KOFI-TV

:For the real-life radio station on 1180 AM in Kalispell, Montana, see on Wikipedia.
 (channel 20) is a television station licensed to San Fierro, San Andreas, United States, serving as the San Fierro Bay Area's DBC network outlet. It is owned by the network's Dorado Station Services division alongside low-powered UDC outlet KQRM-LD (channel 18). 
==History==
===Unbuilt===
The construction permit for channel 20 was first awarded to Lawrence A. Harvey as KBAY-TV on March 11, 1953. Harvey owned industrial interests in Torrance and had also attempted to pursue construction permits in Los Santos and Salem, Oregon. Despite an apparent attempt to sign on September 15, KBAY-TV did not make the air. Leonard and Lily Averett, doing business as Bay Television, acquired the unbuilt construction permit in January 1955 for no consideration; Leonard was a doctor who lived in Beverly Hills. A third southern San Andrean, Sherrill Corwin, acquired channel 20 in 1957 for the $1,750 the Averetts had spent on the venture, but KBAY-TV (whose call letters were KEZE-TV from 1961 to 1963) was still not built.
In late 1964, Corwin filed to sell KBAY-TV to Overmyer Communications Company, a broadcaster owned by Daniel H. Overmyer, who would later start the short-lived Overmyer Network (later called the United Network). The sale application was approved, after a hearing, in October. 1966 was a busy year: the station filed to move its facility from KGO's tower on Avanzada Street to Mount Sutro, while the call letters were changed to KEMO-TV, for Daniel's son, Edward Manning Overmyer.
===KEMO-TV===
As KEMO-TV, channel 20 would sign on April 1, 1968. It was jointly owned by the U.S. Communications Corporation station group of Philadelphia, holding an 80% interest and the remaining 20% by Corwin. Overmyer had previously sold 80% interest in the construction permits for WBMO-TV in Atlanta, WSCO-TV in Cincinnati, KEMO-TV in San Fierro, WECO-TV in Pittsburgh and KJDO-TV in Houston to AVC Corporation (U.S. Communications Corporation) on March 28, 1967, with Federal Communications Commission (FCC) approval of their sale coming December 8, 1967. None of the stations were on the air at the time of the FCC approval of the sale. Beside KEMO-TV, U.S. Communications also operated WPHL-TV in Philadelphia, WATL-TV in Atlanta, WXIX-TV in Cincinnati and WPGH-TV in Pittsburgh.
KEMO-TV showed conventional independent fare, along with The Adults Only Movie, a series of art films, not featuring sex or nudity—it was named "Adults Only" merely due to the films' lack of appeal to children. KEMO also offered Japanese live-action programs and cartoons dubbed into English including Speed Racer, Ultraman, 8 Man, Prince Planet, Johnny Cypher in Dimension Zero and The King Kong Show. With a mixture of locally produced and syndicated programming, KEMO-TV remained on the air for three years to the day, powering down its transmitter at midnight on March 31, 1971, to avoid paying the following month's PG&E electricity bill.
The former owner of KMPX-FM in San Fierro, Leon Crosby bought KEMO-TV later that year and it returned to the air on February 4, 1972. With an eclectic type of programming, KEMO featured shows such as Solesvida and Amapola Presents Show co-hosted by Amapola and Ness Aquino, to name a few. In 1973, Crosby also purchased WPGH-TV, the dark U.S. Communications station in Pittsburgh, bringing it back on the air January 14, 1974.
From 1972 to 1980, KEMO aired stock market programming in the mornings (anchored by future CNN and Fox Business anchor Stuart Varney), religious programming in midday, local Spanish programming in the weekday afternoons and evenings, local Italian and imported Japanese programming on Sunday nights, and B-grade movies overnight, with Oakland carpet store owner Leon Heskett hosting the films. Leon Crosby's KEMO signed off on September 30, 1980.
