K13VC

K13VC, VHF analog channel 13, is a defunct low-power television station licensed to Austin, Texas, United States, which operated from January 1, 1990 until March 29, 2003. Branded on-air as "KVC 13", it was a sister station of KTBC (channel 7) for most of its history under the ownership of Argyle Television, New World Communications and Fox Television Stations. The station's transmitter was located at One Congress Plaza at the intersection of Congress Avenue and 2nd Street in downtown Austin.

K13VC
Austin, Texas
United States
BrandingKVC 13
Programming
AffiliationsDefunct
Ownership
OwnerGlobal Information Technologies Inc. (1989–1994)
Argyle Television Holdings (1994)
New World Communications (1994–1997)
Fox Television Stations (1997–2003)
(KTBC License, Inc. [1994–2003])
Sister stationsKTBC
History
First air dateJanuary 1, 1990 (1990-01-01)
Last air dateMarch 29, 2003 (2003-03-29)
(13 years, 87 days)
Former channel number(s)Analog:
13 (VHF, 1990–2003)
Former affiliationsPrimary:
Independent (1990–1998, 2000–2003)
UPN (1998–2000)
Secondary:
Fox Kids (1995–2002)
FoxBox (2002–2003)
Technical information
Licensing authorityFCC
Facility ID35650
ERP0.092 kW
Transmitter coordinates30°18′35.99″N 97°47′33.04″W
Links
Public license informationProfile
LMS

History

Early history

K13VC first signed on the air on January 1, 1990 as an independent station. The station was founded by Global Information Technologies Inc., a locally based company owned by entrepreneurs Saleem and Carmen Tawil. It originally operated from studio facilities located at One Congress Plaza. K13VC maintained a general entertainment format featuring sitcoms, drama series and cartoons. The station also heavily relied on sporting events—primarily involving professional teams in nearby major Texas cities—including Major League Baseball away games involving the Houston Astros (via fellow independent station KTXH [now a MyNetworkTV owned-and-operated station] in Houston) and Texas Rangers (via independent KTVT [now a CBS owned-and-operated station] in Dallas–Fort Worth) and NBA games involving the San Antonio Spurs (via independent KABB [now a Fox affiliate] in San Antonio).

Due to Austin being short-spaced to having only one full-power VHF signal and four full-power UHF signals (later five with KNVA's launch in 1994), K13VC operated as a low-power broadcast signal which was limited to a 20-mile [32 km] radius that covered only downtown Austin. This was done to limit interference with ABC owned-and-operated station KTRK-TV in Houston and PBS member station KERA-TV in Dallas–Fort Worth, which also broadcast over VHF channel 13. So K13VC initially obtained the rights to the Astros and Rangers shortly before its sign-on, allowing the station to reach a broadcast licensing agreement with Austin Cablevision, whose assets were eventually absorbed into sister company Time Warner Cable in 1997 and are now part of Charter Spectrum through Charter Communications' 2016 acquisition of TWC. Under the deal, Channel 13 would lease the cable provider's rights to re-transmit the station's Astros and Rangers road game telecasts for that year's MLB season over one of Austin Cablevision's local origination channels. This effectively allowed K13VC's sports telecasts to reach areas of Austin beyond the contour of its limited signal.[1][2][3]

Duopoly with KTBC

On December 21, 1993, Argyle Television Holdings—which had previously announced on March 29, that it would purchase CBS affiliate KTBC (channel 7, now a Fox owned-and-operated station) through its $335-million acquisition of the Times Mirror Company's broadcast holdings—announced that it would purchase K13VC from Global Information Technologies for an undisclosed price. On January 4, 1994, one day after the company closed on its purchase of KTBC and Dallas–Fort Worth sister station KDFW-TV, Argyle took over management responsibilities for K13VC under a local marketing agreement with Global Information Technologies. The agreement—which resulted in K13VC integrating its operations into KTBC's downtown studios on East 10th and Brazos Streets—allowed KTBC to provide programming, advertising, promotional and master control services for K13VC. Through the consolidation of that station's operations with Channel 7, K13VC began airing secondary runs of select syndicated programs seen on KTBC; it also utilized K13VC to provide extensive coverage of local and state legislative elections held in November 1993, while allowing KTBC to interrupt network programming only to air brief election updates.[4][5][6][7][8][9][10]

