Subchannels 15.1 Retro TV | Call letters' meaning Pocatello
Idaho
Falls | |
Channels Digital: 15 (UHF)
Virtual: 15 (PSIP) Affiliations Retro TV (2009–2011, 2014–present) Owner Pocatello Channel 15, LLC
(Pocatello Channel 15, LLC) First air date March 1, 2004; 13 years ago (2004-03-01) | ||
KPIF is a full-power television station serving Pocatello and Idaho Falls, Idaho, as an affiliate of the Retro Television Network. The station is owned by KM Communications Inc. and broadcast on UHF channel 15 from a transmitter located on Howard Mountain in Pocatello.
Contents
History
The original construction permit for KPIF was granted on March 2, 2001, to Pocatello Channel 15, LLC, a partnership between KM Communications, Inc. of Skokie, Illinois, Kaleidoscope Foundation, Inc. of Little Rock, Arkansas (a subsidiary of Equity Broadcasting Corporation), and Potelco Broadcasting of Greensboro, North Carolina. The three companies had been competing applicants for a channel 15 television station in Pocatello, and agreed in 2000 to form a partnership in order to expedite construction of the station. In 2003, due to irreconcilable differences that caused delays in development of the permit, Myoung Hwa Bae of KM Communications extended an offer to buy out the other two members. KM Communications completed construction of the station and signed on in March 2004 under Program Test Authority from the FCC. The station applied for a license to cover the construction permit on March 1, 2004, and was granted the license on October 11, 2006.
Initially, KPIF was affiliated with America One, but the station picked up a WB affiliation a few months later. It became an affiliate of The CW on September 18, 2006. At one point, KBEO of Jackson, Wyoming (which was the first to sign on, on March 30, 2001) became a satellite of KPIF (KBEO has since gone dark).
After The CW moved to a digital subchannel of KIFI-TV on September 7, 2009, the stations switched to RTV.
Analog-to-digital conversion
KPIF shut down its analog signal, over UHF channel 15, on June 12, 2009, and "flash-cut" its digital signal into operation on UHF channel 15, as they were granted original construction permits after the FCC finalized the DTV allotment plan on April 21, 1997.
While KPIF did broadcast a digital signal after the analog shutdown, it did not apply for a license to cover or an extension of the digital construction permit (which expired on June 12, 2009) until 2014. KPIF was granted a broadcast license for its digital signal on February 6, 2016.