Goodbye Q13, hello Fox 13?

[crainbebo]

TVNewsTalk thread says that KCPQ may be sending their 40-year-old branding to retirement. In addition, a pink slip is incoming for poor ole' Joe over on channel 22.

KCPQ to drop the Q

Hips dont lie. Neither do logos added to FCC public files. The logos on KCPQ and KZJO changed in the last week-ish to Oh, and last month they registered @fox13sea on Twitter (@fox13seattle has existed for years and doesnt seem to be them) Itd be the first time without the Q13 brand since Kelly to...

forums.tvnewstalk.net

Gonna be interesting how this goes. The name "Q13" is well-known by those young and old, Seahawks fans, news viewers, and Puget Sound Simpsons audiences. It dates back to the days as an indie when Kelly Broadcasting bought them out from Clover Park School District, turned them into 'the NW's Movie Channel', and added that iconic jingle. Fox 13 sounds so bland. But perhaps Fox Television Stations started begging them to drop the Q.
Wonder if KTVU SF will also be mandated to drop their longtime 2 in a circle?

 

[LITTLEBOYBLUE]

Gee...if they were Fox News affiliate instead of just Fox, having an identity that starts with "Q" would be highly coveted!!

 

[Delete My Account]

Q13 was/is a strong brand.

What's the advantage to Fox as a brand in Seattle? I mean, the Fox News crowd is arguably Brandi Kruse's target audience so maybe that's the play.

 

[Y2kTheNewOldies]

Q under Kelly Broadcasting's management (Also former owners of KCRA-TV Sacramento) was originally mentioned as a brand for "Quality Television" when they were running the station. But that changed since 2017.

 

[Y2kTheNewOldies]

TVNewsTalk thread says that KCPQ may be sending their 40-year-old branding to retirement. In addition, a pink slip is incoming for poor ole' Joe over on channel 22.

KCPQ to drop the Q

Hips dont lie. Neither do logos added to FCC public files. The logos on KCPQ and KZJO changed in the last week-ish to Oh, and last month they registered @fox13sea on Twitter (@fox13seattle has existed for years and doesnt seem to be them) Itd be the first time without the Q13 brand since Kelly to...

forums.tvnewstalk.net

Gonna be interesting how this goes. The name "Q13" is well-known by those young and old, Seahawks fans, news viewers, and Puget Sound Simpsons audiences. It dates back to the days as an indie when Kelly Broadcasting bought them out from Clover Park School District, turned them into 'the NW's Movie Channel', and added that iconic jingle. Fox 13 sounds so bland. But perhaps Fox Television Stations started begging them to drop the Q.
Wonder if KTVU SF will also be mandated to drop their longtime 2 in a circle?

I don't think KTVU will drop the Lazer 2 though given that Fox incorporated the call letters in the branding in promos such as "KTVU Fox 2" since the 2014-2015 take over of KTVU and KICU aka KTVU Plus.

I could see KJZO get renamed (KCPQ Fox 13 plus) , Xtra and more like other secondary Fox Owned stations get. Wait the first fan made logo in the forum looks like how some Nexstar Owned stations with Fox affiliations are today like KSWB and KTXL with the old Fox owned stations logo from 2006-2020. But Fox itself was required to remove the searchlights from their O&O's some time ago as part of Disney's purchase of the now 20th Century Studios and majority control of Hulu.

 

[crainbebo]

Q13 has been a strong competitor in Seattle for quite a few years now. Their morning news is better than the other stations in my opinion, and they've kept the same personalities for the majority of the last 15 years...Bill Wixey, M.J., and Adam Gehrke. Taking away the 'Q' takes away a branding that has evolved over the decades, through their movie/indie days, the early days of Fox, the NFL, and eventually a news department and a strong Seahawks team. And King County hasn't been conservative for decades, so the question to Fox Television Stations is...why??? It's not like people on the street will point out "did you see last night's news on Fox 13?" They will say "Q13".

