KPDX
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| Vancouver, Washington / Portland, Oregon | |
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| City of license | Portland |
| Branding | PDX TV |
| Slogan | Totally Entertaining TV |
| Channels | Digital: 30 (UHF) Virtual: 49 (PSIP) |
| Translators | KUBN-LD 43 Bend (for others see article) |
| Affiliations | MyNetworkTV |
| Owner | Meredith Corporation (KPTV-KPDX Broadcasting Corporation) |
| First air date | October 9, 1983 |
| Call letters' meaning | PDX = Portland's IATA airport code[1] |
| Sister station(s) | KPTV |
| Former channel number(s) | Analog: 49 (UHF, 1983-2009) Digital: 48 (UHF, 2004-2009) |
| Former affiliations | Independent (1983-1988) Fox (1988-2002) UPN (2002-2006) |
| Transmitter power | 1000 kW |
| Height | 513 m |
| Facility ID | 35460 |
| Transmitter coordinates | 45°31′19″N 122°44′53″W / 45.52194°N 122.74806°W |
| Licensing authority | homepage = www.kpdx.com |
KPDX is the MyNetworkTV-affiliate serving the Portland, Oregon metropolitan area. It broadcasts its digital signal on UHF channel 30. In addition, it is seen on channel 13 on most local cable TV systems.
The station is currently owned by Meredith Corporation in a duopoly with Fox affiliate KPTV (channel 12), and is licensed to Vancouver, Washington. Its transmitter is located in Portland. It runs a general entertainment format with sitcoms, talk shows, reality shows, court shows, cartoons, movies, and first-run shows.
KPDX's signal is simulcast to Central Oregon on KUBN-LP, channel 43, making the station available in about two-thirds of the state.
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History [edit]
KPDX launched on October 9, 1983, as a general entertainment station, airing a number of cartoons, sitcoms, old movies, drama shows, and religious shows. It was originally licensed under the call letters KLRK, but the station changed to the present calls prior to launch.[2] The station was bought by First Media in the mid-1980s. Even though then-rival KPTV was easily the market's leading independent station, KPDX still received decent ratings.
KPDX gained the Fox Network affiliation on August 29, 1988, after KPTV disaffiliated from the network. The station began to add more talk and children's programs in the 1990s. The station, along with WHNS in Greenville, South Carolina, was acquired by Meredith Corporation in 1997.
Meredith acquired KPTV in 2002 following a station swap with Fox Television Stations, Inc. in exchange for WOFL in Orlando, Florida (and its satellite WOGX in Ocala). This resulted in the first "duopoly" operation in the Portland TV market, and precipitated an affiliation switch on September 2 in which the market's Fox affiliation went to KPTV (the higher-rated station of the two), and the UPN affiliation went to KPDX. However, Fox's Saturday morning lineup remained on KPDX, where it continued to air under the title 4Kids TV until its shutdown on December 27, 2008.
On January 24, 2006, the UPN and WB networks announced they would merge into a new network, to be called The CW. The merger would take effect on-the-air in September 2006, and WB station KWBP (now KRCW-TV), owned by the Tribune Company, became the CW's Portland affiliate. One month later, Fox announced that it would form a new network, MyNetworkTV, and on March 9, 2006, it was announced that KPDX would switch affiliations to the new network.
KPDX dropped the UPN branding on April 1, 2006, by changing its name from UPN 49 to PDX 49, and adopted a new logo in the process. This change of branding had been planned before UPN's shutdown was announced, but the timing of the change was convenient for the upcoming affiliation switch. KPDX's move mirrored those implemented at future MyNetworkTV stations WDCA in Washington, D.C. (DCA 20) and KUTP in Phoenix (PHX 45), which began using the station's last three letters as station branding. KPDX is one of nine MyNetworkTV affiliates not to adopt the network's "blue TV" logo and/or branding style (the others being KTRV, KCWX, KAUT, KARZ-TV, WSTR-TV, sister station KSMO-TV, WPME-TV, and Madison, Wisconsin's Digital subchannel of WISC-TV).
On September 8, 2008, KPDX moved MyNetworkTV programming from 8-10 p.m. to 9-11 p.m., making it one of five MyNetworkTV stations at the time not to air the network programming in its normal 8-10 p.m. timeslot. (KEVU-LP in Eugene, KRON-TV in San Francisco, KQCA in Sacramento (which has since moved MyNetworkTV programming back to its normal 8-10 p.m. timeslot), and KMYQ (now KZJO) in Seattle were the others). Concurrent with the schedule change and in anticipation of the station's 25th anniversary, KPDX's on-air brand was modified from 'PDX 49' to 'PDX TV'.
Digital television [edit]
Digital channel [edit]
| Channel | PSIP Short Name | Video | Aspect | Programming |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 49.1 | KPDX-DT | 720p | 16:9 | Main KPDX-TV programming / MyNetworkTV |
Analog-to-digital conversion [edit]
After the analog television shutdown on June 12, 2009,[3] KPDX moved its digital broadcasts to channel 30 [4] using PSIP to display KPDX's virtual channel as 49.
