KMSB-TV
Encyclopedia
KMSB is the Fox
-affiliated television station serving Tucson, Arizona
. The station broadcasts in digital
on UHF
channel 25 (11.1). Since it transmits from atop Mount Bigelow, there is no signal reception in the northern part of Tucson, Oro Valley
and Marana
.
when KZAZ signed on the air February 1, 1967. It was licensed to Nogales
and had its main studios there, but also had an office in Tucson, sharing facilities with a production company that was owned by a group headed by actor Danny Thomas
. The same ownership group also owned KZAZ.. The station aired movies in both English and Spanish, dramas, sitcoms, cartoons and other general entertainment fare. It had a local news department and newscast.
The station was owned and operated by out of town investors, including Danny Thomas. Gene Adelstein, a Tucson resident, put together a group of investors as "Roadrunner Television" and bought KZAZ in 1977. By then, KZAZ had moved its main studios into a former Safeway
on Tucson Boulevard north of Grant Road. As Bonnie Henry wrote in the Arizona Daily Star: "They held live wrestling matches in the studio, organized a paint-the-station day and ran a 24-hour 'Star Trek' marathon that sparked a run on blank videotape." The sales manager, Hank Lominac, hosted the prime time movies. The sports anchor, Bill Roemer, anchored live sports from the U of A. Before the advent of the Fox Network, KZAZ was an independent station, showing reruns, movies, and occasional live TV. The hourlong newscast at 9 p.m. was anchored by former KOLD news director George Borozan and co-starred John Scott Ulm. It featured long interview segments, and its field reports were captured on one field camera/recorder.
In 1978, KZAZ bought a satellite downlink and started carrying the first half hour of WPIX
New York's newscast, which was rebranded as Independent Network News
. Borozan was cut to a half hour and either followed or led into (at various times) the INN report, which was tape delayed.
In 1984, the station was sold to Mountain States Broadcasting, a division of the Providence Journal Company, who changed the call letters to KMSB-TV on September 12, 1985. To cut costs, Providence Journal axed the station's news broadcasts once it took over. The station became a charter Fox affiliate when the network signed on October 9, 1986, and has been affiliated with Fox longer than any other station in Arizona.
In the early 1990s, KMSB began operating KTTU, which had been owned by Clear Channel Communications
, and was allowed to move its city of license from Nogales to Tucson in 1991. Belo Corporation became the owner of KMSB after the company purchased Providence Journal's holdings in 1997.
KMSB retired from cartoons at the same time; 4Kids TV
aired on KTTU until its shutdown on December 27, 2008, and stills airs Fox's new Saturday morning block, Weekend Marketplace
.
It has been announced that Belo will enter into a shared services agreement with Raycom Media beginning in February 2012. This outsourcing arrangement will result in CBS
affiliate KOLD-TV
taking over daily operations of KMSB and KTTU and moving their advertising sales department into the big three outlet
's studios. All remaining positions at the two stations will be eliminated and master control will move from KTVK in Phoenix to KOLD.
in Phoenix
using KTVK news anchors and meteorologists, with live reports from KMSB reporters and NBC
affiliate KVOA
. Sports began originating entirely from the KMSB studios in Tucson in 2006.
In August 2008, the news portion of 9 p.m. newscast began originating out of the KMSB studios as well with Lou Raguse as anchor. In January 2009, the newscast expanded from 30 minutes to one hour nightly and began locally produced weathercasts, thus completing the transition of the newscast from Phoenix to Tucson. The station was one of the last top-100 market Fox affiliates to air late-evening news.
In March 2010, it was announced that KMSB's news partnership of seven years with KVOA would be ending. KMSB's news staff, operating out of KVOA's building since 2003, would relocate to KMSB's studios. This move would unite the news staff with the sports department and weather announcers, both of whom have been working out of KMSB's building.
KMSB simulcasts the 5-9 a.m. portion of Good Morning Arizona from KTVK in Phoenix. KMSB also produces the Fox 11 Sports Force, a local sports show anchored by Vinnie Vinzetta, on Sundays from 9:20-10 p.m.
KMSB is the only Belo-owned television station not to air its in-house newscast in either high definition, or enhanced definition widescreen.
It has been announced that due to a lack of advertising revenue, the company will shut down the station's news department on February 1, 2012 and enter into a news share agreement with CBS affiliate KOLD-TV
(owned by Raycom Media
). The big three outlet
will then take over production responsibilities of KMSB's nightly prime time newscast at 9 as well as launch a two-hour weekday morning show (from 7 until 9) on this station. This will likely result in the station dropping the simulcast of KTVK's weekday morning newscast. KOLD will also take over operations of KMSB's website.
