| ATSC 3.0 station | |
|---|---|
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| |
| City | Everett, Washington |
| Channels | |
| Branding | KONG |
| Programming | |
| Affiliations |
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| Ownership | |
| Owner |
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| KING-TV | |
| History | |
First air date | July 7, 1997 |
Former channel number(s) |
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Call sign meaning | Counterpart of KING, as in King Kong; call sign chosen in 1984, years before KING programmed the station |
| Technical information[1] | |
Licensing authority | FCC |
| Facility ID | 35396 |
| ERP | 715 kW |
| HAAT | 232 m (761 ft) |
| Transmitter coordinates | 47°37′54″N 122°21′3″W / 47.63167°N 122.35083°W |
| Links | |
Public license information | |
| Website | www |
KONG (channel 16) is an independent television station licensed to Everett, Washington, United States, serving the Seattle area. It is owned by Tegna Inc. alongside NBC affiliate KING-TV (channel 5). The two stations share studios at the Home Plate Center in the SoDo district of Seattle; KONG's transmitter is located in the city's Queen Anne neighborhood.
Plans for KONG dated as far back as the early 1980s, when a San Francisco–based investor group obtained the construction permit for a new station in Everett. The group secured the call sign KONG—over threats by KING-TV to sue—and set up a studio, but the station never launched. A dispute over the tower site on Cougar Mountain and difficulty securing financing scuttled the project. The permit was sold to Zeus Corporation of Washington and lay dormant until KING-TV agreed to program the new station in 1996. KONG went on the air in 1997, relying heavily on classic TV series for its programming. It has become a secondary conduit for local news and sports programming from KING-TV; the first newscast on KONG debuted in 1999, and over the years, teams including the Seattle Sonics, Seattle Storm, and Seattle Sounders FC aired their games on KONG. Presently, the station is the broadcast home for Seattle Reign FC and the Seattle Kraken. It is one of two ATSC 3.0 stations in the Seattle market.
- ^ "Facility Technical Data for KONG". Licensing and Management System. Federal Communications Commission.