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KRON-TV

KRON-TV (channel 4) is a television station licensed to San Francisco, California, United States, serving as the San Francisco Bay Area's outlet for The CW. The station also maintains a secondary affiliation with MyNetworkTV (which airs its programming during overnight hours ). Owned and operated by The CW's majority owner, Nexstar Media Group, KRON-TV has studios on Front Street in the city's historic Northeast Waterfront, in the same building as ABC owned-and-operated station KGO-TV, channel 7 (but with completely separate operations from that station). The transmitting antenna is located atop Sutro Tower in San Francisco.

NBC affiliation (1949–2001)
In 1948, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) authorized a construction permit by the Chronicle Publishing Company, publishers of the San Francisco Chronicle daily newspaper, for a new television station in San Francisco, KRON-TV. Chronicle Publishing was founded by brothers Charles and Michael de Young. The company already owned radio station KRON-FM.

Managed by Michael de Young's grandson Charles de Young Thieriot, KRON signed on the air on November 15, 1949, as a full-time NBC affiliate. Its opening night program schedule included a special about San Francisco entertainment followed by the usual NBC prime time lineup of the Texaco Star Theater with Milton Berle, The Life of Riley, Mohawk Showroom, and The Chesterfield Supper Club. KRON-TV was the third television outlet in the Bay Area behind KGO-TV (channel 7) and KPIX-TV (channel 5), all going on the air within a year, and the last license before the FCC placed a moratorium on new television station licenses that would last the next four years.

KRON-TV originally broadcast from studios located in the basement of the Chronicle Building at Fifth and Mission Streets. Newscasts benefited from the resources of the Chronicle and there was cooperation between KRON-TV and the newspaper. It originally maintained transmitter facilities, master control and a small insert studio on San Bruno Mountain. In August 1959, the Chronicle reported that the tower was severely damaged by an unusually strong thunderstorm, requiring major repairs before KRON-TV could return to the air. In 1960, NBC attempted to purchase its own station in the Bay Area, when they attempted to buy KTVU. The sale was canceled that October due to pre-existing concerns over the sale cited by the FCC that were related to NBC's ownership of radio and television stations in Philadelphia; as a result, NBC stayed with KRON-TV.

In the early 1960s, KRON's profits were keeping the Chronicle Publishing Company financially solvent at a time when the San Francisco Chronicle was losing money, around $3 million from 1958 to 1965. In 1967, KRON-FM-TV moved to a new studio at 1001 Van Ness Avenue in the Western Addition neighborhood (a location that formerly served as the site of the Roman Catholic cathedral of San Francisco). The television transmitter was moved to Sutro Tower on July 4, 1973, while the FM transmitter remained on San Bruno Mountain.

Since the 1970s, KRON's logo has incorporated a stylized number "4" design that is based on the Golden Gate Bridge. The vertical component is a bridge tower, the horizontal component is a portion of the bridge deck, and the curve is a portion of a suspension cable. This logo was used as early as April 1974, during coverage of a Symbionese Liberation Army bank robbery. By about 1991, this evolved into the "circle 4" logo in use to this day, with the "4" using a simpler bridge design.

In 1982, the deYoung family's Chronicle Publishing Company unit discussed a possible trade of KRON-TV to the Gannett Company (whose broadcasting division is now part of Tegna) in exchange for acquiring Gannett's Oklahoma City station KOCO-TV, plus an additional $100 million. The proposal ultimately fell apart by September 1983.

Sale to Young Broadcasting
On June 16, 1999, the deYoung family announced the liquidation of Chronicle Publishing's assets. By this point, the deYoungs owned three television stations (including KRON) in large and mid-sized media markets around the country, two of which were sold off to LIN TV (which traded KAKE-TV in Wichita and WOWT in Omaha to Benedek Broadcasting in turn). The San Francisco Chronicle, meanwhile, was acquired by the Hearst Corporation in a $295 million deal in October of that year.

NBC had made many offers for channel 4 over the years, but the deYoungs turned them down each time. It finally saw the opportunity to get an owned-and-operated station in what was then the United States' fifth-largest television market and quickly jumped into the bidding war for KRON. NBC was seen as the frontrunner to buy the station, but it was outbid at the last minute on November 16, 1999. KRON was bought by New York City-based Young Broadcasting, then-owner of Los Angeles independent station KCAL-TV and several other stations in medium to small markets. Young's purchase price for the station ($750 million at the outset, rising to $820 million by closing) was a record price for a single station that stands to this day. To help finance the down payment, Young was forced to sell La Crosse, Wisconsin, CBS affiliate WKBT to Morgan Murphy Media.

NBC president and chief executive officer Bob Wright had warned that if NBC did not succeed in buying KRON, it would require any prospective buyer to uphold specific terms if it wanted to retain the NBC affiliation. Wright did not rule out moving NBC's Bay Area affiliation elsewhere. When Young closed on its purchase of channel 4, NBC made good on these threats by demanding that Young operate KRON under the same conventions as an NBC owned-and-operated outlet. Among other things, it demanded that KRON change its on-air name to "NBC 4" and run the network's entire schedule in pattern (reducing prime time preemptions due to local programming from 20 hours to five hours a year). Preemptions would only be permitted for extended breaking news or severe weather coverage. NBC also demanded yearly payments of $10 million from Young, a form of reverse compensation, flipping around the then-normal mode of networks paying their affiliates for their airtime. (in turn, NBC would stop making annual payments to KRON of $7.5 million to carry the network's programming). Young would also have to give NBC the first option on the programming of additional subchannels on the station's digital signal.

Rather than give in to NBC's demands, Young decided not to renew channel 4's affiliation contract, which was set to expire at the beginning of 2002. San Jose-based KNTV channel 11 approached NBC with a proposal to pay $37 million annually for the rights to broadcast its programming. In 1999, KNTV joined The WB in conjunction with the network's existing Bay Area affiliate, then co-owned KBWB (channel 20, now KOFY-TV). KNTV agreed to drop its ABC affiliation at the behest of network-owned KGO-TV, the market's primary ABC station. NBC accepted KNTV's deal in February 2000. It did so primarily as a stopgap in case NBC failed in its bid to buy KRON from Young.

However, Young's asking price for the station was $735 million, only slightly less than what it paid to buy the station from Chronicle. NBC felt that price was too high, and walked away from the deal when Young refused to lower it.

In December 2001, NBC purchased KNTV from Granite Broadcasting for a fraction of KRON's sale price of $230 million. That made NBC the only major broadcast network to have switched from one Bay Area station to another. The last NBC program to be broadcast by channel 4 was a repeat episode of Crossing Jordan, at 10 p.m. on December 31, 2001. KNTV officially joined NBC later that evening at 11:35 p.m. with the regular broadcast of The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. That ended KRON-TV's 52-year affiliation with the NBC network.

Independent station (2001–2006)
January 1, 2002, was KRON's first full day as an independent station. That morning, KRON broadcast the Rose Parade from the feed of Los Angeles station KTLA (then affiliated with The WB), with Bob Eubanks and Stephanie Edwards as co-hosts.

With ABC, CBS, UPN and now NBC carrying their programming locally on owned-and-operated stations (KGO-TV, KPIX, KBHK—channel 44, now KPYX—and KNTV, respectively), and Fox and The WB under contract with KTVU and KBWB, respectively, KRON-TV became an independent station by default. The station filled time slots formerly occupied by NBC shows with syndicated programming and expanded newscasts. The NBC network was near the top of the ratings nationally at the time of the disaffiliation, due to strong shows such as Friends, Frasier, Law & Order and ER. Without those NBC shows, KRON's ratings started to decline. The viewership of its newscasts began to fall substantially by the time the station regained a network affiliation.

In 2005, KRON downsized its news production staff to send teams of two people, specifically a reporter and camera operator, to generate news stories on scene. SF Weekly reported in 2006 that KRON was the first major-market television station to make such a decision and commented, "the results at times are more akin to home movies than news programming broadcast to the nation's sixth-largest TV market."

MyNetworkTV affiliation (2006–2023)
On February 22, 2006, News Corporation announced the launch of MyNetworkTV. The network was created partly in response to CBS Corporation and Time Warner's January 24 announcement that UPN and The WB would be shut down and replaced with the jointly-owned CW Television Network. (CBS-owned UPN affiliate KBHK, whose call sign became KBCW by the network's launch, was named The CW's Bay Area affiliate. WB affiliate KBWB became an independent station.) KRON-TV became a MyNetworkTV affiliate when it debuted on September 5, 2006. (It is currently one of the largest MyNetworkTV-affiliated stations not to previously have been an affiliate of either The WB or UPN, second only to the network's Dallas O&O KDFI.) KRON began branding itself as "MyKRON 4" for MyNetworkTV programming, although it continues to promote itself as "KRON 4" outside of the service's programming hours. After joining MyNetworkTV, the station moved its hour-long 9p.m. newscast to 8p.m. It chose to run the fledgling network's programming from 9 to 11p.m., one hour later than MyNetworkTV's standard 8 to 10p.m. scheduling in the Pacific Time Zone. As of December 2020, MyNetworkTV programming airs from midnight to 2 a.m.

Young Broadcasting bankruptcy
On January 10, 2008, Young Broadcasting announced it would sell KRON-TV. The company had been encountering difficulties in meeting interest payments on its outstanding debt. Young's stock, which had been trading for a few cents per share, was ultimately delisted from NASDAQ in January 2009, after failing to meet the minimum standards for being on the exchange. One month later on February 13, Young made a filing to place the company under Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. Debt incurred from its 1999 purchase of KRON was believed to be one key factor behind the company's cash problems. Young originally hoped to close a sale of the station by the end of the first quarter of 2008, but no buyer emerged.

On February 13, 2009, the company declared Chapter 11 bankruptcy. At the last minute, Young canceled a planned auction of all 10 of its stations five months later on July 14, a move believed to have been made due to a lack of suitable bids. Instead of auctioning off the stations, Young and its secured lenders reached a deal where the lenders (among them Wachovia and Credit Suisse) would take control of the company, and Gray Television would manage seven of Young's ten stations. KRON, WATE-TV in Knoxville, Tennessee, and WLNS-TV in Lansing, Michigan (the latter two, unlike KRON, compete with Gray-owned stations in their respective markets), were the only stations not included in the management deal.

In February 2010, Young discussed the possibility of entering into a shared services agreement (SSA) with KNTV's owner NBCUniversal. That year, KRON informally reunited with NBC as it began to carry network programs during sports programming and breaking news events that force their preemptions on KNTV. (This responsibility as a backup NBC affiliate was assumed by KNTV's Cozi TV-affiliated second digital subchannel in 2014.)

Station management announced at a November 2011 meeting that no such agreement would take place, and that KRON would instead relocate to a smaller, state-of-the-art facility within the next year to year-and-a-half. A week later, it was also announced the station's master control operations would be operated remotely from Atlanta beginning in mid-January 2012. The move to new studios, and plans to operate master control from Atlanta, were scrapped by June 2012.