Anchors
Weather team
Fox 11 Sports Force
Reporters
In addition, due to the simulcast of Good Morning Arizona, KMSB uses additional news personnel from KTVK
in Phoenix, see that article for a complete listing
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...
-affiliated television station serving Tucson, Arizona
Tucson, Arizona
Tucson is a city in and the county seat of Pima County, Arizona, United States. The city is located 118 miles southeast of Phoenix and 60 miles north of the U.S.-Mexico border. The 2010 United States Census puts the city's population at 520,116 with a metropolitan area population at 1,020,200...
. The station broadcasts in digital
ATSC
ATSC standards are a set of standards developed by the Advanced Television Systems Committee for digital television transmission over terrestrial, cable, and satellite networks....
on UHF
Ultra high frequency
Ultra-High Frequency designates the ITU Radio frequency range of electromagnetic waves between 300 MHz and 3 GHz , also known as the decimetre band or decimetre wave as the wavelengths range from one to ten decimetres...
channel 25 (11.1). Since it transmits from atop Mount Bigelow, there is no signal reception in the northern part of Tucson, Oro Valley
Oro Valley, Arizona
Oro Valley, incorporated in 1974, is a suburban town located north of Tucson, Arizona, USA in Pima County. According to a July 2008 estimate, the population of the town is 43,223, an increase from 29,700 in 2000 Oro Valley, incorporated in 1974, is a suburban town located north of Tucson,...
and Marana
Marana, Arizona
Marana is a town in Pima County, Arizona, located northwest of Tucson, with a small portion in Pinal County. According to the 2010 census, the population of the town is 34,961...
.
Digital programming
| Channel | Video | Aspect Aspect ratio The aspect ratio of a shape is the ratio of its longer dimension to its shorter dimension. It may be applied to two characteristic dimensions of a three-dimensional shape, such as the ratio of the longest and shortest axis, or for symmetrical objects that are described by just two measurements,... |
Programming |
|---|---|---|---|
| 11.1 | 720p 720p 720p is the shorthand name for 1280x720, a category of High-definition television video modes having a resolution of 1080 or 720p and a progressive scan... |
16:9 16:9 16:9 is an aspect ratio with a width of 16 units and height of 9. Since 2009, it has become the most common aspect ratio for sold televisions and computer monitors and is also the international standard format of HDTV, Full HD, non-HD digital television and analog widescreen television ... |
Main KMSB programming / FOX |
| 11.2 | 480i 480i 480i is the shorthand name for a video mode, namely the US NTSC television system or digital television systems with the same characteristics. The i, which is sometimes uppercase, stands for interlaced, the 480 for a vertical frame resolution of 480 lines containing picture information; while NTSC... |
4:3 | This TV This TV This TV is a United States general entertainment television network, with a large emphasis in its programming on movies.... |
History
Tucson gained its first independent stationIndependent station
An independent station is in the category of television terminology used to describe a television station broadcasting in the United States or Canada that is not affiliated with any television network....
when KZAZ signed on the air February 1, 1967. It was licensed to Nogales
Nogales, Arizona
Nogales is a city in Santa Cruz County, Arizona, United States. The population was 21,017 at the 2010 census. According to 2005 Census Bureau estimates, the population of the city is 20,833. The city is the county seat of Santa Cruz County....
and had its main studios there, but also had an office in Tucson, sharing facilities with a production company that was owned by a group headed by actor Danny Thomas
Danny Thomas
Danny Thomas was an American nightclub comedian and television and film actor, best known for starring in the television sitcom Make Room for Daddy . He was also the founder of St. Jude Children's Research Hospital...
. The same ownership group also owned KZAZ.. The station aired movies in both English and Spanish, dramas, sitcoms, cartoons and other general entertainment fare. It had a local news department and newscast.
The station was owned and operated by out of town investors, including Danny Thomas. Gene Adelstein, a Tucson resident, put together a group of investors as "Roadrunner Television" and bought KZAZ in 1977. By then, KZAZ had moved its main studios into a former Safeway
Safeway Inc.
