History
Kaiser's involvement in television broadcasting began when the Henry J. Kaiser Company Ltd., a multi-industrial conglomerate, signed on KHVH-TV/Honolulu, Hawaii (operating on channel 13 at the time), in 1957. In 1958 Kaiser purchased Honolulu's KULA-TV and merged it with KHVH, resulting in KULA becoming the new KHVH-TV, which is now KITV. Later in the 1960s, Kaiser explored new opportunities to expand its broadcast holdings on the U.S. mainland. Kaiser secured licenses to construct new UHF stations, all of which were in large markets. The first two of these new stations signed-on during 1965: WKBD-TV in Detroit went on the air in January, followed nine months later by WKBS-TV in Burlington, New Jersey, a suburb of Philadelphia. Also that year Kaiser sold KHVH, partially to help fund its mainland expansion.
In December 1966 Kaiser teamed up with the Boston Globe forming WKBG Inc. (later Kaiser-Globe Broadcasting) to purchase WXHR (AM-FM-TV) from Harvey Radio Laboratories. WKBG, WCAS and WJIB were all placed into Kaiser-Globe Broadcasting Corp., 90% ownership by Kaiser Broadcasting and 10% Boston Globe. Kaiser started up two more stations, KBHK-TV in San Francisco and WKBF-TV in Cleveland, within three weeks of each other in January 1968.
In September 1967, the Kaiser Broadcasting Corporation announced plans for live television network operations by 1970.
KBSC-TV was purchased in 1971. In 1972 the company sold a minority ownership (about 22.5 percent) in some of its broadcasting holdings to Chicago-based Field Communications. Through this exchange, Kaiser also acquired a majority interest in WFLD-TV, Field's Chicago station, and added it to its stable. The Kaiser/Field partnership was named Kaiser Broadcasting Co. (Kaiser Co.) and included KBHK-TV, WFLD-TV, WKBD-TV, WKBS-TV and WKBF-TV.
In 1973 in Cleveland, Kaiser Co. decided to merge WKBF's operations with United Artists-owned WUAB, with Kaiser Co. closing down WKBF and returning its license to the Federal Communications Commission. Kaiser Co. then purchased a minority share of WUAB, but was responsible for programming the station. In Boston, Kaiser/Field bought out the Boston Globe and ended its partnership in WKBG.
In 1977, Kaiser Industries decided to split itself up. It exited television after Field purchased the remainder of Kaiser Broadcasting Corporation's shares in 1977, with the exception of KBSC and WUAB (which were not included and sold to other firms).
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