| KVBC-DT | |
|---|---|
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| Las Vegas, Nevada | |
| Branding | Channel 3 (general) News 3 (newscasts) |
| Channels | Digital: 2 (VHF) |
| Subchannels | 3.1 NBC 3.2 Untamed Sports TV 3.3 Universal Sports |
| Affiliations | NBC |
| Owner | Sunbelt Communications Company (Valley Broadcasting Company) |
| First air date | January 23, 1955 |
| Call letters’ meaning | Valley Broadcasting Company (station's licensee) |
| Former callsigns | KLRJ-TV (1955) KORK-TV (1955-1980) KVBC (1980-2009) |
| Former channel number(s) | Analog: 2 (1955-1967) 3 (1967-2009) |
| Transmitter Power | 27.7 kW |
| Height | 386 m |
| Facility ID | 69677 |
| Transmitter Coordinates | 36°0′32″N 115°0′19″W / 36.00889°N 115.00528°W |
| Website | www.kvbc.com |
KVBC-DT, channel 3 (digital channel 2), is the NBC-affiliated television station in Las Vegas, Nevada. It is the flagship station of Sunbelt Communications Company. KVBC's studios are in Las Vegas, and its transmitter is located on Black Mountain in Henderson, Nevada.
Contents |
History
The station went on the air as KLRJ-TV on channel 2 on January 23, 1955, licensed to Henderson and owned by the Donrey Media Group (now Stephens Media LLC) along with the Las Vegas Review-Journal. Soon after, the station changed its calls to KORK-TV and moved its license and studios to Las Vegas. The station became a primary affiliate of NBC, but carried other networks as well. During the late 1950s, the station was also briefly affiliated with the NTA Film Network.[1]
In 1967, KORK-TV moved to channel 3 to avoid interference with newly signed-on KTVN in Reno.
From 1971 onward, a group of local residents led by Las Vegas attorney James E. (Jim) Rogers made an effort to take control of KORK. The group gained further momentum in the late 1970s, after Donrey began heavily preempting NBC programming in order to sell more local advertising, though NBC was far less tolerant of this than the other networks at the time. The most notable of these preemptions was the 1978 World Series, angering both NBC and several Las Vegas area viewers, some of whom complained to the Federal Communications Commission. Facing pressure from both NBC and the FCC, Donrey was forced to sell the station to the Rogers group's holding company, Valley Broadcasting Company, in 1979. In 1980, the station adopted its current four-letter call sign, KVBC. Since then, KVBC has more or less cleared the whole NBC lineup. With the digital transition completed, the station officially added the -DT suffix to its legal call sign.
Channel 3's newscasts were long called Eyewitness News. That name was changed to the current News 3 in 1982, and Eyewitness News was picked up shortly thereafter by KLAS-TV. It was the first station to report the deadly Las Vegas Hilton fire in February 1981, interrupting regularly-scheduled programming to provide live coverage.
For a few years, KVBC used a portion of Styx's 1978 hit "Come Sail Away" and Steve Winwood's "While You See A Chance" before going to a commercial break.
KVBC started their first morning newscast, "News 3 At Sunrise", in 1989 with overnight team coverage by reporter/anchor Steve Eager (former Detroit Tigers catcher; now with KDFW FOX-4, Dallas, TX) and news photographer/editor Mike Dixon. KVBC was first to document the Mirage volcano explosion during its initial test in front of an unsuspecting nighttime audience. Late night coast-to-coast radio talk show host Art Bell, then broadcasting from his live studio in the Plaza Hotel, conducted his first television interview with Steve and Mike setting the stage for one of radio's most prolific and unusual talk shows nationwide. Overnight footage of working multi-story structure fires with an inside view, high-speed vehicle chases, and international drug busts that recruited the infamous "Nasty Boys" (Ninja/elite S.W.A.T.) boosted station ratings to an all-time high. America's Most Wanted (FOX), through reciprocal station agreement, also recruited Mike Dixon to cover covert operations and international arrests in Las Vegas.
From October 25, 1996 to June 6, 2000, KVBC had their own radio station, KVBC-FM on 105.1 FM dial. One of the shows on the air was called "Nate at Night", and was hosted by KVBC Chief Meteorogist Nathan Tannenbaum.
On April 4, 2006, KVBC began a local 10 o'clock newscast on KVWB (now KVMY). The newscast moved to KVCW until September 2009 when it was cancelled and revived on KTUD on October 26, 2009.
On July 9, 2007, KVBC changed their morning newscast name to News 3 Today, phasing out the long-standing News 3 at Sunrise. With the promotion of Sue Manteris to evenings, and the reduction of Mitch Truswell to just the noon newscast, the morning team consisted of husband-and-wife co-anchors Kim and Dana Wagner, chief meteorologist John Fredericks, and traffic reporter Tom Hawley. Also, in light of having a married couple anchoring the morning news together, which KVBC admits in copying the popular KVVU Fox 5 morning news team made-up of a husband and wife team, KVBC began to refer to the new News 3 Today as "Wake up with the Wagners", to promote the married anchor team.
On August 11, 2007 KVBC became the second TV station in the Las Vegas market to broadcast its local news programming in High Definition.
