branding kxan general kxan news newscasts slogan kxan more colorful general in depth . investigative . newscasts channels digital 21 uhf virtual 36 psip subchannels 36.1 nbc 36.2 cozi tv 36.3 ion television affiliations nbc since 1966 owner media general sale to nexstar broadcasting group pending kxan inc. first air date february 12 1965 call letters meaning texan ; also variant of formerly co owned kxas in dallas sister station s kbvo kbvo cd knva former callsigns khfi tv 1965 1973 ktvv 1973 1987 former channel number s analog 42 uhf 1965 1973 36 uhf 1973 2009 former affiliations independent 1965 1966 transmitter power 700 kw height 395.4 m facility id 35920 transmitter coordinates 30 19 31 n 97 48 0.7 w 30.32528 n 97.800194 w 30.32528 ; 97.800194 licensing authority fcc public license information profile cdbs website kxan.com kxan tv virtual channel 36 uhf digital channel 21 is an nbc affiliated television station located in austin texas united states . the station is owned by media general and is a sister station to mynetworktv affiliate kbvo channel 14 ; media general also operates cw affiliate knva channel 54 under a local marketing agreement with owner vaughan media . all three share studios on west martin luther king jr. boulevard between the old west austin section of austin and the university of texas at austin campus kxan s transmitter is located at the west austin antenna farm north of west lake hills . syndicated programming on kxan includes wheel of fortune jeopardy castle dr. phil and rachael ray . contents 1 history 2 digital television 2.1 digital channel 2.2 analog to digital conversion 3 carriage disputes 3.1 suddenlink communications 3.2 time warner cable 4 news operation 5 translators 6 references 7 external links history edit the station first signed on the air on february 12 1965 as khfi tv broadcasting on uhf channel 42 . it was owned by the kingsbury family along with khfi radio 970 am now ktae at 1490 ; and 98.3 fm now kvet fm at 98.1 . khfi was the second television station in austin signing on a little more than twelve years after ktbc tv channel 7 . although austin was big enough to support three television stations as early as the 1950s ktbc was the only vhf license in the area . until 1964 uhf stations could only be seen with an expensive converter and even then picture quality left much to be desired . additionally uhf signals usually do not travel very far over long distances or over rugged terrain . this made several potential owners skittish about the prospects for uhf in a market that stretched from mason in the west to la grange in the east and also included much of the hill country . khfi tv logically should have signed on as austin s nbc station since up to that time all three networks had been shoehorned on ktbc then a primary cbs affiliate . however due to contractual obligations it spent more than a year and a half as an independent before joining nbc in 1966 . unlike most affiliates with the network in then two station markets khfi did not take on a secondary abc affiliation . the kingsburys would later bring in henry tippie as a partner and in 1973 were granted permission from the federal communications commission to move khfi tv to channel 36 . ktvv s logo in june 1974 . with the channel change came a new set of call letters ktvv . the station also boosted its transmitter power to five million watts which more than doubled its coverage area . what was then known as lin broadcasting purchased the station in 1979 . the call letters were changed to the current kxan tv on october 15 1987 in reference to then sister station kxas tv in fort worth . even with the increased power channel 36 s signal was marginal in some parts of the hill country such as fredericksburg . on september 6 1991 lin signed on klno in llano to improve kxan s reach in the hill country . it changed that station s call letters to kxam tv after about a month on the air and later to the current kbvo in 2009 . this call sign named after the university of texas mascot bevo was formerly used on the new channel 42 which is now keye tv from december 1983 to july 1995 and is shared with channel 14 s repeater kbvo cd . kxan s logo used from 2002 until 2007 . the falling 36 seen here was used since 1987 when it adopted current kxan calls . kxan is one of two stations in austin the other being kvue channel 24 to retain its original network affiliation in the wake of a network swap between ktbc and fox station kbvo now keye tv channel 42 in 1995 the result of fox s affiliation deal with new world communications due to that network acquiring rights to nfl games . 1 on october 21 2009 kbvo became a separate station after picking up the mynetworktv affiliation from knva . that station carried the network as a secondary affiliation airing on knva on monday through saturday nights from 9 to 11 p.m. known on air as mynetworktv on the cw austin from its launch on september 5 2006 . in mid september 2009 that station moved mynetworktv programs an hour later from 10 p.m. to midnight to make room for a nightly 9 p.m. newscast to compete with ktbc s established primetime newscast . 2 to date knva was one of two stations in the united states to carry the cw and mynetworktv the other being kwkb in iowa city iowa which is now the only station which carries the full schedules of both netlets programming services . 