KUPX-TV

KUPX-TV
CityProvo, Utah
Channels
BrandingUtah 16
Programming
Affiliations
Ownership
Owner
KSTU
History
FoundedApril 24, 1985
First air date
April 21, 1998
(26 years ago) (1998-04-21)
Former call signs
  • KZAR-TV (1985–1998)
  • KUWB (1998)
Former channel number(s)
Analog: 16 (UHF, 1998–2009)
  • inTV (1998)
  • Pax/i/Ion (1998–2023, now on DT4)
Call sign meaning
Utah's Pax TV (former affiliation)
Technical information[1]
Licensing authority
FCC
Facility ID57884
ERP530 kW
HAAT1,171 m (3,842 ft)
Transmitter coordinates40°39′12″N 112°12′9″W / 40.65333°N 112.20250°W / 40.65333; -112.20250
Translator(s)see § Translators
Links
Public license information
Websiteutah16.com

KUPX-TV (channel 16), branded Utah 16, is an independent television station licensed to Provo, Utah, United States, serving Salt Lake City and the state of Utah. It is owned by the E. W. Scripps Company alongside Fox affiliate KSTU (channel 13). KUPX-TV's offices are located on Lawndale Drive in the southern section of Salt Lake City, and its transmitter is located on Farnsworth Peak in the Oquirrh Mountains, southwest of Salt Lake City.

Though a construction permit was issued for channel 16 in 1985, the station was not completed for another 13 years. In that time, it was sold twice. While channel 16 was originally intended to be an affiliate of The WB, a 1998 swap with Paxson Communications Corporation saw Paxson trade channel 30 for channel 16; as a result, KUWB instead launched on channel 30 in April 1998, while channel 16 signed on to air infomercials and later the Pax/Ion network. Scripps acquired Ion Media in 2020; it moved Ion Television to a subchannel in 2023 and converted the main channel to an independent station which aired Vegas Golden Knights and Arizona Coyotes hockey games in Utah. Beginning in 2024–25, it will be the broadcast home of the Utah Hockey Club.

History

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Construction phase

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In 1984, three companies applied to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) for a construction permit to build channel 16 in Provo: Morro Rock Resources, San Joseph Broadcasting, and Skagit Valley Publishing Company.[2] The parties avoided an FCC comparative hearing and instead settled: Skagit Valley was reimbursed for its expenses and withdrew, while San Joseph Broadcasting owner Jackson Dell Weaver and Morro Rock joined to form permittee Royal Television of Utah, with the latter owning 90 percent.[3][4] Ross Boyd, the president of Morro Rock, expressed a belief that Utah needed an additional independent station.[4]

Royal Television had considerable difficulty in constructing the station, as evidenced by several applications to change transmitter location and several construction permit extensions, and even replacements of expired construction permits. Dell Weaver departed the venture in 1987 to become general manager of radio station KJR in Seattle.[5] In 1988, the station's call sign was deleted, only to be restored four months later. In July 1990, Royal Television applied to replace the construction permit that was to expire the following month. The application was not granted until February 1996, more than five years later.[6] In October 1995, Roberts Broadcasting agreed to buy the station from Royal Television for $200,000.[7]

In August 1997, ACME Communications agreed to acquire a 49 percent stake in KZAR-TV, with an agreement to purchase the other 51 percent once the television station was on the air; the deal closed in February 1998.[8] Jamie Kellner, CEO and co-founder of ACME, was also co-founder and then-CEO of The WB. Roberts announced its plans for KZAR-TV at that time. The station would be a WB affiliate. The existing WB affiliate in the market, KOOG-TV (channel 30), had been purchased by Paxson Communications Corporation, which intended to launch its own television network, Pax Net;[9] when KOOG-TV changed its call letters to KUPX in advance of Pax Net's launch, the company indicated it would terminate its WB agreement as soon as legally possible.[10] ACME's involvement in the station secured the continued existence of a WB affiliate in the Utah market.[11]

A communications tower
This tower on Lake Mountain broadcast the analog signal for KUPX-TV.

