KGNS-TV

KGNS-TV
Laredo, Texas
Branding KGNS 8 (general)
KGNS News 8 (newscasts)
Channels Digital: 8 (VHF)
Virtual: 8.1 (PSIP)
Subchannels (see section)
Affiliations NBC
Owner Gray Television
(Gray Television Licensee, LLC)
First air date January 7, 1956
Call letters' meaning Good Neighbor Station
Former callsigns KHAD-TV (1956-1958)
Former channel number(s) Analog:
8 (VHF, 1956-2009)
Digital:
15 (UHF, 2004-2009)
Former affiliations Secondary:
CBS (1956-1973)
ABC (1956-1984)
DT2:
The CW (2006-2014)
Transmitter power 20 kW
Height 312 m
Facility ID 10061
Transmitter coordinates 27°40′21″N 99°39′51″W / 27.67250°N 99.66417°W
Website www.kgns.tv

KGNS-TV is the NBC-affiliated television station for Laredo, Texas and the Mexican city of Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas. It broadcasts a high definition digital signal on VHF channel 8 from a transmitter northwest of Laredo. Owned by Gray Television, it maintains studios located on Del Mar Boulevard (near I-35) in northern Laredo. KGNS can be seen on Time Warner Cable Laredo channel 10 and in high definition on digital channel 860 as well as on Dish Network and DirecTV. Syndicated programming featured on this station includes Ellen, How I Met Your Mother, Mike & Molly, Entertainment Tonight and Steve Harvey.

History

KGNS studios on Del Mar Boulevard, near the intersection of Interstate 35.

KGNS originally went on air January 7, 1956 as KHAD-TV, it has been an primary NBC affiliate since its sign on, but the station initially held secondary affiliations with CBS and ABC. CBS programming moved to KVTV in December 1973 and ABC programming moved to present-day Univision affiliate KLDO-TV in December 1984, effectively making KGNS an exclusive NBC affiliate.

Donrey Media Group (now Stephens Media Group) bought the station on September 1, 1958. One of its first moves under Donrey ownership was to change the station's call letters, Donrey management held a contest in which elementary and middle school students from both the United States and Mexico sides of the Rio Grande region to choose a new callsign; the winning entry resulted in the station changing its callsign to the current KGNS-TV (standing for "Good Neighbor Station").

In 1985, KGNS was purchased by Century Development Corporation, which owned the station until 2004, when the station was purchased by SagamoreHill Broadcasting. The sale to SagamoreHill was approved by the Federal Communications Commission on December 1, 2005. In May 2013, SagamoreHill Broadcasting reached a deal to sell KGNS, along with KGWN-TV in Cheyenne, Wyoming and KSTF in Scottsbluff, Nebraska, to Yellowstone Holdings, a subsidiary of Frontier Radio Management.[1][2] On November 4, 2013, Gray Television announced a deal to acquire Yellowstone Holdings for $23 million.[3] The sale was competed on December 31.[4]

Digital television

The station's digital signal is multiplexed. It broadcasts its main programming NBC on channel 8.1 in 1080i HD, ABC programming on subchannel 8.2 in 720p HD and Telemundo programming in 480i SD on subchannel 8.3. KGNS was one of the last American television stations that continued to sign off during the overnight hours, doing so nightly from 1:35 to 5:30 a.m.; as of 2014, the station now operates 24 hours a day. However, in later years, its second and third digital subchannels remained on the air during the overnight hours even when the main channel did not.[5]

Channel Video Aspect Programming
8.1 1080i 16:9 Main KGNS-TV programming / NBC HD
8.2 720p ABC HD
8.3 480i 4:3 Telemundo

On April 8, 2004, KGNS-TV launched its digital signal on UHF channel 15, becoming the first television station in the Laredo market to operate a digital broadcast television signal. KGNS-TV discontinued Its analog signal and began broadcasting exclusively on a digital-only signal on June 12, 2009.[6] The station vacated its pre-transition digital channel 15, and moved its digital channel allocation to its former analog VHF channel 8. KGNS-TV began broadcasting high-definition programming on its digital signal in October 2008.[7] KGNS-TV previously operated the area's CW affiliate on digital subchannel 8.2, branded as Laredo CW 19. On November 6, 2013, KGNS-TV reached an agreement with the ABC Television Network to add the ABC affiliation, originally slated to launch February 2014 on channel 8.2.[8] The ABC affiliation began on July 1, 2014, leaving Laredo without a CW affiliate.

News operation

Since CBS affiliate KVTV shut down its news department in 2006, KGNS has operated the only English-language news department in the market. It currently airs three hours of newscasts every weekday and one hour per day on weekends. The station employs a number of recent college graduates. According to Nielsen Media Research, KGNS competes closely with Spanish-language station KLDO.

On June 21, 2008, KGNS-TV began producing a weeknight 9 o'clock newscast on its CW-affiliated second digital subchannel titled "Laredo's First News at 9". This program was the only primetime newscast in the Laredo-Nuevo Laredo market until Fox affiliate KXOF-CA launched a competing 9 p.m. newscast on April 9, 2012. The half-hour newscast is anchored by Brenda Medina and Ryan Bailey, who also serves as weather anchor for the newscast, it is targeted at young adults between the ages of 21 and 34 years old.[9]

See also

References

  1. ↑ Malone, Michael (May 31, 2013). "Yellowstone Buys Laredo, Cheyenne Stations For $20.5 Million". Broadcasting & Cable. Retrieved May 31, 2013.
  2. ↑ "APPLICATION FOR CONSENT TO ASSIGNMENT OF BROADCAST STATION CONSTRUCTION PERMIT OR LICENSE". CDBS Public Access. Federal Communications Commission. May 30, 2013. Retrieved June 17, 2013.
  3. ↑ "Gray Buying Yellowstone Stations". TVNewsCheck. Retrieved 4 November 2013.
  4. ↑ Consummation Notice, CDBS Public Access, Federal Communications Commission, Retrieved 2 January, 2014
  5. ↑ Per zap2it, zip code 78041.
  6. ↑
  7. ↑ KGNS | About Us
  8. ↑ Gray to Air ABC on KGNS Subchannel TVNewsCheck, November 6, 2013.
  9. ↑ New news show begins Monday on CW, ch. 19, Laredo Morning Times

External links