KVCW
Encyclopedia
KVCW, branded as The CW Las Vegas, is the CW-affiliated television station
for Las Vegas
. It broadcasts a high definition
digital signal on UHF channel 29 from a transmitter in Henderson
, Nevada
southwest of I-515
/U.S. 93
/U.S. 95
. Although the station no longer airs an over-the-air analog signal, it can be seen on Cox
cable channel 6 and in high definition on digital channel 706 and clear QAM 6.1. Owned by the Sinclair Broadcast Group
, KVCW is sister station to MyNetworkTV
affiliate KVMY
. The two stations share studios on South Jones Boulevard in Spring Valley
(even though the address says Las Vegas). Syndicated
programming on KVCW includes: Law & Order: Criminal Intent
, Dr. Phil
, and Judge Judy
, along with Live with Regis and Kelly
after years on KTNV-TV. As of September 2011, Live is seen on KLAS-TV.
(FCC) issued an original construction permit to 4-A Communications to build a new full-service 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. in August 1987 (Channel 33, Inc. has been the licensee since). The station, known as KFBT, went on-the-air on July 30, 1989 under program test authority and was licensed a month later. Its analog transmitter was located in the McCullough Range southwest of Henderson. On July 20, 1990, a family ownership group headed by Daniel 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 night Saturday Fright at the Movies , hosted by Count Cool Rider , which aired at 10 p.m. Count Cool Rider was actually Danny Koker, one of the station's owners, who has since gone on to become a respected builder of custom motorcycles, as well as a regular expert on the History channel series Pawn Stars
.
The station primarily broadcasted older programming during this era, as well as pro 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 (MBC) with the sale consummated February 3, 1998. The same day MBC closed on its purchase of KFBT, it entered into an agreement to be acquired by the Sinclair Broadcast Group and executed a local marketing agreement
(LMA) allowing that company to operate KFBT until the transaction was completed. On March 1, 1998, Sinclair moved The WB affiliation to KUPN (soon to be renamed KVWB, now KVMY) and KFBT returned to being independent. The station was re-branded to "Gold 33" and began showing mainly newer syndicated programming.
Sinclair completed its purchase of MBC and Channel 33, Inc. in February 2000 and KFBT became part of a Sinclair duopoly
in Las Vegas. More changes in affiliation would follow. On January 24, 2006, The WB and UPN
announced that they would end broadcasting and merge. The new combined network would be called The CW. The letters would represent the first initial of its corporate parents, CBS
(the parent company of UPN) and the Warner Bros.
unit of Time Warner
. On February 22, News Corporation
announced that it would start up another new network called MyNetworkTV. 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 UPN and WB stations, not mentioned as becoming CW affiliates, another option besides becoming independent. It was also created to compete against The CW. Sinclair chose to affiliate KVWB with MyNetworkTV leaving The CW to join with either low-power KTUD-CA, the UPN affiliate, 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, KFBT was virtually assured The CW affiliation. An agreement was announced on May 2 and KFBT changed its call letters to the current KVCW on June 19, reflecting the new network. MyNetworkTV launched on KVMY two weeks before The CW so when that station dropped WB programming in order to air its new network, KVCW rejoined The WB for the network's last two weeks then switched to The CW on September 18.
allocations on April 21, 1997, it had assigned UHF channel 32 to KFBT-DT as its digital companion channel. The allocations met with considerable resistance from low-power broadcasters who would be displaced by the DTV allocations, and on February 17, 1998, the FCC issued a revised final DTV allocations table. KFBT's original allocation would have displaced low-powered K31DO (now KNBX-CA), 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. 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. Televisions still tune to KVCW on channel 33 per the ATSC
virtual channel standards using PSIP. Regular analog programming was dropped on February 18, 2009 and was replaced with a broadcast explaining how to switch to digital reception.
The station airs This TV
on digital channel 33.2, and The Country Network (TCN) on 33.3.
operation. The news department was shared with KFBT which aired its News Central newscast at 7. The news department was shut down at the beginning of March 2006. KVWB later entered into an agreement to air a nightly 10 o'clock newscast produced by NBC
affiliate KVBC. The newscast debuted on April 4, 2006 titled News 3 at 10 on The WB Las Vegas and later renamed to News 3 at 10 on MyLVTV to correspond with KVMY's affiliation switch. It was discontinued on December 15, 2006 and News 3 at 10 on The CW Las Vegas was launched the following Monday on KVCW. On August 11, 2007, KVBC became the second station in the Las Vegas market to broadcast its local news in high definition
and the KVCW broadcast was included in the upgrade. News 3 at 10 originated from KVBC's studios on Foremaster Lane in Las Vegas near the border with North Las Vegas
. Weeknights at 10:45, there was a 15 minute sports highlight show called Sports Zone. News 3 at 10 and Sports Zone were discontinued on September 28, 2009 and replaced with syndicated programming.
Television station
A television station is a business, organisation or other such as an amateur television operator that transmits content over terrestrial television. A television transmission can be by analog television signals or, more recently, by digital television. Broadcast television systems standards are...
for Las Vegas
Las Vegas metropolitan area
The Las Vegas Valley is the heart of the Las Vegas-Paradise, NV MSA also known as the Las Vegas–Paradise–Henderson MSA which includes all of Clark County, Nevada, and is a metropolitan area in the southern part of the U.S. state of Nevada. The Valley is defined by the Las Vegas Valley landform, a ...
. It broadcasts a high definition
High-definition television
High-definition television is video that has resolution substantially higher than that of traditional television systems . HDTV has one or two million pixels per frame, roughly five times that of SD...
digital signal on UHF channel 29 from a transmitter in Henderson
Henderson, Nevada
-Demographics:According to the 2000 census, there were 175,381 people, 66,331 households, and 47,095 families residing in the city. The population density was 2,200.8 people per square mile . There were 71,149 housing units at an average density of 892.8 per square mile...
, Nevada
Nevada
Nevada is a state in the western, mountain west, and southwestern regions of the United States. With an area of and a population of about 2.7 million, it is the 7th-largest and 35th-most populous state. Over two-thirds of Nevada's people live in the Las Vegas metropolitan area, which contains its...
southwest of I-515
Interstate 515
Interstate 515 is a spur of Interstate 15 that runs from the junction of I-15, US 93 and US 95 near Downtown Las Vegas, Nevada approximately southeast to Railroad Pass near the borders of Henderson and Boulder City....
/U.S. 93
U.S. Route 93 in Nevada
In the U.S. state of Nevada, U.S. Route 93 is a major U.S. highway traversing the eastern edge of the state. The highway connects the Las Vegas area to the Great Basin National Park, and provides further connections to Ely and Wells...
/U.S. 95
U.S. Route 95 in Nevada
In the U.S. state of Nevada, U.S. Route 95 is a major U.S. highway traversing the state from north to south directly through Las Vegas and providing connections to both Carson City and Reno...
. Although the station no longer airs an over-the-air analog signal, it can be seen on Cox
Cox Communications
Cox Communications is a privately owned subsidiary of Cox Enterprises providing digital cable television, telecommunications and wireless services in the United States...
cable channel 6 and in high definition on digital channel 706 and clear QAM 6.1. Owned by the Sinclair Broadcast Group
Sinclair Broadcast Group
The Sinclair Broadcast Group is an American telecommunications company that operates the largest number of local television stations in the United States. Headquartered in Hunt Valley, Maryland, it owns a total of 57 stations across the country in 35 primarily small and medium markets, many of...
, KVCW is sister station to MyNetworkTV
MyNetworkTV
MyNetworkTV is a television broadcast syndication service in the United States, owned by the Fox Entertainment Group, a division of News Corporation...
affiliate KVMY
KVMY
KVMY, branded as MyLVTV is a full-service television station in Las Vegas, Nevada, broadcasting locally in digital on UHF channel 22 as an affiliate of MyNetworkTV. Founded March 8, 1982, the station is owned and operated by the Sinclair Broadcast Group...
. The two stations share studios on South Jones Boulevard in Spring Valley
Spring Valley, Nevada
Spring Valley is an unincorporated town in Clark County, Nevada, United States located two miles west of the Las Vegas Strip. The population was 117,390 at the 2000 census.-Background:...
(even though the address says Las Vegas). Syndicated
Television syndication
In broadcasting, syndication is the sale of the right to broadcast radio shows and television shows by multiple radio stations and television stations, without going through a broadcast network, though the process of syndication may conjure up structures like those of a network itself, by its very...
programming on KVCW includes: Law & Order: Criminal Intent
Law & Order: Criminal Intent
Law & Order: Criminal Intent is an American police procedural television drama series set in New York City, where it was also primarily produced. Created and produced by Dick Wolf and René Balcer, the series premiered on September 30, 2001, as the second spin-off of Wolf's successful crime drama...
, Dr. Phil
Dr. Phil (TV series)
Dr. Phil is a reality/talk television show hosted by Phil McGraw. After McGraw's success with his segments on The Oprah Winfrey Show, Dr. Phil debuted on September 16, 2002...
