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KTLA
KTLA, virtual channel 5, is a television station in Los Angeles, California. Owned by the Tribune Company, KTLA is an affiliate of The CW Television Network. KTLA's studios are on Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood, California|Hollywood, and its transmitter is located atop Mount Wilson (California)|Mount Wilson. The station's signal covers the Southern California region, and KTLA is also available as a regional superstation via cable and satellite in the United States and Canada.
KTLA was the first commercially licensed television station in the western United States, having begun operations in 1947.[KCBS-TV in Los Angeles originated in 1931 as W6XAO under an experimental license. It was commercially licensed in 1948.]
History
Experimental years
Originally owned by Paramount Pictures subsidiary Television Productions, Inc., and located on the Paramount Studios lot, the station was licensed by the Federal Communications Commission in 1939 as experimental station '''W6XYZ''', on channel 4, but did not go on the air until 1942#September|September 1942. Klaus Landsberg, already an accomplished television pioneer at the age of 26, was the original station manager and engineer. On January 22, 1947, it was licensed for commercial broadcast as '''KTLA''' on channel 5, becoming the first commercial television station in Los Angeles, and the first to broadcast west of the Mississippi River. Estimates of television sets in the Los Angeles area at the time ranged from 350 to 600.
Bob Hope served as the Master of Ceremonies|emcee for KTLA's inaugural broadcast, which was broadcast that evening from a garage on the Paramount Studios lot. The program, titled as the "Western Premiere of Commercial Television", featured appearances from many Hollywood luminaries. Hope delivered what was perhaps the most famous line of the evening when, at the program's start, he identified the new station as ''"KTL"'', mistakenly omitting the ''"A"'' at the end of the call sign.
KTLA originally carried programming from Paramount's partner, DuMont Television Network|DuMont, but discontinued the practice after the 1947-48 season. Despite this, the FCC still considered KTLA and sister station WBKB (now WBBM-TV) in Chicago, Illinois|Chicago to be DuMont owned and operated station|owned-and-operated stations because Paramount held a minority stake in DuMont. As a result, the agency would not allow DuMont to buy additional VHF stations—a problem that would later play a large role in the failure of the DuMont network, whose programming was splintered among other Los Angeles stations until the network's demise in 1956. Paramount even launched a short-lived "Paramount Television Network" in 1949, with KTLA and WBKB as its flagship stations.[White, Timothy R. (1992). "Hollywood on (Re)Trial: The American Broadcasting-United Paramount Merger Hearing" ''Cinema Journal'', Vol. 31, No. 3. (Spring, 1992), pp. 19-36.][ Jajkowski, Steve (2001). "Advertising on Chicago Television". Chicago Television History. Retrieved January 10, 2007.] The programming service never gelled into a true television network, but during KTLA's early years, the station produced over a dozen series seen in syndication in many parts of the U.S. Among these series were ''Armchair Detective'',[Old TV Tickets]
In 1964, KTLA was purchased by actor and singer Gene Autry and merged with his other radio properties (including Los Angeles' KMPC) into an umbrella company, Golden West Broadcasters. From 1964 to 1995, the station was the broadcast television home of the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim|Los Angeles/California Angels baseball team, which was also owned by Autry. KTLA carried selected Los Angeles Lakers games from the early-to-mid 1970s. During the 1970s, KTLA became one of the nation's first superstations, and was eventually carried on cable systems across much of the country west of the Mississippi.
In the late 1960s and 1970s, KTLA sought a different programming strategy from the competition. It would emphasize television syndication|syndicated reruns of off-network programs (with a heavy emphasis on western (genre)|western-themed programs such as ''The Gene Autry Show''), first-run talk shows, movies, and sports programming. Children's programming, with the exception of weekend morning ''Popeye'' cartoons, were also phased out. It also launched a 10 p.m. newscast in the mid-1960s, the simply-titled ''News at Ten'' (briefly renamed ''KTLA Prime News'').
A Tribune Broadcasting station
In 1982, Golden West sold KTLA to investment firm Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. for United States dollar|$245 million. In 1985, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts sold KTLA to Tribune Broadcasting. Under Tribune, KTLA continued to acquire high rated off-network sitcoms as well as talk shows. In 1991#July|July 1991, KTLA added the first live, local morning newscast, the ''KTLA Morning News'', to compete with major network morning shows. At first, the ''KTLA Morning News'' suffered from low ratings. However, the ability to cover breaking news live (as opposed to the network morning programs, which were aired on a three-hour tape delay) attracted more viewers to channel 5. As time went on, the ''KTLA Morning News'' has enjoyed great ratings success, generally ranking number one in its main 7-9 a.m. time period. The program's success spawned rival KTTV to launch its own local morning program, ''Good Day L.A.'', in 1993.
In March 1991, KTLA was the first station to air the infamous video of the Rodney King beating by Los Angeles police. From 1994 to 1995, the station aired gavel to gavel coverage of the O.J. Simpson O.J. Simpson murder case|trial anchored by Marta Waller.
Also around 1995, KTLA introduced a midday newscast at noon, but was discontinued sometime in 1997. This was revived on April 1, 2009 with the relaunch of a midday newscast at 1:00 PM weekdays.
Locally, KTLA has been co-owned with the ''Los Angeles Times'' since 2000 when ''Times Mirror'', the previous owners of the daily newspaper, merged with Tribune.
The WB comes to KTLA
In January 11, 1995, KTLA became a charter affiliate of The WB Television Network, in which KTLA's parent company Tribune held a 25 percent ownership stake. That fall, KTLA added afternoon cartoons from ''Kids' WB'', entering the weekday children's television business for the first time in many years. KTLA also broadcasts the annual Tournament of Roses Parade from Pasadena, California|Pasadena as well. The station has aired the Rose Parade since 1948, and while other local stations also broadcast the parade over the years, KTLA remains the sole English-language outlet in the Los Angeles area to continuously broadcast the event. The station also served as host broadcaster of the Hollywood Christmas Parade, which was later Television syndication|syndicated to all Tribune-owned stations.
Tribune purchased the Times-Mirror Company, parent company of the ''Los Angeles Times'', in 2000, bringing the ''Times'' into common ownership with channel 5. The ''Times'' had been the original owner of Los Angeles' Fox Broadcasting Company|Fox station, KTTV.
"Where L.A. Lives"
The station launched a new branding campaign in January 2005, which omitted all references to its channel 5 position (although when rebranding as The CW affiliate, the channel 5 reference would return). It adopted a new logo, and became known on the air as ''KTLA The WB: Where L.A. Lives''. The new look also featured a brand new black and orange color scheme for news broadcasts and other functions of the network.
On January 24, 2006, the Warner Bros. Television unit of Time Warner and CBS announced it would be merging the operations of its The WB and UPN networks into a joint-venture, The CW Television Network. KTLA became the Los Angeles affiliate of the new network. The station rebranded itself as "KTLA 5 The CW" on September 18, 2006 after ''The Night of Favorites and Farewells''.
KTLA today
Today, KTLA is a typical network affiliate, running the usual blend of syndicated shows, first-run prime time programming from The CW, early morning and evening newscasts, and sports. KTLA was the over-the-air home of the Los Angeles Clippers; the station carried Clippers games from 1985 to 1991, and again in 2002 to 2009, and was also the TV home of the Los Angeles Dodgers from 1993 to 2001. Although not as widespread in national carriage as its Chicago sister station, WGN-TV, KTLA is available via satellite as a superstation, throughout North America on Ku-band, C-band, and Dish Network systems, as well as on cable systems in selected cities throughout the Southwestern part of the United States and in Canada nationwide.
KTLA offers around 30 hours per week of local news, and its 10 p.m. newscast was the most-watched for decades until KTTV took the top spot consistently since 2000 . The ''KTLA Morning News'' is the number two-rated local morning show, behind ''Good Day L.A''.