It's like if KING 5 dropped the "KING" from their branding and went to a generic NBC 5. It makes no sense.

 

[formeraa]

Q13 has been a strong competitor in Seattle for quite a few years now. Their morning news is better than the other stations in my opinion, and they've kept the same personalities for the majority of the last 15 years...Bill Wixey, M.J., and Adam Gehrke. Taking away the 'Q' takes away a branding that has evolved over the decades, through their movie/indie days, the early days of Fox, the NFL, and eventually a news department and a strong Seahawks team. And King County hasn't been conservative for decades, so the question to Fox Television Stations is...why??? It's not like people on the street will point out "did you see last night's news on Fox 13?" They will say "Q13".

It's like if KING 5 dropped the "KING" from their branding and went to a generic NBC 5. It makes no sense.

Well, in fact, a new News Director at KING 5 in the early 80's tried to change the news branding from "KING 5 News" to Newscenter 5. They even had ads in the newspapers advertising "Newscenter 5" -- as if that would help them overcome the then-surging Eyewitness News over on Channel 7.

Needless to say, there was a public outcry about the name change. It quickly became "Live from Newscenter 5, this is KING 5 News". Eventually, the references to Newscenter 5 disappeared completely.

 

[crainbebo]

Yup...I have a TV Guide from that time with an advertisement for 'Newscenter 5' at 6:30am, 5, 6:30 and 11PM. 1982 or so. I believe KING was one of the first stations in the U.S. to start an early-morning newscast. Now look at what we've evolved to - many stations are running local news at *4 AM* nowadays - when in 1982 they were all off the air or running all-night movies at that hour!

 

[Kelly A]

Q13 was/is a strong brand.

If you call #4 in a 6 station market, strong.

What's the advantage to Fox as a brand in Seattle?

Because FOX owns the station? That channel 13 is where you find Fox TV programming? Or is it because all the other FOX O&O's are branded as FOX stations?? Could be!

I mean, the Fox News crowd is arguably Brandi Kruse's target audience so maybe that's the play.

FOX News is a cable channel. Other than the corporate name, has zero to do with FOX TV stations.

 

[Delete My Account]

I know full well the Fox News channel is separate.

Do you think most people in blue Seattle know that?

Perception isn't usually fact. My point being - people's perception of their affiliation with "Fox" could be a negative in a liberal leaning market.

I also wasn't speaking to the ratings when I said the "brand" is strong. The brand is known and has some history and decent awareness. That is a separate issue from how many people watch it or don't.

 

[Y2kTheNewOldies]

I know full well the Fox News channel is separate.

Do you think most people in blue Seattle know that?

Perception isn't usually fact. My point being - people's perception of their affiliation with "Fox" could be a negative in a liberal leaning market.

I also wasn't speaking to the ratings when I said the "brand" is strong. The brand is known and has some history and decent awareness. That is a separate issue from how many people watch it or don't.

But Fox O&O's tend to also brand themselves as the home of "Name of NFC Team here or MLB Team" whenever Fox Sports is airing games for the Fox affiliates.

In the case of Fox 13 Tampa they would emphasize that they are the home of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, or back to Seattle's KCPQ Fox 13 home of the Seahawks or home of the Mariners for MLB games.

 

[crainbebo]

Home of the Mariners - lol. They haven't been on OTA TV for 15 years. Root Sports has a long-term contract with them until the end of time...

 

[itsTheRolyPoly]

If you call #4 in a 6 station market, strong.

Well, its been called Q13 in one form or another since its first day of commercial operations... November 4th, 1980, more than 40 years ago. Its forever etched in Seattle television history.

