KCOP-TV


KCOP-TV, virtual and VHF digital channel 13, is a MyNetworkTV owned-and-operated television station licensed to Los Angeles, California, United States, serving as the programming service's West Coast flagship outlet. The station is owned by the Fox Television Stations subsidiary of Fox Corporation, as part of a duopoly with Fox West Coast flagship KTTV. The two stations share studios at the Fox Television Center in West Los Angeles; KCOP-TV's transmitter is located atop Mount Wilson. There is no separate website for KCOP-TV; instead, it is integrated with that of sister station KTTV.

History

Early history

Channel 13 first signed on the air on September 17, 1948 as KLAC-TV, and adopted the moniker "Lucky 13". It was originally co-owned with local radio station KLAC. Operating as an independent station early on, it began running some programming from the DuMont Television Network in 1949 after KTLA disaffiliated from the network after a one-year tenure. One of KLAC-TV's earlier stars was veteran actress Betty White, who starred in Al Jarvis's Make-Believe Ballroom from 1949 to 1952, and then her own sitcom, Life with Elizabeth from 1952 to 1956. Television personality Regis Philbin and actor/director Leonard Nimoy once worked behind the scenes at channel 13, and Oscar Levant had his own show on the station from 1958 to 1960.
On December 23, 1953, the now-defunct Copley Press purchased KLAC-TV and changed its call letters to the current KCOP, which reflected their ownership. A Bing Crosby-led group purchased the station in June 1957. In 1959, the NAFI Corporation, which would later merge with Chris-Craft Boats to become Chris-Craft Industries, bought channel 13. NAFI/Chris-Craft would be channel 13's longest-tenured owner, running it for over 40 years.
For most of its first 46 years on the air, channel 13 was a typical general entertainment independent station. It was usually the third or fourth highest-rated independent in Southern California, trading the #3 spot with KHJ-TV. The station carried Operation Prime Time programming at least in 1978.
In the 1970s, KCOP was one of the earliest of many independents nationwide to schedule re-runs of the original Star Trek series, thereby becoming instrumental in the eventual rebirth of Star Trek as a "franchise" which is alive and well 50+ years later.
In the early 1980s, KCOP became one of the many stations in the U.S. to broadcast Star Fleet, a science-fiction marionette series which originally debuted in Japan in 1980.
During the 1980s and early 1990s, it was the Los Angeles home of , The Arsenio Hall Show and Baywatch. KCOP was the original Los Angeles home of the syndicated versions of Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy!, both of which moved to KCBS-TV in 1989, and later to current home KABC-TV in 1992. Channel 13 aired select episodes of the Australian soap opera Neighbours from early June to late August 1991. The station tried airing movies six nights a week in 1992; however, they fared poorly.
KCOP partnered with WWOR-TV and MCA TV Entertainment on a two night programming block, Hollywood Premiere Network starting in October 1990. KCOP carried the Prime Time Entertainment Network programming service from 1993 to 1995. KCOP carried Spelling Premiere Network at its launch in August 1994 on Thursday nights.

UPN affiliation (1993–2006)

In October 27, 1993, Chris-Craft and its broadcasting subsidiary, United Television, partnered with Viacom's newly acquired subsidiary Paramount Pictures to form the United Paramount Network. KCOP became the network's Los Angeles station, which debuted on January 16, 1995. At the network's launch, which also served to launch Paramount's , KCOP served as UPN's West Coast "flagship" station. During the late 1990s, the station began carrying a large amount of younger leaning talk shows, reality series, some sitcoms during the evening hours, and syndicated cartoons in the morning well as the popular anime series Sailor Moon.
In 2000, Viacom bought Chris-Craft's 50% ownership interest in UPN; the deal effectively stripped KCOP of its status as one of the network's O&Os in the process. On August 12, 2000, Chris-Craft sold its UPN stations to the Fox Television Stations subsidiary of News Corporation for $5.5 billion; a deal that was finalized on July 31, 2001, creating a duopoly with Fox O&O KTTV. Upon being sold to Fox, the Fox Kids weekday block moved to KCOP in the mid-afternoons, only for it to be discontinued nationwide in January 2002. Soon after, the station ran an hour-long morning cartoon block, but dropped cartoons entirely in September 2006. Channel 13 was the last local television station to air cartoons on weekdays; like the other local stations, the cartoons were replaced with informercials. In a separate transaction from its purchase of UPN, Viacom purchased KCOP's rival, KCAL-TV, from Young Broadcasting on June 1, 2002. Rumors persisted that UPN would move to the higher-rated KCAL, reverting KCOP to independent station status. However, Viacom decided to continue operating KCAL as an independent, as Fox renewed affiliation agreements for its UPN-affiliated stations for four years, keeping the network's programming on KCOP.

