California

Doctor Who aired in these cities, on these channels:

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San Francisco

KRON

Channel 4 (NBC)

• 22 September 1973: Doctor Who debuts with the Jon Pertwee stories, Saturdays at 6:30pm.

Oakland Tribune, Sept. 19, 1973

TV listing for KRON, 1974

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KQED

Channel 9 (PBS)

• 1980s: aired Wednesdays 8.00-8.30pm and Saturday night marathons (credits in tact)

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Los Angeles

KCET

Channel 28 (PBS)

• 1 July 1975: Doctor Who makes its Californian debut on channel 28 on 1 July 1975 (screening daily at 7.30pm), with the Jon Pertwee stories. (The LA Times billings describes the Doctor as being an "eccentric secret agent"!)

• The Mind of Evil screens from 23 December 1975 to 3 February 1976; off-air video recordings from episode six made by Tom Lundy become the only existing colour recording of the serial, which exists in the BBC archives only as black and white film prints.

• April 1976: The Daemons airs. Off-air video-recordings of the transmissions later enable the BBC to restore the serial to colour.

Dr Who Debuts! 1 July 1975	The Ambassadors of Death, August 1975	Inferno, Part 7, 18 November 1975	LA Times, 1 July 1975
The Mind of Evil, Part 1, 23 December 1975	The Mind of Evil, Part 6, 3 February 1976	The Claws of Axos, Part 1, 17 February 1976
The Claws of Axos, Part 4, 9 March 1976	The Daemons, Part 1, 23 March 1976	The Daemons, April 1976

• The series is dropped in late 1976, and is not picked up again by KCET until 1983. (During the hiatus, KBSC screens the Tom Baker series – see below.)

• 1983: After a six year break, KCET picks up Doctor Who again with the nationwide screening of The Five Doctors on 23 November 1983.

• February 1984: The Tom Baker stories commence their run, and air for several years on a repeat cycle.

• 1984: The reissued 14 colour Jon Pertwee stories air.
• 1986-1987: Omnibus editions air, Saturdays, usually 1.00 to 2.30pm.
• 1987: The Peter Davison stories air.

• 9 October 1987: Sylvester McCoy visits with the Doctor Who Tour (parked at Plummer Park, on Santa Monica Boulevarde).

• 31 October 1987: The Colin Baker stories commence. During 1987, the series screened Saturdays, at 1.00pm.

• 1988: The 24 repackaged Jon Pertwee stories aired, with a repeat in 1991.

• 1989: The first run of Sylvester McCoy stories airs.
• 1990: Compilation editions air Saturday mornings, sometimes from 10.50am.
• 1992: During 1992, the series airs in omnibus editions from 9.00am to 10.30am on Saturday mornings.

• 1993: The repackaged William Hartnell stories air - with the exception of Inside the Spaceship.

• 1993: During 1993, the series airs in 90 minute omnibus editions from 8.00am to 9.30am on Saturday mornings, although in November and December, the timeslot is reduced to only one hour.

• December 1993: KCET drops Doctor Who.

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KBSC

Listing for the first airing on KBSC, 2 Oct 1979 (Los Angeles Times)

Listing for the first airing on KBSC, 2 Oct 1979 (Los Angeles Times)

Channel 52 (independent)

• 2 October 1978: Aired Doctor Who from 2 October, playing the series weeknights - often out of sequence - for at least THREE runs into the early 1980s, before dropping the series when the station changed into a Spanish language station.

• During 1979, the series aired ten times a week in the early evenings.

• The Talons of Weng-Chiang was pulled after its first airing due to complaints from the Asian-American community. (Shaun Lyon, Chicago TARDIS, Nov. 28, 2010)

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LA Fandom

• 1 December 1979: Tom Baker, Graham Williams, Terrance Dicks and Barry Letts attend the first ever US Doctor Who convention in Los Angeles.

• A full account of the History of Doctor Who Fandom in Los Angeles can be read HERE.

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Los Angeles Underground

• On the tiles decorating the 7th Street / Metro Center station of the Los Angeles Metro underground train system, can be found a number of very familiar creatures....

7th Street/Metro Centre Tiles

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San Diego

KGTV

Channel 10 (NBC)

• 1974: The Jon Pertwee stories commenced in 1974.

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Redding

KIXE

Channel 9 (PBS)

• 15 April 1981: The Tom Baker stories begin, Wednesdays at 8pm.

• 1988: The 24 repackaged Jon Pertwee stories aired circa 1988.

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Sacramento

KVIE

Channel 6 (PBS)

• PROMOS / PLEDGES: Sacramento Pledge Drives (ph 916-929-5843)

• 1987: The Tom Baker stories air; The Deadly Assassin screens on 14 March 1987.

• 1989: The 24 repackaged Jon Pertwee stories aired.

• 1990s: KVIE produces its own on-air introductions for the Hartnell and Troughton episodes, featuring station staff and volunteers, usually in costume. Often the intros explained what had happened to the regular characters in the stories that could not be screened (i.e they were missing or incomplete).

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San Jose

KTEH ad promoting Doctor Who and a special interview with John Nathan-Turner

Happy Birthday to WHO!' TV Guide, November 1983

KTEH

Channel 54 (PBS) (also available in Santa Cruz)

• 13 April 1981: Doctor Who commences its run on KTEH, five days a week; KTEH is the third station in the Bay Area to screen the series.

• 1982: Omnibus versions commenced on Saturday nights while episodes continue to run daily.

• By mid 1983: The Peter Davison stories begin screening Saturday nights to lead in to the networked screening of The Five Doctors on 23 November 1983.

• At 8.10pm (on 23 November 1983?) channel 54 screened a 40 minute Interview with Tom Baker.

• 23 November 1983: The Five Doctors airs, at 8.50pm.

• 1984: The 14 available full colour Jon Pertwee stories air. The series airs weeknights at 7.30pm, with an Omnibus "movie" edition on Saturdays at 11.15pm.

• KTEH generally airs two 'movie' compilations per week.

• 1985: The repackaged colour / black and white Jon Pertwee stories air around this time, and repeated in 1991 and 1992.

• 16 September 1985: The Tom Baker stories are recycled again, weekdays at 7.30pm. Omnibus editions also screen Saturday evening (Nightmare of Eden screened 14 September 1985.)

• 1986: The Colin Baker stories and repackaged 17 William Hartnell stories air.

• February 1987: The repackaged five Patrick Troughton stories screen. The War Games screens the very week that Troughton dies in Columbus, Georgia.

• November 1988: The Sylvester McCoy stories go to air.

• 1992: The recently recovered The Tomb of the Cybermen screens.

• January 2003: KTEH's almost uninterrupted run of Doctor Who came to an end in January of this year.

• A more detailed account of KTEH's broadcast history of Doctor Who can be found HERE

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Links

• United States