In fact, its first day mentions Q13:

 

[crainbebo]

Of course, the 'CPQ' used to mean Clover Park Quality, when they were a secondary PBS station in the late '70s. Hard to believe Seattle had three PBS stations at one point - KCTS, KCPQ and KTPS, way up the dial on ch 62 (then ch 28). The ch 13 that preceded KCPQ was a C-rated indie under the calls of KTVW, which had crummy programming, Bob Corcoran's 3-hour show every night, and had a poor signal in the core of Seattle and especially north of that in growing Snohomish County. 1980 was the year of the rebirth for channel 13 and it never let up. Talk about one wild success story, albeit they were very late getting a news operation on the air. It took them until 1998, well over a decade since Fox went on the air, to get a 10PM newscast going. It took two more years for the morning show to launch.
Our family didn't really watch their nighttime news, but every morning I would wake up for school and Mom had it on Q13 for the weather and what happened overnight. It was never KONG's news or the national shows. I think M.J's Pet Walk Forecast and cute doggie photos influenced her decision. ;-)

 

[Y2kTheNewOldies]

Well, its been called Q13 in one form or another since its first day of commercial operations... November 4th, 1980, more than 40 years ago. Its forever etched in Seattle television history.

In fact, its first day mentions Q13:

At 5:00 of this Opening for Q13 it shows the KCRA 3 News Sacramento promo footage. Not so sure how far later that KCPQ started it's news operation but I recognize some. I see the 1980's 3 logo in this clip. Here is the original footage.

Here are the original clips where some of KCPQ-TV's then proposed plans for a news department came from. It's origins are from Sacramento's NBC affiliate KCRA-TV which was at the time managed by Kelly Broadcasting when they were expanding to Seattle. Also that CNN clip from 1980 at 5:23 also includes two anchors that were in Sacramento TV at one point Dave Walker and Lois Hart.

 

[TexasTom]

The ch 13 that preceded KCPQ was a C-rated indie under the calls of KTVW, which had crummy programming, Bob Corcoran's 3-hour show every night, and had a poor signal in the core of Seattle and especially north of that in growing Snohomish County.

Yeah, I remember that station -- it went bankrupt and was forced off the air by a bankruptcy judge in 1974, eventually being resurrected as a public TV station for several years before Kelly Broadcasting bought it.

 

[Kelly A]

Well, its been called Q13 in one form or another since its first day of commercial operations... November 4th, 1980, more than 40 years ago. Its forever etched in Seattle television history.

In fact, its first day mentions Q13:

So? Most of the population that associates original branding from the day a station signs-on or starts using that brand, are either dead or have left the area. You play to the audience advertisers want to reach. Not for nostalgic reasons.

 

[Kelly A]

I know full well the Fox News channel is separate.

Then why are you concerned they are tied from a perception standpoint? FOX News on cable, and FOX O&O stations, have been around for twenty years. So far, there's been no indication that one type of programming has polluted the other.

Do you think most people in blue Seattle know that?

Actually, I don't think they care. When people want to watch The Simpsons, or certain NFL games, they tune to channel 13 in the Seattle/Tacoma market. It's really that simple.

Perception isn't usually fact. My point being - people's perception of their affiliation with "Fox" could be a negative in a liberal leaning market.

Again, after twenty years, that hasn't been a factor.

I also wasn't speaking to the ratings when I said the "brand" is strong.

Viewers gravitate to a brand where they know where to find programming they're looking for. Not to a brand just because it's a brand, or for nostalgic reasons. Radio or TV nerds care about that kind of thing, but they're in the vast minority.

The brand is known and has some history and decent awareness. That is a separate issue from how many people watch it or don't.

With the availability of live streaming, only older demographics care about only watching their favorite anchors on any particular newscast, but even then, it has nothing to do with the 'history' of the station.

 

[seatownmedia]

“only older folks care”. Disagree. While the younger audience for local tv news has been declining, it isn’t dead.

As for dropping the Q in branding, I am not sure it will have any affect on ratings. While branding can make subtle differences it really isn’t as critically important than having likable anchors and good reporters.

 

[crainbebo]

Looks like Zap2It shows 'Fox 13 News' in the listings beginning Fri, September 24th. The mandate will be complete.
I bet the KCPQ callsign goes away next. Next calls: probably KSFX. "Seattle Fox".