KVVU-TV

KVVU-TV

Henderson–Las Vegas, Nevada United States
City	Henderson, Nevada
Channels	Digital:9 (VHF), to move to 24 (UHF) Virtual:5
Branding	Fox 5
Programming
Affiliations	5.1:Fox for others, see§ Subchannels
Ownership
Owner	Gray Television (Gray Television Licensee,LLC)
Sister stations	KOLO-TV
History
First air date	September 10, 1967(1967-09-10)
Former call signs	KHBV-TV (1967–1971)
Former channel number(s)	Analog:5 (VHF, 1967–2009)
Former affiliations	Independent(1967–1986)
Technical information
Licensing authority	FCC
Facility ID	35870
ERP	120kW 1,000 kW (application)
HAAT	383 m (1,257 ft)
Transmitter coordinates	36°0′25.8″N115°0′24.9″W
Translator(s)	see§ Translators
Links
Public license information	Public file LMS
Website	www.fox5vegas.com

KVVU-TV(channel 5) is atelevision stationlicensed toHenderson, Nevada,United States, serving theLas Vegasarea as an affiliate of theFoxnetwork. Owned byGray Television,the station maintains studios at the Broadcast Center on West Sunset Road in Henderson (using the 25 TV 5 Drive street address), while its transmitter is located onBlack Mountain,just southeast of the city.

History

KVVU signed on the air on September 10, 1967,as Nevada's firstindependent station,under the call sign KHBV-TV. The station originally operated from a convertedFlying Agasstation along Boulder Highway near Sunset Road, while its offices were housed in a modern office building on Flamingo Road. The station was on the air originally from 11 a.m. to midnight and ran a schedule ofmoviesfrom the '30s through the '50s, somecartoons,westerns,and a fewsitcoms.Owned first by Charles Vanda, Levin-Townsend Enterprises acquired the station in 1969.

In 1971, the station assumed its KVVU-TV call letters after being purchased by the Nevada Independent Broadcasting Corporation.By 1975, the station was on the air by 7 a.m. and ran a large number of movies, cartoons, more off-network sitcoms,drama shows,and some westerns. Las Vegas was still considered a small market then; in 1975, it was the 140th-largest out of 207areas of dominant influence.Las Vegas was the smallest market to have four commercial television stations; there were still larger markets that only had two commercial stations and lacked programming from eitherABC,NBC,orCBSas a result.

In 1978, the station was sold to Carson Broadcasting, a company owned by talk show host and entertainerJohnny Carson,who visited the station fairly often.

Under Carson's ownership, the station often ran R-rated theatrical films uncut during the late-night and early morning hours. While the afternoon (1 p.m.) and evening (9 p.m.) movies would always be different, the same film would be run uncut in the evening and aired in its censored form in the afternoon, but not on the same day. The evening movie generally reran at 1 a.m. almost every day. Films with questionable content were sometimes prefaced by a pre-recorded warning from Carson.

The station's announcer from 1973 to 2001, Ralph Menard, would stretch the hourlystation identificationout to emphasize the market's larger city, intoning "Henderson..." neutrally, then leading into an elongated and smooth segue to "...and Laaassss Vegas!"; Menard died in 2003.Meredith Corporationbought the station from Carson Broadcasting in 1985.Upon Meredith taking control of the station, KVVU adopted a stylized "TV 5" logo borrowed from its new sister stations,KPHO-TVinPhoenix;WNEM-TVinBay City, Michigan;KCTVinKansas City, Missouri;andWTVHinSyracuse, New York.Channel 5 remained an independent station until October 9, 1986, when it became one of the charter affiliates of the newly launched Fox network (it was one of a very few handful of stations located on the VHF dial to align with the new network upon its startup). However, by the time Fox expanded its programming from late nights into evenings in April 1987, network prime time programming initially ran only two days a week (it was not until 1993 that Fox began providing programming on all seven days of the week), so KVVU continued to be essentially programmed as an independent station. In the 1980s, moretalk showswere added to the schedule and movies were cut back slightly.