Roberts began seeking studio space in the Provo area and proposed to air Utah County-oriented local news programming; it intended to broadcast channel 16 from Lake Mountain, causing some concern among other communications users about potential interference from the new high-power station.[9][12] In February 1998, Roberts Broadcasting announced that the station would be on air by May, that its call letters would change to a designation including the letters "WB", and that the planned newscast would debut shortly after.[13] The station also secured the rights to air Saturday Night Live in the Salt Lake City market; the show had been unseen in Utah since 1995 when KSL-TV, the new NBC affiliate, decided not to air it.[14]

Swap with Paxson Communications; Pax and Ion programming

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On April 20, 1998, Paxson entered into an agreement with Roberts Broadcasting and ACME Communications where each group would acquire the other's assets, but WB programming would remain on channel 30.[15] To expedite the process, the parties immediately entered into local marketing agreements, whereby the stations would swap call signs and would begin to operate each other's stations until the FCC could approve the assignments of license. On the evening of April 20, channel 30 became KUWB from the existing channel 30 facility on Farnsworth Peak, while channel 16 signed on from Lake Mountain as KUPX with Paxson's programming.[16][17] Neither station would have studios in Utah County; channel 30 went on air from facilities in Murray, while Paxson also sought Salt Lake–area office space.[18] Paxson continued to air its existing infomercial programming on channel 16 until Pax Net, renamed Pax, began broadcasting on August 31, 1998.[16][19] The FCC approved the swap of the licenses in March 1999, and the deal closed in the third quarter of the year.[20]

On May 10, 2002, KUPX began broadcasting a digital signal from the more centrally located Little Farnsworth Peak.[21] The analog transmitter on Lake Mountain remained in service until the federally mandated transition from analog to digital television concluded for full-power stations on June 12, 2009; the digital signal remained on channel 29, using virtual channel 16.[22]

After changing its name to i: Independent Television in 2005, the network became known as Ion Television in 2007.[23] Ion Television and its parent company, Ion Media, were acquired by the E. W. Scripps Company in 2020. While Scripps divested some stations to comply with FCC local and national ownership regulations, Scripps chose to keep KUPX-TV, making it a sister station to Fox affiliate KSTU (channel 13).[24][25][26] The sale was completed on January 7, 2021.[27]

Utah 16

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On September 1, 2023, Ion programming moved to subchannel 16.4, and channel 16.1 began airing a full slate of its own programming under the name Utah 16. The station was the Utah-market outlet for the Vegas Golden Knights of the National Hockey League (NHL), for which Scripps owns the rights to telecast all non-national games.[28] The station also aired select Arizona Coyotes games, to which Scripps also owned the rights, with other games for that team airing on KSTU's second subchannel.[29]

On April 18, 2024, the NHL Board of Governors announced the establishment of a Utah-based franchise in Salt Lake City, with the hockey assets of the deactivated Coyotes.[30] Later on the same day, KUPX-TV was announced as the new team's TV outlet for all games.[31]

Technical information

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Subchannels

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The station's signal is multiplexed:

Subchannels of KUPX-TV[32]
Channel Res. Aspect Short name Programming
16.1 720p 16:9 Utah 16 Main KUPX-TV programming
16.2 480i Grit Grit
16.3 Laff Laff
16.4 ION Ion Television
16.5 IONPlus Ion Plus[33]
16.6 Mystery Ion Mystery
16.7 Jewelry Jewelry TV
16.8 HSN HSN
16.9 HSN2 HSN2

Translators

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KUPX-TV is rebroadcast on many translators throughout Utah.[32]

