KCOY-TV

KCOY-TV is the CBS-affiliated television station for the Central Coast of California that is licensed to Santa Maria. It broadcasts a high definition digital signal on UHF channel 19 from a transmitter on Tepusquet Peak in the Los Padres National Forest east of Santa Maria. Owned by the Cowles Publishing Company, the station is sister to Class A FOX affiliate KKFX-CA. The two share studios on West McCoy Lane in Santa Maria. Syndicated programming on KCOY includes: Entertainment Tonight, The Insider, Two and a Half Men, andThe Doctors. Its signal can also be seen on analog repeater K44DN (on channel 44 from a transmitter northwest of Paso Robles) licensed to Paso Robles. Due to its Class A status, KKFX does not air a digital signal of its own so KCOY's second digital sub-channel serves as that purpose.

History
The station went on-the-air on March 16, 1964. KCOY would not have existed if it were not for the Federal Communications Commission's decision in 1959 to move KFRE (now KFSN-TV) in Fresno from channel 12 to channel 30 under pressure from politicians in the Central Coast. This allowed channel 12 to be used in Santa Maria. It was owned by Stauffer Communications from the early-1980s until 1995 when the company merged with Morris Communications. However, the FCC did not allow Morris to keep the former Stauffer television stations due to the agency's rules in effect at the time against newspaper / broadcast station cross-ownership which affected several of the Stauffer markets where Morris already owned newspapers. KCOY was sold along with most of its sisters to Benedek Broadcasting in 1996. Three years later, Benedek traded KCOY to the Ackerley Group for that company's KKTV in Colorado Springs, Colorado. In 2002, Ackerley was bought out by Clear Channel Communications.

The station moved their studio to the current location back in the late-1980s. The previous location was on North McClelland Street. That building has now been converted into a church. KCOY was the hometown station in 2005 when it covered the trial of Michael Jacksonsince it was held at the Llewelyn Justice Center in Santa Maria. On April 20, 2007, Clear Channel entered into an agreement to sell its entire television stations group to Newport Television, a broadcasting holding company controlled by the private equity firm Providence Equity Partners. The sale was finalized on March 14, 2008.[1] However, due to Providence Equity Partners' partial ownership of media properties which serve portions of the Santa Maria / San Luis Obispo market, KCOY and sister station KKFX-CA were resold to theCowles Publishing Company with the group deal closing on May 7, 2008.[2] [3]

Even after being sold, Newport Television's website still listed KCOY and KKFX as two of its owned stations for several months afterward.

For several years in the late-1970s and early-1980s, the KCOY Film Festival was a special event for most of Santa Maria media. Employees of the station would make creative videos many of them a parody of the regular broadcasts. Those videos and bloopers from that era have been saved and posted for the public on YouTube.[4] [5] [6] These slices of history featuring many of the station's personalities show how the station looked in that era.

KCOY is also the first in the Santa Maria / Santa Barbara/San Luis Obispo market to broadcast a high definition signal, however, as of May 2010, both KCOY and KKFX currently do not broadcast their news in high definition. In addition to being offered for free over-the-air, it can be found on digital cable systems including Comcast channel 212, Cox channel 712, andCharter channel 782.KCOY's signal is rebroadcasted on K44DN analog channel 44 in Paso Robles.

Man On the Couch and Central Coast Deals
Man on the Couch is a promo that consists of a man sitting on a couch and showing previews for upcoming shows on KCOY and KKFX, as well as on KION and KCBA (due to common ownership or management by Cowles). Each program preview consists either of a man commenting on the preview or saying the time slot and the branding. All four station's schedules are shown on its website, although Man on the Couch's website itself is hosted by KION.

Central Coast Deals is a marketing promo shown on KCOY, KKFX, KION, KCBA, and KMUV. The promo consists of a deal that appears to attract consumers and giving gift certificates that generally is 50 percent off the discount price of what would be the normal price of a gift certificate. It is noted that it is exclusive to those four stations.

