KPNZ

KPNZ
Ogden/Salt Lake City, Utah
United States
City Ogden, Utah
Branding Estrella TV KPNZ 24
Channels Digital: 24 (UHF)
Virtual: 24 (PSIP)
Affiliations Estrella TV[1]
Owner Liberman Broadcasting
(KRCA License, LLC)
First air date December 6, 1998
Call letters' meaning UPN (former affiliation)
Former callsigns KAZG (1998–2000)
Former channel number(s) Analog:
24 (UHF, 1998–2009)
Former affiliations independent (1998–2000 and 2006–2009)
UPN (2000–2006)
Transmitter power 450 kW
Height 1229 m
Facility ID 77512
Transmitter coordinates 40°39′33″N 112°12′7″W / 40.65917°N 112.20194°W / 40.65917; -112.20194
Licensing authority FCC
Public license information: Profile
CDBS
Website www.estrellatv.com

KPNZ, virtual and UHF digital channel 24), is an Estrella TV owned-and-operated television station serving Salt Lake City, Utah, United States that is licensed to Ogden. The station is owned by Liberman Broadcasting. KPNZ maintains studio facilities located on North Wright Brothers Drive in the northwestern section of Salt Lake City, and its transmitter located on Farnsworth Peak in the Oquirrh Mountains, southwest of Salt Lake City.

History

The station first signed on the air on December 6, 1998 as KAZG, originally operating as an independent station. It became the Salt Lake City market's UPN affiliate, after the network disaffiliated from KJZZ-TV (channel 14) in January 2001. This change came about due to several factors, most notably a disagreement over affiliate compensation, pre-emption terms, and what KJZZ ownership saw as the lack of financial viability of urban-themed programming in the Salt Lake City market. In October 2000, KJZZ made national headlines when it demanded the right to back out of its UPN contract if UPN increased its "urban/ethnic programming" to more than two hours per week. UPN responded by moving their programming to KAZG, which then changed its call letters to KPNZ. In August 2001, the station moved its operations from its original studio facility in Ogden to the International Center in Salt Lake City.

On January 24, 2006, the Warner Bros. unit of Time Warner and CBS Corporation announced that the two companies would shut down The WB and UPN and combine the networks' respective programming to create a new "fifth" network called The CW.[2][3] Later that year, KPNZ stopped using UPN branding on its website, referring to the station as "Utah's 24". On June 5, 2006, KPNZ removed UPN programming from its schedule in retaliation for being passed over by both The CW (which went to former WB affiliate KUWB, channel 30, now KUCW)[4] and another new netlet, News Corporation's MyNetworkTV (which at the time went to KJZZ-TV, channel 14, which has since reverted to independent status).

On May 30, 2007, Utah Communications, LLC, the licensee of KPNZ filed an application with the FCC to sell the station to Liberman Broadcasting, a media company whose television properties operated as Spanish-language independent stations at the time. The sale was completed on November 30, 2007. After Liberman took over, it continued to broadcast entirely in English until February 2008, when it officially adopted a Spanish-language programming format. On September 14, 2009, KPNZ and the other Liberman television stations became owned-and-operated stations of the new Spanish-language network, Estrella TV.

Digital television

Digital channels

The station's digital channel is multiplexed:

Channel Video Aspect PSIP Short Name Programming[5]
24.1 720p 16:9 Main KPNZ programming / Estrella TV

Analog-to-digital conversion

Because it was granted an original construction permit after the FCC finalized the DTV allotment plan on April 21, 1997 , the station did not receive a companion channel for a digital television station. Instead, when KPNZ shut down its analog signal, over UHF channel 24, on June 12, 2009, the station "flash-cut" its digital signal into operation on its former analog-era UHF channel 24.[6]

Legal battles

In May 2005, human resources director/accounting manager Brad Brewer was fired from KPNZ for embezzlement. Two months later, Brewer, general manager Kurt Gentry and traffic manager Bonnie Dunn were arrested by Salt Lake City Police on charges of theft, fraud and forgery. The charges against Gentry were dropped after investigation by the Salt Lake District Attorney's Office. Charges against Dunn were dismissed in court as well. Brewer was charged with 31 separate counts and has since settled. All charges have been dropped or dismissed. The circumstances behind the arrests and dismantling of KPNZ are still unclear, though many rumors have been made public by partners, former employees and clients.

In February 2014, KPNZ was involved in the FCC ruling to pay a $9000 fine. This was due to the station "willfully and repeatedly violat[ing] Section 11.35(a) of the Commission's rules (Rules) by failing to maintain operational Emergency Alert System (EAS) equipment and logs." [7]

References

  1. ↑ "Coming, a new force in Hispanic TV". Media Life Magazine. March 20, 2009. Retrieved 2009-04-11.
  2. ↑ 'Gilmore Girls' meet 'Smackdown'; CW Network to combine WB, UPN in CBS-Warner venture beginning in September, CNNMoney.com, January 24, 2006.
  3. ↑ UPN and WB to Combine, Forming New TV Network, The New York Times, January 24, 2006.
  4. ↑ "UPN makes early exit". Deseret News. June 22, 2006. Retrieved 2006-06-22.
  5. ↑ RabbitEars TV Query for KPNZ
  6. ↑ "DTV Tentative Channel Designations for the First and Second Rounds" (PDF). Retrieved 2012-03-24.
  7. ↑ http://transition.fcc.gov/eb/Orders/2014/DA-14-141A1.html

External links

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