Branding The Wichita Channels | ||
Slogan Six Digital Networks in South Central Kansas Channels Analog: 51 (UHF)
Digital: 30 (UHF)
Virtual: 30 (PSIP) Subchannels 30.1 Retro Television Network
30.2 Heartland
30.3 The Family Channel
30.4 Frost Great Outdoors
30.5 The Action Channel Affiliations Retro Television Network (DT1)
Heartland (DT2)
The Family Channel (DT3)
FGO (DT4)
The Action Channel (DT5) Owner Luken Communications
(managed by Great Plains Television Network, LLC)
(Digital Networks - Wichita, LLC) | ||
KSMI-LP, analog channel 51 and virtual and UHF digital channel 30, is a low-powered television station located in Wichita, Kansas. The station is owned by Luken Communications; Great Plains Television Network, LLC, owners of KGPT-CA (channel 25), operates KSMI-LP under a local marketing agreement. KSMI-LP maintains offices located on North Market Street in downtown Wichita, and its transmitter is located in rural northwestern Sedgwick County (northeast of Colwich).
Contents
History
The station first signed on the air on June 1, 1990. In the early 2000s, KSMI-LP became an affiliate of the Spanish language network Telemundo; a few years later, it affiliated with Azteca América. Luken Communications purchased the station in 2010, and entered into a local marketing agreement with Great Plains Television Network, LCC to manage the station; that year, the station flash cut its digital signal into operation on UHF channel 51. Luken also began providing the station with affiliations from the company's various networks.
On October 17, 2013, KSMI-LP began transmitting its digital signal (which moved to UHF channel 30) from a new, taller tower near Colwich and increased its effective radiated power to 15 kilowatts. Even though this change resulted an increase in its overall coverage area, the signal is only adequately receivable in the immediate Wichita area with marginal reception south of the city due to adjacent channel interference (a phenomenon in which part of the signal "spills into" an adjacent frequency, making it harder for digital tuner to detect which channel to use) with Univision affiliate KDCU-DT on channel 31 and in areas north of Wichita – particularly Hutchinson – due to both adjacent channel and co-channel interference. KGBD in Great Bend, a semi-satellite of ABC affiliate KAKE (channel 10), also broadcasts on UHF channel 30, making it difficult, if not impossible, to receive KSMI-LP, as the receiver cannot tell decipher between the two stations. The co-channel interference problem is amplified at night due to DXing from signals bouncing off the ionosphere, which permits the signal to travel farther than normal.
Digital channels
The station's digital channel is multiplexed: