KOVR

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KOVR ("CBS13") is the CBS owned-and-operated television station (O&O) in Sacramento, California. It is licensed to Stockton, with studios in West Sacramento. Its transmitter, the KXTV/KOVR Tower (shared with KXTV channel 10), is located in Walnut Grove. The tower is among the tallest in the world and is likely the tallest structure in California, allowing KOVR to cover much of the San Joaquin Valley. Along with sister station KMAX-TV, both stations are the only English language network O&O's in the Sacramento market.

[edit] History

KOVR is Sacramento's oldest continuously-operating television station. It first hit the airwaves in September 6, 1954 from the California State Fair. Originally an independent station with a transmitter located on Mount Diablo, its signal reached the San Francisco Bay Area, hence the call letters KOVR ("covering" all of Northern California). It broadcast from a studio on Miner Avenue in Stockton. Art Finley hosted an afternoon children's program, Toonytown, for several years, before moving to San Francisco's KRON.

[edit] As an ABC Affiliate

In May 1957, KOVR merged its operations with Sacramento's original ABC affiliate, KCCC (channel 40, which signed on a few months before KOVR). KCCC went silent, and KOVR became Sacramento's ABC affiliate. At ABC's request, the station moved its transmitter to a temporary site near Jackson to avoid interference with KGO-TV in San Francisco.

By this time, it was obvious that Sacramento, Stockton and Modesto were going to be a single television market. In 1960, KOVR teamed up with KCRA-TV and KXTV to build a new 1,549-foot tower in Walnut Grove. In 1985, KOVR and KXTV moved to their current 2,049-foot (625 m) tower while KCRA moved to its own 2,000-foot (610 m) tower; KCRA still uses the old tower as an auxiliary.

In 1959, John Kluge's Metropolitan Broadcasting (which later became Metromedia) bought KOVR and owned the station until 1964. In 1960, the station moved its general offices and news department to a new studio on Arden Way in Sacramento. In 1987 KOVR consolidated its operations into its current facility in West Sacramento.

A 1965 advertisement for then ABC affiliate KOVR touting Peter Jennings as anchor of Peter Jennings with the News.

Metromedia sold KOVR to McClatchy Newspapers in 1964. McClatchy ran the station alongside The Sacramento Bee and Modesto Bee newspapers, as well as radio stations KWG in Stockton and KFBK in Sacramento. McClatchy was able to own KOVR, KWG and KFBK because Sacramento, Stockton and Modesto are separate radio markets. Scoopy, McClatchy's mascot bee (originally designed by Walt Disney, whose namesake company would eventually acquire ABC) was also KOVR's mascot during the years McClatchy owned the station--short cartoons of the bee bookended KOVR's broadcast day, either ushering in or concluding the day's programming.

After McClatchy sold the station to Outlet Communications in 1978, KOVR went into a gradual decline in terms of both ratings and programming quality (even as ABC became the country's highest-rated network), and has been in third place in the Sacramento ratings for most of the time since then. The station was then sold to Narragansett Television LP in 1986, then to Anchor Media in 1988. Anchor Media merged with River City Broadcasting in 1993. In 1996, River City merged with Sinclair Broadcast Group.

KOVR does have its high water marks in local broadcasting: it was the first station in Northern California to use videotape (rather than film) for its newscasts, and was the first station in the Sacramento/Stockton area to broadcast in stereo.

As an ABC affiliate, KOVR preempted a moderate amount of programming, even the 30 minute soap opera Loving. It also aired some ABC programming out of pattern: All My Children in the early years used to air at 11 AM. (Half the ABC affiliates air AMC at 11 AM to follow it with their noon newscasts; the timeslot is secondary compared to airing AMC at noon traditionally). In the mid-90s, KOVR moved the soap opera to air at 3 PM, a practice continued by KXTV by the network switch until the early 2000s.

[edit] Switching to CBS

On March 6, 1995, KOVR swapped affiliations with longtime CBS affiliate KXTV (then owned by Belo Corporation; now owned by Gannett). Despite becoming a CBS affiliate, KOVR chose not to air Guiding Light, a practice continued from KXTV during its CBS days (due to the show's below-average ratings in the area). Another CBS affiliate, WNEM-TV in Bay City, Michigan; also did not air the soap opera until the launch of its My Network TV subchannel in 2006.

