KASA-TV

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KASA-TV
Albuquerque, New Mexico
City of license Santa Fe, New Mexico
Branding KASA Fox 2
Slogan Your Home Team.
There's Only One 2.
Welcome Home.
Channels Analog: 2 (VHF)

Digital: 27 (UHF)

Translators 41 low-power translators; see article
Affiliations Fox
Owner LIN TV Corporation
(LIN of New Mexico, LLC)
First air date May 8, 1981
Call letters’ meaning Based on Spanish word casa, meaning "home" or "House."
Sister station(s) KRQE
Former callsigns KGSW (1981-1988)
KGSW-TV (1988-1993)
Former channel number(s) 14 (1981-1993)
Former affiliations independent (1981-1987)
The Tube (DT2, 2005-2007)
Transmitter Power 28.2 kW (analog)
255 kW (digital)
Height 1275 m (analog)
1278 m (digital)
Facility ID 32311
Transmitter Coordinates 35°12′55.1″N, 106°27′4.7″W (analog)
35°12′50.2″N, 106°27′1.7″W (digital)
Website www.myfoxnewmexico.com

KASA-TV is a television station in licensed in Santa Fe and also serving the Albuquerque, New Mexico DMA. It's a Fox network affiliate and broadcasts on channel 2. It is owned by LIN TV and is a sister station to CBS affiliate KRQE.

The station runs first run programming and sports from Fox along with sitcoms. court shows, talk shows, and reality shows as well as some news.

In addition to the main KASA signal, there are 41 low-powered repeaters that carry its programming throughout New Mexico and parts of Colorado.

Contents

[edit] Station history

[edit] Intellectual unit

The KASA intellectual unit began as KGSW May 8, 1981 on channel 14. The callsign was derived from the station's original owners, Galaxy Communications and Southwest Television. Initially, the station carried drama shows, movies from the 1940s through the 1970s, sitcoms, and religious shows. In the fall of 1983, KGSW added more sitcoms and began running cartoons in the 7-9 a.m. and the 3-5 p.m. weekday slots.

In 1984, the Providence Journal Company bought KGSW from the original owners. The station affiliated with the Fox network when the network launched on April 5, 1987. The station continued a general entertainment format with a lot of cartoons, sitcoms and movies well into the 1990s and after moving to channel 2.

[edit] Channel 2 history

Channel 2 signed on as KSAF in 1983 as a locally-owned general entertainment independent station. The station initially ran old movies, westerns, drama shows, and religious programming. In the spring of 1985, channel 2 became known as KNMZ-TV and began running cartoons, old sitcoms and other shows that had previously aired on KNAT-TV (channel 23), which had recently gone dark (it returned the next year as a TBN affiliate).

Channel 2 was sold in 1986 to New Mexico Media Limited License Holdings. The format stayed the same, but in 1989 the station changed call letters to KKTO-TV. Shortly afterwards, the station began to suffer financial problems, and by 1991 channel 2 was running an all-barter lineup of a few classic sitcoms and first run cartoons as well as low budget movie packages.

In the fall of 1992, after being unable to turn a profit, KKTO went dark, with the station's strongest programming (including The Disney Afternoon) moving to KGSW. Later that fall, the channel 2 license was sold to the Providence Journal Company, which moved the KGSW intellectual unit to channel 2 on April 5, 1993. The call letters were changed to KASA-TV, based on the Spanish word casa ("home"), and the station entered into a new era in its history as KASA would start competing better with KOB-TV, KOAT-TV, and KRQE. The channel 14 license was then turned into the FCC (the channel is now occupied by KTFQ-TV, a Telefutura affiliate).

The station signed on from Peralta Ridge near Jemez Springs, New Mexico, north of Albuquerque and about equidistant between it and Santa Fe. The power was 100 kilowatts and the height above average terrain was in excess of 1.900 feet (near the class maximum of 1,960'). The station signed on on with a Larcan transmitter and a circularly polarized antenna, giving the station (at least theoretically) the best chance for success. In practice, however, the site was too far from viewers, too low in the sky, obstructed somewhat by terrain, and lacking in fresnel clearance.

