KNIN-TV


KNIN-TV, virtual channel 9, is a Fox-affiliated television station serving Boise, Idaho, United States that is licensed to Caldwell. The station is owned by Gray Television; the E. W. Scripps Company, which owns Nampa-licensed ABC affiliate KIVI-TV, operates KNIN under a shared services agreement. The two stations share studios on East Chisholm Drive in Nampa along I-84/US 30/SH-55; KNIN-TV's transmitter is located at the Bogus Basin ski area summit in unincorporated Boise County. On cable, the station is available on Cable One channel 9 and in high definition on digital channel 485.

History

The station signed-on March 8, 1991 as KTMW and aired an analog signal on VHF channel 9. It was originally locally owned by William Schuyler and affiliated with the Home Shopping Network. The call sign would change to KHDT-TV on April 13, 1992. Schuyler later sold the station to a subsidiary of Lambert Broadcasting, LLC. On January 16, 1995, it became a charter UPN affiliate, also carrying WB network programming on a secondary basis.
The call letters became KNIN-TV on August 30, 1996 and, during the first five years with those calls, the station was known as Boise's "no news" channel and had a mascot news anchor named 'Rot Weiller'. The call letters are pronounced "canine", the Latin term for a dog. It phased out the news anchor mascot in 2002.
In late 1998, the station dropped WB programming, as the network decided to only air on cable outside the top 100 markets. Through national service The WB 100+, "KWOB" replaced KNIN as Boise's affiliate, and cleared the entire WB schedule. KNIN was eventually sold to Banks Broadcasting.
On September 18, 2006, KNIN became an affiliate of The CW, carrying it on the main channel in place of UPN. A new second digital subchannel signed-on offering The CW Plus as the replacement for "KWOB". The former cable-exclusive station then dropped the faux calls in favor of KNIN-DT2, creating a situation where CW primetime programming aired on both DT1 and DT2. On July 1, 2008, Banks Broadcasting announced that it had agreed to sell KNIN to Journal Communications, creating Boise's first television duopoly.
The Federal Communications Commission initially rejected the application on November 10; shortly afterward, Banks Broadcasting filed an appeal, and on January 16, 2009 the FCC reversed its decision, allowing the deal to go through. The purchase closed on April 24, at which point KNIN remained on the air with a master control crew at the West Bannock Street studios in downtown Boise until KIVI's new facilities in Nampa were finished. On September 25 of that same year, KNIN went dark at midnight for eight hours while the station was reconfigured to broadcast from the new studios in Nampa at 8 a.m. that Saturday. On September 1, 2011, KNIN assumed the Fox affiliation from KTRV-TV, upon expiration of their CW affiliation agreements.
On September 12, CW Plus programming moved to KYUU-LP and a subchannel of KBOI-TV. The last CW program to air on KNIN was America's Next Top Model. KNIN's first Fox program was a repeat of Bones. Besides this television station sharing the same call sign with KNIN-FM 92.9 in Wichita Falls, Texas, there is no relation between the two. KNIN-DT2 previously carried the Live Well Network, it added Heroes & Icons on May 20, 2015.
On July 30, 2014, it was announced that the E. W. Scripps Company would acquire Journal Communications in an all-stock transaction. The combined firm will retain their broadcast properties and spin off their print assets as Journal Media Group. Originally, KNIN-TV, KIVI-TV and 5 radio stations, were not included in the merger; in September, Journal filed to transfer these stations to Journal/Scripps Divestiture Trust. The merge was completed on April 1, 2015 and Kiel Media Group assumed the operations of the license, Scripps retained KIVI and the other 5 radio stations. On May 7, 2015, Raycom Media agreed to purchase KNIN-TV for $14.5 million; Scripps then entered into a shared services agreement that will allow KIVI to continue to provide services to KNIN. This arrangement is similar to one that the two companies have in West Palm Beach, Florida, where Raycom's Fox affiliate WFLX is operated through SSA by Scripps' NBC affiliate WPTV. The sale was completed on October 1, 2015. The SSA continued unchanged after Raycom merged with Gray Television in January 2019.

Digital television

Digital channels

The station's digital signal is multiplexed:
ChannelVideoAspectPSIP Short NameProgramming
9.1720pKNIN-HDMain KNIN-TV programming / Fox
9.2480iMeTVMeTV
9.3480iGritGrit
9.4480iCircleCircle

Analog-to-digital conversion

KNIN-TV shut down its analog signal, over VHF channel 9, on June 12, 2009, the official date in which full-power television stations in the United States transitioned from analog to digital broadcasts under federal mandate. The station's digital signal remained on its pre-transition VHF channel 10. Through the use of PSIP, digital television receivers display the station's virtual channel as its former VHF analog channel 9.

Programming

programming on KNIN includes Two and a Half Men and The Big Bang Theory among others.

Newscasts

Following Journal's acquisition of KNIN, it began airing a weeknight prime time newscast produced by KIVI. Then known as Today's 6 News on K9, the show could be seen for thirty minutes. In January 2011, KIVI upgraded its local newscasts to enhanced definition widescreen and the KNIN weeknight broadcast was included. Although not true high definition, broadcasts match the aspect ratio of HD television screens.
Corresponding with the station's affiliation switch to Fox from The CW on September 1, 2011, the weeknight prime time show became known as Fox 9 News at 9. The newscast was expanded to an hour and originally featured separate news anchors on weeknights. Eventually, the show was renamed Fox 9 On Your Side and began to resemble local news seen on KIVI. The newscast competes with a weeknight half-hour show on KYUU that is produced by KBOI. In addition, KIVI made the prime time news on this station a seven night operation.
On August 25, 2014, KNIN launched an hour-long extension to Good Morning Idaho from 7:00–8:00 a.m. with KIVI's current morning team.