KPDX
 | |
| Vancouver, Washington/Portland, Oregon United States | |
|---|---|
| City of license | Vancouver, Washington |
| Branding | PDX TV |
| Slogan | Totally Entertaining TV |
| Channels |
Digital: 30 (UHF) Virtual: 49 (PSIP) |
| Translators |
KUBN-LD 43 Bend (for others see article) |
| Affiliations | MyNetworkTV |
| Owner |
Meredith Corporation (KPTV-KPDX Broadcasting Corporation) |
| First air date | October 9, 1983 |
| Call letters' meaning | PDX = Portland's IATA airport code[1] |
| Sister station(s) | KPTV |
| Former channel number(s) |
Analog: 49 (UHF, 1983–2009) Digital: 48 (UHF, 2004–2009) |
| Former affiliations |
Independent (1983–1988) Fox (1988–2002) UPN (2002–2006) |
| Transmitter power | 1000 kW |
| Height | 513 m |
| Facility ID | 35460 |
| Transmitter coordinates | 45°31′19″N 122°44′53″W / 45.52194°N 122.74806°W |
| Licensing authority | FCC |
| Public license information: |
Profile CDBS |
| Website | www.kpdx.com |
KPDX, virtual channel 49 (UHF digital channel 30), is a MyNetworkTV-affiliated television station serving Portland, Oregon, United States that is licensed to Vancouver, Washington (it is the only major commercial station in Portland that is licensed to the Washington side of the market).
The station is owned by the Meredith Corporation, as part of a duopoly with Fox affiliate KPTV (channel 12). The two stations share studios located in Beaverton, KPDX's transmitter is located in the Sylvan-Highlands section of Portland; master control operations for both KPTV and KPDX are located at Meredith's West Coast hub facility at the studios of Phoenix, Arizona sister station KPHO-TV.
The station is available on channel 13 on Comcast and other local cable television providers in the market. KPDX's signal is relayed in Central Oregon through translator station KUBN-LP (channel 43) in Bend, making the station available in about two-thirds of the state.
History
The station first signed on the air on October 9, 1983, as a general entertainment independent station; the station's format consisted of cartoons, sitcoms, classic movies, drama series and religious programs. It was originally licensed under the call letters KLRK, but the station changed to the present KPDX-TV callsign prior to the station's launch.[2] The station was purchased by First Media in the mid-1980s. Even though then-rival KPTV (channel 12) was easily the market's leading independent station, KPDX still received decent ratings.
By 1988, KPTV was one of several Fox affiliates across the country that were disappointed with the network's weak programming offerings. The station subsequently disaffiliated from the network that year and reverted to being an independent station. KPDX assumed the market's Fox affiliation on August 29, 1988. The station began to add more talk and children's programs in the 1990s. KPDX, along with WHNS in Greenville, South Carolina, was acquired by the Meredith Corporation in 1997.
Meredith acquired KPTV in 2002 following a station swap with Fox Television Stations – which had acquired the station as part of Chris-Craft/United Television's sale of its stations to Fox – in exchange for WOFL in Orlando, Florida (and its satellite WOGX in Ocala). The KPTV purchase resulted in the creation of the first television station duopoly in the Portland market with KPDX. This deal precipitated an affiliation switch on September 2, 2002 in which the Fox affiliation moved to KPTV (the higher-rated station of the two), while KPDX took the UPN affiliation from KPTV. However, Fox's Saturday morning children's program lineup remained on KPDX, where it continued to air under the brand 4Kids TV until Fox discontinued children's programming on December 27, 2008.
On January 24, 2006, the Warner Bros. unit of Time Warner and CBS Corporation announced that the two companies would shut down The WB and UPN and combine the networks' respective programming to create a new "fifth" network called The CW.[3][4] The market's WB station KWBP (channel 32, now KRCW-TV) was named as The CW's Portland affiliate through a 16-station group agreement with KWBP's owner, the Tribune Company. One month later on February 22, 2006, News Corporation announced the launch of a new "sixth" network called MyNetworkTV, which would be operated by Fox Television Stations and its syndication division Twentieth Television.[5][6] On March 9, 2006, it was announced that KPDX would become a charter affiliate of the new network.
