KVII-TV


KVII-TV, virtual and VHF digital channel 7, is a dual ABC/CW+-affiliated television station licensed to Amarillo, Texas, United States. The station is owned by the Sinclair Broadcast Group. KVII's studios are located at One Broadcast Center between South Pierce and South Buchanan streets in downtown Amarillo, and its transmitter is located west of US 87/287, in unincorporated Potter County. On cable, the station is available on Suddenlink Communications channel 8 in standard definition and digital channel 708 in high definition in Amarillo, and on channel 7 on other providers in outlying areas of the market.
KVIH-TV in Clovis, New Mexico operates as a full-time satellite of KVII; this station's transmitter is located along State Road 88. KVIH covers areas of northeastern and east-central New Mexico that receive a marginal to non-existent over-the-air signal from KVII, although there is significant overlap between the two stations' contours otherwise. KVIH is a straight simulcast of KVII; on-air references to KVIH are limited to Federal Communications Commission -mandated hourly station identifications during newscasts and other programming. Besides the transmitter, KVIH does not maintain any physical presence in Clovis, and unlike its parent station, it does not broadcast in high definition.

History

On September 20, 1956, Southwest States Inc. – a consortium managed by George Oliver, Robert Houck, Hoyt Houck, John McCarthy, Sam Fenberg and real estate firm Estate Development, and which owned radio station KAMQ – filed an application with the Federal Communications Commission to obtain a license and construction permit to operate a commercial television station on VHF channel 7. On February 5, 1957, Kenyon Brown – owner of local radio station KLYN as well as KWFT in Wichita Falls – filed a separate license application for channel 7. Brown withdrew his application for VHF channel 7 on December 11 of that year, ceding the application to Southwest States under an agreement in which that group would pay Brown $10,000 for out-of-pocket expenses if application was granted by August 7, 1957 or $7,500 if application was granted by September 20. The FCC awarded the license and permit for channel 7 to Southern States on August 1, 1957; the group subsequently requested and received approval to assign KVII-TV as the television station's call letters.
Channel 7 first signed on the air on December 21, 1957, as the third television station to sign on in the Amarillo market, behind NBC affiliate KGNC-TV, which signed on the air on March 18, 1953, and CBS affiliate KFDA-TV, which signed on two weeks later on April 4, 1953. KVII-TV has operated as an ABC affiliate since its debut, having assumed the local programming rights from KFDA-TV, which aired select network shows on a secondary basis since it signed on. The sign-of KVII made Amarillo one of the smallest markets in the U.S. to maintain full service from all three commercial broadcast television networks.
Only six months after it signed on, on June 28, 1958, Southwest States Inc. announced it would sell KVII-TV to Television Properties Inc. for around $425,000, including obligations to own 77.7% of the station and an option to buy the remaining 22.5%. The sale received FCC approval almost one month later on July 16. In July 1961, the station relocated its studio facilities into the Walton Building on South Polk Street and Southwest Fourth Avenue in downtown Amarillo.
On August 1, 1963, Southwest States Inc. announced it would sell KVII to The Walton Group for $1.25 million. The sale received FCC approval nearly 3½ months later on November 12. In October 1967, The Walton Group announced it would sell KVII-TV to Amarillo-based Marsh Media Ltd. for $1.5 million. As part of the sale agreement, John Walton Jr. – who retained ownership of KVII-AM-FM – signed a ten-year non-compete contract to remain with KVII-TV as a station consultant for a salary of $50,000 per year. The sale received FCC approval on January 31, 1968.