Newscasts
Central Coast News This Morning, which airs weekdays from 5 to 7 on KCOY and on KKFX from 7 to 9, is by far the largest on the entire Central Coast. The stations are the only ones to have weekday morning live reporters. It has a larger on-air morning staff than counterparts in both Los Angeles and San Francisco. Unlike most CBS affiliates in the Pacific Time Zone, KCOY does not air midday news during the week. There is a nightly 10 o'clock newscast seen on KKFX called Central Coast News at 10. KCOY and KKFX share the Central Coast Newsbranding with sister stations KION-TV and KCBA in Salinas. In addition to the main studios, the station operates bureaus in San Luis Obispo (on Pacific Street) and Santa Barbera (on Chapala Steet). On September 21, 2009, KKFX launched the area's only weeknight 7 o'clock newscast known as Central Coast News at 7.[7] KCOY produces its local newscasts both for the station itself and for sister station KKFX, totaling 35½ hours, with 6½ hours on weekdays and 90 minutes on weekends. On weekdays, a two-hour morning newscast is shown at 5am, with an additional two hours over on KKFX since The Early Show is carried on KCOY. Half-hour blocks are broadcasted at 5, 6, 7, and 10pm, as well as a 35-minute wrap at 11pm. On weekends, like sister stations KION and KCBA, there are half-hour newscasts at 6, 10, and 11pm. Like rival KSBY, KCOY does not produce a midday newscast nor a weekend morning newscast.

Newscast titles

 * News 12 (1970s–1980s)
 * KCOY-TV News (1980s)
 * NewsWatch 12 (1980s–19??)
 * NewsChannel 12 (19??–1996 & 2020-present)
 * 12 News (1996–?)
 * CBS 12 News (????–2001 & 2006–2009)
 * KCOY News 12 (2001–2006)
 * Central Coast News (2009–2020)

Station slogans

 * The News Leaders of the Central Coast (1983-?)
 * Your NewsChannel for the Central and South Coast
 * Coverage You Can Count On
 * The Heart of the Central Coast (2001–2006)
 * Anytime. Anywhere. (2006–2009)
 * Right Now (2009–?)

Current on-air staff
<p style="margin-top: 0.4em; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 1.5em; ">Anchors


 * Patti Piburn - weekday mornings and "Pound Puppy Friday" segment producer
 * Randall White - weekday mornings and "Your California" reporter
 * Arturo Santiago - weeknights
 * Katie Marzullo - weeknights at 5, 6, 10, and 11
 * Lydia Pantazes - weekends and reporter and "What's For Lunch" segment producer; also seen on KMUV

<p style="margin-top: 0.4em; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 1.5em; ">Central Coast News Titan Meteorologists


 * Jim Byrne (AMS Seal of Approval) - Chief seen weeknights
 * Sara Cole - weekday mornings
 * Adonica Shaw - weekends (also seen on KCBA and KION)

<p style="margin-top: 0.4em; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 1.5em; ">Sports

<p style="margin-top: 0.4em; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 1.5em; ">(All sports anchors appear on KION and KCBA since those stations do not provide sports anchors of their own. However, KION and KCBA are only permitted to simulcast the "California Sports" segments before they can continue to broadcast more news.)


 * Dave Alley - Director seen weeknights at 6, 7, 10, and 11
 * Kevin Roose - weekends
 * Adrian Holeyman - Friday Night Blitz host and reporter

<p style="margin-top: 0.4em; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 1.5em; ">Reporters


 * Allison Reeder - San Luis Obispo Bureau Chief
 * weekday morning reporter and fill-in meteorologist
 * Carl Gescheider - weekday mornings starting at 7
 * Dr. Scott Robertson - weekday morning medical correspondent
 * Kira Klapper - weekday mornings and "Down to Earth" reporter
 * Liza Sullivan - weekday mornings
 * Keith Carls
 * Andrew Gray