From UPN onto MNTV

With Fox's acquisition of KCOP, the station abandoned its longtime Hollywood studios at 915 North La Brea Avenue with KCOP's news and technical operations being moved into KTTV's facilities at the Fox Television Center in West Los Angeles in 2003. The La Brea Avenue studio was put up for sale, with Fox electing to keep the facility, remodeling it to house the first two seasons of the reality series Hell's Kitchen. It was eventually abandoned with fixtures in place, and became a haven for squatters who were evicted by police in May 2009. The studio was eventually torn down, and currently the site is now a Sprouts store, with a large apartment complex that opened November 2015.
On January 24, 2006, the Warner Bros. unit of Time Warner and CBS Corporation announced that the two companies would shut down UPN and The WB and combine the networks' respective programming to create a new "fifth" network called The CW. KTLA, which had been the market's WB affiliate since the network's January 1995 launch, became The CW's Los Angeles affiliate as part of a 10-year affiliation deal between the new network and KTLA's owner, Tribune Broadcasting.

MyNetworkTV affiliation (2006–present)

The CW's initial affiliate list did not include any of Fox's UPN stations, but even without the Tribune affiliation deal, it is unlikely that KCOP would have been picked over KTLA as The CW's management was on record as preferring The WB and UPN's "strongest" affiliates – KTLA had led KCOP in the ratings dating back to when they were both independent stations. The day after the announcement of The CW's pending launch, on January 25, 2006, Fox dropped all network references from its UPN stations' on-air branding, and stopped promoting UPN's programs altogether. Accordingly, KCOP changed its branding from "UPN 13" to "Channel 13", and amended the station's 2002 logo to omit the UPN logo and just feature the boxed "13". On February 22, 2006, News Corporation announced the launch of a new "sixth" network called MyNetworkTV, which would have KCOP and the other Fox-owned UPN stations serve as the nuclei.
UPN continued to broadcast on stations across the country until September 15, 2006. While some of the network's affiliates that switched to MyNetworkTV aired the final two weeks of UPN programs outside of its recommended primetime slot, the Fox-owned stations, including KCOP, dropped UPN entirely on August 31, 2006. In September 2006, the station began identifying itself as "MyNetworkTV, Channel 13"; the branding changed again in May 2007, simplified to "My13 Los Angeles".

Move of MyNetworkTV programming to late night

As of September 14, 2015, the station began airing other programming in MyNetworkTV's traditional 8 p.m.-10 p.m. timeslot, including TMZ Live and Hollywood Today Live; MyNetworkTV's schedule is now carried out of primetime in late night from 11:00 p.m. to 1:00 a.m. on weeknights. This makes KCOP the most high-profile station carrying MyNetworkTV to move it out of primetime, along with the first Fox-owned station to do so. At some point in time, KCOP moved MNTV back to the 8-10pm slot.

Digital television

Digital channels

The station's digital signal is multiplexed:
ChannelVideoAspectPSIP Short NameProgramming
13.1720p16:9KCOP-DTMain KCOP-TV programming / MyNetworkTV
13.2480i4:3BUZZRBuzzr
13.3480i16:9MOVIES!Movies!
13.4480i16:9HEROESHeroes & Icons

