page_title: KCPQ
section_title: As KCPQ
hierarchical_section_title: KCPQ / History / As KCPQ
context_page_description: KCPQ, virtual and VHF digital channel 13, is a Fox owned-and-operated television station serving Seattle, Washington, United States that is licensed to Tacoma. The station is owned by the Fox Television Stations subsidiary of Fox Corporation, as part of a duopoly with Seattle-licensed MyNetworkTV O&O KZJO. The two stations share studios on Westlake Avenue in Seattle's Westlake neighborhood; KCPQ's transmitter is located on Gold Mountain in Bremerton.
  KCPQ is one of five local Seattle television stations seen in Canada on satellite providers Bell Satellite TV and Shaw Direct, as well as various cable systems across Canada. The station is also carried on several cable systems in southeastern Alaska.
context_section_description: The station's remaining assets were bought in bankruptcy court bidding by the Clover Park School District in Lakewood, for $378,000. Clover Park outbid the Trinity Broadcasting Network and a local group to acquire the station. The call letters were changed to KCPQ, replacing Clover Park's UHF channel 56 transmitter which had operated under the name KPEC-TV, and relocated its headquarters and city of license to Tacoma. The station went back on the air on January 4, 1976 as the third PBS member station in the Seattle–Tacoma market after KCTS-TV (channel 9) and KTPS-TV (channel 28, now KBTC-TV), airing secondary PBS and educational programs. Channel 56 would return to the air in 2000 as Daystar-owned religious station KWDK.
  By 1980, the Seattle–Tacoma market had become large enough that it could now sustain another VHF commercial television station. Kelly Broadcasting, owners of KCRA-TV in its home city of Sacramento, California, purchased KCPQ from the Clover Park School District for $6.25 million, outbidding Roadrunner Television from Tucson, Arizona, which then owned KZAZ in Tucson (the current-day KMSB, a fellow Fox affiliate). Channel 13 temporarily went silent on February 28, 1980 to facilitate changes in studio facilities and the transmitter. KCPQ's transmitter was relocated to Gold Mountain, a peak located west of Bremerton, where the station erected a new tower to more effectively reach as much the Seattle market as they could under their FCC license to maintain primary service to Tacoma. While the move greatly increased the station's signal footprint across western Washington, it resulted in a somewhat weaker signal in the northern and eastern portions of the market. In promotional advertisements that aired on the station during the early 1980s, popular local celebrities (such as then-Seattle Seahawks player Steve Raible) encouraged KCPQ viewers in these areas to "aim towards Bremerton" with their TV antennas in order to get the best reception from the new transmitter.
  The station relaunched on November 4, 1980 under its now-familiar "Q13" branding, although for the first several months on the air, it was referred to as "The NEW 13". It used a logo similar to that of sister station KCRA-TV, but with KCRA-TV's green-bordered square converted into a stylized "Q." Channel 13 would also be occasionally referred to on-air as "Puget Sound Television", with an alternate identification image featuring a drawing of a boat within the green "Q" portion of the logo and a jingle sounder of two ship's bells. The bell sounder would be used well into the 1990s.
  KCPQ also used another slogan at its relaunch: "The Northwest's Movie Channel". Channel 13 ran movies during the midday hours, late nights and weekends, and chose to counter-program the network shows during prime time with uncut versions of feature films, with "limited interruptions". The first film to be shown uncut on KCPQ was The Deer Hunter, with only two commercial breaks. The station also ran CBS and NBC shows that KIRO-TV and KING-TV respectively preempted, including CBS Late Night, NBC's Saturday morning cartoons and select game shows from both networks. For a short time after the relaunch, the station had an afternoon children's program, "Captain Sea-Tac", featuring a friendly boat captain. But eventually, other than Saturdays, KCPQ did not run children's programming during the week. The station also did not carry many off-network sitcoms, choosing instead to air first-run syndicated talk and game shows, off-network dramas, and some early morning religious programs.
  On October 9, 1986, KCPQ joined the newly-established Fox network as a charter affiliate, being one of a handful of VHF stations to align with the new network upon its startup. In 1987, with the children's television business growing, KCPQ began running cartoons weekday mornings from 7 to 9 a.m., and afternoons from 3 to 5 p.m. Channel 13 added sitcoms as well, and continued airing first-run syndicated shows and movies. In February 1990, KCPQ signed a three-year deal with Buena Vista Television to carr
caption: KCPQ's previous logo, used until June 2016. The "Q-13" element had remained unchanged outside of differing coloring dependent on design trends from 1991 until 2016, with the "Fox" logo added with varying use since its 1996 inception.