Since 1968, when Marsh Media adopted the design shortly after purchasing the station, KVII-TV has used proprietary version of the Circle 7 logo initially designed by G. Dean Smith for ABC's six original owned-and-operated stations and later expanded to many ABC-affiliated stations that broadcast on channel 7. It is the longest-continuously used logo among the Amarillo market's television stations. The station also utilized variants of the "Circle 7" for KVIJ-TV starting in 1979 and for KVIH-TV starting in 1986 for use in required hourly station identifications for KVII and its satellites, with those variants utilizing thin block lettering for those station's respective channel 8 and channel 12 allocations. The logo is also adorned atop the station's studio facilities at One Broadcast Center, a pyramid-shaped building on Southeast 11th Avenue and South Pierce Street in downtown Amarillo, into which KVII relocated its operations in 1968.
KVII-TV found it difficult to adequately compete against KGNC-TV and KFDA-TV largely because of the difficulties experienced by television stations operating in rugged terrain. The station was all but unviewable in Clovis, Portales and surrounding areas of northeastern New Mexico as well as portions of the far eastern Texas Panhandle. Many viewers in those areas received ABC programming either via KOAT-TV in Albuquerque or KOCO-TV in Oklahoma City. To solve this problem, KVII launched a network of UHF translators to serve areas not covered by its main signal. In October 1975, Marsh Media acquired KFDO-TV in Sayre, Oklahoma from Bass Broadcasting Co. for $300,000; Marsh intended to convert KFDO – which Bass unloaded as part of its divestiture of its broadcast holdings to focus on its oil and gas exploration endeavors, and had been serving as a KFDA satellite since 1966 – into a satellite station of KVII to reach viewers in the eastern Texas Panhandle as well as those in west-central Oklahoma who could not adequately receive ABC programming from KOCO. In January 1976, Marsh changed the Sayre station's call letters to KVIJ-TV to match its new parent station. KVII was one of the first commercial stations to air the PBS program Sesame Street. It started in 1970 and continued to air it until KACV signed on.
Following the death of Bill McAlister in October 1985, Marsh acquired a former satellite of KFDA, KMCC in Clovis, New Mexico from his company, McAlister Television Enterprises Inc., for $1.5 million. KMCC – which had been operating as a satellite of fellow ABC affiliate KAMC-TV in Lubbock since 1979 – converted into a KVII satellite in September 1986, under the call letters KVIH-TV, to relay its programming into portions of eastern New Mexico who could not adequately receive ABC programming from KOAT. On December 2, 1992, Marsh Media shut down KVIJ, citing the fact that very few television viewers in its west-central Oklahoma service area actually tuned into KVIJ directly, due to the ability of receiving ABC network programming via cable through either KOCO-TV out of Oklahoma City or KSWO-TV out of the Wichita Falls–Lawton DMAs.
On August 26, 2002, Marsh Media announced it would sell KVII-TV and KVIH-TV to Atlanta-based New Vision Group for $16.85 million. On April 7, 2005, New Vision Group announced it would sell KVII/KVIH to Schaumburg, Illinois-based Barrington Broadcasting for $22.5 million.
On February 28, 2013, Barrington announced that it would sell KVII-TV, KVIH-TV and the company's sixteen other television stations to the Hunt Valley, Maryland-based Sinclair Broadcast Group for $370 million. The acquisition of the Barrington stations received FCC approval on November 18, 2013, and was formally consummated six days later on November 25. Sinclair transferred ownership of KVII/KVIH and the other former Barrington stations to Chesapeake Television, a subsidiary focusing on smaller markets that maintains separate management than that which runs Sinclair's large and mid-market outlets. As result of the Barrington purchase, KVII gained new sister stations in nearby markets: Fox affiliate KOKH-TV and CW affiliate KOCB in Oklahoma City, and Fox affiliate KSAS-TV and its MyNetworkTV-affiliated LMA partner KMTW in Wichita.

