KSHV-TV

Construction and Word of Life ownership

In 1986, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) allocated UHF channel 45 to Shreveport. Two parties—businessman Wesley Godfrey and Word of Life Ministries—each had requested the channel be added. Word of Life envisioned a Christian station that offered ministry programming in prime viewing hours.[1][2] It formally filed for the channel on October 29, 1986.[3] Four other parties applied, and their applications were placed into comparative hearing status in May 1987.[4] Word of Life Ministries reached settlement agreements with Media Communications, Inc.,[5] and Shreveport Community Television.[6] On December 9, administrative law judge Joseph Chachkin dismissed the application of Godfrey for failure to prosecute.[7] Even though Word of Life held the permit, there was no visible progress on the station for years. In 1990, Shreveport Community Television sued Word of Life for allegedly reneging on the financial component of their settlement; Word of Life, according to the complaint, had told the firm that station construction had been more expensive than anticipated.

In 1994, the new station, designated KWLB, began hiring[8] and leased office space on Interstate Drive.[9] It began broadcasting on April 15, 1994.[10] Programming included religious and children's shows as well as classic TV series and movies.[11] Local programming included a sports talk show, Sports Roundtable,[12] and games of the Shreveport Crawdads of the Continental Basketball Association.[13] In 1995, it aired twelve games of the Shreveport Pirates of the Canadian Football League.[14] Word of Life pastor Sam Carr hosted a daily program with his wife, Becky.

UPN and WB affiliations

After investing $500,000 to start KWLB, Word of Life put the station up for sale in April 1995. It wished to use the funds from the purchase to build a 2,000-seat auditorium at its West Shreveport location.[15] It was sold to White Knight Broadcasting, a firm headed by Sheldon Galloway. Sheldon's father, Thomas Galloway, was a principal in Communications Corporation of America (ComCorp), owner of Shreveport Fox affiliate KMSS-TV (channel 33).[16] White Knight's stations held sales agreements with the ComCorp stations in their markets.[17] The $3.8 million earned from the sale went to expanding the sanctuary, a new building on the Word of Life campus, and donations to missions.[18]

Upon the closure of the sale, the station changed call signs to KSHV and became an affiliate of UPN on August 28, 1995;[19] previously, UPN programming aired on a secondary basis on Shreveport CBS affiliate KSLA-TV (channel 12).[20] Religious programming was confined to weekday and Sunday mornings.[21] In July 1996, the station added programming from The WB, with its shows airing on Saturday and Sunday nights.[22] The station continued as a primary UPN, secondary WB affiliate until January 2001, when it flipped to primary WB, secondary UPN and began branding as WB45; WB programming now aired at its regular times and UPN on a two-hour delay.[23] KSHV dropped UPN in September 2003,[24] with KPXJ (channel 21) becoming the new affiliate.[25]

MyNetworkTV affiliation

In January 2006, The WB and UPN announced they would merge to form The CW.[26] KPXJ was chosen as the network's new affiliate in March,[27] and White Knight affiliated KSHV and WNTZ-TV serving Alexandria with MyNetworkTV later that month.[28] On February 17, 2009, the station ceased analog broadcasting ahead of the digital television transition.[29]

Nexstar operation and ownership

On April 24, 2013, Communications Corporation of America announced the sale of its stations to Nexstar, which locally owned KTAL-TV (channel 6), for $270 million.[30] Under FCC rules, duopolies were not permissible in a market with fewer than eight full-power TV stations.[31] Instead, Nexstar originally opted to sell KMSS-TV to Mission Broadcasting and KSHV to Rocky Creek Communications, Inc. a company founded by Shirley Green; Nexstar would have operated the stations under a shared services agreement (SSA), bringing them under common operation with KTAL.[32] However, the deal came as the FCC began closely scrutinizing sharing agreements between two or more television stations within the same market.[33] With the ComCorp sale still pending, Nexstar changed tack. It instead sold KMSS-TV and two other stations to a new minority-owned company, Houston-based Marshall Broadcasting Group (founded by Pluria Marshall, Jr.), for $58.5 million.[34] Subsequently, on August 5, Rocky Creek withdrew its application to acquire KSHV.[35] The sale of ComCorp to Nexstar received FCC approval on December 4, 2014.[36]

Marshall Broadcasting Group filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on December 3, 2019.[37] Marshall also sued Nexstar, alleging that the company sought to "sabotage" his business so that Nexstar could reclaim his stations by way of Mission Broadcasting.[38] Mission agreed to purchase Marshall Broadcasting's stations for $49 million on March 30, 2020.[39] The transaction received FCC approval in August 2020. Nexstar exercised an option to acquire KSHV-TV outright in 2021.[40][41]