Acquisitions by Media General, then Nexstar
On June 6, 2013, Media General announced it would acquire Young Broadcasting in an all-stock deal. The merger was completed on November 12, 2013. The move made KRON-TV the largest station by market size owned by Media General as well as the company's only station west of the Rocky Mountains until Media General acquired LIN Media, including Portland station KOIN in 2014. (Most of Media General's television stations were in the Southeastern, Midwestern and Northeastern United States.)

On February 10, 2014, Media General announced that KRON-TV would move into leased space on the third floor of KGO-TV's building (ABC Broadcast Center) at 900 Front Street, in space formerly occupied by radio stations KGO and KSFO. KRON-TV's studios at 1001 Van Ness Avenue would then be put up for sale; it was later demolished in 2019 to make way for a new assisted living facility for elderly people. Despite the colocation, KRON-TV maintains separate broadcast facilities from KGO-TV and employs a completely separate staff. Each station's employees are restricted by keycards from entering the other's facilities.

In June 2014, Fox Television Stations announced it would acquire KTVU and KICU-TV in a trade with Cox Media Group in exchange for that company's stations in Boston and Memphis. Prior to the announcement it was rumored that Fox had considered buying KRON-TV and moving Fox network programming to channel 4. (Had Fox actually acquired KRON-TV, this would have made it one of the two major networks in the Bay Area, along with NBC, to switch from one station to another.) Fox completed its acquisition of KTVU and KICU-TV on October 8, 2014; despite MyNetworkTV being operated by Fox Television Stations,, KRON-TV remains an affiliate of the service.

On January 27, 2016, Nexstar Broadcasting Group announced that it had reached an agreement to acquire Media General. The transaction was consummated on January 17, 2017, and with it, KRON became part of the Nexstar Media Group.

CW affiliation (2023–present)
In May 2023, CBS News and Stations announced that its CW affiliates, including San Francisco station KBCW (now KPYX), would cease their affiliation with the network in September and become independent stations. Nexstar Media Group announced on June 14 that KRON would take over the CW affiliation for the San Francisco market on September 1.

Programming
Until the late 1970s, KRON-TV was known for being very San Francisco-centric in its news coverage and audience targeting, an approach that would become costly to the station as population growth in areas outside San Francisco soared. Realizing this and refocusing on the entire market enabled KRON-TV to become the dominant station in the Bay Area.

Syndicated programs
As of September 2023, syndicated programming on KRON-TV includes Inside Edition, Entertainment Tonight and Hot Bench, all of which are distributed by corporate cousin CBS Media Ventures. During the 1980s, KRON continued its dominance by airing top-rated syndicated programs, including the Merv Griffin-produced game shows Jeopardy! and Wheel of Fortune (the original NBC daytime versions of both series also aired on KRON), as well as Entertainment Tonight. The game show pair was moved to ABC-owned KGO-TV in February 1992—seven months ahead of schedule—as a direct result of KRON's experiment with its early prime time schedule that year.

Past programming preemptions and deferrals
For most of its tenure with NBC, KRON was the network's second-largest affiliate (behind only KYW-TV in Philadelphia) and its largest on the West Coast. Despite this, KRON occasionally preempted NBC programming. One notable omission was Another World, which would eventually air on the station in the early 1990s; KRON's decision to drop the daytime soap opera in the summer of 1998 (leaving Days of Our Lives and the struggling Sunset Beach as the only network soaps on its schedule) is thought to have hastened NBC's decision to cancel it altogether a year later. Two NBC daytime game shows, 50 Grand Slam and Just Men!, were never seen in the Bay Area. KRON also did not air NBC's soap operas in pattern (for example, KRON-TV aired Days of Our Lives after Another World, rather than the standard slot for NBC affiliates in the Pacific Time Zone—at 2 or 3 p.m. depending on the season and time slot). Channel 4 also preempted some of the network's prime time programs. Similar to fellow NBC station KCRA-TV in neighboring Sacramento, KRON-TV stopped airing the Saturday morning TNBC lineup in the early 1990s. Historically, NBC was far less tolerant of preemptions than the other networks, but has recently eased its standards. The network would resort to purchasing stations for the sole purpose of switching or upgrading them to O&O status because of this (Miami's WTVJ and Salt Lake City's KUTV are two such examples) or would find independent stations to air NBC programs that the main affiliate did not air. In the case of KRON, many of the shows it preempted ended up on independent KICU-TV. NBC had a somewhat contentious relationship with KRON, especially since it often lost valuable advertising in one of the nation's largest markets. However, it had little reason to complain about its ratings performance in the Bay Area, as channel 4 was one of NBC's strongest affiliates for the better part of a half-century. A shuffle of network affiliations around the country (and NBC's acquisition of some stations in markets larger than San Francisco) in the mid-1990s made channel 4 NBC's largest affiliate.

Early prime time scheduling experiment
From February 1992 to September 1993, KRON-TV, along with KCRA-TV, participated in the "Early Prime" experiment in which prime time programs aired one hour earlier (mirroring the scheduling of the network's prime time lineup in the Central and Mountain time zones), the half-hour late evening newscast also moved from 11 to 10 p.m. as a result. While KRON moved NBC's prime time programming back to the 8–11 p.m. timeslot in September 1993, CBS affiliate KPIX, who adopted the early prime time schedule at the same time as KRON, continued with the experiment until 1998—well after it had become owned by the network through CBS's 1994 acquisition by KPIX's then-owner Westinghouse. Though both KRON and KPIX initially ran hour-long newscasts at 10p.m. (KRON switched to a half-hour within months), neither were able to beat Fox affiliate KTVU, due to that station's longtime dominance in the 10 o'clock hour that continues to this day.

Sports programming
In 1965, KRON-TV began broadcasting most Oakland Raiders games, which were at first part of the American Football League, which had a contract with NBC from 1965 to 1969, and then the National Football League's American Football Conference, which inherited the AFL's deal with NBC from 1970 to 1997 (the Raiders relocated to Los Angeles in 1982, stripping KRON of its status as the team's home station until they returned to Oakland in 1995; the station then served as the unofficial home station until 1997). KRON aired coverage of the Raiders' victories in Super Bowl XI and Super Bowl XV. In 2021, KRON-TV became the now Las Vegas Raiders' official Bay Area home station for pre-season games and special programming.

In addition, during those same years (1970–1997), KRON-TV also aired select San Francisco 49ers games whenever they played host to an AFC opponent at Candlestick Park (the station aired the team's victory in Super Bowl XXIII in January 1989).

In 1993, Channel 4 became the flagship station of the Oakland Athletics, after acquiring broadcast rights to the Major League Baseball team's games. This caused a problem in 1996, when the final day of the U.S. Olympic track and field trials conflicted with a scheduled Athletics broadcast. Since KRON-TV was contractually obligated to show the baseball game live, it rebroadcast the trials at midnight. KRON lost the Athletics' television rights following the team's 1998 season. Both select Oakland A's and San Francisco Giants games were aired as part of NBC's broadcast contract with Major League Baseball from 1957 to 1989, including the A's string of three consecutive World Series victories in 1972, 1973, and 1974.

New Year's Live
From 1989 until January 2008, KRON-TV produced a countdown program called New Year's Live, which aired on New Year's Eve (sometimes beginning at 11p.m.) and continued into New Year's Day (sometimes ending at 1a.m.). Events in San Francisco were the focal point of KRON's coverage, especially the midnight fireworks show near the Ferry Building. Other West Coast television stations joined KRON in some years (including KCAL-TV in Los Angeles, KING-TV in Seattle, KCRA in Sacramento, KNSD in San Diego and KLAS-TV in Las Vegas in December 1990), featuring midnight countdown events in other cities, such as Las Vegas casinos and at the Seattle Space Needle. Former KRON weather anchor Mark Thompson served as the host during the program's early years. New Year's Live returned to KRON in December 2010 as an hour-long broadcast, hosted by Catherine Heenan and George Rask in-studio, with live reports from Henry Tenenbaum at Pier 39 and Vicki Liviakis at Waterbar on the Embarcadero. Starting in 2011, Gary Radnich joined Heenan as host at various locations in San Francisco each year.

Other local programming
KRON-TV also produces two locally-produced programs outside of local newscasts: Bay Area Living – Home Improvement Edition and LIVE! in the Bay. Past local programs include Bay Area Backroads, Bay Cafe, Henry's Home & Garden, Latin Eyes, Pacific Fusion, Bay Area Bargains, The Silver Lining; and several series and featured news segments that were developed by Jim Swanson, executive producer including Bay Area Bargains – Green Edition; Bay Area Living – Seniors Edition; KRON 4's Body Beautiful; KRON 4's Casino Adventures; Don't Invest and Forget; Health and Beauty with Dr Sonia; Living Green with Petersen Dean; KRON 4's Medical Mondays; KRON 4's Peninsula Beauty; KRON 4's Sizzling Hot Auto Deals and KRON 4's Spa Spectacular.

In the 1950s and 1960s, local programs produced by KRON-TV included the award-winning documentary series Assignment Four, Fireman Frank with George Lemont (died October 1985 at the age of 63) and his puppets (including a rooster named Rhode Island Red), and a live children's program hosted by Art Finley as Mayor Art. Bay Area kids, known as the "City Council," joined Mayor Art in the studio each day. The show featured Popeye cartoons mixed with science demonstrations, a newsreel feature entitled "Mayor Art's Almanac", games, prizes, and a sock puppet named "Ring-A-Ding."

Assignment Four was a documentary series that generally aired Monday evenings at 7 p.m. through much of the 1960s (beginning in February 1960). A promotional brochure declared, "each Assignment Four story is concerned with cultural and ethnic activities or perhaps some fascinating phase of life and living in the Greater San Francisco Bay Area." Subjects ranged from 'Skid Row' to 'The Single Girl,' the 'Green Intricate Country of Napa Valley' to 'No Deposit, No Return' (a study of garbage disposal that won a 1966 Emmy Award and Silver Medal Award in the 1966 New York International Film Festival). The documentary 'Not to Have Lived' (aired January 31, 1966) about mechanized society featured no dialogue or narration.

In the late 1980s, KRON-TV was among the few local television stations in the United States that produced a game show: Claim to Fame, a weekly half-hour program hosted by Patrick Van Horn that usually ran on Saturday evenings. During that timeframe, KRON also produced a Saturday morning children's program called Buster and Me. From the 1970s into the late 1980s, the station used Gabriel Fauré's Pavane, Opus 50 as the music played during its nightly sign-off, alongside scenic rustic shots from around the Bay Area. KRON also produced Bay Area Backroads, a half-hour program (which ran from the mid-1980s to 2008) that profiled places and people in the greater San Francisco Bay Area, and occasionally beyond. The program, which generally aired on Sunday evenings, featured hosts such as Jerry Graham and Doug McConnell.

News operation
As of 2024, KRON broadcasts 77 hours of local newscasts each week (with 14 hours each weekday, $6 1/2$ hours on Saturdays, and $5 1/2$ hours on Sundays); it has the highest newscast output of any television station in the San Francisco Bay Area. KRON is one of only three MyNetworkTV affiliates that air and produce their own newscasts, alongside WPHL-TV in Philadelphia (though only a morning newscast, while its 10p.m. newscast is produced by WPVI-TV) and WJMN-TV in Marquette, Michigan (which maintained a news department when it was a CBS affiliate), after the service's owned-and-operated station WWOR-TV in Secaucus, New Jersey (whose news department operated separately from Fox-owned sister station WNYW stemming from license requirements imposed by WWOR's 1983 license transfer from New York City to New Jersey), closed theirs in July 2013.

KRON's news operations were handled by the Chronicle until it launched its own news department in September 1957. It operated from a studio inside the Chronicle building at Fifth & Mission streets (the station's news department was located 30 feet from the Chronicle city desk). Appropriately for a station once owned by the Chronicle, KRON-TV has long been a very news-intensive station. it produced six daily newscasts at the time, including the Shell-sponsored 6p.m. newscast Shell News, with Tom Franklin reporting from the studio at the Chronicle and in filmed field reports. Franklin began the broadcast standing next to a map of the San Francisco Bay Area, with lights illuminated on the map next to the various cities that the newscast was to feature stories from. Franklin anchored most of the program from behind a desk that had a large Shell logo next to a "Tom Franklin" nameplate, with a Shell "X-100" oil can that sat atop the desk. Live segments were used for late bulletins from the Chronicle city desk or for local and regional stories not suitable for film treatment. Some of the stories covered by Shell News in 1957 included the end of the "pedestrian scramble" system at downtown San Francisco street intersections, the end of the San Francisco-Oakland Southern Pacific railroad passenger ferry and the final game of the San Francisco Seals baseball team (to be replaced by the San Francisco Giants in 1958). In the 1960s, KRON-TV had anchors Art Brown and Jerry Jensen (who later moved to KGO-TV), and Linda Richards, who wrote predicted temperatures backwards on sliding glass panels with maps drawn on them, for viewers to see the weather forecast. Ed Hart, and later Frank Dill, reported sports with a focus on only the area's professional teams. KRON's early morning news digests in the 1960s utilized sign language by Peter Wechsberg and Jane Norman.

KRON-TV eventually branded its newscasts as Newswatch 4 in the early 1970s. By early 1972, the station ran newscasts at noon, 5:30, 6:30 and 11p.m. on weekdays and 6 and 11p.m. on weekends; it also ran a late newscast that aired (then) immediately after The Tonight Show called the Newswatch Sign-Off Edition. Presenters then included Terry Lowry, Phil Wilson, Karna Small, Bob Marsden, Paul Ryan, Art Brown and Dave Valentine. The station's newscasts were branded as NewsCenter 4 from 1977 until 2001, when it was changed to the current KRON 4 News. A major change in KRON-TV's evening news broadcasts occurred on April 6, 1981, when the station launched the 90-minute newscast "Live on 4" (from 4 to 5:30 p.m.). NBC Nightly News also moved from 7 to 5:30 p.m. (KPIX and KGO would follow this move with their national newscasts during the following decade). From late 1981 to late 1988, the 5p.m. weekday newscast was Live at Five; Bob Jimenez anchored in the studio with Evan White in the newsroom. Live on 4 was replaced in 1983 with T.G.I.4, an hour-long light local news and interview program co-hosted by Jan Rasmusson and Patrick Van Horn. In the mid-1980s, KRON-TV produced and aired an afternoon talk program called Bay City Limits.

In 1981, KRON launched its first morning newscast with a seven-minute program (at 6:53 a.m.); the program was canceled by late 1982. All the evening newscasts featured a variety of anchors, until settling down with the successful duo of Roz Abrams and Jim Paymar. After Abrams left for New York City's WABC-TV in 1986, Paymar co-anchored alongside Sylvia Chase (who had been a correspondent for CBS News and later for the ABC newsmagazine 20/20). The station debuted what was then the only local early morning newscast in the San Francisco television market on September 1, 1986, with the launch of Daybreak (which ran from 6:30 to 7a.m., leading into Today). The first anchors were Lloyd Patterson and Lila Petersen.

KRON's newscasts during the 1980s regularly featured commentaries by Wayne Shannon in a segment called "Just 4 You", many of which had a humorous tone. Shannon received billing in newscast introductions along with the anchors, and weather and sports presenters. Another staple of KRON-TV newscasts in the 1980s was live traffic reports and news coverage from the station's helicopter "Telecopter 4". Bob McCarthy, Rita Cohen and Janice Huff were among the personalities who reported from Telecopter 4. Their traffic reports appeared regularly on Daybreak, during Today and Live at Five. Evocative of his folksy, down-to-earth style, McCarthy had a catchphrase, "hunky snarky", that he often used to characterize roads on which traffic was flowing smoothly. Will Prater was the main pilot of Telecopter 4 in its early years and Lou Calderon was the main photographer. KRON also broadcast from remote locations during this era (e.g., Super Bowl venues) via a satellite uplink unit dubbed "Newstar 4". These segments often began with an animation depicting a signal originating from the uplink location, bouncing off a satellite and ending at a satellite dish next to the words "San Francisco." KRON-TV regarded the satellite truck as a major competitive advantage over rival television stations, featuring it in a mid-1980s promotional spot which declared, "We got a mobile satellite up-link. They don't."

In the 1980s, KRON-TV produced lengthy analysis pieces for the "Cover Story" segment on its 6p.m. newscast, many with an investigative journalism focus and sometimes produced by the 10-person "Target 4" investigative unit. The station reran some of these segments in an occasional program called Cover Story Magazine. The station also produced a half-hour public affairs program on Sunday mornings called Weekend Extra, which was hosted by Belva Davis and Rollin Post. This program frequently presented features from KRON's news bureaus in Washington, D.C., and Sacramento, the only Bay Area station to maintain bureaus (which were later deemed to be too expensive and were shut down by the end of the decade). During this time, KRON news grew rapidly in viewership and collected a large number of awards, including two DuPont Columbia awards, a Peabody, and more than 100 local Emmys. The station also produced a series of one-minute documentaries during the mid-1980s, San Francisco Minutes and Bay Area Minutes, which featured people, places and events in San Francisco and Bay Area history and usually featured narrations by KRON-TV personalities set to soaring music (e.g., Mark Thompson on San Francisco's cable cars, Lloyd Patterson on the San Mateo County coastline).

In the 1990s, the station utilized a "24 Hour News" format, with 30- to 60-second news updates each hour outside of regular newscasts. During the May 2001 sweeps period – its last as an NBC affiliate – KRON's newscasts beat KGO-TV's in the 5 and 6p.m. timeslots by a very close margin, ending KGO's domination in those timeslots. When KRON lost NBC to KNTV and became an independent station in January 2002, the station expanded its news programming by adding two hours to its weekday morning newscast (from 7 to 9a.m.), and extending its 5p.m. newscast to one hour to fill timeslots vacated by the departures of Today and Nightly News.

Unlike most news-producing stations that have become independent after losing a network affiliation or that have switched to one of the post-1986 broadcast networks, KRON originally kept its late newscast in the 11p.m. timeslot instead of moving it to or adding one at 10p.m. (avoiding direct competition with KTVU's long-dominant prime time newscast, though KRON's late news remained in competition against KGO, KNTV and KPIX's late evening newscasts); the station also added a prime time newscast at 9p.m. To this day, KRON maintains a newscast schedule similar to the one it had as an NBC affiliate. It is the only MyNetworkTV affiliate that has ever maintained a news schedule mirroring that of a Big Three affiliate (as it carries morning, 5p.m., and 6p.m. newscasts, and previously an 11p.m. newscast). Several of KRON's veteran anchors and reporters left the station after the loss of the NBC affiliation; KRON also began incorporating video journalists (many of which were newer hires) to report, tape and edit news stories.

Despite the overall decline of KRON as an independent, its newscasts initially pulled in respectable ratings though viewership was lower than it was before the station lost its NBC affiliation. During the February 2004 sweeps period, the station placed second in the ratings behind KTVU. However, KRON's news viewership has gradually fallen since that point; also in 2004, the station posted an 8.7% market share, down from the 21% share it had as an NBC affiliate. The 9p.m. newscast created after becoming independent eventually fell to fourth place by 2005. In March 2006, KRON's morning newscast posted an average viewership of approximately 28,000 viewers. By 2009, overall viewership for the station's newscasts had fallen to fifth place among the Bay Area's news-producing English-language television stations.

On September 17, 2007, KRON-TV became the third station in the Bay Area (behind KGO and KTVU) to begin broadcasting its local newscasts in 16:9 widescreen—albeit in standard definition. In September 2008, KRON dropped its 5p.m. newscast after the syndicated daytime talk show Dr. Phil was moved to the slot, the program's former 8p.m. timeslot (which Dr. Phil held locally since the show's 2002 premiere) was replaced by an hour-long prime time newscast; this would be undone in September 2009, with the cancellation of the 8p.m. newscast and Dr. Phil's return to the 8p.m. slot, along with the reinstatement of a 5:30 p.m. newscast (which expanded back to 5p.m. by 2010). The 8p.m. newscast returned on May 30, 2011, concurrent with the replacement of the 4p.m. news with Dr. Phil. KRON quietly upgraded its newscasts to high definition in April 2012, with the debut of new graphics. As of September 2013, only studio segments and on-air graphics are presented in HD, footage from field cameras and other news sources continue to be broadcast in widescreen SD until July 2016.

KRON launched a new 10p.m. newscast on May 16, 2016, that competes with newscasts on KTVU and, at that time, KBCW. However, also at that time, KRON's 11p.m. news was shortened to 15 minutes until it was dropped when KRON launched a new 9p.m. newscast on August 21, 2017, which competed with KGO's 9p.m. newscast for KOFY-TV until KGO canceled it. On September 14, 2020, KRON launched an afternoon newscast at 3p.m. On January 10, 2022, KRON launched a noon newscast that competes with KTVU and KPIX. On May 9, 2023, KRON-TV announced that the 4 a.m. hour of KRON 4 Morning News would be dropped, making 5 a.m. the start of the program, and the launch of the 10 a.m. hour on May 22, 2023. KRON launched a 2 p.m. newscast and readded its 11 p.m. newscast on September 1, 2023, while ending its 8 p.m. and 9 p.m. newscasts due to the CW affiliation.

Notable current on-air staff

 * Catherine Heenan – anchor / reporter
 * Ken Wayne – anchor; formerly with KTVU

Notable former on-air staff

 * Roz Abrams – anchor (1982–1985; now retired from television journalism)
 * Cheryl Casone – reporter (2002–2004; now at Fox News Channel)
 * Steve Centanni – reporter (1989–1996; now at Fox News Channel)
 * Sylvia Chase – anchor (1986–1990; later returned to ABC News, deceased)
 * Claudia Cowan – reporter (1995–1998; now at Fox News Channel)
 * Art Finley – children's show host (as "Mayor Art")/host of Pick A Show c. 1966/reporter (1959–1968; deceased)
 * Pat Finn – weatherman, later host of California Lottery's The Big Spin
 * Michelle Franzen – reporter and fill-in anchor (1998–2001; now at ABC News)
 * Emil Guillermo – reporter (1982–1989)
 * John Hambrick – (1975–1980; deceased)
 * Janice Huff – meteorologist (1990–1994; now chief meteorologist at WNBC New York City)
 * Marc Jampole – reporter (1980–1981); now public relations executive
 * Vic Lee – reporter (1972–2006; later at KGO-TV; retired)
 * Sam Chu Lin – reporter (1981–1984; deceased)
 * Dave Malkoff – reporter (2003–2004; now at The Weather Channel)
 * Mark Mullen – morning anchor (1991–1995 and 2002–2003; now anchor at KNSD San Diego)
 * Soledad O'Brien – reporter (1993–1996; now with Hearst Television)
 * Jim Paymar – anchor (1982–1987; now runs a media consulting firm)
 * Gary Radnich – sports director (1985–2018; formerly with WBNS-TV, now retired)
 * Wayne Shannon – commentator (1982–1988; deceased)
 * Ray Taliaferro – anchor (1972–1977; then also at KGO (AM); deceased)
 * Mark Thompson – chief weather anchor (1984–1990; later at KTTV Los Angeles); now at KFI
 * Wendy Tokuda – anchor/reporter (1997–2007; later returned to KPIX; now retired)
 * Patrick Van Horn – co-host of T.G.I.4. (1983–198?), host of KRON-TV's Claim to Fame (1985–1989)
 * Marta Waller – freelance writer (1984; later at KTLA Los Angeles)
 * Pete Wilson – anchor/reporter (1990–2001; later at KGO-TV & KGO-AM, deceased)
 * Emerald Yeh – anchor (1984–2003; now retired from television journalism)

Subchannels
The station's ATSC 1.0 channels are carried on the multiplexed signals of other Bay Area television stations:

Analog-to-digital conversion
KRON-TV shut down its analog signal, over VHF channel 4, on June 12, 2009, as part of the federally mandated transition from analog to digital television. The station's digital signal moved from its transition period UHF channel 57, which was among the high band UHF channels (52–69) that were removed from broadcasting use as a result of the transition, to UHF channel 38, continuing to use virtual channel 4. On March 29, 2020, KRON-TV moved from UHF channel 38 to VHF channel 7.

ATSC 3.0
At 10:01 a.m. on March 29, 2023, KRON turned on its new Rhode & Schwarz transmitter at Sutro Tower and began its status as an ATSC 3.0 lighthouse for the San Francisco Bay Area. Two days before, four of the stations participating in the ATSC 3.0 lighthouse began broadcasting KRON's main channel and subchannels as listed above to clear RF channel 7 for ATSC 3.0 use. {{legend|#ffe8d0|Subchannel broadcast with digital rights management}}

BayTV
BayTV debuted on July 4, 1994, as a 24-hour cable news channel that was operated by KRON-TV in association with AT&T Broadband (now Comcast Xfinity). BayTV was carried on cable channel 35. The KRON news staff also provided local news updates on MSNBC and CNN Headline News on Bay Area cable systems during this period. KRON's now-defunct 9p.m. newscast originally debuted on BayTV in the late 1990s and lasted until the cable channel ceased operations on August 30, 2001. The 9p.m. newscast was revived on channel 4 following KRON-TV's transition to an independent station in January 2002, though it was moved to 8p.m. when it affiliated with MyNetworkTV on September 5, 2006. The channel's daily Silicon Valley news recap New Media News also aired nationally on Jones Media Group cable channel Mind Extension University/Knowledge TV until that channel shut down in 2000.

KRON 4 24/7 Bay Area News Channel
On July 26, 2012, KRON launched another 24-hour local news and weather channel, called the KRON 4 24/7 Bay Area News Channel. The channel featured news, local weather and traffic updates using the common screen template and setup shared among all of Young's automated weather/news information subchannels. Unlike the cable-exclusive BayTV, it was carried locally on over-the-air digital subchannel 4.2, on cable through Comcast Xfinity channel 193, and was streamed on KRON's website. The over-the-air channel was replaced by Sky Link TV on September 29, 2015, and the online live stream was shut down on the same date.

title: KRON-TV


text:
Poetic Justice (film)

Poetic Justice is a 1993 American romantic drama film written and directed by John Singleton, and starring Janet Jackson and Tupac Shakur, with Regina King and Joe Torry in supporting roles. Poetic Justice follows Justice (Jackson), a poet mourning the loss of her boyfriend from gun violence, who goes on a road trip from South Central L.A. to Oakland on a mail truck along with her friend (King) and a postal worker (Shakur) who she initially cannot stand but soon helps Justice deal with her depression.

Following the success of his debut film, Boyz n the Hood, Singleton wanted to make a film that would give a voice to young African-American women. Jada Pinkett, Lisa Bonet, Monica Calhoun and many other popular actresses auditioned for the role of Justice, though Singleton knew from the script's draft that the role was solely intended for Janet Jackson. Filming took place from April 11 to July 4, 1992.

Poetic Justice was released in the United States on July 23, 1993. The film received mixed reviews from critics, who criticized the screenplay though praised Jackson and Shakur's performances and chemistry. It reached No. 1 in the box office its opening weekend, grossing $11,728,455. It eventually grossed a total of $27,515,786. Jackson received Academy Award and Golden Globe nominations for Best Original Song for "Again", which also reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100. The film has developed a cult following, especially for the chemistry between Jackson and Shakur.

Plot
Justice is a young African American woman living in South Central, Los Angeles, named by her late mother who gave birth to her while attending law school. After the fatal shooting of her boyfriend Markell, Justice becomes deeply depressed, spending most of her time with her cat named Whiteboy in the house that she inherited from her grandmother, and only going out to her job at a local hair salon. A talented poet, Justice reads many of her poems (in real life written by Maya Angelou) throughout the film, both to other characters and in voice-over.

While she is working at the salon one day, a young postal clerk named Lucky arrives and begins flirting with her. She and her female boss Jessie rebuff his advances, pretending to be lesbians and mocking Lucky with their "relationship".

Lucky has also suffered tragedy in his life: his main focus is caring for his young daughter Keisha, whom he had to forcibly remove from the care of her crack-addicted mother (nicknamed "Angel"), who was using drugs and having sex with her drug dealer while leaving the child unattended in the apartment. Lucky dreams of a professional career in music and shows considerable promise, but insists that his cousin is the true talent.

Justice's friend Iesha manages to talk Justice into taking a road trip to Oakland with Iesha's boyfriend, Chicago, Lucky's co-worker at the post office. Justice warily accepts, mainly because she has to go to Oakland for a hair show and her car had stopped working at the last minute. Unbeknownst to Justice, Lucky is also on the trip, and she will now be sharing a postal van with him and their two mutual friends. Initially, they argue, but they soften towards each other as they gradually discover their similarities.

The quartet makes a couple of detours: the first is a family reunion barbecue they see signs for on the road, where it becomes apparent (although there were ample hints earlier) that Iesha and Chicago's relationship is troubled. Iesha openly flirts with another man at the barbecue, while Chicago broods watching her behavior. Iesha and Chicago argue in the mail truck until Justice talks to Iesha about her behavior with alcohol. Iesha throws up and tearfully apologizes to her.

At the next stop, a carnival, Lucky and Justice grow closer while discussing their lives. After leaving the carnival, they stop at a beach where each of the four contemplates their separate situations in internal monologues. Afterward, the friction between Chicago and Iesha explodes when Iesha informs Chicago that she has been seeing someone on the side, and he physically attacks her. Lucky initially decides to abstain until Justice defends Iesha by kicking Chicago in the groin, who retaliates by attacking her. Lucky knocks Chicago out, and he, Justice and a bleeding and shaken Iesha leave him behind and continue on their journey.

Lucky stops the postal van at a beach, and Justice goes to see what's wrong. She begins opening up to him about her life, and Lucky becomes sympathetic. They share a kiss, and Justice walks away apparently unsure of her feelings for Lucky. She goes back to him, and they kiss again.

When the now-trio arrive in Oakland, they receive news that Lucky's cousin, with whom he had been working on recording music, has been killed. Blaming himself for not being in Oakland sooner and believing he could have prevented the shooting had he been in town, Lucky angrily blames Justice for distracting him while they were on the road. Jessie advises Justice and Iesha about men before the hair show. Lucky's uncle and aunt give him his cousin's recording equipment. Lucky decides to give up work and take care of Keisha.

Months later, Lucky meets up with Justice again back at the hair salon, bringing Keisha. Remorseful over his conduct in Oakland and his cruel words towards Justice there, he apologizes. She smiles at him coyly and they passionately kiss. She then turns her attention to Keisha, fussing over her hair. Justice and Lucky's eyes meet over Keisha's head and they smile, as strongly connected as ever.

Production
On July 23, 2013, John Singleton spoke with writer Lathleen Ade-Brown for Essence magazine and discussed the 20th anniversary of the film. The interview mentioned that in 1993, black female leads were rare and he wanted to give a voice to young African American women. He also revealed whose idea it was for Janet Jackson to wear the now iconic box braids: "That was a collaboration between myself, Janet, [dance choreographer] Fatima Robinson and dancer named Jossie Harris. Jossie had the braids in Michael Jackson’s "Remember the Time" video. I brought her and Fatima and a couple of other dancers over to hang out with Janet and they all became friends. I said, "Why don't we try and do Janet's hair like Jossie's hair?" We got the hairstyle from Harlem and just put it in a West Coast movie."

Jada Pinkett, Lisa Bonet, Monica Calhoun and many other popular actresses auditioned for the role of Justice, though Singleton knew from the script's draft that the role was intended for Janet Jackson. Rapper and actor Ice Cube was offered the lead role of Lucky, but declined to play the role, stating that he was not in a point in his career that he would play in romantic movies. Filming began on April 14, 1992 and ended on July 4, 1992.

Release
The film opened on July 23, 1993 in the United States. Cineplex Odeon initially decided not to release the film at its Universal CityWalk Hollywood theater due to fear of violence. Rita Walters called Cineplex Odeon's decision racist and they agreed to delay the release until July 28. Around the country, five violent incidents occurred around theaters during the film's opening weekend, including a killing outside a Las Vegas theater.

Box office
Poetic Justice made $27,515,786 in the domestic box office, against a production budget of $14 million. For its opening weekend it opened at number one at the US box office with over $11,700,000 in ticket sales. It ranked 20th for the year of 1993 openings and 21st for highest R-rated movies of 1993.

Critical reception
Upon its release, Poetic Justice received mostly negative reviews with most critics comparing it unfavorably to Singleton's debut film Boyz n the Hood. Much of the acclaim was directed to the performances by both Jackson and Shakur, with criticism stemming from the writing and story line. On Rotten Tomatoes the film has a 34% rating based on 32 reviews. The site's consensus states; "Poetic Justice is commendably ambitious and boasts a pair of appealing stars, but they're undermined by writer-director John Singleton's frustrating lack of discipline." On Metacritic the film has a score of 51% based on reviews from 21 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Audiences surveyed by CinemaScore gave the film a grade "B+" on scale of A to F.

Roger Ebert: "...Boyz n the Hood was one of the most powerful and influential films of its time, in 1991. "Poetic Justice" is not its equal, but does not aspire to be; it is a softer, gentler film, more of a romance than a commentary on social conditions." He also stated, "...Poetic Justice unwinds like a road picture from the early 1970s, in which the characters are introduced and then set off on a trip that becomes a journey of discovery. By the end of the film, Justice will have learned to trust and love again, and Shakur will have learned how to listen to a woman. And all of the characters - who in one way or another lack families - will begin to get a feeling for the larger African/American family to which they belong. The scene where that takes place is one of the best in the film." Leonard Klady of Variety stated: "Though aiming to create a feel for the locale, Singleton periodically loses sight of audiences unfamiliar with the colorful lingo. Poetic Justice has a lot to commend, but discipline is not high on the list. That flaw will be a major stumbling block toward wide appeal, and overseas prospects seem particularly remote." Kenneth Turan of the Los Angeles Times called the film "a disappointement" but praised Singleton for his skills and suggested "A filmmaker who is adept at saying what’s on his mind, he will do better when he finds something he truly wants to say." Peter Travers of Rolling Stone criticized the film for "wrong turns and right-minded preachiness" but praised the young director saying: "If Singleton, 25, stumbles, it is over ambition and not the complacency of a new Hollywood hotshot riding a trend." Vincent Canby of The New York Times wrote: "Although its aspirations are high, the film works only fitfully when Mr. Singleton exercises his gift for vernacular speech, for finding the comic undertow in otherwise tragic situations, and even for parody." Owen Gleiberman of Entertainment Weekly gave it a C− grade. Richard Schickel of Time panned the film "What must be said is that the new movie is simply awful: poorly structured, vulgarly written, insipidly directed, monotonously performed."

Despite the mixed reviews from contemporary film critics, the film has come to be considered one of Singleton's most enduring films.

Soundtrack
The soundtrack album was released on June 29, 1993, through Epic Soundtrax, and consisted of a blend of hip hop and R&B music. It peaked at number 23 on the Billboard 200 chart in the United States and was certified Gold by the Recording Industry Association of America on August 25, 1993. Three charting singles were released from the album: "Indo Smoke" by Mista Grimm, "Get It Up" by TLC, and "Call Me a Mack" by Usher Raymond. Recorded at Unique Recording Studios, New York City

The soundtrack also has the Stevie Wonder song "Never Dreamed You'd Leave in Summer", a track that was originally on his 1970 album Where I'm Coming From. The song "Definition of a Thug Nigga", recorded by Tupac Shakur for the film, later appeared on his 1997 posthumous album R U Still Down? (Remember Me).

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: Poetic Justice (film)


text:
Parshall, Colorado

Parshall is an unincorporated town, a post office, and a census-designated place (CDP) located in and governed by Grand County, Colorado, United States. The Parshall post office has the ZIP Code 80468. At the United States Census 2020, the population of the Parshall CDP was 42.

Demographics
The United States Census Bureau initially defined the Parshall CDP for the United States Census 2010.

Commerce and industry
The Henderson Mill on County Road 3 is the most significant local industry. It processes molybdenum ore derived from the Henderson Mine in Clear Creek County, just over the Continental Divide. There are tourist facilities, such as the Bar Lazy J Guest Ranch (founded 1912), Colorado Cannabis School, the Aspen Canyon Ranch, and fishing areas along the Colorado River and the Williams Fork and Reservoir. Cattle ranching occupies much of the lower areas.

Geography
Parshall is located along the south side of U.S. Route 40 between Hot Sulphur Springs and Kremmling, on the north bank of the Colorado River downstream from Byers Canyon.

The Parshall CDP has an area of 0.774 km2, all land.

Climate
This climate type is dominated by the winter season, a long, bitterly cold period with short, clear days, relatively little precipitation mostly in the form of snow, and low humidity. According to the Köppen Climate Classification system, Parshall has a subarctic climate, abbreviated "Dfc" on climate maps.

title: Parshall, Colorado


text:
List of mountains of New Hampshire

The below list of Mountains in New Hampshire is an incomplete list of mountains in the U.S. state of New Hampshire, with elevation. This list includes many mountains in the White Mountains range that covers about a quarter of the state, as well as mountains outside of that range. Several of the mountains are sites of major alpine ski resorts.

Some of the peaks are included in specific lists of mountains, as denoted in the table:
 * 4000 footers – listed on the four-thousand footers, peaks with an elevation of over 4000 ft, per the Appalachian Mountain Club (AMC)
 * 50 Finest – listed on the New England Fifty Finest
 * AT – mountain is on the Appalachian Trail, a 2170 mi National Scenic Trail from Georgia to Maine
 * 100 highest – listed on the New England Hundred Highest, a superset of the four-thousand footers

Note that some peaks with sufficient elevation to be considered four-thousand footers are excluded from the AMC lists because the peak's topographic prominence does not meet AMC's prominence criterion. An example is the 5532 ft Mount Clay, located 1.1 mi north-northwest along the ridge joining the peak of Mount Washington with that of Mount Jefferson, rising less than 200 ft above the general trend of that ridge.

title: List of mountains of New Hampshire


text:
Stonington Harbor Light

The Stonington Harbor Light is a historic lighthouse built in 1840 and located on the east side of Stonington Harbor in the Borough of Stonington, Connecticut. It is a well-preserved example of a mid-19th century stone lighthouse. The light was taken out of service in 1889 and the building has served as a museum for the Stonington Historical Society since 1925. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1976.

Description and history
The Stonington Harbor Light is located at the southern end of Stonington Point, marking the eastern side of Stonington Harbor. The light station consists of the tower and keeper's house; both are built out of large granite blocks, and the keeper's house has a wood-framed ell attached. The tower is an octagonal stone structure 35 ft in height and 10 ft in diameter, with a circular glass lantern house on top. The house is 1½ stories and about 30 ft square.

The federal government built a lighthouse on Windmill Point in Stonington Harbor in 1823; it was housed in a small granite lighthouse and was known by the same name. However, erosion led to its being torn down and its materials reused in the construction of this lighthouse. The light was originally lit by an oil lamp and broadcast by eight parabolic reflectors. This technology was already obsolete at the time of the lighthouse's construction, and it was replaced by a sixth-order Fresnel lens in 1856.

In the 1880s, the Stonington Breakwater Light was constructed farther out in the harbor, and the Stonington Harbor Light was decommissioned in 1889. The site is now the home of the Stonington Historical Society which uses the building as The Old Lighthouse Museum. Holdings in the museum document the area's long and distinguished cultural and nautical history, and exhibits include the 1856 Fresnel lens.

Head keepers

 * Neil Martin 1882
 * Nahor Jones 1882 – 1886
 * Samuel C. Gardiner 1886
 * John Ryle 1886 – 1887
 * Samuel A. Keeney 1887 – 1903
 * Maurice Russell 1903 – 1904
 * Adolph Obman 1904 – 1907
 * John J. Cook 1907 – 1909
 * William Janse 1909
 * Adolph Obman 1909 – 1911
 * Robert R. Laurier 1911 – 1912
 * John H. Paul 1912
 * Joseph Meyer 1913
 * Charles R. Riley 1915 – 1916
 * Edward Grime 1917 – 1919
 * George Washington Denton, Jr. 1919
 * Edward Murphy 1919 - 1920
 * Edward Iten 1921 – 1927
 * Edward M. Whitford 1929
 * Robert M. Fitton 1930
 * Raymond F. Bliven 1930 – 1931
 * Martin Luther Sowle 1938 – 1953

title: Stonington Harbor Light


text:
Ruoti

Ruoti (Ruotese: Rùote) is a town and comune in the province of Potenza, in the Basilicata region of southern Italy.

Geography
It is bounded by the comuni of Avigliano, Baragiano, Bella, Picerno, and Potenza.

title: Ruoti


text:
Taylor Dayne

Taylor Dayne (born Leslie Wunderman; March 7, 1962) is an American singer. She rose to fame in 1987 after her debut single "Tell It to My Heart". Dayne achieved six additional U.S. top-10 singles, including "Love Will Lead You Back", "With Every Beat of My Heart", "Prove Your Love", and "I'll Always Love You".

Dayne has received two Grammy Award nominations, and has won an American Music Award, and multiple New York Music Awards. She has also received New York Hall of Fame honors and was ranked number 18 on Rolling Stone's list of the best female dance artists of all time. In December 2016, Billboard magazine ranked her the 28th most successful dance artist of all time.

Early success
Taylor Dayne, whose birth name is Leslie Wunderman, was born in Manhattan, New York City, and lived briefly in another borough, The Bronx, until her family moved to Long Island when she was two years old. She began singing professionally after graduating from high school in Baldwin, Nassau County, New York, singing in little-known rock bands such as Felony and Next. She began singing solo after finishing college and, under the name Les Lee, recorded two dance singles, "I'm The One You Want" (1985) and "Tell Me Can You Love Me" (1986), which were released on New York indie label Mega Bolt.

Signed to Arista Records as Taylor Dayne, her first song to crack the top ten was the dance-pop hit "Tell It to My Heart" in late 1987. The song was an instant smash worldwide, peaking in the top five of most major markets worldwide, and reaching number one in many countries, including West Germany. Six more U.S. top-ten hits followed, including "Prove Your Love", "I'll Always Love You", "Don't Rush Me", "With Every Beat of My Heart", "Love Will Lead You Back" and "I'll Be Your Shelter". These were followed by the No. 12 hit "Heart of Stone".

In the United States, she achieved three gold singles, "Tell It to My Heart", "I'll Always Love You", and "Love Will Lead You Back". "I'll Always Love You", a change-of-pace ballad compared to Dayne's earlier releases, was her breakout hit on the Adult Contemporary charts in 1988 and paved the way for future uptempo dance tracks such as "Don't Rush Me" (1988) and "With Every Beat Of My Heart" (1989) to gain acceptance on Adult Contemporary radio. In 1990, "Love Will Lead You Back", a Diane Warren composition, peaked at No. 1 on both the Billboard Hot 100 and the Hot Adult Contemporary Tracks chart.

The string of hits from her first two albums, Tell It to My Heart (1988) and Can't Fight Fate (1989), proved to be the peak of her career. She went on to release two more albums in the 1990s, but had only one more U.S. Top 40 hit, her 1993 cover of Barry White's 1974 hit "Can't Get Enough of Your Love" (from her 1993 album Soul Dancing), which reached No. 2 in the ARIA Charts in Australia but only No. 20 in the U.S.