Repeater stations

To reach viewers throughout the 34 counties comprising the Amarillo Designated Market Area, KVII-TV extends its over-the-air coverage area through a full-power satellite station and a network of 16 low-power translator stations encompassing much of the Texas and Oklahoma Panhandles, and the northeastern New Mexico that distribute its programming beyond the range of its broadcast signal. Nielsen Media Research treats KVII and KVIH as one station in local ratings books, using the identifier name "KVII+".
KVII and KVIH serve viewers across a four-state region including the Texas and Oklahoma panhandles, eastern New Mexico and southwestern Kansas. A unique feature of KVII's coverage area is that it covers two time zones — Central and Mountain. This means that viewers in New Mexico watch ABC's prime time schedule from 6:00 to 9:00 p.m., with Jimmy Kimmel Live! airing at 9:35 p.m.

Full-power satellite stations

Current

Former

Analog and digital low-power translator stations

StationCity of licenseChannels
'		OwnerFirst air date
Former
callsigns		Former
channel
number		ERP
'		HAAT
'		Facility IDTransmitter
coordinates
K29BR-DCanadian, Texas29 C. L. & O. Translator System, Inc.K29BR N/A0.483 kW8010
K44CG-DCapulin, New Mexico42 Sierra Grande TV Cooperative, Inc.K44CG N/A0.31 kW60320
K16LY-DChildress, Texas16 Red River Valley Translator TV Assn.K72BZ
K48DD
K48DD-D 		Analog:
72
48
Digital:
48 		0.25 kW55395
K23DE-DChildress, Texas23 Red River Valley Translator TV Assn.K23DE N/A0.25 kW55390
K33CQ-DChildress, Texas33 C. L. & O. Translator System, Inc.K33CQ N/A0.476 kW8006
K49AQ-DClarendon, Texas49 Donley County UHF TV, Inc.K49AQ N/A0.51 kW17262
K43BUClovis, New Mexico43 Sinclair Broadcast Group
N/AN/A7.9 kW8530
K45AU-DFollett, Texas45 C. L. & O. Translator System, Inc.K45AU N/A0.25 kW7957
K42CF-DGruver, Texas42 Hansford County Translator SystemK42CF N/A0.42 kW25987
K26JO-DGuymon, Oklahoma26 Guymon TV Translator, Inc.K57HY Analog:
57 		2.46 kW25697
K28OF-DMemphis, Texas28 Caprock Translator System, Inc.K40AL
K40AL-D 		Analog:
40
Digital:
40 		0.46 kW8723
K39AN-DNew Mobeetie, Texas39 Wheeler County Translator System, Inc.K39AN N/A0.48 kW72160
K41MX-DPerryton, Texas39 C. L. & O. Translator System, Inc.N/AN/A0.25 kW8071
K39GH-DQuanah, Texas
39 Northfork TV Translator System, Inc.K39GH N/A0.25 kW129479
K38FP-DTucumcari, New Mexico38 UHF TV AssociationK38FP N/A0.61 kW68704
K36CC-DTulia, Texas36 City of TuliaK36CC N/A0.464 kW40452
K24IX-DTurkey, Texas24 Arnold Cruze TR/AS Valley TVK56DM Analog:
56 		0.47 kW2834
K31BZ-D'''Wellington, Texas29 Greenbelt TV Translator System, Inc.K31BZ N/A0.216 kW25189

;Notes:

Digital television

The stations' digital signals are multiplexed:

KVII-TV digital channels

KVIH-TV digital channels

Subchannels

KVII-DT2

KVII-DT2 is the CW-affiliated second digital subchannel of KVII-TV, broadcasting in widescreen standard definition on VHF digital channel 7.2. All programming on KVII-DT2/KVIH-DT2 is received through The CW's programming feed for smaller media markets, The CW Plus, which provides a set schedule of syndicated programming acquired by The CW during time periods without network programs; however, Sinclair handles local advertising and promotional services for the subchannel. On cable and satellite, KVII-DT2 is available on Suddenlink Communications channel 11 in Amarillo and Clovis, Plateau channel 11 in Clovis, and on DirecTV channel 12 and Dish Network channel 8 throughout the market.
KVII-DT2's history traces back to the September 21, 1998, launch of a cable-only affiliate of The WB that was managed, promoted and had its advertising sales handled by KVII, alongside the launch of The WB 100+ Station Group, a national service that was created to expand coverage of The WB via primarily local origination channels managed by cable providers to smaller areas with a Nielsen Media Research market ranking above #100. The channel – which was branded on-air as "KDBA," an unofficial callsign assigned by Marsh as it was a cable-exclusive outlet not licensed by the Federal Communications Commission – was carried locally on TCA Cable TV and on select other cable providers throughout the Amarillo market. Before the launch of "KDBA", viewers in the Amarillo market received WB network programming via the superstation feed of Chicago affiliate WGN-TV beginning at the network's January 1995 launch.
On January 24, 2006, the respective parent companies of UPN and The WB, CBS Corporation and the Warner Bros. Entertainment division of Time Warner, announced that they would dissolve the two networks to create The CW Television Network, a joint venture between the two media companies that initially featured programs from its two predecessor networks as well as new series specifically produced for The CW. Subsequently, on February 22, 2006, News Corporation announced the launch of MyNetworkTV, a network operated by Fox Television Stations and its syndication division Twentieth Television that was created to primarily to provide network programming to UPN and WB stations that The CW decided against affiliating based on their local viewership standing in comparison to the outlet that The CW ultimately chose as its charter outlets, giving these stations another option besides converting to a general entertainment independent format.
On April 10, in a joint announcement by the network and Barrington Broadcasting, KVII-TV was confirmed as The CW's charter affiliate for the Amarillo market; Barrington subsequently assumed the operations of "KDBA," which was expected to take over the CW affiliation, and converted the channel to an over-the-air digital feed on KVII-DT 7.2 and KVIH-DT 12.2 to provide The CW's programming to Amarillo area viewers who do not subscribe to cable television; KVII-DT2 became an affiliate of the network's small-market feed, The CW Plus, when the network debuted on September 18, 2006. In early 2015, KVII upgraded the "CW 11 Amarillo" subchannel to 720p high definition, providing over-the-air access to HD content from The CW in the Amarillo market for the first time; the prime time newscast was not upgraded to HD until January 2016.