On May 26, 1994, Atlanta-based New World Communications announced it would purchase Argyle Television's four full-power stations—KTBC, KDFW, ABC affiliate KTVI (now a Fox affiliate) in St. Louis and NBC affiliate WVTM-TV in Birmingham—as well as K13VC for $717 million (including approximately $280 million in debt), in a purchase option-structured deal.[11] On January 19, 1995, New World took over the operations of KTBC, K13VC and the other three Argyle stations through time brokerage agreements; the group's purchase of the Argyle properties received FCC approval nearly three months later on April 14, and was subsequently finalized on April 18, 1995.[12]

On July 2, 1995, as part of an affiliation agreement that the group signed with network parent News Corporation on May 23 to strengthen its affiliate portfolio as Fox assumed the television rights to the National Football League (NFL)'s National Football Conference (NFC), KTBC assumed the Fox affiliation rights from charter affiliate KBVO (channel 42), which, in turn, converted into a CBS affiliate under the KEYE-TV call letters.[11][13][14] Although Channel 7 acquired the rights to most of Fox's programming, KTBC and K13VC initially split the local broadcast rights to the network's children's programming block, Fox Kids, as KTBC station management declined to carry the block's weekday lineup, a move which had become standard practice for the other New World stations that had joined Fox since September 1994. KTBC only took the Saturday morning Fox Kids lineup, and simulcast it in conjunction with K13VC until September 1997, when the former ceded its partial rights to Fox Kids exclusively to Channel 13 and replaced it with real estate, paid and E/I-compliant programs. (K13VC continued to air the weekday children's block until Fox discontinued it, confining Fox Kids programming, to Saturdays on December 31, 2001; it began carrying Fox Kids successor, the FoxBox, on September 14, 2002 and continued to air that block until the station's shutdown.)

On July 17, 1996, News Corporation announced that it would acquire New World in an all-stock transaction worth $2.48 billion. The purchase was finalized on January 22, 1997, with New World's television stations being folded into News Corporation's Fox Television Stations subsidiary; as a result, K13VC and then-independent KDFI (now a MyNetworkTV owned-and-operated station] in Dallas–Fort Worth (the latter of which was operated under an LMA with sister station KDFW at the time) became the first stations ever owned by Fox not to convert into a Fox station. (Fox operated WBRC in Birmingham as a lame-duck ABC affiliate from July 1995, when it completed its purchase of the station from New World, until its contract with the network expired at the end of August 1996, when it converted that station into a Fox O&O.)[15][16][17][18]

On October 5, 1998, K13VC became the second station in Austin to become an affiliate of the United Paramount Network (UPN), assuming the affiliation from the Hill Country Paramount Network (HPN), a regional network of four low-power translator stations that also acted as a simulcast feed of WB affiliate KNVA (channel 54, now a CW affiliate) outside of UPN programming slots. (NBC affiliate KXAN-TV [channel 36], which managed the HPN stations on behalf of their then-shared owner LIN TV Corporation, had also carried tape-delayed airings of Star Trek: Voyager on early Saturday evenings since UPN launched in January 1995, in order to make the series available throughout the market.) The station also rebranded from "KVC 13" to "UPN 13". While the move resulted in most Central Texas residents having to rely on cable television to receive UPN programs due to the K13VC signal being limited to the immediate Austin area, other Central Texas viewers further out from Austin saw the loss of UPN viewership via HPN over-the-air. In addition, K13VC added one of Fox Kids' competitors, UPN Kids (replaced by Disney's One Too in September 1999), to its children's program offerings, with its weekday block initially preceding Fox Kids' morning lineup on Monday through Friday mornings and its weekend block airing in pattern on Sundays.[19][20]

