('''''"ABC7"''''') is an
Owned-and-operated television station of
The Walt Disney Company -owned
ABC , based in
San Francisco, California . Its studios are located in the ABC Broadcast Center on Front and Vallejo streets in downtown San Francisco, while its transmitter is on the
Sutro Tower with the
Bay Area 's other major television stations.
The station's signal is currently carried by a cable-only ABC affiliate in the
Santa Cruz and
Monterey Bay Area .
The station signed on the air for the first time on
May 5 ,
1949 , as
Northern California 's second-oldest TV station, behind Associated Broadcasters'
KPIX-TV (later sold to
Westinghouse , now a
CBS O&O). In fact, KPIX had a hand in getting KGO-TV on the air, as Channel 5 produced informational programming on how to receive and view Channel 7. The original studios were located in the renovated Sutro Mansion atop
Twin Peaks in San Francisco.
KGO is ABC's oldest original owned and operated station on the West Coast, as sister station KECA-TV (now
KABC-TV ), also operating on Channel 7, did not sign on the air until September
1949 . In addition, it is the only ABC station to keep its original call letters which were inherited from KGO radio (
AM 810 and FM 103.7, now
KKSF ). KGO is the fourth original ABC O&O (after
WABC-TV ,
WLS-TV and
WXYZ-TV ) to begin broadcasting on the air.
Channel 7 had a limited broadcasting schedule during its first year on the air. It wasn't until September 1950 that the station announced, in the ''
San Francisco Chronicle ,'' that it would finally broadcast seven days a week.''San Francisco Chronicle'', September 1950 For much of the 1950s the station signed on late in the morning, especially on the weekends. Saturday programming began with ''King Norman's Kingdom of Toys'', a popular children's program hosted by the owner of a San Francisco toy store, Norman Rosenberg.''San Bruno Herald''
In
1954 , KGO-TV moved to one of the most modern broadcasting facilities on the West Coast, on Golden Gate Avenue.
As an ABC owned and operated station, KGO-TV originated some daytime network shows, including programs hosted by fitness advocate
Jack La Lanne , singer
Tennessee Ernie Ford , and entertainer
Gypsy Rose Lee . Syndicated game shows ''Oh My Word'' and ''The Anniversary Game'' were also produced at KGO-TV for Circle Seven Productions. Today, KGO-TV broadcasts from studios at 900 Front Street, which it has occupied since
1985 . It shares the facility with KGO radio (
AM 810 ), KSFO and KMKY.
In 1960 KGO began carrying ABC's first color program, the animated series ''
The Flintstones ,'' followed two years later by ''
The Jetsons ''. In the mid 1960s KGO became the first Bay Area station to transmit local programs in compatible color, including its newscasts.
For many years, KGO-TV was the only network owned-and-operated station in the Bay Area, even throughout the time when ABC was going through ownership changes when
Capital Cities Communications bought out ABC and merged with the network in 1985 before being sold to
Disney in 1996. As such, the station did not heavily pre-empt network programming unlike its local competitors or its sister stations -- such as Philadelphia's
WPVI-TV , Houston's
KTRK-TV and Fresno's
KFSN-TV -- which were known for doing so in those days. The distinction ended in 1995 when several other stations over the next ten years became network-owned stations--notably KBHK (today's
KBCW ), KPIX and
KNTV in that order. (As of 2007, some exceptions to this policy may be made when
Breaking News events or selected
ABC Sports programs warrant exclusive coverage, in which case
Granite Broadcasting Corporation 's independent station,
KBWB , may pick up the pre-empted ABC programming scheduled for the time period.)
KGO-TV was the first to transmit images of the 1989
Loma Prieta Earthquake through ABC News and ABC Sports. At the time, ABC was televising the third game of the
1989 World Series , which was interrupted by the quake. Subsequent coverage of the earthquake won the station that year's
Peabody Award .
