KVMY is a full-service
television stationA television station is a type of broadcast station that broadcasts video and possibly audio to television receivers in a particular area. Traditionally, TV stations made their broadcasts by sending specially-encoded radio signals over the air, called terrestrial television...
in
Las Vegas, NevadaLas Vegas is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Nevada, the seat of Clark County, and an internationally renowned major resort city for gambling, shopping, fine dining, and entertainment. Las Vegas, which bills itself as The Entertainment Capital of the World, is famous for the number of...
, broadcasting locally in
digitalATSC is a set of standards developed by the Advanced Television Systems Committee for digital television transmission that replaced much of the analog NTSC television system on June 12, 2009 in the United States and will replace NTSC by August 31, 2011 in Canada and December 31, 2021 in Mexico.The...
on UHF channel 22 as an affiliate of
MyNetworkTVMyNetworkTV is a television broadcast syndication service in the United States, owned by the Fox Entertainment Group, a division of News Corporation...
. Founded March 8 1982, the station is owned and operated by the
Sinclair Broadcast GroupThe Sinclair Broadcast Group is the operator of the largest number of local television stations in the United States with a total of 57 stations across the country in 35 primarily small and medium markets, many of which are located in the South and the Midwest. Broadcasts by SBG stations can be...
. Its transmitter is located in
Henderson, NevadaHenderson is a city in Clark County, Nevada, United States within the Las Vegas metropolitan area. It is the second largest city in Nevada, after Las Vegas, with an estimated population of 252,064 in the 2008 Census Bureau...
.
History
The station began its existence March 8 1982 with a construction permit issued by the
FCCThe Federal Communications Commission is an independent agency of the United States government, created, directed, and empowered by Congressional statute , and with the majority of its commissioners appointed by the current President...
to build a new full-service television station on UHF channel 21 to serve Las Vegas. The original owner Frank Scott, an early independent casino pioneer in Las Vegas, named his company- Dres Media Inc., and chose
KRLR, which contained the first letter of each of his three children's names, for the station's call letters in December 1982.. In August 1984, after a couple of extensions to the original construction permit, the station applied for its license to cover construction and went on the air under Program Test Authority. KRLR was an independent station branding itself as
Vusic 21, and at first, aired only music videos. In addition to its over-the-air broadcast on channel 21, the station was carried by Prime Cable on channel 2. Video Jock Kate Kelly remained with the station after its change to conventional programming and anchored the stations 6AM local news until 1994.
The station's first music video aired, reportedly was
Michael JacksonMichael Joseph Jackson , known as the "King of Pop", was an American musician and one of the most commercially successful and influential entertainers of all time...
's
Thriller, considered one of the longest music videos in the industry, lasting nearly 14 minutes in duration.
In mid-1985, KRLR began to introduce a few classic television programs, and in mid-1985 began airing
World Class Championship Wrestling, a popular one-hour wrestling program originating from Dallas, Texas. KRLR was licensed by the FCC on April 11 1986. By 1987, the station had replaced the music videos with more conventional fare, and added more pro wrestling programs, inclding the
UWFThe name Universal Wrestling Federation may refer to:*Universal Wrestling Federation , an American professional wrestling promotion owned by Bill Watts...
,
AWAThe American Wrestling Association ' was an American professional wrestling promotion based in Minneapolis, Minnesota that ran from 1960 to 1991. It was owned and founded by Verne Gagne and Wally Karbo...
(moving from KTNV-TV) and the
NWAThe National Wrestling Alliance is a governing body for a group of independent professional wrestling promotions and sanctions various NWA championships in the United States. The NWA has been in operation since 1948...
. Video Jock Kate Kelly remained with the station after its change to conventional programming and anchored the stations 6AM local news until 1994.
In May 1994, Dres Media sold the station for $2.85 million to new owners- Channel 21, LP, a subsidiary of Lambert Broadcasting of Los Angeles. In January 1995, after nearly eleven years of being an independent, the station became an affiliate of the new
UPNUnited Paramount Network was a television network that broadcast in over 200 markets in the United States, being in production for over eleven years. UPN was originally owned by Viacom/Paramount and Chris-Craft Industries. It was later owned by CBS Corporation. Its first night of broadcasting was...
television network, and changed its call letters to
KUPN to reflect the new affiliation. One of the most successful turn-around stories in broadcasting, Channel 21 L.P. sold the station just 3 short years later to
Sinclair Broadcast GroupThe Sinclair Broadcast Group is the operator of the largest number of local television stations in the United States with a total of 57 stations across the country in 35 primarily small and medium markets, many of which are located in the South and the Midwest. Broadcasts by SBG stations can be...
in April 1997 for $87 million. Sinclair created the company KUPN Licensee to manage the station's license. The station remains licensed to KUPN licensee as of March 2007. On March 1, 1998, Sinclair changed the station's affiliation to
The WB Television NetworkThe WB Television Network, or simply The WB, was a television network in the United States that was launched on January 11, 1995 as a joint venture of Warner Bros. and Tribune Broadcasting. As a replacement, on January 24, 2006, CBS Corporation and Warner Bros...
(The WB) and on May 27, 1998, changed the station's call letters to
KVWB, again in honor of its new affiliation. The station moved to channel 12 on the local cable system in 1999, when
Cox CommunicationsCox Communications, also known as Cox Cable and formerly Cox Broadcasting Corporation is a privately owned subsidiary of Cox Enterprises providing digital cable television and telecommunications services in the United States...
acquired Prime Cable.
In 2003, the station launched a local newscast, combined with Sinclair's own "News Central" national broadcast, at 10:00 p.m.. The local news department was shared with co-owned independent station
KFBT "Gold 33", which aired its News Central newscast at 7:00 p.m.. The news department was shut down at the beginning of March 2006. KVWB later entered into an agreement to air a 10:00 p.m. newscast produced by KVBC, the local NBC affiliate. The newscast debuted on April 6, 2006, titled "NEWS 3 at 10 on The WB Las Vegas" and later renamed to "NEWS 3 at 10 on My LV TV". It was discontinued on December 15, 2006, and "NEWS 3 at 10 on The CW Las Vegas" was launched the following Monday on sister station
KVCWKVCW 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...
.
In January 2006, UPN and The WB announced that in September 2006, both networks would cease operations. In their place would be a new network called
The CWThe CW Television Network is a television network in the United States launched at the beginning of the 2006–2007 television season. It is a joint venture between CBS Corporation, the former owners of United Paramount Network , and Time Warner's Warner Bros., former majority owner of The WB...
. In February 2006,
FoxFox is a common name for many species of carnivorous mammals belonging to the Canidae family. Foxes are small to medium-sized canids , characterized by possessing a long narrow snout, and a bushy tail ....
announced that they would also launch a new network, which they eventually named My Network TV. Sinclair chose to put The CW on their other station in town, the then-independent KFBT, and to put My Network TV on KVWB. In June 2006, anticipating the start of My Network TV, Sinclair changed the station's call letters yet again, and the station became
KVMY.
Digital television
When the FCC released its initial
DTVDigital television is the sending and receiving of moving images and sound by discrete signals, in contrast to the analog signals used by analog TV.-Timeline:...
allocations on April 21, 1997, it had assigned UHF channel 20 to
KUPN-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. KUPN's original allocation would have displaced LPTV station KKJK-LP (now
KHDF-CAKHDF-CA is a low-power Class A television station in Las Vegas, Nevada, broadcasting locally in analog on UHF channel 19 as an affiliate of Azteca America. Founded June 15, 1990, the station is owned by Una Vez Mas Holdings, LLC of Dallas, Texas...
) and a co-channel
TBNThe Trinity Broadcasting Network is the United States' largest Christian television network. Headquartered in Costa Mesa, California, it also has studio facilities located in Irving, Texas; Hendersonville, Tennessee; Decatur, Georgia; Miami, Florida; Tulsa, Oklahoma; Orlando, Florida; and New York...
station in
Bullhead City, ArizonaBullhead City is a city located on the Colorado River in Mohave County, Arizona, USA, roughly south of Las Vegas, Nevada, and directly across the Colorado River from Laughlin, Nevada, whose casinos and ancillary services supply much of the employment for Bullhead City. According to 2006 Census...
, so the FCC substituted UHF channel 22. The station, renamed
KVWB-DT, was granted a permit to construct its digital facilities on November 24, 2000. Technical difficulties delayed construction of the full-power facilities, requiring extensions of the construction permit, and on November 8, 2002, KVWB 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
KVMY-DT, completed construction of its full-power digital facilities in January 2007, but as of April 2007, has not yet been granted a license.
In 2006, the FCC required each station with a digital companion channel to select which station it would continue to use after the end of the transition period. KVMY-DT has selected channel 22 as its final digital channel and will return the channel 21 license to the FCC. Televisions will still tune to KVMY on channel 21 per the
ATSCATSC is a set of standards developed by the Advanced Television Systems Committee for digital television transmission that replaced much of the analog NTSC television system on June 12, 2009 in the United States and will replace NTSC by August 31, 2011 in Canada and December 31, 2021 in Mexico.The...
virtual channel standards. Regular programming was dropped on February 18, 2009 and was replaced with a broadcast explaining how to switch to digital reception.