Fox 12 - History

History

KPTV signed on the air September 20, 1952 on channel 27, as Oregon's first television station, as well as the world's first commercial TV station on the UHF band. (The first experimental UHF station was Bridgeport, Connecticut's KC2XAK on channel 24). Originally, KPTV was owned by Empire Coil. As Portland's only TV station at the time, it carried programming from all four networks: ABC, CBS, NBC, and the now-defunct DuMont Television Network. CBS programming disappeared from KPTV's schedule when Portland's first VHF station, KOIN (channel 6), signed on the air on October 15, 1953. KPTV then became a primary NBC affiliate, and also continued to air some ABC and Dumont programming.

KPTV also aired programs from the short-lived Paramount Television Network; in fact, it was one of that network's strongest affiliates, carrying Paramount programs such as Time For Beany, Hollywood Wrestling, and Bandstand Revue. During the late 1950s, the station was also briefly affiliated with the NTA Film Network.

Empire Coil sold KPTV and its other broadcast property, WXEL-TV (now WJW-TV, channel 8) in Cleveland, to Storer Broadcasting on November 17, 1954. Future Oregon governor Tom McCall, a longtime journalist before entering politics, joined KPTV in 1955 as a newscaster and political commentator. McCall left KPTV in late 1956 for KGW-TV, where he was a member of the original news team for seven years before leaving to run for Oregon's secretary of state.

Portland's channel 12 was first occupied by KLOR-TV, which signed on March 8, 1955 as an ABC primary affiliate with a secondary DuMont affiliation. However, KLOR's network affiliations were short-lived. In 1956 DuMont ceased network operations, and KLOR lost the ABC affiliation to KGW-TV (channel 8) when that station signed on the air in December.

On April 17, 1957, Detroit businessman George Haggerty purchased KPTV from Storer and KLOR from its local owners. On May 1, the two stations merged under KPTV's license, but using the stronger channel 12. Channel 27 was later used by independent station KHTV, which was on the air for less than four months in 1959. More recently, the channel 27 frequency was used by the digital signal of PBS member station KOPB-TV, which returned to its original channel 10 assignment following the analog shutdown.

On April 17, 1959, KPTV swapped affiliations with KGW and became an ABC affiliate. Later that year, KPTV was sold to the NAFI Corporation, which then purchased Chris-Craft Industries in early 1960. The merged companies became known as Chris-Craft Industries. KPTV can boast being the home of the two top children's TV hosts in Portland's history: Rusty Nails, a sweet-natured clown who was the rough inspiration for The Simpsons creator Matt Groening's "Krusty the Klown"; and "Ramblin' Rod" Anders. While Rusty Nails ran Three Stooges shorts, Ramblin' Rod ran Popeye cartoons. "Ramblin' Rod" was the longest-running kid's show in Portland TV history, airing from 1964 to 1997.

Other KPTV children's hosts included longtime KPTV personality Gene Brendler who played two characters, first "Bent Nails" (Rusty's "brother"), and later "Dr. Zoom." Bob Adkins, better known as "Addie Bobkins," brought his show to KPTV from Eugene's KVAL-TV in 1961. "Addie Bobkins" featured a wise-cracking beatnik hand puppet named "Weird Beard." Both Brendler and Adkins ran a variety of cartoons to entertain the kids.

On March 1, 1964, KPTV lost its ABC affiliation to previously independent KATU (channel 2), which had debuted in March 1962. KPTV sued ABC and KATU owner Fisher Broadcasting for breach of contract. The proceeds from the settlement went to rebuild KPTV into a color-capable station, and to purchase a color mobile unit. KPTV soon became known as one of the top independent stations in the western United States. By the late 1960s, it was picked up on every cable system in Oregon, as well as parts of Washington and Idaho.

In 1967, Portland Wrestling returned to KPTV after a 12-year absence. Frank Bonnema, news reporter and afternoon movie host, served as the voice of Portland Wrestling until shortly before his death on October 5, 1982. KPTV had originated telecasts of professional wrestling in 1953, with commentator Bob Abernathy, but lost the franchise to rival KOIN two years later. KPTV regained the franchise in 1967, and aired wrestling until December 1991. Later wrestling commentators were KISN radio DJ Don Coss and former wrestlers Dutch Savage and Stan Stasiak. Portland Wrestling's chief promoters were Don Owen, and later, former wrestler-referee Sandy Barr. Primary long-time sponsors for the show were Chevrolet dealers Ron Tonkin of Portland and Friendly of Lake Oswego, and the celebrated ever-smiling furniture dealer Tom Peterson. Peterson was also the top sponsor for KPTV's late night movies. On October 27, 2012, KPTV brought back Portland Wrestling and renamed it Portland Wrestling Uncut. The program had been off the air for 21 years and thanks to Roddy Piper, brought the long time program back on the air. Don Coss has also returned to announce the matches along with special guests. The wrestling matches are taped at the KPTV studios in Beverton, Oregon and air on Saturday nights. On December 29th KPTV moved Portland Wrestling to its sister station KPDX, which still airs on Saturday nights.

The station's long-running news program, The 10 O'Clock News, first aired in 1970. Also that year, KPTV became the first local station to broadcast Portland Trail Blazers basketball games. Sports Director Jimmy Jones was the Blazers' first TV play-by-play announcer. KPTV aired Blazers games until the end of the 1977-78 season.

In 1977, Chris-Craft placed its self named television subsidiary underneath a holding company called BHC, Inc. KPTV was one of the Fox network's original charter affiliates in 1986. However, the station, along with sister station KMSP-TV in Minneapolis, disaffiliated from the network in 1988 and reverted to independent status. The Fox affiliation shifted to KPDX, which first took the air in 1983.

In 1993, KPTV, along with Chris-Craft's independent stations, began carrying programming from the Prime Time Entertainment Network.

In 1995, KPTV became a UPN owned-and-operated station, the first such O&O station in the market, under United/Chris Craft's stake in the network. Chris-Craft sold most of its television holdings, including KPTV, to News Corporation in 2000. The sale closed on July 31, 2001. Instead of keeping KPTV, Newscorp decided to trade it to Meredith in exchange for two Florida stations (WOFL in Orlando and WOGX in Gainesville), a deal which was finalized on June 17, 2002. This move gave Meredith, which already owned KPDX, the first "duopoly" operation in the Portland market.

Meredith decided to move the Fox affiliation to the higher-rated KPTV, and the affiliation switch occurred on September 2, 2002, with KPTV rejoining Fox while KPDX joined UPN. As part of the switch, KPTV dropped its longtime moniker of "Oregon's 12" in favor of "Fox 12 Oregon." KPTV left its studio in East Portland for KPDX's facility in suburban Beaverton, though KPTV is the senior partner. KPTV also absorbed KPDX's news department, resulting in the cancellation of KPDX's 10 p.m. newscast. KPDX now airs a KPTV-produced newscast at 8 p.m.

The Fox affiliation coincided with a realignment of the National Football League that brought the market's most popular NFL team, the Seattle Seahawks, into the NFC West. As a result, KPTV is an unofficial secondary station for the Seahawks, airing most of that team's games through the Fox network's rights to air NFC games.