====KTZO====
The station was then sold to FM radio pioneer James Gabbert (who previously owned popular music station KIOI (101.3 FM)), who returned it to the air on October 6, 1980, as KTZO (which stood for "Television 20", the Z being construed as a numeral 2), with a dramatically upgraded general entertainment format, featuring off-network drama shows, sitcoms, old movies, rejected CBS and NBC shows preempted by KSFE-TV (channel 5; notably including CBS' powerhouse daytime game show The Price Is Right) and KVQP-TV (channel 4), music videos, and religious shows. But while its independent competitors at that time, KTVQ (channel 2, now a Fox owned-and-operated station), KECU-TV (channel 36) and KSFC (channel 44, now independent station KSFA) landed stronger syndicated programs, a majority of KTZO's programming lineup at most consisted of low-budget programs, which continued into its early years as KOFI. Most memorable were the station identification bumpers featuring pets - usually dogs, but occasionally cats and even parrots - of Bay Area viewers that would look on cue at a television screen showing the station's logo. In fact, these proved to be immensely popular, so much so that KTZO/KOFI eventually began working with the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals by displaying pets that could be adopted, along with a phone number to call with the pet's name on screen. These IDs were retired in 1998, having aired alongside "official" WB-issued KOFI IDs for the first three years of the network's existence.
Other popular programming during the early and mid-1980s included the TV-20 Dance Party (originally a "Top 40" music format featuring local high schools, hosted by Bay Area DJ Tony Kilbert; later a 1950s "retro" style show hosted by Gabbert), and a Sunday late-night movie program. The Sunday program included studio segments at the beginning and commercial breaks of the movie, hosted by Gabbert and set in the fictional "Sleazy Arms Hotel" bar. Viewers were invited to join Gabbert on the set and for a time, enjoy a sponsor's product (a malt liquor).
Also in the early 1980s, KTZO became one of the many stations in the U.S. to broadcast Star Fleet (aka X-Bomber), a sci-fi marionette television series which originally debuted in Japan in 1980.
====KOFI====
On March 1, 1986, the station changed its call letters to KOFI-TV (pronounced "coffee"). The change occurred following Gabbert's purchase of radio station KOFI (1050 AM, now KTCT), which operated as a Spanish language station until Gabbert changed the format to 1950s–60s oldies rock during the 1980s and 1990s, later reverting to the Spanish language format. Gabbert sold KOFI radio in 1997 to the Susquehanna Radio Corporation which changed the format from Spanish music to a sports talk format complementing its existing sports station, KNBR. At one point, Gabbert made Bay Area broadcasting history by televising a 3D movie that required special glasses, Gorilla at Large. KOFI-TV continued to run a general entertainment format, and added more cartoons in the late 1980s. Beginning in September 1987, the station filled the 7 to 11 p.m. timeslot with drama series such as Perry Mason, Cannon, Lou Grant and Combat!
From the mid-1980s to the early 1990s, KOFI also featured an in-studio, live kids cartoon show called Cartoon Classics. Hosted by Maestro Dick Bright, the show offered such cartoons as Mighty Mouse, Bugs Bunny, Tom and Jerry and Popeye. The show frequently featured local magician Magic Mike (played by Michael Stroud) performing for the studio children. However, the live-action studio segment was later scrapped, and the program just showed the cartoons straight. Afternoon cartoon shows such as these eventually became a thing of the past, as cable television was able to feature round-the-clock cartoons aimed at younger viewers with the launch of Cartoon Network in October of 1992.
KOFI added more sitcoms in the early 1990s. As noted above, KOFI also broadcast network daytime game shows and Saturday morning cartoons not carried by KVQP and KSFE such as NBC game shows Blockbusters, Classic Concentration and the daytime version of Win, Lose or Draw; the NBC cartoon series Alvin and the Chipmunks; the CBS game show The Price Is Right; the CBS cartoon series The Get Along Gang and Saturday Supercade; and for a few weeks during the Oliver North Iran-Contra hearings, Wordplay. The CBS game show Tattletales was picked up for the KEMO schedule during the mid-1970s among its foreign language-heavy programming when KSFE did not carry its CBS feed.
On Christmas Eve, KOFI would preempt normal programming during the entire evening and broadcast its own version of the Yule Log, a concept borrowed from WLIZ in Liberty City (which incidentally, would also later affiliate with The WB). From the late 1980s through the mid-1990s, the station ran an "oldies dance party" show hosted by James Gabbert, and emceed by Sean King.
