KDVR — BrandWiki

KDVR

name1	KDVR
city1	Denver, Colorado
branding	Fox31 Denver; Fox31 News
digital1	36 (UHF)
virtual1	31
affiliations	31.1/22.1: Fox 31.2/22.2: Antenna TV 31.3/22.3: Roar
translators	see
owner	Nexstar Media Group
licensee	Tribune Broadcasting Company II LLC
country	United States
airdate1	August 10, 1983
callsign meaning1	Denver
sister stations	KWGN-TV, KUSA, KTVD
former callsigns1	KTMX-TV (1981–1983)
former channel numbers1	Analog: 31 (UHF, 1983–2009) Digital: 32 (UHF, until 2020)
former affiliations1	Independent (1983–1986)
erp1	1,000 kW
haat1	316 m
facility id1	1261
coordinates1	39.72836°N, -105.23769°W
licensing authority	FCC
website	https://kdvr.com/
name2	KFCT
city2	Fort Collins, Colorado
digital2	21 (UHF)
virtual2	22
airdate2	September 1, 1994
callsign meaning2	Fort Collins Television
former callsigns2	KWXU (CP, 1992–1993)
former channel numbers2	Analog: 22 (UHF, 1994–2009)
erp2	50 kW
haat2	233 m
facility id2	125
coordinates2	40.64222°N, -104.81806°W

KDVR (channel 31) is a television station in Denver, Colorado, United States, affiliated with the Fox network. It is simulcast full-time over satellite station KFCT (channel 22) in Fort Collins. Nexstar Media Group owns KDVR and KFCT alongside CW station KWGN-TV (channel 2), NBC affiliate KUSA (channel 9), and KTVD (channel 20), an independent station with MyNetworkTV. KDVR and KWGN-TV share studios on East Speer Boulevard in Denver's Speer neighborhood. KDVR's transmitter is located atop Lookout Mountain, near Golden, while KFCT's transmitter lies atop Horsetooth Mountain just outside Fort Collins, covering Northern Colorado.

Channel 31 went on the air on August 10, 1983, as the first new commercial TV station in Denver in 30 years and the first full-service station on the ultra high frequency (UHF) band. The original permittee had intended to make channel 31 a Spanish-language station, but when census figures revealed fewer Hispanics lived in Denver than estimated, the group sold the permit. Centennial Broadcasting built the station as Denver's second English-language independent station.

History

Early history

In 1977, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) received two applications to build new television stations in Denver. One came from a subsidiary of the Trinity Broadcasting Network, while the other was filed by La Unidad Broadcasting Corporation, headed by Denver broadcaster George Sandoval.[1][2] While the commission adjudicated the applications, channel 31 in Denver made television history in February 1980 as the first ever satellite-fed translator with a direct program source, KA2XEG (also known as K31AA), was launched by the Spanish International Network.[3]

On February 24, 1981, the FCC granted the construction permit to La Unidad Broadcasting. Two months later, however, their plans for a Spanish-language television station would prove unviable. The 1980 United States census reported that 92,000 Hispanics lived in the Denver city limits. While Sandoval suspected that was an undercount of what he estimated were 125,000 Hispanics, the reliance of advertisers and other groups on census figures convinced the company that there was no market at the time for a Spanish-language station in Denver. As a result, La Unidad opted to pivot its plans for what was originally designated KTMX-TV. In late 1981, it sold 80 percent[4] of the construction permit to Centennial Broadcasting Corporation, a subsidiary of Camellia City Telecasters and majority-owned by Business Men's Assurance Company (BMA) of Kansas City, Missouri (with Sandoval staying as manager). The reorganized ownership shifted its plan to operate a full-service English-language independent station incorporating programming for Hispanics in Denver. At that time, work was already underway on constructing a new tower atop Lookout Mountain and remodeling the former studios of KWGN-TV at 550 Lincoln Street.[5][6] KTMX-TV was initially planned to share KWGN-TV's tower, but that station began stalling on a previous agreement once the possibility emerged that channel 31 might be an English-language station and its principal competitor.[7]

