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KTVU (Channel 2) is the San Francisco Bay Area's FOX affiliate. Its studio facilities are located in Oakland, California at Jack London Square, and its transmitter is located at Sutro Tower in San Francisco. It has been owned by Cox Enterprises since 1968, making it the largest FOX affiliate that is not an O&O. KTVU is also co-owned with KICU which was bought out by Cox in 2000, and as such KICU moved from the original San Jose studios to Oakland where KTVU now shares its studio facilities with KICU. It is also the second largest Cox-owned station (with only Cox sister station WSB-TV in Atlanta in front of it).
KTVU signed on the air as an independent station on March 3, 1958.
Programming
The station has been well known in the Bay Area for its locally-produced programming, including The Ten O'Clock News, which for years had been the only television news broadcast in the Bay Area at this hour. The Ten O'Clock News is often referred to as the number one prime time newscast in the country, which is true based on the number of viewers at that hour. KTVU's 10 p.m. newscast is such a force to be reckoned with that KBWB cancelled its own 10 p.m. news in 2002 after having no luck whatsoever competing with KTVU. When KRON-TV became an independent station, it also scheduled its new primetime newscast at 9 p.m. so as to not compete directly with KTVU, but in the early 90s, KRON, along with KPIX (throughout the 90s), did have 10 p.m. newscasts, which have since been moved back up to the 11 p.m. time slot. Along with news, KTVU also produced various public affairs and children's programming.
The Ten O'Clock News is also one of the few syndicated local news shows in the United States. It also airs on co-owned KRXI-TV, the FOX affiliate in Reno, Nevada, and also airs on KRVU-LP, the UPN affiliate for the Chico/Redding market, and KBVU, the FOX affiliate for the Eureka/Arcata market. KRVU and KBVU are not owned by KTVU parent company Cox. Some of the stations also carry KTVU's earlier newscasts and Mornings on 2.
Up until the 1980s, the station produced a series of classic children's public service shorts under the title Bits and Pieces. "Bits and Pieces" often featured a number of talking puppets, "Charley and Humphrey", and were aimed at delivering positive messages to children. The shorts often aired during children's programming. Shots of KTVU children's programming appear in the movie Mrs. Doubtfire, portions of which were shot in the KTVU studios and film library. It was also the Bay Area origination of Romper Room, a children's television show which was franchised, instead of syndicated.
Other programs included:
- Creature Features, hosted by Bob Wilkins from 1971 to 1979 and was replaced by John Stanley from 1979 until 1984
- Dialing for Dollars, hosted by Pat McCormick, later the station's weatherman
Over the years, KTVU aired a schedule of cartoons, off-network sitcoms, old movies, drama shows, talk shows, local news, and religious shows. It was the leading independent station in the San Francisco television market for years. Obviously it retained this status when more independents (on UHF) signed on the air over the years by reinventing the station's own image with its former longtime slogan: "There Is Only One 2." As a VHF station competitor, KTVU broadcasted The 8 O'Clock Movie as an independent alternative to network prime time programming by KRON, KPIX and KGO-TV.
For a brief time in the early-1980s, KTVU was a nationwide superstation, seen mostly on parent Cox's cable systems. However, unable to compete with WTBS, WGN and WOR, KTVU left the national scene and merely became a regional superstation, seen on cable systems in northern California, Nevada and Oregon.
KTVU has been the over-the-air home of the San Francisco Giants since they moved from New York beginning with the 1958 season, and has also been the home of most San Francisco 49ers games since 1994 when FOX won the contract to carry the NFC football division games. Since 1996, some Giants Saturday afternoon games have been carried via the FOX Network, which won broadcast rights to the MLB in 1996.
As a Fox Affiliate
On October 9, 1986, the station became a charter Fox affiliate serving the Bay Area. It launched a morning newscast called "Mornings On 2" in 1990 (and, as such, became the fourth Fox station to air weekday morning newscasts). It began to air an afternoon cartoon block known as Fox Kids by 1991. It also added more syndicated talk shows, court shows, and reality shows over the years. It still runs some off-network sitcoms. The station continued to run the Fox Kids block on weekdays until Fox ended weekday kids programming in early 2002, but still retained the Saturday lineup, of which is now 4Kids TV.