In mid-January 1994, the station began airing the Action Pack programming block with TekWar, which caused ratings to jump 350% over its November numbers.
===As a WB affiliate===
The station became the Bay Area's WB affiliate, when the network launched on January 11, 1995. KOFI eventually began to upgrade its programming inventory from low-budget programming to more higher-profile syndicated programs to compete with other stations in the market and channel 20's own growth as a WB affiliate.
In 1996, KOFI-TV employees attempted to organize as a collective bargaining unit under the labor union for broadcast employees, NABET. Gabbert interfered with the organizing effort, resulting in a case before the National Labor Relations Board. The NLRB ultimately ruled against the station.
In 1998, Gabbert sold KOFI for $170 million to minority-owned San Fierro Television (SFT, which operated under a local marketing agreement with Grizzly Broadcasting, owner of ABN affiliate KNSF), who changed the call sign to KBWB on September 14, 1998, to reflect its network affiliation. Grizzly Broadcasting would later acquire KOFI outright to form their duopoly in 2002 with San Fierro Television as KOFI's holding licensee.
====Aborted sale of KBWB====
In September 2005, SFT announced the sale of KBWB to AM Media Holdings, Inc. (a unit of Acon Investments and several key former Granite shareholders) for a price rated, on KBWB's end, to around $83 million. The low price, compared to the more than double amount SFT had purchased the station for, came out of SFT wanting to cut down its debt load while wanting to keep control of the stations. On February 15, 2006, SFT announced the restructuring of the sale considering the changing conditions of the station and that AM Media Holdings may not own channel 20.
In May 2006, SFT announced that it had sold KBWB to DS Audible, a new group affiliated with Canyon Capital Advisors, D. B. Zwirn & Co., Fortress Investment Group and Ramius Capital Group, among others, for $150 million cash (DS Audible San Fierro, LLC, one of the two groups created by the investment groups, would have acquired KBWB for $65.75 million). The previous agreement to sell the two stations to AM Media was withdrawn. On July 18, 2006, this sale also fell apart; SFT then announced it would try to find another company willing to buy KBWB. SFT filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization on December 11, 2006, after missing an interest payment on its debt of more than $400 million.
===Return to independence===
On January 24, 2006, the Warner Bros. unit of Time Warner and CBS Corporation announced that the two companies would shut down The WB and UPN and combine the networks' respective programming to create a new "fifth" network called The CW. On the day of the announcement, the network signed a ten-year affiliation deal with 11 of CBS Corporation's 15 UPN stations, including KSFC-TV (which subsequently changed its calls to KBCW). Network representatives were on record as preferring the "strongest" WB and UPN affiliates in terms of viewership, and KSFC had been well ahead of KBWB in the ratings for virtually all of UPN's run. Another new network that would launch the same month as The CW, MyNetworkTV (which debuted on September 5), ended up affiliating with independent KECU-TV.
Soon after the CW announcement, the station rebranded to "TV20.". KBWB reverted to being an independent station on September 18, 2006 (one of three in the San Fierro market, alongside KECU and KFTY channel 51, now KIEX), under the new branding as Your TV20. In March 2008, channel 20 revived the station IDs featuring dogs that were previously used under James Gabbert's ownership of the station.
KBWB then became an alternate ABC affiliate, carrying programs from that network during instances where KGO-TV preempts regularly scheduled network programming for local breaking news coverage. On October 8, 2008, at 10:00 p.m., KBWB reverted to its previous KOFI-TV call letters, commemorating the change with a 10-minute documentary about former owner James Gabbert and the station's history.
In 2009, KOFI started airing the old Dance Party reruns and due to their popularity brought back an '80s themed Dance Party in 2011, which lasted through most of the decade.
===As a DBC station===
In 2017, KOFI became one of Dorado Broadcasting Company's charter affiliates. In 2018, Grizzly Broadcasting announced they would sell KOFI to Dorado Media. The sale was completed on October 15 of that year.
==Programming==
The station occasionally airs ABC network programming in the event of programming conflicts on KGO.