On August 3, 2000, Fredericksburg-based KBEJ (channel 2, now San Antonio-focused MyNetworkTV affiliate KCWX) signed on, displacing K13VC as the market's UPN affiliate after less than two years. (Although Fredericksburg is geographically considered part of the Austin market,[21] KBEJ – which was operated under an LMA between owner Corridor Television and Belo, then-owners of ABC affiliate KVUE (channel 24) and its CBS-affiliated sister station in San Antonio, KENS, through which KVUE handled the station's microwave relay links to its Stonewall transmitter and Austin-area cable feed – originally acted as the UPN outlet for both Austin and San Antonio.) At that time, K13VC reverted to independent status and returned to its original "KVC 13" moniker, focusing on first-run and off-network syndicated programs, as well as University of Texas, Big 12 Conference and other college sports events. The abrupt disaffiliation elicited complaints from Star Trek: Voyager fans who suddenly lost the ability to watch the series' seventh (and final) season as KBEJ only produced a Grade B "rimshot" signal to northern sections of Austin proper and a marginal to non-existent signal in the northern part of the market; in addition, all adjacent affiliates were too distant to be received well in most parts of the Austin DMA. Because Time Warner Cable was initially unwilling to place KBEJ on its Austin system (an impasse that lasted until August 2001, after it reached a carriage agreement with the station two months prior), many Voyager fans had to resort to downloading illegal copies online or trading taped copies with friends in other cities with a UPN affiliate to view episodes during the 2000–01 season. Although UPN frowned upon this practice, unofficially the network and parent company, Viacom, turned a "blind eye" due to the circumstances of the situation.[22][23]

On March 19, 2003, KTBC management announced that K13VC would cease operations after 13 years on the air, as a consequence of Univision Communications being assigned the frequency rights to VHF channel 13 to transmit the digital signal of Killeen-based Univision station KAKW-TV, which had relocated its transmitter facility from Killeen to a tower near Bertram (50 miles [80 km] south of the original tower, and 40 miles [64 km] northwest of Austin) in order to serve the Austin market and obtain cable carriage in the area. Fox Television Stations had applied to relocate K13VC to a higher frequency (seeking a conversion to a full-power license) in late 2001; however, its request was denied by the FCC. K13VC signed off permanently at midnight on March 29; some syndicated programs as well as the Big 12 television rights (via ESPN Plus) were transferred to KTBC, while many other syndicated shows carried by Channel 13 were unable to find a replacement carrier as Austin's five existing full-power, English-language commercial stations at the time (excluding PBS member station KLRU) could not fit them onto their schedules due to local news, syndicated and/or network programming commitments. The shutdown resulted in the layoffs of ten station employees and marginally depreciated the overall value of Fox's Austin television properties.[24][25][26] As Fox did not secure a replacement local carrier for FoxBox/4KidsTV at any point after K13VC shut down, for the remaining 7½ years in which Fox offered children's programming, Fox Kids successor blocks FoxBox and 4Kids TV were not carried in the Austin market; viewers on the fringes of the DMA had to rely on San Antonio affiliate KABB or Waco affiliate KWKT-TV and its Bryan satellite KYLE-TV (which converted into a separately programmed MyNetworkTV affiliate in 2015) to view the block over-the-air. (This was also the case for when KTBC passed on the Fox Kids lineup in the mid-to-late 1990s.)

