KCOP-TV, channel 13, is a television station in Los Angeles, California. Owned by Fox Television Stations, a division of the News Corporation, KCOP is a sister station to Fox network outlet KTTV (channel 11), and is affiliated with the MyNetworkTV programming service. The two stations share studio facilities in West Los Angeles, and KCOP's transmitter is located on Mount Wilson.

History[link]

Early history[link]

Channel 13 went on the air on September 17, 1948, as KMTR-TV. The station briefly changed its call letters to KLAC-TV (Los Angeles, California), and adopted the moniker "Lucky 13". It was co-owned with KLAC-AM-FM, which was later co-owned with channel 13's current sister station KTTV. Although it was an independent station, it did run some programming from the DuMont Television Network.^[1]

One of KLAC-TV's earlier stars was veteran actress Betty White, who starred in her own sitcom, Life with Elizabeth. 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 Copley Press (publishers of the San Diego Union-Tribune) purchased KLAC-TV, and changed its call letters to KCOP.^[2] A Bing Crosby led group purchased the station shortly thereafter. In 1960, 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, lasting over 40 years.^[3]

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-rated independent in Southern California, trading the #3 spot with KHJ-TV (channel 9, now KCAL-TV). During the 1980s and early 1990s, it was the Southern California home of Star Trek: The Next Generation (as well as the Original Series), The Arsenio Hall Show and Baywatch.^[4] The station tried airing movies for six nights a week in 1992, but this fared poorly. In 1993, KCOP moved to add more first run syndication productions. Along with Chris-Craft's other stations, KCOP carried the Prime Time Entertainment Network from 1993 to 1995.^[5] KCOP was the original Los Angeles home of the syndicated versions of Wheel of Fortune (its longtime announcer until his death in 2010, Charlie O'Donnell, was a former news anchor at KCOP) and Jeopardy!, both of which have since moved to KABC-TV.

UPN affiliation[link]

In 1995, Chris-Craft and its subsidiary, United Television, partnered with Paramount Pictures to form the United Paramount Network. KCOP became the network's Los Angeles station on January 16, 1995, the day the network was launched.

Viacom, the parent company of Paramount since 1994, bought Chris-Craft's half of UPN in 2000, becoming the network's full owner. In a separate transaction in 2002, Viacom purchased KCOP's arch-rival, KCAL. Rumors persisted that UPN would move to the higher-rated KCAL, making KCOP an independent station once again. However, Viacom said that it would continue to operate KCAL as an independent station (at least for the time being) and UPN would stay on KCOP.

Chris-Craft/United Television sold its stations to the News Corporation on July 31, 2001. Upon being sold to Fox in 2001, the weekday Fox Kids block moved to KCOP in the mid-afternoons, only for it to be dropped nationwide in January 2002. Soon after, the station ran a one-hour morning cartoon block (from the DIC Entertainment company), but dropped cartoons permanently 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.

With News Corporation's acquisition of KCOP, it elected to move the station's news and technical operations in with its Los Angeles Fox O&O KTTV in 2003. KCOP abandoned its longtime studios at 915 North La Brea Avenue in Hollywood (once home to the classic game shows The Joker's Wild and Tic-Tac-Dough) to move into the new Fox Television Center in West Los Angeles.^[6] The La Brea Avenue studio was put up for sale, and although no longer used by KCOP, Fox elected to keep the facility, and remodeled it to house the first two seasons of reality TV show Hell's Kitchen.^[7] Since then it has been abandoned, shuttered, and become a haven for squatters who were evicted by police in May 2009.^[8]

MyNetworkTV affiliation[link]

On January 24, 2006, CBS Corporation and Time Warner announced they would shut down both UPN and The WB that fall. In place of these two networks, a new "fifth" network, jointly owned by both companies, would launch, with a lineup of the most popular programming of both networks. The network was given the name "The CW Television Network" ("CW" representing the first initials of CBS and Warner).^[9] KTLA (channel 5), which had been Los Angeles' WB affiliate for the network's entire run, was announced as the CW's Los Angeles station as part of a 10-year affiliation deal between the new network and KTLA's owner, Tribune Broadcasting.

