KVCW

KVCW, virtual channel 33 (UHF digital channel 29), is a CW-affiliated television station licensed to Las Vegas, Nevada, United States. The station is owned by the Sinclair Broadcast Group, as part of a duopoly with NBC affiliate KSNV (channel 3). The two stations share studios on Foremaster Lane in Las Vegas (both KVCW and KSNV are the only major television stations whose operations are based inside the city limits); KVCW's transmitter is located on Black Mountain, near Henderson (southwest of I-515/US 93/US 95).

KVCW
Las Vegas, Nevada
United States
ChannelsDigital: 29 (UHF)
Virtual: 33 (PSIP)
BrandingThe CW Las Vegas (general)
The CW Las Vegas News (newscasts)
My LVTV (on DT2)
SloganDare to Defy
Programming
Affiliations
Ownership
OwnerSinclair Broadcast Group
(KUPN Licensee, LLC)
Sister stationsKSNV
History
FoundedAugust 26, 1987
First air dateJuly 30, 1989 (1989-07-30) (31 years ago) as KFBT
Former call signsKFBT (1989–2006)
Former channel number(s)Analog:
33 (UHF, 1989–2009)
Former affiliations
Call sign meaningVegas CW
Technical information
Licensing authorityFCC
Facility ID10195
ERP1,000 kW
HAAT382.9 m (1,256 ft)
Transmitter coordinates36°0′28″N 115°0′24″W
Translator(s)15 (UHF) Las Vegas (city)
Links
Public license informationProfile
LMS
Websitecwlasvegas.com
mylvtv.com (DT2)

On cable, the station is available on Cox Communications channel 6 and in high definition on digital channel 1006. In addition, its MyNetworkTV-affiliated second digital subchannel can be seen on channel 12 and in high definition on digital channel 1012.

History

Early years

On April 22, 1987, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) issued an original construction permit to 4-A Communications to build a new full-power television station, on UHF channel 33, to serve the Las Vegas market. 4-A Communications, owned by Lawrence and Teri DePaulis, became Channel 33, Inc. (which remained the station's licensee until 2015) in August 1987. The station, known as KFBT, went on the air on July 30, 1989 under a program test authority and was given a license one month later. The station's original transmitter was located in the McCullough Range southwest of Henderson. On July 20, 1990, a family ownership group headed by Daniel "Danny" Koker purchased Channel 33, Inc. Under the Kokers, KFBT was an independent station with a firmly local flavor and soon garnered much acclaim with features such as the scary B-movie showcase Saturday Fright at the Movies, hosted by Count Cool Rider, which aired at 10 p.m. Count Cool Rider was actually Danny Koker II, son of the station president and also one of the station's owners, who has since gone on to become a respected builder of custom motorcycles,[1] as well as a regular expert on the History Channel series Pawn Stars[2] and host of its spinoff, Counting Cars.[3][4]

As a WB affiliate and return to independence

The station primarily broadcast older movies, sitcoms, and dramas during this era, as well as some Christian religious programs (as the senior Koker was a gospel musician)[5] and professional wrestling (most notably World Class Championship Wrestling and the National Wrestling Alliance). KFBT became a charter affiliate of The WB at the network's launch on January 11, 1995 and remained an affiliate while owned by the Koker family. On December 18, 1997, the Koker family sold Channel 33, Inc. to Montecito Broadcasting Corporation with the sale being finalized on February 3, 1998. The same day that Montecito closed on its purchase of KFBT, it immediately entered into an agreement to be acquired by the Sinclair Broadcast Group, which Montecito entered into a local marketing agreement (LMA) to operate KFBT, until the transaction was completed.[6] On March 1, 1998, Sinclair moved the WB affiliation to KUPN (channel 21, which later changed calls to KVWB, now KHSV) and KFBT was to affiliate with UPN but did not sign a contract and instead became an independent station leaving no local provider of the network over the air caused public outcry for Las Vegas viewers. Eventually the next year, KCNG-LP signed on and picked up the UPN affiliation, immediately asserting network exclusivity in the market and causing providers to drop KCOP and WWOR on their request. The station was rebranded as "Gold 33" and began showing mainly newer syndicated programming. Sinclair completed its purchase of Montecito and Channel 33, Inc. in February 2000, resulting in the creation of the market's first duopoly between KFBT and KVWB.

As a CW affiliate

On January 24, 2006, CBS Corporation (the parent company of UPN) and the Warner Bros. unit of Time Warner announced that The WB and UPN would be shut down that September and have some of their higher-rated programs migrated onto a new jointly owned network called The CW.[7][8] On February 22, News Corporation announced that it would start up another new network called MyNetworkTV.[9] This new service, which would be a sister network to Fox, would be operated by Fox Television Stations and its syndication division, Twentieth Television. MyNetworkTV was created in order to give stations affiliated with UPN and The WB that were not mentioned as becoming CW affiliates another option besides becoming independent stations, as well as to compete against The CW.

