KOMO

KOMO-TV, "KOMO 4" is a television station in Seattle, Washington. It is affiliated with the ABC network. It broadcasts on analog channel 4 and digital channel 38.

History

KOMO-TV has set many broadcast "firsts" in the industry. In 1957, a KOMO news photographer discovered a way to develop color film in a new process that took just a couple hours instead of days. His discovery allowed KOMO-TV to become the first TV station in the nation to broadcast in true color.

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In 1985, KOMO became the first TV station to broadcast daily programming in full stereo sound.

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In 1994, KOMO applied for the first test license for broadcasting new high-definition signals. KOMO began broadcasting HDTV in 1997, and on May 18th, 1999, KOMO became the first TV station in America to broadcast its daily newscasts in HDTV.

Related Topics:
1994 - 1997 - 1999

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KOMO nearly lost one of its own in the catastrophic eruption of Mount St. Helens on May 18th, 1980. Dave Crockett, who had been with KOMO since 1975, had been covering the mountain every day for three weeks until being rotated out a few days prior. On the morning of May 18th, he woke up at 3AM in Seattle on a hunch that he would get some impressive video that day, and loaded up his news car and headed towards Mount St. Helens without anyone at KOMO knowing about it. He arrived at the mountain just as it was erupting. His news video, which shows an advancing ash cloud and mud flows down the South Fork Toutle River, was made famous by its eleven-minute long "journey into the dark", six of those minutes of which were recorded in "total darkness" as Crockett narrated to what he thought would be his "last day on Earth."

Related Topics:
Mount St. Helens - 1980

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His video made worldwide news and was used in a movie remake of the disaster starring Art Carney. The car he drove, with the remains of KOMO lettering still visible, is now a part of a Mount St. Helens Volcano Museum just ouside Toutle.

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KOMO anchors Dan Lewis, Kathi Goertzen, and weather anchor Steve Pool have the third-longest running tenure out of any anchor team in America. Steve Pool has been at KOMO since 1977, and Kathi Goertzen joined KOMO-TV just after the Mount St. Helens eruption in 1980. Dan Lewis, who had just finished working at WJLA in Washington DC, came to KOMO in 1987 to replace retiring news anchor Jim Harriott.

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