KPAZ-TV

KPAZ-TV, virtual channel 21 (UHF digital channel 20), is a TBN owned-and-operated television station located in Phoenix, Arizona, United States. The station is owned by the Trinity Broadcasting Network. KPAZ-TV maintains studio facilities located on East McDowell Road in southeast Phoenix, and its transmitter is located atop South Mountain on the city's south side. KPAZ-TV's signal is relayed on five low-power translator stations throughout the state.

History

The station first signed on the air on September 16, 1967 as Arizona's first full-power UHF station. KPAZ initially operated from studios and office facilities in the now-former Tower Plaza Mall. It operated as a bilingual independent station, carrying a mix of programs in English and Spanish; its original programming lineup was several years ahead of its time. Spanish-language movies and television series from Mexico, and tape-delayed sporting events were also broadcast. Its main draw at the time was Mexican bullfighting telecasts; the station also broadcast jai alai games. However, the station made no headway against established independent KPHO-TV (channel 5). By early 1969, pressure from advertisers had resulted in the bullfighting being phased out of KPAZ's schedule.^[1]

In August 1969,^[2] the original owners filed for bankruptcy and sold the station for $400,000 to the local Glad Tidings Church, which eventually added local and national religious programming to the schedule while keeping some secular English- and Spanish-language programs. One new program was originated in 1971, by station manager Keith Houser, called Action Auction. The live Saturday night program, allowed viewers to bid for products such as furniture, Native American jewelry and automobile supplies. Action Auction was the predecessor of Home Shopping Netwactionwork. The station expanded under the management of Houser in 1974-75; it constructed a new 26,000 square foot two-story studio facility at the corner of 36th Street and McDowell Road in Phoenix. The February 1975 Nielsen ratings showed KPAZ pulled more female viewers aged 25-40 for its broadcasts of The Real McCoys than those watching CBS Evening News.

KPAZ-TV continued to lose money and by 1977, was over US$2 million in debt and was forced to go silent. The church that owned the station had issued bonds to pay for its operations, but could no longer even pay the interest on the bonds to its nearly 200 mostly elderly partners. The church agreed to transfer the license to the fledgling Trinity Broadcasting Network in exchange for assumption of the station’s debt. TBN returned KPAZ-TV to the air later that year as its second station, after flagship KTBN-TV in Santa Ana, California.

Digital television

Digital channels^[3]

This station's digital signal, like most other full-service TBN owned-and-operated stations, carries five different TBN-run networks.

TBN-owned full-power stations permanently ceased analog transmissions on April 16, 2009.

KPAZ-TV shut down its analog signal, over UHF channel 21, on that date. The station's digital signal remained on its pre-transition UHF channel 20.^[4] Through the use of PSIP, digital television receivers display the station's virtual channel as its former UHF analog channel 21.

The station received UHF channel 20 as its digital television allocation in April 1997 and was granted a permit to begin constructing digital facilities in August 2001. Special Temporary Authority granted in October 2002 allowed the digital signal to sign on the air at a lower power level. KPAZ elected channel 20 for its post-transition facilities, allowing the station to build its final facilities right away, but construction was delayed due to a steep rise in local construction that left the Phoenix area with a shortage of workers to install the DTV antenna . In March 2007, the station began program testing and in February 2008, certified that it was operating its full-power post-transition facilities. However, as of March 2008, the FCC has not licensed the digital station.

Translators

• K35FH Flagstaff
• K07YX Tucson

References

External links

• Trinity Broadcasting Network
• Query the FCC's TV station database for KPAZ
• BIAfn's Media Web Database -- Information on KPAZ-TV