In 1990, the station introduced an on-airmascotnamed "Rusty the Fox", apparently named after both the network and the station's then-general manager Rusty Durante.The mascot, an anthropomorphic fox (in actuality, a person in a fox costume), is used for community events and at one time was used for announcements for family-oriented information, as well as the block of children's programming calledFox 5 Kids Club.

The station moved into its present studio facilities on Sunset Way in the Green Valley subdivision of Henderson in 1991. The station remained a Fox affiliate during an affiliation deal that was struck between Meredith and CBS in 1994 because that network had a long-term affiliation contract with its existing affiliateKLAS-TV(KPHO and WNEM would both change their network affiliations to CBS through the deal while KCTV was already affiliated with that network); as a result, the Las Vegas market became one of the few television markets to not be affected by the1994 United States broadcast television realignment.It was one of only five stations (not countingsatellitesorsemi-satellites) under Meredith ownership (the company having recently sold off WTVH) at the time of the deal, and was one of only three Meredith stations to not switch their affiliation from a different network to CBS between 1994 and 1996 (WSMV-TVinNashvilleandWOFL-TVinOrlandobeing the others). In June 2006, the station's website was redesigned (along with those of four of Meredith's other stations). The old website was operated by the Local Media Network division of WorldNow.Internet Broadcastingoperated the site until 2011, when WorldNow began a group deal with all of Meredith's stations.

On May 3, 2021,Gray Televisionannounced its intent to purchase the Meredith Local Media division, including KVVU, for $2.7 billion. The sale was completed on December 1.

Programming

In addition to KVVU's local newscasts, the station also produces a locally produced entertainment and lifestyle magazine program calledMORE,which takes its name from themagazineaimed at women in their 40s of the same name that is published by Meredith Corporation (theMOREprogram format originated at sister stationKPTVinPortland, Oregon). The program debuted on September 12, 2006, and features stories about Las Vegas fashion, local cuisine and events aimed at women between the ages of 25 and 49,MOREis broadcast as an hour-long extension of the station's weekday morning newscast at 10 a.m. and uses the same staff as the newscast's 7–10 a.m. block.

Sports programming

In 2017, the thenOakland Raidersannounced in preparation for theirrelocation to Las Vegasthat KVVU would be the official home for the team's preseason games and other pre-game programming such as theSilver and Black Showin Las Vegas, which began in the2017 NFL season.After the Raiders completed their relocation ahead of the2020 season,KVVU was named the team's official broadcast partner.However,KLASserves as the Raiders'de facto"home" station, by virtue of CBSowning the rightsto most games from theAmerican Football Conference,where the Raiders play. In addition to preseason andFox SportsSunday afternoon games, KVVU also airs the Raiders'ESPNMonday Night Football,Amazon Prime VideoThursday Night FootballandNFL Networkappearances.

In 2023, it was announced that KVVU would become the official broadcast partner of theLas Vegas Acesof theWNBA.All Aces games not nationally televised onESPN,CBS Sports Network,Ion Television,KLAS orKTNVas part of the league's national TV deal are broadcast on KVVU's second digital subchannel branded as the Silver State Sports and Entertainment Network. In addition, a 30-minute show on the Aces is broadcast weekly on KVVU.

In the 2022–23 television season, Gray began to produce a syndicatedsports bettingshow,Beat the Odds,from KVVU's studio.

Silver State Sports & Entertainment Network

In June 2022, KVVU launched theSilver State Sports & Entertainment Networkon its second subchannel.The network airs local Las Vegas–based sports and entertainment programs.Current live sports rights include select sporting events from theUniversity of Nevada, Las Vegas,Las Vegas Aviatorsbaseball games,Las Vegas Aces basketball games (10 games will instead air on KVVU's main channel),Vegas Knight Hawksindoor football games,Las Vegas Lights FCsoccer matches,andG League Ignitebasketball games.

News operation

KVVU-TV presently broadcasts78+1⁄2hours of locally produced newscasts each week (with14+1⁄2hours each weekday and three hours each on Saturdays and Sundays); in regards to the number of hours devoted to news programming, it is the highest local newscast output among Las Vegas' broadcast television stations and highest of any Fox affiliate in the nation; in addition, the station's sports department producesFox 5 Sports Plus,a 15-minute sports highlight program that airs on Sunday evenings after the 10 p.m. newscast.

