KABC-TV (channel 7) is a television station in Los Angeles, California, United States, serving as the West Coast flagship of the ABC network. Owned and operated by the network's ABC Owned Television Stations division, the station maintains studios in the Grand Central Business Centre of Glendale, and its transmitter is located on Mount Wilson.
Technical infomation[]
Subchannels[]
| Channel | Video | Aspect | Programming |
|---|---|---|---|
| 7.1 | 720p | 16:9 | main KABC-TV programming / ABC |
| 7.2 | 480i | LOCALish | |
| 7.3 | Charge! | ||
| 7.4 | QVC2 |
Translators[]
History[]
Channel 7 first signed on the air under the call sign KECA-TV on September 16, 1949.[1] It was the last television station licensed to Los Angeles operating on the VHF band to debut and the last of ABC's five original owned-and-operated stations to make its debut, after San Francisco's KGO-TV, which signed on four months earlier. It was also the last of the Los Angeles "classic seven" TV stations which were originally on the VHF dial, prior to the 2009 digital conversions. (No other stations debuted in Los Angeles until 1962, when the first two UHF Los Angeles stations launched (KIIX [now KWHY-TV] and KMEX-TV, channels 22 and 34, respectively).)
The station's call sign 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). On February 1, 1954, KECA-TV changed its call sign to KABC-TV.
Originally, KABC-TV was located at the ABC Television Center, now called The Prospect Studios, on Prospect Avenue in the Los Feliz neighborhood of Los Angeles, east of Hollywood. In 2000, KABC-TV moved to nearby Glendale into a new state-of-the-art facility designed by César Pelli, as part of the Disney Grand Central Creative Campus (GC3), in the Grand Central Business Centre on the site of the former Grand Central Airport. The station is currently located four miles (6 km) east (along the corridor of the Los Angeles River and State Route 134) of ABC's West Coast headquarters on the Walt Disney Studios lot 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 the state of California to broadcast its local newscasts in high definition using HD cameras in the studio and debuted an updated set.
Programming[]
News programming[]
KABC-TV first adopted the Eyewitness News format in February 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 was used only in the news open. The station's newscasts used a synthesized version of the old theme, composed by Frank Becker, during the mid-1980s. KABC-TV picked 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 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 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 one of two ABC stations on the West Coast to air World News at 6:30 p.m.; the only other ABC station to do this is KGTV in San Diego. 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 2003, channel 7 expanded its midday newscast to a full hour.
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 of California, during the 2003 California recall.
Notable on-air staff who have worked for the station's news department include Jerry Dunphy, Christine Lund, Bill Bonds, Lisa McRee, Harold Greene, Tawny Little, Laura Diaz, Paul Moyer, Chuck Henry, Dr. George Fischbeck, Regis Philbin, 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 station's general manager, most notably John Severino, who served throughout the 1980s. This practice was discontinued in 1990.
Today, KABC-TV airs 44 hours and 55 minutes of news a week (with 6 hours and 35 minutes on weekdays, 5 hours on Saturdays, and 7 hours on Sundays), Second most of any TV station in Los Angeles behind CW-affiliated KTLA-TV.
Ratings[]
The introduction of Eyewitness News, followed by the addition of syndicated staples such as The Oprah Winfrey Show (in 1986), Live! with Kelly (in 1991), Jeopardy!, and Wheel of Fortune (both game shows in 1992) has generally allowed KABC to maintain a substantial ratings advantage over its competition.
Leveraging the strength of its sizable Oprah lead-in at 3:00 p.m, KABC has long held first or second in the ratings 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.
With its across-the-board ratings success in hand, the station has been known to run quick five-second promos throughout the day that say, "ABC7 – #1 in news, #1 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, and is joined during the basketball season by former Los Angeles Laker great Michael Cooper. This program is a spin-off of Monday Night Live, which aired on KABC-TV from 1989 until Monday Night Football left the network after the 2005 NFL season. That show was hosted by Todd Donoho until 1997, and later Bill Weir and Rob Fukuzaki and featured an extensive trivia contest.
The station also produce a weekly entertainment program OnTheRedCarpet, hosted by Rachel Smith and Chris Balish. This program is also aired on other ABC-owned stations.
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, which aired after the network airing of the soap opera The Edge of Night. (Live with Regis and Kelly, co-hosted by Philbin and produced at corporate sister station WABC-TV in New York, 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 10:30 p.m., 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 and 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.
Dispute with Time Warner Cable[]
In July 2010, ABC's parent company, Disney, announced that it was involved in another carriage dispute with Time Warner Cable for the first time in ten years. This dispute involved four ABC owned-and-operated stations (including KABC-TV), Disney Channel and the networks of ESPN. If a deal was not in place, the entire Disney cluster would've been removed from Time Warner and Bright House cable systems across the country. On September 2, 2010, Disney and Time Warner Cable reached a long-term agreement to keep the Disney family of channels on its systems.
Staff[]
Anchors[]
- John Gregory – weekday mornings 4:00 a.m.-7:00 a.m.
- Rachael Brown - weekday mornings 4:00 a.m.-7:00 a.m.
- Leslie Sykes – weekday mornings 6:00-7:00 AM
- Phillip Palmer – weekdays at 11:00 a.m.
- Jovana Lara – weekdays at 11:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m.
- Coleen Suillvan - weekdays at 3:00 p.m.
- Ellen Leyva – weekdays at 3:00, 4:00 and 6:00 p.m.
- David Ono – weekdays at 4:00 and 6:00 p.m.
- Marc Brown - weeknights at 5:00 and 11:00 p.m.
- Marc Cota-Robles - weekend mornings at 5:00, 6:00 a.m. (Saturday), 7:00 and 9:00 a.m. (Sunday) and 10:00 a.m.
- Irene Cruz - weekend mornings at 5:00, 6:00 a.m. (Saturday), 7:00 and 9:00 a.m. (Sunday) and 10:00 a.m.
- Jory Rand - weekends at 4:00 (Sunday), 4:30 (Saturday), 5:00, 6:00 (Saturday), 6:30 a.m. (Sunday) and 11:00 pm
- Michelle Fisher weekends at 4:00 (Sunday), 4:30 (Saturday), 5:00, 6:00 (Saturday), 6:30 a.m. (Sunday) and 11:00 pm.
Weather[]
- Garth Kemp – weekday mornings from 4:00-7:00 AM and weekdays at 11:00 AM.
- Dallas Raines (AMS Certified Broadcast Meteorologist Seal of Approval) – Chief Meteorologist; weeknights at 4:00, 5:00, 6:00 and 11:00 p.m.
- Danny Romero – weekend evenings at 3:00 p.m.
- ? - weekend mornings (5:00-6:00 weekends, 6:00-7:00 Saturdays, 7:00-8:00 Sundays, 8:00-9:00 Saturdays, 9:00-9:30 weekends and 9:30-11:00 AM Sundays)
Traffic[]
- Scott Reiff – weekday mornings from 4:30-7:00 AM in Air 7 HD
- Alysha Del Valle – weekday mornings from 4:30-7:00 AM.
- Kalyna Astrinos – weekday afternoons at 4:00, 5:00 and 6:00 p.m.
- Kelly Sanchez - weekday afternoons at 4:00, 5:00 and 6:00 p.m. (fill-in)
Sports[]
- Rob Fukuzaki – sports director, weeknights at 6:00 and 11:00 p.m.
- Curt Sandoval – weekends at 5:00, 6:00 and 11:00 p.m.; also weekday sports reporter
- John Hartung – fill-in sports anchor/reporter
Reporters[]
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Air 7 HD[]
Pilot reporters:
- Scott Reiff – AM Traffic (4:30-7:00 AM) & Breaking News
- Bill Thomas – Afternoons/Evening (4:00, 5:00 and 6:00 p.m.); also Breaking News reporter
- J.T. Alpaugh – Alternate Breaking News reporter & fill-in
Notable former staff[]
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Logos[]
_Walt_Disney_Television,_Disney_Media_%26_Entertainment_Distribution.png "KABC-TV (1976) Walt Disney Television, Disney Media & Entertainment Distribution.png (224 KB)")
Rebroadcasters[]
KABC is rebroadcast on the following translator stations:
- K48IP 48 Daggett – Baker area.
- K19BT 19 Lucerne Valley – Victor Valley area.
- K08IA 8 Newberry Springs – Barstow area.
- K07NH 7 Ridgecrest – Eastern Kern County, California.
- K41GO 41 Ridgecrest – Inyo County, California.
External links[]
- ABC7.com - Official Website
- ABC7 Wireless
- Photos of KABC's news set
- KABC-DT (digital) coverage map
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This page uses content from the English Wikipedia page KABC-TV. The list of authors can be seen in the page history. Text from Wikipedia is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License; additional terms may apply. |