KEYE-TV

For the television station in Llano, Texas which currently uses the callsign formerly used by KEYE-TV, see KBVO (TV).

For other uses, see KEYE.

KEYE-TV

Austin, Texas United States
Branding	KEYE-TV (general) KEYE-TV News (newscasts) Telemundo Austin (DT2)
Slogan	Only KEYE-TV, Only CBS (general) On Your Side (newscasts)
Channels	Digital: 43 (UHF) Virtual: 42 (PSIP)
Subchannels	42.1 CBS 42.2 Telemundo
Affiliations	CBS (since 1995)
Owner	Sinclair Broadcast Group (San Antonio Television, LLC)
First air date	December 4, 1983
Call letters' meaning	The CBS EYE or: the ICAO airport code for Eagle Creek Airpark
Sister station(s)	WOAI-TV, KABB, KMYS, KTVT
Former callsigns	KBVO-TV (1983–1995)
Former channel number(s)	Analog: 42 (UHF, 1983–2009)
Former affiliations	Independent (1983–1986) Fox (1986–1995) DT2: RTN (2008–2009)
Transmitter power	1000 kW
Height	395 m
Facility ID	33691
Transmitter coordinates
Licensing authority	FCC
Public license information:	Profile CDBS
Website	www.keyetv.com

KEYE-TV studios.

KEYE-TV, virtual channel 42 (UHF digital channel 43), is a CBS-affiliated television station located in Austin, Texas, United States. The station is owned by the Sinclair Broadcast Group. KEYE's studios are located on Metric Boulevard in North Austin (it is one of two area television stations whose studios are located in that section of town – ABC affiliate KVUE, channel 24, being the other), and its transmitter is located on Waymaker Way on the west side of Austin.

History

Early years

The UHF channel 42 allocation in Austin had originally been used by NBC affiliate KHFI-TV, when that station signed on in February 1965. That station moved to channel 36 in 1973 and is now KXAN-TV.

KEYE-TV signed on the air on channel 42 on December 4, 1983 as KBVO-TV; the call letters came from the University of Texas at Austin's mascot, Bevo. It was Austin's first independent station. The station was originally owned by Steve Beard, an Austin advertising executive, and a small group of investors. On October 6, 1986, the station became a charter affiliate of the upstart Fox network and began branding itself as "Fox 42" on-air in the late 1980s. In 1993, Beard sold KBVO to the Granite Broadcasting Corporation for $54 million – a handsome return on his original investment.

From Fox to CBS

In 1995, New World Communications purchased KTBC, which was included in a groupwide affiliation deal to switch most of New World's stations to Fox (which later purchased the New World holdings). On July 1, 1995, KTBC and KBVO swapped affiliations, with Fox moving to KTBC and the CBS affiliation going to KBVO, which changed its call letters to the current KEYE-TV. The callsign refers to the iconic CBS Eye logo, as well as to The Eyes of Texas, one of several songs associated with the University of Texas. It branded itself as "K-EYE 42, Your Eye on Austin" until 1999, when the branding was shortened to simply "K-EYE" on account of the fact that it was now available to all Austin area cable subscribers on cable channel 5.

In 1999, Granite put KEYE up for sale in order to raise money to pay off the company's debt. CBS, which was in the middle of a merger with former subsidiary Viacom, bought the station later that year; this made KEYE the second owned-and-operated station of any major network in the market (after KTBC). At that time, KEYE became part of a cluster of television stations in Texas owned by Viacom, alongside fellow CBS station KTVT and then-UPN affiliate KTXA (now an independent station) in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, and Houston UPN station KTXH. The latter station was then swapped to Fox (alongside WDCA in Washington, D.C.) in 2001 in exchange for San Francisco's KBHK.

In 2005, the station rebranded again, strangely enough, to "CBS42 K-EYE" (under the "CBS Mandate") to reflect its CBS ownership and for cable subscribers to avoid confusion with San Antonio's CBS outlet KENS-TV, seen on VHF analog channel 5. In 2006, the K-EYE branding was phased out in favor of referring itself as simply CBS42 (except for a website address reference).

On February 7, 2007, CBS agreed to sell seven of its stations to Cerberus Capital Management, L.P., for $185 million. Cerberus formed a new holding company for the stations, Four Points Media Group, which took over the operations of the stations through local marketing agreements in late June 2007.[1] The sale to Four Points was consummated on January 10, 2008; Four Points operated the stations outright until March 20, 2009, when it entered into a three-year local service agreement with the Irving, Texas-based Nexstar Broadcasting Group. The latter company then took over the management of all of the Four Points stations, including KEYE. In August 2009, the "CBS42" branding was dropped in favor of "KEYE-TV", and the station website address was changed to weareaustin.com.

On September 8, 2011, Sinclair Broadcast Group announced its intent to purchase Four Points from Cerberus Capital Management for $200 million; Sinclair began managing the stations, including KEYE, under local marketing agreements after receiving antitrust approval from the U.S. Department of Justice, until the sale's closure. The sale made KEYE-TV the third Sinclair-owned television property in Texas, as the group already owned Fox affiliate KABB and CW affiliate KMYS (and has since acquired NBC affiliate WOAI-TV) in San Antonio (it has also since bought Fox affiliate KFOX-TV and CBS affiliate KDBC-TV in El Paso). The deal was completed on January 3, 2012.

