KWEX-DT

KWEX-DT

San Antonio, Texas United States
Channels	Digital:24 (UHF) Virtual:41
Branding	Univision 41;Noticias 41(newscasts)
Programming
Affiliations	41.1:Univision for others, see§ Subchannels
Ownership
Owner	TelevisaUnivision (KWEX License Partnership,L.P.)
Sister stations	TV:KNIC-DT Radio:KBBT,KXTN,KMYO,KROM,KVBH
History
First air date	June 10, 1955(1955-06-10)
Former call signs	KCOR-TV (1955–1961) KUAL-TV (1961–1962) KWEX-TV (1962–2009)
Former channel number(s)	Analog:41 (UHF, 1955–2009) Digital:39 (UHF, 2002–2009), 41 (UHF, 2009–2019)
Former affiliations	SpanishIndependent(1955–1962)
Call signmeaning	"WEX" =XEWbackwards (the callsign KXEW was already used at the time)
Technical information
Licensing authority	FCC
Facility ID	35881
ERP	785kW
HAAT	388 m (1,273 ft)
Transmitter coordinates	29°16′29.8″N98°15′53″W
Links
Public license information	Public file LMS
Website	Univision 41

KWEX-DT(channel 41) is atelevision stationinSan Antonio, Texas,United States, serving as the local outlet for the Spanish-language networkUnivision.It isowned and operatedbyTelevisaUnivisionalongsideBlanco-licensedUniMásoutletKNIC-DT(channel 17). The two stations share studios on Network Boulevard in Northwest San Antonio; KWEX operates a secondary studio facility at theTexas A&M–San AntonioEducational and Cultural Arts Center on South Santa Rosa indowntown San Antonio.The station's transmitter is located offUS 181in northwestWilson County(northeast ofElmendorf).

History

Former logo, used until December 31, 2012.

The station first signed on the air on June 10, 1955, as KCOR-TV.The callsign was taken from its radio sister stationKCOR(1350 AM), which itself was named forRaoul A. Cortez,the owner and pioneer of the first full-timeSpanish-languageradio and television stations in the United States by the Radio Corporation of America (RCA). KCOR-TV was also the first Spanish-language commercial television station in the U.S., as well as the first television station in south Texas to broadcast on the UHF band. The station originally operated from studio facilities located on Network Boulevard (southwest of the present-dayI-10) on the city's northwest side.

In 1961, after years of losses, Cortez sold the station to a consortium led by his son-in-lawEmilio Nicolas,Rene Anselmo,Emilio Azcárraga Vidaurreta,Julian Kaufman and Frank Fouce. With the change in ownership, the station changed its call letters to KUAL-TV that year. Since the station's beginnings, Nicolas had worked side by side with Cortez, not only running the station, but producing many of channel 41's variety programs. Azcarraga's family ownedMexico's highest-rated television network,Telesistema Mexicano(forerunner ofTelevisa), allowing KUAL to gain stronger programming. Nicolas made the station a financial success, and in late 1962 Nicolas and his partners built their second television station,KMEX-TVinLos Angeles.The two stations, with KUAL as thede factofounding station of the entire network, formed the nuclei of the first Spanish language television network in the United States; later that year, the station changed its calls to KWEX-TV as the station became a charter affiliate of the Spanish International Network (which was relaunched as Univision in 1987).

On July 29, 2013, KWEX relocated from its longtime Durango Boulevard studios in San Antonio's Southtown district to a new 43,200-square-foot (4,013 m²) facility on Network Boulevard. The facility, which was constructed over the course of six months, cost $10 million to build and includes expandedmaster controland newsroom space, two studios for production of its newscasts and local programs (one of which includes a kitchen set used for food segments); Univision's San Antonioradiocluster—KCOR,KBBT(98.5 FM),KCOR-FM(95.1 FM),KROM(92.9 FM),KXTN-FM(107.5)—relocated their operations to the facility in late summer 2013. Plans called for the former studio facility to be torn down with an apartment complex being built on the property, a plan that was opposed by the San Antonio Conservation Society and theTexas Historical Commission,who proposed that the building be restored and incorporated into the new development.

On August 10, 2013, KWEX signed a three-year lease agreement withTexas A&M University–San Antonioto use the university educational and cultural arts center on the site of theMuseo Alameda(which closed in August 2012) in the Market Square district of downtown San Antonio as a secondary studio facility; the station built a 1,200-square-foot (111 m²), HD-ready studio for use during live segments seen on the station's 5 and 10 p.m. newscasts as well as its morning insertDespierta San Antonio,Texas A&M communications students will also have access to the studio when it is not in use for KWEX productions.The new facility opened on February 18, 2014.

News operation

KWEX-DT presently broadcasts seven hours of locally produced newscasts each week (with one hour each on weekdays, Saturdays and Sundays); in addition, the station produces a series of interview segments titledDespierta San Antonio(Wake-up San Antonio), which airs at around 25 and 55 minutes past the hour during Univision's national morning programDespierta Américaon weekday mornings.

With the move to the new studios on Network Boulevard, on July 29, 2013, KWEX-DT became the fifth television station in the San Antonio market to begin broadcasting its local newscasts inhigh definition.

Technical information

Subchannels

The station's signal ismultiplexed:

Subchannels of KWEX-DT

Channel	Res.	Aspect	Short name	Programming
41.1	1080i	16:9	KWEX-DT	Univision
41.2	480i	4:3	GET TV	GetTV
41.3		16:9	GRIT	Grit
41.4			HSN	HSN
41.6			QVC	QVC
41.7			QVC-2	QVC2

Analog-to-digital conversion

KWEX-TV discontinued regular programming on its analog signal, overUHFchannel 41, 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 relocated from its pre-transition UHF channel 39 to channel 41.

The station's former digital allocation on UHF channel 39 and their facilities were subsequently transferred in full to CBS affiliateKENS(channel 5), which shared KWEX's signal as a full1080ihigh definition subchannel in 2008 and early 2009, mapping to virtual channel 5.1 due to their transitional digital channel on UHF 55 being sold toQualcommfor theirMediaFLOmobile television service. At the time, KWEX had broadcast solely in 480istandard definition,so both KENS and KWEX broadcast over digital channel 39 without any issues between the two stations.

External links

• KWEX-DT official website
• Brief history
• History of the Spanish International Network