References
  1. Jeff Fogle (April 18, 1991). "KVC gets cable boost - More Astros, Rangers road games to be on TV". Austin American-Statesman. Cox Enterprises. Retrieved January 25, 2019 – via Newsbank.
  2. Jeff Fogle (March 28, 1991). "No outlets - Texas major-league teams won't be carried in Austin". Austin American-Statesman. Cox Enterprises. p. D2. Retrieved January 25, 2019 – via Newsbank.
  3. Jeff Fogle (April 7, 1991). "TV program to showcase life in minor-league baseball". Austin American-Statesman. Cox Enterprises. p. D12. Retrieved January 25, 2019 – via Newsbank.
  4. R. Michelle Breyer (December 22, 1993). "Argyle to buy Austin's KVC-TV". Austin American-Statesman. Cox Enterprises. p. E1. Retrieved January 25, 2019 – via Newsbank.
  5. Joe Flint (December 20, 1993). "Argyle acquires Times Mirror stations". Broadcasting & Cable. Cahners Business Information. p. 60. Archived from the original (PDF) on February 20, 2016. Retrieved January 25, 2019 – via American Radio History.
  6. "Times Mirror Reaches Accord to Sell Four Television Stations". Los Angeles Times. Times Mirror Company. March 30, 1993. Retrieved January 25, 2019.
  7. "Times Mirror completes sale of Texas TV stations". United Press International. January 4, 1994. Retrieved January 25, 2019.
  8. Geoffrey Foisie (May 3, 1993). "Times Mirror sells stations, part 1". Broadcasting & Cable. Cahners Business Information. Archived from the original (PDF) on March 10, 2016. Retrieved January 25, 2019 – via HighBeam Research.
  9. Steven Vonder Haar (May 21, 1994). "TV deal connects rivals KDFW to buy ad time on KDFI and control its programming". Fort Worth Star-Telegram. The McClatchy Company. p. 1. Retrieved January 25, 2019 – via Newsbank.
  10. "TEXAS DIGEST". Austin American-Statesman. Cox Enterprises. January 6, 1994. p. F1. Retrieved January 25, 2019 – via Newsbank.
  11. Geoffrey Foisie (May 30, 1994). "Fox and the New World order" (PDF). Broadcasting & Cable. Cahners Business Information. p. 6. Retrieved January 25, 2019 – via American Radio History.
    Geoffrey Foisie (May 30, 1994). "Fox and the New World order; Argyle socks away profit" (PDF). Broadcasting & Cable. Cahners Business Information. p. 8. Retrieved January 25, 2019 – via American Radio History.
  12. "New World acquires four TV stations". United Press International. April 18, 1995. Retrieved January 25, 2019.
  13. Bill Carter (May 24, 1994). "FOX WILL SIGN UP 12 NEW STATIONS; TAKES 8 FROM CBS". The New York Times. The New York Times Company. Retrieved January 25, 2019.
  14. "Fox Gains 12 Stations in New World Deal". Chicago Sun-Times. Hollinger International. May 23, 1994. Archived from the original on October 11, 2013. Retrieved January 25, 2019 – via HighBeam Research.
  15. Elizabeth A. Rathbun; Cynthia Littleton (July 22, 1996). "Murdoch claims New World" (PDF). Broadcasting & Cable. Cahners Business Information. p. 6. Retrieved January 25, 2019 – via American Radio History.
    "Murdoch claims New World" (PDF). Broadcasting & Cable. Cahners Business Information. July 22, 1996. p. 7. Retrieved January 25, 2019 – via American Radio History.
  16. Brian Lowry (July 18, 1996). "New World Vision : Murdoch's News Corp. to Buy Broadcast Group". Los Angeles Times. Times Mirror Company. Retrieved June 22, 2012.
  17. "THE MEDIA BUSINESS;Murdoch's News Corp. Buying New World". The New York Times. The New York Times Company. Reuters. July 18, 1996. Retrieved October 9, 2015.
  18. Jennifer Bowles; Renae Merle (July 18, 1996). "Murdoch to purchase KTBC - Deal will make Channel 7 only network-owned station in Austin". Austin American-Statesman. Cox Enterprises. Retrieved January 25, 2019.
  19. Diane Holloway (October 3, 1998). "`Voyager' network changes channels". Austin American-Statesman. Cox Enterprises. p. B2. Retrieved January 25, 2019 – via Newsbank.
  20. "Correction". Austin American-Statesman. Cox Enterprises. October 4, 1998. Retrieved January 25, 2019 – via Newsbank.
  21. https://www.thevab.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/2015-2016-TV-DMA-map.pdf
  22. Jane Greig (October 30, 2000). "And your daughter is how old?". Austin American-Statesman. Cox Enterprises. p. D1. Retrieved January 25, 2019 – via Newsbank.
  23. Diane Holloway (June 20, 2001). "Trekkies, rejoice: UPN coming back to Time Warner". Austin American-Statesman. Cox Enterprises. Retrieved January 25, 2019 – via Newsbank.
  24. Diane Holloway (March 19, 2003). "Low-power TV station KVC will go off air at end of month". Austin American-Statesman. Cox Enterprises. Retrieved January 25, 2019 – via Newsbank.
  25. "Naked City". Austin Chronicle. Austin Chronicle Corp. March 28, 2003.
  26. "Low power station loses signal to Univision". Austin Business Journal. American City Business Journals. March 19, 2003. Retrieved January 25, 2019.
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