A more notable oddity with KOVR's affiliation with CBS is that the station runs the network's primetime schedule an hour earlier than typical. CBS programming that is seen from 8 p.m. to 11 p.m. in other Pacific Time Zone markets is shown from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. instead on KOVR. When KOVR was an ABC affiliate, the station had an 11 p.m. newscast like most stations on the coasts. Upon the network switch, the station followed the practice of now-sister KPIX in having a 10 p.m. hour-long newscast (KPIX later on moved the newscast back up to 11 p.m. in 1998). In recent ratings periods KTXL Fox 40 has been closing the ratings gap with KOVR. However, in the November 2007 sweeps period, KOVR has widened its 10 p.m. lead over KTXL, which made it the second-highest-rated late evening newscast behind KCRA's 11 p.m. newscast.

KOVR's previous logo, under Sinclair ownership. This logo is similar to a former logo of another Sinclair-owned station, Portland, Maine's WGME.

[edit] Gary Condit/Chandra Levy

In 2001, KOVR gained attention when it landed an "local exclusive" interview with Congressman Gary Condit regarding the Chandra Levy murder (Condit appeared the same evening on ABC, in an interview with Connie Chung). The station televised an interview on August 30 in which he claimed that he did not kill Chandra Levy after a visit with the slain intern. Despite numerous KOVR reports filed by reporter Gloria Gomez, the Condit interview was granted to another KOVR reporter, Jodi Hernandez. Much of the national interest in the case would be lost days later, in the aftermath of the September 11th terror attacks.

[edit] Becoming a CBS O&O

In May 2005, Sinclair sold KOVR to Viacom's television stations unit (now part of CBS Corporation), creating CBS' third California duopoly with O&O KMAX-TV, the local CW station. Viacom was forced to sell KFRC-AM in San Francisco as a condition of the sale, as the station's city-grade signal reaches Sacramento.

[edit] Programming

After the purchase was announced, some had speculated that KOVR would eventually move CBS's primetime lineup back to 8-11 p.m. and add Guiding Light to its schedule, along with dropping The Jerry Springer Show. However, on August 11, 2005, CBS announced that the 7-10 p.m. prime-time lineup, the 10 p.m. local newscast and the 11 p.m. airing of The Late Show with David Letterman would remain in place. The success that the station has had with the early prime-time schedule and its 10 p.m. newscast is cited as the reason for maintaining the status quo. At that point, they also stated that Guiding Light would not be moving to KOVR for the 2005 season. The station did, however, change its on-air branding from the long-standing "KOVR 13" to "CBS 13" in compliance with the CBS Mandate.

On July 31, 2006, the station received approval from the network to move the weekend lineup back an hour in order to maintain an hour-long 10 p.m. newscast throughout the week. The new weekend schedule, which began August 27, will, for example, have 60 Minutes airing at 6 p.m. on Sunday nights. KOVR is now the only Pacific Time Zone CBS station to run the entire network primetime lineup beginning at 7 p.m. Technically, it is also one of two TV stations in the Sacramento market and in the Pacific Time Zone to start their network primetime lineup early, as KQCA started airing its 2-hour My Network TV schedule from 7 to 9 p.m. Monday through Saturday, on September 5.

The Late Late Show (which had been airing at 1 a.m.) moved up one hour, pushing back the Midnight showing of The Jerry Springer Show to a later time (which was seen on the station weekdays at 3 p.m. until September 8, 2006). On September 11, 2006, NBC Universal's Jerry Springer was dropped (now airs on KQCA at Noon and 2 PM), and KOVR is now the market's new home of CBS-owned King World's Dr. Phil, which the station now airs at 3 p.m. on weekdays. Montel Williams remains at 2 p.m. weekdays.

Until late 1999, Live with Regis & Kelly (then Live with Regis & Kathie Lee) aired on KOVR, even during its affiliation with ABC. Since then, the show now airs on KCRA.

KOVR still does not air Guiding Light due to uncertainty about that show's future. The show's ratings are low to mediocre at best in most markets, and (according to KOVR management) experience shows that long running soaps that have not been seen in an area over many years have an uphill battle in gaining viewership. Also, KOVR management claims that most avid KOVR viewers have sent negative feedback at any prospect of bringing the show back. Only a handful of people have expressed a desire to see the show. The only possibility of bringing the show back would be on overnights and CBS itself would rather a show not air than for it to air on overnights (except for a local news emergency daytime pre-emption). Sacramento is now the only market that does not air Guiding Light.

