KVOA

KVOA, virtual channel 4 (UHF digital channel 23), is an NBC-affiliated television station licensed to Tucson, Arizona, United States. The station is owned by Quincy Media. KVOA's studios are located on West Elm Street north of downtown Tucson, and its transmitter is located atop Mount Bigelow, northeast of Tucson. The station has two low-power translators: K04QP-D (channel 4) in Casas Adobes, Arizona and K28OY-D (channel 28) in Sierra Vista, Arizona.

KVOA
Tucson, Arizona
United States
ChannelsDigital: 23 (UHF)
Virtual: 4 (PSIP)
BrandingNews 4 Tucson
SloganInvestigating 4 You
We've Got You Covered
Programming
Affiliations4.1: NBC
4.2: Cozi TV
4.3: Court TV Mystery
4.4: Dabl
4.5: Grit
Ownership
OwnerQuincy Media
(KVOA License, LLC)
History
First air dateSeptember 15, 1953 (1953-09-15)[1]
Former call signsKVOA-TV (1953–1996)
Former channel number(s)Analog:
4 (VHF, 1953–2009)
Former affiliationsBoth secondary:
ABC (1953–1956)
NTA (1956–1961)
Call sign meaningVoice
Of
Arizona
Technical information
Licensing authorityFCC
Facility ID25735
ERP405 kW
HAAT1,123 m (3,684 ft)
Transmitter coordinates32°24′56″N 110°42′52″W
Translator(s)K04QP-D Casas Adobes
K28OY-D Sierra Vista
Links
Public license informationProfile
LMS
Websitekvoa.com

History

In September 1953, KVOA signed on as Tucson's second television station and NBC affiliate, eight months after KOLD-TV (channel 13) signed on as the CBS affiliate. Although KVOA was an NBC affiliate, it carried a secondary affiliation with ABC until 1956 when KDWI-TV (channel 9, now KGUN-TV) began operations. During the late 1950s, the station was also briefly affiliated with the NTA Film Network.[2]

It was originally owned by Chicago advertising executive John Louis, Sr., along with KVOA-AM 1290 (now KCUB). It was a sister station to KTAR in Phoenix. In October 1953, KVOA brought Tucson its first-ever live television event: a World Series broadcast.[3] The Louis broadcasting empire eventually became known as Pacific & Southern Broadcasting, headquartered in Phoenix; however, Louis did not keep KVOA for long. In 1955, Louis sold the KVOA stations to Clinton D. McKinnon, who would later acquire KOAT-TV in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and combine the two television stations to form Alvarado Television. In 1962, the Alvarado stations were sold to Steinman Stations, the owner of WGAL-TV in Lancaster, Pennsylvania.

In 1968, the Steinmans sold a controlling stake in KVOA-TV to Pulitzer Publishing, making it Pulitzer's first (partial) television station acquisition outside of its home base in St. Louis, Missouri; KOAT went to Pulitzer fully a year later. In 1972, Pulitzer was forced to spin off its share of KVOA to an employee group called Channel 4-TV after it purchased the Arizona Daily Star the year before due to the tightening of the Federal Communications Commission's cross-ownership rules. Channel 4-TV also acquired Steinman's stake in KVOA around the same time.

The station was acquired by the Hobby family of Houston, publishers of the Houston Post, in 1982. When the Post was sold a year later, the Hobby family reorganized its broadcasting interests as H&C Communications. H&C sold off its television stations in 1993, with KVOA going to the Evening Post Publishing Company (through its Cordillera Communications subsidiary).

On October 29, 2018, Cordillera announced the sale of its entire station group to the E. W. Scripps Company. Scripps could not acquire KVOA, since it already owns KGUN and CW affiliate KWBA; as a result, KVOA was sold to Quincy Media in a secondary deal for $70 million.[4][5][6] The transaction was approved by the FCC on April 5, 2019,[7] and was completed on May 1 of that year.[8]

Digital television

Digital channels

The station's digital signal is multiplexed:

Channel Video Aspect PSIP Short Name Programming[9]
4.11080i16:9KVOAMain KVOA programming / NBC
4.2480iCozi-TVCozi TV[10]
4.3EscapeCourt TV Mystery
4.4N/ADabl
4.5N/AGrit

Analog-to-digital conversion

On June 15, 2000, KVOA was issued a construction permit to build digital station KVOA-DT on UHF channel 23. There were delays in building the new station, and on June 18, 2003, KVOA was granted Special Temporary Authority (STA) to operate the digital station at reduced power. The STA has been extended several times, and as of September 2006, KVOA-DT continued to operate under STA at reduced power.

In October 2006, KVOA requested companion digital LPTV channels for its Sierra Vista translator, K20FO, and Casas Adobes translator, K64BV. The FCC granted a construction permit for the Sierra Vista companion channel, K10QA-D, and the Casas Adobes companion channel, K04QP-D, on December 26, 2007.

