KMAX-TV
Encyclopedia
KMAX-TV, channel 31, is the CW affiliate serving the Sacramento
-Stockton
-Modesto, California
broadcast area. The station is owned by CBS Television Stations
along with the local CBS
station, KOVR
; the two stations are two of the 3 English
network O&Os
in the market, along with Ion Television affilate KSPX-TV. It is known on the air as "CW 31, Cable 12".
. It was programmed as an all-movie channel, to counter-program against the other established area stations, particularly then-independent (and current Fox
station) KTXL
. However on May 1, 1976, KMUV abandoned the all-movie format and largely began to air Spanish-language programming; it did air some English-language religious programming
, including The PTL Club
, during this time.
On April 2, 1981, Koplar Broadcasting, owner and founder of current St. Louis CW station KPLR-TV
, purchased the station and on April 6 relaunched it as an English-language independent station, KRBK-TV, to compete directly with KTXL. The KRBK callsign was named for Harold Koplar's son, Robert "Bob" Koplar. During this time, the station had the slogan We Deliver!!.
Pappas Telecasting bought KRBK in 1994, and on January 11, 1995, changed its call letters to KPWB-TV (callsign meaning: Pappas WB) to reflect its affiliation with the then-new WB
network, which launched that same day. Paramount Stations Group
bought the station in January 1998, and on January 5 it swapped affiliations with KQCA
and became UPN
affiliate KMAX-TV. With Paramount's stake in the network, KMAX became the first station in Sacramento to be owned and operated by a major network. PSG's parent company, Viacom
, later bought CBS, and merged Paramount Stations Group with the CBS owned-and-operated stations to form Viacom Television Stations Group (now CBS Television Stations).
Channel 31 was the flagship television home of the NBA's Sacramento Kings
from the 1988-89 season until the middle of the 2002-03 season, when the team's owners, the Maloof family
, terminated the station's contract due to the station selling ads featuring the team, without the Kings' permission. KMAX remains the local over-the-air affiliate of the San Francisco Giants
. It was also the Oakland Athletics
' affiliate before that team moved all its telecasts to the non-broadcast Comcast SportsNet California in 2009
.
In May 2005, KOVR became KMAX's sister station when Viacom bought it from the Sinclair Broadcast Group
. The station is now owned by CBS Corporation
, due to the split of Viacom into two separate entities (one which retained the Viacom
name). The station also moved from its original studios off Highway 160
in Sacramento to KOVR's in West Sacramento
.
After UPN and The WB announced that they would shut down and merge to form The CW on January 24, 2006, KMAX, owing to it status as a CBS-owned station, was one of the first stations announced as an affiliate of the new network. A month before the launch of The CW that September, the station changed its branding from UPN 31 to CW 31 to reflect this.
The station clears Toonzai on a three hour tape delay (10 am to 3 pm, as opposed to 7 am to noon), to accommodate the weekend edition of Good Day Sacramento; it had done the same for the previous Kids WB & The CW4Kids
blocks until its replacement with Toonzai in 2010.
After Viacom's acquisition of KOVR, KMAX's news operation was merged into KOVR's, with reporters from one station appearing on the other, and the Good Day Sacramento set being moved into the KOVR building.
It was announced on January 11, 2008 via a viewer blog that KMAX would launch a primetime newscast featuring KOVR's news personalities. The show would not have been a revival of Good Evening Sacramento, which aired in 2003, but instead was to have been a full newscast either before or after KOVR's 10 pm newscast. However, owing to cutbacks ordered by CBS corporate management, plans for this broadcast were shelved in late summer 2008.
Sacramento, California
Sacramento is the capital city of the U.S. state of California and the county seat of Sacramento County. It is located at the confluence of the Sacramento River and the American River in the northern portion of California's expansive Central Valley. With a population of 466,488 at the 2010 census,...
-Stockton
Stockton, California
Stockton, California, the seat of San Joaquin County, is the fourth-largest city in the Central Valley of the U.S. state of California. With a population of 291,707 at the 2010 census, Stockton ranks as this state's 13th largest city...
