Wikipedia

KYUR

KYUR (channel 13) is a television station in Anchorage, Alaska, United States, affiliated with ABC and The CW Plus. It is owned by Vision Alaska LLC, which maintains joint sales[2] and shared services[3] agreements (JSA/SSA) with Coastal Television Broadcasting Company LLC, owner of Fox affiliate KTBY (channel 4), for the provision of certain services. The two stations share studios on East Tudor Road in Anchorage; KYUR's transmitter is located in the Matanuska-Susitna Borough. Some of KYUR's programming is broadcast to rural communities via low-power translators through the Alaska Rural Communications Service (ARCS).

KYUR

Channels
Branding
  • ABC Alaska
  • The CW Alaska (DT2)
  • Fox Alaska (DT3)
  • "Your Alaska Link" (newscasts)
Programming
Affiliations
Ownership
Owner
  • Vision Alaska LLC
  • (KYUR License LLC)
OperatorCoastal Television Broadcasting Company LLC via JSA/SSA
KTBY, KATN, KJUD
History
First air date
October 31, 1967 (56 years ago) (1967-10-31)
Former call signs
  • KHAR-TV (1967–1971)
  • KIMO (1971–2010)
Former channel number(s)
Analog: 13 (VHF, 1967–2009)
Call sign meaning
"Your Alaska Link"
Technical information[1]
Licensing authority
FCC
Facility ID13815
ERP41 kW
HAAT240 m (787 ft)
Transmitter coordinates61°25′19.8″N 149°52′27.8″W / 61.422167°N 149.874389°W / 61.422167; -149.874389
Translator(s)
Links
Public license information
Websitewww.youralaskalink.com

KYUR is the flagship station of a trio of ABC and digital CW affiliates covering Alaska under the "Your Alaska Link" brand, which also includes KATN in Fairbanks and KJUD in Juneau.

History

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As early as 1958, interest arose in giving Anchorage a third television station. First to file for the channel was Anchorage radio station KBYR in October 1958;[4] though KBYR-TV received a construction permit in October 1960,[5] the station never eventuated.

KHAR-TV: Early years

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The next group to file for channel 13 was Willis R. "Bill" Harpel, owner of Anchorage radio station KHAR, in March 1965. Harpel believed Anchorage had grown enough to support a third station that would operate as an independent station.[6] The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) granted Harpel the construction permit on November 22, 1965;[7] he initially promised the station would open in mid-1966,[8] but construction did not take place until mid-1967. That August, the antenna for the station was raised to KHAR's tower on the Seward Highway.[9]

KHAR-TV debuted on October 31, 1967, with a Halloween movie feature. It featured a daily early evening newscast, movies, and syndicated programs, but it lacked network affiliation. Harpel had been turned down by the Big Three networks, all of which were represented in Anchorage: KTVA (channel 11) was the CBS affiliate, and KENI-TV (channel 2, now KTUU-TV) aired ABC and NBC programs.[10][11] Less than three months after channel 13's first broadcast, Bill Harpel died in the Anchorage area's first fatal snowmobile accident on January 13, 1968, aged 46.[12]

After Bill Harpel's death, Sourdough Broadcasters acquired the KHAR stations. While the AM and FM operations thrived, channel 13—with no network programming other than Sesame Street by special arrangement with National Educational Television[13]—struggled.[14] In late 1969, the FCC approved the sale of the KHAR stations to Alaska-Hawaii Radio,[15] but the potential buyers soon lost interest, and the deal fell apart. With no buyer, no affiliation, and mounting losses, KHAR-TV shut down on May 15, 1970.[14]

KIMO: ABC affiliation and news maturation

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Carl Bracale, the last employee of KHAR-TV, managed to gather a group of people interested in buying the television station and returning it to air. The group organized as Central Alaska Broadcasting in August 1970 and made an advance to Sourdough Broadcasters to put KHAR-TV back on the air pending a sale.[14] The station resumed broadcasting on September 6 with a program schedule primarily consisting of movies and some syndicated shows.[13] After receiving FCC approval,[16] the sale was completed on June 25, 1971; the last change in connection with the sale was the adoption of new KIMO call letters.[17]

In the meantime, a federal rule change provided the station the network affiliation it had sought. In March 1971, the FCC prevented a VHF station from holding two or more network affiliations in a market with three or more full-power stations, one of which did not have an affiliation. While written in the wake of problems facing UHF stations in North Carolina and Georgia, it also applied to cases like Anchorage, where one VHF station (KENI-TV) had two affiliations and another had none at all.[18] KENI-TV chose to retain NBC and signed an exclusive agreement with the network that May. While KENI-TV announced that channel 13 (still KHAR-TV at the time) would become the ABC affiliate with this move,[19] the station did not sign an affiliation agreement until September, after it had become KIMO.[20][21] In time for the 1972 Summer Olympics, KIMO opened its own tape center in Seattle to furnish the station with recordings of network broadcasts; this allowed for next-day broadcasting of sporting events instead of on a seven-day delay.[22]