, and Judge Judy
Judge Judy
Judge Judy is an American court show featuring former family court judge Judith Sheindlin arbitrating over small claims cases in small claims court...
, along with Live with Regis and Kelly
Live with Regis and Kelly
Live! with Kelly is a syndicated American television morning talk show, hosted by Kelly Ripa. The show has aired since 1983 in New York City and 1988 nationwide. Tony Pigg has been the show's announcer since its inception...
after years on KTNV-TV. As of September 2011, Live is seen on KLAS-TV.
History
On April 22, 1987, the Federal Communications CommissionFederal Communications Commission
The Federal Communications Commission is an independent agency of the United States government, created, Congressional statute , and with the majority of its commissioners appointed by the current President. The FCC works towards six goals in the areas of broadband, competition, the spectrum, the...
(FCC) issued an original construction permit to 4-A Communications to build a new full-service television station, on UHF channel 33, to serve the Las Vegas market
Media market
A media market, broadcast market, media region, designated market area , Television Market Area , or simply market is a region where the population can receive the same television and radio station offerings, and may also include other types of media including newspapers and Internet content...
. 4-A Communications, owned by Lawrence and Teri DePaulis, became Channel 33, Inc. in August 1987 (Channel 33, Inc. has been the licensee since). The station, known as KFBT, went on-the-air on July 30, 1989 under program test authority and was licensed a month later. Its analog transmitter was located in the McCullough Range southwest of Henderson. On July 20, 1990, a family ownership group headed by Daniel Koker purchased Channel 33, Inc. Under the Kokers, KFBT was an independent station
Independent station
An independent station is in the category of television terminology used to describe a television station broadcasting in the United States or Canada that is not affiliated with any television network....
with a firmly local flavor and soon garnered much acclaim with features such as the scary B-movie night Saturday Fright at the Movies , hosted by Count Cool Rider , which aired at 10 p.m. Count Cool Rider was actually Danny Koker, one of the station's owners, who has since gone on to become a respected builder of custom motorcycles, as well as a regular expert on the History channel series Pawn Stars
Pawn Stars
Pawn Stars is an American reality television series on the History Channel, produced in Manhattan by Leftfield Pictures. The series is filmed in Las Vegas, Nevada, where it chronicles the daily activities at the Gold & Silver Pawn Shop, a 24-hour family business operated by patriarch Richard...
.
The station primarily broadcasted older programming during this era, as well as pro wrestling, most notably World Class Championship Wrestling
World Class Championship Wrestling
World Class Championship Wrestling ' was a regional professional wrestling promotion headquartered in Dallas and Fort Worth, Texas. Originally owned by promoter Ed McLemore, by 1966 it was run by Southwest Sports, Inc., whose president, Jack Adkisson, was better known as wrestler Fritz Von Erich...
and the National Wrestling Alliance
National Wrestling Alliance
The National Wrestling Alliance is a wrestling promotion company and sanctions various NWA championships in the United States. The NWA has been in operation since 1948...
. KFBT became a charter affiliate of The WB
The WB Television Network
The WB Television Network is a former television network in the United States that was launched on January 11, 1995 as a joint venture between Warner Bros. and Tribune Broadcasting. On January 24, 2006, CBS Corporation and Warner Bros...
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 (MBC) with the sale consummated February 3, 1998. The same day MBC closed on its purchase of KFBT, it entered into an agreement to be acquired by the Sinclair Broadcast Group and executed a local marketing agreement
Local marketing agreement
In U.S. and Canadian broadcasting, a local marketing agreement is an agreement in which one company agrees to operate a radio or television station owned by another licensee...
(LMA) allowing that company to operate KFBT until the transaction was completed. On March 1, 1998, Sinclair moved The WB affiliation to KUPN (soon to be renamed KVWB, now KVMY) and KFBT returned to being independent. The station was re-branded to "Gold 33" and began showing mainly newer syndicated programming.
Sinclair completed its purchase of MBC and Channel 33, Inc. in February 2000 and KFBT became part of a Sinclair duopoly
Duopoly (broadcasting)
In United States broadcast television and radio, duopoly is a term used to describe a single company which owns two or more stations in the same city or community....
in Las Vegas. More changes in affiliation would follow. On January 24, 2006, The WB and UPN
UPN
United Paramount Network was a television network that was broadcast in over 200 markets in the United States from 1995 to 2006. UPN was originally owned by Viacom/Paramount and Chris-Craft Industries, the former of which, through the Paramount Television Group, produced most of the network's...
announced that they would end broadcasting and merge. The new combined network would be called The CW. The letters would represent the first initial of its corporate parents, CBS
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...
(the parent company of UPN) and the Warner Bros.
Warner Bros.
Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc., also known as Warner Bros. Pictures or simply Warner Bros. , is an American producer of film and television entertainment.One of the major film studios, it is a subsidiary of Time Warner, with its headquarters in Burbank,...
unit of Time Warner
Time Warner
Time Warner is one of the world's largest media companies, headquartered in the Time Warner Center in New York City. Formerly two separate companies, Warner Communications, Inc...
. On February 22, News Corporation
News Corporation
News Corporation or News Corp. is an American multinational media conglomerate. It is the world's second-largest media conglomerate as of 2011 in terms of revenue, and the world's third largest in entertainment as of 2009, although the BBC remains the world's largest broadcaster...
announced that it would start up another new network called MyNetworkTV. 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 UPN and WB stations, not mentioned as becoming CW affiliates, another option besides becoming independent. It was also created to compete against The CW. Sinclair chose to affiliate KVWB with MyNetworkTV leaving The CW to join with either low-power KTUD-CA, the UPN affiliate, 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, KFBT was virtually assured The CW affiliation. An agreement was announced on May 2 and KFBT changed its call letters to the current KVCW on June 19, reflecting the new network. MyNetworkTV launched on KVMY two weeks before The CW so when that station dropped WB programming in order to air its new network, KVCW rejoined The WB for the network's last two weeks then switched to The CW on September 18.
Digital television
When the FCC released its initial DTVDigital television
Digital television is the transmission of audio and video by digital signals, in contrast to the analog signals used by analog TV...
allocations on April 21, 1997, it had assigned UHF channel 32 to KFBT-DT as its digital companion channel. The allocations met with considerable resistance from low-power broadcasters who would be displaced by the DTV allocations, and on February 17, 1998, the FCC issued a revised final DTV allocations table. KFBT's original allocation would have displaced low-powered K31DO (now KNBX-CA), so the FCC substituted UHF channel 29 allowing channel 32 to be assigned to Lake Havasu City, Arizona
Lake Havasu City, Arizona
-Demographics:As of the census of 2000, there were 41,938 people, 17,911 households, and 12,716 families residing in the city. The population density was 974.4 people per square mile . There were 23,018 housing units at an average density of 534.8 per square mile...
station KMCC-DT
KMCC
KMCC is a full-power television station in Laughlin, Nevada, broadcasting locally in digital on UHF channel 32 as a VasalloVision affiliate. The station is owned by Cranston II LLC .-History:...
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. 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. Televisions still tune to KVCW on channel 33 per the ATSC
ATSC
ATSC standards are a set of standards developed by the Advanced Television Systems Committee for digital television transmission over terrestrial, cable, and satellite networks....
virtual channel standards using PSIP. Regular analog programming was dropped on February 18, 2009 and was replaced with a broadcast explaining how to switch to digital reception.
The station airs This TV
This TV
This TV is a United States general entertainment television network, with a large emphasis in its programming on movies....
on digital channel 33.2, and The Country Network (TCN) on 33.3.
Newscasts
In 2003, sister station KVWB launched a local 10 p.m. newscast combined with Sinclair's News CentralNews Central
News Central was a primetime newscast on Sinclair television stations in the United States, mixing locally produced news with nationally produced news and an opinion segment from Sinclair's Hunt Valley, Maryland studios...
operation. The news department was shared with KFBT which aired its News Central newscast at 7. The news department was shut down at the beginning of March 2006. KVWB later entered into an agreement to air a nightly 10 o'clock newscast produced by NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
affiliate KVBC. The newscast debuted on April 4, 2006 titled News 3 at 10 on The WB Las Vegas and later renamed to News 3 at 10 on MyLVTV to correspond with KVMY's affiliation switch. It was discontinued on December 15, 2006 and News 3 at 10 on The CW Las Vegas was launched the following Monday on KVCW. On August 11, 2007, KVBC became the second station in the Las Vegas market to broadcast its local news in high definition
High-definition television
High-definition television is video that has resolution substantially higher than that of traditional television systems . HDTV has one or two million pixels per frame, roughly five times that of SD...
and the KVCW broadcast was included in the upgrade. News 3 at 10 originated from KVBC's studios on Foremaster Lane in Las Vegas near the border with North Las Vegas
North Las Vegas, Nevada
North Las Vegas is a city in Clark County, Nevada, United States, located in the Las Vegas metropolitan area. The city was incorporated on May 16, 1946.-Geography:...
. Weeknights at 10:45, there was a 15 minute sports highlight show called Sports Zone. News 3 at 10 and Sports Zone were discontinued on September 28, 2009 and replaced with syndicated programming.