| Laredo, Texas | |
|---|---|
| Branding | KVTV Laredo 13 |
| Channels | Digital: 13 (VHF) |
| Subchannels | 13.1 CBS |
| Affiliations | CBS Television Network |
| Owner | Eagle Creek Broadcasting of Texas (Eagle Creek Broadcasting of Laredo, LLC) |
| First air date | December 1973[1] |
| Former channel number(s) | Analog: 13 (VHF, 1973-2009) Digital: 31 (UHF) |
| Transmitter power | 3 kW |
| Height | 284 m |
| Facility ID | 33078 |
KVTV is the CBS television affiliate of Laredo, Texas, USA. Its transmitter is located in Laredo.
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One of several stations serving the Laredo/Nuevo Laredo borderplex, KVTV began in 1973 as a satellite station of KZTV, the CBS Affiliate in Corpus Christi. It, like KZTV, had been derided in the past for having notoriously low production values- thanks in part to the owners: K-Six Television. In 2002, Alta Communications and Brian Brady acquired K-Six Television, renaming the company Eagle Creek Broadcasting of Texas.
It wasn't until 2002 that major changes would come to the station. All newscasts the station produced were dropped, except for the 12PM show, which was said to help reduce the strain put upon the news and production departments. Later that year, the station made cosmetic and personnel changes on almost every level and renamed their operations "CBS 13 News". The midday newscast was retained for a year and a half and later dropped. Late news was revived on the station on April 19, 2004 with "CBS 13 News: Nightcast", a similar title to its Corpus Christi sister. For this, former KGNS anchorman Richard Noriega was hired out of semi-retirement to lead the newscast. Several months prior to the newscast, Noriega worked as a consultant and helped with the planning involved in revamping the station's news department.
Nightcast was the station's only local newscast, and was seen weekdays from 10-10:35. Prior to this program, a taped 5 minute news bulletin called "NewsNight" aired.
The station decided to cancel the late newscast on January 3, 2006 and laid off the remaining staff of the news department that day. The move leaves KVTV as one of the few affiliates of CBS to not have a local newscast; the only news that now airs on the channel is programming from CBS News, including the CBS Evening News, CBS Morning News, and The Early Show with national weather and additional news updates given by a CBS News anchor during the :25 and :55 local news breaks, it has also a pass-through for automated network, syndicated and local paid commercial programming in both English and Spanish.
On July 23, 2008, Eagle Creek Broadcasting sold KVTV's sister station KZTV in Corpus Christi, Texas to SagamoreHill Broadcasting. KVTV was not included in that deal, as SagamoreHill already owns KGNS-TV; thus, KVTV became the only television station remaining in the Eagle Creek group. [2]
Due to a part failure on its analog transmitter, KVTV ceased broadcasting in analog on November 29, 2008. The station initially broadcasted only on digital channel 31, tuned in to channel 13 via PSIP. Digital broadcasts shifted to channel 13 on May 7, 2009. [3][4].
On December 7, 2011, KVTV began broadcasting CBS programming in HD on channel 13.1, and carries Standard Definition CBS programming on sub-channel 13.2.
| DT | Callsign | Network |
| 13.1 (1080i) | KVTV | CBS-HD |
| 13.2 (480i) | KVTV | CBS |
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