KTLA's facility is also home to Sunset Bronson Studios (formerly Tribune Studios), where shows like ''Greed (game show)|Greed'', Fox Broadcasting Company|Fox's ''Celebrity Boxing'' specials, ''WKRP in Cincinnati'', ''Judge Judy'', ''Hannah Montana'', ''Solid Gold (TV series)|Solid Gold'', ''Name That Tune'', ''Family Feud'', ''Win Ben Stein's Money'', ''Lingo (US game show)|Lingo'', ''The Newlywed Game'', ''MADtv'' and ''Judge Joe Brown'' have been produced over the years. With its location, KTLA and PBS member station KCET are currently the only Los Angeles area broadcasters based in Hollywood. On February 14, 2008, Tribune Company announced the sale of Tribune Studios and related real estate in Los Angeles to Hudson Capital LLC for United States dollar|$125 million.[Tribune sells L.A.'s Tribune Studios, will buy real estate from Chandler family - Los Angeles Business from bizjournals]
While KTLA and KCET are the only broadcasters from Hollywood, there has been speculation that KTLA might move into the Los Angeles Times Headquarters in Downtown Los Angeles integrating their operations with their newspaper counterpart.
On January 13, 2007, KTLA began broadcasting its newscasts in High-definition television|HD, becoming the second Los Angeles television station to do so.
On October 14, 2009, KTLA unveiled a new logo and a redesigned news set, bringing back the classic stylized number 5 previously used by the station from the 1980s through the mid 1990s (see sidebar at top of article) and eliminating The CW network logo, which is still used in promotions for network programs. The "LA" in the KTLA callsign is in bold lettering to emphasize the station's Los Angeles location and service area, similar to a previous logo used from 1997 to 2005.
Sixtieth anniversary
On January 22, 2007, KTLA celebrated its 60th anniversary of continuous broadcasting in Los Angeles. Two days later, on January 24, 2007, KTLA was given a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, becoming the first television station or network to receive such an honor. In addition to the station itself, six other individuals associated with the station—former owner Gene Autry, reporters Stan Chambers and Larry McCormick (TV)|Larry McCormick, news anchors Hal Fishman and George Putnam (newsman)|George Putnam, and KTLA founder Klaus Landsberg—have received stars on the Walk of Fame.
In addition, KTLA continued its celebration on the weekend after Thanksgiving by airing a 60-hour marathon (television)|marathon of classic shows that aired on KTLA in the past. KTLA also aired retrospectives of historic Los Angeles news stories during its weekend newscasts.["KTLA plans retro holiday weekend", Variety (magazine)|Variety, November 21, 2007.] However, the retro news segments were canceled on November 24 due to extensive coverage of the Corral Canyon fire in Malibu, California.
Among the programs shown during the marathon were ''The Honeymooners'', ''Jack Benny|The Jack Benny Program'', ''The Little Rascals'', ''Wonder Woman (TV series)|Wonder Woman'', and ''Peter Gunn''.
Digital television
The station's digital channel is multiplexed:
News/station presentation
Newscast titles
- ''Newsroom'' (1939-1947; as W6XYZ)
- ''Telenews/Newsreel'' (1947-1955)
- ''The News Live on 5'' (1955-1962)
- ''Newspicture 5:30'' (Mid 1960s)
- ''Big 5 News'' (Late 1960s)
- ''George Putnam News'' (1973-1975)
- ''News Watch'' (1975-1976)
- ''(Channel 5/KTLA) News at Ten'' (1977-2005 and 2009-present)
- ''KTLA Prime News'' (2005-2009)
- ''KTLA Morning News'' (1991-2006 and 2008-present)
- ''KTLA Morning Show'' (2006-2008; formerly used for the 7am-10am portion of the news)
- ''KTLA News at 1:00PM'' (2009-present)
- ''KTLA News at 6:00PM'' (2009-present)
- ''KTLA News at 6:30PM'' (2009-present)
Station slogans
