KDRV

KDRV / KDKF

KDRV: Medford, Oregon
KDKF: Klamath Falls, Oregon
United States
Branding NewsWatch 12
Slogan Watching Out For You
Channels Digital:
KDRV: 12 (VHF)
KDKF: 29 (UHF)
Virtual:
KDRV: 12 (PSIP)
KDKF: 31 (PSIP)
Subchannels xx.1 ABC
xx.2 Antenna TV
Translators (see article)
Affiliations ABC
Owner Heartland Media
(Oregon TV License Company LLC)
Founded 1984
First air date KDRV: February 26, 1984 (1984-02-26)
KDKF: October 1989 (1989-10)
Call letters' meaning KDRV: Rogue Valley
KDKF: Klamath Falls
Sister station(s) KEZI
KHSL-TV
KNVN
Former channel number(s) Analog:
KDRV:
12 (VHF, 1984–2009)
KDKF:
31 (UHF, 1989–2009)
Digital:
KDRV:
38 (UHF, until 2009)
Transmitter power KDRV: 16.9 kW
KDKF: 5 kW
Height KDRV: 823 m (2,700 ft)
KDKF: 651 m (2,136 ft)
Facility ID KDRV: 60736
KDKF: 60740
Transmitter coordinates
Licensing authority FCC
Public license information: / KDKF Profile
/ KDKF CDBS
Website www.kdrv.com

KDRV, virtual and VHF digital channel 12, is an ABC-affiliated television station located in Medford, Oregon, United States. The station is owned by Heartland Media. KDRV maintains studio facilities located on Knutson Avenue (near Rogue Valley International-Medford Airport) in north Medford, and its transmitter is located at the edge of Wolf Creek Park in rural northeastern Josephine County (near Golden).

KDRV operates as a satellite station KDKF (virtual channel 31, UHF digital channel 29) in Klamath Falls, which serves portions of south-central Oregon. KDKF maintains a news bureau located on Oregon Avenue in southeastern Klamath Falls; master control and managerial operations for KDKF are based out of KDRV's facilities in Medford.

History

KDRV NewsWatch 12 logo, used from 2004-2011.

Prior to 1984, KOBI served as the primary ABC affiliate for southern Oregon, but Medford was only partially covered. Viewers could also receive KATU in Portland on cable. This was partly because the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) had reserved channel 8, the last VHF frequency in the area, for noncommercial use (currently occupied by PBS member KSYS).

The Medford-Klamath Falls market is one of the geographically largest in the country, covering a large swath of southern Oregon and northern California. This area is very mountainous, and it is very difficult to get decent UHF reception in rugged terrain. However, in 1978, the FCC took the unusual step of dropping in a channel 12 allocation for Medford without anyone requesting such action. While a Christian broadcaster initially made a bid for the station, it was a foregone conclusion that the license would go to Sunshine Television, a local investment group.

KDRV signed on for the first time on February 26, 1984. The station's studio had not been finished yet, and live local programming was not possible from its temporary studio. The new studio was finished later in 1984, and the station was able to begin news and other local programming a year later. Sunshine sold the station to Love Broadcasting in 1987. Chambers Communications bought the station in 1994. KDKF debuted on October 17, 1989.

Until 2007, KDRV was one of the few television stations still using the U-Matic videotape format for editing and on-air playback.

On March 5, 2014, Chambers Communications announced that it would exit broadcasting and sell its stations to Heartland Media, a company owned by former Gray Television executive Bob Prather.[1] The sale was completed on July 15.[2] Heartland recently added Chico, California, CBS affiliate KHSL-TV to its family of stations, effectively making KDRV and KEZI their new sister stations.

Digital television

Digital channels

The station's digital signal is multiplexed:

Channel Video Aspect PSIP Short Name Programming[3][4]
xx.1 720p 16:9 KDRV-HD
KDKF-HD 		Main programming / ABC
xx.2 480i 4:3 KDRV-SD
KDKF-SD 		Antenna TV

KDRV-DT2

KDRV-DT2 is an Antenna TV-affiliated television station, which operates as a second digital subchannel of KDRV and KDKF. Over-the-air, it broadcasts in standard definition on UHF digital channel 12.2 over KDRV and UHF digital channel 29.2 (or virtual channel 31.2) over KDKF. Branded as KDRV Classics, the subchannel is available on Charter Communications digital channel 291 and (as of June 2012) on Northland Communications channel 137 in Yreka, California.