On November 4, 2011, Fox Television Stations signed an affiliation agreement with Bounce TV for KCOP and its New York City-area sister station WWOR-TV. KCOP began carrying Bounce TV on digital subchannel 13.2 on March 8, 2012. The network has also been added to the subchannels of Fox-owned MyNetworkTV stations in five other markets: Baltimore, Phoenix, Orlando, Dallas and Minneapolis; the Baltimore affiliation had since moved to a subchannel of ABC affiliate WMAR-TV, soon after Fox sold-off MyNetworkTV outlet WUTB to Deerfield Media. In three other markets where Fox owns MyNetworkTV stations, Bounce TV is carried on the subchannel space of other competing stations in those markets.
As a result of Bounce TV signing a new carriage agreement with Univision Communications in 2014, the network moved to the third subchannel of Univision owned & operated station KMEX on March 9, 2015. Buzzr, a new digital multicast network focusing on classic game shows, which is a joint venture of FremantleMedia and KCOP's parent company, Fox Television Stations, debuted on channel 13.2 on June 1, 2015.
On September 18, 2015, Weigel Broadcasting and Fox Television Stations announced an affiliation agreement to carry diginet Heroes & Icons on subchannels of Fox-owned stations in New York City, Los Angeles, Dallas, San Francisco, Washington, D.C., Phoenix, Detroit, Tampa, Orlando and Charlotte beginning October 1, 2015.

Analog-to-digital conversion

KCOP-TV shut down its analog signal, over VHF channel 13, on June 12, 2009, as part of the federally mandated transition from analog to digital television. The station's digital signal relocated from its transition period UHF channel 66, which was among the high band UHF channels that were removed from broadcasting use as a result of the transition, to its analog-era VHF channel 13.

Programming

KCOP may air Fox network programming should it be preempted by KTTV for long-form breaking news coverage or special programming.

Sports coverage

Channel 13 served as the broadcast home of the Los Angeles Marathon from its inception in 1986 until 2001, the NBA's Los Angeles Clippers from 1991 to 1996 and currently since 2012, and the Los Angeles Dodgers from 2002 to 2005 and two Los Angeles Chargers games in 2017.
Like many local stations in the earlier years of television, KCOP hosted its own weekly Studio Wrestling show for many years during the 1970s. Stars such as Freddie Blassie, John Tolos, Rocky Johnson, André the Giant and The Sheik headlined the shows, with longtime local announcer Dick Lane behind the microphone calling the action. In later years, pro wrestling returned to KCOP by way of the World Wrestling Entertainment program Smackdown, which aired on the station from 1999 to 2006 and again from 2008 to 2010. In the past, Channel 13 also aired other wrestling programs, including World Class Championship Wrestling and the NWA. Channel 13 also televised live boxing matches, originating from the Grand Olympic Auditorium in downtown Los Angeles, on and off from the late 1960s until as recently as the mid-1990s, with legendary Los Angeles sportscaster Jim Healy calling the action in the early years.
From 2005 to 2007, KCOP carried St. Louis Rams preseason games produced by corporate sibling Fox Sports Midwest and now-former sister station KTVI. Back in the 1950s during the team's early years in Los Angeles, the station broadcast many Rams regular season games before NFL games became more exclusive to the major broadcast networks. However, in July 2008, the NFL's broadcast committee decided to no longer allow teams to broadcast preseason games beyond even their secondary markets. This was done more so to protect the league's broadcast partners, including KCBS-TV and KTLA, the respective local broadcasters of San Diego Chargers and Oakland Raiders preseason games.
From 2006 to 2011, KCOP held the broadcast television rights to Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim baseball; the team and Fox Sports West signed a 20-year broadcast deal beginning with the 2012 season, making 150 annual Angels telecasts exclusive to Fox Sports West, with a selected portion of that schedule airing on Prime Ticket, although KCOP aired a game between the Angels and the Minnesota Twins on May 9, 2012 due to scheduling conflicts with other sports events on Fox Sports West and Prime Ticket. Due to its relationship with their corporate sibling regional sports networks, KCOP serves as an overflow channel for Fox Sports West and Prime Ticket, as it aired five Los Angeles Kings hockey games during the 2010–11 season, as well as televising selected late-season games from the 2011–12 season, plus the first two games of the Kings' first-round playoff series against the Vancouver Canucks. In the time since, KCOP will occasionally air selected Kings games, as well as those of the team's crosstown rival, the Anaheim Ducks. The Ducks discontinued their over-the-air partnership with KDOC-TV after the 2013–14 season, as the team elected to take its local television schedule exclusively on cable to Prime Ticket, with occasional games on KCOP and Fox Sports West, as part of a new broadcast agreement signed in October 2014
On April 8, 2011, KCOP televised its first Clippers game since 1996, as a last-minute scheduling addition to the team's television schedule. During the 2011–12 season, also as a last-minute addition, the station televised two Clipper games; a road contest versus the Denver Nuggets on April 18, and game six of their playoff series versus the Memphis Grizzlies on May 11.
As a Fox-owned station, KCOP was granted special rights to two Fox NFL games during the 2017 regular season, both home contests featuring the Chargers, newly relocated to Los Angeles from San Diego. The broadcasts occurred on weekends when CBS had the doubleheader, but the Rams were on KTTV.

