KYUR
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| Channels | |
| Branding |
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| Programming | |
| Affiliations |
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| Ownership | |
| Owner |
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| Operator | Coastal Television Broadcasting Company LLC viaJSA/SSA |
| KTBY,KATN,KJUD | |
| History | |
First air date | October 31, 1967 |
Former call signs |
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Former channel number(s) | Analog:13 (VHF, 1967–2009) |
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Call signmeaning | "Your Alaska Link" |
| Technical information[1] | |
Licensing authority | FCC |
| Facility ID | 13815 |
| ERP | 41kW |
| HAAT | 240 m (787 ft) |
| Transmitter coordinates | 61°25′19.8″N149°52′27.8″W/ 61.422167°N 149.874389°W |
| Translator(s) | |
| Links | |
Public license information | |
| Website | www |
KYUR(channel 13) is atelevision stationinAnchorage, Alaska,United States, affiliated withABCandThe CW Plus.It is owned by Vision AlaskaLLC,which maintainsjoint sales[2]andshared services[3]agreements (JSA/SSA) with Coastal Television Broadcasting Company LLC, owner ofFoxaffiliateKTBY(channel 4), for the provision of certain services. The two stations share studios on East Tudor Road in Anchorage; KYUR'stransmitteris located in theMatanuska-Susitna Borough.Some of KYUR's programming is broadcast to rural communities vialow-powertranslatorsthrough theAlaska Rural Communications Service(ARCS).
KYUR is theflagship stationof a trio of ABC and digitalCWaffiliates covering Alaska under the "Your Alaska Link" brand, which also includesKATNinFairbanksandKJUDinJuneau.
History
[edit]KYUR signed on the air on October 31, 1967, as KHAR-TV. It was the third television station in Anchorage, afterKTVA(channel 11, now aRewind TVaffiliate) and KENI-TV (channel 2, nowKTUU-TV). The station was launched by Sourdough Broadcasters, a company headed by Willis R. "Bill" Harpel, one of Alaska's broadcasting pioneers. Harpel began his broadcasting career in the early 1940s at Anchorage radio stationKFQD,and was previously the owner of radio stations inEllensburgandMercer Island, Washington.Prior to the launch of the television station, he started Anchorage radio stationsKHAR-AMin 1961 and KHAR-FM (nowKBRJ) in 1966. A short time after the television station signed on the air, on January 13, 1968, Harpel died in asnowmobileaccident nearGirdwood,south of Anchorage. He was 46 years old.[4]His widow, Patricia, took over the reins at a time when the station's future was uncertain.
For its first three-plus years on the air, KHAR was unable to obtain a network affiliation, forcing it to operate as anindependent station.Finally, in 1970, it took theNBCaffiliation from KENI. Patricia Harpel became sole owner of Sourdough Broadcasters at around the same time. KHAR swapped affiliations with KENI a year later and joined ABC; that same year, it changed its call letters to KIMO.
In 1972, KIMO opened its own taping facility inSeattleso it could tape ABC shows directly off the network feed of Seattle'sKOMO-TV.The station broughtMister Rogers' Neighborhoodand some otherPBSprograms to Anchorage in the early 1970s, beforeKAKMsigned on in 1975. The station had the top local newscasts in Anchorage from 1977 until 1986, when it was surpassed by KTUU.
In 1995, ownerSmith Mediabought KJUD in Juneau. Having bought Fairbanks' KATN a decade earlier, Smith merged all three of Alaska's ABC affiliates into the "Alaska's Superstation" network, with KIMO as the flagship station.
Smith sold KIMO and the remainder of the "ABC Alaska's Superstation" system to Vision Alaska LLC in 2010.[5]When the sale was completed, on May 13, 2010,[6]Coastal Television Broadcasting Company LLC (which owns Fox affiliate KTBY) entered into joint sales and shared services agreements with Vision Alaska to operate KYUR.[2][3]OnJanuary 1,2011, KIMO changed its call letters to KYUR and all of the stations were co-branded as "Your Alaska Link".
In April 2020, as a result of impending economic concerns caused by theCOVID-19 pandemic,KYUR and KTBY announced plans to outsource its news production to the nationalNewsNetservice, which began operations one year earlier. All of the stations' newscasts outside of prime time, includingGood Day Alaska,were canceled, and the majority of the local staff werelaid off.By the end of the month, KYUR's news output had been reduced to a 30-minute newscast at 10 p.m. and KTBY was reduced to an hour-long newscast at 9 p.m. Both of these newscasts were temporarily branded asNewsNet Alaska,featuring a brief local news segment produced in Anchorage, with the rest of the broadcast utilizing the NewsNet national feed produced out ofCadillac, Michigan.The stations later outsourced their news programming toNews Hub(formerly INN), which had recently been acquired by Coastal Television, asYour Alaska Link News.
Sports programming
[edit]KYUR and its sister stations are affiliated with the television network of theNFL'sGreen Bay Packers.The station carries the network's preseason games and surrounding in-season programming (including its Tuesday night game recap and Wednesday night coach's show) originating fromGreen Bay, Wisconsin.[7]
Notable former on-air staff
[edit]- John Seibel,sports director (1997–2000), later worked atESPN Radiofor nearly a decade
- Kathy Tebow Sharp, weather anchor (1980s),Miss Alaskain 1976
Technical information
[edit]Subchannels
[edit]The station's signal ismultiplexed:
| Channel | Res. | Aspect | Short name | Programming |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 13.1 | 720p | 16:9 | KYUR-DT | ABC |
| 13.2 | KYUR CW | The CW Plus | ||
| 13.3 | 480i | KYURFOX | Fox(KTBY) inSD | |
| 13.5 | Scripps News |
Analog-to-digital conversion
[edit]KYUR shut down its analog signal, overVHFchannel 13, on June 12, 2009, the official date on which full-power television stations in the United Statestransitioned from analog to digital broadcastsunder federal mandate. The station's digital signal remained on its pre-transition VHF channel 12,[9]usingvirtual channel13.
Former translator
[edit]KYUR formerly ran translator K61CB on a road outside ofEagle River, Anchorage.[10]The translator shut down in 2009 due to the license lapsing in 2007, and the license was deleted in January 2010 due to not broadcasting for a year.[11]
References
[edit]- ^"Facility Technical Data for KYUR".Licensing and Management System.Federal Communications Commission.
- ^abJoint Sales Agreement - Federal Communications Commission
- ^abTime Brokerage Fees - Federal Communications Commission
- ^"Outing Fatal To Bill Harpel, Snowmobile Accident Claims KHAR Owner".Seattle Times.Seattle: (as hosted at Seattle-Tacoma Radio Guide). January 15, 1968. Archived fromthe originalon April 5, 2012.RetrievedOctober 26,2011.
- ^"Alaska TV group sold".Television Business Report.January 15, 2010.RetrievedOctober 4,2015.
- ^Consummation Notice - Federal Communications Commission
- ^"Packers Television Network site".RetrievedAugust 6,2020.
- ^"RabbitEars TV Query for KYUR".RabbitEars.info.
- ^"DTV Tentative Channel Designations for the First and the Second Rounds"(PDF).RetrievedMarch 24,2012.
- ^"Facility Details « Licensing and Management System Admin « FCC".
- ^"Facility Details « Licensing and Management System Admin « FCC".