The CW's affiliation list didn't include any of Fox's UPN stations. However, even without the affiliation deal with Tribune, it is not likely KCOP would have been picked over KTLA. CW officials were on record as preferring the "strongest" WB and UPN affiliates, and KTLA had led KCOP in the ratings dating back to the days when they were both still independent. On January 25, 2006, the day following the announcement of the creation of the CW Network, Fox dropped all UPN references from its UPN stations' logos and branding, and stopped promoting UPN programming altogether. Accordingly, KCOP changed its branding from UPN 13 to Channel 13, and introduced a new logo featuring just the boxed 13 from the old logo. It also changed its slogan Get it On 13. On February 22, 2006, less than a month after the formation of The CW, Fox announced the formation of a new primetime network called MyNetworkTV, with KCOP and the other Fox-owned UPN stations as the nuclei.

UPN continued to broadcast on stations across the country until September 15, 2006. While some UPN affiliates who switched to MyNetworkTV (which commenced operations on September 5, 2006) aired the final two weeks of UPN programming outside its regular primetime period, 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 logo changed to a two-column design, with the network logo on the left side and the number 13 on the right. In May 2007, the branding changed again, with My13 Los Angeles appearing on-screen in the bottom right-hand corner.

Additionally, KCOP may air Fox network programming should it be preempted by KTTV for a breaking news story or any other emergency.

Digital television[link]

KCOP-TV shut down on its analog signal, over VHF channel 13, on June 12, 2009,^[10][11] as part of the DTV transition in the United States. The station had been broadcasting its pre-transition digital signal over UHF channel 66, but returned to channel 13 for its post-transition operations.^[12] KCOP broadcasts in 720p high definition on virtual channel 13.1, since MyNetworkTV uses that particular HD format.

KCOP's signal also carries the standard-definition feed of sister station KTTV, which maps back to KTTV on virtual channel 11.2, although it is really physical channel 13.4.

On November 4, 2011, Fox Television Stations announced an agreement in which it will add the Bounce TV digital subchannel (which targets the African-American audience, specifically the 25-54 age demographic) to KCOP and New York City-area sister station WWOR-TV^[13]. Bounce TV debuted on KCOP 13.2, March 8, 2012 and WWOR 9.3, February 24, 2012. There are also plans to add Bounce TV to the subchannels of Fox's other MyNetworkTV stations in five markets: Baltimore, Phoenix, Orlando-Daytona Beach, Dallas-Fort Worth, and Minneapolis-Saint Paul. In Chicago, Houston, and Washington, D.C., where Fox also owns MyNetworkTV stations, Bounce TV is available elsewhere in those markets on competing stations.

Sports coverage[link]

From 2006 until the end of the 2011 Major League Baseball season, KCOP held the television broadcasting rights to the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim baseball team; 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. Before that, channel 13 was the broadcasting home of the Los Angeles Dodgers from 2002 to 2005, the NBA's Los Angeles Clippers from 1991 to 1996,^[14] and the Los Angeles Marathon 1986 to 2001.

From 2005 to 2007, KCOP carried St. Louis Rams preseason games produced by corporate sibling Fox Sports Midwest and now-former sister station KTVI. It was considered a throwback of sorts, because 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 broadcasting networks (such as CBS, NBC, and DuMont). However, according to a July 2008 article in Street & Smith's Sports Business Journal, the NFL's broadcast committee decided to no longer allow teams to broadcast preseason games beyond even their secondary markets. This was done moreso to protect the league's broadcast partners, including those of KCBS-TV and KTLA, the respective local broadcasters of the San Diego Chargers and Oakland Raiders preseason games.^[15]

Like many local stations in the earlier years of television, KCOP hosted its own Studio Wrestling show every week 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.^[16][17] In later years, pro wrestling returned to KCOP by way of World Wrestling Entertainment's Smackdown show, which aired on the station from 1999 to 2006 (when it was a UPN affiliate) and again from 2008 to 2010 (as a MyNetworkTV affiliate). In the past, Channel 13 also aired other wrestling programs, including World Class Championship Wrestling and from 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 blow-by-blow action in the early years.^[18]

Due to its relationship with corporate siblings Fox Sports West and Prime Ticket, KCOP has served as an overflow channel for the two regional sports networks, as it added coverage of five Los Angeles Kings hockey games during the 2010–11 season,^[19] 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.

On April 8, 2011, KCOP televised its first Clippers game since 1996 (a road game versus the Dallas Mavericks), as a last-minute scheduling addition to the team's television schedule. One year later, also as a last-minute addition, the station televised another Clipper road game, this time versus the Denver Nuggets, on April 18th.

