KABC-TV

History

KECA-TV (1949–1954)

Channel 7 first signed on the air under the call sign KECA-TV on September 16, 1949. It was the last television station in 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 1958, when educational station KTHE operated briefly on channel 28, followed by the launch of the first two commercial UHF Los Angeles stations launched (KIIX [now KSCN-TV] and KMEX-TV, channels 22 and 34, respectively) in 1962.

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.

KABC-TV (1954–present)

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 the Ventura Freeway) 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). In 1996, it augmented its bottom left quadrant of the Circle 7 with the ABC network logo. 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.

KABC-TV shut down its analog signal, over VHF channel 7, at noon on June 12, 2009, as part of the federally mandated transition from analog to digital television. The station's digital signal relocated from its pre-transition UHF channel 53, which was among the high band UHF channels (52–69) that were removed from broadcasting use as a result of the transition, to its analog-era VHF channel 7. After the transition occurred, some viewers had difficulty receiving KABC's signal, despite operating at a high effective radiated power of 25 kW. On March 31, 2009, KABC-TV filed an application with the FCC to upgrade its signal strength to 28.7 kW. It was granted a construction permit on March 3, 2011.

In July 2010, The Walt Disney Company became engaged in a carriage dispute with Time Warner Cable. This dispute involved KABC-TV and three other ABC owned-and-operated stations, Disney Channel and the ESPN family of networks. If a deal had not been made, all of the Disney-owned channels would have been removed from Time Warner Cable and Bright House Networks systems across the United States. The companies reached a long-term agreement to keep the stations and their sister cable channels on Time Warner Cable and its co-managed systems on September 2, 2010. On August 31, 2023, Disney removed all of its channels, including KABC-TV, two other ABC-owned stations, and the ESPN networks, from Spectrum cable systems due to a carriage dispute, its first with the provider since 2010 when its predecessor, Time Warner Cable, was involved in a dispute with Disney. On September 11, 2023, the stations and their sister cable channels were restored by Charter Communications (the parent company of Spectrum) after the company and Disney reached an agreement. KABC-TV was then pulled from DirecTV on September 1, 2024, as a result of a dispute between the satellite provider and Disney. The removal came just hours before a USC Trojans college football victory over LSU airing on ABC.

Programming

News programming

KABC-TV currently broadcasts 48 hours, 55 minutes of locally produced newscasts each week (with 7 hours, 35 minutes each weekday; six hours on Saturdays and five hours on Sundays). KABC-TV formerly operated a news bureau in California's state capital of Sacramento, sharing resources with sister stations KGO-TV in San Francisco and KFSN-TV in Fresno; the bureau was closed in 2014. The station also has bureaus located within its viewing area, in Riverside and Orange. In the 1980s, the station also had a bureau located in Ventura.

Lew Irwin Reports, the station's first locally produced newscast, debuted in 1957. Initially, the 15-minute program was broadcast Monday through Saturday at 11 p.m. and featured Irwin delivering a news summary prepared by KABC Radio news writers, followed by a seven-minute feature written by Irwin that included footage shot for the program by the MGM-owned newsreel company Telenews. Irwin interviewed a host of public figures for the program, including former President Harry S. Truman, former Senator John F. Kennedy, philosopher Bertrand Russell, actor Marlon Brando, H-bomb scientist Edward Teller, and poets Robert Frost and Carl Sandburg. Irwin's features often included news-breaking investigations into such controversial topics as migrant workers, police brutality, proprietary hospitals, disc jockey payola, the Hollywood blacklist, and the John Birch Society. In a letter to the chief of ABC News, James Hagerty, in 1961, Sandburg wrote: "He is one of the great reporters in America today. I could make a case that he is one of the most useful citizens." In 1962, a new KABC-TV program director for the station mounted a second newscast on the station (following John Daly's network newscast in the early evening) presented by Ed Fleming, who had previously worked for rival KNXT. A few months later, he decided to feature Fleming and Irwin on both the early-evening and late-night newscasts, with Fleming delivering the news and Irwin a long-form feature. After numerous clashes between the program director and Irwin, Irwin resigned in 1962 citing creative differences. He was eventually succeeded by KCOP newscaster Baxter Ward, who was backed by the station's first staff film crew.

