KCPQ
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KCPQ is a television station in Seattle, Washington, affiliated with the FOX television network, that broadcasts on VHF channel 13. Its offices and broadcasting center are co-located with that of KTWB channel 22 on the west shore of Lake Union in the Westlake neighborhood. KCPQ is licensed to Tacoma.
Channel 13 was originally took the air as KMO-TV in 1953, co-owned with KMO radio by Carl Haymond. The station carried some NBC programming for its first year until Seattle's KOMO-TV took the air in 1954. Hampered by a poor signal from north of Tacoma and no network material, Haymond was forced to declare bankruptcy and sell the station to J. Elroy McCaw, father of cellular phone magnate Craig McCaw. Under McCaw ownership, Channel 13, now KTVW, limped along on a diet of a business news ticker during the day followed by reruns and old movies at night. McCaw died in 1969 and the station was purchased by Blaidon Mutual Investors Corporation in 1971.
Blaidon tried to turn KTVW around by acquiring first-run syndicated programming and color-capable broadcast equipment. The station's signal, along with the poor Puget Sound economy, made Channel 13 a still money-losing proposition. A bankruptcy judge forced KTVW to cease operations in 1974 and the Channel 13 allocation was sold to the Clover Park School District in Lakewood, a Tacoma suburb. The call letters were changed to KCPQ, and the station began to carry PBS and educational programs. (The KTVW calls now reside on a TV station in Phoenix, and is not related to the present-day KCPQ.)
By 1980, the Seattle market could sustain another commercial television station and Kelly Broadcasting of Sacramento purchased KCPQ. The transmitter was moved to Gold Mountain, a peak west of Bremerton, enabling better signal coverage throughout Western Washington. KCPQ became "The Northwest's Movie Channel," counterprogramming network prime-time with uncut versions of recent films. In 1986, KCPQ became one of the first affiliates of the Fox network.
KCPQ was acquired by Tribune Broadcasting, which owns KTWB, in March of 1999.
It is one of five local Seattle TV stations seen in Canada on the Bell ExpressVu and StarChoice satellite providers.