History

KDRV launched a digital subchannel on virtual channel 12.2 on February 28, 2011, as a 24-hour news broadcast service branded as NewsWatch 12+ Nonstop News. The subchannel originally featured a mix of simulcasts of KDRV's live NewsWatch 12 newscasts in their scheduled time periods as well as rebroadcasts of the previously aired edition on a repetitive cycle until the next live airing. To comply with educational programming requirements for digital multicast services included in the Children's Television Act, NewsWatch 12+ also aired three hours of compliant E/I programming aimed at older children and teenagers on Saturday afternoons (initially consisting of six back-to-back episodes of Jack Hanna's Animal Adventures, then from September 3, 2011 onward, other syndicated series compliant with the regulations such as Danger Rangers and Exploration with Richard Wiese).

On September 2, 2011, KDRV began airing weekly high school football games each Friday evening at 7:00 p.m. (branded as the "Friday Night Blitz Game of the Week", after the football highlight show that airs on KDRV/KDKF's main feed on Fridays during the 11:00 p.m. newscast). On January 3, 2012, KDRV-DT2 began airing the "Roundball Wrap Game Of The Week" (named after the high school basketball highlight show aired during the late newscast during the winter and early spring), a showcase of select local high school basketball games that aired in various time periods depending on the scheduled telecast. Play-by-play commentary for the games was handled by Bill Jacobs (and were simulcast with ESPN Radio affiliate KTMT [580 AM]) with reporter Steven Sandberg as an occasional fill-in, while Chris Leone and Chris Breece handled color analysis (sports reporter Brandon Kamerman replaced Breece in 2012; Jacobs – now the voice of the Southern Oregon University Raiders football and basketball teams – was replaced by Sandberg in 2013).

On September 9, 2013, KDRV discontinued the news rebroadcast format and affiliated the DT2 feed with "Live Well Network Southern Oregon," serving as an affiliate of the Disney–ABC Television Group-owned/ ABC Owned Television Stations-operated, lifestyle-oriented Live Well Network. On October 27, 2014, the day after Live Well Network relegated its distribution exclusively to ABC's eight owned-and-operated stations, KDRV affiliated the DT2 subchannel with classic television network Antenna TV (under the branding "KDRV Classics"). As it did following the conversion to Live Well, the station continues to carry the "Friday Night Blitz" and "Roundball Wrap" Games of the Week on KDRV-DT2 during their corresponding high school sports seasons, which mainly pre-empts the network's prime time schedule.

Analog-to-digital conversion

Both stations shut down their analog signals, respectively on February 17, 2009, the original target date in which full-power television stations in the United States were to transition from analog to digital broadcasts under federal mandate (which was later pushed back to June 12, 2009). The station's digital channel allocations post-transition are as follows:[5]

Local programming

Dancing With The Rogue Valley Stars

Since 2009, NewsWatch 12 airs a one-hour televised special called Dancing With The Rogue Valley Stars, which raises money for local charities and is sponsored by USA Dance Southern Oregon and Southern Oregon Sparrow Clubs in association with KDRV. Patterned after ABC's highly rated and successful Dancing with the Stars, the competition featured popular local personalities and officials dancing various styles of dance.[8][9] In 2010, KDRV's Ashley Hall participated in the event dancing the salsa.[10][11] In 2011, KDRV's Kaylin Krashesky and Kristin Ketchell participated with Kaylin dancing the west coast swing and Kristin dancing the samba. (Krashesky placed 3rd in people's and judges' voting.) In 2012, sports director Chris Leone and news anchor Erin Maxson represented the station as contestants with Leone dancing the salsa and Maxson dancing the western two-step. (Maxson placed 3rd in the people's voting and 2nd in the judges' voting.) In 2013, weekend anchor Christy Lewis and weekday meteorologist Alyssa Caroprese were chosen to represent the station as contestants for the 5th annual event.

Extreme Makeover: Home Edition - Southern Oregon

In 2011, NewsWatch 12 aired an award-winning 30-minute special called Extreme Makeover: Home Edition - Southern Oregon, a behind-the-scenes look at an episode of ABC's Extreme Makeover: Home Edition when the show selected C.J. and Lindsay McPhail, founders of the Southern Oregon Sparrow Clubs and parents of three children (two diagnosed with autism) to have their home torn down and rebuilt. News anchors Brian Morton and Danielle Craig led the hosting duties. The special was produced by Erin Maxson.

News operation

KDRV presently broadcasts 36 hours of locally produced newscasts each week (with 6 hours on weekdays and 3 hours each on Saturdays and Sundays).