In
1999 , KGO-TV reached an agreement with
Granite Broadcasting Corporation , the owner of
San Jose's ABC affiliate, KNTV. KGO-TV agreed to pay Granite in exchange for dropping ABC programming from KNTV, and as a result KGO-TV became the exclusive ABC outlet in the Bay Area. The agreement, however, also saw the
Monterey /
Salinas area lose over-the-air reception of ABC programming, as KNTV (before switching markets to the Bay Area) served those communities. In response, a cable-only ABC affiliate was set up for the Monterey/Salinas area; the station simulcasts the signal from KGO-TV (including ABC programming and KGO-TV's newscasts) for part of the day, and opts out of KGO's signal during programming which KGO-TV is only allowed to show within the San Francisco Bay Area (under
Syndication Exclusivity ). The ABC affiliate is carried on channel 7 on area cable systems, and also identifies as "ABC 7". According to both websites of satellite carriers DIRECTV and DISH Network, KGO-TV is available in the Monterey-Salinas television market. KGO-TV is part of the local channel's package on DIRECTV in that market area, while DISH Network has KGO-TV available via a la carte package for that market as well.
KGO-TV was one of the earliest ABC stations to use the original
Circle 7 Logo (along with sister station WLS-TV in Chicago). When it was rebranded from to '''ABC7''' (temporarily branded '''Channel 7 ABC 1996-1997'''), the ABC logo was just simply attached to the Circle 7 on this station, its sister stations and others across the country.
The station carries a high profile lineup of daytime programming with shows such as ''
Live With Regis And Kelly '' (produced by sister station
WABC-TV in New York), ''
Who Wants To Be A Millionaire '', ''
The Oprah Winfrey Show '', ''
Jeopardy! '' and ''
Wheel Of Fortune ''. The station also airs the pre-show of the Academy Awards (produced by sister station
KABC-TV in Los Angeles). The station sometimes aired the
Bay To Breakers race in the 1980's and the KGO Cure-a-thon with its radio partner,
KGO-AM 810 .
KGO-TV was the first station to produce earthquake documentaries of the 1906 San Francisco earthquake and the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake on April 8, 2006.
In the 1980s, KGO-TV produced weekday talk/variety shows in the 9:00 to 10:00 a.m. timeslot. ''A.M. San Francisco'' was the name until late 1987 or early 1988, when it was replaced with ''Good Morning, Bay Area'', hosted by Susan Sikora. Hosts of ''A.M. San Francisco'' included the husband-and-wife team of Fred LaCrosse and Terry Lowry. (Other ABC owned-and-operated stations produced their own ''A.M.'' programs in the 1980s. For example, ''A.M. Chicago'' at WLS-TV evolved into the ''Oprah Winfrey Show''. For a week or two in the summer of 1988, ''A.M. Los Angeles'' was simulcast on KGO-TV, with a few KGO-TV produced segments.)
On June 26, 2006, KGO-TV began a new locally-produced weekday variety show called '' DT 7.2 at 10 pm and at various times on ABC O&O's digital subchannels.
As of early 2007, KGO was among the few commercial television stations in California that broadcast an alternative set of programs on a digital channel. Channel 7.2 simulcasts most KGO-TV-produced programs, but also re-runs them throughout the day. Channel 7.2 also re-runs ABC News programming at non-traditional times, such as ''World News'' at 7 pm on weeknights and ''Nightline'' at 9 am and 7:30 pm on many weekdays. Some programs on channel 7.2, such as ''Commonwealth Club Speaker's Luncheon'' and the western ''Guns of Will Sonnett'', are not shown on Channel 7.
KGO-TV had followed the lead of its sister station in . When this occurs, the helicopter is branded as Sky 7. Also following the leads of its sister stations, KGO began broadcasting ABC7 News in
High Definition on Saturday, February 17, 2007, becoming the 2nd news operation in the Bay Area to make this transition following
KTVU . Another ABC O&O that airs its newscasts on a secondary station is WTVD ABC11 Eyewitness News at 10 p.m. on CW22 in Raleigh, N.C.
On July 20, 2007 long-time main news anchor and KGO radio talk show host
Pete Wilson died following a massive heart attack suffered during a hip replacement procedure at Stanford Medical Center in Palo Alto, California. He was 62 years old. The station aired extensive tributes to Wilson when his death was publicly announced the following day. His final newscast and radio show were on Wednesday July 18, 2007.