KVOA discontinued regular programming on its analog signal, over VHF channel 4, on June 12, 2009, as part of the federally mandated transition from analog to digital television.[11] The station's digital signal remained on its pre-transition UHF channel 23, using PSIP to display KVOA's virtual channel as 4 on digital television receivers. The same day, KVOA ended analog broadcasts on its channel 64 Casas Adobes translator, began digital operations on K04QP-D, and applied for a license to cover, which was granted June 16.

Programming

Long known as Tucson's NBC affiliate, KVOA currently clears that network's entire lineup. Syndicated programming on KVOA includes: Inside Edition, The Dr. Oz Show, Rachael Ray and Dr. Phil.

KVOA began airing NBC's long-running Tonight Show sometime in 1960 or 1961;[12] for the remainder of Jack Paar's tenure on the show and for the first few years of Johnny Carson's tenure on the show, KVOA only joined the show's East Coast feed for 45 minutes, thus, for the latter, the station did not air his monologue and pre-interview sketches[13][14] until the station expanded its late-night newscast to 30 minutes during the 1970–71 season and established a satellite link with NBC's Phoenix affiliate KTAR-TV (now KPNX).[15] KVOA appeared to have shown The Tonight Show in its entirety by 1975 and is still doing so today.[16][17]

Starting in the 1982–83 season, KVOA delayed Late Night with David Letterman to 12:00 midnight (later 12:05 a.m.) in order to carry programs ranging from Entertainment Tonight[18] to the original version of the game show Love Connection.[19] During the early part of the era in which comedian Conan O'Brien hosted the talk show, KVOA also bumped it by half an hour in order to carry the TV extension of Rush Limbaugh's radio program,[20] Access Hollywood,[21] and same-day reruns of Extra.[22] On September 2, 2002, KVOA began clearing O'Brien's program at the network-designated 11:35 p.m. time slot for Mountain Time Zone affiliates, and moved the same-day Extra rerun to 1:35 a.m.[23]

During Super Bowl XLIII in 2009, Comcast's standard-definition transmission of the station was interrupted for approximately 20 seconds replacing KVOA's broadcast of the game with hard-core porn, affecting Comcast's analog subscribers in portions of the Tucson area; it allowed KVOA to join Chicago stations WGN-TV and WTTW and the cable channel HBO (all of which had similar incidents) as victims of broadcast signal intervention.[24] (WGN's former superstation feed was and remains available on much of Tucson's cable systems; as such, WGN was Tucson's de facto WB affiliate until KWBA (channel 58) signed on in 1999.)[25][26][27][28] The substitution appears to have been made at Comcast, not at KVOA, leaving KVOA's over-the-air, satellite and other cable providers viewers unaffected. Also, Comcast's high-definition transmission of KVOA was not affected.[29]

In May 2011, KVOA announced that it would delay the showing of an upcoming episode of Law & Order: Los Angeles based on the mass shootings which occurred in Tucson earlier that year with a late-night airing, due to concerns that its content would be too sensitive.[30] To date, it has been the station's last known preemption of any NBC program for any reason other than for breaking news or severe weather coverage.

News operation

KVOA formerly operated Southern Arizona News Network, a 24-hour cable news television network that was exclusive to local Cox Cable subscribers, that premiered on June 7, 2007, and ended broadcasting on March 31, 2010.

From the early 1970s to 2006, KVOA had used the Eyewitness News moniker, and later used the slogan "Where The News Comes First". These newscasts first used a variation of Lalo Schifrin's "Tar Sequence" from the 1967 film Cool Hand Luke, and then later used the various "News Series" themes composed by Frank Gari. These themes were all usually associated with local newscasts on ABC stations, not those of KVOA's affiliated network of NBC, which was more than satisfied with KVOA's news ratings; those in particular had made it one of NBC's strongest affiliates in the Southwest. Just as NBC became the nation's overall leader during the 1980s and 1990s, KVOA also was the market's news leader: by 1995, Channel 4 had led the Tucson news ratings for 21 straight years, half of its history[31] – but only after Jon F. Ruby became the station's general manager in 1974 and initiated a major expansion of news. In 1995, KVOA's $750,000 satellite truck was the market's only microwave-based live news vehicle; Eyewitness News equaled or beat KGUN and KOLD combined in all time slots; was first with stereo, closed captioning, and microwave electronic news gathering; and had the largest television news staff in the market (second in size only to the Arizona Daily Star). However, in February 2006 the name of the station's newscasts was changed to News 4, with the new slogan "Coverage You Can Count On". In November 2007, KVOA changed its slogan to "Balanced News You Can Count On", and also began using normal NBC station themes.

On April 22, 2007, KVOA became the first station in Tucson to broadcast its local newscasts in high definition, starting with the 10 p.m. newscast; among the changes included a new set and updated graphics. KVOA is the first station in Tucson to offer news in high definition and the second in Arizona (following KPNX in Phoenix).

