KUVS-DT

KUVS-DT

Sacramento/Stockton/Modesto, California United States
City	Modesto, California
Branding	Univision 19 (general) Noticias 19 (newscasts)
Channels	Digital: 18 (UHF) Virtual: 19 (PSIP)
Subchannels	19.1 Univision 19.3 Bounce TV 19.4 Escape 64.2 KTFK-DT
Affiliations	Univision
Owner	Univision Communications (KUVS License Partnership, GP)
First air date	August 15, 1966
Call letters' meaning	UniVision Sacramento
Sister station(s)	KTFK-DT KEZT-CD
Former callsigns	KLOC-TV (1966–1981) KCSO (1981–1997) KUVS (1997–2003) KUVS-TV (2004–2009)
Former channel number(s)	Analog: 19 (UHF, 1966–2009)
Former affiliations	Independent (1966–1970s) SIN (1970s–1987)
Transmitter power	500 kW
Height	555 m
Facility ID	58609
Transmitter coordinates	38°7′7″N 120°43′27″W / 38.11861°N 120.72417°W / 38.11861; -120.72417
Licensing authority	FCC
Public license information:	Profile CDBS
Website	Univision 19

KUVS-DT, virtual channel 19 (UHF digital channel 18), is a Univision owned-and-operated television station serving Sacramento, California, United States that is licensed to Modesto. The station is owned by Univision Communications, as part of a duopoly with UniMás owned-and-operated station KTFK-DT (channel 64). The two stations share studio facilities located on Arden Way in Sacramento, KUVS's transmitter is located near Valley Springs. It is repeated on translator station KEZT-CD in Sacramento.

History

The station first signed on the air on August 15, 1966 as KLOC-TV, operating as an independent station. It was founded by country and western performer Chester Smith, who also owned KLOC radio (920 AM, now KVIN) in Ceres. His company, Sainte Partners II, L.P. presently owns KCSO-LP (channel 33) locally, and also owns stations in the Chico/Redding, Eureka, Salinas/Monterey/Santa Cruz and Medford, Oregon markets.

Initially, KLOC maintained a general entertainment format, and was one of the handful of stations that carried programming from the United Network during its one month of operation in May 1967. About a year after its sign on, the syndicators providing KLOC's programming raised their prices to the levels closer to a Sacramento-licensed station (the station's owners had been acquired programming at lower rates closer to that of an unrated television market); Smith resorted to simulcasting KLOC radio's programming during the daytime hours, including a camera in the radio station's studios showing the disc jockeys live, and ran Spanish-language telenovelas in the evening, when the radio station signed off.

KUVS's logo prior to January 1, 2013.

By the 1970s, the radio simulcast was discontinued and KLOC-TV's broadcast day was split into two parts: mornings were devoted to English-language religious programming, it then ran Spanish-language programming for the rest of the day (from approximately 2:00 p.m. to sign-off) as one of the original affiliates of the Spanish International Network (which would later be reorganized as Univision in 1986), carrying afternoon and evening programs from KMEX-TV in Los Angeles via a live microwave feed, as did KDTV in San Francisco. In the 1980s, the station's call letters were changed to KCSO (standing for "Chester Smith Organization").

In the late 1990s, the station was sold to Univision Communications and became a Univision owned-and-operated station (Smith had accepted stock in SIN as part of the original affiliation agreement); the station was then rebranded as "Univision 19". After the ownership change, the station moved its operations from Modesto to Sacramento, and its call letters were changed to KUVS-TV.

Digital television

Digital channels

The station's digital channel is multiplexed:

Analog-to-digital conversion

KUVS-TV shut down its analog signal, over UHF channel 19, on June 12, 2009, as part of the federally mandated transition from analog to digital television.^[2] The station's digital signal remained on its pre-transition UHF channel 18, using PSIP to display KUVS-TV's virtual channel as 19 on digital television receivers.

Newscasts and other local programming

KUVS-DT presently broadcasts 11½ hours of locally produced newscasts each week (with two hours on weekdays, a half-hour on Saturdays and one hour on Sundays). In addition, the station also produces a five-minute entertainment segment, titled Despierta Sacramento, which airs weekday mornings during Univision's morning news program Despierta America at 7:24, 8:24 and 9:24 a.m.

KUVS also produces Voz Y Voto, a political roundtable program that specializes in interviewing local, state and national leaders on issues of political, economic and national policy that airs on Saturday mornings at 11 a.m. The show helps fulfill station obligations to provide a public service to the community from a Sacramento capital perspective. Past guests on the program have included Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, his 2006 challenger Phil Angelides and Los Angeles mayor Antonio Villaraigosa. Voz Y Voto is syndicated to other California stations such as Los Angeles sister station KMEX-DT. When it debuted in 2000, the program was taped out of Los Angeles, and was originally hosted by Rosa Maria Villalpando and Armando Botello. When KUVS decided to move the show to Sacramento, Xochitl Arellano replaced Villalpando and added Arnoldo Torres.

References

External links

• KUVS website
• Voz y Voto
• Query the FCC's TV station database for KUVS
• BIAfn's Media Web Database -- Information on KUVS-DT