KTVB (channel 7) is a television station in Boise, Idaho, United States, affiliated with NBC and owned by Tegna Inc. The station's studios are located on West Fairview Avenue (off I-184) in Boise, and its transmitter is located at the Bogus Basin ski area summit in unincorporated Boise County.
The station also operates a low-power repeater in Twin Falls, KTFT-LD (channel 7). The two signals are identical, with the exception of commercials, which are sold and targeted to the Magic Valley area. KTFT maintains a small advertising sales office on Falls Avenue in Twin Falls and transmitter on Flat Top Butte near Jerome, Idaho. Master control and most internal operations are based at KTVB's facilities.
History[]
The station, Idaho's oldest, signed on July 12, 1953, as KIDO-TV. Along with radio station KIDO, it was originally owned by Georgia Davidson, who was one of only three female station owners in the NBC network including Dorothy Bullitt of future sister station KING-TV in Seattle. Davidson sold KIDO radio in 1959 but kept KIDO-TV, which she renamed KTVB on February 1.
KTVB has always been a primary NBC affiliate. After KBOI-TV (channel 2, CBS) signed on in November 1953, the two stations briefly shared secondary DuMont affiliations, and shared secondary ABC affiliations until KITC (channel 6) signed on in 1974. Before PBS member KAID-TV (channel 4) signed on in December 1971, KTVB pre-empted the second hour of the Today Show to carry Sesame Street without commercials on weekday mornings.
In the early 1960s, KTVB built a satellite station in La Grande, Oregon. KTVR-TV (channel 13) went on the air December 6, 1964, as a semi-satellite of KTVB, but had a La Grande studio at 1605 Adams Ave., producing a nightly newscast and other local programming. However, by 1967, the La Grande studio and office had been closed and KTVR was a total satellite of KTVB. KTVR was unique in the Pacific Time Zone because as a repeater of a Mountain Time Zone station, its "prime-time" schedule was broadcast from 6 to 9 p.m. PT, two hours early. OEPBS (now Oregon Public Broadcasting) bought KTVR on August 31, 1976, and converted it to PBS programming on February 1, 1977.
Philo Farnsworth, the father of television and an Idaho native, was present as the station signed on the air. During KTVB's fiftieth year celebration, the tag line "the first television station in the state where TV was invented" was used in some promotional announcements.
In 1979, KTVB was sold to the Bullitts' King Broadcasting Company, joining KING-TV in Seattle, KREM-TV in Spokane, and KGW-TV in Portland, as part of King Broadcasting. In 1992, the company was sold to the Providence Journal Company, which was later sold to Belo Corp. in 1997.
At the end of October 2003, KTVB launched 24/7 NewsChannel on KTVB-DT2, one of the first digital secondary subchannels in the nation. The subchannel's programming initial consisted of time-shifted newscasts plus five other programs not on its main channel. Plans for the independent news format subchannel is for original news programs and local programming.
KTVB has branched out into non-traditional areas, such as its free "Idaho Classifieds" project on the ZIdaho website. KTVB is no longer affiliated with ZIdaho as of January, 2013. In August 2011, KTVB became the first station in Boise to broadcast its entire weekday schedule in high definition.
By fall 2011, the station had rebranded its 24/7 NewsChannel as "Idaho's Very Own 24/7" while revamping the 6:30 p.m. newscast and the morning news at 7 a.m. added additional features.
On June 13, 2013, the Gannett Company announced that it would acquire Belo. The sale was completed on December 23. On September 24, 2014, KTVB announced that they would switch to the Gannett graphics package and "This is Home" music package on September 28, 2014.
The station's multicast channels, Idaho's Very Own 24/7 and NWCN, were moved to the basic plan on Cable One system on August 27, 2013. Northwest Cable News was replaced with the Justice Network on subchannel 7.3 on January 20, 2015. NWCN would shut down almost two years later, on January 6, 2017.
On June 29, 2015, the Gannett Company split in two, with one side specializing in print media and the other side specializing in broadcast and digital media. KTVB was retained by the latter company, named Tegna.
News operation[]
KTVB produces 6½ hours of original news programming each weekday distributed between KTVB and KTVB-DT2, and a total of 38 hours of original news and sports programming per week. Former reporters have gone on to attain national prominence, including Christi Paul of CNN Headline News, Trace Gallagher of Fox News, David Kerley of ABC News and Meg Oliver of CBS News' Up To The Minute. The KTVB news gathering fleet includes a new state of the art satellite truck purchased in 2006, allowing for live coverage of events across the region. KTVB's resources also include two live units, 10 news gathering vehicles, and a digital production truck. The station has won a total of seven National Edward R. Murrow awards from the Radio Television Digital News Association (RTDNA). KTVB is also the recipient of numerous Emmy Awards from the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, Northwest Chapter. On September 30, 2013, KTVB added the area's second weekday hour-long 4:00 p.m. newscast (after KBOI-TV).
Newscast titles[]
- Channel 7 News Parade
- Newsbeat 7 (?-?)
- NewsCenter 7 (19??–1997)
- Idaho's NewsChannel 7 (1997–present)
Station slogans[]
- Channel 7, Proud as a Peacock! (1979–1980; localized version of NBC ad campaign)
- Channel 7, Our Pride is Showing (1981-1982; localized version of NBC campaign)
- We're Channel 7, Just Watch Us Now (1982–1983; localized version of NBC campaign)
- Channel 7 There, Be There (1983-1984; localized version of NBC campaign)
- Channel 7, Let's All Be There! (1984-1986; localized version of NBC campaign)
- Come Home to Channel 7 (1986-1987; localized version of NBC campaign)
- Idaho's News Channel (1980s–1997)
- Come on Home to Channel 7 (1987–1988; localized version of NBC campaign)
- Come Home to the Best, Only on Channel 7 (19??-19??; localized version of NBC campaign)
- Channel 7, The Place to Be! (1990-1992; localized version of NBC campaign)
- It's A Whole New Channel 7 (1992-1993; localized version of NBC campaign)
- The Stars Are Back on Channel 7 (1993-1994; localized version of NBC campaign)
- Where the News Comes First (1997–present)
References[]
Template:Reflist
External links[]
| TV stations in Idaho |
|---|
| KTVB, Boise KPVI, Pocatello |
| TV stations in Eastern Oregon, Southwestern Idaho and the Treasure Valley, including Boise and Ontario |
|---|
| KBOI 2 (CBS) KAID 4 (PBS) KIVI 6 (ABC) KTVB 7 (NBC) KNIN 9 (Fox) KTRV 12 (Ion) KKIC-LD 16 (ESTRELLA) KCLP-CA 18 (The Walk TV) KZTN-LD 20 (TBN) KRID-LD 22 (Newsmax) K31ED-D 31 (3ABN) KBSE-LD 33 (HSN) KYUU-LD 35 (CW) KKJB 39 (TLM) KBTI-LD 41 (HSN2) KZAK-LD 49 (Daystar) KCBB-LD 51 (AZA) |
| TV stations in the Magic Valley (Twin Falls-Jerome/Burley-Rupert/Sun Valley) |
|---|
| KSAW-LD 6 (ABC) KTFT-LD 7 (NBC) KMVT 11 (CBS) KIPT 13 (PBS) KBAX-LD 27 (RTV) KXTF 35 (Cozi) KCJY-LP 38 (JUCE TV) KSVT-LD 43 (Fox/MNTV) KCTF-LP 45 (Rel) |