KOB (TV)

KOB logo, used from 1996 to 2010.

Current KOB logo, since late 2010

KOB-TV started operations on November 29, 1948, after Albuquerque Journal owner and publisher Tom Pepperday won a television license on his second try. Pepperday, who also owned KOB radio (770 AM), had previously applied for one in 1943. It was the first television station in New Mexico, as well as the third television station between the Mississippi River and the West Coast (behind WBAP-TV (now KXAS-TV) in Fort Worth, and KDYL-TV (now KTVX) in Salt Lake City). Initially, channel 4 ran programming from all four networks—NBC, ABC, CBS and DuMont. However, it has always been a primary NBC affiliate owing to its radio sister's long affiliation with NBC radio.

Later, in May 1952, the KOB stations were purchased by magazine publisher Time-Life (later Time Inc.) and former Federal Communications Commission (FCC) chairman Wayne Coy. It was Time-Life's first television asset.[2] In 1953, two new TV stations signed on within a week—KGGM-TV (channel 13, now KRQE), which affiliated with CBS, followed by KOAT, which took ABC; DuMont shut down in 1956.

Stanley E. Hubbard, founder of Hubbard Broadcasting, bought KOB-AM-TV from Time-Life in 1957, and his heirs have owned the station since.[3] KOB's radio cousins were sold off in 1986 and are now known as KKOB and KOBQ. Despite the change, many people still confuse the television and radio stations today. In 2005, KOB-TV entered into a news partnership with KKOB.

Although the KOB radio stations had long amended their callsigns, KOB-TV did not drop the "-TV" suffix until June 13, 2009, when the FCC allowed a limited opportunity for stations to change their suffixes (adding "-TV" or "-DT") or drop them in the wake of the digital transition that was completed the previous day.

KOB broadcasts 32½ hours of locally produced newscasts each week (with 5½ hours each weekday, three hours on Saturdays, and two hours on Sundays). During the school year, KOB broadcasts a weekly 15-minute sportscast, New Mexico Gameday, dedicated to high school sports.

When KOAT's top anchorman, Dick Knipfing, was fired on June 4, 1979, KOB hired him to anchor their newscasts. Although KOAT sued to keep Knipfing off the air until the following year,[4] an opinion from the United States District Court allowed the anchorman to proceed with his plans to begin anchoring channel 4 on August 1,[5] creating the first big-dollar anchor in Albuquerque, and allowing him to stand out in the industry as the "anchorman wars" moved to smaller markets. Knipfing's salary at that time was approximately $90,000. However, channel 4 was never able to overtake KOAT in the news ratings.

KOB produced an hour-long nightly newscast for Albuquerque's then-Fox affiliate, KASA-TV, from September 2000 through September 14, 2006, called Fox 2 News at Nine. The next day, KRQE took over production of that newscast as that station's parent company, LIN TV, began taking over KASA's operations as it purchased the station.

On September 26, 2010, KOB began producing and broadcasting its newscasts in 16:9 widescreen standard definition, and debuted new on-air graphics and a new station logo (the logo used for its newscasts is very similar to that used by Swedish television channel TV4 for its programming) on that date as well.

On February 13, 2020, the 10 p.m. newscast was renamed KOB 4 NightBeat, switching the newscast from its former Eyewitness News format to a looser talk-based news format. It is believed that it will be only for the late newscast, but could expand depending on viewer input.

• Official website