Even considering past ratings, it is practically unheard of for a network O&O to not air all network programs as all ABC and NBC O&Os now carry all network programming. In the past, though, after ABC was purchased by Capital Cities Communications, the newly acquired ABC affiliates continued some pre-emptions. The preemptions were the ABC show that was in the 12 Noon Eastern/11 a.m. Central timeslots. Also some 11 a.m. to 12 p.m. shows continued to be preempted. But these were widely preempted shows and various shows came and went from that timelsot until the View in 1997. It is unusual for even affiliates to preempt a long running weekday afternoon soaps much less an O & O. About half a dozen Fox O&O's along with some affiliates do not carry the children's program lineup on Saturdays). But Fox does not consider this true network programming and handles those shows as syndicated programming giving O & O's and affiliates the right of first refusal. In most of those markets the kids block airs on another station.

In regards to Guiding Light, some viewers don't care if KOVR shows it or not because they can receive either KPIX-TV in San Francisco (which decently covers much of the southwestern portion of the market), KHSL-TV in Chico (which covers areas just north of Sacramento) or KGPE in Fresno (which covers areas south of Sacramento, Stockton and Modesto). Others feel they could at least make the program available to record on KOVR or KMAX at some point in the day.

[edit] News Department

While under Sinclair ownership, KOVR had worked with a small-to-moderate news staff, which was unusual since Sacramento's dramatic growth during the 1980s had made it a top-20 market. However, with CBS' purchase, the KOVR and KMAX newsrooms have been combined at KOVR's West Sacramento location. Personalities from KMAX now also make appearances on KOVR and vice versa.

On February 1, 2006, KOVR debuted its new graphics along with new music, a new set, and a new main anchor team of Sam Shane (from MSNBC and KCRA) and Pallas Hupé (from Detroit Fox station WJBK). The evening newscast has instituted a three-anchor format. The program begins with Shane and Hupé anchoring the major news stories of the day, deferring to anchor/reporter Brandi Hitt for World and National News stories. The unique three-anchor setup remains during Weekend prime-time newscasts with rotating anchors.

The news department has also launched a daily sports segment during its newscasts with sports anchor Arran Andersen (from KOLD). KOVR has been without a competitive sports department since the departure of John Henk in the late 1990s.

Most KOVR personalities with the station during the Sinclair years have either been fired or have resigned. Dismissals of former lead anchors Paul Joncich and Jennifer Whitney were sudden and unannounced whereas personalities Marcy Valenzuela and Jennifer Krier were allowed to say farewell to viewers on air. Remaining on-air staff include Chief Weatherman Dave Bender, Investigative Reporter Kurtis Ming, Health Reporter Diana Penna, and field reporters John Iander and Dennis Shanahan. Anchor Michele Kane moved over to the morning show Good Day Sacramento on sister station KMAX in a staff reshuffling but continues to anchor the Noon news with other GDS personalities.

It was announced on January 11th, 2008 via a viewer blog that CW31 will launch a primetime newscast featuring CBS13 news personalities. The show will not be a repeat of Good Evening, Sacramento which aired in 2003, but instead will be a full newscast either before or after the CBS13 News at 10PM.

[edit] CBS13.com Rush Limbaugh controversy

In May 2007, KOVR revamped its morning news program with an emphasis on its website. The 5AM to 6AM newscast, called "CBS13.com" featured anchor Chris Burrous, reporter Lisa Gonzales and weather personality Jeff James in a show centered around viewer feedback through the web, viral videos and news found on the Internet.

On May 7, 2007, CBS13.com reported on a song that conservative radio broadcaster Rush Limbaugh played heavily on his nationally-syndicated program called "Barack the Magic Negro." CBS13.com ran a poll asking people whether they thought the song was racist. Limbaugh, in turn, claimed KOVR was a part of the "liberal media" and called the Burrous-Gonzales-James team "morons". In newscasts throughout the day, KOVR covered Limbaugh's lashout against the station, adding with a disclaimer after every story that KOVR never intended to couple Limbaugh with the parody song and admitting that the station found the song on video sharing website YouTube.