During the late 1970s and early 1980s, under news director and anchor John Vallentine, KIMO was credited with instigating major improvements in television newscasting in Anchorage. Under Vallentine, KIMO's Action News 13 left behind the days when it shot newsfilm on home movie cameras[23] and moved to the top of the ratings, commanding viewer shares of 40 percent or greater in the early 1980s.[24][25] The station expanded out of the Seward Highway facility and into production and sales offices on Tudor Street, later moving the entire station to Tudor in 1983.[26] In 1984, as networks began to use satellites that included Alaska in their footprint, KIMO became the second station in Anchorage to begin same-day broadcasting by satellite of all network programs, having unexpectedly been beaten by KTUU.[27]

KIMO's ownership expanded into television interests beyond Anchorage in the early 1980s. The Alaska 13 Corporation, KIMO's parent company, acquired KINY-TV (channel 8), the NBC affiliate in Juneau in 1983;[28] it became a primary ABC affiliate as KJUD on January 24, 1983. The company held a permit to build channel 13 in Fairbanks as an ABC affiliate;[29] in light of the down economy and fearing it could not survive the addition of a third commercial station there, KTUU instead sold its existing station there, KTTU (channel 2), in 1984.[30] That station changed its call sign to KATN and became a joint ABC–NBC affiliate.[31]

Vallentine departed Anchorage in 1985 to take a job with WISN-TV in Milwaukee. Toward the end of his tenure, KIMO's news lead started to erode as KTUU became an aggressive competitor with investments in equipment and personnel.[23]

In 1995, owner Smith Media bought KJUD in Juneau. Having bought Fairbanks' KATN a decade earlier, Smith merged all three of Alaska's ABC affiliates into the "Alaska's Superstation" network, with KIMO as the flagship station.

Smith sold KIMO and the remainder of the "ABC Alaska's Superstation" system to Vision Alaska LLC in 2010.[32] When the sale was completed, on May 13, 2010,[33] Coastal Television Broadcasting Company LLC (which owns Fox affiliate KTBY) entered into joint sales and shared services agreements with Vision Alaska to operate KYUR.[2][3] On January 1, 2011, KIMO changed its call letters to KYUR and all of the stations were co-branded as "Your Alaska Link".

In April 2020, as a result of impending economic concerns caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, KYUR and KTBY announced plans to outsource its news production to the national NewsNet service, which began operations one year earlier. All of the stations' newscasts outside of prime time, including Good Day Alaska, were canceled, and the majority of the local staff were laid off. By the end of the month, KYUR's news output had been reduced to a 30-minute newscast at 10 p.m. and KTBY was reduced to an hour-long newscast at 9 p.m. Both of these newscasts were temporarily branded as NewsNet Alaska, featuring a brief local news segment produced in Anchorage, with the rest of the broadcast utilizing the NewsNet national feed produced out of Cadillac, Michigan. The stations later outsourced their news programming to News Hub (formerly INN), which had recently been acquired by Coastal Television, as Your Alaska Link News.

Sports programming

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KYUR and its sister stations are affiliated with the television network of the NFL's Green Bay Packers. The station carries the network's preseason games and surrounding in-season programming (including its Tuesday night game recap and Wednesday night coach's show) originating from Green Bay, Wisconsin.[34]

Notable former on-air staff

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Technical information

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Subchannels

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The station's signal is multiplexed:

Subchannels of KYUR[35]
Channel Res. Aspect Short name Programming
13.1 720p 16:9 KYUR-DT ABC
13.2 KYUR CW The CW Plus
13.3 480i KYURFOX Fox (KTBY) in SD
13.5 Scripps News
  Simulcast of subchannels of another station

Analog-to-digital conversion

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KYUR shut down its analog signal, over VHF channel 13, on June 12, 2009, the official date on which full-power television stations in the United States transitioned from analog to digital broadcasts under federal mandate. The station's digital signal remained on its pre-transition VHF channel 12,[36] using virtual channel 13.

