S. Representative and
Senator John Tunney,
Bruce Herschensohn
,
Bill Press and
Baxter Ward. In addition, like many other stations at the time, KABC-TV aired brief editorials from the stations general manager, most notably John Severino, who served throughout the 1980s. This practice was discontinued in 1990.
Ratings
The introduction of
Eyewitness News, followed by the addition of syndicated staples such as
The Oprah Winfrey Show (in 1986),
Live With Regis and Kelly,
Jeopardy!, and
Wheel of Fortune (all in 1992) has given a slight boost to KABC's ratings.
Leveraging the strength of its sizeable
Oprah lead-in at 3:00 p.m, channel 7 has long held 2nd or 1st the ratings lead for its 4:00 to 6:30 p.m. news block. However, ratings leads for the morning and late news have typically been spirited (and expensive) battles with local stations
KTLA and
KTTV in the morning, and
KNBC (and recently
KCBS-TV) at 11:00 p.m. When ABC primetime programming was faltering, channel 7 would typically finish in second place behind KNBC at 11:00 p.m. and 2nd place in the morning to KNBC or KTLA.
With its across-the-board ratings success in hand, the station has been running quick five-second "tags" throughout the day that say,
"ABC 7 -- Number one in news, number one in Southern California." This is a throwback to its openers during the 1980s, when the station proudly proclaimed itself
"Number One in Southern California."
Other Programming
KABC-TV produces several local shows including
Vista L.A.. (which profiles
Latino life in Southern California), and
Eye on L.A.. (which has been on the air in some form since the early 1980s). On weekends, the station airs
Eyewitness Newsmakers, hosted by reporter Adrienne Alpert.
The station produces a sports/variety type show branded
ABC 7 Sports Zone, which formerly originated from the
ESPN Zone in
Anaheim. This show airs occasionally following network telecasts of
NCAA football and
NBA games. Most
ABC 7 Sports Zone shows now originate from local sports venues including the
Los Angeles Coliseum, the
Rose Bowl in
Pasadena and
Staples Center in Los Angeles, and occasionally at the station's studios in Glendale. It is hosted by
Rob Fukuzaki. This program is a spin-off of
Monday Night Live, which aired on KABC-TV until
Monday Night Football left the network after the
2005 NFL season. That show was hosted by
Todd Donoho and featured an extensive trivia contest.
Prior to ABC's annual telecasts of the
Academy Awards, KABC-TV produces a live pre-awards show,
An Evening at the Academy Awards: The Arrivals, featuring red carpet interviews and fashion commentary. This show also airs on the network's other owned stations and is syndicated to several ABC affiliates and other broadcasters outside the country. The station also produces and broadcasts post-ceremony show called
An Evening at the Academy Awards: The Winners.
In the past, KABC-TV featured various locally produced shows such as
AM Los Angeles; a morning talk show which at various times featured personalities
Regis Philbin,
Sarah Purcell,
Ralph Story, Tawny Little,
Cristina Ferrare, Cyndy Garvey, and
Steve Edwards as hosts. Edwards also hosted a short lived afternoon show in the mid-1980s branded
330. (
Live with Regis and Kelly, co-hosted by Philbin, now occupies the former time slot of
AM Los Angeles.)
On
April 30,
1954, KABC-TV aired a preview,
Dig Me Later, Vampira, hosted by
Maila Nurmi at 11:00pm.
The Vampira Show premiered on the following night,
May 1, 1954. For the first four weeks, the show aired at midnight, and it moved to 11:00pm on
May 29. Ten months later, the series aired at 10:30pm, beginning
March 5,
1955. As Vampira, Nurmi introduced films while wandering through a hallway of mist and cobwebs. Her horror-related comedy antics included talking to her pet spider Rollo and encouraging viewers to write for
epitaphs instead of autographs. When the series was cancelled in 1955, she retained rights to the character of Vampira.
In
1964,
Pinky Lee attempted a return to kids TV by hosting a local children's comedy program on KABC-TV. The series was also seen in national syndication for the 1964 &
1965 TV seasons. But the program fell prey to creative interference from the show's producers and from station management. Lee tried to fight off the creative interference, but his efforts were for naught. The 1960s version of "The Pinky Lee Kids TV Show" went off the air after one season.
Current personalities
Anchors
- Marc Brown - weeknights 5:00 and 11:00 p.m.
- John Gregory - weekend mornings/Saturdays Noon
- Lisa Hernandez - weekend mornings/Saturdays Noon
- Jovana Lara - weekdays 11:00 a.m.
- Ellen Leyva - weekdays 4:00 and 6:00 p.m.
- Micah Ohlman - weekend evenings
- David Ono - weekdays 4:00 and 6:00 p.m.
- Phillip Palmer - weekdays 5:00 and 11:00 a.m.
- Leslie Sykes - Weekend evenings
- Michelle Tuzee - weeknights 5:00 and 11:00 p.m.
- Kathy Vara - weekdays 5:00 a.m.
Weather
Garth Kemp - weekday mornings
Indra Petersons - weekend mornings/Saturdays Noon
Dallas Raines - chief meteorologist/weeknights
Danny Romero - weekend evenings
Sports
Rob Fukuzaki - sports director/weeknights
John Hartung - reporter and fill-in anchor
Curt Sandoval - weekends
Reporters
| Adrienne Alpert
Bob Banfield (Inland Empire bureau)
Wendy Burch
Lori Corbin (food/nutrition/exercise)
Denise Dador ("Health Specialist")
Eileen Frere (Orange County bureau)
Sid Garcia
Gene Gleeson
Carlos Granda
Rob Hayes
Miriam Hernandez
Robert Holguin
Dave Kunz ("Automotive Specialist")
Melissa MacBride
|
|
Rob McMillan (Inland Empire bureau)
Leslie Miller
Nannette Miranda (Sacramento bureau)
Jane Monreal (morning studio traffic)
John North (politics)
George Pennacchio (entertainment)
Amy Powell
Subha Ravindhran
Elsa Ramon
Scott Reiff (morning traffic helicopter pilot/reporter)
Ric Romero (consumer affairs)
Leo Stallworth
Leanne Suter
Bill Thomas (afternoon/evening helicopter pilot/reporter)
|
Notable alumni
Newscast Titles
The Southern California/Los Angeles Report (1950-1962)
Channel 7 News (1962-1969)
Channel 7 Eyewitness News (1969-1997)
ABC 7 Eyewitness News (1997-present)
ABC 7 Eyewitness News HD (February 2006-present)
Movie Umbrella Titles
Movie 7 (1969-1990)
(1968-1981)
ABC 7 Movie Special (1996, 2005-present)
ABC 7 Prime Movie Special (2003-2004)
Channel 7 Midnight Movie (1993-1995)
Channel 7 Late Movie (1995-1998)
The Vampira Show (1954-1955)
The Saturday/Sunday Afternoon Movie (1969-1980s)
Hollywood Theatre (1980s-1998)
ABC 7 Weekend Afternoon Movie (1998-present)
The Saturday/Sunday Night Movie (1969-1996)
The Monday Night Movie (1970-1981)
The ABC 7 Saturday/Sunday Night Movie (1996-present)
Insomniac Theatre (1992-2004)
Classic Theatre (1988-1995)
Rebroadcasters
KABC is rebroadcast on the following translator stations:
K48IP 48 Daggett
K19BT 19 Lucerne Valley
K67AO 12 Palmdale
K08IA 8 Newberry Springs
K07NH 7 Ridgecrest
K41GO 41 RidgecrestFurther Information
Get more info on 'Kabc-tv'.
|
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