Changes: KEYU

Revision as of 18:40, 11 July 2021

KEYU, virtual and UHF digital channel 31, is a Telemundo-affiliated television station serving Amarillo, Texas, United States that is licensed to Borger. The station is owned by Gray Television, as part of a duopoly with Amarillo-licensed CBS affiliate KFDA-TV (channel 10). The two stations share studios on Broadway Drive (just south of West Cherry Avenue) in northern Amarillo; KEYU's transmitter is located on Dumas Drive (US 87-287) and Reclamation Plant Road in rural unincorporated Potter County. On cable, the station is available on Suddenlink Communications channel 16 in Amarillo.

Despite its full-power status, the station's broadcasting radius does not reach the entire Amarillo market (covering a 55.2-mile-wide [88.8 km] area, compared to KFDA's 75.2-mile-wide [121.0 km] signal contour). In order to relay channel 31's programming to portions of the Texas Panhandle that do not receive KEYU's signal adequately, if at all, KEYU is simulcast in 480i widescreen standard definition on KFDA's third digital subchannel (virtual and VHF digital channel 10.3) from a separate transmitter at the KEYU/KFDA studios.

History

The station first signed on the air in 2004; it was founded and owned by Little Rock-based Equity Broadcasting Corporation (later Equity Media Holdings). KEYU originally operated as an affiliate of Univision, becoming the first Amarillo television station to have affiliated with the Spanish-language network. The station originally broadcast from studio facilities located on South Kentucky Street (behind I-40) on Amarillo's southwest side. Prior to the station's sign-on, Univision had previously been only receivable via local cable providers within the state (such as Cox Communications in Amarillo and Canyon), which carried the Spanish language network's programming via its national feed; that feed was eventually replaced by a direct fiber optic feed of KEYU—whose schedule mirrored the national feed outside of local advertising, news inserts and occasional paid programming substitutions—from the station's studios.

On June 25, 2008, Equity announced that it would sell KEYU and its low-power repeaters—along with Univision affiliates KUOK in Woodward, Oklahoma (and its Oklahoma City and Sulphur translators), KUTW-LP/KWKO-LP in Waco, Texas, WLZE-LP/WEVU-CA in Fort Myers, Florida; and WUMN-CA in Minneapolis–Saint Paul—to Luken Communications (owned by former Equity executive Henry Luken) for $25 million, with a contingency to reduce the sale price to $17.5 million if Luken closed its purchase on all of the stations simultaneously. That December, Equity Media Holdings filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection; offers by Luken Communications to acquire Equity-owned stations in six markets were later withdrawn. According to the Retro Television Network website, KEYU had at one point planned to add an RTN affiliate on DT3 sometime in the future. However, after Equity filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in December 2008, Luken began to distance itself from Equity; its offers to acquire KEYU and other Equity stations were eventually withdrawn, and on January 4, 2009, RTN affiliation was removed from all Equity-owned or operated stations as a result of a commercial dispute with Luken.

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 ==History==
 The station first signed on the air in 2004; it was founded and owned by Little Rock-based Equity Broadcasting Corporation (later Equity Media Holdings). KEYU originally operated as an affiliate of Univision, becoming the first Amarillo television station to have affiliated with the Spanish-language network. The station originally broadcast from studio facilities located on South Kentucky Street (behind I-40) on Amarillo's southwest side. Prior to the station's sign-on, Univision had previously been only receivable via local cable providers within the state (such as Cox Communications in Amarillo and Canyon), which carried the Spanish language network's programming via its national feed; that feed was eventually replaced by a direct fiber optic feed of KEYU—whose schedule mirrored the national feed outside of local advertising, news inserts and occasional paid programming substitutions—from the station's studios.
+On June 25, 2008, Equity announced that it would sell KEYU and its low-power repeaters—along with Univision affiliates KUOK in Woodward, Oklahoma (and its Oklahoma City and Sulphur translators), KUTW-LP/KWKO-LP in Waco, Texas, WLZE-LP/WEVU-CA in Fort Myers, Florida; and WUMN-CA in Minneapolis–Saint Paul—to Luken Communications (owned by former Equity executive Henry Luken) for $25 million, with a contingency to reduce the sale price to $17.5 million if Luken closed its purchase on all of the stations simultaneously. That December, Equity Media Holdings filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection; offers by Luken Communications to acquire Equity-owned stations in six markets were later withdrawn. According to the Retro Television Network website, KEYU had at one point planned to add an RTN affiliate on DT3 sometime in the future. However, after Equity filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in December 2008, Luken began to distance itself from Equity; its offers to acquire KEYU and other Equity stations were eventually withdrawn, and on January 4, 2009, RTN affiliation was removed from all Equity-owned or operated stations as a result of a commercial dispute with Luken.
 [[Category:Telemundo affiliated stations]]
 [[Category:Texas]]