Most Improved Bay Area TV Station: YOUR TV 20 !

[Madmansam]

I think the most improved TV Station has to be KBWB TV 20 in San Francisco. In a 28 Year Period, TV 20 went from a pretty good Independent TV Station operated by JIM GABBERT to a Pretty Bland WB Affiliated Station to Back To Indie Station. Really Well Programmed. They look and sound better than when they were WB 20, just a short 2 years ago. Recently They brought back the DOGS that were once a mainstay when JIM GABBERT operated it, Now starting SUNDAY, JULY 13TH at 8M for 2 hours will be RETRO TV. Yes 2 hours of CLASSIC TELEVISION like THE MUNSTERS, GOMER PYLE USMC, MORK AND MINDY, GUNSMOKE, ALFRED HITCHCOCK PRESENTS, THE (original) TWILIGHT ZONE, HAWAII FIVE O, MANNIX, MR. ED, and more!!! I hope the ratings are big and YOUR TV 20 considers expanding the retro programming to weekdays also. The only other stuff I'd like to see is a CREATURE FEATURES type of show as well as an ALL NIGHT MOVIES ala MOVIES TILL DAWN and MORNING KIDVID SHOWS!

 

[djj]

Just noticed this post today...good post, mms!

Interestingly, I hadn't watched TV-20 since it was KOFY, just before
it became the WB-20 - many moons ago. I turned it on one day recently,
and saw they're STILL running the durable "Perry Mason"!

The way Jim Gabbert improved that station from its woebegone KEMO years
(or as I recall him saying of KEMO's studio decor, "Early-American Depression")
was amazing, but it took a LOT of money to do it - something you don't
see much in today's "independent" TV, what with infomercials and other
brokered shows...Gabbert ran KTZO/KOFY, literally, like a radio station.
VERY RARELY did you see a dark screen, with the segues tight and bright...
well before the era of today's computerization, where tight segues are commonplace...

Somewhere in my archives from the Million Dollar-Giveaway Contest, I still
have my "I Love TV-20" bumper-sticker"...

Thanks for the update, Sam! Hafta check out TV 20 some more now...
--jay

 

[Madmansam]

The way Jim Gabbert improved that station from its woebegone KEMO years

Actually KEMO wasn't that bad. From 1968 until 1980, it had a unusual run. In 1968, it was owned by OVERMEYER and was your standard GENERAL ENTERTAINMENT INDEPENDENT TV STATION. A lot of people remember SHOCK IT TO ME THEATER with ASMODEOUS, a late night horror show on SATURDAY NIGHTS. In 1971, OVERMEYER sold KEMO to LEON CROSBY who at one time owned the legendary KMPX-106.9 Radio. Crosby's version of KEMO was more ECLECTIC. Most of the programming was SPANISH LANGUAGE (from 2M-11M). In fact, KEMO was the BAY AREA'S PREMIERE SPANISH STATION before KDTV signed on in 1975 on CHANNEL 60 (before its switch with KCSM for CHANNEL 14), though KGSC CHANNEL 36-SAN JOSE had WEEKEND SPANISH PROGRAMMING for a couple of years. KEMO also had MORNING STOCK MARKET PROGRAMMING, some ENGLISH LANGUAGE RELIGIOUS SHOWS like THE 700 CLUB, Sunday Night MULTI CULTURAL SHOWS (CHINESE, JAPANESE,HINDI), THE JOE BAVARESCO VARIETY SHOW(a low budget JOHNNY CARSON), THE WORST OF HOLLYWOOD with host BOB DECKELMAN (a low budget version of BOB WILKINS) and ALL NIGHT MOVIES with various hosts like GARY FERRY (as OLD SOURDOUGH) who later jumped to KGSC-36 on their MOVIES TILL DAWN and LEON HESKETT. A very interesting mix of programming.

 

[dgordon]

Re: Most Improved Bay Area TV Station: YOUR TV 20 ! - KOFY is back!

TV20 San Francisco is now KOFY-TV.

 

[JackBauer112]

It changed calls at 10 PM on 10/8/2008 from KBWB to KOFY and in the process aired a 10 minute documentary on the station's owner and history. It followed by a 1 hr retro night featuring Mork & Mindy.

 

[radio dx]

Anyone have any "perfect 36" station id's (KGSC channel 36 San Jose)

 

[mofocat]

1969 or '70, visiting a sister that lived in Moutain View, I remember seeing what I think may have been, the earliest Music Videos, on KEMO- 20. They ran continuously, seguaed, similar to The Box that came twenty years later. Can nyone fill in some info on what I was seeing?

 

[LKellerIII]

1969 or '70, visiting a sister that lived in Moutain View, I remember seeing what I think may have been, the earliest Music Videos, on KEMO- 20. They ran continuously, seguaed, similar to The Box that came twenty years later. Can nyone fill in some info on what I was seeing?

I wasn't in the Bay Area in 69/70, so I can tell you what the show was. But I do remember from the mid 70s that KEMO was a very low budget station, so it's not surprising that they would run continuous music videos, old industrial film, or whatever they could get to fill air time. These days they'd just run infomercials, but that wasn't happening then.

I grew up in LA, and I clearly remember music videos from as far back as the mid 60s. A number of the afternoon teen dance party shows would play them from time to time. I remember seeing a music video of Tommy Roe singing Dizzy, and it included some low-rent "psychedelic" spinning special effects...Dizzy, get it? That was probably 1969 on Robert W. Morgan's afternoon show called Groovy!

I remember music videos prior to that too - though not necessarily rock music. During the holidays, they'd make videos of Christmas music - with the singer and his family out in the snow riding in sleighs, or decorating a Christmas tree.