KZJO

History

The station began broadcasting as KTZZ-TV on June 22, 1985. The call letters stood for Television 22, the Zs closely resembling numeral 2s. At that time there was a hole in the market for cartoons and sitcoms. While KSTW (channel 11) was running such programming, KCPQ counter-programmed with more adult fare like dramas, game shows, and movies. As such, KTZZ signed on with a lineup of classic off-network sitcoms, westerns, cartoons, movies, and dramas. Initially the station was profitable under the ownership of Alden Television, Inc. Originally, to keep people from changing channels, the station broadcast only its station identification—no commercials—between the closing credits of one show and the opening credits of the next show. One Christmas season, as snow fell in the Puget Sound area, viewers were treated to a gag in which someone pretending to be a janitor (Rob Thielke) takes control of the station for a few moments to deliver "the news" which was mostly a fake weather forecast which began "The weather outside is frightful. But inside it's quite delightful. As long as I've got no place to go, let it snow, let it snow, let it snow."

KTZZ began with a very promising start with fairly strong syndicated shows. A couple years later (1989), the station was sold to Dudley Broadcasting. By 1988, KCPQ and KSTW had strong lineups, including much of the children's programming available. KTZZ was losing ground and unable to acquire strong off-network syndicated shows. With KCPQ now in the kids business, the best cartoons were now airing on KSTW and KCPQ, leaving KTZZ with leftovers (which still was about 5 hours worth of cartoons a day). KTZZ was also the home, for several years, of the eclectic Seattle talk show The Spud Goodman Show. Producing the weekly interview/music/feature show was an ambitious undertaking for a small station, and the program relied heavily on a large staff of volunteers. The programming costs became too high for KTZZ. As a result, KTZZ began airing CBS shows pre-empted by KIRO-TV (channel 7), along with paid programming and brokered shows. It still ran some conventional syndicated product, but they were essentially programs that no other stations wanted.

In January 1995, KTZZ affiliated with The WB Television Network. The WB had initially signed KSTW in 1993 as its Seattle affiliate; however, that station's owner, Gaylord Broadcasting, backed out of the deal a year later to affiliate with CBS. KTZZ picked up syndicated cartoons formerly on KSTW in 1995, added more off-network sitcoms and moved away from the brokered format. As it began airing programming from The WB, KTZZ was helped in part by the fact that KCPQ was moving towards news and more first-run syndicated talk, courtroom, and drama shows.

Dudley Communications sold KTZZ, along with sister station WXMI in Grand Rapids, Michigan, to Emmis Communications in 1998; the two stations were then promptly dealt to Tribune Broadcasting in exchange for WQCD in New York City. Tribune changed the station's call letters to KTWB-TV (The Warner Brothers Network) on April 26, 1999. After Tribune acquired KCPQ in early 1999, KTWB's license was transferred to a trustee in the short-term until the FCC's approval of television duopolies later that year, though Tribune managed and operated the station during this period via a local marketing agreement. In 2004, KTWB revised its on-air brand from WB 22 to Seattle's WB as part of a groupwide branding effort.

MyNetworkTV affiliation

On January 24, 2006, Time Warner announced that the company would merge the operations of The WB with CBS Corporation's UPN (which CBS acquired one month earlier in December 2005 following its split from Viacom), to form a joint venture called The CW Television Network. The network signed a ten-year affiliation agreement with Tribune Broadcasting for 13 of the 16 WB affiliates that the company owned at the time. KTWB was one of the three Tribune stations passed over for an affiliation as CBS-owned UPN affiliate KSTW (which was included in 11 of 14 CBS-owned UPN affiliates) was chosen as The CW's Seattle-Tacoma charter station. KTWB was slated to revert to an independent station, but on May 15, 2006, Tribune announced that it would affiliate channel 22 (and two other WB affiliates that were not included in the CW affiliation deal) with MyNetworkTV, a competing network created by News Corporation that is run by the company's Fox Television Stations and Twentieth Television units.

On July 14, 2006, channel 22's call letters were officially changed to KMYQ to reflect its new affiliation, and the station's brand name was changed to myQ² (alluding to its parent station, KCPQ, which brands as Q13 Fox) on August 7, 2006. On March 31, 2008, KMYQ became just the second MyNetworkTV affiliate in the Pacific Time Zone to utilize an early primetime schedule from 7–9 p.m. (the first was KQCA/Sacramento, which has since moved MyNetworkTV programming back to its recommended 8–10 p.m. timeslot).

On September 13, 2010, the station moved its MyNetworkTV programming to 11 pm. KMYQ changed its call letters to KZJO and rebranded as JOEtv during Tribune's private equity ownership era; the branding remains, though the 'casual' elements of it have been completely played down. On September 19, 2011, the station moved MyNetworkTV programming yet again, this time, back one hour to 12 a.m. As of the 2015-16 season it airs even later, from 1 a.m. to 3 a.m. and is rarely promoted on air, if at all, to the point that the station's website says erroneously it dropped the network, though this is not the case and MyNetworkTV continues to air in that latter time slot.

KMYQ/KZJO aired Monday Night Football games featuring the Seattle Seahawks from 2006 (following MNF's move from ABC to ESPN) to 2012, when Belo outbid Tribune for rights to the MNF and NFL Network Thursday Night Football Seahawks games and placed them on KONG.

Analog-to-digital conversion

KZJO (as KMYQ) shut down its analog signal, over UHF channel 22, on June 12, 2009, as part of the mandatory federally mandated transition from analog to digital television. The station's digital signal remained on its pre-transition UHF channel 25, using PSIP to display KZJO's virtual channel as 22 on digital television receivers.

Newscasts

On September 16, 1991, KTZZ-TV launched a 10 p.m. newscast produced by KIRO-TV. The newscast was joined on April 19, 1993 by a simulcast of the 5–7 a.m. portion of KIRO-AM-FM's morning show. Both programs were dropped later that year. On March 31, 2008, KMYQ began airing a KCPQ-produced 9 p.m. newscast ("Q13 Fox News @ Nine on myQ²", now called "Q13 Fox News @ Nine on JOEtv") Monday through Sunday.

Translators

KZJO is rebroadcast on the following translator stations: