KABC-TV
| File:KABC 7 logo.svg Circle 7 logo incorporating ABC emblem since 1997 | |
| Company type | Television broadcaster |
|---|---|
| Industry | Broadcasting |
| Predecessor | KECA-TV (1949–1954) |
| Founded | September 16, 1949 in Los Angeles, California, United States |
| Headquarters | Glendale, California , United States |
Area served | Greater Los Angeles area |
| Products | Television broadcasting, local news programming |
| Owner | ABC Owned Television Stations (Disney) |
| Website | abc7 |
KABC-TV (channel 7) is a Los Angeles-based television broadcaster that serves as the West Coast flagship for the American Broadcasting Company (ABC). Owned by ABC Owned Television Stations, KABC-TV operates from studios located in Glendale's Grand Central Business Centre, with its transmitter positioned atop Mount Wilson.
KECA-TV (1949–1954)
The station began broadcasting as KECA-TV on September 16, 1949. It was the final VHF station to launch in Los Angeles and represented ABC’s last original owned-and-operated outlet following San Francisco’s KGO-TV. Additionally, it was the last among the "classic seven" VHF stations in Los Angeles prior to the digital transition in 2009. New station introductions in the area after this period were limited to educational and UHF channels.
The call letters KECA-TV paid tribute to broadcasting pioneer Earle C. Anthony, reflecting his initials also used by its sister radio station KECA (790 AM, now KABC). On February 1, 1954, the station adopted the KABC-TV call sign.
KABC-TV (1954–present)
Initially, KABC-TV operated out of the ABC Television Center (currently known as The Prospect Studios) located in Los Feliz, Los Angeles. In 2000, it relocated to a modern facility in Glendale designed by César Pelli, which forms part of Disney's Grand Central Creative Campus (GC3) on the site of the former Grand Central Airport. This location sits approximately 4 miles east of ABC’s West Coast headquarters at the Walt Disney Studios lot in Burbank.
Since 1962, the station has utilized the Circle 7 logo, incorporating the ABC network emblem in 1997. News anchors traditionally wear Circle 7 lapel pins, a custom maintained among original ABC-owned stations.
On February 4, 2006, KABC-TV became California’s pioneer station to deliver local newscasts in high definition, employing HD studio cameras and unveiling a new set design.
The analog signal on VHF channel 7 was discontinued on June 12, 2009, in compliance with the federally mandated digital conversion. The digital broadcast shifted from UHF channel 53 to VHF channel 7. Following difficulties with reception after the transition, KABC-TV sought and obtained authorization to boost its effective radiated power from 25 kW to 28.7 kW by March 2011.
In July 2010, Disney entered into a carriage dispute with Time Warner Cable that affected KABC-TV along with Disney Channel and ESPN networks; this conflict was resolved with a long-term contract by September of that year. On August 31, 2023, Disney withdrew its channels—including KABC-TV and ESPN—from Spectrum cable systems during another carriage disagreement. These channels were reinstated on September 11, 2023, after reaching an agreement with Charter Communications. Later, on September 1, 2024, KABC-TV was removed from DirecTV amid a contract conflict with Disney coinciding with a USC Trojans football game broadcast.
KABC-TV’s digital subchannel 7.3 originally featured The Local AccuWeather Channel before transitioning to a standard-definition Live Well Network feed in 2010. On April 15, 2015, channel 7.3 replaced Live Well Network with the comedy network Laff. ABC Stations rebranded Live Well Network on subchannel .2 as Localish on February 17, 2020, shifting focus towards lifestyle programming.
News programming
KABC-TV currently airs a total of 51 hours and 25 minutes of locally produced news each week, with weekday broadcasts totaling 7 hours and 35 minutes daily, and seven hours on both Saturdays and Sundays. Although the station previously maintained a news bureau in Sacramento, it was closed in 2014; however, KABC-TV continues to operate bureaus in Riverside and Orange within its broadcast region.
The station’s inaugural local newscast, Lew Irwin Reports, premiered in 1957 as a concise 15-minute segment featuring news highlights and investigative reports. During his tenure, Irwin conducted interviews with notable personalities including Harry S. Truman and John F. Kennedy. Following creative disagreements, Irwin stepped down in 1962 and was replaced by Baxter Ward.
In February 1969, KABC-TV transitioned to the Eyewitness News format, initially employing the "Tar Sequence" theme from the film Cool Hand Luke. By 1992, the station updated its sound with the "News Series 2000" package composed by Frank Gari, which remains its signature news theme to this day.
The original anchor duo for Eyewitness News consisted of Bill Bonds and Stu Nahan. Despite early challenges competing against KNXT and KNBC, KABC-TV rose in prominence after recruiting Jerry Dunphy as lead anchor in 1975. Dunphy’s collaboration with Christine Lund helped establish the station’s dominance in local news throughout the 1980s. Among other distinguished anchors and reporters who have been part of KABC-TV are Lisa McRee, Harold Greene, Paul Moyer, as well as former professional athletes Lynn Swann and Rick Monday.
