KXVO

KXVO

ATSC 3.0station
Omaha, Nebraska Council Bluffs, Iowa United States
City	Omaha, Nebraska
Channels	Digital:29 (UHF) Virtual:15
Programming
Affiliations	15.1:TBD 15.2:The Nest 15.3:Charge!
Ownership
Owner	Mitts Telecasting Company,LLC
Operator	Sinclair Broadcast GroupviaLMA
Sister stations	KPTM
History
Founded	July 21, 1994
First air date	June 10, 1995(1995-06-10)
Former call signs	KPQC (July 21–November 17, 1994)
Former channel number(s)	Analog:15 (UHF, 1995–2009) Digital:38 (UHF, 2002–2019)
Former affiliations	The WB(1995–2006) The CW(2006–2021)
Call signmeaning	"XV" is 15 inRoman numerals;Omaha
Technical information
Licensing authority	FCC
Facility ID	23277
ERP	630kW
HAAT	475 m (1,558 ft)
Transmitter coordinates	41°4′15.9″N96°13′32.3″W
Links
Public license information	Public file LMS

KXVO(channel 15) is atelevision stationinOmaha, Nebraska,United States, airing programming from the digital multicast networkTBD.It is owned by Mitts Telecasting Company LLC, which maintains alocal marketing agreement(LMA) with theSinclair Broadcast Group,owner of dualFox/CWaffiliateKPTM(channel 42), for the provision of certain services. The two stations share studios on Farnam Street in Omaha; KXVO's transmitter is located on Pflug Road, south ofGretnaandI-80.

History

KXVO signed on the air on June 10, 1995, as an affiliate ofThe WB,which debuted nationally almost five months earlier on January 11 of that year; the station was originally owned by Cocola Broadcasting, but was operated byPappas Telecastingunder a local marketing agreement. In the interim six months, Omaha did have access to The WB via cable and satellite providers throughChicago-based nationalsuperstationWGN.Cocola would later sell the station to Mitts Telecasting Company in 2000, which retained the LMA with Pappas.

On January 24, 2006,CBS CorporationandTime Warnerannounced that The WB andUPNwould cease broadcasting that September and merge their programming to form a new "fifth" network calledThe CW.The letters represent the first initials of its corporate parents, CBS (the parent company of UPN) and theWarner Bros. Entertainmentunit of Time Warner.In April 2006, KXVO announced an affiliation agreement with The CW, which began airing on the station when the network launched on September 18 of that year.

On January 16, 2009, it was announced that several Pappas stations, including sister station KPTM, would be sold to New World TV Group, after the sale receivedUnited States bankruptcy courtapproval.The LMA between KXVO and KPTM continued after the deal was finalized.

Titan TV Broadcast Group announced the sale of most of its stations, including KPTM and the LMA with KXVO (which remained under Mitts Telecasting ownership after the sale), to theSinclair Broadcast Groupon June 3, 2013.Sinclair announced the closing of the sale on October 3.

From 2009 until 2018, KXVO also served the state capital,Lincoln,located 52 miles (84 km) from Omaha, with broadcast and cable coverage even though Lincoln is located in a different market. It had been carried on cable in the eastern portion of the Lincoln–Hastings–Kearneymarket since its inception, even after Lincoln received its own WB/CW affiliate, KCWL-TV (which carried theWB 100+andCW Plusservices), and remained on most Lincoln cable systems in lieu of the national CW Plus feed (which was carried in the western portion of the market) after KCWL became Fox affiliateKFXL-TV.In October 2018, afterGray Television-ownedKCWH-LDin Lincoln (through The CW Plus) took over that market's CW affiliation, KXVO was dropped from Lincoln'sSpectrumsystem, with KCWH replacing it on channel 15.

On March 29, 2022, KXVO filed to begin broadcasting in ATSC 3.0.The existing subchannels are planned to be moved to KPTM, KMTV, and KETV to provide coverage for current ATSC 1.0 receivers pending agreements with Scripps and Hearst respectively for KMTV and KETV.

