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KFMB-TV

Coordinates:32°50′17″N117°15′0″W/ 32.83806°N 117.25000°W/32.83806; -117.25000
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KFMB-TV
Channels
Branding
  • CBS 8
  • The CW San Diego(DT2)
Programming
Affiliations
Ownership
Owner
History
First air date
May 16, 1949(75 years ago)(1949-05-16)
Former channel number(s)
  • Analog:8 (VHF, 1949–2009)
  • Digital:55 (UHF,2000–2009)
  • All secondary:
  • NBC(1949–1953)
  • DuMont(1949–1956)
  • ABC(1949–1956)
Call signmeaning
For Mary and Burnham (daughter and son of Warren B. Worcester, founder of former sister stationKFMB (AM))
Technical information[1]
Licensing authority
FCC
Facility ID42122
ERP19.8kW
HAAT227 m (745 ft)
Transmitter coordinates32°50′17″N117°15′0″W/ 32.83806°N 117.25000°W/32.83806; -117.25000
Links
Public license information
Websitewww.cbs8

KFMB-TV(channel 8) is atelevision stationinSan Diego, California,United States, affiliated withCBS,The CW,andMyNetworkTV.Owned byTegna Inc.,it has studios on Engineer Road in theKearny Mesasection of San Diego, and its transmitter is atopMount SoledadinLa Jolla.

History[edit]

The station firstsigned onthe air on May 16, 1949. It was the first television station in the San Diegomarket.The station was founded byJack O. Gross,who also owned local radio station KFMB (760 AM, nowKGB).San Diego MayorHarley E. Knoxwas present at the station's first broadcast. The station cost Gross $300,000 to build.[2]KFMB-TV has been a primary CBS affiliate since its sign-on and is the only television station in the market that has never changed its network affiliation. In its early years, channel 8 also maintained secondary affiliations withABC,NBCand theDuMont Television Network.

In October 1949, KFMB-TV signed an affiliation agreement with the short-livedParamount Television Network.Channel 8 quickly became its strongest affiliate. The station received a network feed of Paramount programs that included among others,Hollywood Opportunity,[3]Meet Me in Hollywood,[3]Magazine of the Week,[3]Time For Beany[4]andYour Old Buddy.KFMB-TV aired six hours of Paramount programs each week.[3][5]Since there was no technical transmission network to distribute Paramount programs to its affiliates, KFMB-TV instead carried the network's programming via a transmitter link from the broadcast tower of Paramount'sLos AngelesaffiliateKTLAatopMount Wilson,90 miles (140 km) from the KFMB-TV transmitter site on Mount Soledad.

Changes in ownership[edit]

In November 1950, Gross sold KFMB-AM-TV to John A. Kennedy, a former publisher of theSan Diego Daily Journalnewspaper.[6]Three years later, Kennedy divested KFMB to a partnership of television producerJack Wratherand industry executive Helen Alvarez.[7]That same year, channel 8 lost its television monopoly in San Diego when two new stations went on the air—Tijuana-basedXETV(channel 6) and San Diego–licensed KFSD-TV (channel 10, nowKGTV), the latter of which assumed the NBC affiliation from channel 8. KFMB-TV continued to air ABC programs until 1956, when XETV was granted permission to take the ABC affiliation under a special agreement between the FCC and Mexican authorities, most notably theSecretariat of Communications and Public Works.

After the Wrather-Alvarez partnership broke up in 1957, Wrather kept the San Diego outlets andKERO-TVin upstateBakersfieldfor his renamed broadcasting company, Marietta Broadcasting.[8]In 1959, Wrather merged Marietta Broadcasting withBuffalo, New York–based Transcontinent Television Corporation.[9][10]In 1964, as part of Transcontinent's exit from broadcasting, the KFMB stations were sold to Midwest Television, controlled by the family ofChampaign, Illinois,banker August Meyer.[11]In 1999, Midwest Television divested its other outlets,WCIA/WCFNin Champaign–SpringfieldandWMBD-AM-TVandWPBGinPeoria, Illinois,leaving the KFMB stations as the company's only remaining properties.

In 2005, Midwest Television signed a ten-year affiliation contract extension for KFMB-TV to remain a CBS affiliate through 2015. The station restored its on-air branding toNews 8on September 19, 2005, after four years of using the "Local 8" brand. In early 2007, the station began to phase in a new branding asCBS 8,although newscasts maintained their previous title until 2013, when the station introduced a new logo similar toMiami's CBS O&OWFOR-TVand renamed its newscastsCBS News 8.

Switch to digital broadcasting[edit]

KFMB-TV shut down its analog signal, overVHFchannel 8, on February 17, 2009, the original target date on which full-power television stations in the United States were totransition from analog to digital broadcastsunder federal mandate (which was later pushed back to June 12, 2009).

The station's digital signal relocated from its pre-transitionUHFchannel 55, 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 8.[12][13][14]

Tegna acquires KFMB-TV[edit]

On December 18, 2017,Tegna Inc.announced that it would acquire the KFMB stations for $325 million. The sale was completed on February 15, 2018, ending the Meyer family's stewardship of the stations after 53 years.[15]On March 12, 2019, former KFMB owner Elisabeth Kimmel, the granddaughter of Midwest Television founder August Meyer, was arrested for her role in the2019 college admissions scandal,which involved conspiracy to commit mail fraud and honest services mail fraud to boost her son's college admission credentials for pole vaulting.[16]

KFMB-TV was separated from its radio sisters on March 17, 2020, when Tegna sold KFMB (760 AM) and KFMB-FM (100.7) to Local Media San Diego, which in turn spun KFMB (AM) toiHeartMedia.[17]Under the terms of the deal, Tegna retained exclusive control of the KFMBcall signfor KFMB-TV, with the radio stations required to change their call letters within 30 days of the sale;[18]LMSD changed KFMB-FM toKFBGthat April.[19]Meanwhile, iHeartMedia changed KFMB (AM) toKGBon July 4.[20]

KFMB-DT2[edit]

KFMB-DT2,branded on-air asThe CW San Diego,is the primaryCWand secondaryMyNetworkTV-affiliated seconddigital subchannelof KFMB-TV, broadcasting in720phigh definition on channel 8.2.

History[edit]

On November 1, 2011, KFMB launched KFMB-DT2, an affiliate ofMeTV,by way of an agreement between the network's owner,Weigel Broadcasting,and Midwest Television that was announced two months earlier on September 6.[21]

On January 18, 2017, Midwest Television and network co-parentCBS Corporationannounced that KFMB would become the San Diego affiliate of The CW, which would be carried on one of the station's digital subchannels; the station would replace Tijuana-licensed XETV-TDT (channel 6), which had been affiliated with the network since 2008.[22][23][24][25]The move stemmed from a failure between CBS and XETV ownerGrupo Televisa,during negotiations to renew an affiliation contract set to expire that September, to reach an agreement to keep the affiliation with XETV.[26]KFMB-TV digital subchannel 8.2 was originally scheduled to take over the CW affiliation on September 1, 2017. However, these plans changed on January 26, 2017, when Televisa announced that it would drop all English-language programming (including its CW affiliation) from XETV on May 31, at the completion of a phased wind down of the station's San Diego operations (this process began on March 31, with the closure of channel 6's news department); KFMB consequently moved up the date of the switch to May 31, in order to align with XETV's planned conversion into a repeater of one of Televisa's Spanish-language networks.[26][27][28]

In preparation, Midwest sold the local rights to the MeTV affiliation to theE. W. Scripps Company,owner of ABC affiliate KGTV; MeTV moved from KFMB-DT2 to the second digital subchannel of KGTV–which was also simulcast onKZSD-LP(channel 41, now a KGTVtranslatoron channel 20), which lost itsAztecaaffiliation to a subchannel of MyNetworkTV affiliateXHDTV-TDT(channel 49), in preparation for the network's July 1 move toXHAS-TDT(channel 33), which also lost itsTelemundoaffiliation to a subchannel of NBC affiliateKNSD(which they both areowned-and-operated stations)–on May 1 (to accommodate MeTV, KGTV relocatedLaffonto the re-numbered 10.3 from digital channel 10.2, which, in the interim, was converted into a news channel that aired simulcasts and rebroadcasts of KGTV's local news programming).[29][30]As it prepares to switch to The CW, KFMB-DT2's signal resolution was subsequently converted to 720phigh definitionon May 21.

KFMB-DT2 added programming from The CW on May 31, 2017 (XETV transferred its existing affiliation with co-ownedCanal 5from its decommissioned 6.2 subchannel to its main feed upon losing the CW affiliation).[26]The subchannel–which was rebranded as "The CW San Diego" –concurrently adopted a general entertainment schedule featuring a mix of syndicated shows not carried by other San Diego stations, repeat airings of certain programs seen on KFMB's main channel, and many first-run and off-network syndicated programs (includingtalk showsand sitcoms) that previously aired on XETV prior to the switch to fill timeslots not occupied by CW network programs. It also launched a two-hour extension of KFMB's weekday morning newscast, along with separate, weeknight-only 7 p.m. and 10 p.m. newscasts produced for KFMB-DT2 (the newscasts shown on the subchannel are branded asNews 8 on The CW San Diego,omitting all references to the CBS name included in KFMB's main news titling).[31][32][33]The subchannel also took over XETV's slot on channel 6 on Cox, Spectrum and U-verse (those providers as well asDirecTV—which opted to carry KFMB-DT2 on channel 9, transmitting temporarily in standard definition only in the days immediately following the switch—andDish Networkdropped XETV from their lineups upon its switch to Canal 5, with the station's availability on the U.S. side of the market becoming limited to its existing over-the-air signal coverage).

KFMB became the third television station in San Diego to affiliate with The CW: the network was originally affiliated withKSWB-TV(channel 69) beginning at The CW's launch on September 18, 2006, before moving to XETV on August 1, 2008, afterTribune Broadcastingagreed to switch KSWB toFox,reportedly due to that network's concerns about having its programming airing on a Mexican-licensed station, even though XETV had operated as an English-language station since its 1953 sign-on.[34][35][36]The switch resulted in KFMB-DT2 becoming the largest CW station by market size that is carried over a digital subchannel, and San Diego becoming the largest market with a subchannel-only CW affiliate (overtakingWKRC-DT2inCincinnati) as well as the largest overall in which any of the six major networks maintains a subchannel-only affiliation. In 2021 it was overtaken byWZTV-DT2inNashville.

In September 2018, after XHDTV-TDT dropped MyNetworkTV to joinMilenio Television,KFMB-DT2 added the programming service as a secondary affiliation. MyNetworkTV programming is carried as part of the subchannel's late night schedule, an increasingly common fate for the service.

Programming[edit]

For years, KFMB-TV has chosen to airThe Bold and the Beautifuloutside of the network's recommended 12:30 p.m. timeslot in thePacific Time Zone.This stemmed from when the station had an hour-long noon newscast, as the station aired the program at 9:30 a.m. (the midday newscast has since moved to 11 a.m.).The Bold and the Beautifulhad aired at 11:30 a.m. from 2009 to 2013, when it moved to 12:30 p.m. as the lead-in toThe Young and the Restless(which itself normally airs at 11 a.m. in the Pacific Time Zone). It also airsCBS Saturday Morningtwo hours earlier than most CBS stations (aligning it with the program's recommended timeslot in theEastern Time Zone).

Due torequirementsmandated by the FCC to broadcasteducational and informationalprograms aimed at children, KFMB is required to show E/I-compliant programs supplied by CBS through the network'sCBS Dream Teamblock; as a result, the station does not air live sporting events until 10 a.m. local time on Saturday mornings, even if coverage fromCBS Sportshas already started by that time elsewhere, though this may change in the fall of 2017 with the augmenting of The CW'sOne Magnificent Morningholding six hours of E/I programming. This requirement has not prevented other Pacific Time Zone affiliates of CBS from airing live sporting events that begin at 9 a.m. or earlier.

Sports programming[edit]

KFMB-TV has served two stints as the broadcast television partner ofSan Diego Padresbaseball, with the first running from1980through1983and the second covering the1995and1996campaigns (in addition toCBS' national coverage of MLB gamesfrom1990to1993). Channel 8 is the last San Diego over-the-air station to regularly televise Padres games locally; with the exception ofgames carried by Fox,the team has been cable-exclusive since1997.

In1998,KFMB-TV was awarded the local broadcast rights toSan Diego Chargerspreseason game telecasts; that same year,CBSacquired the rights to theAmerican Football Conference(theNFLconference of which the Chargers are a member), making channel 8 the station of record for the team, succeeding KNSD in that capacity (the station had previously aired Chargers home interconference games from 1970 to 1993). This would remain so until2017,when the team returned to Los Angeles after 55 years, thus ending channel 8's status as the team's unofficial home station (despite the move, the station still airs a majority of their games as San Diego is still a secondary market for the team and therefore road games are contractually required to be aired in the market). Channel 8 also simulcast the Chargers' appearances onNFL Network'sThursday Night FootballandESPN'sMonday Night Football,as per NFL rules which require games aired on cable networks to be simulcast on a local broadcast station in the team's home market.

KFMB-TV also airs selectSan Diego State Aztecs men's basketballgames as part ofCollege Basketball on CBS;this included the team's appearance in the2023 NCAA Division I men's basketball championship game.

News operation[edit]

As of January 2024, KFMB presently broadcasts 39 hours of locally produced newscasts each week (with seven hours each weekday and two hours each on Saturdays and Sundays), and also produces an additional 23 hours a week of local newscasts for KFMB-DT2 (with four hours each weekday,1+1⁄2hours on Saturdays and a half hour on Sundays). KFMB runs an hour-long local newscast at 6 p.m. on weekdays. Unlike most CBS affiliates in the Pacific Time Zone, KFMB runs a half-hour local newscast at 6:30 p.m. on weekends. KFMB operates the only news helicopter in the San Diego market; its "Chopper 8" helicopter provides aerial video to most of the market's news-producing television stations throughLocal News Serviceagreements.

Some famous KFMB alumni include former weather anchor Raquel Tejada (who eventually became a successful actress asRaquel Welch), talk show hostRegis Philbin,television hostSarah Purcell,CNNand former CBS anchorPaula Zahn,originalAccess HollywoodhostLarry Mendte,and eventual NBC correspondents Don Teague (later atKRIVinHouston) and Dawn Fratangelo. KFMB has led in newscast viewership in the San Diego market for most of its history, dating back to the 1950s when Ray Wilson was the popular anchor of the city's first half-hour newscast. When Wilson stepped down in 1973, KFMB slipped to a distant second behind KGTV, rebounding only in the late 1970s and early 1980s when former KGTV producer Jim Holtzman was hired by the station as itsnews director.Holtzman formed a popular and acclaimed news team consisting of anchors Michael Tuck and Allison Ross, weather anchor Clark Anthony and sports anchor Ted Leitner. By the end of 1979, KFMB had risen back to the #1 position, remaining there until 1984 when Tuck suddenly moved to KGTV and helped that station overtake KFMB for the remainder of the decade.

Holtzman tried in vain to compete by experimenting with a different format for the 11 p.m. newscast calledThis Daywhich emphasized a softer, humanized format and attempted to find a common thread within the newscast. There was no regular anchor; instead Hal Clement, Loren Nancarrow (now deceased), Dawn Fratangelo (now with NBC) and Susan Lichtman (now known as Susan Taylor and with KNSD) formed an ensemble of anchor/reporters who alternated between anchoring, filing detailed reports and giving live interviews. Computer graphics were used heavily, and Dave Grusin's "Night Lines" served as the newscast's theme music.

Although it was innovative for its time,This Dayproved to be a dismal failure as viewers responded negatively to the awkward format; within nine months, KFMB reverted to a more traditional late evening newscast. However, the news ratings for KFMB went into a deep decline for more than a decade as popular mainstays like Marty Levin and Allison Ross (both of whom reappeared in the market on KNSD) either left voluntarily or were fired and were replaced by younger staffers like Stan Miller andSusan Roesgen.

Eventually by the 1990s, Hal Clement would assume early evening anchor duties alongside Susan Peters and later, Denise Yamada to mixed results as the station continued to battle KGTV and KNSD, primarily in the 11 p.m. timeslot where the CBS lead-in at the time was particularly weaker. By the early 2000s, Michael Tuck's brief return following Clement's departure for KGTV and CBS's resurgence at the start of the decade helped bring KFMB back to first place in the early evenings. By October 2020, KFMB, which had become the most watched television station in San Diego (based onNielsen ratingsshare data) from sign-on to sign-off,[37]finished in first place in the noon, and afternoon and evening news timeslots (at 4 p.m., 5 p.m., 6 p.m. and at 11 p.m. weekdays).

During coverage of theCalifornia wildfires of October 2007,reporter Larry Himmel took viewers on a walkthrough of his own home, which had been destroyed in the fires.[38]Audio of the station's news programming was also simulcast on KFMB (AM) and KFMB-FM for an extended period of time. On January 28, 2007, KFMB became the first television station in the San Diego market to begin broadcasting its local newscasts in high definition; with the upgrade, the station unveiled a new set for its newscasts.[39]

Notable former on-air staff[edit]

Subchannels[edit]

The station's signal ismultiplexed:

Subchannels of KFMB-TV[40]
Channel Res. Aspect Short name Programming
8.1 1080i 16:9 KFMB-HD CBS
8.2 720p KFMB-CW
8.3 480i Laff Laff
8.4 Crime True Crime Network
8.5 Quest Quest
8.6 NEST The Nest

See also[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^"Facility Technical Data for KFMB-TV".Licensing and Management System.Federal Communications Commission.
  2. ^Engstrand, Iris. "San Diego: California's Cornerstone". San Diego: Sunbelt Publications, 2005, pg 180.
  3. ^abcd"KFMB-TV Rebeams 6 hrs. of KTLA Segs".Billboard.June 4, 1949. p. 11.
  4. ^"Television".Redlands Daily Facts.Redlands, CA. December 5, 1952. p. 12.
  5. ^"First Coast Network: KTLA Pioneers in Hookup with San Diego",Long Beach Independent,pp. 14c, October 16, 1949
  6. ^"KFMB sale; Kennedys to buy."Broadcasting – Telecasting,November 20, 1950, pg. 68.
  7. ^"$7 1/2 million mark passed in bumper transfer crop."Broadcasting – Telecasting,February 2, 1953, pp. 27–28.
  8. ^"Wrather buys out Alvarez."Broadcasting – Telecasting,May 12, 1958, pg. 9.
  9. ^"New station combine formed."Broadcasting – Telecasting,February 16, 1959, pg. 9.
  10. ^"Transcontinent tie with Marietta gets ok."Broadcasting – Telecasting,May 18, 1959, pp. 74, 76.
  11. ^"Transcontinent sale: last of its kind?."Broadcasting,February 24, 1964, pp. 27–28.
  12. ^"DTV Tentative Channel Designations for the First and the Second Rounds"(PDF).Archived fromthe original(PDF)on August 29, 2013.RetrievedMarch 24,2012.
  13. ^"DTV Antenna Info".KFMB-TV.Midwest Television.RetrievedFebruary 17,2009.
  14. ^"CDBS Print".
  15. ^"TEGNA Completes Acquisition of Midwest Television, Inc.'s Broadcasting Stations in San Diego, CA – TEGNA".TEGNA.February 15, 2018.RetrievedFebruary 15,2018.
  16. ^Lothspeich, Jennifer (March 14, 2019)."Who is Elisabeth Kimmel? Former owner of KFMB Stations in San Diego named in college admissions scandal".CBS 8.RetrievedApril 12,2021.
  17. ^Venta, Lance (March 17, 2020)."Local Media San Diego Closes KFMB AM/FM Purchase; Sells 760 To iHeartMedia".RadioInsight.RetrievedMarch 17,2020.
  18. ^Venta, Lance (December 30, 2019)."Local Media San Diego Acquires KFMB AM/FM".RadioInsight.RetrievedDecember 30,2019.
  19. ^"San Diego's 100.7 BIG FM Gets New Call Letters—KFBG-FM".Radio Online.April 23, 2020.RetrievedApril 24,2020.
  20. ^Venta, Lance (July 3, 2020)."760 KFMB San Diego Changes Call Letters To KGB".RadioInsight.RetrievedJuly 3,2020.
  21. ^"Me-TV Announces Significant Market Affiliate Agreements, Including San Diego, Las Vegas, St. Louis & Minneapolis/St. Paul".Me-TV(Press release).Weigel Broadcasting.September 6, 2011.RetrievedJune 5,2017– via The Futon Critic.
  22. ^"MIDWEST TELEVISION, INC. / KFMB-TV ADDS CW AFFILIATION".KFMB-TV.Midwest Television, LLC. January 18, 2017.RetrievedJanuary 19,2017.
  23. ^Miller, Mark K. (January 18, 2017)."KFMB San Diego Adding CW Affiliation".TVNewsCheck.NewsCheck Media.RetrievedJune 6,2017.
  24. ^"MarketWatch: KFMB Adds CW Affiliation to CBS, Leaving XETV in Lurch".Times of San Diego.Times of San Diego, LLC. January 22, 2017.RetrievedJune 6,2017.
  25. ^Eck, Kevin (January 19, 2017)."CW Affiliation Switch in San Diego".TVSpy.Prometheus Global Media.RetrievedJune 6,2017.
  26. ^abcPeterson, Karla (January 26, 2017)."CW6 to end news programming March 31 to become Spanish-language outlet, as CW migrates to KFMB".The San Diego Union-Tribune.Tronc.RetrievedJanuary 27,2017.
  27. ^"KFMB San Diego Adding CW Affiliation".TVNewsCheck.NewsCheck Media. January 18, 2017.RetrievedJanuary 18,2017.
  28. ^Eck, Kevin (January 26, 2017)."San Diego Station to Shut Down After Losing CW Affiliation".TVSpy.Prometheus Global Media.RetrievedJanuary 27,2017.
  29. ^"COX San Diego Channel 808 METV changing to CW San Diego".Cox Communicationscustomer forum. May 7, 2017.RetrievedMay 12,2017.
  30. ^Lafayette, Jon (March 6, 2017)."Azteca America Adds New Affiliate in San Diego Market".Broadcasting & Cable.NewBay Media.RetrievedMarch 6,2017.
  31. ^Marszalek, Diana (May 22, 2017)."New CW, Telemundo Stations Rolling Out in San Diego".Broadcasting & Cable.NewBay Media.RetrievedSeptember 14,2020.
  32. ^Peterson, Karla (March 31, 2017)."San Diego's CW6 news signs off".The San Diego Union-Tribune.Tronc.RetrievedJune 5,2017.
  33. ^Ortega, Roly (May 23, 2017)."KFMB adding more weekday news for its new CW subchannel".The Changing Newscasts Blog.RetrievedJune 6,2017.
  34. ^Peterson, Karla (March 25, 2008)."Fox switching affiliates in S.D."U-T San Diego.Copley Press.Archived fromthe originalon January 5, 2018.RetrievedJune 5,2017.
  35. ^Peterson, Karla (August 1, 2008)."Trading places: Fox, CW switch network channels".U-T San Diego.Copley Press. Archived fromthe originalon January 5, 2018.RetrievedJune 5,2017.
  36. ^Mayfield, Matthew (April 7, 2008)."XETV, KSWB Battle For Fox Affiliation In San Diego".RadioMatthew.Sactown Media. Archived fromthe originalon September 11, 2008.
  37. ^Nielsen Media Research, October 2020
  38. ^"Witch Creek Fire - October 2007: Larry Himmel in front of his destroyed home in 4S Ranch, San Diego"– via youtube.
  39. ^Local HD News Offered By 24 StationsArchivedSeptember 27, 2007, at theWayback Machine,TVpredictions, November 25, 2006
  40. ^"RabbitEars.Info".rabbitears.info.

External links[edit]

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