- ''The Number One Prime Time News Hour'' (1970s-1995)
- ''KTLA 5, LA's WB'' (1995-2004)
- ''KTLA, The WB, Where L.A. Lives'' (2005-2006)
- ''KTLA 5, The CW, Where L.A. Lives'' (2006-2009)
Rebroadcasters
KTLA is rebroadcast on the following translator stations:
- '''K40HX''' Morongo Valley, California|Morongo Valley[http://www.fcc.gov/fcc-bin/tvq?call=K40HX]
- '''K35BQ''' Daggett, California|Daggett[http://www.fcc.gov/fcc-bin/tvq?call=K35BQ]
- '''K03EK''' Newberry Springs, California|Newberry Springs[http://www.fcc.gov/fcc-bin/tvq?call=K03EK]
- '''K16FI''' Twentynine Palms, California|Twentynine Palms[http://www.fcc.gov/fcc-bin/tvq?call=K16FI]
- '''K29GK''' Twentynine Palms[http://www.fcc.gov/fcc-bin/tvq?call=K29GK]
- '''K48AD''' Lucerne Valley, California|Lucerne Valley[http://www.fcc.gov/fcc-bin/tvq?call=K48AD]
- '''K05FO''' Ridgecrest, California|Ridgecrest[http://www.fcc.gov/fcc-bin/tvq?call=K05FO]
- '''K39HT-D''' Ridgecrest[http://www.fcc.gov/fcc-bin/tvq?call=K39HT-D]
- '''K58GH''' Sterling, Colorado[http://www.fcc.gov/fcc-bin/tvq?call=K58GH]
- '''K29GO''' Cortez, Colorado[http://www.fcc.gov/fcc-bin/tvq?call=K29GO]
- '''K32EX''' Peetz, Colorado[http://www.fcc.gov/fcc-bin/tvq?call=K32EX]
In popular culture
KTLA gained a bit of notoriety among fans of the television show ''Mystery Science Theater 3000'' on November 30, 1991 with the airing of their mockery of the movie ''War of the Colossal Beast''. In the movie, there are scenes of a KTLA news anchor predicting where the title character Glen Manning will end up next. That anchor is the real KTLA reporter Stan Chambers. The anchor ends up pronouncing the station's call letters as "''KIT-lah''". In a skit segment later in the show, Joel Robinson, portrayed by Joel Hodgson, mocks the anchor's "KTLA Predicts" style of newsreading and parodies The Amazing Criswell. The phrase "KTLA Predicts" became a catchphrase among fans of the show.
During the 1950s, while Paramount owned the station, that company was also producing ''Popeye'' cartoons. In one episode, Popeye's nephews turn on their television to "chanel number 5" (not Chanel No. 5|the perfume, but channel 5 – KTLA).
KTLA has also been featured in other media (usually with its newscasts). Hal Fishman was featured reporting for ''Channel 5 News at Ten'' in the movie ''Malibu's Most Wanted''. In one scene in the 2002 in films|2002 movie ''Showtime (movie)|Showtime'', the KTLA SkyCam 5 (later renamed the KTLA HD Telecopter, now renamed to Sky 5 HD) was seen among a group of helicopters surrounding the Bonaventure Hotel in Downtown Los Angeles.
See also
- KTLA-TV Tower
- The CW Television Network
References
External links
- Official website
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- "Look Out, W6XAO, Here Comes Paramount" Metropolitan News-Enterprise column on KTLA when it broadcast as experimental TV station W6XYZ, taking on the sole existing experimental station in L.A. (now KCBS).
- "A Tale of Two Stations" Metropolitan News-Enterprise column on operations in the 1940s of the stations that are now KTLA, Channel 5 (then W6XYZ, Channel 4) and KCBS, Channel 2 (then W6XAO, Channel 1)
- KTLA archived television icons, 1942-1972
- KTLA logos and screenshots from the 1950s to the present day
Category:Television stations in Los Angeles, California
Category:CW network affiliates
Category:Tribune Broadcasting
Category:Television channels and stations established in 1947
Category:Channel 5 TV stations in the United States
Category:Superstations in the United States
Category:This TV affiliates
Category:DuMont Television Network owned-and-operated stations
Related Images- KTLA's ''Halo'' logo, used from 2005 to 2009; The CW logo and "5" were added in 2006
Sources: StartLearningNow, Wikipedia | Usage license: GNU FDL
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