KEGS (TV)

KEGS, VHF analog channel 7, was a television station licensed to Goldfield, Nevada, United States that served both the Reno and Las Vegas markets by way of translators KRRI-LP channel 25 in Reno and KEGS-LP channel 30 in Las Vegas. Like many stations that were owned by Equity Broadcasting, the stations were operated remotely by satellite; their programming could be seen free-to-air on Galaxy 18.[1]

KEGS

Goldfield, Nevada United States
Channels	Analog: 7 (VHF)
Programming
Affiliations	Defunct
Ownership
Owner	Equity Media Holdings Corporation (Nevada Channel 3, Inc.)
History
First air date	April 2002 (2002-04)
Last air date	2009 (2009)
Former call signs	KTVY-TV (2002–2005)
Former affiliations	ImaginAsian (until 2007) RTN (2007–2009) Independent (2009)
Call sign meaning	Equity Goldfield Station
Technical information
Facility ID	86201
ERP	22.9 kW
HAAT	448 m (1,470 ft)
Transmitter coordinates	38°3′5″N 117°13′33″W
Translator(s)	KEGS-LP 30 (UHF) Las Vegas KRRI-LP 43 (UHF) Reno

History

The Las Vegas station was founded on January 12, 1993 as K63FD, and later gained the call sign KTVY-LP in 1997. In April 2002, the Goldfield station signed on as KTVY-TV, matching the station in Las Vegas. Finally, in late May 2005, both stations changed their call sign to the current KEGS.

Until May 30, 2007, KEGS was affiliated with ImaginAsian. On that day, the station switched to the Retro Television Network (RTN).[2]

On January 4, 2009, a contract conflict between Equity Media Holdings Corporation and RTN interrupted the programming on many RTN affiliates.[3] As a result, Luken Communications, LLC (who had purchased RTN in June 2008), restored a national RTN feed from its headquarters in Chattanooga, Tennessee, with individual customized feeds to non-Equity-owned affiliates to follow on a piecemeal basis. As a result, KEGS lost its RTN affiliation immediately, though Luken vowed to find a new affiliate for RTN in the Las Vegas market.[4] Viewers in the Reno area could still watch RTN on the digital subchannel of local Fox affiliate KRXI-TV, while KGNG-LP's DT4 subchannel took the affiliation in Las Vegas in June 2009.

At auction on April 16, 2009, KEGS-LP was sold to Mako Communications, while KRRI-LP and KELM-LP were sold to Ngensolutions LLC.[5] In June 2013, Mako planned to sell what had become KEGS-LD to Landover 5 LLC as part of a larger deal involving 51 other low-power television stations;[6] the deal fell through in June 2016,[7] and in 2017 Mako's stations, including KEGS-LD, were acquired by HC2 Holdings.[8] The full-service KEGS signal never found a buyer,[9] and signed off permanently on June 12, 2009; its license was finally canceled on July 6, 2010.[10]

Digital television

Because it was granted an original construction permit after the FCC finalized the DTV allotment plan on April 21, 1997,[11] the station did not receive a companion channel for a digital television station. Instead, at the end of the digital TV conversion period for full-service stations, KEGS would have been required to turn off its analog signal and turn on its digital signal (called a "flash-cut").

The station's owner, Equity Media Holdings, declared bankruptcy in 2008 and was unable to construct digital facilities, leaving the station to go dark in 2009. According to the station's DTV status report, "On December 8, 2008, the licensee's parent corporation filed a petition for bankruptcy relief under Chapter 11 of the federal bankruptcy code... This station must obtain post-petition financing and court approval before digital facilities may be constructed. The station must cease analogue broadcasting on February 17, 2009, regardless of whether digital facilities are operational by that date. The station will file authority to remain silent if so required by the FCC."[12]

While the DTV Delay Act extended this deadline to June 12, 2009, Equity had applied for an extension of the digital construction permit in order to retain the broadcast license after the station became silent. Equity Broadcasting also held a construction permit to construct a digital companion station to KEGS-LP on channel 24 in Las Vegas; that station, as a low-power broadcasting operation, was not required to cease analog transmission due to DTV transition in 2009.

While the majority of Equity's assets were sold in a 2009 liquidation, neither the digital KEGS transmitter nor the new Las Vegas station were ever constructed.

References

1. Lyngsat FTA channel listings for Equity on Galaxy 3C (C-band, 95°W) and Galaxy 18 (Ku, 123°W)
2. RTN/Equity Broadcasting website, accessed 4/20/08
3. What’s Wrong with MyTV? Archived 2009-01-13 at the Wayback Machine
4. TV Newsday: "Financial Dispute Disrupts RTN Diginet", 1/5/2009.
5. "Takers found for 60 Equity stations". Television Business Report. April 18, 2009. Archived from the original on April 24, 2009. Retrieved April 20, 2009.
6. Seyler, Dave (June 24, 2013). "Anatomy of an LPTV deal extravaganza". Television Business Report. Retrieved July 3, 2013.
7. "Notification of Non-consummation". CDBS Public Access. Federal Communications Commission. June 29, 2016. Retrieved January 20, 2018.
8. "APPLICATION FOR CONSENT TO ASSIGNMENT OF BROADCAST STATION CONSTRUCTION PERMIT OR LICENSE". CDBS Public Access. Federal Communications Commission. September 8, 2017. Retrieved January 20, 2018.
9. "Equity stations still on the block". Television Business Report. April 20, 2009. Archived from the original on May 2, 2009. Retrieved April 28, 2009.
10. Pendarvis, Clay C. (July 6, 2010). "Re: KEGS, Goldfield, Nevada". CDBS Public Access. Federal Communications Commission. Retrieved August 2, 2010.
11. http://www.transmitter.com/FCC97115/chanplan.html
12. FCC DTV status report