Together with Arthur Baker and Fred Zarr, Dayne wrote "Whatever You Want" for Tina Turner's 1996 album Wildest Dreams. Dayne later recorded and released the song herself in 1998 as a single from her album Naked Without You. That album failed to chart, but Dayne continued to have hits on the dance charts into the 2000s.

Later career
As an actress, Dayne appeared in the 1997 sci-fi television series Nightman as Carla Day. She has had roles in independent films such as Fool's Paradise (1997), Stag (also in 1997) and Jesus the Driver (2004), as well as the Warren Beatty-produced 1994 remake of Love Affair. Dayne also had a recurring role on the Showtime series Rude Awakening.

Dayne has performed alongside Marc Bonilla and Dragonchoir. She performed on Broadway in Elton John's Aida in 2001. In 2005, Dayne was featured in the VH1 series Remaking, which featured her close friends Leah Remini and Michelle Reid. The series documents Dayne's return to music after taking time off to have a family (she has twins via a surrogate mother ), and premiered her newest song, "Right Now", a result of her collaboration with Rodney Jerkins.

On December 11, 2007, Dayne released the first single, "Beautiful", from her studio album Satisfied. The song was written by Dayne and Hitesh Ceon of production team 3Elementz. Dayne promoted it on many radio stations, including New York's WKTU. "Beautiful" went to No. 1 on the Billboard Dance Charts. She also appeared on The Today Show, Chelsea Lately, Wake Up With Whoopi and VH1. The music video for the single and the Satisfied album cover were shot by Tony Duran, who has also shot album covers for Justin Timberlake and Jennifer Lopez.

Dayne released her fifth album, Satisfied, in February 2008—her first recording studio album in nearly a decade. The album includes both new material and recreations of some of her favorite contemporary songs.

In 2008, Dayne performed at the Paralympic Games in Beijing, China.

In May 2010, Dayne lobbied congressional leaders on Capitol Hill on behalf of the National Association of Music Merchants (NAMM) and VH1's Save The Music Foundation to reduce cuts in music education in America's schools.

In July 2010, Dayne released "Facing a Miracle", the official theme song to the 2010 Gay Games. She performed the song to an audience of 50,000 on July 31, 2010, in Cologne, Germany. It ended the year at No. 9 on Perfect Beat's Top Worldwide Singles of 2010. Five years before, however, she had said: "In the eyes of the Kabbalah, [gays] can't be 'married.' That requires actual male and female energy and DNA. In the bigger picture, I think that 'marriage' is about a certain circuitry. I'm as married to my business manager as I would be any husband."

Dayne remastered her Greatest Hits album. She released a new single, "Floor on Fire", on June 22, 2011, which broke the Billboard Dance/Club Charts Top 10.

In 2011-2012, Dayne competed in Rachael vs. Guy: Celebrity Cook-Off, reaching the semifinal round in episode 5 facing off against Lou Diamond Phillips for the final spot to represent Team Rachael. At the end of the episode, she lost to Joey Fatone in a runner-up challenge to win $5,000 for charity.

In the early 2010s, American stand-up comedian Tig Notaro began referencing Dayne in her routine, telling stories of having frequent encounters with her. This was ultimately brought to the attention of Ira Glass, who enlisted Notaro to tell the story as part of a live event for This American Life. Dayne herself appeared at the end of the monologue during the event, singing "I'll Always Love You".

In September 2014, Dayne released a new single, "Dreaming".

In late 2020, Dayne competed on season 4 of The Masked Singer as "Popcorn". She made it to the semi-finals of the competition before being unmasked in a triple elimination alongside Chloe Kim as "Jellyfish" and Tori Kelly as "Seahorse".

In August 2022, Dayne competed on season 2 of RuPaul's Secret Celebrity Drag Race under the drag name Electra Owl.

Personal life
Dayne has never married. She has two children (twins Astaria and Levi), who were born via a surrogate in 2003. Dayne is a supporter of same-sex marriage, and stated in 2014 that she considers the LGBT community to be her most loyal fanbase.

Dayne is Jewish. She grew up in Baldwin and Freeport, New York on Long Island.

In 2021, after performing at a New Year party hosted at Mar-a-Lago by then-president Donald Trump, Dayne declared "I try to stay non-political."

Discography

 * Studio albums
 * Tell It to My Heart (1988)
 * Can't Fight Fate (1989)
 * Soul Dancing (1993)
 * Naked Without You (1998)
 * Satisfied (2008)

title: Taylor Dayne


text:
Lake Banook

Lake Banook is a freshwater lake located in Dartmouth within the Halifax Regional Municipality in Nova Scotia, Canada. It is home to three sprint canoe and kayak clubs, two rowing clubs, and a dragon boat club. It also has a claim to be the birthplace of ice hockey.

Location
Lake Banook's eastern shore is bordered by Prince Albert Road (part of Trunk 7) and its western shore fronts Crichton Park, a residential neighbourhood. At the south end of the lake is a lock mechanism leading to Sullivan's Pond. At the north end of the lake a bridge carries the Highway 111 expressway, informally known as the Dartmouth Circumferential Highway over its waters. The bridge also serves as a dividing line between Lake Micmac, also referred to as Second Lake.

Birch Cove Beach is the only beach on the lake that is currently supervised. Another beach, Graham's Grove, was closed in the early-1990s, as a result of poor water quality stemming from the construction of the nearby "Mic Mac Par-clo" (partial clover-leaf), a large interchange connecting Highway 111, Trunk 7, and Route 318, which replaced the rotary previously on the site.

Lake Banook has undergone many modifications. It was originally approximately two meters shallower than its current depth, after being dammed during the construction of the Shubenacadie Canal in the early 19th century. When the water rose, it submerged a small island. During improvements for the 1989 Junior World Championships, the top section of the paddling course was dredged to meet depth standards. The fill was used to expand nearby Graham's Grove Park, and the former access road still remains underwater. There have been shoreline modifications for recreational beaches, private waterfront, boat docks, and municipal pipelines. Some natural shoreline remains at the north end of Brookdale Crescent Park, the north end of Birch Cove, and parts of Grahams Grove.

History
Lake Banook is named for the Mi'kmaq phrase for "first lake", as it is the first lake in the system that later became the Shubenacadie Canal. The Mi'kmaq people were the first to navigate the waters of Lake Banook, which contributed to the naming of Lake Micmac, Mic Mac Mall, and Mic Mac AAC.

Hockey was played on Lake Banook as early as 1827, and certainly by 1850, though the game was then known as both rickets and wicket. Dartmouth is one of several locales around the world that claim the title of "Birthplace of Hockey." In 1864 Starr manufacturing of Dartmouth, located less than a kilometer from Lake Banook, began producing the world's first modern iceskates. Starr skates, first used on the lakes of Dartmouth including Lake Banook, later became a popular choice for elite ice hockey players, being worn by 6 out of 7 members of the 1902 Stanley Cup Champions Montreal Hockey Club. The Starr company produced ice skates into the 1930s. In the days before refrigerators, the lake was a source of ice for the residents of both Halifax and Dartmouth.

Since 1903, with the formation of the Banook Canoe Club, Lake Banook has been home to many competitive and recreational canoeists, kayakers, and rowers. Dartmouth has more paddlers per capita than anywhere else in Canada.

Sport
Lake Banook is home to three sprint canoe/kayak clubs, clustered at the south end of the lake: Banook Canoe Club, Senobe Aquatic Club, and Mic Mac Amateur Aquatic Club. This arrangement is unique in Canada, and has led to a longstanding and healthy competitive rivalry between clubs. All three clubs have developed multiple Olympians, National Champions, and World Championship team members.

The lake is outfitted with an international-calibre 1000-metre sprint canoe and kayak race course during the summer months. The course spans nine racing lanes of nine metres in width, with the 1000-metre start line at the north end of the lake, and the finish line at the south end. On the western shore, a three-story judges tower is elevated above the lake at the finish line, allowing officials to judge the finishes of races. The course is used for numerous local and national competitions every year. Lake Banook has also hosted many world-class competitions, including the canoe/kayak and rowing events at the inaugural Canada Summer Games in 1969, the World Junior Canoe Sprint Championships in 1989, the Senior World Canoe Sprint Championship in 1997, the World Canoe Marathon Championship in 2000, and the Senior World Sprint Championships in 2009. Lake Banook played host to the Senior World Sprint Championships for the third time in 2022. No other venue outside of Europe has hosted the Senior World Sprint Championship on more occasions.

The lake is also used for local rowing competitions, and hosts both the Mic Mac AAC rowing club and the independent North Star Rowing club. The course is not ideal for national or international competitions in rowing, as its restricted length does not enable 2000-metre races.

As dragon boat paddling exploded in popularity, a fifth boat club was founded in the northeast corner of Lake Banook. Dragon Boat East offers year-round training programs for members and other dragon boat services. Lake Banook is the site of Halifax's annual dragon boat competition and festival.

title: Lake Banook


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Ragout

Ragout (, ragoût, ) is a main dish stew.

Etymology
The term comes from the French ragoût, meaning 'to revive the taste'.

Preparation
The basic method of preparation involves slow cooking over a low heat. The main ingredients are many; ragouts may be prepared with or without meat, a wide variety of vegetables may be incorporated, and they may be more or less heavily spiced and seasoned.

Examples

Roman-era cookbook Apicius includes a recipe for ragout with ostrich meat. According to a translation by Patrick Faas, it incorporated dates, honey, vinegar, garum (a fish sauce), passum (a dessert wine), and spices such as pepper, mint, roast cumin, and celery seed. The Apicius recipe suggests boiling all the ingredients save for the ostrich meat together in a pot, binding them with starch, and pouring the mixture over boiled ostrich meat, while Faas, in his reconstruction, tells the reader to first make a roux with flour and olive oil and add passum, spices, honey, vinegar, dates, and garum in a certain order, after which the reader can then stir in the ostrich meat, which he says can be roasted or fried.

Two 18th-century English dishes from The Complete Housewife show some of the varying meats, vegetables, seasonings, garnishes and procedures which can be applied to the ragoût.

A Ragu for made Dishes

TAKE claret, gravy, sweet-herbs, and savory spice, toss up in it lamb-stones (i.e. lamb's testicles), cock's-combs, boiled, blanched, and sliced, with sliced sweet-meats, oysters, mushrooms, truffles, and Murrell thicken these with brown butter; use it when called for.

To make a Ragu of Pigs-Ears

TAKE a quantity of pigs-ears, and boil them in one half wine and the other water; cut them in small pieces, then brown a little butter, and put them in, and a pretty deal of gravy, two anchovies, an eschalot or two, a little mustard, and some slices of lemon, some salt and nutmeg: stew all these together, and shake it up thick. Garnish the dish with barberries.

