2 Stations, Same Network Affiliation, Same Tower, but Different Markets?

[txchipk]

KBTV 4 Port Arthur/Beaumont/Orange TX drops NBC and will flip to Fox "Fox 4" on Thursday.

With the analog shutdown happening several weeks later, an interesting situation will occur. KBTV's granted full power digital facilities for KBTV-DT 40 is on the same tower that Fox affiliate KVHP-DT 30 Lake Charles LA has been granted.

KBTV-DT: http://www.fcc.gov/fcc-bin/FMTV-service-area?x=DT1238949.html
KVHP-DT: http://www.fcc.gov/fcc-bin/FMTV-service-area?x=DT287132.html

You can also see the analog/digital comparisons on the FCC market maps:
http://www.fcc.gov/dtv/markets/maps_report1/Beaumont-Port_Arthur_TX.pdf
http://www.fcc.gov/dtv/markets/maps_report1/Lake_Charles_LA.pdf

Granted, KBTV has an STA to operate KBTV-DT from the Beaumont/Port Arthur/Orange antenna farm near Vidor TX and has a pending application to keep it there. At least, for now, the fully licensed digital facilities for both the stations is operating from the same place.

I can't think of a situation where this has happened before...two non-co-owned stations affiliated with the same network (Fox) aimed at two different markets sharing the same site. Has this happened before?

FWIW...some history: Beaumont/Port Arthur/Orange has only 3 full power commercial outlets: KBTV, CBS KFDM 6, and ABC KBMT 12. Nearby Lake Charles has just 2: NBC KPLC 7 and KVHP (many years before KVHP signed on, it briefly had CBS KTAG 25). KPLC's tower is ENE of Lake Charles to cover Lafayette LA where it acts as a quasi-affiliate for that market since it lacks its own local NBC affiliate. KVHP moved its tower from a short stick in Lake Charles to the site in the maps above in the 1990s to add Beaumont/Port Arthur coverage to be that market's Fox affiliate since the larger Beaumont/Port Arthur market lacked one. It later signed on LPTV satellite KUIL-LP 64 Beaumont and later split it off (allowing it to carry Cowboys football games rather than Saints games that KVHP is compelled to air; KVHP went back to being exclusively Lake Charles-focused though the signal still covers both markets).

This week, Nexstar will drop NBC on KBTV for Fox. KUIL-LP will convert to an independent as "the U." ABC KBMT-DT will start a digital NBC subchannel.

 

[tripinva]

KBTV never reached an agreement with KVHP's tower owner, so the station will not operate from there. KBTV will instead be building their own new tower, next to the tower on which their analog is located.

- Trip

 

[txchipk]

As noted in the original post, KBTV-DT has a STA to operate from the Vidor farm and has an application pending to stay there.

Still, the scenario is interesting that, even if never used, the two granted facilities for operations are co-located. I can't think of any other time where such a scenario was set-up.

 

[arnoldevns]

I get your point Chip. I'm going to call it now and say it's never happened before. Locally WBAP-TV and WFAA-TV moved to the same tower years after they had given up a time share of the NBC affiliation. (much the way they shared time on 820 and 570 with their AM stations) It was also after everyone wised up and realized this was one market, not a Dallas market and a Fort Worth market.