Affiliations MyNetworkTV | First air date September 6, 1991 | |
Branding KBVO-TV (general)
KXAN News (during rebroadcast of KXAN-TV newscast) Channels Digital: 27 (UHF)
Virtual: 14 (PSIP) Translators KBVO-CD 31 (UHF) Austin Owner Nexstar Media Group
(Nexstar Broadcasting, Inc.) | ||
KBVO, virtual channel 14 (UHF digital channel 27), is a MyNetworkTV-affiliated television station serving Austin, Texas, United States that is licensed to Llano. The station is owned by Nexstar Media Group as part of a duopoly with NBC affiliate KXAN-TV (channel 36); Nexstar also operates CW affiliate KNVA (channel 54) under a local marketing agreement with owner Vaughan Media.
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Master control and most operations of KBVO are shared with KXAN and KNVA at studios located on West Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard between the Clarksville section of Austin and the University of Texas at Austin campus. KBVO's transmitter is located eight miles (13 km) southeast of Llano near the intersection of TX 71 and Llano County Road 307. KXAN operates a bureau for KBVO based in Llano.
The station's signal is relayed on Class A repeater in Austin, KBVO-CD (channel 31), from a transmitter in the West Austin Antenna Farm north of West Lake Hills. The station is available on Charter Communications digital channel 1525, Grande Communications channel 18 (SD) and channel 818 (HD), AT&T U-verse channels 7 (SD) and 1007 (HD), DirecTV channel 51, and Dish Network channels 51 and 8260.
Despite all three stations having separate programming, KBVO – although it no longer operates as such – is licensed as a semi-satellite of KXAN, and therefore Nexstar's ownership of KXAN, KNVA and KBVO is not technically constituted as a legal triopoly, which is prohibited under FCC regulations in markets with fewer than 20 full-power stations.
History
Although KXAN (then known as KTVV) increased its transmitting power in 1973, its analog signal UHF channel 36 was marginal in some parts of the Hill Country (such as Fredericksburg) as UHF signals usually do not travel very far in rugged terrain. Some parts of this region didn't get a clear signal from channel 36 until cable arrived in Austin in the late 1970s. On September 6, 1991, LIN Broadcasting signed on KLNO on UHF channel 14 as a semi-satellite of KXAN to improve the station's signal reach in that part of the market.
The station changed its call letters to KXAM-TV after about a month on the air, and later to the current KBVO on August 3, 2009. Those call letters, named after the University of Texas' mascot "Bevo", were formerly used on channel 42 (now KEYE-TV) from its December 1983 sign-on until it became a CBS affiliate in July 1995, and is shared with sister station and repeater KBVO-CA. It is the only full-power television station ever built and signed-on by LIN TV (then the broadcasting division of its original parent LIN Broadcasting).
On October 21, 2009, LIN relaunched KBVO as a separate station, moving MyNetworkTV programming to the station from KNVA, which had shown that network's programming on a two-hour delay (from 9 to 11 p.m.) after CW programming and, in the month prior to KBVO's relaunch, a KXAN-produced 9 p.m. newscast. To date, KNVA was one of two stations in the United States (not counting a handful of stations that carry The CW and MyNetworkTV on separate subchannels) to carry The CW and MyNetworkTV (the other, KWKB in Iowa City, Iowa, remained the only station which carried the full schedules of both netlets/programming services for another two years until it too became affiliated solely with The CW).
On March 21, 2014, it was announced that Media General would acquire LIN. The merger was completed on December 19.
In March 2015, the KBVO-CD translator serving Austin proper received FCC approval to raise their ERP from a 75-watt signal which barely covered the city of Austin itself, up to 15,000 watts, which now allows it to cover the entirety of the Austin metro.
On January 27, 2016, Media General announced that it had entered into a definite agreement to be acquired by Nexstar Broadcasting Group in a deal valued at $17.14 per-share, valuing the company at $4.6 billion plus the assumption of $2.3 billion debt. The combined company is now known as Nexstar Media Group, and owns 171 stations (including KBVO), serving an estimated 39% of households.
Analog-to-digital conversion
KBVO shut down its analog signal on June 12, 2009, as part of the FCC-mandated transition to digital television for full-power stations. The station's digital signal remained on its pre-transition UHF channel 27, using PSIP to display KBVO's virtual channel as 14 on digital television receivers.
Programming
Syndicated programming on KBVO includes How I Met Your Mother, Justice for All with Judge Cristina Pérez, The Steve Wilkos Show, Community and Seinfeld. The station also broadcasts the Texas State Bobcats, San Antonio Spurs basketball, Texas Stars hockey, Texas Rangers baseball, Houston Texans pre-season football, Southland Conference and Southeastern Conference sports, Big 12 Conference college basketball, local high school football and University of Texas at Austin sports programming (including the wrap-up program Longhorn Sports Center Weekly). Tuesday through Saturday mornings, KBVO re-airs KXAN's 10 p.m. newscast from the previous night.