One factor in the station's later success was that the transmitter was relocated to the Sandia Crest site used by most other area stations.

KASA Fox 2 would eventually begin evolving its programming. Daytime sitcoms were gradually replaced with talk and reality shows, though sitcoms still air in the evenings (many of the shows that would have been on KASA over a decade ago are now on KWBQ and KASY). A.H. Belo bought the Providence Journal Company, including KASA, in 1997. Later, in 1999, Raycom Media bought KASA, along with KHNL in Honolulu, Hawaii. The station phased out cartoons as Fox ended its weekday children's block in 2002.

After Raycom purchased The Liberty Corp. in August 2005, Raycom announced its intent to sell KASA and several other stations (most of which went to Barrington Broadcasting with one going to Quincy Newspapers). On July 27, 2006, Raycom announced that LIN TV, owner of CBS affiliate KRQE, was purchasing KASA for $55 million [1]. LIN took over operation of KASA on September 15, 2006 under a local marketing agreement, and KASA officially became a LIN-owned station on February 22, 2007. [2] To date, KASA is the second-largest (or third-largest, if one includes the Columbus (OH) stations controlled by the Sinclair Broadcast Group) Fox affiliate involved in a duopoly with a "Big Three" network affiliate, much to the contradiction of FCC rules forbidding this. In this case, however, the FCC approved the deal because KASA trailed the local Univision affiliate, KLUZ-TV, in the local viewership ratings at the time.

Even though KASA redesigned its logo shortly after LIN took over, its old WorldNow-powered website continued to use the Raycom era format until it was shut down on July 20, 2007 and replaced with a redirect to KASA's new website which, like the websites of the other LIN-owned Fox affiliates, now uses Fox Interactive's MyFox interface.

On May 18, 2007, LIN TV announced that it was exploring strategic alternatives that could result in the sale of the company.[3]

[edit] Logos

[edit] Newscasts

KASA airs a one-hour nightly newscast, "News 13 on Fox 2", produced by LIN TV's KRQE.

For about six years, until September 15, 2006, KOB-TV produced the newscast (then known as "Fox 2 News at Nine"), using KOB's reporters and teasing ahead to KOB's 10 p.m. newscast.

In case of breaking news, KASA carries special reports from Fox News while KRQE carries the same from CBS News. Additionally, KASA may air programs as an alternate CBS affiliate when KRQE is not able to do so such as in an emergency.

[edit] Translators

KASA extends its coverage throughout the entire state of New Mexico, plus parts of Colorado, using a network of translator television stations listed below.

City Callsign City Callsign City Callsign
Alamogordo, NM K27HP Durango, CO K39AH Portales, NM K14KO
Artesia, NM K46FE Eagle Nest, NM K20GO Raton, NM K40DI
Aztec, NM K44GC Espanola, NM K39EJ Romeo, CO K61AZ
Bayfield, CO K50FS Farmington, NM K27GJ Roswell, NM K15FT
Caballo, NM K31DR Gallup, NM K18HF Santa Rosa, NM K34GL
Capitan, Ruidoso, NM K33GD Grants, NM K46FI Shiprock, NM K45CU
Carlsbad, NM K47FX Hillsboro, NM K18DY Silver City, NM K25DI
Carrizozo, NM K46HU Hobbs, NM K27GL Socorro, NM K44HJ
Chama, NM K40HC Las Vegas, NM K20GQ Taos, NM K12OG
Conchas Dam, NM K16DN Lordsburg, NM K31HQ Tohatchi, NM K41FK
Cortez, CO K51DB Lordsburg, NM K40HJ Truth Or Consequences, NM K27BN
Del Norte, CO K06KB Montoya, NM K22EU Tucumcari, NM K48EH
Deming, NM K43FU Pagosa Springs, CO K31FS Vallecito, CO K24GI
Dulce, NM K22GE Pagosa Springs, CO K48HA

[edit] External links