-Modesto, California
Modesto, California
Modesto is a city in, and is the county seat of, Stanislaus County, California. With a population of approximately 201,165 at the 2010 census, Modesto ranks as the 18th largest city in the state of California....
broadcast area. The station is owned by CBS Television Stations
CBS Television Stations
The CBS Television Stations are a group of television stations owned by CBS Corporation. As of 2009, CBS Corporation owns 28 stations, broken down as follows: 14 are the key stations of the CBS Television Network ; nine are aligned with the CW Television Network, which is co-owned by CBS with Time...
along with the local CBS
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...
station, KOVR
KOVR
KOVR, channel 13, is an owned-and-operated station of the CBS Television Network located in Sacramento, California and licensed to Stockton. KOVR-TV shares its offices and studio facilities with sister station KMAX-TV in West Sacramento, California, and its transmitter is located in Walnut Grove,...
; the two stations are two of the 3 English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
network O&Os
Owned-and-operated station
In the broadcasting industry , an owned-and-operated station usually refers to a television station or radio station that is owned by the network with which it is associated...
in the market, along with Ion Television affilate KSPX-TV. It is known on the air as "CW 31, Cable 12".
History
KMAX originally went on the air as KMUV-TV on October 5, 1974, and was owned by legendary television producer, Norman LearNorman Lear
Norman Milton Lear is an American television writer and producer who produced such 1970s sitcoms as All in the Family, Sanford and Son, One Day at a Time, The Jeffersons, Good Times and Maude...
. It was programmed as an all-movie channel, to counter-program against the other established area stations, particularly then-independent (and current Fox
Fox Broadcasting Company
Fox Broadcasting Company, commonly referred to as Fox Network or simply Fox , is an American commercial broadcasting television network owned by Fox Entertainment Group, part of Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation. Launched on October 9, 1986, Fox was the highest-rated broadcast network in the...
station) KTXL
KTXL
KTXL, channel 40, is a Fox Broadcasting Company-affiliated television station in Sacramento, California, owned by the Tribune Company. Its studios and offices are located in South Sacramento, and its transmitter is near Walnut Grove, California.-History:...
. However on May 1, 1976, KMUV abandoned the all-movie format and largely began to air Spanish-language programming; it did air some English-language religious programming
Religious broadcasting
Religious broadcasting refers to broadcasting by religious organizations, usually with a religious message. Many religious organizations have long recorded content such as sermons and lectures, and have moved into distributing content on their Internet websites.While this article emphasises...
, including The PTL Club
The PTL Club
The PTL Club , later called The Jim and Tammy Show, and in its last days PTL Today and Heritage Today, was a Christian television program first hosted by evangelists Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker, which ran from 1974 to 1989...
, during this time.
On April 2, 1981, Koplar Broadcasting, owner and founder of current St. Louis CW station KPLR-TV
KPLR-TV
KPLR-TV, channel 11, is a television station in St. Louis, Missouri. KPLR is owned by the Tribune Company, and is an affiliate of The CW Television Network. The station's studios are located in Maryland Heights, Missouri, in Northwest St. Louis County KPLR-TV, channel 11, is a television station...
, purchased the station and on April 6 relaunched it as an English-language independent station, KRBK-TV, to compete directly with KTXL. The KRBK callsign was named for Harold Koplar's son, Robert "Bob" Koplar. During this time, the station had the slogan We Deliver!!.
The WB Television Network
The WB Television Network is a former television network in the United States that was launched on January 11, 1995 as a joint venture between Warner Bros. and Tribune Broadcasting. On January 24, 2006, CBS Corporation and Warner Bros...
network, which launched that same day. Paramount Stations Group
Paramount Stations Group
Paramount Stations Group was a television broadcasting company that was renamed from the TVX Broadcast Group in 1991 after Paramount Pictures gained full ownership of the group. At the time, it owned several Fox affiliates and independent stations...
bought the station in January 1998, and on January 5 it swapped affiliations with KQCA
KQCA
KQCA is the MyNetworkTV-affiliated television station for Sacramento, California, USA. Licensed to Stockton, the station broadcasts a digital-only signal on UHF channel 46. KQCA's transmitter is located northeast of Walnut Grove. The station is owned by Hearst Television as part of a duopoly with...
and became UPN
UPN
United Paramount Network was a television network that was broadcast in over 200 markets in the United States from 1995 to 2006. UPN was originally owned by Viacom/Paramount and Chris-Craft Industries, the former of which, through the Paramount Television Group, produced most of the network's...
affiliate KMAX-TV. With Paramount's stake in the network, KMAX became the first station in Sacramento to be owned and operated by a major network. PSG's parent company, Viacom
Viacom (1971–2005)
Viacom , stylized as VIACOM in its current logo, was an American media conglomerate. It was the owner of CBS, Nickelodeon & MTV, among others. Effective December 31, 2005, this corporate entity changed its name to CBS Corporation...
