, channel 11, is an owned-and-operated television station of the
News Corporation -owned
Fox Broadcasting Company , based in
Los Angeles, California . Serving the vast
Los Angeles Metropolitan Area , it is branded on-air as '''''"Fox 11 Los Angeles"''''' rather than KTTV. In the few areas of the western United States where viewers cannot receive Fox network programs over-the-air, KTTV is available on satellite via its corporate cousin,
DirecTV , and
Echostar's Dish Network .
- Frequency: Channel 11
- Name: ''Fox 11 Los Angeles''
- Radius: 80 miles (Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino and Ventura counties)
- Slogan: Just You Watch
- Start of Operation: January 1, 1949
- Transmitter Location: Mount Wilson , Los Angeles, California (34° 13' 29.00" N Latitude, 118° 3' 47.00" W Longitude)
- Transmitter Power: 166 kW
KTTV signed on-the-air on
January 1 ,
1949 . The station was co-owned by the ''
Los Angeles Times '' and
CBS , and KTTV was the original Los Angeles affiliate of the CBS television network. In fact, during their partnership the ''Times'' turned down several offers CBS made to purchase KTTV outright. Their relationship lasted exactly two years, until January 1,
1951 , when CBS sold its 50 percent stake in channel 11 back to the ''Times''. CBS then moved its programming to newly-acquired KTSL (channel 2, later KNXT and now
KCBS-TV ). From that point, KTTV carried many of the programs from the
DuMont Television Network until the network's demise in
1956 .
With DuMont's demise KTTV began its status as an independent television station, and in
1958 , channel 11 became the television home of the
Los Angeles Dodgers baseball team, a relationship which would last until
1992 . The ''Los Angeles Times'' sold the station to
Metromedia in
1963 .
KTTV as an independent by the 1970s offered the traditional independent schedule of the morning cartoons, mid-morning sitcoms, locally produced talk shows, some first run syndicated shows in prime time, cartoons in the mid to late afternoons, off network sitcoms in early evenings, a 10 PM newscast, drama shows, plus older movies on weekends. They did very well with this format which was similar to other Metromedia stations. For a time during the mid-1980's, KTTV aired an 8 PM newscast, and dropped its ''10 O'Clock News'' in favor of an 11 PM newscast to compete with
KABC-TV ,
KNBC-TV , and
KCBS-TV . The ''8 O'Clock News'' was dropped and the 11 PM newscast was reverted to its 10 PM slot shortly after Fox took over. The station, along with KTLA, KCOP, and KHJ-TV (now
KCAL-TV ) were seen on various cable television outlets in the
Southwestern United States during the 1970s and into the 1980s, most notably in
El Paso, Texas .
Australian newspaper publisher
Rupert Murdoch and his company, the News Corporation, purchased KTTV and the other Metromedia television stations in
1986 , and those stations formed the basis for his new
Fox Television Network . The format except for some prime time Fox programs initially was unchanged. But as time went on KTTV dropped the morning cartoons for a new early morning newscast and an early morning news show, , which premiered in
1993 . ''Good Day L.A.'' was inspired by sister station
WNYW 's ''Good Day New York'', which was launched five years earlier. They also added more first run syndicated shows such as talk shows, court shows, and reality shows. For awhile they continued with afternoon cartoons from the network, known as ''
Fox Kids '', as well as top rated off-network sitcoms in the evenings.
In Fall 2001, channel 11 dropped the weekday version of ''Fox Kids'' and moved it to its longtime rival and new sister station,
KCOP (channel 13). The ''Fox Kids'' weekday block was ended altogether in January 2002.
KTTV offers around 35 hours per week of local news, and its 10 PM newscasts have been the top-rated in that time period for much of the last decade. However, channel 11 is the largest Fox-owned station (in terms of market-size) not yet offering an early evening and midday newscast (which they did in the early to mid 1980s). They still run many syndicated sitcoms in the evenings, such as (as of 2006) ''
The Simpsons '', ''
Home Improvement '', ''
King Of The Hill '', ''
Malcolm In The Middle '', and ''
Married... With Children ''.
On an ironic note, KTTV also runs daily reruns of another sitcom, ''
I Love Lucy ,'' which had premiered months after the station lost its CBS affiliation. Reruns of the sitcom, which was filmed in Hollywood, are still popular among Southern California viewers and have continued to air in the L.A. area endlessly since the series ceased production in
1957 , thus making KTTV only the second station in Los Angeles (KCBS-TV was the other) to continue airing the sitcom after it ended almost 50 years ago.
In
1996 , the station's longtime home on
Sunset Boulevard in
Hollywood , known as "
Metromedia Square " (and later renamed the "Fox Television Center") was vacated. KTTV relocated to
New Studios a few miles away in
West Los Angeles , near the Fox network headquarters (the network's headquarters are on the lot of
20th Century Fox studios). The historic television studio at Metromedia Square, once home to
Norman Lear 's Tandem Productions, also produced hit programs such as ''
The Jeffersons '', ''
Mama's Family '', ''
Diff'rent Strokes '', ''
One Day At A Time '', ''
Hello, Larry '', ''
Soul Train '', ''
Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman '', ''
Small Wonder '' and the groundbreaking sketch comedy ''
In Living Color ''. It was demolished in
2003 to make way for a new middle school being built by the
Los Angeles Unified School District .
On
April 17 ,
2006 , KTTV adopted a new look for its newscasts, including new theme music and graphics, as well as a new station logo. Similar in style to the
Fox News Channel , it already is in use at
WNYW New York and
WTVT Tampa-St. Petersburg, among others. The campaign is expected to spread to other Fox owned-and-operated stations across the country in the coming months. ''(As of 5/2/2006, its website still shows the previous logo.)''
