KMAX-TV
KMAX-TV is an independent television station in Sacramento, California, United States. It is owned by the CBS News and Stations group alongside Stockton-licensed KOVR, the market's CBS owned-and-operated station. The two stations share studios on KOVR Drive in West Sacramento; KMAX-TV's transmitter is located in Walnut Grove, California.
Channel 31 began broadcasting on October 5, 1974, as KMUV-TV. It was built by the Grayson Television Company and originally featured a lineup heavy on movies. The station was not a financial success and, after filing for bankruptcy reorganization, became a primarily Spanish-language station. During this time, two groups looked at using channel 31 for over-the-air subscription television, but after Tandem Productions and Jerry Perenchio acquired it in 1980, they decided not to enter the competitive market and immediately sold. The new owners, Koplar Communications, relaunched the station in 1981 as KRBK-TV, a general-entertainment independent outlet. During the 1980s, KRBK-TV became more competitive with Sacramento's leading independent, KTXL, and established a local news presence. From 1988 to 2002, it was the broadcast home of Sacramento Kings basketball.
Facing a heavy debt load, Koplar sold KRBK-TV to Pappas Telecasting in 1993. In 1995, the station affiliated with The WB, changed its call sign to KPWB-TV, and launched a morning show that became Good Day Sacramento, a station fixture since. KPWB-TV was acquired by the Paramount Stations Group in 1997 and became an owned-and-operated station for UPN as KMAX-TV in January 1998; Paramount, which at the time was dismantling newscasts and news departments at many of its stations, discontinued channel 31's evening newscasts but retained and expanded Good Day Sacramento. KMAX-TV and KOVR became a duopoly in 2005, with channel 31 moving into KOVR's West Sacramento studios; the next year, the station became a charter outlet of The CW, an affiliation it retained until 2023. In addition to Good Day, KMAX-TV airs a prime time newscast at 8 p.m. as well as local sports.
KMUV-TV: Early years
Construction
In 1966, the Federal Communications Commission received two applications to build a new television station in Sacramento on ultra high frequency channel 15. The Grayson Television Company, headed by Sidney Grayson of Sacramento, and the Hercules Broadcasting Company, owners of Sacramento radio station KRAK, each sought the channel. Grayson attempted to reach an agreement with Hercules to end the proceeding by having the latter withdraw its application; Grayson alleged that Hercules had agreed to withdraw only to later renege, resulting in a lawsuit. While Hercules won the construction permit in July 1968 after a settlement with Grayson, Grayson bought the permit in 1970 from Hercules with hopes of opening it in 1972. That year, the FCC switched the construction permit for KMUV-TV from channel 15 to channel 31 out of concerns that the new station would interfere with public safety radio systems using nearby spectrum in San Francisco.In March 1973, Grayson received final engineering approval from the FCC. It leased land for studios in Sacramento and a tower in Walnut Grove. After several construction delays, KMUV-TV began broadcasting on October 5, 1974. When the station went on, it was an independent station whose programming consisted nearly entirely of movies, with three films to be telecast each day and repeated. The primary interruption was an early morning program in Spanish, Nuestra Casa es Su Casa.
KMUV-TV's attempts to get on the air caused a dispute that almost led the FCC to deny the license renewal of its principal competitor, KTXL. KTXL attempted to show to the FCC that Grayson Television was unqualified to be a broadcast licensee, in opposition to the channel change from 15 to 31. KTXL owner Camellia City Telecasters submitted a pleading containing what purported to be a telex message from Dun & Bradstreet. The alleged telex claimed that Sidney Grayson was the president of Grayson Television, even though he had previously been convicted of income tax evasion. In actuality, Grayson was not a corporate officer but a general manager. In August 1974, the FCC opened a hearing into charges the teletype was forged. In 1975, Grayson Television sued Camellia City for $7.5 million, claiming the filing was an attempt to prevent KMUV-TV from being constructed. The next year, an administrative law judge issued an initial decision finding against KTXL and recommended its license not be renewed. Shortly after, KMUV won $150,000 in a settlement with Camellia City. The FCC voted in June 1978 to overturn the recommendation and renew the KTXL license.