On June 12, 2009, at 9:00 a.m. (PDT), KPDX transferred its DTV signal from its temporary transmitter (on channel 48) to the channel 30 DTV transmitter that had just been vacated by its sister station, KPTV. At 9:30 a.m., KPDX turned off its analog transmitter.
As of April, 2011, US satellite provider DirecTV has yet to carry KPDX's High Definition signal, only the Standard Definition signal is carried.
Newscasts [edit]
For a while during its run as a Fox affiliate, KPDX ran a 10 p.m. newscast produced by CBS affiliate KOIN. The partnership with KOIN later ended, and in 2000, KPDX launched its own in-house news operation with a nightly 10 p.m. newscast. Upon the station's purchase by Meredith, KPDX's news operation was merged into KPTV's newsroom (although KPTV's operations were actually moved into KPDX's newer facility, located in Beaverton), and KPDX's existing 10 p.m. newscast was cancelled.
On September 8, 2008, KPDX began airing an hour-long 8 p.m. newscast on weeknights produced by KPTV; as such, KPTV is one of only a few Fox stations in the United States to produce a newscast for another station in the same market.
News team [edit]
Anchors
- Julie Grauert - weeknights at 8 p.m.; also reporter
- Mark Nelsen (AMS Certified Broadcast Meteorologist Seal of Approval) - chief meteorologist; weeknights at 8 p.m.
Reporters
- Kaitlyn Bolduc - general assignment reporter
- Marilyn Deutsch - general assignment reporter
- Chloe Houser - PDX TV Report hostess
- Jim Hyde - general assignment reporter
- Andrew Padula - general assignment reporter
- Kai Porter - general assignment reporter
- Laura Rillos - general assignment reporter
- Joe Vithayathil - general assignment reporter
- Jamie Wilson - general assignment reporter
Repeater stations [edit]
KPDX is rebroadcast on the following network of translator stations.
| Active translators | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Callsign | City | |||||||||
| K20DD-D | Albany | |||||||||
| K53EJ | Baker City (Moving to Ch. 51) | |||||||||
| K41CP | Elgin | |||||||||
| K20EH-D | Hood River | |||||||||
| K23DB | La Grande | |||||||||
| K38LZ-D | Longview, Washington (Digital) | |||||||||
| K51FK | Rockaway Beach | |||||||||
| K50GG | Salem | |||||||||
| K22KC-D | The Dalles (Digital) | |||||||||
| K43FH | Wasco | |||||||||
Central Oregon-area translators [edit]
| Bend area translators | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Callsign | City | |||||||||
| K44AH | Prineville | |||||||||
| KUBN-LD | Redmond | |||||||||
Eugene Market, Cottage Grove [edit]
| Eugene market translators | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Callsign | City | |||||||||
| K44JP-D | Cottage Grove | |||||||||
South Lane Television combines the KPDX and KPTV signals on their channel 44 translator.
Portland-area translators [edit]
When KPDX became a Fox affiliate in 1988, the station's signal was spotty in several areas around Portland. For KPDX to provide better signal coverage in these areas, several translator stations were activated.
The channel 14 and 18 translators signed on the air May 1, 1994. The channel 16 translator began in 1992 as an independent LPTV station, owned by Kenneth J. Seymour carrying programming from Main Street Television and The Opportunity Channel. Later in 1992 the station was acquired by KPDX, and became KPDX's translator. It was shut down in 1999 due to the loss of its transmitter site lease and duplication of signal by channel 14 in Camas. The license was returned to the FCC in 2002.
NOTE - By FCC mandate, Low Power stations on channels 52 through 69 must vacate those channels by December 31, 2011[5]
References [edit]
- ^ Nelson, Bob (June 2, 2009). "Call Letter Origins" 238. The Broadcast Archive. Retrieved June 21, 2009.
- ^ Call Sign History - FCC's TV station database for KPDX
- ^ "Portland TV stations backtrack, delay digital transition". The Oregonian. February 6, 2009.
- ^ CDBS Print
- ^ FCC Sets Deadlines for LPTV, TV Translator and Class A Stations To Convert to Digital - And Gives Hints When Television Spectrum May Be Reclaimed for Broadband Broadcast Law Blog July 19, 2011
External links [edit]
- KPDX.com - Official Website
- Query the FCC's TV station database for KPDX
- Query the FCC's TV station database for KUBN-LD
- BIAfn's Media Web Database -- Information on KPDX-TV
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- MyNetworkTV affiliates
- Channel 49 virtual TV stations in the United States
- Channel 30 digital TV stations in the United States
- Television channels and stations established in 1983
- Television stations in Portland, Oregon
- Television stations in Washington (state)
- Meredith Corporation television stations
- 1983 establishments in Oregon
