KDOC-TV hit the airwaves in October, 1982 and it’s been a fascinating ride ever since.

KDOC was recently purchased on July 1, 2006 by Bert Ellis and Ellis Communications. Ellis Communications will be the second owner of this station since it signed on. While many of the other independent stations in LA have been acquired by the big networks, KDOC has remained one of the few non-affiliated stations in Los Angeles.

The original stockholders of KDOC included entertainers Pat Boone and Jimmy Durante, actor Fess Parker, former FBI agent and Hollywood attorney Bill Simon, and businessman Cal Brack. Cal Brack served as President and CEO and GM of this station from 1982 until the recent sale to Ellis Communications.

KDOC’s first studio building was located at 1730 Clementine Road in Anaheim. The owners always programmed the station with classic family friendly programming, but throughout the years there has been some very notable original programming on KDOC that we can’t quite forget.

Most people would remember KDOC as the home of Wally George. Now he was truly a legend, the “Father of Combat TV”. Wally George and “The Hot Seat” premiered before a live studio audience on KDOC in 1983 and ran continuously as a live show for 20 years until his death in 2003. We would like to hear from all of the thousands of persons who attended these live shows. Wally, sitting before a desk flanked by American flags and 2 burly state troopers with a picture of the Duke hanging on the wall, invited “liberals, perverts and left-wing lunatics” onto the “Hot Seat” stage so he could debate them, which in many cases, meant he could insult, berate and throw them off the stage to huge applause from the audience. Wally’s “Hot Seat” even made the news after the Anaheim Police were called to the station. All hell had broken loose when his guest, the very outspoken Tom Metzker, a Grand Dragon of the KKK, was unceremoniously ousted. Jerry Springer, Morton Downey Jr. and innumerable radio talk show hosts owe their illustrious careers to KDOC and Wally George. We are collecting Wally George stories from the thousands of persons who attended these live shows over the years. If you have a personal story, please send it to us at WallyGeorge@kdoctv.net. We will be compiling the best of these stories and posting them on our site.

Riding on the success of music videos, KDOC produced “Request Video,” the forerunner to MTV’s “TRL.” Viewers called and faxed in the videos they wanted to see. The shows often featured celebrity guests, a studio audience and live concerts from famous performers such as Tommy Lee, Alice Cooper, Ice T, and Kenny Rogers that rocked - literally shaking the station. These were but a few of the performers who walked the halls at KDOC as a part of “Request Video.” Legend has it that Kenny Rogers, being unable to erase the messages left for him on the KDOC answering machine during the taping of his episode, took the device as a parting gift.

In 1995, KDOC moved to its current 30,000 square foot studio at 18021 Cowan Street in Irvine very near John Wayne Airport. In 2004, KDOC relocated its transmission facilities from Sunset Ridge to Mt Wilson, the main tower farm and transmission site for all of the major LA television stations. The KDOC signal covers the entire DMA from Ventura to San Diego counties and is carried on all cable systems serving the DMA primarily on channels 6, 12, 19 or 29. KDOC is also carried in the broadcast band on both DirecTV (channel 56) and Dish (channel 56).

Ellis Communications will continue to program KDOC with classic television shows such as Hawaii 5-0, Twilight Zone, Rockford Files, Quincy M.E., Charlie’s Angels, Hogan’s Heroes, Johnny Carson and other great shows. KDOC will also air Anaheim Ducks hockey games, great high school football match-ups and other local sports. KDOC will be an active member of the local community and will always be looking for the right local shows to add to the line-up.

Please send us your comments and stories about KDOC and any suggestions you have for programming, we always love to hear from our loyal fans.

For more information: info@kdoc.tv