KBSH-DT

KBSH-DT
(satellite of KWCH-DT, Wichita, Kansas)
Hays/Great Bend/Salina, Kansas
United States
Branding KBSH 7
Channels Digital: 7 (VHF)
Virtual: 7 (PSIP)
Subchannels 7.1 CBS
7.2 Always on Storm Team 12
Affiliations CBS
Owner Gray Television
(Gray Television Licensee, LLC)
First air date September 2, 1958
Call letters' meaning Kansas
Broadcasting
System
Hays
Sister station(s) KWCH-DT
KSCW-DT
Former callsigns KAYS-TV (1958–1989)
KBSH-TV (1989–2009)
Former channel number(s) Analog:
7 (VHF, 1958–2009)
Digital: 20 (UHF)
Former affiliations Secondary:
ABC (1958–1960s)
Transmitter power 9.6 kW
Height 216 m
Facility ID 66415
Transmitter coordinates 38°53′1″N 99°20′15″W / 38.88361°N 99.33750°W / 38.88361; -99.33750
Licensing authority FCC
Public license information:
(satellite of KWCH-DT, Wichita, Kansas) Profile

(satellite of KWCH-DT, Wichita, Kansas) CDBS
Website www.kwch.com

KBSH-DT, virtual channel and VHF digital channel 7, is a CBS-affiliated television station located in Hays, Kansas, United States. The station is owned by Gray Television. KBSH maintains a news bureau, advertising sales offices and transmitter facilities located on Hall Street in northwest Hays. On cable, KBSH is available on channel 7 in most cities within the viewing area; in Hays, Russell, it is carried on Eagle Cable channel 10; in Great Bend, it is carried on Cox Communications channel 12 in standard definition and in high definition on digital channel 2012.

KBSH is part of the Kansas Broadcasting System (KBS), a statewide network of four full-power stations that relay programming from Wichita CBS affiliate KWCH-DT central and western Kansas; KBSH incorporates local advertising and news inserts aimed at areas of central Kansas within the Wichita-Hutchinson Plus television market.

History

The station first signed on the air on September 2, 1958 as KAYS-TV (as a result, it is the youngest of the stations comprising the Kansas Broadcasting System). The station has been a CBS affiliate since its sign-on, however it originally maintained a secondary affiliation with ABC. Most of the ABC programs that aired on the station towards its tenure with that network tended to be news and sports programming (ABC programming is now available in the area via KAKE (channel 10) through either low-power translators or cable carriage). The station was founded by Hays businessmen Ross Beach and Bob Schmidt, owners of radio station KAYS (1400 AM). KAYS faced stiff opposition from KCKT (channel 2, now KSNC), which signed on in November 1954, and was affiliated with NBC in consort with Garden City sister station KGLD (now KSNG). The television and radio stations eventually became a dominant force in west-central Kansas broadcasting.

In 1962, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) ruled that central and western Kansas were part of the Wichita market. As a result, Des Moines-based Cowles Communications bought KAYS-TV, KTVC (now KBSD-DT) in Dodge City and KLOE-TV (now KBSL-DT) in Goodland, and converted them into semi-satellites of KTVH. The three stations, which – along with flagship station KTVH – formed the Kansas Broadcasting System, relayed CBS programming throughout central and western Kansas.[1]

In 1983, the Cowles family began selling off its vast media holdings. KAYS, KTVH and their sister stations were sold to the Kansas Broadcasting System Corporation, which was owned by Beach and Schmidt. Until the late 1980s, KTVH also handled master control operations for sister station KLOE-TV. In 1989, the Kansas Broadcasting System Corporation was purchased by Smith Broadcasting; after the sale was completed, the station changed its call letters to KBSH-TV, as part of an effort that saw KWCH's three semi-satellites change their call letters to help viewers think of the stations as part of one large network. The sale effectively separated the station from KAYS radio, which continues to maintain studio facilities from channel 7's studios, along with the rest of Eagle Radio's Hays station cluster. Smith sold the station to Spartanburg, South Carolina-based Spartan Communications in 1994; Spartan merged with Media General in 2000.