, later bought CBS, and merged Paramount Stations Group with the CBS owned-and-operated stations to form Viacom Television Stations Group (now CBS Television Stations).
Channel 31 was the flagship television home of the NBA's Sacramento Kings
Sacramento Kings
The Sacramento Kings are a professional basketball team based in Sacramento, California, United States. They are currently members of the Western Conference of the National Basketball Association...
from the 1988-89 season until the middle of the 2002-03 season, when the team's owners, the Maloof family
Maloof family
The Maloof family owns numerous business properties in the Western United States. The origin of the family name is Maalouf and is of Levantine descent; the family is Lebanese via their paternal grandfather. The Maloofs are the owners of the Sacramento Kings of the NBA . The family consists of...
, terminated the station's contract due to the station selling ads featuring the team, without the Kings' permission. KMAX remains the local over-the-air affiliate of the San Francisco Giants
San Francisco Giants
The San Francisco Giants are a Major League Baseball team based in San Francisco, California, playing in the National League West Division....
. It was also the Oakland Athletics
Oakland Athletics
The Oakland Athletics are a Major League Baseball team based in Oakland, California. The Athletics are a member of the Western Division of Major League Baseball's American League. From to the present, the Athletics have played in the O.co Coliseum....
' affiliate before that team moved all its telecasts to the non-broadcast Comcast SportsNet California in 2009
2009 Oakland Athletics season
-Roster:- Game log : -Batting:Note: G = Games played; AB = At Bats; R = Runs scored; H = Hits; 2B = Doubles; 3B = Triples; HR = Home runs; RBI = Runs batted in; AVG = Batting average; SB = Stolen bases-Pitching:...
.
In May 2005, KOVR became KMAX's sister station when Viacom bought it from the Sinclair Broadcast Group
Sinclair Broadcast Group
The Sinclair Broadcast Group is an American telecommunications company that operates the largest number of local television stations in the United States. Headquartered in Hunt Valley, Maryland, it owns a total of 57 stations across the country in 35 primarily small and medium markets, many of...
. The station is now owned by CBS Corporation
CBS Corporation
CBS Corporation is an American media conglomerate focused on commercial broadcasting, publishing, billboards and television production, with most of its operations in the United States. The President and CEO of the company is Leslie Moonves. Sumner Redstone, owner of National Amusements, is CBS's...
, due to the split of Viacom into two separate entities (one which retained the Viacom
Viacom
Viacom Inc. , short for "Video & Audio Communications", is an American media conglomerate with interests primarily in, but not limited to, cinema and cable television...
name). The station also moved from its original studios off Highway 160
California State Route 160
State Route 160 is a state highway in the U.S. state of California consisting of two sections. The longer, southern, section is a scenic highway through the alluvial plain of the Sacramento River, linking SR 4 in Antioch with Sacramento via the Antioch Bridge...
in Sacramento to KOVR's in West Sacramento
West Sacramento, California
West Sacramento is a city in Yolo County, California. It is contiguous with Sacramento, but is separated by the Sacramento River which is also the county line, so West Sacramento is in a different county than Sacramento...
.
After UPN and The WB announced that they would shut down and merge to form The CW on January 24, 2006, KMAX, owing to it status as a CBS-owned station, was one of the first stations announced as an affiliate of the new network. A month before the launch of The CW that September, the station changed its branding from UPN 31 to CW 31 to reflect this.
The station clears Toonzai on a three hour tape delay (10 am to 3 pm, as opposed to 7 am to noon), to accommodate the weekend edition of Good Day Sacramento; it had done the same for the previous Kids WB & The CW4Kids
The CW4Kids
The CW4Kids is a Saturday morning cartoon block on The CW Television Network that premiered on May 24, 2008 in the place of Kids' WB...
blocks until its replacement with Toonzai in 2010.
Newscasts
Currently, the only news programming on KMAX-TV is Good Day Sacramento, the area's second highest rated morning news program (local or network), behind Today.After Viacom's acquisition of KOVR, KMAX's news operation was merged into KOVR's, with reporters from one station appearing on the other, and the Good Day Sacramento set being moved into the KOVR building.
It was announced on January 11, 2008 via a viewer blog that KMAX would launch a primetime newscast featuring KOVR's news personalities. The show would not have been a revival of Good Evening Sacramento, which aired in 2003, but instead was to have been a full newscast either before or after KOVR's 10 pm newscast. However, owing to cutbacks ordered by CBS corporate management, plans for this broadcast were shelved in late summer 2008.