In his 19th century culinary dictionary, Alexandre Dumas credits ragouts with making "the ancient French cuisine shine". He gives several examples including salpicons, made with a variety of meats and vegetables like mushrooms, artichokes, truffles, quenelles, and sweetbreads. According to Dumas each ingredient is cooked separately. The "Ordinary Salpicon" includes veal sweetbreads, ham, mushrooms, foie gras and truffles served in espagnole sauce. Celery ragout is cooked in bouillon seasoned with salt, nutmeg and pepper. Cucumber ragout is made with velouté sauce. One ragout is made with madeira, chestnuts and chipolata sausages cooked in bouillon with espagnole sauce.

Popular culture
The 1731 patriotic ballad "The Roast Beef of Old England" by the British writer Henry Fielding comically attributes Britain's traditional military prowess to the eating of roast beef, suggesting that this has been lost since the introduction of ragout from "all-vaporizing France".

In Robert Burns' "Address to a Haggis" (1786), the poet suggests nobody could possibly choose French ragout when presented with the titular delicacy.

In the novel Pride and Prejudice, the character Mr. Hurst reacts with disdain when Elizabeth Bennet opts for a "plain dish" instead of a ragout at dinner.

In the Haddawy translation of The Arabian Nights, the Steward's tale about "The Young Man from Baghdad and Lady Zubaida's Maid" (beginning during the 121st night and continuing through the 130th night) tells of the suffering of a young man who attempts to consummate his marriage without having washed his hands after having eaten a large quantity of ragout spiced with cumin.

title: Ragout


text: User talk:68.41.139.163

title: User talk:68.41.139.163


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Keith Smart

Jonathan Keith Smart (born September 21, 1964) is an American collegiate basketball coach and former player.

Playing career
He is perhaps best remembered for hitting the game-winning shot in the 1987 NCAA championship game that gave the Indiana Hoosiers a 74–73 victory over the Syracuse Orangemen. He had transferred to Indiana from Garden City Community College in Kansas where he was a two-year standout and Jayhawk Conference Player of the Year.

After two seasons at Indiana, Smart was signed by the San Antonio Spurs, with whom he played two games in the 1988–89 season. In 12 minutes, Smart scored two points and had two assists and one rebound. Smart later played in the Philippines, with the San Miguel Beermen of the PBA, in the 1989 Reinforced Conference, where he played through an injury and was eventually replaced by Ennis Whatley after only five games. After the PBA, he played in the World Basketball League: first with the Worcester Counts in 1989. He then played for the Youngstown Pride and was traded to the Halifax Windjammers in March 1991. Smart later played in the Continental Basketball Association with the Rapid City Thrillers (1995–96) and Fort Wayne Fury (1996–97). He also played two seasons in France, and one in Venezuela.

Coaching career
In 2002, Smart finished the season as interim coach of the Cleveland Cavaliers. His record was 9–31 with the club. In 2003, he became an assistant with the Golden State Warriors.

In 2010, Smart took over for Golden State Warriors head coach Don Nelson before the start of the 2010-11 training camp.

The Warriors fired Smart on April 27, 2011 following a 36 win season, a 10-game improvement from the previous season. He joined the Sacramento Kings as an assistant coach in November 2011. On January 5, 2012, the Kings named Smart head coach after firing Paul Westphal. He recorded a 48–93 record over parts of two seasons with the team. On May 31, 2013, the Kings fired Smart with one year remaining on his contract. On September 17, 2014, the Miami Heat announced they had hired Smart as an assistant coach.

On December 6, 2019, Smart was fired by the New York Knicks.

On May 12, 2021, Smart was announced as Assistant Coach of the Arkansas Razorbacks under Head Coach Eric Musselman. On January 15, 2022, Smart served one game as the Arkansas interim coach while Musselman was out with shoulder surgery. Smart led the unranked Razorbacks to a thrilling 65–58 victory over No. 12 LSU in Baton Rouge.

Personal life
Smart and his wife Carol have two children. His son Jared is currently a wide receiver for the University of Hawaii.

title: Keith Smart


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Hocus Pocus (1993 film)

Hocus Pocus is a 1993 American fantasy comedy film directed by Kenny Ortega from a screenplay by Mick Garris and Neil Cuthbert, and a story by David Kirschner and Garris. It follows a villainous comedic trio of witches (Bette Midler, Sarah Jessica Parker, and Kathy Najimy) who are inadvertently resurrected by a teenage boy (Omri Katz) in Salem, Massachusetts, on Halloween night.

The film was released in North America on July 16, 1993, by Walt Disney Pictures. Upon its original release, it received mixed reviews from critics and was initially a box-office bomb, possibly losing Disney around $16.5 million during its theatrical run. However, largely through many annual airings on Disney Channel and Freeform (formerly ABC Family, Fox Family and The Family Channel) all throughout the month of October, Hocus Pocus has been rediscovered by audiences, resulting in a yearly spike in home media sales of the film every Halloween season. The annual celebration of Halloween has helped make the film a cult classic.

The film spawned a franchise, consisting of a sequel novelization, a theme park attraction, a TV special, a short film. A sequel, Hocus Pocus 2, written by Jen D'Angelo and directed by Anne Fletcher, was released on September 30, 2022, on Disney+, with a third film currently in development.

Plot
On October 31, 1693, in Salem, Massachusetts, Thackery Binx discovers that his younger sister Emily has been whisked away to the woods by the three witches Winifred, Mary, and Sarah Sanderson. Binx confronts the Sanderson sisters at their cottage but fails to stop them from draining Emily's life force to restore their youth. To punish him for interfering, the witches transform Binx into a black cat and curse him to live forever with his guilt for not saving Emily.

Having been alerted by Binx's friend Elijah, the townsfolk arrest the witches for Emily's murder and sentence them to death. But before they are hanged in the town square, Winifred casts a curse that will resurrect the sisters during a full moon on All Hallows' Eve if a virgin lights the Black Flame Candle in their cottage. Binx devotes his life to guarding the cottage to ensure that no one can bring the witches back to life.

Three centuries later, on October 31, 1993, teenager Max Dennison has recently moved to Salem from Los Angeles. After reluctantly agreeing to take his younger sister Dani out trick-or-treating, they meet Max's new classmate Allison Watts, whom Max is attracted to. The three visit the former Sanderson cottage, now an abandoned museum, where Max inadvertently resurrects the witches by lighting the Black Flame Candle. The witches attempt to suck out Dani's soul, but Max comes to her rescue.

Escaping, Max steals Winifred's spellbook on the advice of Binx, who remains an immortal black cat. Binx guides the group to an old cemetery, where they are protected from the witches since it is hallowed ground. The witches eventually catch up to them at the cemetery, where Winifred raises her former lover Billy Butcherson from the grave and sends him after the children. As the witches pursue the children across town using Mary's enhanced sense of smell, Winifred reveals that the spell that brought them back only works on Halloween — and unless they can suck the life out of at least one child, they will turn to dust when the sun rises. The children attempt to alert the town's adults at a Halloween party where Max and Dani's parents are in attendance, but the witches arrive at the party and distract the adults by taking the stage, using a performance of "I Put a Spell on You" to cast a curse that will force the adults to dance until they die. After luring them to the local high school, the children trap the witches in a pottery kiln and burn them alive. But while the children are celebrating their victory, the witches' curse revives them again.

Not realizing that the witches have survived, Max and Allison open the spellbook, hoping to reverse the spell on Binx. The opened spellbook reveals the group's location to the witches, who track them down and abduct Binx and Dani, taking back their spellbook in the process. Sarah uses her singing to lure Salem's children to the Sanderson cottage. Max and Allison free Dani and Binx by using a car's headlights to trick the witches into believing that the sun has risen an hour early. Believing that the sunrise has sealed their fate, the witches panic and pass out, allowing Max, Dani, Allison, and Binx to escape. Back at the cemetery, Billy catches up to the children and cuts open his stitched mouth with Max's knife, and joins the children against the witches after revealing his hatred of Winifred. The witches snatch Dani back after attacking the children from the air, and Winifred attempts to use their last vial of potion to suck out Dani's life force. Binx manages to knock the potion out of Winifred's hand, and Max catches the potion and drinks it, forcing the witches to take him instead of Dani.

As Winifred attempts to drain Max's life force, the sun begins to rise. In the ensuing struggle, Allison, Dani, and Billy fend off Mary and Sarah. In a mid-air struggle atop Winifred's broomstick, Max and Winifred fall onto the hallowed ground of the cemetery, turning Winifred to stone. As the sun rises above the horizon, Mary and Sarah disintegrate into dust along with Winifred's stone body. Billy returns to his grave, Binx's curse is broken, and his soul is freed due to the death of the witches, allowing him to reunite with Emily in the afterlife. The adults at the party finally leave, no longer under the witches' curse. Back at the cottage, Jay and Ice are still trapped in the cages the Sisters put them in earlier for calling them ugly chicks. As they sing Row, Row, Row Your Boat in their boredom, Winifred's spellbook below them opens its eye once more, meaning that the witches will return again someday.

Development
In the 1994 TV prequel Hocus Pocus: Begin the Magic, and on the film's Blu-ray release, producer David Kirschner explains how he came up with the idea for the film one night. He and his young daughter were sitting outside and his neighbor's black cat strayed by. Kirschner invented a tale of how the Sanderson Sisters came about, stemming from the Winifred Brood.

Hocus Pocus started life as a script by Mick Garris, that was bought by Walt Disney Pictures in 1984. The film's working title was Disney's Halloween House; it was much darker and scarier, and its protagonists were all 12-year-olds. Garris and Kirschner pitched it to Steven Spielberg's Amblin Entertainment; Spielberg saw Disney as a competitor to Amblin in the family film market at the time and refused to co-produce a film with his "rival."

Writing
Various rewrites were made to the script to make the film more comedic and made two of its young protagonists into teenagers; however, production was stalled several times until 1992, when Bette Midler expressed interest in the script and the project immediately went forward. Midler, who plays the central antagonist of the film (originally written for Cloris Leachman), is quoted as saying that Hocus Pocus "was the most fun I'd had in my career up to that point".

Casting
Ortega met with Leonardo DiCaprio about playing the role of Max after being "impressed" by his audition but was too busy to take on the role as he was working on What's Eating Gilbert Grape. Rosie O'Donnell was offered the role of Mary Sanderson but she declined as she didn't want to play a mean witch.

Filming
Principal photography began on October 12, 1992. The film is set in Salem, Massachusetts, but most of it was shot on sound stages in Burbank, California. However, its daytime scenes were filmed in Salem and Marblehead, Massachusetts, during two weeks of filming with the principal cast. Production was completed on February 10, 1993.

Pioneer Village, a recreation of early-colonial Salem, was used for the opening scenes set in 1693. Other locations included Old Burial Hill in Marblehead, where Max is accosted by Ice and Jay, the Old Town Hall in Salem, where the town Halloween party takes place, and Phillips Elementary School, where the witches are trapped in a kiln. The exterior of Max and Dani's house is a private residence on Ocean Avenue in Salem.