KABC-TV first adopted the Eyewitness News format for its newscasts in February 1969, not long after it became popular on New York City sister station WABC-TV. Like the other ABC-owned stations, KABC-TV used the "Tar Sequence" cue from the soundtrack of the 1967 film Cool Hand Luke as its theme music, and continued to use it even after other channels adopted an updated version of the theme, the Frank Gari-composed "News Series 2000". Later, the station used the original Cool Hand Luke theme only during the main newscast. 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 first in 1989 for Eyewitness News promos, then in 1990 for additional use in bumpers and as the closing theme before being fully adopted as the Eyewitness News theme in 1992. The original Cool Hand Luke theme was retained for some Eyewitness News promos as late as 1993. In 1995, KABC began using Gari Media Group's "Eyewitness News" music package, which remains as the station's news theme.

Sports programming

Owing to its common ownership with ESPN, KABC-TV became the designated broadcast home of Los Angeles Rams games in 2016 for the team's appearances on Monday Night Football. KABC-TV carries the Rams' Monday Night Football games from that year onward while other games are split between three other television stations: KCBS-TV through the NFL on CBS, including the network's Thursday night games (2014–2017), KNBC through NBC Sunday Night Football and NBC-produced Thursday night games (2016–2017), KTTV through the NFL on Fox and Fox-produced Thursday night games (2018–2021), and KTLA through Amazon Prime-produced Thursday night games (since 2022). The station also produces and broadcasts the Rams' team shows on Saturday nights during the regular season, with comedian Jay Mohr once serving as host for several weeks in 2016. The same broadcast schedule applies for the Los Angeles Chargers, after they relocated from San Diego in 2017.

The Chargers named KABC-TV the team's official English-language television broadcaster from 2017 to 2019, giving KABC-TV access to preseason telecasts and weekly magazines. In 2021, the Chargers moved their preseason broadcasts to KCBS-TV while the Rams moved their broadcasts to KABC-TV as part of a new partnership which also saw the station airing the coach's show on Saturday nights.

KABC-TV will serve as the host station for Super Bowl LXI in 2027 at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood.

In addition, KABC-TV carries NBA games involving the Los Angeles Lakers and the Los Angeles Clippers through the league's contract with the network. The station has carried the Lakers' 2004, 2008, 2009, 2010, and 2020 NBA Finals appearances, including the team's championship victories in 2009, 2010, and 2020. KABC-TV also aired the Lakers' inaugural NBA In-Season Tournament (now the NBA Cup) championship victory in 2023.

From 1976 to 1989 and from 1994 to 1995, KABC-TV aired MLB on ABC national broadcasts of select games involving the Los Angeles Dodgers and California (later Anaheim) Angels per the network's then broadcast rights with the league, in that capacity airing the Dodgers' victory in the 1981 World Series.

In its role as the local station for nationally aired NHL on ABC games from 1997 to 2004 and since 2021, it also airs select games featuring the Los Angeles Kings and Anaheim Ducks.

Other locally produced 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 sports shows under various names throughout the year, all formerly under the name ABC 7 Sports Zone, which formerly originated from the ESPN Zone in Anaheim: Rams Primetime Saturday airs following the network's telecasts of Saturday Night college football games; during the NBA season, the station airs Slam Dunk Saturday/Sunday following Saturday night and Sunday afternoon games. Most ABC 7 Sports Zone shows previously originated from local sports venues including the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum in Exposition Park, the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, and Staples Center in Los Angeles, but shows are now produced from the station's Glendale studios. It is hosted by Rob Fukuzaki, and is joined during the basketball season by former Laker great Michael Cooper. The 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.

Prior to ABC's annual telecasts of the Academy Awards, KABC-TV produces a live pre-awards show and post-awards show, On the Red Carpet at the Oscars, featuring red carpet interviews and fashion commentary. This show also airs on the network's other O&O stations and is syndicated to several ABC affiliates and other broadcasters outside the country. From 2010 to 2014, KABC spun the special off into a weekly entertainment news show, On the Red Carpet, hosted by Rachel Smith.

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 (Live with Kelly and Mark, formerly co-hosted by Philbin until 2011 and produced at New York sister station WABC-TV, now occupies the former time slot of AM Los Angeles). Edwards also hosted a short-lived afternoon show in the mid-1980s called 330, which aired after the ABC soap opera The Edge of Night.

On April 30, 1954, KABC-TV aired a preview program, Dig Me Later, Vampira, hosted by Maila Nurmi at 11 p.m. The Vampira Show premiered on the same night. For the first four weeks, the show aired at midnight, and it moved to 11 p.m. on May 29. Ten months later, on March 5, 1955, the series began airing at 10:30 pm. 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.

Technical information

Translators

K21MH-D Daggett

K26MW-D Lucerne Valley

K27ON-D Lucerne Valley

K30QC-D Ridgecrest