. for other uses see cbs 13 . this article needs additional citations for verification . please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources . unsourced material may be challenged and removed . december 2008 learn how and when to remove this template message kovr stockton sacramento modesto california united states city stockton california branding cbs 13 general cbs 13 news newscasts slogan getting answers . channels digital 25 uhf virtual 13 psip affiliations .1 cbs o & o .2 decades owner cbs corporation sacramento television stations inc. first air date september 6 1954 ; 62 years ago 1954 09 06 call letters meaning kovr covering all of northern california sister station s khtk kmax tv knci ksfm kymx kzzo former channel number s analog 13 vhf 1954 2009 former affiliations independent 1954 1957 abc 1957 1995 transmitter power 1 000 kw height 593.0 meters 1 945.5 ft facility id 56550 transmitter coordinates 38 14 24 n 121 30 3 w 38.24000 n 121.50083 w 38.24000 ; 121.50083 coordinates 38 14 24 n 121 30 3 w 38.24000 n 121.50083 w 38.24000 ; 121.50083 licensing authority fcc public license information profile cdbs website sacramento.cbslocal.com kovr channel 13 is a cbs owned and operated television station licensed to stockton california usa . the station is owned by the cbs television stations subsidiary of cbs corporation as part of a duopoly with cw owned and operated station kmax tv channel 31 . the two stations share offices and studio facilities located on kovr drive in west sacramento ; kovr s transmitter is located in walnut grove . contents 1 history 1.1 early history 1.2 as an abc affiliate 1.3 switching to cbs 2 digital television 2.1 digital channels 2.2 analog to digital conversion 3 programming 4 news operation 4.1 cbs13.com rush limbaugh controversy 4.2 notable current on air staff 4.2.1 notable former on air staff 5 out of market cable coverage 6 references 7 external links history edit early history edit the station first signed on the air on september 6 1954 with its first broadcast originating from the california state fair . kovr is the oldest continuously operating television station in the sacramento market . originally serving as an independent station with its transmitter located on mount diablo its signal reached the san francisco bay area lending to the kovr call letters covering all of northern california . the station originally operated from studio facilities located on miner avenue in stockton . art finley hosted an afternoon children s program toonytown on the station for several years before moving to san francisco s kron tv . as an abc affiliate edit in may 1957 kovr merged its operations with sacramento s original abc affiliate kccc tv channel 40 which signed on eleven months before kovr in september 1953 . kccc shut down with kovr acquiring the abc affiliation . at the network s request the station moved its transmitter facilities to a temporary site near jackson to avoid competition with kgo tv in san francisco . by this time it was obvious that sacramento stockton and modesto were going to be a single television market . in 1960 kovr teamed up with kcra tv channel 3 and kxtv channel 10 to build a new 1 549 foot 472 m tower in walnut grove . in 1985 kovr and kxtv moved to their current 2 049 foot 625 m tower while kcra moved to its own 2 000 foot 610 m tower ; kcra still uses the old tower as an auxiliary facility . in 1958 the gannett company now owner of rival kxtv bought kovr from its original owners then sold it the following year to john kluge s metropolitan broadcasting which later became metromedia . in 1960 the station moved its business offices and news department to a new studio facility on arden way in sacramento . in 1987 kovr consolidated its operations into its current facility in west sacramento . a 1965 advertisement for then abc affiliate kovr touting peter jennings as anchor of peter jennings with the news . metromedia sold kovr to mcclatchy newspapers in 1964 . mcclatchy ran the station alongside the sacramento bee and modesto bee newspapers as well as radio stations kwg 1230 am in stockton kbee 970 am in modesto and kfbk 1530 am in sacramento . mcclatchy was able to own kovr kwg kbee and kfbk because sacramento stockton and modesto then as now were separate radio markets . mcclatchy had established a trio of bee mascots originally designed by walt disney whose namesake company would eventually acquire abc in 1996 for its properties . teevee the bee was kovr s official mascot during the years that mcclatchy owned the station short cartoons of the bee bookended kovr s broadcast day either ushering in or concluding the day s programming . 1 after mcclatchy sold the station to outlet communications in 1978 kovr went into a gradual decline in terms of both ratings and programming quality even as abc became the country s highest rated network and has been in third place in the sacramento ratings for most of the time since then . the station was then sold to narragansett television lp in 1986 then to anchor media in 1988 . anchor media was merged into river city broadcasting in 1993 and river city was purchased by the sinclair broadcast group three years later . kovr has made some firsts in local broadcasting it was the first station in northern california to use videotape rather than film for its newscasts and was the first station in the sacramento stockton area to broadcast in stereo . as an abc affiliate kovr preempted a moderate amount of programming even the 30 minute soap opera loving . it also aired some abc programming out of pattern all my children in the early years was aired at 11 a.m. half of abc s affiliates aired the soap at 11 a.m. to follow it with their noon newscasts ; until the series was cancelled in 2011 the network recommended that the program run in the noon timeslot . in the mid 1990s kovr moved the soap opera to 3 p.m. a practice continued by kxtv following its affiliation switch with kovr until the early 2000s . switching to cbs edit on march 6 1995 kovr swapped networks with longtime cbs affiliate kxtv ; kovr is the third station in sacramento to have been affiliated with cbs before moving to kxtv kccc carried the network secondarily to its primary abc affiliation . despite joining cbs kovr chose not to air guiding light a practice originated by kxtv during its cbs days due to the show s below average ratings in the area . when the program ended its run on september 18 2009 it was one of only two cbs affiliates that did not carry the show ; the other wnem tv in bay city michigan aired it on a mynetworktv affiliated digital subchannel . during guiding light s last 16 seasons sacramento viewers had to view it on cable via san francisco s cbs affiliate kpix . kovr s previous logo under sinclair ownership . this logo is similar to a former logo of another sinclair owned station portland maine s wgme . a more notable oddity with kovr s affiliation with cbs is that the station runs the network s primetime lineup one hour earlier than the standard 8 7 on sundays to 11 p.m. scheduling for the pacific as well as the eastern time zones opting to run it from 7 to 10 p.m. the standard scheduling used by stations in the central and mountain time zones . when kovr was an abc affiliate the station had an 11 p.m. newscast like most stations on the coastal time zones . upon the network switch the station followed the then practice of now sister station kpix in having an hour long primetime newscast at 10 p.m. kpix later moved its late evening newscast back to the 11 p.m. slot in 1998 . in recent ratings periods kovr has battled fox affiliate ktxl channel 40 for the lead among the newscasts in the 10 p.m. timeslot with kovr leading in total households and ktxl leading in the key demographics . in 2001 kovr gained attention when it landed a local exclusive interview with congressman gary condit regarding the chandra levy murder case condit appeared the same evening on abc in an interview with connie chung . the station televised an interview on august 30 in which condit claimed that he did not kill levy after a visit with the slain intern . despite numerous kovr reports filed by reporter gloria gomez the condit interview was granted to another kovr reporter jodi hernandez . much of the national interest in the case was lost days later in the aftermath of the september 11 attacks . in december 2004 sinclair sold kovr to viacom television stations group now part of cbs corporation as cbs television stations creating the third duopoly in the sacramento market with kmax tv channel 31 then a upn owned and operated station now a cw o & o and cbs third television duopoly in california after kcbs tv and kcal tv in los angeles ; and kpix and kbcw in san francisco . viacom was forced to sell kfrc radio in san francisco as a condition of the sale as the station s city grade signal reaches sacramento ; the purchase was finalized on april 29 2005 . the station then changed its on air branding from kovr 13 to cbs 13 . digital television edit digital channels edit the station s digital channel is multiplexed channel video aspect psip short name programming 2 13.1 1080i 16 9 kovr dt main kovr programming cbs 13.2 480i decades decades analog to digital conversion edit kovr shut down its analog signal over vhf on june 12 2009 as part of the federally mandated transition from analog to digital television . 3 the station s digital signal remained on its pre transition uhf channel 25 4 using psip to display kovr s virtual channel as 13 on digital television receivers . on october 21 2014 cbs and weigel broadcasting announced the launch of a new digital subchannel service called decades scheduled to launch on all cbs owned stations in 2015 including on kovr on channel 13.2 . the channel will be co owned by cbs and weigel owner of cbs affiliate wdjt tv in milwaukee with weigel being responsible for distribution to non cbs owned stations . it will air programs from the extensive library of cbs television distribution including archival footage from cbs news . 5 programming edit kovr is the only cbs station in the pacific time zone that runs its primetime lineup out of pattern from the network s recommended scheduling mynetworktv affiliate kqca channel 58 similarly began carrying that service s schedule one hour behind from 7 to 9 p.m. on september 5 2006 ; kqca has since moved mynetworktv programming back to the 8 to 10 p.m. timeslot . after cbs purchased channel 13 some including station management had speculated that kovr would move the cbs primetime lineup back to its standard 8 11 p.m. slot and add guiding light to the schedule as well as drop jerry springer . it was assumed that as an o & o kovr would have to carry guiding light most network owned stations run the entire network programming schedule with exceptions only for breaking news coverage or special programming . however on may 3 2005 cbs announced that it would make no immediate programming changes including any addition of guiding light which remained off the station through its final episode in september 2009 . on august 11 2005 cbs announced that kovr s 7 10 p.m. scheduling of the primetime lineup the 10 p.m. newscast and the 11 p.m. airing of the