Digital television

Digital channels

The station's digital channel is multiplexed:

Channel	Video	Aspect	PSIP Short Name	Programming
42.1	1080i	16:9	KEYE-DT	Main KEYE programming / CBS
42.2	480i	4:3	KEYE-SD	Telemundo

It was announced on March 29, 2008 that KEYE would begin carrying the Retro Television Network on a new digital subchannel 42.2, running a customized schedule for the Austin market.

On October 1, 2009, digital channel 42.2 switched its affiliation to Telemundo and debuted locally produced Spanish-language newscasts at 5 and 10 p.m. weeknights, displacing RTV. It was the second Sinclair property upon their purchase associated with a Spanish-language network after West Palm Beach sister station WWHB-CA with Azteca America.

Analog-to-digital conversion

KEYE-TV shut down its analog signal in November 2008. The station's digital signal remained on its pre-transition UHF channel 43, using PSIP to display KEYE-TV's virtual channel as 42 on digital television receivers.

Programming

Syndicated programming seen on KEYE includes Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, Dr. Phil, The 700 Club, The Queen Latifah Show, Two and a Half Men and CSI: Miami among others. The latter two also air first run episodes.

NFL preseason coverage

From 2002 to 2008, KEYE held local broadcast rights to Houston Texans pre-season games, in addition to airing CBS' coverage of NFL games from the Texans' home conference, the American Football Conference. On April 3, 2006, the station signed a deal to become the official home of the Dallas Cowboys in Austin; KEYE airs pre-season games as well as several Cowboys-related shows during the NFL season. Some controversy exists over KEYE's selection of Tennessee Titans football games (capitalizing on former University of Texas quarterback Vince Young's popularity in Austin) over those of the Texans.

News operation

File:KEYE open.png

KEYE-TV News newscast title card, used until the introduction of Sinclair-mandated graphics.

Before it switched to CBS, KEYE (then KBVO) had no newscasts with the exception of nightly, three-minute updates aired during Fox prime time programming from a small closet studio. After the affiliation swap, on July 3, 1995, KEYE immediately launched a full slate of newscasts. Since that time, the first newscast to be dropped was the noon newscast. The station has also added and since dropped three hours of newscasts on weekend mornings. KEYE originally used the Eyewitness News format (titled K-EYEwitness News), which was used until 2000 (the newscast title was shorted to KEYE News in late 1998, which was used until the "CBS Mandate" was put in place and the title became CBS 42 K-EYE News and then simply CBS 42 News).

KEYE-TV presently broadcasts 19½ hours of locally produced newscasts each week (with 3½ hours on weekdays and one hour each on Saturdays and Sundays); unlike most CBS stations in the Central Time Zone, KEYE does not carry a midday newscast on weekdays. In addition, the station produces five hours of newscasts each week (consisting of 5 and 10 p.m. newscasts on weeknights, which are broadcast in Spanish) for its Telemundo-affiliated digital subchannel.

KEYE became the first television station in the Austin market – and the first station in the Four Points Media Group – to begin broadcasting its local newscasts in high definition on November 1, 2007.[2] However, while the in-studio video is in high definition, most of the field video remains in pillarboxed 4:3 standard definition.

The station canceled its 5 p.m. newscast in September 2009, replacing it with We Are Austin LIVE, an hour-long 4 p.m. lifestyle show anchored by Michelle Valles and Jason Wheeler. A few weeks later, the weekday morning newscast was cancelled and later replaced with a simulcast of "J.B. and Sandy Morning Show" from KAMX (94.7 FM; which was formerly owned alongside KEYE during its CBS ownership until CBS Radio sold KAMX, KKMJ, KXBT and KJCE to Entercom Communications in August 2006); this left KEYE with only the 6 and 10 p.m. newscasts and a 5:30 p.m. newscast on Sunday evenings. On June 30, 2011, the simulcast of the J.B. and Sandy Morning Show was replaced by the in-house newscast We Are Austin Mornings, a morning extension of We Are Austin LIVE that was similar in format to that of the national network morning news programs; the replacement was due in part to KEYE and Entercom-owned KAMX being unable to reach a renewal agreement for Channel 42 to continue airing the JB and Sandy Morning Show simulcast.

On May 31, 2012, KEYE-TV announced the reversal of its September 2009 late afternoon news programming changes with cancellation of We Are Austin LIVE effective June 15 (which was replaced by The Insider and Who Wants to Be a Millionaire); the 5 p.m. newscast also returned to the schedule on June 18, 2012.

In contrast to former Fox stations on UHF that are now CBS, ABC or NBC stations – which often have had little to no success against their better-established news competitors, resulting in some stations even shutting down their news departments outright – KEYE's news department has made a very good account of itself in the two decades since the switch. It has benefited from CBS pouring significant resources into the news department when the network owned the station. Since the turn of the century, KEYE has been one of the fastest-growing stations in central Texas. It wages a spirited battle for second place in the local Nielsen ratings with KXAN, and occasionally beats out KVUE for first.

Notable former on-air staff

• Robert Flores - sports director (2000–2004; now with ESPN)
• Shaun Robinson - 5 p.m. anchor (1995-?; now at Access Hollywood)

References

• "Dallas Cowboys align with KEYE" Austin Business Journal, April 3, 2006
• "KVUE, KXAN hold on in latest ratings" Austin Business Journal, August 30, 1996
• "KVUE sweeps up competition in November" Austin Business Journal, December 20, 1996

External links

• Official website
• Official website – Telemundo Austin
• Query the FCC's TV station database for KEYE
• Query TV Fool's coverage map for KEYE
• BIAfn's Media Web Database -- Information on KEYE-TV