News operation[link]

For many years, KCOP aired traditional newscast at 10:00 p.m., as well as a weekday afternoon newscast at 2:00 p.m. during the late 70s and early 80s. During the 1980s, the station carried the syndicated Independent Network News (produced by WPIX in New York City), and coupled it with its local 10:00 program. The INN newscast later moved to KTLA, when Tribune Broadcasting (the parent company of WPIX and INN) purchased the station in 1985. The station's newscast has generally been the lowest rated evening newscast of the seven VHF television stations in the Los Angeles market. The newscast length has varied from 30 minutes to an hour depending on the station budget. For a brief period of time during the late 1990s, KCOP tried airing a half-hour newscast at 3:30PM weekdays, later airing it at 7:30PM weeknights. However, when the station was purchased by Fox and its operations were merged with KTTV, channel 13's newscast was moved to 11:00 p.m. to avoid direct competition with channel 11 (which runs an hour-long 10 p.m. newscast), and trimmed it from an hour in length down to 30 minutes. The station's news production and resources are now also handled by KTTV.

Since Fox purchased the station, KCOP's late-evening news took a more unconventional approach than its network-owned competition, KCBS-TV, KNBC, and KABC-TV. 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 has become the first station to emphasize entertainment and trend-setting news as a major part of its format, one idea which has attracted a large young demographic. Nevertheless, channel 13's newscast continually places 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 young people, especially young Latinos.

On April 10, 2006, KCOP's newscast was expanded from 30 minutes to a full hour, which made it the only Los Angeles station with a full-hour newscast at 11 p.m. On August 14, 2006, the newscast was rebranded as my 13 news.

With the purchase by Fox, many of KCOP's former staff have since either left the station or been released, reporter Hal Eisner is one of the remaining staffers who has 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 during 1987 and 1988. Today, Eisner also files reports for KTTV.

On December 1, 2008, KCOP replaced its 60-minute 11 p.m. newscast with a 30-minute newscast titled FOX News at 11, anchored by KTTV anchors Christine Devine and Carlos Amezcua, marking the end of a KCOP-named and produced newscast.

News team[link]

FOX News at 11 (11 to 11:30 P.M.)
Weeknights

• Anchors:
  • Carlos Amezcua
  • Christine Devine

Weekends

• Anchors:
  • Susan Hirasuna
  • Jeff Michael
• Sports:
  • Liz Habib

KCOP uses additional news personnel from KTTV. See that article for a complete listing.

Notable alumni[link]

News/Station presentation[link]

Newscast titles[link]

• Clete Roberts and The News (1950-)
• Newsroom (1960s)
• News 13 (1975–1981, 1984–1992 and for a short time in 1999)
• World Network News Los Angeles (1981–1983)
• NewsCenter 13 (1983–1984)
• Real News (1993–1995)
• UPN News 13 (1995–2002)
• UPN 13 News (2002–2006)
• Channel 13 News (January–August 2006)
• My 13 News (August 2006-December 1, 2008)
• Fox News at 11 (December 1, 2008–present)

Station slogans[link]

• Dial TV 13 for the Fun of It (c. 1972)
• L.A.'s Very Independent Channel 13 (1989–1995)
• Get It On, UPN 13 (2002–2006)
• Get It On, Channel 13 (2006; used during transitional period from UPN to MyNetworkTV)
• TV for All of Us (2007–present)

This film, television or video-related list is incomplete; you can help by expanding it with reliably sourced additions.

Station brandings[link]

• Channel 13, KCOP Los Angeles (Prior to 1988)
• Lucky 13 (1950s)
• KCOP 13 LA (1975)
• L.A.'s Very Independent Channel 13 (1989–1995)
• UPN 13 (1995–2006)
• Channel 13 (re-implemented in 2006 during the transitional period from UPN to My Network TV)
• My 13 LA (2006)
• My Network TV Channel 13 (2006–2007)
• My 13 (2007–present)
• Mission News (1995–1999)

Notes[link]

External links[link]

• KCOP Website
• Photos of KCOP's news set
• KCOP-TV logos and screenshots from 1950s to the present day
• KCOP-TV at the Internet Movie Database
• Query the FCC's TV station database for KCOP-TV
  • Query the FCC's TV station database for K13WJ
  • Query the FCC's TV station database for K50HV
  • Query the FCC's TV station database for K18FH
  • Query the FCC's TV station database for K13NF
  • Query the FCC's TV station database for K49AA
• Program Information for KCOP at TitanTV.com