[edit] Current Personalities/ Joined Date

[edit] Anchors

• Pallas Hupe, Weeknight Anchor 5, 6, 10pm (2006)
• Brandi Hitt, World and National News 5, 6, 10pm (2005)
• Tony Lopez, Weeknight Anchor 4pm/ Reporter (2005)
• Sam Shane, Weeknight Anchor 5, 6, 10pm (2006)
• Ron Jones, Weekend Anchor/ Reporter (2004)
• Lisa Gonzales, Noon Anchor (2005)
• Kris Pickel, Weekend Anchor/ Reporter (2006)
• Steve Large, World and National News weekends/ Reporter (2006)
• Michelle Kane, Noon Anchor (1998)
• Chris Burrous, Morning Anchor (2005)
• Stefanie Cruz , Morning Anchor (2004)

[edit] Weather

• Dave Bender, Chief Meteorologist (1996)
• Anny Hong, Weekend Meteorologist/ Reporter (2006)
• Jeff James, Morning/ Noon Meteorologist (2006)

[edit] Sports

• Arran Anderson, Sports Host (2006)
• Andrew Luira, Sports Host (2008)

[edit] Reporters

• Elyce Kirchner, General Assignment Reporter/4 PM anchor (2007)
• Kurtis Ming, Consumer Reporter/ Fill-in Anchor (2003)
• John Iander, Reporter (1973)
• Laura Cole, General Assignment Reporter (2007)
• Edmundo Aguilar, San Joaquin Valley Reporter (2007)
• Mike Dello Stritto, General Assignment Reporter (2006)
• David Begnaud, General Assignment Reporter (2007)
• Koula Gianulias, General Assignment Reporter (2006)
• Diana Penna,Health Reporter Noon (1997)
• Dennis Shanahan, Weekend Reporter (2001)
• R.E Graswich, "The Scoop" Reporter
• Andrea Menniti, General Assignment Reporter (2007)

[edit] Former newscasters

• Eric Alvarez (freelanced at KPIX, now freelancing at KNTV)
• Stan Atkinson (previously anchor at KCRA)
• Jon Baird (now freelancing at KXTV)
• Marianne Banister (now at WBAL)
• Ross Blackstone, Public Relations
• Susan Blake (long time morning anchor at KRON, now at HGTV)
• Serene Branson (now at (KCBS/KCAL)
• Claudia Cowan (later moved to KRON, now reporter for FOX News)
• Pat De Silva
• Pat Davis
• Jonathan Elias (now at WBZ)
• Patrick Emory (retired, lives in Florida)
• Charlotte Fadipe, 1998-2007 (now a local reporter at KSAC and freelancing at KNTV)
• George Franco (now at WAGA)
• Alan Frio (now at WSMV)
• Angelique Frame, 2006-2007 (moved to San Diego and runs an online video business)
• Gary Gelfand
• Dan Gray (now at KTVI)
• Gloria Gomez (now at WTVT)
• Juliette Goodrich (now freelance anchor/reporter at KPIX)
• Kristine Hanson (2004-2005, now freelancing at KGO)
• Lois Hart (now at KCRA)
• John Henk
• Jodi Hernandez (now at KNTV in San Francisco)
• Bob Hilton (owner, developer of Holy Cow cleaning products in Rocklin, Ca)
• Dewey Hopper
• Jason Howe, Public Relations now
• "Stormin' Norman" Jacobs (meteorologist, early 1980s)
• Paul Joncich, 1990-2005 (now at WOIO/WUAB)
• Jack Kavanaugh
• Bill Kelly
• Bora Kim, 2005-2007
• Kim Khazei (now at WHDH-TV)
• Jennifer Krier,
• Patti Lee, 2003-2006 (now at KTVU)
• John Lobertini (now at KPIX from San Francisco, and reports from Sacramento)
• Tom Loffman (now living in Placer County, co-owner of Loffman Realty with wife Debbie)
• Cristina Mendonsa (now evening anchor at KXTV)
• Stephanie Nishikawa (now owns a local retail shop)
• Keith Norton (now at KPRC)
• David Ono (now at KABC)
• Craig Prosser 1970-2005
• George Reading (later host of California Heartland on PBS)
• Rebecca Somach, 2004-2005 (now with United Airlines)
• Steve Somers
• Marcy Valenzuela (now at KPHO)
• Dave Walker (now at KCRA)
• Rafer Weigel, 2006-2008 (now at CNN Headline News)
• Jennifer Whitney (now freelancing specials on KVIE)

[edit] External links

• CBS 13/CW 31 website
• www.cbscorporation.com
• Query the FCC's TV station database for KOVR