On January 5, 2009, longtime meteorologist John Fredericks retired from the station after 12 1/2 years at KVBC. According to the anchors, John felt it was hard to say goodbye on the air, therefore he left an audio message for the viewers and the station, as it does with any person that leaves after a long tenure, showed a montage of clips of John's career at KVBC. Dana Wagner was posted as replacing John during the morning and noon newscasts.
On August 11, 2009 Longtime journalist Bob Stoldal became KVBC's News Director and Sunbelt Communications Company's Vice-President of News, overseeing all news operations for the Sunbelt Stations. Stoldal is the former Vice-President of News for Landmark's KLAS-TV Channel 8 in Las Vegas, Nevada before retiring in 2008. Stoldal replaces Deborah Clayton who was removed from her position in July 2009. Clayton replaced Dick Tuiniga. Tuiniga replaced Jamie Ioos.
Digital television
The station's digital channel is multiplexed:
KVBC-DT
KVBC-DT broadcasts on digital channel 2.
Digital channel
| Channel | Name | Programming |
|---|---|---|
| 3.1 | KVBC-DT | main KVBC-DT/NBC programming |
| 3.2 | Untamed Sports TV | Fishing, Hunting, Etc |
| 3.3 | Universal Sports | Sports |
After the digital television transition date of June 12, 2009.[2], KVBC-DT remained on channel 2; but, through the use of PSIP digital television will display KVBC's virtual channel as 3.
Newscasts
Weekdays
- Wake Up with The Wagners on News 3 - 4:30-7 AM
- News 3 at Noon - 12-12:30 PM
- First News 3 at 4 - 4-4:30 PM
- News 3 at 5 - 5-5:30 PM
- News 3 at 6 - 6-6:30 PM
- News 3 on Vegas TV: Live at 10 - 10-10:30 PM
- News 3 Nightside - 11-11:35 PM
Weekends
- News 3 at Sunrise - 6-7 AM
- News 3 Today - 9-9:30 AM
- News 3 at 5 - 5-5:30 PM
- News 3 at 6 - 6-6:30 PM
- News 3 Nightside - 11-11:35 PM (except Saturday Nights until 11:29 for Saturday Night Live)
News personalities
News/Station presentation
Newscast titles
- Your Esso Reporter (1955-1962)
- KORK-TV News (1962-1970)
- City Camera News (1970-1974)
- NewsCenter 3 (1974-1980)
- Eyewitness News (1980-1982)
- Channel 3 News (1982-1986)
- News 3 (1986-present)
Station slogans
- Come Home, to TV-3 (1979-1982; not related to the NBC ad campaign of the late 1980s)
- The Spirit of Las Vegas! (1982-1986)
- Turn to a Friend (1986-1989; during period station used Frank Gari's "Turn To News")
- Turn to a Friend, Turn to 3 (1989-1994)
- Where News Comes First (1994-2007)
- Watching Out for You (2007-2009)
This film, television or video-related list is incomplete; you can help by expanding it with reliably sourced additions.KVBC launched a campaign to advertise the new slogan. In late November, KVBC introduced billboards with the phrase "We are WOFY" displayed throughout the city. In December, the station began running commercials featuring WOFY in the shape of Pepperoni, WOFY spelled out in alphabet soup, and even spelled out WOFY in children's blocks. The station also teamed up with Henderson Hyundai by spelling out WOFY in cars in the car dealership's backlot. In late December, early January, KVBC launced the website wearewofy.com (now shut down) to help direct comments about what WOFY may mean. WOFY was later announced as "Watching Out for You," in January on News 3 Today with Kim & Dana Wagner. In October 2009, KVBC eliminated the "Watching Out for You" slogan from its newscasts.
Logos
 Longtime logo without the "HD" branding |
Satellites and translators
KVBC's signal is also rebroadcast on the following translators:
- K40CQ Laughlin, Nevada
- K07OF Searchlight, Nevada
- K11JE St. George, Utah
- K02AV St. George, Utah
- KVBT-LP (channel 41) Santa Clara, Utah
- KVBC's signal was relayed on KVNV (channel 3) in Ely, Nevada. On July 1, 2008, Valley Broadcasting filed an application with the FCC to sell KVNV to PMCM TV, LLC. The sale was approved on September 17, 2008 and was consummated on November 12, 2008. PMCM is seeking permission to reallocate KVNV from Ely to Monmouth County, New Jersey, as part of a legal loophole that allows any VHF station that moves to a state with no FCC-licensed commercial VHF stations to receive automatic permission to move. After of the digital television transition of 2009, Delaware and New Jersey no longer have VHF signals. (PMCM is also looking to move KJWY to Delaware under the same rule.)[3] Currently KVNV is known as Intelliweather 3 and carries looping weather conditions and a news ticker [4].
- The signal for KVBC was to have been relayed over KBMO-TV (channel 9) in Tonopah, Nevada. However, construction of this station was not completed before the FCC construction permit expired in 2002.
External links
- KVBC Website
- Query the FCC's TV station database for KVBC
- BIAfn's Media Web Database -- Information on KVBC-DT
References
- ^ "Require Prime Evening Time for NTA Films", Boxoffice: 13, November 10, 1956, http://issuu.com/boxoffice/docs/boxoffice_111056-1
- ^ http://www.kvbc.com/Global/story.asp?S=9793645&nav=15MV
- ^ http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/294773-PMCM_Wants_To_Move_Stations.php
- ^ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kgnFMgmh5O8
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