References

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  1. ^ "Facility Technical Data for KUPX-TV". Licensing and Management System. Federal Communications Commission.
  2. ^ Zimmerman, Josephine (November 13, 1984). "3 Companies Want TV Station in Provo". The Daily Herald. p. 3. Retrieved September 2, 2023 – via Newspapers.com.
  3. ^ "New Station Plans Provo Headquarters". The Daily Herald. May 14, 1985. p. 3. Retrieved September 2, 2023 – via Newspapers.com.
  4. ^ a b "Provo Gets TV Station". The Wasatch Wave. May 30, 1985. p. 5. Retrieved September 2, 2023 – via Newspapers.com.
  5. ^ "Newsline". Billboard. January 10, 1987. p. 10. ProQuest 1438656460.
  6. ^ "FCCdata.org record for KUPX-TV". FCCdata.org.
  7. ^ "Changing Hands". Broadcasting & Cable. October 16, 1995. p. 32. ProQuest 1014758914.
  8. ^ "Two more WB stations for Kellner group". The Hollywood Reporter. February 10, 1998. p. 6. ProQuest 2393630203.
  9. ^ a b Romboy, Dennis (August 28, 1997). "Utah Valley may get full-power TV station". Deseret News. p. B1.
  10. ^ "Ogden's KOOG becomes KUPX". Deseret News. January 14, 1998. p. C2.
  11. ^ Pierce, Scott (February 16, 1998). "Ownership of new Provo station changes before it goes on the air". The Deseret News. p. C3.
  12. ^ Haddock, Sharon M. (September 3, 1997). "Proposed TV tower causing bad vibes". Deseret News. p. B3.
  13. ^ "Brothers Plan To Bring TV Station to Provo: KZAR Hopes to Be on Air by May With Focus on Utah County News". The Salt Lake Tribune. February 8, 1998. pp. B-1, b-9. Retrieved September 2, 2023 – via Newspapers.com.
  14. ^ Youngren, John (February 26, 1998). "New Provo Station May Bring Back 'SNL' by Spring". The Salt Lake Tribune. p. B7. Retrieved September 2, 2023 – via Newspapers.com.
  15. ^ "ACME INTERMEDIATE HOLDINGS LLC Quarterly Report (10-Q) EXHIBIT 10.4". Archived from the original on September 30, 2007. Retrieved March 20, 2007.
  16. ^ a b Youngren, John (April 24, 1998). "With a Simple Flip of Switch, A Utah Television Station Is Born". The Salt Lake Tribune. p. B7. Retrieved September 2, 2023 – via Newspapers.com.
  17. ^ Jones, Lara (March 23, 1998). "Broadcast studio being built in Murray for Utah's newest TV station". The Enterprise. p. 5. ProQuest 229134317.
  18. ^ Pierce, Scott (May 4, 1998). "Catching up on a few things". Deseret News. p. C6.
  19. ^ Gray, Ellen (August 31, 1998). "Paxson could clean up with G-rated programs". Philadelphia Daily News. p. 42. Archived from the original on January 10, 2023. Retrieved January 1, 2023 – via Newspapers.com.
  20. ^ ACME Communications 2001 Annual Report (Report). 2001. p. 41. ProQuest 2256317750.
  21. ^ "KUPX-DT". Television & Cable Factbook. Vol. 74. 2006. p. A-2337.
  22. ^ "DTV Tentative Channel Designations for the First and Second Rounds" (PDF). Federal Communications Commission. May 23, 2006. Archived from the original (PDF) on August 29, 2013. Retrieved August 29, 2021.
  23. ^ "i Is Now ION Television". Multichannel News. January 24, 2007. Archived from the original on August 1, 2022. Retrieved August 1, 2022.
  24. ^ "Breaking News – Scripps Creates National Television Networks Business with Acquisition of ION Media". TheFutonCritic.com. Retrieved May 6, 2022.
  25. ^ Cimilluca, Dana. "E.W. Scripps Agrees to Buy ION Media for $2.65 billion in Berkshire-Backed Deal". Retrieved September 24, 2020.
  26. ^ Vengattil, Munsif (September 24, 2020). "E.W. Scripps scales up with $2.65 billion Berkshire-backed deal for ION Media". Reuters.
  27. ^ Lafayette, Jon (January 7, 2021). "E.W. Scripps Completes Acquisition of Ion Media". Broadcasting & Cable. Retrieved January 7, 2021.
  28. ^ Urban, Andrea (August 27, 2023). "Stanley Cup champions stop in Ogden on 'road trip'". KSTU. Retrieved September 5, 2023.
  29. ^ McCarter, Rebecca (October 5, 2023). "Arizona Coyotes, Scripps Sports Form Multi-Year Broadcast Partnership". Scripps.com (Press release). Retrieved October 5, 2023.
  30. ^ "NHL BOG approves establishment of new franchise in Utah". NHL.com. April 18, 2024. Retrieved April 18, 2024.
  31. ^ Tavss, Jeff (April 18, 2024). "Utah NHL games to air free on Utah 16". KSTU. Retrieved April 19, 2024.
  32. ^ a b "RabbitEars TV Query for KUPX". Retrieved March 6, 2021.
  33. ^ Keys, Matthew (June 28, 2024). "Scripps replacing Defy TV with Ion Plus on broadcast TV". TheDesk.net. Retrieved June 28, 2024.
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