KPDX dropped the UPN branding on April 1, 2006, rebranding from "UPN 49" to "PDX 49", and adopted a new logo in the process. This change of branding had been planned before UPN's shutdown was announced, but the timing of the change was convenient for the upcoming affiliation switch. KPDX's move mirrored those implemented at future MyNetworkTV stations WDCA in Washington, D.C. (which branded as "DCA 20") and KUTP in Phoenix (which branded as "PHX 45"), which began using the station's last three letters in their callsigns as its station branding. KPDX is one of nine MyNetworkTV affiliates not to adopt the network's "blue TV" logo and/or branding style (the others being KTRV, KCWX, KAUT, KARZ-TV, WSTR-TV, sister station KSMO-TV, WPME-TV, and Madison, Wisconsin's digital subchannel of WISC-TV).
On September 8, 2008, KPDX moved MyNetworkTV programming from 8-10 p.m. to 9-11 p.m., making it one of five MyNetworkTV stations at the time that did not air the network's programming in its normal 8-10 p.m. timeslot (KEVU-LP in Eugene, KRON-TV in San Francisco, KQCA in Sacramento – which has since moved MyNetworkTV programming back to its normal 8-10 p.m. timeslot – and KMYQ – now KZJO – in Seattle were the others). Concurrent with the schedule change and in anticipation of the station's 25th anniversary, KPDX's on-air brand was modified from "PDX 49" to "PDX TV".
Digital television
Digital channel
| Channel | Video | Aspect | PSIP Short Name | Programming[7] |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 49.1 | 720p | 16:9 | KPDX-DT | Main KPDX-TV programming / MyNetworkTV |
As of April 2011, satellite provider DirecTV has yet to carry KPDX's high definition feed; it continues to only carry the station's standard definition feed.
Analog-to-digital conversion
KPDX-TV shut down its analog signal, over UHF channel 49, at 9:30 a.m. on June 12, 2009, the official date in which full-power television stations in the United States transitioned from analog to digital broadcasts under federal mandate. A half-hour earlier at 9:00 a.m., the station's digital signal relocated from its pre-transition UHF channel 48 to channel 30 for post-transition operations (UHF channel 30 was previously used by sister station KPTV for its digital signal, that station vacated that allocation concurrently with KPDX's transition).[8][9][10] Through the use of PSIP, digital television receivers display the station's virtual channel as its former UHF analog channel 49.
Newscasts
During the 1990s as a Fox affiliate, KPDX ran a half-hour 10 p.m. newscast that was produced by CBS affiliate KOIN (channel 6) through a news share agreement. In 2000, KPDX launched its own in-house news department and began producing a nightly 10 p.m. newscast. Upon the station's purchase by Meredith, KPDX's news operation was merged with KPTV's news department (although KPTV's operations were actually moved into KPDX's newer facility, located in Beaverton), and KPDX's existing 10 p.m. newscast was cancelled.
On September 8, 2008, KPDX began airing a KPTV-produced 8 p.m. newscast; KPTV's production of the hour-long weeknight newscast makes that station one of only a few Fox stations in the United States that produces a newscast for another station in the same market. On April 19, 2010, KPTV began producing a fifth hour of its weekday morning newscast Good Day Oregon for KPDX (running from 9-10 a.m.) called More Good Day Oregon, which featured various entertainment and lifestyles topics from a seasoned panel of experts; the program was cancelled in 2012 and was replaced by syndicated programming.
News team
Current on-air staff[11]
- Anchors
- Wayne Garcia - weeknights at 8:00 p.m.
- Amy Troy - weeknights at 8:00 p.m.
- Mark Nelsen (AMS Certified Broadcast Meteorologist Seal of Approval) - chief meteorologist; weeknights at 8:00 p.m.
- Reporters
- Kaitlyn Bolduc - general assignment reporter
- Marilyn Deutsch - general assignment reporter
- Chloe Houser - PDX TV Report hostess
- Jim Hyde - general assignment reporter
- Andrew Padula - general assignment reporter
- Kai Porter - general assignment reporter
- Laura Rillos - general assignment reporter
- Joe Vithayathil - general assignment reporter
- Jamie Wilson - general assignment reporter
Repeater stations
KPDX is rebroadcast on the following network of translator stations.
| Active translators | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Callsign | City | |||||||||
| K20DD-D | Albany | |||||||||
| K53EJ | Baker City (Moving to Ch. 51) | |||||||||
| K41CP | Elgin | |||||||||
| K20EH-D | Hood River | |||||||||
| K23DB | La Grande | |||||||||
| K38LZ-D | Longview, Washington (Digital) | |||||||||
| K51FK | Rockaway Beach | |||||||||
| K50GG | Salem | |||||||||
| K22KC-D | The Dalles (Digital) | |||||||||
| K43FH | Wasco | |||||||||
Central Oregon-area translators
| Bend area translators | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Callsign | City | |||||||||
| K44AH | Prineville | |||||||||
| KUBN-LD | Redmond | |||||||||
Eugene Market, Cottage Grove
| Eugene market translators | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Callsign | City | |||||||||
| K44JP-D | Cottage Grove | |||||||||
South Lane Television combines the KPDX and KPTV signals on their channel 44 translator.
Portland-area translators
When KPDX became a Fox affiliate in 1988, the station's signal was spotty in several areas around Portland. For KPDX to provide better signal coverage in these areas, several translator stations were activated.
The channel 14 and 18 translators signed on the air on May 1, 1994. The channel 16 translator began in 1992 as an independent low-power television station that was owned by Kenneth J. Seymour, carrying programming from Main Street Television and The Opportunity Channel. Later in 1992, the station was acquired by KPDX, and became a translator of the station. It was shut down in 1999 due to the loss of its transmitter site lease and duplication of signal by channel 14 in Camas; the license was returned to the FCC in 2002.
By FCC mandate, low-power stations operating on UHF channels 52 to 69 were required to vacate those channels by December 31, 2011.[12]
References
- ↑ Nelson, Bob (June 2, 2009). "Call Letter Origins" 238. The Broadcast Archive. Retrieved June 21, 2009.
- ↑ Call Sign History - FCC's TV station database for KPDX
- ↑ 'Gilmore Girls' meet 'Smackdown'; CW Network to combine WB, UPN in CBS-Warner venture beginning in September, CNNMoney.com, January 24, 2006.
- ↑ UPN and WB to Combine, Forming New TV Network, The New York Times, January 24, 2006.
- ↑ "News Corp. to launch new mini-network for UPN stations". USA Today. February 22, 2006. Retrieved January 21, 2013.
- ↑ News Corp. Unveils MyNetworkTV, Broadcasting & Cable, February 22, 2006.
- ↑ RabbitEars TV Query for KPDX
- ↑ "DTV Tentative Channel Designations for the First and Second Rounds" (PDF). Retrieved 2012-03-24.
- ↑ "Portland TV stations backtrack, delay digital transition". The Oregonian. February 6, 2009.
- ↑ CDBS Print
- ↑ News Team, KPTV.com, Retrieved May 12, 2012.
- ↑ FCC Sets Deadlines for LPTV, TV Translator and Class A Stations To Convert to Digital - And Gives Hints When Television Spectrum May Be Reclaimed for Broadband Broadcast Law Blog July 19, 2011
External links
- KPDX.com - Official Website
- Query the FCC's TV station database for KPDX
- Query the FCC's TV station database for KUBN-LD
- BIAfn's Media Web Database -- Information on KPDX-TV
| |||||||||||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||
| ||||||||
| ||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||