KVVU-TV

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KVVU-TV, virtual channel 5.1, is a Fox-affiliated television station serving the Las Vegas, Nevada market. It is owned and operated by Meredith Corporation. It transmits its digital signal on VHF channel 9. The station's studios and transmitter are located in Henderson, its city of license. Syndicated programming on KVVU includes: TMZ on TV, Extra, Don't Forget the Lyrics!, and America's Funniest Home Videos.

History

KVVU went on the air September 10, 1967 as KHBV-TV, Nevada's first independent station; the current call letters were adopted in 1971 as KVVU-TV. It originally broadcast from a converted Flying A gas station along Boulder Highway near Sunset Road, while the offices were housed in a modern office building on Flamingo Road.

KVVU was owned for several years by Johnny Carson, who visited the station fairly often. Under Carson, the station often ran R-rated theatrical films uncut in the late-night/early morning hours. While the afternoon (1 p.m.) and evening (9 p.m.) movie would be always different, the same film would be run uncut in the evening and censored 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.

Meredith Corporation bought the station in 1985. The station's "5" logo for the next four years was used on other Meredith-owned stations broadcasting on channel 5, including KPHO-TV, WNEM-TV, KCTV and WTVH. Under Meredith, KVVU is the only Fox station under the same ownership since 2001. The station moved into its present home on Sunset Way in the Green Valley subdivision of Henderson in 1991.

KVVU was not part of the 1994 affiliation deal between Meredith and CBS because that network had a long-term affiliation contract with its existing affiliate KLAS-TV (however, KPHO and WNEM were part of the Meredith-CBS deal, and KCTV was already affiliated with that network). It was one of only five stations (not counting satellites or semi-satellites) under Meredith ownership (the company having recently sold off WTVH) at the time of the deal.

The station announcer Ralph Menard, from 1973-2001 would identify channel 5 with the catch-phrase "Henderson and Laaassss Vegas"; he passed away in 2003.

In June 2006, the station's website was redesigned (along with those of four of Meredith Corporation's other stations). The old website was operated by the Local Media Network division of World Now. Internet Broadcasting operated the site until 2011, when WorldNow began a group deal with all of Meredith's stations.

Digital television

KVVU-DT broadcasts on digital channel 9. Besides the main 5.1 signal, the station also carries an all-weather station with looping maps, conditions and forecasts on digital subchannel 5.2.

KVVU-TV turned-off its analog transmitter on June 12, 2009. The station's digital broadcasts remained on channel 9; but, through the use of PSIP, digital television display KVVU-TV's virtual channel as 5.

News operation

In June 1998, the station started "FOX5 News at 10," the first 10 p.m. newscast in the Las Vegas market. For the first couple of years, the newscast was solo-anchored by Angelica Urquijo. The station did not have a weather anchor or actual sports anchor; the sports segments were pre-recorded with voice over work done by Boxing analyst Al Bernstein. The station added a morning newscast a year later.

On September 12, 2006, the station launched a lifestyle magazine show called "MORE." The one hour show is live from the KVVU studios in Henderson. The program targets women aged 25–49 offering them stories about Las Vegas fashion, food, and family fun. MORE was originated at KVVU's sister-station, KPTV in Portland, Oregon. MORE is also the name of one of Meredith's top magazines for women in their 40s.

On September 10, 2007 KVVU-TV added "FOX5 News at 5" and "FOX5 News at 5:30", two additional 30-minute newscasts, expanding the station's daily news production to six hours during the weekdays. KVVU-TV is now home to the only local newscast in Las Vegas at 5:30 p.m. Since then, KVVU-TV has also added a half-hour newscast at 11:00 p.m., which debuted on August 4, 2008.

In September, 2008, FOX5 launched an additional hour of the highly popular MORE program premiering at 4pm. One year later, the lifestyle program was rebranded as "MORE Access" and moved to a new time period (6:00pm to 7:00pm) following FOX5 News at 5:30. KVVU is the only local television station in Las Vegas to successfully produce 2-hours of non-news programming every weekday.

KVVU aka FOX5 currently produces 9 hours of local programming (7 hours of news & 2 hours of entertainment/lifestyle) each weekday, more than any other local television station in the Las Vegas market (#40.)

