| Salt Lake City, Utah | |
|---|---|
| Branding | KUTV Channel 2 (general) 2 News (newscasts) |
| Slogan | Utah's Source for Breaking News, Weather and Sports (newscasts) Utah's #1 Television Station (general) |
| Channels | Digital: 34 (UHF) Virtual: 2 (PISP) |
| Subchannels | (see article) |
| Affiliations | CBS MyNetworkTV/This TV (DT2) |
| Owner | Sinclair Broadcast Group (KUTV Licensee, LLC) |
| First air date | September 10, 1954[1] |
| Call letters' meaning | Utah TeleVision |
| Sister station(s) | KMYU |
| Former channel number(s) | Analog: 2 (VHF, 1954-2009) |
| Former affiliations | ABC (1954-1960) NBC (1960-1995) |
| Transmitter power | 423 kW |
| Height | 1267 m |
| Facility ID | 35823 |
| Website | www.connect2utah.com |
KUTV is the CBS-affiliated television station for the state of Utah, licensed to Salt Lake City. The station broadcasts on UHF digital channel 34 from Farnsworth Peak in the Oquirrh Mountains as well as a variety of translators throughout Utah, Nevada and Wyoming. It is a sister station to KMYU channel 12, which serves the St. George area as a This TV affiliate; until 2008, it was operated as a satellite of KUTV.
Contents |
| Channel | Video | Aspect | Programming |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2.1 | 1080i | 16:9 | Main KUTV programming / CBS |
| 2.2 | 480i | 4:3 | SD Simulcast of KMYU |
As of April 6, 2009, KUTV began carrying This TV on its 2.2 digital subchannel.[2] Since September 20, 2010, both KMYU and KUTV-DT2 have added programming from MyNetworkTV, which brought over-the-air MyNetworkTV programming back to Salt Lake City proper for the first time since KJZZ-TV went independent in 2008 (former MyNetworkTV affiliate KCSG's terrestrial signal does not reach Salt Lake City, and thus that station has been carried only on cable).
On June 12, 2009, KUTV ended analog broadcasts and began to transmit exclusively digitally, in 1080i HD. [3]
It originally signed on in September 1954 as Utah's ABC affiliate. In 1960, it joined NBC trading affiliations with KCPX-TV (now KTVX). The original co-owners were Frank C. Carman & Associates and The Salt Lake Tribune owned by the Kearns-Tribune Corporation. The deal was spearheaded by Tribune publisher John F. Fitzpatrick after his experience with two successful investments in local radio, including KSL (radio) and KALL. In 1956 the Carman group sold its interest to A.L. Glasman for the Ogden Standard-Examiner and his son-in-law and daughter, George and Gene Hatch. In the reorganization the Kearns-Tribune Corporation retained thirty-five percent interest until 1970.[4]
In 1994, NBC bought majority control (88%) of KUTV from VS&A Communications Partners[5] (by this point, the Hatch's stake had been reduced to 12%), making it the second owned-and-operated station in Utah. Hoewever, in September 1995, KUTV became a CBS affiliate as part of a complex deal resulting from Westinghouse Broadcasting (Group W)'s affiliation deal with CBS. CBS traded its longtime O&O in Philadelphia, WCAU-TV, to NBC in exchange for KCNC-TV in Denver, with KUTV added to the deal as compensation. NBC and CBS also swapped transmitters in Miami as part of the deal. CBS then sold controlling interest in KUTV to Group W. NBC initially wanted to return to KTVX, but ultimately signed with KSL-TV.
When Group W's owner, Westinghouse Electric Corporation, merged with CBS at the end of 1995, KUTV became a CBS O&O. It is one of the few stations in the country to have been affiliated with all three original television networks, and one of a number to have been owned by two different networks. At the time, KUTV retained one NBC program: Saturday Night Live, which remained in its Saturday 10:30 p.m. time slot until about five months later, when it moved to KUWB (now KUCW).
In 2003, the station moved from a facility in West Valley City to a street-side studio at 299 Main Street in Downtown Salt Lake's Wells Fargo Building. The move was financed in part by the Salt Lake City Redevelopment Agency—in the form of $1.2-million in interest free loans. KUTV's newscasts overlook the street, and many segments take advantage of outdoor camera positions. Nearby Gallivan Center is also featured in some KUTV programming.