- Jessica Aguirre - News Anchor (July 1998- April 2007, now with KNTV/NBC11 )
- Van Amburg - longtime anchor (1969-1986)
- Ed Arnow - reporter (1965-1970)
- Joel Bartlett - weather anchor (1990-2007)
- Marcia Brandwynne - anchor/reporter (1976-1980)
- Richard Brown - anchor (1990-1996, now at KXLY-TV )
- John Buren - sports anchor (1984-1985)
- Jan Carson - anchor/reporter (1979-1983)
- Jim Celania - sports anchor
- Rigo Chacon - South Bay Bureau chief (1974-2003, now at KRQE )
- Anna Chavez - anchor/reporter (1984-1991)
- Russ Coughlan - editorial reporter, former general manager of KGO-TV
- Arthur Lawrence Cribbs - East Bay Bureau chief (1977-1982)
- Steve Davis - reporter (1971-1992)
- Jim Dunbar - reporter (1965-1979)
- Dr. Dean Edell - medical reporter (retired from television in 2007)
- Mark Gibson - sports anchor (1971-1991, deceased)
- Pete Giddings - weather anchor (1969-1998)
- Marty Gonzalez - East Bay Bureau chief (1988-1995, now at KRON-TV )
- Susan Gregory - reporter
- Roger Grimsby - anchor (1961-1968, deceased)
- Greg Gurule - reporter (1995-2002, now at KRQE-TV )
- Brian Hackney - weather anchor (1990-1995, now at KPIX-TV )
- Barbara Harrison - reporter (1980-1981, now at WRC-TV )
- Jack Hanson - anchor/reporter/''A.M. San Francisco'' host (1970s-1990s)
- Stacey Hendler - reporter (1995-2005, now working for the homeless)
- Tony Hernandez - sports anchor/reporter (1976-1977)
- Carol Ivy - reporter (1972-1990, now in public relations)
- Tom Janis - sports reporter/anchor
- Paul Jeschke - reporter (1980s)
- Jerry Jensen - longtime anchor (1969-1984, deceased)
- Terilyn Joe - anchor (1991-1999)
- Beverly Johnson - weather weekend/morning anchor (deceased)
- John Reed King - anchor (1970-1971)
- Sydnie Kohara - reporter (1987-1989, now at KPIX-TV )
- Frank Kracher - anchor/reporter (1980s, now at WTVH-TV in Syracuse)
- Fred LaCosse - ''A.M. San Francisco'' co-host (1982-1987 {Link without Title} )
- Ed Leslie - political reporter (1970s)
- Pia Lindstrom - entertainment reporter (1968-1973)
- Vicki Liviakis - reporter (1985-1986, now at KRON-TV )
- Dan Lovett - sports anchor/reporter (1988-1993)
- Terry Lowry - ''A.M. San Franciso'' co-host (1982-1987)
- Jeanne Lynch - anchor/reporter (1984-1989)
- Laura Marquez - anchor/reporter (1989-2004, now at ABC News )
- Ken Matz - anchor/reporter (early 1980s)
- Larry Moore - anchor (1979-1981, now at KMBC-TV )
- Melanie Morgan (KGO Radio) - reporter (1981-1984, now at KSFO radio)
- Valerie Morris - reporter (1982-1985, now at CNN )
- Jennifer Moss - reporter/anchor (1995-2002, now at WOOD-TV )
- Lucy Noland - freelance reporter (1995-1996, now at KHOU-TV )
- M.G. Perez - reporter/anchor (1992-1995)
- Maury Povich - anchor/''A.M. San Francisco'' co-host (1978-1980)
- Wanda Ramey - reporter (1968-1970)
- Gary Rebstock - anchor (1982-1988)
- Suzanne Saunders -Shaw - anchor (1977-1988)
- Jeffrey Schaub - traffic reporter (1985-1990, now at KPIX-TV )
- Sam Shane - anchor/reporter (1997-2000, now at KOVR-TV )
- Karna Small - anchor/reporter (1972-1976, now Karna Bodman and an author {Link without Title} )
- Karl Sonkin - reporter (1975-1979)
- Lisa Stark - anchor/reporter (1984-1993, now at ABC News )
- Ray Tannehill - anchor (1957-1970)
- Jim Wieder - reporter
- Pete Wilson - anchor (1983-1990, 2002-2007, deceased)
- Martin Wyatt - sports anchor (1980-2007)
- Paul Wynn - reporter
- Janet Yee - technology reporter
- Linda Yee - reporter (1977-1978)
- Lloyd Lindsey Young - weather anchor (1981-1983, now working for both KGO-AM and KERO-TV )
- Caroline Yu - reporter
- Linda Yu - reporter/anchor (1976-1979, now at WLS-TV )