Newscasts

The station was originally branded "All Entertainment, All the Time", and news was a low priority asKPTMbuilt out its news department for their own station. In the late 1990s and early 2000s, KXVO aired 60-second "news updates" from KPTM during the 6 p.m. hour that promoted the latter's 9 o'clock newscast. In 2001, KXVO had begun to plan to carry a 5:30 p.m. newscast from KPTM to compete with the national newscasts. After theterrorist attacks of September 11, 2001and the resulting economic downturn, those plans were put on hold and eventually abandoned. In the days following the September 11 attacks, though, KXVO aired continuous news coverage fromCNN Headline News.

In December 2005, the station debuted a half-hour 10 p.m. newscast calledThe KXVO 15 10 O'Clock News,which was produced by KPTM (this time competing with Omaha's Big Three stations); that April, formerMTVVJ and reality show hostBrian McFaydenwas hired to anchor the program, only to leave the show forCurrent TVa few months later. In late August 2006, comedian and Second City Training Center alumnus Matt Geiler was tapped to anchorThe KXVO 15 10 O'Clock News,which by that time would become a hybrid of news content (provided by the KPTM staff) andsketch/improv comedy.One prime example of this era occurred on theHalloween2006 edition, when Geiler, for a pre-taped end-of-show segment, donned a blackunitardand foamjack-o'-lanternand danced in front of agreen screenimage of a cemetery. ThoughThe KXVO 15 10 O'Clock Newswas canceled in April 2007,the "Pumpkin Dance" has had a lasting life as a seasonalviral videoandmemethanks to its uploading toYouTubeby a KXVO producer after its original airing and the video's subsequent discovery later in the decade byBuzzFeed,Huffington Post,and other websites.

Technical information

Subchannels

The station's ATSC 1.0 channels are carried on themultiplexedsignals of other Omaha television stations:

Subchannels provided by KXVO (ATSC 1.0)

Channel	Res.	Aspect	Short name	Programming	ATSC 1.0 host
15.1	480i	16:9	TBD	TBD	KPTM
15.2			Stadium	The Nest	KMTV-TV
15.3			Charge!	Charge!	KETV

In October 2008,KAZO-LPdroppedTuVisionand becamedark;Azteca Américaprogramming moved to KXVO 15.2 in Omaha andKMEG14.2 inSioux City, Iowa.Around this time, analog transmissions on KAZO-LP temporarily ceased, though the analog channel 57 signal was again seen on the air in October 2009. KAZO-LP shut down permanently later in fall 2009 and was no longer listed on KXVO-DT2 station IDs. By spring 2010, KMEG-DT2 had been spun off from KXVO-DT2 to have its own local feed in the Sioux City area. KXVO-DT2 is carried onDirecTV's local station package in the Omaha area as KAZO 57.Dish Networkdoes not carry the station. Cox had previously carried KAZO-LP on analog channel 68, but dropped it in 2007 when the station became a TuVision affiliate, and did not restore the local signal when it switched back to Azteca América in 2008. Until the addition ofEstrella TVon KPTM-DT3 in June 2010, Azteca América was the only Spanish-language network available over-the-air in Omaha. Sometime in late 2013 or early 2014, Azteca was dropped in favor ofThis TV.

In 2017, the KXVO subchannel lineup all changed. Sinclair'sTBDreplaced This TV on 15.2. Sinclair's action channelCharge!replacedGriton 15.3. On September 6 of that year, 15.4 began broadcasting withStadium.

On September 14, 2021, the TBD affiliation moved to the main channel, replacing The CW (which move its affiliation to KPTM-DT3 on that day).On that day, the Stadium affiliation moved to DT2, and DT4 went dark.

ATSC 3.0 lighthouse

Subchannels of KXVO (ATSC 3.0)

Channel	Res.	Aspect	Short name	Programming
3.1	1080p	16:9	KMTV	CBS(KMTV-TV)
6.1			WOWT	NBC(WOWT)
7.1			KETV	ABC(KETV)
15.1			KXVO	TBD
42.1	720p		KPTM	Fox(KPTM)

Subchannel broadcast withdigital rights management

Analog-to-digital conversion

KXVO shut down its analog signal, overUHFchannel 15, on June 12, 2009, as part of thefederally mandated transition from analog to digital television.The station's digital signal remained on its pre-transition UHF channel 38, usingvirtual channel15.