KDOC-TV
KDOC-TV, virtual channel 56, is an independent television station serving Los Angeles, California, United States that is licensed to Anaheim. Owned by Ellis Communications, the station is operated by Titan TV Broadcast Group under a local marketing agreement. KDOC-TV's studios and offices are located on East First Street in Santa Ana, and its transmitter is located atop Mount Wilson.
History
KDOC-TV signed on the air on October 1, 1982; the station was initially owned by locally based Golden Orange Broadcasting, whose investors included entertainer Pat Boone. The station's original studio facilities were located at 1730 South Clementine Street in Anaheim, just blocks east of the Disneyland resort. At the time of its original sign-on it was the sixth independent station in the Los Angeles market, alongside KTLA, KHJ-TV, KTTV, KCOP and KSCI. KDOC carried programs from conservative commentator Wally George and televangelist Dr. Gene Scott until their respective deaths in 2003 and 2005. During this period, the station was also popular for weekend broadcasts of Asian programming, which gained a significant non-Asian audience with the broadcast of the 1984–1985 Japanese television series Miyamoto Musashi.The station also was popular for its weekend block of professional wrestling and roller derby including World Class Championship Wrestling, Mid-Atlantic Wrestling's syndicated show World Wide Wrestling and Los Angeles Thunderbirds roller games. The station also offered some live sports programming, such as UNLV Runnin' Rebels men's basketball during the height of the Jerry Tarkanian era, plus Loyola Marymount University men's basketball, and a syndicated package of Western Athletic Conference men's basketball games. In 2004, KDOC carried selected Anaheim Angels games, as then-new owner Arte Moreno wanted to broadcast more games beyond the slate of telecasts already contractually obligated to air on Fox Sports West and the team's then-primary over-the-air carrier KCAL-TV.
In the fall of 1988, KDOC embarked on the station's first brief foray in television news. KDOC began producing NewsWatch 56, a primetime newscast at 8:00 p.m. anchored by Michelle Merker and Pat Matthews. The program was moved frequently: first to 7:00 p.m., then to 9:00 p.m., and finally to 11:00 p.m. During that time, the station rebranded the program as Orange County NewsWatch, and then KDOC NewsWatch. In 1992, KDOC stopped producing full-fledged newscasts; the station produced local news updates instead. The station also stopped producing any original in-house programming, except for the minimum amount required by the Federal Communications Commission.
Much of the station's programming through the years has been situation comedy and dramatic reruns that were seen on other Los Angeles area stations in years past, after those stations either relinquished or shared the rights with KDOC. Among those shows were: The Mary Tyler Moore Show, The Dick Van Dyke Show, The Beverly Hillbillies, The Cosby Show, Saved by the Bell, The Doris Day Show and My Three Sons. Reruns of the iconic courtroom drama Perry Mason had been on the station since 1988, where it aired weekdays at noon for about 20 years, and aired early mornings on KDOC's main channel until September 2011.
On April 4, 2006, Bert Ellis, along with Anaheim Ducks owners Henry Samueli and his wife Susan, bought KDOC for $149.5 million from Golden Orange Broadcasting. The sale closed in May 2006, placing KDOC under the ownership of Ellis Communications, Inc., a subsidiary of Atlanta-based Titan Broadcast Management.
In September 2006, KDOC made changes to its programming schedule and debuted a new slogan and logo. The lineup included more current syndicated repeats, Anaheim Ducks hockey, some movies, as well as hours of paid programming. In 2008, the station's programming began moving away from the "Endless Classics" format adding more recent comedies, and talk and court shows that have ended production.
In September 2008, KDOC launched a new website. It brought a new look, promoting the station's new programming format, and removing the forum section for viewers to post questions and comments on KDOC-TV programming that many stations provide. The Endless Classics logo was replaced in late 2009. In the fall of 2009, the station added ESPN Plus' syndication package of Southeastern Conference football and men's basketball, and added its coverage of Big 12 Conference men's basketball during the 2010–11 season. The SEC TV syndication package ended in 2014 because of the launch of the new SEC Network as part of a 20-year deal between the Southeastern Conference and ESPN.
On July 4, 2011, KDOC launched a new, revised website, as well as a new station logo, a new color scheme, programming promotions for KDOC's main channel and MeTV subchannel, videos, and news headlines for both Los Angeles and Orange counties. On December 3, 2012, the station unveiled a new branding campaign, this time rebranding itself as "LA 56".
On May 11, 2015, KDOC dropped the "LA 56" branding after more than two-and-a-half years of use and reverted to identifying by its call letters. This also includes the branding on the KABC-produced newscasts, which have since been rebranded as ABC 7 Eyewitness News on KDOC-TV.
Digital television
Digital channels
The station's digital signal is multiplexed:| Channel | Video | Aspect | PSIP Short Name | Programming |
| 56.1 | 720p | KDOC | Main KDOC-TV programming | |
| 56.2 | 480i | ESNE | ESNE TV | |
| 56.3 | 480i | 16:9 | Me-TV | MeTV |
| 56.4 | 480i | 16:9 | Comet | Comet |
| 56.5 | 480i | 16:9 | SETTV | Saigon Entertainment Television |
| 56.6 | 480i | 16:9 | ThisTV | This TV |
| 56.7 | 480i | 4:3 | LSTV | Little Saigon TV |
| 56.8 | 480i | 16:9 | Charge | Charge! |
| 56.9 | 480i | 16:9 | KDHL | KDHL TV |
| 56.10 | 480i | 4:3 | LSTV | Simulcast of Little Saigon TV |
Analog-to-digital conversion
KDOC began digital broadcast operations on February 18, 2004, at 12:19 p.m. The station shut down its analog signal, over UHF channel 56, at noon on February 17, 2009, as part of the federally mandated transition from analog to digital television. The station's digital signal remained on its pre-transition UHF channel 32, using PSIP to display KDOC-TV's virtual channel as 56 on digital television receivers, which was among the high band UHF channels that were removed from broadcasting use as a result of the transition.As part of the SAFER Act, KDOC kept its analog signal on the air until later in the afternoon on February 18 to inform viewers of the digital television transition through a loop of public service announcements from the National Association of Broadcasters.
