verification . please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources . unsourced material may be challenged and removed . january 2013 learn how and when to remove this template message kiro tv seattle tacoma washington united states city seattle washington branding kiro 7 general kiro 7 news newscasts pronounced ki roh channels digital 39 uhf virtual 7 psip subchannels 7.1 cbs 7.2 gettv 7.3 laff translators see article affiliations cbs since 1997 ; also from 1958 to 1995 owner cox media group kiro tv inc. founded april 1955 first air date february 8 1958 ; 58 years ago 1958 02 08 call letters meaning derived from former sister station kiro radio ; pronounced ki roh former channel number s analog 7 vhf 1958 2009 former affiliations upn 1995 1997 transmitter power 1000 kw height 230 m 755 ft facility id 66781 transmitter coordinates 47 37 58.8 n 122 21 23.8 w 47.633000 n 122.356611 w 47.633000 ; 122.356611 licensing authority fcc public license information profile cdbs website www.kiro7.com kiro tv channel 7 is a cbs affiliated television station located in seattle washington united states . the station is owned by the cox media group subsidiary of atlanta based cox enterprises . the station s offices and studios are located on third avenue in the city s belltown neighborhood and its transmitter is located on queen anne hill adjacent to the station s original studios . kiro tv is one of five local seattle television stations seen in canada via shaw broadcast services for the purposes of time shifting and can be viewed from many eastern canadian cities including toronto and montreal and on satellite providers bell tv and shaw direct . it can also been seen on local cable systems in british columbia as the local cbs affiliate . contents 1 digital television 1.1 digital channels 1.2 analog to digital conversion 2 history 2.1 early years 2.2 the mormons take over 2.3 from cbs to upn 2.4 rejoining cbs 3 programming 3.1 sports programming 4 news operation 4.1 notable current on air staff 4.2 notable former on air staff 5 translators 30 6 references 7 external links digital television edit digital channels edit channel 1 video aspect psip short name programming 7.1 1080i 16 9 kiro dt main kiro tv programming cbs 7.2 480i 4 3 kiro sd gettv 7.3 4 3 laff analog to digital conversion edit kiro tv shut down its analog signal over vhf channel 7 on june 12 2009 as part of the federally mandated transition from analog to digital television . 2 3 the station s digital signal remained on its pre transition uhf channel 39 4 using psip to display kiro tv s virtual channel as 7 on digital television receivers . history edit early years edit after komo tv channel 4 signed on in december 1953 seattle s channel 7 was the last commercial vhf channel allocation available in the puget sound area . as such its construction permit was heavily contested among several local broadcast interests . three radio stations kvi 570 am kxa 770 am now ktth and kiro 710 am were locked in a battle for the frequency over several years of comparative hearings at the federal communications commission . following an initial decision in 1955 5 and a reaffirmation in 1957 6 the ultimate victorious party was queen city broadcasting owners of kiro radio who signed on channel 7 on february 8 1958 . 7 queen city was led by president and general manager saul haas who purchased kiro radio in 1935 and included u.s. senator warren magnuson and cbs news correspondent edward r. murrow amongst its shareholders . the station s original studios were located on queen anne avenue adjacent to its broadcast tower and directly across the street from kiro radio . 8 the first program shown on channel 7 was the explosion of ripple rock a hazard to navigation in seymour narrows british columbia . kiro radio had been a cbs radio affiliate for over 20 years and kiro tv subsequently became an affiliate of the cbs television network upon signing on . channel 7 took the cbs affiliation from tacoma licensed ktnt tv channel 11 now kstw prompting that station s owners at the time the tacoma news tribune to file an antitrust lawsuit accusing cbs of having a standing agreement with kiro to affiliate with the television network before queen city s permit to build channel 7 was even approved . 9 in may 1960 kiro tv was forced to share cbs with ktnt tv as part of a settlement reached between the three parties . 10 this arrangement lasted for the next two years with kiro tv again becoming the market s exclusive cbs affiliate in september 1962 . 11 the mormons take over edit in april 1963 the deseret news publishing company the media arm of the salt lake city based church of jesus christ of latter day saints began purchasing stock in queen city broadcasting starting with a 10 percent share from several minority partners including sen. magnuson . 12 six months later the church purchased an additional 50 percent giving them majority control of the kiro stations . 13 along with having earned a handsome return on his original investment of 28 years earlier saul hass subsequently joined the board of the church s broadcasting subsidiary which was renamed bonneville international in 1964 . 