KATU (TV)

KATU has operated from the same site, a former laundry on Sandy Boulevard, since its launch.

Channel 2 was not initially assigned to Portland, being allocated in 1957. That action spurred activity on the valuable frequency. Four applications were initially received, from The Oregon Journal, owner of KPOJ (1330 AM); Fisher Broadcasting Company, which owned KOMO-AM-KOMO-TV in Seattle; Tribune Publishing Company, owner of KTNT-TV in Tacoma, Washington; and KPTV (channel 12), which wanted to move to channel 2.[3] KPTV later withdrew, and KPOJ dropped its application in March,[4] but it was not until the end of 1959 that an FCC hearing examiner recommended Fisher over the Tribune Publishing Company for the channel 2 construction permit.[5] The full commission began drafting paperwork in support of this decision in December 1960,[6] and Fisher received the permit on February 23, 1961.[7]

Work began to build facilities in the former Crystal Laundry on NE Sandy Boulevard in June;[8] the two-story building was refitted to contain two production studios.[9] The station originally was assigned the call letters KOXO similar to KOMO's, but finding the calls KATU were free to create a simple and memorable branding of "K-2", switched to those within a few weeks.[7]

KATU began broadcasting on March 15, 1962, originally operating as an independent station; Portland native and actress Jane Powell was the master of ceremonies.[10] The station's transmitter was originally located atop Livingston Mountain, about 7 miles (11 km) north-northeast of Camas, Washington; this northerly site had been required to maintain minimum spacing to the unbuilt channel 3 at Salem.[11]

While it was the 25th independent in the United States, from the moment it went on air, speculation swirled that KATU might look to poach a network affiliation from one of the three other commercial stations in Portland.[12] Rumors intensified in June 1963 as KATU began construction of a transmitter in Portland's West Hills, which would improve its signal coverage and co-site channel 2 with the other major stations.[13] The news came in early December when ABC announced it would drop KPTV, Oregon's oldest television station, and move to KATU on March 1, 1964.[14] The news led to speculation that the ABC switch to KATU, in spite of KPTV performance comparable to that of other ABC affiliates, was a countermove by the network to avoid losing Seattle's KOMO-TV, one of the network's few top-rated stations at the time, to a possible move by CBS.[15] KPTV—which had been ABC's Portland affiliate since 1959—sued, alleging that Fisher coerced ABC into affiliating with KATU by threatening to defect in Seattle.[16] (It was the second time KPTV had lost an affiliation to a group owner in five years; King Broadcasting Company's KGW-TV displaced KPTV as the NBC television affiliate in Portland in 1959, and its KING-TV in Seattle replaced KOMO in the network lineup.[17])

After a decade in which the station struggled to build an identity in the market, KATU began to find its way in the early 1970s after expanding its local programming. New shows such as public affairs program Town Hall, weekend children's program Bumpity, and talk show AM Northwest proved critical to the station's success.[18] AM Northwest continues to air, while other shows, such as Faces & Places and Two at Four, ended in the 1980s.[19]

KATU was Portland's first commercial station to broadcast in digital, doing so in 1998 alongside Oregon Public Broadcasting.[20] KATU shut down its analog signal, over VHF channel 2, on June 12, 2009, the official date on which full-power television stations in the United States transitioned from analog to digital broadcasts under federal mandate. The station's digital signal remained on its pre-transition UHF channel 43, using virtual channel 2.[21]

On April 10, 2013, KATU and Fisher Communications's other holdings were acquired by the Sinclair Broadcast Group.[22][23] The Federal Communications Commission granted its approval of the deal on August 7,[24] and the sale was completed the following day.[2]

On May 8, 2017, Sinclair Broadcast Group entered into an agreement to acquire Tribune Media—owner of CW affiliate KRCW-TV (channel 32)—for $3.9 billion, plus the assumption of $2.7 billion in debt held by Tribune, pending regulatory approval by the FCC and the U.S. Department of Justice's Antitrust Division. Sinclair would have been required to sell one of KUNP or KRCW-TV if the deal were to be approved.[25] However, in 2018, the FCC designated the deal for hearing by an administrative law judge;[26] the deal was then terminated by Tribune.[27]

• Dick Bogle – reporter, and later anchor, from 1968 to 1982; later a city council member[50]
• Anna Canzano – anchor/investigative reporter
• Jack Faust – hosted the weekly public affairs show Town Hall for 13 years (1980–1993)[51]
• Rob Marciano – meteorologist (1997–2003)[52][53]
• Cathy Marshall – reporter/anchor (1998–2003)[54]
• Tom Rinaldi – lead reporter for ESPN and contributor to ESPN College Football, now with Fox Sports[55]
• Roger Twibell – sports reporter (1973–75), now sportscaster for CBS Sports Network[56]
• Brian Wood – reporter/anchor (2008–2021)[57]
• Linda Yu – news anchor (1975)[58][59]

The station's digital signal is multiplexed:

The 32.1 subchannel for KRCW-TV is broadcast by KATU as part of Portland's ATSC 3.0 (NextGen TV) deployment plan; in exchange, KRCW-TV broadcasts KATU in that format.[61]

KATU is additionally rebroadcast over a network of sixteen low-power digital translator stations:[60]

• Astoria: K26DB-D
• Baker Valley: K27MX-D
• Corvallis: K08PZ-D
• Hood River: K28CQ-D
• La Grande: K32LY-D
• La Grande: K35GA-D
• Lincoln City, etc.: K32NK-D
• Madras: K26NX-D
• Milton-Freewater: K28FT-D
• Pendleton: K34DI-D
• Prineville: K35LD-D
• Rainier: K31HK-D
• Rockaway Beach: K23NS-D
• The Dalles: K18HH-D
• Tillamook: K34PJ-D
• Grays River/Lebam, WA: K20NL-D