KUPX-TV explained

Callsign:KUPX-TV
Logo Alt:The word "Utah" in an angled rectangle with 16 off to the right.
City:Provo, Utah
Branding:Utah 16
Digital:29 (UHF)
Virtual:16
Translators:see
Licensee:Ion Media License Company, LLC
Location:ProvoSalt Lake City, Utah
Country:United States
Founded:April 24, 1985
Callsign Meaning:Utah's Pax TV (former affiliation)
Sister Stations:KSTU
Former Channel Numbers:Analog: 16 (UHF, 1998–2009)
Erp:530 kW
Haat:11710NaN0
Facility Id:57884
Coordinates:40.6533°N -112.2025°W
Licensing Authority:FCC

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

Construction phase

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.[1] 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.[2] [3] Ross Boyd, the president of Morro Rock, expressed a belief that Utah needed an additional independent station.

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.[4] 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.[5] In October 1995, Roberts Broadcasting agreed to buy the station from Royal Television for $200,000.[6]

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.[7] 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;[8] 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.[9] ACME's involvement in the station secured the continued existence of a WB affiliate in the Utah market.[10]

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.[11] 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.[12] 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.[13]

Swap with Paxson Communications; Pax and Ion programming

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.[14] 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.[15] [16] 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.[17] Paxson continued to air its existing infomercial programming on channel 16 until Pax Net, renamed Pax, began broadcasting on August 31, 1998.[18] The FCC approved the swap of the licenses in March 1999, and the deal closed in the third quarter of the year.[19]

On May 10, 2002, KUPX began broadcasting a digital signal from the more centrally located Little Farnsworth Peak.[20] 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.[21]

After changing its name to i: Independent Television in 2005, the network became known as Ion Television in 2007.[22] 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).[23] [24] [25] The sale was completed on January 7, 2021.[26]

Utah 16

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.[27] 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.[28]

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.[29] Later on the same day, KUPX-TV was announced as the new team's TV outlet for all games.[30]

Technical information

Subchannels

The station's signal is multiplexed:

Channel! scope="col"
Res.AspectShort nameProgramming
16.1720pUtah 16 Independent
16.2480iGrit Grit
16.3Laff Laff
16.4ION Ion Television
16.5IONPlus Ion Plus[31]
16.6SCRIPPS Scripps News
16.7Jewelry Jewelry TV
16.8HSN HSN
16.9HSN2 HSN2

Translators

KUPX-TV is rebroadcast on many translators throughout Utah.

Notes and References

  1. News: 3 Companies Want TV Station in Provo. November 13, 1984. 3. Josephine. Zimmerman. The Daily Herald. Newspapers.com. September 2, 2023.
  2. News: New Station Plans Provo Headquarters. May 14, 1985. 3. The Daily Herald. Newspapers.com. September 2, 2023.
  3. News: Provo Gets TV Station. May 30, 1985. 5. The Wasatch Wave. Newspapers.com. September 2, 2023.
  4. Newsline. 10. Billboard. January 10, 1987. .
  5. Web site: FCCdata.org record for KUPX-TV. FCCdata.org.
  6. News: Broadcasting & Cable. . Changing Hands. 32. October 16, 1995.
  7. News: 6. Two more WB stations for Kellner group. . The Hollywood Reporter. February 10, 1998.
  8. News: B1. Deseret News. Dennis. Romboy. Utah Valley may get full-power TV station. August 28, 1997.
  9. News: Ogden's KOOG becomes KUPX. Deseret News. C2. January 14, 1998.
  10. News: C3. Scott. Pierce. The Deseret News. Ownership of new Provo station changes before it goes on the air. February 16, 1998.
  11. News: B3. Sharon M.. Haddock. Proposed TV tower causing bad vibes. Deseret News. September 3, 1997.
  12. News: Brothers Plan To Bring TV Station to Provo: KZAR Hopes to Be on Air by May With Focus on Utah County News. February 8, 1998. B-1, b-9. The Salt Lake Tribune. Newspapers.com. September 2, 2023.
  13. News: New Provo Station May Bring Back 'SNL' by Spring. February 26, 1998. B7. John. Youngren. The Salt Lake Tribune. Newspapers.com. September 2, 2023.
  14. Web site: ACME INTERMEDIATE HOLDINGS LLC Quarterly Report (10-Q) EXHIBIT 10.4 . March 20, 2007 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20070930205923/http://sec.edgar-online.com/1999/05/17/08/0000892569-99-001431/Section15.asp . September 30, 2007 .
  15. News: With a Simple Flip of Switch, A Utah Television Station Is Born. April 24, 1998. B7. John. Youngren. The Salt Lake Tribune. Newspapers.com. September 2, 2023.
  16. News: 5. The Enterprise. Broadcast studio being built in Murray for Utah's newest TV station. Lara. Jones. . March 23, 1998.
  17. News: May 4, 1998. C6. Catching up on a few things. Deseret News. Scott. Pierce.
  18. News: Paxson could clean up with G-rated programs. August 31, 1998. 42. Ellen. Gray. Philadelphia Daily News. Newspapers.com. January 1, 2023. January 10, 2023. https://web.archive.org/web/20230110053339/https://www.newspapers.com/clip/115543090/paxson-could-clean-up-with-g-rated/. live.
  19. . 2001. ACME Communications 2001 Annual Report. 41.
  20. Book: KUPX-DT. Television & Cable Factbook. 2006. A-2337. 74.
  21. Web site: May 23, 2006 . DTV Tentative Channel Designations for the First and Second Rounds . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20130829004251/http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DA-06-1082A2.pdf . August 29, 2013 . August 29, 2021 . Federal Communications Commission.
  22. News: Multichannel News. i Is Now ION Television. January 24, 2007. August 1, 2022. August 1, 2022. https://web.archive.org/web/20220801202538/https://www.nexttv.com/news/i-now-ion-television-131692. live.
  23. Web site: Breaking News – Scripps Creates National Television Networks Business with Acquisition of ION Media . TheFutonCritic.com . May 6, 2022.
  24. News: Cimilluca . Dana . E.W. Scripps Agrees to Buy ION Media for $2.65 billion in Berkshire-Backed Deal . September 24, 2020.
  25. News: E.W. Scripps scales up with $2.65 billion Berkshire-backed deal for ION Media. Reuters. Munsif. Vengattil. September 24, 2020.
  26. News: Lafayette. Jon. E.W. Scripps Completes Acquisition of Ion Media. January 7, 2021. Broadcasting & Cable. January 7, 2021. en.
  27. News: Urban . Andrea . August 27, 2023 . Stanley Cup champions stop in Ogden on 'road trip' . en . KSTU . September 5, 2023.
  28. McCarter. Rebecca. October 5, 2023 . Arizona Coyotes, Scripps Sports Form Multi-Year Broadcast Partnership . en . Scripps.com. October 5, 2023.
  29. Web site: NHL BOG approves establishment of new franchise in Utah . NHL.com . April 18, 2024 . April 18, 2024.
  30. Web site: April 18, 2024 . Utah NHL games to air free on Utah 16 . April 19, 2024 . KSTU . Jeff. Tavss . en.
  31. Web site: Scripps replacing Defy TV with Ion Plus on broadcast TV. Matthew. Keys. TheDesk.net. June 28, 2024. June 28, 2024.