Today, the station has newscasts at noon, 5 p.m. and 6 p.m. as well, in addition its morning and 10 p.m. broadcasts. However, in the early years channel 2 had just Mornings On 2, the noon and 10 o'clock newscasts -- and this was typical of most affiliates back then to have more syndicated programming and children's programming. That changed when the station decided to go head-to-head with competitors KRON, KPIX, KGO-TV and KNTV by leaning more towards a news-intensive format. An additional morning newscast was added in 1996, which would later expand to two hours from one hour, then a 6:00 newscast would be added in 2000, and finally in 2005, an hour-long 5:00 newscast. As a result, KTVU now airs 40 hours of local news a week -- the most local news coverage of any counterpart Fox station in the West Coast since KTTV in Los Angeles only has a morning and 10:00 newscast despite being the larger market station. As such the station has followed the lead of a number of affiliates that expanded their newscast hours, primarily the practice begun by Miami station WSVN, then passed on to new Fox stations purchased by New World Communications in the mid-1990's. KTVU ranks as one of the top rated Fox affiliates.
Even though it is a Fox station, KTVU rarely calls itself "FOX2" as other local counterparts do, even though this branding is occasionally used - and the circle laser 2 logo (in use since about 1975) was modified to include the Fox logo. But it usually is called simply "Channel 2", "KTVU Channel 2" (mostly for newscast references) or "FOX Channel 2".
Until the late 1990s, KTVU was seen nationally on PrimeStar and C-Band satellite systems.
List of Old Shows
- Make Room For Daddy (1985-1991)
- Batman (1987-1989)
- Gilligan's Island (1988-1991)
- Mission Impossible (1992-1993)
- The Three Stooges (1986)
- Barney Miller (1994-1995)
- Cheers (1999-2004)
Newscasts
Lineup
Monday-Friday- KTVU News Early Edition - 5 a.m. to 6 a.m.
- KTVU Morning News - 6 a.m. to 7 a.m.
- Mornings on Two - 7 a.m. to 9 a.m.
- KTVU Channel 2 News at Noon - 12 p.m. to 12:30 p.m.
- KTVU Channel 2 News at Five - 5 p.m. to 6 p.m.
- KTVU Channel 2 News at Six - 6 p.m. to 6:30 p.m.
- The 10 O'Clock News on KTVU Channel 2 - 10 p.m. to 11 p.m.
Saturday
- KTVU Channel 2 News at Six - 6 p.m. to 6:30 p.m.
- The 10 O'Clock News on KTVU Channel 2 - 10 p.m. to 10:45 p.m.
- Sports Wrap - 10:45 p.m. to 11 p.m.
Sunday
- KTVU Channel 2 News at Five - 5 p.m. to 6 p.m.
- The 10 O'Clock News on KTVU Channel 2 - 10 p.m. to 10:45 p.m.
- Sports Wrap - 10:45 p.m. to 11 p.m.
News Music
- Move Closer To Your World - 1971-1974
- KTVU Mornings on 2 News Theme - 1990-1995
- Brave New World - Shelly Palmer - 1990-1995
- KTVU News Package - Michael Randall - 1987-Present
Past & Present Personalities
- Larry Beil
- Tori Campbell
- Sal Castaneda
- Rosy Chu
- Pam Cook
- Brian Copeland
- Elaine Corral
- Mark Curtis (Reporter)
- Priya David
- Kraig Debro
- Diane Dwyer
- Faith Fancher
- Joe Fonzi
- John Fowler (Reporter)
- Eric Greene
- Leslie Griffith
- Julie Haener
- Robert Handa
- Craig Heaps
- Greg Higgins
- Mark Ibanez
- Fred Inglis (Reporter)
- Lloyd LaCuesta
- Amber Lee
- Bob MacKenzie (Reporter)
- Bill Martin (Weatherman)
- Pat McCormick (television personality)
- Ross McGowan
- Mike Mibach
- Gasia Mikaelian
- Steve Paulson
- Dennis Richmond
- Rob Roth
- Ted Rowlands (Reporter)
- Julia Sandstrom
- John Sasaki
- Sara Sidner
- Randy Shandobil
- Bob Shaw (Reporter)
- Frank Somerville
- Dan Springer
- Tom Vacar
- Thuy Vu
- Ken Wayne
- Rita Williams
- Claudine Wong
References
Fox network affiliates | Cox Television | Channel 2 TV stations in the United States
"KTVU"