MeTV affiliation
On April 4, 2011, Ellis Communications parent company Titan Broadcast Management announced, along with other television station groups to be among the station owners that signed affiliation agreements with MeTV, a network focusing on classic television programming that is owned by Weigel Broadcasting. The network was launched on KDOC 56.3 on June 13, 2011, as Me-TV Los Angeles. On September 19, 2011, KDOC's main channel adopted a new contemporary programming format, thus positioning MeTV Los Angeles to be the network for classic television programs that once aired on KDOC.Although KDOC continues to carry MeTV on subchannel 56.3, KVME in Bishop was affiliated with MeTV on April 30, 2012, until January 15, 2018. That station carried MeTV on their primary digital channel 20, which made it available on the DirecTV and Dish Network local packages tier for the Los Angeles market. Both stations marketed themselves as "Me-TV Hollywood", changing from KDOC's previous brand of "Me-TV Los Angeles". Local advertising for MeTV Hollywood is sold by a jointly managed ad sales team for both stations. However, KVME's MeTV feed did not carry the full schedule of programming, electing to carry Spanish-language religious and paid programming during the early morning weekday hours of 5:30 a.m. to 8:00 am, blocking-out regularly-scheduled programming in those hours. Unlike the KVME feed, the KDOC version continues to air all MeTV programming intact.
On February 1, 2012, Verizon FiOS began carrying MeTV Hollywood in the Los Angeles area on channel 462. In October 2012, Time Warner Cable added MeTV Hollywood on its Southern California systems on channel 1232, carrying a time-shifted national feed instead of either the KVME or KDOC versions.
On January 3, 2018, due to the purchase of Los Angeles station KAZA by Weigel Broadcasting, KAZA became a MeTV owned-and-operated station, in addition to continual coverage via KDOC channel 56.3. Both affiliates are separately owned and operated, broadcasting to specific areas within the Los Angeles region due to signal strength. Before a signal upgrade in late 2018, KAZA's over-the-air signal was not available in much of western and southern Los Angeles County, due to its channel-sharing agreement with a low-powered UHF station, which necessitated the continual co-affiliation through KDOC. In addition, each feed was known by a different station identification; MeTV Los Angeles and MeTV KDOC.
On January 15, 2018, KVME discontinued their MeTV affiliation to become an affiliate of Weigel-owned Heroes and Icons ; on February 1, 2018, Spectrum discontinued its MeTV feed, and began offering KAZA as the sole MeTV channel for its Los Angeles area customers.
Programming
General programming
programs that are broadcast on KDOC's main channel include Paternity Court, Seinfeld, and animated series Family Guy, The Cleveland Show and American Dad! among others. The latter three are produced by Seth MacFarlane, making KDOC one of a few stations in the country to air all of MacFarlane's animated shows in syndication on the same station; the latter two shows were removed in late 2019.Sports programming
KDOC also maintains broadcast rights to games from local sports team Anaheim Ducks of the NHL. KDOC also broadcasts the locally produced wrestling program Championship Wrestling from Hollywood. In September 2014, it was announced that KDOC would air the final six games of the Los Angeles Dodgers' 2014 season. The team's new broadcaster, SportsNet LA, had been afflicted by poor carriage throughout the season.KDOC produced two telecasts of UC Irvine basketball games during the 2015–16 season in a partnership with UC Irvine, although it is unclear if that partnership is still in progress or has ended. KDOC would later air UC Irvine's final regular season game of their 2018–19 season.
In January 2019, KDOC started airing a weekly high school basketball game on Friday or Saturday nights, branded as the Pacific Surfliner Game of the Week. In the partnership with Pacific Surfliner, the Big West Conference and UC Irvine, select Big West games are also televised.
In June 2019, KDOC showed the Formula One Canadian Grand Prix due to KABC-TV having scheduling conflicts.
Past sports programming
From 2009 until 2014, KDOC carried Southeastern Conference college football and basketball and Big 12 college basketball games supplied by ESPN Plus-operated services SEC TV and Big 12 Network, respectively. Both SEC TV and Big 12 Network were dissolved in August 2014, the first of which was caused by the 2014 launch of the pay-TV-only SEC Network, whose name was previously on the ESPN Plus syndicated SEC service.From 2014 until 2019, KDOC also broadcast Atlantic Coast Conference football and basketball games from the ACC Network syndication service of Raycom Sports, which was previously on Oxnard-licensed KBEH in the 2013–2014 season.
The station carried games of former Major League Soccer team Chivas USA from 2010 until the club's final season.
Special programming
In May 1990, KDOC broadcast live coverage of the Strawberry Festival Parade in Garden Grove, California. Coverage moved from KHJ-TV after the Walt Disney Company decided against broadcasting the parade that year.On December 31, 2012, KDOC broadcast a live New Year's special hosted by comedian and actor Jamie Kennedy. Following its broadcast, the special gained infamy due to a large number of technical issues, dead air, unedited fleeting profanity, and a fight breaking out on-stage. A montage of clips from the special went viral after it was discovered by fellow comedian Patton Oswalt.