KABC-TV
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| KABC-TV | |
|---|---|
| Image:KABCTVABC7.png | |
| Los Angeles, California | |
| Branding | ABC 7 (general) ABC 7 Eyewitness News HD (newscasts) |
| Slogan | Southern California's News Leader Southern California's First High Definition News |
| Channels | Analog: 7 (VHF) Digital: 53 (UHF) |
| Translators | See list of rebroadcasters, below |
| Affiliations | ABC |
| Owner | Disney/ABC (KABC, Inc.) |
| Founded | September 16, 1949 |
| Call letters meaning | K American Broadcasting Company |
| Former callsigns | KECA-TV (1949-1954) |
| Transmitter Power | 141 kW (analog) 182 kW (digital) |
| Height | 978 m (analog) 924 m (digital) |
| Facility ID | 282 |
| Transmitter Coordinates | |
| Website | www.abc7.com |
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.
Contents |
[edit] 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 (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). Anthony had sold KECA radio to ABC founder Edward J. Noble in 1944, one year after the Federal Communications Commission forced NBC to sell one of its two radio networks. KECA radio had been an affiliate of the Blue Network, while sister station KFI was aligned with the Red Network, which survived the split after the Blue Network was sold to Noble. A year later, the FCC forced Anthony to sell 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. [1] 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.
[edit] 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 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 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 brands its newscasts as ABC7 Eyewitness News HD and it 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 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.
[edit] Ratings
KABC-TV has been the overall ratings leader in the highly competitive Los Angeles market for most of the past three decades. 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 (in 1988), Jeopardy!, and Wheel of Fortune (both in 1992), has ensured channel 7's dominance in ratings up to the present day.
Leveraging the strength of its sizeable Oprah lead-in at 3:00 p.m, channel 7 has long held 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. With the respective network roles now reversed -- ABC ahead of NBC -- channel 7 has recently seen its late news finish consistently in first place for the first time in well over a decade. The 'halo' effect from this carries over into the mornings, where KABC-TV leads a 5:00 to 7:00 a.m. news block with five English-language stations airing local news.
Throughout the broadcast weekday, there is only one non-primetime hour that KABC does not finish in first place -- 1:00 to 2:00 p.m., when One Life to Live is eclipsed by The People's Court on independent station KCAL-TV. In every other hour of the day, channel 7 has a ratings lead that is quite often equal to or greater than the combined total of its two closest English-language competitors. (Source: Nielsen Media Research, May 2007, household results)
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."
[edit] 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 ABC7 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 ABC7 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 ABC7 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 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.
[edit] Digital channels
| Channel | Programming |
|---|---|
| 7.1 / 53.1 | Main KABC Programming |
| 7.2 / 53.2 | KABC "ABC7 Plus" |
| 7.3 / 53.3 | Live Mega Doppler 7000 HD Radar/AccuWeather |
[edit] Personalities
[edit] Anchors
- Marc Brown - weeknights 5:00 and 11:00 p.m.
- John Gregory - weekend mornings (also does general assignment reporting on weekdays)
- Lisa Hernandez - weekend mornings (also does general assignment reporting on weekdays)
- Jovana Lara - weekdays 11:00 a.m.
- Ellen Leyva - weekdays 4:00 and 6:00 p.m.
- Micah Ohlman - weekend evenings (also does general assignment reporting on weekdays)
- David Ono - weekdays 4:00 and 6:00 p.m.
- Phillip Palmer - weekdays 5:00 and 11:00 a.m.
- Leslie Sykes - Weekend Afternoons and 11 p.m. (also does general assignment reporting on weekdays)
- Michelle Tuzee - weeknights 5:00 and 11:00 p.m.
- Kathy Vara - weekdays 5:00 a.m.
[edit] Fill-In Anchors
- Leslie Miller
- Elisa Ramon
- Rob Hayes
- Robert Hougin
[edit] Weather
- Garth Kemp - weekday mornings
- Indra Petersons - weekend mornings (Does Surf Reports During The Week)
- Dallas Raines - chief meteorologist/weeknights
- Danny Romero - weekend evenings
[edit] Sports
- Rob Fukuzaki - sports director/weeknights
- John Hartung - reporter and fill-in anchor
- Curt Sandoval - weekends
[edit] Reporters
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[edit] Soap Stars
- Susan Lucci
- Robert S Woods
- Michael Easton
- Melissa Archer
- Bree Williamson
- Beth Ann Bonner
- Amanda Baker
[edit] Notable alumni
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[edit] Newscast Titles
- Channel 7 News (Pre-1970)
- Channel 7 Eyewitness News (1970-1996)
- ABC 7 Eyewitness News (1997-present)
- ABC 7 Eyewitness News HD (February 2006-present)
[edit] Movie Umbrella Titles
- Movie 7 (1969-1990)
- The 3:30 Movie (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)
[edit] 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 Ridgecrest
[edit] See also
- Circle 7 logo
- KABC (AM) (790 kHz.)
- KLOS-FM (95.5 MHz.)
[edit] External links
- KABC-TV Website
- ABC7 Wireless
- ABC7 Los Angeles Eyewitness News Fan Site
- Photos of KABC's news set
- KABC-TV logos and screenshots from 1950s to the present day
- Query the FCC's TV station database for KABC-TV
ABC Network affiliates in the state of California |
|---|
KEYT 3 / KSSB 17 / K57BC 57 (Santa Barbara / San Luis Obispo) -
KABC 7 (Los Angeles) -
KGO 7 (San Francisco) -
KRCR 7 (Redding) -
KECY-DT 9.2 (El Centro) -
KGTV 10 (San Diego) -
KXTV 10 (Sacramento) - |
| See also: CBS, CW, Fox, MyNetworkTV, NBC, PBS, Telefutura, Telemundo, Univision, Independent, Other Spanish Network, Religious, Home Shopping and Other stations in California |
