KYES-TV
KYES-TV, virtual channel 5, is a dual CBS/MyNetworkTV-affiliated television station licensed to Anchorage, Alaska, United States. The station is owned by Gray Television, as part of a duopoly with NBC affiliate KTUU-TV. The two stations share studios on East 40th Avenue in Anchorage and transmitter facilities in Knik, Alaska. On cable, KYES-TV is available on GCI channel 5. It is also carried on DirecTV and Dish Network in the Anchorage television market.
KYES-TV acquired the CBS affiliation for Anchorage on July 31, 2020, when Gray Television purchased the non-license assets of KTVA from Denali Media Holdings, a subsidiary of local cable television operator GCI.
History
KYES signed on the air in 1990 as an independent before joining UPN in 1995. It also had a secondary affiliation with The WB until that network launched The WB 100+ Station Group in 1998 in order to shift to cable-only distribution in smaller markets. In January 2006 it was announced that the WB and UPN were to merge operations in September 2006 to form The CW. The station was expected to become a CW affiliate, but on April 24 it was announced that The CW would be carried on a digital subchannel of ABC's Anchorage affiliate KIMO. KYES instead became an affiliate of MyNetworkTV and one of only two in Alaska ; KFXF, the Fox affiliate in Fairbanks, declined an offer to run it as their secondary network.On October 1, 2015, Gray Television announced that it would acquire KYES and four of its five translators from Fireweed Communications for $500,000, and apply for a "failing station" waiver from the Federal Communications Commission so it could form a duopoly between KYES and NBC affiliate KTUU, which Gray was acquiring as part of a separate transaction with Schurz Communications. Gray stated that it planned to invest in improving the quality of the station's services and programming.
The acquisition was opposed by GCI—the dominant cable provider in Alaska and owner of then-CBS affiliate KTVA –who filed a complaint to the FCC in December 2015. The company argued that the consolidation of KTUU and KYES would harm the ability for other stations to compete. Alaska state Attorney General Craig W. Richards also objected to the purchase, stating that such a consolidation would have the "potential for significant negative effects on competition in the small Anchorage DMA." Gray objected to GCI's claims, arguing that it was ironic for a "monopoly" utility company to " anti-competitive harms and serious threats to its impressive bottom line from the combination of KTUU, a strong station with an undisputed record of serving local communities, with , a weak station that has no local news, that hardly registers in ratings, and that GCI concedes has less than 5% of the local broadcast television advertising market," and that "GCI may need to increase its investments in KTVA to prevail in the marketplace over a new competitor in KYES-TV. Investments and competitive responses are precisely the types of benefits that the commission and the public want to see from broadcasters."
On June 17, 2016, the FCC approved the sale of the station to Gray, with the condition that the station would not enter into an affiliation agreement with a television network that would convert KYES into one of the top-four stations in audience share. The sale was completed on June 27, 2016. Prior to the sale, KYES was one of the few stand-alone, locally owned commercial television stations left in the United States. Immediately after, the station's logo was redesigned, and its MyNetworkTV affiliation was de-emphasized, as has become standard during MyNetworkTV's decline as solely a programming service with limited network imaging. Around the same time, KYES' translator in Juneau, KCBJ-LP, took over for K17HC, which was retained by Fireweed, but went dark in 2017.
On July 31, 2020, KYES-TV's 5.1 subchannel replaced KTVA as the CBS affiliate for Anchorage as Gray Television purchased the affiliation, along with other non-license assets, from Denali Media Holdings, the owners of KTVA. KYES-TV changed its on-air branding to CBS 5 Anchorage, and also inherited KTVA's news operation. To allow for viewers to accustom themselves to the new arrangement, KYES-TV and KTVA will simulcast each other for an indefinite time period.
Newscasts
In 1990, the station broadcast news from the USSR translated into English. It also aired Valley News, an independent production from Wasilla, Alaska, anchored by long-time Mat-Su Valley broadcaster Fred James. Until the Gray purchase, it ran Democracy Now! live, and carried France 24 on subchannel 5.4. After the Gray purchase, a repeat of KTUU's 5:30 a.m. newscast began airing at 7:30 a.m.Following Gray's purchase of the non-license assets of KTVA, that station's news operation was inherited by KYES-TV; with its existing ownership of KTUU-TV, this gave Gray control of two news operations in the Anchorage market.
Digital television
KYES's digital signal on channel 22 signed on with 20 watts of power on August 25, 2003—the first television station in the Anchorage market to have a digital signal, and the first in Alaska to offer high-definition television.The means of getting the digital signal out, however, was extraordinary—KYES used a TTC 100-watt analog translator and a K-Tec digital exciter purchased on eBay, along with a temporary tower, originally used for an analog LPTV translator, on the roof of the hillside home of KYES' president and chief engineer manager, Jeremy Lansman. At only $5000 to construct, it was sufficient to transmit a viewable digital signal throughout most of Anchorage, with the exception of the road to the town dump. KYES' initial digital programming included high-definition programming from HDNet and Wealth TV, along with an in-house audio music channel, rebroadcasts of KUDO-AM, KEUL FM and the Republic Broadcasting Network, and a standard-definition KYES broadcast.
KYES briefly included Retro Television Network in its digital lineup beginning in 2008. However, this was discontinued when the network was acquired by Luken Communications. No explanation has been given by KYES as to why the programming was discontinued. However, the reasons are likely technical. Under Equity Broadcasting, RTN was uplinked from Galaxy 18 at 123° West. When Luken acquired the network, it was moved to AMC 9 at 83° West, an orbital location that is below the horizon from Anchorage.
The channel 22 signal is now licensed as K22HN, and operates at 2.8 kW ERP. KYES is authorized by the FCC to broadcast digital signals via VHF channel 5, broadcasting up to 45 kW. Thus, it has duplicate VHF and UHF signals.
In a DTV transition status report filed by the station on October 7, 2008, Jeremy Lansman of KYES describes the station's digital readiness:
The document then goes on to cite a local newspaper article explaining that a storm and winds had knocked out power in the area, taking K22HN dark. Effectively, KYES-DT files its FCC digital television status reports by candlelight.
Fireweed Communications LLC has now requested FCC authorization to operate KYES-DT post-transition from multiple transmitter sites. The existing UHF 22 DTV facility would continue operation and multiple transmitters would rebroadcast the signal onto the former analog channel using existing KYES low-power television facilities.
While the cash-strapped station expects this will allow rapid and less costly construction and provide replication of analog service, this technically is not a request for a DTx. The transmitters may not be synchronized and therefore could interfere with each other in certain narrow geographical areas. The affected locations are all currently unpopulated.
Digital channels
The station's digital signal is multiplexed:| Channel | Video | Aspect | PSIP Short Name | Programming |
| 5.1 | 1080i | My-TV5 | Main KYES-TV programming / CBS & MyNetworkTV | |
| 5.2 | 480i | ANT TV | Antenna TV | |
| 5.3 | 480i | Circle | Circle |
Since 2016, KYES airs programming in high definition.