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Channels Digital: 19 (UHF)
Virtual: 24 (PSIP) Subchannels 24.1 SBN
24.2 Jewelry TV Owner Venture Technologies Group, LLC
(World Television of Washington, LLC) Founded February 10, 1989; 28 years ago (1989-02-10) Call letters' meaning K
British
Columbia
Bellingham Former callsigns KEGA (February–October 1989) | ||
KBCB is a television station in Bellingham, Washington, which airs on digital UHF channel 19, though through PSIP the station appears as 24.1 and 24.2. It is carried on Comcast, Dish Network, and Verizon FiOS and a strong over-the-air signal that blankets Vancouver, BC and Victoria, BC from a transmitter near Mount Constitution on Orcas Island.
Contents
History
The station signed on as KEGA on February 10, 1989. It gained its current call-sign on October 2, 1989.
Until 2006, KBCB aired a mix of Independent/ImaginAsian targeted towards the Vancouver area. In that year the station converted to an affiliation with ShopNBC. The network became ShopHQ in 2013. The station's only current local program is a weekly Monday morning brokered programming show highlighting events and businesses in downtown Bellingham's Depot Market Square, with episodes of The Cartoon Factory airing throughout the week to comply with Federal Communications Commission (FCC) E/I requirements.
KBCB added the Estrella TV network as a multicast channel on August 1, 2011. KBCB's affiliation with Estrella ended on April 24, 2014.
Abandoned sale to Fox Television Stations
On September 19, 2014, Venture Technologies reached an agreement to sell the station to Fox Television Stations for $10 million; the purchase was submitted for FCC approval on October 3. The purchase came amid speculation that Fox was interested in having an owned-and-operated station in the home market of the Seattle Seahawks football team, whose games primarily air on Fox as members of the National Football Conference. Fox had reportedly threatened to not renew KCPQ's affiliation when its affiliation agreement ended in January 2015, while the broadcaster had made similar transactions in other NFC markets, such as purchasing the network affiliate serving the San Francisco Bay Area, where the 49ers play, as well as a station in Charlotte, North Carolina, home to the Carolina Panthers.
On October 17, 2014, Fox announced that it had reached a deal to maintain its affiliation with KCPQ through July 2018—agreeing to a reverse compensation arrangement. Following this development, Fox's application to acquire KBCB was dismissed by the FCC on November 20, 2014.
On January 1, 2015, KBCB replaced its affiliation of ShopHQ with that of the Sonlife Broadcasting Network. In March the SD simulcast on 24.2 was replaced by Jewelry TV.
Digital channels
The station's digital signal is multiplexed:
Analog-to-digital conversion
KBCB shut down its analog signal, over UHF channel 24, on February 17, 2009, as part of the federally mandated transition from analog to digital television (which Congress had moved the previous month to June 12). The station's digital signal remained on its pre-transition UHF channel 19, using PSIP to display KBCB's virtual channel as 24 on digital television receivers.