Construction stretched into 1983, intermittently affected by weather at the transmitter site, and the station began broadcasting on August 10[8]—23 days late due to technical issues.[9] It was the first new commercial station in Denver since KBTV (channel 9) debuted in 1953 and offered a mix of syndicated reruns and movies. Centennial spent $7 million on the station's facilities.[10] The station also joined a consortium of Spanish-language TV stations outside of the Spanish International Network for advertising sales in Spanish.[11] Camellia City Telecasters launched a third independent station in October 1983, KPDX serving the Portland, Oregon, market.[12] It then sued Tribune Broadcasting and Chris-Craft Industries, alleging that the two groups (which owned KWGN-TV in Denver and

KDVR became a charter affiliate of Fox at its launch in October 1986.[14] Fox programming helped the station charge higher advertising rates[15] to close the gap with KWGN; from sign-on to sign-off, by February 1990, channel 31's ratings were only slightly behind those of channel 2.[16]

Chase and Renaissance ownership

BMA put its Denver and Sacramento television stations on the market in October 1988. It was the second time the company had done so; in 1985, all three had been on the market and attracted bids from such major players as Taft Broadcasting and Gaylord Broadcasting, but the startup KDVR and KPDX weighed down the value of the highly profitable KTXL.[18] While a buyer was found for KTXL in December 1988,[19] KDVR was sold to Chase Communications of Hartford, Connecticut, in March 1989 as the company's third television station.[20] The sale announcement came days before founder Sandoval was killed in a car accident at the age of 57;[21] when KDVR moved from 550 Lincoln to a building at 5th and Wazee streets later that year, it was dedicated in his honor.[22] The former studio building was then demolished three years later.

Fox Television Stations ownership

Renaissance sold KDVR and KFCT to Fox Television Stations for $70 million on November 15, 1994, in exchange for acquiring that network's owned-and-operated station in Dallas–Fort Worth, KDAF. Fox was selling KDAF because it was moving its programming to the previous CBS affiliate, KDFW, as a result of a ten-station affiliation deal with New World Communications.[30] Fox was highly interested in the Denver market. Previous rumors had tied the network to a trade with Tribune of KDAF for KWGN-TV or with relocating the Fox affiliation to KWGN-TV or one of Denver's network affiliates,[31][32] though the market's ABC, CBS, and NBC

Local TV and Tribune ownership

On December 22, 2007, Fox Television Stations agreed to sell KDVR and seven other Fox owned-and-operated stations to Local TV LLC, a holding company operated by private equity firm Oak Hill Capital Partners), adding to the nine stations that the group had acquired that May from The New York Times Company. The sale was finalized on July 14, 2008.[46] On September 17, Tribune Broadcasting announced that Local TV would begin managing KWGN-TV under a local marketing agreement and consolidate its operations with KDVR effective October 1. It was one of two markets where Local TV-owned Fox stations and Tribune-owned CW affiliates would share resources, alongside KTVI–KPLR-TV in St. Louis, and built on an existing management relationship between the companies.[47] KWGN vacated its longtime studios in Greenwood Village and consolidated its operations with KDVR at its Speer Boulevard facility.[48] Tribune bought KDVR outright in 2013 as part of its $2.75 billion acquisition of Local TV LLC.

Sinclair purchase attempt; sale to Nexstar

In May 2017, Sinclair Broadcast Group announced its intention to buy Tribune Media.[52] KDVR was then identified as one of 23 stations that Sinclair would divest to obtain regulatory approval for the merger,[53] with Fox Television Stations agreeing to a repurchase as part of a $910 million deal.[54] Both transactions were nullified on August 9, 2018, following Tribune Media's termination of the merger agreement[55] and FCC chairman Ajit Pai's public rejection of the deal.[56]

Nexstar Media Group announced it would acquire the assets of Tribune Media on December 3, 2018, for $6.4 billion in cash and debt.