KNVA

KNVA is the CW-affiliated television station for Austin, Texas. It broadcasts a high definition digital signal on UHF channel 49 from a transmitter in the West Austin Antenna Farm north of West Lake Hills. Owned by 54 Broadcasting, the station is operated by the LIN TV Corporation through a local marketing agreement (LMA). This makes KNVA sister to NBC affiliate KXAN-TV and MyNetworkTV affiliate KBVO along with its Class A repeater KBVO-CA. All four stations share studios on West Martin Luther King Junior Boulevard between the Clarksville section of Austin and the University of Texas at Austin campus. Syndicated programming on KNVA includes: Scrubs, Friends, Everybody Loves Raymond, and Tyra Banks.

History

According to an Austin American-Statesman article and Federal Communications Commission (FCC) records, 54 Broadcasting applied for the license to the channel in 1989 and was to have the KCFP calls but it could not economically start up a channel until signing a LMA with LIN TV some five years later. ^[1][2] KNVA was launched on August 31, 1994 as a 24-hour feed of KXAN's live weather network and Doppler weather radar. It became an independent station for a short time before affiliating with The WB as a charter station the following year. During this time, the station was branded "KNVA 54" and carried off-network sitcoms, dramas, and cartoons.

In 2001, the station was re-branded "Austin's WB 54" before finally settling on "Austin's WB". 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 they 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.

At first, those moves put KNVA's future in doubt as UPN affiliate KCWX was announced as the affiliate of The CW network. That station is considered part of the San Antonio market and had been supplying the Austin area with UPN programming. Viewers were left speculating that KNVA's only options would be to take up MyNetworkTV or revert to independent status. But in a surprise move on April 18, LIN TV announced that KNVA would join The CW. KCWX now no longer serves Austin and CW programming on that station began to be blocked out by Time Warner Cable effective October 1, 2006. KCWX's syndicated programming continued to be shown on Time Warner Cable until April 3, 2007 when the system officially dropped the station from its Austin channel lineup.

Over a week later on April 26, 2006, it was announced that KNVA would also carry MyNetworkTV as a secondary affiliation. ^[3] To date, KNVA was one of two stations in the country carrying both The CW and MyNetworkTV (the other being KWKB in Iowa City, Iowa, which is now the only station which carries the full schedules of both netlets/programming services). On August 1, a video posted to the KNVA / KXAN shared website revealed this station would be officially known as "The CW Austin" and the secondary affiliation would be known as "MyNetworkTV on The CW Austin". On October 21, 2009, sister station KBVO picked up the MyNetworkTV affiliation for Austin leaving KNVA with The CW affiliation. That station had been serving as a semi-satellite of KXAN. ^[4] Interestingly although Vaughan Media took over the possession of the KNVA license on July 27, 2009, the licensee name still reads 54 Broadcasting, Inc. That entity was co-owned by KEYE-TV news anchor Ron Oliveira, who sold off his share of the station as part of the acquisition by Vaughan Media. LIN TV continues to hold a small (4.5 percent) stake in the station.

Hill Country Paramount Network

KXAN controls a number of low-powered broadcast translator stations around Central Texas. They had been simulcasting its programming on the translators since their launch. However with the start-up of UPN, KXAN and KNVA opted to create a secondary simulcast feed for KNVA's programming. They ended up replacing The WB's prime time schedule with that of UPN. The network of translators was referred to as the "Hill Country Paramount Network" or "HPN" and was in service from 1995 to 1998. In that year, Austin low-power station K13VC (operated by KTBC) picked up the UPN affiliation in a move designed to give the network greater cable coverage, at least in the city of Austin, as well as slightly stronger over-the-air reception than the translators provided. From around 2002 to 2008, the translator network was used to simulcast the programming of Telefutura affiliate KBVO-CA that is also owned-and-operated by LIN TV. In Fall 2008, Telefutura programming on KBVO-CA was discontinued with it and the repeaters becoming re-broadcasters of KNVA. ^[5] This lasted until October 21, 2009 when the MyNetworkTV affiliation moved to KBVO, a former semi-satellite of KXAN-TV which then became a separate station. At this point, KBVO-CA became a re-broadcaster of full-power KBVO; KBVO-CA more recently flash-cut to digital and replaced its -CA suffix with a -CD suffix which reflects its current status as a Class A digital station. The following translators, once part of the Hill Country Paramount Network, still simulcast KNVA.

Translators

• KHPB-CA 45 Bastrop
• KHPG-CA 31 Giddings
• KHPL-CA 40 La Grange
• KHPM-CA 40 San Marcos
• KHPX-CA 28 Georgetown
• KHPZ-CA 15 Round Rock

Newscasts

KNVA airs hourly weather updates throughout the day produced by KXAN. At one point, they also aired a weeknight newscast at 5:30 that was also produced by KXAN but this was dropped. On September 28, 2009, that station began producing a nightly 9 o'clock broadcast on KNVA to compete with KTBC. ^[6]

KXAN Austin News at 9 (9 to 9:30 P.M.) Weeknights

• Anchor:
  • Shannon Wolfson
• Weather:
  • Jim Spencer
• Sports:
  • Roger Wallace

Weekends

• Anchor:
  • David Scott
• Weather:
  • Natalie Stoll
• Sports:
  • Brian Sanders

KNVA features additional news personnel from KXAN. See that article for a complete listing.

References

1. ^ http://austintvnews.com/switch3.html
2. ^ http://svartifoss2.fcc.gov/cgi-bin/ws.exe/prod/cdbs/pubacc/prod/call_hist.pl?Facility_id=144&Callsign=KNVA
3. ^ http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6328421.html?display=Breaking+News
4. ^ http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/365871-LIN_Launches_MyNet_Station_on_KBVO_Austin.php
5. ^ radioinfo.com: "KBVO-CA goes to KNVA?"
6. ^ http://www.austin360.com/blogs/content/shared-gen/blogs/austin/tvblog/entries/2009/08/27/kxan_launches_9pm_newscast_on_the_cw.html?cxntfid=blogs_tv_blog

External links

• KNVA "The CW Austin"
• KXAN-DT "NBC Austin News"
• KBVO "My Austin TV"
• Query the FCC's TV station database for KNVA
• Query the FCC's TV station database for KHPB-CA
• Query the FCC's TV station database for KHPG-CA
• Query the FCC's TV station database for KHPL-CA
• Query the FCC's TV station database for KHPM-CA
• Query the FCC's TV station database for KHPX-CA
• Query the FCC's TV station database for KHPZ-CA

Categories: CW network affiliates | LIN TV | Television channels and stations established in 1994 | Television stations in Austin, Texas