KNIC-DT


KNIC-DT, virtual channel 17, is a UniMás owned-and-operated television station serving San Antonio, Texas, United States that is licensed to Blanco. The station is owned by the Univision Local Media subsidiary of Univision Communications, as part of a duopoly with San Antonio-licensed Univision owned-and-operated station KWEX-DT. The two stations share studios on Network Boulevard in Northwest San Antonio; KNIC's transmitter is located on Hogan Drive in Timberwood Park. Although Blanco is geographically within the Austin market, that city has its own UniMás station, KTFO-CD.
On cable, KNIC-DT is available on Charter Spectrum channel 19, and Grande Communications and AT&T U-verse channel 17.

History

KNIC-DT's history traces back to the March 1991 sign-on of K17BY, a low-power television station that San Antonio-based Clear Channel Communications was issued a construction permit to build on March 23, 1988; operating on UHF channel 17, Clear Channel sold the station in March 1991 to Nicolas Communications. In November 1997, the station changed its calls to KNIC-LP ; Nicolas Communications sold KNIC-CA in November 2001 to Univision Communications, a sale that was completed in January 2002; that month, it became a charter affiliate of Univision's secondary network, TeleFutura.
Univision had applied for a license to build a full-power television station in 2000 on UHF channel 52 in Blanco; after the Federal Communications Commission awarded Univision the license at auction, Univision requested that the FCC move the allocation to UHF channel 17; the request was granted in February 2003. KNIC-TV was founded on July 13, 2005. The formal application for KNIC-TV called for Univision to either move KNIC-CA to another channel, or to shut it down outright, KNIC-CA moved to channel 34 under special temporary authorization, before it ceased operations on September 28, 2006. KNIC-DT was one of the few television stations to have been built and signed on by Univision Communications.

Digital television

Digital channels

The station's digital signal is multiplexed:
ChannelVideoAspectPSIP Short NameProgramming
17.11080iKNIC-DTMain KNIC-DT programming / UniMás
17.3480iMYSTERYCourt TV Mystery
17.4480iLAFFLaff

Analog-to-digital conversion

Because it was granted an original construction permit after the FCC finalized the DTV allotment plan on April 21, 1997 , the station did not receive a companion channel for a digital television station. KNIC-TV discontinued regular programming on its analog signal, over UHF channel 17, on June 12, 2009. The station "flash-cut" its digital signal into operation UHF channel 18, using PSIP to display the station's virtual channel as its former UHF analog channel 17.