Safeway Inc. , a Fortune 500 company, is North America's second largest supermarket chain after The Kroger Co., with, as of December 2010, 1,694 stores located throughout the western and central United States and western Canada. It also operates some stores in the Mid-Atlantic region of the Eastern...
on Tucson Boulevard north of Grant Road. As Bonnie Henry wrote in the Arizona Daily Star: "They held live wrestling matches in the studio, organized a paint-the-station day and ran a 24-hour 'Star Trek' marathon that sparked a run on blank videotape." The sales manager, Hank Lominac, hosted the prime time movies. The sports anchor, Bill Roemer, anchored live sports from the U of A. Before the advent of the Fox Network, KZAZ was an independent station, showing reruns, movies, and occasional live TV. The hourlong newscast at 9 p.m. was anchored by former KOLD news director George Borozan and co-starred John Scott Ulm. It featured long interview segments, and its field reports were captured on one field camera/recorder.
In 1978, KZAZ bought a satellite downlink and started carrying the first half hour of WPIX
WPIX
WPIX, channel 11, is a television station in New York City built, signed on, and owned by the Tribune Company. WPIX also serves as the flagship station of The CW Television Network...
New York's newscast, which was rebranded as Independent Network News
Independent Network News (US)
The Independent Network News was a nationally-syndicated nightly news program, seen from June 1980 until June 1990. The newscast was designed to serve the same purpose as the nightly network news programs, and was produced by Tribune Company-owned station WPIX in New York...
. Borozan was cut to a half hour and either followed or led into (at various times) the INN report, which was tape delayed.
In 1984, the station was sold to Mountain States Broadcasting, a division of the Providence Journal Company, who changed the call letters to KMSB-TV on September 12, 1985. To cut costs, Providence Journal axed the station's news broadcasts once it took over. The station became a charter Fox affiliate when the network signed on October 9, 1986, and has been affiliated with Fox longer than any other station in Arizona.
In the early 1990s, KMSB began operating KTTU, which had been owned by Clear Channel Communications
Clear Channel Communications
Clear Channel Communications, Inc. is an American media conglomerate company headquartered in San Antonio, Texas. It was founded in 1972 by Lowry Mays and Red McCombs, and was taken private by Bain Capital LLC and Thomas H. Lee Partners LP in a leveraged buyout in 2008...
, and was allowed to move its city of license from Nogales to Tucson in 1991. Belo Corporation became the owner of KMSB after the company purchased Providence Journal's holdings in 1997.
KMSB retired from cartoons at the same time; 4Kids TV
4Kids TV
4Kids TV was a Saturday morning television programming block on the Fox Broadcasting Company. The block was part of the Fox Network schedule...
aired on KTTU until its shutdown on December 27, 2008, and stills airs Fox's new Saturday morning block, Weekend Marketplace
Weekend Marketplace
Weekend Marketplace is a two hour Saturday morning block of paid programming airing on Fox that began airing on January 3, 2009, replacing the 4Kids TV Saturday morning cartoon block that aired using time leased by 4Kids from Fox from 2002 until the last Saturday of 2008...
.
It has been announced that Belo will enter into a shared services agreement with Raycom Media beginning in February 2012. This outsourcing arrangement will result in 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...
affiliate KOLD-TV
KOLD-TV
KOLD-TV is a full-service television station in Tucson, Arizona. It is the CBS affiliate in Tucson, Arizona, and is owned by Raycom Media. The station broadcasts in digital on UHF channel 32; it also carries Me-TV on digital subchannel 13.2...
taking over daily operations of KMSB and KTTU and moving their advertising sales department into the big three outlet
's studios. All remaining positions at the two stations will be eliminated and master control will move from KTVK in Phoenix to KOLD.
News operations
KMSB produces an hour-long 9 o'clock newscast each night. After not having a newscast for nearly 20 years, KMSB began a 9 p.m. newscast in 2003. From the newscast's inception until August 2008, it was produced by sister station KTVKKTVK
KTVK is a full-service, independent television station in Phoenix, Arizona. It broadcasts in digital on UHF channel 24 from a transmitter located on South Mountain in Phoenix, and can be seen across northern Arizona on a network of nearly two dozen translator stations...
in Phoenix
Phoenix, Arizona
Phoenix is the capital, and largest city, of the U.S. state of Arizona, as well as the sixth most populated city in the United States. Phoenix is home to 1,445,632 people according to the official 2010 U.S. Census Bureau data...
using KTVK news anchors and meteorologists, with live reports from KMSB reporters and NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
affiliate KVOA
KVOA
KVOA is a full-service NBC-affiliated television station serving Tucson, Arizona. It broadcasts in digital on UHF channel 23 from its transmitter on Mount Bigelow, northeast of Tucson. Per FCC regulations, the station identifies itself on television tuners as channel 4 through PSIP...