Non-English broadcasting
KMUV-TV struggled financially. It filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization in April 1976, facing 11 lawsuits for nonpayment and owing banks and one of its officers. By then, shareholders in Channel 31, Inc.—the former Grayson Television—were negotiating with Pappas Associates, led by Mike Pappas and his brothers Harry and Pete. The Pappas family—owners of KMPH-TV in Visalia and radio stations—announced plans to switch channel 31 to a station focusing primarily on Spanish-language programming as well as shows catering to other ethnic groups, which took effect on May 3. Pappas Associates had intended to buy a minority stake in the station but found itself unable to do so due to FCC regulations; instead, Mike Pappas obtained an option to buy it outright. The station had a limited amount of Spanish-language local programming; it aired the local magazine program El Pueblo, produced by a Catholic organization, as well as a regular program on the California State Legislature and a weekly cooking show.Beginning in 1978, a series of potential ownership deals could have seen channel 31 become an over-the-air subscription television station for Sacramento. In March, Sacramento Television Inc. agreed to acquire KMUV-TV, owned at that time by Channel 31, Inc. as a debtor in possession. Eighty percent of the firm was owned by Carl B. Hilliard Jr., a San Diego attorney. The remainder was held by Universal Subscription Television, which was mostly owned by the Canadian CanWest Capital Corporation. Universal was in the process of signing up stations for potential conversion to subscription service across the country. The deal never panned out, though in July 1980, the FCC approved the $7.7 million acquisition of KMUV-TV by Tandem Productions and Jerry Perenchio, who likewise wished to offer a subscription service over channel 31. The two were partners in the ON TV STV service offered by WXON in Detroit, while Perenchio at the time owned WNJU-TV in the New York City market and part of the subscription television service on KBSC-TV in Los Angeles.
KRBK-TV: The Koplar years
Within months of buying KMUV-TV, Tandem and Perenchio decided not to build it as a subscription station in the face of heavy competition from cable television and microwave distribution systems. As a result, they agreed to sell the station to Koplar Broadcasting, owner of KPLR-TV in St. Louis. Koplar declared it would not operate channel 31 with STV.In KMUV-TV, Koplar found what amounted to a blank slate. The station had negligible viewership. Gail Brekke, who left her post as KPLR-TV's national sales manager to become the general manager in Sacramento, found only four usable chairs and ten working telephones. The station was completely relaunched as KRBK-TV, a general-entertainment independent station, on April 6, 1981. The staff grew from 8 to 45 within a year, while satellite receiving equipment was added. An early focus for the revamped KRBK-TV was children's programming, largely because children tended to seek out new stations more than their parents. In 1984, Koplar moved KRBK-TV's transmitter to the level of the new KCRA-TV tower in Walnut Grove, moving some above its prior site; the next year, it began telecasting in stereo. By 1985, KRBK-TV had gained market share and narrowed the gap to KTXL.
When the NBA's Kansas City Kings relocated to Sacramento and became the Sacramento Kings in 1985, their first television partner was then-ABC affiliate KOVR, which broadcast 20 games a season of the new club. The rights came up for bid in 1988, and KRBK offered to telecast 30 games. While KRBK bid less than KOVR, and KOVR had a right to match KRBK's offer, it did not do so, and KRBK was granted the rights. Grant Napear became the new play-by-play announcer for the team after it moved its games to channel 31. The agreement was renewed in 1990.
Starting a news operation
Two years after relaunching channel 31, Koplar added a local 10 p.m. newscast to the station's schedule, a small effort hosted by Gary Lindsey. The newscast, despite modest resources, was intended to compete with KTXL's 10 p.m. newscast. Prime News moved from 10 to 10:30 p.m. in March 1985, but Koplar soon opted to retool the news department altogether and took it off the air that July.The revamped 31 News Tonight debuted on January 27, 1986. Its lead female anchor was Christine Craft, who had made headlines for an age and sex discrimination lawsuit against her prior employer, KMBC-TV in Kansas City. The new newscast failed to attract significant viewership: in May 1986, it managed an audience share of just two percent. Within a year, anchor Tim Klein was dismissed and replaced with Robert Dyk, a network news veteran. When original sports director Rich Gould left KRBK-TV for KPLR-TV in 1987, he was replaced by Grant Napear, who moved from WAND in Decatur, Illinois.
The 10 p.m. newscast moved to 9 p.m. in September 1989, a move designed to reduce competition with KTXL and the threat that KCRA could change its 11 p.m. local news to 10 p.m. The move immediately resulted in ratings increases. Craft departed the next month to study law.
Scott Jones arrived from West Palm Beach, Florida, to become KRBK-TV's news director in 1990. Jones set out to make the newscast faster-paced with a higher story count and an emphasis on crime and education stories. In the November 1990 survey, the newscast increased its audience share from three to five percent. A second nightly newscast, at 9:30 p.m., debuted in September 1991; the separate news program in lieu of an hour-long news allowed the same reporters to return and update stories in the second half-hour. Jones departed in 1992 to take a corporate position with Koplar Communications.