Newscasts/Local Programs

Weekdays

• 4:30a to 7am: FOX5 News This Morning
• 7a to 9am: FOX5 News: Live In Las Vegas
• 9am to 10am: MORE
• 5pm to 5:30pm: FOX5 News @ 5
• 5:30pm to 6pm: FOX5 News @ 5:30
• 6pm to 7pm: MORE Access
• 10pm to 11pm: FOX5 News @ 10
• 11pm to 11:35pm: FOX5 News @ 11

Weekends

• 10pm to 11pm: FOX5 News @ 10 (Saturday)
• 10pm to 10:45pm: FOX5 News @ 10 (Sunday)
• 10:45pm to 11:00pm: FOX5 Sports Plus (Sunday)

Newscast history

• June 1, 1998: FOX5 News @ 10 debuts as a 30-minute newscast
• July 1999: FOX5 News This Morning debuts
• June 2002: The 10 p.m. newscast expands to weekends
• Fall 2003(?): FOX5 News @ 10 expands to 1 hour
• September 12, 2006: MORE debuts
• September 10, 2007: FOX5 News @ 5 & 5:30 debut
• August 4, 2008: FOX5 News @ 11 debuts
• September, 2009: "MORE at 4pm" debuts
• Fall 2010: "MORE at 4pm" moves to 6pm and debuts as "MORE Access"
• March 7, 2011: "FOX5 News This Morning" expands to 4 1/2 hours

News/station presentation

Newscast titles

• Fox 5 News (1998-present)

• "FOX5 News This Morning"
• "FOX5 News: Live in Las Vegas"
• "FOX5 News at 5pm"
• "FOX5 News at 5:30pm"
• "FOX5 News at 10pm"
• "FOX5 News at 11pm"
• "FOX5 Sports Plus"
• "MORE"
• "MORE Access"

Station slogans

• Channel 5 Las Vegas, In Color (1967-1971)
• Come Alive, You're on Channel 5 (early 1970s)
• Las Vegas Turns to TV-5 (mid 1970s)
• Las Vegas' Independent TV-5 (late 1970s)
• TV-5, The Place to Be (early 1980s)
• We've Got A Good Thing Going On (mid 1980s)
• It's on Fox 5! (1990-1992; localized version of Fox slogan)
• The Original Ten O'Clock News (1998-2003)
• The Right Time. The Right Team. (2003-2006)
• Local. Las Vegas. (2006-present)

Current News team

FOX5 News This Morning (4

30am - 7am) Weekdays

• Heidi Hayes - weekday mornings anchor
• Dave Hall – weekday mornings anchor
• Chris Brown - traffic reporter

FOX5 News

Live in Las Vegas (7am - 9am) Weekdays

• Monica Jackson - weekday mornings anchor
• Jason Feinberg - weekday mornings anchor
• Chris Brown - traffic reporter

FOX5 News 5pm, 5

30pm, 10pm, 11pm

• Olivia Fierro - weekdays evening anchor
• John Huck - weekdays evening anchor

Weather Team

• Ted Pretty - weather anchor / weekday mornings (4:30am - 9am)
• Stacey Donaldson - chief meteorologist / weekdays / 5pm, 5:30pm, 10pm, 11pm
• Les Krifaton – weather anchor / weekends / 10pm

Sports team

Jon Castagnino - sports anchor / general assignment reporter

Reporters

• Kevin Bolinger - general assignment reporter; also fill-in weekday anchor
• Matt DeLucia - general assignment reporter
• Claudine Grant - MORE feature reporter
• Stefanie Jay - general assignment reporter
• Doug Johnson - general assignment reporter
• MaryAnn Martinez - general assignment reporter

Former staff

• Al Bernstein - sports anchor (1998-2002; currently a boxing analyst on Showtime)
• Cher Calvin - morning anchor (now weekend anchor and reporter at KTLA-TV in Los Angeles)
• Jim Parker (a.k.a. "Vegas Vampire") - host of Shock Theater (mid 1960s-1970s)
• Ann Rubin - Three time Emmy award winning reporter

Mascot

The station (roughly from 1990 to current) uses a mascot named "Rusty the Fox", apparently named after the station's (then) General Manager Rusty Durante [1] and the station's affiliation with the Fox network. The mascot, an anthropomorphic fox (a person in a fox costume), is used for community events and at one time was used for announcements for family-oriented information, the block of children's programming called "Fox5 Kids Club." [2] [3]

Repeater stations

KVVU is rebroadcast on the following low power stations:

• K28IZ-D 28 Ely, Nevada
• K28EU 28 Laughlin, Nevada
• K45HS-D 45 Lund & Preston, Nevada
• K43IL-D 43 Ruth, Nevada

External links

• KVVU site
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