3 kxan s current tower was activated in 1996 replacing an older structure that had been built in 1964 . of the fifteen towers on the hill the channel 36 tower is the tallest and the highest structure in austin . in addition to its transmission antenna the mast also incorporates a camera with views of downtown to the east and the hills to the west . kxan is the austin broadcast television home of the san antonio spurs sharing coverage with sister station kbvo . on march 21 2014 it was announced that media general would acquire lin . 4 the merger was completed on december 19 2014 5 and kxan joined the media general station portfolio . just over a year after that deal was completed on january 27 2016 media general announced that it had entered into a definitive agreement to be acquired by nexstar broadcasting group who is based in irving and already owns many other stations in texas in a deal valued at 17.14 per share valuing the company at 4.6 billion plus the assumption of 2.3 billion debt . the combined company will be known as nexstar media group and own 171 stations including kxan tv serving an estimated 39 % of households . 6 7 the merger will also mark a re entry into austin for nexstar which had managed cbs affiliate keye tv under a groupwide agreement with the four points media group before that company s stations were sold to sinclair at the beginning of 2012 . kxan s transmission tower . digital television edit digital channel edit channel video aspect psip short name programming 8 36.1 1080i 16 9 kxan dt main kxan tv programming nbc 36.2 480i 4 3 cozi tv cozi tv 9 36.3 480i 4 3 ion tv ion television 10 on august 7 2009 kxan began offering mobile tv service through blackberry . 11 analog to digital conversion edit kxan tv shut down its analog signal on june 12 2009 as part of the fcc mandated transition to digital television for full power stations . 12 the station s digital signal remained on its pre transition uhf channel 21 13 using psip to display the kxan tv s virtual channel as 36 on digital television receivers . carriage disputes edit suddenlink communications edit kxan and lin tv were locked into a contract dispute with suddenlink communications which serves portions of the austin market such as pflugerville and georgetown . the dispute centered around kxan s failure to grant retransmission consent to suddenlink . the station was removed from suddenlink after the previous contract expired on december 31 2007 . kxan claimed that it was seeking fair value for its programming . however a press release from suddenlink management indicated that the dispute included consideration for other stations owned by lin tv outside of texas . 14 on january 3 2008 suddenlink began transmitting the signal of temple based nbc affiliate kcen tv to restore the network s programming to the affected areas . this is allowed under fcc rules because kcen is a significantly viewed station in williamson county even though that county is located in the austin market . on march 24 suddenlink and kxan s dispute was settled and the station s programming was restored to suddenlink s systems the following day . the terms of the settlement were not announced though it is widely believed that kxan had lost thousands of viewers . despite its cable carriage problems the station surprised many observers by placing first in the 5 to 7 weekday morning time period during the may 2008 sweeps period . 15 time warner cable edit kxan and lin tv were locked in another contract dispute with time warner cable which serves a very large majority of the austin metropolitan area . lin dropped its stations from time warner cable systems nationwide at midnight central daylight time on october 3 2008 . 16 over the air stations such as kxan have long allowed cable companies to carry their signals for free . cable networks are paid as much as ten cents per day per subscriber for their content and lin tv wanted time warner to pay them less than one cent per subscriber per day . kxan general manager eric lassberg stated that the cable company does not have to pass that cost along to the viewers unless they want to . 17 on october 3 time warner replaced kxan with a continuous loop of instructions on how to hook up a television to a computer on time warner cable . 18 some days later this was replaced by the premium channel starz kids and family . kxan returned to the time warner lineup during the early morning hours of october 29 2008 . no details were released on the deal though some have speculated that kxan could not afford to be without over 67 % of their previous viewers during the critical november ratings period . 19 news operation edit kxan tv presently broadcasts 31 hours of locally produced newscasts each week with five hours on weekdays and three hours each on saturdays and sundays . for most of its first 30 years on the air kxan was a distant runner up to ktbc . despite efforts to produce a newscast of major market quality early newscasts deliberately copied the look of nbc owned and operated station wnbc in new york city it was usually unable to make a dent in ktbc s ratings dominance . another setback was as a uhf station ktvv kxan had a hard time maintaining a local share as an nbc affiliate due to the presence of nearby nbc stations in the san antonio and temple waco markets . kxan s first number one rated newscast was also austin s first hour long morning newscast news 36 firstcast which went on the air in november 1990 . all other local stations soon followed suit but firstcast built an audience that delivered them the station s first sweeps victory in february 1993 . and after ktbc switched