Everett/Seattle, Washington United States |
|
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Branding | KONG 6/16 (general) KING 5 News (newscasts) |
Slogan | This is Home |
Channels |
Digital: 31 (UHF) Virtual: 16 () |
Affiliations |
Independent NBC (overflow) |
Owner |
Tegna Media (KONG-TV, Inc.) |
First air date | July 8, 1997 |
Call letters' meaning | Counterpart of KING-TV, as in King Kong, pronounced 'Kong' |
Sister station(s) | KING-TV, KGW, KREM, KSKN, KTVB, KTFT |
Former channel number(s) |
Analog: 16 (UHF, 1997-2009) |
Transmitter power | 700 kW |
Height | 218 m |
Facility ID | 35396 |
Transmitter coordinates | Coordinates: 47°37′55″N 122°21′04″W / 47.631833°N 122.351083°W |
Licensing authority | FCC |
Public license information: |
Profile CDBS |
Website | www |
KONG, virtual channel 16 (UHF digital channel 31), is an independent television station serving Seattle, Washington, United States. Licensed to Everett, Washington, the station is owned by Tegna Media, as part of a duopoly with NBC-affiliated station KING-TV. The two stations share offices and studios at the Home Plate Center in the SoDo district of Seattle, and KONG-TV's transmitter is located in the Queen Anne neighborhood of Seattle.
The station is usually carried on most cable television providers in Western Washington on cable channel 6, next to KING-TV's position on channel 5. KONG's high definition feed is carried by Comcast and Wave Broadband digital on channel 106. The KONG call letters were retained as a tongue-in-cheek reference to King Kong, which made both stations easily marketable together.
The KONG-TV call sign was first granted by the Federal Communications Commission on April 6, 1984. When it was applied for, it immediately drew a legal complaint from King Broadcasting, then-owner of KING-TV, against Carl Washington's KONG TV, Inc., the first broadcaster to apply for a license for Everett's channel 16. The station had planned to go on the air on June 1 of that year, with studios in Everett and an advertising sales office in Seattle, but kept getting bogged down by years of legal challenges from residents on Cougar Mountain who objected to the Electromagnetic radiation from an additional broadcaster. After the legal challenges to the transmitter, KONG lay dormant until broadcasters came up with innovative ways to program additional stations in their area.