At the end of 2017, it was announced that Seattle’s FOX affiliate Q13 KCPQ was to be spun off after the Tribune and Sinclair merger. However, with such a complicated business transaction, it took most of 2018 to get it through the FCC process. From a viewer perspective, very little seemed to change with the station until recently.
With the launch of the 2021 Fall season, KCPQ dropped the Q13 moniker and officially became FOX 13. It seems that with change came far more frequent tosses to FOX News anchors. The new red and blue logo and color scheme make that more seamless.
The logo is not the only thing that changed. In September, Matt Lorch announced he was leaving his post after 10 years. Not long after, it was announced that 20-year weather veteran MJ McDermott would be retiring from her post. Not a week later I came across a post that station management was not looking to renew Travis Mayfield’s contract without some major changes. According to the post, Mayfield would be relegated to anchoring the first 30 minutes of the show, then sent out to the field.
With so many changes, it will be interesting to see what the new Vice President and News Director Jake Wiederrich will do with the station. I am a long-time viewer of Q13 news and my observation is that Fox is trying to make KCPQ more like FOX News and a lot less Seattle-focused. It will be interesting to see if that equals higher ratings.
Seattle Media
