KOB (TV)

KOB (channel 4) is a television station in Albuquerque, New Mexico, United States, affiliated with NBC and owned by Hubbard Broadcasting. The station's studios are located on Broadcast Plaza just west of downtown, and its transmitter is located on Sandia Crest, east of Albuquerque.

KOB was Albuquerque's and New Mexico's first television station, beginning broadcasting on November 29, 1948. It was set up by Albuquerque radio station KOB (770 AM), which remained co-owned with it until 1986. It held affiliations with all four television networks of the period until 1953, when two other TV stations started in the city. KOB was sold twice in its first decade of operation, in 1952 to Time Inc. and former Federal Communications Commission chairman Wayne Coy and again in 1957 to what today is Hubbard Broadcasting. Its newscasts led the ratings until the mid-1970s, when KOAT-TV surpassed it for first. Despite attempts to compete, KOB's news has mostly remained in second place over its history.

History

Television-related activity by Albuquerque radio station KOB (770 AM) predated World War II. In December 1943, KOB applied for a permit for an experimental television station.[1] Seven months later, in July 1944, KOB applied for television channel 1 on a fully commercial basis. Having already ordered equipment, KOB stated it was in position to bring television to Albuquerque once wartime prohibitions on equipment production were lifted.[2] The permit was granted on May 21, 1946, and the application was adjusted later that year to specify channel 4.[3] KOB reiterated its desire to provide television service when the equipment became available.[4] It was also announced that KOB's station would be on the NBC television network when it was extended to Albuquerque[5] and would operate from a site leased from the University of New Mexico, using a tower left behind by a defunct Federal Communications Commission (FCC) monitoring station.[6]

In May 1948, KOB announced that KOB-TV would begin broadcasting in August. By that time, the station had taken delivery of the second commercial TV transmitter built by RCA.[7] KOB-TV started operations on November 29, 1948, to an audience of an estimated 100 television receivers. It was the first television station in New Mexico.[8] Programs from NBC and the DuMont Television Network[9] were shipped to Albuquerque on film for airing.[10] Affiliations with CBS and ABC were added in January and July 1949, respectively.[11][12] The station broadcast a variety of local events, such as a Border Conference track and field meet and University of New Mexico and high school football games.[13]

KOB radio and television, owned by an affiliate of the Albuquerque Journal newspaper, were sold in 1952 to magazine publisher Time Inc. and former FCC chairman Wayne Coy.[14] It was Time's first investment in television.[15] That same year, the FCC lifted a freeze, lasting three and a half years, on new television station allocations.[16] Two additional VHF channels, 7 and 13, were assigned to Albuquerque.[17] KOB entered into a joint venture with one of the new stations, KGGM-TV (channel 13, now KRQE), in May 1953 to develop Sandia Crest as a television transmitter site. The facility promised to provide television to previously unserved areas of New Mexico.[18] KGGM-TV, a CBS affiliate, and KOAT-TV (channel 7), an ABC affiliate, debuted days apart in October 1953.[19][20] KOB-TV continued to air DuMont programs until it was replaced by KOAT-TV in the network in June 1954.[21]

While they were competitors, KGGM and KOB also joined in the construction of studios. The stations purchased an entire city block at Fourteenth Street and Coal Avenue SW, divided it, and put up studios across the street from each other.[22][23] The KOB building, which the station occupied in April 1954,[24] was two stories tall and contained two studios.[25]

The end of the freeze also brought live network broadcasting to Albuquerque. By 1952, KOB-TV was the only television station in the United States not directly interconnected with a network.[26] Albuquerque was connected to live network programming in September 1954.[27][28]

News operation

As of, KOB broadcasts 29 1/2 hours a week of locally produced newscasts each week, as well as a weekly public affairs program, Eye on New Mexico, and Football Night in New Mexico, a weekly sports program aired during the National Football League season.[48]

For most of the 1960s and early 1970s, KOB and KOAT waged a spirited battle for the ratings lead, though as late as 1971 KOB held a 14-point lead over KOAT. Between 1974 and 1976, on the advice of broadcast consultant Frank Magid and his firm, anchor Johnny Morris quit (later to work at KOAT); weathercaster George Fischbeck quit; and sportscaster Mike Roberts was fired. Channel 7 surged ahead in early 1976, pushing KOB to second. KOB spent much of the late 1970s seeking to fight back against KOAT, led by top-rated anchorman Dick Knipfing, whom KOB attempted to lure away in 1976.[49] In April 1979, Knipfing announced he would move to KOB, even though he had a contract with KOAT that ran through August 1980.[50] Station management and Magid believed Knipfing's success at KOAT was the main obstacle to improving ratings for KOB's newscasts and predicted they would soon rise to first place.[51] Even though KOAT fired Knipfing in June 1979, it sued to keep Knipfing off the air until his contract with that station lapsed;[52] an opinion from the United States District Court allowed him to proceed with his plans to begin anchoring at channel 4 on August 1.[53]

The Knipfing hiring was not the success station management hoped it would be. Ed Otte, city editor for The Santa Fe New Mexican, noted that KOB had added Knipfing to its newscast without improving its other on-air personalities or reporting team, which he felt were inferior to KOAT's.[54] KOAT still led in most news ratings surveys between 1979 and 1981, when Knipfing received the added title of news director;[55] he was one of three news directors in five years. In 1983, the station switched its newscasts to a co-anchor format. In March 1986, the station dismissed Knipfing.[56]

A common complaint of KOB's newscasts in the 1970s and 1980s was the reliance on Magid to determine by research the station's newscast format and elements. Magid and the Hubbard family were close personal friends.[57] Johnny Morris, a former KOB weathercaster who—after being dismissed from channel 4 in 1974, reportedly at Magid's suggestion—later worked at KOAT. Other local news employees believed Magid had a poor grasp of the Albuquerque market.[58] Months after being ousted, Knipfing wrote an editorial in The Albuquerque Tribune heavily critical of KOB. He wrote, "The problem was Magid ... It was very difficult assembling a consistent news team with consultants looking over our shoulders all the time." He noted inconsistency and turnover in everything from production to management and sports talent.[59] Former KOB news director Mark Slimp blamed Magid for his dismissal.[60]

In the 1980s and 1990s, KOB expanded its newscast offerings beyond two evening newscasts. A half-hour 6:30 a.m. newscast debuted in 1985[61] and was expanded to an hour in 1989.[62] A second evening newscast at 5:30 p.m. was added in 1994.[63] KOB posed a ratings challenge to KOAT at the start of the 1990s, posting wins in some surveys and narrowing the gap with KOAT,[64][65] but by 1994, it had slipped to a much more distant second.[66]

Brad Remington became KOB's news director in 1996 and retooled the newscast to emphasize breaking news, investigative reporting, and weather, including an investment in new equipment.[67] By 2001, KOB's 10 p.m. news had tied KOAT in total households while having larger concentrations of younger viewers.[68] After KRQE completed a turnaround in the 2000s, KOB slipped to third in late news, though its morning newscast continued to lead its competitors.[69] By 2022, KOB was second in late news ratings among total households.[70]

In November 2000, KOB began producing a 9 p.m. newscast, Fox 2 News at Nine, for Albuquerque's Fox affiliate, KASA-TV (channel 2).[71] The newscast ended in 2006 when KRQE's parent company, LIN TV, purchased KASA and replaced the KOB-produced newscast with its own.[72] KOB resumed producing news for KASA-TV—this time as a Telemundo station—in 2021, after NBCUniversal acquired KASA.[73][74]

Technical information

See also

• List of three-letter broadcast call signs in the United States

External links