KIRO-TV
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KIRO is a television station in Seattle that broadcasts on analog channel 7 and digital channel 39. KIRO's offices and broadcasting center along with its transmitter are located just south of Seattle Center in the Denny Regrade neighborhood.
KIRO-TV has been affiliated with the CBS network since 1958, except for two years from 1995 to 1997. During those two years, KSTW, which had been the CBS affiliate in the mid-1950s, regained the CBS affiliation away from KIRO. During that two-year period, KIRO was affiliated with UPN.
One of the most famous and popular local children's TV programs in America, J. P. Patches, was locally produced at KIRO-TV's studios and broadcast locally throughout the 1960s and 1970s. J. P. Patches exhibited a type of humor and good taste which is is fondly remembered by today's adults who grew up in the Seattle area and viewed the show as kids.
Beginning in 1969, KIRO initiated major upgrades of its news programming, initiating the now-commonplace "Eyewitness News" format in 1969 with chief correspondent Cliff Kirk and assistant anchor Sandy Hill. Throughout the decades, KIRO placed a high emphasis on news programming and investigative stories. After the 1995 affiliation change to UPN, KIRO's focus on news and investigative programming increased. Ironically, after KIRO regained its CBS affiliation, in March 2003 KIRO began started producing a 10pm "Eyewitness News" program for telecast on KSTW.
Beginning in the 1970s, KIRO's news programs also included on-air editorial opinions prepared by Lloyd E. Cooney. After Cooney left the station in 1980 to pursue an unsuccessful U.S. Senate campaign, the station editorials were handled by a series of commentators: Kenneth L. Hatch, followed by former Seattle City Council member John Miller (later elected as Congressman from Washington's First District) and then by Louis R. Guzzo.
From 1964 to 1994, KIRO-TV was owned by Bonneville International Corporation, part of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. Belo Corp. acquired KIRO-TV in 1994, but shortly thereafter the Dallas-based media company sold KIRO when it purchased King Broadcasting, which included cross-town competitor KING-TV.
During the late 1960s and early 1970s, in some Western Washington households KIRO faced audience-ratings competition from Bellingham's KVOS-TV, which at the time was also a CBS affiliate. After years of legal challenges and negotiations with CBS and KIRO, KVOS phased out most CBS programming but retained a nominal CBS affiliation until the late 1980s.
Back in the early 1990's KIRO TV was the subject of controversy that angered many soap fans because from 1987 - 94 during the Bonneville ownership the station refused to air The Bold and the Beautiful due to their one hour local noon newscasts that occupied the time slot when the soap aired at 12:30 PM on CBS and the station received many protest letters from fans. By September, 1994 when CBS announced that it was moving from KIRO to KSTW they immediately aired the soap until 1997 when CBS went back to KIRO. KIRO TV has aired the soap since then.
It is one of five local Seattle TV stations seen in Canada on the Bell ExpressVu and StarChoice satellite providers.
KIRO Alumni
- Aaron Brown, current CNN anchor
External links
- KIRO-TV website (http://www.kirotv.com)