Under CBS ownership, KUTV was one of five CBS-O&O stations that did not follow the CBS Mandate, given the fact it is called 2News as opposed to CBS2 (this branding used on sisters WCBS, WBBM and KCBS. The other five are WCCO in Minneapolis-St. Paul - branded as WCCO 4, KDKA-TV in Pittsburgh - branded as simply KDKA-TV or KDKA-TV 2 (there is a CBS2 logo but residents of Pittsburgh would be upset had this been used "over-the-air"), WJZ in Baltimore - branded as WJZ 13, WBZ in Boston, branded as simply WBZ, and WWJ-TV in Detroit, branded simply as WWJTV.
On February 7, 2007, CBS Corporation reached an agreement to sell seven of its smaller-market stations, including KUTV and what was then KUSG, to Cerberus Capital Management, L.P., for $185 million. Cerberus then formed a new holding company for the stations, Four Points Media Group, who took over the operation of the stations through local marketing agreements in late-June 2007. Subsequently, the site was moved to kutv.com with an interface somewhat similar to the former CBS version. The sale was finally approved by the FCC in mid-November 2007, and ownership was officially transferred on January 10, 2008.
As of November 26, 2007, KUTV started hosting master control operations for its Providence sister station, The CW affiliate WLWC, which was also acquired by the Four Points Media Group. On February 25, 2008, KUTV added three new stations from West Palm Beach, Florida to this operation, officially becoming the hub network for Four Points. The stations are The CW affiliate WTVX, the MyNetworkTV affiliate WTCN-CA, and Azteca América affiliate WWHB. On March 20, 2009, the Nexstar Broadcasting Group took over the management of all of the Four Points stations, including KUTV, under a three-year outsourcing agreement.[6]
On May 9, 2008 KUTV.com launched KUTV Greener Living a web site focused green businesses and products in Utah; the site also delivers localized environmental and political news.
On September 8, 2011, Cerberus Capital Management announced the sale of the entire Four Points station group to the Sinclair Broadcast Group for $200 million.[7] The fate of the LSA between Four Points and Nexstar is unknown once Sinclair assumes ownership of the stations; at some point in October, Sinclair took over the management of the stations, including KUTV, under local marketing agreements following antitrust approval, until the close of the sale, which is expected in early 2012.[8] However, the Four Points station Web sites remain operated by Nexstar's interactive unit for the time being. The deal was completed on January 3, 2012. [9]
KUTV airs The Early Show's second hour every weekday morning at 8 a.m., but not airing the first hour due to the third hour of its local morning newscast.
KUTV produced a 30 minute 6:30 p.m. (Eastern time) daily local news program for WTVX, "CW West Palm News at 6:30". KUTV staffers anchored the show from a separate studio, and WTVX added material from two local reporters. [1]
Currently, KUTV produces a 30-minute 7 p.m. weekday news program for KMYU, who also simulcasts KUTV's 10 p.m. newscast on weeknights.
On April 19, 2008, during their 5:30 newscast, KUTV became the first station in Salt Lake City to do local news in HD. This was about 10 days before KSL news switched to HD instead of upconverting wide-screen standard definition video. On June 7, 2009, the weekend morning newscast was abruptly canceled; the WTVX newscast followed the next day. The reasons given were that the management company did not like to air weekend morning newscasts and that they were looking for ways to trim the budget.
During August 2009 KUTV did not renew its lease on their helicopter to save on leasing fees and storing it in the hangar. Instead KUTV has put an emphasis on "Chopper 2", a Harley Davidson motorcycle with a sidecar converted into a swiveling camera mount and seat for a camera operator. It will be used to help cover traffic accidents, weather reports, and parades.[10]
For most of its tenure as an NBC affiliate, KUTV had been a distant runner-up to long-dominant KSL-TV. However, since its acquisition by CBS in the mid-1990s, KUTV's newscasts have been far more competitive with KSL-TV. It remained a strong second for most of the time since then although it took over first place in most time slots in the November 2010 ratings period. For the February 2011 sweeps period, KUTV even unseated KSL-TV at 10 p.m., resulting in KUTV sweeping all of the newscast races for the first time in its history. May 2011 found KUTV dominating all newscast time slots in total viewers.
KUTV extends its coverage throughout the entire state of Utah, plus parts of Arizona, Idaho, Nevada and Wyoming, using a network of more than 100 community-owned translator television stations listed below.
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