KVII-DT3

KVII-DT3 is the Comet-affiliated second digital subchannel of KVII-TV, broadcasting in widescreen standard definition on VHF digital channel 7.3. On cable, KVII-DT3 is available on Suddenlink Communications digital channel 132 in the Amarillo area.
KVII/KVIH launched a digital subchannel on virtual channels 7.3 and 12.3 on April 1, 2006, to serve as an affiliate of The Tube Music Network, through a groupwide agreement encompassing many of Barrington's network-affiliated stations. The Tube ceased operations on October 1, 2007, citing "financial limitations" as well as due to disagreements between network parent The Tube Media Corp. and certain station group partners over compliance of newly enacted FCC requirements for digital subchannels. The subchannel subsequently became an affiliate of The Local AccuWeather Channel, under the brand "StormSearch 7 Weather Channel".. Alongside carrying regional and national forecast segments provided by the AccuWeather-operated network, KVII also produced pre-recorded local forecast segments presented by meteorologists from the "StormSearch 7" weather team – which were updated two to three times per day – for the subchannel as well as a half-hour block of syndicated educational children's programs on Monday through Saturday afternoons to comply with FCC Children's Television Act programming guidelines.
After being silent for a year after it disaffiliated from AccuWeather in September 2013, KVII relaunched its DT3 subchannel on December 31, 2014 as an affiliate of Grit, through a multi-station affiliation agreement between Sinclair and Grit parent Katz Broadcasting. On October 31, 2015, KVII-DT3 disaffiliated from Grit to become a charter affiliate of Comet, a science fiction-focused network owned as a joint venture between Sinclair and MGM Television..

KVII-DT4

KVII-DT4 is the Stadium-affiliated third digital subchannel of KVII-TV, broadcasting in widescreen standard definition on VHF digital channel 7.4. On cable, KVII-DT4 is available on Suddenlink Communications digital channel 131 in the Amarillo area. On November 1, 2017, KVII/KVIH launched a digital subchannel on virtual channel 7.4 and 12.4, serving as an affiliate of the sports network Stadium.

Analog-to-digital conversion

By mid-October 2006, the digital signal was fully operating, coinciding with the introduction of a viewer-interactive newscast, in which viewers can send e-mails with questions and concerns in regards to the stories and features in the newscasts. KVII-TV shut down its analog signal, over VHF channel 7, on June 12, 2009, the official date in which full-power television stations in the United States transitioned from analog to digital television under federal mandate. The station's digital signal relocated from its pre-transition UHF channel 23 to its pre-transition analog allocation of VHF channel 7.

Programming

KVII-TV currently broadcasts the full ABC network schedule, with the only programming preemptions being the ABC News Brief seen during ABC Daytime programming, and situations in which preemption of the network's daytime and prime time programs is necessary to allow the main channel to provide extended coverage of breaking news or severe weather events. The station carries the network's Sunday morning political/news discussion program This Week live via its Eastern Time Zone feed, due to its broadcast of the Sinclair-produced investigative news program Full Measure and locally based Quail Creek Church's weekly televised services.
Excluding those carried on KVII-DT2 via The CW Plus, syndicated programs broadcast by KVII-TV include Live with Kelly and Ryan, Judge Judy, The Doctors, The Ellen DeGeneres Show, Person of Interest and Wheel of Fortune. KVII also serves as the Amarillo market carrier of the statewide-syndicated feature program Texas Country Reporter.
Starting with the 2002–03 season and ending in its final season, KVII broadcast The Oprah Winfrey Show to viewers in the Texas Panhandle; prior to that time, NBC affiliate KAMR had aired the show for several years when the station replaced it with The Wayne Brady Show.

News operation

, KVII-TV presently broadcasts 22 hours of locally produced newscasts each week. In addition, KVII produces five hours of locally produced newscasts each week for its CW-affiliated subchannel KVII-DT2. The station may also simulcast long-form severe weather coverage on KVII-DT2 in the event that a tornado warning is issued for any county within the Texas and Oklahoma Panhandles as well as Eastern New Mexico.
The ProNews title had been used at KVII-TV continuously since Marsh Media purchased the station from John Walton in late 1967. For many years, the 10:00 p.m. edition of ProNews was a 45-minute broadcast, but has been truncated back to 35 minutes in recent years. Also, ProNews 7 broadcast a noon newscast on Sundays during the 1970s and 1980s, along with the noon broadcast Monday through Friday.
On February 6, 2012, KVII began producing a half-hour prime time newscast at 9:00 p.m. for KVII-DT2, which aired only on Monday through Friday nights, under the title ProNews 7 at 9:00. The KVII-produced program would gain additional prime-time news competitors beginning with the launch of a half-hour prime time newscast in that timeslot on KCIT, a program that NBC-affiliated sister station KAMR-TV began producing for the Fox affiliate in March 2001 after the station brought back a newscast for channel 14 after a 6-year absence.
On April 6, 2015, KVII unveiled a new studio, and discontinued the previous Pro News 7 brand in favor of simply ABC 7 News.

Notable former on-air staff