Newscast titles
- 31 News (1980s-1995)
- Good Day Sacramento (1995–present)
- 31 Action NewsAction NewsAction News is a local television newscast format in the United States. It was conceived in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, at WFIL-TV by then-news director Mel Kampmann in 1970 as a response to the "Eyewitness News" format used on rival station KYW-TV...
(1996–1998) - UPN 31 Action News (1998–2000)
- Good Evening Sacramento (2003–2004)
Anchors
- Marianne McClary, Morning Anchor, Monday-Friday 5 am-9 am (1995)
- Mark S. Allen, Entertainment Anchor/Reporter, Monday-Friday 6 am-10 am (1996)
- Cody Stark, Anchor/Reporter/Weather, Monday-Friday 5 am-10 am (Weather); Weekend, 6 am-10 am (Anchor/Reporter/Weather) (2004)
- Lisa Gonzales, Anchor/Reporter, Monday-Friday 7 am-10 am (2005)
- Julissa Ortiz, Morning Anchor, Monday-Friday 5 am/9 am (2006)
- Christina Anderson, Morning Anchor, Monday-Friday 4:30 am-10 am (2010)
Reporters
- Nick Janes, Reporter (2008)
- Alan Sanchez, "Alan the intern", Weekend Reporter (2006)
- Lori Wallace, Weekend Reporter (2007)
- Ashley Williams, Weekend Reporter (2009)
Traffic team
- Tina Macuha, Traffic Anchor/Reporter, Monday-Friday 4:30 am-10 am (1995)
- Courtney Dempsey, Traffic Reporter, Monday-Friday 5 am-10 am (1995)
Spanish-language interpreters
- Martha Garcia, Spanish Language Interpreter
- Xavier Altimiras Lupon, Spanish Language Interpreter
- Andres Marquez, Spanish Language Interpreter (2004)
- Flavio Soria, Spanish Language Interpreter (2004)
- Sam Pinilla, Spanish Language Interpreter
Former newscasters
- Christine CraftChristine CraftChristine Craft is an attorney, radio talk show host and former television news anchor. She became known in the broadcast industry in the 1980s for her age and sexual discrimination lawsuit against a television station that had demoted her from news anchor to reporter.- Early life :Craft was born...
(1985–1990, known for her lawsuit against previous employer MetromediaMetromediaMetromedia was a media company that owned radio and television stations in the United States from 1956 to 1986 and owned Orion Pictures from 1986-1997.- Overview :...
) - Sharon ItoSharon ItoSharon Tomiko Ito is a Japanese-American newscaster who recently launched a new initiative on KXTV news10.net as anchor of Live_Online, the station's first online project to interact each day with viewers through a live chat and by showcasing video and web links which launched in May 2007.-...
(1990s, now at KXTVKXTVKXTV, channel 10, is an ABC affiliate television station in Sacramento, California. It is owned and operated by the Gannett Company. Its transmitter tower is located in Walnut Grove, California, and studios are located on Broadway, just south of Business Loop 80 at the south edge of downtown...
) - Cristina MendonsaCristina MendonsaCristina Mendonsa is a local television news anchor for KXTV. She joined the station in December 1995....
(news writer, now anchor at KXTVKXTVKXTV, channel 10, is an ABC affiliate television station in Sacramento, California. It is owned and operated by the Gannett Company. Its transmitter tower is located in Walnut Grove, California, and studios are located on Broadway, just south of Business Loop 80 at the south edge of downtown...
) - Grant NapearGrant NapearGrant Napear is a broadcaster for the Sacramento Kings. Napear is the play-by-play announcer for the Kings and also hosts an afternoon sports-talk program, The Grant Napear Show, on Sports 1140 in Sacramento. This sports-talk program runs from 3-7 P.M...
(1987–1995, now at KHTKKHTKKHTK is located in the Sacramento, California, area and broadcasts at 1140 AM. This Sports/Talk station is the flagship station of the Sacramento Kings. KHTK also broadcasts UC Davis football games , Sacramento Mountain Lions of the UFL,and the Oakland Raiders of the NFL. KHTK broadcasts at 50,000...
and is also the play-by-play announcer for the Sacramento KingsSacramento KingsThe Sacramento Kings are a professional basketball team based in Sacramento, California, United States. They are currently members of the Western Conference of the National Basketball Association...
) - Nick Toma (1998-2011 on Good Day Sacramento)