Release
The film was theatrically released by Walt Disney Pictures in the United States and Canada on July 16, 1993. The film received mixed reviews from film critics at the time of its release. It was not a critical or commercial success upon its release, possibly losing Disney around $16.5 million during its theatrical run. However, largely through many annual airings on Disney Channel and Freeform (formerly ABC Family) all throughout the month of October, Hocus Pocus has been rediscovered by audiences, resulting in a yearly spike in home video sales of the film every Halloween season. The annual celebration of Halloween has helped make this film a cult classic.

Home media
Walt Disney Home Video released the film on VHS and LaserDisc in the United States and Canada on January 5, 1994. and later to DVD on June 4, 2002. Following the film's release on DVD, it has continued to show strong annual sales, raking in more than $1 million in DVD sales each October. In the mid-to-late 1990s, the film was rebroadcast annually all throughout October on ABC and Disney Channel before switching over to ABC Family's 13 Nights of Halloween lineup in the later 2000s. The film has continuously brought record viewing numbers to the lineup, including a 2009 broadcast watched by 2.5 million viewers. In 2011, an October 29 airing became the lineup's most watched program, with 2.8 million viewers. On September 4, 2012, the film was released on Blu-ray. Disney re-released the film on Blu-ray and Digital HD on September 2, 2018, as part of the film's 25th anniversary. The new release contains special features, including deleted scenes and a behind-the-scenes retrospective. On 15 September 2020, the film was released on Ultra HD Blu-ray in 4K resolution with HDR.

Music
The musical score for Hocus Pocus was composed and conducted by John Debney. James Horner was originally slated to score the film, but became unavailable at the last minute, so Debney had to score the entire film in two weeks. Even though he didn't score the film, Horner came back to write the theme for Sarah (sung by Sarah Jessica Parker, more commonly known as "Come Little Children") which is featured in Intrada's Complete Edition of the score.

Debney released a promotional score through the internet containing 19 tracks from the film. Bootlegs were subsequently released across the internet, primarily because the promotional release missed the entire opening sequence music.

Songs

 * "Sarah's Theme" – music by James Horner; lyrics by Brock Walsh; performed by Sarah Jessica Parker
 * "I Put a Spell on You" – written by Jay Hawkins and produced and arranged by Marc Shaiman; performed by Bette Midler
 * "Witchcraft" – written by Cy Coleman, Carolyn Leigh; performed by Joe Malone
 * "I Put a Spell on You" – written by Jay Hawkins; performed by Joe Malone
 * "Sabre Dance" – written by Aram Khachaturian, arranged by George Wilson
 * Chants and Incantations – conceived and written by Brock Walsh

Box office
Hocus Pocus was released July 16, 1993, and came in fourth place on its opening weekend, grossing $8.1 million. It dropped from the top ten ranking after two weeks of release. The film was released the same day as Free Willy. According to Kirschner, Disney chose to release Hocus Pocus in July to take advantage of children being off school for the summer.

In October 2020, amid the COVID-19 pandemic, Hocus Pocus was re-released in 2,570 theaters. It made $1.9 million over the weekend, finishing second behind Tenet. The following two weekends it made $1.2 million and $756,000, respectively.

SVOD viewership
According to Whip Media, Hocus Pocus was the 7th most watched movie across all platforms in the United States during the week of October 31, 2021. According to Whip Media, Hocus Pocus was the 2nd most watched movie across all platforms in the United States during the week of September 30, 2022, to October 2, 2022, the 7th during the week of October 9, 2022,  and the 9th during the week of October 23, 2022.

Critical response
On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 40% based on 63 reviews, with an average rating of 4.8/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "Harmlessly hokey yet never much more than mediocre, Hocus Pocus is a muddled family-friendly effort that fails to live up to the talents of its impressive cast." Metacritic assigned the film a weighted average score of 43 out of 100, based on 27 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B+" on an A+ to F scale.

Gene Siskel, reviewing for The Chicago Tribune, remarked that the film was a "dreadful witches' comedy with the only tolerable moment coming when Bette Midler presents a single song." Roger Ebert in The Chicago Sun-Times gave the film one star out of a possible four, writing that it was "a confusing cauldron in which there is great activity but little progress, and a lot of hysterical shrieking". The Miami Herald called it "a pretty lackluster affair", adding this comment: "Despite the triple-threat actress combo, Hocus Pocus won't be the Sister Act of 1993. There are a lot of gotta-sees this summer, and this isn't one of them."

Janet Maslin of The New York Times wrote that the film "has flashes of visual stylishness but virtually no grip on its story". Ty Burr of Entertainment Weekly gave the film a C−, calling it "acceptable scary-silly kid fodder that adults will find only mildly insulting. Unless they're Bette Midler fans. In which case it's depressing as hell"; and stating that while Najimy and Parker "have their moments of ramshackle comic inspiration, and the passable special effects should keep younger campers transfixed [...] [T]he sight of the Divine Miss M. mugging her way through a cheesy supernatural kiddie comedy is, to say the least, dispiriting." Kim Newman of Empire gave the film two stars out of five, writing, "Trying to break expectations isn't always a wise idea and here Disney show how not to do it. With this supposed-family movie, they disappoint on nearly every level. The plot is weak, the action poor and it's got Bette Midler, simply dreadful."

Legacy
Over the years, the film has achieved cult status. In its 25th anniversary year in 2018, the first week of Hocus Pocus viewings on Freeform averaged 8.2 million viewers. A special called the "Hocus Pocus 25th Anniversary Halloween Bash" was filmed at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery and features interviews with members of the cast, including Bette Midler, Sarah Jessica Parker, and Kathy Najimy, as well as a costume contest hosted by Sharon and Kelly Osbourne. It aired on Freeform October 20, 2018.

In October 2011, the Houston Symphony celebrated various horror and Halloween classics, including Hocus Pocus, with "The Hocus Pocus Pops". On October 19, 2013, D23 held a special screening of Hocus Pocus at the Walt Disney Studios in Burbank, California, to honor the 20th anniversary of the film. Nine of the cast and crew gathered for the screening, and hundreds of D23 members attended. Returning members included Kathy Najimy, David Kirschner, Thora Birch, Doug Jones, Vinessa Shaw, and Omri Katz.

During her Divine Intervention Tour in 2015, Bette Midler appeared on stage dressed as Winifred Sanderson. Her Harlettes appeared with her dressed as Mary and Sarah, and the three of them performed the film's version of "I Put a Spell on You."

On September 15, 2015, the Hocus Pocus Villain Spelltacular was introduced at the Magic Kingdom as a part of Mickey's Not-So-Scary Halloween Party. The show introduces new actresses as the Sanderson Sisters who try to make a villain party and summon or attract various Disney villains in the process. In September 2016, entertainment critic Aaron Wallace published Hocus Pocus in Focus: The Thinking Fan's Guide to Disney's Halloween Classic, the first full-length book written about the film. The book includes a foreword by Thora Birch and afterword by Mick Garris. Billed as a "lighthearted but scholarly look at the film", the book analyzes the film's major themes, which it identifies as festivity, nostalgia, home, horror, virginity, feminism, Broadway-style musical moments, sibling rivalry, "Spielbergian" filmmaking style, Disney villain traditions, and more. Wallace also analyzes Walt Disney World's Hocus Pocus Villain Spelltacular as part of the film's legacy and includes "the largest collection of Hocus Pocus fun facts and trivia ever assembled", complete with extensive endnote citations.

The City of Salem has celebrated its connection to Hocus Pocus, while local filming sites have become an attraction for fans as the film's legacy has grown over the years. In 2018, the Haunted Happenings Grand Parade, an annual Salem festival held every October, was Hocus Pocus-themed in honor of the film's 25th anniversary. A representative for Destination Salem also reported a huge uptick in tourism for the 25th anniversary year, stating: "There's always been a ‘Hocus Pocus’ component to the visitors to Salem, especially in October. But it's like the film's following grows every year.”

The cast reunited for "In Search of the Sanderson Sisters: A Hocus Pocus Hulaween Takeover" which aired on October 30, 2020. The one-hour broadcast was virtual due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and the proceeds will go to the New York Restoration Project. Members of the cast who participated were Bette Midler, Sarah Jessica Parker, Kathy Najimy, Thora Birch, Omri Katz, Vinessa Shaw, and Doug Jones. Other notable participants of the benefit included Meryl Streep, Mariah Carey, Cassandra Peterson, Glenn Close, Billy Crystal, Jamie Lee Curtis, Todrick Hall, Jennifer Hudson, Anjelah Johnson-Reyes, Michael Kors, Adam Lambert, George Lopez, Alex Moffat, Martin Short, Sarah Silverman, John Stamos, Kenan Thompson, Sophie von Haselberg, and Bella Hadid.

In 2022, Disney Channel ran a short titled Hocus Pocus As Told By Chibi. This continues the trend started by Big Hero 6: The Series shorts spin-off Big Chibi 6 The Shorts and continued with Amphibia, Phineas and Ferb, Halloweentown, Big City Greens, DuckTales, Tangled: The Series, Descendants, Moana, Zombies, The Ghost and Molly McGee, High School Musical, The Owl House, and Hamster & Gretel as Chibi Tiny Tales. The short was released on October 15, 2022, simplifies the plot of the first Hocus Pocus.

The Sanderson Sisters appear as playable characters in Disney video games such as Disney Magic Kingdoms and Disney Heroes: Battle Mode.

In 2023, Disney re-released the film in select theaters on October 6 to commemorate its 30th anniversary.

Sequel
In a November 2014 interview, Bette Midler said that she was ready and willing to return for a sequel, and she also said that her co-stars Sarah Jessica Parker and Kathy Najimy were also interested in returning for a sequel. Midler stressed the fact that Disney had yet to greenlight any sequel. In October 2016, Sarah Jessica was asked the prospects of a sequel and said "I would love that. I think we've been very vocal that we're very keen." In October 2019, a sequel which was going to be developed as a Disney+ exclusive film was announced, with a screenplay which was written by Jen D'Angelo. Midler, Parker, and Najimy all confirmed their interest in reprising their roles. In March 2020, Adam Shankman signed on to direct. In May 2021, it was confirmed that Midler, Parker, and Najimy would reprise their roles as the Sanderson Sisters and it was announced that the film would be released in 2022. The film was released on September 30, 2022. Hocus Pocus 3 was announced to be in development as of June 4, 2023.

Musical adaptation
During an interview on The Big Seance Podcast in September 2021, creator David Kirschner revealed that a Broadway adaptation of the original film is in development. During an interview leading up to the release of Hocus Pocus 2 in September 2022, he stated that "I just want to pinch myself, and I’m just afraid that I’m going to be nine years old and on a Little League field again. But it’s just so wonderful just to stand back and watch all of this ... I think you’re going to be very pleased." Kenny Ortega revealed to Forbes in 2020 his interest in possibly returning to direct the production, saying "I think a Hocus Pocus musical would be great fun, really great fun."

title: Hocus Pocus (1993 film)