KABC-TV’s approach of "neighborhood news" has cultivated strong viewer loyalty within the highly competitive Los Angeles market. In 1972, it was a pioneer in broadcasting live reports directly from viewers’ homes to deepen community engagement.
Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, the station featured political debates and commentary involving figures such as Howard Jarvis and John Tunney, complemented by editorials penned by then-general manager John Severino until his departure in 1990.
During the 1980s, KABC-TV offered an extensive three-hour block of local news on weekdays from 4 to 7 p.m., launching a one-hour newscast at 4 p.m. in 1980. This block was shortened by thirty minutes in 1990 when World News Tonight shifted to a 6:30 p.m. slot—a scheduling choice that KABC-TV maintains today alongside KGTV San Diego and KAEF Eureka. In addition, after the conclusion of Port Charles in 2003, the station expanded its midday newscast to a full hour.
Between January 2014 and July 2022, KABC produced a one-hour evening newscast for Anaheim’s KDOC-TV through a news sharing agreement; this partnership ended following KDOC’s sale and subsequent conversion to religious programming.
In May 2016, KABC introduced a weekday newscast at 3 p.m. to compete directly with KTLA and extended its morning news coverage to three hours beginning at 4 a.m. starting September 2018.
On September 30, 2015, KABC’s Glendale studios were evacuated due to a bomb threat; normal operations resumed once law enforcement cleared the premises.
In February 2017, KABC enhanced its AIR7HD news helicopter by installing XTREME Vision technology for live vehicle speed tracking along with SkyMap7’s augmented reality overlays, thereby improving its live reporting capabilities.
Ratings
The adoption of the Eyewitness News format combined with popular syndicated programs such as The Oprah Winfrey Show (from 1986), Live with Kelly and Mark (since 1991), as well as game shows like Jeopardy! and Wheel of Fortune (both starting in 1992), have played integral roles in sustaining KABC-TV’s strong ratings leadership. Leveraging the strong lead-in provided by Oprah at 3 p.m., the station regularly ranks first or second during the critical 4 to 6:30 p.m. news window. Its morning and late evening newscasts face stiff competition from local stations KTLA, KTTV, KNBC, and more recently KCBS-TV at the 11 p.m. time slot.
With consistent success across ratings periods, KABC-TV brands itself as "ABC7 – #1 in news, #1 in Southern California," echoing its branding prominence from the 1980s and ’90s when it was known as "Number One in Southern California."
During initial coverage of the January 2025 Southern California wildfires, KABC-TV led all local news broadcasts across every time slot.
Social media
As a member of Disney's television network, KABC-TV maintains a robust presence across social media platforms. Notably, in May 2014, it became the first local TV station in the United States to exceed one million likes on Facebook.
Anchors
- Marc Brown – news anchor
- Carlos Granda – general assignment reporter
- David Ono – news anchor
Weather
- Dallas Raines (AMS Certified Broadcast Meteorologist Seal of Approval) – lead meteorologist
Notable former on-air staff
- Jessica Aguirre
- Fred Anderson
- Rona Barrett
- Angela Black
- Bill Bonds
- Ashley Brewer
- Jann Carl
- Laura Diaz
- Todd Donoho
- Jerry Dunphy
- Dr. Dean Edell
- George Fischbeck
- Gary Franklin
- Dr. Lillian Glass
- Harold Greene
- John Hambrick
- Judd Hambrick
- Chuck Henry
- Bruce Herschensohn
- Brandi Hitt
- Desiree Horton
- J. J. Jackson
- Dana King
- Kelly Lange
- Pinky Lee
- Sam Chu Lin
- Bruce Lindsay
- Tawny Little
- Christine Lund
- Ann Martin
- Lisa McRee
- Rick Monday
- Jim Moret
- Johnny Mountain
- Paul Moyer
- Terry Murphy
- Stu Nahan
- Maila Nurmi
- Kevin O'Connell
- Warren Olney
- Ron Olsen
- Indra Petersons
- Regis Philbin
- Bill Press
- William C. Rader
- Art Rascon
- Maggie Rodriguez
- Ric Romero
- Wayne Satz
- John Schubeck
- Tom Snyder
- Ralph Story
- Leslie Sykes
- Michelle Tuzee
- Baxter Ward
- Gene Washington
- Bill Weir
Sports programming
Thanks to its shared ownership with ESPN, KABC-TV serves as the primary outlet for broadcasting Monday Night Football games featuring the Los Angeles Rams, beginning in 2016. While KABC-TV handles the Rams’ Monday night matchups, other games are aired across various local stations: KCBS-TV covers NFL on CBS and Thursday night games from 2014 to 2017; KNBC broadcasts NBC Sunday Night Football and NBC Thursday night games during 2016–2017; KTTV handles NFL on Fox and Fox Thursday night games from 2018 to 2021; and KTLA streams Amazon Prime Thursday night games starting in 2022. Additionally, KABC-TV produces the Rams' Saturday evening team shows throughout the regular season. A similar broadcast setup applies to the Los Angeles Chargers following their relocation in 2017.
