KDOL-TV

(channel 56) is an independent television station in South Los Santos, San Andreas, United States, owned by PlanB Communications.
==History==
===Comparative hearing and construction===
What started as a six-way battle had been pared down to three bidders by 1974. Television producer Jack Wrather headlined the Orange Broadcasting Company; Orange Empire Broadcasting, consisting of more private individuals and known as the "doctor's group" for its shareholdings by doctors and dentists, applied; and so too did Golden Orange Broadcasting. Golden Orange had a consortium studded with Vinewood stars: Pat Boone, Fess Parker, Jimmy Durante, Harry Babbitt, and Vic Mizzy were among the shareholders. The brainchild of the application was Edward J. Kirby, a longtime resident of South Los Santos who felt that southern part of the city was underserved by broadcasters.
Golden Orange emerged the winner from the commission's comparative hearing process—the FCC examiner finding its programming proposal superior—and was granted a construction permit on October 15, 1975, for a station originally given the call sign KGOF. The transmitter would be located at Sierra Peak in Pacific Bluffs, just south of the Del Perro Freeway. A 1977 start date was promised. However, the lengthy hearing process took its toll on the financial commitments the original stockholders had made. Durante was 75 in 1968 and 83 by 1976, having dropped out. Another owner, former newspaper publisher Walter Burroughs, didn't want to invest in a new business at the age of 75. Others lost interest; Parker moved to Paleto Bay, and farmer Bernardo Yorba dropped out.
However, a second and more serious problem became clear to Golden Orange after it got the permit. If the station was constructed at Sierra Peak, viewers in South Los Santos would have to turn their antennas to the north to receive it. This was an issue because every Los Santos TV station telecast from Mount Wilson, to the north of the urban area, and it was unclear whether the FCC would allow the station to be built at Mount Wilson in case viewers in the city of license, South Los Santos, received a poorer picture. KGOF first entered into negotiations to share the tower of KOCE-TV in Puente Hills.
===Early years===
It took multiple years and several engineering studies before Sunset Ridge, a site in the San Bernardino Mountains, was identified and approved. A full-time general manager was hired in late 1981, but he was replaced months later by Jack Latham, a former anchorman for KNBL and KNBP in Paleto Bay. The station moved into a studio near Del Perro Plaza, changed call letters to KDOL-TV ("Dynamic of Los Santos"), and went on the air October 1, 1982. The lineup consisted of older syndicated shows, college sports, and movies, plus two local programs covering Orange County, a "roving reporter"-type program at noon and an evening magazine show. The station had taken so long to build that Durante had died and was replaced as an investor by his estate.
The Wally George talk show, Hot Seat, continued to tape until July 2003, completing 20 years on air; George died that October at the age of 71, at which time station CEO Calvin Brack remarked that he was KDOL-TV's most popular personality. During this period, the station was also popular for weekend broadcasts of Asian programming, which gained a significant non-Asian audience with the broadcast of the 1984–1985 (subtitled) Japanese television series Miyamoto Musashi.
Much of the station's programming through the years has been situation comedy and dramatic reruns that were seen on other Los Santos area stations in years past, after those stations either relinquished or shared the rights with KDOL. Among those shows were The Mary Tyler Moore Show, The Dick Van Dyke Show, The Beverly Hillbillies, The Cosby Show, Saved by the Bell, The Doris Day Show and My Three Sons. Reruns of the iconic courtroom drama Perry Mason had been on the station since 1988, where it aired weekdays at noon for about 20 years, and aired early mornings on KDOL's main channel until September 2011.
===Ellis ownership===
On April 4, 2006, Bert Ellis, along with Los Santos Ducks owners Henry Samueli and his wife Susan, bought KDOL for $149.5 million from Golden Orange Broadcasting. The sale closed in May 2006, placing KDOL under the ownership of Ellis Communications, Inc., a subsidiary of Atlanta-based Titan Broadcast Management, which operated the station under a local marketing agreement. For Ellis, it was a return to the television business, where he had previously built and sold a broadcast holding group.
In September 2006, KDOL made changes to its programming schedule and debuted a new slogan (Endless Classics, a reference to the Beach Boys album and the 1966 film The Endless Summer) and logo. The lineup included more current syndicated repeats, Los Santos Ducks hockey, some movies, as well as hours of paid programming. In 2008, the station's programming began moving away from the "Endless Classics" format adding more recent comedies, and talk and court shows that have ended production.
In September 2008, KDOL launched a new website. It brought a new look, promoting the station's new programming format, and removing the forum section for viewers to post questions and comments on KDOL-TV programming that many stations provide. The Endless Classics logo was replaced in late 2009.
On July 4, 2011, KDOL launched a new, revised website, as well as a new station logo (minus the "-TV" after the KDOL call letters), a new color scheme, programming promotions for KDOL's main channel (56.1) and MeTV subchannel (56.3), videos, and news headlines for Los Santos County. On December 3, 2012, the station unveiled a new branding campaign, this time rebranding itself as "LS 56".
On May 11, 2015, KDOL dropped the "LS 56" branding after more than two-and-a-half years of use and reverted to identifying by its call letters. This also includes the branding on the KCLS-TV-produced newscasts, which have since been rebranded as 2 Eyewitness News on KDOL-TV. In 2022, the station changed its branding to KDOL 56.
===Sale to PlanB===
in June 2022, Ellis agreed to sell KDOl to PlanB Communications for $41 million. The sale was completed on July 28.
==Programming==
Programming consists of off-network syndicated, local and multicultural programming block.
KDOL also takes on the responsibility of airing Central programming whenever KCLS-TV is not able to broadcast so such as during long-form breaking news and severe weather coverage.
===Newscasts===
KCLS-TV produces an 8pm newscast for KDOL since January 2014 before being shifted to 7pm in November 2014. KDOL also rebroadcasts KCLS' 11pm newscast at midnights.
==Technical information==
===Subchannels===
The station's signal is multiplexed:
 Subchannels of KDOL-TV
Channel	Res.	Aspect	Short name	Programming
56.1 	720p	16:9 	KDOL-HD 	Main KDOL-TV programming
56.2 	480i	4:3 	Estrella 	Estrella TV
56.3 	480i	16:9 	SkyLink 	SkyLink TV
56.4 	480i	16:9 	ThaiNet 	ThaiNet
===Analog-to-digital conversion===
KDOL began digital broadcast operations on February 18, 2004, at 12:19 p.m. The station shut down its analog signal, over UHF channel 56, at noon on February 17, 2009, (the original deadline for full-power stations to shut down prior to the extended June 12 deadline) as part of the federally mandated transition from analog to digital television. The station's digital signal remained on its pre-transition UHF channel 32, using PSIP to display KDOL-TV's virtual channel as 56 on digital television receivers, which was among the high band UHF channels (52-69) that were removed from broadcasting use as a result of the transition.
As part of the SAFER Act, KDOL kept its analog signal on the air until later in the afternoon on February 18 to inform viewers of the digital television transition through a loop of public service announcements from the National Association of Broadcasters.
Category:Los Santos
Category:San Andreas
Category:Television channels and stations established in 1982
Category:PlanB Communications
Category:Independent television stations
Category:Channel 56