History
Comparative hearing and construction
The story of channel 56 in Anaheim begins with as many as six applications filed before the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in the late 1960s seeking to build what would have been the first commercial television station in Orange County.[3] What started as a six-way battle had been pared down to three bidders by 1974.[4] Television producer Jack Wrather headlined the Orange County Broadcasting Company; Orange Empire Broadcasting, consisting of more private individuals and known as the "doctor's group" for its shareholdings by doctors and dentists,[5]: 4 applied; and so too did Golden Orange Broadcasting. Golden Orange had a consortium studded with Hollywood stars: Pat Boone, Fess Parker, Jimmy Durante, Harry Babbitt, and Vic Mizzy were among the shareholders.[6] The brainchild of the application was Edward J. Kirby, a longtime resident of Santa Ana who felt that Orange County was underserved by broadcasters.[5]: 3
Golden Orange emerged the winner from the commission's comparative hearing process—the FCC examiner finding its programming proposal superior[5]: 4 —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 the Cleveland National Forest, just south of the Riverside Freeway.[7][8] A 1977 start date was promised.[8] 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 Santa Barbara, and Anaheim farmer Bernardo Yorba dropped out.[5]: 1
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 Orange County would have to turn their antennas to the south to receive it. This was an issue because every Los Angeles 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, Anaheim, received a poorer picture.[5]: 5–6 KGOF first entered into negotiations to share the tower of KOCE-TV in Puente Hills.[9]
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 KNBC and KESQ-TV in Palm Springs. The station moved into a studio near Disneyland in Anaheim, changed call letters to KDOC-TV ("Dynamic Orange County"), and went on the air October 1, 1982.[10] 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.[1] The station had taken so long to build that Durante had died and was replaced as an investor by his estate.[1]
KDOC-TV made news headlines often in the 1980s, typically for the wrong reasons. The station was sued in late 1983 over charges that its general manager, Michael Volpe, had denied a job to a woman who refused to perform sexual favors for him.[11] That case was settled out of court,[12] but a 1984 lawsuit would expose serious issues at KDOC-TV. In July 1984, Steve Conobre, a former advertising salesman for the station, sued KDOC, Boone, Durante's estate, and conservative commentator Wally George, who aired a program on the station. He alleged that Volpe encouraged sales representatives to make up ratings figures for KDOC and attribute them to a fictitious "Anaheim Research Bureau". Arbitron, one of the main television ratings companies at the time, was also known in the industry as "ARB".[a] Conobre also alleged that Volpe received kickbacks by assigning large advertising accounts to his girlfriend and receiving some of her commission.[13] Former sales manager John Funk brought a similar case in 1985.[14]
Similar allegations were raised by another salesperson at the station, Linda Ford, in a third suit filed in May 1986. She also claimed that George threatened her with loss of her job if she did not "protect" Volpe.[14] Even after the board of directors opted not to renew Volpe's contract,[12] the Conobre case went to a jury in November 1987.[15] The office politics and romantic pursuits laid bare in the suit contrasted with the on-air image of KDOC-TV as a family-sensitive station that even censored music videos.[16] A jury awarded Conobre $256,000.[17] The other two cases were settled out of court.[18]
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 KDOC-TV's most popular personality.[19] 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 Angeles area stations in years past, after those stations either relinquished or shared the rights with KDOC. 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 KDOC's main channel until September 2011 (several of the aforementioned shows currently air on the station's MeTV subchannel on digital channel 56.3).
Ellis ownership
On April 4, 2006, Bert Ellis, along with Anaheim Ducks owners Henry Samueli and his wife Susan, bought KDOC for $149.5 million from Golden Orange Broadcasting. The sale closed in May 2006, placing KDOC 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.[20]
In September 2006, KDOC 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, Anaheim 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.[21]
In September 2008, KDOC 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 KDOC-TV programming that many stations provide.[22] The Endless Classics logo was replaced in late 2009.[23]
On July 4, 2011, KDOC launched a new, revised website, as well as a new station logo (minus the "-TV" after the KDOC call letters), a new color scheme, programming promotions for KDOC's main channel (56.1) and MeTV subchannel (56.3), videos, and news headlines for both Los Angeles and Orange counties. On December 3, 2012, the station unveiled a new branding campaign, this time rebranding itself as "LA 56".
On May 11, 2015, KDOC dropped the "LA 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 KABC-TV-produced newscasts, which have since been rebranded as ABC 7 Eyewitness News on KDOC-TV. In 2022, the station changed its branding to KDOC 56.
MeTV affiliation
On April 4, 2011,[24][25] Ellis Communications parent company Titan Broadcast Management announced, along with other television station groups (such as Hearst Television, Capitol Broadcasting Company, Gray Television, Cox Media Group, Nexstar Media Group, and Tegna Inc. among others) to be among the station owners that signed affiliation agreements with MeTV, a network focusing on classic television programming that is owned by Weigel Broadcasting.[26] The network was launched on KDOC 56.3 on June 13, 2011, as Me-TV Los Angeles. On September 19, 2011, KDOC's main channel adopted a new contemporary programming format, thus positioning MeTV Los Angeles to be the network for classic television programs that once aired on KDOC.[27]
Although KDOC continues to carry MeTV on subchannel 56.3, KVME in Bishop was affiliated with MeTV on April 30, 2012, until January 15, 2018. That station carried MeTV on their primary digital channel 20 (virtual channel 20.1), which made it available on the DirecTV and Dish Network local packages tier for the Los Angeles market. Both stations marketed themselves as "Me-TV Hollywood", changing from KDOC's previous brand of "Me-TV Los Angeles". Local advertising for MeTV Hollywood is sold by a jointly managed ad sales team for both stations.[28] However, KVME's MeTV feed did not carry the full schedule of programming, electing to carry Spanish-language religious and paid programming from 5:00 a.m. to 8:00 a.m. on weekdays, preempting regularly-scheduled programming in those hours. Unlike the KVME feed, the KDOC version continues to air all MeTV programming intact.
On February 1, 2012, Verizon FiOS began carrying MeTV Hollywood in the Los Angeles area on channel 462. In October 2012, Time Warner Cable (now part of Charter Communications' Spectrum TV service) added MeTV Hollywood on its Southern California systems on channel 1232, carrying a time-shifted national feed instead of either the KVME or KDOC versions.
On January 3, 2018, due to the purchase of Los Angeles station KAZA by Weigel Broadcasting, KAZA became a MeTV owned-and-operated station, in addition to continual coverage via KDOC channel 56.3. Both affiliates are separately owned and operated, broadcasting to specific areas within the Los Angeles region due to signal strength. Before a signal upgrade in late 2018, KAZA's over-the-air signal was not available in much of western and southern Los Angeles County, due to its channel-sharing agreement with low-powered Class A UHF station KHTV-CD, which necessitated the continual co-affiliation through KDOC. In addition, each feed is known by a different station identification; MeTV Los Angeles and MeTV KDOC.[29]
On January 15, 2018, KVME discontinued their MeTV affiliation to become an affiliate of Weigel-owned Heroes and Icons (also available over-the-air in Los Angeles, over KCOP-DT4); on February 1, 2018, Spectrum discontinued its MeTV feed, and began offering KAZA as the sole MeTV channel for its Los Angeles area customers.
Sale to TCT
In June 2022, Ellis agreed to sell KDOC to Radiant Life Ministries, a sister company of Tri-State Christian Television, for $41 million.[30] The sale was completed on July 28.[31] KDOC flipped to TCT programming at midnight that night, with an episode of Seinfeld being its final program as an independent station.