Can anybody tell me about KCVA???

[bturner]

I always wondered about those little TV stations like KCVA, Channel 30 that was licensed, I think to Conroe. As I recall they ran The Video Catalog Channel at one time.

I'm guessing they started as a LPTV and might have been through the whole life of the station. I picked it up once living in a 2 story apartment building on the NW side of Houston.

I heard so many stories about such stations. One guy told me he leased such a station for $1 an hour...didn't believe him but never knew enough of the lay of the land to know otherwise. I met another guy that bought 3 LPTVs in more rural areas for $8,000 each..all 3 up and running. He was trying to get a new network called FOX to pay attention to him and let his stations affiliate. Never heard the outcome. Yet another person said you were doing good if you grossed $1,000-$1,500 a month off such a station not carried on cable. Again, I don't know enough to know better. Being a radio guy I realize most such information is usually the extreme rather than the norm...either way low or way high but never in the middle.

So, anybody recall KCVA?

 

[Mediafrog+]

The station was originally K30CV, and carried Consumer Value Network, IIRC. Transmitter was somewhere near Hardy Road in the north part of town. I seem to recall it also had Home Shopping Network for a while, and perhaps yet another shopping channel. Can't say that I paid much attention to it during that time.

In 2006 the Channel 30 signal was upgraded (to Missouri City) and became the flagship of LAT-TV (not to be confused with LATV.) That lasted two years before folding. The station was dark for several years before relaunching as Aleluya TV.

I think this was the last station in Houston to broadcast in analog, conducting some transmitter tests a couple of years ago (when potential buyers were "kicking the tires.")

Lat-TV had a network of several stations with plans to expand, but failure to secure cable/satellite carriage doomed the effort. Some of the people involved had extensive experience in launching new stations in various parts of the world.

 

[bturner]

Thanks for the info. I felt sure it morphed into a Houston TV station. It would be crazy not to take on Houston if the engineering works.

I really doubt they brought in much money in Conroe. I think what percentage watched over the air TV then and the number of choices available and presume they have very few viewers.

I wonder how much little stations like that took in doing shopping formats. It seems most LPTVs carried on of them, so it must have brought in something. I knew the guy that started with Video Jukebox (the all request video format where you called a phone number where the rrequest showed up on your phone bill). I think they guaranteed affiliates $1,500 a month. Then again they changed that early on...maybe cost them too much money.