Sinclair chose to affiliate KVWB with MyNetworkTV leaving The CW to join with either low-power UPN affiliate KTUD-CA (channel 25) or KFBT. Sinclair began negotiations with The CW to affiliate KFBT, and in April, when KTUD decided to go independent instead of pursuing a CW affiliation,[10] KFBT was virtually assured The CW affiliation. An affiliation agreement was announced on May 2 and KFBT changed its call letters to the current KVCW on June 19, reflecting its pending affiliation with the new network. KVMY (now KHSV) affiliated with MyNetworkTV, when the network launched on September 5, two weeks before The WB was scheduled to shut down and The CW made its debut; as a result, KVCW rejoined The WB for the network's last two weeks of programming before switching its affiliation to The CW on September 18.

On May 15, 2012, Sinclair and Fox agreed to a five-year affiliation agreement extension for the station group's 19 Fox-affiliated stations until 2017. This included an option, that was exercisable between July 1, 2012 and March 31, 2013, for Fox parent News Corporation to buy a combination of six Sinclair-owned stations (two CW/MyNetworkTV duopolies and two standalone MyNetworkTV affiliates) in three out of four markets; KVCW and KVMY were included in the Fox purchase option, along with stations in Cincinnati (WSTR-TV), Raleigh (WLFL/WRDC) and Norfolk (WTVZ-TV).[11] In January 2013, Fox announced that it will not exercise its option to buy any of the Sinclair stations in the four markets included in the option.[12]

On August 13, 2013, KSNV-DT announced that the NBC soap opera Days of Our Lives would move to KVCW as of August 19. The move of the program was necessitated after KSNV changed its schedule to accommodate a 3 p.m. newscast.[13] On September 3, 2014, Sinclair announced the purchase of KSNV from Intermountain West Communications Company for $120 million. As Sinclair already owns KVCW and KVMY, the company will sell the license assets (though not the programming) of one of the three stations to comply with FCC ownership restrictions, with the divested station's programming being relocated to the other stations.[14] On November 1, 2014, KVMY's programming was moved to KVCW's second digital subchannel. Sinclair could not buy KSNV-DT outright because Las Vegas has only seven full-power stations—four too few to legally permit a duopoly. With the sale's completion, Sinclair now controls half of those stations. It also created a situation in which a CW affiliate is the nominal senior partner in a duopoly involving an NBC affiliate and a "Big Four" station.

Digital television

Digital channels

The station's digital signal is multiplexed:

Channel Video Aspect PSIP Short Name Programming[15]
33.11080i16:9TheCWLVMain KVCW programming / The CW
33.2720pMY_LVTVMyNetworkTV
33.3480iTBDTBD
33.4THIS-TVThis TV
33.5CometComet

Analog-to-digital conversion

When the FCC released its initial digital channel allocations on April 21, 1997, it had assigned KFBT's digital companion channel to UHF channel 32.[16] The allocations met with considerable resistance from low-power broadcasters who would be displaced by the digital channel allocations, and on February 17, 1998, the FCC issued a revised final DTV allocation table.[17] KFBT's original allocation would have displaced low-powered K31DO (now KNBX-CD), so the FCC substituted UHF channel 29 allowing channel 32 to be assigned to Lake Havasu City, Arizona station KMCC-DT and eliminating a displacement there. KFBT was granted a permit to construct its digital facilities on January 26, 2001. Technical difficulties delayed construction of the full-power facilities requiring extensions of the construction permit.[18]

On November 8, 2002, KFBT was granted special temporary authority (STA) to construct a low-power facility in order to comply with the FCC deadline for commencing digital broadcasting while the full-power facilities were still being built. The station, now known as KVCW-DT, completed construction of its full-power digital facilities in January 2007 and was granted a license on March 8. Back in 2006, the FCC required each station with a digital companion channel to select which one it would continue to use after the end of the transition period (at that time scheduled for February 17, 2009). KVCW-DT selected channel 29 as its final digital channel and returned the channel 33 license to the FCC.[19] Through the use of PSIP, digital television receivers display the station's virtual channel as its former UHF analog channel 33. Regular analog programming was dropped on February 18, 2009, with the station participating in the "Analog Nightlight" program for two weeks, with a broadcast explaining how to switch to digital reception.

KVCW-DT is available on channels 4, 12 and 51 (over air) in Mesquite, Nevada, and on cable in Saint George, Utah.[20]

ATSC 3.0

On May 26, 2020, KVCW discontinued ATSC 1.0 broadcasts and became one of the first stations in the country (and the first in the Western United States) to begin broadcasting in ATSC 3.0. Its primary channel is simulcast on KTNV-DT5, MyNetworkTV on sister station KSNV-DT5, and KVCW-DT3, KVCW-DT4 and KVCW-DT5 on the fifth, sixth and seventh digital subchannels of KLAS-TV.