Former translator

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KYUR formerly ran translator K61CB on a road outside of Eagle River, Anchorage.[37] The translator shut down in 2009 due to the license lapsing in 2007, and the license was deleted in January 2010 due to not broadcasting for a year.[38]

References

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  1. ^ "Facility Technical Data for KYUR". Licensing and Management System. Federal Communications Commission.
  2. ^ a b Joint Sales Agreement - Federal Communications Commission
  3. ^ a b Time Brokerage Fees - Federal Communications Commission
  4. ^ "KBYR Plans TV Station". Anchorage Daily News. September 9, 1958. p. 1.
  5. ^ "New TV Station Authorized". Anchorage Daily News. October 7, 1960. pp. 1, 2.
  6. ^ "KHAR Files For Local TV Rights". Anchorage Daily News. March 26, 1965. p. 1.
  7. ^ "For the Record". Broadcasting. November 29, 1965. p. 81. ProQuest 1016839886.
  8. ^ "New KHAR-TV Station To Open Next Summer". Anchorage Daily Times. November 23, 1965. p. 2.
  9. ^ "TV Antenna Lifted to Tower". Anchorage Daily News. August 8, 1967. p. 11.
  10. ^ "Channel 13 To Have No Network Shows". Anchorage Daily Times. October 26, 1967. p. 15.
  11. ^ "Channel 13 Premieres on Halloween". Anchorage Daily News. October 29, 1967. p. Alaska Living 3.
  12. ^ "Outing Fatal To Bill Harpel: Snowmobile Accident Claims KHAR Owner". Anchorage Daily Times. January 15, 1968. pp. 1, 2.
  13. ^ a b "KHAR-TV Resumes Broadcasting". Anchorage Daily Times. September 5, 1970. p. 4A.
  14. ^ a b c Billington, Linda (April 18, 1971). "At KHAR-TV: Carl Bracale Drives a Hungry Tiger". Anchorage Daily News. p. 5.
  15. ^ "FCC OK's Alaska Sale". Variety. December 10, 1969. p. 54. ProQuest 1032465339.
  16. ^ "FCC Approves New Ownership For KHAR-TV". Anchorage Daily Times. June 3, 1971. p. 1.
  17. ^ "KHAR adopts new call letters KIMO". Anchorage Daily Times. July 26, 1971. p. 12.
  18. ^ "FCC Adopts New Rules Curbing V's On Hogtieing Network Affiliations". Variety. March 31, 1971. p. 51. ProQuest 963007881.
  19. ^ "KENI will stay with NBC network". Anchorage Daily News. May 23, 1971. p. 2.
  20. ^ "KHAR Not Commenting On Affiliation". Anchorage Daily Times. May 26, 1971. p. 3.
  21. ^ "KIMO gets ABC". Anchorage Daily News. September 11, 1971. p. 2.
  22. ^ "One-day delay telecast". Anchorage Daily News. August 26, 1972. p. 13.
  23. ^ a b Wilson, Terry (July 8, 1985). "Years with Vallentine: KIMO grows up". The Anchorage Times. pp. D-1, D-2.
  24. ^ Kleeschulte, Chuck (March 27, 1983). "TV news matures amid fierce competition". Anchorage Daily News. pp. N-1, N-4.
  25. ^ Erickson, Jim (August 25, 1984). "KIMO-TV news holds lead in local ratings". Anchorage Daily News. p. C-10.
  26. ^ "Eight fired or resigned at KIMO-TV". The Anchorage Times. August 15, 1983. p. C-9.
  27. ^ Taylor, Annette (July 6, 1984). "KIMO to inaugurate same-day programming". p. D-7.
  28. ^ Graham, Roberta (October 1, 1982). "KIMO buys Juneau station". Anchorage Daily News. pp. B-8, B-9.
  29. ^ Bennett, Ed (January 12, 1983). "KIMO gets parity in news war". The Anchorage Times. pp. B-1, B-4.
  30. ^ Knowlton, John (April 16, 1984). "KIMO buys KTTU of Fairbanks". The Anchorage Times. pp. A-1, A-10.
  31. ^ Erickson, Jim (April 17, 1984). "Fairbanks station sold for $2 million". Anchorage Daily News. p. B-5.
  32. ^ "Alaska TV group sold". Television Business Report. January 15, 2010. Retrieved October 4, 2015.
  33. ^ Consummation Notice - Federal Communications Commission
  34. ^ "Packers Television Network site". Retrieved August 6, 2020.
  35. ^ "RabbitEars TV Query for KYUR". RabbitEars.info.
  36. ^ "DTV Tentative Channel Designations for the First and the Second Rounds" (PDF). Retrieved March 24, 2012.
  37. ^ "Facility Details « Licensing and Management System Admin « FCC".
  38. ^ "Facility Details « Licensing and Management System Admin « FCC".
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