. Sports began originating entirely from the KMSB studios in Tucson in 2006.
In August 2008, the news portion of 9 p.m. newscast began originating out of the KMSB studios as well with Lou Raguse as anchor. In January 2009, the newscast expanded from 30 minutes to one hour nightly and began locally produced weathercasts, thus completing the transition of the newscast from Phoenix to Tucson. The station was one of the last top-100 market Fox affiliates to air late-evening news.
In March 2010, it was announced that KMSB's news partnership of seven years with KVOA would be ending. KMSB's news staff, operating out of KVOA's building since 2003, would relocate to KMSB's studios. This move would unite the news staff with the sports department and weather announcers, both of whom have been working out of KMSB's building.
KMSB simulcasts the 5-9 a.m. portion of Good Morning Arizona from KTVK in Phoenix. KMSB also produces the Fox 11 Sports Force, a local sports show anchored by Vinnie Vinzetta, on Sundays from 9:20-10 p.m.
KMSB is the only Belo-owned television station not to air its in-house newscast in either high definition, or enhanced definition widescreen.
It has been announced that due to a lack of advertising revenue, the company will shut down the station's news department on February 1, 2012 and enter into a news share agreement with CBS affiliate KOLD-TV
KOLD-TV
KOLD-TV is a full-service television station in Tucson, Arizona. It is the CBS affiliate in Tucson, Arizona, and is owned by Raycom Media. The station broadcasts in digital on UHF channel 32; it also carries Me-TV on digital subchannel 13.2...
(owned by Raycom Media
Raycom Media
- History :Although Raycom Media dates its birth to 1996, the core of the company was formed in 1992 when Atlanta native Bert Ellis formed Ellis Communications. He eventually controlled 13 television stations and two radio stations....
). The big three outlet
Big Three Television Networks
The Big Three Television Networks are the three traditional commercial broadcast television networks in the United States: ABC, CBS and NBC...
will then take over production responsibilities of KMSB's nightly prime time newscast at 9 as well as launch a two-hour weekday morning show (from 7 until 9) on this station. This will likely result in the station dropping the simulcast of KTVK's weekday morning newscast. KOLD will also take over operations of KMSB's website.
Station slogans
- "11 Alive" (1979; used WPIX campaign)
- "Where the News Comes First" (2003–2007)
- "Tucson's News First" (2007–present)
News team
+ denotes personnel from KTVK in PhoenixAnchors
- Marcelino Benito - weekends at 9 p.m.; also reporter
- + Tara Hitchcock - weekday mornings Good Morning Arizona (6-9 a.m.)
- + Kaley O'Kelley - weekday mornings Good Morning Arizona (5-6 a.m.); also 6-9 a.m. reporter
- + Scott Pasmore - weekday mornings Good Morning Arizona (5-9 a.m.)
- Samantha Ptashkin - weekends at 9 p.m.; also weeknight reporter
- Lou Raguse - weeknights at 9 p.m.
Weather team
- Gina Trunzo - chief weather anchor; Monday-Thursdays at 9 p.m., also Tucson Treasures host and entertainment/lifestyle correspondent
- Cuyler Diggs (NWANational Weather AssociationThe National Weather Association is an American professional association with a mission to support and promote excellence in operational meteorology and related activities...
Seal of Approval) - meteorologist; Friday-Sundays at 9 p.m. - + April Warnecke (AMSAmerican Meteorological SocietyThe American Meteorological Society promotes the development and dissemination of information and education on the atmospheric and related oceanic and hydrologic sciences and the advancement of their professional applications. Founded in 1919, the American Meteorological Society has a membership...
Seal of Approval) - meteorologist; weekday mornings Good Morning Arizona
Fox 11 Sports Force
- Kevin Lewis - sports anchor; weekends at 9 p.m.
Reporters
- Kevin Adger - general assignment reporter
- + Yetta Gibson - weekday morning entertainment reporter; also fill-in weekday morning anchor
- Carissa Planalp - general assignment reporter
- + Gina Maravilla - weekday morning traffic reporter
- Brian Roberts - general assignment reporter
In addition, due to the simulcast of Good Morning Arizona, KMSB uses additional news personnel from KTVK
KTVK
KTVK is a full-service, independent television station in Phoenix, Arizona. It broadcasts in digital on UHF channel 24 from a transmitter located on South Mountain in Phoenix, and can be seen across northern Arizona on a network of nearly two dozen translator stations...
in Phoenix, see that article for a complete listing