14 soon after the fcc approved the sale bonneville executives lloyd cooney and kenneth l. hatch arrived in seattle to lead the renamed kiro inc. division . upon cooney s departure to run for u.s. senate in 1980 hatch became president ceo and chairman positions he held until 1995 . under hatch s leadership kiro inc. which included kiro am fm tv king am and third avenue productions became one of the nation s premier regional broadcast groups . kiro s corporate board included many notable leaders including mary gates mother of bill gates ; pay n save chairman m. lamont bean ; washington mutual chief executive officer tony eyring and gordon b. hinckley a future president of the lds church . the kiro stations which later included king radio and third avenue productions moved their offices and studios to broadcast house at third avenue and broad street in seattle s belltown district in 1968 and where kiro tv remains to this day for the present location . throughout the late 1960s and early 1970s kiro tv still faced competition in some parts of western washington from bellingham based kvos tv channel 12 which was also then a cbs affiliate . after years of legal challenges and negotiations with cbs and kiro tv kvos at the time owned by wometco enterprises began to phase out most cbs programming by 1980 . kvos retained a nominal affiliation with cbs until 1987 during which it would run all network programs were preempted by channel 7 . from cbs to upn edit in 1994 cbs found itself without an affiliate in the dallas fort worth metroplex after kdfw tv left the network to become a fox affiliate . consequently cbs began to negotiate with gaylord broadcasting to secure an affiliation agreement with the independent station it had long owned in fort worth ktvt . as part of the deal cbs would also affiliate with gaylord owned independent kstw ; both kstw and ktvt had been scheduled to affiliate with the wb television network . the deal was announced on september 15 1994 15 and cbs programs that had been preempted by kiro tv such as the bold and the beautiful moved to kstw soon afterward . other cbs programs such as the late late show with tom snyder were shown on kstw beginning in january 1995 although the show aired an hour later at 1 35 am whereas other cbs affiliates aired the program directly after the late show with david letterman at 12 35 am . even when channel 11 regained the cbs affiliation for the third time in its history in march 1995 the program continued to air at 1 35 am . two days before the affiliation switch was announced bonneville announced that it would sell kiro tv to the belo corporation while retaining ownership of kiro radio . in addition in anticipation of the affiliation change belo stated that it would run channel 7 as a news intensive independent station ; 16 however on december 6 the station reached an affiliation deal with upn . 17 more changes descended upon channel 7 after belo took control of the station on january 31 1995 . 18 the station began carrying upn programming on january 16 ; however until cbs moved to kstw on march 13 1995 upn programs generally aired on weekend afternoons though kiro tv did preempt cbs programming so that it could air the series premiere of star trek voyager in primetime . 19 20 local newscasts on channel 7 expanded during this time to nearly 40 hours each week with expansions to its morning and early evening newscasts to compensate for upn not having national news programs . outside of upn s program offerings the rest of kiro tv s schedule was filled with first run syndicated talk shows reality shows off network dramas a couple of off network sitcoms and movies . 21 22 this format was unusual for a upn affiliate but was becoming standard for a fox affiliate as most upn affiliates had a general entertainment format outside of network programming hours . in 1996 belo acquired the providence journal company which owned seattle s nbc affiliate king tv channel 5 . belo couldn t own both king tv and kiro tv under fcc rules at the time and as a result the company opted to sell kiro tv . 23 rejoining cbs edit though there was speculation that belo would swap kiro tv to fox television stations in exchange for ksaz tv in phoenix and ktbc tv in austin texas 24 belo announced on february 20 1997 that it would swap channel 7 to upn co owner viacom s paramount stations group subsidiary now part of cbs television stations in exchange for kmov in st. louis . at the time paramount stations group was in the process of selling off the cbs and nbc affiliates that it inherited from viacom through its 1994 purchase of paramount pictures . concurrently paramount viacom traded kiro tv to cox enterprises in exchange for kstw just one month after cox announced it would acquire that station from gaylord broadcasting . 25 the trades were completed on june 2 1997 . 26 the two stations retained their respective syndicated programming but swapped network affiliations once again with kstw becoming a upn owned and operated station and kiro tv regaining its cbs affiliation on june 30 1997 . 27 programming edit jp and gertrude in 2008 tribute . as of september 2016 syndicated programs broadcasting on kiro tv presently include right this minute who wants to be a millionaire judge judy the insider and entertainment tonight . kiro runs the entire cbs programming lineup with minimal pre emptions generally only for kiro s award winning special incolor . however kiro tv s alternate feed for canadian viewers has more pre emptions than the regular feed particularly infomercials replacing programs like let s make a deal kiro 7 news at noon right this minute a second run of who wants to be a millionaire and a rerun of judge judy . one of the most famous and longest running regional children s television programs in the united states the j.p. patches show was produced in house by kiro tv and broadcast steadily from 1958 to 1981 . the program starred chris wedes as julius pierpont patches a shabby clown and self professed mayor of the city dump and bob newman as j.p. s girlfriend gertrude in addition to a number of other characters