Between 2017 and 2019, KABC-TV was the official English-language broadcaster for the Chargers, airing preseason contests and weekly magazine programs. In 2021, preseason coverage for the Chargers transitioned to KCBS-TV, while Rams broadcasts continued on KABC-TV under a renewed agreement that includes Saturday night coach’s shows.
KABC-TV is slated to be the host station for Super Bowl LXI in 2027, which will take place at SoFi Stadium located in Inglewood, California.
The station also televises NBA games involving both the Los Angeles Lakers and Los Angeles Clippers, as part of the league’s contract with NBA on ABC. KABC-TV has broadcast Lakers’ NBA Finals appearances in 2004, 2008, 2009, 2010, and 2020, including their championship victories in 2009, 2010, and 2020, as well as their first-ever triumph in the NBA In-Season Tournament in 2023.
From 1976 to 1989 and again during 1994–1995, KABC-TV aired select national MLB on ABC broadcasts featuring both the Los Angeles Dodgers and California/Anaheim Angels, including coverage of the Dodgers’ World Series championship in 1981.
As the local broadcaster for nationally televised NHL on ABC games from 1997 through 2004 and since 2021, KABC-TV airs select matches with both the Los Angeles Kings and Anaheim Ducks.
KABC-TV also served as the official broadcasting station for the 1984 Summer Olympics held in Los Angeles.
In early 2020, prior to suspension of league activities due to the COVID-19 pandemic, KABC-TV aired games for the Los Angeles Wildcats as part of ESPN’s coverage of the revived XFL.
Additional locally produced content
KABC-TV offers a variety of local programming, including Vista L.A., which highlights Latino culture in Southern California, and Eye on L.A., a series that has been on air since the early 1980s. During weekends, the station presents Eyewitness Newsmakers, hosted by Adrienne Alpert. The station’s sports lineup, once known as ABC 7 Sports Zone and previously broadcast from the ESPN Zone in Anaheim, features shows such as Rams Primetime Saturday following Saturday Night college football games. Throughout the NBA season, it airs Slam Dunk Saturday/Sunday after ABC's NBA broadcasts. These programs, formerly recorded at locations like the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, Rose Bowl, and Staples Center, are currently produced at studios in Glendale. Rob Fukuzaki leads the hosting duties, with former Laker Michael Cooper joining during basketball season. This sports show traces its origins to Monday Night Live (1989–2005), which had hosts including Todd Donoho and Bill Weir.
In preparation for ABC’s yearly Academy Awards coverage, KABC-TV produces a live pre- and post-event broadcast titled On the Red Carpet at the Oscars, featuring interviews from the red carpet and fashion analysis. This special is also aired by other ABC owned-and-operated stations and is distributed both nationally and internationally. Between 2010 and 2014, it was expanded into a weekly entertainment news program called On the Red Carpet, with Rachel Smith as host.
In earlier years, KABC-TV aired local productions such as AM Los Angeles, a morning talk show with hosts like Regis Philbin and Steve Edwards. The slot previously held by this show is now occupied by Live with Kelly and Mark, which is produced by sister station WABC-TV in New York. Additionally, Edwards hosted an afternoon program called 330 during the mid-1980s.
KABC-TV debuted The Vampira Show in 1954, starring Maila Nurmi as Vampira, who introduced horror-comedy films. After its cancellation in 1955, Nurmi retained ownership of the character. In 1964, Pinky Lee hosted a local children’s comedy show on KABC-TV that also aired nationally in syndication; however, it lasted only one season due to creative disagreements with producers and management.
The station has also acted as the official broadcast partner for the Kingdom Day Parade held in Crenshaw, Los Angeles.
Subchannels
<section begin=subs />
| License | Channel | Res. | Aspect | Short name | Programming |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| KABC-TV | 7.1 | 720p | 16:9 | KABC-DT | ABC |
| 7.2 | 480i | LOCLish | Localish | ||
| 7.3 | CHARGE! | Charge! | |||
| 7.4 | QVC2 | QVC2 | |||
| KRCA | 62.1 | 720p | KRCA-DT | Estrella TV | |
| 62.2 | 480i | KRCA-2 | Estrella News | ||
| 62.3 | CONFESS | Confess |
<section end=subs />
Translators
- K21MH-D Daggett, California
- K26MW-D Lucerne Valley
- K27ON-D Lucerne Valley
- K30QC-D Ridgecrest, California