KMYA-DT

KMYA-DT
Camden, Arkansas
Channels Digital: 49 (UHF)
Subchannels (see section)
Translators KKYK-CD 20 Little Rock
Affiliations Me-TV
Owner Hallmark National Mortgage Corporation
First air date June 1999
Former callsigns KKYK-TV (1999-2001)
KYPX (2001-2006)
KKYK-DT (2006-2011)
Former channel number(s) Analog:
49 (UHF, 1999-2006)
Digital: 44 (UHF)
Former affiliations The WB (1999-2001)
Pax TV (2001-2005)
RTN (2005-2009)
Transmitter power 104.6 kW (KMYA)
15 kW (KKYK)
Height 183 m
Facility ID 86534
Website MeTVArkansas.com

KMYA-DT is a Me-TV affiliated television station in Camden, Arkansas, serving the Little Rock, Arkansas market on digital channel 49. The station also has a digital repeater inside Little Rock, KKYK-CD channel 20.

KMYA is owned by Hallmark National Mortgage Corporation. Until 2009, it was owned by Equity Media Holdings; Little Rock was Equity's corporate headquarters and the master control for all its television stations.

Contents

Digital programming

Channel Aspect Video Programming
49.1 4:3 480i Me-TV[1]

On June 30, 2006, the station ceased analog operations, and began broadcasting in digital on its former analog assignment, UHF channel 49. KKYK-DT had been operating at reduced power (70 kW under special technical authority) and was also seen on KWBF's digital signal as virtual channel 42.2 (physical UHF channel 44). KWBF was sold at the end of January 2009 and is now KARZ-TV; following the sale, the new owners dropped KKYK from KARZ's digital signal.

History

The station's repeater, KKYK-CD, was founded on May 5, 1995 as K22FA, later becoming KKYK-LP in 1996. The low-power station was originally an affiliate of Network One, but later became an affiliate of The WB. In 1999, the full power station in Camden signed on as KKYK-TV, and KKYK-LP became its repeater.

In 2001, the station became KYPX, and swapped affiliations with then sister-station KWBF, joining Pax. The station, and its repeater (which remained KKYK-LP), remained affiliates of Pax until 2005, when it became i. KYPX opted out of this new network, and instead became the flagship station of the Retro Television Network.

On June 30, 2006, the station changed call signs and became KKYK-DT, one of the few stations in the United States to bear the suffix. KKYK could still be seen on analog channel 20 in Little Rock, however, via its repeater, which by then had become a class A station with the call letters KKYK-CA (formerly broadcasting on channel 22, KKYK-CA was forced to move to accommodate the digital signal of ABC affiliate KATV).

On January 4, 2009, a contract conflict between Equity and Luken Communications, L.L.C. (who had acquired RTN in June 2008) interrupted the programming on many RTN affiliates.[2] As a result, Luken moved RTN operations to its headquarters in Chattanooga, Tennessee, and dropped all Equity-owned affiliates, including KKYK, immediately, though Luken vows to find a new affiliate for RTN in the area;[3] RTN (under its new initials RTV) later reappeared as a subchannel of KATV. The station also reneged on a deal with the Southland Conference to carry Central Arkansas University basketball games in the interim.[4]

The station was an affiliate of This TV from February to June 2009 (This TV has since moved to a KARZ-TV subchannel). On April 10, 2009, Equity Media announced a fire sale of all television stations — KKYK was set for an asking price of $15 million, the highest price for any of the stations in the sale.[5] In the auction, which took place on April 16, the station was sold to the Bank of Little Rock.[6] The bank acquired the station via a subsidiary,[7][8][9] Hallmark National Mortgage Corporation.[10] The call letters were changed to KMYA-DT on July 8, 2011.

Newscasts

In 1998, KKYK began a 9 p.m. newscast, the first primetime newscast in the Little Rock market (Fox affiliate KLRT (channel 16) did not debut its 9 p.m. newscast until 2004); the newscast was cancelled after less than a year on the air. As a Pax affiliate, KYPX ran rebroadcasts of the 6 and 10 p.m. newscasts from ABC affiliate KATV (channel 7), one of a few Pax affiliates to rebroadcast local newscasts from a non-NBC station.

References

  1. ^ Where to Watch Me-TV: KMYA
  2. ^ What’s Wrong with MyTV?
  3. ^ TV Newsday: "Financial Dispute Disrupts RTN Diginet", 1/5/2009.
  4. ^ http://www.nwanews.com/adg/Sports/249737/
  5. ^ http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/195976-Equity_Media_Sets_Auction_For_Stations.php?rssid=20065
  6. ^ "Takers found for 60 Equity stations". Television Business Report. April 18, 2009. http://www.rbr.com/tv-cable/tv_deals/14101.html. Retrieved April 20, 2009. 
  7. ^ Report of the Bank Commissioner of Arkansas, 2008(p. 131 of PDF, numbered p. 125)
  8. ^ KKYK Asset Purchase Agreement (from FCC sale application)
  9. ^ FCC Form 314, Exhibit 12 (from FCC sale application)
  10. ^ "Three more Equity contracts filed". Television Business Report. July 24, 2009. http://www.rbr.com/tv-cable/tv_deals/15981.html. Retrieved November 7, 2009. 

External links