Prior to affiliating with Fox, KVVU's news programming consisted solely of daily news updates featured during the station's syndicated programming between the late 1970s and 1986. Meredith Corporation eventually started a news department for KVVU-TV; it began producing a 10 p.m. newscast in June 1998, the Las Vegas market's first local newscast in prime time, the program originated as a weeknight-only half-hour newscast; the broadcast expanded to Saturday and Sunday evenings in June 2002, followed by the expansion of the newscast to an hour-long program in 2003. For the first couple of years, the newscast was solo-anchored by Angelica Urquijo; the station originally did not have a weather anchor or full-time sports anchor; the sports segments were pre-recorded with voice-over work done by boxing analystAl Bernstein.

In July 1999, the station added a morning newscast that originally aired from 7 to 9 a.m. The following year, the program was expanded by 90 minutes with the addition of a news block from 5:30 to 7 a.m. News programming on channel 5 would not expand again until September 10, 2007, with the debut of an hour-long block of newscasts during the 5 p.m. hour; with the expansion, KVVU-TV became the only local station in Las Vegas carrying a newscast in the 5:30 p.m. timeslot. One year later on August 4, 2008, KVVU debuted a half–hour weeknight–only newscast at 11 p.m. On March 7, 2011, the weekday morning newscast (which consisted of the pre–7 a.m.Fox 5 News This Morningand the 7–9 a.m.Fox 5 News: Live in Las Vegasuntil 2013, when the program uniformly rebranded under the former title) expanded to 4½ hours, with its start time moved to 4:30 a.m. On July 9, 2012, KVVU debuted a half-hour 6 p.m. newscast.

On April 6, 2020, KVVU added a half-hour 1 p.m. newscast on weekdays, making it one of a few stations airing a 1 p.m. newscast alongside Los Angeles' CW affiliateKTLAand San Diego's Fox affiliateKSWB-TV.On that same day, KVVU expanded its weeknight 11 p.m. newscast to an hour; this made KVVU among the very few stations to extend its late newscast to midnight, and one of six Fox affiliates (Kansas City'sWDAF-TV,Washington, D.C.'sWTTG,Atlanta'sWAGA-TV,Tampa'sWTVTand Phoenix'sKSAZ-TVbeing the others) to air a two-hour late local news block.

On September 5, 2022, KVVU added an hour-long 2 p.m. newscast on weekdays, becoming the first Fox station to air newscasts in that timeslot. Afternoon and evening newscasts now run from 1 to 7:30 p.m.

Notable former on-air staff

• Al Bernstein– sports anchor (1998–2002; later a boxing analyst forShowtime)
• Cher Calvin– weekday morning anchor (now weekday anchor and reporter atKTLAinLos Angeles)

Technical information

Subchannels

The station's signal ismultiplexed:

Subchannels of KVVU-TV

Channel	Res.	Aspect	Short name	Programming
5.1	720p	16:9	FOX5LV	Fox
5.2			SSSEN	Silver State Sports
5.3	480i		MYSTERY	Ion Mystery
5.4			DABL	Dabl
5.5			DEFY	Defy
5.6			Outlaw	Outlaw
5.7			The365	The365

Analog-to-digital conversion

KVVU-TV shut down its analog signal, overVHFchannel 5, 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 9,usingvirtual channel5.

Translators

• K02OJ-DCaliente
• K19IM-DDuckwater
• K06HT-DEly(Squaw Peak)
• K28IZ-DEly (Cave Mountain)
• K15LU-DEureka
• K35KM-DEureka
• K28EU-DLaughlin,etc.
• K23ON-DLund&Preston
• K34ME-DOverton
• K18NA-DPahrump
• K19BU-DPahrump
• K34QJ-DPanaca
• K13PU-DPioche
• K15LY-DRuth
• K11OW-DUrsine

External links

• Official website