Launched on September 16, 1985, KDRV has a fully staffed news department known as NewsWatch 12. It has consistently been the #1 news operation in the Medford market for just over two decades. Like fellow stations KOBI and KTVL, they air newscasts at 5 p.m., 6 p.m. and 11 p.m. but beginning in 2013, weekend newscasts began airing at 8:00 AM, 5:00, 6:00, 6:30 and 11 p.m. unlike its rivals. KDRV airs its morning news starting at 5 a.m. (as does KTVL). Anchor and reporter Ron Brown (Known as the "Dean of News Anchors" in Southern Oregon) and Chief Meteorologist Scott Lewis were the longest-tenured newscasters in the station's history, but Lewis retired in 2012 and Brown retired in May 2015. This means Anchor Brian Morton (who joined the station in 1995) will succeed Brown as KDRV's longest tenured anchor. Brown hosted the weekly "Oregon Trails" segment, which took a look back in Southern Oregon's history, while Morton reports on "Wednesday's Child", an adoption segment. The newscast has received numerous awards, including several National Association of Broadcasters, Associated Press and Emmy Awards. For a short period of time, KDRV was the only station in the Medford market to continue airing local sportscasts while rival stations KTVL and KOBI dropped their sportscasts in 2009. This has since changed.

On January 5, 2011, NewsWatch 12 was the first station in the market to begin broadcasting its newscasts in 16:9 widescreen to coincide with its new look, which is similar to sister station KEZI in Eugene. The station is also the first in the market to broadcast commercials in high definition. On September 9, 2013, KDRV added yet another newscast to its daily schedule known as NewsWatch 12 Midday, which airs Monday through Friday at 11:00 a.m.

Notable former on-air staff

Carriage disputes

Dispute with Dish Network

On December 10, 2010, KDRV announced on its newscast that their owners Chambers Communications (who also own KEZI in Eugene, KOHD in Bend and KDKF in Klamath Falls) and Dish Network could not come to a long-term agreement to keep the station on the air in the Medford market and were in danger of losing local ABC programming as a result. Viewers were encouraged to read a special Q&A page regarding this matter. Despite their best efforts, their previous agreement expired on December 15 and the stations were removed from the Dish Network local line-ups. Chambers and Dish finally came to an agreement to resume service and as of December 30, 2010 the stations returned on Dish Network.[12]

KDRV replaces KRCR on Mt. Shasta cable

In January 2012, KDRV replaced Redding, California ABC affiliate KRCR-TV on Northland Communications cable channel 7 in Mt. Shasta, California as Northland and KRCR severed ties after failing to come to a mutual agreement to continue coverage on the Mt. Shasta cable system. Thus, Northland placed KDRV in the channel 7 slot.[13][14] (Northland management has tried several times to get Siskiyou County put in the Chico-Redding market, but the FCC rejected their requests every time.)

Despite being in California, Siskiyou County is technically (yet officially) part of the Medford DMA according to the FCC. KDRV had been on Northland's Yreka cable system on channel 12 since the station launched in early 1984 and the advent of local cable television back in the early to mid 1980's.

Translators

KDRV is rebroadcast on the following translator stations:

References

  1. ↑ Colman, Price (March 5, 2014). "Prather Buying Three Oregon TVs for $30M". TVNewsCheck. Retrieved March 6, 2014.
  2. ↑ Consummation Notice, CDBS Public Access, Federal Communications Commission, Retrieved 16 July, 2014.
  3. ↑ RabbitEars TV Query for KDRV
  4. ↑ RabbitEars TV Query for KDKF
  5. ↑ "DTV Tentative Channel Designations for the First and the Second Rounds" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2013-08-29. Retrieved 2012-03-24.
  6. ↑ CDBS Print
  7. ↑ CDBS Print
  8. ↑ Dancing with the Rogue Valley Stars
  9. ↑ 1st ever Dancing with the Rogue Valley Stars a success
  10. ↑ Dancing With The Rogue Valley Stars website
  11. ↑ Preparations begin for Dancing with the Rogue Valley Stars
  12. ↑ Chambers Communications Announces Retransmission with Dish Network to Expire December 15, 2010, KDRV.com
  13. ↑ Northland Communications Mt. Shasta Cable Schedule
  14. ↑ Northland pulls KRCR Channel 7 off air in Siskiyou; affiliate out of Oregon takes its spot, David Benda, Redding.com(Redding Record Searchlight), January 12, 2012
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