Until the 2000s, Cox Communications carried both KBSH and KWCH on its system in Great Bend (KBSH was carried on channel 7, while KWCH was carried on channel 12); Cox eventually dropped KWCH and moved KBSH to its parent station's former channel 12 position. In 2005, KWCH began operating a digital automation system from its Wichita studio facility, which handled the scheduling of advertisements and master control operations for all four KBS stations.

On April 6, 2006, Media General announced that it would sell KWCH, its satellites, and four other stations as a result of its purchase of four former NBC owned-and-operated-stations (WVTM-TV in Birmingham, WCMH in Columbus, WNCN in Goldsboro, North Carolina and WJAR-TV in Providence). South Bend, Indiana-based Schurz eventually emerged as the winner and took ownership of the stations on September 25, at which time Schurz formed a new company known as "Sunflower Broadcasting, Inc.," which became the licensee for its Kansas broadcasting properties.[2][3][4]

Schurz announced on September 14, 2015 that it would exit broadcasting and sell its television and radio stations, including KWCH-DT and its satellites, to Gray Television for $442.5 million. Gray already owns KAKE and its satellites and repeaters; however, it will sell that station to Lockwood Broadcast Group and keep the KBS stations.[5][6][7] The sale was completed on February 16, 2016.[8]

Digital television

Digital channels

The station's digital channel is multiplexed:

Channel Video Aspect PSIP Short Name Programming[9]
7.1 1080i 16:9 KBSH-DT Main KBSH-DT programming / CBS
7.2 480i 4:3 KBSH-WX Always On Storm Team 12

Analog-to-digital conversion

KBSH shut down its analog signal, over VHF channel 7, on June 12, 2009, the official date in which full-power television stations in the United States transitioned from analog to digital broadcasts under federal mandate. The station's digital signal relocaed from its pre-transition UHF channel 20 to VHF channel 7.[10] On June 24, 2009, the station's callsign was officially changed to KBSH-DT to reflect the transition.

Newscasts

KAYS/KBSH provided daily newscasts from its Hall Street studios until 1991, when the Kansas Broadcasting System began consolidating its operations; full-scale evening newscasts on KBSH were discontinued, and replaced by a short insert within simulcasts of KWCH's Wichita-based newscasts. The inserts were discontinued in 2001, with the Hall Street facility being reduced to a news bureau and sales office; the two reporter/photographers employed by the station began relaying content to Wichita to be incorporated into KWCH's Eyewitness News broadcasts seen simultaneously in Wichita, Hays, Goodland and Dodge City/Ensign.

References

  1. ↑ About KWCH-DT 12
  2. ↑ FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE, Media General, April 6, 2006. Retrieved July 7, 2014.
  3. ↑ Schurz Snaps Up Kansas Affil, Broadcasting & Cable, July 28, 2006. Retrieved July 7, 2014.
  4. ↑ News Releases, Media General, September 25, 2006. Retrieved July 7, 2014.
  5. ↑ "Schurz Communications to sell WSBT and other TV, radio stations". South Bend Tribune. September 14, 2015. Retrieved September 14, 2015.
  6. ↑ Kuperberg, Jonathan (September 14, 2015). "Gray Acquiring TV, Radio Stations from Schurz for $442.5 Million". Broadcasting & Cable. Retrieved September 14, 2015.
  7. ↑ "Gray Television Sells Some, Buys Some". TVNewsCheck. October 1, 2015. Retrieved October 1, 2015.
  8. ↑ Gray Closes Schurz Acquisition, Related Transactions, And Incremental Term Loan Facility Press Release, Gray Television, Retrieved 16 February, 2016.
  9. ↑ RabbitEars TV Query for KBSH
  10. ↑ "DTV Tentative Channel Designations for the First and Second Rounds" (PDF). Retrieved 2012-03-24.

External links

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