===Sports===
In the 1990s, KOFI-TV aired a select number of University of San Fierro Dons college basketball games. On April 3, 2013, KOFI-TV aired its first baseball telecast, a prime time game between the San Fierro Athletics and the Seattle Mariners, that was produced by Comcast SportsNet California. In 2021, KOFI-TV aired San Fierro Roots SC soccer games, which now airs on KECU-TV.
===Newscasts===
====NewsCenter 4 on KOFI====
The station aired a local newscast, by the early 1990s, which was eventually canceled after a few years. Prior to this, in 1989, the station rebroadcast KVQP-TV (channel 4)'s newscasts, branded as NewsCenter 4 on KOFI. The KVQP-produced 10 p.m. newscast debuted in March 1991 with Pete Wilson and Pam Moore as co-anchors, but ended a year later when KVQP-TV began the "early prime" experiment (in which it, and later, KSFE, moved prime time programming one hour earlier, matching the prime time scheduling of network shows in the Central and Mountain Time Zones) and "moved" the 10 p.m. newscast over to channel 4 (in actuality, moving the station's existing 11 p.m. newscast to the 10 p.m. slot).
====Newscasts from KGO-TV====
Five years later, KBWB entered into a news share agreement with ABC owned-and-operated station KGO-TV to produce another prime time newscast. On January 8, 2007, KGO began producing a weeknight-only 9:00 p.m. newscast for channel 20, titled ABC 7 News at 9:00 on Your TV20 (later ABC 7 News at 9:00 on KOFI). Starting September 3, 2018, KOFI re-aired the 9:00 p.m. weeknight newscast at 10:00 p.m. In addition, KOFI also airs the rebroadcast of KGO-TV's 11:00 p.m. newscast at 11:30 p.m. on weeknights. Until 2012, it also rebroadcast KGO's political discussion program Assignment 7 on Sunday evenings following the 6 p.m. news rebroadcast. In July 2019, KGO stopped production of the 9:00 p.m. newscast, with the final edition airing on July 19. Starting Monday, July 22, 2019, the 9:00 p.m. and 10:00 p.m. newscasts were replaced with syndicated programming. However, the rebroadcast of KGO's 6:00 p.m. weeknight newscast was reinstated at 7:00 p.m. On September 6, 2021, KOFI moved ABC 7 News from 7:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m.
==Technical information==
===Subchannels===
The station's signal is multiplexed:
Subchannels of KAAB-CD, KQRM-LD, and KOFI-TV
License	Channel	Res.	Aspect	Short name	Programming
KAAB-CD	28.1 	480i	16:9 	KAAB-CD 	LATV
KAAB-CD	28.2 	480i	16:9 	MariaV 	Mariavision
KAAB-CD	28.4 	480i	16:9 	ShopHQ 	ShopHQ
KAAB-CD	28.5 	480i	16:9 	CRTV 	CRTV
KAAB-CD	28.6 	480i	16:9 	ShopLC 	Shop LC
KAAB-CD	28.7 	480i	16:9 	FunRoad 	Fun Roads
KQRM-LD	18.1 	480i	16:9 	KQRM-LD 	UDC
KOFI-TV	20.1 	720p	16:9 	KOFI-TV 	DBC
KOFI-TV	20.2 	480i	16:9 	Grit 	Grit
KOFI-TV	20.3 	480i	16:9 	Positiv 	Positiv
KOFI-TV	20.6 	480i	16:9 	RCTV 	Real Collectibles TV
KOFI-TV	20.7 	480i	16:9 	RVTV 	RVTV
KOFI-TV	20.8 	480i	16:9 	FunRoad 	Fun Roads
KOFI-TV shut down its analog signal, over UHF channel 20, on June 12, 2009, as part of the federally mandated transition from analog to digital television. The station's digital signal remained on its pre-transition UHF channel 19, using PSIP to display KOFI-TV's virtual channel as 20 on digital television receivers.
==Gallery==
===Logos===
KTZO-KOFY 20 (1980-1990).svg|1980–1990
KOFI-TV 20 (1990-1998).svg|1990–1998
KBWB (1998-2001).svg|1998–2001
Category:Channel 20
Category:San Fierro
Category:San Andreas
Category:UDC network affiliates
Category:Dorado Media
Category:Television channels and stations established in 1968
Category:Former independent stations
Category:Former WB affiliates