Past on-air staff

 * Mary Babbitt (Weekend Anchor/Reporter 1993-1997; now at KNTV in San Jose and host of In Wine Country)
 * Nancy Bauer-Gonzalez (News Reporter in the late 1970s, now News Director at KCBS and KCAL in Los Angeles, formerly long time News Director at KNBC)
 * Lori Brown formerly Lori Aufdemorte (San Luis Obispo County reporter and sub anchor on KCOY CBS 12 Sunrise and Noon) now reporter at WMC 5 Memphis, TN
 * Jack Church (Chief Meteorologist 1991 to 1998, published annual Jack Church Weather Almanac) now Northeast Area Sales Manager, Digital Broadcast, Inc. www.digitalbcast.com Also is chief meteorologist for WSKY-FM, Gainesville, Ocala/Florida www.thesky973.com
 * Terri Chappell (News Anchor 1994-1996) later moved to KTXL as a reporter and most recently anchor at The 33 Dallas/Fort Worth
 * Kelly Cobiella (1994–1998) CBS News Northeast Bureau Reporter, January 2005–present
 * Lee Cowan Reporter for NBC News, July 2007–present
 * Rick DeBruhl (Sports Anchor and Reporter in the late 1970s, now an Auto Racing Commentator for ESPN, TNN, Fox Sports and SPEED)
 * Emilie Deutsch (Sports Anchor in the early 1980s, went on to be a Producer for ABC Sports including the Monday Night Football and Wide World of Sports)
 * Rich Dixon (news reporter/weekend anchor/public affairs programming) Went on to KGO Radio, S.F. as a fill-in talk host. Now college prof.
 * Fiona Gorostiza (Weekend Weather Anchor/Reporter July 2004-July 2006 Later as weekday morning weather anchor on KMIR6 Today at KMIR in Palm Springs 2006-2008, now morning weather anchor at KDFW FOX 4 in Dallas/Fort Worth)
 * Alan Halfhill (Central Coast's First full time News Photographer in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Now doing independent media production in Seattle)
 * Andrew Hecker (Newscast Director in the late 1970s and early 1980s, went on to Direct National Shows GLOW and WOW!)
 * Roger Hernandez (Former Weekend Weather anchor and currently Head Weather anchor at KTAS 33 Telemundo in Santa Maria, CA)
 * Susan Hirasuna (News Intern and occasional reporter in the early 1980s, now Weekend Anchor at KTTV in Los Angeles)
 * Michele Kane (5 and 6 p.m. anchor 1995-1998, now morning and noon anchor at KOVR/KMAX)
 * David Kerley (11 p.m. News and 6 p.m. Sports Anchor in the 1970s, now a Correspondent for ABC News)
 * Kristy Kircher (Hired as Fox 11 Anchor and moved to Weekend Anchor)
 * Jim Kluker (News 1973-?)
 * Steve Large (KCOY Sunrise and noon anchor June 2003-August 2006 now at KOVR in Sacramento)
 * Andrew Luria ("Net News" segment and "Andrew's News, Views and Miscues!", now at KOVR)
 * Megan Maloney (Weekend anchor; Court reporter during the trial of Michael Jackson January 2000-June 2004)
 * Lon McEachern (Sports Anchor and Reporter in the early 1980s, now Poker Analyst for ESPN's World Series of Poker)
 * Dan McGrath (Host of Dapper Dan's Playhouse children's show 1965-1967)
 * Maureen Naylor (Field Reporter/Intern 1999-2001; later moved on to NCN, KNVN/KHSL and at KFSN, now at KTVU in Oakland/San Francisco)
 * Jeff Nguyen (Field Reporter, now at KIRO in Seattle)
 * Julissa Ortiz (Weekday Weather anchor from October 2000-August 2002 and 6 p.m. anchor September 2002-March 1, 2006 Now in Sacramento reporting for KOVR/KMAX-TV)
 * Kristi Paulus (KCOY weekday reporter/weekend anchor, now at KVEW-TV/KAPP-TV in Yakima and Tri Cities, WA)
 * Suzanne Phan (Field reporter, 1998-2000 now at KCRA/KQCA in Sacramento)
 * Drew Sugars (Main anchor 5 p.m., 6 p.m., and 11 p.m.; also did "CrimeTracker 12", now working with the Santa Barbara County Sheriff's Dept.)
 * Nerissa Sugars (Main anchor 5 p.m., 6 p.m., and 11 p.m.; also did "Will it Work Wednesday")
 * Adam Racusin (Weekend anchor and reporter, now at KMTV in Omaha, Nebraska)
 * Kevin Riggs (Santa Barbara Bureau Chief 1981-84), now political reporter KCRA-TV Sacramento
 * Evelyn Taft (Weekend Weather Anchor/Reporter, now at KCAL in Los Angeles)
 * Dave Ulrickson (KCOY-TV President & General Manager)
 * Steve Villanueva (Weekday Morning/Noon weather anchor 1996-2002; later moved to WWOR now at WRC in Washington, D.C)
 * Gina Villarreal (Reporter March 2003-May 2006; Currently at ABC's KXTV News 10 in Sacramento)
 * Jake Downey (Sports Anchor 1995-97 & 2000; Most recently Sports Anchor-Reporter at KDOC in Los Angeles. Now Owner/Executive Producer of JD Media Group.com, Los Angeles)
 * Scott Reiss (Sports Anchor 1997-2000; Currently at Comcast Sports Bay Area)