Intermountain West Communications Company

Intermountain West Communications Company is an American telecommunications company, formerly owned by James E. "Jim" Rogers (1938–2014), that owns licenses for a number of local television stations in the United States, operated by Sinclair Broadcast Group.

Contents

• Stations
• Television stations
• Radio stations
• Related activities
• References

Headquartered in Las Vegas, Nevada, IWCC was founded on October 1, 1979, following the purchase of KORK-TV, the NBC affiliate in Las Vegas, by local attorney James E. "Jim" Rogers and 16 Las Vegas residents. KORK-TV was renamed KVBC-TV after taking control and KSNV-DT on July 9, 2010 and Rogers expanded Sunbelt's reach to include other stations in Arizona, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico and Wyoming. In 2008, Sunbelt was renamed Intermountain West Communications Company; Rogers was at his summer home in Montana when he was asked about the "SUNBELT" license plate on his car when Montana wasn't a Sun Belt state. Most of IWCC's stations, prior to the gradual sale of them that began in 2013, were NBC affiliates.

On September 3, 2014, Intermountain West Communications announced that it would sell KSNV-DT to Sinclair Broadcast Group for $120 million. As Sinclair already owned a duopoly in Las Vegas, KVMY (channel 21) and KVCW (channel 33), the company planned to sell the license assets (though not the programming) of one of the three stations to comply with FCC ownership restrictions, with the divested station's programming being moved to the other stations. 80–85% of proceeds from the sale will go toward the formation of the Rogers Educational Foundation, which will support students and educators in Southern Nevada.

On November 1, 2014, KSNV began the process of swapping signals with KVMY; KVMY moved its MyNetworkTV programming to a subchannel of KVCW, which was replaced by a simulcast of KSNV-DT's programming. Additionally, the two stations swapped virtual channel numbers, which moved KVMY to channel 3, and KSNV to channel 21. On November 4, 2014, the call letters on KVMY's license were changed to KSNV, and the existing KSNV license changed its call letters to KVMY. These moves effectively put KSNV under Sinclair ownership using its existing channel 21 license. The previous channel 3 license was later sold to Howard Stirk Holdings. A similar swap occurred during Sinclair's acquisition of WCIV, in which its ABC programming and call sign were moved to another Sinclair-owned signal, and the previous WCIV channel 4 license (renamed WMMP) was sold to Howard Stirk Holdings, though the PSIP channel number was not swapped. Sinclair could not buy KSNV-DT outright because Las Vegas has only seven full-power stations--four too few to legally permit a duopoly. When the sale closes, Sinclair would control half of those stations. It would also create a situation in which a CW affiliate is the nominal senior partner in a duopoly involving an NBC affiliate and a "Big Four" station.