Programming

Syndicated programming seen on KVCW includes Judge Mathis, The Doctors, The People's Court, Jerry Springer, Steve Wilkos, Maury, and 2 Broke Girls.[21]

Newscasts

In 2003, former sister station KVWB established a news department and began airing an hour-long primetime newscast at 10 p.m. It was part of Sinclair's centralized News Central operation that was based at the company's headquarters on Beaver Dam Road in Hunt Valley, Maryland. National and international news segments, weather forecasts and some sports segments originated from the company's Hunt Valley facility, while local news and sports segments were based at KFBT/KVWB's Las Vegas studios. The news department was shared with KFBT, which aired its own local newscast at 7 p.m. It also aired "The Point", a one-minute conservative political commentary, that was required to be broadcast on all Sinclair-owned stations with newscasts. The news department was shut down at the beginning of March 2006, as were the majority of Sinclair's news operations under the News Central format.

KVWB later entered into a news share agreement with NBC affiliate KVBC (channel 3, now KSNV-DT) to produce a nightly 10 p.m. newscast for channel 21. The newscast, originally titled News 3 at 10 on The WB Las Vegas, debuted on April 4, 2006 and was later renamed to News 3 at 10 on MyLVTV to correspond with KVMY's affiliation switch to MyNetworkTV. The program was discontinued on December 15, 2006 and moved to KVCW the following Monday under the title News 3 at 10 on The CW Las Vegas. On August 11, 2007, KVBC became the second station in the Las Vegas market to begin broadcasting its local newscasts in high definition and the KVCW broadcast was included in the upgrade. The 10 p.m. newscast originated from KVBC's studios on Foremaster Lane in Las Vegas near the border with North Las Vegas. KVBC also produced a 15-minute sports highlight program called Sports Zone, that aired weeknights at 10:45. Both programs were discontinued on September 28, 2009 and replaced with syndicated programming.

As of August 17, 2015, current sister station KSNV relaunched newscasts on KVCW. Wake Up With The CW Las Vegas, airs 7-9 a.m. and the half-hour broadcast of The CW Las Vegas News at Ten, airs at 10 p.m. Both newscasts compete with KVVU's 7 a.m. segment of Fox 5 News This Morning and the 10 p.m. airing of Fox 5 News at Ten.[22]

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References
  1. K. Fudge. "Danny Koker Feature - 2005". Corbin's RideOn (via archive.org). Archived from the original on September 8, 2007. Retrieved 2007-04-28.
  2. Meet the Experts: Danny Koker, History.com, Accessed November 1, 2010.
  3. "Danny "The Count" Koker is in the Driver's Seat When New Car-Loving Series Premieres on History(R) - 'Counting Cars'". The Futon Critic. July 25, 2012.
  4. Rose, Lacey (July 20, 2012). "History Orders Car Flipping Series Starring 'Pawn Stars' Personality (Exclusive)". The Hollywood Reporter.
  5. Danny Koker Obituary, Las Vegas Review-Journal, 2008.
  6. "Sinclair/MBC Stock Purchase Agreement". 1998-03-18. Retrieved 2007-04-28.
  7. 'Gilmore Girls' meet 'Smackdown'; CW Network to combine WB, UPN in CBS-Warner venture beginning in September, CNNMoney.com, January 24, 2006.
  8. UPN and WB to Combine, Forming New TV Network, The New York Times, January 24, 2006.
  9. News Corp. Unveils MyNetworkTV, Broadcasting & Cable, February 22, 2006.
  10. K. White (2006-04-26). "Second local affiliate rejects new CW". Las Vegas Review-Journal. Retrieved 2007-04-13.
  11. Sinclair Reups With Fox, Gets WUTB Option, TVNewsCheck, May 15, 2012.
  12. Sinclair In An Acquisition State Of Mind, TVNewsCheck, February 6, 2013.
  13. "KSNV To Debut One-Hour 3 P.M. News". TVNewsCheck. August 13, 2013. Retrieved August 14, 2013.
  14. "Sinclair Buying KSNV Las Vegas For $120M". TVNewsCheck. September 3, 2014. Retrieved September 3, 2014.
  15. RabbitEars TV Query for KVCW
  16. "DTV Allocation Table, Sixth Report and Order" (PDF). Federal Communications Commission. 1997-04-21. p. 34. Retrieved 2007-04-28.
  17. "Final DTV Allocation Table, MO&O for Recon. of Sixth R&O" (PDF). Federal Communications Commission. 1998-02-17. p. 27. Retrieved 2007-04-28.
  18. "Construction permit extension request". Federal Communications Commission. 2007-08-30. Retrieved 2007-04-28.
  19. "DTV Tentative Channel Designations for the First and the Second Rounds" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2013-08-29. Retrieved 2012-03-24.
  20. http://tvlistings.aol.com/listings/nv/mesquite/reliance-connects-rio-virgin-cable/NV58544%7CX
  21. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2012-04-25. Retrieved 2009-09-12.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  22. "CW Las Vegas News".
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