News operation

For many years, KCOP aired a primetime newscast at 10 p.m., as well as a weekday afternoon newscast at 2 p.m. during the late 1970s and early 1980s. During the 1980s, the station paired its local 10:00 program with the syndicated Independent Network News. Channel 13's news programs generally were the lowest-rated evening newscasts of the seven VHF television stations in the Los Angeles market. The newscast's length varied from 30 minutes to an hour depending on the station's budget. An ambitious attempt to relaunch KCOP's news operation came in January 1993, when the 10 p.m. newscast was renamed Real News and introduced a new format that featured anchors moving around the station's newsroom, in-depth reports, and newsmagazine elements. However, the new format, which accompanied technological improvements and an expansion of the news staff, did not pay off in the ratings, and Real News was scaled back to a half-hour on weeknights in May 1994, with the anchors now seated at a desk, with weekend newscasts being cut entirely. Shortly after this, the newscast was rebranded as UPN News 13. For a brief period of time during the late 1990s, KCOP tried airing a half-hour newscast at 3:30 p.m. weekdays, later airing it at 7:30 p.m. weeknights. However, when the station was purchased by Fox and its operations were merged with KTTV, channel 13's newscast was moved to 11 p.m. to avoid direct competition with channel 11, and trimmed it from an hour in length down to 30 minutes. The station's news production and resources also began to be handled by KTTV.
After Fox purchased the station, KCOP's late-evening newscast took a more unconventional approach than its network-owned competition, KCBS-TV, KABC-TV and KNBC. To appeal to a younger audience, it mainly featured its female news anchors in slightly more revealing, trendy clothing. Its news stories also tend to be much shorter in detail, in a faster-paced format. In addition, it became the first station to emphasize entertainment and trend-setting feature stories as a major part of its format, an idea that attracted a large young demographic. Nevertheless, channel 13's newscasts continually placed fourth in the ratings, as it did when the station was competing at 10 p.m. against KTTV, KTLA and KCAL-TV. However, KCOP's news drew substantially higher ratings among younger viewers, especially young Latinos.
On April 10, 2006, KCOP's newscast was expanded from 30 minutes to one hour, which made it the only Los Angeles station with an hour-long newscast at 11 p.m. On August 14, 2006, the newscast was rebranded as My13 News to reflect the station's pending MyNetworkTV affiliation. With the purchase by Fox, many of KCOP's former staff either left the station or were released, reporter Hal Eisner was one of the remaining staffers who had been with KCOP since the Chris-Craft era, beginning there in the early 1990s. Before that, however, he had worked at KTTV for a time from 1987 to 1988. Today, Eisner files reports for KTTV.
On December 1, 2008, KCOP shortened its 11 p.m. newscast to a half-hour, which became anchored by KTTV's 10 p.m. anchors Christine Devine and Carlos Amezcua, as it was considered an extension of the earlier newscast; the newscast's retitling to Fox News at 11 marked the end of a KCOP-branded and produced newscast. On September 10, 2012, KCOP launched a half-hour 7 p.m. newscast on weeknights that also used the Fox News branding; the newscast was also anchored by Amezcua and Devine. On August 9, 2013, KCOP announced the cancellation of its 7 and 11 p.m. newscasts, ending a five-decade run of news programming on the station; its final newscast aired on September 22, 2013.
Due to most 2018 FIFA World Cup matches airing on KTTV, KCOP aired Good Day L.A. from 7 to 9 a.m. due to World Cup matches being played in the morning hours. This marked a temporary return to news programming on KCOP since the cancellation of KTTV-produced newscasts in 2013.

Notable alumni

KCOP's signal is rebroadcast on the following translator stations:
K51AN in Victorville, California from Quartzsite Mountain.