Notable current on-air staff

Notable former on-air staff

Translators
gollark: Also a live workingish setup back at my overworld cube.
gollark: Well. Triangulation, anyway.
gollark: I have code for that.
gollark: Well, they don't boot off disk, I'm not that dumb.
gollark: I'll have to check the street signs tomorrow. They have very slight security issues.

References
  1. The Broadcasting and Cable Yearbook says September 15, while the Television and Cable Factbook says September 27.
  2. "Require Prime Evening Time for NTA Films", Boxoffice: 13, November 10, 1956
  3. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2003-06-02. Retrieved 2003-06-02.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  4. "Cordillera announces sale of stations to Scripps, Quincy". Cordillera Communications. Retrieved October 29, 2018.
  5. "Quincy Media, Inc. to acquire KVOA-TV". Quincy Media. Retrieved October 29, 2018.
  6. Application for Consent to Assignment of Broadcast Station Construction Permit or License, CDBS Public Access, Federal Communications Commission, Retrieved 13 November 2018.
  7. FCC OKs Scripps Purchase of Cordillera Stations, Broadcasting & Cable, 5 April 2019, Retrieved 5 April 2019.
  8. "Scripps Closes Its Acquision of 15 Television Stations from Cordillera Communications" Archived 2019-05-01 at the Wayback Machine, E. W. Scripps Company, 1 May 2019, Retrieved 1 May 2019.
  9. RabbitEars TV Query for KVOA
  10. Cozi TV: KVOA
  11. List of Digital Full-Power Stations Archived 2013-08-29 at the Wayback Machine
  12. http://www.radiodiscussions.com/showthread.php?598596-Retro-Tucson-amp-Phoenix-Thursday-February-9-1961
  13. http://www.radiodiscussions.com/showthread.php?602716-Retro-Tucson-and-Nogales-Arizona-Thursday-April-4-1968
  14. http://www.radiodiscussions.com/showthread.php?511599-Retro-Tucson-Monday-June-19-1967
  15. http://www.radiodiscussions.com/showthread.php?602716-Retro-Tucson-and-Nogales-Arizona-Thursday-April-4-1968&p=5415828&viewfull=1#post5415828
  16. http://www.radiodiscussions.com/showthread.php?602759-Retro-Tucson-and-Nogales-Arizona-Tuesday-April-29-1975
  17. http://www.radiodiscussions.com/showthread.php?548890-Retro-Tucson-Arizona-December-12-13-1977
  18. "This Week's TV Programs—Tucson Edition", TV Guide, May 7, 1983
  19. Promo for Love Connection appearing immediately before KVOA's 10PM newscast of June 2, 1989.
  20. "Television", Arizona Daily Star, October 25, 1994
  21. "Television", Arizona Daily Star, April 1, 1997
  22. "Television Friday", Arizona Daily Star, June 7, 2002
  23. "Television Monday", Arizona Daily Star, September 2, 2002
  24. Super Bowl Cut Off By Porn Scene Archived 2009-02-07 at the Wayback Machine, Retrieved February 3, 2009
  25. Time Warner Takes Crucial Step Toward New Network Television: A pact with superstation WGN-TV gives it access to 73% of homes. Analysts say that will still leave gaps., Los Angeles Times, December 4, 1993. Retrieved 12-10-2010.
  26. Linda Moss (September 20, 1999). "WGN Drops WB, Adds Movies, Sitcoms". Multichannel News. Cahners Business Information. Archived from the original on March 28, 2015. Retrieved June 22, 2013 – via HighBeam Research.
  27. MaryWade Burnside (October 7, 1999). "Last night Dawson's last ? WGN ceases to air WB programming". The Charleston Gazette. The Daily Gazette Company. Archived from the original on March 28, 2015. Retrieved June 22, 2013 – via HighBeam Research.
  28. Jim Rutenberg (May 17, 2000). "TV NOTES; A Mix for WB". The New York Times. The New York Times Company. Retrieved December 10, 2010.
  29. Comcast offers $10 credit to Tucson customers who saw Super Bowl porn Archived 2009-02-03 at the Wayback Machine Retrieved February 4, 2009
  30. Smith, Dylan. "KVOA to delay 'Law & Order' episode based on Giffords shooting". Tucson Sentinel. Retrieved 12 May 2011.
  31. Ochs, Mark. "Channel 4 celebrates 2 decades atop news ratings." Inside Tucson Business 25 Sep. 1995: 13.
  32. Ex-Tucson newsman Lou Waters leaving CNN after 21-year stint
  33. Lou Waters Archived 2010-12-20 at WebCite
  34. http://www.fcc.gov/fcc-bin/tvq?call=K04QP-D
  35. http://www.rabbitears.info/market.php?mktid=83
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