KPDX

KPDX
Vancouver, Washington/Portland, Oregon
United States
City Vancouver, Washington
Branding PDX TV
Slogan Totally Entertaining TV
Channels Digital: 30 (UHF)
Virtual: 49 (PSIP)
Subchannels 49.1 MyNetworkTV
49.2 Escape
49.3 Bounce TV
49.4 Grit
Translators KUBN-LD 43 Bend
(for others see article)
Affiliations MyNetworkTV (2006–present)
Owner Meredith Corporation
(KPTV-KPDX Broadcasting Corporation)
Founded March 30, 1981
First air date October 9, 1983 (1983-10-09)
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 749 kW
Height 513 metres (1,683 feet)
Facility ID 35460
Transmitter coordinates 45°31′19″N 122°44′53″W / 45.52194°N 122.74806°W / 45.52194; -122.74806
Licensing authority FCC
Public license information: Profile
CDBS
Website www.kpdx.com

KPDX, virtual channel 49 (UHF digital channel 30), (Comcast Channel 13) 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

As an independent station

Channel 49 logo under Fox affiliation. Used until September 2, 2002.

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. The station was originally owned by Columbia River Television. It was originally licensed under the call letters KLRK, but the station changed to the present KPDX callsign prior to the station's launch.[2] Portland had been big enough since at least the 1960s to support a second independent station alongside long-established KPTV. The station first operated from studio facilities located in Vancouver. However, the Portland market is a very large one geographically; it stretches across a large swath of Oregon as well as much of southwestern Washington. The established stations needed an extensive translator network to reach the entire market, an expense which stymied the first attempt at a second independent in the market, Salem-based KVDO-TV (now Bend Oregon Public Broadcasting outlet KOAB-TV). By the early 1980s, however, cable and satellite—which are all but essential for acceptable television in the rural portions of the market—had gained enough penetration for a second independent to be viable.

Although it was well behind KPTV, one of the strongest independent stations in the country, KPDX more than held its own in its early years and received decent ratings.

As a Fox affiliate

By 1988, KPTV was one of several Fox affiliates across the country that were disappointed with the network's weak programming offerings. KPTV 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. However, until 1993, the station was a de facto independent station because Fox would have only select days of primetime programming at that time (it would finally have programming on all seven days a week in 1993). The station later relocated its studios to a new building located on NE Union Avenue (now Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard) in Portland. Columbia River Television sold the station to Cannell Communications, a broadcast group owned by television producer and author Stephen J. Cannell in 1992. Cannell sold both KPDX and sister-station WHNS in Greenville, South Carolina to First Media Television in 1994. 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 Meredith Corporation in 1997. It gradually drew closer to KPTV as Fox came into its own as a network.

As a UPN affiliate

KPDX's UPN logo. Used from September 2, 2002-April 1, 2006.

Meredith acquired KPTV, by then a UPN affiliate, 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. Since KPTV was still well ahead of KPDX in the ratings, Meredith opted to move the Fox affiliation back to KPTV on September 2, 2002. 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. Although KPTV was the senior partner in the new duopoly, the combined operation was housed at KPDX's facility in Beaverton.

As a MyNetworkTV affiliate

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-TV (now a present-day former fellow affiliate since KAUT reverted to independent status), KARZ-TV, WSTR-TV, sister station KSMO-TV, WPME-TV, and Madison, Wisconsin's digital subchannel of WISC-TV).

KPDX logo under the "PDX 49", used from April 1, 2006 to September 7, 2008; this was the last logo used by the station to incorporate its channel number.

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".

On September 8, 2015, Media General announced that it would acquire Meredith for $2.4 billion, with the combined group to be renamed Meredith Media General once the sale was finalized by June 2016. Because Media General already owns CBS affiliate KOIN (channel 6) and Meredith owns KPTV and KPDX, the companies would have been be required to sell either KPTV or KOIN to comply with FCC ownership rules that forbid common ownership of two of the four highest-rated television stations in a given market in total day viewership, as well as recent changes to FCC ownership rules that restrict sharing agreements; KPDX was the only one of the three stations affected by the merger that could legally be acquired by Meredith Media General, as its total day viewership ranks below the top-four ratings threshold.[7][8] However, on January 27, 2016, Nexstar Broadcasting Group announced that it had reached an agreement to acquire Media General, resulting in the termination of Meredith's acquisition by Media General.

Digital television

Digital channels

The station's digital channel is multiplexed:

Channel Video Aspect PSIP Short Name Programming[9]
49.1 720p 16:9 KPDX-TV Main KPDX-TV programming / MyNetworkTV
49.2 480i 4:3 Escape Escape
49.3 Bounce Bounce TV
49.4 Grit Grit

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 moved its digital signal from its pre-transition UHF channel 48 to channel 30 (UHF channel 30 was previously used by sister station KPTV for its digital signal, that station vacated that allocation concurrently with KPDX's transition),[10][11][12] using PSIP to 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. On September 29, 2014, KPDX expanded its evening news programming with the launch of an hour-long 9:00 p.m. newscast, resulting in KPTV producing three hours of news in primetime (two hours on channel 49, as well as the flagship hour-long 10:00 p.m. broadcast on channel 12); as a result, the station delayed MyNetworkTV programming later in the evening.[13][14] The 9PM Newscast actually premiered on Monday, August 25, 2014, nearly a month earlier than originally announced.

Repeater stations

KPDX is rebroadcast on the following network of translator stations.

Central Oregon-area translators

Eugene Market, 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. Channel 14 was shut down in 2012.

By FCC mandate, low-power stations operating on UHF channels 52 to 69 were required to vacate those channels by December 31, 2011.[15]

References

  1. ↑ Nelson, Bob (June 2, 2009). "Call Letter Origins". 238. The Broadcast Archive. Archived from the original on February 18, 2016. Retrieved June 21, 2009.
  2. ↑ Call Sign History - FCC's TV station database for KPDX
  3. ↑ 'Gilmore Girls' meet 'Smackdown'; CW Network to combine WB, UPN in CBS-Warner venture beginning in September, CNNMoney.com, January 24, 2006.
  4. ↑ UPN and WB to Combine, Forming New TV Network, The New York Times, January 24, 2006.
  5. ↑ "News Corp. to launch new mini-network for UPN stations". USA Today. February 22, 2006. Retrieved January 21, 2013.
  6. ↑ News Corp. Unveils MyNetworkTV, Broadcasting & Cable, February 22, 2006.
  7. ↑ "Media General Acquiring Meredith For 2.4 Billion". TVNewsCheck. NewsCheck Media. September 8, 2015.
  8. ↑ Cynthia Littleton (September 8, 2015). "TV Station Mega Merger: Media General Sets $2.4 Billion Acquisition of Meredith Corp.". Variety. Penske Media Corporation. Retrieved September 9, 2015.
  9. ↑ RabbitEars TV Query for KPDX
  10. ↑ "DTV Tentative Channel Designations for the First and Second Rounds" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on August 29, 2013. Retrieved 2012-03-24.
  11. ↑ "Portland TV stations backtrack, delay digital transition". The Oregonian. February 6, 2009.
  12. ↑ CDBS Print
  13. ↑ KPTV/KPDX Launching 9:00pm Newscast, TVSpy, May 22, 2014.
  14. ↑ FOX 12 / PDX TV announces new 9 p.m. newscast, KPTV, May 21, 2014.
  15. ↑ 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
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