Arizona TV Station Update - March 2009

[dhett]

As always, questions, additions, comments and corrections welcome.

New stations

• KAJB-DT 54.x (36) Calipatria CA (Calipatria Broadcasting Company) has finally begun broadcasting its digital signal, after a 9-year delay. Construction had been held up by Mexican concurrence, first on channel 50, then on channel 36. I believe that this is the last full-service TV station to open a digital companion channel.
• KJPO-LP 49 Parker (Hispanic Christian Community Network) has applied for a license to cover construction of its modified original construction permit. Originally to be built on a mountain in California near Parker Dam, the license application references a tower near Bouse. Like HCCN's other Arizona properties (KYPO-LP, KRPO-LP), there is no signal coming from the station, but the three years is up for the construction permit.
• KPHE-LD 44.x (16) Phoenix (Lotus TV of Phoenix) has begun broadcasting its digital signal. It carries a simulcast of KPHE-LP on 44.1, Red ADVenir on 44.2, and splitting time between 3ABN and Hope Channel on 44.3. The programming on DT2 and DT3 are in Spanish and English, respectively. Red ADVenir and Hope Channel are official outlets for the Seventh-day Adventist Church, while 3ABN, or Three Angels Broadcasting Network, is privately-run, but its doctrine is also Seventh-day Adventist. According to station GM Ken Kwilosz, Multicultural TV is to eventually be on 44.4. The station has applied for and has received its license to cover.

New programming

• KPHE-LP 44 Phoenix (Lotus TV of Phoenix) signed an agreement in January with the state of Sonora, Mexico, to add programming from the state-run television network, Telemax. KPHE now has a dual affiliation on its analog channel and primary digital subchannel: Multimedios and Telemax. This is the first time Telemax has been broadcast in Arizona since 2002, when KQBN-LP 14 Tucson (now KUDF-LP) was an affiliate, before the Azteca America network launched.
• KVBC-DT 3.2 Las Vegas NV (2) has replaced its WeatherPlus programming with a SDTV simulcast of the primary subchannel.

Returned to air

• KBBA-LP 10 Lake Havasu City (Smoke and Mirrors) has resumed broadcasting a view of the Lake Havasu City area from the transmitter site.
• K57BD Tucson (Trinity Broadcasting of Arizona) is once again broadcasting, reaching the eastern parts of Tucson that K07YX does not.
• K31FE Blythe CA (Palo Verde Valley TV Club) is transmitting, but the signal quality is extremely poor.

Silent stations

• KPFB-LP 30 Globe (Globe LPTV) filed and has been granted a silent STA due to a damaged transmitter.
• K50FB Tucson (KMSB TV [Belo]) is silent, reason unknown.

Call sign change

• K49IM Parker (Hispanic Christian Community Network) has changed its call sign to KJPO-LP.

DTV transition

• KUAT-TV 6 Tucson (University of Arizona) ceased analog transmission shortly after midnight April 1. It is now a digital-only station, broadcasting on channel 30. Its analog broadcast continues to be carried on KUAS 27, which serves much of the Tucson metropolitan area and fills in the area shadowed by Mount Lemmon that KUAT-TV could not reach.
• KPAZ-TV 21 Phoenix (Trinity Broadcasting of Arizona) is scheduled to terminate analog broadcasting on April 16. Its post-transition digital broadcast will remain on channel 20, so nothing else will be affected.
• KAET-TV 8 Phoenix (Arizona State University) is scheduled to terminate analog broadcasting on April 29 and flash cut to post-transition digital broadcasting on channel 8. The station will terminate its pre-transition digital signal on channel 29.
• KDTP 11 Holbrook (Community Television Educators [Daystar]) is scheduled to terminate analog broadcasting and flash cut to digital on April 30. KDTP is a singleton station; it did not receive a digital companion channel as it did not yet exist when companion channels were assigned.

Transactions

• Following the death of Larry Miller, all television stations owned by Larry H Miller Communications Corp, including K24CY Saint George UT and K42EZ Santa Clara UT, have been transferred to Karen G Miller, widow of Larry Miller.

Granted construction permits and STAs

• KYMA 11.x Yuma (Yuma Broadcasting Company) has been granted permission to increase its post-transition power from 10.3 kW to 22.3 kW.
• KECY-TV 9.x El Centro (Gulf-California Broadcasting Company) has been granted a construction permit to move its post-transition antenna six meters lower on the tower. Coverage is only expected to be reduced to the north of Blythe.
• K46IL Verde Valley (Camp Verde TV Club) has been granted permission to reduce power from 3.76 kW to 1.18 kW and to reclassify from translator to LPTV station.
• K20GG Duncan (University of Arizona) has been granted a six-month extension of its construction permit to flash cut to digital.
• KPHE-LP 44 Phoenix (Lotus TV of Phoenix) has been granted an extension of its STA to operate its analog facilities at 150 kW. The STA expires October 18, 2009.
• KMCC1-LD 32 Laughlin NV (Cranston Acquisition II) has been granted an extension until September 15 of its experimental STA to provide coverage to the Las Vegas metro area.
• K42EZ Santa Clara UT (Larry H Miller Communications Corp) has applied for and has been granted a six-month extension of its STA to operate.

Applications not yet granted

• KFTU-TV 3.x Douglas (36) (Telefutura Partnership of Douglas) has again amended its application to maximize facilities, dropping the ERP from 21 kW to 20.5 kW due to a predicted short-spacing of less than three miles to a future co-channel DTV allocation for Caborca, Sonora.

Applications dismissed

• The FCC has dismissed an application by KRPO-LP 55 Quartzsite (Hispanic Community Christian Network) to move to a site near Salome after HCCN failed to provide evidence that the new facilities would not cause interference to K55DB Prescott.
• The FCC has dismissed for a second time an application by K65BB Wellton (Wellton-Mohawk Irrigation District) to move to channel 29. No reason was given for the dismissal.
• The FCC has dismissed for a second time an application by K67BI Wellton (Wellton-Mohawk Irrigation District) to move to channel 31. No reason was given for the dismissal.

License renewal

• KDTP 11 Holbrook (Community Television Educators [Daystar]) has been granted renewal of its license, following completion of an investigation by the FCC that Daystar was violating terms of its non-commercial license.

Expiring construction permits

• A construction permit to move KBFY-LP 41 Yuma (Powell Meredith Communications Company) to channel 39 will expire on April 6. The station has not broadcast since KYMA-DT began its broadcasts on channel 41. Following its aborted effort to move to the Las Vegas market, I have a hunch that the license has been abandoned.
• The construction permit to move K55DB Prescott (Arizona State University) to channel 43 expires on April 6.
• The construction permit to move K64BV Casas Adobes (KVOA Communications [Evening Post Publishing Company]) to channel 20 expires on April 6. It is unclear whether KVOA will move the translator or elect to open DTV translator K04QP-D instead.
• The displacement construction permit to move K69CT Saint George UT (Newport Television License) to channel 38 expires on April 6.
• The original construction permit to build new station KAFL-LP 45 Flagstaff (Una Vez Mas) expires on April 20.
• The original construction permit to build new station KPVY-LP 50 Prescott (KM Communications) expires on April 20.