KUNS-TV

KUNS-TV "Univision Seattle" is a full-power commercial television station licensed to Bellevue, Washington. As an affiliate of the Univision Spanish-language network, this station serves the entire Seattle-Tacoma, Washington metropolitan area. The station is owned and operated by Fisher Communications and is sister station to the area's ABC affiliate KOMO-TV. Fisher also owns ABC affiliate KATU and Univision affiliate KUNP in neighboring Portland, Oregon. KUNS is also one of only two television stations with the Univision network affiliation alongside network owned and operated WQHS-TV in Cleveland, Ohio in or near Canadian bordering markets.

Technical information

The station's digital broadcasts on channel 50, also on the UHF dial operates with an ERP of 240 kilowatts. Its transmitter is situated atop West Tiger Mountain — which is also known as West Tiger #3 and in turn is located near Interstate 90 and State Route 18 on the outer fringe of the Seattle metropolis. Its transmitter measures about 2,358.92 feet (or 719 m) above the average terrain level, and because of this the station can be received through many areas of Western Washington. Previously locally owned and operated and at one point being minority owned, the station was sold to Fisher Communications on September 29, 2006. [1]

KUNS-TV broadcasts in digital-only, effective June 12, 2009.^[1]

History

On February 10, 1988, the Federal Communications Commission issued a construction permit for television station KBEH. However, channel 51 would not begin its broadcasting operation until August 8, 1999, transmitting programs from the ValueVision Network, which later became ShopNBC in 2000 after NBC (now part of NBC Universal) acquired a 37% ownership stake in that network. In December of that same year, the station would change its call letters to KWOG. On October 31, 2006, the station would change its call letters one more time, this time to the current KUNS-TV. On January 1, 2007, it rang in the year by going from broadcasting home retail programs to broadcasting Hispanic programming as a Univision affiliate almost instantly, providing viewers with programs such as Sabado Gigante, Despierta América and El Gordo y La Flaca, in addition to an assortment of telenovelas, along with many other programs. The station also started its own local newscast, Noticias Noroeste with Jaime Méndez and Roxy de la Torre. The newscast originates from a studio at Fisher Plaza in Seattle. In 2010 the newscast was completely transformed with the arrival of Executive Producer Javier Palmera and co-anchor Teresa Gonzalez.

Availability on cable and satellite

"Must-carry" regulations imposed by the FCC require most cable television systems across Western Washington to carry KUNS on their lineups. But even with the station's affiliation with Univision, the station is not available on all cable systems, as many of these cable systems are still under pre-2007 carriage agreements for the national cable feed for the network, which allows them control of several minutes throughout the day of local commercial time that would not be available if they instead carried KUNS. Some do not carry the network at all due to a low Spanish-speaking population in their local areas. It is likely in the future that retransmission consent agreements will be made which fold in required carriage of KUNS with that of KOMO-TV in order to expand the station's carriage.

KUNS is available on satellite television through DirecTV on channel 45 in Tacoma, and is also available on Dish Network channels 51 and 8624 — the network's national East and West Coast feeds are also still available to satellite customers.

Also, neither the station nor the network are available on cable or satellite systems in Canada. This is because the CRTC has not approved the network or any of its affiliates to be made available for Canadian audiences — although some of its shows are seen on Telelatino, which is a part Spanish, part Italian cable channel, launched an all-Spanish network on October 23, 2007, called tlñ en español with programs from the United States, Mexico, Spain as well as Central and South American countries.

Cable and satellite locations

Call sign history

This is the station's call sign history according to the FCC. [2]

Logos

Translators

KUNS also has three translator stations, serving the Yakima-Walla Walla-Pasco-Richland-Kennewick market of Eastern Washington. All of these stations are owned and operated by Fisher Communications as of 2007.

At one point, KUNS had a fourth translator, KWWA-CA channel 49, which served Ellensburg. However, its license was canceled on June 4, 2008.

References

1. ^ http://www.peninsuladailynews.com/article/20090207/news/302079996

External links

• Univision Seattle (KUNS)
• Query the FCC's TV station database for KUNS-TV
• Query the FCC's TV station database for KUNW-CA
• Query the FCC's TV station database for KVVK-CA
• Query the FCC's TV station database for KORX-CA
• Query TV Fool's coverage map for KUNS
• BIAfn's Media Web Database -- Information on KUNS-TV
• http://www.fcc.gov/Bureaus/Cable/Orders/2001/da012297.txt
• http://www.fcc.gov/Bureaus/Cable/Orders/2002/da020047.txt
• http://www.fcc.gov/Bureaus/Cable/Orders/2002/da020048.txt
• http://www.fcc.gov/Bureaus/Cable/Orders/2001/da012350.txt